Kardashian is of Armenian heritage, Friday marked the 105th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

A growing army of hot rodders is cannibalizing crashed electric cars and turning them into custom vehicles with electric power trains.

In "The True History of the Kelly Gang," director Justin Kurzel's fourth and best feature, George MacKay stars as 19th-century Australian bushranger Ned Kelly.

The Pierce Brothers honor their influences with "The Wretched," and mask familiarity with atmosphere and suspense.

Fiona Apple's fifth album, five years in the making, is a rich text to scour in quarantine.

Pearl Jam didn't intend for their new album, "Gigaton," to be a coronavirus hymnal. Yet it rises to the occasion with glimmers of hope, resilience and even ecstasy.

In recent years, global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.7 trillion, despite the global economic conditions. It is still approximately 1% increase since 2008 when the financial crisis began, for example.

Not all nations have felt the impacts of the global financial crisis in the same way. Some have grown economically, including many Asian countries, which has allowed some of them to increase their military spending. There are geopolitical interests at stake for various powers, so economic troubles or not, military spending is seen as important to maintain, or at least to minimize possible reductions.

The highest military spender is the US accounting for 39% of the world’s spending, more than the next top 10 countries combined, and more than all its potential enemies, combined. But this represents a slight decline over previous years as other nations, especially China and Russia, increase their spending. At the same time, the US has reduced military spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Western Europe’s austerity programs affect their military spending budgets.

This update includes new and updated figures, graphs and charts exploring this further.

Read full article: World Military Spending

Kenney noted that provincial physicians are the highest paid in Canada and in recent years saw their pay rise 'while Albertans' incomes were cratering.'

ALDI has revealed it is changing the way customers can get hold of its Specialbuy products. The budget supermarket has made changes due to the current coronavirus crisis.

Now is the time to stay at home and allow us to bring much needed supplies to your front door.

The Oscar-winning director will introduce his film Oct. 12 to Heartland Film Festival audiences at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

John and Tucker Hartung of Lamar Advertising removed an Indianapolis 500 billboard along Lafayette Road, April 7, 2020. The race is delayed to August.

IndyStar preps Insider Kyle Neddenriep identified the 64 "best" high school teams of all-time. That means the best team you can put together.

The Indianapolis Colts select Michigan inside linebacker Jordan Glasgow.

Check out 2018 albums by Indiana's Richard Edwards, S.M. Wolf, Rob Dixon, Brother O' Brother and Peteyboy.

A chronology of key events

Key facts, figures and dates

The Boston Red Sox won 108 games in 2018, the most in franchise history.

Since 1969, only 12 teams have recorded baseball’s best record and gone on to win a championship that same year. Just seven of those 12 won 108 or more games during the regular season. The Red Sox are two wins away from joining that elite company.

Edmonton and Jasper, Alberta Canada

Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary, Alberta Canada

The Amateur Traveler talks to Andy Dye about his adopted hometown of Melbourne Australia. Andy grew up in England but fell in love with Melbourne. Sure the weather was better but Andy also discovered a city with street art, vibrant cafes, culture and sport. Melbourne is the home of Australian Rules Foolball which was apparently invented by people who thought that rugby was too tame. Andy talks about wandering around the Central Business District (CBD) and discovering out of the way cafes. Melbourne has museums (like the Melbourne Museum, the Australia Center for the Moving Image), galleries (like the National Gallery of Victoria) and an aquarium. Melbourne is a multi-cultural city and no places show it off better than the Queen Victoria Market or Sydney Road Brunswick. He also talks about side trips such as going to see the penguins at Phillip Island.

The Amateur Traveler talks to Francis Tapon from WanderLearn.com about Albania which has gone from a totally closed society 20 years ago to a destination that Lonely Planet ranked as the #1 destination for travel this year (that was before some of the recent protests. Francis says the because it was isolated for so long it created an exotic and unique culture. Abandoned bunkers still line the country from back when their fear of invasion had nothing to do with tourists. He recommends we start in the capital of Tirana and from there go to Krujë and its legendary Skanderbeg castle.

Hear about travel to Southern Alberta as the Amateur Traveler talks to Karl Andrews from Calgary about travel to his home province. The Canadian Rockies, Kananaskis Country, Waterton Park, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, The Calgary Stampede, and Dinosaurs.

Hear about hiking the Peaks of the Balkans trail in Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro as the Amateur Traveler talks to Dan and Audrey from uncorneredmarket.com about this off the beaten track route in Europe.

Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Learn what to see and do, where to hike and when to come.

Hear about travel to Albania as the Amateur Traveler talks to Dina Rabiner about her visit to the country where she originally went as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Hear about travel to Albuquerque as Chris Christensen, the Amateur Traveler himself, talks about his trip to Albuquerque during the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. 

A couple of days ago, Thomas Dolby posted this video to Twitter and YouTube of a track called "Corona and the Pirate Twins," a spoof of his 1982 hit, "Europa and the Pirate Twins." The song is credited to Dolby Kids. Thomas included the following note:

"This is what my mischievous offspring have been getting up to during the Lockdown."

Here is the original video for "Europa..."

Bonus track:

And here is Thomas Dolby doing a touching home solo version of his achingly beautiful "Screen Kiss" from 1984's Flat Earth. He did it as a tribute to Matthew Seligman, the celebrated bassist who recently died of COVID-19. Seligman played bass on Dolby's recordings, including Flat Earth, and also played for Bowie, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Murphy, and countless others. He was also a member of the Soft Boys.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

Game designer and publisher Dave Gilbert founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006.  This interview features conversation about point and click adventure games; digital game development, marketing and publishing; and the relationship between art, passion and real world commerce.

