Gloves Mittens that zip on

Biking as critical transport in a rustic with no dedication to it requires plenty of guts and plenty of nice gear. Through the years, I've gone by means of some huge cash and strife discovering that gear. Right here I profile solely the very best gear that has labored for me.

For wind and rain safety, I am going to focus on the highest down, then focus on the extremities. I am going to skip the top since I do not use greater than a helmet. In icy circumstances, I can see getting a canopy for the helmet however I did not want one whereas biking to work in snow on the 2010 Winter Olympic Video games in Whistler. I am going to additionally skip eyewear since I have never discovered any good technique to hold these clear within the rain apart from merely wiping every so often. Gloves Mittens that zip on

Torso: Jackets

For the torso, there are some nice choices. Nevertheless, it took some time to search out them. For years, skiers and hikers have had Gore-Tex: a fabric that will not let moisture in however will let moisture out. The good worth in that is to handle perspiration and rain on the identical time.

Having completed all three actions (biking, climbing, and snowboarding), I can safely say skiers and hikers by no means sweat as a lot as a bike owner. If breathability have been wanted anyplace, it's wanted in biking. On condition that, it's stunning how little or no breathable materials I've present in biking outerwear. As an alternative, I discover a lot of plain previous nylon jackets and pants with slightly little bit of elastic on the ends. The plain nylon outerwear tends to be a giant sweat manufacturing unit. Consequently, I keep away from it just like the plague with one exception.

Adjustable Jackets

The nylon jackets with detachable sleeves work fairly nicely. Clearly, having no sleeves is a good way to provide breathability. It clearly leaves you much less protected which issues drastically in actually chilly circumstances however I am going to get to an answer for that later. In most circumstances, a jacket with adjustable sleeves has met most of my wants for rain and wind safety.

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Amongst the detachable sleeve jackets, the very best I've seen is the Cannondale Morphis Shell. This jacket is head and shoulders above all the opposite detachable sleeve jackets as a result of it's so straightforward to detach and connect the sleeves. It's the solely considered one of its sort that I can do that whereas using. With different jackets, you may get the sleeves off whereas using however you can be onerous pressed to get them again on in any respect, a lot much less as straightforward as you'll with the Morphis.

Why? As a result of the Morphis makes use of magnets, sure magnets, to connect the sleeves as a substitute of zippers or velcro. These magnets break free extra shortly and simply the any fastener however, extra importantly, the magnets are self-attaching. If you end up able to re-attach the sleeves, you merely slide them on and the magnets discover one another like one thing out of a Transformer film.

The jacket is solely unimaginable. This type of speedy flexibility is simply what I would like whereas using in blended to dangerous climate. All the opposite jackets with detachable sleeves make you cease and futz within the rain to get the zippers, snaps, or velcro collectively however with the Morphis I detach and connect sleeves with impunity as circumstances change. It is superior.

The one difficulty is that the magnets go away area for air to get by means of the seams which will be a difficulty on very chilly days. Nevertheless, for these days you most likely do not want adjustable sleeves in any respect.

As superb because the Morphis shell is, having no sleeves clearly supplies no shelter for the arms. Consequently, I exploit this shell for reasonably chilly and comparatively dry days, windy days, or days the place I do not know what it is gonna do.

Breathable Jackets

For the actually critical storm, a full jacket with breathable materials is the best way to go. You have to actually search within the bike retailers however it's there. Within the breathable class, the very best I've discovered is the Endura Luminite Jacket. Along with being breathable it's tremendous seen. My buddy Johan and I actually worth visibility since we're actually not into untimely loss of life.

The jacket has a wealth or reflective materials throughout it and it is available in "day-glo" yellow. It even has a blinking pink LED gentle embedded within the jacket for added visibility. I've worn this on the worst sorts of days and never been wanting for the rest. It has velcro straps to shut the sleeves and a really excessive, cinchable, collar to maintain rain off your neck. I've even worn this crusing with passable outcomes.

Legs: Pants

Flexibility and breathability are enough for the highest of your physique. Nevertheless, in biking the motion is on the underside. For this, breathability and adaptability (zippers and stuff) are important however what is good is stretchability. To maintain issues easy, I am going to sidestep all this so long as potential and simply trip in rain in bike shorts till it will get beneath 50 levels fahrenheit. Beneath that, I am going to throw on some lengthy rain pants. Fortunately as of late, now you can discover lengthy rain pants which can be each breathable and stretchable.

