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Tag Archives: Edison Research
What a Radio Looks Like in the 21st Century
It was only 11-years ago that Steve Jobs took the stage and held in his hand the future. It was an iPhone.
Many people were skeptical that this device could compete with the very popular Blackberry. I think I may have been one of them, as I was a Blackberry owner/user until 2012.
I quickly realized that I knew how to operate an iPhone, after buying an iPad in the fall of 2011. All Apple devices share a core eco-operating system that makes learning them fast and easy. My first iPhone was the 4S. The "S" stood for Siri and I quickly learned to use Siri to type all of my text and emails via dictation. In 2017, I upgraded to an iPhone 7.
OK, so I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know. But in just a decade, have you ever stopped to think about the impact that the smartphone has had on our lives and the technology we use?
In America today, 29% of households don't have a single working AM or FM radio. But it gets worse. The percentage of households without a single working AM or FM radio grows to 50% for the 18-34-year-old age group.
Edison Research recently reported that even 63% of heavy radio listeners now consume their audio online. 82% of those listeners own a smartphone and the most commonly downloaded App is Pandora (40%).
For many, a radio in the 21st Century looks like a smartphone.
Often it appears like radio people think they are the only ones who are not affected by the innovations of technology. Such as, no matter what comes along, AM/FM radio will always be there. Unfortunately, that kind of thinking is like sticking your head in the sand.
Let's think about how smart phones have replaced other "must have" technologies:
My Nikon camera no longer goes on vacation with me, it has been replaced by the pictures I take on my iPhone
Same for videos using my very expensive camcorders
My iPod is now my iPhone
My newspaper is my iPhone
My calculator is my iPhone
My eBook reader is my iPhone (or iPad)
My pocket voice recorder is now my iPhone
My GPS when on foot is my iPhone, though I still prefer my Garmin SmartDrive 61 in the car
My flashlight is now my iPhone
My iPhone is my compass, barcode scanner, and portable video player
My iPhone is the way I access Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn away from home
My iPhone is the way I get both my local weather forecast as well as access weather radar. Weather alerts come in immediately to my iPhone replacing the need for my weather radio.
I've been a cellphone only household since 2000
My smartphone is my household answering machine
My smartphone is my alarm clock
I no longer wear a wrist watch, as my iPhone is my watch
I use my iPhone as a timer when I'm cooking
I have my digital library on my iPhone
My work and personal calendars are all on my iPhone
I keep notes and other records on my iPhone
Since I take all my pictures with my iPhone these days, my photo album is also my smartphone. (Note: I have 2-TerraBytes of iCloud storage to back up everything)
My entire "rolodex" (contact list) is now on my iPhone (I started with a Day-Timer and went digital in 1989 with a Casio Boss. Then moved to a Palm Pilot. Then to the iPhone.)
I check my email when not at home on my iPhone
I surf the internet frequently on my iPhone
When I call the kids & grandkids, it's using Facetime on my iPhone
My credit cards, plane tickets, show tickets are now all in my Apple Wallet on my iPhone
I can even use my iPhone to run my Apple TV as a remote control
A new research study by Pew finds that 54% of U.S. teenagers, age 13 to 17, worry they may be spending too much time on their phones. While they also say they are trying to reduce their smartphone and social media time spent, 56% of teenagers find that doing so makes them feel anxious, lonely, or upset.
And it's no better for parents (and may I add, grandparents). Pew's survey tells us that we are struggling with the same impulses over the time we spend on our phones and social media, sometimes with even worse results than teenagers.
Adults lose focus on their work and students lose focus in the classroom, by the constant need to check their smartphone.
Most research today indicates that since the introduction of the smart speaker, the device that's getting a little less use is the smartphone. I would concur that is the case in my home as well. Our 3 Amazon Echoes are the way we access at home radio listening, get flash briefs, find out the time and latest weather forecast.
At home, 100% of our radio listening is streamed through a smart speaker.
Speaking of Voice Command devices, my Garmin GPS SmartDrive 61 is now programmed by my voice and I can add via points while driving simply by telling my Garmin where I want to go next. It's the best improvement in automobile navigation since the GPS itself.
What the smart speaker and the smartphone have in common, are both devices give the user what they want, when they want it. On Demand is the real game changer of the 21st Century communications world.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV etc. are delivering on demand television. The smartphone and smart speakers are doing that same thing for podcasts, radio, news, weather and everything else.
Edison Research noted, in their recent research, that the hardware challenge in the home is significant. Getting analog radio back into the home (and I would add, in the very near future, the car) seems unlikely
Tagged as AM Radio, Amazon Echo, Amazon Prime, analog radio, Apple TV, Blackberry, digital radio, Edison Research, FM Radio, Garmin GPS, Hulu, Internet, iPhone, iPhone 4S, iPhone 7, Netflix, On Demand, Pandora, Pew, Podcasts, smart speakers, smartphones, Steve Jobs, Streaming, Voice Command
Whatever happened to…
The other day, we took two of our grandchildren to a wildlife safari park here in Virginia. It was a simply magical day. But that's not the part of the story I want to share. It is that both kids were wearing their Boston Red Sox baseball caps.
As we were getting ready to leave we met one of the animal caretakers who screamed "YES!" Then a second later, she exclaimed, "They're both Red Sox Fans!" Instantly, there was a bond between complete strangers.
Purple People
I'm convinced that Minnesota Vikings fans bleed purple. I know one whose whole wardrobe is virtually branded with Vikings colors and logos; even his lawn mower.
Sports franchises truly understand the power of their brand and building their fan base.
So, whatever happened to this sort of thing with radio stations?
Eazy 101
Jerry Lee recently sold his only radio station, WBEB in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was 55-years ago this past May that Jerry and his partner David Kurtz put the station on the air. It signed on as WDVR. In the 1980s the call letters were changed to WEAZ and the station was branded as "EZ 101." The station brand was not only well known, but fixed tuned FM radios were given out by the radio station to area businesses to play the station in their stores and offices.
When the station updated its format, and changed its call letters again, this time to WBEB and branded itself as "B101.1," giant bees appeared at events all over the "City of Brotherly Love."
Marlin Taylor (no relation) was there from the beginning and recently blogged about the station's sale to Entercom. His article was titled "End of an Era." You can read it HERE
Marlin wrote:
"While I pretty much grew up with a 'Can Do' attitude…seeing Jerry in action confirmed that staying pro-active and constantly on the offensive were keys to a meaningful and effective life! If you need proof, just take a look at the 55-year track record of the station at 101.1 on the FM dial in Philadelphia.
There's no question that Jerry was and is a promoter, pure and simple! And, yes, he's a Futurist…a person who studies the future and makes predictions about it based on current trends and conditions. I would also add…always looking down the road to see what challenges and opportunities lay ahead, then utilizing (his) assets to most effectively counter-act or benefit from them."
Familiarity
As Jerry changed his brand over the years to keep his station's programming and image in vogue with the times and his target listeners, he understood the power of familiarity in attracting and keeping a radio audience tuned to his radio station. Mark Ramsey suggests that "familiarity IS preference."
Most recently, Jerry rebranded his station as "101.1 MoreFM." This change, like all the others, was promoted in every imaginable way and became familiar to listeners virtually overnight.
Once upon a time, you couldn't drive in New Jersey without seeing a WOBM-FM bumper sticker on the car driving in front of you. They were everywhere. They made this station VERY familiar and Paul Most, a former GM of WOBM-FM, always used to say "When you can't be heard, you've got to be seen."
Arbitron Diary
Once upon a time, all radio listening was recorded using a diary, kept by a listener for seven days. Years of diary reviews at the Arbitron headquarters in Maryland proved to me that the radio stations most familiar to their listeners got the most "votes" from their fans.
When PPM measurements were introduced, the importance of unaided recall seemed to take a back seat with radio operators. Best Practices in large radio companies replaced the old tried and true ways of doing things. Radio promotion, except for over a station's own airwaves, was cut from station budgets.
New Media Platforms
The shiniest new media platform on the block is the smart speaker. A recent research study, "The Smart Audio Report" from NPR and Edison Research, showed that traditional OTA radio was seeing the time people spent with radio, being the most disrupted. People in the survey said traditional AM/FM radio was the thing most replaced by audio listening via their smart speaker.
Having now owned three Amazon Echo smart speakers for six months, I can tell you Alexa is very addictive. But she's also very precise. To have her serve up what you want to hear, you need to say it correctly, in the exact way she is programmed to understand, or else she will serve up some really bizarre things.
My household pretty much matches the research on why audio consumers love their smart speakers: 1) it's fast, 2) it's convenient and 3) it provides great choice.
In an interactive voice world, if people are familiar with your brand, they will ask for it by name. If not, the digital assistant will make that choice for you. That will make branding more critical than ever.
This means that the way radio promoted itself to its listeners back before PPM – the unaided diary days – will be the way it will need to promote itself in a world of voice control devices.
"Brands are a risk of being marginalized in a voice driven world, so brand marketing may matter even more." -Bryan Moffett, COO, National Public Media
"Brands now have a chance to behave like human beings, talking, understanding, guiding, empathizing…voice is the single biggest vector of emotion, emotion is the biggest driver of preference. This is a true 1:1 marketing opportunity and a chance to build relationships like never before." -Mark Paul Taylor, Chief Experience Officer, Global DCX Practice, Capgemini
Jerry Lee never deviated from his proven path of spending on promotion and delivering a quality product.
Everything old is new again, when it comes to branding a winning radio operation.
Tagged as 101.1 MoreFM, Alexa, AM/FM Radio, Amazon Echo, Arbitron Diary, audio consumers, B101.1, branding, Bryan Moffett, bumper stickers, digital voice assistant, Eazy 101, Edison Research, familiarity, interactive voice world, Jerry Lee, Mark Paul Taylor, Mark Ramsey, Marlin Taylor, New Media Platforms, NPR, PPM, smart speakers, The Smart Audio Report, voice controlled devices, WBEB, WDVR, WEAZ
March 25, 2018 · 3:00 am
The Past is Not Prologue
Thomas Kuhn used the duck-rabbit optical illusion, to demonstrate the way in which a paradigm shift could cause one to see the same information in an entirely different way.
One of my favorite weekly reads is Tim Moore's "The Midweek Motivator." You can sign-up for Tim's weekly wisdom here.
This past week, Tim wrote about how people inside radio stations are asking him, "is radio failing?"
Now Tim's a student of history, and he responded with "If you care about history (because the past is prologue) here's the simple truth: some large groups are faced with debt loads that will either force bankruptcy or massive reorganization."
Tim's analysis about how America's two largest broadcasters dug huge debt holes that can't be re-filled by current operating revenues is spot-on. With radio, like a lot of businesses, it's a matter of buying it right from the get-go. Start out upside down and most likely you won't have a good day.
A system that is over-reliant on prediction through leverage, hence fragile to unforeseen "black swan" events, will eventually break into pieces.
-Nassim Taleb
Crystal balls are hard to come by but my tea leaves are leading me to believe that mass mediated communication is confronting more than just debt loads. What we are also dealing with is "paradigm paralysis."
Radio's leaders are holding onto a set of beliefs and views that radio is invincible.
Thomas Kuhn coined the term "paradigm shift" in his influential book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in 1962. The business world adopted this terminology of "paradigm shift" to describe a profound change in a fundamental model.
Paradigm paralysis, on the other hand, is the inability or refusal to see beyond the current models of thinking.
Let Me Share a Story
John C. Harrison told this story at the First World Congress on Fluency Disorders held in Munich, Germany in 1994. See if you see a parallel to radio and the advent of satellites, streaming, podcasts, and smart speakers.
In the late 1940s a man walked into a laboratory of a major photographic
manufacturer in America to demonstrate a new photographic process. But
he didn't bring along a camera or film. He brought along a red box with a
shiny steel plate, a charging device, a light bulb and a container of black
powder. The picture he created was faint but discernible.
"But where's the film?" they asked. "Where's the developer? Where's the
darkroom? Why, that's not really photography!" And so, the company
passed up an opportunity to acquire the process for electrostatic
photography, or xerography…a process that has grown into a multi-billion
dollar industry.
Why did they pass up such a great opportunity? Because the people who
saw the process were suffering from PARADIGM PARALYSIS.
Call Me an Outsider
Joel Barker wrote a book called "Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future." Joel says that anyone who develops a new paradigm is often labeled an "outsider."
Truthfully, when you're running a cluster of radio stations, you don't have time to think let alone take a step back and look at things with a fresh eye. I know. I've been there.
What teaching and now blogging have given me the opportunity to do is listen to everyone talk about the prevailing paradigm of radio broadcasting, in all of its subtleties and contrast it, to what I'm witnessing taking place before my eyes and ears by the end users of mass media.
And what I sense may be happening, is the radio industry being on the verge of a "black swan event."
Black Swan Events
Credit card companies, who amass tons of data on their customers, still managed to miss the huge financial crises in housing back in 2007-2009.
When a tidal wave struck Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, the predictive model used to calculate how high the protective wall should be built, provided for a 20-foot wave. Yet, the wave that struck the plant was 24-feet high.
AIG, an insurance company in the business of predicting risk, missed seeing the financial collapse that bankrupted them.
Now Facebook is dealing with a black swan event over their data breach by Cambridge Analytica. Only this black swan could have major implications for how digital advertising is bought and sold in the future. The UK and Europe will put in place in May 2018 the "General Data Protection Regulation," that will protect their citizens' personal data or offending companies will suffer stiff penalties and fines.
So, what the Facebook story is doing, is making its two plus billion users aware of such massive collection and abuse of our data, but the fallout from this breach of trust will impact the ad supported business model of everyone in the digital advertising world.
30% of American Homes Don't Have a Radio
Edison Research and Triton Digital's annual "Infinite Dial" research just produced this astounding statistic. Close to a third of America's homes no longer have a radio set in them.
