The top guys at American Eagle?s pilot union expressed the union?s ?profound disappointment? Friday that PSA Airline pilots had approved a concessionary contract.
The message came from Bill Sprague and Matt Rettig, the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Air Line Pilots Association?s Master Executive Council at American Eagle.
?While we respect the right of the PSA pilots to determine what is best for them and their families, we believe it was a colossal mistake to unnecessarily drive the industry standard to such a miserable level,? Sprague and Rettig wrote.
?This deal in some ways mimics what was negotiated by Endeavor Air (formerly Pinnacle Airlines Inc.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, during their effort to avoid liquidation in bankruptcy,? they wrote.
?One significant difference is that the Endeavor pilots were compensated for many of the concessions they provided.? The only potential gain for the PSA pilots in this deal is the possibility of new aircraft,? Sprague and Rettig concluded.
They told American Eagle pilots that the PSA deal will be reviewed by ALPA president Lee Moak to see if it conforms to ALPA standards.
?If it takes effect, this new low bar will make it more difficult for other pilot groups, including us at Eagle, to have fair and livable pay and work rules,? the pair wrote.
?Everyone likes shiny new jets, but they must not be financed by cutting the pay and benefits that we have worked so hard to achieve.? We believe this is exactly what the PSA pilots have signed the industry up for,? Sprague and Rettig warned.
Keep reading for the entire message to American Eagle pilots.
Fellow Eagle Pilots:
It is with profound disappointment that we learn of the ratification of the concessionary TA at PSA. While we respect the right of the PSA pilots to determine what is best for them and their families, we believe it was a colossal mistake to unnecessarily drive the industry standard to such a miserable level.? This deal in some ways mimics what was negotiated by Endeavor Air (formerly Pinnacle Airlines Inc.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, during their effort to avoid liquidation in bankruptcy.? One significant difference is that the Endeavor pilots were compensated for many of the concessions they provided.? The only potential gain for the PSA pilots in this deal is the possibility of new aircraft.
It is unclear whether this deal is contingent upon the pending lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice challenging the merger, but it appears unlikely to occur without one.? The next step in the process is for the ALPA President to decide whether the agreement conforms to the direction and goals of the Association membership.? Our MEC strongly encourages him to be deliberate in his examination of the agreement prior to signing it.? If it takes effect, this new low bar will make it more difficult for other pilot groups, including us at Eagle, to have fair and livable pay and work rules.? Everyone likes shiny new jets, but they must not be financed by cutting the pay and benefits that we have worked so hard to achieve.? We believe this is exactly what the PSA pilots have signed the industry up for.
Please try to keep your efforts and actions positive, constructive and oriented toward drawing us together as a team. It is critical that we stand together as a unified group while we navigate the difficult road ahead.? Please communicate all ideas, suggestions and offers of assistance to your local reps as one of our strengths is having the perspective and experience of 2900 airline pilots.
We remain open to any reasonable proposal from management which could bring airplanes to Eagle to replace the ones we?re retiring and ensure Eagle?s viability. We look forward to an earnest discussion with management about how best to proceed.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has this morning a landmark report which places the blame for climate change squarely at the feet of humankind.
Scripps research institute scientists discover important wound-healing processPublic release date: 26-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mika Ono mikaono@scripps.edu 858-784-2052 Scripps Research Institute
LA JOLLA, CA -- September 26, 2013 -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered an important process by which special immune cells in the skin help heal wounds. They found that these skin-resident immune cells function as "first responders" to skin injuries in part by producing the molecule known as interleukin-17A (IL-17A), which wards off infection and promotes wound healing.
"This appears to be a critical and unique component of mammals' defense against skin wounds, and we hope that it will point the way towards better therapies for people with difficulties in healing wounds," said TSRI Professor Wendy L. Havran.
Havran was senior author of the study, which was published this week online ahead of print by the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
More than Sentinels
Havran and other researchers have shown in recent years that special immune cells known as dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs) are the only resident T cell population in the outer layer of skin (epidermis) of mice -- and are resident in human skin, too. These cells are now thought to serve as the immune system's principal sentinels in the skin -- when they detect damage signals from nearby wounded skin cells, they summon other, non-skin-resident immune cells to the site of the wound. Skin injuries in mice that have been bred to lack DETCs take much longer than normal to heal.
