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ON THE SLY WEEK: THE FILMS OF SYLVESTER STALLONE
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's "ON THE SLY WEEK" as we celebrate the films of actor/writer/director SYLVESTER STALLONE from his early days in FIST and Paradise Alley to his latest outings proving he's not expendable. Our prediction for the podcast: pain. That said, we're gonna fly now.... And yes, we know we forgot to mention Cop Land, Steve :))
We told you we'd be back and we are back including MARK A. ALTMAN (showrunner, PANDORA, author, THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE KILLED HIS DOG), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (showrunner; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD; writer, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN R. DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
You can follow THE 4:30 MOVIE on social media at:
Instagram: @the430movie
Facebook: Facebook.com/430movie &
Facebook.com/ElectricSurge
**Now, you can watch THE 4:30 MOVIE and all your favorite Electric Surge podcasts on the free Electric Now! video streaming app available for download at your favorite app store including INGLORIOUS TREKSPERTS, THE BEST MOVIES NEVER MADE and CARTOON BARROOM. Plus: don't miss the all-new LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION AFTER SHOW exclusively on the Electric Now app.
***Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross's bestselling oral history of James Bond, NOBODY DOES IT BETTER, is now available in paperback from Tor/Forge as well as hardcover, digital and audio. And don't miss SECRETS OF THIS FORCE, the uncensored oral history of Star Wars, now out from St. Martin's Press in hardcover, digital and audio. Available now wherever you buy your books. And coming this summer, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE KILLED HIS DOG: THE COMPLETE, UNCENSORED ASS-KICKING ORAL HISTORY OF JOHN WICK, GUN-FU AND THE NEW AGE OF ACTION.***
#SylvesterStallone #Rocky #TheSuicideSquad #Rambo
NOTE TO LISTENERS: Due to the pandemic, we are recording remotely via Zoom and not in the studio so the audio may not be up to our usual high standards. We trust you will nursemaid us through these difficulties. Stay safe, stay healthy, get vaccinated... and support cinemas everywhere!
THE 420 MOVIE WEEK
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's "THE 420 MOVIE WEEK" as we get high on our own supply and program a fantasy theme week devoted to movies about stoners, drugs and more which is sure to be another high-light this season. One thing's for sure, it'll really tie the podcast together.
Your 4:30 Movie hosts are all back including MARK A. ALTMAN (showrunner, PANDORA, author, THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE KILLED HIS DOG), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (showrunner; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD; writer, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN R. DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
GET TO THE CHOPPER NOW WEEK: THE FILMS OF ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's "GET TO THE CHOPPER NOW WEEK" as we celebrate the films of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Celebrate the filmography of the original Governator as we pump it up and talk about the career of this legendary action superstar and his many iconic roles. If it bleeds, you can listen.
#TheOscars #AcademyAwards #Oscars2022
THE CATEGORIES OSCAR FORGOT WEEK
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, the below-the-line must be drawn here and no further for "THE CATEGORIES OSCAR FORGOT WEEK" as we fete the craftspeople the Academy won't as we curate a week of Oscar nominees in the categories of BEST EDITING, BEST MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING, BEST SCORE, BEST SOUND and BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN to rectify the infuriating and short-sighted decision to give these categories the high hat by banishing their live presentation to the ABC pre-show.
As always, your favorite co-hosts (and caped crusaders) are back including MARK A. ALTMAN (showrunner, PANDORA, author, THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE KILLED HIS DOG), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (showrunner; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD; writer, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN R. DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
NEXT WEEK: It's GET TO THE CHOPPER NOW WEEK as we curate an all-new fantasy theme week devoted to the films of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
SAME BAT TIME, SAME BAT CHANNEL WEEK
HOLY PODCAST, BATMAN! THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's "SAME BAT TIME, SAME BAT CHANNEL WEEK" as we return to curate a fantasy theme week of classic Batman films celebrating the blockbuster release of the sensational new film, The Batman. Get ready for a week that's of Dark Knight detecting that's going to leave you bellowing Begora.
As always, your favorite co-hosts (and caped crusaders) are back including MARK A. ALTMAN (showrunner, PANDORA, author, THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (showrunner; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD; writer, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN R. DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
NEXT EPISODE: It's BELOW-THE-OSCAR WEEK as we pay tribute to the below-the-line artisans that the Academy won't as we celebrate some of the greatest Academy Award nominees in sound, editing, composing and production design. So iron your tux and get ready for another fantastic fantasy theme week from The 4:30 Movie.
#Batman #TheBatman #DarkKnight
THE 4:30 MOVIE WEEK (SEASON FIVE PREMIERE)
SEASON PREMIERE. THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's "THE BEST OF THE 4:30 MOVIE" as we return for our epic fifth season and this week program some of our favorite films from the last four seasons. Get ready to inaugurate an entirely new season of incredible episodes because The 4:30 Movie is back... and better than ever! Roll 'em...
As always, your favorite co-hosts are back including MARK A. ALTMAN (showrunner, PANDORA, author, THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (showrunner; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD; writer, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN R. DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
NEXT EPISODE: It's SAME BAT TIME, SAME BAT CHANNEL WEEK as we go batty for Batman.
Thursday Sep 30, 2021
TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL: THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MOVIES (SPECIAL REPORT)
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, while you're anxiously awaiting Season Five, it's a special bonus episode as our man in Telluride, STEVEN MELCHING, reports back on all the cinematic goodness he checked out while in Colorado. Also, where to get the best steaks and pizza in Telluride and where int eh world is Werner Herzog? It's a week of great movies and lively conversation as your favorite 4:30 MOVIE hosts return on a new day and time. And starting Halloween Week, the Treksperts will be back with all new theme weeks for Season Five.
As always, your favorite co-hosts are back including MARK A. ALTMAN (author, THE SECRETS OF THE FORCE, THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (writer; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN R. DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
***Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross's bestselling oral history of James Bond, NOBODY DOES IT BETTER, is now available in paperback from Tor/Forge as well as hardcover, digital and audio. And don't miss SECRETS OF THIS FORCE, the uncensored oral history of Star Wars, now out from St. Martin's Press in hardcover, digital and audio. Available now wherever you buy your books.
The 4:30 MOVIE Will Return This October, Now On Thursdays... Don't Miss It!
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's "SHARK WEEK" and we'll need a bigger podcast as we curate an all-new fantasy theme week of movies that will make you afraid to go back in the water. Yes, it's an entire week of doll-eyed predators who are on the hunt... for you.
#SharkWeek
Friday Jul 16, 2021
SUMMER LOVING WEEK
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, Wella, wella, wella, it's "Summer Loving" Week got us so bad as we curate an all-new fantasy theme week of classic movies that take place during the dog days of summer. Tell you more? Is it just us or is it getting really hot here on The 4:30 Movie this week? Listen and find out.
***Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross's bestselling oral history of James Bond, NOBODY DOES IT BETTER, is now available in paperback from Tor/Forge as well as hardcover, digital and audio. And don't miss SECRETS OF THIS FORCE, the uncensored oral history of Star Wars coming this July. Available wherever you buy your books.
NOTE TO LISTENERS: Due to the pandemic, we are recording remotely via Zoom and not in the studio so the audio may not be up to our usual high standards. We trust you will nursemaid us through these difficulties.
SPECIAL REPORT: RICHARD DONNER REMEMBERED
THIS WEEK ON THE 4:30 MOVIE, it's a SPECIAL REPORT on the passing of the great filmmaker, RICHARD DONNER, looking back at his incredible career in which he taught us to watch out for a man on the wing of the plane, beware the Anti-Christ, believe a man could fly and that they'll always f#@k you at the drive-thru. Join us for a Donner party as we celebrate the life of this amazing auteur. Also: Mark and Daren go on a long tangent about Quentin Tarantino's novelization of #ONCEUPONATIMEINHOLLYWOOD.
As always, your favorite co-hosts are back including MARK A. ALTMAN (writer/producer, PANDORA, THE LIBRARIANS, CASTLE), STEVEN MELCHING (writer, THE CLONE WARS, REBELS), ASHLEY E. MILLER (writer; DOTA: DRAGON'S BLOOD, THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) and DAREN DOCHTERMAN (concept designer; WESTWORLD, MASTER & COMMANDER).
**Now, you can watch THE 4:30 MOVIE and all your favorite Electric Surge podcasts on the free Electric Now! video streaming app available for download at your favorite app store including INGLORIOUS TREKSPERTS, THE BEST MOVIES NEVER MADE, CARTOON BARROOM and the new LEVERAGE AFTER-SHOW!!
***Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross's bestselling oral history of James Bond, NOBODY DOES IT BETTER, is now available in paperback from Tor/Forge as well as hardcover, digital and audio. And don't miss SECRETS OF THIS FORCE, the uncensored oral history of Star Wars. Now available wherever you buy your books.
#RichardDonner #Superman #Ladyhawke #TheOmen #LethalWeapon


