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Virginia Standards of Learning: 7th Grade
> Aligned Resources
Virginia Standards of Learning
Computation and Estimation:
7.4a The student will solve practical problems using rational numbers (whole numbers, fractions, decimals) and percents
Introduces students to fractions and explores basic mathematical operations with fractions, comparing fractions, and converting fractions into decimals or percents.
Visualize fractions by coloring in the appropriate portions of either a circle or a square, then order those fractions from least to greatest. Fraction Sorter is one of the Interactivate assessment explorers.
Tortoise and Hare Race
Step through the tortoise and hare race, based on Zeno's paradox, to learn about the multiplication of fractions and about convergence of an infinite sequence of numbers.
No Results Found
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| 0.746794 | 186 | 4.1875 | 4 |
Usually, your pet picks you up and lifts your spirits, but a new study shows they can also bring you down.
According to a recent study in the Center for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, pets attribute to nearly 87,000 fall–related injuries a year.
The most common injuries are fractures, a close second, contusions and abrasions.
Individuals 75 and older had the highest rate of fracture, something that emergency responders say can be especially dangerous at that age.
Sandy Files with the Roice–Hurst Humane Society says pet safety goes both ways.
She talks to new owners on adoption days, reminding them to be aware of playful but sometimes dangerous antics for elderly folks right down to small children.
She suggests if you have a dog that likes to jump, a great way to train them is by using a squirt bottle full of water to teach them to stay down.
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Lisa M. Weiss (Watershed Coordinator)
Dr. Peter Rona (Marine Geologist)
Hudson Submarine Canyon, an ancient extension of the Hudson River Valley, extends over 400 nautical miles seaward from the New York-New Jersey Harbor, across the continental margin to the deep ocean basin. The Hudson Canyon region is made up of the outer continental shelf, slope and rise of the continental margin off New York and New Jersey between the water depths of 100 m and 3500 m (As deep as 10,500 ft). Using the largest vessel in the NOAA fleet, the Ronald H. Brown, investigators from four academic agencies and two governmental agencies will map a significant portion of the slope and rise to the east and west of the Hudson Canyon. Scientists also will be combining existing bathymetric (depth) and backscatter intensity data of this Hudson canyon system. The exploration for methane venting zones in the Hudson Canyon region, begun during the Deep East 2001 expedition, will be continued using a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD)-rosette sampling system to recover water samples that will allow us to profile the water column for further chemical analysis.
The Expedition Objectives
This expedition includes two objectives: 1) to map areas of the continental slope and rise to the east and west of Hudson Canyon, and merge this data with existing multibeam coverage of the Hudson Canyon to produce the first coherent high-resolution bathymetric map of the Hudson canyon region; and 2) to target methane-venting zones in the Hudson canyon region using a CTD-rosette system to profile the water column and recover water samples for in-depth chemical analysis.
Mapping the Canyon
The bathymetry and geology of the continental slope and rise of the New York Bight where the Hudson Canyon and Shelf System is locatedare known only by using modern high-resolution multibeam mapping systems. Our mapping efforts, which will include the use of multibeam sonar and high-resolution seismic reflection profiling, will help provide an overall view of the bathymetry and backscatter intensity of the sea floor by mapping areas of the slope and rise to the east and west of the Hudson Canyon, a portion of outer shelf and upper slope, and on the outer shelf.
This type of comprehensive mapping is an essential component of exploration of the Hudson Canyon region. Maps combining new and old data are essential for further exploration of habitat, contaminant distributions and gas hydrates.
After our cruise, the data we collect will be edited, interpreted and merged with other existing data sources. We will publish, in paper form and digitally, our observations showing the bathymetry, shaded relief, and backscatter intensity of the sea floor and interpretations of these features. We will work with the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) to ensure that these data are archived and incorporated into future editions of the NGDC coastal relief model.
Additionally, we will incorporate new and existing multibeam data into a geographic information systems (GIS) project covering the Hudson Shelf Valley and Canyon system. Our long-term objective is to produce maps showing detailed bathymetry and backscatter intensity of the Hudson Shelf Valley and Canyon system, a digital database, and interpretations of the major features of the sea floor
Targeting Methane Vents
A gas hydrate is defined as an ice-like crystalline mineral in which hydrocarbon gases and non-hydrocarbon gases are held within rigid cases of water molecules." In other words, hydrate molecules are methane gases locked inside a cage of water. The concentration of methane gas molecules locked into hydrate crystals can be up to 160 times greater than the volume of pure gas! In fact, gas hydrates may be the single largest reservoir of carbon on the planet. If we were to find a large enough deposit of methane molecules in hydrate form, it may be able to power the United States with clean natural gas for centuries!
During this expedition, we will collect water samples to further explore the possibility of methane seeps from the sea floor on the continental slope. Current data on the area's water column suggest widespread methane seepage from the continental slope. The depths of the methane seeps suggest that the possible methane sources are near the shelf break (around 50 m) and around 300 m. Samples collected during the Deap East expedition of 2001 indicated methane at the bottom and at about 1500 m, but the data collected was unconclusive.
For this project, we hypothesize that there are sites of methane seepage at 2600 to 3000 m in the Hudson River Canyon channel. These seeps are near the plumes identified by Dr. Peter Rona and may be near slump-like features on the slope. We will collect methane samples and determine water column profiles from hydrocasts using the shipboard CTD/rosette. Sampling will be designed to provide a general survey of the methane distribution in the water column to detect any peaks in methane concentration at specific depths. We also will be sampling at three to five stations at about the 1500 m contour inshore of the deeper stations to determine if methane plumes have been moving across from the shallower portions of the shelf. In the past, methane seeps not only have led researchers to gas hydrates, but they have led scientists to find hydrothermal vents as well. Future Explorations During future expeditions, scientists may concentrate on the habitats within the Hudson Canyon and their associated megafauna
and deep-sea biodiversity. We also may study the potential for the canyon to act as a conduit for the transportation of sediments, including pollutants between land and sea
During future expeditions, scientists may concentrate on the habitats within the Hudson Canyon and their associated megafauna and deep-sea biodiversity. We also may study the potential for the canyon to act as a conduit for the transportation of sediments, including pollutants between land and sea.
Sign up for the Ocean Explorer E-mail Update List.
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From Litigation, Legislation: A Review of Brian Landsberg's Free at Last to Vote: The Alabama Origins of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
Yale Law School
June 20, 2008
Yale Law Journal, Vol. 117, 2008
NYU Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 08-20
In the early 1960s, Brian Landsberg and his colleagues at the Department of Justice challenged the discriminatory practices of Alabama's local voting officials, who manipulated registration requirements to prevent blacks from joining the voting rolls. In Free at Last to Vote: The Alabama Origins of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Landsberg gives these lawyers their historical due. He demonstrates how the cases they brought helped shape the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Though Landsberg's account ends with the dawn of the VRA, the importance of the DOJ litigators' work ultimately transcended is impact on the original statute. The history Landsberg tells underscores that when remedies migrate from litigation to legislation, they establish a framework that subsequent reformers can use to address new challenges. This Essay demonstrates this dynamic. It highlights how the DOJ lawyers provoked a paradigm shift that ultimately supported the extension of the VRA to language minorities, giving rise to the bilingual ballot. Though much separates 1960s Alabama from 1970s Texas, the time and place that produced the VRA's extensions, the two historical moments are connected by principles of great significance to contemporary conceptions of democracy. This same comparison, however, also demonstrates that remedies targeted at the problems of one group may not translate well to the context of another group. In addition to providing an opportunity for reflection on the far-reaching consequences of the DOJ litigation, then, Landsberg's work reminds us of the need to look beyond existing frameworks when addressing contemporary challenges to equality in the political process.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 48
Keywords: voting rights, legal history, citizenship, bilingual ballots, Latino vote, immigrants' rights
Date posted: June 27, 2008 ; Last revised: November 22, 2011
© 2016 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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This will be a long three part blog about how we are using the Raspberry Pi in the Feynlabs program as a way to introduce Computer science to kids
The Raspberry Pi is a platform – and as it’s creators have always indicated – it is the community which will drive it’s direction and evolution. Feynlabs is using the Raspberry Pi to teach the concepts of programming languages to kids and in doing so, creating a new way in which deep principles of Computer Science can be introduced to kids.
Feynlabs is the first initiative to teach the concepts of programming languages to kids (as opposed to a specific programming language). By abstracting the common elements of programming languages, our aim is to rapidly learn any programming language
To get a background of my thinking, you should have a look at these three articles on which I will build upon
As you can imagine, to achieve our goals of teaching the Concepts of Programming Languages to kids – we have to explore deep into Computer Science.
So, in this set of three articles, I will cover
a) An outline of Computer Science for kids
b) Our approach to teach computer science by abstracting the concepts of programming languages
c) How we are using the Raspberry Pi in our work to teach the Concepts of Programming Languages
Some more introductory notes:
a) feynlabs is addressing a unique (not yet addressed) problem – which I can encapsulate as ‘How do we take learners from 0 to 60 fast?’ i.e. accelerate the computer science learning stage so that they don’t get bogged down and can quickly see the ‘vista’ so to speak i.e. the big picture vision’. From a learning standpoint this would be a success because once the participant can see the big picture, they can add their own unique contribution/imagination to learning
b) From our early trials, we can say that teaching ‘concepts of programming languages’ to kids is a unique experience because you have to start with the abstract (which can be more complex in some ways) – and then move to the concrete and finally move back to the abstract again i.e. move back to concepts. Specifically, our current approach is to start with the concepts (including the question of what is a ‘concept’) – then address the concrete implementation using Raspberry Pi and Python. This allows us to explore many aspects of Computer Science through Pi-face, Pygames etc.
c) Finally, we move back to the abstract domain by looking at a classification of programming languages and specific implementations in other languages such as Processing, C, Java Script and others.
d) This approach allows us to do some unique things such as co-relate programming to concrete examples, take a systems led approach etc.
Thus, Feynlabs is creating a set of unique techniques to teach computer science to kids based on
a) Teaching the concepts of Programming Languages to kids and
b) Using the Raspberry Pi and other devices to introduce the ideas we are developing so that the participants understand Computer Science
c) We will evolve these techniques through the trails we are working with in the community
In this sense, our work through Feynlabs is far more complex than merely teaching programming.
So, in this context, what is computer science?
Here, I am building upon some excellent work in a paper called Computer Science: A curriculum for schools by the Computing at School Working Group endorsed by BCS, Microsoft, Google and Intellect – March 2012. You can read the full paper – Computer Science: A curriculum for schools
I will summarise the key ideas in this paper which we will build upon in the next two parts of this set of articles (emphasis mine)
- Computer Science is the study of principles and practices that underpin an understanding and modelling of computation, and of their application in the development of computer systems. At its heart lies the notion of computational thinking: a mode of thought that goes well beyond software and hardware, and that provides a framework within which to reason about systems and problems. This mode of thinking is supported and complemented by a substantial body of theoretical and practical knowledge, and by a set of powerful techniques for analysing, modelling and solving problems.
- Computer Science is deeply concerned with how computers and computer systems work, and how they are designed and programmed.
- Pupils studying computing gain insight into computational systems of all kinds, whether or not they include computers.
- Computational thinking influences fields such as biology, chemistry, linguistics, psychology, economics and statistics.
- It allows us to solve problems, design systems and understand the power and limits of human and machine intelligence.
- Computer Science is a practical subject, where invention and resourcefulness are encouraged.
- Computer Science is a discipline. To do this, education aspires primarily to teach disciplines with long-term value, rather than skills with short-term usefulness, although the latter are certainly useful. A “discipline” is characterised by: A body of knowledge, A set of techniques and methods, A way of thinking and working, Longevity:, Independence from specific technologies especially those that have a short shelf-life.
- Computer Science is a quintessential STEM discipline, sharing attributes with Engineering, Mathematics, Science, and Technology: It has its own theoretical foundations and mathematical underpinnings, and involves the application of logic and reasoning. It embraces a scientific approach to measurement and experiment. It involves the design, construction, and testing of purposeful artefacts. It requires understanding, appreciation, and application of a wide range of technologies.
- Computer Science provides pupils with insights into other STEM disciplines, and with skills and knowledge that can be applied to the solution of problems in those disciplines. Although they are invisible and intangible, software systems are among the largest and most complex artefacts ever created by human beings. The marriage between software and hardware that is necessary to realize computer-based systems increases the level of complexity, and the complex web of inter-relationships between different systems increases it yet further. Understanding this complexity and bringing it under control is the central challenge of our discipline.
- In a world where computer-based systems have become all pervasive, those individuals and societies that are best equipped to meet this challenge will have a competitive edge.
- Computer Science and Information Technology are complementary, but they are not the same. Computer Science and Information Technology are complementary subjects. Computer Science teaches a pupil how to be an effective author of computational tools (i.e. software), while IT teaches how to be a thoughtful user of those tools. This neat juxtaposition is only part of the truth, because it focuses too narrowly on computers as a technology, and computing is much broader than that. As Dijkstra famously remarked, “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes
- We want our children to understand and play an active role in the digital world that surrounds them, not to be passive consumers of an opaque and mysterious technology. A sound understanding of computing concepts will help them see how to get the best from the systems they use, and how to solve problems when things go wrong. Moreover, citizens able to think in computational terms would be able to understand and rationally argue about issues involving computation, such as software patents, identity theft, genetic engineering, electronic voting systems for elections, and so on. In a world suffused by computation, every school-leaver should have an understanding of computing.
