samhexum

Pets have ‘inner clock’ just like humans If sometimes you wonder if your dog is angry with you for staying out late, you might be right. New evidence suggests that animals have a clear sense of time, using previously undiscovered neurons that seem to switch on to count off minutes as they wait. The discovery was made by a team fromNorthwestern University while studying the medial entorhinal cortex of mice. Located in the mid-temporal lobe, it’s the part of the brain associated with memory and navigation. And since it encodes spatial information in episodic memories, lead study author Daniel Dombeck theorized that it could function as a sort of “inner clock” as well. “There are many similarities between the brains of mice, cats, dogs and humans,” Dombeck told Fox News. “We all have a medial entorhinal cortex (the region we found that may act as an inner clock), so it’s logical to think that this brain region serves a similar function in all of these different species.” To test his theory, Dombeck and his team put a mouse on a physical treadmill in a virtual reality environment. The mouse would run (on the treadmill) down a hallway to a door. After six seconds, the “door” would open and the mouse would get a (non–virtual reality) treat. They would repeat this a few times before making the door invisible. Dombeck was surprised to find that the mouse would still run and stop at the invisible door, waiting for six seconds for it to “open” so it could eat. Since the mouse didn’t know whether the door was open or closed and waited exactly six seconds, the team concluded that it had to have used its inner clock. The researchers also monitored the mouse’s brain activity, finding that the mouse’s neurons would fire as it ran. When it stopped at the door, those neurons would turn off before a new set began firing. These newly discovered neurons only fired when the mouse stopped, keeping track of the time the mouse was resting. Dombeck believes that dogs and cats more than likely have the same neurons that encode time. “There’s evidence that humans and monkeys can estimate time intervals using some form of an ‘inner clock’ and now with our work we know that mice also can explicitly represent time intervals in their brains and can perform timing tasks,” he explained. “Therefore, it’s logical to think that animals in between mice and humans in the hierarchy chain, like our pets (dogs and cats), can also use their brains to estimate time intervals.” The team’s research could have an impact on humans. The entorhinal cortex is one of the first regions of the brain affected by neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, and researchers could study how these diseases affect the new time–encoding neurons. “When doing basic research like we are, it’s always difficult to know where or how your findings will make an impact, but it’s really results from basic research like ours that eventually lead to better treatments or understanding of diseases, and sometimes even provide insights into how things like designing better computer software (by mimicking brain function),” Dombeck said. “Since the medial temporal lobe (the larger brain region that includes the medial entorhinal cortex) is one of the first regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and since the timekeeping properties of this part of the brain were previously unknown, it’s not unreasonable to think that clinicians could soon be asking patients to estimate different amounts of elapsed time as part of the battery of tests to look for early signs of dementia.” The study can be found in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

I've heard he's fabulous in real life, too! :D:rolleyes:

My former roommate & I were HUGE Bee Gees fans. Her father was the 'sound man' for Joan Rivers' talk show. One day they were on... he never called us to come meet them. "Oh, I didn't think you'd be interested." We never let him live it down.

Could you clarify how you feel about Joan Rivers? My former roommate & I were HUGE Bee Gees fans. Her father was the 'sound man' for Joan Rivers' talk show. One day they were on... he never called us to come meet them. "Oh, I didn't think you'd be interested." We never let him live it down.

When I hear "Helen of Troy" I think of a woman from upstate NY. When I hear "Zeus" I think of BDSM videos. When I see "Avalon" I think of Toyota.

Karen Walker: Oh Dear Lord, he's been humping my pans!

Georgia or Delaware?

Every time I see that phrase I picture dueling armies having water balloon battles using condoms as balloons.

Didn't you write up a shopping list at any point? That always gets MY juices flowing.

But you have such a pretty face! It's a shame to hide it behind all that excess weight.:cool:

