Mark Sisson sells us on meat and fat just like any other low carb promoter. Low carb is said to be the most effective way to curb excessive insulin production. He offers a version of the nonsense low-carb hypothesis on heart disease here. "Low-fat eating requires you to consume excessive carbs," he explains. "This leads to excessive insulin production and," he says, "kick-starts the cycle that eventually leads to heart disease. Anyway you slice it, consuming too many carbs leads to high triglycerides."Carbs cause heart disease? Maybe in his Paleo fantasies but not in reality. It is clear that he is describing the hyperinsulinemia and broken carbohydrate metabolism of metabolic syndrome. Insulin is produced in excess in that context because it is no longer efficient or effective. Given the choice between avoiding carbohydrates because we are too dysfunctional to process them normally and simply maintaining normal and healthy carbohydrate metabolism, it seems to me we should prefer the latter. Let's not so easily accept Mark Sisson's low-carb low standards. Instead, let's ask how we might maintain insulin sensitivity so that we can consume healthy carbs without a second thought.
In healthy people, insulin in the presence of amino acids and carbohydrate stimulates muscle protein synthesis. If you chug down a recovery shake with carbs and protein after a workout, this is why you do that. Sisson is not just a broscientist but also a supplement creator and salesman. You'd think he would know better.
I'm going to open this examination of the effects of animal foods on glucose disposal and insulin efficiency by showing you the study that is most often used to argue that saturated fat does not harm insulin sensitivity. In this trial, these researchers did not detect any detriment to peripheral insulin sensitivity after the consumption of saturated fat. Peripheral insulin sensitivity means muscle insulin sensitivity.
Here is an example of the use of this one by low carbers. The low-carb advocacy organization called the Nutrition and Metabolism Society links to this on their "Research on Fats" page, right above an article by the notorious and incoherent cholesterol denier Uffe Ravnskov.
In this study, the researchers used an intravenous glucose tolerance test to provoke an insulin response. They did not have their participants consume carbohydrate through their mouths. An interesting fact about this study that is often overlooked by the fat promoters is that one of the low-fat diets performed the best here.
This study also investigated cardiovascular risk factors. Dr. Dayspring should note that saturated fat reduction lowered concentrations of both LDL-C and ApoB. If that's his priority in preventing heart disease he might want to read this over and attempt to construct a less discordant set of beliefs about nutrition.
This study does not exonerate animal foods from a role in promoting insulin resistance. It is just one study, and it is a study that showed harm to cholesterol from saturated fats and it showed a benefit to a low-fat diet. It's amazing how often the studies the low-carbers like actually make their ideas look bad once you read them. This one also only addressed saturated fat, which is just one possible promoter of insulin resistance to be found in animal foods. There are others, as you will see. In the previous videos you have already seen what you need to see to know that healthy carbs promote insulin sensitivity. Whether it is the saturated fat or something else in animal foods that harms insulin sensitivity is another matter for consideration. In this video, we'll look at other factors to try to explain the research we saw in An Evolved Fuel System.
Here is one way animal foods might ruin your carbohydrate metabolism that you may not have known about. I'm not going to linger on this but foodborne illness can lead to all sorts of problems, including pancreatic injury and diabetes. This journal article by Rita Suri and colleagues links the hemolytic uremic syndrome that can be caused by E. coli-associated diarrhea to type 1 diabetes in children. What this means is that once a child is unlucky enough to be sickened by the bacteria in animal waste, later that child can become an insulin-dependent diabetic as a result. This terrible complication can arise years after the initial illness caused by E. coli. Plants don't normally harbor E. coli. E. coli always traces back to some kind of animal waste.
These authors state that at least one third of survivors of diarrhea-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome may be left with permanent diabetes.
What interests me more than that is the effect of excess protein on insulin sensitivity, and that will be my main focus in these videos. I have argued that there is no reason to consume more protein than your body needs since excess protein is simply converted to glucose anyway, generating unnecessary metabolic waste and causing dehydration. It makes more sense to get that glucose efficiently from nutrient-rich carbs instead. Now I'm going to show you that that excess protein pushes you toward the insulin-resistant condition people like Mark Sisson and Loren Cordain will tell you they are trying to help you avoid. This is Loren Cordain making his argument for high levels of protein consumption. Cordain at one time wanted his gimmicky Paleo hypothesis to be taken seriously by health professionals so he distanced himself from high-fat diets. Instead, he decided to advocate for high-protein diets, diets so high in protein, they are potentially dangerous. You can see here that he states that a key advantage of lean meats and fish over plant foods is their much greater quantity of branched chain amino acids. Loren Cordain may not be aware of the research of Christopher Newgard.
Newgard has found that the presence of these very branched chain amino acids is linked to insulin resistance in humans. Here he describes his 2009 investigation that implicated them.
Newgard tells us that obese and insulin resistant subjects had a greater pool of branched chain amino acids in their bodies than normal subjects, and these may have been derived from their diets.
Newgard states here that consistent elevations of branched chain aminos may cause hyperinsulinemia and subsequent pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction. Dr. Newgard is truly cutting-edge, but researchers from long ago were also concerned about the effects of excess protein on carbohydrate metabolism.
You can see here that in 1922, Russell Wilder noted that diabetic patients do poorly on high-protein diets. He said that one reason for this was that excess protein is converted into glucose through gluconeogenesis, thereby raising blood sugar.
One might expect excess dietary protein to raise blood sugar through gluconeogenesis, which is the process through which your liver turns protein into carbs. Why doesn't the glucose made from that excess protein raise blood sugar more? The answer can be found in the very insulin-stimulating nature of protein. The pancreas is overworked in response to that protein as it secretes more insulin, and that insulin clears sugar from the blood. It seems to balance out, but over time these demands on the beta cells may be costly. This study from 2005 by Frederic Tremblay and colleagues noted this effect.
Today we know that increased gluconeogenesis is a characteristic feature of type II diabetes and obesity. When high-protein diet gurus tell you to consume more protein than you need, they are asking you to make your liver function more like a diabetic's liver and less like a healthy person's liver.
It seems a little funny to me that in his sales pitch for diets based on meat, Sisson may have identified one of the very worst aspects of meat. Meat is just terrible for your insulin action. It's apparently worse than refined pasta products.
A high-protein diet can lead to elevated insulin levels for up to eight hours after a meal, as we learned from this study described by Bilsborough and Crowe.
Using data from the insulin index of foods created by Susanne Holt in 1997, Bilsborough and Neil Mann published this very curious chart comparing the amount of insulin response in relation to glucose caused by protein-rich foods. Given that insulin's role in the body is to remove glucose from the blood and allow it to be used by cells, this exaggerated response to low-carb foods seems rather odd. This apparent over-reaction in insulin production causes high-protein diets to appear to be effective for glycemic control. Over time, such stresses may expose the failings of this strategy. It is often claimed that protein doesn't cause a strong insulin response, but those who say this don't seem to consider that the insulin response protein does cause is so disproportionate.
What they also overlook is that while in most healthy people total insulin release may not seem excessive, diabetics respond to high protein consumption with an especially exaggerated insulin response. Think about what this means in practice. The people who are most likely to try a high-protein diet out of sheer desperation may be the people most harmed by such diets.
The branch chain amino acids valine, leucine, and isoleucine are among the most insulin-stimulating amino acids. Should it be surprising that Newgard found them to be associated with insulin resistance?
It is this potential for high amino acid concentrations to contribute to insulin resistance that caused these researchers to be concerned about the long term effects of high-protein diets.
In 1962, researchers investigating the effects of high-protein feeding on cholesterol levels made an unexpected discovery. The substitution of egg whites in place of sugar in the menus of their participants did not affect their cholesterol levels, but it did raise their triglycerides. Sugar didn't raise triglycerides the way egg whites did. Even more intriguing was the fact that even after their diets were returned to a lower protein level, their triglycerides remained elevated. This study strongly suggests an induced metabolic dysfunction from high-protein feeding.
With a less extreme intervention used on vegetarians, Frank Sacks also produced an increase in triglycerides using higher-protein diets. The amount of extra protein added to their diets was only 27 grams, so the effect wasn't as great, but it was still there.
Of course, high triglycerides are associated with insulin resistance.
Mark Sisson knows that proteins cause a disproportionate release of insulin. So what has he said about this? When he talks about insulin in the context of meat, he says insulin is a good thing. It's primal, whatever that means. The body knows what it is doing. Concluding, he says, "Now, pass the bacon." Do you see how much trouble these fad diet salesmen have with logical consistency? Do you see how they use pandering and predictable drivel to mask that? Maybe the body does know what it's doing but the brain is another matter entirely.
He recently attempted to assure his followers that the low-carb diet he promotes isn't harmful for insulin sensitivity. Read this and you will see he is plainly doing his best to deflect and dodge here. No, low-carb is fine because you are "Going Primal," whatever that means, so you must be getting sunshine and losing weight and reducing inflammation. Can you imagine Sisson attempting to critique one of the many studies that make low carb look bad? "They forgot to include the sunshine!," he might say. Let's try to focus, Mr. Sisson. One variable at a time. And then notice his need for a huge caveat as he says low-carb improves insulin sensitivity as long as you are losing weight, but then he could say that about any diet, couldn't he? You need weight loss to happen to make low carb seem better than awful. But can you lose weight forever? Does "Going Primal" mean you are losing weight until you disappear? Go ahead and dodge and deflect, Mr Sisson. It's embarrassing but I'm sure it pays well.
Regarding his point about inflammation, by now you've already seen one study in which low-carb increased inflammation. This was hardly a new discovery about low-carb. Notice the authors here connected the high cortisol of the low carb diet with the possibility of insulin resistance.
Mark Sisson knows you don't want a lot of extra cortisol floating around in your body. I wonder what he makes of that study. Maybe he would fault their methodology for its lack of sunshine.
In this study, men on a high-protein diet had significant elevations of uric acid in their blood. The authors warned that if such an unusually high measurement were sustained, that might predispose individuals to metabolic syndrome. "High-protein" here meant around 26% of calories from protein, which is the approximate level that Sisson recommends. When you hear the words "metabolic syndrome" you should think "insulin resistance." There is a lot of evidence that meaty, high-protein diets raise uric acid and therefore raise the risk of insulin resistance.
In this trial in healthy women, two diets were used. One produced much higher serum uric acid levels than the other. The one that produced higher uric acid levels was called the acid diet. The one that produced lower uric acid levels was called the alkaline diet.
Here you can see the diets. The acid diet is the one on the bottom. That's the one that caused the higher uric acid levels. You can see from what I've highlighted how much more meat and fish were in that one. I also highlighted a few other dietary components to show you that both diets used high-fat foods like mayonnaise and butter. The difference here really was the protein quality. Vegetable protein from tofu did not lead to higher uric acid levels.
High meat consumption appears to be associated with high uric acid levels at the population level as well, according to this study. Vegetable protein was not associated with higher uric acid levels here, either.
In this study conducted in Shanghai, proteins from animal sources including seafood were associated with a higher prevalence of hyperuricemia, which is excessive uric acid in the blood. Soy products apparently decreased the risk of hyperuricemia.
The authors of that earlier study were right to link elevated uric acid with metabolic syndrome. In this recent study, hyperuricemia measured in young adults predicted insulin resistance 15 years later. Based on this, the authors here concluded that "hyperuricemia in the midtwenties (sic) is an independent marker for predicting diabetes and prediabetes in the subsequent 15 years." This suggests that if you eat the Paleo way, you will be rewarded for that with a higher risk of diabetes years down the road. And that, it could be argued, will make you more Paleo. More on that in just a bit.
This is the Primitive Nutrition channel so you can be certain that I looked for a way the evolution angle might help us understand hyperuricemia. It has been argued in this paper that high uric acid may have been advantageous in the past for the purpose of regulating blood pressure. Uric acid would have helped to keep blood pressure high enough while our ancestors lived in low-salt environments.
With that in mind, I find this study to be quite interesting. In Motherwell, Scotland, mothers who had been given advice to consume low-carb, high-protein diets during pregnancy seemed to program into their children a tendency toward high blood pressure. This was discovered after the researchers caught up with their children once they reached 27 to 30 years of age. Both meat and fish consumption by the moms during pregnancy were associated with elevations of blood pressure here. Perhaps there was an elevation of uric acid in those mothers during their pregnancies from eating all that meat. Once again, we see a delayed effect from eating lots of meat, except here we are talking about high blood pressure but without an explicit linkage to hyperuricemia.
Let's return to those branched chain amino acids. Bodo Melnik has written a provocative paper about the hormone-stimulating potential of milk proteins. He notes the much higher protein content of cow's milk in comparison to human milk. He reports that among all mammalian species, the average protein content is lowest in human milk.
Melnik states that leucine is the amino acid that is most stimulating of insulin. We have already seen that branched-chain amino acids are insulin-stimulating.
You can see here how much more leucine there is in cow's milk than human milk.
Melnik referenced a study demonstrating that the ingestion of cow's milk protein in 8-year-old boys resulted in increased insulin secretion and insulin resistance. He also connected whole cow's milk consumed in infancy to childhood obesity because cow's milk is so growth-stimulating.
Leucine and a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1 work together to promote unregulated and undesirable growth processes, he says.
Weirdly, Loren Cordain is listed as a co-author along with Melnik for this paper here, in which it is proposed that the branched-chain amino acid leucine is linked to prostate cancer. One suggested way to avoid this hypothesized leucine problem is said to be – what else? – adherence to a Paleo diet. The restriction of dairy protein is also suggested. The most obvious alternative strategy – a lower-protein vegan diet – is not suggested.
This is hard for me to figure out. Loren Cordain advises retirees to eat lean meats precisely because they are so high in leucine along with the other branched chain amino acids.
He states that the high amounts of branched chain amino acids in meat are a reason he considers vegetarian diets to be inadequate.
If you look at the foods highest in leucine, you will see Paleo favorites like eggs, chicken, fish, and game meat. Soy proteins are listed near the top as well but those are artificial foods and no one consumes soy protein in serving sizes as large as the serving sizes used for meat.
We already saw that Melnik says that human milk is low in protein, right there in the middle of the paragraph.
At the same time, Loren Cordain has described the Paleo Diet as extremely high in protein, 33% protein here. Why are these guys writing a paper together?
Why are they concerned about the excess leucine in dairy but not the high quantities of leucine in meats? They say the answer is that animal-sourced proteins beside dairy do not impact IGF-1 because of ecological observations like what you see here. Does this settle it? Something about meat keeps it from increasing IGF-1? Not so fast. I think they may be avoiding other ecological studies that contradict this, perhaps because they are too invested in Paleo diet nonsense.
Generally high intakes of protein were found to be associated with higher IGF-1 in this study. Milk proteins were not the only proteins associated with elevated IGF-1. Fish and poultry were linked to higher IGF-1, as well. Why not target those in their paper?
If you watch my "Define Healthful" videos, you will see that for any proposed benefit of Paleo, a vegan diet probably performs even better. This consistent observation makes it perfectly clear that Cordain is a pseudoscientist, backfilling excuses for his goofy fad diet. This issue with IGF-1 also reveals his skewed priorities. Is he really trying to help you avoid cancer and insulin resistance through lower IGF-1? This study shows us a better approach. Some people restrict their caloric intake for years in an effort to live longer. This probably doesn't work but let's ignore that for now. It has been proposed that caloric restriction extends life in part by lowering IGF-1. But in this study, it was found that caloric restriction does not actually lower IGF-1. Instead, it was found that what really does lower IGF-1 is a low-protein diet. Based on this, the authors stated that reduced protein intake may become an important component of the anti-cancer toolbox.
Here you can see some of their methods. Who represented the low-protein group? The researchers studied vegetarians, especially low-protein, raw food vegans.
There you see how much lower their IGF-1 was. Low protein diets appear to be better if you are looking for an anti-cancer strategy. Does this remind you of anyone else's ideas about cancer prevention? Do C. Colin Campbell and his rats come to mind? Who do you think has a more coherent nutritional strategy for minimizing your chances of developing cancer, Cordain or Campbell? Do you think that the high-protein diet guru Loren Cordain is really interested in the issue of IGF-1? Or do you think he is just doing his best to pretend to be interested while he tries to sell diet books?
Do I need to make the answer even clearer to you? Cordain's name was attached to an article about prostate cancer. Again, leucine is singled out as cause for concern.
But Cordain doesn't seem to understand that many studies have found an association between red meat and prostate cancer.
Cordain and Sisson base their high-protein diet advice on their conjecture about our evolutionary history, and it's that conjecture that overrides any contrary evidence. As with uric acid and blood pressure, insulin resistance and meat can be viewed through the prism of evolution, and it can lead us to a very different conclusion from the preferred interpretation of these Paleo salesmen. Now we tie together all the observations I've shown you so far about high uric acid, insulin resistance, and high blood pressure to show you why all these make the low-carber truly Paleo. These are all traits that may have been useful to our ancient ancestors. I find this 1994 paper by Brand Miller and Colagiuri called "The Carnivore Connection" to be most interesting. The hypothesis put forth here was updated in a more recent paper from 2011 so I'll mostly focus on that one, but first, notice here this interesting comment from the original one. "Carnivorous animals like the cat which have evolved and reproduce well on a low carbohydrate diet, appear to be genetically insulin resistant. Moreover, they appear to develop non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus when exposed to a high-carbohydrate diet." Apparently carnivory is linked by evolution to insulin resistance. How do they explain this and what does this have to do with humans?
The idea behind the "carnivore connection" is that insulin resistance would have been a favorable trait for human survival at one time because humans of the past were in low-carbohydrate environments. That's quite disputable but let's hear them out. Their argument is that many of us have been, in a sense, selected to be insulin resistant. Our propensity for insulin resistance has run into our current preference for refined junk carbs, and the result is widespread diabetes. To support this view, the authors make many interesting observations. Low-carb, high-protein diets promote insulin resistance, especially during reproduction, because glucose is essential to fetal development. Glucose is also the required fuel of the brain. Insulin resistance would have helped our ancestors maintain a higher blood glucose concentration at critical times.
All this would have provided selective pressure for insulin resistance. In further support of their view, the authors stated that insulin-sensitive people do not tolerate high-protein diets well. Obese and insulin-resistant animals and people can tolerate high-protein diets, they contend.
Other interesting observations here are that insulin resistance would have been helpful during times of unstable food supply.
And that the epidemiology of diabetes seems to correlate with the timing of the introduction of agriculture.
These authors were aware of the importance of carbohydrate quality, which has changed for the worse in recent times.
It's too bad they weren't also aware of the metabolic costs of animal foods, because I think they stumbled at the finish line of this paper when they tried to interpret the meaning of their hypothesis for our present day diet choices. They stated that any diet that reduces blood sugar and insulin is a good thing, including high-protein, low-carb diets. I'm not sure how they would justify that opinion. A look back at the oldest representations of human bodies we have, coupled with a short investigation into modern nutrition science, should have pointed them toward a different conclusion.
The oldest depictions we have of women are the Venus figurines of the Upper Paleolithic.
And this is what they look like. Do you think that Paleo magazine would sell very well if they used cover models that look like these female forms from the Paleolithic? They look a tad bit softer than your typical cover model.
I'll share these pictures I took of a couple casts of Venus figurines on display at the Smithsonian. If you saw a woman of today looking like this, would you be surprised to learn that she is insulin resistant? This is what I consider the real Paleolithic ideal: resistant to famine, resistant to insulin, built for short-term survival and reproduction, and most definitely not vegan.
It's amazing to me that the low carber broscientists have chosen to plant their flag on the subject of insulin resistance. Sisson says insulin metabolism is the most important concept in his book, yet no one looking objectively at the research would recommend a high-meat, high-fat diet to improve insulin sensitivity. I have to admit, these guys are excellent salesmen. It wouldn't even occur to me to convince people of something so ridiculous, yet somehow they pull it off.
I am nowhere near finished talking about diet and insulin resistance. I have much more for you, including some other research on saturated fat, in Part II.


