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The Margay (Leoparduswiedii), like its cousin the Oncilla, is a rare and elusive small spotted cat that lives in the remote parts of the rainforest. Their range runs from Central to South America; Mexico south to Uruguay and Argentina. They are similar to the Ocelot in appearance and in some areas are known as the “Climbing Ocelot”. The Margay differs from the Ocelot as the head is shorter, the eyes are larger, and the tail and legs are longer. Margay fur is brown with numerous rows of tan or black rosette and longitudinal stripes; in the neck area they are reversed. The belly is pale and the tail is banded and tipped black.
Margays are nocturnal and solitary creatures. They are good jumpers and climbers. They are one of two cat species that can rotate their ankle joints to climb down a tree head first (the other is the Cloud Leopard which only exists in the Himalayas in Asia). Margays may spend much of their lives in trees, though they come down to the ground to cross wide areas. In the trees they hunt birds, monkeys, tree frogs, lizards, eggs and other small mammals. It is said that they use auditory mimicry to lure prey.
Margays breed year round; one to two kittens are born per pregnancy. The kits are weaned eight weeks from birth and by this time they also know how to hunt small prey like insects, frogs and lizards. Kits need to be independent quickly as they are easily preyed on. Margays are sexually mature by two years old. Because they are so rare Margays were once thought to be extinct in parts of their range. The IUCN has now reassessed their population status and they are listed as near threatened. CITES lists the species as Appendix I.
Rain forests are rich in biodiversity and are home to many different plants and animals as well as indigenous communities. Humans, even those who don’t live in the rain forest, rely on it for resources such as building materials (wood and lianas), medicine and fruits. Rain forests also provide essential environmental services for life on earth; they create soil as well as prevent soil erosion, produce oxygen though photosynthesis, maintain clean water systems, and are a key defence against climate change.
The Iwokrama Rain Forest is 371,000 hectares, located in the heart of Guyana. Our mission is to develop strategies for conservation and sustainable development for local people in Guyana and the world at large. We are involved in timber, tourism and training. Come and visit us in the rain forest or at http://www.iwokrama.org.
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Poppy is one of the most important medicinal plants. Traditionally, the dry opium was considered an astringent, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, diaphoretic, expectorant, hypnotic, narcotic, and sedative. Poppy has been used against toothaches and coughs. The ability of opium from poppy to serve, as an analgesic is well known. Opium and derivatives of opium are used in the pharmaceutical industry as narcotic analgesics, hypnotics, and sedatives. These compounds are also used as antidiarrheal, antispasmodics, and antitussives. Opium and the drugs derived from opium are addictive and can have toxicological effects.
-The poppy has had a tremendous impact on several societies as an opiate. Currently, there is interest in developing a poppy plant rich in thebaine and low in morphine as the former could be converted to codeine and other legal pharmaceutical products with less morphine available for illegal conversion into heroin.
- valerian is well known for its sedative and restorative affects on the nervous system, and is widely used in herbal and allopathic medicines. Its roots have been used for sleep problems (insomnia). Valerian has many useful properties including being a hypotensive, a carminative, a emmenagogue, an anti-spasmodic, and a nerve relaxant. Valerian influences the cerebral-spinal system and has a sedative effect for conditions such as St. Vitus's dance, neuralgic pains, and allaying pain and promoting sleep without the aftereffects of narcotics.
-For the short summery, the foxglove plant is used as a heart medicine. Its main component ‘’digoxin’’ is a poison that has drastic effects on the heart. Eaten the raw leaves WILL land you in a coffin. Digitoxins have been used from early times in heart cases. It increases the activity of all forms of muscle tissue, but more especially that of the heart and arterioles, the all-important property of the...
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BiorhythmΩ - Tips for your future
iOS iPhone Healthcare & Fitness
▷ Biorhythm can be applied to all people..
◉ How about your biorhythm today?
If you don’t feel very well today, most of all please check your biorhythm.
It is better to avoid immoderate activity if your biorhythm is not good. Because it perhaps makes something bad happen.
◉ Give advice for your future.
It is well known fact that celebrities who experienced an accident had been the worst biorhythm. Is it purely accidental?
◉ It provides values over general graph.
◦ Exact data which selects official algorithm.
◦ Delicate and easy biorhythm graph
◦ Sending biorhythm by e-mail or SMS
◦ Convenient managing in many users
◦ Additional function which is differentiated service from other biorhythm apps
◦ Easy use whoever or whenever or wherever
◦ Advice and plan for future condition
◉ What is biorhythm?
Biorhythm is defined as three types of physiological phenomenon cycle which is composed of physical, emotional, and intellectual. There is an opinion that three cycles are repeated with regular pattern based on birthday, and activity effectiveness or capability depends on combination of pattern.
In the nineteenth century, it was summarized by Wilhelm Fliess in Germany. Dr. Alfred Teltscher in Austria had researched for his five thousand students and supplemented intuitive rhythm in 1923.
The followings are four types of rhythm cycle and calculation methods.
d = Survival days
Physical rhythm : sin(2π d / 23)
Emotional rhythm : sin(2π d / 28)
Intellectual rhythm : sin(2π d / 33)
Intuitive rhythm : sin(2π d / 38)
Each rhythm is expressed by the range from -100 to 100 values.
Low depression range: from -100 to -1
High mania: from 1 to 100
Dangerous point: The points that (+) converts to (-) or (-) converts to (+), That is the value of 0
◉ Main function
• Display of four types rhythm in user with values and graphs.
• Inquiry of immediately changed date
• Analysis function and interconnection
• Sending biorhythm by e-mail or message
• Searching and managing of list of many users
• Biorhythm graph screen and interconnection
• Biorhythm list of 31 days amount
• Extraction function of date in each condition
• Analysis of capability using biorhythm
• Average value calculation for biorhythm in more than two persons
• Explanation for each rhythm
• Explanation of manual summary
• Inquiry to developer
• If you have any other further questions, please use e-mail function of the app.
Add an image attachment function in the biorhythm send message (iOS7 or later)
Optimization and stabilization in iOS 9.x
Minor bug fixes
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His master’s voice? Maybe. His master’s face? Definitely.
Dogs can spot their owners’ faces not only in person but in photographs, too, according to a new study that scratches another item — photo recognition — off the list of abilities we previously thought only humans have.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland tested dogs’ reactions to random snaps of their owners, mixed in with mug shots of complete strangers and of other dogs. The test pups consistently gazed longer and more intently at the pictures of people they know, according to findings just published in the journal “Animal Cognition.”
But more than anything, they preferred looking at photos of other dogs, the researchers found.
Past studies have established that dogs distinguish a person in their presence in part by looking directly at the person’s face, and that they also study facial cues — just like humans do — for signs of mood and receptivity.
The Helsinki study took recognition one step further by exposing pooches to multiple photos and measuring the animals’ eye movements as well as the direction and the duration of their focus on each image.
The dogs zeroed in on pictures of familiar faces more decisively, and looked at them longer — even when those pictures were shown upside down, the study found.
But no photographs of humans, however beloved by the test subjects, interested them as much pictures of other dogs, the study found.
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Scientists can sometimes get away with approximations. What's a few million years when you're calculating the age of the cosmos? But engineers need precision.
They cannot reliably make what they cannot measure. And in the world of nanotechnology, where a billionth of a meter can make a huge difference, they've had a tough time. Now they're beginning to get some help.
Three recently reported achievements show how researchers finally are mastering the exquisite precision needed when devices are built atom by atom.
For example, MIT scientists have come up with a tool to make what they call "the world's most precise rulers - with 'ticks' only a few hundred billionths of a meter apart." It can lay out a grate of lines and spaces across a large semiconductor wafer with unprecedented speed.
Tracing such patterns with precise control over areas 12 inches or more across "has bedeviled labs around the world," says Mark Schattenburg, whose team at the MIT Space Nanotechnology Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., developed the tool. He expects this new level of precision to help chipmakers do a much better job of laying down the tiny circuitry that could lead to even smaller and more powerful computer chips.
Equally important, it should boost the ability of astronomical gratings to reveal cosmic secrets, such as the temperatures and chemical compositions of far-away stars and planets. That's because Dr. Schattenburg's Nanoruler can measure with an accuracy of less than one nanometer - one billionth of a meter - while the wavelengths of light are several hundred nanometers long. So the spaces between lines on one of his grids can easily be set to light wavelengths. When they are, the grating spreads that light into a spectrum of colors that reflects the composition and temperature of the light source.
Meanwhile, David Pritchard at the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms has given students of the very small a leg up on an important, century-old quest: the precise mass of atoms.
Scientists have pursued this by carefully measuring how an electrically charged atom or molecule - called an ion - orbits in a magnetic field. Its motions under the magnetic force reveal its mass. Researchers have pushed the precision of such measurement from 1 part in 1,000 to a few parts in 100 million during the past century. Dr. Pritchard and his co-workers now have raised that precision to a few parts per trillion.
They have done it by learning to work with two ions at a time. In previous attempts, interactions between two ions were difficult to test because they interfered with each other. Pritchard's team learned how to place the ions so they balanced - rather than interfered - with each other.
Nanotechnologists also need better ways to observe what they are doing, for instance, when they grow and study tiny fibers of carbon. The fibers grow with help from a catalyst that allows carbon to precipitate from a hydrocarbon such as methane. Though nanotechnologists have been able to grow the fibers, they didn't know what was going on until a Danish team used a new microscope and published tiny, play-by-play images in a recent issue of Nature.
Stig Helveg at the Haldor Topsøe company and colleagues at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby employed a microscope that uses electrons rather than light to form the images. These show how the catalyst for the reaction - nickel crystals 5 to 20 nanometers in diameter - grew the fiber.
The unsuspected key to the fiber growth was the ability of the crystal to rapidly change shape from spherical to elongated and back to spherical. Technologists need to know such things if they are to grow carbon nanofibers on an industrial scale.
As nanotechnology evolves from lab curiosity to industrial process, engineers will need even more instruments that can measure the scale of tiny phenomena.
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Fact Sheet 2013–3027
Alaska’s position within migratory bird flyways of the Pacific Basin.
Environmental health is defined by connections between the physical environment, ecological health, and human health. Current research within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recognizes the importance of this integrated research philosophy, which includes study of disease and pollutants as they pertain to wildlife and humans. Due to its key geographic location and significant wildlife resources, Alaska is a critical area for future study of environmental health.
Alaska as a Crossroads
Alaska is an international crossroads for millions of migratory birds that journey each spring from wintering areas in Asia, South America, and Oceania. Populations of fish and marine mammals come to Alaska after migrating through Pacific and Arctic Oceans. These intercontinental migratory links could play an important role in the transmission of diseases that affect wildlife and humans. Key coastal areas offer breeding and stopover sites that are ideal settings for exchange of foreign and resident pathogens.
Environmental health research at the Alaska Science Center focuses on
Scientific information from this research is used to inform decision-making by wildlife management and human health agencies.
Climate Change and Environmental Health
Climate change is predicted to increase the distribution, spread, and virulence of some infectious diseases. Arctic environments face rapid and dramatic changes that include loss of sea ice, permafrost degradation, wetland drying, and related alterations in nutrient cycling. Pathogens in these areas are expected to respond quickly to new environmental challenges and opportunities. Additionally, the detection of relatively high levels of contaminants in the Arctic raises concern about the effects of local and global pollution on humans and wildlife. As a result, certain Arctic wildlife species have been recognized as valuable sentinels of anthropogenic change.
Black-capped chickadee with a deformed beak. Photograph taken by John DeLapp.
The USGS Alaska Science Center
With more than 30 years of ecological research in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions and a state-of-the-art molecular genetics facility, the Alaska Science Center is uniquely positioned to respond to new and existing issues in wildlife disease and environmental health. Long-term research and monitoring programs focus on a diversity of species including resident and migratory birds, caribou, fish, sea otters, polar bears, and walrus and provide important baseline information about the health of Alaskan wildlife. Ecological data are integrated with surveillance efforts to provide a better understanding of the connections between climate change, disease, and demographic impacts on wildlife populations. This information is valuable to community, state, and federal partners, such as the Climate, Ecosystems and Human Health Work Group, an inter-agency group that addresses the effects of climate change on human health in Alaska.
Emerging Diseases and Climate Change
A mature blood parasite Haemoproteus nettionis.
A polar bear with hair loss (alopecia) along its neck. The bear was captured by USGS scientists using the immobilizing drug Telazol.
High latitude regions are responding rapidly to climate warming and the resulting changes are expected to influence the spread of infectious diseases. Expanded ranges of host wildlife, shifts in phenology, and changes in environmental conditions may result in transfer of pathogens to new areas and to potentially naïve populations. Preliminary evidence suggests that changes in pathogen distribution and abundance in the Arctic are already underway. However, due in part to the remoteness of the area and its challenging environmental conditions, knowledge about wildlife disease in Alaska is limited. Scientists at the Alaska Science Center work in remote field locations throughout Alaska and have the opportunity to identify wildlife and environmental health issues as they emerge.
Greater white-fronted geese on the Arctic Coastal Plain.
Environmental contaminants threaten the health of wildlife and humans in the Arctic. Pollutants from lower latitude sources travel by large-scale atmospheric transport, driven by global wind and water currents, to the Arctic. Climate warming and increased anthropogenic activities, such as those related to mining and other natural resource extraction, may contribute to overall contaminant burdens. Some of these compounds persist in the environment for many years and accumulate in living organisms, especially in high trophic level predators like marine mammals. Contaminants in subsistence foods are of particular concern as many indigenous Alaskans rely on traditional sources of meat, fish, and berries. The Alaska Science Center is working with partners to measure levels of nutrients and contaminants in physical and biological samples and to evaluate potential effects on wildlife.
Movement and Transmission of Pathogens
Blue-winged teal in Texas. Inset shows avian influenza virus.
Both large- and small-scale animal movements have important implications for pathogen distribution. Research on the migration of waterfowl and other avian species plays a key role in evaluating potential routes of disease transport by wild birds. The emergence a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus that causes severe illness in birds and humans has heightened concerns about the potential role of wild birds in the transfer of disease between flyways. More than 2 million individuals of 94 species migrate to Alaska from Asia each spring. Recent studies by the Alaska Science Center demonstrated that migratory pathways of avian hosts could serve as links between H5N1 influenza outbreak sites in Asia and breeding areas of birds in Alaska. Waterfowl sampled in Alaska carried viruses with Asian-origin genes, and some of these viruses were transferred across multiple species.
Tundra swans on Alaskan breeding grounds.
Research also has demonstrated that low-pathogenic strains of avian influenza viruses may overwinter in Alaskan wetlands and therefore be available to re-infect bird populations in subsequent years through consumption of virus-contaminated water. The Alaska Science Center is studying the detectability and persistence of avian influenza viruses in natural water systems of Alaska during winter and summer months. Additionally, experiments are underway to test the ability of filter-feeding invertebrates—common food for water birds—to accumulate viable virus and to act as potential disease vectors to avian hosts.
Certain “hot spots,” including in western Alaska, have been identified as important surveillance locations to sample for diseases that might be introduced from Asia and then transferred to other locations. For example, avian influenza and Newcastle disease virus were detected in numerous species of waterfowl in Alaska and genetic analysis of isolates has implicated redistribution of these viruses by migratory birds. Research by the Alaska Science Center has recently expanded to include study of viruses in Neotropical migrants that provide connections between North, Central, and South America.
Transition Zones: New Opportunities for Disease Transmission?
Polar bears and gulls feed on a whale carcass on the Arctic coast of Alaska. This is a possible transition zone for disease transmission.
Certain landscape features, such as those unique to the Arctic coastline, provide critical ecological transition zones that also may influence patterns of disease transmission. The intersection between sea water, sea ice, terrestrial land mass, and fresh water from major river deltas draws a diverse assemblage of species. Overlap in these environments creates an opportunity for pathogen exchange between primarily marine hosts (like polar bears, seals, and walruses) and terrestrial hosts (like caribou, gulls, foxes, and grizzly bears). Changing environmental conditions, primarily the loss of sea ice, has resulted in larger aggregations of birds and mammals on land, forcing more frequent encounters between historically segregated species or populations. Future investigations will target potential exchange of pathogens between marine and terrestrial hosts at these transition zones.
Demographic and Fitness Consequences of Disease
Muskoxen in northwestern Alaska.
Fitness consequences of disease are presumed for wild animals, but are often difficult to quantify because sick individuals must be identified and then tracked over time to assess condition. The Alaska Science Center is conducting long-term studies that will allow an assessment of disease consequences on individual animals. For example, one current study addresses the influence of blood parasites on body condition of resident and migratory species during breeding and wintering seasons.
Quantifying the demographic impacts of wildlife diseases also will provide a more accurate assessment of other mortality factors (for example, hunting or environmental stressors associated with climate change) that could be important for management actions. An ongoing study of emperor geese in Western Alaska allows for detailed investigation of the effects of blood parasites on specific fitness parameters, including reproductive success and adult survival. If the rates of infection by blood parasites vary among years in relation to phenology, progressive climate change may cause changes in vulnerability to blood parasites.
In another study, the Alaska Science Center has documented surprisingly high mortality (20–30 percent) of adult female musk ox during mid- to late summer in northwestern Alaska. Given the magnitude and timing of the observed mortality, and the fact that these muskoxen are in good nutritional condition in late winter, a pathogen is suspected to be contributing to the high losses observed. Additionally, copper deficiencies have been identified in other Alaskan musk ox, which can result in compromised immune function. The Alaska Science Center is currently comparing levels of infection and trace mineral status between the affected population and a reference population exhibiting low mortality rates to evaluate relationships between disease and nutrition.
Bowen, L., Miles, A.K., Murray, M., Haulena, M., Tuttle, J., Van Bonn, W., Adams, L., Bodkin, J.L., Ballachey, B., Estes, J., Tinker, M.T., Keister, R., and Stott, J.L., 2012, Gene transcription in sea otters (Enhydra lutris): Development of a diagnostic tool for sea otter and ecosystem Health, Molecular Ecology Resources, v. 12, p. 67–74. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755- 0998.2011.03060.x.
Ely, C.R., Hall, J.S., Schmutz, J.A., Pearce, J.M., Terenzi, J.T., Sedinger, J.S., and Ip, H.S., 2013, Evidence that life history characteristics of wild birds influence infection rates and exposure to influenza A viruses: PLoS One, v. 8, e57614, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0057614.
Goldstein, T., Gill, V.A., Tuomi, P., Monson, D., Burdin, A., Conrad, P.A., Dunn, J.L., Field, C., Johnson, C., Jessup, D.A., Bodkin, J.L., and Doroff, A.M., 2011, Assessment of clinical pathology and pathogen exposure in sea otters (Enhydra lutris) bordering the threatened population in Alaska: Journal of Wildlife Diseases, v. 47, p. 579–592.
Handel, C.M., Pajot, L.M., Matsuoka, S.M., Van Hemert, C., Terenzi, J., Talbot, S.L., Mulcahy, D.M., Meteyer, C.U., and Trust, K.A., 2010, Epizootic of beak deformities among wild birds in Alaska—An emerging disease in North America?: The Auk, v. 127, p. 882-898. DOI: 10.1525/auk.2010.10111.
Kirk, C.M., Amstrup, S., Swor, R., Holcomb, D. and O’Hara, T.M., 2010, Hematology of southern Beaufort Sea polar bears (2005–2007)—Biomarker for an Arctic Ecosystem Health Sentinel: EcoHealth, v. 7, no. 3, p. 307–320. DOI: 10.1007/s10393-010-0322-1.
Koehler, A.V., Pearce, J.M., Flint, P.L., Franson, J.C., and Ip, H.S., 2008, Genetic evidence of intercontinental movement of avian influenza by a migratory bird: The Northern Pintail (Anas acuta): Molecular Ecology, v. 17, p. 4754–4762. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.03953.x.
Millen, H.T., Gonnering, J.C., Berg, R.K., Spencer, S.K., Jokela, W.E., Pearce, J.M., Borchardt, J.S. and Borchardt, M.A., 2012, Glass wool filters for concentrating waterborne viruses and agricultural zoonotic pathogens: Journal of Visualized Experiments, no. 61, e3930. DOI:10.3791/3930.
Pearce, J.M., Ramey, A.M., Flint, P.L., Koehler, A.V., Fleskes, J.P., Franson, J.C., Hall, J.S., Derksen, D.V. and Ip, H.S., 2009, Avian influenza at both ends of a migratory flyway—Characterizing viral genomic diversity to optimize surveillance plans for North America: Evolutionary Applications, v. 2, p. 457–468. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-4571.2009.00071.x.
Pearce, J.M., Reeves, A.B., Ramey, A.M., Hupp, J.W., Ip, H.S., Bertram, M., Petrula, M.J., Scotton, B.D., Trust, K.A., Meixell, B., and Runstadler, J.A., 2011, Interspecific exchange of avian influenza virus genes in Alaska—The influence of trans-hemispheric migratory tendency and breeding ground sympatry: Molecular Ecology, v. 20, p. 1015–1025. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04908.x.
Ramey, A.M., Ely, C.R., Schmutz, J.A., Pearce, J.M., and Heard, D.J., 2012, Molecular detection of hematozoa infections in Tundra Swans relative to migration patterns and ecological conditions at breeding grounds: PLoS One, v. 7, no. 9, e45789. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0045789.
Reeves, A.B, Pearce, J.M., Ramey, A.M., Meixell, B.W., and Runstadler, J.A., 2011, Interspecies transmission and limited persistence of low pathogenic avian influenza genomes among Alaska dabbling ducks: Infection, Genetics, and Evolution, v. 11, p. 2004–2010, DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2011.09.011.
Seo, H-J., Kim, H.C., Klein, T.A., Ramey, A.M., Lee, J-H., Kyung, S-G., Park, J-Y., Cho, Y.S., Cho, I-S., and Yeh, J-Y, 2013, Molecular detection and genotyping of Japanese encephalitis virus in mosquitoes during a 2010 outbreak in the Republic of Korea: PLoS One, v. 8, no. 2, e55165, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0055165.
Van Hemert, C., Armien, A.G., Blake, J.E., Handel, C.M., and O’Hara, T.M., 2013, Macroscopic, histologic, and ultrastructural lesions associated with avian keratin disorder in Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus): Veterinary Pathology, v. 50, iss. 3, p. 500–513. DOI: 10.1177/0300985812469637.
Van Hemert, C., and Handel, C.M., 2010, Beak deformities in Northwestern Crows—Evidence of a multispecies epizootic: The Auk, v. 127, no. 4, p. 746– 751. DOI: 10.1525/auk.2010.10132.
Van Hemert, C., Handel, C.M., and O’Hara, T.M., 2012, Evidence of accelerated beak growth associated with avian keratin disorder in Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus): Journal of Wildlife Diseases, v. 48, p. 686–694.
White, J., Mirleau, P., Danchin, E., Mulard, H., Hatch, S.A., Heeb, P., and Wagner, R.H., 2010, Sexually transmitted bacteria affect female cloacal assemblages in a wild bird: Ecology Letters, v. 13, p. 1515–1524. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01542.x.
Yamaguchi, N., Hupp, J., Higuchi, H., Flint, P., and Pearce, J., 2010, Satellite-telemetry tracking of Northern Pintail Ducks Anas acuta during occurrences of the H5N1 virus in Japan: Implications for virus spread: Ibis, v. 152, p. 262–271. DOI: 10.1111/j.1474-919X.2010.01010.x.
First posted May 9, 2013
Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.
Van Hemert, Caroline, Pearce, John, Oakley, Karen, and Whalen, Mary, 2013, Wildlife Disease and Environmental Health in Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2013-3027, 4 p.
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|Andrew Lytle was elected captain of the wagon train. The company was organized with captians of hundreds , fifties and tens just as they had when crossing the plains.
From Payson, the company traveled south, picking up the Old Spanish Trail.
The 700 mile journey started in grassy valleys but turned to desert after a few hundred miles. The road had been used by few wagons and was not well defined in many places.
The middle leg requiered the emmigrants to leave the river valleys they had been following and strike out towards the Mojave River. This part had few watering places that were spaced far apart. One of these places named by the Spanish "the Meadows" - Las Vegas.
The Pass had never been attempted with such a large number of wagons. In many places the pioneers had to remove wagon wheels and slide the wagon body down the steep incline.
Lyman and Rich rode ahead with a small group to meet with Issac Williams. They hoped to complete the purchase of Rancho del Chino before the main body of emmigrants arrived.
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http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/willis/story8.html
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| 0.983111 | 225 | 2.734375 | 3 |
What Does The Classroom In The Cloud Look Like?
Cloud computing has been exciting people with its implications and opportunities especially so over the past several years, as more and more of the public have been exposed to the potential of this technology. While many people’s first experiences with cloud computing have revolved primarily around the digital sharing of music and video media, these same applications for cloud computing carry significant implications outside of the entertainment field.
The classroom has become a major test lab for cloud computing and its potential to revolutionize educational, social, and economic systems that exist in society today. As more and more urban school districts continue to search for answers to stagnant test scores and high drop-out rates, cloud computing-powered classrooms have become the Holy Grail of most principals’ wish lists. While the obvious costs associated with the technological infrastructure needed to accomplish making this technology widely available, cloud computing remains a hypothetical solution in the minds of many teachers. However, as urban districts pump more and more money into upgrading their infrastructure and bringing cloud computing to every high school class, it is worth taking a look at the potential repercussions to academics as we know it.
Do we really want to give teenagers even more time to be distracted by technology?
It really depends on who you ask. First, we need to rule out teenagers, who would certainly support the ability to bring their laptop, iPad, or smartphone to class to use. However, as any teacher working in a tech-heavy school can tell you, no manner of great lessons or interesting subject material can prevent the obvious teenage wandering to Facebook, Twitter, or the rest of the web. One thing that teachers have been clamoring for from tech manufacturers and software developers alike has been an intuitive education management system, which allows for functions like automatic screenshots and remote desktop controls. By giving the teacher the ability to monitor, control, and more importantly limit students’ ability to search specific sites or go off-task, cloud computing becomes a much more effective classroom tool, and much less of a potential distraction disaster.
So, what’s the purpose of giving students access to cloud services like Google Drive in class?
For the exact same reason professionals use it! From sharing documents and resources among each other during group projects, to being able to meet with a teacher and go over revisions remotely, to revision tracking and other important elements of teaching the editing process, the potential for cloud computing in the classroom is essentially limitless. And that’s just an English classroom. From Google Forms being used for everything from daily homework and class surveys, to Google Earth being used as the framework and platform for opening unit lectures, new educational uses for cloud computing tools are emerging at an incredible rate.
Which tech company is poised to assume the mantle of education technology leader?
Currently, it is Google, Google, Google, and Google. While tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, and others continue to take swings and challenge the “Don’t Be Evil” giant, Google has made remarkable inroads into education policy and tech-for-the-classroom, far more so than its usual rivals. Urban districts around the country, which sit on tens of millions of dollars in funding for technology purchases and equipment, are being courted actively by Google for everything from software licenses, to free support for Google cloud services, to Chromebooks that can be bought cheaply and in mass numbers for entire classes and grade levels of students. While it is a sure bet that once other tech giants get wind of the money at play in this market sector they will make plays themselves, at the moment the standard for cloud computing in education is being set by Google.
By Adam Hausman
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http://cloudtweaks.com/2013/07/what-does-the-classroom-in-the-cloud-look-like/
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en
| 0.957417 | 749 | 2.8125 | 3 |
RationaleAimThere is an existing interest in the sociological argument of the educational attainment of boys and girls and how girls are achieving more than boys. However this is a bit too ambitious as being able to produce a representative sample would be too time consuming and costly. The scope would be too large to produce a subjective view.
The main aim as a researcher who believes strongly in equality of opportunity, is to see 'how social class can effect the educational attainment of boys and girls'. This would provide a large unbiased representative sample, that is not too time consuming or costly.
Some researchers argue that class differences in attainment result from the sifting, sorting and assessment of pupils in terms of teacher's perceptions of social class, ability and conduct. Whilst others believe that class differences are primarily due to what happens outside of school. They believe that it is due to social inequalities generated by the class structure.
From this point of view school does little more than reflect existing inequalities.
The second aim is to cover factors outside school such as material deprivation, cultural deprivation and parental choice, this can be done by asking if they have up to date equipment necessary for educational attainment such as computers/internet books etc. what their parental occupation is and who chose the school their child is to attend.
The third aim is to cover factors inside school such as streaming (sets) and labelling, it is a combination of all of these that result in class inequalities in educational attainment.
Douglas and Sugarman (1970) claim that differences in educational attainment are due to being deprived both culturally and materially. However it is not necessarily the social class that effects educational attainment but the factors within and opportunities surrounding class. Many comparisons within...
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<urn:uuid:211d5adf-2a71-416b-b6a2-9c32e1feed4f>
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http://www.writework.com/essay/social-class-affects-educational-attainment-boys-and-girls
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en
| 0.969426 | 345 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Fight for indigenous rights grinds to halt
THE black, red and yellow Aboriginal flag is rarely seen in the streets anymore. Cries for black rights are muted. That "T-word", treaty, is barely whispered.
What has happened to the Aboriginal cause? Previously bursting with energy, it fell too much under the Federal Government's wing during the reconciliation decade of the 1990s, says historian Henry Reynolds, the nation's chief recorder of black-white relations.
"There's scarcely an Aboriginal movement at the moment, for the first time in a long time. The generation who led the fight are simply no longer involved," Reynolds says.
The Canberra-based reconciliation movement and the defunct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) "took up the space where there might have been a continuing, independent political movement", he says. Indigenous people need a movement "that had very clear ideas, that was political in its whole ambitions and didn't depend at all on government".
ATSIC collapsed. The Government virtually ignored the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's final recommendations. The enthusiasm that propelled crowds to walk together across bridges for reconciliation five years ago dissipated.
"Where is that vast concourse, that tremendous sense of goodwill and that desiring for something to happen?" Reynolds asks.
He is astounded at how quickly the "great movement of the '90s" disappeared, saying: "It is as though it hadn't happened."
But Reynolds' international quest for the story behind prejudice against mixed-race people for his new book, Nowhere People, convinces him that issues of race resulting from colonisation will bounce back here. "There's no doubt the indigenous issue won't go away because it is a global question."
Take Canada, which Reynolds visited a month ago for a seminar on justice issues. Treaty-making, indigenous self-government and the recognition of first nations are considered "beyond the pale" here but are at the centre of discussion there, he says.
"Ten years ago, you would have said Australia was certainly behind Canada but was moving in that direction. Now, I just don't think you can see that. It's as though the two countries are talking a totally different language."
What of the so-called "history wars", in which Keith Windschuttle challenged his and other established writers' interpretations of Australian Aboriginal history?
"The two sides of the argument are now entrenched. I don't think there's much movement," Reynolds says. "The problem is that as the argument gets more detailed, fewer people follow it.
"In terms of the way history is written, I don't think it has had any effect at all. The research goes on."
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<urn:uuid:81959393-b7cd-47f1-b964-6ac2c8b517cc>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/fight-for-indigenous-rights-grinds-to-halt/2005/08/25/1124562981268.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00163-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.975582 | 556 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Red Kite, Milvus milvus
Red Kite, Germany, © Jochen Fünfstück
NamesEnglish: Red Kite
Scientific: Milvus milvus
Spanish: Milano Real
French: Milan royal
Taxonomy and SubspeciesThe Red Kite is one of three members of the Genus Milvus. The others are the Black Kite Milvus migrans and the Yellow-billed Kite Milvus parasitus (an African species formerly considered a subspecies of the Black Kite [GRIN 2009]). The genus Milvus is most closely related to the genus Haliaeetus (Sea Eagles). That means that the White-tailed Eagle is the closest relative of the Red and Black Kite in Europe. The closest European relative of the Red Kite is the Black Kite. In many European countries, both species occur. Sometimes the species hybridise with reported hybrid pairs from Italy, Sweden and Germany [Carter 2007]. The "Cape Verde Kite" Milvus milvus fasciicauda was considered to be a separate species or a sub species. Recent research showed that it the classification os a subspecies or even a full species is not justified. [Carter 2007]. The Cape Verde Kite seems to be extinct now in the Cape Verde islands.
Wingspan: 154 - 180cm
Weight: 750-1,300 g
Maximum Age38 years in captivity. Almost 30 in the wild. [Mebs & Schmidt 2006]
HabitatThe Red Kite needs open country for hunting. Nests are normally built in large trees close to the forest edge. Red Kites prefer areas with small hills or mountains so that they can use rising air currents close to the mountain slopes (from deflected air at the slopes) [Carter 2007].
DistributionExcept for a very small population in Marocco, the Red Kite has an exclusively European distribution. It occurs from Spain and Portugal over France and Germany eastwards to Poland and the Ukraine. In the north the Red Kites occurs up to the southern part of Sweden and in the South down to Sicily (Italy). It also breeds in Great Britain, also thanks to recent and very successful reintroduction programs in England and Scotland.
MigrationBirds from Central Europe are mostly migratory and spend the winter in southern France and the Iberian Peninsula. But especially during warm winters, more Red Kites spend the winter in Central Europe. Birds from Southern Europa and the UK normally stay year-round in their breeding territory.
Breeding and Reproduction
Food and huntingThe Red Kit is very flexible when it comes to food. It eats almost everything from large insects to carrion. The Red Kite is not a very strong raptor but still a skillful hunter. It catches mostly small mammals like hamster or voles. It is too weak to kill large prey like European Hares. Young hares found in nests are often road kills or killed by harvesting machines [Aebischer 2009]. In Spain, Rabbits are regularly taken but adult Rabbits are too heavy for the Red Kite to carry them away [Aebischer 2009].
Birds are also regularly killed, up to the size of crows but mostly smaller birds are taken. Red Kites also regularly take the nestlings of songbirds and other birds during the breeding season.
During rainy weather, earthworms are an important food source.
Other food include amphibians, reptiles and fish, but birds and mammals are the most important.
Beside live prey, the Red Kite regularly takes carrion. In Spain, the kites can often be seen with vultures at the carcasses of large mammals (incl. livestock like cows). They regularly visit the feeding places established for vultures in Spain.
Red Kites also regularly visit roads to take away animals killed by cars.
Red Kites mostly hunt from flight over open areas [Mebs & Schmidt 2006]. Small prey is taken without landing on the ground.
Red Kites also steal food from other birds like crows, herons and other raptors like other Red Kites, Common Buzzards, Ospreys, Hobbies, Sparrowhawks and even White-tailed Eagles [Carter 2007].
Status IUCN/BirdLifeNear Threatened (NT)
Status Global Raptor Information NetworkNear Threatened
Interviews about the Red KiteInterview with Ian Carter about the Red Kite in the UK Interview with Guido Ceccolini about Red Kite reintroduction, Lanner Falcons and other raptors in Tuscany (Italy)
[Aebischer 2009] Aebischer, Adria (2009). Der Rotmilan - Ein faszinierender Greifvogel. Haupt Verlag [GRIN 2009] Global Raptor Information Network. 2009. Species account: Red Kite Milvus milvus. Downloaded from http://www.globalraptors.org on 30 Aug. 2009 [Carter 2007] Carter, Ian (2007). The Red Kite, 2nd edition. Arlequin Press [Mebs & Schmidt 2006] Mebs, Theodor & Schmidt, Daniel (2006). Die Greifvögel Europas, Nordafrikas und Vorderasiens. Kosmos Verlag.
Aebischer, Adria (2009). Der Rotmilan - Ein faszinierender Greifvogel. Haupt Verlag Carter, Ian (2007). The Red Kite, 2nd edition. Arlequin Press Forsman, Dick (1999). The Raptors of Europe and the Middle East A Handbook of Field Identification. Poyser Mebs, Theodor & Schmidt, Daniel (2006). Die Greifvögel Europas, Nordafrikas und Vorderasiens. Kosmos Verlag.
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http://www.europeanraptors.org/raptors/red_kite.html
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en
| 0.852283 | 1,222 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Aqua-Chem’s position of world leadership in water technologies began in 1929 when entrepreneur-engineer John Cleaver joined forces with businessman Raymond Brooks to provide the industry’s first “packaged” boiler system. Gone were the days buying separate components and assembling a system one piece at a time.
In 1943, the US Government commissioned Aqua-Chem to design and build a mobile distillation unit for military troops in the Pacific. The still converted seawater and brackish well water into 1,000 gallons of purified drinking water per day. While this was an impressive rate for the time, the still’s mobility is what made it unique.
In 1951, Aqua-Chem designed and produced a seawater desalinating system for the Army. This project formalized the "package" concept of water purification systems in which all the necessary components were engineered and assembled into one system, including pumps, valves, steam compressors and plate evaporators, as well as filter components. The system could be fully operable merely by making electrical and piping connections.
In the 1960s, Aqua-Chem developed a factory assembled, packaged Spray-Film® vapor compression technology. This technology is capable of producing the purity levels needed by the most demanding applications. Today, Spray-Film® vapor compression is a cornerstone of the Company's products sold to the offshore, pharmaceutical/biotech and bottled water markets.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Company received many patents for desalination and its numerous applications. In part, this was the result of intensive federal government investment in development of water treatment technologies. Over the next decades, government research lessened and industry practices developed in less visible, more proprietary ways, through expertise and practicality in design and fabrication techniques.
Since 2001, Aqua-Chem has launched more than two dozen new products, including increasingly large vapor compression systems, reverse-osmosis water purifiers, pretreatment and sanitary process distribution systems, waste heat plate type evaporators, vacuum vapor compression units and titanium and copper-nickel heat exchangers.
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<urn:uuid:839fcdce-2b30-4012-8106-8db58dffc19c>
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http://www.globalspec.com/supplier/profile/AquaChem
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00172-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.943849 | 426 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a rapidly growing city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas with a 2005 population in excess of 1.2 million, relies exclusively on ground water from an aquifer known as the Hueco Bolson. The aquifer’s fresh water is being depleted and it is degrading in quality due to the lateral inflow of brackish water. Although the Hueco Bolson’s fresh water is diminishing, it still contains a considerable quantity of brackish water. This paper defines the feasibility of using desalination technology in conjunction with concentrate storage to extend the ‘life’ of the Juárez portion of the Hueco Bolson. Well injection of the concentrate was analyzed based on the premise that the cones of depression created by well pumping could provide a storage area for the concentrate. So doing would enable the brackish concentrate to be ‘stored’ for future use when advances in desalination technology will render the stored concentrate into an economically recoverable resource , unlike evaporation ponds that result in the permanent loss of water due to vaporization. The research team used a combination of three software systems for this portion of the analysis: a ground water modeling software, a mass transport extension to the ground water modeling software, and GIS software to facilitate the visualization of model outputs. The technical report on which this paper is based was authored by Turner and Hamlyn (2004).
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<urn:uuid:791dd1b2-e2c1-43d0-aec3-312b0d7d717d>
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ucowrconfs_2006/104/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.927458 | 298 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
Decline of a population of wild seeded breadfruit (Artocarpus mariannensis) on Guam, Mariana Islands
|Title:||Decline of a population of wild seeded breadfruit (Artocarpus mariannensis) on Guam, Mariana Islands|
|Authors:||Wiles, Gary J.|
|LC Subject Headings:||Plant populations--Guam.|
Breadfruit--Effect of wind on--Guam.
Breadfruit--Seedlings--Effect of browsing on--Guam.
Breadfruit--Effect of browsing on--Guam.
show 2 moreScience--Periodicals.
Natural history--Pacific Area--Periodicals.
|Issue Date:||Oct 2005|
|Publisher:||University of Hawaii Press|
|Citation:||Wiles GJ. Decline of a population of wild seeded breadfruit (Artocarpus mariannensis) on Guam, Mariana Islands. Pac Sci 59(4): 509-522.|
|Series/Report no.:||vol. 59, no. 4|
|Abstract:||Seeded breadfruit (Artocarpus mariannensis) was historically a dominant tree in native forests on Guam and Rota in the Mariana Islands. Censuses conducted during 1989-1999 showed a large decline in the population of this species in northernmost Guam, with the number of trees at one study area decreasing from 549 to 190 trees, or 65.4%. Mean annual decline rates were far higher from 1989 to 1996 (9.2% per year) than from 1996 to 1999 (2.6% per year). Size structure of the population was strongly skewed toward larger trees, with 83.3% of measured individuals having trunk diameters ranging from 31 to 70 cm. Virtually no seedlings or saplings were present. Experiments at this site revealed high rates of fallen seed and fruit consumption and browsing on seedlings by introduced Philippine deer (Cervus mariannus) and feral pigs (Sus scrofa). In contrast, breadfruit populations elsewhere on Guam and Rota exhibited much less mortality. One population in an area without deer and pigs displayed considerable regeneration and a size structure composed mainly of younger plants. The decline of A. mariannensis in northern Guam appeared to be caused primarily by a combination of high mortality associated with an unusually severe typhoon season in 1992 and a nearly complete lack of recruitment due to excessive seed predation and herbivory by deer and pigs. Ungulate control is strongly urged to restore populations of A. mariannensis and other native plants, and to prevent further alteration of Guam's forests.|
|Appears in Collections:||Pacific Science Volume 59, Number 4, 2005|
Items in ScholarSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
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<urn:uuid:d659b8d4-bdac-4e79-b01d-52626a2514e4>
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http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/24197
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.846347 | 604 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Why Athletes Time Their Diets - and Drink Chocolate Milk
If you spend any time watching the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, you’re likely to see a barrage of commercials, in which athletes sing the praises of food-related sponsors, from McDonalds and Subway to Kashi breakfast cereal.
But what does the diet of an Olympic athlete really look like, or taste like, for that matter?
Kristen Kipp has some insight in that area. She currently works as the wellness coordinator at Marquette University, but she’s also a registered dietician and certified strength and conditioning specialist.
"Nutrition is huge. They have to be fueled appropriately in order to meet the training requirements for them and meet the performance requirements for their sport," she says.
She says athletes have to fuel their bodies with the right foods at the right times. For example:
- The night before their events, athletes will load up with a carbohydrate-heavy meal that's low in fat.
- Athletes will not eat for 3-4 hours before their event, with only a small snack 1-2 hours before.
- Usually between 30-60 minutes after exercise, athletes will consume a balance of carbs and protein to help their bodies recover. During this recovery period, the body is synthesizing proteins and replacing sugars in the muscles lost during exercise.
Kipp says some of the best recovery foods include protein/carb combos like half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But one of the most popular choices is chocolate milk.
"Chocolate milk has right amount of carbohydrates and protein needed for recovery and also has some basic sugars in them that are great for that muscle glycogen synthesis as well," she says.
Kipp was formerly a coordinator of remedial physical fitness programs in the Marine Corps.
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<urn:uuid:a2bb0f48-159d-45c6-a90c-01488b0a254e>
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http://wuwm.com/post/why-athletes-time-their-diets-and-drink-chocolate-milk
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| 0.970263 | 370 | 2.53125 | 3 |
About this Daily Classroom Special:
This worksheet is part of the Daily Classroom Special Up on Mount Olympus—A Study of Greek Mythology by Lisa Kihn.
GREEK WORD ORIGINS WORKSHEET
Greek mythology gave us many of the words we use today. Below is a list of words from Greek history and mythology. Match the character to the word by drawing a line between the correct character and word.
Titan – a huge giant god helium
Helios – the sun god plutocracy
Plutus – god of riches titanic
Python – a spirit in the form of a snake python
Each of the following Greek words is defined. Think of an English word that is very similar and write the word on the line. Check your spelling.
GREEK WORD ENGLISH WORD
Krokodilas – a lizard ____________________
Athletes – a contestant in the public games ____________________
Demokratia – rule by the people ____________________
Biblion – a book ____________________
Hippo – a horse, potamus – river ____________________
Hymnos – a song ____________________
Hemishairion – a half sphere ____________________
Many of our modern words come from old sources. For instance, the word “telephone” is made up of two Greek words: tele (meaning far) and phon (meaning sound). See if you can make a list of other words that have come to us from the Greek language. The information below may help you start a list.