An Arkansas woman was arrested Saturday after telling police she shot and killed her husband because he bought pornography, officials said. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release it received a call around 2:30 p.m. from 69-year-old Patricia Hill, who told dispatchers she just shot her 65-year-old husband, Frank. When police arrived at the home, located about 36 miles south of Little Rock, they found Frank Hill dead in a shed on the property. Hill sustained two gunshot wounds to the upper and lower body, according to police. The sheriff’s office said that during an interview with Hill, she told investigators she arrived home and went to the shed on her property to confront her husband, but there had never been any physical altercations between the couple. “However, Mrs. Hill stated that she disagreed with her husband’s purchase of video pornography via the television guide, which she canceled upon discovering the purchase, but Mr. Hill managed to place a subsequent order,” Maj. Lafayette Woods, Jr. said. “Mrs. Hill stated that she entered the shed and asked her husband to leave but he refused.” When her husband didn’t leave the shed, Hill told investigators she went back to their home and got a .22 caliber pistol. “She went back to the shed a short time later, where she entered and shot her husband twice, striking him once in the leg and once in the head,” Woods said. “Immediately following the shooting, Mrs. Hill stated that she returned inside the residence, where she returned the weapon and called 911 to report the shooting.” At this point, investigators do not believe the incident had anything to do with self-defense, FOX16 reported. Hill is currently in Jefferson County’s detention center on felony probable cause for capital murder in the shooting death of her husband without bond, and will stay there until her court date next week.

A Bronx man was arrested for bashing his girlfriend with a Bible on Sunday, police told The Post. Daniel Laforge, 36, got into an argument with his girlfriend at his Parkside apartment on Bronx Park East at about 7 a.m., police said. He began to punch the 41-year-old woman, then grabbed the Good Book and smacked her in the head and shoulder with it, cops said. The woman called 911, and told police she suffered significant pain on her head and shoulder after the beating. Laforge was arrested at the scene and charged with felony assault and harassment.

Adam & Yves is a 1974 X-rated film created for gay male audiences. The film is notable for the unauthorized use of footage of Greta Garbo, in what turned out to be the legendary actress's final appearance on film. Set in Paris during springtime, Adam & Yves is about the French Yves (Marcus Giovanni) and his pursuit of the American tourist Adam (Michael Hardwick). The men have a brief affair, but a long-lasting relationship is prevented by Yves' insistence that they not share personal information. While making the film, director Peter de Rome reportedly stalked Greta Garbo around New York City, where the retired star was living. After much searching, De Rome, located her and was able to shoot footage of Garbo walking across First Avenue. The footage was inserted into Adam & Yves, and its presence was explained by having Adam recalling how he once saw the elusive star. The Garbo footage was used without the star's knowledge or permission, and she was not paid for her appearance.

I suppose Greta Garbo was the most famous example. Her last film appearance.

Is it just a co-inky-dink 2 insurance company spokesmen played amoral felons (as opposed to moral felons) on OZ? http://i55.tinypic.com/23s64k0.jpg

So I've heard.

First got to know him as part of a family of grifters on FX's under-appreciated THE RICHES, starring Minnie Driver. Then he was the obnoxious lab tech Dale Stuckey on SVU who eventually killed O'Halloran and slashed Stabler.

She claims she is the secret scion of a Manhattan financier — her Dalton and college tuition paid by a furtive father she never knew, while her single mother cashed his monthly checks like clockwork for 20 years. Today she is a beautiful star of a television police procedural who has taken a leading role in a real-life legal drama over the late mogul’s $100 million fortune. Marina Squerciati, 36, who plays cop Kim Burgess on NBC’s “Chicago P.D.,” has never spoken about her dad, because he swore for years to provide for her in his will, according to court papers. But John R. Jakobson — who at age 25 in 1955 became one of the youngest people ever to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange — broke his pledge, the actress claims. The price of keeping quiet for most of her life, Marina claims, was “extraordinary.” She lost the chance to bond with Jakobson, who died in April 2017 of pneumonia at age 86, and she was denied “any relationship whatsoever with her half-siblings,” say documents filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court. One of those possible siblings is also a TV actress: Maggie Wheeler, 59, who is best known for her role on “Friends” as Chandler Bing’s irritating, nasal-voiced on-again off-again girlfriend, Janice. In a 2017 interview, Squerciati told EW, “I don’t have any siblings.” About 6 million viewers tune in for “Chicago P.D.,” where Squerciati pals around with castmates Sophia Bush and Amy Morton, who arranged a baby shower for Marina when she was pregnant with her daughter. The girl was born last year, a month after Jakobson’s death. Jakobson’s family, including his widow of 34 years, Park Avenue socialite and noted etiquette author Joan Jakobson, apparently never knew of Marina’s existence. “I’m not aware of it at all,” Joan Jakobson told The Post, asking incredulously, “She said she was John’s daughter?” She later added, “This has all hit me, like, I don’t know — a snowstorm.” When Marina got engaged, Marie Squerciati asked Jakobson if he would send a gift. He replied by reaffirming that the girl “would receive money under his will,” his daughter claims. But that never happened. Jakobson’s estate plans included money for his first and second wives, his three surviving children and his stepdaughter through Joan, as well as funds for a namesake foundation. Lawyers for the Squerciatis reached out to the estate in September to ask if Marina was named a beneficiary, court papers show. It’s unclear how much money the actress is seeking. Nicholas Jakobson, the executor of his father’s estate, “has devoted substantial time and . . . considerable legal expense in analyzing the claim,” according to a court filing by the estate, which slams Marina Squerciati’s allegations as having “no basis in fact or law.” Squerciati’s bid to be included in her alleged father’s massive estate “amounts to nothing more than an avaricious attempt to enforce an alleged, vague oral promise made to [her] mother, rather than to herself, and which resulted in no legally recognizable injury to her,” Jakobson’s lawyers asserted. Even if Marina Squerciati could prove Jakobson is her biological father, she has no written evidence of his promise to provide for her in his will, the lawyers argued. She had “ample opportunity as an adult” to get Jakobson to put his commitment in writing, the financier’s lawyers claim. Keeping the secret may have even been something Marina Squerciati herself wanted, say the lawyers, who offered her a paltry $50,000 settlement. “She may have wished to avoid the opprobrium, which, although unfair and unjustified, is often cast upon nonmarital children,” the lawyers wrote. “As a successful actor, [she] may have been especially sensitive to this given her public persona and position in popular culture.” The Squerciatis did not respond to requests for comment.