text:
Round the clock swimming challenge for brave triathlon team in Herne Bay
24 hours. 35 people. 42 miles. £2400 to raise. The swimming triathlon team from Active Life Leisure Centre in Herne Bay are making a splash to raise money for a search and rescue charity.
Claire Boucher/Active Life Triathlon Club
Active Life Triathlon Club team members
A team of 35 water lovers will take on a 24-hour relay in their indoor pool. The swimming squad will start their race at 7am on Sunday (1 May) and aims to cover a total of 42 miles by 7pm on Monday evening (2 May). If all goes swimmingly well, by the end of the last leg, they hope to have reached their £2400 fundraising goal to support the RNLI's lifesaving work.
With two swimmers in the pool each hour, the team's mission is to swim as far as possible to reach their goal of 42 miles. So far, their ambitious plan has inspired supporters to donate, raising £1,287 towards the £2400 target.
Coach Claire Boucher has kept the team focused and fit with evening or weekend classes, and the group has been training in the pool and open water. From using specific bodywork and weights to build the muscles that power their swimming strokes to developing breathing techniques and patterns, the team is now ready for the challenge.
Emma Jane (EJ) Crossman, a Regulatory Oversight Officer at KPMG, has been taking swimming classes with the Active Life Triathlon Club for six years. She joined the group because she wanted to train out of her comfort zone in a safe environment. After suffering from a leg injury, the training has helped her tremendously, so EJ will be in the water for two hours during Monday's relay.
'After a twice-ruptured Achilles tendon which saw me out of the water for a year, the first place I wanted to be was back in the water. Coach Claire adapted sets to take account of my recovery, which was sped up by swimming so frequently.
As a team, we have so much fun together in the pool. I really enjoy the variety of our training, and the sense of humour is unbelievable. The team has also welcomed my son with open arms as he has come to help poolside for his Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE).'
For most of the challenge, the participants will use freestyle, but EJ, who is in the water for the two-hour slot, will alternate with backstroke to exercise different muscle groups.
Another participant, Dan Brown, a local Osteopath during the day, has been an active member of the Triathlon Club team for more than six years. For him, swimming is a way of life, and he urges the public to be prepared when heading out to the sea this summer.
'I have always been an open water swimmer and regularly compete in both local and national events, including river swims. Last year, I participated in the Thames 10 mile and River Arun 6KM. I am also a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster and have sailed since I was a boy. This has led to my profound respect for the sea.
At some point, we all use the beach or get involved in activities on the water, so we need the reassurance that the lifeboat service is available when any of us may need help. The weather is warming up now it's spring, so people are now flocking to the coast. This will increase as we move towards summer. Now is a good time to keep the RNLI in mind, and to remember how important it is to be respectful of the sea and find out more about tides, winds, and forecasts.'
Claire Boucher, triathlon coach and events organiser for Active Life, said:
As a triathlon club, we are a group of avid water fans, be it swimming, paddle boarding, kayaking, sailing etc. The sea is where we feel most comfortable, and that is in part due to the wonderful work the RNLI do. We organised this event because it felt like a great way we could give back and support the wonderful work the RNLI does by keeping the water safe for everyone.'
To support the challenge, please use the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/activelifletriathlonclub24hourrelay?fbclid=IwAR1PGArSVTKbF0yy...
The 24-hour relay is on the first day of RNLI's Mayday challenge. With demand for its lifesaving services at a high ahead of a busy summer around our coasts, the RNLI is putting out its own 'Mayday' call, urging the public to take part in the Mayday Mile. Whether you choose to walk, jog, hop or skip, the Mayday Mile is a fun way to cover at least one mile in any way you like between Saturday 1 and Tuesday 31 May, whilst raising vital funds for RNLI lifesavers so that they can continue to keep people safe at sea.
Visit RNLI.org/SupportMayday for more information and to sign up RNLI.org/SupportMayday
In 2021, RNLI lifeboats and lifeguards saved 408 lives – more than one life saved every day and 59 more than the previous year.
RNLI lifeboats launched 8,868 times last year – an increase of 7% on 2020
Active Life is a not for profit, registered charity. As Kent's leading sports, fitness and leisure provider, they are dedicated to improving the fitness, well being and health of everyone in the area. They offer a comprehensive range of sports, fitness and health promotion activities delivered through their five leisure and fitness sites - Kingsmead Leisure Centre, Herons Leisure Centre, The Bay Sports Arena, Whitstable Swimming Pool and Whitstable Sports Centre - https://activelifeltd.co.uk/
For more information, please contact Julie Rainey, RNLI South East Regional Media Officer, on 07827 358256 or email [email protected] or Paul Dunt, RNLI South East Regional Media Officer, on 0778 5296252 or email [email protected] Alternatively, please call the RNLI Press Office on 01202 336 789 or email [email protected].
RNLI online
For more information, please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the RNLI News Centre.
The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates over 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and, in a normal year, more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.
Simona Matache
Media Engagement Placement, South East Region
Julie Rainey
Regional Media Manager, London and South East

