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A story-telling tombstone: McKinnis
The McKinnis family stone at Mount Zion is stepped to represent the ages of the four family members who died on 1 April 1893 --- Billie Ted, age 10; Henry, 12; John, 19; and their father, Henry, 51.
One mark of a great tombstone is that it tells a story. The McKinnis family stone in Liberty Township's Mount Zion Cemetery does that in many ways, moving it near the top of the list of Lucas County's best.
The tragedy that led to its creation occurred on 1 April 1893 while four members of the McKinnis family were operating a sawmill in the timber along White Breast Creek that flows just south of the cemetery, located north of Oakley. The four were Henry McKinnis, age 51, and three of his sons, John, 19; Henry, 12; and Billie Ted, 10.
Sawmill blades of that era were were turned by steam-powered engines, machines that required careful monitoring to ensure that water levels in the boilers and steam pressures remained at safe levels.
On that day, water level in the boiler dropped and Henry McKinnis Sr. told 12-year-old Henry Jr. to climb up with a bucket of water and fill it. The resulting explosion triggered by the cold water reportedly was heard for miles. Three died instantly --- Henry Sr., Henry Jr., whose body was blown tree-top high, and little Billie Ted. John, 19, was still alive and conscious, laying on the creek bank, when his mother, Elizabeth, arrived on the scene.
The four were buried together at Mount Zion, youngest to oldest, north to south, and this remarkable tombstone erected to tell their stories. It consists of four stair-stepped panels (reflecting the respective ages of those whose graves it marks), each with a curved top, carved from a single slab of white marble. Henry McKinnis Sr.'s mother, Margaret (Times) McKinnis, had been buried on his lot during 1886.
The years have eroded the marble, so the inscriptions are difficult to read now. They are, from north to south, as follows:
BILLIE TED
Born in Marion Co., Iowa
Died April 1, 1893
Aged 10 yrs. 5 mos. & 24 ds.
Jolly, laughing little Teddy's (illegible).
He was an angel on earth, but now
he is an angel in Heaven.
Died Apr. 1, 1893
This boy went to the boiler's top,
Obeying his Father's command.
When he poured his bucket of cold water in,
The flues did all expand.
JOHN O.
Born in Marion Co. Iowa
Aged 19 yrs. 3 mos. & 3 ds.
His parting words I shall never forget.
Said he, Ma your time to die will come.
It matters not whom we leave here yet,
Soon we will all be gathered home.
HENRY McKINNIS
Born in Putnam Co. Ohio
Aged 51 yrs. & 5 mos.
Four loving ones from us have gone.
Four voices we loved are stilled.
A place is vacant in our home.
That never can be filled.
Co. B, 3 Iowa Inf. Vol.
Soldier rest
Husband and Sons of Elizabeth E. McKinnis
Keep your lamps trimmed and burning for in an hour when ye knoweth not, the Son of Man cometh.
Looking northeast down the Whitebreast Creek valley from Mount Zion Cemetery's hilltop. Whitebreast Creek flows along the cemetery's south border.
To reach Mount Zion from Chariton, drive two miles west on U.S. 34, then turn right (north) on paved county road S23. Drive about seven and a half miles north, past Oakley, then turn left (west) on a gravel lane just north of the White Breast Creek bridge.
A marker and flagpole indicate where Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church once was located. The building was torn down in 1979.
Once atop the cemetery hill, the turn-around circles the site of Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church marked by a small memorial and a flag pole. The sweeping view to the east is down the White Breast Creek valley. The McKinnis stones are located next to the woods that border the cemetery on the south about half way from west to east in the original cemetery.
THE NEWSPAPER REPORTS
The April 1, 1893, tragedy in Liberty Township that claimed the lives of Henry McKinnis and three of his sons was reported in surviving issues of both The Chariton Patriot (5 April 1893) and The Chariton Herald (6 April 1893) with a few obvious errors, especially regarding the names and ages of the victims. The scene of the accident, after all, was some distance from Chariton and it wasn't possible to jump in the car and chase ambulances and fire trucks in those days. So reports of this sort usually were second-hand, based upon conversations with witnesses and what others had heard. Nor were there official reports to rely upon.
The Herald report, published under the headline "Terrible Explosion," was the more complete of the two:
"On last Saturday afternoon about 2 o'clock the boiler of Henry McKinnis' sawmill, situated about two miles southwest of Newbern, in Liberty Tp. this county, exploded with terrific force, killing the proprietor and three sons, who were working with him at the mill, aged respectively 52, 19, 12 and 10 years.
"Mrs. McKinnis and four small children, who are left in comparatively destitute circumstances by his terrible dispensation, were at the dwelling near by at the time of the occurrence. She hastened to the mill where a heart-rending scene presented itself that was enough to appall the stoutest-hearted of the human race.
"The husband and father was found 75 yards from the mill gasping in the last throes of death, and wholly unconscious of her presence he uttered one solitary groan and life became extinct. The eldest son, John, was found some 10 yards farther away, conscious, but in a dying condition. He enquired of his mother what had happened and where he was. The distracted mother hurriedly explained to him the sad catastrophe and sought to relieve his sufferings, with the aid of neighbors, who, alarmed by the explosion had quickly gathered upon the ground, but their efforts were of no avail, and death claimed his victim in less that one short hour. The 10 year old boy, Fred (Ted), was found dead near by a pile of lumber in the yard, against which he had been thrown head foremost, with his skull mashedin. The body of Henry, Jr., the 12 year old son, who was acting as engineer and fireman, was literally blown to atoms, pieces of which were gathered up at a distance of 300 yards, one arm not being found till Sunday morning, and some portions of his body could not be found.
"The remains of the unfortunate victims were gathered up and prepared for burial as best it could be done by the kindly hands of sympathizing neighbors and were interred in one grave at the Baptist cemetery near Oakley on Sunday afternoon. The grief stricken have the sympathy of all human hearts who have learned of their sad bereavement.
"The particulars as to the cause of the accident is shrouded in mystery never to be revealed, as there was no one about the mill at the time save those whose lives were extinguished as by the besom of destruction. The boiler was an old one, out of repair and in a leaking condition. A short time before the explosion, a neighbor was at the mill and observed that the water was low in the boiler, that the pump was not throwing as it should and the engineer was working at it and trying to get water into the boiler. It is supposed that the water kept running down in the boiler until it became dry and hot, and when the stream of cold water was finally started the inevitable explosion took place. This is about the only plausible theory, and under such circumstances no other result could reasonably have been expected. How any rational man could have been so reckless or thoughtless is one of the human mysteries that are almost daily brought to public attention."
The Patriot of 5 April 1893 reported on the McKinnis tragedy in an article headlined "A Terrible Accident at Lacona" and datelined "Lacona, April 1." That report stated that the accident occurred at 3:30 p.m. and reported, "McKinnis lived at Lacona with his wife and family. He was a well known character and has for years been engaged in operating a portable saw mill in various parts of Warren county and several days ago he moved his plant to the woods three and one-half miles south of Lacona and near Oakley and began work for the farmers in the victinity."
The Patriot also reported that "The noise of the explosion was heard for several miles and the excited farmers who at once rushed to the scene found nothing but the dead and mangled bodies of the father and of the two other boys, who died soon afterward. For some time no trace could be found of Henry, the 15-year-old son, and there were hopes that he had escaped, but after further search one foot and part of his skull were picked up 300 yards from the scene of the explosion."
THE McKINNIS FAMILY AND THE AFTERMATH
Henry McKinnis, a native of Ohio, had arrived in Marion County, Iowa, with his parents, James and Margaret McKinnis, prior to 1858 when James McKinnis died on 8 September and was buried in Compentine Cemetery.
Henry married Eleanor Elizabeth Gilchrist on 30 January 1873 in Marion County, where they still lived in 1880. They reportedly moved the area of Oakley, Lucas County, soon thereafter.
Margaret McKinns, Henry's mother, moved to Lucas County with the family and died there on April 4, 1886, aged "about" 75 years. Her grave was the first on the McKinnis lot at Mount Zion.
Following the death of Henry and the couple's three oldest children, Elizabeth and the remaining younger children --- Nancy, Charles, Nelson and Jennie (only a year old when her father and brothers were killed) seem to have moved around quite a bit, no doubt struggling to make a living.
Elizabeth, Charles, Nelson and Jennie were farming in Lick Creek Township, Van Buren County, Iowa, when the 1900 federal census was taken.
At some point after that, the family moved west. Charles reportedly went to work in the mines near Roundup in Musselshell County, Montana, due north of Billings, in 1909. By 1914, the remainder of the family was living there as well.
The tombstone of Elizabeth, Nelson and Ruth McKinnis in Roundup, Montana.
Elizabeth died at Roundup on 29 December 1920 and shares a tombstone in the Roundup cemetery with her son and daughter-in-law, Nelson and Ruth McKinnis. Nancy, whose married name was Morse, died March 7, 1965, in Spokane, Wash., and is buried in Greenwood Memorial Terrace cemetery there. Charles died March 29, 1969, at Roundup and is buried in Custer National Cemetery, Crow Agency, Big Horn County, Montana. Nelson died Sept. 24, 1926, at Roundup. Jennie McKinnis (Miller) died May 23, 1975, in Billings and is buried at Wolf Point Cemetery, Roosevelt County, Montana.