He slept with a married woman. Now he must pay the jilted husband $8.8 million A Durham County judge awarded the owner of a BMX bike stunt show company more than $8.8 million from the man he said seduced his wife and ruined his marriage. Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson awarded Keith King more than $2.2 million in compensatory damages and three times that in punitive damages from Francisco Huizar III of San Antonio, Texas. Huizar’s attorney said they will appeal. In the civil complaint filed in April 2017, King accused Huizar of criminal conversation, alienation of affection, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that let jilted spouses sue people for criminal conversation when the person has sex with a married person before separation, and for alienation of affection when “genuine love and affection” has been destroyed by the person. Some lawsuits have yielded significant damages, including a $30 million penalty in a 2011 Wake County case. Ability to pay is not a factor in compensatory damages, but a judge may consider it when levying punitive damage. Keith and Danielle King married on April 3, 2010, in Durham, and they have a 5 year old daughter. Keith King became interested in bike stunts when he received an Evel Knievel bike for Christmas in 1976. He later founded BMX Stunt Shows. “Once what was only a dream became a reality as Keith made his mark as a professional flatlander, competing in both the 1997 and 1998 X Games,” the company’s website states. “What sets Keith and the King BMX Stunt Shows apart from other stunt shows is that to this day he still rides competitively in his own shows, as well as being an outspoken advocate for the sport.” The website states the shows feature some of the top ramp riders in BMX, along with flatland riders, inline skaters and skateboarders. However, King’s attorney, Joanne Foil, said the affair and an assault by Huizar cost BMX Stunt Shows revenue and an employee — Danielle King worked for the company — and required her client to spend more money on household help, child care, and counseling. Huizar’s attorney, Cheri Patrick, said Huizar was not responsible for a marriage that was damaged before her client met Danielle King. Keith King, who is 15 years older than his wife, controlled her access to money, manipulated her low self-esteem, brought porn into the relationship, looked through her phone every other week, put her to work without pay, and continued to schedule shows after she said it was too much work and she needed help with her daughter, Patrick said. He tracked her movements and insisted she keep her hair blond, and wear bikinis and high heels, Patrick said. “This marriage needed one more blow before it was over,” Patrick said. In testimony, Danielle King said she pursued Huizar and that the marriage had been unhappy from the first year. Patrick also questioned expense estimates provided by Keith King’s experts and financial statements showing his company’s revenue dropping from nearly $400,000 in 2015 to about $125,000 in 2017. In August 2015, Danielle King met Huizar during a BMX show in New York where he was working at an insurance company booth, according to testimony. He makes about $84,000 a year as a marketing tour manager, according to testimony. Keith King had gone to New York with his wife and daughter, but he left to go to another show in Colorado. “When he left, guess who moved right on in,” Foil said. On August 28, 2015, Keith King saw phone calls to a strange number on his phone bill and called Huizar and asked him to leave his wife alone. He thought the affair was over at that point, Foil said. But on August 31, 2015, Huizar rented a room less than a mile from the Kings’ home. He returned once in September, twice in October and three times in November, testimony indicated. “And that doesn’t count the times where he met her elsewhere,” Foil said. From mid-August 2015 to Dec. 10, 2015, Huizar and Danielle King spoke on the phone more than 6,187 minutes, Foil said. In February 2016, Keith King gave his wife a spa weekend at the beach for her birthday after she asked for a peaceful weekend. She posted on Facebook praising her husband for the gift. “Guess who the heck tagged along?” Foil said. “Mr. Huizar.” “He just conveniently popped up,” Foil said. “There is no way that this marriage could have humanly been saved with the level of this man’s involvement.” In another meeting, the King family was on a beach vacation around spring 2016 when Huizar rented a place nearby, according to testimony. People have affairs and sometimes recover, but not with Huizar’s “relentless behavior,” Foil said. In April 2016, Danielle King sought to rent her own apartment with Huizar’s help, but ended up not moving there and going back to her husband, telling friends she was going to try to make the marriage work, according to testimony. Keith King didn’t find out about the apartment rental until much later, his attorney said. Huizar stood back when Danielle King said she wanted to try to save her marriage at least twice, but then she would reach back out and Huizar would eventually give in, Patrick said. The couple did end up separating in January 2017, Foil said. Danielle King testified that they separated in August 2016 and court documents support that, Patrick said. With Huizar’s help, Danielle King rented an apartment in January 2017, and Huizar was on the lease. Danielle King told her husband that her parents had helped with the apartment, Foil said. Danielle King didn’t tell her husband her apartment number, but did share the name of the complex and the building number, Foil said. When Danielle King told her husband that she was having a breaker issue at the apartment on Jan. 20, 2017, he went to her apartment, knocked on the door, and Huizar answered, Foil said. At that point Keith King realized that his wife had continued to have an affair over the past 16 months, his attorney said. Patrick said he knew of the affair months before. Foil claimed King and Huizar were setting Keith King up, waiting to record the scene with their cellphones to support domestic violence allegations. When Keith King reacted to finding Huizar there, Huizar put him in a choke hold, court documents indicate. In court documents, Huizar’s attorney contends that Keith King showed up uninvited, refused to leave “and loomed over Danielle King, causing her to cower in fear.” Huizar removed him from the apartment to “prevent great bodily harm,” to Danielle King, court documents state. The experience led to Keith King developing post-traumatic stress disorder, Foil said, pointing to previous testimony of one of Keith King’s doctors. A district court judge found in another case that Danielle King had sought a domestic violence protection order to gain an advantage in a civil suit and to protect her lover from being sued, assessing $15,000 in sanctions for a frivolous lawsuit, Foil said. After Keith King filed the April 2017 lawsuit, his legal team tried to serve Huizar more than 10 times in Texas and North Carolina and ran notices in newspapers in Raleigh and Texas, along with sending dozens of letters. The clerk of Superior Court entered an entry of default on Jan. 3, 2018, meaning that since Huizar didn’t respond that the court was ruling in the plaintiff’s favor and the only thing to determine was the damages. Hudson upheld the clerk’s ruling in a Jan. 28 order. Testimony started in the case in June, but was delayed over time due to court schedules, and resumed on Monday. When Hudson issued his ruling, he said it was “a textbook case” of how not to end a marriage in North Carolina and the handful of other states that allow alienation of affection and criminal conversation lawsuits.

