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Antibacterial properties of in situ and surface functionalized impregnation of silver sulfadiazine in polyacrylonitrile nanofiber mats
Authors Ullah S, Hashmi M, Kharaghani D, Khan MQ, Saito Y, Yamamoto T, Lee J, Kim IS
Received 10 December 2018
Accepted for publication 8 February 2019
Published 16 April 2019 Volume 2019:14 Pages 2693—2703
Sana Ullah,1 Motahira Hashmi,1 Davood Kharaghani,1 Muhammad Qamar Khan,1 Yusuke Saito,1 Takayuki Yamamoto,1 Jungsoon Lee,2 Ick Soo Kim1
1Nano Fusion Technology Research Group, Institute of Frontier Fiber Engineering, Shinshu University, Ueda, Nagano, Japan; 2Department of Clothing and Textiles, College of Human Ecology, Chungnam University, Daejeon, South Korea
Background: Silver, incorporation with natural or synthetic polymers, has been used as an effective antibacterial agent since decades. Silver has potential applications in healthcare especially in nanoparticles form but silver sulfadiazine (AgSD) is the most efficient antibacterial agent especially for burn wound dressings.
Method: In this report, mechanical, structural, and antibacterial properties of PAN nanofibers incorporation with silver sulfadiazine are mainly focused. AgSD was loaded for the first time on electrospinning as well as self-synthesized AgSD on PAN nanofibers by solution immersion method and then compared the results of both.
Results: Occurrence of chemical reaction among the functional groups of AgSD and PAN were analyzed using FTIR, for both types of specimen. Morphological and surface properties of prepared nanofiber mats were characterized by scanning electron microscope, and it resulted in uniform nanofibers without bead formation. Diameter of nanofibers was slightly increased with addition of AgSD by in situ and immersion methods respectively. Nanoparticles distribution was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. Thermal properties were analyzed by thermogravimetric analyzer and it was observed that AgSD decreased thermal stability of PAN which is better from biomedical perspective. X-ray diffraction declared crystalline structure of nanofiber mats. Presence of Ag and S contents in nanofiber mats was analyzed by X-ray photo spectroscopy. Antibacterial properties of nanofiber mats were investigated by disc diffusion method was carried out. E. coli and Bacillus bacteria strain were used as gram-negative and gram-positive respectively. Zone inhibition of the bacteria was used as a tool to determine effectiveness of AgSD released from PAN nanofiber mats. The antibacterial properties of PAN nanofibers impregnated with AgSD were determined with both types of bacteria strains to compare with control one.
Conclusion: On the basis of characterization results it is concluded that PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofiber mats have better structural and antibacterial properties than that of PAN/AgSD (in situ) nanofiber mats. So, from our point of view, self-synthesized AgSD is recommended for further production of nanofiber mats for antibacterial applications.
Keywords: silver sulfadiazine, PAN nanofibers, antibacterial, solution immersion, in situ
Advancement in technology has been beneficial for human beings, meanwhile it has imparted some negative impacts on some of the major areas, and health is one of the most affected areas among all of them. Biotechnology is also improving day by day by using advanced machinery as well as emerging materials which have better antibacterial,1–6 biodegradable, and biocompatible properties. Nanofiber mats have been used in biomedical applications since a few decades. Nanofibers are important part of biomedical technology, as 60% of the total nanofiber production is specifically used in biomedical applications, such as in tumor therapy,7 wound dressing, drug delivery, self-healing of wounds, or implants.8–11
Silver, incorporated with natural or synthetic polymers, has been used as an effective antibacterial agent since decades. Silver has potential applications in health care, especially in the form of nanoparticles. Silver sulfadiazine (AgSD) has been used for the treatment of second-order burns since early 1970s.12 Previously, it was considered that at lower concentrations, sulfadiazine group in AgSD was not effective in providing antibacterial activity but was effective either in combination with silver or at higher concentrations.13 Several studies were carried out to investigate the effect of cerium salt on inactivation of AgSD, and it was observed that addition of cerium salts made the inhibition zone smaller in antibacterial assays, which was attributed to inactivation of AgSD.14 At first, silver nanoparticales (AgNPs) were not accepted as a potent antimicrobial agent because of the availability of other good antibacterial agents in the market. The use of AgNPs as an antibacterial agent increased when electrospinning method was introduced because this technique resulted in an efficient use of metallic nanoparticles.15 Nylon/silver-based composite membranes were analyzed for structural applications, and it resulted in improved mechanical properties of composite membranes as compared to that of nylon membranes.16 Higher antibacterial activity was also observed in electrospun polyvinyl alcohol and chitosan incorporated with sliver nitrate (AgNO3).17 Impregnation of AgNPs in nylon-6 by one-step direct electrospinning method has been characterized for surface, morphological, and antimicrobial activity as well.18
AgNPs have broad applications when incorporated with natural or synthetic polymers, ie, Zein, polymethyl methacrylate, chitosan, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyacrylonitrile (PAN), and other polymers.11,19–21
PAN is a white, semi-crystalline organic synthetic polymer with chemical formula of C3H3N. PAN was synthesized in 1930 for the first time. It degrades above 300°C.22 PAN fibers having diameter <1 μm were successfully prepared in 1971, and the effect of flow rate of polymer on final properties was studied in detail.23 The effect of loading proportions of AgNPs (AgNPs were embedded by photocatalytic reduction of AgNO3 under UV irradiation) on PAN/TiO2 was studied, and it was concluded that AgNPs (~2 nm in size) were greatly affected by the amount of TiO2 present in nanofibers.24 PAN-polyaniline (PANI) super-hydrophobic nanofiber mats were fabricated by in situ polymerization method which had water contact angle of 164.5°. The prepared nanofibers were also reversible to hydrophilic state within a short period of time.25 The PAN nanofiber membrane was successfully prepared and characterized for soybean oil hydrolysis process. It was done by immobilization of lipase on the membrane by covalent bonding.26 Similar technique was also used for biodiesel production from soybean oil.27 PAN (core and shell) nanofiber mats incorporated with vitamin C and vitamin E extracts have been used in skin care applications, as they provide protection against damage by UV rays.28 PAN/PVDF nanofibers were surface modified by low vacuum plasma treatment for water remediation application.29 PAN nanofibers are not only useful in medical applications but also cover other fields of science as well. Surface-modified PAN nanofibers have been also used as a substrate for identification of small molecules by surface-enhanced Raman scattering.30 Electrospinning is a useful technique to fabricate nanofibers having diameters ranging from tens of nanometer to microns.31,32 Electrospinning was introduced in 1931 and hence is not a new method for fabrication of nanofibers, but a proper setup for producing nanofibers by this method became practical and popular in the early 21st century. From then onward, it has been used for the production of nanofibers for different applications, including water filtration, wound care, breathe masks, and other biomedical applications. Natural and synthetic fibers have been electrospun either in single form or blends of different types of polymers to obtain desired features.9,33–39 Figure 1 briefly illustrates the process of electrospinning.
Figure 1 Schematic illustration of electrospinning process.
Keeping in view the applications of PAN and AgSD in biomedical field, we prepared PAN/AgSD nanofiber mats for wound dressing. We are the first to load AgSD on electrospun nanofiber mats as well as perform fabrication of AgSD on nanofiber mats by immersion method. This research will be beneficial for other researchers as well as to industries in producing PAN nanofibers with better antimicrobial properties either by in situ loading of AgSD or deposition of AgSD on nanofiber mats by immersion method. Combination of mechanical and thermal properties of PAN nanofibers and antibacterial properties of AgSD would be effective for biomedical applications.
PAN polymer was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (St Louis, MO, USA) in powder form and with an average molecular weight of 150,000 MW (typical). Sulfadiazine sodium salt (analytical standard, ≥98%) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Corporation. AgNO3, with 99.8% purity, was purchased from Fujifilm Wako Pure Chemical Corporation (Osaka, Japan). N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) was purchased from Fujifilm Wako Pure Chemical Corporation. AgSD was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Corporation in powder form with 98% purity. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) (in pellet form) was purchased from Fujifilm Wako Pure Chemical Corporation. Distilled water was used from the laboratory.
Samples were prepared by following three methods.
Pure PAN nanofiber mats
PAN (8% by weight) was dissolved in DMF, and the resulting solution was stirred continuously for 12 hours at room temperature (25°C±3°C). Then, the solution was loaded into the electrospinning apparatus for nanofiber production. Electrospinning conditions were as follows: syringe capacity 20 mL, nozzle diameter 0.5 mm, voltage was fixed at 15 kV, distance between nozzle and collector drum was kept at 14 cm, and flow rate of solution was adjusted to 0.5 mL/h. Electrospinning conditions remained same for all the samples.
PAN/AgSD in situ electrospun (PAN/AgSD [ES])
For PAN/AgSD (ES) samples, firstly PAN (8% by weight) was dissolved in DMF for 12 hours and then AgSD (0.6% by weight) was added to the PAN/DMF solution and kept on stirring for 2 hours. Then the solution was loaded onto the electrospinning apparatus with the conditions similar to that of sample 1.
Self-synthesized AgSD on PAN nanofibers (PAN/AgSD immersion)
For PAN/AgSD immersion samples, in the first step, pure PAN nanofiber mats were electrospun as per the conditions described for sample 1, and then samples were placed in glass trays which contained aqueous solution of sulfadiazine sodium salt (0.2% by weight) and AgNO3 (0.1% by weight). The trays were placed in a controlled stirring chamber for 24 hours and then the samples were removed from solution of sulfadiazine and AgNO3 and were placed in 0.1% by weight aqueous solution of NaOH for 4 hours to enable reduction of AgNO3. Samples were then dried in a vacuum oven at 30°C for 12 hours. Samples were kept in air-tight bags for further testing.
