Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times EDT):
1. WHAT EXPERTS FORECAST FOR ECONOMY
At 8:30 a.m., the Commerce Department will issue its first estimate on the growth of the U.S. economy in the second quarter and economists believe the outlook for the rest of 2012 is not all that rosy.
2. OBAMA TO SIGN U.S.-ISRAELI COOPERATION BILL
At 10:15 a.m., the president is reaffirming U.S. ties with Israel, upstaging Romney a day before the Republican challenger visits Jerusalem.
3. ROMNEY'S KEY MEETING AHEAD OF OPENING CEREMONY
The likely GOP nominee for president is scheduled to meet with Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny at 10:15 a.m. before attending the London Olympics' curtain-raiser at 4 p.m.
4. VICTIM NO. 2 POISED TO SUE PENN STATE
The boy Nittany Lions graduate assistant Mike McQueary saw in the showers with Jerry Sandusky has stepped forward to say it was him and his attorneys promise to file a lawsuit against the heavily sanctioned university.
5. WOMEN DEEMED MAJOR FACTOR IN THIS SWING STATE
Both Obama and Romney see women ? specifically suburbanites from their 30s to their 50s ? as the key to victory in Colorado as well as in other hard-fought places like Virginia and Nevada.
6. WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT IRAQ
In the first tally of its kind, a federal investigative agency calculates that at least 719 people, nearly half of them Americans, were killed working on projects to rebuild Iraq following the U.S. invasion in 2003.
7. WHY THIS TREATY HAS GUN ACTIVISTS UP IN ARMS
An AP Fact Check by Tom Raum explores why Second Amendment backers denounce a pending U.N. crack down on the global, $60 billion business of illicit trading in small arms as an end-run around their constitutional right to bear arms.
8. DELAY IN AMBULANCE RESPONSE CITED
Officers sent out urgent pleas for more ambulances in the aftermath of Colorado theater massacre even as a two-man crew and their rig were idling just a few miles away.
9. THE "CURE" FOR A BURNT OUT LAWN
With two-thirds of the nation covered by a drought, people in normally well-watered areas are catching on to the lawn-painting practice employed for years in the West.
10. WHY IT'S HARD NOT TO OFFEND AT THESE GAMES
The Olympic-sized political gaffes and cultural goofs already registered before the London Games officially open have proven one thing: organizing an offense-free Olympics is nearly impossible.
Carly Rae Jepsen is having an exceptionally good year. Her single ?Call Me, Maybe? has been covered, parodied, mashed, lampooned, and lip-synced so many times that I honestly can?t say for sure if I?ve actually seen the original video. The song has become a huge summer hit, and it doesn?t look like the ferver surrounding the tune is going to die down anytime soon. Sadly, with sudden fame often comes unexpected turmoil. In Jepsen?s case, it?s the dreaded sex tape.
A few weeks ago, nude photos began to circulate of Carly Rae Jepsen, snapshots which allegedly featured the singer brandishing her pierced nipples. As it turns out, those photos weren?t real; the images were actually of a 21-year-old Internet model who apparently has no qualms about taking her clothes off in front of the camera on a fairly regular basis. Catastrophe averted, right? Unfortunately, things only got worse from there.
On July 23rd, an alleged sex tape featuring the ?Call Me, Maybe? singer made its way online, prompting the Canadian pop star to address the leak on her Twitter page. ?Crazy morning. Discovered that someone put up a sex tape claiming to be me. Ridiculous,? she explained. ?Obviously not me.? Obviously.
Just when the nude photos and sex tape rumors had started to die down, another rears its ugly head. This time, however, the photos could be real. According to TMZ, the singer?s laptop was hacked not too long ago, and several personal images were taken as a result. As per usual, someone is attempting to shop the images to various websites, though no takers have been announced as of this writing. Authorities, meanwhile, are on the case, and if reports are telling the truth, they even have a suspect already in mind.
Considering the guy who hacked Scarlett Johansson?s phone is facing all sorts of trouble, I?m assuming Carly Rae Jepsen?s electronic intruder will face similar charges for his actions. However, here?s a good rule of thumb to live by: If you don?t want naked photos of yourself leaked onto the Internet, don?t take naked photos of yourself. Easy enough.
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Today, you can get a prepaid smartphone that easily competes with contract phones ? even a prepaid iPhone. You?ll pay more up front, but entry-level monthly plans are much less.
For instance, you?ll pay $649.99 for a 16GB iPhone 4S and $30 per month for 2.5 GB data, unlimited texting and 300 minutes on Virgin Mobile. So for the first year, your out-of-pocket would be $1,010 before taxes and fees. On AT&T, you?ll pay $199.99 for the 16GB iPhone 4S and $89.99 per month for 3GB of data, unlimited texting and 450 minutes. So your expenses the first year would be $1,279.87 before taxes and fees and you?d still have another year on your contract.
Before you get too excited, keep in mind that the latest and hottest new phones are still available to contract customers months before they trickle down to prepaid plans ? and to the carriers that mainly offer them. And, like contract phones, prepaid phones are usually locked to the carrier you purchase them from. But there's no denying the savings.
So if you're going the prepaid route, these are our picks for the best prepaid smartphones:
iPhone 4S 16GB on Cricket ($499.99) and Virgin Mobile ($649.99) The iPhone 4S as a prepaid phone? That?s an automatic winner. You?ve got the unbeatable app store, great 8MP camera and a huge ecosystem of accessories and cases. And for some, the smaller 3.5-inch screen is a bonus for portability.
Other key specs include a 800MHz dual core processor and a 1430mAh battery rated at up to 8 hours talk time or up to 8.3 days standby. Like other iPhone 4S models, these run on the carriers? 3G networks.
HTC One V on Virgin Mobile ($199.99)
While the One V doesn?t have the dual-core processing power or 4G speeds of its big brothers, the HTC One X (AT&T) and One S (T-Mobile), it does share the same imaging processor and has a 5MP camera with a f/2.0 28mm wide-angle lens. That means fantastic low-light photos, instant camera start up, imperceptible shutter lag, continuous shooting and the ability to take photos while shooting HD video.
The One V runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and has a 3.7-inch display, a 1Ghz processor, 4GB onboard memory and a microSD card slot and a 1500mAh battery rated at up to 7.2 hours talk time or up to 10.5 days standby.
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G on T-Mobile ($299.99)
The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G earned our "Highly Recommended" rating when we reviewed it in April. It runs on T-Mobile?s 4G network, has a speedy 1.5GHz dual core processor, a 3.97-inch AMOLED display and runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread (rather than Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which most new phones run).