A 74-year-old man ranting about a broken phone drove his car through the glass storefront of a Verizon Wireless store in North Carolina, authorities said Friday, stunning shoppers during the dinner hour at an upscale mall. Charles Michael Hager was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and damaging property after he drove a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta into the store at a busy shopping center Thursday night, according to police. A witness told a 911 operator that he saw Hager standing outside the store located between two popular restaurants, demanding that it reopen to help him with his broken phone. "He was demanding to get his phone fixed," the unidentified caller said, later adding: "He said: 'My damn phone's not working. I need help. Open this damn door." A police news release said Hager first kicked the door, shattering glass, then drove his car through the storefront. Six employees were in the store, but no one was injured. "There's no front door. All the glass is shattered. It's amazing. His front end is still inside the front door. I've never seen anything like it," the witness told the 911 operator. The caller said a crowd of bewildered onlookers gathered around as the man got out of his car wearing a gray collared shirt and gray slacks and continued to yell. The scene unfolded at North Hills Mall, an outdoor shopping center surrounded by pricey homes and several high-rise office buildings north of downtown. The operator warned the caller, who was standing 10 feet away, to keep a safe distance. Hager didn't immediately return a phone message Friday. A police spokeswoman didn't know if he had an attorney. The phone number for the store played a message Friday saying it was closed, and a sign posted in the window apologized to customers for any inconvenience. A security guard sat inside behind a temporary wooden door installed after the crash. Kate Jay, a regional spokeswoman for Verizon, said the company is grateful no employees were hurt but declined to say whether the workers had previous interactions with Hager.