Characterizations
Antibacterial properties were determined by disc diffusion method where strains of Escherichia coli (BUU25113) and Bacillus (B-sub 168) bacteria were used as representatives of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. The nanofiber mats were cut into discs having 8 mm diameter and were placed on top of two different plates, which were cultured with each bacterial strain and incubated overnight for 12 hours at 37°C. The morphological properties of the prepared nanofiber mats were determined by using scanning electron microscope (SEM, JSM-5300; JEOL Ltd, Tokyo, Japan), which was accelerated with the voltage of 10 kV, and transmission electron microscope (JEM-2100; JEOL Ltd), accelerated with 200 kV. An image analysis software (ImageJ, version 1.4.3) was used to calculate the average diameters of nanofibers by taking 50 readings randomly for each sample. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction was performed for the determination of the crystal structure (at 25°C) of nanofiber mats using nickel-filtered Cu Ka radiation-assisted Rotaflex RT300 mA (Rigaku Corporation, Osaka, Japan), with an angular angle of 5≤2θ≤80°. The chemical reactivity among PAN and AgSD functional groups was characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) probe Prestige-21 (Shimadzu, Tokyo, Japan), and wavelength for ATR spectra was set in the range of 400 cm−1 to 4,000 cm−1. Thermal degradation of PAN, PAN/AgSD (ES), and PAN/AgSD (immersion) was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) using thermo-plus TG 8120 (Rigaku Corporation) which was run under ambient conditions (room temperature) at a heating rate of 10°C/min and temperature range was set at 0°C–500°C for all samples. The X-ray photo-spectroscopy (XPS) analysis was performed by using Shimadzu-Kratos AXIS-ULTRA HAS SV (Shimadzu). Mechanical properties (tensile strength, strain, and modulus) of PAN and PAN/AgSD nanofibers were determined by using the Universal Testing Machine (Tesilon RTC 250A; A&D Company Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Five specimens for each sample were prepared, according to ISO 13634. Test was run at room temperature and crosshead speed was kept as 5 mm/min. From universal testing machine (UTM) data, values of strain, stress, and Young's modulus were calculated by equations 1, 2, and 3, respectively,
where ε, σ, and E are strain, stress, and Young's modulus; Δl is change in length; l is original length of specimen; F is applied force; and A is cross-sectional area of specimen.
Antibacterial activity test
Disc diffusion method was opted to investigate antibacterial properties of prepared nanofiber mats as shown in Figure 2A (E. coli) and B (Bacillus). E. coli and Bacillus strains were subjected to zone inhibition test. The diameter of zone inhibition around the disc was determined to evaluate the effectiveness of antibacterial property of the nanofibers (due to AgSD released from PAN nanofibers). The antibacterial activity of AgSD-loaded PAN nanofiber mats was taken into account for both bacterial strains and compared with control sample. Excellent antibacterial efficiency was observed for both samples, while sample having AgSD by immersion method (PAN/AgSD [immersion]) showed consistent results for both types of bacteria. It was detected that as the amount of AgSD was increased in samples, it had a significant influence on the antibacterial property of nanofiber mats. Herein, from the results it was concluded that self-synthesized AgSD on PAN nanofibers showed better antibacterial activity as compared to in situ added AgSD in PAN nanofibers.
Figure 2 Antibacterial activity test: (A) Escherichia coli and (B) Bacillus.
Abbreviations: PAN, polyacrylonitrile; ES, in situ electrospun.
Morphological properties
Morphological properties of prepared nanofiber mats were determined by SEM. The SEM images in Figure 3 show that nanofibers of pure PAN were smooth without any bead formation under specified conditions. Addition of AgSD by in situ method affected the smoothness of electrospun fibers, as they became slightly rough and a slight increment in diameter was also noted. SEM image of samples in which AgSD was incorporated by immersion method showed that AgSD got entangled in between PAN nanofibers and AgSD nanocrystals were also observed on the surface of nanofibers. Diameter of PAN/AgSD (immersion) samples was also slightly greater than both of the previous samples.
Figure 3 SEM images of (A) PAN nanofibers, (B) PAN/AgSD (ES) nanofibers, and (C) PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofibers.
Abbreviations: SEM, scanning electron microscope; PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
Figure 4 shows nanoparticle distribution on the nanofibers. It can be observed that AgSD nanoparticles were evenly distributed on the surface of nanofibers which were prepared by direct in situ method, while AgSD synthesized by immersion method showed nanoparticles in the form of grafts. The surface of nanofibers was also covered by AgSD grafts.
Figure 4 TEM images of (A) PAN/AgSD (ES) nanofiber mats and (B) PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofiber mats.
Abbreviations: TEM, transmission electron microscope; PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
Nanofiber diameter
As we mentioned earlier, diameter of the nanofibers was altered by the impregnation of AgSD into the PAN either by in situ method or immersion method. Figure 5 shows quantitative explanation of average diameters of nanofibers. The average of 50 nanofibers from each sample exhibited slight variation in diameters. In Figure 5, it can be noticed that average diameters of PAN, PAN/AgSD (ES), and PAN/AgSD (immersion) were 141.94, 145.02, and 146.94 nm, respectively. Although there was a slight increment in diameters with addition of AgSD in PAN nanofibers, these diameters were within the range of SD of all the samples. So, we can conclude that there was a slight or no effect of AgSD on the diameter of PAN nanofibers.
Figure 5 Diameter interpretation of PAN and PAN/AgSD nanofibers.
Abbreviations: PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
EDX analysis
Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis was carried out for the quantitative assessment of sulfur and Ag contents in the nanofibers. It can be observed in Figure 6 that sample A has lower values of Ag and S as compared to that of sample B. It was concluded that samples having self-synthesized AgSD by immersion method had higher values of both Ag as well as S. Furthermore, it was also proven by antibacterial activity test that self-synthesized AgSD on PAN nanofibers show excellent results.
Figure 6 EDX analysis of PAN/AgSD (ES) (A) and PAN/AgSD (immersion) (B) nanofibers.
Notes: Dotted circles shown presence of Ag, C & S. *Under observation.
Abbreviations: EDX, energy-dispersive X-ray; PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
FTIR interpretation
FTIR spectra of pure PAN and composite nanofibers of PAN/AgSD are shown in Figure 7. It was observed that AgSD had shown sharp peaks at 1,203 and 1,231.6 cm−1, which can be associated with the main functionality of AgSD, that is, SO2 asymmetric stretching. AgSD-loaded nanofibers had also represented peaks at 1,561 cm−1, 1,583 cm−1, and 3,410 cm−1, which can be associated with stretching band of amine (NH2) group. It was interesting to observe that the spectra of pure PAN nanofibers were not affected by impregnation of AgSD in PAN nanofibers, which indicates that there may be no chemical reaction between PAN and AgSD.29,30 PAN showed prominent peaks at 1,452 cm−1, 1,664 cm−1, 2,240 cm−1, and 2,923 cm−1. Peaks at 1,664 cm−1, 2,240 cm−1, and 2,923 cm−1 represent stretching vibrations of −C=N, −C≡N, and −CH groups, respectively, while the peak at 1,452 cm−1 represents bending vibration of −CH2 group. It was observed that the characteristic peak of PAN nanofibers at wavelength of 1,664 cm−1 slightly decreased with in situ addition of AgSD in PAN, while the same peak became shorter with the addition of AgSD by immersion method. It was also observed that PAN/AgSD (immersion) samples showed higher intensity and sharper peaks than PAN/AgSD (ES) samples.
Figure 7 FTIR-ATR spectra of PAN and PAN/AgSD nanofiber mats.
Abbreviations: FTIR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; ATR, attenuated total reflectance; PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
XRD was studied to check crystalline structure of nanofiber mats. Pure PAN nanofibers (Figure 8) showed a sharp peak at 2θ=17° and a small peak at 2θ=30°, while PAN did not exhibit any peak up to 2θ=80°. PAN nanofibers showed characteristic peaks of pure PAN. First peak (17°) could be associated with hexagonal lattice of PAN. Impregnation of AgSD in PAN exhibited sharp peaks at 2θ=9°, 2θ=11°, 2θ=21°, and many shorter peaks from 2θ=30° to 2θ=60°. All other peaks, except for the two peaks at 2θ=17° and 2θ=30°, represented the presence of AgSD and all those were linked with AgSD. XRD plot also revealed that stability of PAN was altered by the impregnation of AgSD, as intensity of the characteristic peak (2θ=17°) decreased with the addition of AgSD. It was observed that PAN/AgSD (immersion) sample showed higher intensity peaks than those of PAN/AgSD (ES) samples. The presence of AgSD in PAN nanofibers was also confirmed by XPS analysis.
Figure 8 XRD analysis of PAN nanofibers and PAN/AgSD nanofibers.