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Gloucester's Character Dynamics
King Lear is one of the most tragic parables ever brought forth in literature, dealing with betrayal, familial deception, madness and violence. In presenting such tragic themes and ideas in his work Shakespeare uses a subplot to mirror the main action which therefore increases the effect of the parable's lessons. In both stories, parents are deceived and betrayed by their own children, one of the most abhorrant crimes in Shakespeare's time. It is this mistreatment by children that lead both Lear and Gloucester to madness and then death. But they are not completely innocent victims who have fallen to their children's ill intentions. Both have made critical and constant errors in judgment that caused their downfall, and they both must realize their errors before their deaths.
In the first scene in the first act, we are presented with Lear's misguided dependence on artifice and flattery that catapults the action of the play and leads to both his positive transformation and sadly, his death. Before dividing up his kingdom among his three daughters Lear asks "which of you shall we say doth love us most,/That we our largest bounty may extend" (King Lear I.i.51-52). From the beginning it is obvious that Lear equates quality with quantity, as he so blatantly states that whoever says they love him most will receive the most. He does not realize that inflated praise and flattery are not the same as love and honest affection, something that Lear will have to learn very painfully. The responses of his daughters Goneril, Regan and lastly, Cordelia show further Lear's lack of understanding. Goneril and Regan both make inflated and obviously dishonest claims of love. For example, Goneril describes her love as "a love that makes breath poor, and speech unable" (King Lear I.i.60), quite amazing considering she is in fact speaking at that moment. When Lear's one loving and honest daughter Cordelia explains to Lear that her sisters are lying to him, "why have my sisters husbands if they say/They love you all?" (King Lear I.i.99-100), and that she loves him too much to lie and flatter him and will therefore say nothing, he quite sorely misses the point. This opening scene clearly presents the reader with Lear's chief error in judgment that he will have to overcome by the end of the play.
While Lear so heavily depends on words and flattery Gloucester trusts what his eyes see too much, and therefore falls prey to Edmunds cunning and deception. In the second scene Edmund begins his plot to discredit Edgar in Gloucester's eyes so that he, the illegitimate son, will get everything, including property, title and material wealth. Whereas Goneril and Regan use words to illicit the response they desire from Lear, Edmund plays off of Gloucester's trust of appearance and his own eyes to trick him. He pretends to have a letter from Edgar that he is trying to hide from him when in fact he knows that Gloucester will demand to see the letter. Gloucester alludes to this dependence on sight and appearances himself when asking for the letter from Edmund in his use of vocabulary. He says "let's see. Come, if it/Be nothing, I shall not need spectacles…Let's see, let's see" (King Lear I.ii.35-44). Because he has read these words himself, Gloucester does not even for a moment truly doubt their validity and immediately is put in a violent rage against his son without even questioning the situation. As he says moments after reading the letter, "O villain, villain! His very opinion in the/Letter. Abhorred villain, unnatural, detested, brutish villain;/Worse than brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him. I'll apprehend him. Abominable villain!" (King Lear I.ii.77-80). Just like Lear, Gloucester is easily led into the trap that his child devises by his own fault.
It is not until Lear is presented with Tom the beggar, a character completely stripped of artifice, that he can see the errors of his values and judgments. After speaking with Tom and spending time in the cave Lear makes his transformation into a man who cares not for artifice or flattery, but rather honesty and truth. As he says to Tom, "Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no/ more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings! Come, unbutton here" (King Lear III.iv.107-109). By trying to literally undress himself, Lear is trying to shed himself of all of his artifice and unnaturalness. By the time he sees Cordelia again he realizes the error in his judgments, saying "if you have poison for me, I will drink it./I know you do not love me…You have some cause" (King Lear IV.vii.75-78) and looks forward to passing the time in prison to "pray, and sing, and tell old tales" (King Lear V.iii.12).
As king, Lear has lived his life with the comfort of always being flattered and treated with the utmost respect and importance. Once he has given up his power and authority to Goneril and Regan, he is faced with a situation in which he is not treated with such respect. All of Goneril and Regan's elevated prose of their false love for Lear is replaced with a forthright lack of respect and love. When Lear begs Regan to take care of him in his old age she simply replies, "Good sir, no more. These are unsightly tricks./Return you to my sister." (King Lear II.iv.155-156). This change in his position is more than the weary old king can bear and he must reach madness from this ingratitude and hypocrisy before he can realize his faults of equating flattery and materialism with happiness and love.
Just as Lear must suffer such great disrespect and harshness of words and actions to learn not to depend on them, Gloucester must lose his vision before he can depend on his mind and heart to judge situations instead of depending on what he thinks he sees. While Lear may be slow to transform, Gloucester quickly realizes the error of his ways, saying to Tom the beggar, "I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;/I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen/our means secure us, and our mere defects/prove our commodities" (King Lear IV.i.18-21). He realizes that when he could see he was overconfident and did not judge situations carefully, but now that he is blind he has learned to not depend on his eyes to show him the truth.
While both of these characters have in many ways made a positive transformation, both recognizing and attempting to change their flaws that caused so much harm, Shakespeare's work is still a tragedy. By the end of the play, after both characters fully realize their mistakes, they both die from a combination of shock and old age. Lear realizes his mistakes in the way he quantified the love of his daughter, culminating in his excitement to pass time in prison with Cordelia, but she is killed and the shock of her death kills him. Like Lear, Gloucester realizes he misjudged Edgar's character and is deeply repentative. But it is too late, and he dies from the shock of discovering Tom's true identity, that of his son. King Lear ends sadly, but also with a sense of a positive future. Though it may have been too late for these characters to realize their mistakes and change their lives, the message their stories give is that of working to change what is wrong in one's character.
"The King Lear" by Shakespeare
Existential Questions and the Works of Gods
King Lear and the Comedy Discourse
King, Destiny and Circumstances
A Comparative Study of Female Characters in King Lear, Crime and Punishment and To the Punishment
Being King and Being Father: Claudius and Lear
What Influenced On King Lear
King Lear's Indifferent Universe
Similarities Between The Play 'King Lear' And The Novel 'The Catcher In The Rye'
Shakespeare's Demonstration of Loyalty in King Lear
In William Shakespeare's King Lear and in J.D Salinger's The catcher in the rye, the legends typify the subjects of wildness and self-affirmation through poor decisions, loss of loved ones […]
The Christian will not find comfort in William Shakespeare's King Lear. Imbued with the ideals of divine justice and good prevailing over evil, the Christian will be appalled as he […]
English author, Graham Greene once said, "The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you […]
In an excerpt from Sir Robert Filmer's The Natural Power of Kings, the defined paternal positions of father and king are inextricably synonymous. In the periods in which William Shakespeare's […]
A heroine can be defined in two different ways: the first, as the principal female character in a novel; or in the second way, as a woman noted for a […]
Why, in spite of everything do we like Lear and are on his side? Ultimately any pathos that lies with Lear is due to the fact that he, like all […]
William Shakespeare is no stranger to the bending and breaking of conventions. Hailed as an inventor of words from "elbow" to "sneak", and a master playwright who created some of […]
The characters in Shakespeare's play King Lear endure immense physical, psychological, and emotional torment before meeting their demises. Shakespeare's exploration of their pain underlines two existential quandaries. First, the play's […]
Lear, the king of Britain, decides to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, but first he demands that they say how much they love him. Out of the three […]
King Lear is one of the most tragic parables ever brought forth in literature, dealing with betrayal, familial deception, madness and violence. In presenting such tragic themes and ideas in […]