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Family Sundays
Steven Matz
Mets Needed To Agree To Long Term Extensions With Arbitration Eligible Players
Like it has been for most of their history, the Mets are currently build on starting pitching. That presents a problem for this organization because they will soon be in the unenviable position of having to rebuild their rotation over the ensuing few offseasons.
After the 2020 season, Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello are going to be free agents. As a result, the Mets are going to have to address 2/5 of their starting rotation after the season.
The Mets will have to face the same exact situation the ensuing offseason as both Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz will be free agents after the 2021 season. That means over the course two years, the Mets are going to have to address how they want to handle 80% of their starting rotation.
Complicating matters is Michael Conforto hitting free agency the same time as Syndergaard and Matz as well as the shallow upper parts of the Mets farm system. How the Mets choose to address their rotation will be vitally important as Jacob deGrom has an opt out after the 2022 season.
After that 2022 season, Brandon Nimmo will be a free agent, Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil will be first time arbitration eligible, and Amed Rosario will be heading into his last season under team control. This means the Mets core is going to be quite expensive and on their way out to parts unknown over the next few seasons.
At this point, we should all be wondering what exactly is the plan here.
At times, the Mets seem all-in. We saw that not just with trading away prospects to get Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz, but we also saw that with the Mets trading away prospects like Blake Taylor, Ross Adolph, Luis Santana, and Adam Hill for what amounted to be nothing more than complementary pieces.
On the other hand, the Mets don't see remotely all-in when they fail to address the back-up catching situation and let Zack Wheeler, their second best pitcher over the past two years, leave the Mets to go to the Philadelphia Phillies. Couple that with the Mets not making a push for players like Gerrit Cole, Bryce Harper, and Manny Machado, or being active on the trade market for players like Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts, or Francisco Lindor, this seems more and more like a team without a clear direction.
Now, part of that can just be a result of how ineptly the Wilpons and Brodie Van Wagenen have run this organization. Another aspect can be this team being in a relative holding pattern until Steve Cohen's purchase of the club is finalized and approved. There may be other factors at play, and really, at this point, we are all just guessing.
What we do know is based on the control over the current core, the Mets window to compete for a World Series is right now, and the team has done little to push the team over the top. We also know that until this core is extended, the Mets window is going to be limited to just these two years.
When you look at things through this prism, you see the need to give extensions to at least some of your core. Certainly, that is the case when the goal is sustained winning and not just short windows. In theory, there is still 10 months to do that, but at the moment, the Mets have missed their biggest and perhaps best opportunity to do it once again leaving the impression this is an organization without a clear direction.
Adam Hill , Amed Rosario , Blake Taylor , Brandon Nimmo , Edwin Diaz , Jacob deGrom , Jeff McNeil , Luis Santana , Marcus Stroman , Michael Conforto , Noah Syndergaard , Peter Alonso , Rick Porcello , Robinson Cano , Ross Adolph , Steven Matz , Zack Wheeler
'Twas Five Years Before Cohen
'Twas five years before Cohen, when all through the Citi
Not a dollar was whirling, not even a fifty.
The equipment was hung in the clubhouse with care,
In hopes a free agent soon would be there.
Jeff was nestled all snug in his bed,
While visions of insurance savings danced in his head.
And Fred in his 'kerchief, and Saul in his cap,
Began preparing for when they took that one final nap.
When out on the news wire there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my seat to see what was the matter.
Away to Twitter I flew like a flash,
Sifted through the notification and ignored the trash.
A new moon on the New York baseball shown
The chance of the Wilpons money no longer be sown.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Steve Cohen, and some reason to cheer.
With a new owner, so wealthy and smart,
I knew in a moment the Wilpons ways will part.
More rapid than eagles the hope sure came,
Mets whistled, and shouted, and called extensions by name!
"Now Matz! now, Thor! now, Marcus and Lugo!
On, Nimmo! On, Alonso! on, on McNeil and Conforto!
To the top of the norn! before next fall!
Extend them! Extend them! Extend them all!"
As quality free agents sign and poor excuses once fly,
Finances no longer an obstacle, debt reaching the sky.
So among the fanbase optimism grew,
Jeff Wilpon soon to be gone, and Van Wagenen too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard through the wall
The prancing and pawing of agents who now call.
As the Mets try to get ahead, and turn things around,
Soon gone are the Wilpons ways which always confound.
Cohen was dressed all in Mets gear, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes not tarnished with Brooklyn Dodgers adorations afoot.
A bundle of cash he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a legitimate owner, hanging over a stack.
Our eyes—how they twinkled! our moods how merry!
A leader like Moses, and nothing like Terry!
Boras' droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the green in his eyes from money now aflow
The stump of a pencil Cohen held tight in his teeth,
Writing to Jeff that only in title he will be chief.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
Which hungered to see a Mets winner playing on his telly!
He loved his art, some displayed on a shelf,
One piece alone worth more than all of Fred's wealth
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
In five years Cohen will leave experts to their work,
Suddenly we won't see micromanaging from some little jerk.
Injured players no longer needing to ignore doctors they chose,
Now healthy teams playing Mets foes!
He sprang to the bank, to his team gave a whistle,
As homers and fastballs firing faster than a missle.
But I heard him exclaim causing a lot of mayhem,
"Happy Christmas to all, and all a L-F-G-M!"
Brandon Nimmo , Jeff McNeil , Marcus Stroman , Michael Conforto , Noah Syndergaard , Peter Alonso , Seth Lugo , Steven Matz , Terry Collins
Mets World Series Window Is Just Two Years
For a moment, let's assume the 2019 season was similar to the 1998 or 2005 season in that it was a stepping stone to real World Series contention.
There is legitimate hope for that. Pete Alonso had an all-time great rookie season. Jeff McNeil proved his rookie year wasn't a fluke.
Amed Rosario seemingly turned the corner. Michael Conforto looked completely healthy, and Brandon Nimmo showed in September he's healthy and ready to perform again at his 2018 level.
Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in the game, and Seth Lugo is the best reliever.
There is reasonable expectation for bounce-back years from Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, and Noah Syndergaard. That goes double with Jeremy Hefner as the new pitching coach.
While we can and should dicker about whether the 2020 team will be better than the 2019 team, there is hope for optimism as Carlos Beltran begins his second act in a New York Mets uniform.
Behind that optimism is a cold dose of reality.
We didn't know it in 1998, but that Mike Piazza led team had two seasons as a contender. That was basically the same case with the David Wright and Jose Reyes led 2005 team we all thought would be good forever. This will likely be the same fate this core faces.
After the 2020 season, Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello will be free agents leaving the team to try to scramble to either re-sign them or attempt to sign a starter from a free agent class nowhere as good as the one which saw the Mets lose Zack Wheeler.
After 2021, Michael Conforto, Steven Matz, and Noah Syndergaard will be free agents. That leaves the Mets looking to invest in four spots in the rotation over the next two years as the farm system is not prepared to provide that help in a way it could've if Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, and Simeon Woods Richardson were still with the organization.
Yes, we should see David Peterson grab one of those rotation spots, and a Stephen Gonsalves or Franklyn Kilome may emerge. However, they likely don't have the same ceiling the 2015 – 2019 rotations had thereby eliminating the key competitive advantage the Mets had.
If you really want a heavy dose of reality look a year past that, and you'll see Nimmo and Lugo will be a free agents, and deGrom can opt out of his deal. That's going to happen as Alonso, McNeil, and Rosario are likely getting big arbitration salaries.
This means by 2022 this entire core could be completely gone with Alonso being the player designated to build around much in the same way the Mets opted Wright for that honor.
Overall, this means unless things change dramatically, the Mets have a two year window. That could be opened longer if Steve Cohen flexes some financial muscle, and/or he opts to bring in an actually qualified and competent GM to replace Brodie Van Wagenen.
To that end, there's hope even if Jeff Wilpon will be running the show. On that point, we can all hope it's just a title with no real opportunity to drag the organization down.
No matter what the case, it's imperative the Mets realize this is their shot, and they need to start acting like it instead of making a series of half measures hoping it adds up to a whole competing roster.
Amed Rosario , Anthony Kay , Brandon Nimmo , Carlos Beltran , David Peterson , Edwin Diaz , Franklyn Kilome , Jacob deGrom , Jarred Kelenic , Jeff McNeil , Jeremy Hefner , Jeurys Familia , Jose Reyes , Justin Dunn , Marcus Stroman , Michael Conforto , MIke Piazza , Noah Syndergaard , Peter Alonso , Rick Porcello , Seth Lugo , Simeone Woods Richardson , Stephen Gonsalves , Steven Matz , Zack Wheeler
Rick Porcello Another Mets Fan
As we discovered, Rick Porcello turned down more money from the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox (a recurring theme) to sign with the New York Mets. Apparently, part of the reason was his growing up a Mets fan. Really, Porcello is one of us:
Rick Porcello said he "cried his eyes out" when the Mets lost the Subway Series to the Yankees in 2000.
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinMedia) March 8, 2015
His being drawn to tears after Mike Piazza flew out to Bernie Williams is going to resonate with this fanbase because those of us who experience it felt the same way even if we did not have a Wilmer Flores moment.
Porcello is one of us which means he gets it. That makes him one of another player on this team who lived and died with this team.
When he signed with the team, Brad Brach talked about how he bought a Mets jersey and went to the 2015 World Series.
Marcus Stroman wore a Darryl Strawberry jersey to the ballpark before his Citi Field debut. He has also spoken about how he wants the team to bring back the black jerseys tweeting out a picture of Pedro Martinez wearing one.
That's a refrain we've heard from Pete Alonso, who while he did not particularly grow up a Mets fan, was a big Piazza fan.
Finally, there is Steven Matz who was a Long Islander who grew up a Mets fan. He'd have his whole family at his debut leading to everyone falling in love with his grandfather.
Mostly, we all love this Mets team, and really, we love these players. It's a very likable team who just gets it. Porcello seems to be more of the same which is great. Hopefully, Porcello will have us crying "tears of joy" after the season.
No matter what, we know how much this team means to him, and we know he's going to give it everything he has. If for no other reason, this is going to make it even easier for us all to root for him.
Brad Brach , Darryl Strawberry , Marcus Stroman , MIke Piazza , Pedro Martinez , Peter Alonso , Rick Porcello , Steven Matz , Wilmer Flores
How Brodie Van Wagenen Damaged Mets Rotation
When looking at the Robinson Cano trade, the main focus has been on Edwin Diaz's struggles as well as the loss of Jarred Kelenic. Lost in that is just how much this trade has impacted the Mets starting rotation, which has been the strength of this team.
This offseason, the Mets have already lost Zack Wheeler to the rival Philadelphia Phillies. Wheeler desperately wanted to stay a Met, but he was not offered a contract to stay with the Mets despite giving the team the last chance to sign him. That decision was made all the more damning when you consider Wheeler was not taking the largest contract offered to him, and the $118 million deal he accepted was really less than he was worth.
Realistically speaking, the Mets passed on Wheeler because the team is estimated to be roughly $17 million under the competitive balance tax threshold, and indications are the team will be unwilling to raise their budget to those heights. Signing Wheeler would have required them to go over that threshold. Of course, the Mets would have more money to spend if they were not paying Cano $20.25 million per year. Had the trade not transpired, the Mets could have just reallocated that money to Wheeler.
With this being the Mets, the team let Wheeler walk in free agency because the team does not typically like to invest that much money in free agency. Had the Cano trade not transpired, the Mets could have looked to have Justin Dunn replace him in the rotation.
In fact, Dunn made his Major League debut with the Mariners last year. In his four starts, he held his own going 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA and a 1.650 WHIP. The Mariners had him on a very limited pitch count, so really this served nothing more than to get his feet wet and show he could potentially be a part of the 2020 rotation. Arguably, Dunn did that.
In addition to Dunn, there was Anthony Kay, who was traded along with Simeon Woods Richardson to the Toronto Blue Jays for Marcus Stroman. As noted by Andy Martino of SNY, one of the reasons the Mets obtained Stroman was to prepare for the eventuality of Wheeler departing in free agency.
There's some problems with that rationale. First and foremost, Stroman isn't really a replacement for Wheeler when both were in the same rotation last year. The other issue is Stroman is a free agent after the 2020 season, which just delays the problem by a year.
Looking towards 2021, both Dunn and Kay should be established Major League starters. Like Dunn, Kay would make his debut last year, and like Dunn, he would really show he could be a part of a 2020 rotation with his allowing two runs or fewer in two of his three starts.
Ideally, the Mets could have had both Kay and Dunn in the rotation with Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz in 2021. That could have proven to be a formidable rotation, and going back to the Cano trade, Kelenic would have been primed to make his Major League debut playing in the outfield between Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto while also appearing in a lineup with Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil.
However, by 2021, the Mets will likely have a rotation without Wheeler, Stroman, Dunn, and Kay. They will also be in a similar position to where they are now looking for a way to replace Syndergaard and Matz in the rotation. Sadly, while we all focus on Kelenic, and justifiably so, the real ramifications of the Cano trade will be the impact on the Mets rotation.
The only hope we have at the moment is Steve Cohen's purchase of the team will allow him to keep this core together and build off of it in free agency. Of course, with Van Wagenen remaining the General Manager, the Wilpons staying in charge for five years, and with the team still on an austerity plan at the moment, the hopes seem to be further out than the near distant future. As such, all that Van Wagenen has wrought is still a significant issue.
Anthony Kay , Brandon Nimmo , Edwin Diaz , Jacob deGrom , Jarred Kelenic , Jeff McNeil , Justin Dunn , Marcus Stroman , Michael Conforto , Noah Syndergaard , Peter Alonso , Robinson Cano , Simeon Woods Richardson , Steven Matz , Zack Wheeler
Mets Things To Be Thankful For
With today being Thanksgiving, it is time to go around the Mets roster and say things we are thankful for:
Pete Alonso – he's been better than even the highest and most absurd expectations anyone could have of him both in terms of his on the field play as well as the type of teammate and person he is
Carlos Beltran – for coming home
Robinson Cano – showed some late positive exit velocities showing there is some hope for a 2020 rebound
Yoenis Cespedes – for everyone questioning the drive of a man severely injured and needing career saving surgery, he is out there in the cold taking batting practice
