2012 Frankenfood Carving and Costume Contest ? Biology Fortified ...

Hello everyone! Frank N. Foode? here, ready to bring in the Hallo-weeny Cheer! October is closing fast, important elections are around the corner, and the fourth birthday of the Biofortified Blog is also coming up. For many, it is a very scary time.

Well here?s something to cheer you up? how about our 3rd annual Frankenfood Carving and Costume Contest? Oh yeah, break out your gene guns, it?s time to make us some monsters!

The Biofortified Blog was founded on October 31st, 2008 ? Halloween. For our first birthday, our readers helped us win a nice little contest that got the blog going. Each year after that, we turned it around and hosted a contest of our own. Not just limited to carving pumpkins ? we want you to think outside the pepo and concoct some creations fit for the mad scientist labs that we know you all work in. Is the genetic diversity of pumpkins too limiting? Add some bell pepper parts, or lemongrass stalks to the mix! Genetically engineer your own super-crops and bring them to light with a candle flame (or thermite reaction if that?s your thing)! Feel free to mix and match the plants that you put together for your carving.

Or, if genetically engineering plants is not your thing ? I bet that you wish you had a few personal enhancements to your human frame. Instead of carving a pumpkin, eggplant, or Palmer amaranth, why not dress yourself up as an eggplant, amaranth, or other food? You can enter the contest with any food or agriculture-themed costume instead! Dress up as a crazy chef, a plant breeder (they should all be famous), or a Caprese salad ? the world is your oyster (and you can be one too)!

Here are the rules:

• This contest is open to everyone ? you need not have ever commented on the blog before the day you enter in the contest. But, you will need to register for the blog to enter, and have a photo attached to your profile. You can upload one, or use Gravatar.
• Carve any fruit, vegetable, grain, or heck, algae into the scariest creature imaginable. While you may carve the classic pumpkin, extra points will be awarded for creative use of alternatives. Feel free to do a little genetic engineering and splice different plants together.
• OR ? carve yourself a killer food, plant, or genetics-based costume. Whichever you choose ? if you can include a reference to recent news, genes, or something we?ve talked about on the blog, that will certainly set you above the rest! Think: can you give a pumpkin a tumor?
• Upload a photo of your mad creation to the forum. The new uploading feature is great!
• To give you time to upload a picture from Halloween, the contest is open until November 4th, at midnight Pacific time in the US.
• The Biofortified Blog?s Editors will decide on a winner and announce it within the next week.

Prizes

For this year?s winner (Frank N. Foode? and hat not included)!

What can you get if you win? Well we?ve got something special for the First Place winner: a giant genetically engineered tomato! Wait, no, that?s not a real tomato ? but a tomato-shaped rug to cushion your feet in your kitchen! This baby is no cherry ? it is 28 inches wide, and has memory foam to take the weight off your tired toes. That, along with the usual blog tote bag, and you?re set to shop and cook in style.

Now if we get a lot of good entries like last year, we?re prepared to sweeten the pot by adding another equivalent prize to reward a second person?s creativity. How about $25 to spend on blog schwag in our Zazzle store? We could even throw in a book for someone.

So with that, good luck and have fun this Halloween, everyone! Don?t forget this chance to be on our eternal wall of Glory!

Source: http://www.biofortified.org/2012/10/2012-frankenfood-carving-and-costume-contest/

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Megastorm could wreak havoc across 800 miles of US

SHIP BOTTOM, N.J. (AP) ? Forget distinctions like tropical storm or hurricane. Don't get fixated on a particular track. Wherever it hits, the behemoth storm plodding up the East Coast will afflict a third of the country with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow, say officials who warned millions in coastal areas to get out of the way.

"We're looking at impact of greater than 50 to 60 million people," said Louis Uccellini, head of environmental prediction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As Hurricane Sandy trekked north from the Caribbean ? where it left nearly five dozen dead ? to meet two other powerful winter storms, experts said it didn't matter how strong the storm was when it hit land: The rare hybrid storm that follows will cause havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

Governors from North Carolina, where steady rains were whipped by gusting winds Saturday night, to Connecticut declared states of emergency. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was criticized for not interrupting a vacation in Florida while a snowstorm pummeled the state in 2010, broke off campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in North Carolina on Friday to return home.

"I can be as cynical as anyone," said Christie, who declared a state of emergency Saturday. "But when the storm comes, if it's as bad as they're predicting, you're going to wish you weren't as cynical as you otherwise might have been."