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CER/EIM/ERFA/UIP/UIRR/UNIFE press release: Rail - Europe's climate solution
Last week, the Graz Declaration promoting a 'green deal' for Europe was adopted under the Austrian Presidency at the Informal Meeting of Transport and Environment Ministers. The rail sector...
CER welcomes Parliament's vote on road vehicle charging
On 25 October, the European Parliament voted on the revision of the 1999/62/EC Directive on the charging of road vehicles to amend the European Commission's proposal of 31 May 2017. The Parliament's...
Rail - Europe's climate solution?
On 10 October, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB hosted a roundtable discussing "Rail – Europe's climate solution?" This event...
ERRAC, the Technology Platform for the rail sector in Europe, will participate in InnoTrans 2018
The European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC) plans joint participation with Shift2Rail at InnoTrans 2018 to showcase the railway sector's new Rail 2050 Vision and to exchange ideas with the...
Rail sector calls for EU budget that ensures the digital transformation of transport
The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes the European Parliament draft report on the new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) proposal, but would expect it to demand...
New CEF to continue delivering European added value
The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes the European Commission proposal unveiled today on the new Connecting Europe Facility. With a proposed CEF Transport...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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NIH Appoints NIAAA Director, Closes Circle on Merger
As you are aware, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has been under the care of an Acting Director for years now as the attempt to merge the NIAAA with NIDA moved along before ultimately being axed by Francis Collins.
A Press Release today announces a new permanent Director has been appointed:
National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., announced today the selection of George F. Koob, Ph.D., as Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Koob is expected to join the NIH in January 2014.
"With his distinguished reputation and vision, I am confident that George will encourage innovative ideas in the basic neurobiology of addiction, and will be dedicated to bridging the gap between our understanding of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and addiction and developing new, targeted treatments," said Collins.
As NIAAA director, Dr. Koob will oversee the institute's $458 million budget, which primarily funds alcohol-related research in a wide range of scientific areas including genetics, neuroscience, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment. The institute also coordinates and collaborates with other research institutes and federal programs on alcohol-related issues and national, state, and local institutions, organizations, agencies, and programs engaged in alcohol-related work.
Dr. Koob comes to the NIH from The Scripps Research Institute, California Campus, where he is Chairman, Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders, and Director, Alcohol Research Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Behavioral Physiology at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Koob's early research interests were directed at the neurobiology of emotion, with a focus on the theoretical constructs of reward and stress. His contributions have led to the understanding of the anatomical connections of emotional systems and the neurochemistry of emotional function. Dr. Koob also is one of the world's authorities on alcohol and drug addiction. He has contributed to the understanding of the neurocircuitry associated with the acute reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse and more recently on the neuroadaptations of these reward circuits associated with the transition to dependence.
A quick search of PubMed pulls up some 650 articles including many reviews staking out his "dark side of addiction" orientation to substance dependence.
His wikipedia page indicates that Dr. Koob is on the ISI Highly Cited list and a quick trip to Web of Knowledge shows an h-index of 123.
I think this selection by the NIH indicates a degree of seriousness in the recent RFAs and Supplements designed to advance the"functional integration" of research on alcohol and other drugs. While Koob has had a very substantial amount of work in alcohol over the past years, he has also maintained programs with psychomotor stimulants and opioids.
So any investigators* who were a little suspicious that this "functional integration" stuff was just to soothe feelings over all the wasted time, money and stress of the attempted merger have to walk that cynicism back a bit. The NIH could have easily appointed a pure alcohol type of researcher, even an alcoholism clinician. But the choice of a pre-clinical scientist who has research feet planted across many different substances of abuse sends the signal that there is meat behind the idea of integration.
*I'll raise my hand on that one.
Filed in Alcohol, Drug Abuse Science
Journalism blows it big time in reporting a study on the objectification of women.
I picked this up from Jezebel. They used the headline of "Depressing Study: Men Look More At Your Body Than Your Face" and said:
"I'm not a boob man or a butt man or a leg man, I'm a face man," say LIARS. According to new research, no matter what a woman's build, men spend more time looking at women's bodies than they do their faces, …But it's not only men who are focusing on women from the neck down; women do it to each other, too
they cited USA Today, which is our first tip that they didn't bother to read the study in the first place. This lack of reading may have gotten them further into trouble since Jezebel even had the nerve to criticize the design.
here's a grain of salt to take with this: the study involved 29 women and 36 men, a group so small that it would be almost impossible for it to be at all representative of the population. If subjects were drawn from a pool consisting of a public university community, the results would only reflect the attitudes and behaviors of a tiny slice of American culture and not a boob staring epidemic. And a lot of college kids are kind of awful.
While college sophomore psychology students (see below) are notoriously used in Psych studies and equally notoriously poorly representative of many populations of interest…they are not dismissible as entirely meaningless. Often times results from such studies do indeed hold up when replicated in other populations of interest. Nevertheless, this Jezebel comment is pretty hilarious considering how completely backwards they got the story on the actual findings. Which is in large part due to simply passing on the bit from USA Today instead of reading the paper.
From the USA Today article titled "Yes, men really do ogle women's bodies":
The eyes don't lie: Men really do look at women's bodies more than their faces, according to a new study that used eye-tracking technology to prove what many women have long observed.
But it's not just men who do it — the study found that women look at other women's bodies, too.
Both sexes fixed their gaze more on women's chests and waists and less on faces. Those bodies with larger breasts, narrower waists and bigger hips often prompted longer looks.
Truthy! Just what we always suspected and now here it is in peer-reviewed scientific format!
Let's go to the article, shall we? The study by Gervais and colleagues (2013) is pretty simple. The authors recruited some subjects from the traditional "Psychology Department Participant Pool" (aka, students enrolled in Psych classes) and fitted them with eyetracking devices. They showed them some pictures of women and asked them to rate them for either appearance or personality (separate groups for each of these conditions).
The stimuli were photographs of 10 real women which were modified slightly. Here is the figure listed as the Appendix in the article so you can see how the photoshopping of the visual stimuli worked out. The major dependent measure was "dwell time", i.e., how long the subject spent with their dominant eye focused on one of three zones of the picture (face, chest, waist). They also measured "first-fixation" but this was somewhat contaminated by the fact the fixation cross used to start a trial was in the center of the screen where the chest would appear. So a missed opportunity there. The dwell time is the major outcome measure for discussion.
One of the main goals of the study was to determine if "High, Average and Low" concordance with what they describe as the "cultural ideal" body shape affected the distribution of gaze time. Also to determine if men and women subjects differed and if the type of rating being requested of the subjects altered dwell time.
The results could not be any clearer. Both men and women spent more time gazing on the Face region then they did on the Chest or Waist region. By a lot. Whether asked to assess Appearance or Personality. In the Appearance condition, women spent 1158 ms on the Face, 463 ms on the Chest and 331 ms on the Waist. Values for men were 1296, 448 and 301 ms respectively. When divided out by the three categories of "cultural ideal", Men's dwell times were 1520, 456, 280 ms for the High ideal and 1628, 366, 246 ms for the Low ideal. The same relationships held for the women viewers.
The authors note in the Results:
A main effect of body part, F(1.09, 66.25)=215.68,p < .0001, ηp 2 = .78, revealed that women's faces
(M=1486.61, SE =64.17) were gazed at for longer durations than their chests (M=381.68, SE =23.33) and their waists [DM-pretty sure this is a typo and meant to be 'faces'] (M=266.62, SE =16.04) and women's chests were gazed at for longer durations than their waists, ps<.0001.
So. The lede of both USA Today and Jezebel is completely false.
Now, there IS a portion of blame for the authors because they are at pains to emphasize their findings; again from the Results:
consistent with Hypothesis 1a, participants gazed at women's faces for shorter durations in the
appearance-focus condition than the personality-focus condition. Participants also gazed at women's chests and waists for longer durations in the appearance-focus condition than the personality-focus condition.
…and perhaps more tellingly from the first part of the Discussion:
Despite the importance of the objectifying gaze to objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) and the adverse consequences of the gaze on women recipients, no published studies to date have empirically documented the nature of the objectifying gaze—less focus on faces and more focus on sexual body parts—in perceivers. Regarding dwell time, participants gazed at women's faces for shorter durations and chests and waists for longer durations when they were asked to objectify the women by evaluating their appearance (vs. personality, consistent with Hypothesis 1a) and this effect was exacerbated for women with bodies that fit cultural ideals of beauty (i.e., hourglass shaped women, consistent with Hypothesis 1b).
Very careful phrasing there indeed and I can see how "participants gazed at women's faces for shorter durations and chests and waists for longer durations" would be very easily misinterpreted in the reader's mind as suggesting that faces were receiving less gaze time than were the other regions of the pictures.
But really. A cursory look at the Tables makes the fact that both men and women spent more time gazing at faces than at chests or waists pretty dang obvious. It almost pops out, thanks to the convenient fact that dwell time differed across the 1,000 ms mark. I just don't see how you could miss this if you read the article.
Of course, the journalists didn't read the article.
And this is considered perfectly acceptable within the profession of Journalism.
Scienceblog.com barely escapes by sticking close to the authors words without extraneous interpretive phrasing. "The researchers found that participants focused more on women's chests and waists and less on faces when they were asked to objectify the women by evaluating their appearance rather than their personality."
ScienceCodex screwed it up, "When asked to focus on a woman's appearance, study participants largely looked at women in "that way" – they quickly moved their eyes to and then dwelled on a woman's breasts and other sexualized body parts.".
The South Jersey Courier-Post fell entirely into the trap, "Men really do look at women's bodies more than their faces, according to a new study", just like USA Today and Jezebel.
as did CBS Philly, "scientists concluded that participants focused more on the female's chests and figure when asked to evaluate their appearance than they did on the women's facial features.".
UPDATE 2: Aha! found the press release from the authors' University. OOOOO, Bad authors! BAD! "When asked to focus on a woman's appearance, study participants largely looked at women in "that way" — they quickly moved their eyes to and then dwelled on a woman's breasts and other sexualized body parts.". So Science Codex just stenographed this. But the blame lies with the authors who should have reviewed the PR. And given how very precisely this is written I suspect them of willing complicity. The impression is given via "and then dwelled on" that this is gazing more than on the non-"sexualized" body parts, i.e., the face. Or hey, maybe I'm wrong and they include face as sexualized and waist as nonsexualized? In which case this is accurate-ish.
Sarah J. Gervais, Arianne M. Holland and Michael D. Dodd. My Eyes Are Up Here: The Nature of the Objectifying Gaze Toward Women, Sex Roles, in press DOI: 10.1007/s11199-013-0316-x
Filed in Psychology
RIP Lou Reed
"Oh, I love journalists".
Me too, dude, me too.
Filed in Humor, Music
More cannabis hyperemesis Cases
There was a twitt from Dirk Hansen today
.@drugmonkeyblog MT @mocost: Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome: A result of chronic, heavy cannabis use http://t.co/BRwlOoWfLN
— Dirk Hanson (@Dirk57) October 28, 2013
which pointed to Chen and McCarron in Current Psychiatry. This paper seems to be a set of diagnostic and therapy recommendations and contains an example Case Report.
This triggered a bunch of the usual incredulity, in this case from @drogoteca.
https://twitter.com/Drogoteca/status/394802780591771648
