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WHY DONNIE DARKO'S LITERAL PLOT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE (AND WHY IT DOESN'T MATTER)
January 19, 2009 Gregory J. Smalley (366weirdmovies) 33 Comments
This post contains nothing but spoilers for the movie Donnie Darko. Click "more" below to read the spoilers. To go to the spoiler-free main review instead, click here.
I use the term "literal plot" to describe the science fiction/time travel device that writer/director Richard Kelly asks us to accept. The word "literal" is used to distinguish this plot level from the alternate interpretation that the events of the movie only take place inside Donnie's head.
If you're still unclear on what the literal plot actually is, I suggest you read Stainless Steel Rat's Donnie Darko FAQ before reading this article. This is a very worthy primer on what the plot is trying to accomplish, and although this article is an attempt to refute that view, the FAQ is still an excellent and admirable synopsis of Kelly's plot.
All the events of Donnie Darko except the very beginning (before Donnie hears Frank's voice call him from his bedroom) and the very end (when Donnie dies) take place in the "Tangent Universe," an alternate reality coexisting in some way with the "Primary Universe". According to the lore supplied via Richard Kelly's website and DVD commentary, particularly excerpts from the fictional book The Philosophy of Time Travel, in Donnie Darko an unstable Tangent Universe has been formed which will eventually implode and carry all of existence with it (Chapter 1 of The Philosophy of Time Travel) unless the "Living Receiver" (Donnie) guides a paradoxical "Artifact" (the jet engine) "back" to the Primary Universe (Chapter 4). To do this, various characters in the Tangent Universe (most importantly Frank the bunny) set what is termed an "Ensurance Trap" (Chapter 10) to manipulate, trick or force him to send the jet engine to the Primary Universe. This "Ensurance Trap" is Donnie Darko's literal plot.
Although confusing on the first viewing, after a superficial reflection, this literal plot sort of makes sense. Every seemingly mysterious action Frank asks Donnie to undertake eventually leads to a result that appears to advance Donnie's quest (flooding the school leads to his meeting and falling in love with Gretchen, burning Jim Cunningham's house leads to his mother flying to New York). If we stop our analysis once we "get" what Kelly is doing, the movie gives the appearance of forming a satisfying closed loop.
If we tempt fate by asking a few questions further, though, the plot collapses back upon itself, forming a black hole that sucks its literal meaning into oblivion. I'll divide the objections into three separate sections: literal plot problems, philosophical plot problems, and the most fatal obstacle of all–the thematic plot problem.
LITERAL PLOT PROBLEMS
There's no good explanation why Donnie Darko is chosen to save the universe. It's too much of a coincidence to believe that the time-traveling jet engine would just happen to crash into the bedroom of the person who happens to have the power to fix the corruption in time; it's too much of a stretch to believe that the fact that the engine crashed into Donnie's bedroom somehow endows him with powers to alter reality.
Donnie doesn't have to kill his own mother and sister by ripping the jet engine off their plane. This is gratuitous; the engine could have come off any plane.
Donnie doesn't have to burn down Jim Cunningham's house, because there's no need to put his mother and sister on the plane, and because he doesn't need to throw a Halloween party in order to complete his quest.
Donnie and Elizabeth don't have to throw the Halloween party. The party is dramatic and a beautiful sequence, but no event happens there that is necessary to Donnie completing his quest. All that is necessary at that point is that Donnie and Gretchen visit Grandma Death's house; Donnie only goes there because he experiences a sudden compulsion that takes place entirely within his head. He and Gretchen could have been anywhere: at home with his parents, on a movie date, at someone else's party, out trick-or-treating, when the compulsion struck.
Gretchen doesn't have to die. She will die anyway because the universe is about to end in a few hours, and Donnie knows this: it's the first thing Frank the bunny tells him. That should be enough motivation for Donnie to save the universe. The audience must supply its own explanation for why Gretchen needs to die to motivate Donnie to complete his quest. The best inference seems to be that Donnie can't exercise his superpowers unless he's in deep despair or emotional turmoil.
Donnie didn't need to shoot Frank. Although the revelation that Frank the bunny rabbit is a real person who Donnie kills in the future is shocking and fun, it's just window dressing, in no way necessary to Donnie's quest. His spirit guide could have been anyone.
If Frank the spirit guide is the same entity as Frank the guy whom Donnie kills, there's a time-travel paradox: how can Frank's "Manipulated Dead" ghost be around before Frank is dead? If the spirit guide is another entity of some sort, then what reason other than cheap showmanship would it have for assuming Frank's form?
Most of the above plot problems can be reduced to a single, intuitive objection: why is this complicated Rube Goldberg-esque "Ensurance Trap" necessary to trick Donnie into saving the universe? Shouldn't the fact that all of existence is about to end be enough to motivate Donnie?
The "Ensurance Trap" seems more like a device calculated to create a dramatic story arc rather than a sensible emergency protocol for saving the universe in case time becomes corrupted and a Tangent Universe forms. In the end, of course, the real explanation is that if a guy is asked to save the universe, and does so willingly and with little effort or sacrifice, that's not a story worth watching.
PHILOSOPHICAL PLOT PROBLEMS:
The entire concept of the Tangent Universe seems unnecessary. According to The Philosophy of Time Travel, the Tangent Universe is unstable and will implode, bringing the Primary Universe down with it. But the same effect could be created simply by having the Primary Universe be the one that becomes unstable and self destructive, due to the presence of the paradoxical "Artifact" (the jet engine) from the future.
The existence of the jet engine in the Primary Universe remains paradoxical, since it originates in a Tangent Universe (coming off of the plane in which Rose and Samantha were passengers).
The existence of the jet engine in the Tangent Universe is paradoxical, since it comes from the Tangent Universe's future. At one point the jet engine exists in two places at the same time in the Tangent Universe: it exists as the detached engine that has presumably been removed from the Darko's house by the FAA, and at the same time as the undetatched engine on Rose and Samantha's plane.
There's no explanation of why the Tangent Universe doesn't continue to implode after Donnie sends the jet engine into the Primary Universe. How does taking an object that was supposed to be in the Tangent Universe and moving it to another Universe correct an instability in the Tangent Universe? Without more, it's simply an arbitrary rule that moving the Artifact from the Tangent Universe to the Primary Universe causes the Tangent Universe to dissolve harmlessly, rather than implode.
The objections above mostly stem from the "clarifying" material in The Philosophy of Time Travel, not the movie itself. Kelly seems to use the Tangent Universe concept to try to get around the "time travel paradox" (if I traveled back in time and killed my grandfather, then I would never have been born, therefore I never would have traveled back in time, thus I would never have killed him, so I would be alive to travel back in time to kill him…) But although The Philosophy of Time Travel was created by Kelly to buttress and elucidate the plot, ultimately the book's doctrines cause more difficulties than they solve.
THE THEMATIC PLOT PROBLEM:
Donnie should sacrifice his own life to save Gretchen's, and the rest of us, in Donnie Darko. There's no messianic element, no Christ allegory, no emotional resonance on the literal level, if he doesn't.
Unfortunately, the plot sets up a scenario where Donnie either doesn't have to die, or, if he does, he makes no sacrifice by doing so.
This flaw is why Donnie Darko's plot ultimately fails. Since a paradoxical Artifact appears in both the Primary and the Tangent Universe, the only meaningful difference between the two is that Donnie dies in one Universe, and lives in the other.
The plot tells us, however, that the only thing Donnie needs to do to save all existence is to move the Artifact from one Universe to the other. There's no mention of him needing to sacrifice his life: the audience must supply that idea. Some have concluded from Richard Kelly's commentary that Donnie did not need to die to complete his quest.
But it doesn't even matter whether the plot requires Donnie to die or not. Even if we assume that Donnie is supposed to make a choice to willingly die for the sake of others, the choice is a false one. Donnie knows that the world is going to end that Halloween night; that was Frank's very first message to him. Donnie will die whether he chooses to save the universe or not, either when the Tangent Universe implodes, or when the jet engine crashes into him. Thus, his "sacrifice," the emotional climax that the plot is supposed to set up, is utterly meaningless. Donnie doesn't make any sacrifice.
The fact that Donnie's choice is a false one means that the plot, read literally, fails to complete the quest it set out to: to tell a story of messianic sacrifice.
WHY IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT THE PLOT OF DONNIE DARKO DOESN'T MAKE SENSE
If the literal plot of Donnie Darko doesn't make sense, does that mean that the movie is a failure?
Not at all. Kelly asks the viewer to make a choice: either the events in the Tangent Universe actually happened, or they were "all just a dream" of Donnie's.
Usually, the "it was all just a dream" plot resolution is a cop-out by a writer who can't figure out how to end his story, but here it actually works. In a way, it's not important that Donnie really saves the universe or sacrifices himself: if we empathize with Donnie's character (and we do), then emotionally, it's only important that he thinks he does. The plot of Donnie Darko is exactly the kind of grandiose, apocalyptic fantasy that a brilliant but troubled, possibly schizophrenic teenager would have. In a movie where the central character is a bright adolescent who refuses to accept society's standard lines, Donnie's pseudo-sensible sci-fi solution to finding meaning in his life makes perfect sense. The genius of Kelly's film is not that it tells an entertainingly complex time-travel tale a la Back to the Future, but that it recaptures the integrity, naivete, and the longing to recreate the world in a better way that's the hallmark of adolescence at its best. And the movie accomplishes this feat while creating a sense of mystery and dreamlike wonder that lingers long after the credits have rolled.
Donnie Darko's Tangent Universe could be the most elaborate and ambitious MacGuffin ever created.
APPENDIX: A NOTE ON JIM EMERSON'S FREUDIAN INTERPRETATION OF DONNIE DARKO
Jim Emerson, an editor at RogerEbert.com, has created a curiously satisfying interpretation of Donnie Darko that sees the entire film as a psychological study of Donnie's repressed adolescent sexuality–especially his sublimated desire to bed his own sister–and the demonic bunny Frank, in particular, as "a manifestation of that ambivalent aspect of Donnie's own erupting id, his stifled/frustrated hormonal urges…" I usually hate Freudian interpretations of films, but Emerson is so forceful and convincing that, after reading it, I started to think he was onto something.
But I had one serious objection to Emerson's theory: a large part of it hinged on the "fact" that Frank is Elizabeth's boyfriend. That's accurate, as it turns out; in another context, Kelly dropped that bit of apparent trivia in his DVD commentary. The problem is, Kelly provides no direct evidence of an intimate relationship between Frank and Elizabeth in the film.
After reading Emerson's interpretation, I rewatched the movie searching in vain for evidence that Elizabeth and Frank were sexually involved. Elizabeth is dating someone, it's true (she's shown talking to a nameless boyfriend on the phone), and she knows Frank, it's true (she asks where he is at the party), but there's never any explicit link in the movie explaining that the person she was dating was Frank. I dismissed it as an interesting supposition that was unfortunately unsupported by the text of the screenplay, until I heard Kelly confirm the rumor on his DVD commentary. (DVD co-commentator Kevin Smith didn't make the connection either, and correctly opined that no one would without the benefit of Kelly's explanation).
There's an amazing intellectual twist to this story of observing someone else's interpretation of the movie. I had thought that Emerson's theory was clever and interesting, but ultimately invalid because it relied on a premise that was unsupported by the movie. Then, Kelly admitted that he had intended this premise all along. He had buried it in the backstory, however, and barely hinted at the relationship in the movie. It's almost as if the movie's own unconscious is repressing the knowledge of Frank and Elizabeth's intimacy. That the narrator's repression of key plot element from the story unlocks a powerful psychological interpretation, one that itself depends on the idea that the main character is repressing feelings that stem from his knowledge of the very same fact, is almost incredible.
In fact, it's more than a bit weird.
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33 thoughts on "WHY DONNIE DARKO'S LITERAL PLOT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE (AND WHY IT DOESN'T MATTER)"
Aegyptia says:
I need to watch the director's cut, but the movie does make sense if you toss out the tangent universe scenario, or at least in the way it is put forth. What if Donnie was the one that created an alternate reality? The end of the world simply meant the end for Frank's world. Frank only appeared to Donnie because he wanted to save himself and Donnie, after being imparted with the knowledge of time travel and wormholes, uses that knowledge to change the future. In other words, he sees that by sacrificing himself, all the others would live.