Eighty-five-year-old former sailor Ray Leonard agreed. And he knows to heed warnings.

Leonard and two crewmates in his 32-foot sailboat, Satori, rode out 1991's infamous "perfect storm," made famous by the Sebastian Junger best-selling book of the same name, before being plucked from the Atlantic off Martha's Vineyard, Mass., by a Coast Guard helicopter.

"Don't be rash," Leonard said Saturday from his home in Fort Myers, Fla. "Because if this does hit, you're going to lose all those little things you've spent the last 20 years feeling good about."

Sandy weakened briefly to a tropical storm Saturday but was soon back up to Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph winds. It was about 260 miles (420 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and moving northeast at 13 mph as of 5 a.m. Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm was expected to continue moving parallel to the Southeast coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, before reaching southern New England later in the week.

It was so big, however, and the convergence of the three storms so rare, that "we just can't pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it," said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Officials are particularly worried about the possibility of subway flooding in New York City, said Uccellini, of NOAA.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prepare to shut the city's subways, buses and suburban trains. The city closed the subways before Hurricane Irene last year, and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 1 foot higher would have paralyzed lower Manhattan.

Up and down the Eastern Seaboard and far inland, officials urged residents and businesses to prepare in ways big and small.

On Saturday evening, Amtrak began canceling train service to parts of the East Coast, including between Washington, D.C., and New York. Airlines started moving planes out of airports to avoid damage and adding Sunday flights out of New York and Washington in preparation for flight cancellations on Monday.

The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops to active duty for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns.

"You never want to be too naive, but ultimately, it's not in our hands anyway," said Andrew Ferencsik, 31, as he purchased plywood and 2-by-4 lumber from a Home Depot in Lewes, Del.

Utility officials warned rains could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple into power lines, and told residents to prepare for several days at home without power.

President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.

In North Carolina's Outer Banks, a group of about 20 people was forced to wait out the storm on Portsmouth Island, a former fishing village that is now uninhabited and accessible only by private ferry.

"We tried to get off the island and the ferry service shut down on us," said Bill Rowley, 49, of Rocky Mount, N.C.

Rowley said he could see 15-foot seas breaking over the island's dunes, enough to bring water to the island's interior.

"We'll be inundated and it'll probably be worse tomorrow," he said.

In New Jersey, hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland. Christie's emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic City's 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling here. City officials said they would begin evacuating the gambling hub's 30,000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to mainland shelters and schools.

The storm also forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm. He also canceled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday.

___

Breed reported from Raleigh, N.C. Contributing to this report were AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington; Emery Dalesio in Kill Devil Hills, N.C.; Karen Matthews and Samantha Bomkamp in New York; Randall Chase in Lewes, Del.; and Nancy Benac in Washington.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/megastorm-could-wreak-havoc-across-800-miles-us-084038745.html

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Transgendered Lana Wachowski: I made ?Cloud Atlas' to change those who want to lynch me

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Lana Wachowski, the co-creator of "Cloud Atlas," said she made the gender-bending, multi-character film to change the attitudes of bigoted people "who want to lynch me, want to crucify me."

In a wide-ranging interview with TheWrap, Wachowski, sporting neon pink dreadlocks, showed a newfound willingness to talk publicly about being transgendered, a process she has undergone in the past decade to become a woman.

Wachowski said that at least one of the characters in "Cloud Atlas," a waitress of the future who foments revolution, mirrored her own experience.

"Like Sonmi, there are people who will spit on me, want to lynch me, want to crucify me," she said. But she hopes by speaking out she can effect change.

"I am interested in engaging with the world, hopefully in a way that makes some people not as afraid of people like me or view people like me as these others who aren't as human as them or different than them," she added.

Born Laurence Wachowski, the filmmaker and her brother, Andy, gained fame creating the landmark "Matrix" trilogy. The Chicago-based pair were known for never talking to the media, but have broken with that tradition to promote their ambitious new film, which opens on Friday.

"Cloud Atlas," which they co-directed with German director Tom Tykwer, is based on the book by David Mitchell. Weaving together six disparate storylines, the film includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon in the cast, playing multiple roles in multiple time periods, often crossing gender and racial lines.

Tykwer said he made the film as a reflection on the interconnection of human experience. "There is a perspective on mankind and humanity that any action you do has consequences and those consequences ripple throughout centuries, potentially. Ultimately it does have an impact on how the world changes and transforms from one state to another that doesn't have any relationship to your class or state or mindset or anything but gives you a certain responsibility as an existence and that is an equal responsibility of all of mankind," he said.