Michael Conforto – re-established himself as one of the best young corner outfielders in the game, and with his talent, he's on the verge of an MVP caliber season
J.D. Davis – quickly became a fan favorite and like few others seemed to really enjoy being a New York Met.
Jacob deGrom – best pitcher in baseball and starting to etch his likeness on the Mets Mt. Rushmore
Edwin Diaz – he survived the season, made no excuses, and he is doing what he needs to do to be the pitcher he was in 2018.
Jeurys Familia – he stopped using "Danza Kudro" meaning we no longer go to very bad places when that music begins blaring
Luis Guillorme – proved if given a chance he is a Major League caliber player giving the Mets some real needed middle infield depth
Chris Flexen – his move to the bullpen gives the Mets an interesting upside option in the bullpen
Robert Gsellman – he is one of those throwback type reliever who is always willing to take the ball no matter what
Sam Haggerty – it's not often a player comes out of nowhere to provide real value to an organization the way Haggerty did with this speed
Jed Lowrie – to his credit, he did everything he could just to get those pinch hitting appearances late in the season
Seth Lugo – the best reliever in baseball who now gives Beltran a reliever who can break knees with his curve
Steven Matz – took that step forward and put to bed the unfair and wrong mentally weak narrative
Jeff McNeil – the man just does it all. He hits, plays everywhere, and he saves puppies.
Brandon Nimmo – if someone created a stat measuring the quotient of talent and enthusiasm, he'd be the Mike Trout of the stat
Tomas Nido – became the defensive minded back-up catcher many believed him to be, and he played a part getting Mets pitchers head in the right place during different parts of the year.
Stephen Nogosek – he is single-handedly trying to win the Addison Reed trade and the 2017 trade deadline for the Mets
Corey Oswalt – he put behind some injuries and gross mishandling by the organization to show he is a viable depth starting option for the organization
Wilson Ramos – drove in a number of big runs last year, and he has promised to be better behind the plate in 2020.
Amed Rosario – just a tireless worker who seems to be on the cusp of fulfilling the immense potential we all saw he had in the minors
Paul Sewald – he keeps proving himself to be better than the narrative, and he finally got his first Major League win to put an exclamation point on what is one of the better stories of the Mets farm system
Dominic Smith – that walk-off homer was a beautiful exclamation point on a season where he proved everyone who ever doubted him to be very wrong
Drew Smith – his coming back from Tommy John at some point in 2020 gives the Mets some hope for an improved bullpen.
Marcus Stroman – few have fully embraced being a Met like he has and fewer have been ready to thrive on the New York stage
Noah Syndergaard – not just a great pitcher, but also a guy who wants to be a New York Met.
Justin Wilson – was terrific in 2019, and with the LOOGY rules, he becomes an even more valuable bullpen piece in 2020
In terms of the talent still here, there is a lot to be thankful for. Hopefully, we will see the return of Zack Wheeler giving us all the more to be thankful for in 2020 and beyond.
Addison Reed , Amed Rosario , Brandon Nimmo , Carlos Beltran , Chris Flexen , Corey Oswalt , Dominic Smith , Drew Smith , Edwin Diaz , J.D. Davis , Jacob deGrom , Jed Lowrie , Jeff McNeil , Jeurys Familia , Justin Wilson , Luis Guillorme , Marcus Stroman , Michael Conforto , Noah Syndergaard , Paul Sewald , Peter Alonso , Robert Gsellman , Robinson Cano , Sam Haggerty , Seth Lugo , Stephen Nogosek , Steven Matz , Tomas Nido , Wilson Ramos , Yoenis Cespedes , Zack Wheeler
Mets Should Extend Steven Matz Now
As we saw last offseason, there is usually discussion about the need to extend the team's best players, and to the Mets credit, they did what they needed to do in order to agree to a contract extension with Jacob deGrom. With him winning the Cy Young Award last year, the team is so far very happy with their decision.
In the ensuing years, the team has real decisions to make on contract extensions for their other starters. Marcus Stroman is a free agent after the 2020 season. After the 2021 season, both Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz will be free agents. Unless the Mets move to extend one or all of them, they stand in danger of losing them all to free agency like they are currently facing with Zack Wheeler.
While the immediate need is Stroman, and the focus is mostly centered around Syndergaard, now is a very good time for the Mets to entertain extending Matz.
In 2019, Matz arguably had the worst season of his career. Overall, he was 11-10 with a 4.21 ERA, 1.341 WHIP, 2.9 BB/9, and an 8.6 K/9. Looking at all the numbers, the ERA, WHIP, BB/9, and K/9 were the second worst of his career. The same can be said for the H/9. When considering most of his career worsts came in a 2017 season where he had a massive bone spur, this was his worst season.
Still, there were some real positives which emerged during the 2019 season which should have the Mets looking to extend him. As a point of demarcation, Matz moved to the middle of the pitching rubber before his July 16 start against the Minnesota Twins.
Prior to that start, Matz struggled mightily, and he would be demoted to the bullpen heading into the All-Star Break. In his 16 starts and two relief appearances, he was 5-6 with a 4.89 ERA, 1.481 WHIP, 3.2 BB/9, and an 8.7 K/9. As he was coming out of the bullpen, Matz was limited in his pitch count, but he fared well against the Twins allowing just two earned over four innings. After this start, his season would turn the corner.
From July 21 until the end of the season, Matz would make 13 starts going 6-4 with a 3.46 ERA, 1.181 WHIP, 2.6 BB/9, and an 8.7 K/9. Over this stretch, he had a 3.65 FIP. It's a small sample size, but it is notable his FIP over this stretch was better than what Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin had.
Looking at the numbers, Matz pitched like the Mets fourth best starter, which honestly, is all the Mets expect him to be. On another team, he could be a three or even a number two, especially for teams who have begun to de-emphasize starting pitching.
In addition to the improved stats Matz had since he moved his position on the rubber, there were some other promising signs. For a pitcher who has dealt with injury problems, he has made 30 starts for consecutive seasons, and his 160.1 innings were a career high. The exit velocity and barrel percentage against him was the lowest it has been since 2016.
Really, when you break it all down, Matz is a pitcher in his prime, and he appears to be getting stronger the further away from 2017 he gets. He is making the adjustments he needs to make. He is also going to start getting expensive.
In 2019, his first year of arbitration, he made $2.625 million. According to MLB Trade Rumors, Matz is slated to essentially double his salary to $5.3 million. If he is the pitcher he was from the middle of July to the end of the season, that number is going to skyrocket in 2021.
At the moment, the Mets have a very low baseline with Matz, and it's very possible this will be the cheapest he will ever be. By seeking to lock him up now, the Mets will have some cost certainty on someone who has been getting stronger and promises to improve. They're securing a spot in their rotation at a time when they could potentially lose 4/5 of their rotation over a three year span.
Moreover, by extending Matz now, the Mets are getting some cost certainty. Locking up Matz on the lower end should allow them to turn their attention to the rest of the rotation as well as a player like Michael Conforto, who will hit free agency the same time as Syndergaard and Matz.
Overall, Matz is a homegrown Met who grew up a Mets fan. While he has not been the pitcher many expected when his grandfather was jumping up and down in the stands, he has proved himself to be a useful Major League starter, and he is someone who could well be part of the equation over the next five years. With him likely being at his cheapest now, this is the right time to look to extend him.
Jacob deGrom , Marcus Stroman , Michael Conforto , Noah Syndergaard , Steven Matz , Zack Wheeler
Braves Signing Travis d'Arnaud Bad For The Mets
There's no nice way of putting this. Wilson Ramos was terrible behind the plate in 2019. As noted by Baseball Prospectus (and the great Rey Brutal), Ramos was near or at the bottom of nearly every catching statistic. That is before you consider Noah Syndergaard's struggles and frustrations, which was emblematic of the struggles the vast majority of the pitching staff had with Ramos behind the plate.
This led to a discussion about the Mets facilitating a transition away from Ramos. To that point, the Mets were very supportive of Ramos publicly. Considering that, it is of little surprise the Mets were not players for Yasmani Grandal, who signed a huge deal with the Chicago White Sox.
Still, the Mets acknowledged they needed an upgrade at the catching position. This does mean they are going to move on from Tomas Nido for another catcher. With the Mets being linked to catchers like Robinson Chirinos, it seemed like the team was looking more for a timeshare than a pure backup.
Travis d'Arnaud was perfect for that role.
As we know the Mets completely botched the handling of d'Arnaud in 2019. They needlessly rushed him back before he was ready, and he really had just about the worst game we've ever seen a catcher have. It was embarrassing for him, and it was hard to watch as a fan. In Mets fashion, they rage cut him from the team.
After a very brief P.J. Conlon like stop with the Los Angeles Dodgers, d'Arnaud would find himself with the Tampa Bay Rays. There, he would get the opportunity to play himself not only back into playing shape, but also into being the type of player he was with the 2015 Mets. On that front, he would appear in the postseason like he did with the 2015 Mets.
In 2019, he showed he was still a very good pitch framer capable of handling a pitching staff. He was also a good hitter with some pop in his bat. Essentially, he showed when healthy (and given real time to heal), he was a very good catcher. He was the sort of catcher who would help any Major League team, especially those interested in some form of a time-share.
Now, you could argue with the way things ended with the Mets, d'Arnaud was never coming back to Flushing. That may very well be true. That left the Mets in a spot where they need to be looking for another catcher who did not have the success in New York and with this pitching staff like d'Arnaud did. It also left them hoping d'Arnaud signed elsewhere.
Now, d'Arnaud is the Braves catcher. He is an upgrade from what the team had in Brian McCann last year, and he has the bat and framing which will allow the Braves to keep Tyler Flowers as a defensive minded backup. That is a significant improvement for the 97 win Braves team.
No, this is not going to make up for a potential loss of Josh Donaldson. Not in the least. However, it does lower the bar a bit on the type of third baseman the Braves would need to repeat their 2019 season.
Bringing d'Arnaud into the fold makes it more difficult for teams to catch the Braves, especially if they address their third base situtation and see continued growth from their young stars like Ronald Acuna Jr. That's bad for the Mets. It's even worse when you consider the institutional knowledge he brings with him.
The information he can share with the Braves about Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, and Syndergaard could be damaging. He could speak not just to pitch tipping and sequencing. He can also speak to what makes them tick, and other factors which would give the Braves hitters more of a chance against that trio and the rest of the Mets pitching staff.
With d'Arnaud signing with Atlanta, the Braves lineup and pitching staff are better. Their game planning against the Mets starters will be as well. Overall, this could prove to be a bad situation for the Mets, and it makes it all the more difficult for the Mets to make up an 11 game gap in the division.
Jacob deGrom , Noah Syndergaard , P.J. Conlon , Steven Matz , Tomas Nido , Travis d'Arnaud , Wilson Ramos , Yasmani Grandal
How Old Is Gleyber Torres?
In case you missed it last night, Gleyber Torres is just 22 years old.
You'd think you'd hear Joe Buck, John Smoltz, or Alex Rodriguez mention it at least once.
The answers to some of life's other unanswered questions:
Todd Frazier is from Toms River
Steven Matz is from Long Island
The Wilpons don't have the money or interest to re-sign Zack Wheeler
Finally, in the year Brodie Van Wagenen declared "Come get us!" the Nationals lead the NLCS (2-0), and the Yankees lead the ALCS (1-0).
Of course, the Yankees won the ALCS opened because Torres, who is apparently 22 years old, had a great game.
Steven Matz , Todd Frazier , Zack Wheeler
Robinson Cano Trade Will Cost Mets More Than Zack Wheeler
According to various reports, unless Zack Wheeler accepts the qualifying offer, and he'd be crazy to accept it, he is going to be a part of another organization in 2020. This would be one thing if the Mets believed they should pursue Gerrit Cole or another big name free agent, but as we know, Wheeler is as good as gone with no real replacement coming to the Mets.
Using Nathan Eovaldi as a comp, Wheeler would be owed a deal with an AAV of at least $17 million. Given his strong finish to the season, it's arguable Wheeler could meet or possibly surpass $20 million. Of course, that depends on the length of the deal.
Now, from some corners you'll hear the Mets can't afford to keep Wheeler for that contract. There will be excuses offered with respect to the luxury tax threshold, can't keep all of your players, and/or the Mets can't afford him. If any of these are true, this is the latest example of just how much Brodie Van Wagenen has screwed things up in just one year.
The $20+ million deal per year for four years or more which could've been given to Wheeler is already on the books. That money is being given to Robinson Cano.
Cano turns 37 this month, and he is coming off an injury plagued year where he had just a 0.3 WAR. He was below average at the plate with a 93 wRC+, and he was bad in the field with a -6 DRS.
This leaves the Mets path to contention vested in a 37 year old getting healthier, more durable, and turning back the clock. Historically, this is a very poor bet. It's certainly not a bet you'd like to have $80 million riding on over the next four years.
This is money which could've been invested in Wheeler. This wouldn't allowed the Mets to keep this vaunted starting staff together for at least one more year. Possibly two. Instead, the Mets are going to let Wheeler walk because the money which could've been given to him is already tied up with Cano.
The obvious retort is if the Mets didn't have Cano, they'd likely have Jay Bruce still. Putting aside the Mariners were able to trade him, he is only due $14 million in 2020. As such, he didn't tie up the payroll for the ensuing three years thereby giving the Mets room to negotiate with Wheeler.
So, again, the money which could've been spent to keep Wheeler has already been spent.
Initially, when the trade was made to obtain Cano and Edwin Diaz, the focus was on losing Justin Dunn and Jarred Kelenic. Rightfully so. However, the damage to the team goes beyond that. It's not just losing two prospects, it's losing Major League players.
It's not just this year either with Wheeler likely to depart. It also will hinder the ability to keep players like Michael Conforto, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Brandon Nimmo. It's possible there are more casualties when you consider arbitration raises and the like.
So overall, the Cano Trade didn't cost just two top prospects. In the long run, it's going to cost the Mets high-end Major League talent; talent necessary to fulfill the Mets win-now objectives.
Put another way, that trade is only going to get worse.
Brandon Nimmo , Edwin Diaz , Jarred Kelenic , Jay Bruce , Justin Dunn , Michael Conforto , Noah Syndergaard , Robinson Cano , Steven Matz , Zack Wheeler
20/20 Hindsight
2015 NLCS
2015 NLDS
2015 Playoff Preview
Collins Decision of the Game
Hot Stove
IBWAA
Meet The Mets Fan
Mets Blogger Round Table
NL DH
Raising a Mets Fan
Series Preview
Wilmer Flores Standing Ovation
Tweets by @MetsDaddy2013
Why Was Carlos Beltran Mets Only Casualty?
Brodie Van Wagenen Should Have Been Fired With Carlos Beltran
Mets Should Immediately Name Luis Rojas Interim Manager
Trivia Friday: Shortest Tenures By Mets Managers
Mets Won't Stand By Carlos Beltran Like They Have With Abusers
Addison Reed Amed Rosario Asdrubal Cabrera Bartolo Colon Brandon Nimmo Carlos Beltran Curtis Granderson Daniel Murphy David Wright Dominic Smith Edwin Diaz Eric Campbell Hansel Robles IV Jacob deGrom Jason Vargas Jay Bruce Jeff McNeil Jerry Blevins Jeurys Familia Jose Reyes Juan Lagares Kelly Johnson Kevin Plawecki Lucas Duda Matt Harvey Michael Conforto Mickey Callaway MIke Piazza Neil Walker Noah Syndergaard Paul Sewald Peter Alonso Rene Rivera Robert Gsellman Robinson Cano Seth Lugo Steven Matz T.J. Rivera Terry Collins Todd Frazier Travis d'Arnaud Wilmer Flores Yoenis Cespedes Zack Wheeler