Many people see smart speakers as the way back into the home for radio. But are they really?
Cable TV & Over-The-Air (OTA) TV
In the beginning, cable television was called "Community Antenna Television." The concept was simple, TV stations were primarily located in big cities and the suburbs couldn't receive those TV signals. So, antennas were placed high on mountains and cables would carry the signals received to homes in the valley.
TV operators loved this back then. It was like getting a power increase for no money.
Ah, but remember, there's no such thing as a "free lunch."
As the cable industry grew, channels such as ESPN and CNN and The Weather Channel were born and would compete with OTA TV.
Then along came streaming video.
At the end of March 2017, one year ago, Netflix surpassed cable TV with its number of subscribers. And if you were to add up all the other streaming video services available to today's television consumer, the lead over cable wouldn't be a couple million viewers, but tens of millions.
What happens when a household begins subscribing to these advertising free channels? They find it almost impossible to return to ad supported ones.
Now we circle back to the smart speakers, Amazon's, Google's, Apple's and Microsoft's for starters. Instead of a handful of audio choices, the smart speaker delivers an almost infinite choice, and many, advertising-free.
When you put a prime rib steak next to hamburger and they are both the same price, which do you think most folks will choose?
The smart speaker lets you customize your favorites, much like the pre-sets on your car radio does. I'm willing to bet that the average consumer will end up with about 3 to 5 favorite audio streams they spend the bulk of their listening time with.
In fact, Nielsen's Total Audience Report released in the second quarter of 2017 said that 87% of OTA radio listeners spent their listening time tuned to one of their three favorite radio stations. And 58% of that time was spent listening to just one station, what Nielsen calls their 1st Preference or P1 station.
Why would we expect this number to grow with the advent of smart speakers?
Goldstein's Words
I think Steve Goldstein summed it up best in his recent blog when he wrote, "Commercial radio should put down the hammer and stop searching for nails. As they think beyond the stream, they will see how people are using audio media these days and create on-demand solutions in-sync with the vast opportunity of the exploding Smart Speaker universe. On Smart Speakers, the listeners are asking for it."
Tagged as Black Swan, Black Swan Events, Cambridge Analytica, digital advertising, Edison Research, Facebook, General Data Protection Regulation, Infinite Dial, Joel Barker, John C. Harrison, Nassim Taleb, Netflix, Nielsen Total Audience Report, Paradigm Paralysis, Paradigm Shift, smart speakers, Steve Goldstein, Thomas Kuhn, Tim Moore, Triton Digital
Radios Go High-Definition
That was the headline that appeared in the Baltimore Sun on January 7, 2004. Unfortunately, unlike HDTV (High Definition Television) HDRadio never stood for "High Definition" radio. And maybe that was the first mistake. HDRadio was simply a name they chose for the digital radio technology.
The iPod was introduced in October 2001. Steve Jobs introduced this music delivery changing device this way. Only a month earlier, XM began broadcasting the first satellite radio programming to be followed four months later by Sirius satellite radio. So by 2004, digital radio was already late to the party.
KZIA-FM Z102.9 saw Kenwood USA sell its first digital receiver in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to take advantage of KZIA-FM's HDRadio broadcasts. "This is a significant move," Michelle Abraham, senior analyst at In-Sat/MDR, a market research firm in Arizona, said of the roll-out of digital radio equipment. "It may not seem duly significant in the beginning, but in a few years from now, it will be a huge leap." The hope was it would prove to be competitive to the newly launched satellite radio offerings from XM and Sirius (now merged into a single satellite company). HDRadio was also seen as improving FM to have CD quality sound and making AM sound like FM. It was heralded to help struggling AM radio stations.
Solving a Problem That Didn't Exist
What HDRadio did for FM radio stations was solve a problem that listeners to FM didn't feel existed. No one who listened to FM radio was complaining about the quality of the sound of the transmission. (They were complaining about other things, like too many commercials.) And for AM radio stations, it meant people buying radios for a service that didn't offer anything they really wanted to hear or couldn't get from someplace else. AM radio was now the service of senior citizens who already owned AM radios, who grew up with AM radio's characteristics and whose hearing was not the best now anyway. So HDRadio for AM wasn't something they were asking for either. Worse, AM radio stations that put on the new digital signal found it lacked the benefits of skywave and often interfered with other company AM radio stations as the industry quickly consolidated radio ownership.
Industries Most Disrupted By Digital
In March 2016, an article published by Rhys Grossman in the Harvard Business Review listed "Media" as the most disrupted by the growing digital economy. Turns out if you're a business to consumer business, you're the first being most disrupted by digital. The barriers to be a media company used to be huge, but in a digital world they are not. The business model that media companies depend on has not adapted well to the digital economy.
Education – Disruption Ahead
Having moved from media to education I only got ahead of digital's disruption for a while. But even those industries that had perceived high barriers of entry are finding those walls crumbling quickly. Grossman says fifty percent of executives see education being impacted in a big way in the next twelve months.
Where Are The Radios?
Edison Research did their latest "Infinite Dial" webinar and the slide that most impacted me was the one about radio ownership. From 2008 to 2016 the percentage of people in America that don't own a single radio in their home has gone from 4% to 21%. When Edison narrowed this down to household between the ages of 18-34, non-radio ownership rose to 32%. Mark Ramsey's Hivio 2016 Conference had one Millennial describe a radio set as being "ancient technology." Ouch!
It doesn't seem all that long ago that Jerry Lee's WEAZ in Philadelphia was giving away high quality FM radios to increase listenership to not just his radio station but to FM radio. And KZIA in Cedar Rapids gave away HDRadios to allow people to hear their new signal. It now appears time for the radio industry to begin giving away AM/FM radios every time they are doing station remotes, contests or appearing at venues that will attract lots of people.
But the elephant in the room remains the broken media business model. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television – any media that is ad supported – will be challenged to find a way to capture revenue to continue.
As Walt Disney famously said "We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make movies."
To anyone in ad supported media, we would agree we do it for the same reasons.
The $64,000 question is how.
Filed under Education, Mentor, Radio, Sales, Uncategorized
Tagged as ad supported business model, AM Radio, digital radio, disruption, Edison Research, Education, FM Radio, Harvard Business Review, HD Radio, Infinite Dial, Jerry Lee, KZIA-FM, media, Rhys Grossman, Walt Disney, WEAZ, XMSirius
What Ronald McDonald Could Teach Radio
Today in America there are more radio stations on the air than at any time in its almost 100 year history. More radio stations are taking to the air every day. That's a good thing, right? I would argue it's not.
When I was working for Clear Channel Radio (yes, it was once called that – now it's iHeartMedia), the President was a man named John Hogan. Hogan came up with a plan to reduce clutter. He called it "Less is More." On the surface it sounded like a grand plan. However, the devil is always in the details and the devil was Clear Channel was now going to move away from a unit based inventory management system to a one that included half-minute long commercials, ten-second commercials, five-second long commercials it branded as "adlets" and one-second long commercials it branded as "blinks." In the "blink" of an eye, the amount of units grew and we would learn that people don't notice the length of commercials as much as they do the number of interruptions they are confronted with. "Less is More" would inadvertently introduce more clutter in the name of reducing clutter.
Well some clown named Ronald McDonald must have been watching us because at the end of last year, McDonalds announced that its menu had become so unwieldy that even the chain's president had no clue as to how many items it contained.
In his book, "The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less" psychologist Barry Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for consumers. That while autonomy and the freedom of choice can be healthy and good for our well being, modern Americans are faced with more choices than any group of people in the history of the planet and all this choice is having the reverse effect.
I remember the headline in Forbes "You Can Now Play 100,000 Radio Stations On Your TV with Google's Chromecast." A hundred grand? I have trouble finding enough radio stations I want to listen to, to fill the pre-sets on my car radio and they only give me pre-sets for 6 AM stations and 12 FM stations. I have a 10-minute commute on a bad day, so I don't do a lot of button pushing.
Edison Research now calls their radio study the "Infinite Dial" because with the advent of streaming audio, we have the ability to listen to radio stations all over the world. I have ten Apps for listening to streaming radio on my iPhone and iPad. Of those, I primarily use three of them the bulk of the time. Of the three, one dominates. That single App now curates over 90 different genres of music. The good news is that I can create a "Favorites" section so I only need to choose from a limited number of genres to match my mood.
When radio began consolidating into clusters, adding HD signals & sub-channels and then streaming, the complexity proved to be a challenge to an ever shrinking workforce challenged with programming and selling all of those product offerings.
Schwartz tells us that modern psychology shows that happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement. Radio workers and McDonald's folks probably aren't all that happy; not like they once were.
McDonalds last year recorded its worst domestic comparable sales figures in more than a decade. In radio, being even with last year's numbers was being called the new "up."
McDonalds plan is to reduce the number of choices, focus on those items they will serve to improve their quality to delight the customer.
Most people's cable or satellite TV package delivers hundreds of channels and yet, the most common thing people are heard to say "there's nothing GOOD on to watch." "Good" being the operative word. What a change from when I was growing up and my biggest problem was a GREAT show was playing on all three television networks; at the same time (days before VCRs and DVRs).
Radio in that same era was exciting, innovative and totally focused on delivering great content. These were the days when a Top40 radio station like CKLW had a 20-person news department on a radio station that was all about music not news. Had an air staff that was refreshed every three hours with a new disc jockey, had an off-air program director, a music director & assistant that did music research, a promotions department & promotions budget, plus consultants all for a single radio station.
Less is more works if more people can focus their attention on less.
Take it from a famous restaurant clown, "Less IS More" in more ways than one.
Tagged as Barry Schwartz, CKLW, Clear Channel, Edison Research, Forbes, Google Chromecast, iHeartRadio, Infinite Dial, Less is More, McDonalds, Radio, The Paradox of Choice
Who's in Their Ear?
When radio was first introduced, to listen to it, you needed to wear headphones. Radio was one-to-one and very intimate. As the technology evolved the radio speaker would change the medium from one-to-one to group listening. Radios were expensive. If you owned a radio you shared it. A family would gather around the radio and listen together. Families would transfer this together media habit to TV and the transistor radio would become the refuge of teenagers who wanted to go in a different direction.
My first radio was a Zenith transistor with a little ear piece for one ear. I would go to bed and turn it on under the covers and listen to "the world." It was all AM radio and after sunset, the DX'ing of the nighttime skywave would always bring a new radio station into my ear to savor.
In the mid-70s the Boombox would be introduced to America and these radios grew both in size and the amount of bass they could produce. By the 80s they could be as big as a suitcase and carrying them around on your shoulder was a status symbol.
Go to a beach resort, and whether you were walking the boardwalk or on the beach, radios were blasting music from every direction.
When Y2K didn't impact our fully computerized radio stations, we all breathed a short-lived sigh of relief because it was quickly followed by a new threat; the iPod and ear buds. Once again listening to music became a very personal activity.
The ear buds would transfer to the iPhone and iPad. The introduction of the iPhone6 may have killed the iPod, but not the use of headphones or ear buds to listen to your audio.
So what exactly are all those people listening to?
The latest research from Edison Research says American Teens are spending more time with streaming audio services from places like Pandora and Spotify, than they are listening to either streaming AM/FM radio or over-the-air radio. Edison reports this finding in their fall 2014 "Share of Ear" report.
Remember it was my generation that grew up hooked on radio & TV that were credited with eroding newspaper readership. (Full disclosure: I read all my news online using my computer, iPad or iPhone.)
It's not all bad news for AM/FM radio. It is still popular Edison tells us "by a significant margin among all other age groups." So where did the teens go? Pureplay Internet streamers. What do they love most? The ability to skip a song they don't like.
That's really not hard to understand. I love my DVR for a similar reason. Especially when it comes to award shows. I never watch them live anymore. I record them for later viewing and I can watch a 3+ hour awards show in about 20 minutes time. I skip all the bad parts.
In fact, I rarely watch anything on TV live anymore. Everything is recorded so I can control it. So is it any surprise that teenagers once they are given this kind of control will ever want to give it up. A new habit is being formed.
The other aspect about pureplays that AM/FM radio could be addressing is their complete focus on the quality of their streaming product. What I'm hearing is a clean commercial insertion. Nothing gets cut off in the middle or repeated multiple times in the same long break. Pureplays deliver their commercial messages in a style that compliments the music programming; in a way that actually has you enjoying listening to the commercial message.
The teenagers have moved their listening to streaming and podcasts. The spectrum auction being held by the Federal Communications Commission is all about creating more wireless connections for all kinds of mobile devices.
I live in South Central Kentucky. I can stream my iPhone into my car's seven speaker sound system through Bluetooth and everywhere I drive it's clean and clear with no dropout or buffering. It's scary good. It's as easy to do as turning on my car's audio system. Nothing to plug in or connect. It happens automatically.
South Central Kentucky is also blessed with some excellent over-the-air radio stations. So they very effectively compete, in my opinion, with streaming. But I wasn't raised on streaming. I also like a good air personality.
The next generation is being raised on streaming that they have some power over to skip things they don't wish to hear. Reminds me of the old saying "How are you going to get the kids back on the farm, after they've seen New York?"
Tagged as AM/FM, Apple, DVR, Edison Research, FCC, Federal Communications Commission, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Pandora Radio, Pureplay, Share of Ear, Spotify, Streaming, TV