Astro – star
Bio – life
Cyclo – wheel, circle
Demo – people
Geo – earth
Micro – small
Phob – fear
Logy – study of
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<urn:uuid:11fc7976-08a5-4fc0-bafd-3fd370491e07>
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http://www.teachersnetwork.org/ntol/lessons/mythology/worksheet5.htm
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| 0.867295 | 374 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Review. Building the Evidence Base: Potatoes a Low Impact Food Crop?
A report which considers how production compares with other food crops grown in Great Britain in terms of water use, land use, pollution, carbon / energy use, biodiversity and waste.
Year of Publication2011
This report drew on published international and UK research studies as well reports produced by government and non-government organisations (including Potato Council and commercial groups) organisations and expert opinion. These sources of information were brought together to present a consensus view of the impact on the environment of potatoes grown in the UK and steps being taken to minimise or mitigate these effects. The report also considers the social impacts of potato production.
This item is categorised as follows
- Subject Collection > Environmental impact > Wastes management & pollution control
- Subject Collection > Environmental impact
- Subject Collection > Environmental impact > Climate change
- Subject Collection > Greenhouse Gas
- Subject Collection > Arable & industrial crops > Potatoes
This is a brief summary of an item in the OpenFields Library. This free online library contains items of interest to practitioners and researchers in the agricultural and landbased industries.
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<urn:uuid:dbdce351-dcdb-4f7e-89b6-d31f7cb3168c>
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http://www.openfields.org.uk/topics/arable-and-industrial-crops/potatoes/review-building-the-evidence-base-potatoes-a-low-impact-food-crop.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00133-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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| 0.877558 | 235 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Contact Assistant Webster
© 2002 AFHS
4 Jun 2007
Safe Computing, E-mail & Browser
Gensoft - March 2001
Safe Computing, E-mail Tips
& Browser Tips
by Allan Cole, DistGen Manager
- More than 56,000 virus threats exist today
- Physical and Hacker Concerns
Parts to a virus program
- reproducing itself to spread
- timer/counter - when will it deliver its payload
- payload to be delivered
Types of Viruses:
- Boot viruses: place their code in the sector whose code the
machine will automatically execute when booting. When the machine
boots, they load and run. After they are finished loading, they
load the original boot code, which they have previously moved
to another location.
- File viruses: attach to executable program files in such a way
that when you run the infected program, the virus code first executes.
After the virus is finished loading and executing, it loads and
executes the program it has infected.
- Macro viruses: attach their macros to templates and other files
in such a way that, when an application loads the file and executes
the instructions in it, the first instructions to execute are
those of the virus.
- Companion viruses attach to the operating system, not files
or sectors. In DOS, when you run a file named "ABC",
ABC.COM would execute before ABC.EXE.
A companion virus places its code in a COM file
whose first name matches the name of an existing EXE.
You run ABC, and the actual sequence is ABC.COM,
- Worm: moves on the back of other files and tries to move from
computer to computer and may contain all or just some of the parts
of the above virus
- Trojan Horse: instantly delivers payload when run
Virus Information Libraries
These are not just harmless pranks. There are a lot of viruses out
there. And then there are some viruses that aren't really out there
at all. Hoax virus warning messages are more mere annoyances. After
repeatedly becoming alarmed, only to learn that there was no real
virus, computer users may get into the habit of ignoring all virus
warning messages, leaving them especially vulnerable to the next real,
and truly destructive, virus. These are still viruses in that they
proliferate through people spreading the false warnings. Be sure to
check out the warning and not spread these messages. You will not
be doing anyone a favor by distributing these messages. Go to these
sites to check out such warnings.
- Make regular backups
- Be sure to keep 3 or more backup copies and rotate the backups
- To test the backups procedure, test you can actually restore
from the backup
Magnetic fields are a killer of diskettes (fridge magnets, telephone
ringers and other motors)
- Attack or snoop from the Internet
- Use a Firewall if using any of the high speed connections (Cable
ZoneAlarm is a free firewall program for personal use
E-mail Addresses are made up of a unique Userid on a specific Domain
Name, e.g., e.g. [email protected] where:
- xxx is the User ID
- @ is a separator
- yyyyy.zzzzz.ca is the Domain Name
to which the Userid is registered
Purpose of Email
- Since the purpose of e-mail is to communicate, be sure that
you are communicating
- Write in a manner that the reader will understand and is not
- Use of shortcut notation is only to be used with people who
understand such notation. Go to www.netdictionary.com/index.html
for a shortcut dictionary if you get stuck on what someone put
in a message to you. Some examples are: FYI (For
You Information), IMHO (In My Humble Opinion),
and AUP (Accepted Use Policy)
Using the Various E-mail Fields
Send a message to a business associate and a copy to your lawyer,
but the business associate need not know that the lawyer is to get
a copy. Put the business associate's email address in the To: field
and the Lawyer's email address in the Bcc: field.
- Separate email addresses with a comma if more than one email
address is put in any of the To:, Cc: and Bcc: fields.
- To: is for the primary address(es) - may be used by itself or
with the other fields
- Cc: is the Carbon Copy address(es) - may not be used alone,
but must be used in conjunction with the To: and/or Bcc: fields
- Bcc: is the Blind Carbon Copy address(es) - may be used alone
or with the To; and Cc: fields. A couple of examples:
Send a message to a list of people. Each person on the list does not
need to see everyone else's email addresses and in fact it is irritating
to see a page of email addresses ahead of the message.
Replying to e-mail
- The To field automatically is filled in with the sender of the
original message and can be changed to what you wish.
- Delete the part of the original message not needed in the reply
to cut down on useless information cluttering the message
- Keep the part of the message you will be replying to, to assure
there is no mistaking the original questions wording
- The header information of the original message becomes part
of the message.
- Add the email address of those who you are forwarding the message
- Add whatever you wish to the message
- Delete those parts not wanted in the forwarded message
- Filtering emails is useful to automate recursive actions, some
of which might be:
- Delete spam
- Move emails to a specific folder
- Automate forwarding
Attachments are files to send with an email
- Documents, Databases, Spreadsheets and other files.
- Questions to consider:
- Does the receiving computer have the software to use the
- Does the receiver really want the file
- Unfortunately attachments are sometimes used to spread viruses.
Be very wary about opening an attachment. If you have a good virus
program this is less of a problem.
- Lists of many email addresses to send a message to at the same
- Requires you ask to have your name put on the list - subscribe
- Requires you ask to have your name removed from the list - unsubscribe
- Each list is usually associated with a specific topic
A browser is the interface between the user and the Internet. The
two most popular are Internet Explorer and Netscape.
Surfing the Net (Internet)
- Internet Explorer uses the Address field to input known addresses
- Netscape uses the Location field to input known addresses
- Web addresses or URLs can be found in Newspapers, Magazines,
TV, Radio, Billboards... The URL (Universal Resource Locator)
is the unique address on the Internet and is in the form www.calcna.ab.ca/
- Use the web pages and click on the various hot links until you
find what you are looking for. These are usually colored differently
to the rest of the text. The mouse will display a hand when it
is pointing at a hot link.
- Use the search engines
- Be aware that some downloads are very large and will take some
time to transmit
- Put the download in a logical place on your hard drive so you
can find it later.
- Be sure that your virus protection is running before you open
- Be sure you are where you want to be
- Ensure you are on a secure connection before giving personal
or financial information
- Be especially careful about giving your credit card number
- Note - Be wary of the wording on some forms asking you to accept
- If you would like to be on our mailing list the check the
- If you would not like to receive mailings from us please
check the box
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3 Answers | Add Yours
In chemistry, when we talk about a change we are talking about one of two types of changes: physical and chemical. A chemical change is a change whereby the actual chemical identity of the substance has changed. In others words, chemical bonds are broken and remade to convert one type of molecule into another different molecule. A physical change is a change in form only of a substance; the actual chemical identity is still the same. A physical change represents a change in the physical properties of a substance, like the color, shape, size, density, crystal form, change of phase (solid, liquid, or gas), etc. Let's look at each answer choice.
A. Burning a piece of paper is technically called combustion. It represents a chemical reaction whereby the carbon compounds in the paper are oxidized into different chemicals like carbon dioxide and water vapor. This is a chemical change.
B. Baking a cake changes the texture and consistency of the batter, but the chemical elements that went into the batter remain the same. This is a physical change.
C. Heating sugar until carmelization. This again combusts the carbon in the sugar molecules to make new chemicals. This is a chemical change.
D. Salt water. This is simply of solution of salt in water and represents neither a chemical or physical change.
So the correct answer is B.
B- Baking a cake
B. Baking a cake
We’ve answered 328,297 questions. We can answer yours, too.Ask a question
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Macronutrients in Health and Disease: Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate is the main energy source in the human diet, providing 50 percent or more of total calories in the form of starches and sugars. Carbohydrate–containing foods can be classified in several ways:
A complex carbohydrate refers to multiple sugar molecules linked together by chemical bonds (polysaccharides, or “starch”). The health benefits of carbohydrate–containing foods are largely limited to those rich in complex (rather than simple) carbohydrate. Examples of foods high in complex carbohydrate include grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, pasta, and breads. Starches are complex carbohydrates that include cellulose, an important source of dietary fiber.
These distinctions between various kinds of carbohydrate are clinically important. Diets high in sugars and refined carbohydrate may cause high blood sugar and increased triglycerides levels (the chemical form of fat in the blood). However, diets composed of low–glycemic–index foods and fiber tend to have the opposite effect. An analysis of 14 studies in individuals with diabetes showed that diets emphasizing low–glycemic–index foods improve control of blood sugar significantly. These studies showed a similar benefit for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Diets that are high in carbohydrate and fiber and low in fat and cholesterol are particularly helpful for the prevention and treatment of several diseases, including obesity and weight–related diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension.
Studies indicate that people who consume approximately three servings per day of whole grain foods have a 20 to 30 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared with individuals consuming less than three servings per week. Low–fat, high–carbohydrate, high–fiber diets also significantly improve control of blood sugar. Such diets are also associated with significant improvements in blood cholesterol, blood pressure, and atherosclerosis and appear to be useful for preventing and treating some intestinal disorders, such as constipation, inflammatory bowel disease, peptic ulcer disease, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.
Although some weight–loss programs may imply that carbohydrates are responsible for weight or health problems, carbohydrates are essential to human health. Complex carbohydrates, in unprocessed or minimally processed forms, are abundant in the diets of countries where obesity and chronic diseases are rarely seen. Traditional Asian diets, for example, use rice and noodles as staple foods. Individuals following such diets have remarkably low risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and most forms of cancer. In areas of changing dietary patterns, where carbohydrate–rich foods are being replaced by fat– and protein–rich foods, several chronic diseases have become much more common. In Japan, the Westernization of the diet occurring in the latter half of the 20th century resulted in a sharp decrease in rice consumption and an increase in meat and total fat intake, with corresponding increases in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health problems. In surveys of Japanese adults over the age of 40, the rate of diabetes before 1980 was between 1 and 5 percent. By 1990, that number had gone up to 11 to 12 percent.
Other carbohydrate intolerances include sucrose intolerance, which is rare but may occur in individuals with kidney stones or HIV, and fructose intolerance, which may occur in individuals who eat large amounts of fructose (e.g., beverages with high–fructose corn syrup).
<< Macronutrients in Health and Disease: Fats
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Three Reasons Why Cosmos Was One of the Best Things to Happen to TV: Part 2
Buzz Aldrin paused and looked out over the audience.
It was July 25, 2009, just five days after the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. On that day four decades earlier, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became, with one small thud on the lunar surface, the first humans ever to land on something that wasn’t Earth.
Aldrin stood now with a military bearing, a gold astronaut’s lapel pin proudly adorning his crisp, navy-blue blazer. Before him thousands of people assembled in a hot, standing-room-only crush below decks on the USS Hornet, the same aircraft carrier which plucked Aldrin and his fellow astronauts from the Pacific after their splashdown, so many years ago. While NASA had sent Aldrin and his colleagues to the moon using slide rules, today Aldrin faced a forest of iPhones recording his every word.
A member of the crowd asked Aldrin what he thought the true value of the Apollo missions had been for America.
“Inspiration,” Aldrin answered simply.
The vital ingredient now missing from science education, Aldrin went on, was inspiration. During the Cold War and the Apollo missions, students inspired to study science could see its importance to the bold mission outlined by JFK. One could reasonably dream of doing well in school, then working for NASA, perhaps building spaceships from scratch. Indeed, many of the Apollo mission flight controllers were men in their early twenties; the legendary flight controller John Aaron was only 26 when he saved the Apollo 12 mission after it was struck by lightning.
But the young student today who dreams of working for NASA or becoming an astronaut faces a very different reality. In our era of reduced expectations, starvation-level budgets, and a diminishing respect for learning itself, science education has been judged an expendable luxury—so expendable, that the era’s major education reform, No Child Left Behind, initially did not even involve science education. This was odd, because science integrates so many critical skills—quantitative reasoning, reading comprehension, clear writing, effective presentations—that one could argue that science should be the cornerstone of any education reform.
We can hardly blame students if they find the way science education is taught today, or the disappointing prospects of finding a job in science after graduation, less than inspirational.
And here’s where Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos accomplished something major. In its 13 episode tour-de-force of our universe—from the smallest subatomic particle, to the grandest movements of galaxies, from the opaque mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, to the crystal-clear consensus about evolution and climate change—Cosmos presented science not as a list of facts to be memorized, but as something to inspire human minds.
Cosmos blended fact-rich narration with explanatory visuals in such a way as to make science come alive. Too often “science” programs on TV have vanishingly little science content. Not Cosmos. Some television science programs have great visuals—think, Blue Planet or Planet Earth—but don’t offer much explanation to enhance what one sees. Not Cosmos. Audiences watching it were both well-informed and hungry to know more about the topics covered. Cosmos kindled curiosity, which is the best result to obtain from a science program; as Plutarch envisioned, a mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.
Make no mistake—studying science is a hard road for students. Those who choose this difficult path need renewed inspiration to make so many sacrifices. Most people want to jump right away into what interests them, but in science you can’t just do that. Carl Sagan noted this problem:
Imagine you seriously want to understand what quantum mechanics is about…you must learn arithmetic, Euclidian geometry, high school algebra, differential and integral calculus, ordinary and partial differential equations, vector calculus…roughly 15 years. Such a course of study does not actually involve learning any quantum mechanics, but merely establishing the mathematical framework required to approach it deeply.
In my field, geology, I sometimes have break the news to prospective students who want to put on their boots and start doing geology immediately, that before one can really get into the red meat, before one can even apply for the major, you’ve got to take calculus, chemistry, and physics. And after that, there’s a slog of mineralogy and petrology courses, countless weekends spent with your eyes glued to petrographic microscopes. Much of this will seem unrelated to the earned joy of swinging a rock hammer at an outcrop. But if you’re inspired, and you slog through the preparation, you can eventually find yourself scrambling out of a truck with a hand lens, a hammer, and a ham sandwich. (That’s usually the moment when the rain begins pouring, but that’s another story.)
Not everyone is willing to delay gratification so long. But one thing that can keep students going is inspiration, which acts like a triple-espresso for the mind.
You can’t put inspiration in a textbook. You certainly can’t find it on a multiple-choice test. You’re unlikely to find inspiration in an online class, clicking on a keyboard with peers you never meet. What you need is a teacher, someone who can transport you out of your seat and into the subject in a way that makes you forget everything else, crossing time and space to imagine long-vanished worlds that were, worlds that could be, while coming to see your own world with sharper eyes.
That’s the spark of inspiration science education needs. And that’s what Cosmos did so well. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s skills as an educator and communicator may have a long legacy among young viewers inspired to become science educators themselves, or to work to solve our myriad environmental problems. And perhaps someday, a young person inspired by watching Cosmos will gaze out of a portal not on the surface of the moon, but on the surface of another planet.
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A study produced by Finland researchers looked at weight training, distance running and high-intensity intervals to find which best benefits the brain.
It’s not uncommon for a runner to have adjusted to the lifestyle in order to reap the health benefits. Getting out for your runs on a daily basis does the body a whole lot of good– the physical and mental rewards are seemingly endless. While weight loss may be one of the most talked about rewards, better brain health is another winning factor for those who take up the sport.
For awhile now, there have been multiple studies which all come to the same conclusion– yes, running is good for your noggin. Being physically active has been said to increase brain volume and, for older runners, it decreases the number of age-related holes. That’s all good news.
article continues after advertisement
But runners who are also interested in activities like crossfit, strength training, yoga and intense speed sessions, may be curious to know which session is the best of the batch.
A new study published in the Journal of Physiology and reported on by The New York Times, examined exactly that by having groups of rats try three types of workouts: running at moderate pace, interval running at high intensity on a wheel and doing exercises with weights attached to their tails. Each group did one of the exercises over a seven-week period. Afterwards, the researchers looked at brain tissues to see how the exercises impacted the brain.
Their findings: distance running had the best influence on the brain. The study found that the higher the mileage, the more brain cells.
What about the higher intensity running? Those rats had more cells than when they started but didn’t have the gains that their distance running friends had. The rats that did the weight training were stronger overall but their brain wasn’t influenced at all by the activity.
The studies lead, Mirian Nokia, suggests that although the research was done on rats and not humans, people can expect regular aerobic activity to be a winner when it comes to boosting that brain health.
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Direct Access File Systems and SAN-attached file systems (SAFSs) promise a number of improvements, particularly in performance. Here's the case for SAFS.
BY CHRIS STAKUTIS
End users are finding it increasingly difficult to efficiently deploy large file-stores with high-performance, front-end applications servers. As a result, several technologies such as Direct Access File Systems (DAFSs) and SAN-attached file systems (SAFSs) are being used to help file servers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices achieve higher performance and scalability, while reducing impact on host CPUs.
Storage basically comes in two types: file system-based and raw blocks. High-end RAID systems are typically raw-block devices (although the blocks are usually quite large). Users carve up the terabytes of data into hundreds of gigabyte-sized chunks (LUNs-logical unit numbers) and assign those for private and exclusive use by individual servers. Each server, in turn, places a file system on the LUN, but the server's view of the storage is block-level.
The other type of storage is based on a file system; there is an embedded engine located close to the disks, which presents the disks as a "network file system" instead of a set of raw blocks. Hosts see it as a network file system-not a block device. For simplicity, we'll call this class of devices network-attached storage (NAS) servers, which are becoming increasingly popular.
The network-attached model has a number of benefits such as ease of administration, which can mean fewer file systems for an enterprise because each file system can be simultaneously shared by many servers. Disk space is always a tight resource, and a network view of storage is inherently more flexible than hard-mounted LUNs, which don't stretch or shrink easily. In a network-attached model, an administrator could, for example, have a single file system for a terabyte-size NAS device. The entire terabyte is potentially available to every server at any time.
Physically, NAS servers offer a number of other benefits. They are tightly packaged and integrated with a rack of physical storage, redundant power supplies, high-end RAID technology, LAN interfaces, and simplified administration.
Limitations of file system storage
With all of these advantages, it is surprising that the NAS model isn't dominant. The fact is, there are limitations in the areas of performance, impact on host processing, scalability, and "unsettled writes" that prevent them from being effective in some markets or applications.
- Performance: The name of the game in storage is performance. Nothing can be faster than direct-attached storage, but 100BaseT and Gigabit Ethernet can offer enough total throughput for some but not all applications. Application servers that are I/O-bound have a difficult time exploiting back-end network file systems. Too often, the raw throughput performance prohibits NAS servers from meeting application-server requirements.
- Host impact: Host impact refers to how much overhead the LAN traffic erodes application host CPUs. Moving one megabyte of data to or from a LAN wire is considerably more expensive than moving data from a direct-attached wire (SCSI, Fibre Channel, etc.). Application servers can wind up spending 50% of their CPU cycles on just the LAN-access activities, thus decreasing the available resources for application processing.
- Scalability limitations: The scalability limitations of NAS are due primarily to the CPU impact issue. LANs have two endpoints, and it is expensive to process LAN traffic on both the application host and the NAS end. High-end NAS servers are extremely sophisticated, parallel processing systems with many CPUs, network interface cards (NICs), host adapters, and complicated internal buses and switching mechanisms. These are necessary to address the performance and scaling requirements, but they add considerably to the total cost of the system.
- Unsettled writes: "Unsettled writes" refers to the fact that LAN-based data "writes" are not 100% ensured to be settled out to real storage at the moment they are acknowledged. Instead, once the data is in transit, the application is typically told that it is free to continue its job (thus achieving some increased performance due to parallel processing). However, there are some mission-critical applications such as databases that have to have 100% assurance that their journal records are settled. If not, they cannot guarantee recovery.
The NAS industry is well aware of these limitations and is working on solutions, with DAFS currently the best hope. The DAFS approach uses a faster wire that is more error-free for short distances. It is based on a new, lighter-weight transmission protocol and uses new NICs for direct-to-memory transfers to completely offload CPU processing.
DAFS may be a couple years away from widespread implementation, and it is not clear how much will have to change to realize the benefits. There is talk about applications having to be re-coded to exploit new APIs and about changing the general LAN networking model (security, namespaces, and access rules). And not all vendors support the DAFS initiative, which may cause standards issues.
What are SAFSs?
SAN-attached file systems, which have been available for a few years, exploit all of the existing network protocols and can achieve high performance with zero impact on host CPU cycles via established SAN technologies. SAFSs have been deployed predominantly in niche industries and have only recently been touted as a possible solution for NAS and general-purpose file servers.
The SAFS premise is that LANs are good at many things-but data transfer is not one of them-and SANs are good at data transfers-but not good at file coordination and security. So why not combine them?
In a SAFS architecture, one server (or set of servers) performs a different set of functions than the other servers. Think of this as the NAS file server in the conventional sense. Other servers would ordinarily have only a LAN interface to the NAS file server, and all of the requests and data would have to funnel through that single server. The back-end of the NAS, or file, server is attached to the storage elements typically via Fibre Channel or SCSI.
In a SAFS approach, some of the hosts can also be wired directly to the block storage. Applications on the hosts believe they are talking to the file server because, in general, they still do. The file server performs the authentication and layout of the file on the storage as well as all the other NAS-type functions. But when it is time to actually read or write the data, the SAFS host issues those I/Os directly to the storage device.
This split LAN/SAN architecture has been available for several years from such vendors as ADIC, Avid, EMC, IBM/Tivoli, SGI, and Veritas Software. Let's now test the SAFS approach against the four main issues with NAS-performance, host impact, scalability limitations, and unsettled writes:
- Performance: SAFS performs direct I/O out a Fibre Channel (or SCSI) host bus adapter (HBA) to the storage pool, providing higher speed than traditional NAS architectures. (With a NAS or file server, data goes out the same type of channel but is throttled by the LAN and network protocols). SAFS implementations can provide more than 90MBps, which is far faster than most NAS implementations.
- Host impact: Fibre Channel and SCSI protocols are lightweight, and the wiring medium is relatively error-free. Typically, there is near-zero host CPU impact. HBA vendors have been doing DMA transfers for years, and every host operating system supports them. By contrast, DMA transfers for LANs are new, or will be when DAFS becomes available.
- Scalability limitations: Scalability should be very high with a SAFS approach because no data goes through the file server or NAS server. In contrast, data in a DAFS approach still "hits" the NAS server.
- Unsettled writes: An application "write" in a SAFS approach goes directly out of the HBA, eliminating the unsettled writes problem. As a result, SAFS is suitable for applications such as databases and transaction processing.
So why isn't SAFS pervasive and taking the NAS market by storm? The reasons are related to evolution. SAFS grew up in the media world, where movie creation and graphic arts professionals needed to process huge files between peer machines. After a number of years and technology innovations, SAN software developers began to develop methods of file-level sharing on direct-attached storage devices. Slowly, the concept of a hybrid LAN/SAN became accepted. Still, the technology was limited primarily to high-end media and data-warehousing sites.
At the same time, NAS was becoming increasingly popular, but in different market segments-mainly the general enterprise computing space. The two camps were basically unaware of each other. Today, however, most NAS players are aware of how simple it is for them to expose their storage to SAFS hosts, and we may see many new product offerings hitting the streets. Stay tuned.
Chris Stakutis is chief technology officer for the SANergy product line at Tivoli Systems (www.tivoli.com/sanergy) in Austin, TX. He can be contacted at [email protected].
For more information on the Direct Access File System, see InfoStor, February 2001, p. 70.
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Sword drills and Bible baseball are fun ways for kids to hone their Bible skills. Does the mere mention of “sword drills” bring back memories of VBS and Sunday school?
The term sword drill invokes New Testament imagery of the Bible as a sword. The relevant scripture verses are:
Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)
The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
These images create a powerful metaphor of the Bible as a standard part of the Christian’s equipment. Not only should the Christian have a Bible, but he or she should know it inside and out and be able to wield it appropriately.
Back in Roman times, a soldier without a sword wasn’t a whole lot of help when it came time to do army things. So perhaps that’s part of the metaphor too: a Christian without his or her “sword” (a.k.a. knowledge of Scripture) is missing an essential article of their equipment that they actually need to be of any use in God’s kingdom.
You can read more about the procedure for a sword drill in the definition and citations below. Don’t forget to keep on scrolling so you can read about Bible baseball!
What other metaphors or creative expressions for the Bible do you know?
sword drill n. [*sword ‘metaphor for the Bible’ + drill ‘an exercise, practice’] A competitive game for children in which the first person to locate and correctly recite a given verse in the Bible wins.
The format of the sword drill varies widely. Generally, the person leading the drill begins by saying, “Attention” and the players hold their Bible down at their side or tucked under one arm—as if the Bible is “sheathed.” Then the leader says, “Draw swords” or “Present arms” and the players hold their Bibles up in the air or straight out in front of them, as if the Bible were an unsheathed sword. Then the leader calls out a book, chapter, and verse of the Bible, and the players immediately search in their Bibles to find it. The first player to find the verse and read it aloud correctly wins.
Sword drills are often associated with evangelicals, fundamentalists, Baptists, and Christians living in the southern United States (see various citations).
Sword drills are also sometimes regarding as being old-fashioned or reminiscent of a bygone era (see citations for 1993, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010).
See also *Bible baseball; *Bible drill; *knee drill.
• 1894 The Church at Home and Abroad XV. 342 : The late Miss Charlotte Tucker, whose nephew, of the Salvation Army, was accustomed to send her literature containing frequent mention of “Knee Drill,” wrote urging the importance of “Sword Drill,” i.e., practice in the use of the Sword of the Spirit. 1921 White Our B.Y.P.U.: Manual for Baptist Young People on Organization, Programs, and Methods 48 : The name “sword drill” comes from the verse of Scripture, “The sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.” In this drill the boys and girls become familiar with the main divisions of the Bible, with the books in each division, with the central thought in each book. They are also taught how to find verses in the Bible quickly. All of this is put into drill form. Sometimes the boys are arrayed against the girls; sometimes the one who finds the verse, chapter, or book first, stands. At other times the whole union sees how many verses it can find in one minute. 1959 Edge Helping the Teacher 64 : The Sword Drill in the [Baptist] Training Union has been a most effective means to lead people to become adept at finding passages in the Bible. 1970 Newsweek LXXVI. 53 : The week’s activities can include basketball at the church gymnasium as well as the traditional adult study classes and “sword drills” aimed at teaching youngsters’ recall of selected Bible verses. “Southern Baptists have worn out people going to church,” says the Rev. William Lancaster, the liberal young pastor of the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga. 1972 Abernethy Observations and Reflections on Texas Folklore 66 : Things began for the young folks an hour before regular revival services. Mostly we had sword drills which commenced when the leader read out a scripture and then said, “go.” You had to know the books of the Bible by heart and in proper sequence or you didn’t have a chance to be first. 1977 Texas Monthly (Feb.) 84 : I went to the Baptist Vacation Bible School several years … and did right well at a Bible game, called Sword Drill—“Attention! Draw swords! (No thumbs over the edges, now.) John 3:16! Charge!” 1985 Phillips, Harrell A Heart Set Free 55 : She’d lick her finger again, flip the pages to another Scripture, and point to the answer. Erby’s not Southern Baptist, I argued inside myself. She’s not been trained in sword drill. How does she know how to do that? 1987 Klein Growing Up Born Again: A Whimsical Look at the Blessings and Tribulations of Growing Up Born Again 38 : 1991 Chall Making God Real to Your Children 20 : It came time for the highlight of VBS opening exercises—the sword drill. “Draw your swords,” called Pastor Phil. One hundred kids, filled with anticipation, lifted their Bibles high in the air. 1991 Roehlkepartain Children’s Ministry That Works! The Basics and Beyond 176 : Avoid using competitive Bible games such as “Sword Drills,” since they can alienate children from each other. 1993 Ball–Kilbourne Get Acquainted with Your Bible: Leaders Guide 6 : Hold an old-fashioned “sword drill.” “Sword drills” were held in Sunday school classes to help students learn how to find different parts of the Bible quickly. If not overused, they can provide a fun learning experience. 1999 Cryderman Glory Land: A Memoir of a Lifetime in Church 12 : It did not hurt that I married a Baptist girl who not only spent more time in church as a youngster than I did, but won every sword drill to boot. (If you do not know what a sword drill is, I can guess your age or former church affiliation.) 2000 Mouw The Smell of Sawdust: What Evangelicals Can Learn from Their Fundamentalist Heritage 141 : Evangelicalism is blessed these days with new opportunities to understand the profound words of life given to us in the Scriptures. For some of us, these new lessons are expanded versions of what we first learned by submitting to the spiritual disciplines of Bible memory contests and “sword drills.” 2002 Balmer Encyc. of Evangelicalism 2002 Flora, MacKethan, Taylor, eds. The Companion to Southern Literature s.v. Bible : Sunday schools and youth groups, no longer well attended, are no longer centered on Bible reading, “sword drills,” or memorization as they once were. 2003 Howell Naked in Church 147 : The sword drill is a game used mostly in fundamentalist churches as a means of helping their youth learn the books of the Bible. 2005 Reagan Higley Lesson Commentary 248 : Does anyone remember the “sword drills” from Sunday school days so long ago we’re embarrassed to admit when? 2006 Jenkins The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South 165 : Evangelicals in the United States have long trained children in sword drill, the rapid location of Bible texts—hence the bloodcurdling cries of “Draw swords!” one hears directed at classes of very small children. 2008 Martin Pedagogy of the Bible: An Analysis and Proposal 1 : Some of us former fundamentalist kids remember “sword drills,” popular sometimes in Sunday schools but especially as a competition at Bible camp. 2010 Peterson I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth 32 : Southern Baptist Sword Drills are like spelling bees for true believers. The Holy Bible was my sword, scripture memorization was the drill, and manual dexterity made the winner. 2010 Goldsmith Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes 75 : You’ve attended church for many years if you remember … when “Sword Drills” were common and “Scripture Memorization” was encouraged.
Bible baseball n. A game for children that requires players to answer questions about the Bible; a Bible trivia game.
See also *sword drill.
• 1913 “Bible Baseball Game” The Interior (19 Jun.) 870 : Two teams, boys and girls, labeled to correspond with the positions on a baseball nine, recently played a contest at First church, South Bend, Ind., in which questions on the Bible were used by the pitchers in place of a ball. The pitcher hurled a question at the batter and if he answered correctly he advanced to first base. If he missed, the catcher had a try at it. If the catcher answered it correctly the batter was out, otherwise he took a base on balls. 1944 American Bible Society Annual Report 99 : A study of the Word was also encouraged by Bible baseball. The Secretary prepared new rules for this old game. These rules provide questions, which are graded as singles, doubles, triples, home runs, bunts, and sacrifice flies. 1949 Taylor Bible Baseball: 840 Bible Questions and Answers, Graded Into Singles, Doubles, Triples, Homeruns, Sacrifices and Bunts [title] 1959 The Cokesbury Party Book 159 : One of the best Bible games known is Bible Baseball. This can form the major part of an evening entertainment. 1970 Fischer Bible Baseball, No. 2: Bible Questions and Answers Graded for Baseball Competition [title] 1986 Cionca The Troubleshooting Guide to Christian Education 101 : The worker used an old edition of Bible Baseball as a learning activity for third through sixth graders. To her surprise she found that many of the children could not answer the “single” questions, let alone attempt a double, triple or home run. 2000 Petersen Bible Fun Stuff vii : We spent lots of Sunday afternoons playing “Bible baseball” and other quiz games—but we also had a lot of fun with it. 2004 Mennard Shall We Gather at the Potluck: A Heartwarming Look at the Church I Love 72 : Speaking of Bible games, why can’t we still play a friendly bout of Bible Baseball among adults? (OK, I may be the only one who’s in favor of this one!) 2012 Idleman Not a Fan: Teen Edition: What Does It Really Mean to Follow Jesus? 42 : The Pharisees knew a lot about God. When someone wanted to play “Bible Trivial Pursuit,” “God-opoly,” or “Bible Baseball,” they would dominate.
Bible drill n. See various senses.
1. A general term for a Bible quiz or Bible trivia contest.
• 1895 International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations Personal Work: How Organized and Accomplished 16 : On the Bible Drill: Have Bibles and notebooks closed. Take up each point of the topic, calling upon some member to repeat the passage from the Bible which will most clearly establish it…. Require ready answers. Insist on exact quotations. 1904 Presbyterian Church in the United States Minutes of the General Assembly 86 : Besides the lesson treatment in story form, with the lesson text, and its teaching brought out by well framed questions, there are found in the Junior Quarterly, map studies, lesson hymns, memory verses and Bible drills. 1930 Murch Successful C.E. [=Christian Endeavor] Prayer-Meetings 92 : A Bible-drill Meeting: Take a goodly portion of the regular program for an old-fashioned Bible drill in … answering Bible questions. 1978 Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly vols. 75–76 115 : Activities that can lead children into the Bible are often very good. Here are some examples: “Bible drills, contests, riddles, tests, and games.”
2. Syn *sword drill.
• 1905 Wells Sunday School Problems: A Book of Practical Plans for Sunday School Teachers and Officers 154 : I have mentioned Bible drills. Let me name a few. Such sprightly exercises as the following may occupy the first five minutes of every lesson…. Finding verses: “First Corinthians 2:5”—to see who can first turn to the passage and read it. 1930 Murch Successful C.E. [=Christian Endeavor] Prayer-Meetings 92 : A Bible-drill Meeting: Take a goodly portion of the regular program for an old-fashioned Bible drill in … finding Scripture passages. 1980 Bowman Teaching Today: The Church’s First Ministry 24 : Bible book “drills”: In an earlier day they were called “sword drills.” 1983 Centennial Hist. of First Presbyterian Church, Newport News, Virginia, 1883–1983 47 : taught us how to use and to treat our new Bibles, through Bible drills which pitted boys against girls. No graduate of the Junior Department ever needed to use his Bible’s table of contents to locate any book. 1994 Reimer 1001 Ways to Help Your Child Walk with God 188 : This sword drill is really a Bible drill—a friendly contest to sharpen your skills at locating verses in the Bible. Hebrews 4:12 tells us why God’s book is called a sword. 2001 Reid, ed. Psalms and Practice: Worship, Virtue, and Authority 33 : When I was growing up in the First Baptist Church of McColl, South Carolina, we participated in “sword drills.” … The instructions were “attention, draw swords—a text was called such as Psalm 1:1—charge.” Whoever found the text stepped forward from the line-up, read, and gained the advantage in this cutthroat competition. I look back on that with a smile. I am told these contests persist as Bible drills now. 2003 Dickson The Gospel According to Moses: What My Jewish Friends Taught Me About Jesus 16 : I remember “Bible drills” when I was seven or eight years old. My Sunday school class was given a verse to look up as quickly as possible. The first to find it won something, usually a little sticker to affix inside the cover of his or her Bible. 2004 Loya The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell: Confessions of a Bank Robber 8 : Then they’d play “Bible drill”: Ruth would shout out a verse, such as John 3:16, and the older kids would race to locate it. The winner would then read it aloud. 2005 McAlister Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East Since 1945 xv : Having grown up as a Southern Baptist in a small town nearby, I was enthusiastic about the camp routines: daily Bible study; games and contests, including Bible drills in the time-honored tradition. 2007 Clark, Leonard, Reed Outside the Fence: Stories of an Army Officer’s Kids and WWII POW Camps 133 : We also had Bible drills. These were games in which we would stand in a long line, Bibles held in the ready position to the commands “Attention” and “Draw Swords.” A scripture would be given, then the command “Charge!” We would then open our Bibles to find the location. The first one to step forward with the place marked by an index finger would then be allowed to read the passage aloud.
3. A sermon or Bible study that requires one to flip back and forth in the Bible in order to follow along. The allusion is to the frantic paging through the Bible of someone who is participating in a *sword drill.
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e all talk about scenting ability in a dog and scenting conditions, but exactly what is scent? The best definition that I can come up with is: "That quality of something that can be perceived by the olfactory sense."
Scent has been compared to fog, smoke or steam in the way that it dissipates. Molecules, in varying numbers, make up scent. These molecules can be alone or attached to microscopic particles.
Changes in the environment affect scent and its disbursement. How scent is dispersed is more important to dog handlers than what actually is scent. Air that is cool and moist usually provides good scenting conditions. But rain quickly washes away scent. A strong wind will diffuse scent, spreading it all over making it difficult for a dog to pin its source. However, a soft, gentle breeze wafts scent to a high headed bird dog.
The combination of hot, dry air, hard ground and gusty winds result in poor scenting conditions. The green cover in spring and summer makes for more scent in the air and more difficult for a dog to sort through all the scent to pick up the bird trail.
Bright, sunshiny days usually do not produce good scenting conditions, either, but when darkness is settling in and the air is cooling rapidly, scenting conditions get worse - which I believe is nature’s way of protecting ground nesting birds.
Air Movement Affects Scenting Conditions
Scenting conditions can be extremely complex to a dog trainer, especially if you have seen your dog find a bird from 15-30 yards away and on other days he seems to run right by the bird. Wind direction and intensity makes a difference in scenting. Strong winds can disperse the scent and make it difficult for tracking.
"Whether you are hunting pheasants, grouse or woodcock, basic air movements will affect the performance of your dog and its ability to find birds."
Whether you are hunting pheasants, grouse or woodcock, basic air movements will affect the performance of your dog and its ability to find birds. There is much more to air movement and scenting conditions than just wind direction and speed.
There is a definite up-slope and down-slope air movement at ground level. Ground level air movement is caused by heating and cooling of the earth’s surface. Warm air rises, so air moves up-slope as the earth warms. In late afternoon, as the air cools, the ground level air movement is down-slope. If you are hunting with your dog in hills and valleys, hunt the hill tops when the air is warming and hunt the valleys early in the morning or just before sundown to put your dog in the best possible position to use the air movement.
There is a big difference in scenting whether the temperature is rising or falling. It is better when rising. If the earth is warmed in a certain spot quickly (south-facing slope), the air in that spot rises rapidly - sometimes creating a scent cone.
Higher humidity generally produces stronger scenting conditions. Air movements will carry the odors better when moisture from dew, frost or vegetation is evaporating and the scent will linger longer. A steady rain will wash away bird scent.
Dogs seem to smell better just before a rainstorm. When the pressure is dropping, the scent drops to the ground and scenting becomes poor. This makes sense - since when danger is coming, the bird is putting out less scent. There is a chance that this is physiologically true, also.
After a front passes and the barometer starts rising, the scenting becomes outstanding. This is because the scent is coming up off the ground. When high pressure is building, the same birds that one could not find are now all over the place and trackable.
Extremely dry air and heat can evaporate scent and dry out the dog’s nose - as is sometimes the case during a dry autumn. It is important to supply the dog with frequent drinks.
Using the wind to whatever advantage we can while hunting with dogs will reward us with no loss of crippled birds as well as more birds found and trailed out.
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Physlets run in a Java-enabled browser, except Chrome, on the latest Windows & Mac operating systems. If Physlets do not run, click here for help updating Java & setting Java security.
Problem 3.16: Rotating square
Please wait for the animation to completely load.
A square rotates as shown in the animation (position is given in meters and time is given in seconds). Restart. A corner of the square is labeled A. For all of the following questions consider the motion of point A from t = 0.5 s to t = 2.5 s.
- What is the displacement of point A during this time interval?
- What is its distance traveled during this interval?
- What is its average velocity during this interval?
- What is its average speed during this interval?
Problem authored by Aaron Titus with support by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-9952323 and placed in the public domain.
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Baltimore. Maryland (PRWEB) July 19, 2012
The Rare Genomics Institute (RGI), a non-profit organization that uses genome sequencing and other biotechnology to help children with rare genetic diseases, and an Ivy League medical research center have jointly identified a new gene variant in four-year-old Maya Neider that may indicate a brand-new disease.
This finding marks the first time that a patient-initiated, crowdfunded genome project has uncovered the genetic basis of a rare disease.
Suffering from global developmental delays, Maya has undergone multiple operations, is unable to speak, and has difficulty hearing. Despite visiting countless physicians, her condition had remained unexplained for years. Doctors agreed that “something genetic” was responsible for her condition, yet six genetic tests – each screening for a myriad of known genetic defects – yielded no definitive explanation.
By turning to the Internet to raise funds from a large base of donors, RGI is pioneering a funding model for rare disease research. In an overwhelming response, donors across the United States contributed more than $3,500 to the research project for Maya, with most amounts between $5 and $50 each. The project reached its fundraising goals within just six hours of launching an online campaign.
The funds for Maya and her parents facilitated full exome sequencing to hunt for the disease gene, and less than one year into the project, researchers have found what they believe to be the culprit behind Maya’s illness: a gene active in fetal development and early childhood.
“When you've been looking for the answer for three and a half years, you don't really expect one anymore,” said Maya’s mother, Dana Nieder, who began working with RGI in the spring of 2011.
Maya’s is one of ten pilot projects that the RGI has created to help children with rare diseases through genome sequencing. By providing a comprehensive look at a patient’s genetic code, sequencing enables researchers to identify genetic defects that might otherwise elude standard medical testing.
Since standard genetic testing can only find previously identified mutations, Maya's condition would have remained unexplained without sequencing.
“Though we need to do further research to confirm this first gene discovery, it is a major milestone,” said RGI founder Jimmy Lin, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis and a 2012 TED Fellow. “The most exciting part of Maya’s project is that we are enabling research that could not exist otherwise. Through RGI’s network of academic institutions and crowdfunding, we hope to remove the barriers to technology access and funding to empower families like Maya’s to advance research for their loved one’s rare disease.”
As research into Maya's condition continues, her researchers are studying the protein coded by the gene in question. This work will help Maya's physicians better understand her condition and may someday point toward a treatment for Maya and other children like her.
The Rare Genomics Institute (RGI) is a non-profit organization that uses genome sequencing and other biotechnology to help children with rare genetic diseases. RGI hopes to provide new answers and treatments to those affected by rare, otherwise unexplainable genetic disorders. Through crowdfunding, RGI aims to bridge the gap between science and patient care by securing funds for patients needing sequencing. RGI is on the verge of discovering new treatments that could help thousands of future patients with rare diseases. For more information about RGI, please visit http://www.raregenomics.org.
Maya is a four-year old delight. She's wiggly and giggly and has a partner in crime, her dog Parker. She loves animals, other kids, being naughty, and life as a whole. Dana, Maya’s mother, writes an award-winning blog called Uncommon Sense at niederfamily.blogspot.com.
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... NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars.
The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of giant planets like Jupiter orbiting stars beyond our solar system. With the exception of the pulsar planets, all of the extrasolar planets detected so far are gas giants, approximately 150 as of 2005. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (habitable planets like Earth), which are 30 to 600 times less massive than Jupiter.
The Kepler Mission, a NASA Discovery mission, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone. The habitable zone encompasses the distances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface.
Results from this mission will allow us to place our solar system within the continuum of planetary systems in the Galaxy.