Abbreviations: XRD, X-ray diffraction; PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
TGA was performed to analyze the significance of AgSD on thermal properties of PAN. Also, the effect of in situ added and self-synthesized AgSD on thermal properties of PAN nanofibers was taken under consideration. TGA curve is generally separated into three parts: first part (up to 100°C) represents moisture removal, second part of the curve indicates thermal degradation onset and offset as well, and the last part indicates combustion zone where residual amount is measured. It can be observed in Figure 9 that the first part of TGA curve indicates that higher amount of moisture is absorbed by PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofibers than PAN nanofibers and PAN/AgSD (ES) nanofiber mats. The second part of TGA curve, which indicates the onset temperature, showed that the onset of pure PAN nanofibers was at 320°C. PAN/AgSD (ES) showed onset at 290°C and onset of PAN/AgSD (immersion) occurred at 190°C. PAN/AgSD (ES) nanofibers showed a sharp onset, while PAN/AgSD (immersion) showed a gradual onset. Residual amounts of PAN nanofibers, PAN/AgSD (ES), and PAN/AgSD (immersion) were 58%, 44%, and 32%, respectively. From TGA data, it was decided that impregnation of AgSD resulted in low thermal stability to PAN. The excellent thermal stability of PAN was decreased by the addition of AgSD, making it readily degradable, which is considered as a good characteristic for biomedical applications.
Figure 9 Thermal degradation analysis of PAN nanofibers and PAN/AgSD nanofibers.
XPS was performed to confirm the existence of AgSD in nanofiber mats (Figure 10). As AgSD is composed of Ag (silver) and S (sulfur), XPS spectra for both Ag (3d and 3p) and sulfur (2s and 2p) were obtained. Ag 3p spectra showed two peaks at 574.0 eV (Ag 3p3/2) and 606.0 eV (Ag 3p1/2) with a split of 32 eV. Spectra of Ag 3d showed peaks at 370.0 eV and 376.5 eV with a split of 6.5 eV. These peaks can be correlated to metallic Ag present in nanofibers. The standard peaks for Ag 3p3/2 and Ag 3p1/2 were noted at 570.0 eV and 604.0 eV, respectively, while standard peaks for Ag 3d5/2 and Ag 3d3/2 were noted at 368 eV and 374.5 eV, respectively. Spectra of S 2s showed peak at 234.0 eV and that of S 2p at 169.0 eV. However, in case of PAN/AgSD (ES) sample, it was observed that S 2s showed one more peak at 239 eV, while standard peaks for S 2s and S 2p were noted at 231.0 eV and 164.5 eV, respectively. It can be seen in Figure 10 that all relevant peaks for Ag and S are sharper and have higher intensity for PAN/AgSD (immersion) samples as compared to that of PAN/AgSD (ES) samples. XPS spectra provided clear evidence for the presence of silver and sulfur in the nanofiber mats.
Figure 10 XPS analysis of PAN/AgSD (ES) and PAN/AgSD (immersion): (A) Ag 3d, (B) Ag 3p, (C) S 2p, and (D) S 2s.
Abbreviations: XPS, X-ray photo-spectroscopy; PAN, polyacrylonitrile; AgSD, silver sulfadiazine; ES, in situ electrospun.
The mechanical properties (tensile strength, strain, Young's modulus) of the prepared samples were analyzed. Table 1 sums up all results obtained from UTM data. It can also be shown in Figure 11 that PAN nanofibers showed higher tensile strength (3.984 MPa), while in situ addition of AgSD decreased the tensile strength of PAN. It can be related with weak physical attraction between AgSD and PAN. The results of FTIR spectra revealed that there was no chemical reaction between AgSD and PAN as the peaks of PAN were retained in the blended form too. It was interesting to observe that the tensile strength of PAN/AgSD (immersion) sample was increased (4.163 MPa), which is an indication of stronger physical bonding between AgSD and PAN nanofibers. In SEM images (Figure 3), it was observed that PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofibers have entangled AgSD in between the joints of nanofibers as well as on the surface of nanofibers, which gives mechanical stability to PAN nanofibers.
Table 1 Summary of mechanical properties of PAN nanofibers and PAN/AgSD nanofibers
Note: Data are presented as mean±SD.
Figure 11 Stress–strain curve of PAN nanofibers and PAN/AgSD nanofibers.
With regard to elongation at break, it can be viewed in Figure 11 that elongation at break increased with addition of AgSD, either by in situ method or by immersion method. However, PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofiber mats showed higher value of elongation at break than that of PAN/AgSD (ES) nanofiber mats. Figure 12 shows bar chart of tensile strength of all samples with SD. Young's modulus is also one of the important performance parameters.
Figure 12 Comparison of tensile strength of PAN nanofibers, PAN/AgSD (ES), and PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofibers.
Figure 13 shows pictorial analysis and Table 1 shows quantitative data of Young's modulus of the samples. It was observed that the value of Young's modulus gradually decreased with the addition of AgSD by in situ and immersion methods.
Figure 13 Comparison of Young's modulus of PAN nanofibers, PAN/AgSD (ES), and PAN/AgSD (immersion).
Keeping in mind all the results and discussions of the prepared specimens, it can be concluded that PAN retains its structure and basic characteristics with the addition of AgSD. Antibacterial activity test showed excellent antibacterial results for both PAN/AgSD (ES) and PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofiber mats. From SEM results, it is clear that nanofiber structure was not much disturbed by AgSD. The surface of nanofiber became slightly rough, which is considered to be helpful for antibacterial activity. FTIR spectra showed characteristic peaks of AgSD and PAN in nanofibers. No shift in the peak was observed, hence it can be inferred that there was no physical bonding between PAN and AgSD. XPS spectra clearly showed the presence of Ag and S in nanofiber mats. It was observed that for all the above-mentioned characterizations, PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofibers showed prominent results. XRD analysis showed that PAN has crystalline structure which was confirmed by the peak at 2θ=17°, which was associated with hexagonal lattice of PAN, was decreased with addition of AgSD. It was further observed in the TGA study that thermal degradation of PAN/AgSD (ES) and PAN/AgSD (immersion) was lower than PAN nanofibers. Tensile strength and elongation at break was increased by addition of AgSD by immersion technique, while tensile strength was decreased with in situ addition of AgSD in PAN nanofibers during electrospinning. Taken together, it can be concluded that PAN/AgSD (immersion) nanofiber mats have better structural and antibacterial properties than PAN/AgSD (ES) nanofiber mats. So, from our point of view, self-synthesized AgSD is recommended for further production of nanofiber mats for antibacterial applications.
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Top 10 Takeaways From CES 2013
By Mark Spoonauer - LAPTOP Editor in Chief 2013-01-13T17:43:24Z
I'm recovering from a Las Vegas hangover. And it has nothing to do with partying. I'm talking about seeing dozens of companies over the course of several days, running to back-to-back-to-back meetings and spending one very late night deliberating our Best of CES Awards with the LAPTOP team. In between all of this I had the opportunity to discuss the big CES trends on CNBC and Fox Business from the show floor. As I emerge from a fog of next-best-thing spin, I thought it might be helpful to summarize some of the lessons I took away from the show, both for those whose heads are still spinning like mine and for the wrongheaded CES doomsayers who decided to sit this one out.
Smart Watches Are Hot But Need Work
At CES we saw a half dozen new smart watches and played with most of them. But as much as I'm a sucker for Dick Tracy-style wristwear, the first wave of devices is hit or miss. Take the I'm Watch, which lets you see who just messaged you (but not respond) and check out your latest Facebook updates (and not do anything about it). Being able to glance at this sort of information at a glance sounds convenient, but what's the point if you have to pull out your phone anyway when you need to act? Worse, the voice calling simply didn't work. Then I called our online editorial director while heading to an event and didn't even realize he was taking it on the Martian Watch. This time the call quality was surprisingly clear, with only a few clipped words. I'll give this category some time before I make up my mind.
More: Top 5 Smart Watches of CES 2013
CES has a Newfound Startup Spirit
Thanks to crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, startup companies generating lots of online buzz are leveraging that attention to thousands of attendees who have never had the opportunity to see these inventions in the flesh. Oculus VR wowed onlookers--and me--with its Rift virtual reality gaming headset. Meanwhile, the folks from Pebble finally let reporters check out its elegant and connected smart watch. I didn't get a chance to ride it, but the weight-sensing ZBoard skateboard turned a lot of heads at CES. Last but not least, I was impressed by an app that came out of AT&T's hack fest, one that lets a child ring multiple family members with a single call. As some bigger companies eschew Vegas to hold their own events and have the spotlight all to themselves, it will be critical for CES to give smaller innovators a bigger stage.
More: Oculus Rift Eyes-on: Gaming Will Never Be the Same
T-Mobile's CEO is a Breath of Fresh Air--And Really Funny
If you haven't seen or heard John Legere speak, you're missing out. At T-Mobile's CES press conference, the carrier's relatively new CEO took potshots at AT&T, calling its network in New York "crap." He also likened most wireless subscribers to prisoners who are handcuffed for two years as their wallets are drained. Legere was there to tout T-Mobile's new $70 unlimited 4G plan for no-contract phones, as well as the provider's general push to end subsidized devices. Wearing a New York Yankees cap, Legere also announced a multi-year MLB deal for integrating T-Mobile's tech. Joe Torre showed up, and T-Mobile's spunky leader had no problem telling those in attendance that he'd rather ask the ex-Yanks skipper questions than field them from us. Overall, Legere demonstrated a deep knowledge of the industry along with a great sense of humor, but most importantly a maverick spirit that could have a huge impact on the struggling carrier.