One of the best I've seen of such a outerwear is the Sugoi Firewall Pant. These pants breathe and stretch fantastically. In addition they have a pleasant strengthened materials contained in the ankle the place you may work together with the crank and a zipper alongside the surface of the ankle to make them straightforward to slide over your sneakers.

Operating the zipper is a two-handed operation so you may't try this whilst you trip. Nevertheless, the one time I ever wish to do that's once I overlook to zip earlier than I get on the bike which is sort of my dangerous. The zipper is hard to zip due to the rubberizing round it so it's a function not a bug.

However, what actually makes these pants stand out is the reduce. These appear and feel like common pants. They've a matte end to the material so they do not replicate gentle on a regular basis like typical rubber rain gear. They even have two aspect pockets with zippers. The reduce across the leg is simply free sufficient to appear like regular pants however simply tight sufficient to not get caught in your chain. From a distance, if it weren't for some reflective graphics, you'd assume they have been slacks of some sort.

I really put on these pants for an evening out. Throw a dressier prime over your jersey and you will get previous the "Maître d'" at most eating places. You may nonetheless be slightly humorous wanting however as of late who is not?

Given this trend function, on prime of the excellent efficiency on the necessities, these pants stand out. With these in my pack I will be out with out worrying concerning the rain, chilly, and even the opportunity of dinner plans. Within the latter case, I can rework from a motorbike geek to a comparatively regular wanting patron in a few seconds. For extra on bike trend, take a look at Various Bicycle Trend.

Extremities

Final however definitely not least are extremities. I am going to begin with the toes. Initially let me set the context. If you're using with out clip-less pedals then you may clearly put on any sort of shoe which lets you decide any sort of safety you need so the feedback on footwear beneath are moot. You possibly can skip to gloves. Likewise, biking in snow can demand gear the place among the issues outlined beneath are irrelevant. However, what follows is my expertise retaining my toes dry or, at the very least, snug whereas utilizing clip-less pedals and sneakers.

Related Links:

https://vogloves.com/

https://www.saltypeaks.com/c-zip-gloves

Ft: Socks

With clip-less pedals, you might be clearly centered on pedaling efficiency which implies you might be already utilizing a shoe that's stiff and fairly nicely ventilated. This implies, that water goes to go proper into and out of the shoe continuously except you cowl it with one thing. Though, there are rain guards for biking sneakers, I've discovered the uncovered and moist situation is definitely high-quality supplied you have got the fitting socks.

I attempted the little booties that slip over the sneakers. They work nice however they aren't breathable so you may wind up with soaking wet toes from your personal perspiration. Additionally, if rain does get in there, it would not simply come out. Lastly, the booties are a little bit of a ache to get on. As a treatment, I attempted the "half-booty". These are barely simpler to get on however have been pointless within the rain and never a lot assist in the wind. That they had the inconvenience of full booty set up with none of the moisture safety. The rain merely went up and over the half-booty and into my shoe.

Consequently, I now exit with nothing particular on my sneakers however one thing particular on my toes. I put on gentle nylon socks. They get moist however they dry so shortly that they really feel fairly regular once I attain my vacation spot.

I even go away them on at work. The apparent exception not but coated is snow. If you're using in snow then all bets are off concerning perspiration. In that case, the total booties are the best way to go. I am keen on the socks like these by DeFeet. They're low cost, they give the impression of being nice in enterprise or biking sneakers, and so they dry super-quick.

Fingers: Gloves

For the fingers, I exploit two choices. If I am commuting, then eventually I will want plenty of finger dexterity to get my metro card out or cash or one thing. I have never discovered a full glove but that does that nicely however I did not too long ago discover these cool mittens with a quick-release finger flap.

The finger compartment slides off whenever you want your fingers. Very cool when fumbling on your metro go in a commuter line. The one difficulty has been that these slip a bit on my brake handles. I purchased them at a runners store so they aren't designed for biking. In any other case, these are completely cool. Some biking glove vendor must take be aware.

For a daily chilly trip, I exploit Pearl Izumi full-fingered gloves. Very good dexterity. I may even run a wise telephone contact display with them. The one bummer has been the netting within the palm tears simply throughout a crash and the gel pads fall out. Nevertheless, most gloves do not final lengthy when sliding on asphalt. Regardless, I forgive this as a result of they really feel so good the remainder of the time.

