Celebrities have action figures, so do GI Joe, Ken, and Barbie. Haven't the heroes in your life earned the right to be immortalized as action figures too? Chicago doll artist, Cyndi Safstrom, can create that reality for you. Send several photos of your loved one's face to Cyndi, and you are on your way to giving the best gift ever to your family and friends. Maybe you are a hero? It is also perfectly OK to make an action figure of yourself. Cyndi lost her corporate job early in the recession and had to reinvent herself. She made action figures of some You Tube stars, ...

Is there something about Florida that the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) issued 317,936 speeding citations in 2010? According to FHP statistics, that number was a little less than the number in 2009 (which was 321,777). And this doesn't count the number of speeding tickets handed out by other police agencies in Florida. Naturally, a two-year average of more than 300,000 tickets just for speeding makes one wonder whether Florida drivers simply have more of a need for speed than drivers in other states. But is that true? How do other places stack up? And is it truly a ...

The first consumer of microwave popcorn diagnosed with Popcorn Lung (Bronchiolitis Obliterans) received a $7,267,000 verdict today in Federal Court in Denver against Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation, Kroger Co and Dillon Companies. Wayne Watson of Centennial Colorado was diagnosed with Popcorn Lung in 2007 by Dr. Cecile Rose of world-renowned National Jewish Hospital in Denver. The disease was first recognized in microwave popcorn workers that worked in a microwave popcorn plant in Missouri. The workers were diagnosed with the rare disease Bronchiolitis Obliterans which ...

The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Newberry South Carolina Hotel is offering special rates to guests attending the 4th Annual Newberry County Agricultural Expo. The event will take place at the Newberry County Fairgrounds on September 27-29, 2012. Guests who call and request the "Newberry Agriculture Expo" will receive the event rate of $89 plus tax per night. Promotion is subject to availability; some restrictions may apply. Festivities at the Newberry County Agricultural Expo will include: - Rodeo (September 27 - 28) - Junior Dairy and Beef Shows - ...

Cream Jewelry Best keeps up on the latest trends and if you want your hip hop jewelry to be what everyone else is wearing, they'll be happy to help you out. But sometimes, part of the joy of the look is knowing that your hip hop chains are unique. Sometimes, it's fun to have the crowd follow you. Cream Jewelry Best can help. The wholesale hip hop jewellery company offers everything from disco ball bracelets to iced out watches, but they know that sometimes you need something that reflects your personality. The staff at Cream Jewelry Best can help you design the hip hop ...

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, DFW Elite Toy Museum will hold a Grand Opening party to unveil its latest exhibit, Race Cars, featuring small and large-scale model cars, various racing items and special memorabilia. Visitors will see vintage Indianapolis 500 programs dating back to 1935, including a special 1958 Indy program signed by many drivers in that year's event. The new exhibit fits in well with DFW Elite Toy Museum's collection, which features more than 3,000 vintage models, pedal cars and toys, mostly with an automotive theme. The museum also has antique models and rare ...

PINC Solutions launched today a thought provoking webcast featuring Gartner analyst and VP of supply chain research, Dwight Klappich and Chief Technology Officer and founder of PINC Solutions, Dr. Aleks Gollu. The webcast is called Transportation Myopia and is the second webcast of a series focused on supply chain visibility. According to independent research, an average trailer shipment takes three days to move from one facility to the next with only eight hours on the road. Simply put, for 80% of the shipment time, the trailer is idling at a distribution center or ...

iScen is a software that lets you quickly create interactive scenarios with multimedia content and replay them on a network with multiple players. This tool is specifically intended for management, training and crisis simulation. It is aimed at the education, defense, and security (civil or industrial) sectors. Its simplicity and flexibility make iScen ideal for creating interactive scenarios for short or targeted training sessions, for which traditional computing developments are usually considered too lengthy or expensive. With its immersive and visual scenario ...

Independent filmmaker Michael Torres is turning to the Internet to help raise funds for his feature film project, "Who Is Albizu Campos?" the first feature length documentary that tells the life story of the Puerto Rican revolutionary considered a patriot by some and a terrorist by others. Raising funds for independent film projects has always been a daunting task, especially for controversial subjects such as Latino revolutionaries. Creativity is key to raising all of the money needed and community fundraising sites such as Kickstarter offer filmmakers the opportunity ...

Famous for his cheeky face, well-spoken gags and tubby stature, Michael McIntyre has shot to fame in recent years for appearances on Mock the Week, Have I Got News for You and Live at the Apollo. This autumn, fans of McIntyre can enjoy his laugh-out-loud humour at London's O2 arena as the comic makes a welcome return to the capital! Running from 26 September to 16 October 2012, audiences can expect to be charmed by McIntyre's side-splitting gags and stunned by his remarkable energy as he races around the stage. All ticket details (currently standing at GBP35) can be found ...

LocateBaltimore.com, a small-business start-up, provides a unique way to enhance the group coupon experience. The company offers local discounts to consumers while allowing merchants to advertise using a monthly, pay-as-you-go platform. Company officials say the new approach will help foster repeat business for local communities in Baltimore. "Our goal is provide local deals which are truly local," Trevian Mathis, president and CEO of the Baltimore-based company explains. Gone are the days of having to travel 20 minutes or more to find great deals. Locate ...