It packs a very good 5MP camera, 4GB microSD card and a 1750mAh battery rated at up to 7 hours talk time or up to 9.5 days standby.
AT&T and Verizon both also offer Android phones and unlimited text, voice and 3G data, but they don't provide the value found on T-Mobile and some of the prepaid carriers. For instance, Verizon has one 3G Android phone and the carrier charges $80 per month. AT&T has a wider selection and a $50 plan, but the phones are lackluster. And if you're an existing AT&T or Verizon customer, there are no pre-paid family options.
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Facebook's Recommendations Box sits passively on many websites, allowing us to engage or ignore as we see fit. But too much of the latter option has led to something slightly different: the new Recommendations Bar -- a pop-up variant which, when integrated by your favorite page, plugs site-specific links based on your friends' thumbs and shares. The Bar is similar to the in-house recommendation pop-ups we're all familiar with, but adds a like button for posting the current page to your timeline. It shouts much louder than the Box, so it's no surprise that in early tests the new plug-in produced a three-fold increase in click-throughs. In this case, privacy wasn't an afterthought -- Bar integration, like the Box, is at the site's discretion and sharing pages is very much on your terms. Just try not to accidently hit that like button during your daily scan of Bieber's homepage.
In this blog I want to share resources that I hope will help you build your Jewish family tree. Because many Jewish families? kinship links were fragmented by immigration and the Holocaust, it can be difficult to uncover Jewish ancestors. Moreover, obstacles such as name changes, towns that no longer exist, and shifting national boundaries have created barriers to tracing Jewish family history.
There is good news though! There are more resources available now than were in the past. Previously closed archives, such as some in the former Soviet Union, have recently made their holdings public. Many genealogical and historical societies whose interests are focused on Jewish history and family roots have indexed and posted historical documents online. Jewish genealogical resources have become more organized and available so more professional genealogists are knowledgeable about Jewish family history. Many family historians will now be able to take their trees back 2 or more generations than was possible five years ago. If you are a first time genealogy researcher, or stuck someplace on your family tree, these links will help you in your search for your Jewish roots.
JewishGen
JewishGen is one of the best all-around resources for tracing Jewish genealogy. It has multiple data bases and over 20 million records that can be accessed for free! In one of their data bases, Family Finder, there are over 90,000 researchers you can link with and 450,000 entries. There are also discussion forums where you can interact and with other family historians on specific topics. On this site almost everyone will find something relevant to their family genealogy. There is so much information on the JewishGen website that it can be overwhelming, but don?t worry, there is a Get Started menu where you can learn how to use the site to your best advantage.
Lithuanian-Jewish Family History Resources
There are several good resources for family historians whose family links trace back to Lithuanian. LitvakSIG has a free searchable database with over 1.1 million. You can take a membership out for $36.00/year and access considerably more information such as historical documents, archived materials, maps, an image library, and a digest and scholarly journal.
The Jewish Family History website focuses on Jewish families who lived in Poland-Lithuania during the 17th and 18th centuries. The research group translates documents and provides maps, photos, town lists, and surnames. One of the valuable features of this site you can determine what the names of towns were in the past and what the towns are now called. The same applies to surnames. Though not a lot of documents such as census, this website has valuable information that will help you identify your family roots in Lithuania.
The Lithuanian Jewish Family History Research Guide from the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute provides four pages of useful resource links. The LITHUANIA-JEWISH-L is a listserv and is another good resource for family historians tracing their 18th century Jewish roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Yad Vashem
It is sad to think that most Jewish people living today had one or more relatives that died during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem is the main center for Holocaust education, remembrance, research, and documentation. Yad Vashem?s online site contains a list and biography of two-thirds of the six million Jews who died as a result of the Holocaust, a photo archive, exhibitions, untold stories section, and many other resources of interest to family historians.
Jewish Genealogical Society
The Jewish Genealogical Society is based in New York City but has members throughout the world that access its information and resources, much of which is online. There is a members fee but they do offer much in return: field trips, annual summer seminars held across the United States and worldwide, an annual conference, a library, archives, podcasts, access to more than 500,000 records, and exclusive databases. Additionally, members have free to access to the Jewishdata.org database.
Sephardicgen
Jeffrey Malka, an expert in Sephardic genealogy, has a website where he shares vital genealogical resources for those interested in Sephardic family history. His site at sephardicgen.com contains 27 databases and links to many offsite databases. You will also find on this site Sephardic history, archives, a gazetteer, family trees, and many other useful resources.
Yasher Ko?ach ? well done in tracing your family tree, stay the path because it is a good act of remembrance, a path to learning who you are and a family treasure!
For the past 12 months, there were 55 Condos that have sold in the Ridge Crest subdivision of San Juan Capistrano. These sold Condominiums range in price from a low of $239,000 for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,317 square foot property located on Via Montoya street, and the high price was $765,000 for a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1,772 SqFt home situated on Paseo Segovia street. The Median price of the 55 Condos that have sold is $449 and the Average Price per Square Foot for these Sold condominiums was $292. At the time of this article 0 condos were Pending under contract.
The Ridge Crest tract in San Juan Capistrano comprises of 97 attached condominiums incorporating 3 distinct floor plans. The condominiums were built by Newport National, in the years from 1990 to 2002. Visit the following link for more information pertaining this subdivision in San Juan Capistrano and the Condos currently for sale in Ridge Crest. For questions, feel free to email us at: Info@OCHomeTeam.com .
A BIT of bulge could one day save your life. Stem cells extracted from fat tissue after liposuction may one day be used to create blood vessels to replace faulty arteries in the heart.
Fat tissue is a plentiful source of stem cells. Matthias Nollert at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and his colleagues coaxed liposuction-derived stem cells into forming smooth muscle cells found in arteries and veins.
They then grew these cells along a thin collagen membrane, which was rolled into a tube the size of a small blood vessel. As the smooth muscle cells grew, the team subjected them to a battery of mechanical stresses that mimic the expansion and collapse that such a vessel would ultimately experience in the heart. The team hope that this will increase the vessel's robustness in the body.
Unlike artificial stents, which restore blood flow through narrow or once-blocked arteries, vessels made from your own stem cells wouldn't run the risk of being rejected by the immune system. Side effects that can occur when damaged vessels are replaced with those taken from other parts of the body would also be avoided.
The work will be presented at the American Heart Association's meeting in New Orleans this week.
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We've all been in this situation: you're sitting in a dark theater, excitedly watching a film you've eagerly been waiting a long time to see, when all of sudden an bright flood of light in your peripheral vision distracts you from the action onscreen - someone in the theater is texting. OMG!