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Handheld devices are becoming ubiquitous and as their capabilities increase, they are starting to displace laptop computers—much as laptop computers have displaced desktop computers in many roles. Handheld devices are evolving from today’s PDAs, organizers, cellular phones, and game machines into a variety of new forms. Although partially offset by improvements in low-power electronics, this increased functionality carries a corresponding increase in energy consumption. Second, as a consequence of displacing other pieces of equipment, handheld devices are seeing more use between battery charges. Finally, battery technology is not improving at the same pace as the energy requirements of handheld electronics. Therefore, energy management, once in the realm of desired features, has become an important design requirement and one of the greatest challenges in portable computing, and it will remain so for a long time to come.
Among today’s rechargeable batteries, lithium-ion cells offer the highest capacity. Introduced commercially by Sony in 1991, their capacity has improved by about 10 percent per year in recent years . This rate of improvement is leveling off, however, and even with alternative materials and novel cell structures, major future improvement in rechargeable batteries is unlikely.
That is why battery suppliers and mobile system designers expect the eventual emergence of fuel-cell power sources and are investing accordingly. In its most basic form, a fuel cell combines hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the surrounding air to produce water and electricity. But hydrogen combusts easily and has low density, making it unattractive for most mobile applications. Instead, most efforts are directed toward using methanol as fuel and extracting the hydrogen with catalysts or high-temperature reforming .
While methanol-based fuel cells promise an order-of-magnitude higher energy density than chemical rechargeable batteries, serious development issues remain. Still, several manufacturers—Intermec Technologies and MTI MicroFuel Cells (working in partnership), NEC, and Casio—have promised initial product introductions in 2004 to 2005. Some of these early fuel cells will be used in handheld systems, but most will be for laptop computers where the fuel cell’s hardware complexity can be amortized over a larger system. Widespread adoption of fuel cells in portable electronics is not expected until the end of the decade. Experience has shown that users’ expectations evolve along with systems’ capabilities. Even the adoption of fuel cells will probably not be enough to slake mobile users’ thirst for energy or diminish the importance of energy management.
Although the words power and energy are often used interchangeably in casual conversation, it is very important to understand the difference between these two concepts. The power used by a device is the energy consumed per time unit. Conversely, energy is the time integral of power. Since a battery stores a given quantity of energy, the goal of energy management (unfortunately, often referred to as power management) is to minimize the amount of energy required to perform each task satisfactorily.
In some cases, minimizing the power also minimizes energy, but, as will be shown, this is not always the case. Some tasks will require less energy to complete when being performed at high speed and high power for a short duration rather than at low speed and low power for a longer period of time.
However, fixed-duration tasks—such as playing audio or video—form an important class where the energy required is directly proportional to the average power consumed (since the duration of the task is, by definition, constant). This class also includes waiting, whether waiting for user input when the device is on or keeping data in memory and the clock ticking when the device is off. For this class of tasks, focusing on minimizing power will minimize energy.
To achieve useful energy management, it is important to understand how and where energy is used in handheld devices. Unfortunately, little published data is available. A power study has been published for the Itsy , a prototype pocket computer developed by our team at the former Compaq Laboratories in Palo Alto, California. In this study, the power usage of Itsy is broken down into itscomponents for a variety of workloads ranging from idling to decoding and playing MPEG video.
Figure 1 shows the minimum power consumed by several components or groups of components (usually attained during sleep mode), as well as the low and high power-consumption figures for all the non-sleep-mode benchmarks used in this study. These power ranges are representative of real-life power consumption, since the benchmarks range from idle mode to applications stressing the limits of most components.
In most respects, Itsy is similar to its contemporary commercial handheld devices based on Intel’s StrongARM processors. Therefore, its power usage should also be representative of these devices. Itsy differs considerably from its commercial counterparts in one respect, however: the display. Itsy uses a passive-matrix gray-scale liquid crystal display (LCD), optimized to be used without backlight in most lighting conditions (only under very dim lighting is the backlight necessary).
On the other hand, many commercial handheld devices use active-matrix color LCDs. Although these displays are usually reflective or transflective and can be used with ambient light only, it has been found that most users turn the back- or frontlight on, at least to low brightness, for more contrast and brighter more-saturated colors. To account for this difference, figure 1 also presents the power for the display and frontlight of the Compaq iPAQ h36xx, a device that is otherwise similar to Itsy.
Another significant difference is that Itsy does not have any built-in wireless capability, while today many handheld users want wireless communication, either as an accessory or, for the latest handheld devices, built into the system. Figure 1 also shows the power consumption of a popular wireless (IEEE 802.11b) PC card , which can be used as an accessory on handheld devices such as the iPAQ H36xx.
Finally, while it would have been preferable to present data for a more recent device with a more modern processor, no similarly comprehensive data has been published. Although based on newer technology, the architecture of these devices is similar enough to Itsy’s that a power breakdown should not look qualitatively much different.
The most noticeable characteristic of figure 1 is that the minimum power values for all components are at least an order-of-magnitude smaller that the maximum ones. It suggests that the obvious technique of turning off a sub-unit when it is unused can actually be very effective. Although conceptually simple, this scheme requires a careful analysis of the OS (operating system). As our experience with Itsy showed, achieving optimal energy savings requires well-structured software and a lot of careful work.
To achieve this goal, system hardware should be designed as a collection of interconnected building blocks that can function independently and be independently powered on and off. Current handheld devices only partially fulfill this requirement. Peripheral building blocks (communication ports, audio input and output, display, etc.) can usually be disabled or turned off when unused. However, it is generally not possible to turn off the central building blocks, such as the processor or memories, except by putting the whole system in sleep mode.
With the trend of putting more and more functionality into the processor, new processor architectures must keep internal building blocks independent from a power point of view. It would also be useful if integrated-circuit manufacturers would specify the power behavior of sub-units. Today’s specifications usually provide information only on how to enable or disable a sub-unit or how to change its parameters (speed, etc.), but not on how such actions will affect the power consumption. Without such data, software developers must resort to guesses or perform their own measurements.
One of the interesting findings of the Itsy power study is that the interplay of different sub-units with different power characteristics sometimes results in surprising and counterintuitive behavior . This suggests that realtime power measurement hardware might enable the software to make better energy-use decisions.
Power states. As shown in figure 1, the processor can be responsible for a large percentage of the system’s power consumption. The processors in today’s handheld devices provide mechanisms to reduce their power usage by reducing the available performance. There are typically three major power states: run, idle, and sleep. Each of the major states can itself consist of one or more minor states. For example, there may be multiple frequencies to choose from for the running state. Similarly, there may be multiple levels of the sleep state, each with a different set of components turned off.
Figure 2 shows the major power states available on the StrongARM SA-1100, the processor used on Itsy. The major run state has 20 minor states, two core frequencies for each of the 10 supported frequencies used by the rest of the processor. The idle state has 10 minor states, one per supported frequency. The transitions between the run state and the idle or sleep state are under software control. The transition from the idle state to the run state is triggered by an interrupt. The transition from the sleep state to the run state occurs as a result of a realtime clock (RTC) alarm or an external interrupt.
Three factors need to be considered when looking at the energy implications of using a given processor state:
From a software point of view, the idle state is considered a lightweight state because of the small entry and exit latencies, while the sleep state has much larger latencies and is considered a heavyweight state. Table 1 shows the performance, latencies, and power for each of Itsy’s StrongARM SA-1100 states.
When looking at table 1, note that the sleep state has two minor states, depending on whether or not the main clock is left enabled. Turning it off saves power but increases the latency to exit the sleep state from 10 to 157 milliseconds (ms). Another important issue is that these latencies are only hardware latencies; in the case of the sleep state, you should consider the sometimes-significant latencies resulting from saving and restoring OS state.
|State ||Performance||Hardware latencies||Electrical power|
|Sleep||Interrupts are detected and can awake the processor. ||Entering sleep: 150 µsExiting sleep: 10–157 ms||7.18 mW|
|Idle||No instructions are executed; interrupts put the processor in the run state.||Entering idle: < 10 cycles |
Exiting idle: < 10 cycles
|55.5 mW at 59 MHz |
81.9 mW at 133 MHz
95.5 mW at 192 MHz
|Run ||Performance is a function of processor frequency.||N/A||Depends on the workload.|
Frequency and voltage scaling. Dynamic frequency scaling (DFS) is a technique that seeks to reduce power consumption by changing the processor frequency based on the requirements of the executing application. For fixed-duration tasks, especially waiting, this usually results in a proportional reduction of energy use. For other tasks, because of the corresponding increases in execution time, DFS could either save or waste energy depending on second-order effects. To guarantee energy savings, the processor voltage must be changed at the same time as the frequency. This technique is referred to as dynamic voltage-frequency scaling (DVFS), or as dynamic voltage scaling (DVS).
The importance of DVFS arises from the fact that the power consumed by a processor is proportional to the frequency and to the voltage squared:
P µ f · v
As a first approximation, a given task (with no waiting) takes a fixed number of processor cycles, so the energy used per task is proportional to the voltage squared.
Older processors did not support voltage scaling (although the StrongARM processor was only specified to allow frequency scaling, several experimental systems, including Itsy, used it to implement DVFS). Newer processors such as Intel’s XScale are specified to operate at a few different voltage points, with different maximum frequencies.
DVFS and DFS algorithms strive to change the frequency without affecting the user’s perception of system response time. Frequency changes usually occur at a fixed rate—for example, every 10 ms—and are based on a prediction of the processing requirements (workload) until the next decision point. Although many algorithms have been proposed [6,7], DVFS (or even DFS) is rarely implemented in general-purpose commercial handheld systems.
Instead, handheld devices that support frequency scaling have taken a more static approach, changing processor frequency only as a result of a major event such as a user request or low battery condition. The lack of DVFS/DFS in commercial handheld systems is due to many reasons, including the added complexity of correctly implementing DVFS/DFS and the potential for increased system response time.
There are also side effects associated with frequency changes in many current processors. These processors are highly integrated and include many I/O components, such as LCD controller and serial ports, which can misbehave during or after a frequency change. To eliminate this problem, some (such as the XScale processors) can be programmed with two core frequencies, where one is a multiple of the other and the processor can switch between the two without affecting the I/O components.
Memory. One interesting finding of the Itsy power study is that the energy cost of refreshing dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is small compared with the cost of accessing it. Therefore, increasing the size of the memory does not result in an important energy penalty. This is, however, not the case in sleep mode, where selectively powering down part of the memory would be beneficial. Although operating systems have traditionally not implemented any mechanisms for this purpose, you could compress the memory content or otherwise free memory (e.g., require that some applications save their state and exit) to take advantage of such a feature.
Any techniques to reduce the number of memory accesses would also be beneficial. Traditionally, caches have been used for this purpose. Caches, however, are themselves memory arrays, and the energy cost of accessing a cache will increase with its size. In the future, it is possible that cache sizes for handheld processors will be optimized to reduce energy consumption rather then access time.
Display. As illustrated by figure 1, the display back- or frontlight can easily dominate the not insignificant power used by the display itself. Even at one-quarter brightness, the iPAQ H36xx’s frontlight is a major power consumer.
Some of this lamp power becomes the photons that make up the image; hence, some power use is unavoidable in low lighting conditions. With good ambient lighting, however, the use of a back- or frontlight could be completely avoided if LCDs had better reflective characteristics.
While cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) are typically used for illuminating color LCDs in handheld products, light emitting diodes (LEDs) are gaining a foothold. While today’s white LEDs have less than half the efficiency of CCFLs, they are rapidly improving and dropping in price , and they are being used where the LED’s lower efficiency is offset by simplified light-guide optics and elimination of the CCFL’s high-voltage power converter.
Independently from display hardware improvements, other energy-saving techniques might also be useful. For instance, a typical back- or frontlight illuminates an LCD uniformly. The full brightness of the light, however, is efficiently used for light pixels only. For dark pixels, the light is mostly absorbed and the corresponding power wasted. Naehyuck Chang and his team proposed dimming the back- or frontlight while compensating by increasing the brightness and contrast when displaying dark pictures . They also proposed software techniques to reduce the power consumption of the LCD driver.
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays are a promising new technology for the near future. Since these displays are emissive, however, they cannot make use of ambient light. A more proactive form of energy management is possible for OLED displays: Subu Iyer and colleagues suggest darkening the parts of the screen that are not actively used by an application . Although this technique was shown to be effective on laptop computers, newer work by the same authors has indicated that large power savings might also be possible on handheld devices. Users could also choose window color schemes to reduce the number of bright pixels (e.g., light text over dark background).
Finally, further energy reduction could be achieved by changing the usage model for some handheld devices. A viewfinder or head-mounted display uses a tiny display element to produce a large virtual image and uses significantly less power than direct-view handheld displays.
Audio system. Although microphone input uses little power, audio output—particularly using loudspeakers—can use appreciable power. In recent years, highly efficient switching (class D) amplifiers have been displacing traditional linear amplifiers on portable electronics for all but audiophile applications. The remaining power is mostly used to produce the sound, and little can be done if speakers remain the favored audio-output interface. As with displays, however, energy could be saved by changing the usage model, in this case by using headsets.
Wireless networking. Wireless networking is becoming an important feature in handheld devices. The most popular short-range wireless technologies are Bluetooth (BT) and IEEE 802.11b (or WiFi). Low-power BT is a short-range technology, having a typical range of 10 meters, with a bandwidth of less than 1 megabit per second (Mbps). One of its main advantages is the low power consumption, on the order of 100 to 200 milliwatts (mW) for transmission and reception, 10 to 20 mW in idle mode, with even lower power modes (e.g., sniff, hold, or park) available during sporadic use.
IEEE 802.11b has a much longer range, normally about 100 meters, and a much higher bandwidth (11 Mbps) at the cost of much higher power consumption. For example, an IEEE 802.11b wireless PC Card was measured at about 60 mW in sleep (doze) mode, 805 mW in idle mode, 950 mW while receiving, and 1,400 mW while transmitting .
Today’s most common technology for wide-area wireless networking is General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). GPRS uses a mobile telephone network to send and receive information and has a theoretical maximum speed of about 170 Mbps. Typical speeds are much less, in the range of 10 to 50 kilobits per second (Kbps). Higher speeds are expected in the future with the introduction of enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) and Universal Mobile Telephone System (3GSM).
Reducing energy consumption in a wireless subsystem is achieved by spending as much time as possible in low power states. As with processor-state switching, however, it is important to take into account the energy cost of transitions into and out of these lower power states.
Current operating systems usually implement three power states substantially equivalent to the run, idle, and sleep states described earlier for Linux. They are often named differently: Windows CE 3.0 calls them on, idle, and suspend; Symbian calls them run, idle, and standby; and Palm OS calls them run, doze, and sleep.
Most operating systems use an idle thread or process running at the lowest possible priority that is entered whenever there is no useful work to be done. The function of the idle thread is to put the processor into its idle state. The OS enters its sleep state either through a user action, such as pressing a button, or through an inactivity timer. Before the OS can put the processor into its sleep state, it must first save some portion of the OS state, such as the value of some processor control registers. When the OS resumes, either by user action or by an RTC alarm (e.g., an appointment alarm), the OS must restore the processor registers that were saved.
Operating systems also support turning off individual components when they are not being used. For example, the audio subsystem could be turned off when no application is using it.
Linux is often used for prototyping, thanks to its open source model, which allows anyone to implement and explore novel energy management approaches.
As people increasingly rely on handheld devices, good energy management is becoming necessary to squeeze the most out of a battery. A plethora of ideas have been proposed and tested by researchers in academia and industry, but relatively few have made their way into commercial products. The field is still in its infancy, and interesting ideas continue to blossom.
Power/energy studies, which have been sadly lacking, are necessary to understand how energy is actually used. Very little data is available and more published studies are badly needed. Another requirement is better tools to track how energy is used , in particular the capability to evaluate power consumption in real time.
There is also a chasm in that power measurements have traditionally been in the hands of hardware engineers, while energy management is usually the responsibility of software developers. Hardware engineers need to provide energy-tracking tools that software developers can easily use. At the same time, software engineers need to acquire a better understanding of how the hardware uses energy.
In many respects, the energy-management field is at the same stage as performance evaluation decades ago, when a similar gulf existed between hardware engineers who understood “where cycles were being used” and software engineers who wrote compilers and applications. Perhaps within a few years “energy-management engineers” will be as numerous as performance engineers are today and will help bridge this still-yawning gap.
1. Linden, D. and Reddy, T. Secondary Batteries—Introduction. In Handbook of Batteries, ed. D. Linden and T. Reddy, pp. 22.3–22.24. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 3rd edition, 2002; http://www.knovel.com/knovel/databook/pdf/627/59788_22.pdf.
2. Riezenman, M. Mighty mites. IEEE Spectrum 40, 6 (June 2003), 30–33; http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/spectrum/jun03/features/mm.html (subscription required).
3. Viredaz, M. and Wallach, D. Power evaluation of a handheld computer. IEEE Micro 23, 1 (Jan.-Feb. 2003), 66–74; http://dlib.computer.org/mi/books/mi2003/pdf/m1066.pdf (subscription required).
4. Hamburgen, W., Wallach, D., Viredaz, M., Brakmo, L., Waldspurger, C., Bartlett, J., Mann, T., and Farkas, K. Itsy: Stretching the bounds of mobile computing. Computer 34,4, (April 2001), 28–36, IEEE Computer Society; http://dlib.computer.org/co/books/co2001/pdf/r4028.pdf (subscription required).
5. Shih, E., Bahl, P., and Sinclair, M. Wake on Wireless: An event-driven energy saving strategy for battery-operated devices. In Proceedings of the Eighth Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, pp. 160–171. Atlanta, GA: ACM Press, Sept. 2002; http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=570666&type=pdf (account and password required).
6. Weiser, M., Welch, B., Demers, A., and Shenker, S. Scheduling for reduced CPU energy. In Proceedings of the First Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation, pp. 13–23. Monterey, CA: Usenix, Nov. 1994; http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/ReducedEnergyScheduling.ps.
7. Govil, K., Chan, E., and Wasserman, H. Comparing algorithms for dynamic speed-setting of a low-power CPU. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, pp. 13-25. Berkeley, CA: ACM Press, Nov. 1995; http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=215546&type=pdf (account and password required).
8. Hara, Y. White LED lamp market brightens. EE Times, (July 18, 2002); http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020718S0013.
9. Choi, I., Shim, H., and Chang, N. Low-power color TFT LCD display for handheld embedded systems. In Proceedings of the 2002 International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design, pp. 112–117. Monterey, CA: ACM Press, Aug. 2002; http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=566440&type=pdf (account and password required).
10. Iyer, S., Luo, L., Mayo, R., and Ranganathan, P. Energy-adaptive display system designs for future mobile environments. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, pp. 245–258. San Francisco, CA: ACM, Usenix, May 2003; http://www.usenix.org/events/mobisys03/tech/full_papers/iyer/iyer.pdf (subscription required).
11. The fusion of PDA portability and laptop utility. Whitepaper, Rochester, NY: Interactive Imaging Systems, 2001; http://www.iisvr.com/downloads/Fusion1.pdf.
12. Chang, F., Farkas, K., and Ranganathan, P. Energy-driven statistical sampling: Detecting software hotspots. In Power-Aware Computer Systems, ed. B. Falsafi and T.Vijaykumar, vol. 2325 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 110–129. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag Heidelberg, 2003 (Revised papers from PACS 2002); http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=yfj75qh16nkr3ra3.
MARC A. VIREDAZ is a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. He has a Ph.D. in computer engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL). He codesigned the Itsy hardware with W.R. Hamburgen. His research interests include handheld and mobile computing, hardware design, low-power systems, and computer architecture.
LAWRENCE S. BRAKMO is a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. He has an M.S. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Arizona. He was one of the original OS developers for Itsy, collaborating in the Linux port and on energy management extensions to the OS. His current research interests include energy/power management, handheld and mobile computing, operating systems, and computer networks.
WILLIAM R. HAMBURGEN is a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. He has a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.S.M.E. degree from Stanford University. His interests encompass system design, power, and packaging. Prior work includes packaging the BIPS 115W bipolar ECL microprocessor and initiating and leading the Itsy handheld computer project.
Originally published in Queue vol. 1, no. 7—
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Asymmetric multicore systems promise to use a lot less energy than conventional symmetric processors. How can we develop software that makes the most out of this potential?
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The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA uses to transport space shuttle orbiters. One is a 747-100 model, while the other is a short range 747-100SR. The SCAs are used to ferry space shuttles from landing sites back to the launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center, or more specifically, the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility, and to and from other locations too distant for the orbiters to be delivered by ground transport. The orbiters are placed on top of the SCAs by Mate-Demate Devices, large gantry-like structures which hoist the orbiters off the ground for post-flight servicing, and then mate them with the SCAs for ferry flights. In early test flights, the shuttle was released from SCA during flight, and the shuttle glided to a landing under its own control. The related Flight Simulator X model available for download here (as freeware!) has certain special effects, all moving parts, and a very nice CTRL-E sky bridge feature. If you are interested in the USSR competitor, consider downloading the Antonov AN-225 (with Buran shuttle) here.
Author: Posky | Size: 22.5MB | Added: 2008-08-01 | Downloaded 11141 times
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Planning is something that adults with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) have a lot of difficulty with.
So many things in life require planning. Getting organized requires a plan. Doing a project (like a report at work or a paper at school) requires a plan. And time management, especially, requires a plan.
Now before we go any further, let me be really clear about this:
While it’s true that ADDers have difficulty planning, this doesn’t mean that we can’t plan. The problem is that we usually don’t think we need a plan!
We often don’t want to “waste time” by creating a plan in advance, and we trust ourselves to just wing it. But this rarely works. It just leads to a lot of procrastination, indecision, and overwhelm!
So those few minutes that you didn’t want to “waste” on planning actually cost you a whole lot more time in the end.
There really is no underestimating the importance of planning. And because it may not come naturally to us, I believe that planning is one of those skills that many adults with ADD have to learn later in life. I know I certainly did.
And there’s good reason for learning how to plan, even if you do end up learning this skill later in life. The thing is, planning makes your life a whole lot easier.
Think about it this way:
Imagine you’re going on vacation. You’re driving to a different state that’s a few hours away.
Would you get in the car and start driving without a map, or directions, or a GPS? In theory, you could get on the highway and follow the road signs. But your trip would be pretty stressful, and you’d probably take a lot of wrong turns!
It’s much easier to get to your destination when you’re being guided, and you have a tool that instructs you on where to go next.
This is what planning in daily life is all about. Your plan is the roadmap that tells you were to go next, and makes your whole life easier.
And I have to tell you, nowhere is your plan so important as when it comes to time management.
Planning your day alleviates so much stress! When you take just a little bit of time each day to create your plan, you’re essentially creating a roadmap for yourself that guides you on what to do, and when to do it.
When you create a plan for your day, you take control of your time and tasks. Planning eliminates a whole lot of procrastination, indecision, and overwhelm. Best of all, it helps you to be more productive and get things done!
And believe me, even if you’re not used to planning, you absolutely can do it. You can learn this skill and benefit from it at any point in your life. And better late than never, right?
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Species: The American Toad or Bufo Americanus belongs to the Bufo genus of the Bufonidae family.
Origin: True to their name, the American Toads originate from the Americas and are widely distributed across the eastern half of North America.
Size and Longevity:
The American Toads are rugged species that make excellent pets for both beginners and experts in amphibian care. The adult females normally grow to about 4-5 inches in length, while males manage about 3-4 inches.
Different groups of experts hold varied opinions about the longevity of the American Toad. While some sources quote it to be about 10 to 12 years and some say they live to about 15, while a few place it at a whooping 36 years. All said and done, we can conservatively estimate that your American Toad will be your friend for at least a decade as long as you care for it properly.
The American Toad is usually mossy-green to rusty-brown in color on the back, which is usually covered with wart-like humps. They have short legs and a smallish head but not so small a mouth. Individuals can have patterns of stripes, spots or reticulations helping them blend into their natural habitat.
Habitat and Caging Requirements:
A standard 10 gallon terrarium would suffice to house a couple of American Toads. Make sure you check with your pet store before placing other toads or frogs in the company of an American Toad because some frogs and toads are extremely aggressive and might eat others, while others can be poisonous. There have been reports like one, where a Pacman frog died in the first 5 minutes of its becoming a neighbor of a fire bellied toad.
You must also make sure that the lid of the terrarium fits securely and never leave the lid open since these guys like to test their jumping skills ever so often.
American Toads are a quite hardy species when it comes to temperature variations, since they come from a relatively temperate natural habitat. A range of 60 to 70 degrees will work beautifully for these toads, while you may need the terrarium to be a tad bit warmer than 70 degrees if your toad hails from a warmer climate.
Using a heating pad or a low-wattage heating lamp with a thermostat will be useful since using a high wattage bulb can cause overheating.
Also, it is important not to use heating rocks or similar hot structures as they can cause burns.
While toads are used to not so humid climes, it is best to give the terrarium a misting or two a day to help them keep themselves moist. This is important because they breathe through their skin and need to keep their skin wet to enable the transfer of oxygen.
The American toad can tolerate a variance in humidity but for best results, it is advisable to keep a constant supply of fresh water for the toad, and to pour some water into the substrate in one corner of the terrarium so there is a moist spot as well as a few dry spots in the terrarium, so the toad can choose where he wants to be.
The habitat ecology and substrate
American Toads need no special décor to their terrarium, as long as it is big enough for it to move around and has a few hiding spots, and a little pool for him to take a dive once in a while, he should be quite happy in his glass-walled home.
The Terrarium: Be big enough for the frog to be able to live its normal life, swimming and moving around a bit.
The Soil and substrate: These toads like to burrow and chill through the day, so make sure you have some soft sphagnum moss or pulverized coconut fiber substrate that your American Toad can dig into.
Since toads need their skin to be moist, you will have to mist the terrarium two to three times a day and pour a bit of water into one corner of the terrarium to create a wet spot.
Props and plants: You can make your frog happy by giving him hiding spots - a few plants, a slate or medium-sized stone he can burrow under, and if possible a coconut shell he can crawl into.
Water: A frog pond about 4 times the size of the frog, and about half its height should be good enough for the American toad as long as there is a ramp-like structure for it to get out of the pool after its swim.
1. You will need to thoroughly de-chlorinate the water you use in the terrarium, both for the frog’s pond as well as for misting. Frogs are extremely sensitive to acidic environments and can die very quickly if you use water with chlorine or any other impurities.
It is best to use either fresh rain water or tap water, treated with a standard de-chlorinator and left overnight to become slightly stale. You can get a de-chlorinator from your local pet store or from the shopping page of this website.
2. If you are using a filter, make sure it is small, as larger filters remove small organisms that help maintain a pH closer to 7 (7 on the pH scale is absolute neutral that is neither acidic nor alkaline).
3. If you are unsure about anything related to your frog, please contact your pet store. It’s always better safe than sorry.
Temperature and Lighting Requirements:
American toads that come from the northern regions will require a range of about 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit while those from the warmer regions might want the heat turned up a little more. 75 degrees should make them happy.
They also need a good distinction between day and night, along with a little UV radiation to help them synthesize their vitamins. Giving them a 12 hour photo-cycle will be sufficient, using a white or daylight lamp. American Toads don’t fuss about fluorescent light but it is advisable to give them a slightly warmer color temperature (5000 to 6000 Kelvin) that’s more in tune with daylight.
They are nocturnal species and if you wish to observe them while they’re active, you can use a red lamp to light up your terrarium by night because frogs cannot see red light. They will think they are moving around in the dark.
Feeding and Nutrition:
As with most frogs and toads, even the Bufo americanus is not a fuss pot about its diet. They will eat every moving object can be captured and pushed into their mouths.
Feeding them with 4 to 6 standard sized feed items every other day will keep them healthy. If you wish to give them nutritional supplements, dusting their prey with calcium and multivitamin powder, or gut-loading crickets two times a week will give them all the essential nutrients.
NOTE: Be very careful while feeding your Pacman because they will pounce on the prey with all the aggression and speed they can muster…you will not have more than a fraction of a second before the frog takes a bite at your finger along with its food. You must be even more cautious when you use tweezers because the tips of the tweezers can cause severe and often fatal injuries to the frog, even if they are blunt and rounded.
Staple & Supplemental Insects:
You can always make crickets their staple diet - toads love them and they’re easy to find. Your local pet store will sell you live crickets. Just make sure you give the crickets a wet sponge and a potato wedge to get their water and food till your frog eats them. It makes sure they don’t die, and also ensures your frog gets a good feed with each cricket.
However if you want your toad to be happy, you need to give it variety. Mealworms, earthworms, super worms and any other pellet feed you can get from your local pet store will do and more importantly, they also give the toad its quota of minerals and vitamins.
It is almost impossible to tell between male and female toads when they are young. As they grow older, the gender distinction does not become very easy, while females are usually significantly larger than males, individuals may have no differences what so ever. So the only way you could tell a male is by its croak when you try and grab its hind quarters like they do when they try to mate.
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Definition of Durango
1. Noun. A city in north central Mexico; mining center.
Generic synonyms: City, Metropolis, Urban Center
Group relationships: Mexico, United Mexican States
Definition of Durango
1. Proper noun. A state of Mexico. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Click the following link to bring up a new window with an automated collection of images related to the term: Durango Images
Lexicographical Neighbors of Durango
Literary usage of Durango
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Bulletin of the New York Public Library by New York Public Library (1909)
"Durango.—Constitution. Constitución política del estado de Durango con las reformas que se ... Notes on mining and smelting ¡n the state of Durango, Mexico. ..."
2. Guide to Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal by Herbert Eugene Bolton (1913)
"Durango. Durango was long an important administrative centre for the north country of New Spain. Founded in 1563, it soon became the capital of the ..."
3. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History by American Museum of Natural History (1906)
"Article X.—LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED IN NORTHWESTERN Durango, MEXICO, BY JH BATTY, ... In the case of several species, the Durango birds are almost exactly ..."
4. The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies by Antonio de Alcedo, George Alexander Thompson (1812)
"The population of Durango is 12000; it is J 70 leagues from Mexico to the и. и. a>. and lies in long. 103° 38' a. and lat. ..."
5. Report of the Annual Meeting (1899)
"As this approaches the last hill range overlooking the great plain of Durango the ground becomes open and clear of timber, forming to all appearance an ..."
6. The Auk: Quarterly Journal of Ornithology by American Ornithologists' Union, Nuttall Ornithological Club (1876)
"HCO Miller on Birds from Northwestern Durango.3— During most of 1903 — from January 19 to November 26 — Mr. JH Batty collected bird« for the American Museum ..."
7. Terry's Mexico: Handbook for Travellers by Thomas Philip Terry (1909)
"We soon enter the State of Durango, celebrated for its phenomenally rich mines, ... Durango City, capital of the State of the same name, pop. ..."
8. Travels Over the Table Lands and Cordilleras of Mexico During the Years 1843 by Albert M. Gilliam (1846)
"Durango, a Bishopric. One of the nine mints. My servant's comparisons of coins. ... The people of Durango. Bishop of Durango. The Bishop's character. ..."
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VACCINES IN VEGETABLE FORM
HOUSTON - Genetically engineered fruits and vegetables that provide immunity could soon become a reality according to several recent studies.
Scientists now report that laboratory animals fed genetically engineered potatoes produced antibodies against hepatitis B, an infectious bacterium responsible for diarrheal disease. This is the first time that an oral vaccination has been achieved by feeding a genetically modified plant.
The researchers first transferred a gene that makes an antigen against hepatitis B (rHBsAg) from yeast to tobacco and then to potatoes. The immune response elicited by the transferred protein was similar to that obtained by immunizing mice with commercial vaccines for hepatitis B. Both the B- and T-cell epitopes of HBsAg were preserved when the antigen was expressed in the transgenic plant.
If these preliminary results translate into immunity against infection, it could open the door to edible vaccines against enteric diseases caused by viruses or bacteria, such as cholera. These diarrheal illnesses are blamed for the deaths of at least five million children each year in developing nations.
"In the developing world, a low-cost vaccine for these diseases would make a dramatic health improvement," said Dr. Charles J. Arntzen, a molecular biologist at Texas A&M University's Institute for Biosciences and Technology.
Arntzen says that potatoes were genetically engineered to produce a protein subunit from an infectious variety of E. coli bacteria. When mice consumed the raw potatoes as food, they produced antibodies against the protein in both their blood serum and in secretions in the gut.
These results are "extremely hopeful, but not yet conclusive," Arntzen says. "Because mice do not get the human form of diarrheal disease, we cannot determine protective immunity yet." Further tests in other animals that do get diarrheal disease are planned, he says.
Arntzen emphasizes that potatoes themselves are a good system in which to test the idea of edible vaccines, but probably would not be a practical to administer them to children. Other members of Arntzen's research group are attempting to introduce the E. coli genetic material into other food plants, especially bananas.
"The chances are that nobody is going to want to eat raw potatoes, and we believe that cooking is going to destroy the proteins that we're interested in, so we have to have something that's eaten raw. We're looking for something that could be eaten without cooking, and something that could be grown easily in developing areas of the world. Bananas seem to fill the bill," he noted.
"I don't see that every village in Africa or Latin America is going to have a pharmaceutical banana tree, because there might be disadvantages to eating this material on a repeated basis. I would say that if we are successful, this will be treated like any other pharmaceutical or herbal medicine and managed in a health care context," he added.
According to the World Health Organization, some 2 million children around the world die each year from diseases that can be prevented with vaccines, such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and measles.
For information on these studies, see articles by Arntzen et al. in the 5/5/95 issue of Science and the 4/11/95 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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One main tip: Keep your boat afloat; don’t sink out there. And if you do or must, there are steps to take when that happens to protect and preserve your safety.
The Boat Owners Association of the United States (BOATUS) recently surveyed boat insurance claims to identify the primary causes of boat sinkings. About two out of every three boats (69 percents) sink while docked or moored, with the remainder sinking while out on the water (31 percent).
For boat sinkings while on the water, the most common cause (43 percent) is hitting something — a log, the bottom or colliding with another boat or dock. While some sinkings might be avoided with care and caution, others can only be chalked up to bad luck.
While there are safety checks and efforts you should take before leaving dock, some incidents cannot be avoided. If you find yourself on a sinking boat, you should take these measures, according to Esurance:
Get everyone a life jacket, which everyone should have as soon as they board your craft anyway.
Make a distress call. Use your emergency VHF radio or cell phone to make a Mayday call, giving location, boat name, injury situation, number of people aboard and an estimate on how long you can stay afloat. The U.S. Coast Guard‘s radio frequency is channel 16 if you’re out on a Great Lake like Lake Michigan.
Be resourceful. Try plugging a leaking hole with items lying around, including clothing, towels, seat cushions or food bags. Also, move everyone aboard and gear to the other side of the watercraft to try to tilt the hole above water or, perhaps, slow down the flooding.
Pump the water. Use a bilge or any backup pump to help extract pooling water. In some cases, an engine can be used as an emergency pump by removing the raw-water intake hose and running the throttle in the pooling water. As water level drops, ease the throttle to keep the engine from overheating.
Beach the boat. It might be worth grounding the boat on a sand bar or other land cropping rather than sink as long as the location is not too rocky or dangerous.
Stay with the boat, if possible. Not only can you keep drier and warmer longer, but it will make it easier for rescue parties to locate ship.
If you decide to abandon the boat, take your supplies if at all possible. And, if the boat is completely sinking, it’s definitely time to get off. However, do not leaving without taking some supplies as long as it’s safe to do so. That means grabbing an emergency radio, phone, food, water and warm clothes and take those with you in a waterproof bag. Or, even better, have an emergency bag ready to go before you leave the dock.
Of all dock-mooring sinkings, 39 percent occur when a part gives out because of wear, tear and corrosion. This is a no-brainer because lack of maintenance is the factor.
Here are some preventative measures:
For inboard-outboard powered boats, inspect stern drive bellows annually and replace every three to five years. The shift bellows is usually the first to fail.
For inboard powered boats, check the stuffing box every time you’re on the boat. Also, repack every spring instead of just tighten down the nut.
For engines with raw water hoses, replace them the moment they indicate wear, such as when small cracks appear or if they feel spongy when squeezed. Rusty hose clamps also should be replaced.
Replace the engine cooling system impeller every two to three years.
Inspect the boat’s cockpit and live-well plumbing. Check out hoses, clamps, and cracked or broken fittings. Make sure you can inspect all such plumbing. If you can’t, install inspection ports to make the task easier.
Each season, take are hard look at all below-waterline fittings, hoses and clamps.
Don’t forget the drain plug. You knew that’d be on the list.
Keep a good lookout and ask guests to help keep their eyes peeled for deadheads. If you have grounded or hit something, consider a short haul to inspect the bottom or drive gear.
Always pull trailered boats from the water when storms are forecast. These boats generally have too little free board to stand up to any kind of wave action.
Dock-line management systems that keep the boat centered in its slip can prevent snags that sometimes lead to a sinking.
Since we’re speaking about maintenance, here some inportant tips for overall watercraft care from GEICO that are always good to follow by boat owners:
Ensure all electronic equipment is operating properly.
Check safety items, such as life jackets and floatation devices, to make sure they are in working order and are in sufficient number.
Tune the engine and replace the oil and filters.
Check the coolant level and test for a proper mixture.
Make sure your carbon monoxide detector is working properly.
Inspect the general condition of the hull and apply a coat of wax.
Check all ignition and secondary wiring for wear.
Inspect all safety equipment and life vests.
Check mooring lines for wear.
Inspect all fuel system components for leaks.
Replace any anodes that show signs of wear.
Remember, please stay safe, be responsible and use common sense when boating.
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Storytelling is an essential element of Waldorf early childhood programs. Nurseries and kindergarten children hear a story each day, sometimes the same story for several weeks, often a nursery rhyme, folk or fairy tale reflecting the mood of the season. Sometimes a story is told with puppets and props. Materials used for storytelling […]Continue Reading →
I am delighted to bring you a picture of Terri’s Morning Garden, joyfully tended by, Terri Petrie. Terri welcomes children from 18 months to 9 years of age and has been doing this work for the past decade. Teri’s Morning Garden program is located on the edge of a wood and a […]Continue Reading →
by Christine Natale
What is Science?
Let’s begin by trying to get a real, working understanding of how Science is actually defined.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:Continue Reading →
I am delighted to bring you a picture of Stephen Spitalny’s Kindergarten. Stephen Spitalny is a long time kindergarten teacher and teacher trainer. He is the recent editor of Gateways, the journal for early childhood teachers. He has written many inspiring and helpful articles on early childhood. He is the author of a […]Continue Reading →
Waldorf education is said to be the fastest growing form of independent education in the United States. Many families now come to Waldorf education from exposure on the internet. But what do we really know about Waldorf education in the United States? Waldorf education began in the United States nearly 100 years ago […]Continue Reading →
Last month hopefully it became apparent that the key concept for the sense of self-movement was sufficient time in the horizontal plane so that:
1) spatial orientation is well grounded (the body’s internal map)
2) the crawling stage evolves easily, leading to proper stimulation for brain development and eventually an upright human being, […]Continue Reading →
We continue our journey of the twelve senses recognized by Rudolf Steiner, focusing on the first four known as the Foundational Senses. Upon the strength or weakness of these four senses, the human being will meet the world with certainty or hesitation. To review, these Foundational Senses build three capacities in a child: Body Geography […]Continue Reading →
Last month, I began writing about the twelve senses recognized by Rudolf Steiner. The first four form a group known as the Foundational Senses. Upon the strength or weakness of these four senses, the human being will meet the world with certainty or hesitation. To review, these Foundational Senses build three capacities in […]Continue Reading →
When a child is born, he or she has quite a job to do.
In the past few decades we have lost sight of this task, but we must work to develop respect for it again: the job of growing into the physical body. Though not often recognized by experts, it takes roughly seven years […]Continue Reading →
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an organization which was established in 1949 to develop greater unity between the countries of Europe, and to encourage democratic government and respect for human rights. It now consists of about 40 European countries, and its members develop policies on education, crime, health, and the environment. Complaints about cruel or unfair treatment can be settled in the Council's court, the European Court of Human Rights. Although it has close connections with the European Union, it is a separate organization.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.
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On This Day - 28 November 1915
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Romanian fronts. Southern Front comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Romanian) fronts, and Dardanelles. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (including Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc. Naval and Overseas Operations comprises operations on the seas (except where carried out in combination with troops on land) and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc. Political, etc. comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. Source: Chronology of the War (1914-18, London; copyright expired)
German 82nd Divisional Staff surprised and taken prisoner near Pinsk; two generals captured.
Bulgarian and Austro-Germans advancing on Monastir.
Successful Italian attacks on the Carso and slopes to the north-west.
Lord Kitchener visits Greece, south-east and Italian fronts.
German H.Q. report main operations closed in Serbia.
Naval and Overseas Operations
German submarine and aeroplane destroyed by British seaplanes off Belgium.
Patriotic proclamation by King Nicholas of Montenegro.
Greek Government replies to Allies.
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Greens for Homeostasis:
a chapter from Victoria’s book Green For Life.
Continued from the January 28, 2010 Newsletter
How can we take care of our homeostasis when it is out of our reach? The process of homeostasis in the human body is tightly connected to the endocrine system. Homeostatic balance depends on the performance of the endocrine glands. If the glands do not secrete the proper amount of hormones, the homeostatic balance in the body will shift and disease could start.
The glands of the endocrine system and the hormones they release influence almost every cell, organ, and function of our body. The endocrine system is instrumental in regulating mood, growth and development, tissue function, and metabolism, as well as sexual function, and reproductive processes. To make it really simple, the endocrine system in a human body acts like a factory combined with a supermarket that manufactures and supplies every substance requested by any gland or organ at any time, in any needed quantity. What would such factory need? An abundance of high quality supplies! Similarly, the endocrine system in our body absolutely needs all nutrients, including vitamins, amino acids, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, minerals and all trace elements. Supplying all of these nutrients to our body is critical for good health.
Greens match all of these purposes better than any other food! Once again, when blended, the nutrients from greens are absorbed more efficiently and provide many times more nutrients than other foods and even traditionally made salads. In other words, by drinking green smoothies we support our homeostatic balance in the most optimal way. I wish I knew this information ten years ago when my mother was still alive. She was only 66, a beautiful, adventurous woman, when she was diagnosed with cancer one year after she swam in the river near Chernobyl. I could have explained to her now very clearly how the body can heal. I am sure that Mom would have refused chemotherapy because those poisonous chemicals ruined her already weakened homeostasis. I would have nourished her to health instead. I understand now that only supporting (not destroying) the homeostasis gives a body the greatest chance to heal. She might still be with us. I have met many people who have survived cancers much more severe than what my mother had by incorporating more greens into their diet. I miss her. She knew how to share joy like no one else.
When older people come to my classes, I feel grateful that I have an opportunity to share my information with someone else’s parents. I feel so happy for their children. What a blessing to have open-minded parents! I am trying hard to be one myself.
1. Cannon, Walter B. The Wisdom of the Body. New York: Peter Smith Pub Inc, 1932
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One little girl's odd hobby has led to an extraordinary find for British paleontologists.
At the age of 9, Daisy Morris has discovered a new dinosaur species, which scientists have since named after her. The new creature has been dubbed Vectidraco daisymorrisae, the "Dragon from the Isle of Wight."
Daisy was just 4 when she stumbled upon the fossilized remains of an unknown animal during a family walk on the beach in 2009. The family lives near the coast of England's Isle of Wight -- also known as the "dinosaur capital of Great Britain."
"She has a very good eye for tiny little fossils," her mother Sian Morris told BBC. Daisy apparently first began fossil hunting at age 3. "She found these tiny little black bones sticking out of the mud and decided to dig a bit further and scoop them all out," her mother said.
Story continues after photo.
Realizing that Daisy had possibly uncovered an ancient specimen, her family took the findings to Southampton University's fossil expert Martin Simpson.
"When Daisy and her family brought the fossilized remains to me in April 2009, I knew I was looking at something very special," Simpson told the Daily Mail.
Over the past several years, the bones Daisy discovered have been thoroughly analyzed by paleontologists. The findings were finally published this Monday. The fossilized remains belong to a previously unknown genus and species of a small flying reptile called the pterosaur.