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Take advantage of this move in ready home! The Sellers just in the last couple years remodeled everything from the walls to the floors and made this property the definition of "Turn-key". Nice spacious 3 bedroom 2 bath with an open living room concept that just makes you feel at home! Minutes away from shopping, school, restaurants , multiple freeways entrances, Golf courses, movie theaters, and not to mention the property sits in the best community around!Included are 2 beautiful pools and spas, Sport court, fitness center, and dog run area. Plenty of parking on the actual property (3 cars) not including all the space in the complex. Are you ready to call this place home?
TRISTAN of WINDERMERE R.E. TOWER PROP.


text:
200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
Plan Your Visit Upcoming Events Downtown Bloomington Cruisin' with Lincoln on 66 Visitors Center Frequently Asked Questions
Current Exhibits Past Exhibits Interactive Online Content
Resources Finding Aids Biographies Library Archives Objects Contact Research Staff
School Programs Futures in History Camp Senior Programs All Programs Contact Education Staff
History Architecture Staff and Board Volunteers and Interns
2019 History Makers Gala Nominate a History Maker! Become a Member Volunteers and Interns Read our Blog Private Rentals
/ Research / Archives
The Museum's Archive features a wide-range of primary and secondary source material relating to the history of McLean County, from the 1820s to the present. Materials include—but are not limited to—correspondence, day books, diaries,ledgers, photographs, postcards, maps, microform, newsletters, newspapers, oral histories, scrapbooks and unpublished manuscripts.
The Archive includes collections relating to local businesses, agriculture, churches, families, military units, organizations, schools and general subjects. Finding aids for approximately 240 collections are available on line, The remaining Archive holdings are accessed in the Library/Archives Reading Room, which includes an index to holdings searchable by title, keyword, or author.
The McLean County Museum of History is a not-for-profit institution, and as such has no direct institutional relationship with either the County of McLean or the City of Bloomington. Thus, we are not a repository for county or municipal records. Instead, our collections are almost wholly dependent on donations by local residents and others interested in preserving McLean County history. If you are interested in donating material, please contact the Librarian/Archivist.
If you are interested in obtaining copies of archival images, please refer to these documents:
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Receive updates on museum events, programs and exhibits.
Terms of Use Site Map © 1999-2019 McLean County Museum of History


Protecting the character of historic buildings and addressing the life safety concerns of the buildings' occupants are challenging but compatible goals. Over the past decade HPEF has co-sponsored several national conferences on the subject of building codes and historic rehabilitation. The events were part of a larger effort to find a reasonable balance between safety, historic integrity, economy, and aesthetics. Conference technical sessions led by professional preservationists, federal and state administrators, attorneys, code officials, and life safety and other experts explored the complexities and opportunities associated with alternative, or "smart," codes. Compliance approaches specific to historic resources were examined and case studies illustrated how challenges have been successfully resolved in specific real world rehabilitation projects.
The Building Codes and Historic Rehabilitation Conference series was co-sponsored by private and public organizations including the National Park Service, the Association for Preservation Technology International, the International Code Council, and the National Fire Protection Association.


text:
Q: ADB Start activity name doesn't work I dumped and logged a few things in ADB with my Galaxy Note 3.
Logcat gave me following line:
    #party pause(  870): onReceive android.intent.action.ACTIVITY_STATE/th.in.siamgame.ggplay.mwcasia/resume

And another dumpfile told me that the package name is :
    th.in.siamgame.ggplay.mwcasia

I tried a few variations of my ADB Start command.
    adb shell am start -n th.in.siamgame.ggplay.mwcasia/th.in.siamgame.ggplay.mwcasia.resume

    adb shell am start -n th.in.siamgame.ggplay.mwcasia/.resume

On both of those commands also with
    -a android.intent.action.ACTIVITY_STATE

I hope you guys can help me with starting that app via ADB.