In the last days, we have written about the new design, brushes, painting modes and gradients. This blog is about the layers and all the new possibilities with them.
Flame Painter 2.0 is coming in two versions: Personal and Professional.
In Personal you are able to add three separate layers. You can manipulate them many ways; they can be rearranged, you can duplicate them, or if you need some space, you can collapse more layers into one. You can import pictures or photos, paint over it and remove any layers that you don't need.
In the Professional version you can additionally make unlimited number of layers and you can also add editable Vector Layers. But.. what are the Vector Layers?
One thing I miss, in every vector or bitmap or 3D editor is an advanced bounding box. One would say, what can be advanced on a bounding box? It can be rescaled or rotated and that's it. You can resize it in X or Y axes in global or local coordinates and that is all what you can do. What I have always missed, is that many times I need to rescale the object in other angle than in local or global coordinates. So I've invented a wheel. :) A bounding box wheel. (The regular wheel was invented a few years before the bounding box wheel). With this little wheel you can rotate a bounding box in a direction you need and then rescale a curve or shape not only in local or global coordinates, but in any coordinate on this planet!
The Flame Painter 2.0 has been made from the ground with the focus on intuitive use and with features that helps artist to enjoy creativity as much as possible. We hope you will like it.
All this all will be available from 21st May, so do not forget to update and be among the first ones who can try this magic.
Thank you for your support and your feedback. It is really the fuel for our work.