This gear is not the most affordable however I feel it's the greatest. Once more, I've wasted plenty of money and time making an attempt to stint. Ultimately, I wound up with these things and now I do not assume twice about going out on any kind of day. The gear retains me completely dry and/or snug year-round. If biking goes to change into a critical type of transport, gear like that is what it'll take.

Related Topics:

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“Life Doesn’t Have to be Perfect. It Just Has to be Lived.” | Blog

It’s been a very boring day for the most part, but also a very relaxing day. Well, about as relaxing as a day spent with a headache can be. I started off my day with the perfectly disturbed 83′ film, Angst. I’m hoping to do a full post on the film later, as in my mind, for any fan of horror, this is truly a must see. 

After Angst ended I decided to go for something less intense and decided to unwind in the world of Rob Zombie’s “31″ again. Due to the recent discussion in Dreadit over Sheri Moon Zombie, it was one of the motivating reasons for me to revisit the film. Bluntly speaking, I’m not the biggest Sheri Moon fan. When it comes to the films she’s been in (that I’ve seen), I can’t say she’s the best fit for every role she’s been casted in, but in the realm of RZ movies she’s part of the package, so there’s truly no point in bitching. I will say I absolutely enjoy her as Baby Firefly; enough to name one of my dogs “Baby” at least (RIP you cute fluffball).   Now, here I sit, browsing forums, Tumblr, refreshing Facebook a million times - bored. 

Getting to the chase, this “what I did today” post wasn’t intended to be so. It was intended to be a Dexter appreciation post since it’s that time to binge the series for the millionth time. 

There’s been multiple discussions about whether Showtime’s series “Dexter” is actually horror or not. Most people go by only what it’s described as on IMDB, and stand strong that it’s only a drama, or crime series. I agree. It is a drama. It is a crime series. It’s also a horror.  

What about a psychopath who has the constant urge to kill since youth isn’t horror? Is that only considered horror when it’s Michael Myers? What about a man being haunted (using that term loosely) by his deceased father telling him what to do in his plot to murder people isn’t horror? What about hunting down another human being with the intention of capturing them, drugging them, then waiting for them to wake up naked and restrained on a slab before you murder them isn’t horrifying? Sure, those being caught are murderers themselves, but that doesn’t make the point moot. Dexter "plays” with his subjects, just as much as they “play” with him. All the while everyone around Dexter, unknowing of his double life, are interacting with a man who butchers humans and considers himself doing the world a service (which is debatable). Dexter is very much a horror series. Just because there’s more shit than blood and guts going on in it, doesn’t mean it isn’t. 

Only just right now in this repeat playthrough of mine am I on episode four (which is playing while I type this) of season one. Knowing what lies ahead, it’s quite bittersweet. I don’t want to see certain people go again. I definitely don’t want to see that painful for all the wrong reasons eighth season. (Seriously, Showtime, ya did the Dexter fanbase dirty with that one.) Mostly, I don’t want to go through that inevitable moral struggle of relating to Dexter all over again. 

Michael C. Hall does a spot on job with his representation of Dexter Morgan. The complexity of the character at hand, a man who self-diagnosed himself as “having no emotion”, as well as feels confused, frightened by any emotion he encounters, is no small feat for an actor to master when it’s changing at the flip of a switch. The only other person in a Showtime series to make a master craft out of a constantly changing persona would be Toni Colette in United States of Tara. (One of the reasons why she excelled in Hereditary.)  Hall’s portrayal of the show’s antagonist, the show’s “monster hunting monster”, in the midst of the never resting city of Miami is as surreal as it is pleasing to watch.

There’s plenty of characters to lighten the mood of the show, providing dark comedy or just a stellar on screen performance, that compliment Dexter’s daytime acting job, such as his foul mouthed sister Deb Morgan, and coworkers Masuka, Batista, and LaGuerta, not to mention the meme spawning portrayal of Erik King as Doakes. The most intriguing of these characters (imo) being the one who knows Dexter in and out, and despite passing on has never left his side. I’m referring to James Remar as Harry Morgan, Dexter’s father; the man who, for better or worse, sculpted our character into the person he is today.  Harry trained Dexter how to deal with his urge to kill, what to watch out for, as well as how to “be normal” or “fit in”. Even after dying ten years prior to the first season, Harry constantly interacts with Dexter throughout the series providing advice to his son no matter if Dexter is willing to listen or not. Whether you consider his way of addressing his son’s issue, his homicidal tendencies, as him being a good father or not, is another discussion for another time. However, I think we all agree that outside of Dexter, Harry is the most spellbinding, peculiar character throughout the entire series. 