The remains date back to the Lower Cretaceous period and may be up to 115 million years old.
Simpson told the Daily Mail that if it weren't for Daisy, the fossils would "without doubt have been washed away and destroyed."
The family has donated the fossils to the Natural History Museum while Daisy's personal collection continues to grow. Sian Morris told the Daily Mail, "She's fascinated and we're very proud of her."
Check out more images of Daisy's findings below.
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p>SEC. 7. Posture of the Body.
Sleeping on the back--on the sides. Position of the head. The infant's bedstead. Sir Charles Bell. Darkening the room.
SEC. 8. State of the Mind.
Mental quiet favorable to sleep. Crying to sleep. A good father. All anxiety should be avoided.
SEC. 9. Quality of Sleep.
Soundness of our sleep. Nightmare. How produced. Late reading. Late suppers. Influence of religion on sleep. Different opinions about sleep. Truth midway between extremes. Effect of silence and darkness on our sleep. Of sleep before midnight. Light unfavorable to sleep.
SEC. 10. Quantity.
Infants need to sleep nearly the whole time. Number of hours required for sleep. Opinions of eminent men. The author's own opinion. Statements of Macnish. Estimates on the loss of time by over-sleeping. Hint to young mothers.
* CHAPTER XV. EARLY RISING.
All children naturally early risers. Evils of sitting up late at night. Excitement
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Photo of Roald Amundsen
Click on image for full size
Roald Amundsen was a polar explorer who is famous for leading the first successful trip to the South Pole in 1910-1912. Amundsen was born in 1872 in Borge, Norway. His parents wanted him to study medicine, but he soon dropped out to go to sea, following his lifelong dream of exploration.
Amundsen took part in his first polar trip, the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, in 1897–1899. It was the first expedition to spend the winter in Antarctica. Boy, that must have been cold!
In 1903, Amundsen led the first trip to successfully cross the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. During this time Amundsen learned Arctic survival skills from the local people like how to use sled dogs.
Amundsen and his team then set out for Antarctica in 1910 on board the ship Fram previously used by Nansen. The group spent the winter in the base camp preparing supplies.
The first attempt to reach the South pole failed. Finally on December 14, 1911, the team consisting of Amundsen and four other men, helped by 16 dogs, reached the South Pole. They beat Scott's group by 35 days.
In his later years Amundsen continued exploring the Arctic by ship and plane. In 1926, Amundsen, took part in the first crossing of the Arctic in the airship Norge. Amundsen disappeared on June 18, 1928, while flying on a rescue mission looking for missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship had crashed while returning from the North Pole.
Amundsen received numerous awards, including Congressional Gold Medal. Several land features in the Arctic and the Antarctic are named after him, as well as a crater on the Moon.
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Cat lovers allergic to cats (but not robo-kitties), your day of bliss may be closer: IBM’s put together all the supercomputing parts and pieces to replicate the number of neural synapses inside a feline noggin. That, in short, means they’ve managed to simulate the essential pieces of Fluffy’s brain.
And not just a cat’s brain, but other animals’ gray matter as well, up to and including humans (well, sort of—more on that in a moment). How? Buckets and buckets of processors, each one more or less like the one inside your average home computer or tablet, running in parallel.
According to Scientific American, IBM’s also simulated the brain of a mouse (512 processors) and a rat (2,048), while the virtual cat brain clocks in at a respectable 24,576. What those numbers mean: IBM’s established a functional ratio between one processor plus one gigabyte of memory, and the correlative crunch-power of a certain number of neurons and synapses. In fact a supercomputer IBM’s dubbed “Blue Gene,” with 147,456 processors configured in parallel, managed to simulate 4.5% of the human brain, claims the company.
“The cat is out of the bag,” quips IBM in the title of a paper (fairly technical, warning) describing its research into “cortical simulations” with 10 to the ninth power neurons and 10 to the thirteenth power synapses.
What would you need to simulate the entire human brain, with some 20 billion neurons and 200 trillion synapses? 880,000 processors, says IBM, something it’s hoping to pull off by 2019…and the singularity, as Ray Kurzweil’s so fond of saying, may be nearer.
[UPDATE: IBM just dropped us a note to inform that the Scientific American story is actually old news, rehashed from 2009, and that IBM hasn’t “done these simulations in years”).
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Allodial vs. Feudal
Greetings to everyone,
Keywords: status, Kelo v. New London, benefactor, beneficiary, taxation, eminent domain, police powers, escheat, common law, allodial, feudal, stare decisis, cestui que use
Allodial vs Feudal
The concepts allodial and feudal are distinct legal terms in that the former means to be free from the tenurial right of a lord; whereas, the latter depends upon the relationship to a lord or sovereign (US Legal, Inc., 2012). Furthermore, the term allodial signifies "all property" held via hereditary rights that are passed on from decedent-benefactor to heir-beneficiary (cestui que use or cestui que trust). Common law is based on precedent (e.g., stare decisis, to stand by things decided) rather than statutory laws, which are enacted by a legislature or other governing group. The Judicial power of the United States, for instance, is entrusted in one Supreme Court, whereas inferior Courts are ordained and established by the Legislative power (Congress) of the United States (U.S. Const. art. I, § 3). In view of this, inferior Courts must follow precedent i.e. to stand by things decided (stare decisis) by a higher court. In common law societies, most property ownership is held in "fee simple (i.e., absolute ownership of real property)." However, fee simple ownership is subject to four basic government powers:
Statutes are provisions of a Bill that has been raised from proposed legislation to law. Man act and operate in accordance with law, such as binding customs or practice of a community. Moreover, law is a rule of conduct or action prescribed to modify human behavior. The basic distinction between the terms allodial and feudal is that allodial land ownership, for instance, is not subject to rent or service to the tenurial rights of a Lord or acknowledgement to the Sovereign. However, feudal land ownership depends on the relationship to a Lord or the Sovereign. The relationship between vassal and Lord or the Sovereign exists via contract, in particular an adhesion contract. Essentially, allodial land ownership and feudal land ownership rests with a person’s Status or condition in the eyes of the law (are you a Sovereign or a vassal?). "The victory of the colonies in the American Revolution is considered to have converted allodial title from the king to the several states" (Saginor & McDonald, 2009, p. 4). This may explain why allodial title in many cases is reserved for governments. In Common Law governments most property ownership is held in fee simple, which subjects land ownership to government powers, one of which is eminent domain. It allows the Sovereign to seize private land for public use not without just compensation. The case of Kelo v. New London exemplifies such case that decided in favor of New London. This decision has its precedence in the Saltpeter Case, in which the case was decided in the King’s favor, but he had to compensate the owner for the taken saltpeter (potassium nitrate).
Pa Neter Ra (Ptah Hotep)
The Elements, Mathematics, and Arithmetic (T.E.M.ARI)
I come like a thief in the shadows
13 x 9
Saginor, J., & McDonald, J. F. (2009). Eminent domain: A review of the issues. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 17(1), 3-43.
U.S. Const. amend. V.
U.S. Const. amend. X.
U.S. Const. art. I, § 3.
US Legal, Inc. (2012). Retrieved January 20, 2012, from US Legal.com Web site: http://definitions.uslegal.com/a/allodial/
Taj Tarik Bey and DR.Umar ABDULLAH Johnson 2011
Blacks Law / Moorish Law Dealing With the Courts pt1
Infinite Power of Liberty: The Sovereign Spirit of Indigenous Patriotism By Grand Shikem Heru Sut-El
You are my lady
Why do fools fall in love
Valleys of neptune are rising
Pa Neter Ra
By Teaching, We Learn
9 x 13
Last edited by Pa Neter Ra; at 03:56 AM..
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A massive amount of forest and more than 60 cabins were destroyed in forest fires that burned through western Labrador a year ago, and officials want to raise awareness about fire safety as the forest fire season begins.
Officials and local groups, including the Scouts Canada troop, took to work over the weekend to plant new saplings to rejuvenate some of the 270-square kilometre burned area.
Young volunteer Max Crant said he hopes the trees he planted on Blueberry Hill over the weekend will help restore the area to what it once was.
"Well, it looked beautiful and green, but now we're trying to get it back how it used to be," he said.
Scout leader Leo Dillon said it's important to teach young people about fire safety to help reduce the number of forest fires in the Labrador region.
"The past couple years here we've had some devastating forest fires in the area, and we're trying to raise awareness with the kids and the community just about how devastating it can be," said Dillon.
A water bomber let loose as a display for the spectators on Sunday, but people in the area said they hope they won't be needing its services this summer.
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No Marshmallows, Just Term Papers
Each year faculty members in institutions of higher education take on the task of teaching others. For most of these people, this is a recurring task. In fact, for the majority, this is the central task of a life-long career.
Assuming that no one is perfect and therefore everyone has room for improvement, evaluation is the means by which we try to identify which aspects of our teaching are good and which need to be changed. The question then arises as to who should take responsibility for doing this evaluation. My belief is that evaluation is an inherent part of good teaching. Therefore it is the teacher himself or herself who should take primary responsibility for doing the evaluation.
In this chapters/chapter, I will offer a basic definition of evaluation, state a few reasons why one should invest time and effort into evaluation, describe five techniques for evaluation, and identify resources for helping us evaluate and improve our teaching.
A Definition of "Evaluation"
Doing good evaluation is like doing good research. In both cases, you are trying to answer some important questions about an important topic. The key to doing both activities well is (a) identifying the right questions to ask and (b) figuring out tips answer them.
What are the key questions in the evaluation of teaching? Basically they are: "How well am I teaching? Which aspects of my teaching are good and which need to be improved?" The first question attempts to provide a global assessment, while the second is analytical and diagnostic in character.
Before moving to the task of figuring out tips answer these questions, we should look at the reasons for taking time to evaluate.
1. It takes a certain amount of time and effort to effectively evaluate our own teaching. Is this a wise use of time? I would argue that it is, for three reasons
Regardless of how good or how poor we are as teachers, we all have the potential to get better over time...
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The accompanying text is reproduced by permission of the Map Library, the British Library.
|Paris before Haussmann
Paris in the early nineteenth century was a city of contrasts. Graceful monuments, historic buildings and slum dwellings were often side by side, the result of centuries of haphazard development. The city was very densely populated, the result of immigration from the provinces. Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote this about his first impressions of Paris:
Entering through the faubourg Saint Marceau, I saw only small, dirty and stinking streets, ugly black houses, an air of filth, poverty, beggars, carters, sewing women, women hawking tisanes and old hats. (1)Many quartiers contained decrepit tenements, which were sometimes five or six storeys high. Only one household in five had running water; chamber pots were emptied into the streets from the windows. Two-thirds of the streets contained open sewers which had been built over the centuries in a piecemeal fashion. They were woefully inadequate for the city in 1850, with a million inhabitants. Part of the city's water supply came from the Seine, often downstream from the mouths of sewers which emptied their contents into the river. The cramped, unhealthy conditions invariably bred disease. Cholera, moving westward from Asia, arrived in Europe in the early 19th century. In 1832, 39,000 Parisians contracted cholera. 18,400 people died, including the Prime Minister. A similar number died in 1848-49.
The old neighbourhoods of the east and the city centre, parts of which dated from the medieval period, had become less desirable. The crowded south-east had been the stronghold of resistance during the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The rich were gradually moving to the west side. However, even the wealthy areas were interspersed with slums.
Travel across the city by carriage was hampered by a maze of medieval streets, which had evolved for the use of pedestrians, horsemen and sedan chairs. Carriages and other large vehicles were forced to take circuitous routes via the boulevards that encircled the city.
|Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine
Haussmann was appointed Prefect of the Seine in June 1853. His patron, Louis Napoleon or Napoleon III, had become President and subsequently Emperor following the 1848 revolution. Napoleon envisioned the transformation of Paris into a spectacular and beautiful city which would advertise his power and success as emperor. He wanted to regenerate Paris quickly, for two reasons. Firstly, he wished to demonstrate the efficiency of his administration. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, he needed to create jobs to reduce the high rate of unemployment which had helped to bring about the revolution. Napoleon wanted the unruly segments of the population to be kept in check.
Napoleon entrusted Haussmann with the task of enlarging upon his plans for transforming Paris. He allowed Haussmann almost dictatorial powers and extensive finance. He also protected Haussmann from his critics. This support which was crucial for Haussmann's success, and allowed construction to proceed at an unprecedented pace. There had been previous attempts to improve Paris. Many of Haussmann's projects for improving Paris had been considered or even begun by preceding governments. Previous attempts had been made on municipal land or empty plots. However, no one had had the sheer will or the finance to demolish large swathes of the city. Haussmann succeeded in putting many of his plans into action, and most were completed during his period of office. The city was transformed through the building of new boulevards and avenues, buildings, public parks and an extended sewer system.
Haussmann himself had had a sickly childhood, fraught with respiratory problems caused by the polluted Parisian air. This may well have led to his later concern for clean air and water, his readiness to destroy parts of Old Paris that he perceived as squalid, and his enthusiasm for building a new sewer system.
Napoleon may have ordered or sanctioned the building of long, straight boulevards to facilitate the use of artillery fire, forestall the building of barricades, and to break up working-class areas with a history of insurrection. Between 1827-49 there had been eight occasions when barricades had been thrown up in eastern Paris; they had preceded revolution on three occasions. These included the July Revolution or Trois Glorieuses (the Three Glorious Days) of 1830, and the February 1848 revolution. The old boulevards, known as the grands boulevards, were built for recreation and exercise. Haussmann's streets and boulevards were planned to solve traffic problems.
|Transforming the city
When Haussmann became Prefect of the Seine, Napoleon presented him with a map of Paris on which he had drawn the new streets he proposed to build. As Napoleon's original map is now lost we cannot be sure of the relative roles of Haussmann and Napoleon in the development of their vision of Paris. Haussmann and Napoleon would develop Napoleon's plans together, into a grand plan for the transformation of Paris.
Haussmann's first task was to commission a detailed map of Paris, which would form the basis of his work. He established the department of the Plan de Paris, which installed wooden towers throughout the city, which, being taller than the surrounding buildings, served as triangulation points in the surveying process. The resulting map was reproduced in various forms. Haussmann kept an engraved copy at the scale of 1:5,000, which measured 9 by 15 feet, on a rolling stand in his office. Each of the departments involved in his projects were given a copy of this map, and a smaller scale map at 1:20,000 was produced for the public.
Early nineteenth century Paris was divided into twelve arrondissements, encircled by two walls. The outer wall comprised military fortifications. The inner wall, the Wall of the Tax Farmers, existed solely for the purpose of collecting taxes on goods coming into the city. Haussmann and Napoleon decided to tear down this wall, despite the reduction in revenue that this would entail. In 1859, the areas outside the inner wall were annexed to Paris.
Paris had doubled in area, and increased its population by a third, to 1,600,000 inhabitants. There were now twenty arrondissements.
The Grande Croisée or great crossroads of Paris had been envisaged even before Napoleon I. N-S and E-W movement was difficult on the Right Bank, as was travel between the two banks. The crossroads would extend from north to south across the two banks, and from east to west across the Right Bank. Part of the crossroads - the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue de Strasbourg - had been built before Haussmann took office. Haussmann extended the Boulevard du Strasbourg to the south with the Boulevard de Sébastopol, and across to the Left Bank with the Boulevard St-Michel (Map 3.). He also extended the Rue de Rivoli from the Louvre to the Hôtel de Ville.
Haussmann's constructions effectively moved the centre of Paris to the north-west, an area to which the rich had been migrating for decades. The decision to move the opera house to the Boulevard des Capucines was prompted by security concerns. In 1858, bombs had been hurled at the imperial carriage as it drew up outside the old opera house. The new site, with its wide street, would offer more easily guarded approaches (Map 2). Haussmann also built and widened a number of streets through and around revolutionary areas. On the Right Bank, the Faubourg St-Antoine was surrounded by boulevards Voltaire and Mazas; on the Left Bank, the Montagne St-Geneviève was circled by rues Monge, Gay-Lussac and Claude Bernard.
Haussmann was obsessed with hygiene. He razed the lle de la Cité,
the heart of Old Paris, one of its densest areas of medieval buildings
and history. The only buildings which he left standing were Notre
Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie and the Palais de Justice (Map
3). The homes of 15,000 people were destroyed. Paris would
no longer look to its historic centre as a focus; instead, the quartiers
were linked to each other by boulevards, which, by their sheer width, also
served to separate adjacent but contrasting neighbourhoods.
|The fall from grace
There were many who objected to the 'Haussmannization' of Paris. Residents of the provinces felt that too much money was being spent on Paris. The Parisian bourgeoisie, worried by the 1848 revolution, were concerned by the thousands of labourers brought into Paris by the public works. Many banking houses thought that Haussmann's expenditure was inflationary. Residents complained when their houses were pulled down and when they imagined that their neighbourhoods were being ignored. Over the years, Haussmann faced increasing opposition to his activities. Sceptics argued that his wide streets served little purpose beyond being 'anti-riot' streets. It was felt by some that all he did for the poor areas was build encircling boulevards from which they could be oppressed. Haussmann was dismissed in January 1870.
Despite Haussmann's and Napoleon's plans, the new boulevards did not prevent further insurrection in 1871. The Communards were able to resist the army for longer than the revolutionaries of June 1848. Haussmann's destruction of the rabbit warren that comprised eastern Paris had served to turn barricading and insurrection from a relatively isolated activity into one which required organisation and greater manpower.
|(1) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ed. Michel Launay, Les Confessions (Paris: Gamier, 1968), pp. 146-7. English translation from David P. Jordan, Transforming Paris: the life and labours of Baron Haussmann (New York & London: The Free Press, 1995), p. 13.|
|Catalogue of the display
(1) Vuillemin. Nouveau plan de Paris divisé en 12 arrondissements ([Paris], 1839). Maps 16110.(66.)
(2) Guesnu. Souvenir de nouveau Paris, ses monuments, promenades, boulevarts et grandes voies de communications (Paris, [ 1 8681). Maps 16130.(10.)
(3) Atlas administratif des 20 arrondissements de la Ville de Paris publié d'après les ordres de M. le baron G. E. Haussmann senateur ... (Paris: Imp. Janson, 1868), plate 2. Maps 149.d.1.
[Barricade in Rue St Martin]. In The Illustrated London News (1848), vol. 12, March, p.131. BL PP.761 1.
[Portrait of Haussmann]. In Theodor Flathe, Geschichte der Neuesten Beit in Allgemeine Weltgeschichte, eds. Theodor Flathe, G. F. Herkberg et al, vol. XII, part III (Berlin, 1892), p.109. BL 09007 cc.1.
Cars, Jean de & Pierre Pinon. Paris - Haussmann. "Le Paris d'Haussmann " (Paris: Édition du Pavillon de I'Arsenal & Picard Éditeur, 1991)
Chapman, J. M. and Brian. The Life and Times of Baron Haussmann: Paris in the Second Empire (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1957)
Elliot, James. The City in Maps: urban mapping to 1900 (London: The British Library, 1987)
Jordan, David P. Transforming Paris: the life and labours of Baron Haussmann (New York & London: The Free Press, 1995)
Pinkney, David H. Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris (Princeton & London: Princeton University Press & Oxford University Press, 1958)
Valance, Georges. Haussmann le grand (Paris: Flammarion, 2000)
Weeks, Willet. The Man who made Paris Paris: the illustrated biography of Georges Eugène Haussmann (London: London House, 1999)
The Map Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Tel. 020 7412 7702
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A new initiative to improve access for Roma communities in Eastern Europe to education is launching with a series of meetings in Bucharest. The Desegregation and Action for Roma in Education-Network (DARE-Net) aims to tackle serious problems in educational provision for Roma in Europe.
Top of the list is segregation of Roma children in schools, which as well as being outright discrimination, violates rights to education and stops Roma people from realizing their potential, according to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). Segregation and restriction of access to education was one of the many points raised recently by Hindu religious leader Rajan Zed in what he describes as “apartheid” of Roma in Europe. Currently, two out of three Roma children in Europe do not complete primary school and the “overwhelming majority” don’t finish secondary education, according to the ERRC.
DARE-Net is a multi-organization body that will first examine and appraise practices and initiatives relating to education provision for Roma communities in six countries: Romania, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
Between February 25 and 28, the organizations involved are meeting in Bucharest, which as well as starting the initiative, will provide a chance to discuss examples of action that has already taken place or is currently ongoing. “Key examples include affirmative action initiatives or legislation to prohibit school segregation in Romania, and litigation to combat Roma school segregation and promote the integration of Roma children through inclusive education resulting in favorable decisions by the European Court of Human Rights,” according to one of the organizations involved, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).
The dramatic failings in educational provision are shared by all six countries involved and it was the similarities in situations in the these countries that led to their inclusion in the international program. “A transnational perspective is crucial for applying best practices on combating school segregation in the partner countries,” said the ERRC.
DARE-Net involves Romani CRISS, in partnership with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, Greek Helsinki Monitor, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Life Together and Integro Association Bulgaria. The organization will set up network of Roma and non-Roma civil society and academic organizations to analyze practices and initiatives relating to Roma education and the desegregation of Roma children in schools.
Liam Lever, [email protected]
(photo source: sxc.hu)
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The latest book by Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food) is so simple, so concise, it could be read, indeed should be read, by elementary and middle school aged children. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual is not much more than a pamphlet; Pollan designed this book to cut through the cacophony of food and nutrition noise that fills the virtual air of today’s media.
Keeping track of the most up-to-the-minute nutrition news can be overwhelming. Pollan, a veteran journalist with an interest in food and nutrition, conducted his own investigation in an attempt to discern an optimal diet. His research revealed two basic facts concerning the link between nutrition and health. He says,” Fact 1: Populations that eat a so-called Western diet – generally defined as a diet consisting of lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of refined grains, lots of everything except vegetables, fruits, and whole grains – invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.” His second fact points out that populations that eat a more traditional diet do NOT suffer from these diseases, regardless of what that alternative diet consists of.
In his previous book, In Defense of Food, Pollan came to the conclusion that all modern nutrition advice can be condensed into 7 words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. In Food Rules he now comes up with a list of 64 simple guidelines for anyone who wants to eat healthier, without worrying about things like whether carbs are good or bad, or how much fat to include in one’s diet.
Pollan divides these 64 rules into three sections that align with his 3-part mantra: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Under Eat Food, he counsels, “Don’t eat anything your Great-Grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” (Rule # 2) This has the twofold effect of encouraging us to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and discouraging us from eating overly processed, chemical-laden food. Another interesting idea (Rule #13) is to “Eat only foods that will eventually rot.” Manufacturers process food to keep it shelf-stable longer; the longer the shelf life, the more processed the food. By sticking to food that will rot, we avoid nutritionally deficient food. Simple, right?
Under the Mostly Plants section, Pollan turns to an old Chinese proverb when he advises (Rule #24), “Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plants] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs, other mammals].” That proverb is Pollan’s thesis in a nutshell. He relies on another cultural reference (attributed to both Italian and Jewish grandmothers) with Rule # 37: “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.” Following this rule will ensure that we stick to whole grain bread products rather than white flour ones.
Several Rules are quite humorous and need virtually no explanation: “If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t” (#19) and “Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.” (#57) Similarly, “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.” (#36) We don’t need technical clarification of these concepts, but these clever lines are good reminders of basic nutrition principles.
The final third of the book focuses on Not Too Much, or eating less. Some of these Rules (“Do all your eating at a table,” “Try not to eat alone,” and “Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it”) are a reflection of life in the 21st century. Surely the great-grandmothers of Rule #2 would be puzzled by people eating alone in their cars or cubicles, or by the fact that only about half of families today have dinner together at least 5 times a week. Pollan advises us to enjoy quality of food, rather than quantity. We should strive to create good meals and savor them, rather than simply fill up with cheap calories.
Don’t be misled by the book’s title – it is not nearly as authoritarian as it sounds. Pollan himself prefers to think of his rules as policies or guidelines. And in fact, the penultimate rule in his book is probably the most sensible. It is simply “Cook,” (#63) because “Cooking for yourself is the only sure way to take back control of your diet from the food scientists and food processors, and to guarantee you’re eating real food and not edible foodlike substances . . .” If we choose to cook from scratch, we’ll inevitably end up following most of his other rules. And that will allow us to feel okay about Rule #64 – Break the rules once in a while.
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Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that decaffeinated coffee may improve brain energy metabolism associated with type 2 diabetes. This brain dysfunction is a known risk factor for dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease. The research is published online in Nutritional Neuroscience.
A research group led by Giulio Maria Pasinetti, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, and Psychiatry, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, explored whether dietary supplementation with a standardized decaffeinated coffee preparation prior to diabetes onset might improve insulin resistance and glucose utilization in mice with diet-induced type 2 diabetes. The researchers administered the supplement for five months, and evaluated the brain's genetic response in the mice. They found that the brain was able to more effectively metabolize glucose and use it for cellular energy in the brain. Glucose utilization in the brain is reduced in people with type 2 diabetes, which can often result in neurocognitive problems.
"Impaired energy metabolism in the brain is known to be tightly correlated with cognitive decline during aging and in subjects at high risk for developing neurodegenerative disorders," said Dr. Pasinetti. "This is the first evidence showing the potential benefits of decaffeinated coffee preparations for both preventing and treating cognitive decline caused by type 2 diabetes, aging, and/or neurodegenerative disorders."
Coffee intake is not recommended for everybody due to the fact that it is associated with cardiovascular health risks such as elevated blood cholesterol and blood pressure, both of which lead to an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, and premature death. These negative effects have primarily been attributed to the high caffeine content of coffee. Nonetheless, these novel findings are evidence that some of the non-caffeine components in coffee provide health benefits in mice. Dr. Pasinetti hopes to explore the preventive role of decaffeinated coffee delivered as a dietary supplement in humans.
"In light of recent evidence suggesting that cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease and other age-related neurodegenerative disorders may be traced back to neuropathological conditions initiated several decades before disease onset, developing preventive treatments for such disorders is critical," he said.
|Contact: Mount Sinai Press Office|
The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
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How does the simple act of planting trees lead to winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Ask Wangari Maathai of Kenya. In 1977, she suggested rural women plant trees to address problems stemming from a degraded environment. Under her leadership, their tree-planting grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, defend human rights and promote democracy, earning her the Nobel Peace Prize.
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I did a much simpler quilting activity with my fourth grade students. We called it "Fraction Quilts". Given a large sheet of construction paper, the children had to divide it into 24 equal squares. They were asked to select several of their favorute designs (polka-dots, stripes, flowers, etc.) and create a pattern as they colored in their quilts. The finished quilts had to be described in fractional terms. e.g. 7/24 polka-dot, 5/24 stripes, and 12/24 flowers. I used this activity to give meaning to the terms numerator and denominator. It was a big hit in our classroom!
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IU study: Combining epilepsy drug, morphine can result in less pain, lower opioid doses
INDIANAPOLIS -- Adding a common epilepsy drug to a morphine regimen can result in better pain control with fewer side effects. Moreover, the combination can reduce the dosage of the opioid needed to be effective, according to a team of pain researchers at Indiana University.
The result could bring significant relief to many patients with neuropathic pain, a difficult-to-treat condition often felt in the arms and legs and associated with nerve tissue damage.
"There is a huge unmet need for better treatments for neuropathic pain," said Fletcher A. White, Ph.D., the Vergil K. Stoelting Professor of Anesthesia at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
In laboratory tests using rodents, White and his colleagues found that while morphine lost its pain-relieving effectiveness three weeks after nerve injury, a combination therapy of morphine and carbamazepine -- used to prevent epileptic seizures -- could effectively reverse this loss of drug action. Their findings were reported in the journal PLOS ONE.
Although morphine and related opioid drugs are effective in treating pain, they can result in dependence and produce side effects including respiratory depression, nausea, constipation and other problems. In addition, such drugs can, paradoxically, actually cause pain, a condition called opioid-induced hyperalgesia.
"People immediately think, 'Oh, it's tolerance, the patient needs more of the drug for pain control,'" Dr. White said.
In fact, research indicates that the pain of hyperalgesia occurs because the morphine latches on not only to cellular targets that reduce pain sensation but to other "non-opioid" targets that result in activation of pain-sensing neurons. Dr. White and his colleagues had previously identified a key cellular factor -- known to be a specific voltage-gated sodium ion channel -- involved in that non-opioid process of pain nerve stimulation. Meanwhile another IU School of Medicine researcher, Theodore Cummins, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology, had previously determined that carbamazepine alone has the opposite effect on the same ion channel.
Combining the two drugs could prevent the escalating doses of opioids that are sometimes prescribed to provide pain relief in the clinic.
"We know that opioids have benefits," Dr. White said. "If we can diminish the off-target effects, that's good. If we can diminish the opioid dosages required for pain relief, then you've really got something."
Because both drugs are approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration, physicians have tested the combination with patients, resulting in anecdotal reports of significantly improved pain management, Dr. White said. More formally, Dr. White and physician-researchers have begun testing the combination of morphine and a close relative of carbamazepine with patients in a small clinical trial at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.
In addition to Dr. White, researchers contributing to the study were Michael R. Due, Xiao-Fang Yang, Yohance M. Allette, Aaron L. Randolph, Matthew S. Ripsch, Sarah M. Wilson and Erik T. Dustrude of the IU School of Medicine; and Rajesh Khanna of the College of Medicine, University of Arizona.
The research was funded by National Institutes of Health grants NIDDK DK100905 and NIDA DA026040 and the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Fund.
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Stephanie Carrera, Swarthmore College, Class of 2015
One of the Three Great Views of Japan, Matsushima has been involved in the visual culture of Japan since the 17th century, when the feudal lord Date Masamune restored the 9th century Zuiganji temple residing in Matsushima (Tomita, 1952). Popular 17th-century haiku poet Matsuo Basho famously wrote his response poem to Matsushima with awe that rendered him near speechless:
ah Matsushima ya
Of the plethora of seasonal motifs in Japanese painting, three stand as perpetually relevant because they never fade in vibrancy during the passing of the seasons - the plum, the bamboo, and the pine (Clement, 1905). The pine represents longevity and is therefore used from palace decor to New Year's celebration imagery (Gerhart, 1999). That Matsushima carries such a culturally significant symbol on its many backs adds to the importance of the site.
On Matsuo Basho's journey through Japan to chronicle in poetry the many famous sites of Japan, he wrote of the divinity implicit in the many islands of Matsushima (Brownstein, 1990).
"There are countless islands-some rise up and point to Heaven, others bow low and crawl into the waves… Who could ever paint or describe in words the divine artistry of the Lord of Nature?"
With the popularization of the religion of Zen Buddhism, the concept of Ma became a much more prevalent force in Japanese art. The intervals between the many islands visualize the notion of Ma, the religio-aesthetic concept of the relationships among things incited by intervals between things (Pilgrim, 1986).
Sotatsu's "Waves at Matsushima" (Figures 2a and 2b) is an elegantly made pair of folding screens. The direct juxtaposition of the gold cloud and churning water display a duality of action from these two bodies of space. The pines of Matsushima are distinctly rendered, and the space between the islands reminds us of Mathrough the intervals between the rightmost islands separated by water that creates visual pauses for the viewer.
The next image is a woodblock print of the anticipated visit of the emperor to another of the locations on his tour of Japan (Kim, 2012). Even in gray scale, we see the presence of a gradation in the sky, possibly a sunset or sunrise. The islands evoke Ma once again because of their spacing. The powerful pines stand tall on the islands and support the longevity wished upon the emperor and his reign. The water is calm now while the sky evokes its dynamism. Boats float on the water and guide the viewer through the islands.
Although pushed into the realm of Western photography, this rendering of Matsushima shows a thoughtful understanding of Ma between the two islands and remembers the guiding companions in boats. While there are no foamy crests of waves, tonal difference separating the sea and sky emphasizes contrast.
The lantern slide was used as a teaching tool as well as a mode for collecting images among both Japanese and Western tourist audiences (Tucker, 2003). In this final version of Matsushima, Western photography and Japanese painting merge, so that the change in medium does not hinder decisions about color that inform the viewer of symbolism and culturally ingrained artistic references. The Islands in Figure 1 again show Ma, as seen in the rich blue of sea that nestles between islands and inside holes. The rich blues of the sunset sky and the foamy ocean show stark contrasts of two temperaments in these expansive spaces. The pines are richly green in their constant "bloom" and in the supplements in Figures 5 a-c, we see the recurring fishing boat motif that denotes human involvement.
This lantern slide of Matsushima (Figures 5a, 5b, and 5c) is a culmination of changing time and developing philosophies. On its own, it is a product of its era. It is a tool for teaching and sharing influenced by Westernization. However, the slide is not on its own: it is a stitch in the continuing visual history of a theme explored - the awe of Matsushima.
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A new report shows antioxidants do not boost fertility as previously thought. It’s not the first study to take the shine off the popular agents, which many people take in supplement form.
In a review published in the Cochrane Library, researchers found that antioxidants did not increase women’s chances of conceiving or having a baby, which wasn’t surprising, given that the quality of trials linking fertility and antioxidant supplements, say the scientists, was low. But the findings did contradict earlier studies that found partners of men who took antioxidant supplements were more likely to conceive than those who took placebo. And the review is only the latest to raise doubts about the health benefits of antioxidants, which have been touted as potent cancer-fighters and anti-aging allies. Once present only in foods such as berries, carrots, peppers and tomatoes, antioxidants are now added to flavored water and other products to earn a “high in antioxidants” label. But are the benefits of antioxidants overhyped?
Antioxidants entered the public’s nutritional vocabulary in the 1990s, when researchers began to understand how free radical damage, caused by oxygen-based reactions, contributed to chronic diseases from aging to vision loss and cancer. Free radicals are generated as cells use oxygen to break down food for energy, and they can cause cell damage by attaching to other molecules and prompting cells to grow abnormally or by interfering with normal cell functions, including those in the brain. Free radicals are a natural byproduct of the body’s metabolism, but in most cases, naturally occurring antioxidants stabilize them and keep the damage to a minimum.
When that balance is disturbed, however — and anything from exposure to pollutants to cigarette smoke to things you eat can shift this equilibrium — the production of free radicals may outrun the body’s ability to control them. That’s why antioxidants became a popular weapon in the fight for well-being — if the body needs more antioxidants, it couldn’t hurt to supply them in supplement form, right?
The problem is, antioxidants come in a range of forms — from vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene, as well as minerals like manganese and selenium. Then there are the other carotenoids and flavonoids and polyphenols. And, not surprisingly, each can have a different effect on the cells of the body. In recent years, for example, scientists reported that beta-carotene, instead of lowering cancer rates, actually increased risk of dying from lung cancer or heart disease among a group of smokers. In a recent article published in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, toxicology researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands highlighted the all-or-nothing beliefs about antioxidants, noting that it’s likely that the agents have some health benefits, if used and dispensed in the proper doses. They write:
For several decades, we have noticed that the antioxidant pendulum appears to swing vigorously from ‘only healthy’ to ‘extremely toxic’, and from ‘natural antioxidants are best’ to ‘antioxidants cannot act’. The squabbling parties do not seem to listen to counter-arguments. Erroneous statements are not corrected, and thus the pendulum oscillates to the extremes. This inevitably hampers research in the field and confuses both scientists and consumers. As a consequence, we might fail to spot opportunities for which antioxidants may aid in optimizing health.
So what does the research say about what antioxidants can, and cannot do to improve your health?
All antioxidants are not equal: Because antioxidants come in many different types, it makes sense that you consume a variety of antioxidant-rich fruits of vegetables, so that you can benefit from the full range of benefits they provide. Together, the mix is good for your health. For instance, certain antioxidants may play a greater role in preventing certain diseases, such as cancers, while others are better at combating neurodegenerative conditions.
In a study of Dutch people published in the journal Neurology in February, researchers were disappointed to find no correlation between antioxidant-rich diets and cognitive decline or stroke, but, as Elizabeth Devore, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston and one of the study authors, told HealthDay, “There are thousands of antioxidants in the diet, and some of them may have more antioxidant power.”
Most people don’t get enough antioxidants from naturally occurring sources: For most healthy adults, the antioxidants contained in a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables would be enough to combat most of the free radical damage occurring in their bodies. But, says Jeffrey Blumberg, director of the antioxidants research laboratory and professor of nutrition at Tufts University, most people fall far short of meeting recommended daily intakes for vitamins like C and E. The average adult should be consuming 15 mg of vitamin E daily, but more than 90% of people fail to eat that amount, and most people only get about half the recommended dose from their diet. “That’s a huge shortfall. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t, but they aren’t. Vitamin C is another shortfall nutrient, or a nutrient of concern. Vitamin C and E are low in the typical American diet. With vitamin C, women require 75 mg a day and men 90 mg per day; that’s really low. Have a glass of orange juice and you have practically met your entire requirement for the day. It is so easy to meet your vitamin C requirements. It’s shocking to me that people aren’t,” says Blumberg.
But more isn’t necessarily better — it’s about getting just the right amount to balance the free radical activity in the body. And that’s why nutritionists don’t recommend loading up on supplements to make up for what you can’t eat daily; it’s not clear how safe getting too much of certain antioxidants are (some, like beta carotene, can increase risk of premature death), and it’s easy to overdo a nutrient if you’re taking supplements.
Be skeptical of claims that antioxidants extend your life (or that they can kill you): “Are the claims surrounding antioxidants a bit overblown? Well yes, if it says antioxidants will prevent Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, heart disease, eye diseases, kidney disease and everything, then yes, it is a little overblown,” says Blumberg. “Any clearly definitive, absolute claim is overblown.”
There are legitimate claims, however, that you should discuss with your doctor. For example, there is evidence that vitamins E and C may help reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older adults, and protect against age-related eye damage.
There is no “superfruit”: There is no evidence that antioxidants can keep most chronic diseases at bay, but the food and beverage industry continues to make claims that super fruits like pomegranate or pitaya can minimize oxidative damage. But “superfruit” is a marketing term that is not recognized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as conveying any scientifically supported nutritional benefits.
And what about processed snacks and beverages that boast high levels of antioxidants? “The challenge here is that since consumers understand that by and large antioxidants are good for you, they are going to use that as a hook to sell you their products,” says Blumberg. “If they are formulated into a product that you don’t necessarily think of as particularly healthy, like soda pop, then be skeptical. I would argue even if they provided 100% of the daily value of vitamin C inside a sugar-sweetened beverage, it’s probably not the best source to get it from.”
(MORE: In Search of…The Superfruit)
Everything in moderation: We can all benefit from some antioxidants — but these should come from the diet, where it’s likely to be in the right variety and the right amounts. And it’s more important to get certain ones, such as vitamins C and E, than some of the thousands of phytochemicals and carotenoids that present in various foods. “The central ones, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc–are essential. If you don’t get them, in extreme [cases], you can develop a deficiency problem. But there are lots of other basic research and human studies that suggest if you get an adequate amount, you promote health and may reduce your risk for some age-related chronic diseases,” says Blumberg. As with most things involving our health, getting the dose just right is the key.
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1 Answer | Add Yours
I think that the main message of Whitman's poem in Leaves of Grass was to bring out the awesome force of the natural setting in the midst of human imagination. The setting of the speaker, presumably Whitman, walking along the edge of a beach, looking out at the night and the water in front of him, is overwhelming. This sense of the awesome is brought out in the poem. The natural condition in the poem is alive and vibrant, reflected in verbs such as "careening," or "the winds breasting." These elements help to evoke an idea that there is a natural condition alive and vibrant, almost dwarfing the viewer of such a scene. The storm that opens the poem and its presence at the end of it is meant to keep relegate the individual into a position to recognize their own subservient condition to the realities of the natural setting. It is in this where I think that the main message of the poem is illuminated. When left to a setting in which individuals can see things as they truly are, there is a reality in which human beings can uses their own powers of sensation to understand that the true configuration of reality is one in which the awesome powers of nature must be respected and revered.
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A good place to start is here –
* An Overview of the Easter Rising – laying out the need-to-know facts.
*Twenty Sixteen, Commemorating the Rising, What does it all mean? By John Dorney
*Did the Easter Rising kill Home Rule? By John Dorney
*What Future did the Men of 1916 Dream of? By John Dorney
* ‘Slaves or Freemen’, Sean McDermott, the IRB and the psychology of the Easter Rising, tries to delve into IRB thinking about nationalism and revolution before the rebellion. By John Dorney.
* The Sinn Fein Rebellion? Arthur Griffith’s Easter Rising, by Gerard Shannon.
* ‘To maintain the rights and Liberties Common to all the People of Ireland’, Liam Hogan on the founding of the Volunteers in Limerick.
* The Hibernian Rifles – A Short History, by Padraig Og O Ruairc.
*The Formation of the Irish Citizen Army, a talk by Brian Hanley, reported on by John Dorney
*The Howth Gun Running, by John Dorney
*The Fools, the fools’ – the O’Donovan Rossa funeral, August 1, 1915 by John Dorney
*Weapons of the Easter Rising by John Dorney
*Airbrushed out of History? – Elizabeth O’Farrell and Pearse’s Surrender, by Michael Barry.
The week’s events;
*The first day of the Rising – April 24. The rebels occupy their positions, both the British and the Dublin public are taken by surprise.
*The next day, Tuesday the 25th. Fighting continues, civilians suffer. By Eoin Purcell.
*The Battle at Mount Street, April 26th. The bloodiest day of the Rising for the British, at Mount Street Bridge.
*The Rabble and the Republic, how the insurgents clashed with the Dublin underclass, by John Dorney
*The Battle at Mendicity Institute – By Paul O’Brien.
*The Battle at South Dublin Union, By John Dorney.
*Cabra in 1916, by John Dorney.
*The Life and Death of Micheal O’Rahilly – John Dorney
*The Helga and the Shelling of Liberty Hall, by Michael Barry
*The Surrender – April 30th, 1916. Over three days, the rebels in Dublin and elsewhere surrender.
*The Easter Rising in County Wexford, by John Dorney
*The Easter Rising in Galway, by John Dorney
*The Easter Rising in Louth, by Ailbhe Rogers
*The North King Street Massacre -the worst atrocity of the week, By John Dorney
*Commemorating the Easter Rising 1917-1934, by John Dorney
*Commemorating the Rising 1945-2006, By John Dorney
*Cathal Brennan’s article –A TV pageant – the Rising commemorations in 1966 – looks at the public marking of the Rising 50 years later.
Interviews and Lectures
Fearghal McGarry on the Easter Rising – historian Fearghal McGarry discusses his book ‘The Rising’.
Perspectives on the Easter Rising, Part I, Rebels – Fearghal McGarry and Padraig Yeates talk about the planning of the Rising.
Perspectives on the Easter Rising Part II, Combat – McGarry and Yeates talk about the fighting in Easter week.
Perspectives on the Easter Rising Part III, Aftermath – McGarry and Yeates discuss the long term and short term consequences of the rebellion.
1916 A Military Falure? – Author Paul O’Brien gives his thoughts on the Rising as a military operation.
People’s College Lectures on the Rising by Brian Crowley and Ann Mathews.
Rebels by Fearghal McGarry, Reviewed by John Dorney – a collection of eyewitness testimony from veterans.
A City in Wartime by Padraig Yeates, Reviewed by John Dorney. This book on Dublin in 1914-18 contains a meaty chapter on the Rising.
Turning Points in Twentieth Century Irish History – Reviewed by John Dorney – Includes a provocative chapter by Peter Hart on 1916.
Unlikely Rebels by Anne Clare – On the Gifford sisters and their role in the Easter Rising. Reviewed by Mairead Carew.
The Story of the Easter Rising, By John Dorney, Reviewed by Cathal Brennan.
The Rising, Ireland, 1916, by Fearghal McGarry, Reviewed by John Dorney.
Crossfire – the Battle of the Four Courts, 1916, by Paul O’Brien, Reviewed by John Dorney.
Battleground the GPO and 1916, by Paul O’Brien, reviewed by Daniel Murray.
The Easter Rising a New Illustrated History by Conor McNamra, and According to their Lights, Irishmen in the British Army in Dublin, 1916 by Neil Richardson. Reviewed by John Dorney.