text:
Q: PHP mail() function: Cannot used outside data from database I'm trying to send email using PHP mail() function and I got problem when trying to call the recipient name (from the database) in the email message.
The code goes here:
class User{
   function callname(){
     $user = $_SESSION['id'];
     $query = ("SELECT * FROM user WHERE user.id='$user'"); // trying
     while ($result=mysqli_fetch_array($query)){            // to call
         return($result['username']);}}}                  // "username" in database

$user = new User;

if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST"){
  $username = mysqli_real_escape_string(trim($_POST['username']));
  $check = mysqli_stmt_num_rows(mysqli_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE username='$username'"));

  if ($check==TRUE){
    $name = $user->callname(); // call the function
    $to = "myemail@domain.com";
    $subject = "Example Subject";
    $headers = "From: My Example Email"."\r\n".
    "MIME-Version: 1.0"."\r\n".
    "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"."\r\n".
    'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
    $message = "Hai $name, this is the new message.";

    mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
} else {
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
    alert("Sorry, username not exist !");
</script>
<?php }}

Everything goes fine, the email was sent successful, the headers were good, but the message was not. $name not call the username. So the message only like this:
Hai , this is the new message.

Please help. Any answer will really helpful. Thanks.

UPDATE
Do you mean like this? (I've changed to mysqli)
$query = ("SELECT * FROM user WHERE user.id='$user'");
$result = $mysqli->query($query);
while ($row=$resulr->fetch_array()){
   return $row['username'];

   if($$mysqli->num_rows($result) == 0){
      return $row['usern'];
   }

If its right, the result still same. The username didn't print in the email.
    }

A: mysql_fetch_array() takes the type of object that mysql_query() returns. You need to do this:
$query = ("SELECT * FROM user WHERE user.id='$user'");
$result = mysql_query($query);
while ($result=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
// ...

You should also be using mysqli in an object-oriented fashion, but that is an issue for another post.

A: First off you shouldn't be using mysql because it is depreciated try using mysqli, second off you need to get the result from a mysql_query
Code should be this
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE user.id='$user'");