- A number of key concepts arise repeatedly in computing. They are grouped here under Languages, machines, and computation, Data and representation, Communication and coordination, Abstraction and design. It would not be sensible to teach these concepts as discrete topics in their own right. Rather, they constitute unifying themes that can be used as a way to understand and organise computing knowledge, and are more easily recognised by pupils after they have encountered several concrete examples of the concept in action.
- Much of the power of computers comes from their ability to store and manipulate very large quantities of data. The way in which this data is stored and manipulated can make enormous differences to the speed, robustness, and security of a computer system. This area of computing includes: How data is represented using bit patterns: including numbers, text, music, pictures. How data is stored and transmitted, including: redundancy, error checking, error correction; data compression and information theory; and encryption. How data is organised, for example, in data structures or in databases. How digital data is used to represent analogue measures, such as temperature, light intensity and sound. How analogue measures are converted to digital values and vice versa and how digital computers may be used to control other devices.
- Computers are communication devices. They enable human-to-human communication by way of machine-to-machine communication: a mobile phone computes in order to help us communicate. The design and implementation of these communications systems is a recurrent theme in computing:
- Abstraction is the main mechanism used to deal with complexity and enabling computerisation. Abstraction is both presenting a simplified version through information hiding and making an analysis to identify the essence or essential features. The process of categorisation or classification that breaks down a complex system into a systematic analysis or representation.
- Computer systems have a profound impact on the society we live in, and computational thinking offers a new “lens” through which to look at ourselves and our world. The themes here are very open-ended, taking the form of questions that a thoughtful person might debate, rather than answers that a clever person might know. Intelligence and consciousness. The natural world. DNA encodes the sequence of amino acids that make up proteins. Creativity and intellectual property. Games, music, movies, gallery installations and performing arts are all transformed by computing and online experiences would not be possible without it. Should artistic ways of working be integrated with computational thinking?
- A key challenge in computational thinking is the scale and complexity of the systems we study or build. The main technique used to manage this complexity is abstraction5. The process of abstraction takes many specific forms, such as modelling, decomposing, and generalising. In each case, complexity is dealt with by hiding complicated details behind a simple abstraction, or model, of the situation. Modelling, Decomposing Generalising and classifying
- Computer Science is more than programming, but programming is an absolutely central process for Computer Science. In an educational context, programming encourages creativity, logical thought, precision and problem-solving, and helps foster the personal, learning and thinking skills required in the modern school curriculum. Every pupil should have repeated opportunities to design, write, run, and debug, executable programs. The ability to understand and explain a program is much more important than the ability to produce working but incomprehensible code.
- Depending on level, pupils should be able to: Design and write programs that include Sequencing: doing one step after another, o Selection (if-then-else): doing either one thing or another, Repetition (Iterative loops or recursion), Language constructs that support abstraction: wrapping up a computation in a named abstraction, so that it can be re-used. (The most common form of abstraction is the notion of a “procedure” or “function” with parameters.), Some form of interaction with the program’s environment, such as input/output, or event-based programming.
- Our approach to teach computer science by abstracting the concepts of programming languages
- How we are using the Raspberry Pi in our work to teach the Concepts of Programming Languages
comments and feedback welcome at ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com
Image source: Raspberry Pi foundation
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Being infected with a chickenpox is probably one of the worst days you’ll ever experience in your life. Not only are the fluid-filled bumps very itchy and annoying, this disease also carries other illnesses such as flu, loss of appetite and headaches. And the aftermath of which are a handful of ugly scars all over your body.
Chickenpox is one of those viral infections that affect people who have a weak or compromised immune system. This infection leads to the development of itchy reddish bumps in almost all parts of your body along with a mild fever. Usually, the infection lasts for about 2-3 weeks and then you’re left to take care of the crusty scabs which could also last for a week until flaking can be observed.
Since chickenpox is a kind of a viral infection, anyone who comes in contact with a person suffering from the disease is likely to get infected as well, granting that he wasn’t infected with chickenpox before. Most of those who are affected with the virus easily are children since their immune system are susceptible to this foreign organism. Adults who are affected with the virus are those who are in times of weak immune system response or those who have compromised immune systems such as those with HIV, STD, and the like.
The good thing about chickenpox is that you could only get infected with it once in your lifetime. After such experience, your immune system will develop their own antigens against the said virus. Also, you’ll be somewhat lucky enough to have it during your childhood days since the scars will have longer time to heal rather than when you’re an adult. But in any case, being infected is indeed troublesome. With that reality, the need to prevent its occurrence or at least to suppress it is a must.
As of today, vaccination against the dreadful virus is commonly injected in kids. These vaccines have shown results of preventing or suppressing the effects of chickenpox. But since vaccines aren’t as recognized by everyone to be effective, the need to choose other means of preventing such dreary infection must be known and that’s what we are about to share to you.
Any viral infection occurs on individuals with a weak immune system. As a result, strengthening the immune system is one sure way in order to prevent having it. To effectively strengthen the immune system, here are the following tips.
- Good diet
The role of the nutrients we get in food is very important when it comes to strengthening our immune system. It’s basically one of the natural and effective means to add more protection for us without the cost of other food supplements. This diet must include fresh and organic fruits and vegetables, fishes with omega-3 fatty acids and a well-balanced amount of carbohydrates. Also when cooking your vegetables, try as much as possible to not overcook it since it will somehow denature the food. Steaming it lightly or eating it raw is much more recommended to properly absorb the nutrients.
- Nutritional Supplements
Sometimes, as we grow more years, our body’s ability to properly absorb the nutrients from our food also gets weaker. Also, children lack some needed vitamins to strengthen their immune system. That’s why we also need the help of some food supplements. The reality is, our bodies cannot get all the minerals and vitamins that we need from the food that we intake daily. This is perfectly the reason why we need supplements to aid our bodies. These food supplements are specifically designed for the population it intends to serve. For children, there are a lot of vitamin C supplements that comes in lots of forms which could also contain other helpful vitamins such as vitamin A, Zinc and Iron. For adults, food supplements are very much readily available in your favorite drugstore or even grocery stores. Just make sure that you choose the ones with a trusted label.
- Reduce Stress
A stressful day can compromised your immune system. So better avoid being stressed out at all times. Get enough good sleep that runs from 8-10 hours. Don’t skip meals. Also, have an active lifestyle to release some of that stress. It is also recommended to have a good time, laugh, have a strong support system, have a positive relationship, and other stress-free means that can boost your IgA levels – a protein from the immune system that helps fight infections.
And these are the means for you to have a healthy immune system without the need for a vaccination. Of course, if you are really worried for such infection, then you are free to get vaccinated from reliable institutions. But even after the vaccination, follow these steps also since chickenpox isn’t the only threat to your body.
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"We have developed a model where we disturb blood flow in the carotid artery by partial ligation, and atherosclerosis appears within two weeks," he says. "This rapid progression allows us to demonstrate cause and effect, and to examine the landmark events at the beginning of the process."
Jo says that endothelial cells, which form the inner lining of blood vessels, are equipped with sensors that detect changes in fluid flow.
Results The internal jugular veins’ wall showed a significant derangement of the endothelial layer as compared to controls. Surprisingly, no endothelial cells were found in the defective cusps, and the surface of the structure is covered by a fibro-reticular lamina.
But it also can mean:a pointed end or part where two curves meet
maybe that's what *cusp* means in this context?a fold or flap of a cardiac valve
Surprisingly, no endothelial cells were found in the defective cusps
the surface of the structure is covered by a fibro-reticular lamina
reticular lamina a layer of the basement membrane, adjacent to the connective tissue, seen in some epithelia; it is of variable thickness and is composed of condensed connective tissue with a reticulum of collagen fibers.
1. A netlike formation or structure; a network.
basement membrane a sheet of amorphous extracellular material upon which the basal surfaces of epithelial cells rest; it is also associated with muscle cells, Schwann cells, fat cells, and capillaries, interposed between the cellular elements and the underlying connective layer.
layer; a thin, flat plate of a larger composite structure.
epithelium [ep″ĭ-the´le-um] (pl. epithe´lia) (Gr.)
the cellular covering of internal and external surfaces of the body, including the lining of vessels and other small cavities. It consists of cells joined by small amounts of cementing substances. Epithelium is classified into types on the basis of the number of layers deep and the shape of the superficial cells.
ThisIsMA wrote:I wonder what the difference is between endothelium and epithelium. They sound like synonyms. Maybe endothelium is the type of epithelium that lines blood vessel walls?
In the news--- Newly discovered peptide, blocks remyelination!! Stopping this process repairs MS damage.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles ... tients.htm
What's this "new" peptide we want to block?
It's called endothelin-1 or ET-1, and it's released by the astrocytes maintaining the endothelial layer of your blood brain barrier.
We've known about ET-1 for years. It's not only found in MS.
Endothelin-1 is raised in situations where there is endothelial distress. When endothelial cells are hurt by ischemia and oxidative stress, and nitric oxide levels are low. ET-1 creates vasoconstriction, is pro-inflammatory, pro-fibrotic and slows blood flow. Which would explain why it inhibits remyelination. Yet not one single press release on this exciting new MS discovery mentioned this important fact, or what causes ET-1 levels to be high in the first place.
As you might expect, plasma ET-1 levels are very high in ischemic stroke.
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/2 ... 4.full.pdf
ET-1 released by astrocytes is seen after subarachnoid hemorrhage
Serum levels of ET-1 are used as a marker of cerebral ischemia
And Endothelin 1 serum levels are through the roof in people with MS----
The plasma ET-1 levels were, on average, 224% higher in the patients with MS than in the controls (p < 0.005). The mean ET-1 levels (mean +/- standard deviation [SD]) were 3.5 +/- 0.83 pg/mL (min 2.13, max 5.37 pg/mL) in patients with MS and 1.56 +/- 0.3 pg/mL (min 0.9, max 2.13 pg/mL) in healthy volunteers. Neither the different forms nor stages of MS had an influence on the results. The ET-1 level was also not correlated with the duration of the disease.
It simply means that endothelial dysfunction is a huge part of the MS disease process.
cheerleader wrote:bump---for ElliotB and his blood flow thread in general discussions...
Major endothelial dysfunction and aptosis in the intraluminal septa and defective valves of pwMS----highly deranged when compared to normals.
http://phl.sagepub.com/content/early/20 ... 0.abstract
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E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
A posteriori [Latin, from the latter].
An a posteriori argument is proving the cause from the effect. Thus, if we see a watch, we conclude there was a watchmaker. Robinson Crusoe inferred there was another human being on the desert island, because he saw a human footprint in the wet sand. It is thus the existence and character of Deity is inferred from his works. (See A PRIORI.)
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Repair, re-use and recycle!
Parliament wants Europeans to switch to a circular economy by using raw materials more efficiently and reducing waste.
Every European consumes on average 14 tonnes of raw materials per year. And produces, every year, five tonnes of waste.
And yet this waste, these products and these materials could be re-used, repaired or recycled. This is the principle of the circular economy, a concept promoted by Parliament.
The aim is to move away from the linear model that’s been predominant since the industrial revolution. It’s time to break with the 'take-make-use-dispose' pattern of growth.
In its place we're to have a circular economy where the lifecycle of products is extended to reduce the use of raw materials and the production of waste. Raw materials, design, production or remanufacturing, distribution, consumption, use, reuse or repair, collection - residual waste leaves the cycle - and recycling of what can be recycled in order to reinsert these raw materials at the beginning of this new, endless cycle.
Applying the principle of the circular economy, Parliament wants to increase resource efficiency in the EU by 30% by 2030. More value would be produced with fewer materials and consumption would be altered.
This could boost GDP by nearly 1% and create an extra 2 million sustainable jobs.
More from this channel
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FAQ: Seattle Wearable Artificial Kidney safety trial
Answers to common questions about the WAK and its initial testing
HSNewsBeat | Updated 3:30 PM, 10.03.2014|
Posted in: Research
Answers to common questions about the WAK and its initial testing
By Leila Gray | HSNewsBeat | Updated 3:30 PM, 10.03.2014
Posted in: Research
[Oct. 3: This file has been updated.]
[See corresponding news release: Wearable Artificial Kidney safety test receives go-ahead]
What is the Wearable Artificial Kidney?
The Wearable Artificial Kidney, also known as the WAK, is a miniaturized dialysis device that can be worn like a tool belt. It connects to a patient via a catheter. Like more sizable dialysis machines, it was designed to filter the blood of people whose kidneys are no longer working. Unlike current portable or stationary dialysis machines, it runs continuously on batteries and is not plugged into an electrical outlet or attached to a large water pipeline.
What is the impetus for developing such a device?
One reason for developing the device is to allow patients more mobility during a dialysis session and the ability to go about some of their daily activities while the device runs. With present-day dialysis treatment, patients are tethered to a cumbersome machine. On average, such sessions occur three times a week and three to four hours each time.
Another reason the researchers entered this device-development field is because they were concerned about the lack of progress in treating patients with end-stage renal disease. People with this condition have a relatively poor quality of life and a high mortality rate.
Who created the Wearable Artificial Kidney? Where did early research take place?
Dr. Victor Gura, a physician specializing in internal medicine and kidney disease, created the initial prototypes for the WAK in his clinic in Beverly Hills, Calif. He completed the prototypes in a lab at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. His original team included the late Austrian physicist and equipment safety standards developer Hans Dietrich Polachegg, as well as bioengineer Masoud Beizai, and physician and medical device researcher Carlos Ezon, both of whom live in Los Angeles. Gura is a clinical associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Are there any patents or trademarks on the device?
The device and its components have several U.S. and foreign patients. Wearable Artificial Kidney is being registered as a trademark.
At what stage of development is the device you plan to test?