It’s about time I wrap this up. 

If you haven’t seen Dexter, watch it. It’s a genuinely intriguing show and features some phenomenal work from actors both mentioned and unmentioned (shout out to John Lithgow as Arthur, season four). With Dexter’s daytime job as a forensics crew member, the constant hopping around from crime scene to crime scene provides many demented yet beautiful scenes for you to gawk at and look forward to each season. Depending on how you look at it, each killer throughout the series is twistedly brilliant in their own right, just as Dexter is. It’s absolutely fascinating getting to go on both the hunt with Dexter, as well as take a trip into the mindset of those he’s hunting.  It’s worth repeating; if you haven’t seen Dexter, it’s on Netflix, it’s on Hulu, go watch it. If you’re more of a reader, the series was based of the books by Jeff Lindsay. 

Now, this!

By Dr. Joan Cartwright

Jazz journalist Lara Pellegrinelli’s recent article Women in Jazz: Blues and The Objectifying Truth (2017), commiserated on the marginalization of women musicians in the Jazz/Blues genre, stating that the cultural assumption is that women are merely the passive vessels for male sounds (Pellegrinelli, 2017).

In response to Pellegrinelli, Terri Lynn Carrington said: When I started teaching and hearing the stories of the young women at the college, . . . I realized just because my experience was not the same as theirs, I am a part of this community and have to work toward or fight for change in any possible way that I can.  I feel great ownership in this art form and know that I belong here, and want my female students to feel the same way.

In a Huffington Post article, Carrington wrote, “On issues of racism and sexism, there can be impatience from progressives, expecting that after all this time everyone should just know better and stand on the correct side of consciousness” (Carrington, 2017).  She continued with, “feminizing or masculinizing music can be counter-productive. The studying, composing, and performing of music should be gender neutral, and I think the greatest musicians are musically ‘gender fluid’.”

I do not agree with Carrington’s statement because I have found few Jazz musicians, and certainly even fewer Classical musicians, who are willing to push forward music composed by women musicians.  My fortune was that Freddie Hubbard recorded my composition Sweet Return in 1983 on Atlantic Records.  Even though his half-German wife, the publisher, did everything in her power to stop the progress of this album because she felt there was something romantic between Freddie and me, which there was not, that composition made it into the Freddie Hubbard Song Book, much to my surprise.  Since then, I have had no other opportunities to get my music performed or recorded by any gender fluid musician, even though I have gifted several male musicians, band leaders, and arrangers with my song book.

In Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music (1970), Frank Kofsky expounded on the words of Professor Archie Shepp, an articulate spokesperson for African-Americans. Shepp said, “the United States is culturally backward because white Americans have been unwilling to give credit to African-Americans as innovators of jazz, which he refers to as American realty – total reality.”  Shepp contends that whites “think they have a right to jazz instead of being grateful for jazz as a gift that the Negro has given.”  He said even white Americans in the jazz world “deny that jazz is first and foremost a black art created and nurtured by black people in this country out of the wealth of their historical experience” (Cartwright, 2009, p. 56).

For three centuries or more, white men have used the physical and cultural production of Africans in America to enrich themselves and their families while white women reaped the benefits in silence. White men raped African women, continually, producing a whole new group of people who were sold regardless of their relationship to their white fathers. The transition from cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane to jazz and blues as a money-making venture was as smooth as Smooth Jazz! Festivals and clubs around the world raked in millions of dollars while disowning the very people that the music came from. White musicians and educators dot the halls of conservatories and universities where jazz is taught by rote just like the classical music that issued from European concert halls.

Now, this – white women are complaining that they are marginalized in the world of Jazz. What a surprise. These same white women and their foremothers never found it odd that the music that spoke of freedom for Africans enslaved in America has become the popular music of today, without the input of African musicians.  A survey of jazz educators will result in a very low number of African professors at universities with Jazz Departments.  Professor Archie Shepp at Amherst, Dr. Larry Ridley at Rutgers, Dr. Karlton Hester at UCLA San Diego, Dr. Linda Williams at Southern University, and the handful of African-descent professors at Berklee – Terri Lynn Carrington, Patrice Rushen, and the late Geri Allen do not comprise a long list of instructors that teach the music that actually came out of their communities.