text:
Xerox to trim 5% of workforce by April
Wallace Witkowski
XRX
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Xerox Corp. XRX, -2.04% said Thursday it will trim 3,000 jobs, or about 5% of its global workforce, over the next 6 months in response to a slowdown in orders. Xerox, which employs just over 57,000 workers worldwide, said it informed employees of the reductions in a memo on Thursday.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, is a vibrant, noisy city. Packed full of history, palaces and temples, it is also within touching distance of Nepal's premier attraction, the Himalaya. Kathmandu is home to gems such as Durbar Square (with temples dating back to the 12th century),Boudhanath Stupa (a world heritage site), the Pashupatinath Temple (the country's most important Hindu temple, on the banks of the Bagmati river), and the Royal Palace (the site of the infamous 2001 massacre of the Royal Family by the then Crown Prince, and now converted into the Narayanhiti Palace Museum).
Kathmandu is also the gateway to the rest of Nepal—in particular the tranquil Bhaktapur, the temple-tastic Patan, the Chitwan National Park, and, of course, the Himalaya (half of the world's 8000-metre peaks are found in Nepal).
The mountains hold a magnetic attraction for many who visit Nepal. The trek to Everest base camp, a two-week trip starting with a nerve-racking flight to Lukla airport, is the most popular mountain activity, whilst the stunningly beautiful Annapurna base camp can be achieved by a 7-10 day trek from Pokhara.
Kathmandu, and most of Nepal, are now recovering from the April 2015 earthquake that claimed over 9000 lives. For example, the first ascents of Everest since the earthquake struck took place on 11 May 2016.
The Boudhanath stupa is one of the holiest and most recognisable sites in Kathmandu. Assigned UNESCO world heritage status in 1979, Boudhanath (aka the Boudha, Chorten Chempo and Khasa Caityais) has a diameter of 120 metres, making it the largest temple in Nepal. The stupa is built on an octagonal base, is surrounded by prayer wheels, and has colourful prayer flags draped from its 36-metre central spire. Boudhanath is rich in symbolism: it has five statues of Dhyani Buddhas, representing the five elements (earth, fire, water, air and ether); nine levels, representing Mount Meru (the mythical peak at the centre of the Buddhist cosmos); and 13 rings from its base to its apex (representing the steps to enlightenment or Nirvana). Boudhanath is the religious centre of Nepal's Tibetan/Buddhist community, and is surrounded by around 50 monasteries and shops settling Tibetan artefacts. About 15% of the population are Buddhists.
The 1,500 mile long Himalaya range contains every one of the world's fourteen 8000 metre peaks. Nepal is home to eight of those 8000'ers: Everest (8848 m), Kanchenjunga (8586 m), Lhotse (8516 metres), Makalu (8485 m), Cho Oyu (8,201 m), Dhaulagiri I (8,167 m), Manaslu (8163 m) and Annapurna I (8109 m). The rest are found in Pakistan, China and India. The Everest region is accessed by a nerve-racking 30 minute flight in a tiny plane to Lukla airport (at 2,860 metres). From there, walkers and climbers trek for two days to the main town in the Everest region, Namche Bazaar (3,440 metres, offering accommodation, good food, internet cafes, and equipment shops).
Everest base camp is about another week away, bearing in mind that ascent must be taken slowly because of the altitude. It is reached after overnight stops at small settlements called Tengboche (3870m), Pheriche (4240m), Duglha (4620m), Lobuche (4930m) and Gorak Shep (5160m). From base camp, trekkers can summit the 5545 metre Kala Patthar, which offers great views of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse (7,816 m). Trekkers may also be lucky enough to observe Everest climbers, acclimatising themselves for the trip to the top of the world via the deadly Khumbu icefalls (5,486 m), four further high camps, the South Col (7,906 m) and the Hillary Step (a 12-metre rock wall at 8,760 m). Everest has recently reopened to climbers and trekkers following the April 2015 earthquake, which claimed the lives of 19 people attempting to reach the summit. For more information, see our Climbing Mount Everest page.
The Annapurna region is accessed from tranquil Pokhara, and is famous for the Annapurna range and the sacred Fish Tail mountain. The 10-day Annapurna Sanctuary trek is the region's most popular activity. The sanctuary is an oval shaped glacial plateau reached via a narrow pass between the peaks of Hiunchuli (6,441 m) and Machapuchare (6,993 m, aka 'Fish Tail', regarded as sacred and therefore unclimbed). Annapurna base camp (4130 metres) is the highest point, providing stunning 360 degrees views of the Annapurna range, the glaciers running from it, and the near-vertical south face of Annapurna I (8091 metres).
The alernative Annapurnra Circuit trek, taking 12-19 days with a maximum elevation of 5416 metres at the Thorung La pass, circumnavegates the Annapurna range. The scenery includes close-up views of Manaslu, Langtang Himal, Annapurna I, II, III and IV and Gangapurna. For those who don't have the energy, why not visit the Rum Doodle bar in the Thamel region of Kathmandu. This is where successful Everest expeditions are celebrated (with the conquering mountaineers—including Sir Edmund Hillary and Reinhold Messner—leaving their autographs on the bar's walls).
when? The best time to trek are September to November and March to April. £$€¥ Guides can be hired for as little as $20 per day. Tea house accommodation is relatively cheap (although prices increase as you ascend). Flights to Lukla from Kathmandu cost about $110 each way.
Even though the Nepali royal family moved from the Hanuman Dhoka palace about a century ago, Durbar (Palace) Square remains the tourist heart of Kathmandu. Most visitors are surprised by the sheer number of temples surrounding the square, and the two adjoining squares, some dating back to the 12th century.
where? Durbar Square is found to the west of Kathmandu's recreation ground and the south-west of the Royal Palace. when? All year round. £$€¥ Foreigners: Rs300; SAARC: Rs100.
The northern section of the square is home to the Royal Palace, with visitors able to access the Golden Gate, intricately carved and set into a bright red gatehouse, and the National Art Gallery, with an extensive collection of Tantric cloth paintings. But the town also has a timeless air, with visitors able to see grain laid out to dry in the sun, potters at work in Potters' square, locals weaving baskets, drying laundry or collecting water, and children playing.
Keep an eye out for exquisite architecture as you wander the streets: many buildings feature intricately carved woodwork (such asthe famous Peacock window, on an alley leading south-east from the Tachupal Tole). No cars are allowed inside the Bhaktapur town centre and, as a result, it is quiet by comparison to the country's capital. As a result, many travellers prefer to stay in Bhaktapur and take day trips to Kathmandu.
£$€¥ There is a hefty $15 entrance fee for tourists to enter Bhaktapur (you need to bring a copy of your passport and some passport photographs for the pass). Accommodation is available at reasonable rates (circa $15 per day).
Built in 1696 on the orders of King Bhupendra Malla, Pashupatinath is Nepal's most important Hindu temple. Constructed in the pagoda style of architecture, Pashupatinath stands on the banks of the Bagmati river, has a distinctive gilded rooftop, intricately carved rafters (featuring members of Shiva's family) and four silver-plated main doors surrounded by statues of deities. Pashupatinath reaches a maximum height of 24 metres, and is presided over by piests called Bhattas and achief priest called Mool Bhatt or Raval. Non-Hindus are not allowed inside the temple, though a glimpse of Shiva's bull, Nandi, can be caught from outside the western entrance. There is nonetheless much to see. The temple's exterior and its surrounding buildings are worth a look. Sadhus (Hindu holy men) watch the world go by. Traders hawkmarigolds, incense and conch shells. And the riverbanks of the Bagmati river are a popular place for cremations. Whilst the 'ghats' in front of the temple were reserved for the cremation of royalty, four other ghats to the south of the nearby bridges are in regular use. There is often a cremation in progress, with a shrouded body lifted on top of a log fire with surprisingly little ceremony. Cremations are followed by ritual bathing in the river.
£$€¥ Adults and children over 10 years old: Rs500. Younger children go free.
The Narayanhiti Palace Museum (aka Narayanhiti Durbar) served as the primary residence of Nepal's monarchy for over a century until 2008. It was here that, in June 2001, King Birendra, Queen Aiswarya and six other royals were shot dead by Crown Prince Dipendra before Dipendra turned his weapon on himself; the apparent motive was revenge, after the King and Queen refused to approve the Prince's marriage intentions. Birenda's replacement, King Gyanendra, was deeply unpopular, and Nepalis voted to abolish the monarchy in 2008. The new parliament promptly gave Gyanendra 15 days to vacate the Palace. The opening of the Palace Museum by Nepal's prime minister in February 2009 was a highly symbolic event.
The Palace comprises 52 rooms (19 are open to the public) and occupies 74 acres. It was designed by American architect Benjamin Pol in the style of a contemporary pagoda. The Museum showcases the belongings of former royalty, such as pictures of Queen Elizabeth II taken when the Windsors were on friendly terms with the Shah dynasty. Visitors comment on the Palace's chintzy decor, including extensive gold-plating, numerous chandeliers and a large tiger-skin rug. The Museum's extensive grounds are open to visitors; look out for fruit bats and 20 foot-tall bamboo.
One morbid feature is of note: the Museum's buildings and grounds identify the places in which members of the royal family perished during the 2001 massacre (including the place on a small footbridge where Dipendra shot himself). One of the most interesting things to do in Kathmandu.
where? To the north of Durbar Marg and the east of Greater Thamel. when? 11 am to 4 pm. Closed Tues, Weds and public holidays. £$€¥ Students: 20 Rs, Nepali Citizens: 100 Rs, China and SAARC residents: 250 Rs, Visitors from other countries: 500 Rs.