If we stay with the tangent universe explanation, the rift seems to have happened previous to the engine entering. So perhaps Grandma Death caused the tangent in her cellar playing around with time travel. The reason the bad guys were in the cellar when Donnie gets there is because he was close to discovering the real reason the rift was caused in the first place. That was what drove Granny Death to her current state of mentality and she was the one that chose Donnie to fix it. Just some ideas.
366weirdmovies says:
Aegyptia, I'm sure your revisions to the plot make sense. My issue is that it I think the viewer shouldn't have to rewrite the movie's script so it makes sense! Was the movie Kelly put up on the screen only a first draft?
The main intent of my article was not to show why the plot doesn't work, but why it doesn't matter: the movie still works thematically and emotionally, despite the plot holes. In fact, the plot holes make the movie a weirder experience!
I know what your point was, it was well stated. I mistakenly thought discussion on the rest was open and would have been interesting. I simply disagree there are plot holes, it all depends on your perspective, no revisions of plot needed.
As an artist I can tell you what one starts out to say when creating a work of art is often turned on it's head because the process of making it and/or the end result often teaches you something entirely unexpected instead. The artist is only a tool in the end and the art runs away with itself if it is any good, taking on a life of it's own. Movie making is no different which backs up your main point. There is an x factor in everything where the magic, for lack of a better word or understanding, takes place.
But to simply regurgitation bits of information the director lets slip or stand on dogma concerning the plot is unfortunate. We can disagree on that yet still agree on your main point, the movie works well despite anything else.
*regurgitate
You're not mistaken at all to think the rest is up for discussion. I, personally, don't want to participate in plot discussions, because I've said what I have to say about Donnie Darko's plot and have moved on. Others are free to discuss whatever they wish, and encouraged to disagree with me.
The point you bring up in your second comment interests me, personally, much more than speculations about what "really happened" in Donnie Darko: "The artist is only a tool in the end and the art runs away with itself if it is any good, taking on a life of it's own… There is an x factor in everything where the magic, for lack of a better word or understanding, takes place." That's very perceptive and important to note.
In interpreting a work of art I find there is a tension between letting the piece "speak for itself" and listening to the creator. On the one hand, as you say, the artist is only a tool. Many of the bones and sinews of the work may grow out of his subconscious, or even appear by accident. The author may not be the best interpreter of his own work. On the other hand, art is an attempt by the creator to communicate with an audience, and I think we owe the artist an honest effort to hear what he's trying to say, even if he's wrong.
The plot I've outlined above is presented the way Richard Kelly intended it to be. Unfortunately, he has been quite clear, through his director's cut, his commentary with Kevin Smith, and the supplemental materials he's supplied as to what his intended plot was, and it's ultimately disappointing. That's why the theatrical cut is so much superior to the director's cut. It's more ambiguous, and honors the mystery of the tale. When Kelly tries to nail his story down, it flies away from him.
Shana says:
I'm glad I found this, even though it was written 2 years ago. I just watched the original version of the movie a few hours ago. I understood it fine, but I had the same problem with the holes in the plot. The jet engine thing is just a fiasco, I really don't think he knew what he was doing there.
I didn't come here to discuss more theories. I came here after reading Emerson's novel about the possible incest in this movie. I didn't find it convincing at all, it sounded like the ramblings of a mad man projecting his own sick thoughts into the plot of movie. Perhaps being beaten over the head with the idea over and over, over about 20 paragraphs might make it feel convincing, but it really isn't. It's not that I have a problem with disturbing plots or themes, it's that I REALLY didn't see what he was seeing.
But just to add my own idea in, I think Donnie had the power to save himself over quite a few others, and it took some convincing for him to decide that it was worth him going. After all he was just the troubled kid with emotional problems, the world would probably be better off without him, whereas, the loss of his mother, sister, sister's boyfriend and a young girl in the neighborhood all within the short span of time, might have been a bit much. Of course, by the end of the movie we liked Donnie and we felt he was more than that. But that's just my feeling on it.
I believe that the whole movie is supposed to be centered around Gretchen. The whole reason that Frank is revealed to Donnie is so that he could help him fix Gretchen's death. But in order to do this Frank has to create a tangent universe and put Donnie in it. After Donnie has his plan in place and knows how to fix it, he throws the jet engine into the real world causing a paradox that destroys the tangent universe.
I think the whole movie is Frank trying to make things right and using Donnie to do.
This article is good and very well put together I was just wondering why none of these plot theories innclude the fact that donnie darko had schizophrenia? That would cvlear a lot of the plot questions up and still leave it open to all of these wonderful interpretations.
G. Smalley (366weirdmovies) says:
Abby: The "schizophrenia" theory (which the movie gives some evidence for) is pretty much the same as the "it's all a dream" theory. I did write "The plot of Donnie Darko is exactly the kind of grandiose, apocalyptic fantasy that a brilliant but troubled, possibly schizophrenic teenager would have." Richard Kelly has been very clear that he hoped the audience would take the movie at face value as a science fiction story, despite the fact that he leaves the schizophrenia angle open as a possibility. If we can't buy his plot then hallucination is the fall-back position.
I like to ointerpret the movie from the pov that donnie darko is in fact suffering from schizophrenia. It makes sense of some of the seeming disparities of the movie. From the first paragraphs of this article you can see symptoms of schizophrenia particularly hallucinations(frank the rabbit) , delusions of grandeur, an inflated misconception that you are an extremely important person, in this case donnie is a 'messiah' or saviour of the human race, and delusions of reference where donnie believes he is being sent secret messages that only he recognizes, that come from regular mediums such as the time travel book he reads for class and the whisperings of the crazy old woman that donnie believes holds the secrets to the universe. To read a full synopsis from this point of view I would recommend —> http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/synopsis
I was reading that someone felt that the entire plot was based on Donnie having feelings for Elizabeth what I thought true to this was Frank enter both there lives at a consecutive time. When Donnie sleep walked the first time to meet Frank, Elizabeth was on a date with Frank. At the same time the engine crashes thru the house, Elizabeth comes home from a date, smiling as though she had just fallen for someone, which was latter revealed in her concern for Franks absence at the party. The "how you know" it was Frank was in the squealing tires after she had closed the front door, implying his sports car and poor driving, as per shown latter. I took this movie as if Donnie represented the "fear" in life for everyone, based on the cycling thru of all the caricatures in the movie at the end, implying that with him gone, "fear" was gone and therefore everyone would be able to "love" as per the movie. I had this feeling right at the end when his girlfriend waved at Donnie's mother, implying she would be a part of Donnie's family in the absence of her own.
Hi Kevin, that is what I call the "Freduian" interpretation of DD, first proposed by Jim Emerson. Read the "appendix" section of the post and you'll find the link to Emerson's original article. That interpretation hangs together, but I still wonder if we were really supposed to figure out that Frank and Elizabeth were dating from the sound of squealing tires!
Sambson says:
I maintain that DD is an enormously successful film simply based on the fact that so many people are effected by it enough to puzzle together theories and discuss all it's endless possible permutations. What a marvelous work of art! I'd support this by pointing out that Ed Wood's PLAN 9 has transcended it's enormous faults by becoming a cultural icon and very popular film to watch and gleefully lampoon. Somehow, whether these films achieve the goal of their director's or not, becomes irrelevant when faced with the evidence that they inspire generations of fans (for numerous reasons). It's like people debating whether the calculations at the beginning of PROMETHEUS are the correct distance from the Earth. As G. Smalley maintains; it makes no difference at all. The work inspires the mind of each viewer in a unique and profound way., andor me; that is enough.
Taylor James Johnson says:
Jokeback Mountain – shot-4-shot remake of "Wish I Knew How To Quit You" scene with The Joker & Donnie Darko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2OeSz_OK4c
very much disagree with your plot discussions, the answers to your confusion are evident in the film without need for further reading.
for example frank is introduced as a person aside form his bunny form at the halloween party, and gives a reason for frank to come into the scene outside grama deaths house (with the bullies), the death of gretchin leads to the shooting of frank and the death of gretchin, these two deaths put Donnie over the edge into accepting what frank has told him, and seeing the death of his girlfriend encourages him to end the tangent universe to save her. The jet engine is the one thing that is really debatable. And theres always a paradox with time travel, but to play with such as wide range of topics so successfully in a single film is just briliant.
The jet engine is the artifact. Since Donnie is the nearest to it when it breaks through the roof, it becomes his responsibility to return it to the primary universe and in turn, save the universe. In other words, it's not a coincidence that the jet engine falls into the one guy's room with the ability to save the universe, the jet engine makes Donnie the one person who can save the universe and everyone else aids in his quest to do so. Clearer?
Alan Stevens says:
Everything Richard Kelly says about his film is post hoc-rationalisation. This is strange, as Donnie Darko is a fairly straightforward narrative. Donnie is coxed from his room by the ghost of Frank, this means Donnie isn't killed when the aircraft engine hits his room. Life then progresses as it would have done if Donnie had lived. Through Donnie's actions four people are killed, Gretchen, Frank and Donnie's sister and mother. Finally, Donnie is returned in time to his bedroom and dies, but with the knowledge that to do so saves the lives of others. The End.
Luke Slark says:
Due to a sudden change in travel arrangements I reluctantly left the cinema approx 25 minutes before the end of the movie. Friends who had already seen it were at best vague about the ending and it was not until the DVD release that I was finally able to see the film's closing act for myself. In the months between, DD remained a perfect, perfectly unresolved work.
Regardless of whether one finds the ending successful or problematic (the fact that Kelly himself has felt it necessary to provide volumes of post-film explanation would lead to the latter conclusion) a much more pertinent question, and one which Donnie Darko so intimidatingly poses, is why the film works so mesmerisingly well for so long whilst containing elements which cannot be satisfactorily resolved, which, in effect, undo it. Is it something to do with the nature of endings? Did Kelly force the film into some kind of linearity, when it wanted to conclude in a purely poetic mode? Could the film's loose ends be tied up without thereby destroying its mystery?
For me, Donnie Darko's great achivement is perhaps this worrying chaos at its heart, which the director couldn't finally tame. The film literally makes no sense: the clues for interpretation disappear into ellipses; they do not appear onscreen, therefore do not exist in the film's universe(s). Kelly's later experiments in genre-splicing have failed on a grand scale, but DD's black-hole-shaped flaws are integral to it's successes. As the film itself tells us: it's a very, very mad world.
Kylobilbo says:
well actually, Donnie needs his mother and sister to be on the plane so he knows when it will be flying over Carpathian Ridge. Also, he needs to be having a party so Gretchen can feel comfortable stopping by after getting into the fight with Donnie during English class. Also, Frank wouldn't have killed Gretchen had he not been getting beer for the party. If she had lived, Donnie wouldn't have learned to care for the human race.
If she had lived, the reality of the death of the human race wouldn't have set in. Donnie wouldn't have realized that he cared. He had to witness her death. That's what did it for him.
MeanGene says:
I just saw this tonight for the first time. I disagree that the movie ended well. Answer this, if the engine which is a matching one to another engine in existence, which alarmed the FAA, and upon Donnie saving the Universe since corruption was obvious by the matching serial numbers, then mom and daughter are on the ground, there must still be a corrupt universe and the universe should have imploded, right? Help me here, why are there still 2 matching engines with the same serial numbers? Kelly is confused and I refuse to call this a classic. I give it a 5 out of 10 for the acting. =\
Badly written, and the mysterious mystical meaning which is so elusive, thus the cult following. Kelly is also of the followers himself since he is not sure of the meaning either.
MeanGene
5 of 10 for acting
You guys seem to keep forgetting a few key things:
1. Donnie has to return the artifact because he was nearest to it when it crashed (keep in mind he died the FIRST time it hit the house, the rest is all time travel) This is discussed in the directors cut. Which might I add, is much more fulfilling than the regular version.