In an interview with all three, Lana dominated the conversation, peppering references to philosophy and film history with her own personal story and urging a change in attitude toward people who are different.

"When you try to make a difference in the world, when you try to engage, when you try to change conventional wisdom whether you are making an experimental film and the critics are saying, ?You can't combine action and mainstream narrative with philosophical art house aesthetics! This is not allowed!' they spit on us. They'll try to lynch us," she said.

Wachowski spoke with similar emotion about bigotry she suffered when accepting a Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award earlier this month.

"People are freaked out by GLBT people," she said. "They're angry about my gender or my life or the way I inhabit the world the same way that Hugo as Mephi feels that Sonmi is a threat to his natural order in the world. So it's a weighty choice to do this, but I think... I hope it's worth it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/transgendered-lana-wachowski-made-cloud-atlas-change-those-234740264.html

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Pinching Pennies with Pilates OMBE Center

From the desk of Kristen M. Reynolds, PT, DPT, PMA^?-CPT

Can you believe it is almost November? Take a moment to reflect how you have been feeling physically during 2012:

• Are any joints feeling stiff?
• Do you experience pain in your neck, shoulders, back, hips, or knees?
• Have you been diagnosed with a condition, such as arthritis, bursitis, or osteoporosis?
• Did you have a surgery or medical procedure that left you with residual muscle pain or limited range of motion?

If you answered ?YES? to any of the questions above, then you can benefit from skilled, private training from a Pilates trainer and physical therapist. We know that investing in fitness now pays health dividends later, so why not start Pilates training today? If expense is a concern, then listen up on how to be as financially fit as you can be!

1. Talk to your healthcare provider and ask he or she to write an ?exercise prescription? that recommends Pilates training for a specific condition. Similar to a pharmaceutical prescription, the exercise prescription will read ?Pilates training for the treatment of <diagnosis>, # times per week for # months.?? Hold onto this document! If you have a flexible spending (FSA) or health savings account (HSA), then you may be eligible to use your funds to pay for your Pilates lessons with pre-tax dollars. Don?t have an FSA or HSA? The IRS does not offer deductions for gym memberships, workout DVDs, or exercise equipment, however it will accept Pilates to treat chronic arthritis with a physical therapist as medical expense. (NOTE: Physical therapy with a doctor?s prescription is tax deductible for all conditions and OMBE offers Pilates-based physical therapy!)
2. Check with your insurance company to see if a fitness reimbursement benefit is offered. For instance, Fallon Community Health Plan reimburses individuals ($200) and families ($400) for Pilates through the It Fits! program, while Health New England will reimburse families up to $150 per calendar year towards Pilates classes or personal sessions with a certified teacher (Kristen is certified through the Pilates Method Alliance. Tufts Medicare Preferred HMO plan members can also get up to $150 toward fees paid for Pilates classes each calendar year.
3. Schedule a private session or Pilates Mat class by clicking here or by calling 617.447.2222.? I?m also offering any private Pilates sessions booked on a Tuesday or Thursday at 4pm for just $79 now through November!

Kristen Reynolds, DPT, PMA?-CPT

Doctor of Physical Therapy

PMA? Certified Pilates Teacher

Always interested in dance, sports and fitness, Kristen Reynolds is a former YMCA and Junior Olympic gymnast, coach, and ACE personal trainer. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science from James Madison University in 2006 and a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the MGH Institute of Health Professions in 2009.

While practicing in orthopedics and sports medicine, a mentor introduced her to the Pilates Method and she has since pursued comprehensive training and professional certification from the Pilates Method Alliance to compliment her clinical interests. Dr. Reynolds is one of the few instructors in Massachusetts to have earned the distinction of PMA Certified Pilates Teacher. Additionally, she is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Sports Physical Therapy Section, APTA of Massachusetts Shoulder and Manual Physical Therapy Special Interest Groups, and Authentic Pilates Union.

Integrating the Pilates principles and repertoire with her manual therapy skills has produced successful rehabilitation outcomes for a wide variety of patients, including adolescents, elite athletes and dancers, and individuals with chronic orthopedic conditions. Dr. Reynolds utilizes this alternative therapeutic approach to improve muscle performance and joint mobility, correct posture and alignment, enhance body awareness, and create an evenly conditioned body that is more resilient to extremity and spinal injury.

~ by admin on October 25, 2012.