Established in 1973, the Chitwan National Park is a 932 square kilometre nature reserve of jungle, forest and marshland awarded world heritage status in 1984. The Park replaced a hunting reserve used by the rich and famous; King George Vand his son, the future Edward VIII, bagged 18 rhinos during a 1911 shooting trip. Chitwan—meaning 'heart of the jungle'—offers visitors an excellent chance of spottingone-horned rhinos, deer, monkeys, wild boars, hyenas, gharial crocodiles and over 450 species of bird (including parakeets, kingfishers, orioles and drongos). The Park is also home to (more elusive) leopards, wild elephants, sloth bears and majesticroyal Bengal tigers. Despite setbacks during the Maoist insurgency, animal numbers are improving: a 2011 census counted 501 rhinos and 125 adult tigers. We suggest that visitors should spend two days in the park, so as to allow plenty of time for foot and elephant treks. One of Nepal's premier attractions.
where? The Chitwan National Park is to the south west of Kathmandu, and is usually accessed by a six hour bus ride. when? The best time to visit Chitwan is between October and February (so that monsoon season and very high temperatures can be avoided). The best time to see animals is between January and March, when the phanta grass is slashed by locals, substantially improving visibility. £$€¥ There is something for every budget, ranging from the $300 a night Tiger Tops Lodge to small lodges on the edge of the park (where rooms can be obtained for as little as $2). There is also a park fee of 500 rupees a day.
Patan is situated to the south of Kathmandu, and only separated from the capital by the Bagmati river. It is the second largest town in the Kathmandu valley. Patan has an ancient history, with the corners of the town being marked by stupas erected in around 250 BC. Research by Lonely Plant suggests that Patan has a greater concentration of temples per square metre than either Kathmandu or Bhaktapur! Patan's most interesting attractions include the Golden Temple (together with a number of tortoises found in its courtyard), the five-storey Kumbeshwar Temple (dating from 1392), and the Red Machhendranath Temple (dating from the 17th century, and containing carvings of a number of weird and wonderful animals).
The Patan Museum is housed in a carefully restored Malla royal palace on Patan Darbar and exhibits about 200 examples of bronze or copper gilt statues of Buddhist or Hindu deities. Opened in 1997 by King Birendra, the building's 14-year restoration was funded by the Austrian government. Highlights include a 12th century seated Buddha, named Shakyamuni, made ofcopper alloy and gilt and the Museum's Keshav Narayan Chowk courtyard (complete with wood carvings, red-brick facade and golden door and window). The works are accompanied by helpful explanatory information, produced by the eminent cultural historian Mary S. Slusser. The Patan Museum Cafe, situated in the peaceful garden, offers good quality snacks and light meals.
where? Patan is situated about 3 kms from Kathmandu's Thamel region, and can be accessed easily by bus, taxi or rickshaw. when? The Patan Museum is open 10.30am to 4.30pm six days a week. Closed Tues. £$€¥ Entry to Patan is free. The Patan Museum charges foreigners Rs250.
The Kopan Monastery is a gated community of Buddhist monks found on a hilltop north of Boudhanath. Founded by Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche in the early 1970s, the Monastery houses 360 monks in grounds which include an enormous Bodhi tree, theChenrezig gompa (temple), statues, prayer wheels, prayer flags (at the top of Kopan Hill) and the colourful Thousand Buddha Relic Stupa (pictured).
The Royal Botanical Gardens, found 18 kms south of Kathmandu in the foothills of Mount Phulchowki, are a site of outstanding beauty. Opened by King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev in 1962, the Botanical Gardens—the only in Nepal—now hold over 500 species of plant in 82 hectares. Highlights include the decorative Coronation Pond, visitor centre (with interesting exhibits on Nepal's flora), greenhouses, and collections of rhododendrons (Nepal's national flower), lilies, orchids, cacti and ferns. Spring and autumn are the peak flowering seasons and therefore the best times to visit. The Godavari Spring, found 200 metres from the Botanical Gardens' main gate, is also well worth a look. This freshwater spring spouting ice-cold water from the Gadavari river is reputed to have been created when the Buddhist MysticPadmasambhava struck a rock (in order to demonstrate that the ultimate truth is clear and will fulfill the people's thirst); unsurprisingly, the Spring is a popular Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site. Those with more energy will enjoy a hike to the top of Phulchowki (2715 m), the highest hill in the Kathmandu valley, to take in the views and a small Buddhist shrine at the summit.
where? Royal Botanical Gardens, Godavari, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Tel. 9771 290546. when? 9am to 5pm from March to Nov; 9am to 4pm Dec to Feb. Avoid Fridays and Saturdays, when the Gardens are often overrun with schoolchildren. £$€¥ Rs100 for foreigners. Rs25 for SAARC. 50% discount for children. A small charge is levied for the use of cameras and video cameras.
The Swayambhunath Stupa (meaning the 'self-created' stupa, aka the Monkey Temple) is found on a hilltop to the west of Kathmandu. Second in importance only to the Boudhanath Stupa, the Swayambhunath complex,founded by King Manadeva during the fifth century, contains a stupa, temples, shrines, Tibetan monastery, museum and library. The Stupa, re-gilded with 20 kilograms of gold in 2010, has a large white dome at its base, above which are painted four sets of Buddha's eyes and eyebrow; further up the Stupa are found four pentagonal Toran (gateways) and thirteen tiers leading to the Stupa's golden spire. Monkeys live to the north-west of the complex; they are said to be holy because they grew out of head lice living in the bodhisattva (enlightened person) Manjusri's long hair! Visitors should also inspect the carvings of the five Panch Buddhas found on each side of the Stupa, the two lions guarding the Stupa's entrance, the adjacent Harati Devi Temple, Shantipur (a small temple northwest of the main stupa), and the Pratappur and Anantapur shrines. We recommend accessing Swayambhunath by the 365 worn steps that lead up the eastern side of the hill; the start of this climb is marked by a 12-foot Tibetan prayer wheel and three painted Buddha statues. The Stupa offers great views over Kathmandu, especially in the early evening. To catch the Tibetan pilgrims, you will need to arrive before 9am.
where? Found on a hillside on the west of Kathmandu, about 20 minutes by taxi from the Thamel area. when? Sunrise to sunset each day. £$€¥ Rs250 (the main ticket office is half way up the eastern staircase).
Langtang was established in 1976 as Nepal's first Himalayan National Park. Covering an area of 1,700 square kilometres, Langtang has a maximum altitude of 7,200 metres and contains climatic zones ranging from the sub-tropical to the alpine. Found in the Nukator, Rasuwa and Sindhulpalchok districts of central Nepal, Langtang is best known for its flora and fauna, sacred Hindu sites and great trekking (being the third most popular trekking area after Everest and Annapurna).
The Langtang National Park's highest peaks are Langtang Lirung (7,227 metres) and Dorje Lakpa (6,966 metres). At lower levels the flora includes oaks, pines, maples and rhododendrons, and the fauna includes red pandas, Himalayan Tahrs (which resemble goats) and black bears, Rhesus monkeys and (if some accounts are to be believed) the occasional Yeti! At 4,380 metres and with a surface area of 34 acres, the sacred Gosainkunda lake(pictured) is a must-see. Considered to be the home of Hindu deities Lord Shiva and Goddess Gauri, the lake is a popular pilgrimage site for the Janai Purnima (Sacred Thread) festival in August of each year. This festival marks the date on which Hindu men change the yellow cotton cord worn around their chest or right wrist.
Starting at Sundarijal, a short taxi ride from Kathmandu, the 10-15 day Langtang valley trek takes you into the heart of the Langtang range. Passing through the villages of Chisapani, Kutumsang and Gosainkund, the trek crosses the 4,610Laurebina Pass on its way to Langtang village. The views of the surrounding peaks—for instance the 6,400 Gangchempo or 'Fluted Peak'—and the Everest and Annapurna ranges to the east and west are breathtaking.
when? The best seasons to visit are April-May and October-November, thereby avoiding the monsoon and the coldest weather. £$€¥ There is a Rs3,000 fee to enter the Langtang National Park. Bring your passport for identification.
The Garden of Dreams is a beautiful enclave found a stone's throw from the centre of Thamel. The Garden—formal in style—occupies about half a hectare. Its lush lawns, sunken flower gardens, large central pond, fountains, gazebos and three neo-classical pavilions are kept in pristine condition. Built by Field Marshall Kaiser Shumsher (1892-1964), son of Nepal's prime minister Chandra Shumsher, the Garden was inspired after a trip to Edwardian England using funds that Kaiser had won from his father in a game of cowrie shells. The Garden was restored by the Austrian team responsible for the renovation of the Patan Museum (see above). They are best savoured in good weather, over a picnic or whilst reading a book or surfing the net (wifi available).
when? 9am-10pm, 7 days a week. where? Garden of Dreams, Kaiser Mahal, Tridevi Marg, Kathmandu, Nepal. T: 977-1-4425340 E: info@gardenofdreams.org.np £$€¥ Adults: Rs160; Children: Rs40.
Located 80 miles to the west of Kathmandu, Pokhara is a stunningly beautiful and refreshingly tranquil traveller's paradise. Pokhara is built around the Phewa Tal, Nepal's second largest lake (pictured). It offers a number of high-end hotels, clean and comfortable guesthouses, and a range of excellent restaurants and bars.
Don't miss the opportunity to paddle a boat into the middle of the lake and capture a picture of the sacred Machhapuchhare (Fish Tail) mountain and the Annapurna range reflected by its emerald coloured waters.
Other activities include: swimming in the lake or in the lakeside pool of one of Pokhara's hotels (non-residents can usually use the pools if they pay a small fee); the 1-2 hour walk through lush forest on the western shores of the Phewa Tal to theWorld Peace Pagoda; an early morning start to take in the Himalayan views fromSarangkot; visiting the extensive International Mountain Museum (and trying out its 21 metre-high climbing wall); or taking a course in meditation or yoga. For those after more of an adrenaline rush, why not take a rafting trip down the Kali Gandaki and Seti rivers or trying your hand at paragliding.
When? October to March is the best time to visit, to maximise your chances of clear mountain views after monsoon season.