2. Frank gave Donnie 4th dimensional powers, including the ability to time travel, even though they refer to it as a tangent universe, if you really think about it, it's STILL the primary universe. Keep with me, when Donnie killed Frank in the PRIMARY universe(the reason he already has a bullet in his eye when he comes back to find Donnie), Frank had died and ascended to the 4th dimension, wherein all consciousness resides, HE is the one that tore the engine off of a plane (apparently a jet engine from the Batman universe lol, swirly logo on the center cowl) and sent it BACK IN TIME using time travel, in order to prevent HIM (Frank) from running over Gretchen, and ultimately being shot in the face. He then tells Donnie to leave the house, and since he had reversed the flow of time, all that really changed is the decision Donnie must make considering all the events MUST STILL HAPPEN as they did before, once Donnie has finally GRASPED what Frank is trying to teach him, and what he was trying to prevent all along, Donnie uses the powers that Frank has taught him (remember the scene in the bathroom "how do you do that?") to once again, again, REVERSE the flow of time, back to the night of the crash, realizing that if he just dies in the accident, Gretchen won't be killed, Cunningham will stop being a ped (due to the waking nightmares), his mom and sister won't end up dead, and neither will Frank. Even though Donnie is attached to his own life, he learns that being alone, without loved ones, is INFINITELY worse than dying alone, and decides to embrace it, because he ALSO now realizes that life does not end when you die, hence the need for the 4th dimension powers, powers used by who? 4th dimensional beings. aka the dead waiting to be reborn or w/e they do.
This is just my opinion, but if you look at it not as a tangent universe, and more of just a tangent timeline, you'll get it. Basically it's a movie about Time Travel wherein the character can only fulfill future events because THEY HAPPENED but once he does, realizes FINALLY (I'm guessing Frank tried to get him to FIX IT many times before, but Donnie failed, so he just kept rewinding time again, the reason I think this is they message about Donnie having to lose everything to gain anything, I think speaks to that… For the time paradox to be fixed, there must be the death of Donnie, otherwise he would just keep repeating over and over again, because Frank would be forced to just keep rewinding time, or to himself, give up, but he couldn't, because he loved Donnie's older sister, wasn't ready to leave, and would give ANYTHING to take back running over that girl in the street. (Gretchen)
Didn't realize my grammar was so damn terrible, it's late, my bad.
lol – shorter condensed version – The movie is really about Frank, who is dead and must use time travel to undo what Donnie did to him, prevent his own death, prevent running over Gretchen, he just wasn't ready to leave, and he realized that by showing Donnie a terrifying series of events that would lead to the loss of everyone around him, that he could USE him to act as the receiver, return the artifact that HE (Frank) created, so that he could come back to the real world. He was mad at Donnie, he missed his GF (Donnie's older Sister) and he knew that if he showed Donnie these horrible things, he could trick him into believing he could save everyone but really it was just Frank trying to get back into the physical world.
It's basically the story of Job from the bible, if you think about it, a higher power manipulates and destroys the life of a man, to teach him a lesson, and further his it's own cause.
Franks kind of selfish but most people are, so it makes sense. Also, at one point, there was something in the directors cut, that said the manipulated living will DO ABSOLUTELY anything to avoid Oblivion, that was just saying that Frank (who was a manipulated living up until he gets shot by Donnie) was willing to do all of this stuff to remain alive.
I guess it really is all about the bunnies in this movie.
Dang, just realized a hole in my first post, Donnie did NOT die in the first engine crash, otherwise he could have never shot frank, he had been disappearing at night for days before that night even happened, which seems to imply that he would have left at night whether Frank had called him out or not, my guess is that when you hear frank call him out, it's because in the previous time reversal, frank didn't call him out, he still left the house, but then when frank later approached him, it didn't quite have the same effect on Donnie as when Frank makes it appear as if he just "saved his life" perhaps in that other other timeline, Donnie thought Frank was part of his illness, and attempted to ignore him, so pretending to save Donnie made him have more sway over him.
mike1 says:
My interpretation: In the "tangent universe" Donnie makes the world a better place. Because of him the world is better, But because he was supposed to die and did not, eventually the universe had to "correct the error"… even though the world would be in worse shape for him having left the "primary universe" which reasserted itself or had to be restored.
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kemosh says:
Think of it this way;
Timeline 1 – Donnie is a messed up teenager with issues, he has a little sister that is a dancer in the school group Sparkle Motion, perhaps Donnie meets Gretchen, perhaps not, but in this timeline no "paradoxical Frank" exists to bring about the chain of events leading Donnie to be Gretchen's boyfriend, etc, etc. The sparkle motion tour goes to New York with the crazy, religious gym teacher going with the other girls and Donnie's sister. As the plane heads back from New York a wormhole spontaneously appears and the plane engine is sucked into the wormhole entering a tangent timeline or universe, crashing into Donnie's house and killing donnie, let's call this timeline timeline 2 or "primary universe". Now, who or what created the wormhole in the first place – – on that 28th day in the original timeline – – is up to the viewer; whether it was natural or not doesn't really matter because Donnie will be guided by someone or something beyond the 4th dimension in a temporary timeline of visions regardless.
Now it's important here that this paradoxical rip in space-time between two universes occurred and Donnie was killed, but to a being beyond the 3 dimensions of space and the 4th dimension of time they would be clearly capable of intervening before Donnie is killed, thus creating another timeline and the one that features prominently in the film.
This temp timeline shows visions of a future that would occur if Donnie was not killed by the plane engine, one that wouldn't be too dissimilar from the original timeline to begin with, if we take paradoxical Frank out of the equation.
Now, going back again to the original timeline again, remember Donnie's sister would have thrown that party to celebrate getting into Harvard and her boyfriend Frank would have been there with his bunny suit, and he would have gone out to get beer, all of that would have originally happened, but since there was this wormhole that appeared as sparkle motion were heading back from New York a paradox occurred with the wormhole creating an alternate or tangent timeline where Donnie is killed by a plane engine that fell literally from nowhere. Since that original timeline had occurred up to the point of the wormhole appearing, whoever is speaking to Donnie via Frank and is manipulating the living in this temporary, intervening timeline, would be able to do just that if they are beyond our 3 dimensions of space and the 4th dimension of time; setting up the chain of events that will lead to Donnie flooding the school, meeting Gretchen, receiving the timetravel book, burning the motivational pedo speaker's house, going to Grandma Death's house, Gretchen getting killed, Frank getting shot and forcing Donnie to understand his fate and learning that there exists something greater than he; that he is not alone and that he now has a purpose.
Now, Donnie could have ignored "paradoxical Frank" when he told him to wake up; it's just a voice after all, let's say he did and he gets killed by the plane engine, right, the someone or something intervening hear would simply try again, thus we can imagine that Donnie has been through this multiple times until he's made to understand his paradoxical fate. This also means if Frank would have removed his bunny mask at the very beginning he may or may not have shown a shot eye yet since Donnie has yet to flood the school and go out with Gretchen, once he chooses to do those two things the possible chain of events leading up to Donnie shooting Frank is guaranteed, thus Frank's shot eye represents a possible future if Donnie continues to do as Frank says and that possibility comes to fruition. Remember, "paradoxical Frank" is only seen via Donnie as visions, he represents a vision of a future that has yet to pass and his shot eye one a possible vision of the future that could pass, just like when paradoxical Frank shows Donnie a vision of a wormhole in the cinema and shows the pedo's house burning, again a possible future.
Thus eventually the wormhole appears just as it did in the original timeline, on that 28th day, only in this timeline Donnie's Mum is on the plane with Sparkle Motion, and so Donnie sends the plane engine back in time, collapsing the temporary timeline and seemingly creating a bootstrap paradox, and returning to timeline 2 and accepting his paradoxical fate.
It's a mindbender for sure but once you accept the idea of alternate timelines and something or someone outside the 4th dimension intervening, it can in fact make sense, however paradoxical!
Our linear understanding of time and dimensions is what makes this all confusing, but causal loops and bootstrap paradoxes are permitted by relativity.
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MagnumX says:
None of the plot points are salient to me. My "problem" with the entire movie, which at first seemed to be interesting and was ultimately a massive letdown is that Donnie has no "choice" to make whatsoever. The entire premise of this movie is that FATE controls your life (exactly the opposite of Terminator 2 where there's "No fate but what we make").
The problem with removing free will from the equation (and make no mistake, there is literally zero free will in this movie) is that it takes the human element out of the movie entirely. Donnie will die no matter what. It seems "God" is testing to see whether he just says, "Screw it" and dies or bothers to save the Universe…except the notion that a "God" would let an entire Universe and all its inhabitants burn for the sake of a tangent universe that apparently came into existence for no reason whatsoever is stupid. There I said it. It's stupid.
So no matter how much I was enjoying the mysterious film at first, it came crashing down at the end with that jet engine because ultimately, Donnie had no choices. If he did, he would done what Marty McFly did and fix the problems in the previous go-around tangent Universe. He knew what was coming and could avoid Gretchen dying while still meeting her because he knows how it played out. If he doesn't die will the primary universe go bye-bye anyway? Why would it unless the overwhelming narrative (in this day of narratives rather than actual news) is that THERE IS NO FREE WILL.
You are FATED to whatever hell-hole life "God" gives you and you are not the least bit responsible for it or yourself. Since you have no free will, you are essentially a robot slave. PERIOD. No arguments to be made because the Director's Cut makes it 100% crystal clear that he believes the Universe to be FATE driven. That means you don't even really exist since robots don't have souls. God picks the winners and losers and God is just playing Solitaire by Himself with made up characters in a D&D game with no player characters, only NPCs.
Sorry, but that's not an interesting plot development and the chance for an interesting film disintegrated right with the jet engine since I can find nothing interesting about a story based on fate rather than free will. And it wouldn't have taken much to fix the film in that regard (the real directors cut that should have been, but instead it only cemented the theory that Donnie really had no choice about dying and therefore no sacrifice to make. If a messiah has no choice in the matter then it's not an actual sacrifice. It's just someone doing something somewhere).
I'm sure many will argue it's beside the point to them, but to me it's paint by numbers (just follow the instructions) rather than something to "think" about since there is nothing to think about when fate is involved. You have no choice and that's the ONLY point to be made. Destroy a universe on a child's whim? Please. What kind of "God" would offer that "choice" in the first place outside a closed environment (virtual reality)?
Spambot of the Day! says:
Good Afternoon everybody , can anyone suggest where I can buy Rare Terpenes Tepene Strain Blends Sour Diesel?
mr karber says:
To steal framing from the main review: People conflate the sense of narrative exposition and actual logical to process the worth. The literal plot in my eyes works just not where a Christ allegory is just an good thing. I find it more like kalfaesause tragedy or an non-elder god cosmic horror than something where it was "worth it". But i may be only loyal to the author's wastionian exposition and not his intentions on this one.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Westminster Magistrates' Court heard that employees of Tiles & Tops Limited of Croydon had been exposed to the risk of amputation because the blade of an Elenis automatic bridge saw was not properly guarded. An inspector from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) served an Improvement Notice requiring the saw to be guarded after she visited the company in August 2017.
At a follow-up visit in November 2017 temporary fencing was seen to have been moved to one side and was no longer offering any protection to people using the saw. This company had previously been prosecuted in 2016 by HSE for failing to control stone dust, a known cause of lung disease.
Tiles & Tops Limited of Neville Road, Croydon, pleaded guilty to breaching an Improvement Notice served by an HSE Inspector citing a contravention of Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and has today been fined £14,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1260 and a victim surcharge of £170.
Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Sarah Whittle said "In this case, the company completely failed to grasp the importance of installing and maintaining basic but essential guards to prevent access to the dangerous parts of machinery.
"Despite being given several weeks to rectify the situation, the temporary fencing put in place by the company was clearly inadequate.