those two are but the tip of this person's denialist iceberg on cannabis hyperemesis. He or she is quite convinced that this cannot be a real outcome of chronic pot smoking.
It can and is.
For background, I've discussed the evidence for a cyclical vomiting syndrome associated with cannabis use here, here and here. Also see Dirk's post.
For grins I thought I'd see if there were any new Case reports and found several I had not seen before.
Hickey and colleagues (2013) report a Case of Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome that was treated with haloperidol:
A 34-year-old man well known to our ED arrived with epigastric pain, nausea, and vomiting for 4 days. He had been unable to tolerate anything orally but reported temporary relief only with long hot showers. He came to the ED that night to be admitted because he knew his symptoms would not improve, and he was always admitted in the past when his symptoms were so severe. He denied fevers, chills, diarrhea, hematemesis, melena, or hematochezia.
The patient's history was significant for similar symptoms every 2 to 3 months for approximately 10 years. He reported daily cannabis use since 1992, with only short intervals of abstinence resulting in complete resolution of his vomiting. He has been admitted to our hospital from the ED 7 times and had multiple unremarkable diagnostic tests including 3 computed tomographic scans, an esophagogastroduodenoscopy, and several specialty consults. He has also been admitted to several other local hospitals for cyclical vomiting. Other than substance abuse, he has no known psychiatric history. A diagnosis of CHS was finally made in 2012, a few months before this ED arrival.
Mohammed and colleagues (2013) reported a Case (which they are at pains to point out is from the Caribbean) that resolved with abstinence.
A 26-year-old Caucasian male presented to our center with a
1-week history of severe colicky epigastric pain heralded by significant nausea for 3 weeks. He had approximately 20 episodes of bilious vomiting daily with numerous bouts of retching. He admitted to smoking 4 "joints" or marijuana cigars every day for the last 2 years, and denied alcohol and tobacco use. He had 4 similar episodes over the last 6 months. During
these admissions, he was rehydrated and abdominal imaging revealed no abnormalities. His ongoing nausea was relieved
by taking hot showers, of which he took up to 15 times per day, sometimes for more than an hour.
The diagnosis of CHS was made and he was counseled on abstinence from marijuana. Though he refused to enter a substance
abuse program, he remained cannabis-free and on follow-up at 1, 3 and 6 months revealed no recurrence in symptomatology.
Enuh and colleagues (2013) report a case from the US.
A 47-year-old African American male with a history of epilepsy and drug addiction presented to the hospital with a seizure complicated by nausea, vomiting, and severe abdominal pain. He was known to be diabetic, hypertensive, and addicted to marijuana for 30 years. He smoked two to three "blunts" (cigar hollowed out and filled with marijuana) most days and occasionally up to eight blunts daily. The drug was last taken on the day of his admission.
He immediately went to the bathroom and remained under a hot shower with the exception of two 15-minute breaks for the rest of the day. He believed that a warm shower could relieve his nausea and vomiting. He stated that it made him feel better than medication. Intravenous ondansetron was of limited benefit. It was difficult to persuade him to exit the shower for the rounds and physical examination. Receiving medication and eating were problems because of this compulsive showering. The same event of entrenching himself in the shower had happened 2 months prior to his hospitalization for a grand mal seizure. Abstinence from marijuana during the hospital stay made the patient's nausea, vomiting, and obsessive warm showering resolve after 3 days.
Not as satisfying as it could be with respect to the workup and the post-hospitalization followup, of course. But interesting.
Sofka and Lerfald (2013) report a series of four Cases. All had histories of chronic cannabis use, all used hot showers to alleviate symptoms and all had negative GI scans and other clinical workups. One individual was reported to have ceased cannabis use and had remained symptom free. The other three were reported as continuing their cannabis use and continuing to have symptoms. Frustratingly, the authors do not specify the followup duration for any of the cases.
Gessford and colleagues (2012) report a Case that is significant for the comment on the efforts to find a cause prior to the identification of CHS:
A 42-year-old Caucasian female, who has routinely been seen at our institution for nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain since 2003, presented with the complaint of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. She stated that the symptoms occurred this time after eating four bites of ice cream. …
Her physical exam was normal except for some mild epigastric tenderness which she attributed to her excessive vomiting. Laboratory studies including a comprehensive metabolic panel, amylase, lipase, and complete blood count were normal except for anemia, which had improved since her last admission. Urine studies, including urinalysis, were normal with a urine drug screen positive for delta-9-tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), benzodiazepines and opiates. Abdominal and chest x-rays were normal.
During the course of her admission, further investigation into her history revealed chronic marijuana use. She reported that long hot showers provided the only relief for her pain and nausea. She claimed that she took so many showers that her bathroom was growing excessive amounts of mold and mildew. Research into her medical records revealed an even more disturbing fact: excessive radiation exposure and medical cost. In total, she has had in excess of 97 abdominal x-rays, eight abdominal CT scans, two abdominal MRIs, an abdominal MRA, small bowel follow-through, three gastric emptying studies, four esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGD), and three colonoscopies. Since 2003 these tests produced two abnormal findings: (1) the two most recent gastric emptying studies at 224 and 180 minutes (gastroparesis) and (2) gastritis/duodenitis on EGD. Throughout her complete sevenyear work-up, celiac sprue, peptic ulcer disease, Barrett's esophagus, porphyrias, ischemic bowel disease, appendicitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and H. pylori infection have been excluded. The patient's medical record indicated that since 2005 she has had 97 emergency room visits. Additionally, since 2007 she has had 42 admissions.
Emphasis added. This is a feature of many of the clinical Case Reports that cannot be ignored. The lack of awareness of cannabis as the causal agent is costly. In terms of the dollar costs of diagnosis and care and in terms of the drugs and invasive diagnostic procedures administered to the patient.
I don't have access to Morris and Fisher (2013) which the Abstract states reports a single Case.
In trolling around on Google I ran across this comment in a pot user forum:
As far as symptoms are concerned, they began about 3 years ago when I would wake up feeling nauseated. Shortly after the nausea started, I'd vomit once and (after smoking) I would feel better. This continued off and on without me giving it much thought until February of this year, when I was floored by intractable vomiting for about 48 hours. I couldn't keep anything down (not even water), and the only time I felt like I didn't want to die was when I was in a hot shower. When the vomiting and nausea finally relented after that first episode, I chalked the experience up to acute gastroenteritis. However, about three days later, I woke up feeling nauseated. I went to work as usual, but by noon I was throwing up unstoppably again and had to go home. By the time evening came around, I could eat light food like white rice and slept. But as soon as I awoke the next morning, I had the same stomach pains and nausea. Again I went to work and again the unstoppable vomiting kicked in right around midday. The only thing that brought relief was a hot shower or bath. So long as I was under hot water, I felt alright.
This person details a history of medical workups and a bit of the recur/remit presentation before ending up with his conclusion:
At this point, I have been completely abstinent from ze herb for 5 days and I have already noticed improvement. Although I, too, was skeptical about CHS at first, I just do not know what else could be causing the problem. Although I absolutely love to get high, at my current weight/height (I am 6'1″ and 129lbs now) I am quickly running out of options. If I can't find a solution to this problem soon, it will literally kill me. And I'll be damned if I gonna become the first known death directly related to marijuana consumption.
Naturally, the other forum users express the usual incredulity we see from the leegalizeetmon crowd. It's worth a read.
I also ran across this blog post from a person claiming to be an ER doc:
Since I have become aware of this association between marijuana use and CVS type presentations it has been my "good fortune" to care for nearly a dozen patients in the emergency department who self-reported diagnosis of CVS. Curiously, of these patients about 10 admitted active marijuana use, and the 2 who denied it had positive urine screenings for marijuana. This does not exactly make a case series, but is certainly another interesting observation. Of course, since the prevalence of marijuana use in our Emergency Department seems to approach 100% sometimes, this also may not be a statistically significant association!
I conclude with points I made in prior posts. At the moment, this syndrome is clearly quite rare considering estimates for chronic cannabis users worldwide. Some of this is due to lack of diagnosis..the Case Reports make very clear that an extended history of diagnostic investigation of more usual gastric disorders is typical prior to the identification of cannabis as the causal agent. But even so, very likely this is a rare reaction. Given that, it is not impossible that there is some as-yet-undetermined source of the chronic vomiting that is merely correlated with cannabis use. [In the event your imagination fails you, people tend to suggest moldy weed, herbicide/pesticide and/or contamination from smoking devices as causes.] Nevertheless, it appears to me to be likely that as we accumulate more and more Cases separated by time and place, which involve individual users with a variety of phenotypes and environmental circumstances, which present similar clinical pictures and which seem to have chronic cannabis smoking (not synthetic marijuana products, for example) as the only commonality…. well it becomes very difficult to sustain any alternative hypothesis.
Hickey JL, Witsil JC, Mycyk MB.Haloperidol for treatment of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Am J Emerg Med. 2013 Jun;31(6):1003.e5-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2013.02.021. Epub 2013 Apr 10. [link]
Mohammed F, Panchoo K, Bartholemew M, Maharaj D.Compulsive showering and marijuana use – the cannabis hyperemisis syndrome.Am J Case Rep. 2013 Aug 23;14:326-8. doi: 10.12659/AJCR.884001. [PMC link]
Enuh HA, Chin J, Nfonoyim J. Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome with extreme hydrophilia. Int J Gen Med. 2013 Aug 19;6:685-7. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S49701. [OpenAccess link]
Sofka S, Lerfald N. Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome: A case series. W V Med J. 2013 May-Jun;109(3):20-3.
Gessford AK, John M, Nicholson B, Trout R. Marijuana induced hyperemesis: a case report. W V Med J. 2012 Nov-Dec;108(6):20-2. [link]
Filed in Cannabis, Drug Abuse Science
Further News on the Volunteer Postdoc Advertisement
I had previously noted a situation in which an ad for a volunteer (i.e., unpaid) postdoc position requiring 2-3 years of prior experience was posted in the San Diego area.
A bit by David Wagner (@david_r_wagner) on the KPBS site specifies:
Well, it wasn't a joke. But it wasn't exactly straight-forward, either.
The job listing was vague from the get-go. Who exactly was hiring? The only details given were "lab in La Jolla."
Well, there are lots of labs in La Jolla. So I had to do some digging to find out which one posted this, and I found out that the listing was posted by a researcher named Laura Crotty Alexander. She's a physician at the VA San Diego Healthcare System who doubles as a UCSD faculty member. I couldn't reach her for comment.
If Alexander's listing looked like a terrible opportunity, that's by design, according to VA chief of staff Robert Smith.
"Frankly, what she was trying to do was make it look unappealing," Smith said. "Because she was trying to create an advertisement that nobody would apply to."
You see, the VA lab already had someone in mind for the position: a postdoc from Egypt who actually volunteered to work for free.
The reporter further specified:
the woman who volunteered is here in san diego with her husband, who has a year-long research appointment at another institution.
— David Wagner (@david_r_wagner) October 25, 2013
which in my view is a far from uncommon situation. I've received inquiries about working in my lab under similar circumstances.
This is wrong.
You know how I feel about unpaid internships.
Unpaid internships are a systemic labor exploitation scam- yes, in science labs too.
That was written in the context of undergraduate "interns". Imagine the magnitude of my distaste for exploiting a PhD with 2-3 years of postdoctoral experience. It is wrong.
1) It is wrong because it is labor exploitation. We dealt with that over 100 years ago in the US. Yes, exploitation always continues and is resisted in fits and starts by unions, regulation and competitive pressures. But the arguments remain the same, the benefits of exploiting labor are tempting and the excuses are no better in the scientific context. I don't care that the candidate "volunteers". I don't care that the candidate is getting authorship or keeping her hand in the game of science or whatever excuse you want to advance. This is the case for all postdocs. Should we refuse to pay all of them? Heck no. Just like we stopped letting companies demand their employees worked in the mines for 14 hr shifts, 7 days a week with no breaks. Just like we discouraged and restricted company-store, company-town scams which ended up reducing real wages. Just like we established a minimum wage. Etc. Just like modern jurisprudence is rejecting free intern scams.