In the new study, Havran's laboratory looked for new ways in which DETCs contribute to wound healing.
In one set of experiments, Senior Research Associate Amanda S. MacLeod, the lead author of the study, and other members of the team tried to determine whether DETCs in mice produce IL-17A in response to skin wounding. IL-17A had been considered mainly a recruiter of other immune cells and thus a promoter of inflammation in most places in the body. Havran and her colleagues had found evidence that it appears in and around skin wounds in mice soon after an injury occurs.
The scientists soon determined that mice that lack IL-17A activity healed wounds on their skin much more slowly than normal -- very much like mice that lack DETCs. Applying IL-17A to the skin of such mice repaired their wound-healing defects. The team then showed that the rise in local IL-17A levels after a skin wound depended critically on the activation of skin-resident DETCs -- pointing to these DETCs as the likely source of the immune signaling molecule. In the mice that lack IL-17A, adding normal DETCs from other mice fully restored a healthy wound-healing capacity and did so only when the added DETCs contained the gene that allows these cells to produce IL-17A.
The scientists found that DETCs are indeed the primary producers of IL-17A after skin injuries, but she observed that some and not all DETCs perform this function. "Only a subset produces IL-17A upon skin injury, although the surface markers on these cells seem identical to those of other DETCs," MacLeod said. "Why only some DETCs respond to wounds in this way is something we plan to explore further."
In a last series of tests, the scientists observed that DETCs started pumping out IL-17A as soon as they detected damage signals from nearby skin cells, called keratinocytes. The surge in IL-17A levels didn't merely summon other immune cells into the skin. Even before those other immune cells arrived on the scene and inflammation set in, the IL-17A induced local keratinocytes to start making special proteins that are known to combat bacteria, viruses and other microbes -- and are also known to promote the crucial skin regrowth and remodeling that are needed to heal a wound.
"This 'cross-talk' between skin-resident T cells and nearby keratinocytes is critical for re-establishing the skin barrier following wounding," MacLeod said.
Next Steps
One of the next steps, Havran noted, will be to investigate whether a similar process occurs in human skin following wounds. "We've previously shown that skin-resident T cells normally contribute to wound healing in people, and that those same T cells are defective in some patients with chronic wounds," she said. "Chronic wounds are an increasing clinical problem, particularly in the elderly, the disabled and people with diabetes, and so we hope that our results, particularly the wound-healing role of IL-17A, will help lead to better ways of treating such conditions."
She notes, too, that IL-17A is often considered chiefly a pro-inflammatory factor, which some anti-inflammatory therapies are designed to suppress. "IL-17 inhibitors are now used in the treatment of the skin condition called psoriasis, which raises the possibility that those patients might become more susceptible to the development of chronic wounds," she said.
Havran, MacLeod and their colleagues also hope to learn further details of the molecular cross-talk between DETCs and keratinocytes, as well as the role of DETCs in protecting against other environmental threats, such as the ultraviolet radiation that causes sunburn and skin cancers. "We suspect that these skin-resident T cells also help protect keratinocytes from ultraviolet-induced DNA damage," MacLeod said.
###
Other contributors to the study, "Dendritic epidermal T cells regulate skin antimicrobial barrier function," were Saskia Hemmers, Olivia Garijo, Marianne Chabod, Kerri Mowen and Deborah A. Witherden, all of TSRI. For more information on the paper, see http://www.jci.org/articles/view/70064
The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (R01AI036964, R01AI067460 , R01A1099728 and 5T32AI007244), Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft and Arbeitskreis Dermatologische Forschung.
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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.
Scripps research institute scientists discover important wound-healing processPublic release date: 26-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mika Ono mikaono@scripps.edu 858-784-2052 Scripps Research Institute
LA JOLLA, CA -- September 26, 2013 -- Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered an important process by which special immune cells in the skin help heal wounds. They found that these skin-resident immune cells function as "first responders" to skin injuries in part by producing the molecule known as interleukin-17A (IL-17A), which wards off infection and promotes wound healing.