A: Proper syntax of the command is:
adb shell am start -n package/.activity

For example:
adb shell am start -n com.example/.ActivityName

It seems resume isn't the name of activity. You can find main activity name in the AndroidManifest.xml (if you have source code of course). It's the one with the attributes in intent filter:
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

If you don't have source code, but have apk file, you still can find it with the aapt tool. aapt located in the <android-sdk-path>/build-tools/<version>/aapt.
Start it with command aapt l -a filename.apk and you will get output like this:
N: android=http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
  E: manifest (line=2)
    A: android:versionCode(0x0101021b)=(type 0x10)0xc
    A: android:versionName(0x0101021c)="1.0.1" (Raw: "1.0.1")
    A: package="com.example" (Raw: "com.example")
    E: application (line=8)
      A: android:theme(0x01010000)=@0x7f0d0022
      A: android:label(0x01010001)=@0x7f0b0000
      A: android:icon(0x01010002)=@0x7f020002
      A: android:name(0x01010003)="AppName" (Raw: "AppName")
      A: android:debuggable(0x0101000f)=(type 0x12)0x0
      E: activity (line=15)
        A: android:label(0x01010001)=@0x7f0b0000
        A: android:name(0x01010003)=".MainActivity" (Raw: ".MainActivity")
        A: android:launchMode(0x0101001d)=(type 0x10)0x2
        A: android:configChanges(0x0101001f)=(type 0x11)0xb0
        E: intent-filter (line=21)
          E: action (line=22)
            A: android:name(0x01010003)="android.intent.action.MAIN" (Raw: "android.intent.action.MAIN")
          E: category (line=25)
            A: android:name(0x01010003)="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" (Raw: "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER")
 ... etc ...

And again you need "android.intent.action.MAIN" and "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER". It is .MainActivity in the example.

A: Use the action MAIN to start your app rather than ACTIVITY_STATE.  ACTIVITY_STATE is an internal system action which is only sent by the framework:
-a android.intent.action.MAIN

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Liveries
Official updates
AzurPoly releases the BD-5J for MSFS, the world's smallest jet aircraft
French development studio AzurPoly has released its first aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The BD-5J is a single-engine "microjet" and with a weight of just 358.8 lb (162.7 kg) it's considered to be the world's smallest jet aircraft.
Designed as a homebuilt kit aircraft, the BD-5J is part of a series of jet airplanes from American designer Jim Bede. This series of airplanes went through a convoluted development and commercial process that saw only a few hundred of the more than 5.000 sold kits to ever be completed. Nowadays, there are only a few dozen flying, but the BD-5J managed to still become famous due to its appearance in Octopussy, the James Bond film.
AzurPoly is now bringing this curious little machine to the virtual world of Flight Simulator, promising an accurate flight model that was developed in partnership with BD-5 pilots, fully functioning avionics, checklists, 4K PBR textures, custom sounds and a selection of 5 liveries, including a famous one from Bud Light, which sadly crashed due to technical issues.
The developers have made the entire cockpit operational. All instruments and switches work, but this is a simple aircraft, so don't expect to see many of them. From the official product images, we can see that this airplane appears to be fairly well modeled, although some interior textures look a bit low-resolution. In any case, this is a curious airplane that should be fun to play around with in Flight Simulator with its tiny jet engine.
The 𝗕𝗗-𝟱𝗝 is now available on SimMarket for just around $15 / 15€, and will be made available on the MSFS Marketplace soon.
If this type of airplane is your cup of team, you may want to check out the similar SubSonex JSX-2, a small personal jet that was also recently released for MSFS.
Vasco Ferreira
Founder of MSFS Addons and a flight simulation enthusiast since the early days of FSX. Hoping to one day be on the left seat of a real airplane!
Learn how to fly a missed approach procedure with Tom Carroll's new ebook
First images of the Just Flight Fokker F28-2000 variant
Aerosoft's CRJ detailed in more interior and exterior images
The Virtualcol Embraer 170/175 Series is now available for MSFS
Lionheart Creations releases Trinidad TB-21 GT for MSFS
PMDG previews the 737's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System in MSFS
Flysimware is putting the finishing touches on its Cessna 414A Chancellor for MSFS
Hype Performance Group updates the H145 with a new AFCS, an AirlandFS profile, and much more
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
© 2021 MSFS Addons. All Rights Reserved


Cardiovascular disease: The bacteria from inflammation of the gums and periodontal disease can enter your bloodstream "Some research suggests that the more bacteria you have from gum-disease, the thicker your carotid arteries may be. If they're too thick, blood can't flow to your brain, leading to a stroke." The hardening of the arteries is called atherosclerosis which causes plaque to build up making it harder for your heart to pump blood throughout your body leading to another devastating outcome, a heart attack. Bacteria can also cause inflammation and infection around the inner lining of the heart also known as endocarditis.
Dementia: A study from University of Central Lancashire School of Medicine and Dentistry suggests that poor health and gum disease may be linked to Alzhiemer's disease and dementia.Gingivitis causing bacteria invades the never channels entering the bloodstream leading to the development of this disease.
Other conditions: Conditions that might be linked to oral health include eating disorders, rheumatoid arthritis,head and neck cancers,pneumonia,and Sjogren's syndrome. Sjogren's syndrome is an immune system disorder that causes dry mouth.


text:
Nishioka, Yasuhiko
Lysophosphatidic acid, ceramide 1-phosphate and sphingosine 1-phosphate in peripheral blood of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Use this link to cite this item : https://repo.lib.tokushima-u.ac.jp/117621
LPA, C1P, and S1P in IPF
Tanaka, Tamotsu Tokushima University Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory KAKEN Search Researchers
Koyama, Kazuya Tokushima University Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory KAKEN Search Researchers
Takahashi, Naoko Tokushima University
Morito, Katsuya Tokushima University
Ali, Hanif Tokushima University
Azuma, Momoyo Tokushima University Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory KAKEN Search Researchers
Kagawa, Kozo Tokushima University
Kawano, Hiroshi Tokushima University Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory
Hasi, Rumana Yesmin Tokushima University
Aihara, Mutsumi Tokushima University Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory KAKEN Search Researchers
Nishioka, Yasuhiko Tokushima University Tokushima University Educator and Researcher Directory KAKEN Search Researchers
ceramide 1-phosphate
lysophosphatidic acid
sphingosine 1-phosphate
liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) are signaling lipids that evoke growth factor-like responses to many cells. Recent studies revealed the involvement of LPA and S1P in the pathology of IPF. In this study, we determined LPA, S1P and ceramide 1-phosphate (C1P) in peripheral blood plasma of IPF patients, and examined correlation to the vital capacity of lung (VC), an indicator of development of fibrosis. Blood plasma samples were taken from eleven patients with IPF and seven healthy volunteers. The lipids of the sample were extracted and subjected to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for analysis. Results showed that there is a significant negative correlation between VC and plasma LPA levels, indicating that IPF patients with advanced fibrosis had higher concentration of LPA in their plasma. Average of S1P levels were significantly higher in IPF patients than those in healthy subjects. Although it is not statistically significant, a similar correlation trend that observed in LPA levels also found between VC and S1P levels. These results indicated that plasma LPA and S1P may be associated with deterioration of pulmonary function of IPF patients.
著者英表記誤記あり (誤)Rumana Yesmin Has →(正)Rumana Yesmin Hasi
DOI (Published Version)
10.2152/jmi.69.196
URL ( Publisher's Version )
https://doi.org/10.2152/jmi.69.196
jmi_69_3-4_196.pdf 768 KB
Bioscience and Bioindustry


NHRMC nurses will allot the first $50,000 raised for the construction of a Habitat for Humanity home for a family in our community. View the 2018 NHRMC Habitat Build video.
TIME: 6:30 to 11:00 p.m.
NHRMC Nursing Congress along with the NHRMC Foundation is proud to host the 15th Annual Celebrate the Gold nursing education event to raise funds to support the Nursing Resource Fund. This year's event will be held at the Wilmington Convention Center on Friday, May 17th, 2019. Join us for an evening dedicated to celebrating the nursing profession and recognizing the astounding care our nurses provide to our patients throughout New Hanover Regional Medical Center. In addition to food, music and dancing, one of the highlights of the evening is the spectacular Silent Auction featuring a selection of more than 100 specialty-themed baskets created by various NHRMC nursing departments.
This year, to align with our mission of, "Leading Our Community to Outstanding Health," and the needs in our community because of Hurricane Florence, the NHRMC nurses will allot the first $50,000 raised for the construction of a Habitat for Humanity home for a family in our community. In addition to raising the money, our nurses will also participate in the build.
All additional money raised beyond this will go toward the Nurse Resource Fund. This Fund allows nurses to receive financial assistance for continuing education and research projects. Our mission is to help support our nurses in stepping up their professional practice in order to provide excellent care to our patients. This fund is vital in supporting our extraordinary nurses by ensuring they have access to the most up-to-date healthcare practices.
At NHRMC we recognize the impact our nurses have on patient engagement and response, and the impact nurses have on making positive changes, not only in our organization, but throughout our community.
To register for Celebrate the Gold, please complete the form below or visit the Sponsorship Page to sponsor the event.