How do we define movie theater etiquette? Sure, we all silence our phones before a movie, but what about texting? How much of this does it actually take away from the movie-going experience? Texting in theaters has been the subject of a debate amongst movie theater owners - some argue that restricting use of text messaging during a film is excessive. IMAX Filmed Entertainment chief Greg Foster is in favor of allowing text messaging, saying "We want [youths] to pay $12 to $14 to come into an auditorium and watch a movie. But they?ve become accustomed to controlling their existence." As he sees it, banning text messaging might make them ?feel a little handcuffed.? Read more about it here.
Conversely, a movie theater chain is imposing a strict ban on texting and talking: the Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse theater chain warns the audience that anyone in violation of their no-texting/talking ban will promptly be ejected from the theater. "Founder, Tim League, set out to make a theater for and by movie lovers, a place where the concept of "film as art" could exist without any of the usual snobbery. The movie houses have tables where guests can eat fine food and drink beers from local breweries while enjoying the film in front of them." Read more here.
What do you think? Is the banning of text messaging taking it too far? What other distractions take away from your movie-going experience?
VelaTel?s Subsidiary Zapna Signs New Distribution Agreement in Spain to Continue its Worldwide Expansion
SAN DIEGO, July 24, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) ? VelaTel Global Communications (OTCQB:VELA), a leader in deploying and operating wireless broadband and telecommunication networks worldwide, announced today that its subsidiary Zapna ApS, a Denmark corporation and provider of mobile applications and Smart SIM cards to reduce mobile long distance and roaming charges, has signed a distribution agreement with Kimarin Europe to launch Zapna products and services in Spain. Based on this agreement, Zapna expects to reach to more than 50,000 new potential customers in Spain within the next 12 months.
?We chose Zapna as our partner because they can provide us with patented Smart SIM card technology, fully integrated technical solutions, and expertise in successfully launching this kind of service,? stated Niels Arne Mikkelsen, CEO of Kimarin. ??We are extremely pleased to have Kimarin as our partner.? We believe their huge experience in the telecom industry will be invaluable in launching services in the target segments,? added Omair Khan, founder of Zapna.
Zapna has granted Kimarin the right to sell and distribute Zapna?s Smart SIM cards and services in Spain under the Kimarin brand. The new, mobile prepaid service from Kimarin will allow mobile phone customers throughout Spain to lower their cost for international calls substantially (up to 90 %) without changing their current carriers or plans, simply by using Zapna?s Smart SIM card overlay in connection with their existing mobile phone?s SIM-card. Customers will be able purchase Zapna?s Smart SIM card from Kimarin?s website, or from appointed agents, easily install it directly on top of their existing SIM card, and then open a prepaid account through Kimarin. Initially, agents will be appointed in the Costa del Sol area, but soon after throughout the remaining parts of the Mediterranean Coast, Balearic Isles, Canary Islands, Madrid, and Barcelona.
Three distinctive market segments will be targeted:
1. Foreign nationals who live in Spain or spend a significant amount of time in Spain.
2. Spanish nationals with family members and relatives living abroad.
3. Companies and organizations with a significant volume of international calls.
Zapna and Kimarin have implemented the system and launched in targeted Spanish markets.?? Kimarin has placed an initial order of 5,000 Zapna Smart SIM cards.
?We are proud of our Zapna team for closing another distribution partnership that will dramatically increase our subscriber base.? Zapna?s products and services are well positioned for exponential revenue growth, and we expect to realize that growth over the coming months and years,? said George Alvarez, CEO of VelaTel.
About VelaTel Global Communications, Inc.
VelaTel acquires spectrum assets through acquisition or joint venture relationships, and provides capital, engineering, architectural and construction services related to the build-out of wireless broadband telecommunications networks, which it then operates by offering services attractive to residential, enterprise and government subscribers. VelaTel currently focuses on emerging markets where internet penetration rate is low relative to the capacity of incumbent operators to provide comparable cutting edge services, and/or where the entry cost to acquire spectrum is low relative to projected subscribers. VelaTel currently has project operations in People?s Republic of China and Peru. Additional target markets include countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. VelaTel?s administrative headquarters are in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit www.velatel.com.
About Zapna
Zapna ApS, a Danish company, is working within the international mobile communications industry. Since 2010, Zapna has been focused on mobile solutions to make cheaper international calls within and outside Denmark without compromising quality of service. Zapna has established unique brands in Denmark, which include Zerocall, Zapna and Roammore. Zapna launched commercial service in Denmark in 2010 and has since rolled out service with partners in several countries including Sweden, Norway, Finland and Spain. www.zapna.com; www.zerocall.com; www.roammore.com.
About Kimarin
Kimarin is a newly established Spanish company, managed and owned by a management team with many years of experience in the mobile telecom industry in Europe. The company will focus on providing Zapna?s Smart SIM card and services in Spain, with launch of commercial service expected during August 2012. http://puraenvidia.com/clientes/kimarineurope/
Safe Harbor
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events and performances could vary materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results, expressed or implied, to differ materially from expected results. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, product demand and market competition. You should independently investigate and fully understand all risks before making an investment decision.
After years of investing his own money, Canadian angel Boris Wertz has raised $15 million and created a new fund that will enable him to make even larger investments in early-stage startups. The fund, which will be focused on consumer Internet, software-as-a-service, e-commerce, and mobile companies. Wertz was the Chief Operating Officer of AbeBooks.com, which was acquired by Amazon.com back in 2008. He had been cofounder of German company JustBooks, which was later acquired by AbeBooks in 2002. Over the past several years, he's been making investments in early-stage companies with his own money, and is also behind the GrowLab startup accelerator in Vancouver, British Columbia.
On the banks of the Hudson, in record-breaking heat (started the interview with iced coffee but had hot coffee by the end), I had the opportunity to sit down with a promising young director who created one of my favorite shorts,?The Line.
Joe Petrilla (who also goes by the pseudonym, Oakjo) graduated from Northwestern before moving to New York to act. After working on a handful of films, he decided to transition from actor to film maker. As we can see from his debut short, he was rather successful.?
Me: How Did You Get Into Film Making?