Physical Therapy, Pilates

Tags: Back Bay, Boston, Copley Square, physical therapy, Pilates, rehabilitation, sports medicine

Source: http://www.ombecenter.com/blog/?p=1080

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Get The Most From Your Own Home Advancement | Travel

Home improvement might appear very challenging and included, but once you learn what you will be carrying out, it can be a extremely renewing practical experience. Should you don?t know what you will be carrying out, you plumbing cape town may really damage on your own or help make your house dangerous. Don?t get worried, the tips listed here can help you steer clear of this.

Domestic plumbing

When focusing on house domestic plumbing assignments it?s generally a great idea to shut down the water. Shutting from the h2o can prevent any probable water pipe harm during fix procedure. It will also protect against normal water from floods to your house and leading to pricey water damage which can be a burden to fix.

Check your water lines and plumbing related on a regular basis. Clogs in basins, tubs, and lavatories can result in h2o rear-ups. Floods from back-ups can produce an dreadful mess and trigger huge quantities of high-priced harm. Slow-moving relocating drains can cause wedding rings of debris to seem with your tubs and kitchen sinks, making a awkward concern. It is recommended to always keep in addition to and take off clogs routinely.

Would it be less costly to make it happen your self or pay out someone else? If you opt to completely re-do your bathrooms, but know absolutely nothing about plumbing related, it may be helpful to shell out a local plumber in the future in. Also, you can check out the self-help textbooks in your neighborhood constructing offer. Don?t forget to ask. A simple undertaking shouldn?t cost more as a consequence of inexperience.

Before you begin home improvements sign up for the right creating permits. Any redesigning that concerns plumbing, electric power, or architectural adjustments can demand a allow. Check your nearby laws and regulations. If you continue without having a make it possible for then you can definitely be fined or it might have the house harder to sell down the road.

Should you come across any plumbing or electrical function that must definitely be accomplished, quit and contact a specialist. These are generally two aspects of home improvement that you need to by no means make an effort to do oneself in the event you aren?t appropriately qualified and knowledgeable. Taking care of these places of the home by yourself might lead to a mishap which costs far more than getting a skilled to get it done to suit your needs appropriate at the first try.

Don?t spend normal water as a result of leaky faucets or domestic plumbing. Check them on a regular basis and possess any issues handles as soon as possible. Together these very same facial lines, use cold drinking water to wash all your garments. It can minimize the force on your warm water heating unit and add time for you to its lifespan.

Before you try to deal with an expert venture such as a pipes or electrical matter all by yourself, get a professional quote initially. If the issue is a small one, then then you is able to afford the costs. If the problem is a large a single then chances are you aren?t capable of take care of it anyway. Looking to do these projects all by yourself will most likely result in much more injury and in many cases injury.

While it is much less expensive to work on your own home oneself, creating errors or perhaps not getting the determination to finish a project can rapidly increase the cost. It is essential to think through what you would like to accomplish this write-up is supposed to be described as a beginning point for you personally while you start to accumulate your feelings about what you should do.

Source: http://nicoleevaemery.com/services/get-the-most-from-your-own-home-advancement/

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Branson: Virgin space project keeps being delayed

WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? British billionaire Richard Branson says his space tourism project keeps being pushed back and isn't sure of an exact date for the first launch.

He says it will be at least another 12 or 18 months before the Virgin Galactic venture can offer paid space travel to adventurers.

The founder of the Virgin Group met with students on his first visit to Poland on Wednesday, where he came to launch Virgin Academy, which will help young people kick start their own businesses.

Asked about Virgin Galactic, Branson said he has "stopped counting" days to the launch because it gets delayed "to the next year, to the next year."

More than 100 would-be space tourists have signed up for the $200,000 two-hour trips that go 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/branson-virgin-space-project-keeps-being-delayed-134753117.html

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Warner Bros. to ditch 28-day release delay for rental stores?

Warner Bros. may have doubled its 28-day embargo on new releases for kiosk operators (even if they side-step it), but endangered bricks-and-mortar rental stores could be treated to the exact opposite. A rumor coming from Home Media Magazine's unnamed sources suggests the WB is going to ditch the embargo for these locations altogether, starting on October 30th. We have no idea why this break would be offered to the relic stores, although we doubt they care if it gets a few more bodies through the door. Warner Bros. has a recent habit of quiet implementation, but just to be sure, we've reached out for confirmation and will update you if-and-when we hear more.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Warner Bros. to ditch 28-day release delay for rental stores? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/W_c0s9iORX4/

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