More: T-Mobile Launches No-Contract Unlimited 4G for $70 Per Month
Android Gaming is About to Explode
While there are plenty of good 3D games in the Google Play store, the iPhone continues to get the most cutting-edge titles first. That may change this year, and not just because Android devices are outselling iOS. Nvidia's Android-powered Project Shield is a portable console that runs circles around the Nintendo DS and even PSP in terms of graphics power, thanks to the new Tegra 4 chip. This handheld, as well as lower-cost Xbox-style controllers for Android handsets like the Moga Pro, will likely spur developers to give Google's platform the extra attention it deserves. Add in Android-powered game consoles like the upcoming Ouya, and you have a lot of reasons to believe the green robot will let its frag flag fly in 2013.
More: Nvidia Project Shield Hands-on: Mobile Gaming Evolved
Eye, Gesture and Voice Control Are All Coming Together
After covering the tech world for more than a decade, I'm not easily amazed, but my jaw dropped when I saw the Tobbi Rex, a new peripheral for laptops that will let consumers control Windows 8 by tracking your eyes. You can scroll by looking up and down, and open an app just by staring at it and pressing a button. Another firm I met with, 4tiitoo, is working with Tobbi to develop middleware and applications that take advantage of eye-tracking technology. If you move your head to the left in a game, your character will move left. But that's just the start. The company says it's looking to enable third parties to combine eye, gesture and voice control in popular apps like Photoshop. I put in a request for being able to pinch two fingers in the air to crop a photo and then saying "resize to 675 wide" to make it Web-friendly. That will save my team a lot of extra time at next year's CES.
More: Mind-Blowing Tobii Rex Controls Laptop with Your Eyes
The Battery Life Problem Will Be Tackled From Multiple Angles
You know smartphones aren't lasting long enough on a charge when the most precious commodity at CES is an open outlet. The good news is that companies are addressing the power issue in different ways. Wysips, for instance, has a photovoltaic component for smartphone screens called Wysips Crystal that can extend your usage time by sucking power from the sun and even indoor light. (Expect real-world products toward the end of the year.) I was also encouraged by some of the demos provided by the Alliance for Wireless Power, including a mock car center console that could juice two phones at once and a table that charged a tablet with a book sandwiched between it and the surface. The competing Qi standard is already in a lot more gear, but you can't ignore the fact that Samsung is backing A4WP's spec. For now, though, we'll have to be content with bulky but effective smartphone cases with integrated batteries, such as the Otterbox Defender with Ion Intelligence.
More: 10 Smartphones With the Longest Battery Life
Windows 8 Needs a Cheap Tablet (Now)
Although I appreciate the best-of-both-worlds benefit of Windows 8 hybrid devices, most of these laptop-tablet combos cost north of $750. And while Windows RT holds the promise of cheaper slates, several big-name companies are avoiding them like the plague. My guess is that the price of the software license is just too rich for Microsoft's partners. And then you have confusion over what RT can and can't do versus full-fledged Windows 8 machines. "So Windows RT is better for content consumption and comes with Office for free, while it's not included on Windows 8. Got it." Whether it's a lower-cost Surface or a device made by a partner, Microsoft cannot afford to cede the lower end of the tablet market to Android. And that's not the only threat. Several laptop-makers have seen how well the $249 Samsung Chromebook is selling and are taking a serious look at offering their own in time for back to school. A low-cost Windows 8 slate will also be critical for spurring app development.
More: Top 10 Windows 8 Hybrids
Wearable Health Gadgets Need to Provide More Incentive
Maybe I'm just unhip, but I wasn't as gaga over wearable fitness gear announced at this year's show as others were. Sure, it's nice that the Fitbit Flex fits around your wrist, but the underlying functionality hasn't changed much. Our team liked the Mio Alpha Sports Watch better, which gives runners real-time heart rate readings to make sure you're getting the most out of your workouts. I understand the challenge in getting those who are less active off the couch, but it's going to take more than smartphone integration and social sharing. iHealth says that it's talking to insurance providers about its Smart Glucometer to potentially reduce medical visits, but I think the companies in the space need to go a step further. Why not experiment with a Progressive insurance-style incentive program that ties more activity to lower healthcare costs? That would compel me to be less of a couch potato.
More: Fitbex Flex Goes for the Wrist, We Go Hands-on
Tech Can Actually Bring Families Together
At CES 2013 I got a preview of Verizon's new Verizon FamilyBase service launching this spring, which will enable parents to lock their kids' phones during school hours so they don't text during class. They'll also be able to see who their children are texting and calling. That's practical, but I'm more encouraged by innovations that bring families together. A great example is the Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon, a 27-inch all-in-one PC that folds down to become a huge tablet. Lenovo's Table PC has a unique Aurora UI that rides on top of Windows 8. The family can gather around to enjoy photos and videos, play air hockey and cards and more. Executives from Sony told me that that one of the most popular uses for its similar Tap 20 product is Pictionary. Now, that's a trend I'd like to see continue.
More: Lenovo's IdeaCentre Horizon Doubles as Table-Top Tablet
The Pen's Comeback Will Continue--But Few Will Nail the Execution
With the Galaxy Note phones and tablets, Samsung has proved that there's still an appetite for pen-based input. So it's only natural to expect other companies to jump on the bandwagon, as evidenced by a few early prototypes I saw behind the scenes at CES. The problem is that few understand why Samsung's implementation works. For one, there's a place to put the pen in the design. If there's no holster for the stylus, you failed. Second, you have to think way beyond handwriting recognition and drawing to make pen computing compelling. The Galaxy Note II, for example, lets you open apps by scribbling a single letter and enables users to hover over emails to see their contents. Competitors should be thinking about how to go a step further instead of including a pen just to say you have one.
More: 8 Great Galaxy Note II Cases
Editor-in-chief Mark Spoonauer directs LAPTOP's online and print editorial content and has been covering mobile and wireless technology for over a decade. Each week Mark's SpoonFed column provides his insights and analysis of the biggest mobile trends and news. You can also follow him on Twitter and Google+.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Entries in Christine Marinoni (2)
Cynthia Nixon Says Bisexuality Is Not a 'Choice'
Jemal Countess/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- Cynthia Nixon, 45, recently clarified her claim that she is gay by choice. The Sex and the City actress recently told New York Times Magazine, "I understand that for many people it's not, but for me it's a choice, and you don't get to define my gayness for me."
Nixon's comment upset some members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, who took umbrage with the idea that they have control over their sexual preference. In a statement published by the LGBT magazine The Advocate, Nixon said:
"While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have 'chosen' is to be in a gay relationship. As I said in the Times and will say again here, I do, however, believe that most members of our community -- as well as the majority of heterosexuals -- cannot and do not choose the gender of the persons with whom they seek to have intimate relationships because, unlike me, they are only attracted to one sex."
Nixon is engaged to her longtime partner Christine Marinoni. They have a young son.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 11:43AM by Carmen Cox Permalink
tagged Bisexuality, Christine Marinoni, Cynthia Nixon, Gay, Relationships, Sexuality in Celebrities, Entertainment General
Cynthia Nixon: Gay by Choice?
Jemal Countess/WireImage(NEW YORK) -- Cynthia Nixon stands by her statement that she is gay by choice, despite the backlash she's received from members of the gay community.
The Sex and the City star recently clarified remarks she made during a speech to a gay audience in which she declared, "I've been straight and I've been gay, and gay is better."
The remark caused a stir in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Nixon told last Sunday's New York Times magazine that she was pressured to change what she said, "because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice.
"For me, it is a choice," Nixon told the Times. "I understand that for many people it's not, but for me it's a choice, and you don't get to define my gayness for me."
Nixon, 45, is engaged to her long-time partner Christine Marinoni, who gave birth last February to their son, Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni.
"I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn't realize I was gay, which I find really offensive," she told the Times. "I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I've been out with."
Before her relationship with Marinoni, Nixon was in a 15-year relationship with college sweetheart Danny Mozes. Nixon and Mozes, who split in 2003, have two children together, 15-year-old Samantha and 9-year-old Charlie.
A year later, Nixon went public with her romance with Marinoni.
"I say it doesn't matter if we flew here or we swam here. It matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not," she told the Times about her decision to be with Marinoni.
But gay blogger and activist John Aravosis said Nixon does a disservice to the gay movement by using the word "choice." She should have said she is bisexual, not choosing to be gay, he wrote on the AmericaBlog Gay website.
"If you like both flavors, men and women, you're bisexual, you're not gay, so please don't tell people that you are gay, and that gay people can "choose" their sexual orientation, i.e., will it out of nowhere. Because they can't," he wrote. "Every religious right hatemonger is now going to quote this woman every single time they want to deny us our civil rights."
Nixon recently appeared with a shaved head on Live with Kelly. Her new look is for her upcoming role in the Broadway play Wit in which she plays a professor stricken with ovarian cancer. Nixon, herself, dealt with a bout of breast cancer in 2006.
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:01AM by Carmen Cox Permalink
tagged Christine Marinoni, Cynthia Nixon, Gay in Celebrities, Entertainment General


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April 28, 2005 News » News Etc.
District 2 Looking for a new life
By Michael Cary
District 2 waits in the wings
Joel Williams, District 2 incumbent
Previous City leaders have envisioned the economically depressed East Side as a sector to avoid, unless one is seeking drugs or sex from street-corner dealers and prostitutes. Nowadays, a Spurs game can provide a few hours of adrenaline rush, but if you take the word of some real-estate developers who own property around the SBC Center, there's not much else to attract San Antonians to the East Side.