Petrilla:?I formed a relationship with a couple of filmmakers who I acted for. One is a guy by the name of Alan Brown, who had a film go to Sundance a few years ago and I worked on a film called Superheroes, and I talked to him a lot about his first short film and he had a short that did well and went around the festival circuit and that kind of enabled him to make his feature, and then I did another part on a feature that was a lead part, the film actually ended up playing at the Cannes film festival. I flew out to Germany for the premiere and everything; it was a pretty decent scale independent film to be a part of. And I became good friends with the guy who made that, a filmmaker by the name of Hulk Ernst, he?s from Germany. And he just had the same kind of thing. He had a short that did well, and it opened the door for him to make a feature, a couple of shorts actually. Just from you know, from talking to them and hearing about their process, and researching online, finding other sorts of examples, thinking my ultimate goal is to make a feature and you know one route people go is making a short, making a few shorts, and having that eventually build them up, getting them to a place where they can make a feature, figuring well you know this is the kind of thing you can just start to do and write it if its decent you know hopefully if you can get people to help you make it, make it on your own time, as an actor my day job was working as a carpenter and I just started devoting all my time on the nights and weekends to writing, scouting locations, and you know planning to make my first short and figuring that that would be my plunge into being a film maker.
Me:?Where did the Name Oakjo come from?
Petrilla:The [simplest] explanation is it?s a combination of my favorite material, oak, and my name. I wanted something that was easy to remember. I didn?t want to just have joepetrilla.com. It felt like it was too simple and not that exciting. So I wanted a simple short name that would be easy to remember that would represent my work. And in a way it?s the seed of a production company. Right now its just my own personal film making site and it could and should be more fitting as the name of a production company some day.
Me:?What led you to make The Line?
Petrilla:?I started very thematically; I have a core ball of theme, ideas, thoughts, that I think are my main inspiration. One of them had to do with life stages. I started with a particular metaphor, allegory that I wanted to translate into a short film. And that is kind of where I started.
Me:?What inspired the specific story of The Line.
Petrilla:Let me think. My wife, then girlfriend, was in Asia for six months on a tour of The King and I (she?s an actor as well). So I was siting alone just hammering my brain trying to write something. And it was like three o?clock in the morning, and I was pushing and pushing and I couldn?t quite figure out the premise that was satisfying and contained, the images and ideas, the theme that I wanted to express and at one point I finally spit out this paragraph and the paragraph was: this boy is walking home from school and he finds this guy who has wrecked his car on the side of the road and the guy is banged and beaten up and he cant move his arms but he?s got a gun. He asks the boy to take the gun and shoot him. And at first the kid doesn?t want to do it, but then he does [do it] and the second he does, the boy becomes the man. And the old man becomes a small child who disappears into the forest. So that was this allegory that I spit out in this paragraph form and I slowly began to think how do I make this paragraph translate into a ten-minute short film? How would I translate it into a feature? How would I need to change it to make it span that time and remain suspenseful and interesting and work as a film? So I came home late one-night years ago and I started to slowly go through a few different drafts of the short film version of that
ME:?How long did it take you to get from coming up with the idea to production?
Petrilla:Oh it was probably two years between writing it and shooting it. We shot it in summer of ?10 and yeah I think I wrote it in ?08. It was a while before then. And then I took a year to edit it and then we started going to festivals in the summer of ?11.
Me:?Did you edit it yourself?
Petrilla:?I did and I did not. I worked with an editor. I set it up in kind of an interesting way. I wanted to edit it. I wanted to give a shot to editing it. But I hadn?t edited anything professionally at that point. So I wanted help. I gave all the footage to an editor, by recommendation and said look here?s the footage here?s the script, take it do whatever you want I?m not even going to tell you want I think, what I?m thinking. I?m going to take it and we will meet in a month and a half and look at both our results and see what we did. SO we both did independent cuts. We sat down and took a look at them. His was much better then mine.? And then we put them together. Made a couple different versions and then started some test screenings and then slowly mixed and matched. Blended the two together. You know over the course of three or four months before we locked it.
Me: What were your final goals in terms of where the film would go once it was made?
Petrilla:?Just you know you want to have the biggest, highest profile, longest festival run possible. You know just kind of meet some people see if I could get noticed make a start for myself. Definitely I think having James Reborhorn made people sit up and pay attention and give it a shot. I?m very happy with how we did. Went to fifteen festivals, won an award. I think it has now enabled me to make a living doing this so that was major check mark off the top. You know I definitely learned some things. This is my first film I wanted to stick to my artist guns and you know its kind of an experimental narrative. It?s a little definitely abstract. Some people don?t get it. Its not for everyone. Being my first film I wanted to not compromise make it just accessible enough so that some people would get it. And one of the things that held it back is that abstract quality. Its not just it?s not going to be on funny or die. I?ve learned form that now. In a way it?s a companion piece to the line. It?s the lighter half. It?s also about having to do with life lines. It?s the funny version though the not so dark and intense version.
Me: So how did the production team come together?
Petrilla:?A lot came from my producer, who is a guy named kit bland. Who I met on this, he was ADing the feature that I did on the feature I did that went to Cannes. He has worked as an AD in the city for years on Rescue Me and a bunch of feature films and television shows. At the time we were making the line he was getting into producing and hew was producing a couple of short films and he wanted to produce mine and has since produced a couple of features. He produced this film called Now Forager, which just screened at the Lincoln center at the New York Film festival. And its been doing well. It premiered at Rotterdam. He has been in the business so long he has worked with so many people. 60 to 70 percent of the crew came through him. And then another 30 were friends. A couple of them are film people. My AD and my art guy are film folks and they are sort of multi faceted guys who can sort of do anything and I brought them on as AD and art. And then a couple people were just hands, PA?s.
Me: Why did you choose?NY over LA?
Petrilla:?Came here first, I have a network set up. Have a network of people that I know here. When I left school I had an acting agent out here and that kind of gave me the reason to come out here as opposed to LA cause I had someone working for me. So I didn?t really have anything set up in LA. I started to expand the circle of people I know in this city first. I would love to do something LA. Its in the cards in the next couple of years. There is definitely things about this city, the reasons I came out here for acting that hold true for film making. With acting In LA it?s all film and TV, so if your an actor that?s what your doing that?s what your putting yourself out there for. But here there?s independent film and tv, theater, stand up comedy, improve, performance art. There is wider range of ponds to throw your hook out into and I think its maybe a little bit similar in film too. There?s a strong independent film community in New York. Its strong and it?s a little bit smaller and a little bit tighter knit. And that?s really great. And from what everyone says about LA, from the little bit of experience that I?ve had. Everyone out there is in the business. Its super saturated. Its easy to get lost. It?s easy to drown in the sea of industry out there. I like the little circle I?ve got going here. And if eventually it burns bright enough to get me a plane ticket out to LA . I?m content to just try to continue to try to do this ? continue what ive got going right here.
Me: How did you decide to shoot on RED?