The WAK already has been tested in laboratory, animal and preliminary human studies. The results, and supporting data, are in the public domain in peer-reviewed medical journals. In the pending study, researchers will test the safety and clinical performance of the current prototype in patients for longer sessions than previously attempted. This will be the first human trial of the device in the United States under the agreement with the Food & Drug Administration as part of the FDA’s Innovation 2.0 Pathway.
What is the FDA Innovation Pathway? How is it changing how medical devices such as this one are tested and approved?
FDA’s Innovation Pathway is an evolving system designed to help safe, breakthrough medical products reach patients in a timely manner. The Pathway ultimately aims to shorten the overall time and cost it takes for the development, assessment and review of medical devices, and to improve how FDA staff and innovators work together.
As part of the Innovation Pathway program, in January 2012 the FDA announced the Innovation Challenge – a pilot program for inventive devices that address end-stage renal disease.
Out of the 32 applications, the FDA accepted three, which then participated in the Innovation Pathway.Their participation allowed the FDA to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Pathway’s features and fine-tune them for broader application.
The FDA created a team to work with the three accepted applicants. The WAK team received extensive guidance and quick review of this technology. This would expedite approval if the device meets safety, performance, and effectiveness standards. For the upcoming trial, Blood Purification Technologies Inc., a company owned by Dr. Gura, has received an Investigative Device Exemption from the FDA, which allows the clinical trial to proceed.
Who will be conducting the Seattle safety and performance trials of the device?
The trial will be conducted by the University of Washington. Principal investigator is Dr. Jonathan Himmelfarb, professor of medicine, Division of Nephrology in the UW School of Medicine, and director of the Kidney Research Institute, a collaboration between the Northwest Kidney Centers and UW Medicine.
How much does the current model of the WAK weigh and how does a patient put it on? What does it look like?
The current version of the WAK model weighs about 10 pounds. It looks like a construction worker’s tool belt. This version is still an experimental prototype that will ultimately undergo further miniaturization and design improvements to make it smaller, lighter, more streamlined and easier to use.
What new technologies make this possible? What obstacles had to be overcome?
New technologies that are making the prototype of the Wearable Artificial Kidney possible are lighter, more durable batteries and better plastics, and a new type of pump that manages the flow of blood and water inside the device and that has a different flow pattern from current dialysis machines. Finding a way to configure certain chemicals, among them sorbents and enzymes, used in past dialysis machines also played an important role in developing the WAK.
What are other examples of researchers working on wearable kidney dialysis devices?
A group in The Netherlands is working on a hemodialysis wearable device. At least two other teams are working on a wearable peritoneal dialysis device: Renal Solutions, a subsidiary of Fresenius, and a group in Singapore, associated with Baxter, which is developing the AWAK. The WAK researchers said they believe that wearable peritoneal dialysis would be a welcome complement to the ways in which patients with end-stage renal disease could be treated, but added that neither of these devices would compete with the WAK as they would be created for different subgroups of patients.
How does the Wearable Artificial Kidney differ from currently available technologies for kidney failure?
To mention a few of the many differences:
Hemodialysis is now delivered with equipment that is much larger than the WAK. No other machines run on batteries, and all of them require an abundant amount of fresh water – about 40 gallons per treatment. As a consequence, the patient is tethered to the equipment and cannot walk around or move too much. All existing equipment runs intermittently for only about a few hours each time. The WAK will work continuously. It operates on batteries and takes about a pint of water a day. These features would allow patients to walk, go out shopping, work or do errands -- in other words, be active instead of confined during a dialysis session.
The WAK works continuously and slowly to remove fluids from the body at the same pace as healthy kidneys do naturally. The researchers expect that patients will not feel the effects of rapid fluid removal, as they often do with current dialysis methods. The WAK operates with sterile water, making the transfer of bacterial particles, viruses and toxins less likely. Because the patients would maintain normal water, salt and mineral balance, they could be relieved of certain diet restrictions. The researchers also hope to reduce the burden of swallowing many pills every day.
What is the soonest the Wearable Artificial Kidney could be available for general use?
Future clinical trials of the device would be planned and conducted in collaboration with the FDA Innovations Pathway. At this point it isn’t possible to provide a firm time frame for availability. Before it could be a real option for general use by patients in renal failure, the WAK still must pass several clinical trials and undergo design improvements. Its continued development also would require obtaining additional funding.
What will the pending Seattle Wearable Artificial Kidney patient trial measure?
The Seattle trial will be the first in which the WAK is kept working on each patient volunteer for 24 hours. The goal of the trial is to demonstrate that the WAK is as safe and effective as a standard dialysis machine.
What studies of the Wearable Artificial Kidney have been completed? Is this the first patient trial?
Dr. Victor Gura previously studied the WAK in bench and animal trials in his lab at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He then tested it with patients in Vicenza, Italy, and in London in collaboration with local teams in each country.End-stage renal disease patients were treated in both trials, in Italy for six hours and in Britain for eight hours.
How is the trial funded?
Gifts and donations are funding the trial.
How will patients be selected for this safety trial?
The researchers conducting the safety trial will select patient volunteers according to the strict inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study protocol. The FDA and the UW Institutional Review Board, which protects the interests of human subjects, have approved the selection criteria.
What are the criteria for being chosen as a participant?
Only patients who have a catheter for blood access will be eligible. For safety reasons, the WAK cannot be connected with needles inserted in a patient’s arm fistula or graft, and held in place with tape. Needles placed in that manner could dislodge while the patient is walking. Several other criteria restrict who is eligible for this trial.
How many participants will be chosen?
Up to 16 patients will be selected for this safety trial, with the goal of having 10 subjects complete the full study protocol.
Where will you recruit the participants?
The treatment with the WAK will take place at University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle and last only 24 hours. Then subjects will be observed for at least 28 days afterward.It would not make sense to include patients from far away due to logistics. The local team in Seattle will recruit patients from the Pacific Northwest.
The study team members said that they are deeply moved by patients from around the globe who have contacted them to volunteer to serve as subjects for this trial. These patients are eager to see the advent of better technologies to improve their lives and the lives of others with the same medical condition. The duration of this safety trial, however, does not allow for national or worldwide recruitment of volunteers.
What will occur during the testing of the device with patients?
After their regular dialysis, the patients will be connected to the WAK for 24 hours and closely monitored by nephrology nurses and physicians. The inventor and his team will also be present during the trial. The patients will be encouraged to eat, drink and move around while the WAK is running. Blood samples will be drawn periodically to determine that no excess water, salt and toxins accumulate during treatment with the WAK. At the end of the 24-hour dialysis, the patients will be disconnected from the device and will undergo a few more tests to measure what happens to their body composition after the WAK stops running.
How long will participants wear the device?
Each participant will wear the device for one 24-hour session.
What are the risks of participating in the safety trial?
In general terms, many of the known risks in this trial are similar to those of regular dialysis. Nonetheless, this is a new device and unforeseen risks can occur in any clinical trial with a novel technology. The trial will be conducted in a supervised inpatient hospital setting. In the event of problems or complications, the research team and hospital staff can respond quickly to mitigate any adverse effects.
When do you expect to have results?
Results will be available after the trial is completed, the data analyzed and the findings peer-reviewed. The date of release of results to the public cannot be determined at this time.
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Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Great Depression & FDR's "New Deal"
The date for the AP US History exam is fast approaching, and a LOT of topics that could be seen on the test are about to become more familiar to all of you, starting with the Great Depression and the New Deal of the 1930s.
Something that you will all want to do as soon as possible is bring a memory stick to class so that you can watch United Streaming's "America in the 20th Century: The Great Depression." This is a great half-hour-long summary of the 1930s in the United States; I will also allow you to use some practice materials to become more proficient in your knowledge of this formative era in American history, which may also be saved to your memory sticks.
You will also want to visit my McKeel Academy webpage and save the Guidebooks for Chapters 32-33. These are important to study for these two chapters. I expect these to be finished by Friday, April 1st, including essay questions.
You will also need to read Ch. 15 in Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." On Mon., 3/28, I will assign you the usual questions in class (make sure you get it from me!), but this week, you will go the extra mile: there is also a Zinn Ch. 15 study guide on my McKeel Academy webpage. Complete this document as well and email it to me (due dates to follow).
This week, we will be using a new resource to study the Great Depression. It is a multimedia unit of study that can be found at:
You will select Chapter 20 from the Table of Contents. You are required to view Lessons 59 & 60 ("Causes & Consequences of the Great Depression" and "The New Deal"), including all readings, presentations, and anything under the "Explore" tab for each lesson. In addition, under the "Assignments" tab in the Table of Contents for Chapter 20, be familiar with all key terms, complete the map activity on the Dust Bowl, answer the DBQ ("Analyze the responses of FDR's administration to the problems of the Great Depression. How effective were these responses, and how did they change the role of the federal government?"), and complete the writing assignment.
Now, for due dates. Obviously, you already have the "Florida Terror" and "Scopes Monkey Trial" assignments due on Tues., 3/29. Here are this week's assignments due dates:
-Tues., 3/29: "Florida Terror" & "Scopes Monkey Trial"
-Wed., 3/30: Key Terms from the Monterey Institute's online unit & the map activity
Thurs., 3/31: Zinn Ch. 15 Study Guide & questions (#1-#27), Monterey Institute writing assignment ("Rank the causes of the Great Depression, and then write a 300-word essay on the following: identify three points at which intervention by the federal government could have slowed or perhaps even stopped the Depression.")
Fri., 4/1: Have "American Pageant" Guidebooks for Chapters 32-33 completed.
Mon., 4/4: DBQ about the New Deal (this is the ACTUAL AP Exam DBQ from the 2003 exam!)
Now, a few of you have been asking about extra-credit. Here is your opportunity:
1.) For fifteen extra points, post your response to this question on this blog by Fri., 4/1: "How did the philosophy of government change in America during the 1930s as a result of FDR's New Deal?" This should be at least 200 words, and you should use specific examples from this week's learning.
2.) For ten extra points, complete the "Great Depression" flm's video quiz true-false & multiple-choice questions. Correctness will count! For five extra points each, complete the other assignments included in the .pdf file. This can be turned in on Mon., 4/4.
As always, no extra-credit will be accepted from any student that does not turn in ALL required assignments.
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How to Take a Pulse
There are several different ways to take a pulse. If you can't feel a pulse at one location, you will need to try another area on the individual's body, as detailed in the following steps.
The pulse is the movement of blood through the arteries. When the heart beats, the walls of the arteries swell with blood. Between beats, as the blood moves along, the walls shrink back to normal size. The rhythmic swelling and shrinking is what you feel when you take a person's pulse. Take the pulse at the wrist.
Never use your thumb to take a pulse. It has a pulse of its own, and what you feel while trying to locate a pulse may be your own beating heart and not the injured person's.
- Place your second (index) and third (middle) finger on the inside of the injured person's wrist. Your fingers should be right below the wrist crease and near the thumb. Press down. If you find the pulse, go on to step 4; if you don't, proceed to the next step.
- If you can't feel a pulse at the wrist, try the carotid artery at the neck. This is located below the ear, on the side of the neck directly below the jaw. You should feel the artery as you exert pressure on the neck. (This is the best place to take a pulse if you have to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.) If you find the pulse, go to step 4; if you don't, proceed with step 3.
- If you still can't feel a pulse, try using the same two fingers on either side of the Adam's apple at the throat, the femoral pulse at the groin, or in between the muscles on the inner side of the upper arm.
- As soon as you feel a pulse, count the pulse beats for fifteen seconds (you'll need a watch), exerting pressure with your two fingers the whole time.
- Multiply the number you get by four. This gives you the individual's heartbeats per minute, or pulse rate.
A normal pulse ranges from 60 to 90 beats per minute. Babies can have pulse rates up to 120 beats per minute; young children's pulses range from 80 to 160.
A rapid pulse can be a sign of shock or severe strain on the heart such as an asthma attack or electrocution. If the beats are very faint or weak, an injured person might be in shock, his blood flow might be restricted, he might be in a hypothermic condition (from the cold), or he might be suffering from several other conditions. The main thing to be aware of when it comes to a faint heartbeat is to keep an ear out and keep an eye on the person's breathing. If the heartbeat is slow and is combined with ragged, almost nonexistent breathing, an emergency situation is definitely in progress. You might have to perform CPR (if you are trained and certified) or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until help arrives.
First Things First
If the pulse you find is very erratic, don't rely on math. Take a full 60 seconds to count the beats.
Practice taking a pulse on yourself or a family member so you'll be familiar with the process in case of an emergency.
Listening to the Heartbeat
Listening to an injured person's heartbeat is just as important as taking his or her pulse. Obviously, a heartbeat means the person is alive—even if the pulse is so weak that you can't feel it at any location. Here's how to listen to a heartbeat.
- For men: Put your ear below the breastbone, slightly to the left of the left nipple.
For women: Put your ear right below the left breast.
For children: Put your ear slightly to the left of the left nipple.
- Count the heartbeats you hear for one full minute.
A normal adult heart beats between 60 and 90 beats per minute. Children and babies can have ranges higher. When a heartbeat is too fast, it can mean the victim is suffering from agitation or panic, shock, or fever. Treat each of those conditions as needed.
More on: First Aid
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to First Aid Basics © 1996 by Stephen J. Rosenberg, M.D. and Karla Dougherty. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book visit Amazon's web site or call 1-800-253-6476.
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Public health crises of the past decade such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, which spread to 37 countries and caused about 1,000 deaths, and the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic that killed about 300,000 people worldwide have heightened awareness that new viruses or bacteria could spread quickly across the globe, aided by air travel.