"This appears to be a critical and unique component of mammals' defense against skin wounds, and we hope that it will point the way towards better therapies for people with difficulties in healing wounds," said TSRI Professor Wendy L. Havran.
Havran was senior author of the study, which was published this week online ahead of print by the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
More than Sentinels
Havran and other researchers have shown in recent years that special immune cells known as dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs) are the only resident T cell population in the outer layer of skin (epidermis) of mice -- and are resident in human skin, too. These cells are now thought to serve as the immune system's principal sentinels in the skin -- when they detect damage signals from nearby wounded skin cells, they summon other, non-skin-resident immune cells to the site of the wound. Skin injuries in mice that have been bred to lack DETCs take much longer than normal to heal.
In the new study, Havran's laboratory looked for new ways in which DETCs contribute to wound healing.
In one set of experiments, Senior Research Associate Amanda S. MacLeod, the lead author of the study, and other members of the team tried to determine whether DETCs in mice produce IL-17A in response to skin wounding. IL-17A had been considered mainly a recruiter of other immune cells and thus a promoter of inflammation in most places in the body. Havran and her colleagues had found evidence that it appears in and around skin wounds in mice soon after an injury occurs.
The scientists soon determined that mice that lack IL-17A activity healed wounds on their skin much more slowly than normal -- very much like mice that lack DETCs. Applying IL-17A to the skin of such mice repaired their wound-healing defects. The team then showed that the rise in local IL-17A levels after a skin wound depended critically on the activation of skin-resident DETCs -- pointing to these DETCs as the likely source of the immune signaling molecule. In the mice that lack IL-17A, adding normal DETCs from other mice fully restored a healthy wound-healing capacity and did so only when the added DETCs contained the gene that allows these cells to produce IL-17A.
The scientists found that DETCs are indeed the primary producers of IL-17A after skin injuries, but she observed that some and not all DETCs perform this function. "Only a subset produces IL-17A upon skin injury, although the surface markers on these cells seem identical to those of other DETCs," MacLeod said. "Why only some DETCs respond to wounds in this way is something we plan to explore further."
In a last series of tests, the scientists observed that DETCs started pumping out IL-17A as soon as they detected damage signals from nearby skin cells, called keratinocytes. The surge in IL-17A levels didn't merely summon other immune cells into the skin. Even before those other immune cells arrived on the scene and inflammation set in, the IL-17A induced local keratinocytes to start making special proteins that are known to combat bacteria, viruses and other microbes -- and are also known to promote the crucial skin regrowth and remodeling that are needed to heal a wound.
"This 'cross-talk' between skin-resident T cells and nearby keratinocytes is critical for re-establishing the skin barrier following wounding," MacLeod said.
Next Steps
One of the next steps, Havran noted, will be to investigate whether a similar process occurs in human skin following wounds. "We've previously shown that skin-resident T cells normally contribute to wound healing in people, and that those same T cells are defective in some patients with chronic wounds," she said. "Chronic wounds are an increasing clinical problem, particularly in the elderly, the disabled and people with diabetes, and so we hope that our results, particularly the wound-healing role of IL-17A, will help lead to better ways of treating such conditions."
She notes, too, that IL-17A is often considered chiefly a pro-inflammatory factor, which some anti-inflammatory therapies are designed to suppress. "IL-17 inhibitors are now used in the treatment of the skin condition called psoriasis, which raises the possibility that those patients might become more susceptible to the development of chronic wounds," she said.
Havran, MacLeod and their colleagues also hope to learn further details of the molecular cross-talk between DETCs and keratinocytes, as well as the role of DETCs in protecting against other environmental threats, such as the ultraviolet radiation that causes sunburn and skin cancers. "We suspect that these skin-resident T cells also help protect keratinocytes from ultraviolet-induced DNA damage," MacLeod said.
###
Other contributors to the study, "Dendritic epidermal T cells regulate skin antimicrobial barrier function," were Saskia Hemmers, Olivia Garijo, Marianne Chabod, Kerri Mowen and Deborah A. Witherden, all of TSRI. For more information on the paper, see http://www.jci.org/articles/view/70064
The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (R01AI036964, R01AI067460 , R01A1099728 and 5T32AI007244), Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft and Arbeitskreis Dermatologische Forschung.