Petrilla:?DSLR, I wasn?t even aware of DSLR at the time when we shot this in 09, but KTI introduced us to our DP, Til Newman who teaches at the New York Film Academy and he teaches the RED camera and he red camera was all the buzz at the time. And he was like I can get us a RED camera?I teach it and I know it well and it looks beautiful. So I was like why not. I think my aesthetic is a little bit more suited to it than DSLR. I like very kind of classically composed or sort of smooth shots. I think the red is very good at those. Its sort of indistinguishable from film and the shadows and the contrast and the dark kind of stuff it does really well.
Me: How did you get to work with James Rebhorn?
Petrilla:?James came through largely through my acting manager, a guy by the name of Bill Tresh, who has been in the business for years and years. He is a legend among the world of agents and managers. He knew James through another one of his clients and was able to get the script in his hands. He responded to it immediately, you know like I was saying a lot of people don?t get it. James got it immediately. He was into it. I think it gave him a chance to flex an acting muscle that he usually doesn?t get to flex playing the stereotypical roles of lawyer or doctor or bad guy of some sorts. There is something about his soul that it resonated with him. Getting to know him more. I think I have more of an understanding of how it worked for him and so we were just fortunate. He was the first guy we pitched it to and he just said yes.
Me: Was he easy to work with?
Petrilla:?A dream. You will never work with an actor as easy to work with as James Rebhorn. HE is such a gentleman. He?s already to go first take. And that was something I was so impressed with and true with all good actors and when you work with a good actor you appreciate the people who have it at their fingertips. The people who are real and ready to rock it every single time form the beginning. And he really and it?s the folks like him who have been doing it for their lives 20, 30 years. He?s been doing it so long he just has it. It?s always there. He is always ready to be in it. From an acting standpoint I learned so much watching good actors like him.
Me: Was it intimidating to work with such a seasoned actor on your debut film?
Petrilla:?You know I got a little bit of a chance to rub elbows with some people as an actor. The film that I did that went to Cannes was with Melissa Leo, who stared in that. I was kind of working with her in some scenes. I guess because I come from an acting background I get actors I think I relate to actors in a way that?s probably my strong point?I was kind of just nervous for the production as a whole.
Me: Do you have any good stories from on set?
Petrilla:?We had a couple of hurdles that were overcome like lickety split. We were shooting on this bridge over the Delaware River at the del water gap on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania line and there is this footbridge that spans the river. And the shot that I wanted was a wide shot of the whole bridge where the gunshot goes off and you cant see the guy. Its just a shot of the bridge. So there is a spit of land that goes out into the river down stream of the bridge that I scouted. So I was like we can hike down through the woods and bring the tripod out here and set up. Unfortunately in the week prior to shooting it rained every day. So the river was like four feet higher and this spit of land was underwater. We didn?t know that till we got up there the night before the shoot. There is a highway that goes over the water like two hundred, three hundred yards down stream from his spit of land. So my producer did some last minute calling and finagling and we were able to shut down the road for ten minutes. Roll the truck out there, wiped out the ting. Zoomed in and shot it. It was one of those last minute things that could have gone terribly wrong. So that was a nice little last minute negotiation.
Petrilla is currently working on his next project reConception, and as soon as we get the chance we will be sure to share it with all of you!
Summertime, and cooking isn't on my mind. At least that's the way I've felt as unrelenting heat and damaging storms have battered the Northern Virginia suburbs where I live. Curling up to read new cookbooks has proven an entertaining - and mouthwatering - diversion.
My favorite of the recent crop is the lush and lavish "The Hamptons: Food, Family, and History" by Ricky Lauren (Wiley, $40). Lauren, wife of designer Ralph, uses personal and historical anecdotes and wonderful recipes stylishly presented to show us The Hamptons, where her family has summered for 40 years.
The recipes are, for the most part, easy to follow, honing to Ricky Lauren's philosophy of taking advantage of natural settings and entertaining outdoors whenever you can.
Besides offering a peek into the lives of the rich and famous on a Gatsby-esque estate, the book charmed me with family stories like this one, which introduces David's Ice Cream and Brownie Cannonball recipe:
"On Saturday evenings after the children were bathed, fed and dressed in their Dr. Denton pajamas and little plaid robes, we would all gather in the living room to watch "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" on television. During "intermission," the children would race off to the kitchen to climb on chairs to scale the kitchen counters, and rush to prepare their favorite snacks to share with us.
"The children were like a team of Oompa Loompas on an assembly line, tossing Twinkies, Mallomars, red Twizzlers and Mr. Salty pretzel bags down to one another, squealing with delight, raiding the freezer for ice cream and sorbets, sharing in the fun of concocting treats of malteds, shakes and ice-cream sodas."
DAVID'S ICE CREAM AND BROWNIE CANNONBALL
1 quart vanilla ice cream
1/2 quart chocolate sorbet
1/2 quart coffee ice cream
6 brownie pieces with nuts, broken by hand into chunky bits
1 cup chopped mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios and/or almonds)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Remove the ice cream and sorbet from the freezer and allow them to soften, 20 to 30 minutes. Place in a bowl and add the brownie, nuts and chips. Mix to just incorporate. Spoon the mixture into a bowl, smooth the top, and freeze until hard, at least 2 hours.
To serve, run the outside of the bowl under hot water to loosen the frozen ball. Place a plate on top of the bowl and invert it. If you feel like an extra delight, serve with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Makes 6 servings.
Per serving: 713 calories (47 percent from fat), 38 g fat (15.6 g saturated, 11.5 g monounsaturated), 64 mg cholesterol, 14.4 g protein, 83 g carbohydrates, 4.6 g fiber, 321 mg sodium.
MARTHA'S LATEST
I've never met a Martha Stewart cookbook I didn't enjoy immensely and cook from often, but I'm especially taken by Martha's "American Food" (Clarkson Potter, $40). It offers more than 200 recipes from across America, organized by region. Stewart describes it as "a culinary road trip" and a "celebration of the extraordinary quilt of American ingredients and cuisine."
There are recipes for favorites such as clam chowder, pulled pork, chicken pot pies, Shaker lemon tarts, blueberry crisp and strawberry shortcake, plus lots of stories about our national dishes and the stories behind them.
Since I had received a basket of fresh mangoes from a generous Miami friend with a backyard tree, I tried the chicken recipe here with mangoes rather than peaches. It was simple and yet delicious.
MARTHA STEWART'S GRILLED CHICKEN WITH SPICY PEACH GLAZE
Heat grill to medium. (If you are using charcoal, the coals are ready when you can hold your hand 4 inches above the grates for just 4 to 5 seconds.)
In a medium bowl, combine preserves, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, dry mustard and cayenne. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. When grill is hot, brush grates with vegetable oil. Pat chicken breasts dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper and place, skin side down, on the grill.