Do white people have a right to perform and teach Jazz and Blues music? This question is moot since white people believe they have a right to appropriate EVERYTHING FROM EVERYBODY and that no one should ever say anything about it in the negative.  Well, my book A History of African-American Jazz and Blues (Cartwright, 2009) discusses how The Music was appropriated, packaged, commercialized, and serendipitously stolen from its originators.  Besides the theft of the publishing royalties of great composers like Duke Ellington by publishers like Irving Mills, who managed Duke’s band for 13 years because African musicians could not belong to ASCAP or manage themselves outside of TOBA, Jazz and Blues musicians of African-descent were exploited in every way possible.

Of course, like cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane crops, Jazz and Blues were new crops that white men felt entitled to exploit to their personal benefit.  Musicians of African descent had no choice because they were barred from owning anything that they produced in the United States. Most prolific musicians died pennilessly and their families rarely benefitted from their cultural production. The following excerpt attests to that fact.

The financial pressures were exacerbated by another familiar pressure which had afflicted jazz musicians right from the start of the music – their reliance on the largely white businessmen who ran the clubs, record companies, management and booking agencies, and, most significantly, music publishing. The shaving of bands’ fees by clubowners and agents, and the practice of managers and agents adding their names to the publishing rights of tunes – and thereby claiming a share of their often lucrative proceeds – had begun early in jazz (Duke Ellington’s manager, Irving Mills, is a famous example, and while Ellington himself was never slow to claim a co-credit on works instigated by his sidemen, at least he had a musical hand in them) and, according to Dizzy, had grown no better by the time of the bebop era.

People with enough bucks and foresight to invest in bebop made some money. I mean more than just a little bit. All the big money went to the guys who owned the music, not to the guys who played it. The businessmen made much more than the musicians, because without the money to invest in producing their own music, and sometimes managing poorly what they earned, the modern jazz musicians fell victim to the forces of the market. Somehow, the jazz businessman always became the owner and got back more than his fair share, usually at the player’s expense. More was stolen from us during the bebop era than in the entire history of jazz . . . (Mathieson, 1999).

So, for white women to declare that they are barred, unfairly, from making a living in the Jazz scene is ludicrous.  White men have maintained control over the cultural production of Africans and they have no intention of relinquishing that control.  The rub is that African men will embrace white women musicians far more readily than they will women of African descent with a few exceptions like Dexter Gordon and Melba Liston.  However, Regina Carter and Teri Lynn Carrington managed to eke out a place in The Music for themselves and their art.

But most women of African descent who appeared on the Jazz scene, until recently, were shoved in a corner, rarely to be heard from.  Some of the most profound of those women were Vi Redd, Jeannie Cheatham, Dorothy Donegan, and Trudy Pitts.  Other talented musicians, like Shirley Scott and Hazel Scott, found favor because they had notable husbands – Shirley and Stanley Turrentine and Hazel and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.  Today, Mimi Jones, Shirazette Tinnin, Lakecia Benjamin, Camille Thurman, Jazmin Ghent, Gail Jhonson, Karen Briggs, and Esperanza Spaulding are making some headway.

Meanwhile, white women are courted by musicians of African descent with valor and pleasure.  For instance, Christian McBride partnered with Diana Krall and Prince endorsed Candy Dulfer (and the two white women in his band).  Perhaps, white women can pay to gain credibility by recording and performing with African-American musicians, while women of African descent cannot make that monetary layout.

As far as sexual harassment is concerned, what is it that white women do not understand about the sexual energy of white men who raped African women during slavery, while their white wives languished in plantation mansions?  Today, white men are being called out in great numbers for sexually harassing women in the workplace.  This is their modus operandi.  Is that to say that African men do not rape and sexually harass?  Heaven’s no.  It is the nature of man to hunt women like prey.

My career as a Jazz/Blues vocalist and composer spanned 50 years.  I remember several instances when I was targeted by male musicians.  However, I was able to extricate myself from the situation or rationalize why that happened.  One white man told me to take my clothing off.  When I refused, he told me I would never be anything but a secretary.  I asked him to call me a cab and went on to have a charmed career, performing in 20 countries on five continents, without ever taking my clothes off for one single opportunity to perform or record.