2) It is wrong because it is an unfair competitive advantage for those who choose to exploit junior scientists in this way. I am a PI who is competing for precious research grant funds with other PIs. This competition is based in large part on the work product that comes out of our respective laboratories. Data generated and papers published. If some other person gets labor for free and I have to pay for it, then I am disadvantaged. Under our general labor laws, this is an unfair tilt to the table. Everyone should have to play by the same rules.
Please, people. Call your Congress Critter. Draw their attention to this news report. Use your knowledge of their political positions to trip their triggers. Maybe it is the visa-dodging aspect. Maybe it is the "taking the job from American postdocs" aspect. Maybe they are sensitive to labor exploitation arguments. Whichever works, use it.
h/t: @neuromusic
Report on local NPR station on that "unpaid postdoc" @david_r_wagner @drugmonkeyblog
— Justin Kiggins (@neuromusic) October 25, 2013
Addditional:
since the PI is a UC faculty member, would filling this position violate the union's contract? http://t.co/Ki9gOv0kX0 (2/2)
@drgitlin @drugmonkeyblog @david_r_wagner evidently my MRU had some issues with this… "postdoc" is now a job that can't be volunteer.
— Potty Theron (@pottytheron) October 25, 2013
I bet there are many more labs taking foreign postdoc volunteers w/o posting craigslist ads @DrStelling @drugmonkeyblog @david_r_wagner
Filed in Academics, Call yer CongressCritter, Careerism
Put up or shut up time, all ye OpenSciencePostPubReview Waccaloons!
PubMed Commons has finally incorporated a comment feature.
NCBI has released a pilot version of a new service in PubMed that allows researchers to post comments on individual PubMed abstracts. Called PubMed Commons, this service is an initiative of the NIH leadership in response to repeated requests by the scientific community for such a forum to be part of PubMed. We hope that PubMed Commons will leverage the social power of the internet to encourage constructive criticism and high quality discussions of scientific issues that will both enhance understanding and provide new avenues of collaboration within the community.
This is described as being in beta test version and for now is only open to authors of articles already listed in PubMed, so far as I can tell.
Perhaps not as Open as some would wish but it is a pretty good start.
I cannot WAIT to see how this shakes out.
The Open-Everything, RetractionWatch, ReplicationEleventy, PeerReviewFailz, etc acolytes of various strains would have us believe that this is the way to save all of science.
This step of PubMed brings the online commenting to the best place, i.e., where everyone searches out the papers, instead of the commercially beneficial place. It will link, I presume, the commentary to the openly-available PMC version once the 12 month embargo elapses for each paper. All in all, a good place for this to occur.
I will be eager to see if there is any adoption of commenting, to see the type of comments that are offered and to assess whether certain kinds of papers get more commentary than do others. All and all this is going to be a neat little experiment for the conduct-of-science geeks to observe.
I recommend you sign up as soon as possible. I'm sure the devout and TrueBelievers would beg you to make a comment on a paper yourself so, sure, go and comment on some paper.
You can search out commented papers with this string, apparently.
has_user_comments[sb]
In case you are interested in seeing what sorts of comments are being made.
Filed in Academics, Conduct of Science, Open Access, Peer Review
Defund those guys…over there…THEM. (not me)
Dr Strangely Strange returns us to the usual conundrum.
What are the key issues that NIH could easily address to make the system more fair, inclusive and to encourage better science (other than throwing more money at us). …Is there something else that we can all agree on that it would make a difference?
I had my usual, highly cynical albeit informed, response:
if the online discussions tell us anything it is that every single person insists that the "obvious", "just", "rational", "fair", etc solution to the problems of the NIH are whatever just so conveniently happen to suit their own situation or imagined near-future situation.
But here's what I think we can agree on. We need to shrink the number of people with their hands out for NIH funds. Shrink the number of people being supported as professional scientists. And by "number", this includes the notion of fractional people, i.e., those who only spend part of their time being paid by federal grant dollars.
The question is…who?
Who gets chopped?
Who is either kicked out of the system or prevented from entering the system in the first place*?
This is where we disagree. Fervently. It is an obvious truth that everyone starts with a very simple and universal principle on who should be shelled out of the NIH-supported system.
What I want to suggest for today's futile exercise in getting the readership to follow their plans ALL the way down is this. Go on RePORTER. Search out some key words that are nice and broad or if you are under a smallish IC just search the whole I or C.
Run through that list and pick out something like 20% of the PIs that you would vote permanently off the island. Find 20% of your peers that you would ace without any detrimental impact on the broader scientific subfield of your interest.
I'd be interested if you come to any general set of criteria for deciding, how you did that. So maybe drop us a comment.
*This is a topic for another day but the "painless" solution of turning off the PhD tap is only painless if you forget senior undergraduate you when you were deciding what you really wanted to do was to go to graduate school and earn your PhD.
Filed in Fixing the NIH, NIH Budgets and Economics
NIH Updates their approach again, study section meeting back on
NOT-OD-007 supersedes the prior one.
Responding to input from applicants and reviewers, NIH has reevaluated the plans for rescheduling initial peer review meetings that were cancelled due to the government shutdown. NIH will now reschedule most of the 200+ missed peer review meetings so that most applications are able to be considered at January 2014 Council meetings
If the section for your application simply cannot be rescheduled, they will apparently notify you during the week of Nov 4. There will then be the opportunity to withdraw it by Nov 15.
Refreshed applications that will be pushed to the May 2014 Council Round are then due by Dec 11th.
Most of the rest seems the same as from the prior Notice. The Nov 5th and Nov 15 deadlines are still intact. The Oct 5 deadline moves to Nov 12 and the Oct 15 deadline moves to Nov 18.
Filed in NIH, NIH Careerism, NIH funding
SFN 2013 funnies
In case you missed it, @markgbaxter was KILLING it last night with the #SFNmemes
The inevitable first-year PhD student. http://t.co/kvjwqWbl9g #SfNmemes
— Mark Baxter (@markgbaxter) October 22, 2013
Some issues with comparative neuroanatomy http://t.co/YbEg86ToOx #SfNmemes
some of my favorites were perhaps
First SFN meeting http://t.co/n3fM5AqrLt #SfNmemes
Tenth SFN meeting http://t.co/6Hos5PzPtg #SfNmemes
I think @neuropolarbear started it.
At the president's ball http://t.co/HeEQUoGpcI #SFNmemes
— Neuro Polarbear (@NeuroPolarbear) October 22, 2013
And there was contribution from @nickwan
Bad luck grad student. #SfNmemes pic.twitter.com/xeAkp67uik
— Nick Wan (@nickwan) October 22, 2013
Go Read.
Filed in Humor, Society for Neuroscience
STAY TUNED: CSR / NIH is reconsidering their options for study sections
Elevating a comment from Chris:
IMPORTANT UPDATE: My study section (originally scheduled for Oct 1-2, then cancelled until Feb) is now back on! I just heard from our chair that we will be holding an online meeting in the next few days (thanks for the advance notice). According to our chair, the "significant pressure" put on the NIH from the extramural community has led them to reconsider their decision to cancel everything and bring things back online. I have no authority on this, but would assume that this will happen across the board. So take heart, all may not be lost for this round…
I am likewise hearing rumor that the CSR is reconsidering what they are going to do.
Stay tuned folks, this ride ain't over yet.
Updated: ps, your comments at Rock Talk can't help but be viewed as part of the "significant pressure". Go to it.
Update 2:
@drugmonkeyblog My SRO just emailed to indicate similar reversal. This is trending.
— J. David Jentsch (@jdavidjentsch) October 22, 2013
Filed in Grant Review, NIH, NIH Budgets and Economics, NIH funding
Poster solitude
Next time you are at your favorite scientific meeting, take a look at the trainees that are standing forlornly, uncomfortably alone at their posters. Contrast them with the young trainees that have an audience stacked three deep in a semicircle.
Do you notice any differentials in male/female, attractive/unattractive, white/black/asian/latino/etc ?
I think I shall engage in this exercise at the upcoming meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in November.
Filed in Academics, Careerism, Diversity in Science, Society for Neuroscience, Underrepresented Groups
For academics:
The greatest realization you can make is that success, no matter how modest, changes power dynamics. One of the reasons that people in academics get into trouble is that many never escape the mindset of graduate student trying to defend, postdoc trying to get a job and/or assistant professor trying to make tenure.
No matter how successful they become, many still see themselves as the powerless peon, just like anyone else.
They never notice that the other voices have stopped speaking.
h/t: scicurious
Filed in Academics, Tribe of Science
NIH issues new grant submission dates, reschedules meetings, offers "refresh" opportunity
NOT-OD-14-003 has hit the streets and it gives us the replacement submission deadlines.
New R01s are due November 12
If you already submitted a grant for these October deadlines there will be an opportunity to pull it and replace it under the new deadlines.
IMPORTANTLY
November grant application due dates will not change (with the exception of the Loan Repayment program deadline listed above).
There is also comment on the rescheduling of the study section meetings.
Applications that were reviewed before the shutdown will go to January council as originally planned. Review meetings for most small business, AIDS and fellowship applications will continue as planned and those applications will be considered at January councils as well.
Many review meetings for research grants (R01, R03, R21, R15, etc) and career development applications that were missed or will be missed due to the shutdown will be rescheduled for February/March and these applications will be reassigned to the May council round.
Damn. That sucks for those of us who had grants in.
As I hypothesized, there will be a slight benefit extended.
Applications will proceed to the February/March 2014 review without any action from the applicant. However, NIH is giving applicants the option of withdrawing and submitting a refreshed application. If you choose to replace your application, follow the steps below carefully:
Withdraw the existing application by November 8.
Submit the application to the original funding opportunity announcement (FOA), if possible. If that FOA has closed, submit to the appropriate parent announcement. If there is no parent announcement for that activity code, send an e-mail to grantsinfo@od.nih.gov with the previous FOA number and we will work with you to get the application submitted.
Submit a cover letter with the refreshed application. Indicate that you are refreshing your application for the new council round, include the previous application number, and provide the previous study section assignment.
Make the application a "new" or "resubmission" to match the withdrawn application.
All replacement applications are due by November 20. No late applications will be allowed for this special due date.
Only applicants who are rescheduled for May 2014 Council round may submit at the November 20th deadline. Any other applications to this deadline will be returned without review.
So if you have new preliminary data and can put something together by November 20th……
No, this doesn't mean you need to avoid your female colleagues like the plague
Bora Zivkovic has been a skeevy, predatory harasser of women. He was accused in online public and confessed. Subsequent revelations from other women who were similarly preyed upon follow a similar narrative. So even if Bora's original confession admitted only to one incident, well, nobody believes that and nor should anyone.
Filed in Academics, Anger, AntiFeminist Asshole
Government shutdown NIH Grant strategery
There's at least one early indicator of what is going to happen with the study section rounds that were cancelled because of the government shutdown.
It's not a rumor. Grants whose review was cancelled will now be reviewed in Feb 14 round. Will be a double round for reviewers.
This has all sorts of implications, one of which was brought up by Professor Jentsch in a subsequent tweet. It is related to the NOTice just issued which says that all October deadlines will be pushed forward into the "November timeframe".
Let's say your submitted a new proposal in June or perhaps a revised or competing renewal proposal in July. And like a busy little beaver you've continued to work on the project. Perhaps you have some excellent new data that further supports your awesome ideas and the killer experiments that you've proposed.
There is only one thing to do. Pull the grant from consideration and resubmit it, with the new data, once the NIH picks some November deadlines.
Filed in Grant Review, Grantsmanship, NIH
Yeah twitter.com/kylegriffin1/s… 18 minutes ago
RT @michaelharriot: Here is a collection of video responses after journalists and news hosts asked Senators: "Do you think nonwhite peopl… 18 minutes ago
RT @superrsema: super excited to present my first first-author paper from the @Herman_lab_UNC looking at sex differences in negative affect… 19 minutes ago