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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.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The FBI has been using drones to support its law enforcement operations since 2006 and has spent more than $3 million on the unmanned aircraft, the Justice Department's internal watchdog said Thursday.
The disclosure came in a new report by the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, who revealed that the department also has awarded $1.26 million to at least seven local police departments and nonprofit organization for drones.
In addition, the IG said another Justice Department component, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, plans to use drones to support future operations. To date, the ATF has spent almost $600,000, the IG report stated.
From 2004 to May 2013, the Justice Department spent almost $5 million on the unmanned aircraft.
In June, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that the FBI occasionally uses the unmanned aerial vehicles but was developing guidelines in anticipation of issues that will arise "as they become more omnipresent." In one instance earlier this year, the FBI used drones at night during a six-day hostage standoff in Alabama.
In a letter in July to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the FBI revealed it had used drones 10 times since 2006 for surveillance in kidnappings, search and rescue missions, and drug and fugitive investigations. Among them was last winter's standoff between authorities and Jimmy Lee Dykes, who was shot to death after holding a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker in Alabama, the letter said.
The IG's report cited the Alabama case, but no others, saying only that a review of available records showed that the FBI appeared to be operating drones only after obtaining required approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Civil liberties groups critical of domestic drone use say such operations could invade people's privacy. The government worries drones could collide with passenger planes or crash, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.
Paul, mentioned as a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, had been thwarting the Senate confirmation vote of Mueller's successor, James Comey, over his concerns about the FBI's domestic use of drones and had asked the FBI to address his concerns.
The FBI's letter to Paul also said that while the Supreme Court had not ruled on the use of drones, prior rulings on aerial surveillance held that court warrants were not needed because the areas monitored were open to public view and "there was no reasonable expectation of privacy."
The agency also wrote that a warrant would not be needed because drones don't physically trespass on private property.
The IG report, however, suggested that drones might present special challenges in the realm of civil liberties.
For example, said the IG report, drones have the "unique capability" to maneuver effectively yet covertly in the areas surrounding a home, where expectations of privacy are not clear or well-defined. In addition, said the IG, drones are capable of extended flight times of several hours or even days, which could have legal implications whether the tracking was performed on private or public property.
The IG recommended the formation of a Justice Department working group to determine whether drones require their own legal policy, distinct from those of manned aircraft. The deputy attorney general's office agreed with the recommendation.
Civilian versions of unmanned military aircraft that have tracked and killed terrorists in the Middle East and Asia are in demand by police departments and border patrol units. Justice Department officials told the IG's office that none of their drones were armed. Law enforcement agencies want drones for a bird's-eye view that's too impractical or dangerous for conventional planes or helicopters to obtain.
The drones purchased by the Justice Department are what the FAA calls "small UAVs," unmanned aerial vehicles that weigh up to 55 pounds.
The FBI has said its unmanned aerial vehicles are used only to conduct surveillance operations on stationary subjects. In each instance, the FBI first must obtain the approval of the FAA to use the aircraft in a very confined geographic area.
Two other Justice Department components, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service, have purchased drones for testing, but said they had no plans to deploy them operationally, the IG's report said. The Marshals service spent $75,000. The DEA acquired its drone from another federal agency at no cost, and said it planned to transfer the craft to another agency. The Marshals Service said it planned to destroy its drones because they were obsolete and no longer operable.
Regarding potential privacy concerns, both the FBI and ATF told the IG's office they did not believe there was any practical difference between how a drone collects evidence and how that's done by a manned aircraft, the report said.
The FBI told the IG that bureau guidelines require that agents get supervisor approval before conducting any aerial surveillance and comply with aviation laws and policies. As of May, the ATF said it was developing a checklist to guide how drone operators conduct flights.
"These officials did not believe that there was a need to develop additional privacy protocols" for drones, the IG's report said.
A senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, Jay Stanley, said: "We urge the Justice Department to make good on its plans to develop privacy rules that protect Americans from another mass surveillance technology."
He added that Congress should pass legislation requiring law enforcement to get judicial approval before deploying drones, and explicitly forbid the arming of such machines.
Florida, Idaho and Tennessee require that law enforcement agencies obtain a search warrant before using drones for surveillance.