In a recent issue of the San Antonio Register, former District 2 City Councilman Mario Salas summarized the historical viewpoint that City Hall has fostered regarding the East Side: "The entire East Side was for years a dumping ground for environmental racists who thought it was OK to sell land or build homes for African Americans in environmentally unsafe areas," he wrote.
That is the challenge of the District 2 City Council representative: rejuvenating a blighted area, while avoiding the problems associated with gentrification, such as forcing people from their homes.
Lloyd Barnes, who lives in Huntleigh Park near Houston Street and W.W. White Road, contends that current City Councilman Joel Williams has ignored constituents' complaints about development and have called for new leadership in that sector.
There is much more to the arguments about how one of the City's most neglected communities could be rejuvenated, but the top two contenders have ideas about the East Side: Williams, who has served the past two years, and challenger Sheila McNeil, who gained experience at City Hall while John Sanders served and who later worked in the office of state representative Ruth Jones McClendon before she filed for the District 2 City Council seat. David Arevalo didn't return calls from the Current; his comments at a recent debate are at sacurrent.com.
Sheila McNeil, District 2 challenger
An Urban Land Institute report was presented to the City Council last week. It focuses on land use near St. Paul's Square, from south of the Alamodome to north of Nolan Street, including Dignowity Hill, the Friedrich Building, and the residential area south of East Commerce Street, between South Cherry and Monumental streets. Its recommendations include improving gateways along East Commerce and improving traffic flow and the streetscape to connect the East Side to downtown.
Current: Do you have ideas for Empowerment Zone bonds, other than the $130 million slated for the Convention Center Head-quarters Hotel?
SM: Economic development, meaning the Urban Land Institute-recommended Commerce Street Corridor on East Commerce Street. These are the kinds of communities that (EZ bond) money was designated for. From the train track to the Friedrich Building, there is lots of blighted property that needs to be cleaned up and revitalized; it would be good use of that bond money.
JW: Tied to the hotel, the condominium project will be an added plus to the empowerment zone. We are putting in between 400 and 500 additional condos; it's a good win-win for the empowerment zone. I've been looking at the Hackberry Street Corridor.
Current: What can be done about the drug dealers and the prostitutes on Hackberry Street?
SM: It will take a community effort to come up with a viable plan to put resources into. We need to get the kids jobs and something to do; if they don't have any activity, they will get in trouble. We need to do community policing and work with programs and a plan to target that area really hard to alleviate the problem in the Hackberry Street area. On the 1/8-cent sales tax for a crime district, I take issue with raising taxes. I think we really need to take a look at the resources we have. I favor a library district versus a crime district.
"I take issue with raising taxes. I think we really need to take a look at the resources we have. I favor a library district versus a crime district."
JW: I'm supporting the 1/8-cent sales tax for a crime-control district. We need to bring back the SAFFE (San Antonio Fear Free Environment) officers and add more police officers. I have had task forces working in the area, and we've made a difference. I think with the vandalism going on and the homeless wandering throughout that corridor, we need more light, more policing. With the crime-control district, 60 to 80 officers could be added per year in that program. We have had more debate and more dialogue, with the public supporting the crime control district versus other proposals out there.
Current: Around the SBC Center, a real-estate developer says he can't sell property on the East Side. Is he just sounding off because he can't get top dollar for his property?
SM: The SBC Center has to be developed. That was part of the promise. We spent $150,000 to do the east area arena plan. If we're going to spend that amount of money on the plan, we need to implement the plan. The issue is business owners around the SBC Center complain because people just come in and go right back out. They don't patronize the businesses in the area. We've got to market this City and all the resources we have on this side of town and around the SBC Center so we can get the development around there, that's critical.
"I'm supporting the 1/8-cent sales tax for a crime-control district. We need to add more police officers."
JW: On the SBC Center area, I've got a plan with developers looking very critically at that corridor. I can envision the possibilities between I-35 and I-10. Imagine if the City and County worked in partnership, to build more hotel space, with access to free exhibition space in the SBC Center. The County looked at the Reliant Center in Houston, and we think it's a win-win. They restored 100 acres for exhibition space, with one million square feet of space. If we put in 2/3 of that, we could get the Ford conventions. We need to bring market-rate retail space into the corridors of Commerce Street and along Houston Street. •
Tags: News Etc., News, feature
« District 5 Seeking a new identity | Last words - Adios Would you like fries with that? »
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The Quantinuum Podcast is a place where two friends converse on the implications of science fiction ideas on society, earth, and the wider universe. Each podcast follows a theme of our choosing, and we delve into major questions that are pertinent to us. It's our hope that the podcast becomes a place for us to explore our own minds and come to broader and deeper understandings of reality.


An electrified 10-string KANTELE with tremolo bridge. This is the new wave on kantele! The pike is lost and skateboard is here to grind up the melodies. The shape is brilliant to hold on your lap, and while you gently lean on the wheel you get the superb tremolo. Magnetic microphones with the steel strings and you get the best out of the long resonanse. 6 mm plug leads you straight to the world of guitar amps and various pedals to richen the sounds.
Skate it, slide it, grind it, tap it like a diddley… There are endless possibilities to variate the way you play it. If you think you imagination is the limit, then think again! This is one of the few skateboards that are allowed to carry around. The instrument can be used for astronomical observations.


text:
Posts Tagged 'Latin'
Walking into history
Posted by lazylauramaisey in Nature.	Tagged: Anglo Saxon, archaeology, bones, Bury St Edmunds, chemicals, CHristian, Civil War, crop, Danish, Denmark, drinking water, East Coast, England, Golden Jubilee, history, holiday, horse, horses, Hunstanton, invaders, Latin, LeSTrange family, magazine, Norfolk, Paul RIchard Moore, Peddars Way, Queen Victoria, Romans, Sedgeford, soldiers, St Andrew's Church, St Peter's Church, tree, village, walks, windmill.	2 comments
It's Wednesday again and time for Rambler5319, my guest blogger, to take over….
Last week's pics from my holiday were really mostly about signs. I did take some others (and a few more signs). These are from the walks I did in an area which is steeped in history. Parts of it go back to the time of the Romans and beyond.
As you approach the village from one direction, you see this magnificent hand-crafted sign. (It took over 8 months to make.)
Each element in the sign has some local significance and I was curious to find out what they all represented. Local village history gave me the answer:
The cross-keys representing St Peter's Church (now ruined).
The white cross (blue background) represents the existing St Andrew's Church.
The beige area represents the main cereal crop – barley.
The green area represents the other main crop – sugar beet.
The white pathway between them represents an old footpath called Peddars Way which passes through the village.
The black symbols on the left middle represent churches & chapel. To the right middle, the tree is Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Tree and the windmill is also local to the area. A lot of thought definitely went into this impressive creation.
As you approach from another side of the village you are greeted by this one
They definitely like you to feel welcome.
I found this next structure in a garden in the main street of the village. Talk about plush multi-storey avian apartments!! Ever seen one of these before?
WALK NO.1
This was about 6 miles round, mostly on paths away from the roads. The route I travelled, to the next village (Sedgeford), is a small part of what is a much longer (46 miles!) ancient path called Peddars Way. Some believe its existence actually pre-dates the Romans and that they just extended and improved it. So here I was walking on a path that Roman soldiers probably marched along almost 2,000 years ago! I'm glad I wasn't wearing armour and carrying a heavy shield as the sun was very warm and my brow was wiped many times on this walk. Here's a section of it but can you tell which direction my compass needle was pointing if I tell you it was about 11.00am?
I came across this notice just half a mile along the path.
In case text in pic too small to read, at the bottom it says: "This roadside verge is being positively managed to conserve wild plants and animals in a joint project between Norfolk County Council and Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Note it's just the "verge"; it was only a metre or so wide.
Just before joining the main road, leading into Sedgeford, the path emerged from its agrarian setting into a narrow road called Magazine Lane; also nearby were Magazine Farm & Magazine Wood. Seemed to me like an odd name to find out in the countryside. The mystery was solved a bit further along when I found this building
It is called Magazine Cottage and is believed to have been used as a store for gunpowder during the Civil War. It was built by the LeStrange family who we will find out more about next week. As I walked past the village pub (King William IV), and down a side road, I saw a sign for a local archaeological project:
I was intrigued. I decided to visit. As well as the actual dig site there were a number of displays and talks about the finds and other general info about life in Anglo Saxon times. Volunteer diggers camp in the next field to the excavation site:
And some site facilities are what might be termed primitive. Note, in the pic below, only one tap can be used for drinking water:
Here are some of the displays, starting with the skulls:
And here are three Action Men but each item they are wearing has been hand made by a guy who is very interested in the period. He'd also made models of some of the "machines" (e.g. boulder launching catapults) the Romans used in sieges and attacks in battle.
Next was a display of what they believe may have been types of food from Anglo Saxon times. The front page of the booklet to the right of pic (sorry chopped off due to trying to get all the food dishes in) says "Dishes made on the day course – Cooking up an Anglo-Saxon feast":
I also attended one of the 20 minute talks in a side tent. Time to put thinking cap on! Amongst other things, I learnt that an analysis of the chemicals in bones can suggest an area of the country where the individual lived. How? This is because the mix of certain elements in the water in different parts of the country can be quite specific to that area. Apparently, if you live in an area for 10 years or more, your bones will have levels of certain chemicals that have been absorbed from drinking the water in that area that will be the same as the water itself. The archaeologists compare the levels of two particular chemicals, strontium & oxygen, in the water, with the levels in the bones they find. They can then tell whether the people had lived in that area for about 10 years before their death or had moved to it from another part of the country.