Repair-CRM is a mobile app for field technicians, to finish their paperwork before leaving the clients property. HVACs, electricians, landscapers can spend more time on jobs, not paperwork.
Easy access to maintenance checklists, technical manuals, service history to be more effective on the field. Create not just work orders but inspection forms, audits or any customizable tickets with signature capture and attach pictures to them. Gamification makes it easier to motivate technicians to onboard!
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Let me know in the comments how could we improve our product to help you and your guys daily!
How does field service management improve productivity by 47%?


Every day, thousands of times a day, in locations all around the world, products from Banner Engineering are used to solve challenging problems and achieve automation goals. We're proud of that fact. Founded by Bob Fayfield in 1966, Banner Engineering began as a small engineering firm known for solving problems. Read more.


PerkinElmer Wallac 1420-042 Victor2 Multilabel Microplate Reader Fluorescence . New Life Scientific, Inc.
The technicians powered the microplate reader on and noted the indicator light turns green. The fan spins, but no other mechanical movement or sounds were observed. With further inspection, the technicians noticed that the filter wheel is missing which may reduce possible applications.
The technicians commented that the instrument is in near perfect physical condition. The functionality is less certain and the product will be sold with the confirmation that it powers on only and the filter wheel is absent. The technicians do not have the resources or experience to perform additional testing.
While New Life Scientific takes many steps to ensure that our instruments are in perfect working order we cannot ensure that all products are up to manufacturer specifications. We recommend every product undergo professional installation and calibration before use in research, production, and clinical applications. For this reason, we offer a 90-day warranty on all our working products in the interest of maximum customer satisfaction.


text:
Amazon Buys MGM Studios for $12 Billion
Victoria Song
Published 8 months ago: May 27, 2021 at 12:00 am -
Filed to:amazon
amazon primeamerican film studiosappleattbritish filmscinema of the united statescomcastdaniel craigdc comicsdiscoverydisneyentertainment cultureeon productionsfilmsguccihbohouse of guccijames bondjames bond robocop silence of the lambs stargatejeff bezosmaiselmetro goldwyn mayermgmmike hopkinsnetflixno time to diepaul thomas andersonprime videoproduction of the james bond filmsridley scottwarner broswarnermediawhole foods
Photo: Mladen Antonov/AFP, Getty Images
It's official folks — Jeff Bezos now owns James Bond. After murmurs earlier this week, Amazon announced today that it had acquired MGM in an $US8.45 ($11) billion deal that will bolster the e-commerce giant's Hollywood ambitions.
To be clear, this deal isn't so much about Amazon competing with other streaming rivals like Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+. This is all about intellectual property, baby. MGM — or that studio with the iconic roaring lion — has a vast catalogue of more than 4,000 films, including James Bond, Robocop, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Tomb Raider, and The Pink Panther. It also has 17,000 TV shows, including popular series like Fargo and The Handmaid's Tale. MGM also has several buzzworthy projects lined up, including Ridley Scott's House of Gucci, the next Bond flick No Time to Die, and an unnamed Paul Thomas Anderson film.
Since 2013, Amazon's thrown piles of cash at producing its own original content. Case in point, it's throwing a whopping $US465 ($596) million at the first season of its forthcoming Lord of the Rings prequel series. Despite all that moolah, you'd probably be a little pressed to remember more than a handful of memorable titles like Transparent, The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, and The Boys. By snapping up MGM's most popular IP, Amazon's banking that you'll be less likely to cancel your Amazon Prime account, and therefore, your access to Amazon Prime Video.
"The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalogue that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM's talented team," Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said in a press release. "It's very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling."
According to NBC News and Variety, the nearly $US9 ($12) billion deal is a huge victory for MGM as well. Both Apple and Comcast had apparently sniffed around buying MGM in the past few years, at a valuation of roughly $US6 ($8) billion (including MGM's debt). The deal is Amazon's second-largest acquisition and its biggest since buying Whole Foods in 2017 for $US13.7 ($18) billion.
That said, it might not be completely smooth sailing from here. Amazon will have to convince regulators that the deal doesn't violate antitrust regulations. According to Recode, Amazon will likely argue it's a small fish in the streaming world and that the deal won't result in fewer streaming choices for consumers. The other snag is that the Bond franchise isn't solely owned by MGM. That's because it shares the rights to everyone's favourite spy with Eon Productions, which is owned by the Broccoli family. Eon Productions has maintained a vise grip on its creative control over the film series, with the Broccoli family having the final say on everything from distribution to which actor gets to replace Daniel Craig. Citing anonymous industry sources, Variety notes that it's unlikely the Broccoli family will allow any Bond film to debut on Amazon Prime Video and they haven't been big fans of Bond spin-offs or TV series.
At the end of the day, this is just the latest example of how smaller media companies are consolidating to keep up with the big guys. Last week, AT&T announced a $US43 ($55) billion merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, a move that brings HBO, Warner Bros., CNN, Food Network, HGTV, DC Comics, and more, all under one roof.
More From Gizmodo Australia
No Time to Die: When and Where Aussies Can Catch Daniel Craig's Final Mission
No Time To Die Is the Most Emotional James Bond Film Ever
Labour Unions Want the FTC To Block Amazon's Acquisition of MGM
Amazon, MGM, and the Price of Entertainment