Cook about 10 minutes on each side before brushing top with glaze. Continue cooking another 10 to 12 minutes, turning chicken every 3 to 5 minutes and brushing top with glaze, until chicken is cooked through. (Move pieces to a cooler part of grill if they get too dark before they are cooked through.) Transfer to a platter.
While chicken is cooking, place peach halves on the grill, cut side down and cook 2 minutes. Turn and brush the tops with glaze. Grill 3 to 4 minutes more, until the peaches are soft and the cavities fill with juices. Transfer to platter with chicken. Makes 8 servings.
Per serving: 378 calories (36 percent from fat), 14.8 g fat (3.5 g saturated, 6.8 g monounsaturated), 72.5 mg cholesterol, 25.3 g protein, 35.5 g carbohydrates, 1.7 g fiber, 211 mg sodium.
SLEUTH'S CORNER:
Q: I tasted the best creme brulee cheesecake several years ago. The cheesecake was topped with creme brulee custard, then caramelized sugar over the top. I would love to make this for my next party dessert.
-J.L., Pembroke Pines, Fla.
TRIED AND NEW
Several readers reported having trouble finding the picadillo seasoning packet from Nueva Cocina mentioned in a recent column. If you have Internet access, there is a store locator and online shop at nuevacocina.com. You can also call 800-630-1125.
Send questions and responses to LindaCiceroCooks@aol.com. Personal replies cannot be guaranteed.
What kind of data can I gather about sunscreen and skin cancer?
I am doing a project about nanoparticles used in sunscreen. Some people believe it can cause skin cancer, while others believe it protects from skin cancer. Are there any statistics I can use? Maybe some about which kinds of sunscreen have been most effective. Something including nanotechnology would be nice, but even just sunscreen statistics will do. Please provide a link or two. Thank you.
While not an expert in business ethics, one of the most frequent discussions I have is the role of ethics as it relates to firms looking to roll out effective and engaging program, particularly in business critical areas, and the correlation between ethical foundations and program success (or failure).
Far more practical in Asia, discussions of ethics is traditionally tied to a place that quickly turns philosophical and religious. which is part of the program in the Asia context as the different context of ethics in definition, practice, and standard can be night and day for some managers.? Particularly those who were trained in the West.
And while doing a bit of research recently on the tie up between ethics and responsibility I came across an interesting series of discussions on the practical nature of ethics in the firms by the Chartered Management Global Accountant organization called Managing Responsible Business: The future of ethics.? Very British in format, the discussion involves a wide range of stakeholders and has three parts: Ethical Culture, Accounting for Ethics, and Ethical Dilemmas. All of which I highly recommend for their content and consideration
Additionally, there are a series of reports that are available from their website that I also highly recommend:?Managing responsible business ? a global survey on business ethics,?Sustainable business: Shared value in practice, and?Rebooting business: Valuing the human dimension.
Each of which offer some nicely packaged insights to the strategic gaps and impacts to the firm.
This house has windows, hot water tank, furnace replaced in last couple years as well as shingles too. The basement can be finished to new owner?s needs. The 4 bedrooms make this home nice for a family. Come take a look, this house could be the one you are looking for with it?s fenced backyard and room for the kids to play.
Someone who is suffering from a disease not to mention the disease mesothelioma, should be able to regulate emotions. And should be more aware that the pressure of unbridled emotion and continue to accumulate can cause a variety of physical ailments.
What does it mean?
Before I answer the question above I'll tell you an analogy that I got from Dr. Anthony Fernando. Reducing stress can use an analogy of a draft of a ship sectional, that is to overcome when the ship collision that resulted in the sinking ship. Here, the role that localizes the septum so that water does not spread.
Now you imagine that your life like a ship sectional and between your day is like a bulkhead of a ship. Just like a ship compartment that serves to block water, every day you should be able to block out a problem.
That means you do not have to constantly analyze the past and are too worried about the future. Noteworthy is today / this problem.
How does this practice?
Within days of starting on the morning after waking, with calm yourself imagine that you close the compartment and the focus of the day yesterday looking for a solution to solving the problem on this day. Is this not actually create new problems because we are only fixated on these days without being able to imagine the success (happiness).
My answer is NO, why? because we speak the design of a ship and used to what it ships later. So we do not just look at each partition of your life but, how and to what a ship is made.
So here we can conclude that in designing healing diseases including mesothelioma, we should not get stuck in regret the past nor fear the future, because after we design a healing solution to reduce the stress we should focus only on healing today. Is not the only focus one more problem we can get out of the problem and appropriate answers to the above when we pile up every day just is not the problem of complications in the can. Try to contemplate!
Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers: A Patient's Guide
About the Author Paul Kraus was born in 1944 in Austria and migrated with his parents to Australia as a young child. He received his BA at Macquarie University and a Master of Arts and Education from the University of Sydney. For most of his working life he has been a high school history teacher. It was during a summer vacation job as a university student that he was exposed to asbestos. Over thirty years later he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the asbestos related cancer. Today, he works as a freelance writer and journalist. He, his wife and their two miniature schnauzers live north of Sydney in the city of Newcastle. More information about Paul Kraus and his story can be found at his website: survivingmesothelioma.com
Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers: A Patient's Guide
100 Questions & Answers About Mesothelioma, Second Edition
Whether you re a newly diagnosed Mesothelioma patient, a survivor, or a friend or relative of either, this book offers help. Completely revised and updated for this second edition, this is the only book to provide the doctor s and patient s views. 100 Questions & Answers About Mesothelioma, Second Edition gives you authoritative, practical answers to your questions about treatment options, post-treatment quality of life, sources of support, legal options, and much more. This outstanding team of authors led by a world-class lung disease expert and including an insider s comments from the wife and caregiver of a patient provides an invaluable resource for anyone coping with the physical and emotional turmoil of this frightening disease.
100 Questions & Answers About Mesothelioma, Second Edition
Greetings to all my?friends... I spent today writing chapter seven of my upcoming book entitled: Bad Relationships: Knowing When to Walk Out... I am describing a scenario from the chapter called: ?Me and Mr. Wrong? and the main character/ victim provided a message that is worthy of sharing publicly regarding domestic violence relationships and I will repeat it herein; this message is for men and women and applies to all sorts of Partnerships regardless of sexual preferences... She said, "My plea to you; if you are in a relationship that is causing great pain, safety issues and unhappiness or if you are being battered and abused in front of your children physically or emotionally; you must get out!? You don?t need to have money or clothes; it doesn?t matter that he rings your bell properly; you need to wise up and long for a brighter day? Contact the Battered woman resource hotline or call a trusted friend for support; your partner can cause your early demise?