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
2019.12.18 - WHAT WOULD JESUS DO WITH 100 BILLION DOLLARS?
Yesterday after a whistleblower claims that the LDS Church stockpiled $100 Billion in charitable donations and dodge taxes, the First Presidency released a statement.
" Over many years, a portion is methodically safeguarded through wise financial management and the building of a prudent reserve for the future. This is a sound doctrinal and financial principle taught by the Savior in the Parable of the Talents and lived by the Church and its members. All Church funds exist for no other reason than to support the Church's divinely appointed mission.
The reason why they give for safeguarding the money was the principles taught by the Savior in the Parable of the Talents? I find it so interesting how people can interpret scripture so differently. While some could read the parable as justification to multiply what you have been given, others could read the parable as a condemnation, and teaching us of what NOT to do.
I might be wrong, but when I read the parable, the servant with the one talent (in this case maybe his talent is only money).. hides that money from everyone else. The Lord then comes and says thou wicked and slothful servant.. you oughtest (thinkest) to have put My money to the exchangers (banks, hedge fund managers, stock brokers) and then at my Second Coming, you think I want the interest? This unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness. I could be completely misinterpreting this though. I do find the following verses to be really interesting... it is the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
I think we would do well to reread Matthew 25. Quick one line summary of the parable: The Sheep feeds the hungry, gives drink to the thirsty, takes in the stranger, clothes the naked, and visits the sick and those in prison. The Goats do not.
The Sheep are exalted and receive life eternal.
The Goats shall go away into everlasting punishment.
Maybe we can start giving some of those BILLIONS of dollars to the LEAST among us. Christ says that doing this is the same thing as giving it to Him. So maybe we don't need to wait to give him the lump sum when He comes again, but give it to the less fortunate NOW.
(and in my humble opinion, we would be even more "Profitable" servants)
"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."
From the Church Newsroom (was removed but has been archived HERE) Elder Andersen said the significance of the meeting with Vice President Mohadi was to "express to him our desire to help improve Zimbabwe." He noted that Vice President Mohadi had made a specific request for support with the development of clean-water wells in more remote areas of Zimbabwe."We want to help in every way we can," said Elder Andersen. "We are not a wealthy people but we are good people, and we share what we have," he added.
Posted by BARE RECORD OF TRUTH at 12:07 PM 1 comment:
2019.12.17 - WHAT WILL DESTROY ANY SOCIETY? WEALTH, POWER AND POPULARITY
In light of the recent events this past week, it is a good thing that we will be studying the Book of Mormon next year. Maybe we might take the prophesies and warnings seriously this time. The Book of Mormon warns us that there are four things that will destroy any society or institution. What are they? Wealth, Power, Popularity, and the Lusts of the Flesh. The Book of Mormon begins with Nephi's prophesy that the time will come that ALL churches which are built up to get gain and become popular in the eyes of the world and seek after the things of the world must be brought low.
"For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet." I Nephi 22:23 (Other verses to read: 2 Nephi 9:30; Alma 4:8; Helaman 7:12; 3 Nephi 6:15; Mormon 8:28)
For those who haven't read Hugh Nibley's BYU commencement speech given on August 19, 1983 here are a few highlights. The speech is called "Leaders and Managers". The full transcript can be found here.
"Most of you are here today (BYU graduates) only because you believe that this charade will help you get ahead in the world. But in the last few years things have got out of hand; "the economy," once the most important thing in our materialistic lives, has become the only thing. We have been swept up in a total dedication to "the economy," which like the massive mud slides of our Wasatch Front, is rapidly engulfing and suffocating everything. If President Kimball is "frightened and appalled" by what he sees, I can do no better than to conclude with his words: "We must leave off the worship of modern-day idols and a reliance on the 'arm of flesh,' for the Lord has said to all the world in our day, `I will not spare any that remain in Babylon...
Moroni disappeared from the scene, the old coalition "did obtain the sole management of the government," and immediately did "turn their backs upon the poor" (Helaman 6:39; emphasis added).. Such was the management that Moroni opposed. By all means, brethren, let us take "Captain Moroni" for our model, and never forget what he fought for—the poor, outcast, and despised; and what he fought against—pride, power, wealth, and ambition; or how he fought, as the generous, considerate, and magnanimous foe—a leader in every sense.
I sure hope this upcoming year that we don't treat the Book of Mormon lightly. Here are a few recent news items to consider that possibly the Book of Mormon is a warning to us.... and not just the rest of all of the other churches who amass wealth, power and popularity.
WEALTH: $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund. See story here:
"You can tell what's informed the society by the size of the what the building is that's the tallest building in the place. When you approach a medieval town, the cathedral's the tallest thing in the place. When you approach a 17th century city, it's the political palace that's the tallest thing in the place. And when you approach a modern city, it's office buildings and dwellings that are the tallest things in the place.
And if you go to Salt Lake City, you'll see the whole thing illustrated right in front of your face. First, the temple was built. The temple was built right in the center of the city. I mean, this was the proper organization, that's the spiritual center from which all flows in all directions. And then the capitol was built right beside the temple, and it's bigger than the temple. And now the biggest thing is the office building that takes care of the affairs of both the temple and the political building."
Excerpt from the transcript of an interview with Joseph Campbell, an American Professor of Literature. Full transcript found here.
The social media singing star, Claire Crosby has more than 6 million followers on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram with social media video views numbering more than 1 billion. What better way to get more popularity than to create a video of yourself playing the piano while she sings and then you post it all over social media. Link to video here.
2019.12.12 - GLOSSED OVER, PAVED OVER.. and SMOOTHED OVER
A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS:
GLOSSED OVER:
Just in case this event is glossed over.. I want to at least mention it here:
My family makes fun of me because I am a "moon" geek... sort of a "pseudo werewolf" because of my obsession at staring at the moon. I also like the symbolism of numbers. So for those symbolic "werewolfs" out there... the last full moon of this decade will take place in less than 12 hours on December 12th, and the instant that the moon is full is 12:12 a.m. (EST)..... 12/12@12:12!
I don't blame any of you for glossing over that. Super geeky.
PAVED OVER:
Over an acre of land in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City has been used for over 43 years as a community garden. However, the LDS Church will soon be shutting down the garden and paving over it with concrete. They are turning it into a parking lot. Here is the news article:
Community reacts to LDS Church's plans to level 43-year-old community garden
The reason for closing down the garden is because the LDS church is shuffling some of the SLC East side congregations. The Church is closing down the Douglas Ward Building due to diminishing attendance. It currently only has one congregation meeting there. Also the Church is selling another historic church building in the area to the University of Utah. So to accommodate the closing, the members will need to travel further to a new building.... and unfortunately they need more parking space. The community of gardeners who have enjoyed growing fresh vegatables for decades will need to find another way to be self-sufficient in growing their own food to make way for parked cars that will only use it for 2 hours on Sunday.
Here is a photo of the Douglas building that the LDS Church is closing down.
The Douglas Ward located on 721 S 1200 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
SMOOTHED OVER....
I starting writing about this months ago. However, I never posted it but thought it fit the theme of the blog title.
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in American history. The disaster on April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers as the oil rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico. It took nearly three months to stop the flow of oil. By then, four million barrels of crude had contaminated the ocean and the marine wildlife. The public was outraged at the oil company. BP hired some of the best Public Relations firms to try and regain public favor. Below is one of the commercials that was aired nationally.
Here is one of their feel good public relations videos:
Damage control is always needed whenever an institution makes a bad decision and they lose public favor. I use the above example as a backdrop for the following:
In the LDS Handbook of Instructions, there has always been a policy to restrict the baptism of children of polygamist families whose parents have practiced or are practicing plural marriage, an illegal form of marriage. However until recently the LDS handbook did NOT contain any restrictions for children whose parents are living in a same-gender relationship and considered LEGAL marriage.
To avoid a potential lawsuit that restricted one type of family that is not legal (polygamy) and not the other family which is LEGAL(same-sex marriage), the below policy was quietly added on November 15, 2017 to the LDS Handbook 1 of Instructions.
Here is the actual wording of the policy: (the bold word emphasis are mine)
There was NEVER a public announcement of the policy.
However, the policy was leaked to the public and the Church had a BP-type of disaster on their hands. Not only did the Church bar the children from baby blessings and baptism, but deeming same-sex married couples as "apostates" just like those practicing polygamy. It was reported in the local paper that "Hundreds, maybe more, resigned their church membership. Even believers felt wounded and betrayed. Families were torn. Tensions erupted. Some were disciplined by the church. Some died by suicide."
What some would view as caving into social pressure, the First Presidency reversed the policy in April of 2019.
The new policy was announced by President Dallin H Oaks, at a morning leadership training session for the area presidencies and top female officials.
"Effective immediately, children of parents who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender may be baptized without First Presidency approval," Oaks said, "if the custodial parents give permission for the baptism and understand both the doctrine that a baptized child will be taught and the covenants he or she will be expected to make. In addition, same-sex Latter-day Saint parents no longer will be seen as "apostates." In addition, officials said, the revamped policy clears the way for babies of such couples to be "blessed" in a traditional church ceremony.
This new policy changed was received as an overwhelming positive change. However, many started to question why the first policy was claimed as "revelation" in the first place.
So in order to smooth over and minimize the need for damage control, President Nelson spoke at BYU just days before the October Conference. His talk was broadcasted worldwide.
Here are some of his comments to "smooth over" the member's concerns over the revelation claims for this policy. The first "revelation" claim in 2015 to not allow children under 18 years of age to be baptized and then the "reversal revelation" in 2019.
"The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have continued to seek the Lord's guidance and to plead with Him in behalf of His children who were affected by the 2015 policy. We knew that this policy created concern and confusion for some and heartache for others. That grieved us. Whenever the sons and daughters of God weep—for whatever reasons—we weep. So our supplications to the Lord continued.
We also took note of LGBT parents who sought permission from the First Presidency for their children to be baptized. In nearly every case in which the LGBT parents agreed to teach their children about—and be supportive of—the covenant of baptism, the requested exception was granted.
As a result of our continued supplication, we recently felt directed to adjust the policy such that the baptism of children of LGBT parents may be authorized by bishops without First Presidency approval, if the custodial parents request the baptism and understand that a child will be taught about sacred covenants to be made at baptism.
We also determined that LGBT parents may request that a baby be named and blessed by one who worthily holds the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is important that these parents understand that ward members will contact them periodically and that when a child who has been blessed reaches eight years of age, local leaders will recommend that the child be baptized."
It is interesting to see the downplay of using "revelation". For example the word "They felt directed" and "They determined."
On such important matters, I wonder if it is too much to ask to actually hear the Lord's voice in any of these decisions, like the "Lord directed" or "He determined."
Posted by BARE RECORD OF TRUTH at 3:37 PM 4 comments:
2019.12.05 - A LOST DOCTRINE - "MAKING YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE"
"Give diligence to make your
calling and election sure."
2 Peter 1: 10
The assigned Sunday School lesson given last week in all of the LDS wards was on the Epistles of Peter. The Prophet Joseph Smith said that "Peter penned the most sublime language of any of the apostles" (History of the Church 5:392). However, it was interesting to see what was left out from the lesson manual.
Here is a screen shot from the "Come Follow Me" Lesson Manual for 2 Peter 1:1-11.
I don't disagree with the importance to identifying the Christlike qualities and inviting others to develop them more fully, however, I was surprised to see there was no mention of the verse found in 2 Peter 1: 10 about "giving diligence to make your calling and election sure."
Through out Joseph Smith's ministry, he emphasized and taught the members about the importance of receiving your calling and election. In his sermon delivered on the Nauvoo temple grounds on Friday May 12, 1844, Joseph said,
"Oh! I beseech you to forward, go forward and make your calling and your election sure---and if any man preach any other gospel with that which I have preached, he shall be cursed, and some of you who now hear me, shall see it & know that I testify the truth concerning them".
To beseech is to beg for urgently and fervently to do something.
It is interesting to point out that Joseph Smith said that if any man preach any other gospel (meaning not about making your calling and election sure).. he shall be cursed. Are we preaching another "gospel" today by never teaching or mentioning about the doctrine on making your calling and your election sure?
Joseph Smith said: "After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, is baptized for the remission of his sins, and receives the Holy Ghost (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness and living by every word of God. The Lord will soon say unto him, 'Son, thou shalt be exalted.' When the Lord has thoroughly proved him and finds that the man is determined to serve him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John [KJV], in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses" (TPJS, 150; WJS, 5; see John 9:7–9).
That "other Comforter" is Jesus Christ. The Lord has promised the Saints that it is our privilege to receive Him after our calling and election has been made sure. Receiving the Second Comforter means you will meet Christ. You will know, without a doubt, He exists. You will know, through Him, the atonement has been provided and the scriptures that testify of Him are true. You will no longer have faith in the existence of God nor in your standing before Him but will have knowledge.
Receiving an audience with the Second Comforter is the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is unfortunate that we have removed the reference about the Second Comforter from our scripture. I have written about that in a previous blog post. Here is the link: http://barerecord.blogspot.com/2014/04/258-now-what-is-this-other-comforter.html
We need to remember these lost doctrines that used to be taught back by Joseph Smith.
I close with Peter's words:
"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
Posted by BARE RECORD OF TRUTH at 10:08 AM 2 comments:
2019.12.18 - WHAT WOULD JESUS DO WITH 100 BILLION ...
2019.12.17 - WHAT WILL DESTROY ANY SOCIETY? WEALT...
2019.12.12 - GLOSSED OVER, PAVED OVER.. and SMOOT...
2019.12.05 - A LOST DOCTRINE - "MAKING YOUR CALLI...


text:
Q: Transforming Spark SQL AST with extraOptimizations I'm wanting to take a SQL string as a user input, then transform it before execution. In particular, I want to modify the top-level projection (select clause), injecting additional columns to be retrieved by the query.
I was hoping to achieve this by hooking into Catalyst using sparkSession.experimental.extraOptimizations. I know that what I'm attempting isn't strictly speaking an optimisation (the transformation changes the semantics of the SQL statement), but the API still seems suitable. However, my transformation seems to be ignored by the query executor.
Here is a minimal example to illustrate the issue I'm having. First define a row case class:
case class TestRow(a: Int, b: Int, c: Int)

Then define an optimisation rule which simply discards any projection:
object RemoveProjectOptimisationRule extends Rule[LogicalPlan] {
    def apply(plan: LogicalPlan): LogicalPlan = plan transformDown {
        case x: Project => x.child
    }
}