Join them as they digest the fall-out from a number of crashes that saw several of the big favourites lose time.
The stage was won by Tour debutant Fernando Gaviria of Quick Step Floors ahead of the world champion Peter Sagan and former Quick Step star Marcel Kittel, who won five Tour stages for them last year. We hear from Quick Step's boss Patrick Lefevere, sports director Brian Holm and rider Yves Lampaert.
Just as he did at the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, Chris Froome crashed on the opening day of the race and lost time – as did other overall contenders Richie Porte and Adam Yates. Nairo Quintana fared even worse after mechanical problems and was left to chase alone by his Movistar team. We ask what this means for their three-pronged assault on the race.


text:
I, Tanya
Tanya Tagaq, the Polaris-winning punk poet of the North, is on a mission to make us wake up and wear seal
By Emily Landau | Photography by Thomas van der Zaag | September 17, 2018
In the tundra above the Arctic Circle, the ringed seal is as ubiquitous as the black squirrel is in High Park. The Inuit call it the nattiq, and it's adorable in a doddering kind of way: about five feet long, nose to flipper, with a squishy belly and a moustachioed face that resembles Teddy Roosevelt's. Its treasured grey fur is speckled with black, like a pigeon's wing, and its densely tangled structure traps air and provides impervious insulation against frigid northern temperatures. A seal coat is warmer than a coyote-trimmed Canada Goose parka; a pair of seal boots keep your toes toastier than the thickest of Sorels. To Inuit, these animals are a cherished natural resource, a source of food, textile, trade and security. To animal activists, they're vulnerable creatures who must be protected from the hunt at all costs.
Dress by Sid Neigum, jewellery by Moskal, shoes by Louboutin
Styling by Shea Hurley/Plutino Group; hair and makeup by Claudine Baltazar/Plutino group with Kevin Murphy hair products and cosmetics by Dior
Tanya Tagaq, Canada's most famous (and, really, only famous) Inuit throat singer, has three full-length seal pelts in her closet at her home in the west end, as slick and shiny as patent leather. She wants to have them made into a dress, with a baroque silhouette and Marie Antoinette–style corset. So far, she's taken them to four leather shops in Toronto, and they've all refused to work with them. "They were like, 'We don't want that,' " Tagaq tells me. "They were mad at me for even bringing them in."
She can be mercurial, shifting suddenly from laughter to melancholy to blue-hot rage—that last one often triggered by the rancour she faces from activists
Tagaq is used to bending herself into a bridge between the Inuit and the rest of Canada. She also buckles the human voice beyond anything you've heard it do before. Her sonic gymnastics tend toward the primordial—she clucks and caterwauls, roars and bleats—but her staccato rhythms can sound almost techno, and she amplifies this effect with the kinds of production flourishes you'd expect to find on an Arcade Fire album: electric drums, string loops, twinkling synths. In 2014, after the release of her album Animism, she defeated Arcade Fire themselves, as well as Drake, for the Polaris Prize. Onstage, she'll usually emerge in an evening gown, as if she were attending a White House inauguration ball. Then she'll unspool herself, careening around the stage. "I love going out there and looking like a nice lady," she says with a grin. "Then I fuck them up. I scare the shit out of everyone." Her music isn't pleasant, per se. It's demanding, strenuous, a little bit stressful, in the way that great art often is.
Jacket by Nep Sidhu
An avant-gardist as much as a traditionalist, Tagaq has transmogrified an Inuit folk ritual into the most punkishly radical sound in Canadian music. Along the way, she's blossomed into a bona fide indie rock star. She's collaborated with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Patti Smith and fellow pixie oddball Björk. She's performed at Carnegie Hall and sold out a show at Massey Hall. There's a documentary in the works about her music. And this fall, joining the long-standing tradition of rock stars turned writers, she'll release her first book, Split Tooth, a novel about a young girl coming of age in Nunavut that's equal parts gritty roman à clef and ghostly surrealism, spangled with animal spirits and snow-blind delirium.
Tagaq is 43 years old, petite and cherubic, with impressive cheekbones and large, licorice-black eyes. She possesses an utter lack of guile: when we first meet, she insists on a hug. She's cheerful and chatty and remarkably warm. "I have difficulty with small talk," she says. "So I just end up spewing out information." But she can be mercurial, shifting suddenly from laughter to melancholy to blue-hot rage—that last one often triggered by discussion of the seal hunt and the rancour she faces from activists.
"There are millions and millions of seals up there. We can't possibly dent the population," she tells me. "A family who hunts is just trying to pay their rent." A few years ago, she posted a photo on Twitter of her daughter Inuuja, then about a year old, next to the body of a seal that had just been killed. She hashtagged the photo "#sealfie," and immediately faced a torrent of hate. People called her a savage. They signed petitions to have her lose custody of Inuuja and her elder daughter, 15-year-old Naia. "Some fucking asshole photoshopped my baby being bloodied and murdered on my ice," she recalls. "Some disgusting piece of shit photoshopped my child being cut open. I hate that person so much. If I'm ever in a room with that motherfucker, I will physically attack him."
As the Canadian North's most conspicuous cultural icon, Tagaq is also its loudest mouthpiece, agitating stridently and seditiously about the issues that are threatening her people. On Twitter, she's scuffled with National Post columnist Barbara Kay over the latter's claims that residential schools weren't all that bad. "You are despicable, insensitive and potentially dangerous," she tweeted. "I wish all the positive experiences of residential school upon you and your family Barb." She regularly tweets at Justin Trudeau, too, urging him to fix the government's floundering inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and to ratify UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Brooklyn-based indie band Eskimeaux even changed their name to Ó after Tagaq spoke to them about the negative connotations. And when she accepted her Polaris Prize in 2014, her wrists adorned with sealskin cuffs, she spewed into the microphone: "Fuck PETA." On this subject, Tagaq is unequivocal. She wants Canadians to hunt seals. She wants us to eat seals. And she wants all of us to wear seals.
Tagaq grew up in Cambridge Bay, a speck of a hamlet on Victoria Island in the Arctic Archipelago, with a population of around 1,700. The people who first settled there in the 17th century forged tools and weapons from copper, earning the name Copper Inuit among European traders. The village was permanently settled much later than many other Nunavut communities, when Hudson's Bay Company opened a post there in 1921. Tagaq's father is of European descent, and her mother, a teacher, is Inuk, born and raised in igloos on Baffin Island before the government forcibly relocated the family to Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic in the 1950s.
Tanya is the middle child, sandwiched between two brothers. When she was growing up, clothes weren't about aesthetics or activism or provocation. They were about surviving the elements. School was only cancelled if the temperature hit minus 50 degrees Celsius, which Tagaq says happened a few times a month in winter. "When people complain about the weather in Toronto, I scream," she told me with a cackle. "I'm just like, 'You pussies!' "
The rest of the time, at minus 49 or warmer, she'd sheathe herself in a Russian nesting doll's worth of layers to fortify herself against the cold. She'd wear sealskin boots up to her knees, and her mother would hand-sew some of her scarves, hats, parkas and undershells, using hardy, rough-hewn duffel, with one layer of seal fur facing inward and a second facing out.
Coat by Nep Sidhu
During her childhood, Tagaq would accompany her family on the hunt. They only hunted the males, and, contrary to Pamela Anderson's seal-clubbing PSAs, they shot the animals in the head with a gun, quickly and at close range. "I just remember everything was white, all the snow, all the ice," she says dreamily, recalling a caribou hunt. "When you peeled off the skin, it was separated from the meat by this membrane, like a bloody shell. It's a really, really intimate process."
The sealskins are often used for summer tents, the meat to feed the sled teams, the fur to make wallets and pouches. The fat is eaten in various dishes or used as fuel. (She is hesitant to talk about the uses, wary of the constant demands from southerners for Inuit to justify how they use the animals they hunt.) Tagaq's everyday purse is a small seal clutch that she bought from a craftsperson back home, stitched with an elegant houndstooth design. "I like to tease tourists sometimes. Like, 'No, really, some seals come in this pattern,' " she says.
In the far-flung reaches of Nunavut, where darkness falls for 24 hours a day one month of the year, where the sea ice is three metres thick, where the closest city is hundreds of kilometres away and where starvation threatens thousands of lives, one of seal's key roles is as nutrition. There's little vegetation in the north; seal meat is a rich source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Traditionally, people would eat the seal meat raw to preserve the vitamin C and fend off scurvy. (Seals and most other mammals produce their own vitamin C, while humans need to absorb theirs from meats and produce.) These animals are to the Inuit what cows are to much of the Western world: an abundant, all-purpose natural resource.
When Tagaq was 15, she left Cambridge Bay to attend a residential school. She went to Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife, one of the last residential schools in Canada, closing its doors in 1994. She says she didn't experience abuse at Akaitcho, but the miasma of residential schools, of depression and brutality, infected her. She admitted to me that her novel, Split Tooth, is actually a retrofitted version of her diary from the past 20 years. In one scene, her alter ego walks out onto the sea ice and experiences a surreal sexual encounter with the aurora borealis, in which a hard column of green light, like a shard of kryptonite, violently penetrates her. "I used to always go lie out on the ice, and that idea had been percolating for a long time," she confesses.
After high school, Tagaq enrolled in the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, where she studied painting. She was stricken with homesickness, so her mom sent her a stack of cassette tapes with recordings of throat singers. Growing up, Tagaq had mostly thumbed through her dad's records: Bob Marley, the Doors, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix. She hadn't been exposed to throat singing because it was banned by the church. In Inuit communities, throat singing is traditionally a women's waiting game, cultivated by wives and mothers to pass the time around the fire until the men return from the hunt. Two women face each other and synchronize their voices, huffing and grunting and breathing percussively, each mouth serving as a reverb speaker system for the other. It's playful yet intense, performed with the same potion of excitement and one-upmanship you'd find in a '90s rap battle.
Tagaq was captivated. Even though she wasn't familiar with the music, it sounded like home. She started practising in the shower, synthesizing both sides of the traditional duet into her own shockingly powerful voice, which was somehow able to accelerate from a kitten's purr to a grizzly's roar. Toward the end of her time at college, she exhibited a selection of her paintings at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik. One drunken night, a musical act failed to show up, and Tagaq took the stage instead, performing her twisty take on throat singing. As it turned out, some friends of Björk's were in the audience, and they became obsessed with her breathy, syncopated beats. Within weeks, she'd been whisked away on Björk's world tour.
Tagaq moved to Toronto in 2016, settling in Trinity Bellwoods with her kids. Naia's father is the Basque percussionist Felipe Ugarte, and Inuuja's is Casey Balden, an infantry officer with the Canadian Army. "I have two daughters from two different men, and I'm very, very, very proud of us," she says. "We have a beautiful relationship." Although Tagaq lives in the city's most self-consciously voguish neighbourhood, a Where's Waldo world of silk rompers, floaty vintage dresses and ironic enamel pins, she doesn't consider herself a fashionable person. "I went into a coffee shop one day. I had my glasses on and this shitty ball cap, my everyday onesie, my sealskin boots and a jean jacket. Some girl nudged her friend, pointed at me, and said, 'That's you,' " she recalls. "I have trouble with fashion. Because I want to be respected in the same way when I'm out in my onesie as when I'm wearing a gown."
Her performance costumes are spectacular, transforming the diminutive Tagaq into the formidable presence she embodies onstage. She favours structured bodices with dramatic full skirts, often accentuated with materials from the natural world: antlers, eider feathers, fish scales that shimmer like silver lamé. Teresa Burrows, an artist from Thompson, Manitoba, used thousands of iridescent glass beads to recreate Tagaq's face in photographic detail on the bodice of a dress; she made another gown with sealskin sleeves. One of Tagaq's favourite costumes is a knee-length dress covered in shattered mirrors, which cast a spectral light across the stage. And she's obsessed with the work of Christi Belcourt, a Métis artist from Scarborough, whose dusky, jewel-toned prints and beaded embroideries were the inspiration for a Valentino collection in 2016.
Tagaq onstage, in a dress by Teresa Burrows featuring Tagaq's face in beadwork (at left), and in lumberjack plaid
Tagaq has a terrible poker face. Every potent emotion seems to live just below her skin, threatening to extrude through her pores. In late June, she and I had lunch at Union, a woodsy bistro on Ossington. As our server cleared our plates, Tagaq checked her phone. Her face turned to granite. She'd received a text from back home: a friend's 14-year-old son had killed himself. Tagaq's mom had taught him in school. As I fumbled with condolences, her grief turned to desperation. "All across Nunavut, people are just dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping like flies. How do we shoulder the burden of this oppression?"
"I'm hoping sealskin will become posh, that people will see it the way they see leather"
Tagaq told me she often feels like an alien walking around in Toronto. That while the media dutifully reports the suicide rates in the North, people here don't understand the scale of the decimation and the sorrow that comes when it affects people you know. And at that moment, the conversation returned, as it always does, to seal. "I'm hoping sealskin will become posh, that people will see it the way they see leather. Buying a sealskin purse will help boost our economy so we can get our shit together." According to Tagaq, the only thing preventing Canadians from wearing and eating seals the way we do cows is propaganda—the PETA billboards starring naked, dewy-skinned actresses, the videos of big-eyed baby seals flopping around the sea ice, their faces like Labrador puppies. This all feeds into the ignorance surrounding Inuit hunting traditions. She argues that if demand for seal pelts keeps going down, Canada's Inuit population might be cornered into non-renewable resource development, like mining and fossil fuels, which will obliterate the wildlife habitats these activists are trying to protect. "These animal rights activists are destroying more life than they can possibly comprehend," she says.
As we wrapped up our meal, we chatted about her photo shoot for this magazine, and her mood lifted. She told me about a piece she'd just purchased: a sheer, embroidered gown by the Danish designer Henrik Vibskov, which she bought at Frances Watson on Queen Street West and wears onstage with just a bathing suit underneath. "I grew up with a lot of insecurities. I felt like I was riding on my personality, because I have a sparkling personality," she says (and she does). "Now I feel like I'm in this blooming part of my life."
When she found out about the shoot, she said, she was hit with a flush of anxiety. Should she diet? Work out like a fiend? "Then I realized that everyone needs to accept themselves the way they are," she says, laughing brightly. "Fuck it. Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it, fuck it."
This story originally appeared in Toronto Life Stylebook 2018. To subscribe, for just $29.95 a year, click here.