In April, Virginia enacted a two-year moratorium on drone use except in cases of imminent loss of life. Many other state legislatures and municipalities are considering similar measures.
In addition to the money spent by the FBI and ATF, the Justice Department has awarded $1.26 million for drones to at least seven local police departments and nonprofit organizations since 2007.
The Justice Department money was used by Eastern Kentucky University, the Sheriff's Association of Texas, the Center for Rural Development in Kentucky, the Gadsden, Ala., Police Department, the Miami-Dade Police Department, the North Little Rock, Ark., police department and the San Mateo County, Calif., Sheriff's Office.
Five of the seven grants were used to buy drones. The awards to Miami-Dade and San Mateo were provided solely to evaluate drones for use in the field.
The drones met with varying success. In 2009, the Gadsden Police Department attempted to use its drone for a surveillance mission. "However, Gadsden Police Department officials stated that during the mission the ground control station lost communication with the unmanned aircraft system, causing the UAV to collide with a tree."
The aerospace industry forecasts a worldwide deployment of almost 30,000 drones by 2018, with the United States accounting for half of them.
The Record publishes a spring home and garden section in March and again in April.
If you, or someone you know in the Morrison County area, has completed or started a home improvement project (including landscaping projects) that might make an interesting story or offer helpful advice for readers, please call Terry at the Record office, 320-632-2345 or e-mail terry.lehrke@mcrecord.com.
Well, it's Monday again & that means it's time to kick-off another Dog Days of Winter Project Challenge!! This week is our "Thrift It" Challenge & we are sharing our up-cycled thrift store, yard sale, craiglist, found it on the side of the road, THRIFTY FINDS!!! We can't wait to see your projects!!
In case you missed it, yesterday I shared my project for the challenge. A goodwill dresser makeover that I did for my mom....
To view that post & get some furniture painting tips, click HERE.
My sweet & talented friends also shared their upcycled thrifty finds!! Be sure to click on the links to check out their FABULOUS projects!!!
Just a few rules before we get started:
1. Please only link-up THRIFTY FINDS that you've up-cycled or made new.?
2. Feel free to link up old and/or new projects!
3. Please use the party button below in your post or include a text link back to the blog where you linked up.?(Only those that link back will be featured)
4. Party Hop!! Please visit a few of the links & leave them some comment love!
5. We will be sharing some of our favorites on our Pinterest board. Be sure to follow it HERE.
The Gillmor Gang ? Danny Sullivan, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor ? have some fun with Facebook's new GraphSearch and advances in medical techniques. We all agree that when Facebook says it's not about search, well, it's all about search. Should Google be quaking in its boots as @scobleizer shows the Jets and Giants parking lot in the post season that is Google+, or does Foursquare get its oxygen cut off by the Facebook hoards looking for a good restaurant?
When we first started planning our trip, I had visions of learning how to cook traditional foods wherever we?d go. In South America these visions consisted of images like me and a well-worn abuela, making empanadas. Me and an Argentinian butcher, grilling up all those cuts of beef I?d never heard of before. Me and a Chilean fishmonger, me and a Peruvian potato farmer, so on and so forth. Heads together, laughing, eating, poking fun at each other, exchanging knowledge (in a mostly one-way exchange, let?s be honest). But I?m not exactly sure where I thought I?d find these people; people with time and patience to spare and the interest in opening up their homes, their businesses, and/or their kitchens to teach a gringo how to make their traditional food. People who I?d be comfortable enough with to poke fun at. Now that I?ve been to some of these places, the thought is hilarious at best and embarrassing at worst. Also, I probably should have taken into consideration the consistently recurring fact that?I don?t speak Spanish.?Brett does a wonderful job translating for shopkeepers and hotel receptionists and flight attendants, but that only goes so far and gets pretty exasperating after even the shortest of exchanges.
And thus it was that, with only a tiny bit of logic and reasoning, my dreams of picture-perfect, authentic,?intimate South American cooking lessons were bashed.
So in the absence left behind, I?ve sought out tourist cooking classes as we?ve planned each city ? entirely touristy, yes, and almost certainly of the sort that merely guide you through a couple of recipes and send you on your way, but still a chance for me to ask questions about the food and get answers from people who at least somewhat know what they?re talking about.