Now create a dataset, register the optimisation, and run a SQL query:
// Create a dataset and register table.
val dataset = List(TestRow(1, 2, 3)).toDS()
val tableName: String = "testtable"
dataset.createOrReplaceTempView(tableName)

// Register "optimisation".
sparkSession.experimental.extraOptimizations =
    Seq(RemoveProjectOptimisationRule)

// Run query.
val projected = sqlContext.sql("SELECT a FROM " + tableName + " WHERE a = 1")

// Print query result and the queryExecution object.
println("Query result:")
projected.collect.foreach(println)
println(projected.queryExecution)

Here is the output:
Query result:
[1]

== Parsed Logical Plan ==
'Project ['a]
+- 'Filter ('a = 1)
   +- 'UnresolvedRelation `testtable`

== Analyzed Logical Plan ==
a: int
Project [a#3]
+- Filter (a#3 = 1)
   +- SubqueryAlias testtable
      +- LocalRelation [a#3, b#4, c#5]

== Optimized Logical Plan ==
Filter (a#3 = 1)
+- LocalRelation [a#3, b#4, c#5]

== Physical Plan ==
*Filter (a#3 = 1)
+- LocalTableScan [a#3, b#4, c#5]

We see that the result is identical to that of the original SQL statement, without the transformation applied. Yet, when printing the logical and physical plans, the projection has indeed been removed. I've also confirmed (through debug log output) that the transformation is indeed being invoked.
Any suggestions as to what's going on here? Maybe the optimiser simply ignores "optimisations" that change semantics?
If using the optimisations isn't the way to go, can anybody suggest an alternative? All I really want to do is parse the input SQL statement, transform it, and pass the transformed AST to Spark for execution. But as far as I can see, the APIs for doing this are private to the Spark sql package. It may be possible to use reflection, but I'd like to avoid that.
Any pointers would be much appreciated.

A: As you guessed, this is failing to work because we make assumptions that the optimizer will not change the results of the query.
Specifically, we cache the schema that comes out of the analyzer (and assume the optimizer does not change it).  When translating rows to the external format, we use this schema and thus are truncating the columns in the result.  If you did more than truncate (i.e. changed datatypes) this might even crash.
As you can see in this notebook, it is in fact producing the result you would expect under the covers. We are planning to open up more hooks at some point in the near future that would let you modify the plan at other phases of query execution. See SPARK-18127 for more details.

A: Michael Armbrust's answer confirmed that this kind of transformation shouldn't be done via optimisations.
I've instead used internal APIs in Spark to achieve the transformation I wanted for now. It requires methods that are package-private in Spark. So we can access them without reflection by putting the relevant logic in the appropriate package. In outline:
// Must be in the spark.sql package.
package org.apache.spark.sql

object SQLTransformer {
    def apply(sparkSession: SparkSession, ...) = {

        // Get the AST.
        val ast = sparkSession.sessionState.sqlParser.parsePlan(sql)

        // Transform the AST.
        val transformedAST = ast match {
            case node: Project => // Modify any top-level projection
            ...
        }

        // Create a dataset directly from the AST.
        Dataset.ofRows(sparkSession, transformedAST)
    }
}

Note that this of course may break with future versions of Spark.


African Medical Investments is the parent company of VIP Healthcare Solutions Limited which provides healthcare in niche areas, particularly to the expanding African middle classes and the expatriate, non-governmental organisations, diplomatic and tourist markets.
VIP Healthcare currently manages the Airport Medical & Travel Vaccination Centre at Johannesburg International Airport and The Trauma Centre in Harare and its strategy is to develop VIP Healthcare into a leading owner and operator of trauma centres, well-woman clinics and boutique hospitals throughout Africa.
A 30 bed boutique hospital and well-woman clinic being planned in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and the Company are evaluating additional opportunities in other African countries, including in Lubumbashi in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Maputo in Mozambique.
Bitte klicken Sie hier um künftige Artikel über African Medical Investments zu bekommen.


text:
Last Minute Gift Ideas!
Christmas is right around the corner! But don't worry, we've got your back. Check out these last minute gift ideas. Don't forget, we offer instore pickup to save you some time.
In this third expansion to Wingspan, we welcome new species to our habitats by exploring the vibrant, intriguing, and magnificent birds of Asia. These birds were chosen from the over 2,800 species that live in Asia. Wingspan Asia is several different things: A stand-alone game for 1-2 players as well as a 6-7 player expansion for Wingspan.
OK Boomer levels the playing field so every generation can compete in this brand new twist on classic trivia! Players will attempt to correctly answer generation specific trivia questions on subjects like History, Science, Trends, Sports, and Entertainment.
Unmatched is a highly asymmetrical miniature fighting game for two or four players. Each hero is represented by a unique deck designed to evoke their style and legend. Tactical movement and no-luck combat resolution create a unique play experience that rewards expertise, but just when you've mastered one set, new heroes arrive to provide all new match-ups.
In Villainous, each player takes control of one of six Disney characters, each one a villain in a different Disney movie. Each player has their own villain deck, fate deck, player board, and 3D character.
Naasii is a push-your-luck style game of chance. Inspired by traditional Indigenous games and classic American family games. You'll roll twelve-sided dice aiming to score sets or runs while not busting along the way. Highest score wins, but it's not all luck. You'll need to decide which numbers to pursue and when you've scored enough to keep ahead of the other players. You'll even be able to pick a lucky number that will get you a few extra points on other players' turns!
Within the charming valley of Everdell, beneath the boughs of towering trees, among meandering streams and mossy hollows, a civilization of forest critters is thriving and expanding. From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a year have come and gone, but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities established. You will be the leader of a group of critters intent on just such a task. There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host—you have a busy year ahead of yourself. Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?
In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture!
Super-Skill Pinball: Holiday Special adds three tables to the game featuring Christmas movie classics. The beginner table is themed after Elf, where players follow Buddy to the North Pole. Then, the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation table has players shooting for a big Christmas Bonus. Finally, the A Christmas Story themed table brings leg lamps, a bunny suit, and an air rifle bonus to the mix.


With the largest selection of ferry routes and operators ferryto.co.uk is able to offer you the lowest ferry fares with online reservations on almost all ferries sailing from over twenty six different countries across Europe including ferries to and from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and the UK.
Booking your ferry ticket online is safe and secure.
click here for country specific ferry route information.
To make a commercial vehicle, coach party or group booking please click here.
To view an interactive map that will assist you choose the most suitable ferry route click here.
When booking your ferry ticket online a booking reference will be sent to you by email. On arrival at the port of departure present the booking reference number together with a photo ID and you will be given your ferry tickets.
To view specific information on a particular ferry route, destination or service click on the relevant area on the map below.
Our principals are all ABTA bonded companies providing you with the peace of mind that no matter what may happen your reservation is guaranteed.
To compare ticket prices and book a ferry ticket simply select your outward and return routes using the price check booknig engine at the top of this page, enter the number of passengers then click 'Get Price'.
Calais to Dover ferries ticket sales, timetables and tourist information. Book you Dover to Calais ferry ticket with Sea France, P&O Stena Ferry or Hoverspeed online and save.
Cruising holidays on the Shannon: Waveline Cruisers, Athlone, Ireland.
Waveline Cruisers, cruising boats on the Shannon, ideal for exploring the river in beautiful surroundings.
Dover Calais ferries have been a part of millions of peoples' holidays every year for a long time. In fact recently the port has seen in excess of 14 million passengers pass through it each year. It has the shortest crossing to mainland Europe and the most frequent services, and it is easily accessible to motorway and rail networks on both sides of the channel.
Cheap Calais Ferries. Book a cheap ferry to Calais. Low prices, special offers and discount fares.
Find Day Trip dover calais p o ferries po 15 return france in the Tickets Travel , Travel , Ferries Cruises category on eBay.ie.
Back to the category "Cross Channel Ferry"
Representing over 40 ferry operators offering services from Morocco and Tunisia in the south to Iceland in the far north ferryto.co.uk is able to offer you the widest selection of ferries at the lowest available prices.
Book your cross channel ferry tickets to and from the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Holland and Spain online in advance to benefit from exclusive online discounts of on almost all major ferry operators including P&O, Stenaline, Brittany Ferries, Seafrance and Irish Ferries.


Soroptimist Int'l of Mt. Adams recently honored recipients of this year's Youth Citizenship, Live Your Dream, and Ruby Awards. Pictured are (l to r, back row): Rosalyn Slater, Gracie Vaughan, Kinley Troh, Carolyn LaBerge, Emily Lockman, and Angelie Sampson. Front row, l to r: Kristin Franger, Corie Mathers, and Soroptimist co-presidents Imelda Padilla and Kirsten Poole. Not pictured: Debi Budnick.
Soroptimist International of Mt. Adams held its annual awards presentations on March 24 at the Columbia High School Library.
Two women received Soroptimist's Live Your Dream Education and Training Awards, which are given by Soroptimist clubs across the country to assist women who provide the primary source of financial support for their families by giving them the resources they need to improve their education, skills, and employment prospects. Kristin Franger and Corie Mathers each received $1,500.
The club's Ruby Award acknowledges women who are working to improve the lives of women and girls through their personal or professional activities. The club honored Debi Budnick, Community Health and Outreach coordinator at Skyline Hospital, and donated $250 in her honor to her charity of choice, Washington Gorge Action Programs.
Six young women graduating from local high schools this year were recognized for their outstanding contributions to home, school, community, country, and the world. The Youth Citizenship Awards are cash awards to support the recipients' continuing education. A total of $3,600 was distributed among the winners Carolyn LaBerge, Emily Lockman, Angelie Sampson, Rosalyn Slater and Gracie Vaughan from Columbia High School, and Kinley Troh from Glenwood High School.
Soroptimist is a global volunteer organization working to improve the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment. The Live Your Dream Awards are available for women in the Mt. Adams' club service area, which ranges from Dallesport to Stevenson, and includes the Mt. Adams valley. Internationally, Soroptimist annually supports over 1,500 women with over $2.0 million in education awards through their Live Your Dream Award program.
For more information, visit www.soroptimist.org, www.simtadams.org, or call Jan Callow at 541-806-0652.