The Capital District area has wonderful tutoring centers to help your child in every area of academic development. This is KidsOutAndAbout's list.
Club Z! Tutoring and Test-Prep serves the Albany Capital Region Area in finding QUALITY TUTORS and TEST-PREP services such as ACT, SAT and GED. Owned and operated by a local teacher with over 20 years experience, you can take the guess-work out of finding the perfect tutor! All tutors are highly qualified and have a full reference and background checks. Also, Club Z! provides a full, free consultation with parent(s) and child and will work directly with your child's teacher so that your tutoring time is focused and efficient. REASONABLE RATES and best of all, tutoring takes place in the convenience of your own home!


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With 40 interactive activities and games divided into five categories, Kids Garden encourages children to engage with the outdoors and appreciate the green world around them. Each double-sided card has step-by-step instructions with colorful collage artwork. A great way for budding green- fingered gardeners to plant, investigate, learn and experiment!
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What is the result that you get when you divide a number by zero? Is it "infinity" or is it "not defined"?
Something divided by 0 would always be 'undefined', but my question is is 'Infinity' is defined. We assume that countless figure is 'Infinity', but isn't that undefined again.
You have twelve cookies to share equally among three children, how many cookies does each child get?
You have five cookies to share equally among one child, how many cookies does that child get?
You have zero cookies to share equally among one child, how many cookies does that child get?
You have one cookie to share equally among zero children, how many cookies does each child get?
Lets try it this way.
x = a/b or xb=a we need to find x right?
then we have problems. x.0=a where a is not 0. we need to find a number x for which the x.0 becomes a. but there is not way we can get x so that x.0 equals a non-zero number.
such number does not exist.
@Vipandeep: That's a good explanation. So, it is clear that undefined and infinity are two different things, right?
Hmm.. Let me try something..
Let's say we have a number 5. Divide it by 10. You get 0.5.
5/0.1 = 50; 5/.01 = 500; 5/.001 = 5000 etc..
We see that as the denominator approaches zero, the value of the division becomes larger and larger.
So, when the denominator actually reaches zero, then the division will give you a very very large number.
We call that very large number by the name infinity. The exact value of infinity is not defined. But infinity itself is very well defined.
Now, undefined is something else.
Now, 0/0 is 0 or infinity or 1?? This is undefined.
So, expressions like 0/0. 0/infinity, infinity/0, 0^0, 0^infinity etc.. are undefined.
SS: That's a well stated answer. Thank you for clearing the difference between infinity and undefined.
Yes 'infinity' and 'undefined' are two different notions. First of all, infinity is not a number, it's an idea but the idea is well established. Since infinity is not a not a number, the usual algebra can't be applied on it. Also I'd like to point here the notion of undefined in case of division by zero.
(i) 0/0 is undefined. Let 0/0 = x. => 0 X x = 0. Any value of x (real or complex, will satisfy this equation). So x is undefined because of lack of uniqueness. Recall that the algebraic operations of addition and multiplication are binary functions. The result value is always unique.
(ii) a/0 is undefined (a is a non-zero number, real or complex) Let a/0 = y. => a = 0 X y. No value of y can satisfy this equation because any number multiplied by zero is always zero. (Is it an assumption?) So it's undefined because of a lack of solution.
Now I've a question here.
We say tan 90 is infinity. Why? Shouldn't it undefined because cos 90 = 0.
Refer to my post above.
a/0 is not undefined. It's what we call infinity. 0/0 is undefined.
And tan 90 is infinity precisely because cos 90 is zero..
a/0 is undefined and hence meaningless. Tell me what you think.
If n is any number.
I missed this post. Since school days I have been fascinated by this. Actually there are many infinities some of which are demonstrably larger than others.
In his entertaining book:'One, Two, Three Infinity, George Gamov has a chapter on this. I strongly recommend this book to all. According to him there are three infinities, each of a different size.
Wrong question. There is no child to begin with. It is like being asked to write one of those essays "If I were not born". If I were not born, I would not be sitting in this school listening to a teacher asking me to write an essay.
If you try that on a scientific calculator, it should give you NaN (Not a Number). It is not "infinity". Tan(90) is just "not defined".
Division by zero is not defined. Any hypotheses based on the presumption of the kind x/b = a where b = 0, are making a fundamental mistake of assuming there exists the RHS 'a'. It does not, because the operation is not defined!


text:
Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Early Cognitive Difficulties in Study
by Steve Bryson PhD | December 2, 2021
Low vitamin D levels in the bloodstream are associated with slower information processing speeds in people with early-stage multiple sclerosis (MS), a study suggests.
"Our data support the hypothesis that vitamin D is involved in cognition in MS," its researchers concluded.
The study, "Serum Vitamin D as a Marker of Impaired Information Processing Speed and Early Disability in Multiple Sclerosis Patients," was published in the journal Brain Sciences.
In MS, immune attacks against myelin — the protective coating around nerve fibers — result in inflammation that further damages nerve fibers, disrupting electric signals traveling from the brain to the body and back.
Patients experience various symptoms that can include numbness and tingling, muscle spasms, walking difficulties, pain, fatigue, and bowel or bladder problems. Emotional changes such as depression, anxiety, and mood swings are also known.
April 14, 2020 News by Marta Figueiredo PhD
Researchers Shed Light on Anti-inflammatory Effects of Vitamin D Supplements in MS
Cognitive impairment was initially thought to appear only in the progressive types of MS. But recent evidence suggests that changes to cognition affect MS patients across disease stages, including onset.
In particular, one of the first cognitive problems seen in MS is a slowing in information processing speed — the time needed to understand and respond to information — relative to others without the condition.
Vitamin D is involved in several cellular processes, from regulating bone density to the immune system, as well as in promoting nerve cell survival by reducing pro-inflammatory signals.
A lack of vitamin D has been associated with a higher risk of MS and greater disease activity. Likewise, an association between low vitamin D levels and cognitive impairment has been established in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
However, several MS clinical trials failed to show vitamin D supplements as an effective add-on therapy, and few studies have explored the relationship between vitamin D and information processing speed in the early stages of MS.
Researchers at the University of Piemonte in Italy examined whether a correlation exists between vitamin D and information processing speed in 81 newly diagnosed MS patients. All had at least one year of follow-up.
Eligible patients had vitamin D levels measured at diagnosis and, at the same time, underwent the symbol digit modalities test (SDMT) to assess information processing speed as part of the Brief International Cognitive Assessment in MS patients (BICAMS).
As sunlight affects vitamin D levels, patients were enrolled at two northwestern Italian regions with similar climates, then categorized into spring/summer and autumn/winter sampling to ensure similar exposure. Vitamin D was measured in blood serum, the fluid component of blood without clotting factors.
Their mean age at diagnosis was 37.6, and most in this group — 54 or 67% — were women. Most, 71, patients had relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), two had clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), one was a primary progressive MS (PPMS) patient, while seven had radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS), characterized by nerve damage indicative of MS without any clinical signs of the disease.
Low vitamin D levels were found in most of these patients, with a mean of 19.71 nanograms per mL of serum (ng/mL). A total of 10 people had vitamin D levels of 30 ng/mL or greater, which are considered within normal range.
Vitamin D levels sampled in the winter in a group of 48 patients showed no mean differences from those of 33 participants sampled in the summer.
A total of 18 patients, 21.95% of this group, had slowed information processing speed, including 15 with RRMS and one each with RIS, CIS, and PPMS. Those with low vitamin D levels scored significantly lower on the SMDT assessment compared with those with vitamin D in the normal range. None of the participants with cognitive impairment had normal vitamin D levels.
The relationship between low vitamin D and slower information processing speed was confirmed by statistical analysis, after adjusting for sunlight exposure and MRI parameters.
Compared with patients with normal vitamin D levels, those with low levels also had worse disease severity at both diagnosis and at their last clinical follow-up, as evaluated by the expanded disability status score (EDSS).
Patients with gadolinium-enhancing lesions in MRI, which are lesions with active inflammation, or spinal cord involvement did not have slower information processing speeds. In contrast, those with a greater volume of brain white-matter lesions, reflecting more damage to myelin, had poorer SDMT test scores.
Additional analyses found that the most significant predictors of SDMT scores were vitamin D levels, educational achievement, and age at diagnosis. After adjusting for EDSS, the type of MS, and MRI characteristics, vitamin D levels remained the only predictor of information processing speeds, the researchers noted.
"Our study supports the hypothesis that vitamin D may influence cognition and disability from the early stages of MS disease," they concluded.
Steve Bryson PhD Steve holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. He worked as a medical scientist for 18 years, within both industry and academia, where his research focused on the discovery of new medicines to treat inflammatory disorders and infectious diseases. Steve recently stepped away from the lab and into science communications, where he's helping make medical science information more accessible for everyone.
cognitive impairment, early disease, EDSS, information processing speeds, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Vitamin D
January 14, 2022 by BNS Staff
Expert Voices: Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Multiple Sclerosis
January 3, 2022 News by Marisa Wexler MS
Top 10 Multiple Sclerosis Stories of 2021
December 17, 2021 Columns by Ed Tobias
Sun-seeking Finds Support in New Study


Gel serum that reduces wrinkle depth and offers a mild exfoliation of your skin which makes your skin appear more relaxed.
The peptides Argilenine and Leuphasyl work synergistically to reduce wrinkles and relax the skin. Glycolic Acid gently exfoliates and Vegetable Glycerine hydrates the skin.
Use daily over expression lines and wrinkles in face and around eyes.


Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) although not yet officially announced, but published in the schedules, is currently planning to operate the last McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 on January 6, 2014. An appropriately named flight DL 1965 will operate from Detroit to Minneapolis/St. Paul departing DTW at 3:39 pm (1539) and arriving at MSP at 4:43 (1643) followed by flight DL 2014 which will operate from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Atlanta as the last scheduled flight, departing MSP at 7:20 pm (1920) and arriving at ATL at 8:47 pm (2047) local time. An unspecified DC-9-51 will operate the last flights. Photos of the last flights are welcome.
Delta has been gradually dwindling down the former Northwest Airlines (and North Central Airlines) DC-9-51 fleet with 10 retirements in 2011, six in 2012 and four so far in 2013. According to Airliners.net, 14 were still in service as of November 19, 2013. One of these 14 aircraft will operate the last revenue flight on January 6, 2014. The aircraft will be ferried to the desert and eventually broken up for scrap metal.
This is actually the second Delta retirement of the DC-9. Delta previously retired its last original DC-9-32 on January 1, 1993. With the merger of Northwest Airlines on October 29, 2008, the DC-9 type was re-introduced back in the Delta fleet under the Delta name.
Delta Air Lines took delivery of its first 65-seat Douglas DC-9-14 (N3304L) (see N3314L below) on September 18, 1965. The new type entered revenue service on November 29, 1965 as flight DL 791 on the Atlanta-Memphis-Kansas City route.
Top Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum/AirlinersGallery.com. McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 N773NC (msn 47775) completes its final approach into Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Bottom Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum/AirlinersGallery.com. Douglas DC-9-14 N3314L sits at the old Atlanta maintenance base on January 27, 1970. The original delivery color scheme of the DC-9-14s included this forward-pointing widget which was later changed to the standard upright widget.
This entry was posted in Delta Air Lines and tagged 45709, 47775, ATL, Atlanta, DC9, DC914, DC951, Delta Air Lines, Douglas, Douglas DC9, Douglas DC914, McDonnell Douglas, McDonnell Douglas DC9, McDonnell Douglas DC914, McDonnell Douglas DC951, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MSP, N3314L, N773NC, Northwest Airlines on November 28, 2013 by Bruce Drum.


A Black Forest Decor Exclusive - A hand-painted carved top and contrasting rounded plank sides give this handcrafted pine accent table contemporary rustic style. Measures 16"Dia. x 18"H. ~ Ships from the manufacturer. Allow 4 weeks. Cannot express ship.


Tempe, Az -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/16/2012 -- Last month, press release distribution experts pressreleasemonkey.com announced a contest to name their brand new mascot. The objective of the contest was to come up with a name that reflected online related media as well as the monkey's enthusiasm for spreading the news.
The contest drew a sizable response for their fans with names that ranged all across the board. Names such as Presston, PR Diddy and Rudy were all entered, but in the end the name "Scoop" was selected and the permanent namesake for their new spokesman.
The winner will be awarded with a free Gold Plus press release which includes writing plus mass distribution- This is usually a $150 service. His press release will be written by one of Press Release Monkey's expert writers and will be sent over both of their top tier syndication networks.
Started in 1996, Press Release Monkey has earned a reputation for providing syndication which rivals "popular" PR sites that charge up to 4 times as much for nearly identical services. They boast a huge list of media contacts and industry connections, and they maintain a sizable network of news websites that supplement their 3rd party syndication.


North Texas Higher Education Authority, Inc. (NTHEA) is a private, non-profit organization chartered in 1978 by the municipalities of Arlington and Denton, Texas. NTHEA serves as a secondary market for Texas lending institutions and contracts the administration of its program to its own in-house servicer, Higher Education Servicing Corporation (HESC). The mission of NTHEA is to ensure student access to low-cost financing for higher education and is committed to providing superior service to its borrowers through the efforts of HESC.
We are pleased to provide the following investor information. If you have questions, please contact our Controller, Denise Dunn-Trakshel, at (817) 265-9158.
Your access and use of the North Texas Higher Education Authority, Inc. (NTHEA) website (Site) is subject to the terms and conditions set forth herein. By accessing this Site, you agree to, accept and acknowledge all of the terms and conditions.
NTHEA wants the information, materials and functions contained on the Site to be as current and accurate as possible, but NTHEA cannot guarantee their accuracy. The Site and all materials, contents, functions, information, products and services made available or accessed through this Site are provided "as is". NTHEA makes no warranties or representations of any kind whatsoever, express or implied, concerning the contents, materials, functions, and information on this Site or the information, materials, products, and services made available through or in connection with this Site. NTHEA disclaims any express or implied warranties, specifically including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. NTHEA makes no warranties or representations that the materials, information, contents and services provided on the Site will be error free, secure, meet your needs or be uninterrupted. NTHEA makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy, reliability and completeness of any information contained on the Site. NTHEA disclaims any warranty that the Site will be free of viruses, worms, or any other destructive codes. You agree to use and access the Site at your own risk.
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#4. go to the threads of the other participants- study the card they drew and give your own description of thier card.
my card- The Empress- has been posted.
Just makin sure I got this right.....We should write our own description, not just add our thoughts to yours? Or am I wrong?
The first step being a descripton ONLY, of the card that heads the thread. Desriptions being of your own impressions.
The focus of this step is to SEE what is happening in this card.
no thoughts or feelings about this card in this step.
A few of these threads have become active, wonderful!
At the time they where started, it was a 'timed' study, but as I have found with they Fey, they are far from conformists and leave little to structure.
With that said, I'm going to catch-up on the revived threads and nudge them into some direction that is in keeping with the 'type' of study.
I love the Fey (they speak on such a different level) and I love the gestalt 'thingy'.
Now inquiring bookworms like to know - what book is it that inspired it?


Lately I've been on a real filigree kick. I'm not sure why. It's not like I can't make other things with my toolbox of skills. It's not like filigree is quick or easy. But I've been doing it. I've been doing a LOT of it. That and watching a lot of Star Trek.
They are 44mm of pure awesomeness from top to bottom. I spiralized all that wire and soldered it in place in what I can only describe as a Zen-like trance. And you will feel peaceful when you wear them, because they are ridiculously lightweight and comfortable when you put them in your ears. And the earwire is super long - you're probably never going to lose one of them because it fell out of your ear when it snagged on your scarf or something. They just stay where they are. I'm not kidding when I say I have a similar pair and I sleep and shower with them. I can't recommend that because I don't know what your body chemistry or your shampoo is like, so maybe take them out to sleep and bathe.
I don't think you'll find a pair of earrings like these ones - I'm not one to toot my own horn, but these are a pretty unusual design that I'm quite proud of. They have a design that reminds me of an insect wing - maybe from another planet. Or a teeny tiny fairy creature but we all know that fairies are nasty. They are a blade design meant to hang parallel to the side of your face. Let's face it, I just like to say "blade earrings" because I'm picturing Wesley Snipes wearing one of these.
NOTE: I've sold a few pairs of these since I made the ones in the photograph. If you buy these earrings, you will have your own pair made-to-order and they will inevitably have small differences from the pair in the photo. They're going to be pretty close, though. You might not even notice, unless you put them up against the photo and tried to pick out differences like those cartoon pictures from when we were kids, where you had to circle the 5 things that were different between the two panels. Anyway, I just thought you should know.


Kendall is the founder and coach for FNSports. He is an elite international boxer and triathlon athlete.
Alvin is an ISCA certified personal trainer with experience in martial arts. He enjoys helping others achieve their fitness goals.
Andrew obtained his PT certification through GB Fitness. He brings with him years of experience in martial arts and TRX training.