The electronic cigarette review site that is making waves across the Internet with reviews that are not as sugar coated as other sites has announced a new review on one of the webs most popular electronic cigarettes. Although the company may not agree with the review, the site cuts to the chase and quickly points out some of the hype, exposing facts based on pricing more than anything else. However, nothing seems to be off limits with Smokers Utopia. With a top 10 lineup that doesn't mix with the mainstream reviews, it is instantly easy to see that this website takes ...

Whoever does not want to spend entire nights cramming and would like to read and learn faster and more effectively will now finally have the opportunity to do so! Endymio.com started its crowd-funding campaign on http://www.indiegogo.com/endymio in order to collect funds to design its website. 75,000 USD is required in order to perfect the speed-reading methods and implement them with a user-friendly design. Endymio would like to attain this goal through the support of GrunderGarage (http://www.entrepreneurship.de/gruender-garage/) which will contribute additional funds ...

The tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea during the pre-monsoon season (May – June) have intensified since 1997 compared to 1979 - 1997. This has been attributed to decreased vertical wind shear due to the dimming effects of increased anthropogenic black carbon and sulfate emissions in the region. The decrease in vertical wind shear, however, is not the result of these emissions, but due to a 15-day on average earlier occurrence of tropical cyclones, according to a study spearheaded by Bin Wang at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa ...

Biologists at UC San Diego have unraveled the anti-viral mechanism of a human gene that may explain why some people infected with HIV have much higher amounts of virus in their bloodstreams than others. Their findings, detailed in a paper in this week's advance online issue of the journal Nature, could also shed light on the mystery of why some people with HIV never develop symptoms of AIDS. The biologists found that a gene called Human Schlafen 11 produces a protein that inhibits the replication of HIV in infected human cells by blocking the ability of the host cell ...

There is evidence that some microbial life had migrated from the Earth's oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, though many scientists believe such land-based life was limited because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation did not form until hundreds of millions years later. But new research from the University of Washington suggests that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen and weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans. "This shows that life didn't just exist ...

LA JOLLA, CA – September 23, 2012 – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown how to synthesize in the laboratory an important set of natural compounds known as terpenes. The largest class of chemicals made by living organisms, terpenes are made within cells by some of the most complex chemical reactions found in biology. The new technique, described in an advance online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry on September 23, 2012, mimics a crucial but obscure biochemical phenomenon that allows cells to make terpenes. The discovery may one day result in ...

In the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely-targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over an animal's brain, instruct it to turn in any direction they choose, and even to implant false sensory information, fooling the animal into thinking food was nearby. As described in a September 23 paper published in Nature, a team made up of Sharad Ramanathan, an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and of Applied Physics, Askin Kocabas, a Post-Doctoral ...

What if you woke up every day to find that the closest grocery store had moved several miles farther away from your home? Over time, you would have to travel hundreds of extra miles to find essential food for yourself and your family. This is potentially a scenario faced by thousands of marine animals affected by climate change. A new study published in Nature Climate Change examines the distribution of various open ocean animals in the North Pacific and explores how that could change over the next century as global ocean temperatures increase and productivity levels ...

Women who were born preterm are at increased risk of complications during pregnancy compared to those born at term, and the risk almost doubles for mothers born before 32 weeks, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Pregnancy complications include gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and preeclampsia or eclampsia. The findings are based on a study of 7405 women born preterm and 16 714 women born at term between 1976 and 1995 in the province of Quebec. Of the preterm women, 554 were less than 32 weeks at birth and 6851 were at ...

With more women in family medicine in Canada, what does this mean for the specialty and the profession, for patients and for society, asks a Salon opinion piece in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Female family physicians (FPs) now outnumber males, with 50.6% of the profession now female; this trend will continue as older, mainly male, physicians retire. These changing demographics will have implications for the way medicine is practised and for patients. Female FPs practise differently than men, working fewer hours (47 v. 52), seeing fewer patients but with ...

Castrated men living in Korea centuries ago outlived other men by a significant margin. The findings, reported in the September 25 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, suggest that male sex hormones are responsible for shortening the lives of men, the researchers say. The evidence comes after careful study of genealogy records of noble members of the Imperial court of the Korean Chosun dynasty (AD 1392-1910). "This discovery adds an important clue for understanding why there is a difference in the expected life span between men and women," said Kyung-Jin ...

Small proteins in the cornea protect against bacterial infection Exposed tissue surfaces, including skin and mucous membranes, are under constant threat of attack by microorganisms in the environment. The layer of cells that line these areas, known as epithelial cells, are the first line of defense against these pathogens, but the underlying molecular mechanisms that allow them to repel microbes are unknown. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, report that epithelial cells in the cornea, which ...

Exposed tissue surfaces, including skin and mucous membranes, are under constant threat of attack by microorganisms in the environment. The layer of cells that line these areas, known as epithelial cells, are the first line of defense against these pathogens, but the underlying molecular mechanisms that allow them to repel microbes are unknown. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, report that epithelial cells in the cornea, which is highly resistant to bacterial infection, express small antimicrobial ...

VIDEO: This movie shows a pregnant chimpanzee undergoing an ultrasound imaging procedure to explore brain growth in her fetus. Click here for more information. Humans' superior brain size in comparison to their chimpanzee cousins traces all the way back to the womb. That's according to a study reported in the September 25 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that is the first to track and compare brain growth in chimpanzee and human fetuses. "Nobody knew ...