Welcome new baby! What better way to show off their new name than through a custom calligraphy print!
This makes a perfect shower gift or nursery decoration!
Available in pink, blue or other colors by request.
This listing is for the print only. Frame and ribbon not included.
Each name is individually handwritten and made to order. Size is 5x7 with white ink on your choice of paper.
This is my original handlettering and artwork. Please do not copy or reproduce in any way.
PRETTY PLEASE don't forget to leave your desired names in the "personalization details" field below when you check out.


Pu-erh is an ancient healing tea picked from 500-year-old organic wild tea trees in the mountains of China�s Yunnan province. Once picked, tea leaves are piled, dampened, and turned over a 60-day period. We carry Numi Chocolate Pu-erh, a velvety creation that combines black pu-erh tea and organic cocoa, and Emperor�s Pu-erh, a deep, bold concoction that is smooth and earthy with hints of malt. Enjoy them both in this assorted case of six 16 packet boxes, totaling 96 tea bags.


text:
Q: Resize file browser bar in gedit I have Ubuntu 12.04 and I use File Browser Panel plugin in GEdit. I can increase the size of file browser bar. But the minimum width of file browser bar is about 30% of screen width. How to decrease minimum width of the File Browser bar in GEdit?
When I open gedit using terminal then I can decrease the size of the file browser bar. But when I open gedit without using terminal I can't be decrease the size of the file browser bar.

A: I removed GDP plugin from my gedit as mentioned here
Can I shrink gedit's side panel?


If you are looking for a great Taqueria in East Contra Costa County, look no further than La Costa in the East Bay City of Oakley, California. This local gem is a well-known institution to local residents. La Costa is located in a beautiful building across the street from the Oakley City Hall. The building features a large dining room and a fabulous outdoor shaded eating area.
East County locals may remember when La Costa was simply a walk-up food stand with outdoor picnic tables. La Costa opened the doors to its new building in Downtown Oakley in 2012. As part of the newly-renovated downtown, La Costa offers a great dining experience for both lunch and dinner. The dining room can accommodate large parties, and on warm days, patrons enjoy pleasant outdoor seating under the shaded trellis.
La Costa is a taqueria-style, Mexican food restaurant. The menu features Mexican staples including tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tostadas, nachos, menudo, ceviche, salads, and other special plates. Meat choices include carne asada, al pastor, carnitas, chile verde, pollo asada, lengua, and cabeza. In addition, seafood choices include camaron (shrimp), jaiba (crab), and pulpo (octopus). Of course, La Costa offers traditional Mexican rice and beans.
One of the defining features of La Costa, and a favorite of the Oakley Self Storage team, is the salsa bar! The salsa bar features a great variety of mild, medium, and hot salsas, as well as fresh radishes, onions, and of course, pickled and grilled jalepenos. Of course, La Costa offers a fine selection of imported Mexican beer! If you are looking for a great lunch place, after-work hangout, or salsa bar in East County, look no further than La Costa.
If you have never been to this local gem or if you are new to the East County (which includes the cities of Oakley, Brentwood, Antioch, Pittsburg, Discovery Bay), be sure to give La Costa a try. All of us here at Oakley Self Storage love La Costa, and we hope that you will love it too!
La Costa is located at 3100 Main Street in Oakley, California.


text:
View Proteins belonging to: The Cytohemolysin (CHL) Family
1.C.14 The Cytohemolysin (CHL) Family
The CHL family consists of hemolytic cytotoxins from various species of Vibrio, Aeromonas and Listonella. The proteins act on a variety of target animal cells such as enterocytes and immune cells. During secretion of the V. cholerae cytolysin, the N-terminal 25 residue leader peptide is cleaved off yielding an extracellular 79 kDa procytolysin which must be proteolytically activated. Removal of an N-terminal 14 kDa fragment of the procytolysin followed by further proteolytic cleavage in the C-terminal region yields an active 50 kDa species which oligomerizes in the presence of cholesterol-sphingolipid-containing membranes to generate a transmembrane water-filled pore of about 1.5 nm diameter. The complex is probably a homoheptamer (Olson & Gonaux, 2005). This family is distantly related to the αHL family (#1.C.3) of heptameric toxins from Gram-positive bacteria.
Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC; 1.C.14.1.1) is an oligomerizing pore-forming toxin that is related to cytolysins of many other Gram-negative organisms. VCC contains six cysteine residues, of which two are present in free sulphydryl form. Two intramolecular disulphide bonds are present, and one is essential for correct folding of protoxin. The pore-forming domain starts at residue 311, and forms a β-barrel in the assembled oligomer with the subsequent odd-numbered residues facing the lipid bilayer and even-numbered residues facing the lumen. The pore-forming domain of VCC is homologous to the β-barrel-forming sequence of staphylococcal cytolysins (TC# 1.C.3) (Valeva et al., 2005). The crystal structure of the heptamer reveals common features among disparate pore-forming toxins (De and Olson, 2011). A ring of tryptophan residues forms the narrowest constriction in the transmembrane channel reminiscent of the phenylalanine clamp identified in anthrax protective antigen (Krantz et al., 2005).
Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) is essential for high enterotoxicity and apoptosis induction (Saka et al., 2007). The crystal structure of the protoxin has been reported (1 XEZ_A) (Olson & Gonaux, 2005). Formation of an oligomeric Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) prepore may precede membrane insertion of the pore-forming amino acid sequence (Löhner et al., 2009). Pore formation by VCC follows the same archetypical pathway as beta-barrel cytolysins of gram-positive organisms such as staphylococcal alpha-toxin. Unfolding distinguishes the Vibrio cholerae cytolysin precursor from the mature form of the toxin (Paul and Chattopadhyay, 2011). Membrane pore formation by VCC involves four key steps: (i) membrane binding, (ii) formation of a pre-pore oligomeric intermediate, (iii) membrane insertion of the pore-forming motifs, and (iv) formation of the functional transmembrane pore, determined in part by the pH (Rai et al. 2015).
VCC) exhibits lectin-like activity by interacting with β1-galactosyl-terminated glycoconjugates. Apart from the cytolysin domain, VCC harbors two lectin-like domains: the β-Trefoil and the β-Prism domains. Rai et al (2012) showed that the β-Prism domain of VCC acts as the structural scaffold to determine the lectin activity of the protein toward β1-galactosyl-terminated glycoconjugates, and the presence of the β-Prism domain-mediated lectin activity is crucial for an efficient interaction of the toxin toward the target cells. Such lectin activity may regulate oligomerization of the membrane-bound toxin.
The HlyA monomer self-assembles on the target cell surface to the more stable beta-barrel amphipathic heptamer which inserts into the membrane bilayer to form a diffusion channel. Deletion of the 15-kDa beta-prism lectin domain at the C-terminus generates a 50-kDa hemolysin variant (HlyA50) with approximately 1000-fold decrease in hemolytic activity. Because functional differences are eventually dictated by structural differences, Dutta et al. (2009) determined three-dimensional structures of 65 and 50-kDa HlyA oligomers using cryo-electron microscopy and single particle methods. Their study shows that the HlyA oligomer has 7-fold symmetry, but the HlyA50 oligomer is an asymmetric molecule. The HlyA oligomer has bowl-like, arm-like and ring-like domains. Although a central channel is present in both HlyA and HlyA50 oligomers, they differ in pore-size as well as in shapes of the molecules and channel.
Vibrio vulnificus is an etiological agent causing systemic infections in immunocompromised humans and cultured eels (Miyoshi et al., 2011). It produces a hemolytic toxin consisting of the cytolysin domain and the lectin-like domain. For hemolysis, the lectin (ricin) domain specifically binds to cholesterol in the erythrocyte membrane. The toxin assembles on the membrane, and the cytolysin domain is essential for formation of a hollow oligomer. A three-dimensional structure model revealed that the two domains connect linearly, and the C-terminus is located near to the joint of the two domains. Insertion of amino acyl residues between these domains caused inactivation of the toxin, and deletions, substitutions or additions of residue also reduce activity. However, the cholesterol-binding ability was not affected by the mutations.
The generalized transport reaction catalyzed by members of the CHL family is:
Ions and solutes (in) ions and solutes (out)
Alm, R.A., U.H. Stroeher, and P.A. Manning. (1988). Extracellular proteins of Vibrio cholerae: Nucleotide sequence of the structural gene (hlyA) for the haemolysin of the haemolytic El Tor strain 017 and characterization of the hlyA mutation in the non-haemolytic classical strain 569B. Mol. Microbiol. 2: 481-488.	3050359
Chattopadhyay, K., D. Bhattacharyya, and K.K. Banerjee. (2002). Vibrio cholerae hemolysin. Eur. J. Biochem. 269: 4351-4358. 12199714
Cyr, N. (2018). Piercing the lipid raft: the case of cytolysin. Biochem. J. 475: 3917-3919.	30552169
De S., Bubnys A., Alonzo F 3rd., Hyun J., Lary JW., Cole JL., Torres VJ. and Olson R. (2015). The Relationship between Glycan Binding and Direct Membrane Interactions in Vibrio cholerae Cytolysin, a Channel-forming Toxin. J Biol Chem. 290(47):28402-15.	26416894
De, S. and R. Olson. (2011). Crystal structure of the Vibrio cholerae cytolysin heptamer reveals common features among disparate pore-forming toxins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108: 7385-7390.	21502531
Dutta S., Mazumdar B., Banerjee KK. and Ghosh AN. (2010). Three-dimensional structure of different functional forms of the Vibrio cholerae hemolysin oligomer: a cryo-electron microscopic study. J Bacteriol. 192(1):169-78.	19854900
Elluri, S., C. Enow, S. Vdovikova, P.K. Rompikuntal, M. Dongre, S. Carlsson, A. Pal, B.E. Uhlin, and S.N. Wai. (2014). Outer Membrane Vesicles Mediate Transport of Biologically Active Vibrio cholerae Cytolysin (VCC) from V. cholerae Strains. PLoS One 9: e106731.	25187967
Kathuria, R. and K. Chattopadhyay. (2018). Vibrio cholerae cytolysin: Multiple facets of the membrane interaction mechanism of a β-barrel pore-forming toxin. IUBMB Life 70: 260-266.	29469977
Khilwani, B. and K. Chattopadhyay. (2015). Signaling beyond Punching Holes: Modulation of Cellular Responses by Vibrio cholerae Cytolysin. Toxins (Basel) 7: 3344-3358.	26308054
Krantz, B.A., R.A. Melnyk, S. Zhang, S.J. Juris, D.B. Lacy, Z. Wu, A. Finkelstein, and R.J. Collier. (2005). A phenylalanine clamp catalyzes protein translocation through the anthrax toxin pore. Science 309: 777-781.	16051798
Lohner S., Walev I., Boukhallouk F., Palmer M., Bhakdi S. and Valeva A. (2009). Pore formation by Vibrio cholerae cytolysin follows the same archetypical mode as beta-barrel toxins from gram-positive organisms. FASEB J. 23(8):2521-8.	19276173
Miyoshi, S., Y. Abe, M. Senoh, T. Mizuno, Y. Maehara, and H. Nakao. (2011). Inactivation of Vibrio vulnificus hemolysin through mutation of the N- or C-terminus of the lectin-like domain. Toxicon 57: 904-908.	21426913
Mondal, A.K., P. Verma, N. Sengupta, S. Dutta, S.B. Pandit, and K. Chattopadhyay. (2020). Tyrosine in the hinge region of the pore-forming motif regulates oligomeric β-barrel pore formation by Vibrio cholerae cytolysin. Mol. Microbiol. [Epub: Ahead of Print]	33089544
Olson R, Gouaux E. (2005). Crystal structure of the Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) pro-toxin and its assembly into a heptameric transmembrane pore. J Mol Biol. 350: 997-1016.	15978620
Pantano, S. and C. Montecucco. (2006). A molecular model of the Vibrio cholerae cytolysin transmembrane pore. Toxicon 47: 35-40.	16330061
Paul K. and Chattopadhyay K. (2012). Single point mutation in Vibrio cholerae cytolysin compromises the membrane pore-formation mechanism of the toxin. FEBS J. 279(21):4039-51.	22934938
Paul K. and Chattopadhyay K. (2014). Pre-pore oligomer formation by Vibrio cholerae cytolysin: insights from a truncated variant lacking the pore-forming pre-stem loop. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 443(1):189-93.	24291710
Paul, K. and K. Chattopadhyay. (2011). Unfolding distinguishes the Vibrio cholerae cytolysin precursor from the mature form of the toxin. Biochemistry 50: 3936-3945.	21491932
Rai AK. and Chattopadhyay K. (2014). Trapping of Vibrio cholerae cytolysin in the membrane-bound monomeric state blocks membrane insertion and functional pore formation by the toxin. J Biol Chem. 289(24):16978-87.	24794872
Rai AK. and Chattopadhyay K. (2015). Revisiting the membrane interaction mechanism of a membrane-damaging beta-barrel pore-forming toxin Vibrio cholerae cytolysin. Mol Microbiol. 97(6):1051-62.	26059432
Rai AK., Kundu N. and Chattopadhyay K. (2015). Physicochemical constraints of elevated pH affect efficient membrane interaction and arrest an abortive membrane-bound oligomeric intermediate of the beta-barrel pore-forming toxin Vibrio cholerae cytolysin. Arch Biochem Biophys. 583:9-17.	26235489
Rai, A.K. and K. Chattopadhyay. (2016). Revisiting the oligomerization mechanism of Vibrio cholerae cytolysin, a β-barrel pore-forming toxin. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 474: 421-427.	27150630
Rai, A.K., K. Paul, and K. Chattopadhyay. (2013). Functional mapping of the lectin activity site on the β-prism domain of vibrio cholerae cytolysin: implications for the membrane pore-formation mechanism of the toxin. J. Biol. Chem. 288: 1665-1673.	23209283
Rivas, A.J., G. von Hoven, C. Neukirch, M. Meyenburg, Q. Qin, S. Füser, K. Boller, M.L. Lemos, C.R. Osorio, and M. Husmann. (2015). Phobalysin, a Small β-Pore-Forming Toxin of Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae. Infect. Immun. 83: 4335-4348.	26303391
Saka H.A., C. Bidinost, C. Sola, P. Carranza, C. Collino, S. Ortiz, J.R. Echenique, J.L. Bocco. (2008). Vibrio cholerae cytolysin is essential for high enterotoxicity and apoptosis induction produced by a cholera toxin gene-negative V. cholerae non-O1, non-O139 strain. Microb Pathog. 44: 118-128.	17919878
Sengupta, N., A.K. Mondal, S. Mishra, K. Chattopadhyay, and S. Dutta. (2021). Single-particle cryo-EM reveals conformational variability of the oligomeric VCC β-barrel pore in a lipid bilayer. J. Cell Biol. 220:.	34617964
Valeva, A., I. Walev, F. Boukhallouk, T.M. Wassenaar, N. Heinz, J. Hedderich, S. Lautwein, M. Möcking, S. Weis, A. Zitzer, and S. Bhakdi. (2005). Identification of the membrane penetrating domain of Vibrio cholerae cytolysin as a β-barrel structure. Mol. Microbiol. 57: 124-131.	15948954
von Hoven, G., A.J. Rivas, C. Neukirch, M. Meyenburg, Q. Qin, S. Parekh, N. Hellmann, and M. Husmann. (2017). Repair of a Bacterial Small β-Barrel Toxin Pore Depends on Channel Width. MBio 8:.	28196960
Zitzer, A., O. Zitzer, S. Bhakdi, and M. Palmer. (1999). Oligomerization of Vibrio cholerae cytolysin yields a pentameric pore and has a dual specificity for cholesterol and sphingolipids in the target membrane. J. Biol. Chem. 274: 1375-1380.	9880509


Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday launched an ambitious, VND10 trillion (442.5 million USD) project to control flooding in the downtown area.
The project aims to protect about 6.5 million people in the downtown area of 570 sq.km from tidal flooding, which has become more serious with rising sea level and sinking land as a result of climate change and urbanisation.
The project investor, Trung Nam Group, will build six big tide-controlling sluices, which when finished will allow boats and ships going through.
The project also includes the construction of a 7.8 km dyke along Sai Gon River from Vam Thuat to Song Kinh and 25 small sluices from Vam Thuat to Muong Chuoi.
The project spans across District 1, 4, 7, 8, Nha Be and Binh Chanh districts. Around 300 families of 1,500 people will be relocated.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the project has a great significance to development of HCMC.


Hello, my name is Rachel Ain and I am a Realtor & Senior Real Estate Specialist.
I started my career in high-end interior design, where I learned much about form, function and flow. This knowledge served me well in my transition to Real Estate. I help clients envision different possibilities for their spaces and help them lay out their furniture in new homes.
My goal in every transaction, Senior to Millenial, is to have happy, satisfied buyers, sellers, and cooperating agents. I approach this goal with open and frequent communication, strategic negotiation, and hard work. It helps that my B.A. is in Communication!
When I'm not selling real estate, you can find me volunteering with various organizations in the Foothill Communities, playing soccer at the park with my two rambunctious kids, or reading Jane Austen when I get a rare quiet moment!


text:
The Botanist's 'secret garden' in Alderley Edge is reopening two weeks early
One of Alderley Edge's most popular hangouts is reopening its "not-so-secret" garden area just in time for the Bank Holiday.
Now that 'Step Two' in the government's roadmap to lifting England's current national lockdown has commenced – which crucially allowed hospitality businesses to reopen for outdoor service only – The Botanist has announced plans to reopen doors to its Alderley Edge venue at the end of this month, which is two weeks earlier than initially planned to give fans the chance to get their fix.
While there will be a collection of tables out front of the much-loved venue, the real magic happens behind the building.
Located to the rear of the London Road bar and restaurant, The Botanist's secret garden features a number of socially-distanced tables and benches surrounded by plants, botanicals, and a signature plant silhouette mural.
https://www.facebook.com/TheBotanist/posts/4561646003864556
A selection of fan-favourite cocktails and a delicious line-up of draft beer – including Spanish lager Madri – will be on offer, alongside an extensive food menu and The Botanist's famous hanging kebabs.
The Botanist's in-venue app is designed to ensure a smooth, seamless and COVID-safe alfresco service, to make sure guests get their favourite dishes and drinks as quickly as possible.
Walk-ins will be welcomed daily, and you can also make a booking in advanced.
Speaking ahead of next weekend's reopening, Leane Patching – from The Botanist Alderley Edge – said: "We're delighted to be able to open a few weeks earlier than originally anticipated [and] we're hoping for a warm May Bank Holiday – but we have heaters should the British weather not play its part".
The Botanist Alderley Edge reopens to the public on Friday 30th April.
Bookings are now open for both the outdoor terrace – between 30th April and 16th May – and the whole venue from 17th May onwards.
You can make a booking here.
Featured Image – The Botanist Alderley Edge
Romantic restaurants in Manchester that are perfect for Valentine's Day 2023
This Manchester pub is serving a pay-as-you-feel Sunday roast
Nando's brings out new spice level so hot you have to sign a 'liability waiver'
The Oldham institution where you can buy EVERYTHING, visit a tiny pub and eat the best butter chicken curry
KSI and Logan Paul's viral energy drink Prime has had shoppers fighting in Aldi