While epidemiologists and scientists who study complex network systems such as contagion patterns and information spread in social networks are working to create mathematical models that describe the worldwide spread of disease, to date these models have focused on the final stages of epidemics, examining the locations that ultimately develop the highest infection rates.
But a new study by researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) shifts the focus to the first few days of an epidemic, determining how likely the 40 largest U.S. airports are to influence the spread of a contagious disease originating in their home cities. This new approach could help determine appropriate measures for containing infection in specific geographic areas and aid public health officials in making decisions about the distribution of vaccinations or treatments in the earliest days of contagion.
Unlike existing models, the new MIT model incorporates variations in travel patterns among individuals, the geographic locations of airports, the disparity in interactions among airports, and waiting times at individual airports to create a tool that could be used to predict where and how fast a disease might spread.
"Our work is the first to look at the spatial spreading of contagion processes at early times, and to propose a predictor for which 'nodes' in this case, airports will lead to more aggressive spatial spreading," says Ruben Juanes, the ARCO Associate Professor in Energy Studies in CEE. "The findings could form the basis for an initial evaluation of vaccine allocation strategies in the event of an outbreak, and could inform national security agencies of the most vulnerable pathways for biological attacks in a densely connected world."
A more realistic model
Juanes' studies of the flow of fluids through fracture networks in subsurface rock and the research of CEE's Marta Gonzlez, who uses cellphone data to model human mobility patterns and trace contagion processes in social networks, laid the basis for determining individual travel patterns among airports in the new study. Existing models typically assume a random, homogenous diffusion of travelers from one airport to the next.
However, people don't travel randomly; they tend to create patterns that can be replicated. Using Gonzlez's work on human mobility patterns, Juanes and his research group including graduate student Christos Nicolaides and research associate Luis Cueto-Felgueroso applied Monte Carlo simulations to determine the likelihood of any single traveler flying from one airport to another.
"The results from our model are very different from those of a conventional model that relies on the random diffusion of travelers [and] similar to the advective flow of fluids," says Nicolaides, first author of a paper by the four MIT researchers that was published in the journal PLoS ONE. "The advective transport process relies on distinctive properties of the substance that's moving, as opposed to diffusion, which assumes a random flow. If you include diffusion only in the model, the biggest airport hubs in terms of traffic would be the most influential spreaders of disease. But that's not accurate."
Outsize role for Honolulu
For example, a simplified model using random diffusion might say that half the travelers at the Honolulu airport will go to San Francisco and half to Anchorage, Alaska, taking the disease and spreading it to travelers at those airports, who would randomly travel and continue the contagion.
In fact, while the Honolulu airport gets only 30 percent as much air traffic as New York's Kennedy International Airport, the new model predicts that it is nearly as influential in terms of contagion, because of where it fits in the air transportation network: Its location in the Pacific Ocean and its many connections to distant, large and well-connected hubs gives it a ranking of third in terms of contagion-spreading influence.
Kennedy Airport is ranked first by the model, followed by airports in Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco, Newark, Chicago (O'Hare) and Washington (Dulles). Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which is first in number of flights, ranks eighth in contagion influence. Boston's Logan International Airport ranks 15th.
"The study of spreading dynamics and human mobility, using tools of complex networks, can be applied to many different fields of study to improve predictive models," says Gonzlez, the Gilbert W. Winslow Career Development Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "It's a relatively new but very robust approach. The incorporation of statistical physics methods to develop predictive models will likely have far-reaching effects for modeling in many applications."
|Contact: Denise Brehm|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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AusGeo News March 2009 Issue No. 93
The new full-colour Radiometric Map of Australia was released by the Minister for Resources and Energy, The Hon. Martin Ferguson AM MP, on 22 February 2008. The map is part of a range of digital radiometric products that will directly assist exploration for uranium and thorium as well as heat flow studies and the assessment of geothermal resources. It will also benefit environmental studies and soil and geological mapping.
The new map has been developed by combining more than 450 individual surveys into a single seamless compilation which shows the distribution of the radioactive elements potassium, uranium and thorium across the continent. It shows potassium in red, uranium in blue and thorium in green with the colours combined according to the relative concentrations of the radioelements. The radiometric responses and patterns in the ternary images largely reflect the surface geochemistry and mineralogy of bedrock and regolith materials. The map creates new opportunities for scientists and explorers to relate geochemical patterns in a specific area to similar patterns observed in another part of Australia.
Since airborne surveys commenced in 1951 under Geoscience Australia's predecessor, the Bureau of Mineral Resources, the Earth's magnetic field and gamma-radiation from the ground has been measured over more than 80 percent of the continent. The airborne gamma-ray data had been collected as numerous separate surveys over many years and the equipment and procedures used evolved over time. Consequently, data from different surveys could not be easily compared because they could not be registered to a common datum or baseline.
Geoscience Australia's Onshore Energy Security Program, which commenced in 2006 to provide pre-competitive geoscience information to boost investment in exploration for onshore energy resources, provided an opportunity to solve this problem. As part of this program, Geoscience Australia commissioned UTS Geophysics to fly an Australia-Wide Airborne Geophysical Survey (AWAGS) at a cost of $2.6 million.
The survey covered the entire continent with north-south flight lines spaced 75 kilometres apart, and east-west tie lines spaced 400 kilometres apart. Gamma-ray spectrometric data, acquired at a height of 80 metres along the flight lines was processed according to international specifications and the final estimates of the concentrations of the radioelements comprise the new Australian radioelement baseline.
In collaboration with the state and the Northern Territory geological surveys, scientists at Geoscience Australia used the processed AWAGS data to bring all of the surveys in the national database to the new baseline. The levelled surveys were then compiled to produce a seamlessly merged single map for the whole continent underpinned by digital data at 100 metres resolution for each of potassium, uranium and thorium.
Copies of the map may be obtained from the Geoscience Australia Sales Centre. The gridded dataset can be downloaded free-of-charge in ER Mapper format from the Australian government's Geophysical Archive Data Delivery System (GADDS) download facility.
For more information phone Murray Richardson on +61 2 6249 9229 (email [email protected]) or phone Geoscience Australia Sales Centre on Freecall 1800 800 173 (in Australia) (email [email protected])
Datasets from five new airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys and three new ground gravity surveys have been released since November 2008. The data from these surveys can be interpreted to reveal the sub-surface geology of these areas and will be a valuable tool in assessing the mineral potential of the respective survey areas and will assist mineral exploration.
The South Kimberley airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covers the area in Western Australia where the Early Proterozoic Halls Creek Province meets the younger sediments of the Canning Basin. The Dumbleyung airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covers the soils and geology of the Waging, Dumbleyung, Kukerin, Kojonup and Katanning areas in southern Western Australia. This survey was funded by the South West Catchments Council (SWCC) in partnership with the Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum.
The Cooper Basin East & West airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys cover the Early Permian to Early Triassic Cooper Basin that underlies the Mesozoic Eromanga Basin in southern Queensland. The Normanton airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covers the Karumba Basin in northern Queensland.
The Westmoreland - Normanton gravity survey covers the Carpentaria and Karumba Basins, the Windimurra gravity survey covers the northern Yilgarn Province in Western Australia and the Central Arunta gravity survey covers the area where the Arunta Block meets the Amadeus and Georgina Basins in the Northern Territory.
All of these surveys were managed by Geoscience Australia on behalf of the relevant state geological survey. The data have been incorporated into the national geophysical databases. The point-located and gridded data for the surveys can be obtained free online using the Australian governments' Geophysical Archive Data Delivery System (GADDS).
Table 1. Details of the airborne magnetic, radiometric and elevation surveys.
|Survey||Date||1:250 000 map sheets||Line spacing/terrain clearance/ orientation||Line km||Contractor|
|South Kimberley (WA)||January – October 2008||Lennard River (pt),
Mount Bannerman (pt)
north – south
|163 519||GPX Surveys Pty Ltd|
|Dumbleyung (WA)||March – November 2008|| Dumbleyung (pt),
| 100 m, 400 m
30 m, 60 m
north – south
|75 433||Fugro Airborne Surveys Pty Ltd|
|Cooper Basin East (Qld)||January – September 2008||Windorah (pt),
north – south
|215 769||UTS Geophysics Pty Ltd|
|Cooper Basin West (Qld)||November 2007 – November 2008||Birdsville (pt),
north – south &
east – west
|210 057||Fugro Airborne Surveys|
|Normanton (Qld)||April – September 2008||Galbraith (pt),
Red River (pt).
80 m agl
|114 487||Thomson Aviation Pty Ltd|
Table 2. Details of gravity surveys.
|Survey||Date||1:250 000 map sheets||Station spacing, orientation||Stations||Contractor|
|Windimurra (WA)||August –September 2008||Cue (pt),
|2 500 m
east – west
|6 041||Atlas Geophysics Pty Ltd|
|Westmoreland – Normanton (Qld)||May – August 2008||Mornington (pt),
|4 000 m
east – west
|6 411||Integrated Mapping
Technologies Pty Ltd
|Central Arunta (NT)||May – August 2008||Hermannsburg (pt),
Mount Peake (pt),
Alice Springs (pt),
Barrow Creek (pt),
Hale River (pt),
Illowga Creek (pt),
Hay River (pt)
|500m, 1000 m,
2000 m, 4000 m
east – west
|11 827||Atlas Geophysics Pty Ltd|
For more information phone Murray Richardson on +61 2 6249 9229 (email [email protected])
For many years Geoscience Australia's national topographic map series, known as NATMAPs, has provided the topographic information necessary to explore and develop our vast continent. The flagship product in the NATMAP range has been the 1:250 000 scale (250K) maps which are distributed as paper maps and digital data in a variety of formats.
A welcome and innovative addition to this range is geoMAP 250K which provides a modern digital approach to the delivery and use of maps. This new product has coverage of Australia at 1:250 000 scale in geo-referenced Portable Data Format (PDF) on a single DVD ROM. PDF is a widely used format created by Adobe Systems which uses software to view the information.
The geo-referencing capability of geoMAP 250K facilitates co-ordinate readout, measurement of distance and area, the import of overlay files and GPS tracking. A set of 20 000 alphabetically arranged bookmarks allows the user to quickly find locations across Australia. Alternatively, common pan and zoom tools allow navigation to a specific area. The index map includes hyperlinks which load a map when the user clicks on the map name. Moving to an adjacent map sheet is easily done by clicking on an adjoining area of the map on display.
To use the geo-reference capability of geoMAP 250K, additional software will be required. Both types of software are available for download free of charge and links to the software websites are included with the product.
The geoMAP 250K PDF maps are also available online via Geoscience Australia's award-winning MapConnect service. They are also available on DVD ROM from Geoscience Australia's Sales Centre.
For more information phone Freecall 1800 800 173 (within Australia) or +61 2 6249 9966 (email [email protected])
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Have you been noticing a lot of fiber-enhanced products lining the store shelves at your local grocery store? Food, like most consumer products, goes through cycles and trends. Last year, it was eating “all-natural” and this year it seems to be fiber-rich products; everything from cereal to snack bars to yogurt has jumped on the bandwagon!
Before you jump on this latest food trend however, let’s cover some of the basics. Dietary fiber is the part of the plant that your body does not digest. There are two types of dietary fiber: insoluble and soluble.
Insoluble fiber doesn’t break down, so it helps to push things through your digestive tract while simultaneously fending off constipation and bloating. Good sources of insoluble fiber include whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts, and a variety of vegetables.
Soluble fiber dissolves in water and is broken down in your system. This type of fiber can help lower both cholesterol and glucose levels. Good sources of soluble fiber include oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, barley, and psyllium.
Need more reasons to make sure you’re getting enough fiber in your diet? Fiber not only keeps you regular, but it also makes you feel fuller faster and longer; this can lead to eating less and packing on fewer calories. Plus, studies have indicated that appropriate amounts of dietary fiber can help prevent heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and digestive issues.
To make sure you’re meeting your daily dietary fiber needs, check out this information taken from the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine:
|50 and under||51 and over|
- Dietary Fiber: Essential for a healthy diet- Mayo Clinic
- High Fiber Foods – Mayo Clinic
- Fiber: Start Roughing It – Harvard
Fit Life Fiber Video:
Fitness Attack #2, the book, is going to be released on Halloween 2010! That’s right, 10/31/10! It will feature 101 easy tips to help you live a healthy and fit life! 91 of those tips will be released right here, starting today and going through the launch date. The last 10 tips are EXCLUSIVE to the book so if you want them, you’ll have to buy the book! We are also working on lots of bonus material to overload the book! More info on ordering and content to come – stay tuned!
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* Introduction * History * Spring Tour * Other Seasons * Fruit and Vegetables * Herbs * Work * Family * Links * * Visiting the Garden * Design Elements * SPECIMENS * Companions * TIPS * GARDEN FURNITURE *
Water adds a significant ingredient of the natural world to a garden. Everything that grows needs and contains water, but it is also aesthetically pleasing to see water in its pure state.
The Japanese say that still water is brings the sky down into the garden. Reflections of clouds and blue are intermingled with rocks and plants.
Moving water adds sound as well as motion to the garden. It can take several forms, from natural creeks and waterfalls to created streams and fountains.
We had three creeks on our Orting property, but in here Enumclaw, we have had to create all our water features. We have tred to suggest natural sources using seasonal water, created ponds, simulated streams, and a fountain.
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Over the past few weeks, my preschoolers have been bringing little gifts in the form of bracelets that they made at home. My guest Renee from School Sparks is here to share with you some easy ways to use the Rainbow Loom as a resource for learning too….