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35 to 55 lb.
22 to 26 in. at the shoulder
10 to 15 years in the wild
Open plains and grassland
Cheetahs, lions, leopards, hunting dogs, hyenas, humans
Thomson’s gazelles, named for researcher Joseph Thomson, have light-brown coats with darks stripes running down their sides, a white patch on their rumps extending underneath the tail, and ridged horns that curve backward. Females may have shorter, smoother, and slimmer horns than males or none at all. Grant’s gazelles are sometimes confused with Thomson’s. However, Thomson’s is distinguished from Grant’s by its smaller size and the white patch on its rump. On Grant’s gazelles, the patch always extends above the tail.
Behavior & Diet
In the dry season, grasses make up about 90% of their diets. They will also eat seeds and browse on shrubs. Thomson's gazelles will congregate with larger ungulates, such as wildebeest and zebra, which trample and graze on tall grass, making it easier for them to feed on short grass.
The strongest Thomson’s gazelle males set up territories in home ranges using an exaggerated display posture and scent gland secretions to mark their boundaries. Females and offspring form groups of five to 50 and wander through male territories. However, the groups change members and numbers by the hour, so no obvious patterns of hierarchy or leadership emerge.
It is extremely alert to sounds and movements, relying on visual awareness of one another to stay in contact. Its strong senses of hearing, sight, and smell balance its vulnerability and small size on the open plains.
Births usually peak right after the rainy seasons. After giving birth, the mother hides the newborn in the grass and returns several times a day to nurse it. Nevertheless, predation on the young is heavy, and many predators are able to feed solely on newborn Thomson’s gazelles during the calving peaks.
Tomson's gazelles are often found on ranches and farmlands after many animals have left, feeding on the short grasses exposed by cattle. Here, they are an easy target and are often shot or snared for food.
The Thomson’s gazelle’s habitat is decreasing as human populations grow and agriculture, settlements, and roads expand.
Our solutions to protecting the Thomson’s gazelle:
African Wildlife Foundation works with governments and villages to designate wildlife corridors—large swaths of land that Thomson’s gazelles use to roam freely and safely from one park, or country, to another. Corridors link protected areas and allow wildlife to follow rains or travel to their calving grounds.
AWF engages communities living near wildlife to create sustainable practices for agricultural and settlement growth by providing training on best practices and incentivizing conservation agriculture when appropriate. These techniques maximize revenue while ensuring agriculture minimizes its impact on Thomson’s gazelles and other wildlife.
Will you show the Thomson’s gazelle your support?
With your help, AWF can work on critical initiatives like setting aside land for wildlife corridors and educating communities on sustainable agriculture that won’t encroach on the Thompson's gazelle's habitat. Donate for a cause that will help with wildlife conservation and ensure the survival of this species.
Become a member
Join African Wildlife Foundation as a member for just $25. Your partnership is vital to our mission to protect Africa’s most precious - and imperiled - creatures.
Spread the word
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Washington, June 3 (ANI): Canadian researchers have discovered that a probiotic found in breast milk reduces or eliminates painful cramping in the gut caused by digestive disorders.
This discovery suggests that increasing the intake of this bacterium may help alleviate symptoms of a wide range of gut disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, functional bowel disorders, and constipation.
In an experiment using mice, scientists showed that a specific strain of Lactobacillus reuteri decreases the force of muscle contractions in the gut within minutes of exposure.
"Scientifically and evidence-based approaches to nutrition to correct potential bacterial imbalance in the intestine and thereby promote better health and possibly restore health in diseases associated with these imbalances," said Wolfgang Kunze, a researcher involved in the work from the McMaster Brain-Body Institute and Department of Psychiatry at St. Joseph''s Healthcare in Ontario, Canada.
"It might not be possible for most of us to get breast milk from the tap," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "but we can still benefit from some of the life-supporting substances it carries.This research shows that the relationship between humans and microbes can be beneficial for both. The Lactobacillus finds a new home, and we''re no longer up tight."
The study was published online in the FASEB Journal. (ANI)
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DAVID MARK: In February this year a meteor exploded above Russia injuring 1,000 people. No-one knew it was coming.
Normally when an asteroid is threatening Earth, the best course of action is to send Bruce Willis to deal with the problem. But now the United Nations has decided to take a more scientific approach. It's voted to establish an asteroid defence plan.
How will it work and what will it do?
Dr Alan Duffy is a post-doctoral research fellow from the Astronomy Department at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Duffy, we've been hearing about the threat of asteroids for more than a decade now. Is it just good luck that there has been no serious collision in recent years?
ALAN DUFFY: I think that's right. We're talking about chance here. What's the chance that we're going to get hit by a dangerous asteroid? Earlier this year, Russia lucked out. It did get hit by an asteroid. About a thousand or so people were injured. So this acted as a real wake-up call that it's not just chance. This is going to happen to us sooner or later.
DAVID MARK: So you say Russia lucked out, but injuries to a thousand people could be seen as bad luck, but you see that as a wake-up call?
ALAN DUFFY: I do. This object was about 17 metres across, which is hefty but by the scale of things, if it was 10 times larger, then you could have had an explosion about 1,000 times the size of the atomic blast that took out Hiroshima. So it was bad luck of course for Russia, but it could have been infinitely worse.
DAVID MARK: I understand that only a fraction of those sorts of objects have actually been discovered. What are the actual numbers? How much do we really know about the objects out there that could destroy a city?
ALAN DUFFY: Well our best guess is that we've found barely 1 per cent of all of these objects. That's a terrifying number, and that means that there are possibly a million or so of these killer asteroids out there and one of them does have our name on it. It's just simple probability.
DAVID MARK: Well the UN has acted. It's set up an asteroid defence plan. How exactly will it work? What will it do?
ALAN DUFFY: The first step in its plan is - well, it's actually set up, the International Asteroid Warning Group. So that's a body which will share information between all the member states. Once they find an asteroid, then they'll pass the problem on to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. They'll actually try to coordinate a mission to deflect this asteroid.
DAVID MARK: So will a UN vote actually make any difference?
ALAN DUFFY: Anything that reduces the time it takes for humanity to deal with this asteroid is a fantastic thing. This is a real positive.
For example, if we see an asteroid coming and we have 10 years to figure out a response, then we can nudge it aside relatively easily. If we leave it, if we're mired in a quagmire of legal issues and who is supposed to deal with it and we leave it until one year, then we have almost no hope.
DAVID MARK: Because you mentioned earlier that if an object is discovered, then a committee would be set up. Now I don't know if committees are generally very good at deflecting asteroids. Normally, Bruce Willis does that sort of thing, but you argue that that will help the cause.
ALAN DUFFY: That's right. It's a committee and as you say, that's never going to strike fear into the hearts of these asteroids, but the committee is necessary. It has to be a global response because it has to be a global share of the blame if it goes wrong because right now if we have Armageddon, we have our Bruce Willis hero who goes up thanks to NASA and then explodes the asteroid and debris hits all over the Earth, well, who's responsible? Actually, in this case, probably NASA.
So this is not going to be undertaken by just any one country, nor should it be, so having a committee is the first and logical step.
DAVID MARK: Now you've mentioned options for what to do if an asteroid is discovered, and you've said that the best option would be deflection. How does that work?
ALAN DUFFY: So there are two ways to deflect an asteroid. The first is you take your spaceship and you fly just beside your asteroid and just gently start to judge it, literally just push into the asteroid, and we're talking an incredibly small amount of force needed, and over time, that builds up and the asteroid just sails by. So if you have 10 years' warning, you can do it very easily, but if you have only a year's warning, you have to nudge it a lot harder.
The second is my favourite, which is the gravity tractor, and as you fly up to the asteroid, it has a tiny bit of gravity and it will pull your spaceship. And your spaceship is a lot smaller and it will have gravity pulling back on the asteroid, and if you just slowly keep inching away from the asteroid, letting gravity do the work, you can actually pull this asteroid out of the path of the Earth.
So it's a very neat idea. It's not been tested, so we would want to try and demonstrate this works before doing it for real.
DAVID MARK: Dr Alan Duffy is an astrophysicist from the University of Melbourne.
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We all know that the cycle of electronics consumerism is broken. Because it's an endless money drain for consumers to keep their gadgets current. Because the never ending desire to show off new features leads to bloat and complexity of design. And because all our outdated, abandoned gadgets have to go somewhere. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, we Americans threw away 310 million electronic gadgets in 2010 alone. That's about 1.8 million tons of toxic, nonbiodegradable waste in our landfills.
At least somebody's expressing concern about this problem—nearly 15 million somebodies, actually. That's how many people have watched a viral YouTube video called Phonebloks, which touts a new phone concept by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens.
Hakkens wants the people of Earth to rise up and demand a new kind of cell phone, in which the various components—camera, processor, GPS, screen—snap together like Legos.
This system, he says, would let you build exactly the phone you want. If you keep your files online, you could remove the storage module and replace it with a bigger battery. If you are older, you could unplug the camera and replace it with a bigger speaker.
Above all, though, he suggests that the Phonebloks concept would dramatically cut down on e-waste. You wouldn't throw away a phone every other year; instead you'd own just one phone that's built—and rebuilt—to last. If one component broke or became obsolete, you'd just unplug it and replace it with a new one.
Clearly, this concept is consumer catnip. It offers the promise of staying current—without the guilt. And of saving us money and of making it easy for anyone to build a customized phone.
There's only one hitch: Phonebloks will never happen.
The first problem: physics. Today's smartphone is a miracle of miniaturization. To keep the size small, the speed up and the battery life long, the components are packed in as closely as possible. In Apple's iPhone, for example, the memory, the processor and the graphics circuitry are all built into a single chip. A Phonebloks phone would introduce relatively gigantic distances between these elements, which would kill the battery life, speed and size.
Which brings us to the second problem: bulk. Steve Jobs refused to put a removable battery on the iPhone for this reason. A removable battery has to be enclosed in rigid walls so that you, the human, can handle it safely. If every component of your phone were a self-contained, sealed box like that battery, you'd have one very boxy, very bulky, very heavy phone.
The third problem: given the limited real estate, today's smartphone engineers sweat over component placement. Where should the antennas go for the best reception? Where does the speaker go for best audio? With free placement of any block on a Phonebloks phone, you would lose enormous advantages of quality, convenience and speed.
The fourth problem: economics. The Verizons and AT&Ts of the world love that we throw away our phones every other year; indeed, locking us into new two-year contracts is their business model. Why would they support any movement that would disrupt their herd of cash cows?
And finally: aesthetics. Who would buy the big, boxy, gray, sharp-cornered prototype illustrated in the video?
You want to love the Phonebloks concept. You'd love to have more control, greater savings and less guilt. Unfortunately, you'd pay quite a penalty: your phone would be big, heavy, slow, hot, fragile and ugly. Some analysts have even asserted that we would wind up with more electronic waste, a result of consumers discarding more modules more frequently.
There is some good news on the discarded-phone front: from all indications, the smartphone is maturing. The improvements in each year's new models are getting less dramatic. These days it's primarily the software that distinguishes your iPhone from your Samsung—and software leaves nothing in landfills.
Even so, e-waste and obsolescence remain distressing problems. No, Phonebloks is not the solution. But at least it has drawn attention to our current system—and just how broken it is.
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December 01, 2014
Although prostate cancer can be successfully treated in many men, when the disease metastasizes to the bone, it is eventually lethal. In a study published online December 1st in the journal Cancer Research, researchers show that the receptor CCR5 best known for its role in HIV therapy may also be involved in driving the spread of prostate cancer to the bone.
"Because this work shows we can dramatically reduce metastasis in pre-clinical models, and because the drug is already FDA approved for HIV treatment, we may be able to test soon whether this drug can block metastasis in patients with prostate cancer," says Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University and senior author on the study.
The work builds on previous research from Dr. Pestell's lab that showed in 2012 that CCR5 signaling was key in the spread of aggressive forms of breast cancer to the lungs. Their prior paper demonstrated that breast cancer cells that carried the CCR5 receptor on their surface were drawn to the lung. Given that prostate cancer cells were attracted to the bone and brain, Pestell's team investigated whether CCR5 could play a role in prostate cancer metastases as well.
The research was complicated by the fact that there was no immune competent mouse model of prostate cancer that reliably developed bone and brain metastases. So the researchers developed a prostate cancer cell line, driven by an upregulated Src gene that regularly caused bone metastases in immune-competent mouse models. Because the immune system is so important in human prostate cancer it was important to develop a model that reflected human disease.
The researchers analyzed the genes of the metastasized bone and brain tumors and found genes driving the cancer were also involved in the CCR5 signaling pathway. To investigate further, the researchers administered the CCR5-blocking drug maraviroc to the new prostate cancer mouse model. In comparison to control animals, maraviroc dramatically reduced the overall metastatic load by 60 percent in the bone, brain and other organs.
Finally, in order to determine whether a similar mechanism might be at play in human prostate cancer, the researchers mined the genomic data of patients with prostate cancer and found that CCR5 was more highly expressed in prostate cancer tissue compared with normal tissue, and even more highly expressed in metastases compared with primary tumors.
"In fact, we noticed that patients who had a lower expression of the CCR5-pathway genes had a longer survival times, whereas high expression of these CCR5 genes was associated with a shorter overall survival," said co-first author Xuanmao Jiao, Ph.D., and an instructor in the Department of Cancer Biology at Jefferson.
The next steps for the researchers are to develop clinical trials using CCR5 pathway activation as a companion diagnostic for the trial.
This work was supported in part by NIH grants R01CA070896, R01CA075503, R01CA132115, R01CA107382, R01CA086072, R01CA120876, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center NIH Cancer Center Core grant P30CA056036, generous grants from the Dr. Ralph and Marian C. Falk Medical Research Trust, the Margaret Q. Landenberger Research Foundation, a grant from Pennsylvania Department of Health and PAPIIT-UNAM IN219613.
Richard Pestell is founder of ProstaGene, LLC and owns patents related to prostate cancer cell lines and uses thereof. The authors report no other conflicts of interest.
Article Reference: D. Sicoli et al., "CCR5 Receptor Antagonists Block Metastasis to Bone of v-Src Oncogene–Transformed Metastatic Prostate Cancer Cell Lines," Cancer Res, doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-14-0612, 2014.
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"These monsoon rains strengthened the Nile's flow, forming a northbound 'highway,'" Vaks said.
"The climate along the shoreline of the Red Sea was also much less extreme during this period, and archaeologists have found evidence of migration along the coasts."
(See a map of ancient human migration.)
"It is reasonable that there is a connection between a wet period along the Sinai-Negev land bridge and the appearance of early modern man for the first time outside of Africa," he added.
Experts have been examining the influence of climate on human migration and evolution for years. But this is the first time researchers have turned up hard evidence, Vaks' team said.
(Read related story: "Climate Change May Have Helped Humans Out of Africa, Study Says" [June 12, 2006].)
"This is the first time there is both evidence and exact dating," said Hebrew University geographer and research team member Amos Frumkin.
"This evidence fits within a network of other information we have on the migration of modern humans from Africa to Asia."
Emory University anthropologist John Kingston, who was not involved in the study, agreed that the new find provides important physical clues to the history of early human migration.
"This is really significant in providing empirical evidence for ideas that existed already," he said. "To have empirical evidence like this is golden."
The connection between the rainy spells seen in the cave formations and the existing archaeological evidence in Carmel and Nazareth is also reasonable, Kingston added.
The use of speleothems to map climates is increasingly popular, he continued.
"What speleothems have that nothing else has is resolution," Kingston said.
"It's really a good terrestrial indicator. You can not only get the environmental information but link it to dates as well, and that's the key part here."
The research team also included Hebrew University's Alan Matthews and GSI's Ludwik Halicz. Their findings are published in the current issue of the journal Geology.
The comfortable corridor through the Sinai and Negev wilderness didn't last long, said GSI's Miryam Bar-Matthews, who took part in the research.
"Anton [Vaks'] work showed that those who moved northward from Africa could not return. Immediately afterward, the desert once again became a real harsh desert, so they couldn't move back," Bar-Matthews said.
Kingston agreed but added this was likely not the only period of comfortable passage through the northern Sahara.
"I would advocate that these corridors come and go," he said. "It's not like this was the last chance to get out of Africa or back in."
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SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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Pakistan's North-West Frontier: Under a New Name
Smruti S. Pattanaik,Researcher,IDSA
The ruling elites in Pakistan in their quest for nationalism and national unity have always tried to suppress any spirit of genuine federalism perceiving it as a prelude to separatism. This is borne out of the fact that the threat to the unity of Pakistan received the initial convulsion when former British provinces like the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan wanted to exercise their option for independence just after the new state came into being. The NWFP was later incorporated as a part of Pakistan through a referendum. After its incorporation, the aspiration of provincial autonomy still loomed large on the minds of the elites in this region who had almost reconciled to the fact that an independent Pushtunistan1 consisting of the Pushtun dominated area is virtually impossible.
The demand for provincial autonomy thus played a vital role in the domestic politics of Pakistan. This can be attributed to the fact that the elites in Pakistan have not been able to strike a balance between federal control and quantum of provincial autonomy. Pakistan in the initial years after independence, lacked a representative decision making body. The leadership was concentrated in the hands of the bureaucracy and later passed on to the military leadership managed by officers belonging mostly to the Punjabi and Mohajir community. Moreover, the Interim Report of the Basic Principles Committee (1950) suggested a unitary framework which sealed any aspiration of provincial autonomy altogether. The underlying intention behind this report was meant to consolidate the power of the western province elites, establish and perpetuate their hegemony in the administration which would have been rendered impossible had they adopted a federal structure. This is because a majority of the population lived in the eastern province and any scheme of governance based on federalism and democratic representation would have ensured the dominance of the Bengalis.
The Islamic foundation of Pakistan moreover eroded considerably after the birth of this Muslim nation. This is because solidifying and mobilising diverse ethno-linguistic groups by potraying preponderantly Hindu India as an enemy was much easier for the Muslim elites during the freedom struggle. It was the Islam identity versus Hindu identity which provided the much needed impetus to the creation of Pakistan on the basis of religion. Hardly were the birth pangs over that Pakistan faced the challenge to its nation building efforts. After independence, Islam no longer remained an issue. The problem of power sharing within various ethno-linguistic groups arose inside Pakistan. The leadership of this newly independent country consisted mostly of people from the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other urban centres of India. They were not only rootless in Pakistan but lacked any support base except for the fact that they were the real creators of Pakistan. The territory which constitutes present Pakistan largely comprised Muslim dominated areas before the creation of Pakistan, thus, equalising the political inequality on the basis of Islam was not acceptable to other ethno-national groups. Real transfer of power to the people could not take place. In the ethno-ideological context, the exercise of state power determined the inter-ethnic relations as well as the contour of nation building. Impediments to the nation building effort came from various sources. Absence of adequate political representation on the basis of demography alienated the masses. Moreover, the limited role of local bodies which is largely confined to issues like location of industry, building of infrastructure and creation of employment opportunities did not give enough power to the locals in the real sense of decentralisation..
The main challenge to Pakistan's effort to have a unitary structure can be attributed to the extreme ethnic consciousness and a sense of strong socio-cultural identity of most of the ethnic groups residing inside Pakistan. These have been perceived with considerable apprehension by the ruling elites of Pakistan who had spearheaded the movement for Pakistan and had used religious dichotomy to mobilise Muslims for a separate homeland. They well understood what such cleavages would imply in the long-term, thus, they abhorred providing encouragement to sub-national identities, whether symbolically by recognising their socio-cultural and linguistic identity or politically, by accomodating them in the state structure on the basis of ethnicity. Instead, they fervently tried to agglomerate these cleavages in a broader framework of Islamic identity and Islamic nation. Within this framework of nation and state building, Punjabis and Mohajirs controlled the decision making process through their predominant representation in the civil-military-bureaucractic structure. Provincial autonomy became an anathema because decentralisation of power could undermine their pre-eminence. Quite expectedly, the 1956 Constitution provided very little provincial autonomy. This Constitution was abrogated after Ayub Khan assumed power. The new Constitution introduced by him, instead of granting provincial autonomy, provided institutional support to the unitary framework. The Basic Democracy plan was introduced by Ayub Khan to contain regional political aspirations of the regional elites. The Basic Democracy system envisaged a five-tier political institution whose members were largely nominated, leaving little scope for active political participation by the masses. The method of political recruitment curtailed any opportunity for the growth of democracy as the members were dependent on their political master for nomination. This provided a breeding ground for ethnic based political movements which saw the state structure as a representation of a particular ethnic group, namely the Punjabis.
Most of the ethnic movements in Pakistan can be directly attributed to apathy of the central government and growing regional disparity. This has become increasingly evident in the case of Pakistan which in its fifty years of existence is yet to build itself as a strong nation due to its overt Indo-centric security concerns. Its objective to attain parity with India has been effectively used to divert public opinion from domestic issues and at the same time has provided legitimacy to autocratic and military rule. In this context, it also provided enough leverage to the armed forces to obtain a substantial amount of the budget for defence expenditure, undermining socio-economic development.
In the broader framework of over-centralism, the problem of the NWFP depicts the following analogy. It not only provides a classic case of political alienation but also shows how ethnic aspirations have been portrayed as separatism to undermine the legitimacy of their demand. The NWFP consists of fiercely independence-loving Pakhtuns who had been provided with maximum autonomy to manage their tribal affairs. Historically though some groups of Pushtuns had demanded an independent Pushtunistan, but after its merger with Pakistan the issue was used as a leverage to bargain with the federal government. The support rendered by Afghanistan to the movement for Pushtunistan had posed a serious problem to the newly independent state of Pakistan that was trying to overcome the trauma of partition and simultaneously striving to tackle the problems confronting the newly independent state i.e. managing immense socio-political aspirations of the masses, settlement of refugees and economic development. In this context, the demand for Pushtunistan threatened to undermine the Islamic identity and unity of Pakistan. Moreover, the Pushtuns hardly harbour any such design but want to have maximum autonomy within the framework of the Pakistani Constitution.
The historicity of the problem needs to be analysed here to understand the basis of this movement and the ethno-political aspirations: any assertion of ethnicity and it posing a threat to state security cannot be understood and deciphered adequately to arrive at a logical conclusion without understanding the historical basis of the demands.
Historical Genesis of Pakhtunistan Movement
The area which comes under the present NWFP was under the suzerainty of various Kingdoms at different point of history. However, the present area referred to as Pakhtunistan had never existed as an independent political entity. Its significance derives from its location on the fringes of the great Empires founded by the Iranians, Indians and Central Asians. Historically, Afghanistan under the ruling dynasty of Kabul had suzerainty over the region which comprises the provinces of NWFP, Baluchistan and Punjab in present Pakistan. The western part of Afghanistan was under Persian influence, traces of which can be found in the language and culture; in the east, they had close contacts with the Mughal Empire of India. In 1750, Abdul Shah Abdali annexed the territory from the Oxus to the Indus and Delhi. It coincided with the expansion of the Sikh Kingdom and both Kingdoms contested with each other for supremacy in the region. This development interestingly clashed with British interest to expand and secure their newly acquired territory. Afghanistan initially sought the help of the British to recover the territory of north Punjab and Peshawar from the Sikhs. However, later the British conquered these areas from the Sikhs. Being unable to convince the British, the Afghan rulers turned the the Russian Empire for support which inevitably brought a clash of interest of the two expanding powers and was perceived as antithetical to the interests of the British who would not allow Russian influence to be supreme in the valleys of the "Tigris and Euphrates."2 The British were quick enough to fix the Anglo-Afghan border along the Amu-darya and Afghanistan was declared as "completely outside the sphere of likely Russian influence", under an agreement which also placed Afghanistan's foreign policy under the British.
Even then Russian expansion made the British very insecure in the Indian subcontinent. Since Afghanistan was internally weak due to political instability, the need to stabilise the British India border with Afghanistan arose. Afghanistan did not have any fixed or demarcated international frontiers until almost the end of the 19th century. At the time of Dost Muhammad Khan's rule, there was no defined tribal belt between the Kingdom of Kabul and the administered territory of the British. During the Sepoy Mutiny, Dost Mohammad Khan pledged his neutrality and Sir John Lawrence reciprocated by recognising the suzerainty of Dost Mohammad over Peshawar and the frontier zones to the Indus to encourage Afghan neutrality.3 It is interesting to note here that Afghanistan's boundary was settled not through negotiations between Afghanistan and its neighbours but between the neighbours themselves through arbitration or agreement. Since the rulers in Afghanistan were extremely weak and vulnerable compared to its giant neighbours they gave de facto recognition, sometimes willingly, mostly unwillingly. The frontier of south-west Afghanistan was fixed by British arbitration in 1872 and 1875. The limits of Afghanistan sovereignty in the east and south-east were imposed by the British upon Afghanistan when in 1877 the ruler of Afghanistan, Amir Sher Ali, was simply informed by the Government of British India that they no longer recognise his claim to Dir, Swat, Chitral, and Bajour.4 Following the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Afghanistan became a British protectorate under the Treaty of Gandamark, which was signed on May 26, 1879. The 1893 Durand Line was drawn under external and internal compulsions.5 The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 confirmed the status of Afghanistan as a buffer state. Afghanistan became sovereign only in 1921. This explains Afghanistan's political status at the time of signing of the Durand Line Treaty which hardly gave Afghanistan any decisive say in the matter of the Pushtun area lying beyond the British side of the international boundary. According to Olaf Caroe, who also helped Sir Mortimer Durand to draw the Durand Line, "... the agreement of 1893 did not describe the line as the boundary of India but as the frontier of the Amir's dominions and the line beyond which neither side will exercise interference. This was because the British government did not intend to absorb the tribes into its administrative system, only to extend their own and exclude the Amir's authority from territory east and south of the line."6
Initially, the tendency of the British government had been to treat the Pathans as though they were just an appendage of India.7 This was evident from the fact that they were a part of Punjab till 1901. However, the tribal territory beyond the British border was regarded as enjoying a kind of factual independence which was referred to as Ghairilaqa (unadministered territory) or Yaghistan (lands of rebels). In this no-man's-land, the tribals acknowledged neither Kabul nor Calcutta as suzerain. However, the rulers of Kabul maintained at least a semblance of authority on the main passages through the tribal territory.8 Thus, the British were compelled to establish some kind of administrative machinery to deal with the trans-border tribes. Since no part of this territory was occupied, a system was envisaged whereby Deputy Commissioners of particular tribal areas would be assigned the additional responsibility of dealing with the tribes beyond their administrative border. This was accomplished through trans-border intermediaries, mostly Khans or notables of border villages whose ancestors had for generations maintained contacts with the tribes. Thus, the tribes were brought under British control through written agreements and allowances declaring friendship and goodwill and, at the same time, securing a statement of services required by the tribes which included security of the border, control of raiders, denying sanctuary to outlaws. This was followed by an annual allowance subject to good behaviour. Such an agreement would be reached in an open jirga to which the maliks and the tribe's elder would affix their seal or thumb impression.9
Durand Line Controversy
The boundary agreement of 1893 between Durand and Amir Abdurahman which is known as the Durand Line, demarcated the frontier which till the agreement had been no-man's-land. However, the first mention of the Durand Line as a boundary line between Afghanistan and Pakistan was made in the 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi. The tribes were functioning as largely autonomous groups, and as far as law and order was concerned, they had their own tribal laws to govern them. They have never recognised authority of any kind, be it the Afghan rulers or the British and it proved to be very difficult to bring them under direct rule. Though the British were not able to subjugate the tribes, according to Article 1, Paragraph 2 of the 1893 Treaty, they denied the Amir of Afghanistan, the nominal head of all Afghan people, any power or right to exercise influence over them or to interfere with the tribal people.10
It is significant to mention here that the Commission which was conferred with the responsibility to demarcate the boundary of influence would usually go to these border villages on a pleasant hunting trip and on their way, ask the villagers to decide on which side of the line they wished to fall. Due to this informal method, in certain cases it so happened that while the villages were inside Afghanistan, their fields lay on the British side.11 It was thus evident that the British took hardly any notice of the ethnic factor while demarcating the border. However, so far as the Afghans were concerned, this agreement did not set up a final frontier, nor did it mean a renunciation of interest in the Pushtuns living east of the Durand Line. In the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1921, Paragraph 2 guaranteed reciprocal information on both sides of the Durand Line of any military operations which may appear necessary to maintain order in their respective sphere of influence. This clause suggested that at least some of the British themselves saw the agreement as establishing spheres of influence rather than a fixed border.12 As is evident from this clause of the boundary agreement, informing the contracting party about any military operation on either side of the border put a serious question mark on the legitimacy of the concerned power over this tribal region. Because the concept of sovereignty itself nullifies the idea of informing an external power about decisions which are essentially taken inside the national boundary. A supplementary letter sent to Mahmud Tarzi to dispel any kind of confusion that prevailed over the Pushtun tribes in British India, stated clearly that the British India government entertains only a feeling of goodwill towards the frontier tribes provided they refrain from outrages against its subject.
Creation of the Province of NWFP
In 1901, the NWFP came into being. The four trans-Indus districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, and Hazara were separated from Punjab to form this province. Adjacent to these, all the five Political Agencies together with other tribal territory were managed by District Officers as far as the Durand Line which came to form the province of the NWFP.13 Before the reorganisation of the NWFP into a separate province it was realised by the British government that certain anomalies exist in the organisation of the NWFP as a part of Punjab. However, Lord Lytton, in 1877, propounded a scheme to give the central government direct control over Frontier administration and policy, and favoured improving relations with their trans-border neighbour.14 Due to the Second Afghan War, this idea was shelved. The birth of the province can be largely attributed to the effort of Lord Curzon. According to Caroe, the last Governor General of the NWFP, "The creation of the new province provided....greatest justification, greater even than the outward seeming needs of defence and foreign policy, for only a people whose aspirations are reasonably free of frustration can provide the conditions in which confident defence structure may be erected....NWFP provided first an administrative, and later a political soil in which this idea could take root, and, carefully nurtured, grow into active life. It laid out this idea at a time when the allegience of the Frontier people was uncertain and groping"15 Thus the creation of this administrative unit created a sort of legitimacy for the British to rule through their Agent and further consolidate their position. Moreover, simultaneously, it also consolidated the pride of the Pathans, who abhorred the idea of being under foreign rule, since it did not interfere directly in the tribal affairs. This played an important role because it is their pride which transcended all sectarian and tribal loyalty and furnished the British with a relatively strong frontier by marginalising the dual loyalty of the tribes.
The NWFP is divided into Settled Districts and Tribal Agencies. The settled areas were ruled by the Governor; the Tribal Agencies (Malakand, Khyber, Kurram, North Wazirstan, South Wazirstan) were administered by a Political Officer who would directly report to New Delhi. The local administration was the responsibility of local Khans and they remained autonomous to a certain extent while being responsible for day to day administration. The local Khans and Malliks were primarily assigned the duty of collection of tribute and revenue and thus were representatives of the government on behalf of the tribes and in return they were given tax exemptions. The political officers consolidated their rule with the help of jirgas and backed by battalions of scouts, militia and khassadars with the additional support of a large garrison of troops. The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919 which introduced provincial democracy in India, excluded the NWFP from such experimentation. Instead the Pushtun jirga, was preferred as a model of direct democracy. Later, the Frontier Inquiry Committee recommended a provincial legislature and the Simon Commission, after consulting the Frontier Pushtuns, reported that "British India stops at the boundary of the administered area."16 While consulting with the frontier tribes, the Commission reported that the contiguity of the NWFP as an independent territory along with Afghanistan and free intercourse between people on both the sides of the border, including common ethnicity, strongly distinguishes the people of this province from the rest of India.17
Politics in Frontier Province: Pre-Independence Period
Unlike other provinces, the NWFP was excluded from the process of political development but the Pathans were not lagging in terms of political socialisation. The Frontier Congress (Khudai Khidmatgar) under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a main ally of the Indian National Congress, was performing its duty by mobilising people against British rule. Thus, there were two rival political blocs emerging in this part of the region and the British took advantage of this cleavage. The Khudai Khidmatgar was supported by the small Khans (petty leaders) who were important in rural society and the big Khans were patronised by the British thereby making it imperative for the latter to become nationalists. In the 1937 elections, the Frontier Congress gained a dominant position but its pre-eminence was countered by the presence of independent Muslim candidates opposed to it but closely associated with the British. The Muslim League had not yet marked its presence. In the 1946 elections, the Frontier Congress improved its position in the Assembly by winning 30 out of 50 seats and the Muslim League managed to win only 17 seats. When independence became imminent, the problem of political alignment arose. Their allegience was more to Islam and the Pathan pride prevented them from being subservient to any Hindu domination which, it was apprehended, would be the case after independence. Though the Congress was supported for its anti-British policies, on the question of joining India or Pakistan, there was realignment of political forces. Several Congress leaders defected to the Muslim League. The urge to align with their co-religionists appeared to be stronger at this crucial juncture when the subcontinent was witnessing communal frenzy and the Congress was largely perceived as a Hindu party by the Muslims, in spite of it broad support base. Many favoured joining Pakistan because of opportunist reasons which were related to the exodus of Hindus from Pakistan. Since the bureaucracy of the Frontier was dominated by the Hindus, the Muslim bureaucrats were in an advantageous position and they were all set to fill the vacuum that would be created after the Hindus left for India.
There is another interesting facet to the Frontier politics before the emergence of Pakistan. The Pir of Manki Sharif, who had a large following in the province, played an important role and acted as a counter-balance against Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in formulating the NWFP's political future with Pakistan. Being a man of influence, his help was sought to mobilise support for the League's demand. He was able to articulate the cause of the Muslims in garnering the support of the people who are essentially tribal, through his organisation Anjuman-us-Asifia on the condition that the Shariat would be enforced in Pakistan. The tribes gave the much needed support to the Muslim League and broadened its support base. However, the Congress still had a comfortable majority in the Provincial Assembly and this explains why the Assembly supported a resolution in favour of the NWFP joining India.
A plebiscite was held in the settled areas and the tribal territories were not given a chance to express their opinion through casting their ballot. Instead a British official, Sir George Cunningham, went on a tour to these tribal areas and interviewed the jirgas of all major tribes in the entire frontier tribal areas and got their confirmation in a written statement that they wish to be a part of Pakistan and maintain the same kind of relations as they had with British India. It is likely that many of the tribes could not have understood the implications of political allegience to any power. Considering the remoteness and lack of awareness of the Frontier tribes, it is more likely that plebiscite was just a political endorsement from a few influential tribes rather than genuine expression of opinion by the masses.
The Frontier Congress through its meeting held at Bannu decided to boycott the referendum and committed itself to a free Pakhtunistan. Bogus polling was widespread and the votes of the dead as well as of persons who either boycotted the election or were out of station were all polled in favour of Pakistan.18 Only 9.52 per cent of the total population of the NWFP determined, in the ultimate analysis, the fate of all the Frontier people, though 99 per cent of the votes cast opted for a merger with Pakistan as against 1 per cent in favour of India. The irony is that the votes cast for Pakistan represented only 50.5 per cent of the total electorate. Since the referendum was held under the supervision of the Army and the insufficient British staff could not manage the supervision of the poll, it it led to large scale rigging. The ordinary election staff, by and large, supported the Muslim League. The absence of any election agents representing the Congress resulted in manipulation.19
The demand for Pushtunistan as an independent state on the lines of other princely states of British India was espoused explicity by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan through his party Khudai Khidmatgar after the British withdrew from the subcontinent. The demand of the Frontier Congress for a separate Pushtunistan was not only unacceptable to the Muslim League and the British but to the Congress also. However, as it appeared later, the demand for Pushtunistan was used only as a bargaining tool to arouse popular passions among the highly ethno-centric Pushtuns and to legitimise the existence of the Khudai Khidmatgar as a party primarily striving to protect the larger interests of the Pushtuns. After the NWFP's merger with Pakistan was finalised through a plebiscite, Ghaffar Khan took an oath of allegience to Pakistan and was included in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan for framing a new Constitution. He said in the Constituent Assembly in February 1948, that Pakistan was a settled fact and Pushtunistan meant only an autonomous unit on par with other provinces of Pakistan.20
Afghanistan and the Issue of Pushtunistan
When the withdrawal of the British from the subcontinent became imminent, Afghanistan in 1944 emphasised its interest in the Pushtun area across the Durand Line in a letter to the Government of British India. However, the British vaguely stated that agreements with the tribes have to be negotiated with the appropriate successor. Though the demand was later dissmissed as an exhibition of irredentism, the move for an independent Pushtunistan was supported more vociferously and persistently by Afghanistan. Afghanistan, however, has been inconsistent in its pursuit of the cause of Pushtunistan.21 Earlier it had tried to secure independence of Pushtuns in British India in the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
Afghanistan could not garner adequate support in favour of its irredentism. Only the Soviet Union had lent support at the height of the Cold War period to this irredentist demand, not out of any conviction for the cause but as a part of Cold War strategy. Afghanistan has also maintained a policy of calculated ambivalence.22 This is clear from the fact that while espousing the cause of separatism in the NWFP, Afghanistan was not prepared to shed its territory for an independent Pakhtunistan. Afghanistan's scheme for Pakhtunistan includes Balochistan also, though the Baluchs and the Pathans do not see eye to eye on this issue. While campaigning for Pakhtunistan, Afghanistan "was confident that before long it would be able to incorporate a state of this kind in its own territory"23 so that at some stage this area will join Afghanistan, thus, giving it access to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
Afghanistan for the first time made its displeasure international by casting a negative vote against Pakistan when it applied for UN membership on the ground that it has occupied Afghan territory illegally. In 1949, Afghanistan through a loya jirga, supported Pushtunistan and officially declared the 1893 Durand Line Agreement, the Anglo-Afghan Pact of 1905, the Treaty of Rawalpindi of 1919 and the Anglo-Afghan Treaty which referred to the status of the Pushtuns, as illegal and dead. Over this issue, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan soured in the subsequent years. Both countries constantly incited the masses through a propaganda war. Many Pushtuns slipped across the Afghan border to collect arms and ammunition which resulted in widespread militarisation of the civil society in the NWFP. However, the tribes accepted arms and money from both the adversaries and in the process gained materially.24 All these factors attest to the fact that the tribals who fiercely safeguarded their autonomy even during the British rule, will not give up their freedom to either side in this great game. This is evident from the Bajaur incident of 1960 when the locals fiercely resented intrusion of Afghan troops in the guise of tribesmen and drove them away. They also objected violently to the presence of the regular Pakistani Army.
Pakistan-Afghanistan relations over the Pushtun issue became very bitter in 1949-54 over the indiscriminate bombing of Pushtun villages and certain other villages in Afghanistan in 1954. This revealed the deep seated apprehension of Pakistan and precipitated avowed support from Afghanistan more as a retaliatory measure in 1954-56 over the one-unit plan which sacrificed regional autonomy to consolidate the position of the Urdu speaking elites. Prime Minister Daoud of Afghanistan protested against the one-unit formula adopted by Pakistan which was perceived to impede the movement for a separate Pushtunistan, and this resentment manifested in violence in Kabul where a mob tore down the Pakistani flag from the Pakistan Embassy, finally resulting in its closure. There were reported Army intrusions in the guise of tribesmen into the Pakistani territory in both 1960 and 1961. The relations between the two detoriated to the extent of severing diplomatic ties and suspension of transit and trade facilities in 1961. The relations reached a low level between 1960-63 against repression in Pakhtun areas when the movement for a separate Pushtun province was revived under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Daoud's removal from power by King Zahir Shah in March 1963 again normalised relations between the neighbours. But again, they detoriated after 1973, over the pursual of a hostile policy by Z.A.Bhutto who dismissed the legally formed popular government in the NWFP and Balochistan.
Pakistan tried its level best to close the Pushtunistan issue altogether. In this context Islamabad even financed and armed the tribal revolt in Panjsher Valley to pressurise Afghanistan and prevent it from meddling in the NWFP.25 In fact, Pakistan was successful in closing the issue through an agreement with Afghanistan and Iran in a triangular deal but Bhutto's exit from power again got the situation back to square one. Moreover, Afghanistan has a poor record of respecting any agreement.
Pakistan which has been apprehensive about this ethnic movement, tried to suppress it every time even when it included the legitimate demand of provincial autonomy. This has been exploited by Afghanistan to widen the gulf that exists between the Pushtuns and the ruling elites of Pakistan. It was evident when Sardar Mohammad Naim Khan said that the people of Pushtunistan should be given an opportunity to express "their status and way of living."26 Moreover, Afghan Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud who has been a passionate advocate of Pushtunistan, said in 1974 that "the best way for the leaders of Pakistan is to seek a solution of the problem through talks and agreements with the Pakhtuns and Baluchi leaders..." and the decision of the Awami National Party (ANP) which is acceptable to both these ethnic group is acceptable to Afghanistan also.27
NWFP in Pakistan's Federation
It is pertinent to mention here that the tribals of the NWFP are very proud of their socio-cultural identity. The problem for Pakistan is inherent in the fact that both sides of the Durand Line are inhabitated by Pushtuns, a homogenous and unruly tribe, who do not recognise any international boundary and keep on crossing the border with great ease. Because of their ethnic linkages and being mostly pasturalist, it is very difficult to confine them inside the national boundary. After partition, Pakistan opted for a strong centre but as a gesture of acknowledging the autonomy of the tribal areas, Pakistan withdrew all its regular Army units in December 1947 from North and South Wazirstan. This constituted an act of showing trust in the tribals. They were given virtual autonomy even though the move towards centralising and forming one unit was gaining momentum. The government declared amnesty for all those who participated in anti-government raids prior to 1948 as a conciliatory measure. To integrate the tribal zone into the Pakistani mainstream, various welfare activities were undertaken. Warsak Dam, which was built outside Peshawar, was undertaken to diversify the economic base of the NWFP. The developmental measures, especially road building ventures in certain tribal areas, which had been opposed earlier, were undertaken.
The Pushtun ethnic movement became resilient after a period of time because the Pathans have been accomodated in the military-bureaucratic structure. The maintenance of status quo of the tribal areas after British withdrawal had been a significant factor that nullified any significant threat in the form of a separatist movement. The Pathans, due to their commercial interest, become very outward looking which is evident from their presence in large numbers in Karachi. All this diluted the rigid Pathan identity, and they started looking beyond the boundary of the NWFP.
While integrating the NWFP through economic measures, Pakistan in its nation building effort emphasised its Islamic identity and there was pressure to underplay the ethnic identity. Through the facade of federation, regional autonomy became a cherished dream for all the federating units. Apart from Sind and Balochistan, the NWFP under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan aligned with the East Pakistan leadership and supported their demand for a genuine federation. This was considered as parochialism by the ruling elites and was perceived as antithetical to the Pakistan ideology and a disservice to Islam. In 1955, Pakistan declared the one-unit plan which created only two provinces i.e. East and West Pakistan28 by abolishing the existing four provinces of East Bengal, Punjab, Sind and NWFP. Pakistan to a large extent followed the quantum of provincial autonomy as envisaged in the Government of India 1935 Act, contrary to the Muslim League's stand before independence that the autonomy enumerated in this Act is insufficient. The Pushtuns perceived this as a move towards integration at the cost of their tribal autonomy. Moreover, the tribes fulfilled many of the requirements of a nation. "They occupied and governed fairly well defined territory from which they successfully excluded other claims of authority... they displayed the homogeneity of social and political institutions as indices of nation building and in time developed a feeling of political cohesion which gave rise to Pushtun nationalism."29
In October 1958, General Mohammad Ayub Khan, himself a Pushtun from Hazara district, captured power but his ascendency to power did not help the cause of Pushtunistan. Neutralism became the core word of his professed foreign policy. However, his commitment to neutrality did not bring in the required foreign policy dividends. Being dogged by the Pushtunistan issue, the Ayub government decided to close the Consulate in Afghanistan and also requested Afghanistan to follow suit by closing its Consulate and trade agencies in Peshawar, Quetta and Parachinar so as to force Afghanistan to settle the Pushtunistan issue by coercive diplomacy, denying movement of goods across the border. This was done on the pretext of accusing Afghanistan for its involvement in the internal affairs of Pakistan, specifically instigating and supporting the Pushtunistan issue. But this could not rout the strong ethno-centric tendency of the Pushtuns who do not need any external help in orienting their demands on ethno-political lines.