Message from Latonya Peterson; author of The Cradle Robber, There's One Nut in Every Family and Make Me Feel Good: You Must Define Your Own Self-worth.
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Posted on: 1:30 pm, July 21, 2012, by Nick Dutton, updated on: 02:51pm, July 21, 2012
By the CNN Wire Staff
AURORA, Colorado (CNN) ? Investigators carried out Saturday a ?controlled detonation? inside the booby-trapped apartment of movie theater shooting suspect James E. Holmes, the latest move in a three-step effort to enter the apartment.
The blast came after a policeman yelled, ?Fire in the hole!? three times.
Fire officials were on standby, but there was no immediate indication of a fire.
Earlier, a trip wire and an incendiary device were both dealt with, Public Information Officer Sgt. Cassidee Carlson told reporters. ?This trip wire was set up to clearly detonate when somebody entered the apartment, and it was set up to kill that person,? she said. ?That could have been a police officer executing a search warrant. This is some serious stuff our team is dealing with.?
Investigators were planning to use a robot to disarm trip wires linked to explosives, and then use that same robot to remotely remove improvised explosive devices, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the operation told CNN. It was also possible one of the bomb experts on site would put on protective gear and go inside the apartment, the official added.
Carlson did not say whether that occurred.
It was not clear where all the explosives were located, though many have been seen in the living area with circuitry reaching into the kitchen, the official said.
One of the incendiary devices appears to be improvised napalm and others appear to be mixtures that, if combined with other materials, could cause an explosion, the official said.
Approximately 30 aerial shells are in the 850 square foot apartment, Carlson said. They will be placed on sand trucks and taken to a disposal site for controlled detonation, she said.
?During any of these phases, and as this day goes on, again, there may be controlled detonations,? she said, adding that reverse 911 calls would alert the general public prior to any blasts.
Asked what timeline authorities were expecting to follow, she said, ?There is no timeline. I can?t give you an endtime. We?re hoping to get in there within the next hour.?
But, she added, ?We have no idea how long any of this is going to take.?
Officials had been hoping to avoid detonations to limit any loss of evidence, she said.
?Jars of black powder? and what appear to be ?liquid accelerants? attached to the explosive devices are also inside Apartment 10, another law enforcement official said. ?He placed other chemicals to enhance fire/thermal effect of IEDs,? the official added about Holmes? apartment.
?He has a level of expertise, not crude,? the official said.
About 100 officials were called in to oversee the entrance into Apartment 10 at 1690 Paris Street. Federal personnel flown here from out of state include bomb technicians from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Explosive Ordinance & Disposal specialists. Police evacuated five buildings Friday, including the one where Holmes lived, after he told them he had rigged his apartment with explosives.
Shortly after police apprehended Holmes in the rear parking lot of the Century Aurora 16 movie complex, where dozens of people had been shot, he told them that he had rigged his apartment, Police Chief Daniel Oates said Friday.
After the shootings, police arrived at Holmes? apartment to find ?techno-music? blaring from the bedroom, according to a law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The music was on a timer and apparently started once he left for the movie theater, said the source, who was not authorized to release details of the investigation to the media.
Oates said Friday that it could take days to work through the apartment safely. While authorities did not say how many residents were evacuated from nearby buildings, the number is estimated to be in the hundreds.
Authorities began Friday night to allow families in four of the five evacuated buildings to return to their residences to retrieve personal items, such as medication, identification cards and clothing.
A shelter was set up at Aurora Central High School for those forced from their apartments.
CNN?s Susan Candiotti, Poppy Harlow, Chelsea J. Carter and Kyung Lah contributed to this report.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: Gunman opens fire in Colorado movie theater?
Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for the latest on this developing story.?
A quick heads up for everyone, The Dark Knight Rises has had an update pushed that brings it to the Nexus 7. Many of us were disappointed yesterday, when the game launched but anyone with a Nexus 7 couldn't download it. All that's changed now though, and the game is right there in the Play Store waiting.
There was an apparent issue in some cases too where the games assets were downloading twice. Thankfully, this has also been fixed with this update.
The download link is below, so what are you waiting for? Have at it folks, i'll be cashing in some of that Google Play credit now. If you're still unsure, be sure to check out our review of the game first.
With the help of a laser application, researchers at the Agrobiotechnology Institute of Navarre are designing nanostructured reliefs on surfaces
This release is available in Spanish.
Researchers at the Institute for Agrobiotechnology (a mixed research centre set up by the Public University of Navarre, the CSIC-National Scientific Research Council, and the Government of Navarre) are designing, by means of laser application, nanostructured reliefs on surfaces so that they acquire antibacterial properties and are more resistant to the formation of bacterial biofilms. The authors of the research say that in the preliminary tests carried out so far with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus a reduction in the region of 65-70% has been confirmed in the adhesion of bacteria.
Apart from selecting the materials that best inhibit the adhesion of bacteria, the research is also looking into other aspects. These include the resistance to disinfectants of the bacteria adhered to nanostructured surfaces, how these surfaces retain their properties during prolonged use, or the behaviour of the bacteria on the surface of biomaterials. Topographical patterns that encourage the adhesion of bacteria will also be identified.
The authors anticipate that the applications coming out of this research will have an impact on a broad field from surgical material treated in advance using laser (prostheses, catheters) to water or aquaculture tanks with surfaces that prevent the adhesion of bacteria.
Preventing the creation of a bacterial biofilm
Bacterial biofilm is created when bacteria grow adhered to a surface and are surrounded by a matrix that they themselves produce and which makes them more resistant. "Bacteria," according to the head researcher Jaione Valle-Turrillas, "stick to any surface; it can be the skin, internal organs, surfaces of materials, etc. and they produce this biofilm, a kind of film that makes them more resistant to antibiotic treatments, disinfectants, etc." Biofilms can be found in nature (bacteria adhered to the surfaces of stones in rivers), in our own bodies (intestinal and buccal flora), in filters and pipes, in water tanks, on farms (milking equipment) and in the clinical ambit (prostheses, surgical catheters), etc.
The Biofilms Microbianos research group of the Institute of Agrobiotechnology is working mainly with two bacteria: S. aureus and Salmonella. Various lines of research focusing on the prevention or elimination of biofilms and ranging from the development of vaccines to research into biofilm dispersants, are being pursued in the laboratory, and right now, research is being done in this project to modify surfaces to prevent the formation of biofilm.
"Thanks to DLIP [Direct Laser Interference Patterning] technology, a surface is interfered with and modified using different laser beams on a nanometric scale," explains Jaione Valle. "You can create different patterns and drawings, of different periodicity, from nanometres to micra. We've already tested different surfaces and have found a material and a pattern that will stop the bacteria from sticking to the surface; it does not eliminate them completely, but the reduction is between 65 and 70%."