Soon it was off to retrace the 3 miles back to the cottage and give my brain, as well as my legs, a rest; it had been a fascinating and very instructive time at the site. As I made my way across the field behind the site, to begin the trek home, I came across this unusual sight:
Starting with the standing white horse look left to the brown standing horse and then to, what seems to be, a brown "blob" on the floor. This "blob" really was a horse lying on its side. Every so often its tail would flick up and down but it remained in this position the whole time I was crossing the field. Was it tired or maybe sunbathing? Do horses lie down if they're tired? Do horses sunbathe?
The following day I did a short walk, along the sea front, in the nearby town of Hunstanton. Apparently it is the only resort on the East Coast of England which actually faces west! (You'd have to look at a map to see why.) The town motto (in Latin of course) is Alios delectare iuvat, which translates to "It is our pleasure to please". I was pleased after my visit so I suppose they succeeded. I sat down on a bench for a quick sandwich and drink. I found it was one of those which had been erected in memory of someone who'd died. Here's the plaque:
Paul Richard Moore was not famous; I, you and lots of other people, will have never heard of him but clearly he was, and still is, VERY special to those who'd put the bench there in his memory. We don't know how he died but look at his age – just under 30 years old. Now pause for a moment and think about that. Perhaps many readers of this post are younger or just coming up to it or some maybe past that age. Imagine if that was to be all time you would have. It's always a great sadness when parents outlive their children as it's one of those things, like this lad's parents, you just don't expect to happen. I spent a few minutes in quiet reflection: each moment we're alive we're making withdrawals from "The Bank of Time" but without knowing the balance left in our account! Of course, no deposits are possible and you can't be overdrawn – but your account will be closed at some point! How we "spend" our time is important.
Walking just a short distance from the bench, I saw this. It was time to put that thinking cap on again.
Closer inspection of the info board revealed some interesting stuff.
The wall in the pic is what is left of a chapel built in 1272AD in memory of King Edmund. Apparently he'd landed, from Germany, in 855AD and, a few years later, was crowned King of East Anglia whilst still only a boy. There was peace for a while but then invaders came from Denmark. The king was captured and, when pressed, refused to give up his Christian faith. He was tied to a tree and shot by Danish archers in 870AD aged about 29. He was interred at a place called Beodericsworth which later became known as St Edmunds Bury and finally the town we know today as Bury St Edmunds. He became the first patron saint of England and remained so for about 400 years. The current patron saint (George) was not adopted until the end of the 14th cent. Not a lot of people know that!
I came across this (Latin) motto: Alis Aptar Scientis. It means "Ready for the wings of knowing". Well are you?
Posted by lazylauramaisey in Nature.	Tagged: Bible, cellar, chemistry, Cheshire, Egyptians, evaporation, food, Gaudete, invisible art exhibition, Israel, Latin, Leftwich, London, Mark Kurlansky, Middle Ages, Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich, Old Testament, Petremen, pond, Roman soldiers, sailor, salad, Salt, Southbank Centre, Steeleye Span, Venice, Wikipedia.	6 comments
Ok, a quick note from me before handing over the guest blogger. Does everyone remember the post about invisible art? Well, as I wandered around London yesterday enjoying my day off, I happened upon the exhibition itself! Just so you know it really does exist. It's at the Southbank Centre in London, should you wish to pop along!
Remember that chemistry lesson? When you were wondering what use it would ever be I think you're about to see why you should have paid attention.
Salt has a number of uses. First off, it can preserve: Egyptians used it when mummifying bodies and many cultures use it to preserve food.
There's a fascinating book on the subject:
You may be surprised to learn that salt also appears, a number of times, in the Bible. In the Old Testament book called Numbers (the 4th book in the index of the Bible): "It is a covenant of salt forever, before the Lord with you and your descendants with you" (Num Ch18 v19). It also appears in the Book of 2 Chronicles (the 14th book in the index of the Bible): "….the Lord God of Israel gave the dominion over Israel to David forever, to him and his sons, by a covenant of salt" (2 Chr ch13 v5). Covenants are binding agreements between two parties so salt was clearly very important in these cases. In the New Testament there are a number of refs to salt. Remember the expression that we use when we say a person is "the salt of the earth" – it's a direct quote of Jesus's words recorded in Matthew's Gospel Ch5 v13.
By the start of the 7th cent AD the city of Venice was using landfill to extend the mainland out to the islands and to produce salt it had begun using a system of "ponds" or pools which had seawater in. (NaCl – that is, sodium chloride – is what gives seawater its salinity). The system works like this beginning, quite naturally, with Pond 1. As the sun evaporates the water its salinity increases. Then it is moved (or pumped) into Pond 2 where more evaporation takes place and Pond 1 is re-filled with a fresh supply of seawater to start the process off again. Once Pond 2 has increased salinity due to the evaporation by the sun acting on it then it's moved into Pond 3. Ponds 2 and then 1 move their water up and Pond 1 is re-filled. And so the process goes on until the salt begins to solidify and drops to the bottom of the last pond where it can be scraped out. This process saved the problem of just having single ponds which you had to wait for to go through the whole evaporation cycle over and over which could take up to a year from start to finish.
Did you know that Roman soldiers were at times paid in salt? This is where we get the English expression that someone is "worth their salt". Our word "salary" is derived from the Latin salarium (not solarium!) which, it is believed, referred to money given to soldiers to buy salt. The Romans often located their settlements in areas with easy access to salt because it could be used, as they saw it, to further the development of civilisation and, of course, primarily their empire.
World production of salt is around 300 million tons per year. My little salt cellar holds approx 50gms.
Now, go on admit it, you're wondering – how many times could I fill my little salt cellar from the world's production for just one year. Ok, well here goes – 1 kg would supply me with 20 refills (20 x 50g); so 1 tonne would give me 20,000 refills; 1 million tonnes would give me 20,000,000,000 (20 thousand million =20 billion as per the OED); so finally 300 million tonnes would give me 300 x 20 billion = 6,000 billion refills or 6 Trillion refills! And just one 50gm amount lasts me ages & ages. (For comparison purposes think of it this way – there are 31.6 million seconds in a year so if I consumed what would definitely be a fatal – 50 gms/sec – it would take erm…..200,000 years to use up just one year's production!! Numbers are just too big – blowing a gasket here! Moving on……..
In the county of Cheshire in the UK there is a small town called Northwich (pop. 20,000 as of 2001). Dated pottery fragments found there suggest the town has been associated with salt since at least 600BC and it became more important, as a source of salt, during Roman times. The town's coat of arms has the Latin motto Sal Est Vita which means salt is life.
There is also an association with salt found in the etymology of the town's name Northwich. The "-wich" part of the town name itself is believed to derive from the Norse "wic" (or wych) meaning bay and is associated with the traditional way of obtaining salt by evaporating sea water (Wikipedia). The "wich" (or wych) suffix occurs in other towns in the county – Middlewich, Nantwich and Leftwich. In fact anywhere in the UK with a "-wich" ending in its name means that usually there will have been a connection to salt at some point in its history. Therefore a place for making salt became a wych-house; and Northwich was so named because, you've guessed it, it's the most northerly of the "-wich" towns in Cheshire.
To get salt out of the ground it has to be mined. Once the traditional (c.16th cent) method of sending men into a hole in the ground, to manually dig it out became unviable in terms of cost, producers moved to what is called "solution mining" (c.17th cent) where fresh water is pumped down a well to dissolve the salt. The salted water (brine) is then pumped back to the surface where the salt can then be extracted. The difficulty with this method is that as more salt is dissolved & drawn out, it leaves holes underground where the solid salt used to be; then land above can easily subside and this is what happened in the Cheshire area. The ignorance or deliberate avoidance of the consequences of their actions back in the 19th cent led to the salt extractors causing many areas to subside and holes to form at ground level. These holes then would fill with rain water adding to the whole problem. Indeed, in Northwich itself, there are horrendous examples of buildings leaning and damage to shops, private houses etc.
The social and practical impact of salt extraction in this area is highlighted by displays & storyboards in the SALT Museum located in the refurbished workhouse (built c.1838) in Northwich. I hope to visit it some time before the autumn and will report back.
In more modern times (1972) the group Steeleye Span released an album called Below The Salt. You, like me, may have wondered where they got the title from. In the Middle Ages, when families & their servants ate together, the salt would be placed in the middle of the table separating the two. The servants were then referred to as sitting "below the salt". Incidentally the album contains an acapella track sung entirely in Latin which got to No.14 in the UK charts – Gaudete. I'm sure you remember that famous opening chorus: "Gaudete, gaudete, Christus est natus ex Maria virgine, Gaudete" (Translation: Rejoice, rejoice, Christ is born of the Virgin Mary, Rejoice).
You must have heard people talk of someone "rubbing salt into the wound" as a way of saying a bad situation has been made worse by whatever that person did. However did you know that the origin of it goes back to days of sail and punishment by flogging on board ship. Once the skin was broken and bleeding, salt was rubbed in to prevent infection (and therefore ultimately the loss of a crewman) but it was a very painful experience for the person concerned.