Meet Battleship of the Hasbro Pups! This sweet boy is around 2 months old and ready to play! He came in without mom or dad but looks to be a Border Collie/Shepherd mix and at the rate he is growing we think he will be on the large side when all grown up. Battleship is a super cute pup with an adorable scruffy little face. Battleship is looking for a family that understands the time, patience, and energy needed to raise a young pup. We require all puppy adopters to provide training that includes: house training, basic training, leash training, and socialization. Additionally, this sweetie is going to need proper exercise, mental stimulation, and your attention and love to grow up to be the best companion. We do not allow our dogs or puppies to sleep or live outside; they must be incorporated into your family and be made a priority in your life. In return, you will have the most loving and loyal family member you could ask for. If you think you are ready to add to your family by adopting a puppy, then fill out an adoption application on our website today!


text:
Maria Nikolayevna Krasovskaya-Kalitinskaya (, née Bychkova (), 1884 – 9 April 1940) was a Russian actress, theatre director and reader in drama, better known under her stage name Maria Germanova ().

Biography
Maria Bychkova was born in Moscow into a family of the staroobryadtsy merchants. She studied at the First Moscow Gymnasium, where Olga Gzovskaya was one of her classmates. In 1901 she enrolled in the just opened Moscow Art Theatre Drama School and a year later joined the MAT troupe, as Maria Germanova.

She debuted in 1903 in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, then garnered positive reviews as Elena in Maxim Gorky's Children of the Sun (1905), Sofya in Griboyedov's Woe from Wit and Agnes in Henrik Ibsen's Brand (both 1906). It was mostly upon Germanova's stage persona that Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko has relied upon in his stage experiments, which included Boris Godunov by Alexander Pushkin (her as Marina Mnishek, 1907), Anathema by Leonid Andreyev (Rosa, 1909), The Karamazov Brothers by Dostoyevsky (Grushenka, 1910), Leo Tolstoy's The Living Corpse (Lisa Protasova, 1911). "The physical beauty, the reverberating nerve beat, the sharp perceptiveness" (according to the biographer Inna Solovyova) as well as her love of modernism ('decadent' was also the word that has been used to describe her close circle of friends) made Germanova one of the rising stars of the early 1900s' Russian theatre scene, and "a promising tragic actress in the vein of Duse".

In 1914–1924 Germanova starred in five Russian silent films, starting with Anna Karenina in 1914, directed by Vladimir Gardin and produced by Paul Timan.

In 1919 Germanova left Moscow, first for Kiev, then Rostov-on-Don. She joined the Kachalov Troupe and with it toured outside Soviet Russia in 1919–1922. During this time she revived most of her best-known parts of the past (Grushenka in The Karamazov Brothers, Ekaterina Ivanovna in Leonid Andreyev's eponymous play, Olga in Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, Mamayeva in Ostrovsky's Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man) and added to her repertoire Elena Andreyevna in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

In 1922, along with several of her colleagues Germanova refused to return to Moscow. In 1923 Nemirovich-Danchenko sent her a telegram inviting her to take part in his new musical theatre project, but this offer was declined. Instead, Germanova arrived at Prague where her husband, the archeologist and art historian Alexander Kalitinsky has been lecturing at the Archeology Institute (which he in 1925 became the director of) and soon, along with Nikolai Massalitinov, co-founded and became the director of what soon came to be known as the Prague MAT Troupe. Her repertoire now included also the parts of Ranevskaya (Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard), the Queen (The King of the Dark Chamber by Rabindranath Tagore), Ellida Wangel (The Lady from the Sea by Ibsen), Katerina (The Storm by Alexander Ostrovsky) and Medea by Euripides.

After the Prague Troupe disbanded in 1927, Germanova took part in the productions staged by the Georges Pitoeff and Gaston Baty. In late 1920s she started working as theatre director herself. In 1929 she went to the US and that year succeeded Richard Boleslawski as the head of the American Laboratory Theatre, where she produced Chekhov's Three Sisters. The Lab, as it was known, disbanded in 1933, but proved to be an important link between Stanislavski and the New York's Group Theatre.
Germanova died in Paris in 1940. Her book of memoirs My Casket of Treasures (Мой ларец с драгоценностями) appeared posthumously. It was published in its full version by the Russki Put Publishers in Moscow, in 2012.

Selected parts gallery

References

External links

Russian stage actresses
Russian film actresses
Moscow Art Theatre
Actresses from Moscow
Russian expatriates in France
1884 births
1940 deaths
Actresses from Prague

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


From the great ranges such as the Andes and the Himalayas to specific peaks like the Matterhorn, the Eiger and of course Everest we all love to look at mountains, climb them, camp on them, visit viewpoints and ski down them. Some people even carve them into sculptures. Here are few to admire for their majesty and serenity.


text:
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// 具体的api请参加网址:http://www.webxml.com.cn/WebServices/WeatherWebService.asmx

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Amnesty International calls on Moroccan judicial authorities to guarantee fair trial to all Sahrawi prisoners
London (U.K.), July 22, 2017 (SPS) - Amnesty International called on the Moroccan judicial authorities to guarantee a fair trial to all Sahrawi political prisoners and to avoid any exceedings (torture or ill-treatment) throughout the trial.
In a reply to the letter addressed by the president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, concerning incarcerated Sahrawi students, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, called on the Moroccan legal authorities to "ensure, during trials of Sahrawis, that no one is declared guilty based on proof obtained under torture."
In a joint communiqué published on 10 July, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on Morocco to ensure that "no incarcerated Sahrawi is declared guilty based on proof obtained under torture."
Following the verdict of Sahrawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik Group, Amnesty International denounced a trial conducted in the absence of reliable investigations.
The Sahrawi president wrote to the Secretary General of Amnesty International on 10 July, concerning the heavy sentences given by Morocco against a group of Sahrawi students following a long period of incarceration based prevarications and in the absence of the slightest conditions of a fair trial. (SPS)
062/090/APS
Morocco is called for immediate release of Sahrawi activist Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir
Swedish commission of solidarity with Sahrawi people denounces sentences against Gdeim Izik


text:
//
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//
//  Created by ma c on 16/8/31.
//  Copyright © 2016年 shifei. All rights reserved.
//

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "SFBuyShopItem.h"

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text:
The Latest: UK govt: Businesses not ready for no-deal Brexit
German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds her bag as she arrives for a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain's planned departure from the European Union: (all times local):
The British government says U.K. citizens and businesses are not prepared for leaving the European Union without a divorce agreement, and a no-deal Brexit could see the number of trucks coming through a key Channel crossing fall by half within a day.
A planning document dated Aug. 2 and published Wednesday says "public and business readiness for a no-deal will remain at a low level" ahead of Britain's scheduled Oct. 31 departure date from the EU.
The paper sets out the government's "reasonable worst-case planning assumption" for a no-deal Brexit. It says because of new checks, the number of trucks crossing between Calais and Dover would fall between 40% and 60% within a day, and disruptions could last three months.
The document also says "certain types of fresh food supply will decrease" and prices will go up in a worst-case no-deal Brexit scenario.
The document was published after lawmakers in Parliament demanded it.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says an orderly departure of Britain from the European Union remains possible, less than two months before the deadline.
The United Kingdom is due to leave the bloc on Oct. 31 with little sign that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will get the new Brexit deal he wants with the EU.
Merkel told lawmakers Wednesday that "it's my firm conviction that we still have a chance to achieve this in an orderly way."
But she noted that Germany is also prepared for a Brexit without a deal that will result in "an economic competitor at our door."
Merkel added that Germany wants to keep close economic and security ties to Britain after Brexit.
A Scottish court has ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend the U.K. Parliament was unlawful, but did not order the suspension overturned.
Judges said Britain's Supreme Court must make the final decision.
A group of lawmakers is challenging the government's decision to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament, for five weeks until Oct. 14 — just over two weeks before Britain is due to leave the European Union.
They argue Johnson is trying to evade democratic scrutiny.
Last week a court in Edinburgh rejected the challenge, but that was overturned Wednesday on appeal.


The K series range of CO2 lasers includes power, speed and other options to meet the needs of most companies which require to code their packaging.
K series CO2 lasers are utility lasers which work with paper, board, glass and a wide range of plastics. They are used by manufacturers of packaged goods and industrial products to code and mark their products. Customers can choose from a range of power and speed and other options to get the right product at the right price for their specific needs. K series lasers are easy to install and integrate. They are equipped with an on-board computer making an external PC unnecessary and are easy to network. They are easy to use: they use Marca software to code and mark precisely and consistently. IP65 variants are available for damp and dusty environments.


See and show your garden in a completely different light, with this walkover lighting from illumination innovator Serralunga. Designer Roberto Paoli was inspired by Michael Jackson's music video for Billy Jean (where his dance moves coincide with the lighted floor), and thus Jacko Steps were born. These funky, fun garden pavement lights come in a string of five, which you can arrange in any pattern – as a single illuminated border surrounding your flower beds and plantings, or as an illuminated pathway three "stones" deep. This modern garden walkover lighting will transform any garden into an illuminated oasis. Check out Jacko Steps at the Serralunga showroom at Milan Design Week 2011, April 12 to 17. For more information visit .


text:
Marilyn Manson je rock skupina, ustanovljena v Los Angelesu, v ameriški zvezni državi Kaliforniji. Bend, znan kot zagovornik razkola in ki se pogosto poslužuje spornih prispodob v besedilih, je največkrat opisan kot šokrokerski. Skupino je težko kategorizirati, kajti izraža vplive iz različnih zvrsti, kot so hard rock z elementi industrijskega metala, heavy metal in glam rock. Vsak album zase predstavlja poseben in individualen zvok, kajti skupina in vodilni član le-te, Marilyn Manson (po katerem skupina nosi ime), si za vsak album posebej izmisli in nato uporablja unikatno celostno podobo in estetiko. Skupina je bila ustanovljena leta 1989 v Fort Lauderdaleju na Floridi kot "Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids".