The Last of Us is the PS3 number one for a third week running.
After a series of price reductions, FIFA 13 climbs one place to second, above Deadpool, which is this week's highest new entry in third.
Elsewhere, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim clings on to tenth for a second week in a row, charting below GRID 2 and Dead Island: Riptide.


We interviewed sixteen federated RD infrastructures (FRDI's) in the six Knowledge Exchange member countries, as a first step to get a grip on the phenomenon FRDI.
Knowledge Exchange have published recommendations for the creation of an international repository for information on training resources, in order to make existing nationally focused training material Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).
Knowledge Exchange presented findings from the study into Funding Research Data Management and Related Infrastructures, at 'The Challenge of Big Data', the 5th International LSDMA Symposium.
The Science Europe Working Group on Research Data and the Knowledge Exchange Research Data expert group joined forces to explore how RDM/RDI are, or can be, funded.
New modes of scientific analysis and scholarly communication need a safe and user-friendly environment to analyse data and other research outputs such as scientific articles and monographs. Read our response to action item number 6 (Set up common e-infrastructures), following the Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science.
Our latest newsletter, with reports on Research Software Sustainability, Open Access Policy Dependency and Researcher Identifiers.


text:
Home › › Australian Antarctic Magazine › 2001-2005 › Issue 6: Autumn 2004 › Feature
Australian Antarctic Magazine - Issue 6: Autumn 2004
The Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC: a truly collaborative partnership
The Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC), funded by its partners and the Federal Government from 2003 to 2010, is underway. This exciting CRC is the second to focus on Antarctic and Southern Ocean research and will build on the outstanding track record of its predecessor, the Antarctic CRC, that produced over 500 scientific publications, over 50 PhD students and significantly advanced our understanding of the Antarctic region.
The Cooperative Research Centres program was started in 1991 as an initiative to generate more focused, productive research and development from existing research infrastructure, rather than building whole new research agencies. CRCs are partnerships among universities, Commonwealth and State research agencies (such as CSIRO and the Australian Antarctic Division) and policy and industry sectors. The objective of these partnerships is to use the existing research infrastructure to target specific industry and community issues of national significance. Antarctica and its surrounding Southern Ocean is becoming recognised as a major engine room of global climate and oceanographic processes, having major effects on the rates of global warming, sea level rise and the processing of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Thus, the ACE CRC and its predecessor fit well into the national CRC Programme.
The ACE CRC is a joint venture between the Australian Antarctic Division, CSIRO Marine Research, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and the University of Tasmania as its core partners. Contributing Supporting Partners include the Australian Greenhouse Office, the Tasmanian Department of Economic Development (TDED), the Australian National University (ANU), Silicon Graphics Inc, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA, New Zealand), and the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI, Germany). The ACE CRC research program involves collaborations and research partnerships with individuals and institutions in 13 countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom, China and the United States of America among others – a truly international partnership.
The ACE CRC involves five main research programs focused on Antarctic Marine Ecosystems, Climate Variability & Change, Ocean Control of Carbon Dioxide, Sea Level Rise, and Antarctic and Southern Ocean Policy. The research programs are supplemented with education, communication and extension and commercialisation programs.
Together, these programs will provide unprecedented understanding of just how the Southern Ocean and Antarctic sea ice moderate global oceanographic and climate processes in the face of human generated impacts elsewhere. For example, the Southern Ocean has the potential to be a major sink for excess carbon dioxide generated by industrialised societies, but the rate of carbon dioxide uptake by the ocean depends on the ocean's circulation and the status of the Southern Ocean ecosystem – which in turn will be affected by global warming. The rate of sea level rise also depends on the Southern Ocean circulation and its uptake of heat as well as changes in precipitation in Antarctica, and on the longer time scale the state of the Antarctic ice sheets. Unravelling the complexity of interactions between ocean circulation, carbon dioxide uptake, Antarctic marine ecosystems and global warming will require the synthesis of research across all of the ACE CRC research programs. This will be a challenging task because traditionally the different disciplines have tackled their science at different scales in space and time, and bringing these disciplines together will involve adjustments to those existing methods. Making those adjustments will be a key feature of the ACE CRC.
Another key element of the ACE CRC is the formal recognition of the importance of relating our scientific outputs to national and international policies about Antarctica, conservation of its ecosystems and the impacts of the global climate changes to which the Southern Ocean is so important. The ACE CRC Policy Program will provide a direct, focused avenue through which to give the predictions from science maximum effect nationally and internationally, allowing Australia to better anticipate the effects of global climate changes and adjust to those changes.
This is an exciting combination of research covering several science and political disciplines. Into this mix we will be sponsoring a host of post-graduate students, who will be the leaders in these fields in a few years. The multi-disciplinary and international nature of the ACE CRC provides an unequalled mix of post-graduate opportunities and it is our aim to support over 50 graduates by 2010. By that time, too, we will have contributed whole new insights to the functioning of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica and just how important they are to our future under a changing
global climate.
Bruce Mapstone, CEO, ACE CRC
In the spirit of cooperation
International scientific collaboration: let's maximise our efforts
Antarctic research: a collaborative model
Studying the big picture: 50 years of international cooperation in Antarctic earth system science
Cooperation and the Antarctic Treaty
Antarctic bioprospecting, benefit sharing & cooperation in Antarctic science
Will tourism change how we manage Antarctica?
AME takes aim
Australia and Japan: two decades of collaboration in Antarctic marine science
Plankton survey uses old technology to monitor the future
Australian, Japanese scientists collaborate
AMISOR trilogy: the diesel and the dog
International collaboration brought to the AMISOR project
Climate variability in Eastern Wilkes Land: Australian ITASE ice core drilling, 2003-04
International sea ice survey success
Ice core evidence for 20% decline in Antarctic sea ice extent since the 1950s
Australian-Italian glaciological program success
From South Pole to Dome C: Antarctic astronomy 10 years on
Radiation blasts Space Ship Earth
Our explosive star puts on a fine show
Records set by 2003 ozone hole
Australia's first micro-satellite to elevate our Antarctic magnetometer science
Ice and fire: A total solar eclipse over Antarctica
Total eclipses in Antarctica - how rare are they?
EurAstro over Antarctica
Poachers pursued over 7,000 kilometers
Crackdown continues: Maya V apprehended, Lena sunk
Australian Government gets tough - increased funding to combat illegal fishing
Outcomes of CCAMLR XXII
CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program reviewed
AAD gains new responsibilities for whales
25 years of whale protection in Australia
Albatross conservation advanced
44575 was a bird on a mission... Satellite tracking Heard Island's albatrosses
Through rain, hail and shine, ambitious island program completed successfully
Mapping Beaver Lake
Belgium, the tropics and the Antarctic Treaty System
A remarkable contribution to world science
Australian team recovers NASA balloon
You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours!
Mawson: Antarctica's first wind-powered station
Up, up and away: 2003-04 aircraft operations
Island exchanges enhance quarantine protection
New living quarters for Davis station
Station Leaders for 2004
Mawson station, est. 1954: a signal achievement
Australia Post celebrates 50th anniversary of Mawson station
New AAD facilities opened on Mawson station's 50 year anniversary
Australian Antarctic Arts fellowships awarded
Colours of Antarctica
Cold, dark and festive: Celebrating Midwinter in Tasmania
This page was last updated on 25 May 2004.