Easy ways to go from trendy to educational by School Sparks
One of the things I love most about early childhood education is that nearly any activity can become an opportunity for learning. Parents and teachers of young children have likely seen (or maybe you already bought one) the trendiest new craft activity for kids: The Rainbow Loom!
Since this craft seems to have captured the attention of many children right now, it is a perfect vehicle for some fun – and educational – activities. (Even if you don’t have a Rainbow Loom, the small baggies of colored rubber bands used with the loom are available at any craft store and are very inexpensive, so you can easily complete these activities even without the actual loom.)
Give your child a pile of small rubber bands and ask her to sort them by color. This activity requires strong visual discrimination skills as her pile of rubber bands may include a few different shades of some colors and other colors (such as orange and red, blue and green) are very similar. This activity also requires strong fine motor skills, as your child will need to use the proper pincer grip to select just one rubber band at a time.
Let your child grab a small handful of one color of rubber bands and then a small handful of a second color. Ask her to guess which pile has more and help her count each pile to confirm to prediction.
Or create a game by allowing your child to trade in 10 of a common colored rubber band for 1 of a less common colored rubber band (I hear the “glow in the dark” rubber bands are in scarce supply!). Before making each trade, she will need to count the rubber bands she wants to trade into groups of 10 and correctly tell you how many of your rubber bands she is trading for.
Ask your child to create a bracelet using a repeating pattern. Encourage her to map out the pattern before starting to weave. Begin with a two-color pattern (such as ABAB or ABBA) then progress to four- and five-color patterns which are more challenging for young children to identify and create.
Ask your child to touch a peg on the loom. Using only words (no pointing), give your child directions such as, “Put one green rubber band on the peg two above the one you are touching” or “Stretch a yellow rubber band between the peg you are touching and the peg three to the right.” With so many pegs on the board and so many different colored bands to choose from, your child will need sharp listening skills to follow your directions.
For more simple ideas on how to foster any child’s educational development
please visit www.schoolsparks.com/blog!
Renee has lots of free kindergarten resources on her website as well!
Be sure to check them all out over at School Sparks!
Available on Amazon
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August 14, 2014
Columnist Gerald Davis describes how a detailed 3-D CAD model can be a great help to those in procurement, fabrication, and assembly.
A 3-D CAD model can be great for the purposes of visualization. However, its shape alone does not provide sufficient documentation for fabrication.
Consider the combination square shown in Figure 1a. This 3-D model is detailed sufficiently to represent a physical object. This 3-D CAD can be used to generate a variety of images for illustrating assembly steps or promoting the product in other ways.
The 3-D CAD software used in support of this article creates digital files for several different functions, some of which represent parts, assemblies, or 2-D drawings. Because of the dependent relationship between these files, the software dictates elements of the workflow. An aficionado who favors multibody modeling would follow a slightly different workflow from that described here and, therefore, would skip some assembly modeling. We’re focusing on producing a bill of material (BOM). Furthermore, the following outline for CAD work covers a wide variety of projects using fairly basic modeling techniques:
The combination square in Figure 1a is shown in an exploded state in Figure 1b. These components could be assembled on a production line. The BOM would include a ruler, a head kit, and a scribe. The head kit includes a spring, knurled nut, clamping stud, level vial, snap cap, and head casting. Each of these components must be obtained in some manner—purchased off-the-shelf, produced in-house, or subcontracted per proprietary specification. Our job is to make the purchaser’s job easier.
The suppliers feeding an assembly line for this hand tool would include a foundry, machine shop, spring winder, metal stamper, plastic extruder, metal plater, and a paint shop.
In our scenario, each component will need to be documented completely for procurement, fabrication, and assembly. We won’t be directly involved in designing the tooling or fixtures. However, the 3-D model will be provided to the suppliers as part of the product’s manufacturing specification.
Avoid waste. Waste includes excessive levels of detail in the virtual prototype. Don’t model it unless it is necessary to do so. To illustrate some of the considerations in deciding how much detail to put into a CAD model, off-the-shelf components are good candidates for quick work with scant detail.
The head assembly shown in Figure 2 includes some items that must be custom-fabricated as well as a few that might be available off-the-shelf somewhere. By the way, we assign our own part number to everything, even though the supplier might have a different part number for the same item.
As an example of an off-the-shelf item, consider the level vial. It is identified as Item 3 in the BOM shown in Figure 2. Manufacturers of such level indicators can be found on the Internet. It would be ideal to use their ready-for-download CAD model for our visualization and delegate all of the fabrication and drawings to them. Figure 3 is a screen shot of some simple data entry within the model of the vial. That’s all that is needed to inform purchasing and complete the documentation effort for this item.
For a time budget, 20 minutes is needed for the essential modeling for visualization and another 30 minutes to add cute detail like bubbles and transparent surfaces. Finding an online source and filling in the custom properties form might take another 30 minutes.
However, if the product absolutely requires a custom vial, then the 3-D model must be completely detailed for fabrication of the vial body, adding the marker lines, filling with an oil-like substance, capping, and sealing. We should probably specify leak check and verification of bubble calibration, fluid purity, and surface condition. Of course, the legal team will verify that no patents are infringed by this design.
Fortunately, we’re using common off-the-shelf vials in this scenario. For the purposes of visualization, a quick model of the vial included a stationary bubble. As a side note, the CAD effort to model a bubble that moves realistically is significant and is cited here as an example of excessive detail.
The BOM table in Figure 2 does not show any glue to hold the leveling vial in place. This is an oversight, and we’re glad you caught that error. The BOM does show a press-in cap—Item 4—which hides the glob of glue that is retaining the vial. Such caps are made from thin sheet stock and are produced on progressive-die stamping machines. In this scenario, we’re purchasing off-the-shelf caps and pretending that they are painted the correct color. Figure 4 shows the 3-D CAD model for the cap in progress.
The scribe holder—Item 2 in the head assembly shown in Figure 2—is just a little brass roll pin. We’ll treat it as a custom part. A fabrication drawing, complete with flat layout, is shown in Figure 5.
The final quality assurance drawing for the casting is shown in Figure 6. Additional drawings showing the painting, removal of sprue trees, and final machining are not included with this article but would be needed for the time estimate. The 3-D modeling for this casting will include draft angles and parting lines.
The fabrication drawing for the head assembly is shown in Figure 7. This drawing shows how to press in and glue the parts that are permanently connected to the casting. All of the modeling work has been considered in previous estimates, so the time budget for this drawing covers exploded views, animations, and step-by-step narrative instructions.
The BOM table on the drawing in Figure 7 is generated from the information stored in the models for each component. The work at this stage is just to verify that the data is complete and accurate.
The 6-inch ruler required for this product will be a custom part. It could be machined sheet metal. However, the clamping groove and embossed tick marks are candidates for a progressive die in a stamping press. When considering how much effort to put into the CAD model for the ruler, a CAD jockey cannot always know how the part will be fabricated. In that scenario, more detail in the model is probably better than less.
As a demonstration of maximum and minimum modeling detail, one side of the ruler model has no detail except for a decal that makes it look finished with tick markings (see Figure 8a). The opposite side of the ruler is accurately modeled with extruded cuts for all of the lettering and tick marks (see Figure 8b).
The “decal” in Figure 8a took 10 minutes to complete. It involved scanning an existing ruler and pasting that image onto the surface of the model as a decal.
The “accurate” side in Figure 8b took much longer to complete and is made up of cut extrudes, patterns of cut extrudes, and patterns of patterns. We were pleased to stop at 1⁄16-in. intervals and not to model 1⁄32-in. intervals. At a casual pace, it took 45 minutes to plan and model the tick marks for one side of the ruler.
Even though the decal modeling technique was quick, it is not helpful for manufacturing. That’s where the detailed modeling pays off. The drawing in Figure 8c uses dimensions imported from the ruler’s model. That trick reduces the labor of making these tedious drawings. Even so, the 2-D drawing for just one side of the ruler could take 30 minutes.
The five machined parts—head casting, scribe, scribe holder, nut, and stud—are modeled with full detail for fabrication. The scribe is modeled as a shaft with a swaged-on head, but the knurling on the head is just a texture, not an accurately modeled feature. This saves some time in modeling and having to refresh the CPU. Also, it does not make the 2-D drawing annotations that much more difficult.
Similarly, the knurled locking nut is physically the correct shape and size with representative knurling and threading. It is good for the modeling effort and only a slight compromise in fidelity on paper.
The locking stud is modeled with full detail. This item could be forged or carved from a billet. Either way, it has embossed tabs to help with the ruler engagement, and one end is threaded. It has an embellishment to add the lead-out on the threading with a tapered helix. When you open a CAD model like this, we hope you appreciate this type of CAD trick.
Lastly, the 3-D model for the spring is a bit of a compromise between modeling effort and need. The starting and ending coils on the spring are flat and tight in a visually appealing way. However, the overall length of the spring is modeled only in the compressed state. For the purposes of this scenario, the spring will be treated as a commercial off-the-shelf item. With that in mind, a much simpler model for the spring could serve as a placeholder. (In retrospect, a considerable amount of time was wasted on modeling this spring. Even more time could have been wasted creating the uncompressed version of this spring model.)
In addition to the effort going into modeling the parts, effort must go into administrative chores such as creating folders, naming files, assigning part numbers, descriptions, and so forth.
For this scenario, we developed the shape and function of the combination square using an assembly of virtual parts. Such models are easy to rename and otherwise manipulate from a CAD administrative perspective. After the developmental modeling is completed, the virtual parts are given useful names and then saved as normal—that is to say, external—components in anticipation of distribution to third parties.
To verify that the data entry is complete, it can be helpful to insert a BOM table into the 3-D assembly as a preview and data entry point.
With the modeling, file naming, and data entry completed, the next stage in the workflow is the drafting of the 2-D drawings for fabrication. For off-the-shelf items, such as the vial and the spring, no drawings will be needed other than to mention them in a BOM or in step-by-step assembly instructions.
Using the Design Checker to verify the correct formats of notes and proper spellings is a recommended practice. Having another human review the work prior to committing to raw materials is generally a good idea. Errors and omissions on drawings are challenging to eliminate.
Gerald would love to have you send him your comments and questions. You are not alone, and the problems you face often are shared by others. Share the grief, and perhaps we will all share in the joy of finding answers. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected].
The FABRICATOR® is North America's leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The FABRICATOR has served the industry since 1971. Print subscriptions are free to qualified persons in North America involved in metal forming and fabricating.
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By Sara Russell
These are reactions I got from a class of 2nd graders as two drops of soap hit our simulated oil spill of salt water and vegetable oil laden with cocoa powder. The minute the soap hits the “spill,” the oil runs and clings to the edges of a milk carton. Next, the kids simulated waves in the water, and the oil broke up and slowly descended. I don’t work with kids every day, but when I do, it’s fun and I get to share my enthusiasm for the work we do at EPA.
Every May, my sons’ elementary school, Farallone View in Montara, California, hosts “Oceans Week.” All week long the kids learn about the Pacific Ocean just blocks from the school. From campus you can even see the Farallone Islands, which are part of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
This year I thought I should teach them about ocean oil spills, since we just passed the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon event. I wanted the kids to learn more about the consequences of an oil spill and the challenges of cleanup. I showed them images of the blast and the oil in the water, on wildlife and on the shores. The kids asked a lot about the workers on the drilling platform, and we talked about how dangerous this work is. And just like the rest of us, they were really drawn in by images of oil-soaked birds. They worried about the effects on wildlife, both on shore and in the ocean.
We created salt water oceans in used plastic milk cartons and replicated an oil spill. The kids took turns using various sorbents like cotton balls, paper towels and string, and then rated how well they worked. I also had them dip a feather into the water so they could see what an oily bird has to deal with.
Finding ways to explain complex environmental issues is always challenging, but well worth it. Lessons that involve kids, like stream monitoring, habitat restoration and beach cleanups, are a great way to introduce them to their environment. What do you and your family do to explore and help protect the environment?
About the author: Sara Russell is a Brownfields Project Manager in EPA’s San Francisco office. When not at work she volunteers with her sons’ Cub Scout dens.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
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I used to live in Montana, and had an opportunity of a life time to go and see this incredible and breathtaking Yellowstone Park. It is not just an America’s First National Park – it’s a wonderland!
It is hard to describe what an amazing, intriguing and at the same time naturally beautiful that place is.
I have never seen anything like it before…
Even if it’s not on the list, I would still consider it one of the Natural Wonders of the World.
People from all over the world come to see this incredible National Park that was established in 1872!
When I was there, I had a feeling I was on a different planet.
This is how unbelievable that place is…
Yellowstone National Park Facts
- World’s First National Park (!)
- 3,472 square miles or 8,987 square km
- It’s located in 3 different states: 96 % in Wyoming, 3 % in Montana, 1 % in Idaho
- Larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined (!)
- Highest Point: 11,358 ft / 3,462 m (Eagle Peak)
- Approximately 5% of park is cover by water, 15% is grassland and 80% is forested
Yellowstone National Park Geology
- An Active Volcano
- Approximately 2,000 earthquakes annually (!)
- Approximately 10,000 thermal features
- More than 300 geysers
- One of the world’s largest calderas, measuring 45 by 30 miles (72 by 48 km)
- One of the world’s largest petrified forests
- Approximately 290 waterfalls, 15 ft. or higher, flowing year-round
- Tallest waterfall: Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at 308 ft. (94 m)
- 7 species of native ungulates
- 2 species of bears
- Approximately 50 species of other mammals
- 311 recorded species of birds
- 18 species of fish
- 6 species of reptiles
- 5 species protected as “threatened or endangered”
Threatened: bald eagle, grizzly bear, lynx
Endangered: whooping crane, gray wolf
Yellowstone National Park Fees
There is an entrance fee to enter Yellowstone Park which is only $25 per vehicle, but the fees vary if you enter by bicycle, foot, motorcycle or commercial vehicle.