I loved this story. I started a thread at Atkol that had a lot of pics. It warmed the cockles of my heart, not that I know where (or what) they are. Sadly one of the cats had to be put down last year after falling ill. Another heartwarming story... A North Carolina cosmetics saleswoman in the Big Apple for a brief business trip was thrust into the crisis of a lifetime — and discovered the inner beauty of what she thought would be a city of coldhearted strangers. Shelcie Holbert, 23 years old and six months pregnant, arrived on June 17 with three days’ worth of black clothes — her unofficial uniform as a sales rep for the Kiehl’s cosmetics company. She was excited to visit the company’s East Village flagship, but as soon as she arrived, she felt a strange pressure in her abdomen. She excused herself and walked several blocks to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Doctors put her in ambulance to Mount Sinai West on 10th Avenue, which specializes in preterm labor. Doctors found she was 3 centimeters dilated. Her due date was still 17 weeks away — Oct. 12. “You do know if you have the baby right now, she is not considered viable,” a specialist told her. Holbert’s husband, Jacob Wallace, an Army veteran who had served two tours in Afghanistan, flew to New York. She was able to hold onto the pregnancy another week, long enough to give her daughter a fighting chance. Holbert delivered Rosalie Grace on June 26 at a mere 1 pound, 9 ounces, just a bit larger that her mom’s hand. Rosalie was whisked down the hill to the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, where she would begin her battle to live. Her chance of survival was estimated at 50 percent to 70 percent. Meanwhile, her parents had their own survival to think about in an unfamiliar, and costly, city where they would have to live for at least the next three months. “I had no idea how expensive it is here,” Holbert said. She said the hotel where the couple stayed for the first few days cost $4,000 a month. But help soon arrived. Kim Kaplan, a Hamilton Heights mom whose twins boys were born early in May, started chatting with Holbert in the NICU lounge and was floored by what she heard. “It just seemed so overwhelming to me, to be in New York and not have anyone you know,” Kaplan recalled. “I just felt terrible for her.” That night, she put out an appeal on the UWS Mommas Facebook group, a community where Upper West Side women trade tips and seek advice. An army of New York moms rushed in. Jenna, who lives near the hospital and owns a second apartment in her building that she is trying to sell, immediately offered it to Holbert and Wallace. “My husband thought I was a little insane at first,” Jenna, who asked that her last name not be published, told The Post. “I can’t explain it. I knew it was the right thing to do.” She and Holbert were soon talking several times a day like old friends, and Jenna was going to the NICU to visit baby Rosalie. Upper West Side mom Toby Baldinger read the appeal and wanted to make sure the new parents had a hot meal every night without having to think about dinner. She gave her credit card to a nearby diner and told them to deliver the day’s special to the apartment every day for two weeks. Homey dishes like pot roast and penne pasta awaited the couple after they returned from long days at the hospital. Other moms started delivering home-cooked food, and one is even baking treats for the NICU nurses. Even more women donated gift cards and clothing suitable for a nursing mom. Meanwhile, Rosalie is making steady progress and already weighs 2 pounds, thanks to tube feedings with her mom’s milk. And a heavy dose of New York City love. Dr. Rafaela Calabio, one of Rosalie’s doctors, thinks the support is helping Holbert relax, produce milk and care for her baby. “It’s incredible what they’re doing,” Calabio said. “How comforting.” Holbert said she was surprised and grateful for all the kindness. “We live in the South. You have this idea that New Yorkers are abrasive and they’re scary,” she said. “The level of support I’ve gotten from complete strangers is absolutely crazy.” Another challenge is on the horizon as Wallace returns to North Carolina this week to start a job and Holbert needs a new place to stay as renters are committed to her temporary apartment in a few weeks. She is confident something will come through. She won’t lose touch with her host, though — she has asked Jenna to be Rosalie’ godmother. “New York City is not what I thought,” she said. “I’m glad my daughter was born here.”