text:
Ha partecipato alle Olimpiadi di Monaco nel 1972, conquistando un bronzo.

Carriera
Giuseppe Bognanni nella sua carriera ha ottenuto nelle maggiori competizioni di lotta greco-romana i seguenti risultati:
3º ai Campionati europei del 1969, cat. 57 kg;
4º ai Campionati europei del 1972, cat. 52 kg;
6º ai Campionati europei del 1974, cat. 52 kg.
Medaglia d'argento al Valore Atletico nel 1973 e Medaglia d'Onore al Merito Sportivo.
Ha inoltre partecipato alle olimpiadi di Montréal 1976, non riuscendo però a superare le eliminatorie

Collegamenti esterni

Vincitori di medaglia di bronzo olimpica per l'Italia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Spiralcat of Maryland has two pilot demonstration: A Dairy CAFO located within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed brings together precision agriculture and targeted air quality strategies while conserving water, and removing unwanted salts and excess nutrients from the environment. The CAFO's Anaerobic Digester wastewater are diverted directly into the Spiralcat CPARE processing unit where the salts and biosolids are separated from the water fraction; and the appropriate nutrients are retained in the water to grow hydroponic tomatoes. Cheyney University' Aquaculture Team evaluates the conversion of aqueous nutrients to plant biomass. Alternatively, the possibility of integrating recovered ammonia into PEM fuel cell system is considered and a second installation involves diverting the excess ammonia and nitrates and converting these into an Ammonia Hydrogen storage media. Here hydrogen extraction from NH3 and N2 release provides a very promising approach for animal farmers to maximize the value of the NH3 while eliminating the negative environmental impact of the N-content of their manures. To this end, Spiralcat, Ballard Power Systems (a leading PEM fuel cell developer); and, the University of Maryland are developing an ammonia-powered fuel cell system integrated with Spiralcat's proprietary CPARE manure-water harvesting technology.


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Our goal is to develop the highest quality, most effective interactive Globish instruction service for non-native English speakers worldwide to learn this global form of English.
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On your mobile, take a look at the new "MOBILE ONLY" demo of Globish IN Globish at www.glng.mobi. (This is also where you will login for mobile when you use the full course.) You will see how you can use the course on your computer OR your mobile phone or BOTH -- if you have one of each. The mobile option lets you study GNG on the train or waiting for a bus, or at sporting events that are not too interesting.
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For a description of the Globish IN Globish course, read the material on the left.