Edinstveni teaterski nastopi skupine so lokalni kult še ojačali, kar je pripeljalo do oblikovanja središčne oboževalske skupine, razširjene po vsem svetu.

Diskografija
 Portrait of an American Family (1994)
 Smells Like Children (1995)
 Antichrist Superstar (1996)
 Remix & Repent (1997)
 Mechanical Animals (1998)
 The Last Tour on Earth (1999)
 Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (2000)
 The Golden Age of Grotesque (2003)
 Lest We Forget (album) (2004)
 Eat Me, Drink Me (2007)
 The High End of Low (2009)
 Born Villain (2012)
 The Pale Emperor (2015)
 Heaven Upside Down (2017)
 We Are Chaos (2020)

Viri in opombe

Zunanje povezave

Ameriške rock skupine
Industrial metal skupine
Glasbene skupine, ustanovljene leta 1989


Perfect for over water general aviation flights this 'Rapid Ditch' Survival Equipment Bag is designed to hold all the equipment needed when abandoning your aeroplane in an emergency.
It provides an essential easy to handle, lightweight container that should always be carried in the aeroplane.
The bag with it's innate buoyancy floats and it's shoulder strap also functions as a tether, thus leaving you free to operate the safety devices contained inside.
The internal and external pockets allow for quick and easy access to your Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), Strobe Light, Flares or GPS etc.
Internally there is an elastic daisy chain organiser and four snap-hook tethers to keep products in place.
Manufactured in a water resistant high visibility yellow fabric covering a highly buoyant closed cell foam material with 'self repairing' zipped closures on the external pockets.


text:
E3: Ubi working with Spielberg, Jackson
On Tintin project. Plus: Ass Creed 2 movies.
News by	Ellie Gibson, Contributor
Updated on 2 June 2009
Ubisoft has signed up to work with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg on their new Tintin project.
That's according to CEO Yves Guillemot, speaking at the publisher's E3 press conference. "We are still very junior at creating movies. So why not join forces with the best of the best?" Guillemot said.
Ubisoft is already working with James Cameron on the videogame of Avatar, as previously announced. But today Guillemot revealed the company will be involved with Tintin too. It's not yet clear whether that just means Ubi will produce the videogame tie-in - or whether it will be helping to create the movie.
However, during the same conference, Ubi Montreal boss Yannis Mallat revealed they're developing more than 100 shots for the Avatar movie.
Plus, Mallat said, there are plans to produce a series of short films based on the Assassin's Creed 2 universe. They're due to be released this autumn.
And that's just the start of it - in the future Ubi is looking to develop "movies, books and other online experiences" based on its franchises.
"The takeaway here is that Ubisoft is going from a simple developer and publisher to a full, 360 degree content provider," said Mallat.
Ellie Gibson
Contributor	| elliegibson
Ellie spent nearly a decade working at Eurogamer, specialising in hard-hitting executive interviews and nob jokes. These days she does a comedy show and podcast. She pops back now and again to write the odd article and steal our biscuits.


text:
Q: Bug when next tab with JsGrid why jsgrid presentation bug when i click at tab next? I try destroy e and raise the jsgrid and not solved.
 $('a[href="#prestador"]').on('show.bs.tab',function (e) {
        $("#nota_prestador").jsGrid("destroy");
        createGrid('nota_prestador',data,'CPF/CNPJ TOMADOR');
    });
    }

A: Rendered in a hidden container (not opened tab in this case), js-grid cannot calculate size properly.
So you have to call refresh on tab open event:
$('a[data-toggle="tab"]').on('shown.bs.tab', function (e) {
  $("#jsGrid").jsGrid("refresh");
});

Checkout the issue on the project GitHub page: https://github.com/tabalinas/jsgrid/issues/49

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Your Career Intel is a true game changer. It is the first dynamic platform to provide actionable advice and complementary resources, like cover letter templates, from experienced recruiters.
Lucas Group, the North American leader in executive recruiting, has launched YourCareerIntel.com to provide trusted, actionable career advice from seasoned executive recruiters. The site, which launched June 1st, is an interactive platform designed to be the go-to resource for any professional—career seeker or not—to answer questions regarding career changes, professional development, networking, hiring, and leadership skills.
Your Career Intel is divided into six categories offering expert advice: "Land the Job", "Grow Your Career", "Be a Leader", "The Big Picture", "The Water Cooler," and "Tools and Templates".
"Land the Job", for example, provides actionable tips to help job seekers craft expert resumes, ace their interviews, and deftly navigate salary negotiations. Managers can visit "Be a Leader" to hone their team building skills and "Grow Your Career" for networking secrets.
The "Tools and Templates" section features real-world templates for resumes, cover letters, hiring checklists, and interview checklists.
One of the site's unique features is the "Water Cooler", an open forum facilitating dynamic dialog between jobseekers, professionals, and Lucas Group recruiters on a range of professional advancement topics. Your Career Intel also allows visitors to engage in real-time polls delivering fresh insights on trending career topics.
For more than 40 years, Lucas Group has been providing executive recruiting services across seven practice areas—Accounting & Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Manufacturing, Military Transition and Sales & Marketing. More than 300 Associates are based across the U.S., offering broad, national reach together with expert, localized search.
Lucas Group is North America's premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.


Felix Shim & Rose Allison's Wedding, Port Gamble, WAI've known Felix practically my whole life and were practically raised as brother and sister. We dressed up together on Halloween, spent all our time together, and he even took scissors to my hair and ruined it when I was two. As we grew older, his family eventually back to Korea while we stayed. Years later, Felix moved to Washington with us!
That's where he met Rose. And to be quite honest, the rest is history! As long as I've known them as a couple, they've been inseparable and deeply in love with one another. They're so loving and committed to their love. I was lucky to grow up while watching their relationship flourish. When they finally announced their engagement, I think the general consensus was "about time!" I am so grateful they asked me to share their special day and I'm so elated to be able to welcome Rose to the family.
On October 23rd, in Port Gamble, WA, Rose and Felix tied the knot.


I. Overview of SubjectHow you can weblog is often a query on many individuals's minds these days. Running a blog has taken the planet by storm. Because 2004, when it 1st produced its appearance, this preferred medium of possessing your own little corner of your globe to express by yourself has turned into a veritable deluge. Today you'll find more than 120 million blogs that happen to be at the moment tracked with the Tecnorati website lookup engine. No wonder then, that owning and maintaining a web site has grow to be pretty much a trend statement, specially in the U.S.When first embarking on a blogging journey, you can find some knotty concerns that commonly beset one's mind concerning tips on how to blog site. Allow's start out together with the basics.What forms of matters is usually the topics of blogs?Just about whatever. Purely put, a weblog is an internet personal diary on just about any subject you care to put in writing about, ranging from politics to sports and physical fitness to religion, health, freelancing, literature, or what ever fits your fancy. But selecting a topic you've solid knowledge in will enable you to write down meaningful content material that can pull in an viewers on your blog site. Without an target audience you can quickly tire of one's webpage and it will be a part of the large numbers of abandoned blogs misplaced in cyberspace.How are blogs categorized in weblog engines like google?Blog search engines like Technorati and IceRocket categorize them by subject. By far the most general categorization, nevertheless, is particular vs. organization-oriented blogs. Yours will probably match in to the former of those classes.Are blogs only textual content or can they have other characteristics too?Though basically consisting of text, several blog site end users make their internet pages more desirable by including images, audio and video data files.How can I make my webpage easy to navigate and attractive to visitors ?A profitable website usually follows a clear simple structure with its content plainly delineated, archives (in a very sidebar), as well as a area at the bottom for website visitors to abandon feedback. Some also contain blogrolls, which can be just lists of back links to other equivalent blogs. The very best bloggers are usually folks that are capable of join with their website visitors' feelings, by suggests of artistic expression in many scenarios. To learn the way to website with all the winners your amount 1 instructor is other blogs - learn and examine a great deal of them ahead of starting your individual. A superb location to research blogs on your matter is Icerocket.com.What are some suggestions for setting up a blog?- 1St, keep in mind your web site is really a reflection of your respective character. Decide a theme or maybe a topic close for your coronary heart or a person you realize a thing about. Correction, one particular you already know a lot about.- Be co nstant. In case you want your blog so you can get genuinely well-known you should connect with your guests with a common, predictable agenda. Program on publishing at least twice a week. If that appears to be like too much operate, when every week may be the absolute lowest you are able to go, say webpage gurus.- Join/network. Connect with other webpage writers by leaving comments on their posts and by providing hyperlinks to their blogs in your website. This kind of networking will do wonders for the targeted traffic.- Retain it easy. Don't clutter up your blog with meaningless facts. Pick a easy clear attractive design and style. Use fonts and colors which enhance text visibility. Add movies, audios, photos and songs data only if these make your blog much more engaging and/or beneficial.- Do not stick your neck out - or not too a lot anyway. Blogs can get opinionated, that is fantastic, but usually do not place your self at danger of your heavy-duty defamation go well with . It is really good to specific your opinions - so extended as you make it clear they're just that, your opinions -- and constantly be confident that the weblog is just not defaming any individual, divulging delicate info, or supplying absent company secrets.Okay, I get the experience about the way to webpage. Now in which do I go from here?To acquire started off, you 1st have to choose suitable weblog computer software. This really is essential so as to make and handle your blog site. There is very an assortment of running a blog software program to choose from. Some present ease of style and development although other software programs offer extra elaborate capabilities, as an example, permitting you to add discussion message boards, information boards etc. Some weblogs may be downloaded and installed straight on your own program. Freeware and open foundation software package are available, though these software programs usually are not as attribute-wealthy as some in the paid for proprietary software package. Here's a rundown in the most well-known blogging software package:WordpressWordpress is the number a person weblog publishing software program. Why? -- since it is freeware, simple to set up, and incorporates a minimal mastering curve. Its in depth documentation and step-by-step installation information allow it to be a cakewalk even to get a novice person. Among its most salient features are --Effortless installation - Even a newbie can get Wordpress up and proceeding in five minutes. Moreover, world-wide-web pages are generated dynamically by using countless numbers of developed-in templates thereby significantly cutting down your time and work.Person Administration - Restricts access to end users though you might be creating modifications as part of your weblog. So in effect you've got separate discover for audience and administrative end users.Saves precious bandwidth by way of its Gzip function, which reduces website transmission m easurement.Enables you to place RSS feeds into your blogs and also aids in inter-blog conversation by supplying characteristics like pingback and trackback.