Maybe I am a very strong woman with principles that do not allow me to cave into the taunting of males.  One of my band members suggested that I engage in fellatio with him in a closet at a New Years’ Eve gig that I hired him for.  I did not speak to him for two years after that and I never hired him again.  Women have recourse.  Sniveling about sexual harassment without speaking out about it means nothing.  It’s a man’s world only because women allow it to be that.

Women fail to create camaraderie amongst themselves.  For 10 years, I have been the director of a non-profit organization that promotes and advocates for women musicians.  It is like pulling teeth to get women to support this organization.  They think that supporting Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. detracts from who they are.  Women are not joiners or supporters unless they think they will get something from an organization.  They expect me to be their agent, to get them gigs, to promote them even though they refuse to pay $50 dues per year.  That’s insane.

I spent the last six years writing my dissertation Women in Jazz: Music Publishing and Marketing. My research showed that women lack sufficient business skills to succeed in the monstrously competitive world of Jazz.  Most women musicians resign themselves to teaching rather than concentrating on branding, networking, teamwork, negotiation, and accounting.  Few are adept at writing grant proposals to win financial awards to produce and perform original music.

Then, there are those that know my organization exists but minimalize it because I am not a white woman.  Well, Blues and Jazz came from the experience of African women and men in America, and just because white musicians think they own it, they never will.  They may play all the riffs and copy all the solos of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Marylou Williams, Hazel Scott, Melba Liston, and other prolific Jazzwomen but they will never understand the burden that led to the expression of the Blues and, subsequently, Jazz.

White people harm each other – yes – but the harm they did to Africans in America was counteracted by the Blues and Jazz and they can never understand the full meaning of that because they are unwilling to give credit to African-Americans as innovators of jazz, which [Shepp referred] to as ‘American realty – total reality.’  As Shepp contended, whites ‘think they have a right to jazz’ instead of being grateful for jazz as a ‘gift that the Negro has given.’  He said even white Americans in the jazz world ‘deny that jazz is first and foremost a black art created and nurtured by black people in this country out of the wealth of their historical experience’ (Mathieson, 1999).

References

Carrington, T.L. (2017).  Sexism in jazz: Being agents of change. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sexism-in-jazz-agents-of-change_us_58ebfab1e4b0ca64d9187879

Cartwright, J.  (2009).  A history of African-American jazz and blues. FYI Communications, Inc. (www.lulu.com/spotlight/divajc)

Cartwright, J. (2017). Women in Jazz: Music Publishing and Marketing. FYI Communications, Inc. (www.lulu.com/spotlight/divajc)

Mathieson, K. (1999). Giant steps: Bebop and the creators of modern jazz, 1945-65. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books

Pelligrinelli, L. (2017).  Women in jazz: Blues and the objectifying truth. Retrieved from https://nationalsawdust.org/thelog/2017/12/12/women-in-jazz-blues-and-the-objectifying-truth/#comment-5707

Dr. Joan Cartwright is a Jazz/Blues vocalist, composer, and author of books on Jazz and Blues and Women in Jazz and Blues. She is the founder of Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes and advocates for women musicians, globally! www.wijsf.org

  Now this! Now, this! By Dr. Joan Cartwright Jazz journalist Lara Pellegrinelli’s recent article Women in Jazz: Blues and The Objectifying Truth…