The antiestrogen tamoxifen is used in the treatment of breast cancer and has recently been recommended as a chemopreventive drug for women at high risk for breast cancer. However, women treated with the drug have an increased incidence of endometrial cancer. It has been suggested that this endometrial cancer might result from mutagenic DNA adducts, which are formed by electrophilic tamoxifen species generated by metabolic activation of the drug. Because the frequency of damage-induced mutations is strongly dependent on the repairability of the lesion, we investigated the repair of the major tamoxifen-DNA adducts by the human nucleotide excision repair system. Using the reconstituted human excision repair system and synthetic DNA substrates, we found that the four types of tamoxifen-DNA adducts detected in the endometrium were repaired with moderate to poor efficiency by nucleotide excision repair. It is concluded that individual variations in repair capacity may play a role in the development of tamoxifen-induced endometrial cancer.
Tamoxifen is a synthetic antiestrogen that has been used as an adjuvant to surgical and chemotherapeutic treatment of breast cancer. Inclusion of tamoxifen in the treatment regimen reduces the rate of recurrence by nearly a factor of two compared with surgery plus chemotherapy alone (1) , and at present, more than 1 million women worldwide with breast cancer are being treated with tamoxifen (2) . Moreover, a chemoprevention trial projected for 5 years was recently stopped ahead of schedule when it became apparent that tamoxifen reduced the breast cancer incidence in high risk women by 49% (3) . This finding will likely result in an increase in the number of women taking tamoxifen to several million in the United States alone. However, tamoxifen has a rare but potentially fatal side effect. The drug increases the incidence of endometrial cancer by a factor of 2–10, depending on the duration of treatment and the age of the patient, as well as other factors (3, 4, 5) .
The mechanism of induction of endometrial cancer by tamoxifen is not known. However, there are two possible mechanisms: either tamoxifen acts as a tumor promoter because of its weak estrogen agonist activity on the endometrium or it acts as a tumor initiator via its metabolites, which act as weak genotoxicants that damage DNA (6) . In rats, tamoxifen causes DNA damage in liver at a relatively high level and induces liver cancer at a correspondingly elevated rate (7) , and there is a consensus in the field that liver cancers in rats are induced through the genotoxic effect of tamoxifen. In contrast, because of differential specificity or activity of xenobiotic metabolizing (and/or detoxifying) enzymes, tamoxifen induces low and negligible levels of DNA damage in the liver of mice and humans, respectively (6) ; hence there is no increased incidence of liver cancer in mice or in women receiving high doses of the drug. Initial measurements with human endometrial tissue of tamoxifen-treated women showed a minor putative adduct [0.27 adducts/108 nucleotides (8)] or failed to detect any evidence of tamoxifen genotoxicity to endometrial DNA (9) . However, recent studies using highly sensitive methods have detected tamoxifen adducts in endometrial DNA of women receiving the drug at levels of 1.5–13.1 adducts/108 nucleotides (10) . Although these levels are 40–230-fold lower than the adduct levels induced in rat liver (11) , they are considered high enough to cause mutation and cancer when present in the DNA of women treated with the drug for many years.
Two factors important in the mutagenicity of a DNA adduct are its miscoding properties and its susceptibility to repair. The major DNA adducts detected in the endometrium of tamoxifen-treated women are the cis and trans isomers of TAM 3 ,(10 , 12, 13, 14, 15) . Furthermore, both the cis and trans forms have two diastereoisomers, which can be separated by analytical methods to yield four species, which are denoted TAM1 through -4, according to the order of elution from the HPLC column (10 , 13, 14, 15) . The structures of these species are shown in Fig. 1 ⇓ . Mutagenesis studies with site-specifically located adducts demonstrated that the TAM4 form is the most mutagenic and that the TAM1 form is the least mutagenic species in primate cells (16) , raising the possibility that they may contribute to mutagenesis in the endometrium in that order. Because the other mutagenicity determinant factor is repair, we were interested in the repair of these adducts by the human nucleotide excision repair system. In particular, we were intrigued by the finding that when endometrial DNA samples of women taking tamoxifen were analyzed, dG-N2-TAM adducts were detected at a frequency of 1.5–13.1 adducts/108 nucleotides in six patients, whereas no TAM adducts were detected in the other seven patients in the study group (10) . This raises the possibility that individual variability in repair capacity may play a role in the long-term presence of adducts in endometrial DNA.
Structures of dG-N2-TAM adducts. TAM1 and TAM2 are epimers of the trans form of dG-N2-TAM, and TAM3 and TAM4 are epimers of the cis form of dG-N2-TAM. The absolute configurations (α or β) of the stereoisomers have not been established. Oligomers containing these dG-N2-TAM adducts were purified and used to prepare DNA substrates.
Human excision nuclease is the enzymatic activity resulting from the combined actions of six repair factors, and it is the only known repair system for removing bulky adducts from DNA (17 , 18) . The enzyme makes dual incisions bracketing the lesion and excises the damaged base(s) in the form of a 24–32 nucleotide long oligomer (19) . To test the susceptibility of the tamoxifen-DNA adducts to excision nuclease, the various tamoxifen-guanine adducts (TAM1 through -4) were incorporated into 143-bp duplexes and tested with the human excision nuclease reconstituted with XPA, RPA, XPC, TFIIH, XPG, and XPF·ERCC1. The results presented here demonstrate that compared with the (6-4) photoproduct, the four tamoxifen-DNA adducts detected in the endometrium are repaired with moderate to poor efficiency by either cell extracts or the basal excision repair system in the absence of other cellular proteins.
Tamoxifen was obtained from Aldrich Chemicals (Milwaukee, WI). Oligonucleotides for excision repair substrates were purchased from Operon Technologies (Alameda, CA). Mammalian cell cultures used for the preparation of cell extracts or the purification of repair factors were obtained from Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (Chapel Hill, NC) or the National Cell Culture Center (Minneapolis, MN). CHO cell lines were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA).
Cell extracts were prepared as described (20) and kept at− 80 °C. The human excision nuclease was reconstituted with six repair factors purified from HeLa cells or as recombinant proteins expressed in bacterial or insect cell systems using chromatographic schemes similar to those described (21 , 22) .
Unmodified oligonucleotides containing a single dG (5′-TCCTCCTCGCCTCTC-3′) were reacted with (Z)-tamoxifen α-sulfate, and 15-mers containing a single stereoisomer of dG-N2-TAM were separated and isolated by high-pressure liquid chromatographic purification and gel electrophoresis (13, 14, 15, 16 ,, 23) . High-pressure liquid chromatography fractions 1–4 are referred to as TAM1 through -4 when incorporated into DNA repair substrates. The site-specifically modified 15-mers were used in the preparation of 143-bp duplex molecules that serve as DNA repair substrates (24, 25, 26) .
Reaction conditions for the in vitro repair of tamoxifen-DNA adducts using the reconstituted human excision repair system or cell extracts were similar to those described previously (22 , 25) . After the repair reaction, DNA was deproteinized, ethanol precipitated, resuspended in formamide-dye mixture, and resolved on 10% polyacrylamide gels containing 7 m urea to separate excision products from substrate DNA. DNA was visualized by autoradiography or by scanning on a Model 860 Storm PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics). The intensity of signal was analyzed with ImageQuant software (version 4.1 or 5.0; Molecular Dynamics) and the extent of repair for each reaction was determined from the percentage of signal migrating as ∼22–32-mers relative to the signal for full-length DNA [143 nucleotides for TAM substrates and 136 nucleotides for T(6-4)T]. The primary sites of incision were determined as described (26) .
We found that dG-N2-TAM4 was repaired more efficiently than the other three lesions; therefore, we used this adduct for comparison of repair efficiency with a well-characterized substrate for the human excision repair system. The (6-4) photoproduct is a major lesion induced in DNA by UV and is among the best substrates for the human excision nuclease; it is removed very efficiently both in vivo (27 , 28) and in vitro (29) and was used as a reference for repair efficiency. Fig. 2 ⇓ shows that the repair of TAM4 by the human excision nuclease is less efficient than that of the (6-4) photoproduct, which is excised at a rate comparable to the in vivo rate of excision. Removal 4 of both lesions requires the entire complement of excision nuclease factors because omission of selected factors 5 abolished excision (Fig. 2A ⇓ ). Kinetic experiments with the two substrates (Fig. 2B ⇓ ) show that the (6-4) photoproduct is repaired 5–6 times more efficiently than the dG-N2-TAM4 adduct. The removal of the other three dG-N2-TAM adducts with the reconstituted excision nuclease was too inefficient for quantitative analysis.
Repair of dG-N2-TAM4 and T(6-4)T photoproduct by the human excision nuclease. The excision nuclease was reconstituted with XPA, RPA, XPC·HR23B, TFIIH, XPG, and XPF·ERCC1, and incubated with 30 fmol of substrate DNA for 2 h at 30°C. A, to determine the requirement for individual repair factors, experiments were conducted in which the indicated repair factor was omitted from the reaction mixture. A shows an autoradiograph obtained after resolution of DNA samples on a 10% sequencing gel. For kinetic analyses (B), complete reaction mixtures containing substrate DNA and all six repair factors were incubated at 30°C, and aliquots were removed for analysis at the indicated time points. Repair of TAM4 is indicated by ▪, and ▴ denote the repair of T(6-4)T. Each data point is an average value, and error bars show the range of excision observed for two independent experiments conducted under similar conditions.
We have found that mammalian whole-cell extracts are a good substitute for the reconstituted excision nuclease (22 , 30) . In particular, the CHO AA8 cell line reproducibly gives high-quality cell extracts appropriate for studying many aspects of mammalian excision repair (25) . Hence, we tested all four TAM adducts with AA8 cell extract. Fig. 3 ⇓ shows that, in agreement with the reconstituted system, TAM4 is repaired with moderate efficiency by the excision nuclease, whereas the other three adducts are repaired at lower rates comparable to those observed for the thymine cyclobutane dimer (25 , 30) . Kinetic analyses with TAM1 and TAM4 substrates were repeated with independent substrate preparations, and the same moderately efficient excision of TAM4, relative to TAM1, was observed. With cell extracts, the repair efficiency of TAM4 was closer to that of the (6-4) photoproduct than was observed in the reconstituted system. This was the result of better overall efficiency of repair in cell extracts relative to the reconstituted system, which does not necessarily contain all of the repair factors in optimal ratios for the excision of all lesions. Interestingly, TAM4, which is the most efficiently repaired of all four adducts, is also the most mutagenic in primate cells (16) . This would suggest that the mutagenicity of this adduct is so high compared with the other three that even its faster removal cannot compensate for its relatively high mutagenicity.
Kinetic analysis of excision of dG-N2-TAM adducts. A, substrate DNA (30 fmol) was incubated for 60 min in 25-μl reaction mixtures lacking (Lanes 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9) or containing (Lanes 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10) CHO AA8 cell extract at 2.4 mg/ml. A shows an autoradiograph obtained after resolution of DNA samples on a 10% sequencing gel. For kinetic analyses (B), reaction mixtures were increased proportionately, and 25-μl aliquots were removed at the indicated time points. Each data point is an average value from two independent experiments conducted under the same conditions using TAM1 (•), TAM2 (○), TAM3 (□), or TAM4 (▪) substrate DNA. For comparison purposes, a 60-min data point for T(6-4)T substrate (▴) is shown. For the sake of clarity, the error bars are not shown, but the ranges of excision were ∼20% of the average value for each time point.
In conclusion, multiple factors are involved in the development of endometrial cancer, including the introduction and removal of DNA damage. Our data show that the tamoxifen-DNA adducts that have been found in the endometria of women treated with the drug (10) are removed by the human nucleotide excision repair system, although with poor to moderate efficiency. These adducts could potentially cause endometrial cancer, and the individual variations in overall repair capacities, which have been reported in human subjects (31 , 32) , may be true for the specific case of endometrial DNA repair. Thus, it might be prudent to factor in the repair capacity of individual patients when considering the benefit and risk of tamoxifen administration either for treating breast cancer or, perhaps more importantly, for chemoprevention.
We thank T. Bessho for critical reading of the manuscript, R. Hara for providing the repair substrate containing the (6-4) photoproduct, and members of the A. Sancar laboratory for purified repair factors.
↵1 Supported by NIH Grant GM32833 (to A. S.) and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Grant ES09418 (to S. S.).
↵2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Mary Ellen Jones Building, CB #7260, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7260. Phone: (919) 962-0115; Fax: (919) 843-8627.
↵3 The abbreviations used are: TAM,α -(N2-deoxyguanosinyl)tamoxifen; XP, xeroderma pigmentosum; ERCC, excision repair cross-complementing; CHO, Chinese hamster ovary.
↵4 Limited digestion of gel-purified excision products with the 3′→5′ exonuclease activity of T4 DNA polymerase was used to map the 3′ incision site at the 5th phosphodiester bond for T(6-4)T and at the 11th phosphodiester bond for TAM4.
↵5 An absolute requirement for other repair factors was determined by conducting excision assays with each TAM substrate and extracts prepared from cell lines mutated in ERCC1 (CHO UV20), XPF (CHO UV41), or XPG (CHO UV135). No excision products were observed with these repair-defective cell extracts.
Clarke M., Collins R., Davies C., Godwin J., Gray R., Peto R. Tamoxifen for early breast cancer: an overview of the randomised trials. Lancet, 351: 1451-1467, 1998.
Peto R. Five years of tamoxifen—or more?. J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 88: 1791-1793, 1996.
Fisher B., Costantino J. P., Wickerham D. L., Redmond C. K., Kavanah M., Cronin W. M., Vogel V., Robidoux A., Dimitrov N., Atkins J., Daly M., Wieand S., Tan-Chiu E., Ford L., Wolmark N., and other NSABP Investigators. Tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer: report of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project P-1 study. J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 90: 1371-1388, 1998.
Rutqvist L. E., Johansson H., Signomklao T., Johansson U., Fornander T., Wilking N. Adjuvant tamoxifen therapy for early stage breast cancer and second primary malignancies. J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 87: 645-651, 1995.
Bernstein L., Deapen D., Cerhan J. R., Schwartz S. M., Liff J., McGann-Maloney E., Perlman J. A., Ford L. Tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer and endometrial cancer risk. J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 91: 1654-1662, 1999.
White I. N. H. The tamoxifen dilemma. Carcinogenesis (Lond.), 20: 1153-1160, 1999.
Osborne M. R., Hewer A., Hardcastle I. R., Carmichael P. L., Phillips D. H. Identification of the major tamoxifen-deoxyguanosine adduct formed in the liver DNA of rats treated with tamoxifen. Cancer Res., 56: 66-71, 1996.
Dasaradhi L., Shibutani S. Identification of tamoxifen-DNA adducts formed by α-sulfate tamoxifen and α-acetoxytamoxifen. Chem. Res. Toxicol., 10: 189-196, 1997.
Shibutani S., Dasaradhi L., Terashima I., Banoglu E., Duffel M. W. αHydroxytamoxifen is a substrate of hydroxysteroid (alcohol) sulfotransferase, resulting in tamoxifen DNA adducts. Cancer Res., 58: 647-653, 1998.
Shibutani S., Shaw P. M., Suzuki N., Dasaradhi L., Duffel M. W., Terashima I. Sulfation of α-hydroxytamoxifen catalyzed by human hydroxysteroid sulfotransferase results in tamoxifen-DNA adducts. Carcinogenesis (Lond.), 19: 2007-2011, 1998.
Terashima I., Suzuki N., Shibutani S. Mutagenic potential of α-(N2-deoxyguanosinyl)tamoxifen lesions, the major DNA adducts detected in endometrial tissues of patients treated with tamoxifen. Cancer Res., 59: 2091-2095, 1999.
Huang J. C., Svoboda D. L., Reardon J. T., Sancar A. Human nucleotide excision nuclease removes thymine dimers from DNA by incising the 22nd phosphodiester bond 5′ and the 6th phosphodiester bond 3′ to the photodimer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89: 3664-3668, 1992.
Manley J. L., Fire A., Cano A., Sharp P. A., Gefter M. L. DNA-dependent transcription of adenovirus genes in a soluble whole-cell extract. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 77: 3855-3859, 1980.
Mu D., Park C-H., Matsunaga T., Hsu D. S., Reardon J. T., Sancar A. Reconstitution of human DNA repair excision nuclease in a highly defined system. J. Biol. Chem., 270: 2415-2418, 1995.
Mu D., Hsu D. S., Sancar A. Reaction mechanism of human DNA repair excision nuclease. J. Biol. Chem., 271: 8285-8294, 1996.
Shibutani S., Dasaradhi L. Miscoding potential of tamoxifen-derived DNA adducts: α-(N2-deoxyguanosinyl)tamoxifen. Biochemistry, 36: 13010-13017, 1997.
Matsunaga T., Mu D., Park C-H., Reardon J. T., Sancar A. Human DNA repair excision nuclease: analysis of the roles of the subunits involved in dual incisions by using anti-XPG and anti-ERCC1 antibodies. J. Biol. Chem., 270: 20862-20869, 1995.
Reardon J. T., Vaisman A., Chaney S. G., Sancar A. Efficient nucleotide excision repair of cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and bis-aceto-ammine-dichloro-cyclohexylamine-platinum (IV) (JM216) platinum intrastrand DNA diadducts. Cancer Res., 59: 3968-3971, 1999.
Mitchell D. L., Haipek C. A., Clarkson J. M. (6–4) Photoproducts are removed from the DNA of UV-irradiated mammalian cells more efficiently than cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers. Mutat. Res., 143: 109-112, 1985.
Brash D. E. UV mutagenic photoproducts in Escherichia coli and human cells: a molecular genetics perspective on human skin cancer. Photochem. Photobiol., 48: 59-66, 1988.
Mu D., Tursun M., Duckett D. R., Drummond J. T., Modrich P., Sancar A. Recognition and repair of compound DNA lesions (base damage and mismatch) by human mismatch repair and excision repair systems. Mol. Cell. Biol., 17: 760-769, 1997.
Reardon J. T., Bessho T., Kung H. C., Bolton P. H., Sancar A. In vitro repair of oxidative DNA damage by human nucleotide excision repair system: possible explanation for neurodegeneration in xeroderma pigmentosum patients. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94: 9463-9468, 1997.
Moriwaki S. I., Ray S., Tarone R. E., Kraemer K. H., Grossman L. The effect of donor age on the processing of UV-damaged DNA by cultured human cells: reduced DNA repair capacity and increased DNA mutability. Mutat. Res., 364: 117-123, 1996.
Wei Q., Matanoski G. M., Farmer E. R., Hedayati M. A., Grossman L. DNA repair and aging in basal cell carcinoma: a molecular epidemiology study. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90: 1614-1618, 1993.