But ? it turns out these sorts of classes aren?t as common or as affordable as they are in other parts of the world (I?m looking at you, Southeast Asia ?), and in each city I?d come up empty-handed. Until Arequ?pa, Peru, that is. In Arequ?pa, I found one that was even better than I could have hoped for, a three-part workshop designed by the owner of our hotel, who used to be a professional chef, and set in the hotel?s beautiful outdoor courtyard.?
For 65 soles each (usually 75 ? staying at the hotel gives you a 10 soles discount), Brett and I spent six hours learning about the food and drink of the Arequ?pa area. We opted for all three optional parts of the workshop ? a guided tour of Arequ?pa?s central market, a three-course cooking class, and a pisco class, including a lecture on the origins and uses of the liquor and a lesson in making pisco sours. As someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen and generally knows her way around a cooking class, I wasn?t honestly expecting to learn much more than a few new recipes and maybe a few new fruits and vegetables at the market ? but I actually came away with much more than that and would definitely recommend the experience for anyone spending time in that part of Peru. (Also, Arequ?pa was an entirely lovely city and the hotel was fantastic ? a perfect place to lay low for five days around New Years, especially after the touristy chaos of Cusco and Puno/Lake Titicaca.)
At 10 a.m., our group assembled for a tour of the market, four blocks from the hotel. It was New Year?s Eve and the area around the market was bustling with people picking up supplies for parties and celebrations that evening, everyone with armfuls of garlands and party hats and packets of confetti, all bright yellow to bring luck in the new year. And if the area outside the market was crowded, the market building itself was stuffed to the gills with people. People buying food, people buying cloth, people buying good luck charms and herbal remedies to bring in the new year. First thing, our guide walked us to the mezzanine on the second level, a quick escape from the crowds so she could show us the general layout of the market and explain where we?d be going. We then descended into the madness, stopping in a selection of market sections so our guide couple point out or explain things we saw and buy us a few things to try.
Our first stop was the potato section ? one entire aisle of potato vendors, each seller dwarfed by massive mountains of potatoes piled onto tables and onto the ground. As anyone who?s spent time in Peru can tell you, the variety and volume of potatoes available is overwhelming ? black potatoes, white potatoes, neon red potatoes, purple, yellow, pink, blue, and every other color you can think of. There were huge potatoes with waxy skins and long potatoes with rough, bark-like skins; sweet potatoes and starchy potatoes and everything in between. There are over 3,500 varieties of potatoes in Peru, and I wouldn?t be surprised if we saw a good portion of them that day.
In the fruit section, our guide quizzed us on a variety of Peruvian fruits, the vast majority none of our group had ever seen or heard of before ? ?tomato fruit? and cocona and lucuma and the like. We tasted cactus fruit and the subtle Arequ?pe?a papaya, and picked out mangoes and a pale, thin-skinned melon to have for dessert at the end of the cooking class.
We tasted coconut sweets and learned about Arequ?pa?s traditional three-cornered bread, joked with a man selling frogs (dried or live), stood in awe at the massive, lacy nets of orange roe hung out to dry, and saw an entire pig butchered to order. Like other South American markets we?ve visited, there were precarious towers of cheese wheels, barrels of grains and flours of all colors and types, and booths packed with cans and boxes and bottles of everything from tuna to dried pasta to rose water.
We certainly could have walked around the market on our own, but having a guide meant we knew what we were seeing, and it gave us a fantastic excuse to linger at booths, shamelessly taking photos and staring at things and asking questions.
Back at the hotel?s outdoor kitchen, our group of 10 quickly got to work on our meal. First was ceviche, served in the traditional style with boiled sweet potatoes, boiled corn, and crunchy fried corn (boiled corn is more traditional in the south, fried corn in the north, but we were provided both to see what we liked more ? I preferred boiled). We chopped and combined everything for the ceviche under the direction of our instructor, who explained the importance of the various ingredients and all of the ways ceviche might be served in various places. My previous experience with ceviche had all been with the Mexican variety, and from what I can tell the main difference with Peruvian ceviche is that it often includes a fish broth-based liquid called ?tiger?s milk,? containing a bit of all of the non-fish ingredients in the ceviche (e.g. onions, celery, chilis) pureed together with fish broth. Many cevicher?as offer small glasses of tiger?s milk on the menu, and it?s widely considered to be an aphrodisiac. (Or so I hear.)