After Bhutto assumed power there was a significant change in the policies towards the NWFP. The Army camps, which were primarily concerned with the job of monitoring and policing the tribes, were withdrawn. However, the policy of isolation continued till 1973. But after Daoud assumed power in Afghanistan, Bhutto became apprehensive about the implications it could have for the Pushtunistan movement in Pakistan. Thus, since the Pushtuns themselves are fierce protectors of their socio-cultural identity, emphasis was laid more on the economic integration. According to Akbar S. Ahmed, who has recorded this graphic change in the NWFP, "Suddenly schools and dispensaries were being constructed in areas which could not boast of a single cement building. Suddenly tractors and bulldozers worked in areas that had never seen even a bycycle. Suddenly roads were pushing their way through hitherto inaccessible areas and tribes..."30 Bhutto's handling of political affairs in the province by appointing a non-representative person as the Governor without consulting the democratically elected party, brought him in confrontation with the ANP. He imposed central rule in 1973 in the NWFP on the pretext of a threat to the national security and in 1975 installed a puppet government and banned the ANP. This further strengthened the grievances of the Pushtuns and they felt that they would never get any legitimate and rational deal from the government. Initially when Zia assumed power in Pakistan, to strengthen his support base, he sympathised with the Pushtun leaders who were anti-Bhutto elements. But after Bhutto's execution, there was apparently no threat to his rule. Thus, he hardened his position towards the Pushtun issue. The restoration of democracy has not brought any significant change in the outlook of the present leaders towards provincial autonomy. In the present context, regional autonomy has been shaded with opportunist alliances whose main intention is to hold onto power, and are based on simple arithmetics of majority rule.
The Issue of Renaming
After the 1971 tragedy, any genuine demand for regional autonomy is perceived with apprehensions and moreover the dominating elites from Punjab and the Pakistani national Press are never tired of portraying it as separatism. The problem of renaming the NWFP as Pakhtukhwa lies in the apprehension of Pakistani elites that it might encourage sub-nationalism. Pakistan has not reconciled to the emergence of Bangladesh and it is yet to come to terms with the fact that the two nation theory based on religion was proved transitory. Till 1970, the martial law administrators abolished provincial autonomy under the one-unit scheme, thereby, leaving very little scope for any such movement. Moreover, through repressive measures, the government controlled the sub-national movements.
The present politics regarding renaming of the province revolves around the so-called agreement between the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and the ANP as a prelude to the power sharing agreement between both the parties in the Provincial Assembly. But analysed in a wider perspective, the issue of renaming has much to do with provincial autonomy. Pakistan is more apprehensive about its larger implications in terms of irredentist movements elsewhere in the country. Those against the renaming argue that Punjab and Sind owe their nomenclature to rivers, like Punjab to the five rivers and Sind to the Indus, but what they refuse acknowledge is that the names of these provinces are closely identified with the language and ethnic identity of the people of the respective area. The issue of Pakhtunkhwa is associated more with the ethnic aspiration and identity of the Pushtuns. "Since most opinion makers in Lahore have supported the strong centre-loving rulers, people of smaller provinces see Punjab's opposition to the demand for more regional autonomy to be as self-serving as it might be ethnically motivated."31
Before rationalising the nomenclature suggested by the ANP, it is important to understand the history of the NWFP and why other names such as Gandhara or Khyber cannot be accepted by the majority Pushtuns. Historically, between the fourth and sixth centuries BC, the area which constitutes the present NWFP was known as Gandhara whose boundary extended from Jalalabad up to Taxila. Protagonists of this movement have advocated that the province be renamed as Gandhara as this is based on historical pride rather than on ethnic identity. But one should not forget to mention here that Kanishka during whose period Gandhara became famous as a centre for Buddhist and Gandhara form of art, was not of Pathan origin.32 Thus, the Pathans would not like to identify with the glory of an Emperor who did not belong to their ethnic stock. There exists historical evidence that the Pushtuns were residing in this particular geographic region during this period.
There has been lot of controversy and there is no unanimity among intellectuals, the media and politicians regarding the renaming. But if the current international politics is any indication, ethnic aspiration plays an important role and a group tends to identify with a country or a province which is a representative of their group identity, and national identity becomes secondary. Apart from the common national identity of being Pakistanis, smaller ethnic groups want to assert their identity vis-a-vis other ethnic groups competing for preservation of their socio-cultural uniqueness, and a platform to display their pride at the national level. Pakhtunkhwa will not only represent their ethnic identity but will fullfill their political aspirations. Moreover, the argument that all other provinces owe their names to historical factors rather than to the linguistic identity of the people residing there seems far-fetched as far as the ethnic characters of these provinces are concerned. To the common population, historical verification of facts appeals to them less than what they realise in practice. Whether the people owe their identity to the name of province or vice versa, when any reference is made to Sind, Punjab or Balochistan, it reminds one about the ethnic group which resides there.
It important to note here that any renaming on the basis of Pushtun identity does not necessarily imply automatic erosion of identity of the minorities. It is the policies of the government which sometimes encourage majoritarianism, suppressing minority culture. But there are many mechanisms through which minority rights and culture can be preserved. Pluralism should be the rule rather than the exception in such multi-cultural societies. Given the past record of the irredentist movement to carve out an independent Pushtunistan, what the government should remember is that alienating a group which in the past had demanded seccessionism and later greater autonomy is not going to help Pakistan's nation building effort. Moreover putting the matter to referendum will further politicise the issue and will be a severe law and order problem. The founder of the ANP, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, had demanded the basic rights of the Pathans. At critical moments he was committed to the integrity of Pakistan. Issues like his burial in Afghanistan have been raised and cited, questioning his patriotism. But hardly anybody has evaluated it in the context of his emotional bonding with the Pushtuns and his affiliation to the cause. Questioning his integrity will not only put a question mark on the allegience of the Pushtuns but will further alienate them which can be exploited by the protagonists of the Pushtunistan movement.
Most of the Pushtuns look towards eastward for their socio-economic and cultural fulfilment which should neutralise any threat to Pakistan. Though Afghanistan, from time to time, has demanded self-determination for the Pushtuns living inside Pakistan, it has mostly used the issue as a bargaining tool and in the context of geo-political imperatives. Afghanistan itself understands the implications. In the context of an independent Pushtunistan, a demand for the inclusion of Pushtuns living in Afghanistan may arise at some point of time. Moreover, it understands that it is virtually imposible to incorporate these areas in Afghanistan. In the present context, the continuing civil war in Afghanistan reminds one of what Caroe had said long years ago that "Peshawar would absorb Kabul, not Kabul Peshawar."33
Party politics and internal political cleavages compelled the PML to abandon the renaming issue. It appears that before the alliance broke up, the PML did not oppose the adoption of the resolution, but abstained. It definitely had some second thoughts regarding the resolution. Though denied by the PML, it appears that the alliance between the ANP and PML was forged on the basis of certain promises and being aware of the importance the ANP gives to the issue of renaming, it is more likely that the party would not have settled for less than Pakhtukhwa. The PML backed out expecting a strong reaction in the NWFP's Hazara district and amongst right wing conservative elements inside the party. Where politics is practised along ethnic lines, the PML did not want to lose support in Abbottabad, the Hindko speaking areas of the NWFP and in the traditional stronghold of the Hazaras. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was apprehensive that in a given situation, Hamid Nasir Chattha and the Saifullah brothers of the rival factions will be reaping the benefits. Reflecting the sentiments of a regional party, as an indicator to regional aspiration, Begum Nasim Wali Khan, ANP frontier chief, said in an interview, "It was a harmless resolution, representing our deepest emotions as living people. Dismissing an assembly resolution as a piece of trash amounts to trashing the very standing of the assembly. Why do we have provincial assemblies at all ? This shows that there is only one unit in the federation of Pakistan."34
The ANP has been consistent in its demand for Pakhtunkhwa. In 1990, it was defeated by 20 votes when the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) refused to vote for the resolution; in 1997, it could not push through the resolution because of lack of majority. This time the resolution was fully supported by the ANP, Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Jamiat-e-Ulema-e Islam (Fazlur)—JUI(F)—and two members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Junejo (PML(J)) voted against the resolution. The 1981 census data reveals that Pakhtuns constitute 94 per cent of the population in the twelve Pakhtun-dominated districts located in the Peshawar Valley, in the southern plains excluding Dera Ismail Khan, and in Malakand division excluding Chitral. There are only two districts where the Pakhtuns' presence is negligible. These are Abbottabad (4 per cent) in Menshera (Hazara 40 per cent) and Dera Ismail Khan (30 per cent). According to the Frontier Government Bureau of Statistics, out of the 17.387 million population, 70 per cent are Pushto-speaking while the rest speak a number of local languages such as Hindko (in parts of Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat), Hazarawal and Kohistani (in Hazara division), Khwar (in Chittral) and Seraiki (in Dera Ismail Khan).35 Logically speaking, since Pushtuns are in majority, the demand has to be respected. The renaming issue has certainly damaged the reputation of the PML because it is the PML that has forged alliances with regional parties like Balochistan National Party and the Mojahir Quami Movement (MQM). Both these regional partners are apprehensive about the intentions of the PML and have accused it of backing out from its so-called promises. Nawaz Sharif's growing clout and strong centrist tendencies sooner or later will bring him at loggerheads with the regional partners.
The political task that lies ahead of the ANP is to mobilise people for its cause and, at the same time, spell out its policies towards the minority ethnic group in clear terms. If anything can be cited as an eye-opener, it is the example of other provinces, where smaller ethnic groups are coexisting in harmony, and the NWFP can be an additional example rather than an exception.
The issue of renaming the province should not be considered on the basis of whether such a name is historically correct and should not be linked to the issue of Pushtunistan. It has greater political implications for the state of Pakistan in terms of fulfilment of regional political aspirations. Renaming is not only symbolic for the Pushtuns in terms of recognising their culture but the feeling of pride that accompanies such recognition should be understood sympathetically. The issue of Pakhtunkhwa is an emotional one and it should be evaluated in terms of the symbolic connotation of the demand. The federal government has demoralised the genuine Pushtun aspiration by picturising it as a seperatist movement. This parochialism undermines credibility and the spirit of regionalism.
Unless the Press and civil society play a role in educating the masses and emphasising regional aspirations, to be acheived within the framework of a unitary Pakistan, nation building will remain a distant dream. Regionalism or the demand for regional autonomy is not synonymous with separatism as has been projected by the elites in Pakistan—rather it is a the cost effective method of containing regional aspiration and preventing it from turning into separatism. If the elites in Pakistan think that a strong centre means a strong nation, then the 1971 tragedy is a reminder. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. For the PML, the choice is neither: the PML has not learnt from 1971 tragedy nor can it afford to repeat the mistake. In its effort to avoid recurrence of 1971, provincial autonomy should be the hallmark of Pakistan's politics.
1. Pushtunistan includes the Pushtun dominated areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the present context, only the areas that lie inside Pakistan are discussed. The Pushtuns are divided into a perplexing number of tribes but they have commonality of language, religion, customs and history. Pushtuns and Pakhtuns have the same connotations. Both terms have been used in this article.
2. T.S. Firoze "The Pakhtoonistan Prong" in Virendra Grover and Rajana Arora eds., Political System in Pakistan, vol. 3 (Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications, 1995), p. 647.
3. Louis Dupree, Afghanistan (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1973), p. 402.
4. Ibid., p. 425.
5. The factors which led to the signing of the treaty can be attributed to issues like the internal power struggle inside Afghanistan. Moreover, the British pressurised the King by threatening to suspend supply of ammunition against the Russian threat. Thus, maintaining peace in the international boundary became imperative. "In the light of subsequent events it is difficult to understand the reasons which prompted the Amir to sign this agreement. Perhaps his consent was purchased by the increase of his subsidy...and by the recognition of his right to import munitions of war." For details see C.C. Davis The Problem of North-West Frontier, 1890-1908 (Cambridge: The University Press, 1932), p. 162. For details regarding the reason behind the signing of the 1905, 1919, 1921 treaties, see Leon B. Paullada "Pushtunistan: Afghan Domestic Politics and Relations with Pakistan" in A.T. Embree ed., Pakistan's Western Borderland (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1985), pp. 139-143.
6. Olaf Caroe, The Pathans 550 BC-AD 1957 (London: Macmillan, 1965), p. 382.
7. Ibid., p. 420.
8. Ibid., p. 347.
9. Ibid., p. 349.
10. S.M.M. Qureshi, "Pakhtunistan: The Frontier Dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Pacific Affairs, vol. 39, no. 1&2, Spring-Summer, 1966, p. 104.
11. Dupree, n. 3, p. 428.
12. Arnold Fletcher, Afghanistan: Highway of Conquest (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965), p. 247.
13. Ibid., p. 414.
14. Caroe, n. 6, p. 413.
15. Ibid., pp. 419-20.
16. Dupree, n. 3, p. 487.
17. Pazhwak, 1953, pp. 95-96 as cited in Dupree, n. 3, p. 487.
18. AICC Papers, File no. G-14/1946-47, NMM&L as cited in Amit Kumar Gupte, NWFP Legislature and Freedom Struggle (Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research, 1976), p. 200.
19. Since the NWFP was dominated largely by tribals, it involved the issue of bringing the voters to the polls, feasting them, or influencing them to get their votes in return. Refer Erland Jansson "The Frontier Province: Khudai Khidmatgars and the Muslim League," in D.A. Low ed., The Political Inheritance of Pakistan (London: Macmillan, 1991).
20. D.G. Deshmukh, Abdul Gaffar Khan (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1967), p. 451.
21. The proposed Pushtunistan includes the old NWFP and the Tribal Agencies all the way down through Kalat, Baluchistan, and the Makran Coast to the Arabian Sea.
22. The ambiguity inherent in this demand can be deciphered from a few facts Prime Minister Mainardwal of Afghanistan said that Pakhtunistan will not include any part of Afghanistan when interviewed by John Griffith in 1966. On September 1, 1972, Pakhtunistan Day was officially celebrated throughout Afghanistan. When asked about the geographical boundary of Pushtunistan, Sardar Daoud in 1974 said that the boundaries were well known without exactly pointing out the areas. Within a week after capturing power in 1973, Daoud referred to the Pushtunistan issue twice, terming it as a political dispute. In 1973, due to domestic compulsions and the changing geo-political scenario, Afghanistan made a concession by insisting that the issue is not a territorial one. The negotiation between 1976-78 could not bring the desired result. The issue was raised in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference at Belgrade in July 1978, and United Nations General Assembly in January 1975 and October 1978. After the 1978 coup, when Pushto speaker Nur Mohammad Tarakhi captured power in Afghanistan, he hardened its stand on Pushtunistan by referring to it as a border dispute. In the first Press conference after capturing power, he referred to it as a boundary dispute and later on the same day met Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
23. L.F. Rushbook William, The State of Pakistan (London: 1962), p. 66 as cited in Qureshi, n. 10, p. 104.
24. See Dupree, n. 3, pp. 540-541 for details.
25. Lawrence Lifschultz "Aghanistan, the Not so New Rebellion" Far Eastern Economic Review, January 30, 1981.
26. Keesing's Contemporary Record 1955-56, p. 14039.
27. Asian Recorder, 1974, p. 12021.
28. East Pakistan, since British rule, consisted of only one unit. This was maintained even after independence, whereas West Pakistan consisted of several provinces like Punjab, Sind, the NWFP and the princely states of Bahawalpur, Khairpur and the Baluchistan States Union although the Tribal Agencies were not included in this scheme. After partition, West Pakistan was converged into one unit. This was done to bring about parity between East and West Pakistan with disproportionate populations.
29. Paulleda, n. 5, p. 133.
30. Akbar S. Ahmed, "Social and Economic Change in the Tribal Areas" (Karachi, 1977), as cited in Tahir Ali, Can Pakistan Survive (England: Penguin Publishers, 1983), p. 167.
31. POT (Pakistan Series), vol. 26, no. 61, March 25, 1998.
32. The ethnic stock of the Kushans is in some dispute and a considerable body of opinion has maintained that, while their subjects were Iranians in the western part of their domain, and India in the east, they themselves were an early wave of Hun or Turk affinity; others hold them to be yet another horde of Scythians and, therefore, akin to both the Sakas and Parthians. Caroe, n. 6, p. 73.
33. Ibid., p. 437.
34. Herald, vol. 29, no. 3, March 1998, p. 59.
35. Ibid., p. 65.
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§ Mrs Curtis-Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the most significant known risk factor for dementia is; how many people are living with dementia in(a) the UK and (b) Sefton; and how many of those people are under the age of 65.
§ Dr. Ladyman
There is no routine collection of information at national or local level about the number of people living with dementia. The research, quoted by the older people's national service framework in 2001, estimated that approximately 600,000 people in the United Kingdom have dementia, of whom there are about 17,000 people under the age of 65.
The most significant known risk factor for dementia is age. It is estimated that about 5 per cent. of people over 65 have dementia, rising to about 20 per cent. in the population over 80.
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RAM vs ROM
RAM and ROM are both different types of memories used in any computer to make it fast and to enable it to access information stored in the computer. Every computer comes with a certain amount of physical memory which is actually chips that hold data. This memory is referred to as Random Access Memory or RAM. RAM is a part of hardware that stores operating system’s application programs and currently running processes that can be accessed randomly, i.e. in any order that the user desires. Data in RAM stays for only as long as the computer is running, and gets deleted as soon as computer is switched off. RAM usually comes in the form of microchips of different sizes such as 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB etc. Computers are so designed that this RAM can be increased up to a certain capacity.
ROM, on the other hand refers to Read Only Memory. Every computer comes fitted with this memory that holds instructions for starting up the computer. This is a memory that has data written permanently on it and is not reusable. However, there are certain kinds of read only memory that can be rewritten but they are called Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory, or EPROM. These are generally in the form of CD-ROM or Floppy Disk that can load the OS to the RAM.
Similarities between RAM and ROM end up with both being types of memories. There are glaring differences between the RAM and the ROM.
Difference Between RAM and ROM
• RAM is Random Access Memory, while ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
• RAM is volatile and is erased when the computer is switched off. ROM is non-volatile and generally cannot be written to.
• RAM is used for both read and write while ROM is used only for reading.
• RAM needs electricity to flow to retain information while ROM is permanent.
• RAM is analogous to a blackboard on which information can be written with a chalk and erased any number of times, while ROM is permanent and can only be read. One example is BIOS (basic input output system) that runs when computer is switched on and it prepares disk drives and processor to load OS from disk.
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| 0.957906 | 446 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Kindling the Celtic Spirit
From "Kindling the Celtic Spirit: Ancient Traditions to Illumine Your Life Through the Seasons" by Mara Freeman
Step over the threshold into an old-style Irish house, and imagine this is your home. You find yourself in a simple, one-room dwelling with a hole in the middle of the roof. Here you gather with family and friends around the fire in the center of the room, which reminds you of the light and warmth of the sun. In the older, round house, you feel safe within the compass of the circle. In the later, rectangular house, the four corners stand about you like guardian angels. Benevolent household spirits weave an unseen mantle of protection about you.
The earthen floor just inside the threshold of old cottages in the south and west of Ireland was known as the "welcome of the door." Upon entering, a visitor would stand here and say a blessing for the household.
This was holy ground, and dirt scraped fromit was good for curing a number of ills. An in-between place, it was sacred because it marked the boundary between the life of the family within and the wide world without.It was neither "here" nor "there," and so it allowed a crack to open between the worlds where the powerof the Otherworld could flow into our own.
The month of January finds us standing on the threshold of a new year, and an invitation awaits us: to create a space in our lives where we can begin to live in a sacred manner. Celtic spirituality teaches us that we do not have to go further than our own homes in order to begin.
The First Celtic Houses
Celtic people of the Iron Age lived in isolated farmsteads scattered throughout the countryside. These were known as ring-forts (in Irish: rath, dún, or lios), but they were not really designed for defense. A ring-fort consisted of a circular bank of earth or stone, possibly topped by a wooden fence and in some cases surrounded by a ditch. In the center stood the house, farm buildings, and granaries: circular structures made from wooden posts, clay, and wattles, with a high, conical thatched roof.
The hearth-fire was kindled in the center of the floor, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the roof. They had little furniture apart from a few wooden trestles, stools, and cooking pots, and at night they slept on beds of straw and rushes, covered with rugs and animal skins.
Nowadays all that remains of the first Celtic homes are circles of earth and stone, places of mystery long thought to be the haunts of faery folk.
Until quite recently in Ireland, nobody built a house before consulting the spirits of the land. Four piles of rocks or four rods were set up in the chosen location the night before. If they were found to be undisturbed in the morning, building could proceed, but if they were fallen or scattered, a new place had to be found, for this was faery ground. It would not do to build on the path to a lios, or faery fort, or on the lios itself, on the site of a forge, or on a height. When the foundation stone was laid, an offering -- a silver coin or an animal skull-was deposited beneath it, to invite prosperity into the new house.
Old rectangular Irish houses were oriented according to the passage of the sun. The most auspicious place for the front door was facing east or South, where the sun is strongest. The room facing west was associated with sunset and death and was reserved for family mementos, old people, and the dead, who were laid out for their wake, after which they left the house for the last time through the back door. In the center of the house stood the sacred shrine of domestic life: the hearth-fire.
The sacred design of four quarters surrounding a center is a template of cosmic harmony. In many ancient cultures, cities and temples were built according to this pattern.
Archaeological excavations show that late Iron Age Celtic sanctuaries were usually oriented to the four directions. Ireland itself was divided into four provinces, with a fifth one representing the center. In the central province, called Meath, meaning "middle," rose the hill at the sacred heart of the land: Tara, seat of the high kings. Scotland and Wales may have been divided up in the same way.
The old Irish house brought sacred space into everyday life. No matter how poor or oppressed, families were from birth to death encircled by this protective fourfold pattern. Their lives revolved around the fire as the life-giving sun of their universe.
The house also connected the family with the invisible abodes of the gods above and below. Like other Indo-European peoples, the Celts viewed the physical world as situated between an Underworld and an Upperworld, with a vertical axis mundi, or World Tree, joining all three worlds together. In some western cottages, pots were buried in the earth in front of the hearth-fire for good luck. This was, perhaps, a memory of the marvelous cauldron of the Underworld gods, which was always full of delicious food. The Upperworld was represented by the roof and smoke hole in the thatch above the fire. Even though most houses did not have a central support, the ridgepole that runs along the top is still called a "roof-tree" and is considered one of the parts of the house most vital to the family's well-being, spiritual as well as physical. In Scotland, a common toast was "To your roof-tree!" The smoke hole was the door through which the gods sometimes descended when they wished to enter the human world.
Tús agus deireadh an duine tarraingt ar an tine.The beginning and end of one's life is to drawcloser to the fire.
The foregoing is excerpted from Kindling the Celtic Spirit by Mara Freeman.
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This term denotes a collection of secondary services offered to help insure the reliability and availability of energy to consumers. It generally refers to any service related to provision (but not generation) of energy other than the use of transmission facilities. These services are typically offered by energy utilities and support companies and sold to wholesalers, producers and consumers. These services may include supplementary energy generation during peak demand periods, demand-side management (DSM), maintenance of replacement reserves, management of control systems that maintain steady system voltage, and a host of others.
In practice, ancillary services typically refers to services needed to shift a large-scale customer (e.g. a municipality or industrial consumer) from one energy supplier to another when the need arises, and they are usually (but not always) required as part of any well-rounded energy package negotiated with a large-scale consumer. Some types of ancillary services may be required by regional or national regulations when providing service for certain types of customers.
Ancillary services are not the same as value-added services.
See also:value-added services, transmission, WSCC, National Energy Regulatory Commission, wholesale
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Steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss
Identifying characteristics: (Non-Native Fish) Two dorsal fins including one adipose fin, mouth and gums are light, small spots along rays on entire tail, 10-12 rays in anal fin.
Steelhead is a name given to migratory rainbow trout that are born in rivers but spend most of their lives in the ocean or the Great Lakes. They eventually return to spawn in the river in which they were born. Rainbow trout are native to North American waters west of the Rocky Mountains. Steelhead runs occur in many west coast streams from northern California to Alaska. They are a popular game fish, and for this reason have been introduced all over the United States.
Great Lakes Steelhead are highly migratory, roaming large areas of the open lakes. They are usually found within 50 feet of the surface, even when over waters that are hundreds of feet deep. They prefer water temperatures of 58-62 degrees Fahrenheit. In the spring and fall, they are often found in the shallows near stream outlets. During the lake-dwelling part of their life cycle, they primarily feed on baitfish like Alewives or Rainbow Smelt, although at times they will feed on insects and other aquatic life. Although they feed primarily in mid-depths, they do occasionally take surface insects. In early summer, they can often be found near the surface among thermal bars of mixing water temperatures. These areas, called "scumlines", attract insects and baitfish, which then attract the Steelhead. Great Lakes Steelhead enter their spawning streams from late October to early May. Although many Steelhead enter the rivers in the fall and overwinter there, spawning does not occur until spring. The fall-run fish are typically the first to spawn, often in March, followed by the spring run fish in April. Spawning takes place in a bed of fine gravel, usually in a riffle above a pool. Steelhead don't necessarily die after spawning; they may live to reproduce several times. Most rainbow trout return home to spawn in the stream in which they were born or stocked.
Steelhead eggs hatch in four to seven weeks, depending on water temperature. Young Steelhead need to grow to approximately 8 inches before they migrate or "smolt" out to the big lake. In most streams, this takes two years. In conditions of good growth, they may reach smolting size in one year, but in sterile conditions they may stay in the stream for up to three years. Most Great Lakes Steelhead reach sexual maturity after spending 2 to 3 years in the lake. While adult Great Lakes Steelhead can reach 36 inches in length and up to 20 pounds in weight, the average adult size for Steelhead is 6 to 7 pounds. Life expectancy for Great Lakes Steelhead is four to six years.
During the stream-dwelling phase of their life cycle, larger fish, fish-eating birds and mammals are the Steelhead's natural enemies. During the open water phase of their life cycle, Sea Lamprey and humans are their primary predators.
Steelhead are valiant fighters, making them a very popular species for sport fishing. They are pursued by Great Lakes trollers, pier anglers and surf anglers. They also provide an exciting river fishery in many Great Lakes tributary streams. Steelhead make great table fare and their fillets can be smoked, grilled, broiled or fried. This is an unbeatable combination that makes them one of Michigan's most popular sport fish!
Steelhead graphic courtesy of Joseph R. Tomelleri and copyrighted.
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A fraction is a part of a whole
Slice a pizza, and we get fractions:
|The top number says how many slices we have
The bottom number says how many slices the pizza is cut into.
Some fractions may look different, but are really the same, for example:
It is usually best to show an answer using the simplest fraction ( 1/2 in this case ). That is called Simplifying, or Reducing the Fraction
Numerator / Denominator
We call the top number the Numerator, it is the number of parts we have.
We call the bottom number the Denominator, it is the number of parts the whole is divided into.
You just have to remember those names! (If you forget just think "Down"-ominator)
It is easy to add fractions with the same denominator (same bottom number):
Adding Fractions with Different Denominators
But what about when the denominators (the bottom numbers) are not the same?
We must somehow make the denominators the same.
In this case it is easy, because we know that 1/4
is the same as 2/8 :
But when it is hard to make the denominators the same, use one of these methods (they both work, use the one you prefer):
Other Things We Can Do With Fractions
We can also:
Visit the Fractions Index to find out even more.
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When going green means aiming for the skies
How new innovations in green architecture are helping reduce pollution
Imagine a forest stretching not across the distant horizon, but up toward the sky, in the middle of a city. Instead of glass façades, skyscrapers are covered in vines, grasses and even large, woody trees. Birds flit from one green balcony to the next. For some people, these are offices; for others, this is home. And the best part: these buildings and structures actively clean up air pollution.
It may sound like fantasy, but these radical green architecture designs are already springing up around the world, including a “vertical forest” in the heart of Milan.
In the 20th century, cities competed against one another to lay claim to building the tallest skyscrapers. They still do, but now the competition has expanded to having the “greenest” buildings, precipitating a bloom in far-out architectural projects that decrease pollution, conserve energy and promote biodiversity — even in the most densely populated urban environments.
“The issue of sustainable building design has become much more mainstream than it used to be,” says John McMinn, a Toronto-based architect who teaches at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. He attributes the increased interest in eco-friendly architecture to the public’s growing awareness that “the idea of climate change is not a question mark anymore, but reality.”
The newest frontier in green building goes far beyond simply making conventional materials more energy-efficient by adding extra insulation, open-able windows, cleaner-burning boilers and the like. Instead, it seeks to transform the building materials themselves — a radical but new and untested approach that is already taking root in Europe, but has been slower to catch on in the U.S. and Canada.
McMinn believes that new ways of measuring the effects of green designs have made sustainable designs — even experimental ones — more popular among architects and clients alike. Vincent Callabaut Architecture’s Asian Cairns are futuristic “farmscrapers” that use solar panels, wind turbines, vertical organic gardens, carbon-absorbing algae panels and water recycling systems to reduce carbon footprints to a drastic minimum. The PH Conditioner Skyscrapers, designed by three Chinese architects, are conceived as jellyfish structures that float in the air and actively purify acidic chemicals from urban air.
Unfortunately, most of these technologies are either still in a conceptual stage or are many years away from being feasibly built. Two exceptions, however, have already seen the light of day: titanium dioxide coatings, which can be integrated into building materials or be installed separately, and “green walls,” groundcover plants grown up the side of a building. They illustrate both the promise and uncertainties of these new architectural materials, many of which are still highly experimental and untested in real-world settings.
There are many approaches to integrating titanium dioxide into building designs. One of the stranger-looking examples of these next-generation approaches is the Prosolve 370e tile. Developed by the German company Elegant Embellishments, the honeycomb-shaped module can be fitted upon a flat wall, allowing for easy retrofits of older buildings.
The key to the module’s design is its unique surface coating, explains Allison Dring, an architect and co-founder of Elegant Embellishments. Exposure to sunlight activates the titanium dioxide coating, triggering chemical reactions that break down toxic nitrogen oxides and other organic pollutants found in air. The nitrogen oxides are converted into nitric acid and neutralized by calcium carbonate in the coating, yielding trace amounts of harmless calcium nitrate, plus carbon dioxide and water.
The curved shape of the tile increases the surface area exposed to sunlight and creates turbulence that slows down wind speeds, making pollutants easier to catch. The modules are “particularly good for schools, hospitals and car parks,” Dring maintains.
Field tests have been encouraging. The module is based off the “Manila Trial,” the results of which were announced at the 2010 Transportation Research Arena Conference in Brussels, Belgium. In that study, more than a dozen high-traffic locations in Manila, Philippines were installed with titanium dioxide coating. Compared to control locations, concentrations of toxic air pollutants were 26 percent lower in areas where the coating had been used.
Prosolve 370e has been most prominently featured at the Torre de Especialides, a hospital in Mexico City. Based on the results of the “Manila Trial,” Elegant Embellishments estimates the modules situated there reduce the smog produced by nearly 1,000 cars driving by each day.
New designs like these can sometimes exhibit unintended consequences. A study conducted by Indiana University researchers found that in areas of a certain humidity range, titanium dioxide could degrade airborne ammonia and lead to the formation of more nitrogen oxides, which have been linked to serious health problems, including breathing difficulties and heart and lung disease.
Jonathan D. Raff, a coauthor of the Indiana study, suggests that previous titanium dioxide studies like the Manila Trial may not have been run in conditions of typical humidity. He and his team found that the most ammonia conversion to nitrogen oxide occurred at 40–50 percent humidity, or “close to the average relative humidity you would find on a spring afternoon in New York City.” The findings are worrisome, he said, but still require further testing.
A more natural form of green architecture is the green wall. Growing groundcover plants upwards against building walls is not a new concept, but it’s only recently that environmental engineers and architects are using green walls to fight pollution. They can absorb air pollutants through leaf pores, as well as capture harmful particle dust on wide leaf surfaces. Green walls also help cool the buildings on hot days.
Thomas Pugh, a biogeochemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, made the scientific case for green walls in a paper published last year. He and his colleagues used computer modeling to determine that applying green walls to “street canyons” — roads bordered by rows of tall buildings — could reduce urban pollutants like nitrogen oxides and particle dust by up to 30 percent.
The study is “just a fleshing out of the hypothesis using a computer model” and is still very much conceptual, Pugh acknowledges. Still, the results “highlight a large potential in green walls that hasn’t really been investigated or applied yet,” he asserts.
One famous example already in place is the green wall designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc for the Museé du Quai Branly, a museum in Paris that explores indigenous cultures from around the world. On his “Vertical Garden” website, Blanc argues that as long as they get enough water and nutrients, many plants don’t need soil and can grow instead on designed structures. The plants on the walls of the Museé du Quai Branly, for example, grow on a lattice composed of metal, plastic and felt.
A more audacious follow up to the green wall concept is Italian architect Stefano Boeri’s Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) design in Milan. A canopy of trees will cover a pair of urban residential towers currently under construction. Shrubs and groundcover plants on each unit’s terraces will help cool the interiors by shielding them from direct sunlight. More than 2.5 acres of forest — comprising roughly 800 trees, 15,000 groundcover plants and 4,000 shrubs — will be planted on the towers, which are 260 and 360 feet tall.
The glass façades that cover 90 percent of the tall buildings in the world are unsuitable for accommodating different climate conditions, Boeri says. Glass is inefficient as a temperature control system; it exacerbates heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. A design emphasizing leaves, by contrast, would help control temperatures by providing shade in the summer and reducing cold air flow in the winter. Leaves would also reduce carbon dioxide and absorb soot particles.
When the Milan complex is finished next year, there will be more than 100 kinds of plants, including more than 20 tree species, 30 types of brush and 50 kinds of groundcover — a wide enough variety to attract many kinds of nesting birds.
While this type of design is cutting-edge, its green effects are still untested. Pugh acknowledges that “there’s still a lot of uncertainty,” about how effective green walls can be, and stresses the need for real world testing. “It would be dangerous to take numbers from our study and expect them with complete confidence,” he says.
Boeri has high hopes for the Bosco Verticale, but nevertheless believes it should still be considered “an experiment”. Until it’s finished and the air is tested, there will be no way to know how much — if any — it has improved air quality.
So far, Europe has been the torchbearer for many of these radical approaches. Compared to the United States, standards of building performance are higher and so are energy costs, increasing the incentive to try innovative designs, according to McMinn, the Toronto architect. As a result, he says, architects in Europe simply assume that sustainability concerns are paramount, while their U.S. and Canadian counterparts must actively choose to go green.
Still, McMinn is optimistic that North America can and will do better. “It’s easy to persuade people for a higher initial investment when you can explain they will reap benefits over time.”
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Has this ever happened to you? You’re typing a list in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint; the first line is short so it looks just fine. But the second line is longer, and the text wraps below the bullet, like so:
Clearly, your list needs a hanging indent: a typographical tool that allows your bullet, symbol or number to stand alone, while the text wraps neatly next to it.
One way to achieve this is to use your text editor’s “bulleted list” button. But what’s this? There’s a glacial gap between the bullet and the text, and it’s indented much farther than it needs to be!
A more elegant solution is to create your hanging indent manually, allowing you to control the spacing between the bullet and the text and to dictate the amount of indent. The result looks like this:
Here’s how to do it:
- Type in your own bullets, using the Opt-8 key command. Note: using manual bullets also allows you to make them smaller or larger as desired, or to replace them with a symbol.
- After your bullet, press the TAB key. Then, write your text.
- Press ENTER/RETURN after each item on your list. Note: to force a line break within the text of an item on your list, use the command SHIFT-RETURN.
- Highlight the text you want to format.
- Locate the ruler at the top of the page. Slide the bottom triangle over a tick on the ruler, and the top triangle back a tick on the ruler (you can adjust the amount of indent to suit your document by experimenting with these two settings).
- Click on a ruler line to generate a tab stop (black arrow). Slide the tab arrow to match the position of the bottom blue arrow.
Generally, I like to indent the space of two letters when calling out a paragraph of text. A full tab stop is overkill, and can make you quickly run out of space in your document if you have a list with several sub-lists.
To add another level of sophistication, consider customizing the space between your bulleted lines using the “Paragraph Spacing” function (under Alignment and Spacing in Word). In the following example, I’ve added 4pts of spacing between paragraphs:
The hanging indent function is common to most programs that allow formatting of text, including Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, TextEdit, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign (use Command+Shift+T to bring up the tabs ruler) and more. Mastering this function will give you tighter typographic control and create documents that look professionally-designed versus created on a template.
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Working with an international team of colleagues, University of South Australia researchers have tracked a hereditary gene responsible for a common form of epilepsy known as focal or partial epilepsy.
The research, published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics this weekend, proves the hereditary nature of a form of epilepsy previously believed to be caused by structural abnormalities such as a brain injury or a tumour.
Known as focal epilepsy it is the most common form, accounting for about 60 per cent of all epilepsies.
“Focal epilepsy was not previously thought of as being inherited and identifying this gene will help in the diagnosis and treatment of many people with epilepsy,” UniSA’s Associate Professor Leanne Dibbens says.
“It is also particularly important for families to know more about why and how this kind of epilepsy occurs.”
The research team from UniSA’s Epilepsy Research Program and UniSA colleagues from the Sansom Institute for Health Research working with experts from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Israel, Canada, Melbourne, Adelaide and New South Wales detected the mutations in the recently discovered gene DEPDC5 on Chromosome 22, one of the smallest human chromosomes and the first to be fully sequenced.
“Previously genes for focal epilepsy have been identified for rare familial epilepsies but this new gene is also relevant to patients without a strong family history of the disorder,” Assoc Prof Dibbens says.
She says a small proportion of people with abnormalities of this gene also have intellectual disabilities, psychiatric or autism spectrum disorders. The gene makes a protein that is found within nerve cells and appears to be important for signalling within cells.
“As we learn more about its function, and understand the epilepsies and other conditions associated with its malfunction, we hope it will lead to improvements in clinical care,” she says.
“The discovery promises to change clinical practice.
“With what we now know, a genetic cause can be investigated in patients with focal epilepsy and, in cases where it is found, unnecessary other investigation can be avoided, accurate genetic counselling can be given and, in the future, there is a better knowledge base from which specific therapies can be developed to help people with epilepsy.”
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email: [email protected]
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Photograph by Richard Hebhardt, My Shot
For a trip into history, few parts of the American Southwest can top southern Colorado's San Luis Valley, a 125-mile (200-kilometer) stretch of the Rockies front range defined by the high mountains of the Sangre de Cristos to the east and the San Juans to the west.
At altitudes above 7,000 feet (2,130 meters), the San Luis Valley is technically a high desert, but the surface is underlain by shallow aquifers that in places form lakes, marshlands, and warm springs. By the late 19th century, much of the land was cultivated, crossed by irrigation canals and wagon roads. The valley's scattered wetlands are home to eagles, waders, and waterfowl. The arrival of thousands of sandhill cranes, migrating between New Mexico and southern Idaho, is celebrated in early March by the Monte Vista Crane Festival (www.cranefest.com). Los Caminos Antiguos—a network of ancient trails that live on as modern paved highways—allow you to follow in the footsteps of Apaches and Utes, Spanish missionaries, and Western explorers such as Zebulon Pike and Kit Carson, settlers, Buffalo Soldiers, miners, and railroaders. For a sampling of Los Caminos Antiguos, follow the 140-mile (225-kilometer) semicircle from Alamosa in the north, eastward to Fort Garland, then southwest to Cumbres Pass near the Colorado-New Mexico border.
Start in Alamosa
Alamosa, a town of 9,000, is home to Adams State College—and plenty of local flavor. The school's Luther Bean Museum offers an introduction to the region's multicultural history, with artifacts that include Navajo weavings and Pueblo pottery. On Main Street, browse the Firedworks Gallery (608 Main St.; www.firedworks.com) for regional art, ranging from photography to Native American pottery and handmade jewelry. For local cuisine, stop by El Charro Café (421 Sixth St.) for green chile specialties, and Calvillo's (400 Main St.) for chiles rellenos served with an agua fresca (fruit drink).
Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge
From Main Street, drive north across the Rio Grande to the Alamosa Ranch, which offers wildlife viewing along the banks of the river. To see the area's rich birdlife, go 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) east on U.S. 160, then 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) south on El Rancho Lane to the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge. This 11,000-acre (4,450-hectare) wetland is a seasonal home to waders such as the American avocet and white-faced ibis, as well as songbirds, deer, and coyotes.
Back on Highway 160 drive west; just across the bridge turn north on Highway 17, the northern stretch of Los Caminos Antiguos. Prominent on the right is Blanca Peak, one of the Navajo sacred mountains, and, at 14,345 feet (4,372 meters), the highest peak of the southern range. Drive 12 miles (19 kilometers), passing through Mosca, and head east on County Lane 6 watching for signs indicating San Luis State Park and San Luis Lakes. A perfect picnic stop, the lakes are a sanctuary for raptors and migratory birds of all kinds.
Great Sand Dunes National Park
At the intersection of Highway 150 head five miles (eight kilometers) north to the Great Sand Dunes National Park (www.nps.gov/grsa). Designated by Congress in 2004, the 233-square-mile (578-square-kilometer) park is the newest of America's national parks. Some 300,000 visitors come here annually to enjoy the geological wonder of the dunes and associated wildlife. For "easy" access to the dunes, park at Mosca Creek picnic area and walk down one of the paths leading to the edge of Medano Creek. Until roughly mid-July, it's a wide, shallow flow of water. After mid-July it's usually a drier walk to the dune base, but while the water flows there is only one way: Roll up your pants, carry your shoes, and wade. Once you reach the dunes, you can slide or tumble down, or take an hour-and-a-half-long zig-zag hike to the crest of High Dune (650 feet/198 meters). Star Dune to the west of High Dune is actually the tallest dune in North America, rising 750 feet (229 meters). There are only campsites in the park, available on a first-come basis, but 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south on the park road is the Great Sand Dunes Lodge (www.gsdlodge.com), with ten pleasant rooms with views of the dunes, and an indoor pool. The lodge also offers four-wheel-drive tours of the dunes.
Returning south on Highway 150, just past the County Lane 6 intersection, turn right at the Nature Conservancy's Zapata Ranch, a 100,000-acre (40,500-hectare) working ranch run by Zapata Partners. The lodge (719-378-2356; from $130) offers 15 guest rooms in three different buildings—including the main lodge and the bunkhouse—year-round. Hiking trails and horse- or truck-pulled wagons take visitors out to view the bison, antelope, elk, and cattle that coexist in what is known as the "Rocky Mountain Serengeti."
Continue south 15 miles (24 kilometers) to U.S. 160 and turn left to Fort Garland. Just east of the town center, head south on Highway 159. From here, it's a stone's throw to the Fort Garland Museum, site of a garrison once commanded by Kit Carson. Take a 30-minute tour of the adobe buildings, a re-creation of the 19th-century garrison filled with items of the times including uniforms and firearms.
Fifteen miles (24 kilometers) south on Highway 159 lies San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, founded in 1851. There's a cluster of wooden houses and a central square with a charming church. A path leading up a mesa features a series of bronze sculptures by Huberto Maestas, depicting the Stations of the Cross. Miniatures of these sculptures were presented to Pope John Paul II and are now in the Vatican Museum.
From San Luis, drive west on Rt. 142 toward Manassa. Turn south on U.S. 285 toward Conejos, then head west on Highway 17. Here the road rises rapidly from semidesert through forested mountains to Cumbres Pass (elevation 10,015 feet/3,053 meters). A wayside at mile marker 24 offers a splendid final view of the area and Conejo Canyon.
End at Chama
Cross the Colorado-New Mexico border and continue several miles to the village of Chama. In summer, excursions on the narrow gauge Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad run daily between Chama and Antonito, with half-way round-trips from both ends.