Things to Do in Yellowstone Park
If you are looking for a little adventure travel, Yellowstone Park is the perfect place for that.
Every day there will be lots of adventure and exploration with great deal of things to do. From guided fishing trips on Yellowstone Lake to Wild West horseback rides, from hiking tours to bicycling, boating and camping (if you are not afraid of grizzly bears!). Take your pick!
5 park entrances
466 mi /750 km of roads
950 mi /1,529 km of backcountry trails
287 backcountry campsites
Best Time to Visit Yellowstone National Park
The typical temperature in Yellowstone Park in winter time will be 0ºF to 30ºF, while in summer it may vary from 40ºF to 80ºF.
I went there in May once, and there was a lot of snow on the ground, but it was fairly warm. So, I would say, from May to September/October would be the perfect time to visit. Keep in mind, that Yellowstone’s climate change very quickly and dramatically within a short period of time, so be prepared to bring some warm clothes to enjoy your trip more.
Year 2000 – almost 3 million (!) visitors
- Record year: 1992 – over 3,144,000 visitors (!)
- 9 hotels/lodges
- 9 visitor centers and museums
- 7 campgrounds
- 2,000+ buildings
- 49 picnic areas
- 1 marina
Yellowstone Park Employees
Approximately 800 (!) National Park employees work there during summer time.
Yellowstone National Park Mailing Address
National Park Service
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park,
Cell Phone Service in Yellowstone Park
One more thing I would like to add that there is inconsistent cell phone service around the park. The best reception you can find at Old Faithful, Grant Village and Mammoth areas.
Have you ever been to Yellowstone National Park? What was your experience?
***If you like this article and find it useful, please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ using floating social buttons bar on the left or simply leave a comment – you’ll make my day!
so I can show you:
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The British Medical Journal recently published an analysis on the effects of too much salt in our diets.
According to their research, which looked at 13 studies from 1966 to 2008:
High salt intake is associated with significantly increased risk of stroke and total cardiovascular disease. Because of imprecision in measurement of salt intake, these effect sizes are likely to be underestimated. These results support the role of a substantial population reduction in salt intake for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Over at Food Politics, Marion Nestle points to the study’s commentary which calls for more regulation in the food industry. Since “nearly 80 percent of salt enters the diet through processed and pre-prepared foods,” they argue that regulation is the best way to keep salt from sneaking into our diets so much (you can sign this petition to support sodium-reduction policies).
Is regulation the answer? Sure, it would be great to see restaurants and food companies step up and consider the health impacts of the food they’re producing. Iím just not sure it’s something that legislation alone can address.
One of the big problems, as Nestle points out, is that:
Öthe taste for salt depends on how much is eaten. On a low salt diet, even lightly salted foods taste salty. But if you are used to eating a lot of salt, it takes even more to taste salty. So the object needs to be to reduce salt in the diet across the board.
If we’re going to reduce salt intake across the board, consumers need to have a clear idea of salt’s health impacts. Education is key.
Not only do folks need to know the risks, they need solutions. If processed- and restaurant foods are the major culprits, it sounds like home cooked meals might be the answer.
Preparing home-cooked meals makes it so much easier to monitor how much salt is going into your food. Why wait for regulation when you can take charge of your diet in your very own kitchen? Here are three low-sodium recipes to get you started in reducing your risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease:
White Bean Soup with Greens and Rosemary
Autumn Vegetable Stew with Kale
Ginger Couscous Primavera
Do you guys have any favorite low-salt recipes? Share away in the comments!
Help Limit America’s Sodium Intake! Tell the FDA and FSIS to support policies that help reduce our collective consumption of salt.
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Imperialism: A Study
Part II, Chapter VI
The imperial policy of Great Britain since 1870, and more particularly since 1885, has been almost entirely absorbed in promoting the subjugation and annexation of tracts of territory where no genuine white settlement of any magnitude is contemplated. This policy, as we have seen, differs essentially from colonisation; and from the standpoint of government it implies a progressive diminution of freedom in the British Empire by constantly increasing the proportion of its subjects who are destitute of real power of self-government.
It is important to consider how this new Imperialism reacts, and is likely in the future to react, upon the relations between Great Britain and her self-governing colonies. Will it stimulate these colonies to an assertion of growing independence and final formal severance from the mother country, or will it lead them to form a closer political union with her upon a basis, no longer of Empire, but of a Federation of equal States? This is a vital issue, for it is quite certain that the present relations will not be maintained.
Hitherto the tendency has been towards a steady consistent increase of self-government, and a growing relaxation of Empire in the shape of control exercised by the home Government. In Australasia, North America, and South Africa seventeen self-governing colonies have been established, endowed with reduced types of the British constitution. In the case of Australia and of Canada the growth of self-government has been formally and actually advanced by acts of federation, which have, in fact, especially in Australia, compensated the restriction of the power of the federated States by a more than equivalent increase of governing power vested in the federal Government.
Great Britain has in the main learned well the lesson of the American Revolution; she has not only permitted but favoured this growing independence of her Australian and American colonies. During the very period when she has been occupied in the conscious policy of extending her Empire over lands which she cannot colonise and must hold by force, she has been loosening her "imperial" hold over her white colonies. While 1873 removed the last bond of economic control which marked the old "plantation" policy, by repealing the Act of 1850 which had forbidden Australian colonies from imposing differential duties as between the colonies and foreign countries, and permitting them in future to tax one another's goods, the Australian Commonwealth Act of 1900 has, by the powers accorded to its Federal Judicature, reduced to the narrowest limits yet attained the constitutional control of the Privy Council, and has by the powers enabling the Federal Government to raise a central armed force for defence obtained a new substantial basis for a possible national independence in the future. Though it is unlikely for some time to come that the federal Government which is contemplated for British South Africa will be accorded powers equivalent to those of the Australian or even the Canadian Federations, the same tendency to increased self-government has in the past steadily prevailed in Cape Colony and Natal, and it is tolerably certain that, if the racial animosities between the two white races are abated, a South African Commonwealth would soon be found in possession, of a far larger measure of real self-government than the British colonies which enter it have hitherto possessed.
But while the trend of British colonialism has uniformly been towards increased self-government or practical independence, and has been appreciably strengthened by the process of federating colonial States, it is evident that the imperial statesmen who have favoured most this federation policy have had in view some larger recasting of the political relations with the mother country, which should bind parent and children in closer family bonds, not merely of affection or of trading intercourse, but of political association. Though imperial federation for British purposes is no modern invention, Lord Carnarvon was the first Colonial Secretary to set it before him as a distinct object of attainment, favouring federation in the various groups of colonies as the first step in a process which should federate the Empire. The successful completion in 1873 of the process of federation which formed the Dominion of Canada doubtless stimulated Lord Carnarvon, entering office the next year, to further experiments along similar lines. Unfortunately he laid hands upon South Africa for his forcing process, and suffered a disastrous failure. Twenty years later Mr. Chamberlain resumed the task, and, confronted by the same essential difficulties, the forcible annexation of the two Dutch Republics, and the coercion of Cape Colony, has brought his federation policy in South Africa towards completion, while the federation of Australian States marks another and a safer triumph of the federation principle.
The process of federation, as bearing on the relations of the federating colonies, is of course a triumph for the centripetal forces; but, by securing a larger measure of theoretical and practical independence for the federal Governments, it has been centrifugal from the standpoint of the Imperial Government. The work of securing an effective political imperial federation implies, therefore, a reversal of hitherto dominant tendencies.
It is quite evident that a strong and increasing desire for imperial federation has been growing among a large number of British politicians. So far as Mr. Chamberlain and some of his friends are concerned, it dates back to the beginning of the struggle over Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule for Ireland policy. Speaking on Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill in 1886, Mr. Chamberlain said: "I should look for the solution in the direction of the principle of federation. My right honourable friend has looked for his model to the relations between this country and her self-governing and practically independent colonies. I think that is of doubtful expediency. The present connection between our colonies and ourselves is no doubt very strong, owing to the affection which exists between members of the same nation. But it is a sentimental tie, and a sentimental tie only.... It appears to me that the advantage of a system of federation is that Ireland might under it really remain an integral part of the Empire. The action of such a scheme is centripetal and not centrifugal, and it is in the direction of federation that the democratic movement has made most advances in the present century."
Now, it is quite true that the democratic movement, both now and in the future, seems closely linked with the formation of federal States, and the federation of the parts of the British Empire appears to suggest, as a next step and logical outcome, the federation of the whole.
Holding, as we must, that any reasonable security for good order and civilisation in the world implies the growing application of the federation principle in international politics, it will appear only natural that the earlier steps in such a process should take the form of unions of States most closely related by ties of common blood, language, and institutions, and that a phase of federated Britain or Anglo-Saxondom, Pan-Teutonism, Pan-Slavism, and Pan-Latinism aright supervene upon the phase already reached. There is perhaps a suspicion of excessive logic in such an order of events, but a broad general view of history renders it plausible and desirable enough. Christendom thus laid out in a few great federal Empires, each with a retinue of uncivilised dependencies, seems to many the most legitimate development of present tendencies, and one which would offer the best hope of permanent peace on an assured basis of inter-Imperialism. Dismissing from our mind the largest aspect of this issue, as too distant for present profitable argument, and confining our attention to British imperial federation, we may easily agree that a voluntary federation of free British States, working peacefully for the common safety and prosperity, is in itself eminently desirable, and might indeed form a step towards a wider federation of civilised States in the future.
The real issue for discussion is the feasibility of such a policy, and, rightly stated, the question runs thus: "What forces of present or prospective self-interest are operative to induce Great Britain and her colonial groups to reverse the centrifugal process which has hitherto been dominant?" Now there are many reasons for Great Britain to desire political federation with her self-governing colonies, even upon terms which would give them a voice proportionate to their population in a Parliament or other council charged with the control of imperial affairs, provided the grave difficulties involved in the establishment of such a representative, responsible governing body could be overcome. The preponderance of British over colonial population would enable the mother country to enforce her will where any conflict of interest or judgment arose in which there was a sharp line of division between Great Britain and the colonies: the distribution of imperial burdens and the allocation of imperial assistance would be determined by Great Britain. If the Crown colonies and other non-self-governing parts of the Empire were represented in the imperial council, the actual supremacy of the mother country would be greater still, for these representatives, either nominated by the Crown (the course most consonant with Crown colony government), or elected on a narrow franchise of a small white oligarchy, would have little in common with the representatives of self-governing colonies, and would inevitably be more amenable to pressure from the home Government. A chief avowed object of imperial federation is to secure from the colonies a fair share of men, ships, and money for imperial defence, and for those expansive exploits which in their initiation almost always rank as measures of defence. The present financial basis of imperial defence is one which, on the face of it, seems most unfair; Great Britain is called upon to support virtually the whole cost of the imperial navy, and, with India, almost the whole cost of the imperial army, though both these arms are at the service of any of our self-governing colonies that is threatened by external enemies or internal disorders. In 1899, while the population of these colonies was close upon one-third of that of the United Kingdom, their revenue nearly one-half, and the value of their sea-borne commerce one-fifth of the entire commerce of the Empire, the contribution they were making to the cost of the naval defence of the Empire was less than one-hundredth part.*25 These colonies raise no regular or irregular military force available for the general defence of the Empire, though they have supported small contingents of imperial troops quartered upon them by the Imperial Government, and have maintained considerable militia and volunteer forces for home defence. The colonial contingents taking part in the South African war, though forming a considerable volunteer force, fell far short of an imperial levy based upon proportion of population, and their expenses were almost entirely borne by the United Kingdom. From the standpoint of the unity of the British Empire, in which the colonies are presumed to have an interest equivalent to that of the United Kingdom, it seems reasonable that the latter should be called upon to bear their fair share of the burden of imperial defence; and an imperial federation which was a political reality would certainly imply a provision for such equal contribution. Whatever were the form such federation took, that of an Imperial Parliament, endowed with full responsibility for imperial affairs under the Crown, or of an Imperial Council, on which colonial representatives must sit to consult with and advise the British ministry, who still retained the formal determination of imperial policy, it would certainly imply a compulsory or quasi-compulsory contribution on the part of the colonies proportionate to that of the United Kingdom.
Now it is quite evident that the self-governing colonies will not enter such an association, involving them in large new expenses, out of sentimental regard for the British Empire. The genuineness and the warmness of the attachment to the British Empire and to the mother country are indisputable, and though they were not called upon to make any considerable self-sacrifice in the South African campaign, it is quite evident that their present sentiments are such as would lead them voluntarily to expend both blood and money where they thought the existence, the safety, or even the honour of the Empire was at stake. But it would be a grave error to suppose that the blaze of enthusiastic loyalty, evinced at such a period of emergency, can be utilised in order to reverse the general tendency towards independence, and to "rush" the self-governing colonies into a closer formal union with Great Britain, involving a regular continuous sacrifice. If the colonies are to be induced to enter any such association, they must be convinced that it is essential to their individual security and prosperity. At present they get the protection of the Empire without paying for it; as long as they think they can get adequate protection on such terms, it is impossible to suppose they would enter an arrangement which required them to pay, and which involved an entire recasting of their system of revenue. The temper of recent discussions in the Australian and Canadian Parliaments, amid all the enthusiasm of the South African war, makes it quite clear that no colonial ministry could in time of peace persuade the colonists to enter such a federation as is here outlined, unless they had been educated to the conviction that their individual colonial welfare was to be subserved. Either Australia and Canada must be convinced that imperial defence of Australia or Canada upon the present basis is becoming more inadequate, and that such defence is essential to them, or else they must be compensated for the additional expense which federation would involve by new commercial relations with the United Kingdom which will give them a more profitable market than they possess at present.