After we gorged ourselves on our ceviche creations and bottles of Arequ?pe?a beer, we moved onto our second dish ? pescado ala macho, a fried white fish served with creamy, peppery seafood sauce and white rice. Before dredging our fish in flour for frying, we coated each piece with pureed garlic, a genius move I am certain to take home with me. In pairs we fried our own fish and made our own seafood sauce, a silky smooth and flavorful thing made with garlic, onion, brilliantly flavorful pepper sauces, fish broth, pisco (which we flamb?ed), cream, and chunks of local seafood including octopus and mussels (and some other things we were unable to identify-via-translation beyond their Spanish names). It was fresh and powerfully flavorful, and we all congratulated ourselves and toasted to our success.
After our second course no one was sure we?d be able to eat any more, so thankfully our dessert was just a small cup of the mango and melon that we had picked out at the market that morning. Both were perfectly ripe and sweet, and a perfect way to end the meal.
After lunch, those of us who wanted to stay for the pisco part of the workshop headed upstairs to join Armando, the owner of the hotel, to learn about pisco and make some pisco sours. ?There?s a lot to know about Peru?s most famous liquor, and we learned about how it began (a grappa alternative, and something to do with grapes that didn?t make very good wine), all of the various types (from various regions of the country and of significantly different flavors), modern pisco-related political issues (pisco from Chile is not the same as Pisco from Peru), how to pick out good pisco at the store (for instance: clear bottles mean better pisco), and the complex rituals around giving pisco as a gift (including: never wrap the bottle in anything, and be ready to drink!). Armando is incredibly knowledgeable about the food and drink of the Arequ?pa area (and Peru overall), and it was fascinating to learn more about the history and current issues surrounding Peru?s culinary world.
After learning all about pisco, it was time for tasting and making cocktails. Armando provided acholado pisco (one of the three dominant types), and we tasted a bit on its own before making two rounds of pisco sours. A pisco sour is a fairly straight-forward drink ? pisco, lime, and sugar (in something around the classic 3:1:1 cocktail ratio, depending on how sweet or sour you like it), shaken with an egg white until foamy and topped with a dash or two of Angostura bitters on top once strained into a glass. There are various ways to play around with the recipe and once we?re home I?m sure to work on something and post our favorite method here.
Taking this workshop certainly doesn?t mean I?m well-versed in traditional Peruvian cuisine, but it certainly brought me a bit closer. It was well worth the money spent, and I?m looking forward to bringing the information into my own kitchen and into future classes.
After the cocktails, Brett and I stayed around to chat with Armando for a bit, and ended up with an invitation to join him for lunch later in the week. He toured us around the city a bit and took us to one of his favorite Arequ?pa restaurants, far off the tourist trail. For a few hours we chatted about food and life in Peru, and gorged ourselves on fava beans, fried cheese, lamb stew, and roast suckling pig, washed down with chica (a very traditional slightly alcoholic beverage made from fermented purple corn) and followed up with queso helado (a cinnamon and coconut dessert akin to a combination of ice cream and granita). It was definitely one of best meals we?ve had in South America, and a great opportunity to learn more about Peruvian cuisine. (Thanks again to Armando and his hospitality in showing around two low-budget gringos with big appetites.)
For more information about this workshop, check out the websites for Peruvian Cooking Experience and for?Casa de Avila.
Given the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in the US the need for, and use of medication to control the condition for those individuals unable to manage their diabetes through natural means, is a foregone conclusion. And while rare is a medication that does not have a basket of side effects, Actos patients thinking they were doing the right thing in managing their diabetes would have been shocked to learn of Actos side effects that had the potential for ending their lives prematurely.
Actos heart failure is one such adverse reaction. The risk for cardiovascular events has always been a known factor involving Actos, although the risk was thought to be lower than some of Takeda Pharmaceutical's competitors, including GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia.