Summer is the prime time to make this drive, though spring and fall can also be pleasant. For more information about Los Caminos Antiguos, visit http://www.rmpbs.org/byways/lca_summary.html. Additional information, plus news about weather and road conditions, can be found at www.coloradobyways.org/byway.cfm?bywayidpar=los20011203092005.
—Text by Michael and Laura Murphy, adapted from National Geographic Traveler
2016 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest
Browse photos of nature, cities, and people and share your favorite photos.
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| 0.906963 | 1,669 | 2.59375 | 3 |
by Staff Writers
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 19, 2014
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the greatest danger to nuclear security comes from terrorists acquiring sufficient quantities of plutonium or highly enriched uranium (HEU) to construct a crude nuclear explosive device. The IAEA also notes that most cases of illicit nuclear trafficking have involved gram-level quantities, which can be challenging to detect with most inspection methods.
According to a new study appearing this week in the Journal of Applied Physics, coupling commercially available spectral X-ray detectors with a specialized algorithm can improve the detection of uranium and plutonium in small, layered objects such as baggage. This approach enhances the detection powers of X-ray imaging and may provide a new tool to impede nuclear trafficking.
The study was conducted by a joint research team from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
"We first had to develop a computational model for how X-rays move through materials and how they are detected so that we could predict what an image will look like once the radiation passed through an object," said UT's Mark Deinert, one of the authors on the paper.
"With that in hand, we applied an 'inverse algorithm,' varying the composition of the object until the predicted image matched the measured one. We also gave our algorithm additional details about density and other factors-a process called 'regularization'- to adaptively enhance its ability to discriminate materials."
The new system, Deinert said, expands upon techniques originally developed for medical applications such as discerning between bone and iodine contrast agent in an X-ray image. "We wanted to show that spectrally sensitive detectors can be used to discriminate plutonium and other high-atomic-number elements from multiple layers of other materials using a single-view radiograph," said Andrew Gilbert, the lead author on the paper and a doctoral student of Deinert's working at PNNL.
"In simulated radiographs, we were able to detect the presence of plutonium with a mass resolution per unit area of at least 0.07 gram/centimeter squared; in other words, we can locate a sample of plutonium with a thickness of only 0.036 millimeters."
Now that the inverse algorithm method has been shown to help X-rays detect nuclear materials in luggage and other small objects, Deinert said that his team will next expand the concept to improve detection on a larger scale. "We plan to apply the algorithm to high-energy X-ray systems that could be used for verification of arms-reduction treaties," he said.
The article, "Non-invasive material discrimination using spectral X-ray radiography" by A.J. Gilbert, B.S. McDonald, S.M. Robinson, K.D. Jarman, T.A. White and M.R. Deinert is published in the Journal of Applied Physics on April 15, 2014 (DOI: 10.1063/1.4870043).
American Institute of Physics
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
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| 0.918165 | 903 | 3.0625 | 3 |
villa at Welschbillig, 12 km NW of Trier in the S Eifel.
In the Frankish period Welschbillig was the government
center of the Long Wall region, a domain of ca. 220 sq.
km, surrounded by a wall 72 km long. The walls were
built in the second half of the 4th c. At that time the
domain was an imperial possession.
In 1891 a systematic excavation at the Gothic Burgtor in Welschbillig uncovered a nymphaeum, a pool
(58.3 x 17.8 m) with 70 herms, which had supported a
balustrade at the pool, and other remains of a large villa.
The herms, made ca. 370-80, form one of the largest
sculptural groups of unified conception dating from the
Late Antique period. They represent gods, philosophers
(Socrates), poets (Menander), orators (Demosthenes),
generals (Philip II of Macedonia), emperors (Antoninus
Pius), and barbarians. As in the contemporary contorniates, the number of imaginary portraits is large.
The villa was apparently an imperial summer palace in
the 4th c. All finds from Welschbillig are today at the
Rheinische Landesmuseum in Trier. The dig has been reburied.
H. Wrede, “Die spätantike Hermengalerie von Welschbillig,” Römisch-Germanische Forschungen
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| 0.854971 | 338 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Contents - Previous - Next
This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
10 Abatement of carbon dioxide emissions in Brazil
Energy subsector analyses
Changing land-use trends
Jose Moreira and Alan Poole
This chapter concentrates on energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the principal greenhouse gas, of which Brazil is an important contributor at a global level. The clearing of forest land for non-energy uses is its largest source of CO2 emissions. Quantitative estimates of this source are controversial, however. It is not possible to be precise as to the amount and costs of carbon conservation associated with land use changes in Brazil. For this reason, this chapter will focus on the abatement of fossil CO2 emissions released from the energy sector. But we will also discuss policies to decelerate deforestation and outline some crucial interrelationships between land use, energy policy, and carbon conservation strategies.
Brazil energy economy
Contemporary energy related emissions of CO2
In 1990, Brazil's total energy consumption reached 183.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE). In that year, 37 per cent of Brazil's primary energy came from fossil fuels, 26 per cent from biomass fuels and 37 per cent from hydroelectricity (see Table 10.1). Important features of Brazil's energy balance are: the preponderant role of hydropower in electricity generation (94.4 per cent); the relatively large amount of biomass that is used at an industrial scale (alcohol, charcoal and wood - see Table 10.2); and the small penetration of natural gas.
The energy system resulted in 1990 in the emission of approximately 51.6 million tonnes of carbon (TC) as CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels (Table 10.3).
Table 10.1 Energy supply and consumption, Brazil 1990 (M TOE)
|Coal||Natural gas||Petroleum||Subtotal fossil||Biomass||Hydro||Nuclear||Other primaryb||Electricity|
|Gross internal supply||9.21||3.75||55.06||68.02||47.33||67.75||0.58||183.68||n.a.|
|Other energy sector||0.82||1.16||1.93||3.91||13.78||-||-||17.69||10.88|
|Final energy demand||7.18||2.00||43.04||52.55||32.50||-||-||85.05||60.86|
Source :Boletim do Balanco
Data for fuel include derivatives of the primary energy source (for example, coke from coal, alcohol from sugarcane). Electricity (last column) is calculated assuming that 1 MWhe = 0.29 TOE.
a Includes transformation and
other losses and energy use (for example, in refineries).
b For gross internal supply and electricity generation includes all energy consumption, thereafter electricity is excluded. The actual inputs for electricity generation are included in this column, since these are different than the coefficient of 0.29 TOE used in last column. There is a slight discrepancy.
Lessons from climate change in Brazil
Each year, much human suffering has been caused by climate hazards in Brazil and billions of dollars have been lost ... The Brazil study concludes that human actions have inadvertently led to increased societal vulnerability to climate variations. Deforestation in the Northeast has made the semiarid region more vulnerable to droughts. Inadequate urban planning in Rio de Janeiro has made the city much more vulnerable to floods. Deforestation in the Upper Paraguay River Basin may be altering the pattern of floods and droughts in the Pantanal (Great Swamp) region, thus contributing to ecological imbalance.
On the other hand, some action has been taken to increase resilience to climate variations. The modernization of the salt industry in the state of Rio Grande has made that industry more resistant to heavy rains. Agricultural research has led to the development of several new crop varieties more resistant to climate variability. Relief action in Northeast Brazil has [reduced] the very heavy impacts of droughts on the poor rural population.
It is clear that the same climatic event may have different impacts according to local socio-economic and environmental characteristics. Rainfall that brings terrible floods to Rio de Janeiro is a beneficial event in the Pantanal area. Drought may cause huge losses to agriculture in the Northeast but can also bring economic benefits for the salt industry in the same region. Moreover, while the majority of the poor population will suffer from droughts, a small group of large land owners and businessmen may indeed profit from them. Climatic variations can thus have differing effects on different regions, ecosystems, economies and social classes.
Government policy needs to integrate short-term relief actions during extreme climatic events with long-term actions aimed at increasing societal resilience to climate variability and change. It also needs to pursue a goal of sustainable development, by seeking to increase the technological capacity of people to face climatic extremes, reduce the social impacts of the weather, reduce poverty (since the poor are the most vulnerable) and improve our knowledge and thus increase our capacity to accommodate adverse variations of climate. A policy of sustainable development would pursue both a reduction in greenhouse gases emissions and an improvement of the capacity of the environment to adapt to possible future climate changes. To achieve this will require international cooperation to enable the transfer of resources and technology that will allow developing countries to use the most environmentally appropriate available technologies to their development process.
Excerpt from M Parry, A Magalhaes, Nguyen H Ninh, The Potential Socio-Economic Effects of Climate Change, A Summary of Three Regional Assessments, UN Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya, 1991, p. 12.
Table 10.2 Biomass supply and consumption, 1990 (MTOE)
|Wood for charcoal||Other wood||Sugarcane||Otherb biomass||Total|
|Gross internal supply||12.31||15.14||18.14||1.74||47.33|
|Other energy sectora||6.43||0||7.41c||0.06||13.78|
|Final energy demand||5.88e||15.14||10.17||1.31||32.50|
Source: Boletim do Balanco Energetico Nacional, 1991 .
a includes transformation losses and fuel use; specifically losses in producing charcoal from wood and alcohol from cane;
b Basically pulp mill liquor;
c Sugarcane bagasse;
To simplify our analysis, we assumed that hydroelectricity has zero CO2 emissions. Similarly, we assumed that sugarcane supply (alcohol and bagasse) and 'other renewables' (pulp industry liquors) also produce zero CO2 emissions. In the case of alcohol, however, we included fossil fuel inputs to alcohol production.
Estimates of carbon emissions from wood uses are problematic and vary widely according to end use sector. Most wood used in the residential and agricultural sectors does not appear to contribute to deforestation. The relatively dispersed use in rural areas does not exceed natural regeneration. In this regard, Brazil's fuelwood problem is unlike that in many other countries. Little information is available to quantify deforestation in the areas that it occurs. In this study, we simply assumed that 20 per cent of the fuelwood used in the residential and agricultural sectors results in net CO2 emissions.
Conversely, fuelwood used in the industrial sector is more geographically concentrated. Demand from this subsector of fuelwood consumption often destroys natural forests in Brazil. Again, precise information as to rates and magnitudes of this phenomenon are scarce. We have assumed that 60 per cent of industrial fuelwood contributes to CO2 emissions. Charcoal, however, presents a special case requiring the analyst to adopt additional assumptions. The impact on the forests of converting wood to charcoal (the largest use of fuelwood) is highly controversial. An estimated one third only of Brazil's charcoal is supplied from planted forest. The remainder is made with fuelwood obtained by clearing the natural forest, mostly the drier forests of the cerrado. Most of this land is cleared for grazing and/or agriculture of which charcoal is a mere by-product. We assume, therefore, that 75 per cent of the charcoal from natural forest results in deforestation. Thus, we estimate that roughly 50 per cent of fuelwood used to make charcoal results in net CO2 emissions.
Table 10.3 CO2 emissions from energy consumption (MTC)
|Gross internal supply||51.64 (59.77)e||11.44||63.08 (71.21)e|
|Other energy sector||3.29||3.31c||6.60|
|Final energy demand||46.11||8.13||54.24|
a For conversion factors see .
b Sugarcane and 'other biomass' assumed to have no CO2 emissions. For wood it is assumed that deforestation results from 20% of residential, commercial and agricultural use; from 60% of industrial fuelwood use; and from 50% of charcoal use. These shores are somewhat arbitrary as discussed in the text.
c All due to conversion of fuelwood to charcoal.
d CO2 equivalent of fossil fuel used, if they were burnt. See text.
e Includes non-energy CO2 equivalent in parenthesis. (See note d above).
On this basis, about 40 per cent of total fuelwood use generates annual CO: emissions of 11.4 millions of tonnes of carbon as carbon dioxide (TC) or 22 per cent of that resulting from fossil fuel use. Evidently, fuelwood is not yet a renewable resource in Brazil. In spite of its importance, fuelwood-related carbon emissions constitute only 3-4 per cent of a total deforestation-related emission each year of about 300 million tonnes of carbon (MTC).
Total (fossil fuel plus biefuel) energy-related emissions of CO2 in 1990 are estimated to be about 63 MTC. This figure increases to about 71 MTC if the non-energy use of fossil fuels is valued at its combustion equivalent. This figure is roughly 470 kgC/capita per year.
Existing energy scenarios and their impacts
An official study was recently performed in Brazil as a basis for policy recommendations (SNE 1991a). This study analysed two basic policy postures. The first, a reference scenario called 'tendencies', assumed that current political and economic constraints in the energy sector (including those on pricing policy) will persist. The second scenario, called the 'alternative', postulated substantial changes in the status quo. This latter scenario sought to actively pursue greater efficiency in the overall use of energy resources; to promote competition and private sector investment in energy supply; and to stimulate the use of certain energy forms in some applications - principally biomass, but also coal and natural gas.
Relative to 'tendencies', the 'alternative' scenario contains moderate reductions in energy use. In both scenarios, lower and higher economic growth cases were studied. In the alternative scenario, primary energy use falls approximately 9 per cent by 2000 and approximately 18 per cent by 2010 in both the lower and the higher economic growth cases (see Tables 10.4 and 10.5). The fact that the reduction is proportionately the same in both the lower and higher growth cases is somewhat odd. One might expect a proportionately greater reduction in energy use in the higher economic growth case, since faster growth permits the more rapid penetration of new technology in the marketplace. Other key differences between the alternative and tendencies scenarios are that in the former, hydroelectricity and petroleum products are projected to grow less, and biomass use to grow more in the latter.
Total fossil fuel emissions are 12 per cent less in the low growth alternative case relative to the 'tendencies' in 2000 and 21 per cent less in 2010. However, the fossil fuel emissions in the lower growth version of the 'alternative' scenario are still 42 per cent and 103 per cent higher than in 1990. Transport offers the biggest abatement in fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the National Energy Secretariat (SNE) scenarios. Even so, this sector remains the biggest single source of carbon (see Table 10.6).
Fossil carbon emissions from electricity generation do not fall in the alternative scenario, despite substantial reduction of total electricity consumption. Indeed, thermal generation increases substantially, though this growth is mostly the result of increased use of biomass (mainly from sugarcane). Thus, the 'alternative' scenario retains the significant increase in fossil fuel emissions found in the 'tendencies' scenario. From 9 TC/GWhe today (Moreira 1991a), the carbon intensity of electricity increases to 23 TC/ GWhe in 2000. Even so, this ratio is still very low by international standards.
Table 10.4 Official energy scenarios - basic characteristics
|Low economic growth||High economic growth|
|Gross domestic product (1990=100)||37.3||85.3||100||146.3||238.3||146.3||238.3||163.5||292.5||163.5||292.8|
|GDP per capita (1990=100)||58.5||105.7||100||122.6||172.7||122.6||172.7||137.0||212.2||137.0||212.2|
|Primary energy consumption (MTOE)||74.7||137.1||183.7||266.5||407.3||241.8||330.3||288.1||473.9||262.9||386.6|
|Fossilfuel CO2 emissions(MTC)a||24.3||52.0||59.8||95.4||153.9||84.6||121.5||104.1||181.8||92.6||143.9|
|Fossil fuel emissions (1990=100)||40.6||87.0||100||159.5||257.4||141.5||203.2||174.1||304.1||154.8||240.6|
|Fossil fuel emissions per capita (kg C/cap.)||253||429||397||532||742||471||586||580||876||516||693|
fuel CO2 emissions per unit
of GDP (1990=100)
Source projection from Reexame de
Matriz Energtica Nacional, Ministerio da Infraestrutura,
a Based on gross internal supply of fossil fuels and thus includes a non-energy component.
Table 10.5 Sources of energy supply-official scenarios(16)
|Gross internal supply(MTOE)||139.2||183.7||288.1||473.9||262.9||386.6|
Sources: Reexame da Matriz Energética Nacional;
Balanco Energética Nacional.
High economic growth case.
The 'alternative' scenario projects large economic benefits. Energy sector investments, for example, fall by US$26 billion between 1991 and 2000 and $58 billion between 2001 and 2010 (in the high economic growth case) (SNE 1991a). Moreover, almost all of the carbon abatement in the alternative scenario result from 'no regrets' policy measures. That is, these steps are justified on non-greenhouse grounds (Ayres 1991), and accounting for CO: emissions only makes already economically viable changes even more desirable. Thus, these steps should be taken regardless of the scientific and other uncertainties surrounding greenhouse phenomena.
We have briefly described these scenarios to delineate the CO2 emissions implied by official energy planning. The SNE study is also the only recent example of an integrated energy analysis in Brazil. This planning did not emphasize CO2 abatement, however. New scenarios are needed badly to evaluate the costs of carbon abatement. The following end-use analysis is a first step in that direction.
Table 10.6 FossiI CO2 emissions by activity
|Million tonnes of carbon||Percentage|
|Thermal electricity generation||2.24||7.73||7.72||4.3||9.2||10.4|
|Other energy sector use and losses||3.97||7.39||6.51||7.6||8.8||8.8|
|Subtotal energy sector||6.21||15.12||14.23||11.9||18.0||19.2|
|Subtotal final fuel demand||46.11||68.81||59.65||88.1||82.0||80.8|
|Total fossil fuel||52.32||83.93||73.88||100||100||100|
Source: based on Secretaria Nacional de Energia, Reexame da Matriz Energética Nacional, 1991. Low economic growth scenario.
Methodology of subsector analysis
An important input for CO2 emissions abatement policy formulation is the analysis of sets of energy end-uses and transformations that constitute the various fuel cycles. This approach is not widely used in Brazil, and is most advanced in the electrical sector. In sectors where quantitative analysis is rudimentary, we will make qualitative observations. The time horizon for quantitative analysis is the year 2000. While politically realistic, this horizon is quite short for energy planning or carbon abatement analysis.
To construct a CO2 emission abatement cost curve entails that we address a series of methodological issues in the Brazilian context. These include: the reference scenarios; and the parameters and scope of cost-benefit analysis. Choosing a reference scenario is not trivial - especially in Brazil where key economic and political factors are highly uncertain. The reference scenario greatly influences the estimate of abatement potential. Here, we take the socio-economic assumptions and the energy projections of the low growth, 'tendencies' scenario (described above) as our reference scenario.
Cost-benefit parameters used in the analysis must be comparable to those used in other countries, or subject to sensitivity analysis. A key parameter is the cost of capital, which is higher in Brazil than in the industrialized countries. We assume a 12 per cent discount rate. This discount rate is quite high but it reflects Brazil's high debt burden and the scarcity of internal investment capital.
The scope of the cost-benefit analysis can greatly affect the evaluation of net costs and benefits. This issue is relevant to quite specific technologies (such as vehicles) as well as to broader system changes (such as shifting transport modes). Analysis of the latter type of changes, however, is particularly susceptible to changes in analytical scope. The narrowest definition of benefits is the energy saved or substituted. We always incorporate such benefits in this study. In cases such as electrical equipment, this definition of benefits is adequate. But in others, it gives an erroneous estimate of net costs. Governments, for example, undertake many energy-related investments to achieve multiple objectives, including stimulating productivity, improving the quality of products, responding to environmental constraints, even improving social welfare (as with much rural electrification or public transport). In such cases, much broader definitions of benefits enter the picture which may outweigh the values attributed to energy savings or carbon abatement.
Finally, we used current 'frozen' costs in 2000. That is, our analysis of energy savings (and associated carbon reduction) in 2000 is based on current new technology costs and current energy prices. We selected only more efficient technologies that are already economic compared with existing technologies. We also assumed no increase in the real price of oil, oil derivatives, and electricity in 2000. This approach is conservative as the cost of new technologies often falls as it enters service; and the price of fossil fuels may be expected to increase in real terms as it becomes increasingly scarce.
Contents - Previous - Next
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| 0.850425 | 4,178 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya is a randomized, controlled trial that tests combinations of initiatives—in health, violence prevention, wealth creation, and education—to determine which improve girls’ lives most.
Poor adolescent girls in Kenya face considerable risks and vulnerabilities that affect their educational status, health, and general well-being. They are at high risk for early marriage, teenage pregnancy, early and unprotected sex, nonconsensual sex, and HIV and other STIs. They have limited income-earning opportunities and high rates of illiteracy, and often experience violence and social isolation.
Council research has shown that it is important to reach girls when they are young—between the ages of 10 and 14—before irreversible events like unwanted pregnancy can anchor them in poverty. The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya will reach at least 10,000 girls ages 10–14 in the northern arid areas and urban slums of Kenya.
The program will build girls’ resources related to health, violence prevention, wealth creation, and education, which will strengthen their ability to protect themselves from harm. Program elements will be implemented in different combinations and rigorously evaluated through a randomized, controlled trial—the gold standard of research—to determine which combinations are the most cost-effective and have the greatest impact on girls’ lives.
Information from randomized, controlled trials can be reliably used to shape the field of adolescent girls’ policy and programs. This project will identify best practices, refine the critical elements of girl-centered programs, and help to eliminate ineffective approaches.
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| 0.927743 | 316 | 2.703125 | 3 |
TheOxford India Short Introductionsare concise, stimulating, and accessible guides to different aspects of India. Combining authoritative analysis, new ideas, and diverse perspectives, they discuss subjects which are topical yet enduring, as also emerging areas of study and debate. An efficient and competent bureaucracy is indispensable to any modern state. This short introduction identifies the importance of civil services in nation-building and governance, and puts forth its varied roles in the current polity: as a regulator, a facilitator, and an executer of development policies. Presenting a clear and concise introduction to the civil services in India, the book engages with: its evolution, size, and structure against a brief historical background the processes of recruitment, training, and performance assessment the managerial, political, social, and judicial mechanisms of accountability; and the relationship between civil servants and the political executive Through in-depth theoretical analyses, it captures the various contributions and drawbacks of the services; and advocates reforms in the existing set-up towards a cleaner, more efficient and performance-based structure in keeping with India's influence as an emerging superpower.
S.K. Das is Honorary Advisor, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India. Prior to this, he was Member (Finance), Space Commission and Atomic Energy Commission, and Ex-officio Secretary, Government of India.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. The Evolution of Civil Services in India 2. Size and Structure 3. The Role of Civil Services 4. Recruitment and Training 5. The Placement of Civil Servants 6. Performance Management 7. Accountability 8. The Relationship between the Political Executive and Civil Servants 9. Civil Service Reforms Conclusion Further Reading
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| 0.905992 | 347 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Based on a new requirement in Section 210.8(B)(5) of the 2008 National Electrical Code (NEC), all 125-volt, single-phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed within 6 feet or 1.8 meters of the outside edge of a sink in a commercial or industrial facility must be covered by ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection for personnel. The purpose of this new requirement is to provide much-needed GFCI protection for receptacles in areas close to floor sinks, hand-washing sinks, mop sinks, as well as sinks in lunchrooms, janitors’ closets, classrooms, and other similar locations. Two exceptions were added as part of the new requirement for the 2008 NEC; however, some industry people believe at least one of the new exceptions may lead to lack of GFCI protection in areas where that protection should still be provided.
The two exceptions, added as part of the new requirement for the 2008 NEC, apply to laboratories and healthcare facilities. The first new exception ensures that certain receptacles, located within 6 feet of sinks and used to supply equipment in industrial laboratories where removal of power would introduce a greater hazard, would not be required to have GFCI protection. For example, in an industrial laboratory, a receptacle, within 6 feet of a sink and supplying power to a refrigerator containing chemicals that could auto-ignite at room temperature, could be excluded from the GFCI requirement, since losing power could create a greater hazard.
Any 15- or 20-ampere, 125-volt receptacle located within 6 feet of the same sink, but not supplying power to a critical load, must be GFCI-protected. In applying this rule, the receptacle supplying power to the critical load, such as the refrigerator described in the example, must be a single receptacle, not a duplex receptacle, since only one of the receptacles of the duplex would be used for the refrigerator, leaving the other receptacle of the duplex without GFCI protection. The duplex receptacle could be split-wired with the connecting tabs on both sides of the receptacle removed, and two hots, each with their own neutral, could be installed. However, unless a GFCI receptacle was installed upstream protecting one of the circuits, compliance with 210.7(B), requiring both circuit breakers to be tied together with a tie bar, would not be possible.
The second new exception excludes GFCI protection for any 15- or 20-ampere, 125-volt, single-phase receptacles located within 6 feet of sinks in patient care areas of any healthcare facility. The new second exception reads as follows: “For receptacles located in patient care areas of healthcare facilities other than those covered under 210.8(B)(1), GFCI protection shall not be required.”
As noted in the text in the new exception, bathroom areas in healthcare facilities, covered by 210.8(B)(1) and not covered by 517.21 for critical care areas, must still comply with the GFCI requirement for protection of receptacles. The new exception would permit any 15- or 20-ampere, 125-volt single-phase receptacle installed within 6 feet of any sink within a healthcare facility to be installed without GFCI protection, including those receptacles within 6 feet of floor sinks, hand washing sinks in medical and dental doctor’s examining rooms, mop sinks, as well as sinks in lunchrooms, janitors’ closets, ambulatory healthcare facilities, nursing homes and similar locations.
During the 2008 NEC process, numerous comments from healthcare professionals expressed concerns with GFCI protection within 6 feet of hand washing sinks in patient areas, such as general care and critical-care bed locations. Substantiation in the comments expressed concern over GFCI protection for receptacles used for life support, monitoring and other critical loads where interruption of power might jeopardize the patient.
Receptacles located within 6 feet of sinks and not being used for “critical” power in patient bed locations, should be required to have GFCI protection so Code-Making Panel 2 has accepted proposals for the 2011 NEC to modify this broad application and provide more specific GFCI requirements for healthcare installations and facilities. The text that has been accepted at the proposal stage for the 2011 NEC process is as follows: “For receptacles located in patient care areas bed locations of general care or critical care areas of healthcare facilities other than those covered under 210.8(B)(1), GFCI protection shall not be required.”
As you can see, the words “care areas” have been struck and the words “bed locations of general care or critical care areas” have been added. If Code-Making Panel 2 continues to accept the revised text through the comment period, GFCI protection will be required for 15- and 20-ampere, 125-volt, single-phase receptacles within 6 feet of any sink in a healthcare facility, except those at general or critical patient care areas.
Ode is a staff engineering associate at Underwriters Laboratories Inc., in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He can be reached at 919.549.1726 and [email protected].
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Medium-scale businesses typically result from the slow and steady growth that results from a successful small business. As a company earns more revenue, it sets aside the capital needed for buildings, equipment and more employees, eventually bridging the gap between small business and large corporations. The Small Business Administration can audit the size of your company and provide a definitive answer concerning its status as a medium-sized business.
The United States Small Business Administration designates small and medium-scale businesses as SMEs, or small and medium-sized enterprises. The primary metrics used to determine whether a U.S. company is an SME or not is the amount of revenue the company earns per year and the size of its workforce. The North American Industry Classification System creates size standards for SMEs. For example, a soybean farm can earn up to $750,000 per year before it's no longer a SME. Similarly, an iron ore mining operation can employ up to 500 employees before it's no longer a SME.
Small and medium-scale industries are created in the U.S. through the state they call headquarters. Medium-sized industries apply through their state government, not the federal government, for such things as business licenses, name registration, zoning licenses and sales tax identification numbers. Medium-scale industries use the federal government to apply for Employer Identification Numbers to file their federal income taxes at the end of the fiscal year.
SMEs in the United States, unlike large corporations, may apply for small-business loans and grants through private lenders and the federal government. Medium-sized companies also have the advantage of mobility over larger companies. For example, if the marketplace abruptly changes its demand for a particular product, a medium-sized company may quickly lower production output or modify products to fit the needs of customers. Larger companies must deal with bureaucracy and shareholders before making changes.
The definition of medium-sized industries may vary among different countries throughout the world, making business dealings complicated to companies that aren't prepared. For example, medium-sized businesses in the United Kingdom may have up to 250 employees, far short of the 500-employee limit of most United States medium-sized companies. A medium-sized U.K. business may have trouble partnering with certain U.S. medium-sized businesses because of the production differences.
- Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
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Build a Word
How many words can you make?
Hover over each Learning Benefit below for a detailed explanation.
What you need:
- index cards
What to do:
- Using index cards, encourage your child to help you write the following letters or letter groups, one per card: at, an, ap, et, en, ell, it, in, ick, ot, op, ock, un, ut, ub, b, c, d, f, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w.
- Show your child one letter-pair card, such as the "at" card. Then have her use the single-letter cards to make words with "at." Invite her to choose a card, place it in front of the "at," then try to sound out the word.
- Help your child as needed by blending, or singing, the sounds together. If it is a real word, encourage your child to write the word on a sheet of paper. You can use the word lists you and your child create for reading practice. She might even enjoy illustrating the lists!
Recommended Products for Your Child Ages 6-7
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Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Introduction
With the procedure known as gastrointestinal endoscopy, a doctor is able to see the inside lining of your digestive tract. This examination is performed using an endoscope-a flexible fiberoptic tube with a tiny TV camera at the end. The camera is connected to either an eyepiece for direct viewing or a video screen that displays the images on a color TV. The endoscope not only allows diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) disease but treatment as well.
- Current endoscopes are derived from a primitive system created in 1806-a tiny tube with a mirror and a wax candle. Although crude, this early instrument allowed a first view into a living body.
- The GI endoscopy procedure may be performed in either an outpatient or inpatient setting. Through the endoscope, a doctor can evaluate several problems, such as ulcers or muscle spasms. These concerns are not always seen on other imaging tests.
- Endoscopy has several names, depending on which portion of your digestive tract your doctor seeks to inspect.
- Colonoscopy: This procedure enables the doctor to see ulcers, inflamed mucous lining of your intestine, abnormal growths and bleeding in your colon, or large bowel.
- Enteroscopy: Enteroscopy is a recent diagnostic tool that allows a doctor to see your small bowel. The procedure may be used in the following ways:
- To diagnose and treat hidden GI bleeding
- To detect the cause for malabsorption
- To confirm problems of the small bowel seen on an X-ray
- During surgery, to locate and remove sores with little damage to healthy tissue
- Doctors do have other diagnostic tests besides GI endoscopy, including echography to study the upper abdomen and a barium enema and other X-ray exams that outline the digestive tract. Doctors can study the stomach juices, stools, and blood to learn about GI functions. But none of these tests offers a direct view of the mucous lining of the digestive tract.
- Endoscopy has little value for people with the following conditions:
- Severe coronary artery disease and acute or recent heart attack
- Uncontrolled high or low blood pressure
- Massive upper GI bleeding
- Acute peritonitis (inflammation of certain tissues in your abdomen)
- Injuries of the cervical spine
- Perforation of organs of the upper GI tract
- A history of respiratory distress
- Severe coagulopathy, a disease in which you continue bleeding because of inadequate clotting in your blood
- Recent upper GI tract surgery
- Long-standing and stable inflammatory bowel diseases (except monitoring for cancers)
- Chronic irritable bowel syndrome
- Acute and self-limiting diarrhea
- Bloody or tarry stools with a clear source of the bleeding
- Pregnancy in second or third trimester
- History of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Recent colon surgery or past surgery of your abdomen or pelvis resulting in internal adhesions
- Acute diverticulitis
- Tear in a blood vessel in your abdomen
- Sudden colon inflammation
- Acute inflammation of the sac that lines your abdomen
- Noncorrectable coagulopathy, a disease in which you continue bleeding due to inadequate clotting factors in your blood
- Massive gastrointestinal bleeding
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 8/17/2015
Scott H Plantz, MD, FAAEM
Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD
Must Read Articles Related to Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
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Celiac disease (sometimes referred to as as celiac disease), gluten-sensitive enteropathy, and gluten-induced enteropathy is a chronic disease of the digestive ...learn more >>
Patient Comments & Reviews
The eMedicineHealth doctors ask about Endoscopy:
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Information courtesy of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. To view the full Texas A&M AgriLife publication on Honey Bees, please click HERE.
For information on Africanized Honey Bees, please click HERE.
It is common to see honey bees foraging for food and water around homes and other structures. Foraging bees are away from the colony and are not likely to sting because they have nothing to defend. Bees visiting flower and other food sources should be left undisturbed.
To discourage foraging bees from gathering around a home or business, remove or prevent access to attractants such as ripening fruit, opened soda cans and pet water dishes. Make sure outdoor garbage receptacles are covered and well-sealed. Some flowers, trees and shrubs attract bees when in bloom. It is impractical to try to remove all the plants that might attract bees, so people with a fear of bees or allergies to bee venom should simply avoid those areas.
Many people have never encountered bee swarms even though they occur every year. With literally thousands of bees in the air, swarms may appear dangerous.
In fact, they pose little threat. Eventually the swarm will land and remain clustered in one place for a few hours or several days. During that time scout bees are looking for a suitable nesting site. Once the scouts find a new nest site and communicate its location to the swarm, the bees will move on to their new home. If a swarm lands in a remote site, it should be left alone. The swarm does not contain stored food or immature bees so the bees have nothing to defend and are unlikely to sting.
Swarms that land near buildings or high traffic areas should be managed. Bees may try to nest in wall voids or floors of buildings if they can gain entry. Professional and hobby beekeepers are often unwilling to collect swarms because of the possibility of introducing diseases, mites or Africanized bees into their own colonies. If no one can be found to remove a swarm near a building or in a high traffic area, the swarm may need to be destroyed.
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CLARK — Seventh grade students in Miss Faro’s honors pre-algebra class at the Carl H. Kumpf Middle School in Clark worked in pairs to create challenging word problems. They have been learning about different types of numbers that include fractions, decimals, and square roots. Each pair had to try their best to create the most challenging word problem they could think of while using all three different types of numbers.
Students chose a theme for their word problem that ranged anywhere from navigating a map of Six Flags Great Adventure to calculating football yardage. All students were given the option to illustrate and decorate their word problems in order to give the reader extra visual clues for solving. The word problems had to include various operations and different measurements to be converted. Included with the word problems, students had to create an answer key with steps for solving. Each pair traded off their word problem with another group to see if they could come up with the correct answer. Students enjoyed the challenge of creating the most difficult word problem for their peers to solve.
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During this summer hot weather UFO reports have taken a nose dive except in cooler areas. This may be due to a combination of cloudy overcast conditions and unusually hot weather.
Dr. Carl Sagan, Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell University wrote in The Encyclopedia Americana regarding Unidentified Flying Objects in 1963:
"It now seems quite clear that Earth is not the only inhabited planet. There is evidence that the bulk of the stars in the sky have planetary systems. Recent research concerning the origin of live on Earth suggests that the physical and chemical processes leading to the origin of life occur rapidly in the early history of the majority of planets. The selective value of intelligence and technical civilization is obvious, and it seems likely that a large number of planets within our Milky Way galaxy-perhaps as many as a million-are inhabited by technical civilizations in advance of our own. Interstellar space flight is far beyond our present technical capabilities, but there seems to be no fundamental physical objection to preclude, from our own vantage point, the possibility of its development by other civilizations." Carl Sagan
Two persons who spent most of their lives in the service or their country died last week. We wish God's speed to Alan Shepard and Colonel Philip Corso. Their newest journey has started. I thank you both for your courage and willingness to do what your country asked.
From out of the past Betty Lynch called today to inform me that she saw a formation of nine UFOs over Route 70 in Cherry Hill, fifty-two years ago in the summer of 1946. This sighting is a year before the famous Kenneth Arnold sighting. Betty stated: "They were huge white discs about the size of a basketball flying at high altitude." The UFOs were moving from north Philadelphia heading toward the southeast. Betty had been a member of the Ground Observer Corps (GOC) and had some expertise in aircraft spotting. Betty was with her brother Lieutenant. Anthony Michael Catana, who had been released from a Nazi prison camp at the end of the war. Her brother was a bombardier in W.W.II. His B-24 bomber squadron flew out of Foggia, Italy on missions to the Ploiesti Oil Fields. He said, "Those white discs are Foo Fighters. We frequently observed them during the war flying in formation with our aircraft. One of these Foo Fighters even flew through the belly of our aircraft." Later, his plane was shot down and he bailed out over Lienz, Austria and was imprisoned at Stalagwuf 1. After the UFO sighting, G-2 Intelligence came to their house and told him to be quiet about their sightings. Thanks to Betty Lynch of Haddonfield, NJ.
On July 15, 1998, Anthony Dogherty reports he saw a UFO near the Sayreville Clay Pits at 9:53 PM. He saw four lights in a diamond formation blinking on and off simultaneously. The UFO moved left and disappeared. It reappeared farther to the right, then moved left and disappeared again. This occurred for over 15 to 20 minutes. Sayerville is some twenty miles southwest of New York City. Phone number is 732-390-7760 at 44 Glynn Ct. Parlin, NJ 08859, E-mail: [email protected]. Thanks to John Thompson and ISUR.
Pearl River, Rockland County, NY. In December 1997, Frank J. saw a craft fly slowly over his house at only 200 feet above the treetops around 7:00 PM. Frank states, "I have a pilots license, it was not a plane. I have flown aboard helicopters many times in the military and know, it was not a helicopter! This craft hovered periodically and cruised down the block and over my house slowly with no sound. It was around the size and dimensions of a city bus, but half the height. It had dazzling blue & white lights whirring underneath. It proceeded past my house. I jumped into the car and followed it down the block towards Townline Road about a 1/2 mile away from where I first saw it approaching my house. The UFO stopped abruptly and vanished in a steak across the sky." Thanks to NY MUFON's Larry Clark.
On June 30, 1998, David A. Dunworth, his spouse and a friend were near Mounts Bay, in Penzance, Cornwall, UK when they sighted an unusual object in "the clear blue sky" at 9:10 a.m. "Myself, my wife and a friend of ours witnessed a small circular white object trailing a jet. The object was about the size of an O on our keyboard and appeared to be circling an aircraft heading east to London. "The O-shaped object was bright white in colour and moved in the same direction as the jet (easterly) about one inch in an arc above the tail of the jet. The object slowly circled the jet above the fuselage. The jet continued, probably unaware of their companion circling above them. As we watched, the object began to fade and disappear as if it had somehow disintegrated." Penzance is located about 180 miles (288 kilometers) southwest of London. Thanks to Steve Wilson Sr.
The phenomenon associated with the presence of a UFOs can be accounted for
within the following scientific parameters: The craft emit Electromagnetic
radiation measured isotropically that is in all directions of approximately
one megawatt, that is a million watts.
The wave length is of one-tenth to one twenty-five millimeters at sixty to eighty cycles per second. There appears to be an undulation motion and high frequency oscillations of constant amplitude. The Pulse width is ten to forty microseconds. The pulse is a brief surge of voltage or pulsating. On top of the craft is an exceptionally high magnetic field which is about a million times more powerful than we know how to produce on the Earth. There is also a slow ripple effect of about ten per second. That ripple is what causes the spinning of compasses. The UFOs may effect aircraft in various ways that cause ionization of the air. An electric current may move from the UFO to another object in the air. UFOs have strong radiation and other unknown effects that may harm humans.
Abductees report feelings of weakness, scars, and other evidence of abuse or contact with the UFOs. Because of these tremendously power of the UFOs it is logical to assume that there may be danger to the abductees. Abductees often claim they are flown to high altitudes aboard the craft. There are medical indications of mental strain and fatigue. Further there are indications abductees have a lowered ability to fight illness. This may infer that anemia or similar problems could possibly be traced to the UFO abductions. Therefore, regular complete and comprehensive blood tests may be one of the best methods for determining the health of the individual abductee. If you suspect you are an abductee, I encourage you to obtain blood tests that can be ordered at a relatively inexpensive cost by your physician. You may not wish to tell your physician why you desire the tests, but fatigue, lack of endurance, and low immunity may be indications of anemia and other problems. I encourage you to request a copy of the results and send them to me and our physicians will attempt to analyze them. Unless we receive funding for these tests, we request the abductee absorb the cost on an individual basis. We have a medical doctors willing to analyze the data and general results will be published here. We are accepting donations for this work.
Regarding the high power of the UFOs, we have found that some fairly simple instruments may be useful for tracking them. They are know to cause disturbances to compass readings. Rather than watching the compass continuously it is possible to get an alarm from any compass that is setting still and starts deviating. MUFON's George Reynolds set up a system that recorded variations in compass readings that helped predict earthquakes. Scanning of the radio frequency spectrum can sometimes pick up electrical disturbances caused by UFOs. This can be done with rudimentary equipment such as radio receivers. Amateur radio enthusiasts listen to a range of about 200 kHz through about 30 MHz. These would be the short wave listening hobbyists. The ham radio operators would also have these, but could scan additional bands of higher frequency. They could, if sufficient interest were generated, build or modify equipment to scan frequencies in the microwave region. All that would be required at the onset is listening devices with some rough idea of the frequency being tuned. Once the UFO frequencies operating in an area were defined, then more "fine tuning" could be accomplished. UFOs radiate energy in the microwave region, so there is a good chance that we may have some success in tracking their propulsion systems. Many drivers own radar receivers for use against police radars. Radar receivers often used by high speed drivers can also be used to measure the microwave range energy that is sent out by many UFOs.
Nikolay Subbotin reports that: "We now been told that the entire Soviet armed forces, a total of 15 million people over ten years (1979-1989), were involved in a UFO study that turned up forty major incidents and hundreds of minor ones. This included one that prompted fears of starting an accidental nuclear war. As a result of the study hundreds of UFOs were recorded and many were photographed. In some cases there were multiple witnesses. Unfortunately, until late 80-s, the UFO subject was forbidden to discuss in the Soviet Union. Any talking about UFOs might get you into serious trouble. Local residents have observed strange flying objects for a long time. Those objects were shaped as spheres, black "boats," domes, plates and so on. Also, there have been weird places, where people felt like being observed or were afraid of presence of something odd. When the ban of ufological information was removed, the researchers attention was drawn to abnormal events near Mobelka village. The results of the first expeditions (Perm's Bachurin's group, Muhortov's group) were a sensation in 1989, when this information got out to the media. The Roswell Incident was not the only UFO crash in History, there were many more." Thanks to Vlad G. and Nikolay Subbotin, [email protected]. The movie The Secret KGB UFO Files with Roger Moore, and myself is scheduled to be shown on TNT on September 13.
Red Deer, Alberta. Cameron Smith on July 19, saw two wobbling discs of a gray shiny color fly by slowly at the speed of an aircraft at 9:40 PM. The craft were not luminous and were at low altitude. Cameron requests any confirmation or explanation for the sighting. Phone Number: 403-343-2985, Address: #8 Anquetel Close, Red Deer, Alberta, T4R 1G7 CANADA
On Monday, July 13, 1998, at 11:00 p.m., an "unidentified craft" flew over the small city of Gualda Tadino in northeastern Umbria province, Italy. The UFO "circled the city at high velocity," and then hovered for about two minutes before flying away to the north. The UFO "flew below the clouds" and had "a great luminosity." Minutes later, the UFO flew over the nearby city of Gubbio, in the Apennine Mountains. Witnesses described the UFO as "resembling a glowing soccer ball" and said "it flew to the north-northwest," and, after aerobatic maneuvers lasting about five minutes, and left in a northerly direction. The phenomenon was seen by four witnesses in one location, and seven other people confirmed this sighting. Gubbio and Gualda Tadino are east of Perugia, located about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Rome. (Grazie a Squadra Film Spaziale d'Italia per questo rapporto.) Thanks to UFO ROUNDUP Vol. 3, # 29 July 20, 1998 Editor: Joseph Trainor
An English professor has developed an electromagnetic theory on what may be to blame for the crash of TWA Flight 800 - and she's asking federal investigators to take her theory seriously. Electromagnetic interference could be the culprit, Harvard University professor Elain Scarry said Sunday. "In the TWA case, the possibility of a meteorite was thoroughly studied and ruled out. But we didn't look at the military questions of HIRF (High Intensity Radiated Field), particularly what effect it has on 747s," Ms. Scarry told The Associated Press. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman James Hall says Ms. Scarry's theory is already being investigated as part of his agency's inquiry into the July 17, 1996, crash off Long Island. All 230 people aboard died when the Boeing 747 jumbo jet exploded in midair minutes after leaving John F. Kennedy Airport for Paris. Investigators say the plane's central fuel tank exploded, but have not been able to find an ignition source. Two other theories a bomb or a missile -- were ruled out after an extensive probe. An exchange of letters between Ms. Scarry and Hall appears in the July 16 issue of the New York Review of Books, a scholarly magazine which last April 9 published an article by Ms. Scarry raising the question of whether electromagnetic interference, or EMI, from an outside source -- possibly one of about 10 military ships or planes in the vicinity -- had triggered the TWA disaster. She said that studies had shown that both military and civilian aircraft had been subjected to such effects, but that the theory had not been seriously considered in this case. In a March 13 letter to Hall, Ms. Scarry said NTSB findings had not ruled out "the possibility that a High Intensity Radiated Field, or HIRF, played a part in the crash of TWA 800," and suggested that instead of questioning top-ranking officers, the agency should interview sailors and airmen who actually were operating electronic gear at the time and could best provide information needed for a minute-by-minute reconstruction. In another letter June 17, Ms. Scarry insisted that a TWA pilot's comments about a "crazy" fuel gauge and difficulty "trimming," or stabilizing, the plane just before the explosion could be anomalies hinting at an EMI event. She argued that a 1994 NASA study -- the only one ever done on HIRF effects on civilian aircraft -- dealt only with solitary planes, so the effect on multiple aircraft was not known." Thanks to Newsday.com July 13, 1998. Editors Note: A Swiss Air 747 reported a near miss from an elongated Plasma like object on August 9, 1997, in the same area.