HTB Creations: Happy Birthday Lesley!
Your card is super cute, Helen! All of that gray and pink is so pretty together. Have a wonderful day!
This is so cute Helen! Love that sweet cat with the gray and the pretty twine and sequins!!
I love your cat and the sequins!
This is just precious!! I love the pretty pink!A darling card!
That kitty is adorable! I love the twine border!
Just a darling card! Love it!
Adorable card Helen! That kitty is just the sweetest and I love all of the pink!
Helen, love this card. It reminds me of my sweet Annie that I named my business after. I miss her still, so this made me smile. It's so so cute.
Thank you so much for all of my goodies and for making my birthday extra happy. It really brightened my day seeing all of this happiness!


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run:
	lein fig

deps:
	yarn install
	lein deps

sass:
	sassc resources/public/css/discuss.sass resources/public/css/discuss.css
	sassc resources/public/css/zeit.sass resources/public/css/zeit.css

min:
	lein do clean, cljsbuild once min

docs:
	lein codox

clean:
	lein clean

build: deps sass

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Investors, Creditors Getting Demolished by this Global Renewables Giant
by Don Quijones • Feb 25, 2016 • 12 Comments
Financial Fallout Spreads.
By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET.
Abengoa Bioenergy US Holding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, listing up to $10 billion in total liabilities, including an unsecured leveraged loan of $1.45 billion and unsecured bonds of $3.85 billion. It didn't list its secured debts. The filing was prompted by involuntary bankruptcy petitions by three US grain suppliers, which claim to be owed more than $4 million in unpaid invoices – million with an "m," that's how out of money this outfit is.
The suppliers had reportedly been told by the company that its Spanish parent, Abengoa SA, which controls the "central treasury," had run out of cash, Reuters reports. And they cited concerns that "the U.S. business was transferring cash and loan proceeds to Abengoa SA."
Even by recent standards, Spain's teetering green-energy giant Abengoa SA has not had a good week. First, its former President, Felipe Benjumea, and former CEO, Manuel Sanchez Ortega, faced the indignity of standing trial for malfeasance over the exorbitant payoffs they awarded themselves just months before the company hit the wall. In Sánchez Ortega's case, he is also accused of sharing insider information about Abengoa's finances with his new employer, the world's biggest investment fund, BlackRock [read: The Mother of All Shorts].
During testimony, Sánchez Ortega claimed that it was pure coincidence that BlackRock had placed a sizable short position against Abengoa just weeks after hiring him, one of the few people with first-hand knowledge of the true state of the company's accounts. Benjumea told the court that the only problem Abengoa suffers from is a liquidity pinch.
That's right: the sole reason why the Seville-based company has had to file for preliminary bankruptcy and is just one month away from going down in history as Spain's biggest ever corporate failure is that it's a little short on cash at the moment.
It is, one assumes, the same reason why Abengoa is begging bondholders for an extension on the repayment of €500 million ($551.5 million) of bonds maturing next month.
To plug Abengoa's "liquidity" shortfall, all the firm needs is €1.66 billion of fresh debt over the next two years, while it sheds assets and stages a tactical retreat from some of its key global markets, including Brazil and Mexico where it has left behind a vast trail of unpaid debt, cancelled operations, and unemployed workers.
The Spanish firm's creditors, which include the so-called G7 group of banks (Santander, HSBC, Caixabank, Bankia, Popular, Sabadell and Crédit Agricole) who are owed over €5 billion, and its senior bondholders, including international investment firms like AIG, Invesco, D.E. Shaw, Varde Partners, Centerbridge Partners and Blackrock (no, seriously), are not too enamored with the idea of pouring a further €1.6 billion of "enhanced liquidity" down Abengoa's bottomless pit.
If they don't do it — and do it fast — the company will not be able to pay its workers at the end of this month. That's just three days away. And it won't be able to pay them in March. For its immediate needs, Abengoa needs a floater of €165 million — on top of the €125 million emergency loan it borrowed in September and the additional €106 million it borrowed in December, which matures in March. On both occasions it was the banks who ponied up the cash. But this time round it's the bondholders' turn.
To try to calm its creditors' fraying nerves, the company's new CEO, José Domínguez Abascal, has spent the last few weeks working with the firm's auditor, Deloitte, to establish, once and for all, the full extent of the gaping holes on its balance sheets — holes that his predecessor, Manuel Sánchez Ortega, now in the employ of Blackrock, allegedly played a key role in creating.
However well-intentioned Domínguez Abascal's gesture may be, it is unlikely to instill much in the way of confidence in Abengoa's accounting integrity, especially if the fiduciary clean-up is being led by Deloitte, the auditor that for three full years failed to spot any of the glaring irregularities on Abengoa's balance sheets, for which it could face investigation in both Spain and the US [read: Deloitte About to Pay for Its Spanish Sins?].
Whatever happens over the next month, the financial fallout will be felt far beyond Abengoa's walls. The company's shareholders have already been wiped out, while bondholders in Mexico and Brazil have been left out in the cold. If bankruptcy is averted before the deadline expires at the end of March and the company's debt is restructured, the firm's providers and subcontractors could end up losing 50-60% of the money they're owed.
As for the Spanish company's lenders, bondholders and insurers, they've been made an offer that most would much prefer to refuse: a write-down of 70% of the debt they're owed, now worth in excess of €9.5 billion, in return for 95% control of the restructured firm. None of this includes the financial havoc the company's subsidiaries have created in the US and other countries.
The alternative is to let the firm go to the wall, with the attendant loss of 7,000 Spanish jobs, most of them in Andalusia where the unemployment rate is already 31%, and youth unemployment 57%. For the banks, bondholders and other creditors, it could be a long wait in a long line before they see their share of Abengoa's assets. Either way, they're going to take a hit.
As for Abengoa's former President and CEO, one can only hope that justice takes its course, though in today's reality, that would be a very unlikely outcome. By Don Quijones, Raging Bull-Shit.
And these bilked Investors, including the US government, are furious. Read…Deloitte About to Pay for its Spanish Sins?
Tags:Abengoa Big Four audit firms Corporate Bankruptcy corporate heroes energy junk bond defaults green energy junk bonds leveraged loans renewables
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12 comments for "Investors, Creditors Getting Demolished by this Global Renewables Giant"
Great work, thank you. Must have missed this on Bloomberg…lol
d'Cynic says:
Abengoa could be a metaphor for the global economy: rapid expansion fueled by debt, followed by collapse.
B.S. says:
It's very sad to see this situation in Spain. It is an indication of an underlying, symptomatic political/economic/business system that is filled with corruption through and through.
Much like China, the Spanish economic system is built on false economic data and political influences deep and pervasive within the culture of "anything goes as long as it is profitable for me".
The politics of Spain, much like several other European and Asian countries is a fascist type of politico-economic philosophy; a system of privately owned firms run by political dictates and corrupted by laws passed at the behest of special interests at the expense of the masses.
The whole shebang is slowly rotting from within, and occasionally bursting to the surface in scenarios like the unfolding Abengoa event.
Expect more to follow as the small economic repercussions spread throughout the system.
They have obviously learnt how to operate after seeing the banks in action during and after the GFC, and how the principals got off scot free.
Julian the Apostate says:
As a layman observing the passing scene, I am reminded why I swore back in the 70s not to ever work a union job. My reasons were not deeply intellectual at the time, rather it was the havoc wreaked on the family whenever the dreaded word 'strike' loomed on the horizon. Part of this was my father's fault: he never saved for a rainy day and lived paycheck to paycheck. Strike pay kept us fed but just barely…I remember a two week period when it was potato soup every night. It was obvious to me then that the union didn't give a damn about the rank and file, any more than these clowns care about their 7000 employees. Or their shareholders or their bond holders. Perhaps my analogy is not apt, but long gone are the days that a man was punished for such behavior, and nowadays NO good deed goes unpunished.
Abengoa sure has an impressive looking website, but to quote the movie Slapshot, "10,000 mill workers placed on waivers."
There are no winners here. Bond holders can get 30 cents on the dollar and 95% control of a messed up company? 7,000 workers will most likely be put out of their jobs.
The fate of Sanchez Ortega will tell the world quite a lot about Spain, but as it looks now, the nation should be avoided by investment capital. Corruption is everywhere from politicians to CEOs. What future do the youth of Spain have?
Perhaps Volkswagen could kill a flock of birds with one stone on this one? It escapes me why diesels would need emissions if they were burning bio-diesel distilled from the plentiful roadside debris deer normally feast on.
Pretty sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere…
Flying Monkey says:
I worked for Bosch in diesel injection systems for many years. Bio-diesel is very much chemically different normal petroleum based diesel. Bio-diesel has the nasty little habit of leaving residuals and deposits all over the internal components leads to mechanical failure by gunking up the small clearances in the injector moving parts such as the nozzle needle or the valve piece piston. We are talking gaps of 2 -5 micros. Usually the injector needle nozzle will seize first. I worked a lot with the techs in warranty analysis and saw first hand the havoc bio-diesel reeked on the moving parts. Some fleets would work with a two tank system. They would do most of their running on bio-diesel and switch to a tank with normal diesel to flush the system out before stopping. A lot of times the drivers did not switch the source and the system ended up failing too. The main problem is letting the system set with bio-diesel in it. The biggest problem is that it later will not start as the components have stuck together and the pressure generated from the pump in the starting condition is not high enough to break the components free.
As far as emissions with Bio-diesel, NOx will still be an issue as long as combustion temperatures are high. The nitrogen in the air reacts at the high temperatures, regardless of what type of fuel you are using. The NOx emissions are more a characteristic of the combustion process/Engine than the fuel.
Any engine becomes more efficient if the combustion temperatures are raised. Common rail diesel systems can have multiple injection points. Pre-injection is used to minimize knocking. There is a main injection for the power and there is also a post injection to help bring the temperature down and is used many to reduce emissions. If you want to ruin a common rail injection system and have thousands of dollars in repair costs, then use Bio-diesel by all means.
Awesome explanation. Thanks!
Les Francis says:
Thanks for that post.
Hope you don't mind but I have linked that it to a Euro Vehicle Forum I'm a moderator of.
Overall. Those investors dabbling in renewable companies that rely on government/taxpayer subsidies or use technology with dodgy economic claims are in for a shock in the long term.
Bigfoot says:
Great info. I wonder if residuals/sticking/gumming up problems could be mitigated with an automated shut down system of some sort? Turn the engine off & the fuel supply switches to a fuel/cleaner solution that the engine runs off of for a very short period & requiring only a small tank.
I've owned a lot of diesel powered trucks & equipment & still have a diesel powered tractor. Never had any experience with bio-diesel though. Got any good links to help increase my knowledge base?
max wulff says:
if you had asked Alan and Ben directly they would have give you the keys to the printer, there is really no good reason to leave the "solar systems" to fight it out by themselves, "go ahead, we'll print more" "jobs depend on industry like this"