•...and explain why Western Digital (WDC) was the S&P 500's worst performer.
The stock market is tumbling on concerns about a trade war, but nothing else is...and that could be a problem.
It truly was an awful week for the market. We'll highlight the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tumbled 1413.31 points, or 5.7%, to 23,533.20, its worst percentage drop since the week ended Jan. 8, 2016. But the market sure isn't acting like it did more than two years ago. Back then, all kinds of signs were flashing red: High-yield bonds were slumping, Treasury yields were sliding, China's currency was tumbling, and oil companies were thought to be on the verge of bankruptcy. No wonder the market plunged.
Not this time. The Dow is now down 12% from its Jan. 26 all-time high, but there aren't any signs of panic just yet. The VIX close below 25; Treasury yields have remained stuck in a range between 2.8% and 2.93%; and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) fell just 1.5% to $84.92 this week. At the same time, a basket of safe-haven investments has shown no sign of being a panic buying, writes James Paulsen, the Leuthold Group's chief investment strategist.
"Most likely, before this stock market reaches a sustainable bottom and again represents a true buying opportunity, there will likely be a noticeable panic," he explains. "At the bottom, expect a rush to hide in Treasury bonds, the U.S. dollar, gold and defensive stocks."
But there may be a sign of hope. The S&P 500 has closed in the bottom half of its range for 10 straight days, notes Sundial Capital Research's Jason Goepfert, something that hasn't happened in at 35 years (Goepfert's data go back to May 1982).
To find out what that might mean, Goepfert looked at all the times that the S&P 500 closed at the bottom half of its range at least seven days in a row, and found that the market usually rebounds, if not immediately: The S&P 500 has averaged a 1.6% rise one month after such occasions, although it was 6.4% lower in 1982 and 3.5% lower in 1996. One year later, the market was higher 90% of the time, with an average gain of 23%, the one exception coming in June 2008. "It has been a decent signal of excess pessimism," Goepfert writes.
It's hard to imagine, but even on a day like today, some stocks finished higher. And none finished higher than Foot Locker (FL), which rose 4.4% to $43.74. Better-than-expected earnings from one of your biggest customers will do that.
The company in question: Nike (NKE). It reported an adjusted profit of 68 cents a share, beating estimates for 83 cents, and finished up 0.3% at $64.63. But as my colleague David Marino-Nachison noted, Jefferies called Foot Locker the "prime beneficiary of Nike's resurgence in North America," because the sportswear company makes up about 70% of its sales.
Looks like the market agreed.
Western Digital (WDC) sunk 8.4% to $92.34 today after Micron Technology's (MU) CEO talked up the growing share of solid-state drives over traditional spinning hard drives in the company's earnings call.
Not that it helped Micron any. Its shares finished down 8% at $54.21, making it the second-worst performer in the S&P 500, despite reporting better than expected earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst week since 2016.


Welcome to The Memories Restoration Association.
The Memories like you. You like the Memories.
At times quietly tuneful, at times abrasive, the underlying element of pop and uncanny attention to melody is what makes The Memories stand out from their rock contemporaries. Influenced by bands like the Beatles, the Pixies, and Weezer, the Memories tread the thin line between art and entertainment with the mastery of a tightrope walker. Their music is introspective while also undeniably catchy.
The Memories were and are: Eli Nicolosi (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Eric D'Asto (Bass, Vocals), Joe Di Zillo (Guitar), and Brian VandenBos (Drums).
You can currently find them playing shows in the Chicago-area in the early 2000s, so do make sure you have enough plutonium in Mr. Fusion.


Last week we discussed the importance of hiring an SEO company to handle your online web presence. However, not all SEO companies are the same. And many people we talk to have been burned by bad SEO companies in the past. At Roofing Webmasters we believe in a high level of integrity and provide proper SEO services. But if you believe you are working with a bad SEO company, talk to us today.
The following are five red flags of a bad SEO company. These are the signs to watch out for when you are looking to sign up for SEO services.
Instead, an SEO company should provide you with a detailed plan of the goals they have for your business. We provide free consultations for potential clients and through our analysis of their web presence we create a plan of action. This will look different for different companies as there is no one size fits all for SEO.
If an SEO company promises to provide you with hundreds of new inbound links overnight, run the other way. Google will catch these bad links and you will be left with a useless domain name.
Many SEO companies take on a large number of similar clients and then recycle their content. Make sure the SEO company you use provides only unique, authoritative content that is crafted specifically for your company. A great way to test this is to check one of their client's website pages and blog posts against Copyscape (a website that can catch copied content).
If they are providing duplicated content for their clients, you do not want to use their services. Google is smart enough to catch copied content and will rank your site lower because of this. At Roofing Webmasters we have a team of professional writers who are dedicated to creating well written, unique content for every single client.
When you are talking to an SEO company you may potentially employ, ask for a portfolio of their current clients. If they refuse to provide you with this information or will only speak in vague terms about their current clients, be wary of using their services. A company who provides high quality, honest SEO services will want to showcase their work. But a company who provides bad SEO will not want you to see their current clients' sites.
Is the SEO company you are in negotiation with asking for a long term contract? If so, think twice before signing the dotted line. We allow our clients to stay with us on a month to month basis. That is because we know the results we provide ensure you will want to remain with us for many years to come. But a bad SEO company will require long term agreements to ensure they do not lose their clients. Once someone realizes the work being performed is shoddy, the only thing to keep them there is a long term contract.
Talk to us today about the ways we can provide high quality SEO services for your roofing company. And please keep these five red flags of a bad SEO company in mind as you look for help with internet marketing.