Fluid Shifts Before, During and After Prolonged Space Flight and Their Association with Intracranial Pressure and Visual Impairment (Fluid Shifts): The third 49S crewmember performed their second day of the Flight Day 45 Day (FD45) Fluid Shifts operations in the Russian Service Module (SM).  The subject donned the Chibis device, and while the crewmember was exposed to the negative pressure (pulling the fluid feetward), the operator, with remote guidance from Houston, performed arterial and venous measurements of the head and neck; cardiac, ophthalmic, and portal vein measurements; and tissue thickness of various body parts using the Human Research Facility (HRF) ultrasound. The crew then deconfigured the ultrasound, and configured the Cerebral and Cochlear Fluid Pressure (CCFP) and Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAE) for tomorrow’s operations. Fluid Shifts investigates the causes for severe and lasting physical changes to astronaut’s eyes. Because the headward fluid shift is a hypothesized contributor to these changes, reversing this fluid shift with a lower body negative pressure device is investigated as a possible intervention. Results from this study may help to develop preventative measures against lasting changes in vision and eye damage. Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) Sample Installation:  Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) ELF is located in the Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR)-2.  On Wednesday, the crew performed an ELF Sample Holder removal and then ground teams were able to perform a checkout.  Today the crew installed an ELF Sample Holder.  This cartridge sample will provide science capability for ground teams to evaluate.  The ELF is an experimental facility designed to levitate/melt/solidify materials by containerless processing techniques using the Electrostatic Levitation method. With this facility, thermophysical properties of high temperature melts can be measured, and solidification from deeply undercooled melts can be achieved. Veg-03 Initiation: After reviewing On-Board Training (OBT) materials, the crew initiated the next in the series of plant growth experiments in the Veggie facility.  The crew configured and installed the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) and then installed six Small Plant Pillows to hold the Chinese Cabbage plants. The overall goal of Veg-03 is to further demonstrate proof-of concept for the Veggie plant growth chamber and the planting pillows. Future long-duration missions into the solar system, finally culminating on Mars, will require a fresh food supply to supplement crew diets, which means growing crops in space. Previous investigations focused on improving productivity in controlled environments, but the limited quarters of the Space Shuttle and ISS made it difficult to conduct large-scale crop production tests. Veg-03 expands on previous validation tests of the new Veggie hardware, which crew members have used to successfully grow flowers and lettuce in space. Tests determine which types of microorganisms are present in space-grown cabbage, providing baseline data for future crop-growing efforts. Behavioral health surveys assess the impact of growing plants on crew morale and mood. Improved Payload Ethernet Hub Gateway (iPEHG) Installation:  The crew installed an iPEHG into Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station (ExPRESS) Rack-7 (ER-7). The iPEHG is a component of the ISS’s Joint Station Local Area Network (JSL) and provides switched Ethernet full-duplex network data communication between International Standard Payload Racks (ISPR) devices, ExPRESS Rack devices, the JSL Edge Routers (ER), and a fiber optic High Rate Data Link (HRDL) Gateway to the High Rate Communications System (HRCS).  Ground activation and checkout was completed successfully.  External (EXT) Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) Checkout: Last week, the crew configured a new Enhanced Processor and Integrated Communications (EPIC) EXT MDM by removing two circuit cards from a donor MDM and installing them, plus an additional spare card, into the spare EXT MDM.  The MDM Front Cover was then exchanged for an EXT MDM Ethernet Cover. Today, the crew used the MDM On Orbit Tester (MOOT) to perform a checkout of the new MDM configuration. EPIC MDMs feature faster processors, increased memory, and an Ethernet port for data output, allowing for the simultaneous operation of a greater number of experiments.  The upgraded EXT MDM is scheduled to be installed during a future EVA.  Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Overnight, the Robotics Ground Controllers maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to stow the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) on Mobile Base System (MBS) Power Data Grapple Fixture 2 (PDGF2).  Then the SSRMS was walked off MBS PDGF1 onto MBS PDGF3.  In this configuration, with Latching End Effector B (LEE-B) as the Base LEE and LEE-A as the Tip LEE, troubleshooting was performed to help determine the cause of the Binary Data Transfer (BDT) errors received late last year during the HTV-6 Exposed Pallet (EP) extraction and transfer to the Payload ORU Accommodation (POA).  The anomaly appears to be within the SSRMS and is present when LEE A is the tip and payload power is being applied while operating on Channel A.  At the completion of the troubleshooting, the SSRMS was walked back off MBS PDGF3 onto MBS, the SPDM was unstowed and the SSRMS and SPDM were configured for the Mobile Transporter (MT) translation from Worksite 2 (WS2) to WS5, which was then completed this afternoon in preparation for HTV6 Operations. Integrated Communications Unit (ICU) R3 Software Patch:  The ground team uplinked and installed the ICU R3 Patch 3 utilizing the generic ICU Software Load Procedure, This software patch specifically updates the Real Time Flow (RTF) Single Board Computers (SBC) within the ICU to support the upcoming installation of the new Edge Router replacement next year. The software patch works with both the current Edge Router and it’s replacement.  Today’s Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. FLUID SHIFTS. Comm configuration for the experiment FLUID SHIFTS. Gathering and Connecting Equipment for TV coverage Fine Motor Skills Experiment Test – Subject FLUID SHIFTS. OCT Hardware setup in SM Inventory Management System (IMS) conference XF305 Camcorder Setup Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) Sample Holder installation Life On The Station Photo and Video FLUID SHIFTS. Connecting OCT Laptop to BRI and HRF PC to ППС-26 Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) […] from ISS On-Orbit Status Report http://go.nasa.gov/2k8bLDF