No tienes nada en tu carrito.
Bolso cubo de piel, diseñado y fabricado en España. Con asa para llevar al hombro y asa larga desmontable para llevar cruzado.
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If this should happen please contact us for return or change by email at web@mercules.es and we will assume the delivery costs.
The first size exchange is free (EU), however, if you want to exchange models or colors you should return the purchased item and make a new order online.
Please, send an email to web@mercules.es with the order number on the subject. We will arrange the pick up and send you an email with the day that the courier will pick up the package. Requests for exchanges must be made within 15 natural days after the purchase.
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text:
David Hawkes
Professor, Department of English, Arizona State University
Kingston Shakespeare Seminar: Shakespeare and Marx – Symposium, June 24
Posted on June 26, 2017, 3:36 am, by admin, under Speaking Event.
David Hawkes (Arizona State University)
'Marx and Shakespeare Today: Towards an Ethics of Representation'
David Hawkes is Professor of English at Arizona State University. His publications span a huge variety of fields, from Milton and Shakespeare to Diego Maradona, sodomy, Darwinism, zombies, torture, Chomsky, magic, McCarthyism, Islam and Satan. The theme uniting all of his work is the impact of capital on the psyche, and especially the pernicious influence of usury. He reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and his work has appeared in The Nation and In These Times as well as in academic venues like the Journal of the History of Ideas, English Literary History and Studies in English Literature.
David Hawkes is the author of Idols of the Marketplace: Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in English Literature, 1580-1680 (Palgrave, 2001), Ideology (Routledge, 1996, 2nd ed. 2003), The Faust Myth: Religion and the Rise of Representation (Palgrave, 2007), John Milton: A Hero of Our Time (Counterpoint, 2009) and The Culture of Usury in Renaissance England (Palgrave, 2010) and he has edited Milton's Paradise Lost and Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. More recently, he has written Shakespeare and Economic Theory (Bloombury, 2015) and collaborated with Alan Rubin and the artist LG Williams on The Age Of The Image: LG Williams SoCal Mid-Rise Pictures 2015-16 (PCP Press, 2016). He is currently working on a book entitled The Death of the Soul. For more information, see davidhawkes.net.
Tags: Kingston Shakespeare Seminar, Marx, Marx and Shakespeare Today: Towards an Ethics of Representation, Shakespeare, The Age Of The Image
« David Hawkes: "Literalism, Slavery and the New Atheism" — CrossCurrents, September 2016, 312-336
Contact David Hawkes
David Hawkes took his B.A. at Oxford University, and his M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. at Columbia University. He is the author of many books: Idols of the Marketplace: Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in English Literature, 1580-1680 (Palgrave), Ideology (Routledge), The Faust Myth: Religion and the Rise of Representation (Palgrave), John Milton: A Hero of Our Time (Counterpoint) and The Culture of Usury in Renaissance England (Palgrave).
Hawkes is a Professor of English at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
View Complete CV (PDF)
Hawkes @ The Times Literary Supplement
Hawkes @ The Nation
Hawkes @ ASU Knowledge Experts
David Hawkes Top 5 Articles
• David Hawkes, 'How Noam Chomsky's World Works,' Times Literary Supplement, 8/29/12, pp.3-5 (Link)
• David Hawkes, 'The Evolution of Darwinism,' The Nation, 6/10/2002, pp.29-34 (Link)
• David Hawkes, 'Milton and Usury,' English Literary Renaissance 41:3, Autumn 2011, pp. 503-528
• David Hawkes, 'Fiction Sets You Free,' Times Literary Supplement, 10/24/2008, pp.24-5
• David Hawkes, 'Faust among the Witches: Towards an Ethics of Representation,' Early Modern Culture 4, 2004
• David Hawkes, 'Against Materialism in Literary Theory,' Early Modern Culture 9, 2012
All Content Copyright © 2013 David Hawkes. All Rights Reserved. ALL Copyrights and other proprietary rights in this website subsist with David Hawkes. You hereby acknowledge and agree that, David Hawkes retains all intellectual property rights, including without limitation copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents and other proprietary rights, in and to the texts, images, marks, data and all other content contained in this Web site (collectively "Materials"). David Hawkes expressly prohibits the reproduction, distribution, transmission, sale, transfer, creation of derivative works, modification, public display, public performance, publication or any commercial exploitation of any Materials on this Web site (DavidHawkes.net), except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws.
DavidHawkes.net Copyright © 2013 David Hawkes. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Q: How to remove password in password-protected pdf using iText 7 I am trying to decrypt a password-protected pdf without an owner password using the example provided in the iText 7 knowledgebase site (https://kb.itextpdf.com/home/it7kb/examples/encrypting-decrypting-pdfs), but my example program is throwing a BadPasswordException error.
The password-protected pdf has 256-bit AES password security. The program is using the itext7-core v7.1.16 dependency.
public class DecryptPdf3 {

    public static final String SRC = "./src/main/resources/pdfs/THISISATEST_PWP.pdf";
    public static final String DEST = "./target/sandbox/security/decrypt_pdf3.pdf";

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        File file = new File(DEST);
        file.getParentFile().mkdirs();

        new DecryptPdf3().manipulatePdf(DEST);
    }

    protected void manipulatePdf(String dest) throws Exception {
        PdfDocument pdfDoc = new PdfDocument(new PdfReader(SRC).setUnethicalReading(true), new PdfWriter(dest));
        pdfDoc.close();
    }
}

Exception in thread "main" com.itextpdf.kernel.crypto.BadPasswordException: Bad user password. Password is not provided or wrong password provided. Correct password should be passed to PdfReader constructor with properties. See ReaderProperties#setPassword() method.
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.crypto.securityhandler.StandardHandlerUsingAes256.initKeyAndReadDictionary(StandardHandlerUsingAes256.java:253)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.crypto.securityhandler.StandardHandlerUsingAes256.<init>(StandardHandlerUsingAes256.java:89)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfEncryption.<init>(PdfEncryption.java:247)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader.readDecryptObj(PdfReader.java:1300)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader.readPdf(PdfReader.java:734)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument.open(PdfDocument.java:1945)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument.<init>(PdfDocument.java:331)
    at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument.<init>(PdfDocument.java:299)

A: public class DecryptPdf3 {

public static final String SRC = "./src/main/resources/pdfs/THISISATEST_PWP.pdf";
public static final String DEST = "./target/sandbox/security/decrypt_pdf3.pdf";
public static final String USER_PASSWORD = "password";

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

    File file = new File(DEST);
    file.getParentFile().mkdirs();

    new DecryptPdf3().manipulatePdf(DEST);
}

protected void manipulatePdf(String dest) throws Exception {
    try (PdfDocument pdfDoc = new PdfDocument(
            new PdfReader(SRC, new ReaderProperties().setPassword(USER_PASSWORD.getBytes())).setUnethicalReading(true),
            new PdfWriter(dest)
    )) {}

}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
life elevated.
Summit Pointe is life, elevated. And it's a life people want to lead. It offers an opportunity to live in the center of a thriving urban with fresh and inviting choices for dining, shopping, and entertainment.
Construction of the next signature property named Mosaic was started in 2021. A six-story building with distinctive ground-floor retail spaces, Mosaic will have 270 one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences with French-style and full balconies overlooking a dramatically designed interior courtyard. Eight residences are designed as two-story lofts with street-level access. The courtyard amplifies an urban lifestyle with a resort-style swimming pool, lap pool with infinity edge, cabanas, firepits, dog walk, and dog-wash station. All residences have direct access to a parking deck on each floor level.
Encompassing a full city block with a focal point at the corner of Belaire Avenue and Summit Pointe Drive, Mosaic will be the second lifestyle community at Summit Pointe to combine beautifully designed floor plans with a distinctive amenity package that also includes a clubhouse, fitness center and concierge services.
Helix, the first urban community with 133 residences, was completed in 2020 and fully leased within 90 days. These pet-friendly apartments are seated atop upscale ground-floor retail businesses and restaurants lining Belaire Avenue. Each modern apartment features stunning views of Belaire Avenue, thoughtfully-designed floor plans, and covered parking.
Helix offers a combination of studio, one, and two-bedroom models on six floors. With an elegant, stylish design and on-trend interior finishes, Helix provides the ultimate in modern living. Amenities include granite countertops; stainless steel appliances; sleek wood grain plank flooring; a rooftop sky lounge; a 24/7 fitness center; a Wi-Fi lounge and gourmet coffee bar; an attached parking garage and much more.
explore helix
to contact the residential leasing team for more information.
Residential Leasing Team
Drucker + Falk | 757.410.2154
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text:
Professional race car driver teaches driver safety course, cites distracted driving as issue
By Kelly Dean
Published: Aug. 24, 2021 at 4:48 PM CDT
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Nearly 20 community members participated in a traffic safety education course taught by professional race car driver Andy Pilgrim.
The Traffic Safety Education Foundation aims to educate new drivers, parents with children of all ages, teachers and grade school students about traffic safety and the deadly issues associated with distracted driving.
"People are messing with their phone while they're driving, and we see it all over the world these days. But, certainly, the U.S. has a bigger problem, unfortunately, because we don't have a very hard or difficult driving test," said Pilgrim.
Despite fewer cars being on the road in 2020, there were 42,000 car fatalities total in the U.S. Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2019, there was 40,000 total.
"So we're not sort of taught to do these things. On a very strict level, it's very easy to get a driving license here," expressed Pilgrim.
Pilgrim recommends that parents remain vigilant while behind their wheel, especially when children are in the car.
"From the moment you turn the child safety seat around to face front, those children are watching their parents drive and learning from their driving habits and behaviors," said Pilgrim. "By the time they get to around 12-13 years old, they've been watching that it's fixed behavior. So when they get their permit at 15, or 16 years old, they're trying to unlearn things. Don't set that example."
He also recommends teens with a driver's permit log more than the standard 60 which is required in Kentucky.
"Different hours for different states, but do more than that, and certainly don't sign off on the logbook when you haven't done those hours. When you haven't done those hours, it leaves you open to a tremendous amount of potential liabilities," said Pilgrim. "
After the course, participants got the chance to race around the 3.2-mile track at the NCM Motorsports Park.
"They listened to me talk about traffic safety and luckily everybody stayed awake, which is great. But then as a reward, we have them on the track and they're learning some skills on track too," said Pilgrim. "Getting around this racetrack is not easy."
Pilgrim will teach another course in September but that is already full. For more information on his non-profit organization on traffic safety go to TSEF.org.
To book Pilgrim for your next engagement, contact Kenzie Layton at (270) 467-8809 or email kenzie@motorsportspark.org.