First of all, the surface is modified by means of laser and then the bacteria are applied to see how they produce the biofilm and in what quantity. Various materials have been used during the tests, and it has been seen how the number of bacteria and the production of biofilm diminish according to bacteria type and type of structure applied to the surface.
To quantify the reduction in the number of bacteria and the extent to which they remain adhered to the nanostructured surface, the researchers used a reagent (Alamar Blue), which emits fluorescence when it comes into contact with live bacteria. "This reaction is measured in a fluorometer so that the more bacteria there are, the greater the fluorescence that is produced," points out the researcher. The problem is that this technique cannot differentiate when the adhesion differences are small. That is why we are now using another method: we collect all the bacteria that have stuck to the surface, we sow them in a culture medium and count the number of colonies; it's more laborious, but it's also much more reliable."
The project "Development and evaluation of antibacterial properties of surfaces with nanostructured reliefs generated by Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP)" is scheduled to run for three years, and will be brought to a conclusion at the end of December 2013. It is being run in collaboration with the German R+D centre Institut Fraunhofer for Material and Beam Technology, which has provided the laser technology to generate the reliefs on the surfaces. The IdAB-Agrobiotechnology Institute, for its part, is conducting the study and experimental tests. The total budget, funded by the Department of Innovation, Companies and Employment of the Government of Navarre, amounts to 179,800 euros.
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Modifying surfaces by means of nanostructured reliefs to prevent the spread of bacteriaPublic release date: 20-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
With the help of a laser application, researchers at the Agrobiotechnology Institute of Navarre are designing nanostructured reliefs on surfaces
This release is available in Spanish.
Researchers at the Institute for Agrobiotechnology (a mixed research centre set up by the Public University of Navarre, the CSIC-National Scientific Research Council, and the Government of Navarre) are designing, by means of laser application, nanostructured reliefs on surfaces so that they acquire antibacterial properties and are more resistant to the formation of bacterial biofilms. The authors of the research say that in the preliminary tests carried out so far with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus a reduction in the region of 65-70% has been confirmed in the adhesion of bacteria.
Apart from selecting the materials that best inhibit the adhesion of bacteria, the research is also looking into other aspects. These include the resistance to disinfectants of the bacteria adhered to nanostructured surfaces, how these surfaces retain their properties during prolonged use, or the behaviour of the bacteria on the surface of biomaterials. Topographical patterns that encourage the adhesion of bacteria will also be identified.
The authors anticipate that the applications coming out of this research will have an impact on a broad field from surgical material treated in advance using laser (prostheses, catheters) to water or aquaculture tanks with surfaces that prevent the adhesion of bacteria.
Preventing the creation of a bacterial biofilm
Bacterial biofilm is created when bacteria grow adhered to a surface and are surrounded by a matrix that they themselves produce and which makes them more resistant. "Bacteria," according to the head researcher Jaione Valle-Turrillas, "stick to any surface; it can be the skin, internal organs, surfaces of materials, etc. and they produce this biofilm, a kind of film that makes them more resistant to antibiotic treatments, disinfectants, etc." Biofilms can be found in nature (bacteria adhered to the surfaces of stones in rivers), in our own bodies (intestinal and buccal flora), in filters and pipes, in water tanks, on farms (milking equipment) and in the clinical ambit (prostheses, surgical catheters), etc.
The Biofilms Microbianos research group of the Institute of Agrobiotechnology is working mainly with two bacteria: S. aureus and Salmonella. Various lines of research focusing on the prevention or elimination of biofilms and ranging from the development of vaccines to research into biofilm dispersants, are being pursued in the laboratory, and right now, research is being done in this project to modify surfaces to prevent the formation of biofilm.
"Thanks to DLIP [Direct Laser Interference Patterning] technology, a surface is interfered with and modified using different laser beams on a nanometric scale," explains Jaione Valle. "You can create different patterns and drawings, of different periodicity, from nanometres to micra. We've already tested different surfaces and have found a material and a pattern that will stop the bacteria from sticking to the surface; it does not eliminate them completely, but the reduction is between 65 and 70%."
First of all, the surface is modified by means of laser and then the bacteria are applied to see how they produce the biofilm and in what quantity. Various materials have been used during the tests, and it has been seen how the number of bacteria and the production of biofilm diminish according to bacteria type and type of structure applied to the surface.
To quantify the reduction in the number of bacteria and the extent to which they remain adhered to the nanostructured surface, the researchers used a reagent (Alamar Blue), which emits fluorescence when it comes into contact with live bacteria. "This reaction is measured in a fluorometer so that the more bacteria there are, the greater the fluorescence that is produced," points out the researcher. The problem is that this technique cannot differentiate when the adhesion differences are small. That is why we are now using another method: we collect all the bacteria that have stuck to the surface, we sow them in a culture medium and count the number of colonies; it's more laborious, but it's also much more reliable."
The project "Development and evaluation of antibacterial properties of surfaces with nanostructured reliefs generated by Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP)" is scheduled to run for three years, and will be brought to a conclusion at the end of December 2013. It is being run in collaboration with the German R+D centre Institut Fraunhofer for Material and Beam Technology, which has provided the laser technology to generate the reliefs on the surfaces. The IdAB-Agrobiotechnology Institute, for its part, is conducting the study and experimental tests. The total budget, funded by the Department of Innovation, Companies and Employment of the Government of Navarre, amounts to 179,800 euros.
###
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
We've all been in this situation: you're sitting in a dark theater, excitedly watching a film you've eagerly been waiting a long time to see, when all of sudden an bright flood of light in your peripheral vision distracts you from the action onscreen - someone in the theater is texting. OMG!
After years of investing his own money, Canadian angel Boris Wertz has raised $15 million and created a new fund that will enable him to make even larger investments in early-stage startups. The fund, which will be focused on consumer Internet, software-as-a-service, e-commerce, and mobile companies. Wertz was the Chief Operating Officer of AbeBooks.com, which was acquired by Amazon.com back in 2008. He had been cofounder of German company JustBooks, which was later acquired by AbeBooks in 2002. Over the past several years, he's been making investments in early-stage companies with his own money, and is also behind the 
On the banks of the Hudson, in record-breaking heat (started the interview with iced coffee but had hot coffee by the end), I had the opportunity to sit down with a promising young director who created one of my favorite shorts,?The Line.
July 22nd, 2012 at 5:55 pm by Hawa Konte under Community Affairs, News, Photos 
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Public release date: 20-Jul-2012
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