Now the refusal of the self-governing colonies hitherto to consider any other contribution to imperial defence than a small voluntary one has been based upon a conviction that the virtual independence they hold under Great Britain is not likely to be threatened by any great Power, and that, even were it threatened, though their commerce might suffer on the sea, they would be competent to prevent or repel invasion by their own internal powers of self-defence. The one exception to this calculation may be said to prove the rule. If Canada were embroiled in war with her great republican neighbour, she is well aware that though the British navy might damage the trade and the coast towns of the United States, she could not prevent Canada from being over-run by American troops, and ultimately from being subjugated.
But, it may at least be urged, the importance of maintaining a British navy adequate to protect their trade will at least be recognised; the colonies will perceive that in face of the rising wealth and naval preparations of rival Empires, in particular Germany, France, and the United States, the United Kingdom cannot bear the financial strain of the necessary increase of ships without substantial colonial assistance. This is doubtless the line of strongest pressure for imperial federation. How far is it likely to prove effective? It is certain to educate colonial politicians to a closer consideration of the future of their colony; it will force them to canvass most carefully the net advantages or disadvantages of the imperial connection. Such consideration seems at least as likely to lead them towards that definite future severance from Great Britain which, during the last half-century, none of them has seriously contemplated, as it is to bring them into a federation. This consummation, if it ultimately comes about, will arise from no abatement of natural good feeling and affection towards the United Kingdom, but simply from a conflict of interests.
If the movement towards imperial federation fails, and the recent drift towards independence on the part of the self-governing colonies is replaced by a more conscious movement in the same direction, the cause will be Imperialism. A discreet colonial statesman, when invited to bring his colony closer to Great Britain, and to pay for their joint support while leaving to Great Britain the virtual determination of their joint destiny, is likely to put the following pertinent questions: Why is Great Britain obliged to increase her expenditure in armaments faster than the growth of trade or income, so that she is forced to call upon us to assist? Is it because she fears the jealousy and the hostility of other Powers? Why does she arouse these ill feelings? To these questions he can hardly fail to find an answer. "It is the new Imperialism that is wholly responsible for the new perils of the Empire, and for the new costs of armaments." He is then likely to base upon this answer further questions. Do we self-governing colonies benefit by this new Imperialism? If we decide that we do not, can we stop it by entering a federation in which our voices will be the voices of a small minority? May it not be a safer policy for us to seek severance from a Power which so visibly antagonises other Powers, and may involve us in conflict with them on matters in which we have no vital interest and no determinant voice, and either to live an independent political life, incurring only those risks which belong to us, or (in the case of Canada) to seek admission within the powerful republic of the United States?
However colonial history may answer these questions, it is inevitable that they will be put. Imperialism is evidently the most serious obstacle to "imperial federation," so far as the self-governing colonies are concerned. Were it not for the presence of these unfree British possessions and for the expansive policy which continually increases them, a federation of free British States throughout the world would seem a reasonable and a most desirable step in the interests of world-civilisation. But how can the white democracies of Australasia and North America desire to enter such a hodge-podge of contradictory systems as would be presented by an imperial federation, which might, according to a recent authority,*26 be compiled in the following fashion: first a union of Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, West Indies, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Mauritius, South Africa, Malta, to be followed later by the admission of Cyprus, Ceylon, India, Hong-Kong, and Malaysia, with an accompaniment of semi-independent States such as Egypt, Afghanistan, Natal, Bhutan, Jehore, and perhaps the kingdoms of Uganda and of Barotse, each with some sort of representation on an Imperial Council and some voice in the determination of the imperial destiny?
Is it likely that the great rising Australian Commonwealth or the Dominion of Canada will care to place her peaceful development and her financial resources at the mercy of some Soudanese forward movement or a pushful policy in West Africa?
An imperial federation comprising all sorts and conditions of British States, colonies, protectorates, veiled protectorates, and nondescripts, would be too unwieldy, and too prolific of frontier questions and of other hazards, to please our more isolated and self-centred free colonies; while, if these former were left without formal representation as special protégés of the United Kingdom, their existence and their growth would none the less hang like a mill-stone round the neck of the federal Government, constantly compelling the United Kingdom to strain the allegiance of her confederates by using her technical superiority of voting power in what she held to be their special interest and hers.
The notion that the absence of any real strong identity of interest between the self-governing colonies and the more remote and more hazardous fringes of the Empire can be compensated by some general spirit of loyalty towards and pride in "the Empire" is a delusion which will speedily be dispelled. The detached colonies of Australasia may not unreasonably argue that the very anxiety of British statesmen to draw them into federation is a confession of the weakening of that very protection which constitutes for them the chief value of the present connection. "The United Kingdom," they may say, "asks us to supply men and ships and money in a binding engagement in order to support her in carrying farther the very imperialist policy which arouses the animosity of rival Powers and which disables her for future reliance on her own resources to sustain the Empire. For our increased contribution to the imperial resources we shall therefore receive in return an increase of peril. Is it not something like asking us, out of pure chivalry, to throw in our lot with a sinking vessel?" It will doubtless be replied that a firmly federated Empire will prove such a tower of strength as will enable her to defy the increased jealousy of rival Powers. But this tempting proposition will be submitted to cool calculation in our colonies, which will certainly refuse to be "rushed" into a change of policy implying a reversal of the general tendency of half a century. Admitting the obvious political and military gain of co-operative action in the face of an enemy, the colonists will ask whether this gain is not offset by an increased likelihood of having to face enemies, and when they reflect that they are really invited to federate, not merely with the England whom they love and admire, but with an ever-growing medley of savage States, the balance of judgment seems likely to turn against federation, unless other special inducements can be applied.
There are two special inducements which might bring the self-governing colonies, or some of them, to favour a closer political union with Great Britain. The first is a revision of the commercial and financial policy of the mother country, so as to secure for the colonies an increased market for their produce in Great Britain and in other parts of the British Empire. In discussion of this issue it is customary to begin by distinguishing the proposal to establish an Imperial Zollverein, or Customs Union, from the proposal for a preferential tariff. But very little reflection suffices to perceive the futility of the former without the latter as an appeal to the self-interest of the colonies. Will these colonies assimilate their financial policy to that of Great Britain, abolishing their protective tariffs and entering a full Free Trade career? The most sanguine Free Trader suggests no such possibility, nor indeed would such a course afford any real guarantee of increasing the commercial inter-dependence of the Empire. It would simply force the colonies upon processes of direct taxation repugnant to their feelings. Is Free Trade within the Empire, with a maintenance of the status quo as regards foreign countries, really more feasible? It would simply mean that the colonies gave up the income they obtained from taxing the goods of one another and of Great Britain, each getting in return a remission of tariffs from the other colonies with which its trade is small and no remission from Great Britain, which would continue to receive its goods free as before. Though this same policy would ultimately be beneficial to their commerce, it would only encourage the existing tendency to trade less with the Empire and more with foreign nations, while it would involve a revolution of their fiscal method. No; Free Trade within the Empire is only conceivable upon the basis of Great Britain agreeing to abandon Free Trade with countries outside the Empire. Even were Great Britain prepared to adopt such a course, it would remain most unlikely that the colonies would make the sacrifice of customs income involved by admitting goods from all the Empire free; for this course would entail a sacrifice much greater than at first sight appears, inasmuch as such discrimination would virtually enable the goods admitted free to displace the taxed goods, reducing to quite insignificant dimensions the income still derived from customs.
Engaged as we are now in finding special inducements to draw the colonies into closer political union with Great Britain, we need not discuss the probability of an extension of the policy which Canada initiated by her preferential tariff, according to Great Britain a preferential tariff by a surrender of duties upon British imports amounting to 33 per cent. It is needless to discuss the motives which may have animated this advance. If we look to its result we find that it has been quite inoperative, regarded as a stimulus to British trade. "In spite of the preferential tariff, the percentage of American goods entering Canada has continued to increase and the percentage of British goods to decline."*27 This is attributed to the "sham" character of the concession, as illustrated by the fact that "before giving a preference to British goods the Laurier ministry was careful to raise the duties on cotton goods largely coming from Great Britain, while lowering or abolishing the duties on raw materials coming from the United States."
Thus the much-boasted British preference is to a large extent a delusion. In spite of the preference, British goods still pay a higher average tax on entering Canada than American goods. Here are the figures:—
Even if it is claimed that the act was a pure offering of goodwill, it is not contended that the colonies will generally follow the example, making concessions and receiving no preference in return. The only Zollverein proposal which claims serious discussion is one based upon the general adoption of preferential treatment within the Empire, involving on the part of Great Britain herself an abandonment of Free Trade with foreign countries. Here, at least, the colonies would have some quid pro quo, a guaranteed monopoly of the imperial market for their exports, in compensation for their loss of customs revenue from admitting imperial imports free, or at a lower rate of duties. Assuming that the colonies would enter such an arrangement, Great Britain would have to pay a heavy price for the political and military support which such a commercial policy was designed to purchase. Apart from the immediate dislocation of her industries, which would follow this partial abandonment of Free Trade on her part, and which would be more serious than a carefully imposed tariff applied equally to all imports, it would tax all classes of consumers and producers in this country by raising the prices of ordinary necessaries and conveniences of life, and of materials imported from abroad to be employed in home industry. Grain and flour, cattle and meat, wool, timber, and iron would form the chief commodities which, in the supposed interests of our colonies, would be taxed first. Unless it did raise these prices it could have no effect in enabling colonial producers to displace foreign producers: the tariff, to be operative at all, must remove all profit from some portion of foreign goods previously imported, and, by preventing such goods from entering our markets in the future, reduce the total supply: this reduction of supply acts of necessity in raising the price for the whole market. This well-recognised automatic operation of the law of supply and demand makes it certain that English consumers would pay in enhanced prices a new tax, part of which would be handed over to colonists in payment for their new "loyalty," part would go to the British exchequer, and part to defray expenses of collection.
Nor is this all, or perhaps the worst. By this very method of binding our colonies closer to us we take the surest way of increasing the resentment of those very nations whose political and military rivalry impels us to abandon Free Trade. The vast and increasing trade we have with France, Germany, Russia, and the United States is the most potent guarantee of peace which we possess. Reduce the volume and the value of our commerce with these nations, by means of the re-establishment of a tariff avowedly erected for the purpose, and we should convert the substantial goodwill of the powerful financial, mercantile, and manufacturing interests in these countries into active and dangerous hostility. It would be far worse for us that we had never been a Free Trade country than that we relapsed into a protective system motived by the desire to weaken our commercial bonds with the political and commercial Powers whose rivalry we have most to fear. By the statistics of an earlier chapter*28 it has been shown that not merely is our trade with these foreign nations far greater than the trade with the self-governing colonies, but that it is growing at a faster rate. To offend and antagonise our better customers in order to conciliate our worse is bad economy and much worse politics.
The shrewder politicians in our colonies might surely be expected to look such a gift-horse in the mouth. For the very bribe which is designed to win them for federation is one which enhances for them enormously and quite incalculably the perils of a new connection by which they throw in their lot irrevocably with that of Great Britain. A monopoly of the imperial market for their exports may be bought too dear, if it removes the strongest pledge for peace which England possesses, at a time when that pledge is needed most. Nor would these colonies share only the new peril of England; their own discriminative tariffs would breed direct ill-feeling against them on the part of foreigners, and would drag them into the vortex of European politics. Finally, by distorting the more natural process of commercial selection, which, under tariffs equally imposed, has in the past been increasing the proportion of the trade done by these colonies with foreign countries, and reducing the proportion done with Great Britain, we shall be forcing them to substitute a worse for a better trade, a course by which they will be heavy losers in the long run.
It cannot be too clearly understood that not merely is the natural tendency of development in our self-governing colonies towards a decreasing commercial dependence upon Great Britain, but the same commercial separatist tendency operates among the colonies in their relations to one another. The colonies do not find their interests to lie in increasing the proportion of their trading intercourse with one another. Professor Flux in his close investigation of the statistics comes to the following conclusion:—
"As for the trade between the colonies, the Australian inter-colonial trade, which we have stated at £22,500,000 for 1892-96, was only between £7,000,000 and £8,000,000 at the earlier date here considered. Other inter-colonial trade has hardly grown in value. It was recorded at about £20,000,000 on the import side and £25,000,000 on the export side during the years 1867-71. Thus nearly 76 per cent. of colonial imports were derived from the Empire, and about 73 per cent. of the exports went to the Empire, or about 74 per cent. of the total trade was carried on with other parts of the Empire, as compared with the 65 per cent. at the more recent date, as recorded above."*29 Why should we persuade our self-governing colonies to reverse the natural tide of their commerce, which flows towards internationalism, and force it into the narrower channel of Imperialism?
In face of such facts it will be impossible for Great Britain to offer the self-governing colonies a sufficient commercial inducement to bring them into imperial federation. Is there any other possible inducement or temptation? There is, I think, one, viz. to involve them on their own account in Imperialism, by encouraging and aiding them in a policy of annexation and the government of lower races. Independently of the centralised Imperialism which issues from Great Britain, these colonies have within themselves in greater or less force all the ingredients out of which an Imperialism of their own may be formed. The same conspiracy of powerful speculators, manufacturing interests and ambitious politicians, calling to their support the philanthropy of missions and the lust for adventure which is so powerful in the new world, may plot the subversion of honest self-developing democracy, in order to establish class rule, and to employ the colonial resources in showy enterprises of expansion for their own political and commercial ends.