WASHINGTON "Somebody came into our waters and shot down -- for the first time ever -- a flag carrier of the United States," an expert on the explosion of TWA Flight 800 said at a Washington briefing yesterday. Commander Bill Donaldson, a retired Navy pilot and accident investigator who has spent 15 months examining the case, said that two missiles were fired in the vicinity of the airplane, and that one of them exploded close enough to bring the plane down. It's no wonder, he said, that investigators did not find evidence of a direct missile hit; the missile was of a type specifically designed to explode near (rather than in contact with) its target. Flight 800, Donaldson said, "was intentionally destroyed by a powerful, proximity fused, airbursting, antiaircraft weapon launched from a position approximately one nautical mile off shore and three nautical miles east of Moriches Inlet, Long Island, New York." In addition, the airplane was "engaged seconds later by a second missile fired from a closer position to the south of [the plane's] track." There were 230 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 747 when it was destroyed, on the evening of July 17, 1996. The plane was bound for Paris and, at the time of the explosion, was eight miles off Long Island. Government officials have suggested that the plane was brought down when a spark ignited fumes in a nearly empty fuel tank causing it to explode, but they haven't been able to explain the source for the spark. Donaldson based his claims on an analysis of physical evidence and eyewitness accounts in a 109-page report (available at http://members.aol.com/fl800/). Those appearing at the briefing to support Donaldson's theory included a helicopter pilot who saw the explosion, a man who saw it from the ground, and a now-retired TWA captain who had served as flight engineer on the same plane just a few hours before, on its flight from Athens. Donaldson believes that a missile detonated on the plane's left side, about 20 feet from the hull and "probably slightly low," sending a shock wave that blew open the skin on the left wing. The airplane then moved violently to the right and rolled almost onto its back in an instant, some "144 degrees in one-second." The stress created by the missile explosion caused the plane itself to explode in bright flash followed by a dull red-orange fireball that fell to the water amid a cloud of black smoke. In preparing his report, Donaldson analyzed the composition and distribution of debris from the plane, interviewed witnesses who claimed to have seen a missile streaking toward the plane (and turning as if homing in on the plane's radio signals), and examined all the official documents released in the case. He said that he is apparently "the only trained accident investigator" who has interviewed most of the witnesses; the FBI allegedly blocked NTSB investigators from conducting their own interviews. Among the eyewitnesses who saw what appeared to be a missile attack, Donaldson said, was an FBI agent. "He said he had seen a plane shot down."
Admiral Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended the briefing in support of Donaldson. "This certainly appears to be an act of terrorism," Moorer said. He called the Donaldson report "very excellent" and said Congress should conduct its own investigation of the explosion. Vernon Grose, a physicist and former member of the NTSB, attended the briefing as an observer. He said he was interviewed on CNN for six hours the night of the disaster and has been interviewed on the subject some 170 times. "I've spent two years defending the NTSB," he said, only to find that the facts don't seem to line up with the official story. He told WorldNetDaily that he felt "betrayed" by the NTSB. The Donaldson briefing "disturbed" him, and he believes that government officials may have come to a conclusion first, then tried to make the facts fit their theory. "There ought to be an open, public hearing" to address the points made by Donaldson and others. Grose said he's not a fan of conspiracy theories, and he believes there might be a reasonable explanation for the government's behavior in this case. "But if the truth contradicts what has been said, let it be heard," he said. At the briefing, Captain Al Mundo, flight engineer on the same plane on its previous flight, said he finds the official theory "highly improbable." After the earlier flight, he had performed a procedure that cleared the center fuel tank. "I question whether vapors were even in the tank," he said, due to physical processes that should have cleared any vapors that were present. The helicopter pilot eyewitness -- Fred Meyer, a lawyer and Vietnam veteran Naval aviator -- said at the briefing that, "Based on two combat tours, it is my firm belief to this day that it was military ordnance." The government theory, he said, is "a government excuse for something -- totally mystifying. I know what I saw."
Richard Goss, a businessman who saw what appeared to be a missile, said that at first he thought it was part of a fireworks display. "Someone else at the Yacht Club [from which he saw the incident] even said, 'Look at the fireworks!,' and we waited for the display." His reaction to the government's version as seen in a CIA-produced computer simulation: "Personally, it was a joke to me. It was an insult. It was so different from what I saw." Donaldson's report is full of tantalizing details. On the day of the explosion, a Beirut newspaper received a fax, apparently from an Islamic terrorist group, stating that "Tomorrow morning we will strike the Americans in a way they do not expect and it will be very surprising to them." The Flight 800 disaster occurred at 8:31 p.m. EDT -- which, on the Arabian Peninsula, was the next morning. On November 17, 1995, eight months before the Flight 800 disaster, two aircraft off Long Island reported seeing a bright, fast-moving object trailing smoke and not registering on FAA radar. The object passed within 2,000 to 3,000 feet of the two aircraft. Radar detected an object, apparently a surface vessel, only 2.9 nautical miles from Flight 800 when it exploded. It was traveling at 30 knots and "avoided the visual range of all other surface contacts" until it got out of range of Islip radar. "This is a normal military tactic," Donaldson noted, not the action of someone who had just witnessed a plane crash. Donaldson reported that some of the strongest evidence for a missile explosion -- the drastic change in apparent altitude, speed, and other factors noted by the flight data recorder (FDR) at 8:31:13 p.m. -- appeared to have been removed from the official version of the FDR's readout. Thanks to: WorldNetDaily.
Send your reports and letters to George A. Filer at [email protected].
Please subscribe or see the Filer's Files website for images in this weeks issue.
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Mangonui and Butler Point have strong historical ties with the whaling industry. In 1792 the American whaleship captain Eber Bunker made the first recorded visit by a white person to Doubtless Bay. Bunker and other whaling captains probably had contact with local Maori. Department of Conservation archaeological excavations on the pa (hillfort) at Butler Point have uncovered such items of non-Maori manufacture as clay pipe pieces and glass bottle fragments. Artefacts belonging to local Maori are displayed by their courtesy in the Museum.
William Butler, who built Butler House and developed extensive Gardens at Butler Point, was a former whaling captain. On Butler Point he constructed a trade store from which he supplied visiting whaling ships. Butler also advertised a service recruiting crew for whaleships.
Butler Point Whaling Museum has been developed to commemorate the close association of the Point and Mangonui with whaling. Exhibits represent almost 40 years obtaining authentic items associated with the whaling industry. Pieces have been sourced from New Zealand, Australia, England and North America. Together they represent one of the finest private collections in New Zealand.
Among the items on display in the Museum are a refurbished ship's whaleboat; a reconstructed tryworks; examples of whalebone; a large range of harpoons and cutting in equipment; paraphernalia associated with shipboard life, including a full set of ship's surgical instruments; old prints and photographs of aspects of the whaling industry; and models of whaleships and whaleboats.
An extensive collection of scrimshaw, including some unique and very notable pieces, is also on display.
Text and images © L. Ferguson, 2002.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Often forgotten and overlooked, the U.S.-Mexican War featured false starts, atrocities, and daring back-channel negotiations as it divided the nation, paved the way for the Civil War a generation later, and launched the career of Abraham Lincoln. Amy S. Greenberg’s skilled storytelling and rigorous scholarship bring this American war for empire to life with memorable characters, plotlines, and legacies. When President James K. Polk compelled a divided Congress to support his war with Mexico, it was the first time that the young American nation would engage another republic in battle. Caught up in the conflict and the political furor surrounding it were Abraham Lincoln, then a new congressman; Polk, the dour president committed to territorial expansion at any cost; and Henry Clay, the aging statesman whose presidential hopes had been frustrated once again, but who still harbored influence and had one last great speech up his sleeve. Beyond these illustrious figures, A Wicked War follows several fascinating and long-neglected characters: Lincoln’s archrival John Hardin, whose death opened the door to Lincoln’s rise; Nicholas Trist, gentleman diplomat and secret negotiator, who broke with his president to negotiate a fair peace; and Polk’s wife, Sarah, whose shrewd politicking was crucial in the Oval Office. This definitive history of the 1846 conflict paints an intimate portrait of the major players and their world. It is a story of Indian fights, Manifest Destiny, secret military maneuvers, gunshot wounds, and political spin. Along the way it captures a young Lincoln mismatching his clothes, the lasting influence of the Founding Fathers, the birth of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and America’s first national antiwar movement. A key chapter in the creation of the United States, it is the story of a burgeoning nation and an unforgettable conflict that has shaped American history.
Watch the author give a very interesting talk about the book on PBS.
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- About Extension
- Get Involved
- Statewide Locations
Gardening tips that save money
March 11, 2011
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Gardening doesn't have to be expensive, especially if you can listen to the voice of experience.
The following light-hearted tips for thrifty gardening are passed on from Oregon State University Extension Master Gardeners.
"The advice might save you money, and you could get to know your neighbors better, but it comes primarily from personal experiences, not OSU research," said Gail Langellotto, OSU Extension urban and community horticulture specialist and statewide coordinator of the Master Gardener Program.
Master Gardeners are trained volunteers who share with the people of Oregon their knowledge of sustainable gardening and OSU resources in home horticulture, More than 4,000 people across the state are certified as OSU Extension Master Gardeners.
Thrifty tips for the garden:
- Share seeds and seedlings with friends and neighbors.
- Save kitchen scraps (coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable cuttings) for compost.
- Let some plants go to seed, so you can collect and save seed, or let them seed themselves.
- Large, clear plastic containers that salad greens come in make good mini-greenhouses for starting plants both indoors and out. The "bottom" is the dome, and the lids become the base, catching runoff water.
- Get your neighbors to split a load of bark mulch, soil, gravel or compost. You also save on delivery charges.
- An inexpensive way to avoid overwatering: use a five-gallon bucket that can be purchased for as little as 50 cents. Drill a 1/8-inch hole in the side of the bucket near the bottom, fill it with water and let a gentle stream of water flow next to the plant that needs watering. You can also add fertilizer or other nutrients to the water in the bucket and have a controlled means of dispensing it.
- Use an old garbage can to make into a compost bin.
- Use the Oregon Trail Card, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, to buy seeds and starts.
- Use clothes hangers for plant stakes.
- Use popsicle sticks and larger rocks to mark what’s growing.
- Use buckets, wastebaskets or milk cartons for planters but make sure to put holes in the bottom for drainage.
- Choose seeds that are easy to grow and produce abundantly. Spinach, leaf lettuce, summer squash and carrots are good choices for new gardeners.
- Learn to propagate plants using cuttings and pass along favorite plants to friends and family.
- Buy a bolt of polypropylene mesh, called deer fencing, from online distributors. It’s perfect for discouraging pets, deer and other animals and can be used for many seasons.
- Maintain equipment and learn how to sharpen and care for hand tools. They will last longer with proper care.
- Repurposed materials such as windows or glass door panels can be used to make greenhouses or cold frames.
- Maintain a compost bin to amend your garden beds and reduce the need for fertilizers.
- Plant cover crops of legumes, such as fava beans or crimson clover, in empty beds over the winter to build your soil.
- Plant intensively to make the best use of your available garden space. Rotate crops.
- Plant fall/winter crops to produce fresh food year round.
- Strips of plastic milk jugs make handy plant tags.
- Place soda bottles filled with dark liquid near heat-loving plants in early spring to absorb heat during the day and re-radiate it at night.
- Save branches pruned from lavender or rosemary plants in summer to make starts you can give away after they have grown roots.
- Save branches pruned from fruit trees to stake bean or pea plants.
- When light is limited, place a mirror behind plants for refracted light.
- Expand limited garden space by planting potatoes in five-gallon buckets.
- Thrifty and organic tool care: Use a drop of olive or vegetable oil to lubricate the joints of your metal cutting tools. Rub a little oil on the wooden handles of your tools. It will seal and protect them and prevent splinters.
- Move heavy bags of potting soil or other heavy objects on an old skateboard.
- To avoid over-fertilizing seedlings and young plants, save the water left over from steaming or boiling vegetables, transfer it to a clean spray bottle and spritz it on leaves once a week for a light foliar feeding.
Source: Gail Langellotto
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Twenty or 30 years ago, the processors were so slow that the processor and the bus were synchronized -- the bus ran at the same speed as the processor, and there was one bus in the machine. Today, the processors run so fast that most computers have two or more buses. Each bus specializes in a certain type of traffic.
A typical desktop PC today has two main buses:
- The second one is a slower bus for communicating with things like hard disks and sound cards. One very common bus of this type is known as the PCI bus. These slower buses connect to the system bus through a bridge, which is a part of the computer's chipset and acts as a traffic cop, integrating the data from the other buses to the system bus.
Technically there are other buses as well. For example, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a way of connecting things like cameras, scanners and printers to your computer. It uses a thin wire to connect to the devices, and many devices can share that wire simultaneously. Firewire is another bus, used today mostly for video cameras and external hard drives.
Next, learn about the history of PCI buses.
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The human cost
By Times Staff
Published August 28, 2005
In all, 61 countries with 1.7-billion people, three-fourths of the world's population, took part. A total of 110-million people were mobilized for military service.
Battle deaths: 14.9-million
Battle wounded: 25.2-million
Civilian deaths: 38.6-million
The United States, which had no significant civilian losses, sustained 292,131 battle deaths and 115,187 deaths from other causes.
The Soviet Union lost more than 20-million people, military and civilian. Allied military and civilian losses topped 44-million; the Axis, 11-million.
The highest numbers of deaths, military and civilian, were as follows:
USSR - More than 13-million military and 7-million civilian;
China - 3.5-million and 10-million;
Germany - 3.5-million and 3.8-million;
Poland - 120,000 and 5.3-million;
Japan - 1.7-million and 380,000;
Yugoslavia - 300,000 and 1.3-million;
Romania - 200,000 and 465,000;
France - 250,000 and 360,000;
British Empire and Commonwealth - 452,000 and 60,000;
Italy - 330,000 and 80,000;
Hungary - 120,000 and 280,000;
Czechoslovakia - 10,000 and 330,000
Sources: Department of Defense; Funk & Wagnalls New EncyclopediaSTARS IN THE WINDOW
A blue star placed in the window indicated a family member had gone to war; a gold star meant a family member had been killed.ECONOMY
The average gross weekly wage in 1940 was $25.20. That increased 72 percent to $43.39 in 1945.
In 1939, roughly 10-million people were unemployed. Between 1941 and 1945, the number of jobless dropped to roughly 1-million. The output of manufactured goods increased by more than 300 percent and average productivity was up by 25 percent.RATIONING
MAY 15, 1942: Gas is rationed on the East Coast.
NOV. 29, 1942: Coffee is rationed in the United States.
DEC. 2, 1942: Gas is rationed. Ration stamps on windshields, declaring a car was used for nonessential, essential purposes or used for transporting people to work, determined how much gas could be purchased.
FEB: 7, 1943: Shoes are rationed.
MARCH 24, 1943: Regulations are announced regarding the rations of meat, butter and cheese.
APRIL 1, 1943: Food rations begin.
July 1943: Coffee rations end.
May 3, 1944: Most meat rationing comes to an end.
IN 1944: Almost half of the steel, tin and paper needed for the war effort has been provided by people salvaging goods.
NOV. 23, 1945: Meat and butter rations end.
DEC. 31, 1945: Tire rations end.
JUNE 1947: Sugar rations end.
Shortages also dictated fashion changes for women and men. To save 40-million to 50-million pounds of wool each year, the War Production Board ordered the elimination of vests, patch pockets, cuffs and an extra pair of trousers in men's suits. The single breasted jacket was shorter and had narrow lapels. Women's fashions were shorter and more trim with few pleats and ruffles.
Victory gardens helped promote pride in "doing your part" and reduced dependence on a system working to supply food for the troops. In 1943, these gardens provided more than one-third of the vegetables grown in the country.
Sources: World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945; Chronicle of America; Defense Department
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Overview of the Census of Population
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Table of contents
- General information
- Census of Population
- Why is the census in May?
- Census history
- Privacy and confidentiality
- Developing census questions
- Personal information
- Consent to release personal information
- Oath of secrecy
- Published data
- Names and addresses
- Retention of census information
- Security online
- Official languages
The census is Canada's largest and most comprehensive data source. The Census of Population collects demographic and linguistic information on every man, woman and child living in Canada. The Census of Agriculture, conducted the same month, collects information on Canada's agricultural operations.
The census is the main source of data available in a standardized format for small areas. It provides nationally comparable data that can be cross-classified to show details. It is also the main body of comprehensive statistical data at the subprovincial level on Canada's population.
Census of Population
The Census of Population is taken to meet statutory requirements. For example, population counts are used to realign the boundaries of federal electoral districts, to calculate transfer payments between levels of government, and to support a variety of programs.
The data are needed by both the public and private sectors to support decision-making in many areas. For example:
- to plan community services such as schools, day care, police services and fire protection
- to forecast consumer demand
- to conduct market research studies.
More detailed information on how census data are used can be found in Chapter 10 – Dissemination.
Why is the census in May?
The first May census was held in 1996. Previous censuses were held in early June. However, the May date allows collection procedures to run more smoothly and therefore costs less. With a mid-May census, delivery of questionnaires and many of the follow-up procedures can be accomplished during the same month, thus avoiding the problem of people moving to a different address on May 1 or June 1. In addition, the mid-May date allows more time for final follow-up to be completed before the busy summer holiday period begins. The May data collection of the census has improved population coverage and the quality of Census data.
1666 – The first Canadian census was taken in New France by Intendant Jean Talon. The recorded population (excluding Aboriginal persons and royal troops) was 3,215. Information was obtained on age, sex, marital status and locality. In addition, the census identified professions and trades for 763 persons.
1666 to 1867 – Numerous censuses were taken at irregular intervals in the colonies of France and Britain that became parts of Canada.
1867 – The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) included the requirement that a census be taken every 10 years (decennially) in order to determine representation by population in the new Parliament.
1871 – The first decennial census was taken in this year. The census enumerated the population of the four original provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario). Manitoba and British Columbia, which had also joined Confederation, were surveyed separately.
The 1871 Census was the first to use the de jure method of enumeration rather than the de facto method used in Europe both then and now. The de facto method enumerates people where they are found on Census Day. The de jure method enumerates people according to their usual place of residence.
1896 – A mid-decade census was held in Manitoba beginning in 1896 and then in Saskatchewan and Alberta beginning in 1906. These censuses were needed to measure the rapid growth taking place in the West.
1905 – The census office became a permanent bureau of the federal government.
1912 – Responsibility for conducting the census was transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Trade and Commerce.
1918 – The Dominion Bureau of Statistics was created.
1941 – Sample information was collected for the first time. One in 10 households were asked an additional 27 questions about their dwelling (type, number of rooms, cooking fuel used, etc.).
1956 – A quinquennial Census of Population and Agriculture was held in all provinces across the country, replacing the mid-decade censuses of the Prairie provinces. The results of this census indicated a dramatic increase in the number of people moving to the cities, a rapid growth in the birth rate, and high levels of immigration.
1971 – Under the Statistics Act of 1971, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics was renamed Statistics Canada. The Act also confirmed that a Census of Population and a Census of Agriculture shall be taken every five years (quinquennially).
In 1971, self-enumeration was first introduced. With the exception of Indian reserves and remote areas, census forms and completion instructions were dropped off at private homes and respondents were asked to complete their own questionnaires. In urban areas with a population of 10,000 or more, respondents were asked to mail their completed questionnaires back in a pre-addressed envelope. In rural areas or smaller urban centres (with a population of less than 10,000), respondents were asked to keep their questionnaires until a census interviewer came to pick them up.
1991 – All respondents in self-enumeration areas (over 98% of the population) were asked to return their completed census forms by mail. The return rate was 85%, with more than 27 million people in over 10 million households counted. Information on common-law partners was also collected for the first time.
2001 – For the first time, data were collected on same-sex couples.
2006 – In the 2006 Census, forms were delivered by Canada Post to about 70% of households. The remaining 30% received the form from an interviewer as in previous censuses. For the first time, all Canadians could answer the census questionnaire online. This was also the first time people were asked if they wanted to have their personal information released in 92 years for the purpose of genealogical research. Respondents were also asked whether they would give Statistics Canada permission to access their tax files. This permission was sought in an effort to reduce response burden.
2011 – The positive response to the online option (18.5%) in 2006 prompted a major change in the methodology for the 2011 Census. Starting May 3, a letter was delivered to 60% of Canadian dwellings. This letter replaced the traditional paper questionnaire and provided information so respondents could complete the questionnaire online. The letter also contained a toll-free number respondents could call to request a paper questionnaire. Questionnaire packages were delivered to about 20% of dwellings by mail. The remaining 20% of dwellings had questionnaires dropped off by enumerators. At a small number of dwellings, enumerators conducted personal interviews.
All questionnaires explained to respondents how they could complete the census online. Questionnaires completed online require fewer edits, do not require scanning and data capture, and usually result in a higher overall item response rate.
For 2011, Statistics Canada did not use a mandatory long-form questionnaire as part of the census. Information previously collected by the mandatory long-form census questionnaire was collected as part of the new voluntary National Household Survey (NHS).
Collection of the NHS began within four weeks of the May 2011 Census. Approximately 4.5 million households received the NHS questionnaire.
The 2011 Census questionnaire consisted of the same eight questions that appeared on the 2006 Census short-form questionnaire, with the addition of two questions on language.
Privacy and confidentiality
Statistics Canada recognizes the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of personal information and has made the protection of such information its highest priority. Confidential data never leave Statistics Canada premises, nor are they ever out of Statistics Canada's control.
Providing personal information to anyone, whether in a census, survey, or in any other manner, does involve some loss of privacy. However, it is recognized that the public benefits of accurate data far outweigh this minimal loss of privacy, especially when measures are taken to ensure that personal information is kept strictly confidential.
Developing census questions
Statistics Canada takes care to ask questions that are in the public interest and that provide information that is not available from other sources. All questions have been carefully tested and the results show that respondents are willing to answer them. The Agency has paid full attention to the protection of personal information outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Statistics Act. Judicial rulings on this issue have held that census questions do not contravene the Charter.
Statistics Canada does not release personal information without the consent of the individual. Census information is only seen, on a need-to-know basis, by employees of Statistics Canada or persons sworn under the Statistics Act.
Consent to release personal information
The 2011 Census asked respondents if they would consent to having their personal census information released to Library and Archives Canada in 92 years (Question 10 on the census questionnaire).
Oath of secrecy
All Statistics Canada employees, including interviewers, are sworn to secrecy under the Statistics Act. This oath remains in effect not only during employment, but for the rest of their lives. Penalties for divulging personal information include:
- a fine of up to $1,000
- imprisonment for up to six months
- both a fine and imprisonment.
Statistics Canada is bound by law to protect the identity of individuals in all published data. All data releases are screened so that anonymity is assured; data are randomly rounded to a multiple of five or ten; and no detailed data are released for areas with populations below a certain size.
Names and addresses
Names, addresses and telephone numbers are used to make sure people have not been missed or counted twice (census coverage studies) and for follow-up (when incomplete information has been provided), or for selection in a small number of postcensal surveys.
Retention of census information
Until 2001, questionnaires were microfilmed and then destroyed after the census information was captured. The 2006 Census questionnaire responses have been stored electronically in flat file format. The 2011 Census responses will be stored the same way. Strict security precautions limit access to both the microfilms and stored records. Individuals can access their own census records for purposes such as obtaining proof of age for old age security.
The latest technologies were used to ensure that Statistics Canada's strict security and confidentiality requirements are met without imposing any pre-registration or lengthy download processes for the census Internet application.
As early as 1871, census questionnaires were produced in English and French. This tradition became law in 1988 under the Official Languages Act. The Act states that English and French are the official languages of Canada and that service to the public must be provided in both languages.
As in previous censuses, procedures were in place for the 2011 Census to ensure that members of the public received service in the official language of their choice.
- Date modified:
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| 0.959311 | 2,221 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The proportion of children born outside marriage in the UK has leapt from 12% in 1980 to 42% in 2004, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The ONS highlights a rise in unmarried, cohabiting parents
In contrast, 15 other EU countries had an estimated average of 33%, the annual ONS' Social Trends report said.
The average UK household size fell from 2.9 to 2.4 people from 1971 to 2005.
This was due to more single-parent families, smaller families and an increase in households of just one person, the ONS said.
ONS editor Hayley Butcher said: "Although most children are born to married couples, this substantial rise in births outside marriage is a reflection of the rising trend in cohabiting parents."
From 1986 to 2004, the percentage of non-married people under 60 who cohabited rose from 11% to 24% among men, and from 13% to 25% for women.
The number of households in the UK increased by 30% - from 18.6 to 24.2 million - between 1971 and 2005.
The average household size fell from 2.9 to 2.4 people over the same period.
Some seven million people lived alone in 2005 - representing 29% of all households, up from 18% in 1971 - the ONS said.
The ONS said that in the 1980s and 1990s one-person households mainly comprised older women, who tended to live longer than men.
But recent years had seen an increasing tendency for people to live alone at younger ages.
The largest increases in the last 20 years had been among people aged 25 to 44, and men from 45 to 64.
The ONS' Social Trends study also reported that young men were more likely to live with their parents than young women.
Some 57% of men aged 20 to 24 lived with their parents in 2005 - up from 50% in 1991 - compared with just 38% of women - up from 32%.
"Some young people may remain at home while in education or because of economic necessity, such as difficulties entering the housing market," the report said.
The Social Trends study's other findings included:
- In spring 2005, one in five full-time employees reported usually working more than 48 hours a week.
- Passengers travelling to or from overseas countries through UK airports (excluding transit passengers) almost quadrupled between 1980 and 2004, from 43 to 167 million.
- More than one billion journeys were made on the national rail network each year in 2003-4 and 2004-5 - the highest level since 1961.
- Transactions using debit cards increased ten-fold from 1991 to 2004, while credit card transactions trebled.
- The number of UK households that owned second homes abroad rose 45%, to almost 257,000, from 1999-2000 to 2003-4.
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| 0.969139 | 585 | 2.71875 | 3 |
IISD Reporting Services -
KEY PUBLICATIONS AND ONLINE RESOURCES
CLIMATE AND ATMOSPHERE
This page was updated on: 01/12/10
PROTECTING THE OZONE LAYER: THE UNITED NATIONS HISTORY
(Earthscan 2002) Authored by Stephen Andersen and K Madhava Sarma, this book considers the role of UNEP in global efforts to protect the Earth’s ozone layer through the Montreal Protocol. The book provides an “inspirational story” about the success of the Montreal Protocol, capturing the science and diplomacy contributing to the most successful international environmental agreement to-date. For more information visit: http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3766
GLOBAL WARMING AND SOCIAL INNOVATION – THE CHALLENGE OF A CLIMATE-NEUTRAL SOCIETY
(Earthscan 2002) Edited by David de Jager, Andre Faaij, Marcel Kok and Walter Vermeulen, this book envisions a climate-neutral society – one where the output of greenhouse gases is minimized by social innovations set up in households, by local authorities, through developments in information and communications technologies and dematerialization, and through the shift towards product service systems and emissions trading. For more information visit: http://www.earthscan.co.uk/asp/bookdetails.asp?key=3808
GOLD STANDARD FOR KYOTO PROTOCOL PROJECTS
(WWF 2002) The Gold Standard: Quality Standards for the CDM and JI offers the first best practice benchmark for CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) and JI (Joint Implementation) projects. It provides project developers with tools to ensure that these projects deliver credible outcomes, including real environmental benefits. Available online at: http://www.panda.org/downloads/climate_change/cop8standards.pdf
GREENHOUSE & STATEHOUSE: THE EVOLVING STATE GOVERNMENT ROLE IN CLIMATE CHANGE.
(Pew Centre on Global Climate Change 2002) This report by Barry Rabe tracks trends in climate change action by US States and draws conclusions on the potential of State action and its implications for national climate policy. It features case studies of nine States - Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin - that have taken action to mitigate climate change. Available online at: http://www.pewclimate.org/media/pr_states_greenhouse.cfm
CAPITAL CYCLES AND THE TIMING OF CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY.
(Pew Center on Global Climate Change 2002) This publication by Robert J. Lempert, Steven W. Popper, Susan A. Resetar and Stuart L. Hart investigates patterns of capital investment and retirement, or �capital cycles,� and discusses implications for climate change policy. Outcomes show that capital has no fixed cycle and firms often invest in new capital to capture new markets. It further notes that in the absence of policy or market incentives, expected equipment lifetimes and the availability of more efficient technologies are not significant drivers of capital stock decisions. Available online at: http://www.pewclimate.org/media/pr_capital_cycles.cfm
BUILDING ON THE KYOTO PROTOCOL: OPTIONS FOR PROTECTING THE CLIMATE
(WRI 2002) This book by Kevin A. Baumert with Odile Blanchard, Silvi Llosa and James Perkaus considers a wide range of options to promote long-term climate protection and bridge the growing divide among nations over how to take action. Available online at: http://climate.wri.org/pubs_description.cfm?PubID=3762
SELLING FOREST ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES: MARKET-BASED MECHANISMS FOR CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
(IIED 2002) Founded on case studies of markets for carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, watershed protection, this book demonstrates how payment systems can be established in practice, and describes their effectiveness and their implications for the poor. The book.
DAMMING THE CDM
(International Rivers Network and CDM Watch 2002) This report released in the midst of the UNFCCC Conference of Parties states that big hydropower projects threaten the effectiveness and credibility of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and risks undermining the entire Kyoto Protocol by providing carbon reduction credits for projects that do not actually reduce emissions. The report notes that seven hydro projects � which account for nearly 40% of the credits being claimed by the 30 projects moving through the CDM approval process � were already planned and being developed. Most are thus non-additional and provide industrialized countries with a loophole in the reduction targets they agreed under the Protocol. The report is available online at: http://www.irn.org/programs/greenhouse/021025.dammingthecdm.pdf
(WRI 2002) The report by Duncan Austin and Amanda Sauer evaluates how environmental issues might impact the future financial performance of leading companies in the oil and gas sector. For more information visit: http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_description.cfm?PubID=3719
(WRI 2002) This policy brief by Anthony C. Janetos and Amy Wagener identifies the research needed to understand effects of climate change policies on public health, transportation, and ecosystems in order to have a more complete picture of the potential consequences such policies have for the environment and the economy. For more information visit: http://www.wri.org/climate/janetos_ancillary.html
POWER POLITICS: EQUITY AND ENVIRONMENT IN ELECTRICITY REFORM
(WRI 2002) The report by Navroz Dubash draws on past experience from six country studies, providing recommendations for including environmental concerns and social public benefits as integral parts of reforms in the electric power sector. For more information visit: http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_description.cfm?PubID=3159
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| 0.847721 | 1,315 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Fact and Fiction
The Most Poorly Tested Chemicals in the World
Facts and Figures
Regulations and Testing Requirements: New vs. Old chemicals
New chemicals are defined here as chemicals that have yet to enter or are still within the Premanufacture Notification (PMN) process. During the 90 day PMN process EPA staff can ask for some limited data on the toxicity and physical characteristics of a chemical, although they rarely do. EPA reviews between 2000 and 2500 applications through the PMN program each year, or between 40 and 50 new chemical applications each week. (EPA 1997, pg. 6 and 44).
It is not just health data that is lacking in the PMN process. There is precious little data of any kind submitted with PMNs, chiefly because none is required. As 3M puts it on their PMN forms posted on EPA's web site, "You are not required to submit the listed test data if you do not have it." And chemical manufacturers almost never have it.
Because it receives virtually no data from industry, EPA relies on estimates of key parameters to judge if the chemical might be toxic to humans, for the vast majority of new chemicals. EPA's standard approach includes a concept called the structure-activity relationship (SAR), which is a comparison of the chemical with other chemicals that are structurally similar for which toxicity data are available. In essence, EPA uses test results for chemical cousins to estimate how toxic a new chemical might be. This is a risky way to do business. The General Accounting Office points to a case where EPA underestimated the risk of a chemical (dialkyldialkoxysilane) by a factor of 100 because they were forced to rely on SARs in their original risk assessment (GAO 1994b).
Old chemicals are defined here as all chemicals that were on the market when TSCA passed in 1976, plus any chemical that has made it to market through the PMN process. EPA has even less authority to require tests for old chemicals than for new ones. For old chemicals EPA must go through a rulemaking to request a single test on a single chemical.
As of 1998, EPA had requested tests for only 263 chemicals, or only about 0.4 percent of the (approximately) 70,000 "old" chemicals in commercial use in the United States (ED 1998). These are only single tests for one effect, such as cancer, or perhaps just an acute toxicity test. This does not mean that EPA has requested comprehensive testing for 263 chemicals.
What about high production volume chemicals? Isn't industry participating in a wildly successful voluntary test program?
In 1998, EPA reported that the most heavily used chemicals in commerce are largely untested:
Screening level data, even if they indicate a problem, are not sufficient to restrict the use of a compound.
On October 9, 1998 EPA's administrator Carol Browner sent letters to the CEO's of more than 900 chemical companies that manufacture HPV chemicals, inviting them to participate in EPA's voluntary testing initiative, the "HPV Challenge Program." As of February 2001, 28 months after these invitations were mailed, industry had submitted only 17 testing work plans to EPA - and EPA has not received the results of any new tests.
About half of the companies have not responded, and presumably will not respond to the invitation, while 469 companies have indicated some level of commitment. Of the 2,863 chemicals initially identified, 25% (708 chemicals) remain entirely without a commitment for testing from the manufacturers.
The program deadline for all tests to be completed recently slid several years - EPA is now asking for all new test results to be submitted by 2005, but if past is prologue this deadline is not likely to be met.
Current Status of HPV Testing
The EPA website on the HPV challenge program now refers people to an industry-sponsored site (http://www.hpvchallenge.com) for updates on industry commitments under the program. Industry data on this site show that:
Only 21 of these 63 tests are directly relevant to human health.
As of February, 2001, none of these test results had been submitted to EPA under the HPV program.
Companies that fail to participate in the voluntary initiative may be subjected to formal testing requirements under legally binding test rules. In December 2000 EPA issued the first of these test rules, covering 37 of the 708 chemicals for which there is no voluntary testing commitment. If EPA continues this rulemaking pace each year, test rules for all 708 chemicals will be in place in the year 2022.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 1997. Chemistry Assistance Manual for Premanufacture Notification Submitters. Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. EPA 744-R-97-003. March 1997.
General Accounting Office (GAO). 1994b. Toxic Substances Control Act: Preliminary Observations on Legislative Changes to Make TSCA More Effective (Testimony, 07/13/94, GAO/T-RCED-94-263).
Environmental Defense Fund (ED). 1998. Toxic Ignorance. Washington, D.C.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 1998. Chemical Hazard Data Availability Study. What do we really know about the safety of high production volume chemicals? EPA's 1998 baseline of hazard information that is readily available to the public. Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. April 1998.
General Accounting Office (GAO). 1994a. Toxic Substances Control Act: Preliminary Observations on Legislative Changes to Make TSCA More Effective (Testimony, 07/13/94, GAO/T-RCED-94-263). Summary available on http://www.gao.gov.
last updated: march.27.2009
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Standard Operating ProceduresVirtual College Ltd
- 3 hours of study
Frequent Asked Questions
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs for short) are used to ensure consistency and quality within the organisation and ensures that the right people are trained for the job.
This course will help you to gain knowledge for the theory behind and practical tips for implementing SOPs. Including, understanding what a SOP is, understanding the value of SOP's assessments and training matrices - and understanding how to write all three documents.
The content of this course has been independently certified as conforming to universally accepted Continuous Professional Development (CPD) guidelines.
When you successfull complete your course you will be able to print your own certificate.
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| 0.879663 | 146 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Current Events & Pop Culture
Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching Abolitionism Teacher Pass
Teaching Abolitionism Teacher Pass includes:
- Assignments & Activities
- Reading Quizzes
- Current Events & Pop Culture articles
- Discussion & Essay Questions
- Challenges & Opportunities
- Related Readings in Literature & History
Sample of Current Events & Pop Culture
A May 2010 blog from the Atlantic Monthly discusses the role of hindsight in judging advocates of radical versus gradual change in the context of the abolition of slavery.
"I've said I have some degree of sympathy for the notion of letting integration happen through the market. But an examination of the full context of the times quickly demonstrates why that wasn't possible. It was not merely a group of merchants disliking black people, it was an entire society engineered toward white supremacy. This public/private split we've been debating was only a quasi-reality. The Klan were the cops, and many white Southerners held black inferiority as part of their identity. It strikes me just as the 'What's the matter with Kansas' argument. Self-interest is sometimes more than economic. Likewise, I think about Lincoln and how easy it is to attack him for his caution, for not immediately--at the onset of the war--freeing the slaves. But when you start seeing that he was holding together this fragile coalition, when you see some of the military commanders going South and being converted to abolitionism by seeing slavery first-hand, as opposed to by presidential edict, you start to see the wisdom of going slow. You start to see how going fast likely would have been disastrous."
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| 0.966729 | 340 | 3.25 | 3 |
Weekly Daf #321
Ketubot 4 - 10 Issue #321
27 Adar II - 4 Nissan 5760 / 3 - 9 April 2000
This publication is also available in the following formats: Explanation of these symbols
Guard Your Ears
How careful we must be regarding what enters our ears is stressed in these two statements of Tannaim cited in our gemara:
"Why is the entire ear formed from firm matter while only the lobe is soft? In order that if one hears something improper he should be able to fold the lobe into the ear and block out the sound."
"One should avoid allowing idle words to enter his ears because the ears are the first of all the parts of the body to become burned (they are the most susceptible to extreme temperature -- Rashi)."
Maharsha thus explains the connection between these two statements:
After first being warned about hearing forbidden words, we are cautioned to avoid hearing even things that are not forbidden but which have no positive purpose for serving Hashem through mitzvot. In this matter the sense of hearing is radically different from the other senses. Although it is certainly forbidden to see things that are forbidden as they can provoke improper thoughts, there is no need to avoid seeing neutral things, even if such viewing serves no positive purpose in mitzvah performance.
The reason for this distinction is that hearing is the most susceptible of all the senses, as forbidden words are so prevalent in human affairs. It is therefore necessary to exercise special discipline regarding our ears by blocking out even those neutral words, lest they lead to receiving improper communications as well.
The ear was therefore created in a manner which will bring home this concept of susceptibility. Whether it is the unprotected ear turning a painful red in freezing weather, or tingling in an overheated room, we are constantly reminded of how sensitive that part of the body is to external influences. This serves to remind us that the sense of hearing rooted in that ear is also susceptible to external influences, and that special caution must be exercised regarding what we hear.
A Second Look at Seven Blessings
The "sheva berachot" (seven blessings), which are said at a wedding and at the feasts of celebration during the following week, contain something for everyone, from the parties getting married to the people helping them celebrate. We here offer the observations of Rashi in regard to a few of those berachot.
The first beracha (at the chupah itself this blessing comes after the beracha on wine) is the praise of Hashem "Who created everything for His glory." This is not really a part of the ensuing order of berachot which deal with the institution of marriage itself. It is rather a tribute to those who have gathered to do kindness with the chatan and kallah (groom and bride) by celebrating their simcha. This is a glorification of the Creator because it reflects the role that He played in the first wedding in history when He took care of every detail to unite the first man and woman as a couple.
The final two berachot seem to have similar climaxes, one praising Hashem for "bringing joy to the chatan and the kallah," and the other for "bringing joy to the chatan with the kallah." The first of these deals not with the joy of marriage itself but is rather a prayer for the success, prosperity and happiness of both the chatan and kallah for all their days. Since each of them is being blessed our climax is "and." It is only in the final beracha that we praise Hashem for creating the special relationship of husband and wife through shared affection and joy. We therefore conclude this beracha with the term "chatan with the kallah" for it is this togetherness which Hashem has blessed with simcha.
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
Production Design: Michael Treblow
© 2000 Ohr Somayach International - All rights reserved. This publication may be distributed to another person intact without prior permission. We also encourage you to include this material in other publications, such as synagogue newsletters. However, we ask that you contact us beforehand for permission, and then send us a sample issue.
This publication is available via E-Mail
Ohr Somayach Institutionsis an international network of Yeshivot and outreach centers, with branches in North America, Europe, South Africa and South America. The Central Campus in Jerusalem provides a full range of educational services for over 685 full-time students.
The Jewish Learning Exchange (JLE) of Ohr Somayach offers summer and winter programs in Israel that attract hundreds of university students from around the world for 3 to 8 weeks of study and touring.
Copyright © 2000 Ohr Somayach International. Send us feedback.
Dedication opportunities are available for Weekly Daf. Please contact us for details.
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| 0.950964 | 1,004 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Interprets EXPR as an octal string and returns the corresponding
value. (If EXPR happens to start off with
, interprets it as a
hex string. If EXPR starts off with
0b, it is interpreted as a
binary string. Leading whitespace is ignored in all three cases.)
The following will handle decimal, binary, octal, and hex in standard
- $val = oct($val) if $val =~ /^0/;
The oct function is commonly used when a string such as
to be converted into a file mode, for example. Although Perl
automatically converts strings into numbers as needed, this automatic
conversion assumes base 10.
Leading white space is ignored without warning, as too are any trailing non-digits, such as a decimal point (oct only handles non-negative integers, not negative integers or floating point).
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| 0.840741 | 188 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Malthus argued that redemption of the public debt wold be unwise given England’s economic circumstances, which were characterized by an excess of capital relative to aggregate demand and, consequently, a low rate of profit.
That is from Nancy Churchman, her full piece is here. Referring to the early 19th century, she also writes:
There was broad agreement that the debt had reached a dangerously high level and that action of some sort should be taken to address it.
There is good ‘ol Lord Lauderdale, circa 1803:
He constantly links the welfare of the country with the continuance of a high rate of yield to holders of the public debt.
Say himself advocated public works to remedy unemployment, and criticized Ricardo for neglecting the possibility of hoarding if there was a lack of investment opportunities.
And turning to Ricardo:
Ricardo’s theory of public loans then was based on an emphasis of the fact that the primary burden to the community was derived from the wasteful nature of public expenditure itself rather than from the methods adopted to finance such expenditure.
I like this one from Ricardo, in favor of tax rather than debt finance, from his Essay on the Funding System:
When the pressure of war is felt at once, without mitigation, we shall be less disposed wantonly to engage in an expensive contest.
Ho hum, ho hum. Go back and read the classics, and hang your heads in despair.
As I’ve mentioned, it sometimes feels like we are living in the early 19th century.
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| 0.972685 | 320 | 2.53125 | 3 |
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