There are a number of "sal" expressions and derivations in the English language. Let's look at a few:
1. You've probably heard of the compound sal volatile (pronounced sal volatilly) which is the Latin name for what we refer to as smelling salts. You know the scene in a play or film when someone faints and the salts are used to "bring them round". Workplaces used to have some in their first aid boxes for emergencies and I've seen them used a couple of times. They act by releasing a small amount of ammonia gas which produces a reflex in the nose causes the person to inhale.
2. Do you know the expression people use when they don't believe something is true – they say you have to take what another person says with a "pinch" or "grain" of salt. (The latin is cum grano salis.) The expression dates back to Roman times (with Pliny the Elder) and refers to one of the ingredients of an "antidote to poison". Threats of poison in food were therefore said to be taken "with a grain of salt": the inference being that the effects would be less serious if the salt was taken. The lessening effect, in modern times, has been transferred but inverted to mean a lessening of the truthfulness of a particular statement.
3. The word "salad" means salted dish and "salami" is a sausage which contains a lot of salt.
4. Remember those films again with safecrackers blowing up the safe to get the money. They were called Petremen (pronounced Peter-men) referring to the substance they used which was actually called "saltpetre" or potassium nitrate – a component of gunpowder. Originally saltpetre meant salt of rock – the "petre" bit coming from one of the Latin cases of petra meaning rock. However did you know that it can also be used as a preservative. I'm not joking, if you check Amazon you will find it on sale (4oz for £2.25 from one supplier) for curing beef.
5. A sailor can be referred to as an "old salt" – the reason coming from the preservative qualities of salt for their meat & fish which were soaked in brine.
If you get a chance have a read of Mark Kurlansky's book (in the pic at the beginning). I really enjoyed it and it's got to be THE authority on the subject and kept me interested from start to finish. (It's 452 pages with a 12 page Bibliography!). Thanks to him for some of the historical stuff used in this article.
So you see salt can be a very interesting substance and far more important than you thought. Hope this has not been too much of an assault on your brain and senses (haha).
Can I have a word? Part 4
Posted by lazylauramaisey in Language.	Tagged: Afrikaans, Angles, British Empire, Chambers, Chekov, coffee, Collins, cultures, Danes, deli, English, exams, foreign, French, french origin, Hawaiian, immigration, journey, Kate Bush, Klingon, languages, Latin, latin origin, Lewis Carroll, mixture, mongrel, neologisms, Normans, Oxford, portmanteau, Romans, Russian, sandwich, Sanskrit, Saxons, Swahili, Swedish, travel, Vikings, words.	8 comments
Our regular guest blogger tackles the subject of 'Portmanteau Words' today.
It's back to that subject of words and, in this case, some very special words. As you're probably aware English is a kind of "made up" or mongrel type of language. The purity of whatever language the inhabitants of our island spoke has been watered down (improved?) over the centuries in a number of ways. It's become a mixture of so many words that have come to us from other cultures and languages around the world. Since the Romans invaded brining their Latin words, more influences have come in from a number of other conquerors: Danes, Vikings, Angles, Saxons, Normans have all been responsible for changes in our language (and place names in particular) over hundreds of years. Immigration has provided more foreign flavours to the mix. Other words have come from the days of the British Empire and the countries it traded with. Some words we've taken in without modification (e.g. précis & fiancée from French, apartheid & trek from Afrikaans, ashram from Sanskrit and hundreds more); others have a kind of anglicised version but betray foreign roots. It's estimated, for example, that 30% of English words have a French origin & 60% have a Latin origin; some duplication because of the Latin origin of some French words. A recent arrival into English (late 19th cent.) is the word safari which comes directly from Swahili where it means "long journey"; more recently Wiki (as in Wikipedia) from the Hawaiian "wiki wiki" meaning fast; Baboushka (also a 1980 song by Kate Bush) from the Russian for grandmother and Gulag which is actually an acronym in Russian for Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii; moped from the Swedish and short for motor and pedal. And there are, of course, hundreds more.
One of the things you might not have realised is that a word like moped is actually called a "portmanteau" word because it is made up of two other words or shortened versions of them. In fact, if you think about it, the French word porte-manteau is itself made up from two other French words: "porter" (meaning to carry) and "manteau" (meaning cloak). Apparently it was first used, in the context of joined words, by Lewis Carroll in 1871 (Alice Through the Looking Glass). Remember Freedom Literature, when I quoted, from Jabberwocky, these words "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe" – I wonder did you know that "slithy" means lithe & slimy? LC was also responsible for the following portmanteaux: chortled a combination of chuckled & snort; frabjous for fair, fabulous & joyous; mimsy for flimsy & miserable. In 1964, when the country of Tanganika joined with the islands of Zanzibar the new nation was called Tanzania, a portmanteau of the two original names; similarly when Europe and Asia are combined to describe the whole land mass they become the portmanteau Eurasia. If you look back to LLM's blog, Z is for, you will see the word zonkey – a portmanteau of zebra & donkey; also there is a zorse, a zebra/horse crossbreed and her very own, but rather difficult to conceive (think about it), catterpony. LLM's blog, Attempting 'sporty', mentioned having started NaNoWriMo which looks very "portmanteau-ish" to me. There was the interesting quidnunc from the K is for knowledge blog: that's actually a Latin portmanteau taken directly into English. There are, of course, many others along these lines. (Btw, the French though, in their own language, don't use the word porte-manteau this 'joined-up words' way).
Older residents of the UK will remember 'O level' exams called G.C.E.s; later came the exams for those not as academically clever – they called them C.S.E.s. Then in the rush to get everyone "on a level playing field" both exams went in the dustbin and the first portmanteau exams arrived in 1988 – the G.C.S.E.s
Probably one of the most recent – anyone heard of a turducken? (Not me!) It apparently arrived into the English language officially in 2010. It's made by inserting a chicken into a duck, and then into a turkey. (Why would you do that?).
One of the most useless portmanteaux has to be guesstimate – it simply doesn't help. When would you use it instead of estimate or guess both of which do the job of saying something or some figure is not exact? If you can help me out – please do.
As an aside, I suppose you could call this whole process LLW – lazylanguagewords. Why? Because it means the language (i.e. me & you) doesn't have to come up with an original new word as such. You need a new word? Just grab a few existing ones and with a bit of welding & a few twiddles – hey presto! (You want to drive and travel – you dravel or drivel.)
The more you look into our language the more examples you can see. It got me thinking about how economical these words are: as I mentioned before, instead of saying something "is a cross between a zebra and a donkey" you just say "it's a zonkey" – neat eh? Now I think we could use some more of these to save space and time when either speaking or writing. What next? ………Yes, you've guessed, I've been working on a few.
I was thinking of transport and how easy it would be to describe your journey with some new portmanteau words. Take this sentence for example (when you arrive at a friend's house and they ask how you did you get here?) – "I came by bus, train and taxi." This can be "portmanteau-ed" (see how I made a noun/adjective into a verb there?) into "I came bybutratax". Do you see what I did there? A triple portmanteau! But it's also very adaptable because if the journey was by train, bus & taxi it becomes trabutax. Switch it round for any combo of the words. If you wanted to include the walk to the bus stop (so walk, bus, train, taxi) you could make wabutratax (a quad portmanteau). If you're a cyclist and you ride then travel on the train and ride again you could make bitrabi and so on. If you're going abroad you could add the flight by plane into the mix – so taxi, plane, taxi would be taxplatax.
Now you may want to say how each leg of the journey went: good, bad, rough or whatever. I've had some thoughts on this too. So, for example, "I came by trabutax and the journey was gobaro. Did you get it? The journey was good, bad & rough on each of the corresponding legs by train, bus & taxi. If all three legs were good or bad you'd getgogogo or bababa.
Suppose someone serves in a café (or deli) and a customer could ask for alatchesanchoca which is a latte, cheese sandwich & chocolate cake. (Imaginary scenario: Customer to LLM – Can I have a latchesanchoca without the sandwich? LLM grits teeth & thinks: "But then it's not a latchesanchoca!") When four friends, each wanting a different drink, come in they could ask for an escaplatam – you got it didn't you? An espresso, a cappuccino, a latte & an Americano. (Eseseslat = three espressos and a latte and so on.) Easy eh? Imagine the questions you'd get if those were on the menu on the wall: what's that? Why is an escaplatam so expensive? Are they all mixed together in one cup? Are they definitely all separate? We're definitely in LLM nightmare territory here? Where was that café again? …..Oh yes, ELM St!
Now, strictly speaking of course, the grammar-savvy among you will know that these words of mine are actually neologisms (that is words that may be in the process of entering common use) rather than actual portmanteaux (plural as per French not portmanteaus as would be in English) because they haven't actually entered the language yet. (Therefore, to be precise, you can say that I'm making some speculative forays into the world of neologisms rather than inventing actual portmanteaux.) However just as it's a fine line between genius and madness so it's also a fine line between neologism and portmanteau! A definitely blurred, but possible, final frontier between invention and reality.
I wonder if you've thought of portmanteaux as a kind of 'final frontier'? Out there on the edge? Are you ready to boldly go where no blogger (linguist?) has gone before? Such an 'enterprise' would be quite a trek wouldn't it? Lots of stuff to Chekov the list and some old stuff to Klingon to. Also you'd need to make sure with the doctor that your "bones" are the real McCoy. Still, no space to go into all that here. (See what I did there?) Remember, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard said to his daughter, "Seize the time, Meribor. Live now; makenow always the most precious time. Now will never come again" — (from the episode calledThe Inner Light). I'm just off to scan those transport suggestions again – "beam me up, Scotty!" (To the Starship Bloggerprise – of course).