Actos bladder cancer, until recently, was not on the radar.
It is now. Actos has been banned in two countries due to the bladder cancer risk. And the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2011 issued a warning with regard to Actos and bladder cancer, citing a study that found use of Actos for more than one year translated to a 40 percent risk for bladder cancer.
That warning came too late for the deceased man at the center of a lawsuit filed November 16 of last year in US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Lafayette Division. The Actos bladder cancer lawsuit is part of the Actos multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 6:11-md-2299) and was filed in behalf of the man's widow.
READ MORE ACTOS SIDE EFFECTS LEGAL NEWS
The complaint alleges the man, whose identity was not published, started on Actos for Type 2 diabetes in 2004. After taking Actos continuously for five years, the man developed bladder cancer in 2009 and passed away in October 2010.
The man's use of Actos to treat his diabetes over a period of five years is four years longer than the FDA recommendation, in order to avoid a dramatic risk of bladder cancer. The man died a year before that warning was issued, and was diagnosed with bladder cancer two years prior.
The Actos lawsuit claims the man would never have consented to use Actos had he and his wife been aware of the potential for grievous side effects. To that end, it is a common refrain amongst Actos lawsuits that plaintiffs were not aware of the risks, and blame Takeda for either failing to be aware of the risks, or failure to inform about risks known to them.
The Actos bladder cancer lawsuit is Case No. 6:12-cv-02886-RFD-PJH.
CANTON, Ohio (AP) ? Single-season sacks leader Michael Strahan and two players who tried to block him are among 15 modern-era finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Strahan, who had 22? sacks in 2001 and 141? for his 15-year his career with the New York Giants, is joined by offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden of the Ravens and guard-tackle Larry Allen of the Cowboys and 49ers.
The fourth first-year eligible to make the cut is defensive tackle Warren Sapp of the Buccaneers and Raiders.
Strahan, Ogden and Sapp all won Super Bowls.
The hall announced Friday that the other finalists are running back Jerome Bettis; receivers Cris Carter, Tim Brown and Andre Reed; LB-DEs Charles Haley and Kevin Greene; guard Will Shields; defensive back Aeneas Williams; coach Bill Parcells; and former owners Edward DeBartolo Jr. of the 49ers and the late Art Modell of the Browns, who moved to Baltimore in 1996 to become the Ravens.
The two senior nominees are defensive tackle Curley Culp ? who played for the Chiefs, Oilers and Lions ? and linebacker Dave Robinson of the Packers and Redskins.
Between four and seven new members will be selected Feb. 2, the day before the Super Bowl, in New Orleans.
Bettis played for the Rams and Steelers ? he won the 2006 Super Bowl in his final game, something Strahan did in 2008. He's in his third season of eligibility and was beaten out by fellow running backs Marshall Faulk in 2011 and Curtis Martin in 2012 for the hall.
Carter, Brown and Reed all were in the top 10 in receptions when they retired. Haley won five Super Bowls, two with San Francisco and three with Dallas.
Greene was one of the first hybrid linebacker-end defenders, which best suited his pass-rushing skills.
Shields was an ironman blocker for 14 seasons in Kansas City. Williams was a versatile defensive back who played on the corner and at safety. He had 55 career interceptions and 23 fumble recoveries.
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Java isn't good for your for your computer's health right now. It can mess it up pretty bad. Bad enough that the Department of Homeland Security is warning us all to turn it off. OK, but how do you do that? Fortunately, it's not that hard. More »
The top guys at American Eagle?s pilot union expressed the union?s ?profound disappointment? Friday that PSA Airline pilots had approved a concessionary contract.
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The Gillmor Gang ? Danny Sullivan, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor ? have some fun with Facebook's new GraphSearch and advances in medical techniques. We all agree that when Facebook says it's not about search, well, it's all about search. Should Google be quaking in its boots as @scobleizer shows the Jets and Giants parking lot in the post season that is Google+, or does Foursquare get its oxygen cut off by the Facebook hoards looking for a good restaurant?
Actos heart failure is one such adverse reaction. The risk for cardiovascular events has always been a known factor involving Actos, although the risk was thought to be lower than some of Takeda Pharmaceutical's competitors, including GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia.