Jeffery Klaehn: How did you first become interested in point and click adventure games?

Dave Gilbert: I played King’s Quest at a very impressionable age! I typed the word “jump” and I saw Graham actually jump, and I was so blown away that I’ve been playing them ever since.

JK: You founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006 to sell your game, The Shivah, commercially, then moved to pursue game design on a full-time basis and released The Blackwell Legacy, the first in what would become a series of five games.  What are your thoughts on these games and on the market then compared to now?

Dave Gilbert: I am Blackwell Legacy’s biggest critic. It was the first game I wrote with the intention of selling commercially – The Shivah was originally freeware, so I don’t count it – and it shows every inch of my inexperience. The gameplay is clunky, the story is told in three giant infodumps, and the main characters weren’t very likable. But that said, I know with absolute certainty that it was the very best game I could have made with the experience, resources and time I had available. So I stand by it.

As for the market, everything is different. Back in 2006, indie games in general were a very new thing. Read the rest

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, who reported 81 new cases of the disease in her daily update, says there are 4,020 recovered and 1,963 active cases.

While the birds are is still listed as endangered in Canada and Alberta, the population has experienced a comeback in recent years.

The Shelburne Retirement Residence has been devastated by an outbreak of COVID-19, with 90 per cent of its residents becoming infected.

Mutations in retinaldehyde-binding protein 1 (RLBP1), encoding the visual cycle protein cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP), cause an autosomal recessive form of retinal degeneration. By binding to 11-cis-retinoid, CRALBP augments the isomerase activity of retinoid isomerohydrolase RPE65 (RPE65) and facilitates 11-cis-retinol oxidation to 11-cis-retinal. CRALBP also maintains the 11-cis configuration and protects against unwanted retinaldehyde activity. Studying a sibling pair that is compound heterozygous for mutations in RLBP1/CRALBP, here we expand the phenotype of affected individuals, elucidate a previously unreported phenotype in RLBP1/CRALBP carriers, and demonstrate consistencies between the affected individuals and Rlbp1/Cralbp−/− mice. In the RLBP1/CRALBP-affected individuals, nonrecordable rod-specific electroretinogram traces were recovered after prolonged dark adaptation. In ultrawide-field fundus images, we observed radially arranged puncta typical of RLBP1/CRALBP-associated disease. Spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) revealed hyperreflective aberrations within photoreceptor-associated bands. In short-wavelength fundus autofluorescence (SW-AF) images, speckled hyperautofluorescence and mottling indicated macular involvement. In both the affected individuals and their asymptomatic carrier parents, reduced SW-AF intensities, measured as quantitative fundus autofluorescence (qAF), indicated chronic impairment in 11-cis-retinal availability and provided information on mutation severity. Hypertransmission of the SD-OCT signal into the choroid together with decreased near-infrared autofluorescence (NIR-AF) provided evidence for retinal pigment epithelial cell (RPE) involvement. In Rlbp1/Cralbp−/− mice, reduced 11-cis-retinal levels, qAF and NIR-AF intensities, and photoreceptor loss were consistent with the clinical presentation of the affected siblings. These findings indicate that RLBP1 mutations are associated with progressive disease involving RPE atrophy and photoreceptor cell degeneration. In asymptomatic carriers, qAF disclosed previously undetected visual cycle deficiency.

The relationship wellness app is seeing a significant uptick in interest as couples are locked down together during the COVID-19 pandemic

Moacir Aloisio, Silas L. Carvalho and César R. de Oliveira
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 148 (2020), 2509-2523.
Abstract, references and article information

N. Arcozzi, K. Domelevo and S. Petermichl
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 148 (2020), 2433-2446.
Abstract, references and article information

McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) is a mosaic disorder arising from gain-of-function mutations in the GNAS gene, which encodes the 3', 5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pathway-associated G-protein, Gsα. Clinical manifestations of MAS in a given individual, including fibrous dysplasia, are determined by the timing and location of the GNAS mutation during embryogenesis, the tissues involved, and the role of Gsα in the affected tissues. The Gsα mutation results in dysregulation of the cAMP signaling cascade, leading to upregulation of phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4), which catalyzes the hydrolysis of cAMP. Increased cAMP levels have been found in vitro in both animal models of fibrous dysplasia and in cultured cells from individuals with MAS, but not in humans with fibrous dysplasia. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of PDE4 with ¹¹C-(R)-rolipram has been used successfully to study the in vivo activity of the cAMP cascade. To date, it remains unknown whether fibrous dysplasia and other symptoms of MAS, including neuropsychiatric impairments, are associated with increased PDE4 activity in humans. Methods: ¹¹C-(R)-rolipram whole-body and brain PET scans were performed in six individuals with MAS (three for brain scans and six for whole-body scans) and nine healthy controls (seven for brain scans and six for whole-body scans). Results: ¹¹C-(R)-rolipram binding correlated with known locations of fibrous dysplasia in the periphery of individuals with MAS; no uptake was observed in the bones of healthy controls. In peripheral organs and the brain, no difference in ¹¹C-(R)-rolipram uptake was noted between participants with MAS and healthy controls. Conclusion: This study is the first to find evidence for increased cAMP activity in areas of fibrous dysplasia in vivo. No differences in brain uptake between MAS participants and controls were detected, which could be due to several reasons, including the limited anatomic resolution of PET. Nevertheless, the results confirm the usefulness of PET scans with ¹¹C-(R)-rolipram to indirectly measure increased cAMP pathway activation in human disease.