But you can see how the language could develop? It's exciting isn't it? (Perhaps LLM could revisit her "Things to get excited about" mood before becoming too sporty? New items on menu in café perhaps?) And it's happening right here! And you read it first here!
Now it's over to you – perhaps you could have a think and post some of your suggestions in the comments. It would be great to see some readers' inventions. I'm sure you can come up with some better efforts than mine. (I can speak to Messrs Chambers, Oxford, & Collins once we've collected our suggestions.) Let's get on board the E.S.S. Bloggerpriseand take our language forward to that final frontier– together! (This entry – using the most recent calculation method – is from the Captain's Log: Stardate 2012.178)


Approximately 1 in 3 of us have at least one credit card with a balance due. And with a new law that required higher minimums taking effect in 2006, more and more consumers are wrestling with their minimum payment.
So Linda asks a good question. How much debt repayment can I fit into my budget? And, yes, she's right. Someone with a $100,000 annual income can afford more than the person who takes home $1,200 each month. So let's see if we can't come up with some guidelines for Linda.
Most family budgets are dominated by three categories: housing, auto and food. Combined they typically take up 65 to 70% of the budget. That leaves 30 to 35% for everything else: insurance, clothing, medical, dental, entertainment & vacations, education, property taxes, savings, and debt repayment.
Most of these categories will require between 3 and 7%. Which will quickly consume the remaining portion of your income. Each family is a little different but most families can commit about 5% of their paycheck to repaying debt without twisting their budget out of shape.
How does that work out in Linda's case? A monthly payment of $400 is 5% of $8,000. So Linda would need to be bringing home $8,000 after taxes to hold to this budget. I hope that she is making $96,000 a year. But, there's a good chance that she's not. So she might need to make some adjustments.
Even if she is making that much money, it's still wise to pay down her credit card balance. That's because it is unlikely to stay at the current level. The reason is simple. Life happens.
There will always be 'unexpected' home and auto repair bills. Even with good medical insurance the deductible on a broken arm can be significant. And taking a nice vacation is real tempting.
If Linda is struggling already she probably doesn't have money saved for these 'emergencies'. So they'll go on her credit card. And, that will boost her balance. The new minimum will only go up a little bit. But the hill she's climbing just got a little steeper.
The sad part is that many people fall into credit card debt because they can't afford to completely pay for whatever they bought during the month. Trouble is the interest that they'll owe only makes the original purchase more expensive. So they'll pay even more for something that they couldn't afford in the first place.
So what can Linda do? Take aggressive steps to pay down her credit card balance. Beginning now.
The biggest opportunities are where she spends the most - housing, auto and food. It may be time to move to a smaller home or apartment, or take in a roommate. Replace an expensive car with a cheaper one. Commit to eating at home until her debt is paid off.
Linda should also look for ways to make small contributions to her 'debt repayment fund'. It's time to consider dropping premium cable channels, mocha lattes and other non-essentials. You'd be surprised how quickly these items can add up to a sizeable amount. Not only will she be reducing debt, she'll feel better about taking steps to reach her goal.
Some of these may seem overly drastic. But they are meant to be drastic. Linda is heading for a financial wreck.
Here's how it will unfold. 'Unexpected' expenses will add to her balance and her monthly minimum. If her minimum payments begin to exceed 5% of her budget, she'll soon find herself unable to make the monthly payment.
Then things will snowball. Each month she'll struggle to make all the minimum payments on time. One day a payment will be a little late. Her interest rates will go up. On all of her cards. That'll increase her minimum payment. That, in turn, will make it almost impossible to cover the new minimums. Her credit rating will go down. She'll trigger a chain of events that will take up to ten years to correct.
Linda is wise to correct it now while she still has time. Some of the steps she'll need to take will be painful. But she'll be avoiding much more financial pain in the future.
Gary Foreman is a former financial planner who currently edits The Dollar Stretcher.com website. You'll find hundreds of ways to help make the most of the money you already earn. Visit today!


This is the Spanish version of French toast and is especially enjoyed during the Easter Holy Week in Spain.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt, and whisk to dissolve the sugar. Add the milk and cream and whisk to combine.
Place 4 slices of the bread in the bowl with the batter and let sit until well moistened, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat half of the oil and melt half of the butter over medium heat.
Carefully transfer the 4 soaked bread slices to the hot pan and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side, turning once. Transfer to a warm plate and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the remaining teaspoon of cinnamon with the confectioners' sugar.
To serve, divide the Torrijas among 2 to 4 plates. Dust with the cinnamon-sugar and serve with syrup, if desired.


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text:
Jean Paul Riopelle
19 x 24 centimeters
7.5 x 9.5 inches.
Maurice Lefebvre-Foinet, Paris.
Art Impressionniste et Modern, lot 49, December 1st. 2009, Christies, Paris.
Illustrated Reference
P. Schneider, Riopelle signes meles, Paris, 1972, no. 26, p. 19, illustrated in color.
D. Craven, The automatist paintings of Jean-Paul Riopelle, artscanada, Toronto, Mar/Apr 1981, p. 48, illustrated.
Y. Riopelle, Jean-Paul Riopelle Catalogue Raisonne 1939-1953, Montreal, 1999, vol. I, no. 1950.019H.1950, p. 234, illustrated in color.
Born in Montreal, Jean Paul Riopelle began drawing lessons in 1933 and continued through 1938. He studied engineering, architecture and photography at the Ecole polytechnique in 1941. In 1942 he enrolled at the Ecole des beaux-arts de Montreal but shifted his studies to the less academic Ecole du Meuble, graduating in 1945.
Jean Paul Riopelle studied under Paul-Emile Borduas in the 1940s and was a member of Les Automatistes movement. Braking with traditional conventions in 1945 after reading Breton's Le Surrealisme et la Peinture, he began experimenting with non-objective (or non-representational) painting. He was one of the signers of the Refus global manifesto. In 1947 Riopelle moved to Paris and continued his career as an artist, where, after a briefly association with the surrealists (he was the only Canadian to have exhibit with them) he capitalized on his image as a "wild Canadian". His first solo exhibition took place in 1949 at the Surrealist meeting place, Galerie La Dragonne in Paris.
In 1959 he began a relationship with the American painter Joan Mitchell.[4] Living together throughout the 1960s, they kept separate homes and studios near Giverny, where Monet had lived. They influenced one another greatly, as much intellectually as artistically, but their relationship was a stormy one, fueled by alcohol. The relationship ended in 1979. His 1992 painting Hommage Rosa Luxemburg is Riopelle's tribute to Mitchell, who died that year, and is regarded as a high point of his later work.
Jean Paul Riopelle's style in the 1940s changed quickly from Surrealism to Lyrical Abstraction, in which he used myriad tumultuous cubes and triangles of multicolored elements, facetted with a palette knife, spatula, or trowel, on often large canvases to create powerful atmospheres.
The presence of long filaments of paint in his painting from 1948 through the early 1950s has often been seen as resulting from a dripping technique like that of Jackson Pollock. Rather, the creation of such effects came from the act of throwing, with a palette knife or brush, large quantities of paint onto the stretched canvas.
Riopelle's voluminous impasto became just as important as color. His oil painting technique allowed him to paint thick layers, producing peaks and troughs as copious amounts of paint were applied to the surface of the canvas. Riopelle, though, claimed that the heavy impasto was unintentional: "When I begin a painting," he said, "I always hope to complete it in a few strokes, starting with the first colours I daub down anywhere and anyhow. But it never works, so I add more, without realizing it. I have never wanted to paint thickly, paint tubes are much too expensive. But one way ar another, the painting has to be done. When I learn how to paint better, I will paint less thickly."
When Jean Paul Riopelle started painting, he would attempt to finish the work in one session, preparing all the color he needed before hand: "I would even go as far to say obviously I don't use a palette, but the idea of a palette or a selection of colors that is not mine makes me uncomfortable, because when I work, I can't waste my time searching for them. It has to work right away."
A third element, range of gloss, in addition to color and volume, plays a crucial role in Riopelle's oil paintings. Paints are juxtaposed so that light is reflected off the surface not just in different directions but with varying intensity, depending on the naturally occurring gloss finish (he did not varnish his paintings). These three elements; color, volume, and range of gloss, would form the basis of his oil painting technique throughout his long and prolific career.
Riopelle received an Honorable Mention at the 1952 SAO Paulo Art Biennial and would later represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1962. In 1953 he showed at the Younger European Painters exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The following year Riopelle began exhibiting at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Riopelle received an Honorable Mention at the Guggenheim Museums Guggenheim International Award exhibition in 1958 and a major retrospective of his work was held at the Kelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne. Subsequent retrospectives of Riopelles work were held at the National Gallery of Canada in 1963, a smaller exhibition at the Musee du Quebec in 1967, at the Fondation Maeght (Saint Paul-de-Vence, France) in 1971, and at the Musee d Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1972. Courtesy Wikipedia
Automatiste Group: It was under Borduas direction that Riopelle made his first abstract painting. Borduas and several of his students, including Riopelle, formed a group that worked, socialized and exhibited together 1942-45. The group became known as the Automatistes for their spontaneous method of painting, which drew on the subconscious as a source. In 1946 Riopelle first travelled to France, where he would return and settle the following year. In 1948 Borduas authored the manifesto Refus global, which was signed by a number of his students, including Riopelle.
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