Progress tracker: 318/365 paintings done (week 46).
Every day of the week has a theme with occasional bonus paintings thrown in.
Daily posts are made to IG, my established FB page & a gallery that lives here.
✓ Gallery show! Just announced at Pearl Street Studios, Ypsilanti, MI on August First Friday, 8/2 from 5-11pm!


text:
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announcing changes to 457 visa
Prime minister Julia Gillard has been announcing that the 457 visa regime will be reformed this year to ensure that the 457 system should only be used in circumstances where no local employee can be found.
The 457 visa regime would be reformed on 1 July 2013 (see our link: www.themigrationplace.com/2013/03/01/changes-to-the-subclass-457-visa/), with the main changes relating to market testing.
This is not a new requirement – Zeke Bentley of The Migration Place recalls that it was only a few years ago that the original 457 system required sponsors to show they had looked for Australians first through national advertisements and so forth. Generally this just slowed the process down and prevented quick 457 work visas being arranged, so Zeke has reservations about re-instating that requirement.
Interestingly, the announcements have led to Julia Gillard being criticised because some of her most senior staff members are foreigners here on 457 visas.
Her high-profile media director John McTernan is a British import here on a 457 visa, with questions being raised as to how he was able to pass the top secret security clearances required to fill the position, noting such clearances are only available to Australian citizens. Likewise her deputy-chief of staff Tom Bentley also has British roots.
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey told journalists: "Julia Gillard says people on 457 visas are taking the jobs of everyday Australians".
"Aren't there people in her office on 457 visas? And how did they get security clearance to access some of the most sensitive documents of Australia? I'm just surprised that there's no-one else that is prepared to work in Julia Gillard's office other than someone who's on a 457 visa."


Arias of summer came and went.
and listen to his radio.
the joker at our tables.
whispers of age almost forgave him.
mountains seemed to grow at his feet.
Richard Alan Bunch is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and author of several poetry collections, including Greatest Hits; Wading the Russian River, and Running for Daybreak. His work has appeared in Coe Review, Poetry New Zealand, Red River Review, Many Mountains Moving, Slant, Dirigible, and the Oregon Review. His poems have been translated into Japanese, Hindi, and Italian. His latest work is called Hawking Moves: Plays, Poems and Stories.


It is the policy of the State to work to find ways to use the minimum amount of pesticides needed to effectively control targeted pests in all areas of application. The agencies of the State involved in the regulation or use of pesticides shall promote the principles and the implementation of integrated pest management and other science-based technology to minimize reliance on pesticides while recognizing that outbreaks of disease, insects and other pests will necessitate fluctuations in pesticide use. These agencies, in cooperation with private interest groups, shall work to educate pesticide users and the general public in the proper use of pesticides and to determine other actions needed to accomplish the state policy.
NOTE: Click on rule number to download the regulation in its entirety (Microsoft Word format).
Click here for a single PDF file of all pesticide rules as of 11-13-15.
These definitions and terms are defined as they specifically relate to the use of pesticides, the certification and licensing of pesticide applicators and dealers, and other areas as regulated by the Board in succeeding chapters.
Regulates the use, storage and disposal of pesticides with specific emphasis on registered pesticides, right of way and aquatic applications and employer/employee requirements.
These rules set forth the regulations for the management of emptied pesticide containers for limited and restricted use pesticides. They establish deposit amounts, sticker requirements, triple rinse or equivalent procedures, and refund places and procedures. The rules are organized according to classification of the pesticide as to whether it was purchased in state or out of state.
Establishes procedures and standards for the outdoor application of pesticides by powered equipment in order to minimize spray drift and other unconsented exposure to pesticides. The primary purpose of these regulations is to implement the legislative mandate of the Board, as expressed by 7 M.R.S.A. § 606(2)(G), to design rules which "minimize pesticide drift to the maximum extent practicable under currently available technology."
Provides minimum criteria for the siting, construction and operation of facilities and businesses which store pesticides for wholesale or retail purposes. They are intended to protect the public health of employees and persons who live near these facilities and to minimize adverse environmental impacts that might result from emergencies caused by fires or spills. This chapter divides storage facilities into three groups and imposes requirements commensurate with their potential threat to public health and the environment. These regulations also describe display requirements for retail businesses which offer pesticides for sale in self-service areas.
Establishes procedures and standards for applicators applying pesticides inside occupied private and public buildings other than K–12 schools that are covered by Chapter 27. This chapter also sets forth the requirements for notification about pending pesticide applications to residents of rented space, employees of agencies, businesses and institutions, and parents or guardians of children in licensed child care facilities and nursery schools.
Establishes procedures and standards for applying pesticides in school buildings and on school grounds. This chapter also sets forth the requirements for notifying school staff, students, visitors and parents about pending pesticide applications.
Establishes procedures and standards for informing interested members of the public about outdoor pesticide applications in their vicinity. This chapter sets forth the requirements for requesting notification about pesticide applications, for posting property on which certain commercial pesticide applications have occurred and also establishes the Maine Pesticide Notification Registry structure and fees.
Establishes standards for protecting surface water. This chapter establishes a fifty-foot setback from surface water for mixing and loading of pesticides, sets forth requirements for securing containers on sprayers and cleaning up spills occurring within the setback zone, establishes restrictions on pesticide applications to control browntail moths near marine waters and requires an untreated 25-foot buffer zone for outdoor terrestrial broadcast pesticide applications near waters of the State.
Describes the requirements for certification and licensing of commercial applicators.
Describes the requirements for certification and licensing of private applicators.
Describes the requirements for certification and licensing of private applicators using general-use pesticides to produce plants or plant products intended for human consumption as food, where the person applying the pesticides or the employer of the person applying the pesticides derives $1,000 or more in annual gross income from the sale of those commodities.
Describes the requirements for certification and licensing of pesticide dealers.
Describes the requirements for certification and licensing of spray contracting firms.
Describes the requirements for certification and licensing of monitors and spotters for major forest insect aerial spray programs.
Lists the pesticides classified by the Board as restricted use or limited use and describes procedures governing their sale and use.
Describes special limitations placed upon the use of (1) aldicarb (Temik 15G) in proximity to potable water bodies; (2) trichlorfon (Dylox, Proxol); (3) hexazinone (Velpar, Pronone), (4) aquatic herbicides in the State of Maine and (5) plant-incorporated protectants.
Describes the types of records and reports which commercial applicators, commercial agricultural producers, limited/restricted use pesticide dealers, spray contracting firms and monitors must maintain and submit to the Board.
Describes the notification requirements for persons contracting aerial pesticide applications to control forest, ornamental plant, right-of-way, biting fly and public health pests.
Establishes criteria which the Board will use in deciding if an area should be designated as a critical pesticide control area. In addition, these regulations specify the procedures parties must follow in requesting such a designation. These regulations also define the locations that have been designated as critical areas by the Board.
Describes procedures the Board must follow in conducting hearings concerned with pesticide certification, licenses and permits.
Describes the procedures any interested person must follow in requesting an advisory ruling to determine if the Board's Statute and rules apply to his situation.
Describes the procedure a person must follow in bringing a complaint to the Board and outlines the steps the Board may take in response.
NOTE: Policies available for viewing/download are marked with PDF and/or WORD; those not yet available will be added as soon as possible, as will descriptions.
Details under what circumstances a Board review will be required for Plant Incorporated Protectants.
Describes the criteria used by the Board for considering placement of pesticides on the state restricted use list.
The ERAC is convened to provide expert advice to the Board. This policy outlines the function, membership and other aspects of the Committee.
The MAC is convened to provide expert advice to the Board. This policy outlines the function, membership and other aspects of the Medical Advisory Committee.
Describes the membership and purpose of the Ad Hoc PIP Committee.
Outlines guidelines for the public to submit comments to the Board and for how the Board should treat public comments.
Details the process for submitting applications for consideration for Special Local Needs status.
Details types of acceptable comment, and the procedure and deadline for submission of comments to the Board.
Details enforcement protocol to be utilized in routine enforcement matters arising under the Board's statutes and regulations.
Clarifies that a person may lawfully produce a pesticide for his own use without registering it, but may not do so as a licensed applicator.
Defines "low risk" pesticide in the context of landlords/tenants and states that landlords may distribute low risk pesticides to tenants.
States that in the case of lodging places and apartment buildings, the entire building must be closed to the public for seven days in order to be treated by non-licensed applicators, rather than just a single room or apartment.
States that in the case of recreational areas, trails, and parks, only the area treated needs to be closed to the public for seven days in order to be treated by non-licensed applicators, rather than the entire property.
Definition of Distribute (6/13/2003)[PDF or Word] Clarifies the meaning of the word "distribute" as it relates to pesticides.
Concerns the definition and mapping of areas to be excluded from aerial spraying in the event of a mosquito-borne public-health emergency.
States what methods of verifiable authorizations the Board has approved and provides a path for applicators to petition for other methods to be approved.
Details methods of positively identifying application sites which have been approved by the Board as required by Chapter 20.
Assistant Attorney General's explanation of easements and rights of way, as they relate to pesticide applications.
Defines what pests are designated public health pests under CMR 01-026 Chapter 26 Section 4(C)(2).
Clarifies what types of applications are "not broadcast application" and therefore are not prohibited in the 25-foot-buffer area.
Lists the products allowed for use for control of browntail moth adjacent to marine waters.
Lists the products allowed for use for control of browntail moth between 50 and 250 feet of the high water mark of marine waters.
Delegates authority to staff for variance from the 25-foot untreated buffer zone required by Chapter 29 for control of certain invasive plants.
Delegates authority to staff for variance from the 25-foot untreated buffer zone required by Chapter 29 for control of plants that pose a dermal toxicity hazard.
Details circumstances under which a private applicator's license is required and under which a commercial applicator's license is required.
States that the Board will no longer recognize other states' certification standards for issuing Maine licenses; applicators must pass Maine exams.
Clarifies that restricted/limited use pesticides may be billed to an unlicensed corporate farm employee or a public or private lender as long as the pesticides are delivered to a farm where a documented licensed private applicator will have on-site supervision over the application, storage and disposal of those products. Also includes the form which must be used to verify the responsible licensed private applicator.
Clarifies the requirement for applicators using restricted or limited use pesticides on their own property for agricultural commodities to have a Private Applicator license.
Clarifies that the term "food production" includes treatments beginning with the growing media and ending when the plant or plant product is transferred out of the grower's control.
Clarifies the requirements set forth in 22MRSA 1471-C, 23-B and CMR 01-026 Chapter 10, Section 2 EEE regarding spray contracting firms.
Applicator Records [PDF or Word] Specifies that applicators must record information on the same day the application is performed.