(Committee To Examine Into The Condition Of The Sioux And Crow Indians) As contained In The Senate Of The United States March 7, 1884, 48th Congress 1st Session Senate Report NO. 283. (Committee To Examine Into The Condition Of The Sioux And Crow Indians) As contained In The Senate Of The United States March 7, 1884, 48th Congress 1st Session Senate Report NO. 283.
404 pages, extracted and bound in cloth, 2 folding maps. Account of another attempt to reduce the Indian's land. Included are the testimonies of several Indian agents, and famous Indian Chiefs such as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Gall and others, General Terry submitted a 2 page letter with his recommendations. Great research material!
Title: (Committee To Examine Into The Condition Of The Sioux And Crow Indians) As contained In The Senate Of The United States March 7, 1884, 48th Congress 1st Session Senate Report NO. 283.


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Beyond the Salmon Valley Film Series
PBS's "POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues." Join us at the Sacajawea Center as we explore other cultures through POV documentary films. Doors open at 6:30. Following the screening there will be light refreshments and informal discussion. Note: Films include subtitles.
When the words "China" and "Internet" appear in the same sentence, the word "censorship" is usually close by. But in at least one aspect of the Internet revolution, China is establishing a precedent the rest of the world could soon follow. China is the first country in the world to classify Internet addiction as a clinical disorder, the cure for which is the subject of Web Junkie.
The film follows the treatment of Chinese teenagers whose preference for the virtual world over the real one is summed up in one jarring statement: "Reality is too fake." Bringing them back to earth is often a very bumpy ride. Award-winning Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia were given incredibly open access to Daxing Boot Camp, a three-month military style anti-addiction program in Beijing designed for patients 13 to 18 years old. Web Junkie portrays the rehabilitation process and the evolving diagnosis behind it.
Scottish filmmaker Mike Day turns his lens on the isolated North Atlantic archipelago of the Faroe Islands with The Islands and the Whales, which won the DOC NYC Grand Jury Prize and the Hot Docs Emerging International Filmmaker Award in 2016. The longtime hunting practices of the Faroese are threatened by dangerously high mercury levels in whales, decimated seabird populations and anti-whaling activists. Day explores the undeniably timely tensions between the environment, health, tradition and culture.
In their remote home on the Faroe Islands, the islanders have always accepted what nature could provide and been proud to put local food on the table. Because their soil yields little bounty, the Faroese harvest their seas. As a result, the islanders are among the first to feel the impact of our ever more polluted oceans. Contaminated by the outside world, the whales they capture are toxic. What once ensured their survival now endangers their children, and the Faroese must make a choice between health and tradition.
APRIL: TBA


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iam8bit Celebrates Persona's 25th Anniversary with Epic Vinyl Box Set
admin December 10, 2021 2 min read
iam8bit brings Persona fans a killer 25th Anniversary Deluxe Box set, showcasing the series' iconic soundtracks to celebrate the major milestone.
It's been 25 years since the first installment of the Persona franchise released. This means that it sees its 25th anniversary in 2021, marking a huge moment for ATLUS's major role-playing game franchise.
Now, to really make Persona's 25th anniversary special, iam8bit took on their most ambitious collaboration to date.
iam8bit specializes in creating video game collectibles, from figures to vinyl to apparel. They, along with developer ATLUS, have curated the ultimate vinyl deluxe set for Persona music super-fans.
Evil West | Gameplay Reveal Trailer
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ou_rV8AIYwc/hqdefault.jpg
EVERYTHING IN THE PERSONA 25TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE BOX SET
Altogether, the complete collection contains over eight-and-a-half hours of recently remastered tracks from Persona 1, 2 (Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment), 3, 4, and 5. Pressed on stylish colored vinyl with art from Drew Wise, every LP is specially coordinated with their corresponding Persona game.
Wise, who previously worked with iam8bit on other Persona vinyl releases, will also provide art for the collection's cases. Bright, eye-catching, and full of personality, the collection's artist is truly dedicated to celebrating the style that makes Persona so iconic.
Additionally, each of the game-specific boxes will be customizable, using unique sticker sets contained within the collection. That, combined with sleek slip cases, make this Persona 25th Anniversary Box collection a true work of art.
Ahhhh I am insanely excited to create the artwork for this amazing Persona 25th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set!
Features 15 LPs of Persona 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5's absolutely legendary music! Thank you so much to @iam8bit and @Atlus_West for the incredible opportunity!
💜🧡💙💛❤ #P25th pic.twitter.com/DcQ39xJCkU
— DREW WISE 🎨🌎💖 (@Dreweyes) December 10, 2021
Overall, with the full breadth of Persona 1's catchy themes to Persona 5's funky club jazz, this truly is the ultimate musical celebration.
HOW DO I PRE-ORDER THE COLLECTION?
All in all, the full Persona 25th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set will be available for pre-order starting December 14th, 7 AM PST on iam8bit.com. Altogether, it's going to cost $400 USD, but fans will be able to individually purchase certain sets within the collection.
Here, iam8bit has bundled the Persona 1+2 vinyl sets together for $89.99 USD, while Persona 3, 4, and 5 will be $100 USD each. Once the pre-orders have been made, the albums are set to arrive around July-September 2022.
Finally, you can play the Persona games on Switch, PS4, Xbox, and PC.
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Cast "All Change" 25 years rescheduled Anniversary Tour at the 02 Academy in Liverpool, 14th January 2022 1
Cast "All Change" 25 years rescheduled Anniversary Tour at the 02 Academy in Liverpool, 14th January 2022
Lilys announce west coast tour dates – Culture Addicts 2
Lilys announce west coast tour dates – Culture Addicts
Music of Northern Laos | Various Artists 3
Music of Northern Laos | Various Artists
An Excerpt From Alex Niven's 33 1/3 Book 'Definitely Maybe' 4
An Excerpt From Alex Niven's 33 1/3 Book 'Definitely Maybe'
Everything that you need to know 5
Everything that you need to know
High Fidelity invests in Second Life to expand virtual world 6
High Fidelity invests in Second Life to expand virtual world
Bad news for Apple's next big thing — VR/AR headset may miss this year