text:
Q: Scale MapOvleray in WindowsPhone8 i want to scale the mapoverlay content as the map is zoomed in or out.
Map Zoom is controlled by the ZoomLevel of the Map.
Does anybody know a formula that scales the image in the MapOverlay the same amount as the map?
I am looking for something like
public void OnZoomLevelChanged()
{
    img.Width = initialWidth * Map.ZoomLevel * [someRatioFactor]
    img.Height= initialHeight * Map.ZoomLevel * [someRatioFactor]
}

A: See here for details on scaling/zoom level
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa940990.aspx
If you need to scale to the correct distance per pixel each time you zoom in/out, you can use something like the following function:
public static double MetersToPixels(double meters, double latitude, double zoomLevel)
    {
        var pixels = meters / (156543.04 * Math.Cos(latitude) / (Math.Pow(2, zoomLevel)));
        return Math.Abs(pixels);
    }

A: For everyone applying the solution of snacky in a real world szenario:
Math.Cos(double)

expects a radian angle. If you get the latitude from lets say
Geopoint.Latitude

which is in degrees you need to correct it like this:
public static double MetersToPixels(double meters, double latitude, double zoomLevel)
{
    var pixels = meters / (156543.04 * Math.Cos(Math.PI / 180 * latitude) / (Math.Pow(2, zoomLevel)));
    return Math.Abs(pixels);
}

Hope this doesn´t belong to the comments or should I have edited snackys post?


text:
2 Arrested in Plot to Attack Seattle Military Center
Stephanie McMaster
Stephanie McMaster Published: June 24, 2011
Two men were arrested late Wednesday after federal officials said they planned to attack a military processing center in Seattle using grenades and firearms.
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph A. Davis, and Walli Mujahidh, also known as Frederick Domingue Jr., were arrested on charges of conspiracy to murder federal officers and employees, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, as well as several firearms charges, the NY Times reported.
Police said the suspects attempted to recruit a third man for their plot, but that men went to authorities, who then began monitoring Abdul-Latif, 33, and Mujahidh, 32, over the past month.
According to the 38-page complaint against the men, they were planning to carry out a deadly attack to gain maximum attention.
Mujahidh is quoted in the complaint as saying, "Ain't gonna be no innocent women and children. That's why I'm saying we go in there and lay everybody down, man. Everybody in that building is connected with the military."
The men allegedly planned to use grenades and firearms in their attack.
The two suspects appeared in federal court in Seattle on Thursday, but did not enter pleas. They were ordered held without bail.
[NY Times]
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Central Florida Shocks Baylor in Fiesta Bowl Shootout
College Football 2013: 5 Things We Learned in Week 9
This Day in History for October 10 – Spiro Agnew Resigns and More
Celebrity Birthdays for October 10 – David Lee Roth, Brett Favre and More
Celebrity Birthdays for October 9 – Sharon Osbourne and More


Tourism performance in the main cities across the Middle East is expected to remain strong with the fruition of major infrastructure projects such as airport expansions, increased global connectivity and growth of low-cost carriers, new leisure attractions, enhanced business facilities and a year-long calendar of regional and international events.
• 8th in the world in terms of travel and tourism's direct contribution to GDP with USD85.0bn in 2017. It is expected to grow by 4.6% pa to USD133.1bn (3.3% of GDP) by 2027.
• 9th in the world in terms of travel and tourism's total contribution to employment. Generated 2,406,000 jobs in 2017. By 2027 it will rise to 2,986,000 jobs.
• 5th in the world in terms of visitor exports, with $83.2bn in visitor exports in 2016. By 2027 it is forecast to reach $148.3bn.
• 4th in the world in terms of travel and tourism investment with USD49.6bn in 2016. It will rise to $98.9bn in 2027.
• The Middle East reported the strongest annual traffic growth of any region globally for the 6th year running in 2017.
• Looking ahead, 7.2 billion is the number of global air passengers predicted by 2035. The Middle East will see an extra 245 million passengers a year on routes to, from and within the region by 2035 that will continue to support demand for hotels.


text:
- **BitSight Tags** - new field instead of **Tags** field

#### Layouts Containers
##### BitSight Findings
- Replaced **Tags** with **Bitsight Tags**

#### Mappers
##### BitSight - Incoming Mapper
- Replaced **Tags** with **Bitsight Tags**


text:
Q: Interpreting Residual Plots of Multiple Linear Regression in R I am currently attempting to model student achievement using both categorical (mostly demographic factors) and numerical (exam scores) data.
I am specifically looking for an explanation of the observed behavior in the Scale-Location diagnostic plot (below), so that I can have a better understanding of the efficacy of the model. In particular, are the trends in that graph (sort of curving lines) an artifact of the parallel line behavior in the first plot?


Planarian flatworm adult stem cells known as neoblasts can be clustered based on their gene expression profiles (left panel). A neoblast subpopulation termed Nb2 expresses the cell membrane protein TSPAN-1 (center panel, a representative Nb2 cell with TSPAN-1 protein shown in green and DNA in blue). Nb2 neoblasts can repopulate stem cell-depleted animals (right panel, representative animals at different time points after Nb2 single-cell transplants).
Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have captured the one cell that is capable of regenerating an entire organism. For over a century, scientists have witnessed the effects of this cellular marvel, which enables creatures such as the planarian flatworm to perform death-defying feats like regrowing a severed head. But until recently, they lacked the tools necessary to target and track this cell, so they could watch it in action and discover its secrets.
Now, by pioneering a technique that combines genomics, single-cell analysis, flow cytometry and imaging, scientists have isolated this amazing regenerative cell – a subtype of the long-studied adult pluripotent stem cell – before it performs its remarkable act. The findings, published in the June 14, 2018, issue of the journal Cell, will likely propel biological studies on highly regenerative organisms like planarians and also inform regenerative medicine efforts for other organisms like humans that have less regenerative capacity.
Every multicellular organism is built from a single cell, which divides into two identical cells, then four, and so on. Each of these cells contains the exact same twisted strands of DNA, and is considered pluripotent – meaning it can give rise to all possible cell types in the body. But somewhere along the way, those starter cells – known as embryonic stem cells – resign themselves to a different fate and become skin cells, heart cells, muscle cells, or another cell type. In humans, no known pluripotent stem cells remain after birth. In planarians, they stick around into adulthood, where they become known as adult pluripotent stem cells or neoblasts. Scientists believe these neoblasts hold the secret to regeneration.
Though neoblasts have been the subject of scientific inquiry since the late 1800's, only in the last couple of decades have scientists been able to characterize this powerful cell population using functional assays and molecular techniques. Their efforts showed that this seemingly homogenous cell population was actually a conglomeration of different subtypes, with different properties and different patterns of gene expression.
Sánchez Alvarado and his team began searching for a distinguishing characteristic that could identify this elusive cell ahead of time. One feature that had long been used to distinguish neoblasts from other cells is a stem cell marker known as piwi-1, so Postdoctoral Research Associate An Zeng, Ph.D., decided to start there. First, he separated the cells that expressed this marker from those that did not. Then he noticed the cells could be separated into two groups – one that expressed high levels of piwi (aptly called piwi-high) and another that expressed low levels of piwi (called piwi-low). When Zeng studied the members of these two groups, he found only those that were piwi-high fit the molecular definition of neoblasts. So he discarded the rest.
Next, Zeng selected 8,000 or so of the piwi-high cells and analyzed their gene expression patterns. To his surprise, the cells fell not into just one or two, but 12 different subgroups. Through a process of elimination, Zeng excluded any subgroups with genetic signatures indicating that the cells were destined for a particular fate, like muscle or skin. That left him with two subgroups that could still be pluripotent, which he named Nb1 and Nb2.
Conveniently, the cells in subgroup Nb2 expressed a gene coding for a member of the tetraspanin protein family, a group of evolutionarily ancient and poorly understood proteins that sit on the surface of cells. Zeng made an antibody that could latch onto this protein, pulling the cells that carried it out of a mixture of other suspected neoblasts. He then transplanted the single purified cell into a planarian that had been subjected to lethal levels of radiation. Not only did these cells repopulate and rescue the irradiated animals, but they did so 14 times more consistently than cells purified by older methods.
The amazing freshwater flatworm known as planaria is a favorite of scientists who study regeneration in research organisms in the hopes of unlocking this property in humans. Over a century ago, they traced planaria's regenerative powers to a special population of adult stem cells called neoblasts. But until recently, they lacked the tools necessary to hone in further on the individual cells truly capable of regeneration. In the June 14, 2018, issue of the journal Cell, researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research published a study that combined genomics, single-cell analysis, and imaging to isolate this elusive cell. Postdoctoral Research Associate An Zeng, Ph.D., his advisor Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., and their Stowers collaborators report that a molecule called TSPAN-1 that sits of the surface of cells can be used to purify regenerative neoblasts from similar cell types. These findings have important implications for advancing the study of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.
March 21, 2019 - Regenerative Medicine for Spine Conditions U.S. News & World ReportThe ability to use the body's own tissue to help heal itself has a lot of potential.