Such a spirit and such a purpose have been plainly operative in South Africa for many years past. That which appears to us an achievement of British Imperialism, viz. the acquisition of the two Dutch Republics and the great North, is and always has appeared something quite different to a powerful group of business politicians in South Africa. These men at the Cape, in the Transvaal and in Rhodesia, British or Dutch, have fostered a South African Imperialism, not opposed to British Imperialism, willing when necessary to utilise it, but independent of it in ultimate aims and purposes. This was the policy of "colonialism" which Mr. Rhodes espoused so vehemently in his earlier political career, seeking the control of Bechuanaland and the North for Cape Colony and not directly for the Empire. This has been right through the policy of an active section of the Africander Bond, developing on a large scale the original "trek" habit of the Dutch. This was the policy to which Sir Hercules Robinson gave voice in his famous declaration of 1889 regarding Imperialism: "It is a diminishing quantity, there being now no longer any permanent place in the future of South Africa for direct imperial rule on any large scale." A distinctively colonial or South African expansion was the policy of the politicians, financiers, and adventurers up to the failure of the Jameson Raid; reluctantly they sought the co-operation of British Imperialism to aid them in a definite work for which they were too weak, the seizure of the Transvaal mineral estates; their absorbing aim hereafter will be to relegate British Imperialism to what they conceive to be its proper place, that of an ultima ratio to stand in the far background while colonial Imperialism manages the business and takes the profits. A South African federation of self-governing States will demand a political career of its own, and will insist upon its own brand of empire, not that of the British Government, in the control of the lower races in South Africa.
Such a federal State will not only develop an internal policy regarding the native territories different from, perhaps antagonistic to, that of British Imperialism, but its position as the "predominant" State of South Africa will develop an ambition and a destiny of expansion which may bring it into world politics on its own account.
Australasia similarly shows signs of an Imperialism of her own. She has recently taken over New Guinea, and some of her sons are hankering after the New Hebrides, quite willing to incite Great Britain to break away from the joint-control over these islands which she holds along with France.
If this is a substantially correct view of Australasian tendencies, it has a most important bearing upon the feasibility of imperial federation, because it indicates another force which might be utilised for a reversal of the centrifugal movement hitherto dominant in colonial policy. If Great Britain is prepared to guarantee to Australasia and to South Africa a special imperial career of their own, placing the entire federal resources of the Empire at the disposal of the colonial federal States, to assist them in fulfilling an ambition or a destiny which is directed and determined by their particular interests and will, such a decentralisation of Imperialism might win the colonies to a closer federal union with the mother country. For Great Britain herself it would involve great and obvious dangers, and some considerable sacrifice of central imperial power; but it might win the favour and support of ambitious colonial politicians and capitalists desirous to run a profitable Imperialism of their own and to divert the democratic forces from domestic agitation into foreign enterprises.
If Australasia can get from Great Britain the services of an adequate naval power to enforce her growing "Monroe doctrine" in the Pacific without paying for it, as British South Africa has obtained the services of our land forces, she will not be likely to enter closer formal bonds which will bind her to any large financial contribution towards the expenses of such a policy. But if Great Britain were willing to organise imperial federation upon a basis which in reality assigned larger independence to Australia than she has at present, by giving her a call upon their imperial resources for her own private imperial career in excess of her contribution towards the common purse, the business instincts of Australia might lead her to consider favourably such a proposal.
How fraught with peril to this country such imperial federation would be it is unnecessary to prove. Centralised Imperialism, in which the Government of Great Britain formally reserves full control over the external policy of each colony, and actually exercises this control, affords some considerable security against the danger of being dragged into quarrels with other great Powers: the decentralised Imperialism, involved in imperial federation, would lose us this security. The nascent local Imperialism of Australasia and of South Africa would be fed by the consciousness that it could not be checked or overruled in its expansive policy as it is now; and the somewhat blatant energy of self-expression in colonial Governments would be likely to entangle us continually with Germany and the United States in the Pacific, while Canada and Newfoundland would possess a greatly enhanced power to embroil us with France and the United States. If it be urged that after all no serious steps in Australian, Canadian or South African "Imperialism" could be taken without the direct conscious consent of Great Britain, who would, by virtue of population and prestige, remain the predominant partner, the answer is that the very strengthening of the imperial bond would give increased efficacy to all the operative factors in Imperialism. Even as matters stand now there exists in Great Britain a powerful organised business interest which is continually inciting the Imperial Government to a pushful policy on behalf of our colonies: these colonies, the Australasian in particular, are heavily mortgaged in their land and trade to British financial companies; their mines, banks, and other important commercial assets are largely owned in Great Britain; their enormous public debts*30 are chiefly held in Great Britain. It is quite evident that the classes in this country owning these colonial properties have a stake in colonial politics, different from and in some cases antagonistic to that of the British nation as a whole: it is equally evident that they can exercise an organised pressure upon the British Government in favour of their private interests that will be endowed with enhanced efficacy under the more equal conditions of an imperial federation.
Whether the bribe of a preferential tariff, or of a delegated Imperialism, or both, would suffice to bring the self-governing colonies into a closer formal political federation with Great Britain may, however, well be doubted. Still more doubtful would be their permanent continuance in such a federation. It is at least conceivable that the colonial democracies may be strong and sane enough to resist temptation to colonial Imperialism, when they perceive the dangerous reactions of such a course. Even were they induced to avail themselves of the ample resources of the Empire to forward their local imperial policy, they would, in Australia as in South Africa, be disposed to break away from such a federation when they had got out of it what advantages it could be made to yield, and they felt strong enough for an independent Empire of their own.
It is no cynical insistence upon the dominance of selfish interests which leads us to the conviction that the historic drift towards independence will not be reversed by any sentiments of attachment towards Great Britain. "My hold of the colonies," wrote Burke, "is the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron."*31 But in these ties, save the last only, there is nothing to demand or to ensure political union. The moral bonds of community of language, history and institutions, maintained and strengthened by free social and commercial intercourse, this true union of hearts, have not been weakened by the progress towards political freedom which has been taking place in the past, and will not be weakened if this progress should continue until absolute political independence from Great Britain is achieved.
It is quite certain that the issue must be determined in the long run by what the colonies consider to be their policy of net utility. That utility will be determined primarily by the more permanent geographical and economic conditions. These have tended in the past, so far as they have had free play, towards political independence: they will have a freer play in the future, and it seems, therefore, unlikely that their tendency will be reversed. Though the element of distance between the parts of an Empire is now less important than formerly as a technical difficulty in representation, the following pithy summary of American objections to schemes of imperial federation in the eighteenth century, as recorded by Pownall, still has powerful application:—
"The Americans also thought that legislative union would be unnecessary, inexpedient, and dangerous, because
While then it is conceivable, perhaps possible, that, for a time at any rate, the self-governing colonies might be led into an imperial federation upon terms which should secure their private industrial and political ambitions as colonies, it is far more reasonable to expect that Canada would drift towards federation with her southern neighbour, and Australasia and South Africa towards independent political entities, with a possible future re-establishment of loose political relations in an Anglo-Saxon federation.
It is no aspersion on the genuineness and the strength of the "loyalty" and affection entertained by the colonies towards England to assert that these sentiments cannot weigh appreciably in the determination of the colonial "destiny" against the continuous pressure of political, industrial, and financial forces making towards severance. Though a few politicians, or even a party in these colonies, may coquet with the notion of close federation on an equal basis, the difficulties, when the matter is resolved, as it must be, into financial terms, will be found insuperable. The real trend of colonial forces will operate in the same direction as before, and more persistently, when the nature of the burdens they are invited to undertake is disclosed to them.
The notion that one great result of the South African war has been to generate a large fund of colonial feeling which will materially affect the relations of the colonies with Great Britain is an amiable delusion based upon childish psychology. While the rally of sentiment has been genuine, so has been the discovery of the perils of the mother country which have made colonial assistance so welcome and caused it to be prized so highly that imperial statesmen essay to turn the tide of colonial development by means of it.
Reflection, which follows every burst of sentiment, cannot fail to dwell upon the nature of the peril which besets an empire so vast, so heterogeneous, and so dispersed as the British Empire. When the glamour of war has passed away, and history discloses some of the brute facts of this sanguinary business which have been so carefully kept from the peoples of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, their relish for the affair will diminish: they will be more suspicious in the future of issues whose character and magnitude have been so gravely misrepresented to them by the Imperial Government.*33 But the discovery likely to weigh most with the colonial democracies is the unsubstantial assets of the new Imperialism. It is one thing to enter a federation of free self-governing States upon an equal footing, quite another to be invited to contribute to the maintenance and acquisition of an indefinitely large and growing number of dependencies, the property of one of the federating States. The more clearly the colonies recognise the precarious nature of the responsibilities they are asked to undertake, the more reluctant will they show themselves. Unless the democratic spirit of these colonies can be broken and they can be driven to "Imperialism" upon their own account, they will refuse to enter a federation which, whatever be the formal terms of entrance, fastens on them perils so incalculable. The new Imperialism kills a federation of free self-governing States: the colonies may look at it, but they will go their way as before.
The sentimental attractions which the idea may at first present will not be void of practical results. It may lead them to strengthen their preparation for internal defence, and to develop, each of them, a firmer national spirit of their own. The consciousness of this gain in defensive strength will not the more dispose them to closer formal union with Great Britain; it is far more likely to lead them to treat with her upon the terms of independent allies. The direction in which the more, clear-sighted colonial statesmen are moving is and always has been tolerably clear. It is towards a slighter bond of union with Great Britain, not a stronger. The near goal is one clearly marked out for the American colonies by Jefferson as early as 1774, and one which then might have been attained if England had exercised discretion. Jefferson thus describes his plan in the draft of instructions to delegates sent by Virginia to Congress: "I took the ground that from the beginning I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was that the relation between Great Britain and those colonies was exactly the same as that of England and Scotland after the accession of James and until after the Union, and the same as the present relation with Hanover, having the same executive chief, but no other necessary political connection."*34 This same project, that of narrowing down the imperial connection to the single tie of a common monarchy, was avowed by the "Reformers" who in Upper Canada usually made a majority of the Legislative Assembly during 1830-40, and underlies the conscious or unconscious policy of all our self-governing colonies when subject to normal influences. Brief, temporary set-backs to this movement under the stress of some popular outburst of enthusiasm or some well-engineered political design are possible, but unless the real forces of colonial democracy can be permanently crushed they will continue to drive colonial policy towards this goal. Whether they will drive still farther, to full formal severance, will depend upon the completeness with which Great Britain has learnt during the last century and a half the lesson of colonial government which the American Revolution first made manifest. At present, owing to our liberal rendering of the term "responsible self-government," there exists no powerful set of conscious forces making for complete independence in any of our colonies, save in South Africa, where our exceptional policy has given birth to a lasting antagonism of economic interests, which, working at present along the lines of race cleavage, must in the not distant future arouse in the people of a federated South Africa a demand for complete severance from British control as the only alternative to a control which they, British and Dutch, will regard as an intolerable interference with their legitimate rights of self-government.
This forcible interference of the Imperial Government with the natural evolution of a British South Africa, accompanied by a direct attack upon colonial liberties and a substitution of mechanical stimulation for organic growth in the process of a South African federation, will come home later to the other self-governing colonies through its reaction upon British policy. The legacy of this disastrous imperial exploit is enhanced militarism for Great Britain, and the rapacious dominance of armaments over public finance. These considerations almost inevitably goad public policy in Great Britain to make eager overtures to the colonies which will be rightly understood as an invitation to share risks and burdens in large excess of all assured advantages. The endeavours on our part to secure the closer political connection of the colonies are more likely than any other cause to bring about a final disruption; for the driving force behind these endeavours will be detected as proceeding from national rather than imperial needs. Australia, New Zealand, Canada have had no voice in determining recent expansion of British rule in Asia and Africa; such expansion serves no vital interest of theirs; invited to contribute a full share to the upkeep and furtherance of such Empire, they will persistently refuse, preferring to make full preparation for such self-defence as will enable them to dispense with that protection of the British flag which brings increasing dangers of entanglement with foreign Powers.
The new Imperialism antagonises colonial self-government, tends to make imperial federation impracticable, and furnishes a disruptive force in the relations of Great Britain with the self-governing colonies.
Notes for this chapter
Sir H. H. Johnston, Nineteenth Century, May 1902.
Harold Cox, "The Canadian Preferential Tariff," from which the accompanying figures are also taken.
Journal of the Statistical Society, vol. lxii. p. 498.
In 1900 the public debts of the Australasian colonial Governments amounted to £194,812,289 for a population of 3,756,894, while the New Zealand debt was £46,930,077 for a population of 756,510 (Statesman's "Year-book," 1901).
"Conciliation with America."
Holland, Imperium et Libertas, p. 82.
Public feeling in Australia and New Zealand was of a particularly simple manufacture in the autumn of 1899. Mr. Chamberlain communicated the "facts" of the South African war to the Premiers of the colonies and they served them out to the press. This official information was not checked by any really independent news.
Quoted Imperium et Libertas, p. 70.
Part II, Chapter VII
End of Notes
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CLA was discovered by accident in 1978 by Michael W. Pariza at the University of Wisconsin while looking for mutagen formations in meat during cooking. CLA, found naturally in many animal products, consists of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid. The difference between the two, centers around CLA's conjugated double bonds at carbon atoms 10 and 12 or 9 and 11. The 9 cis, 11 trans isomer is considered the most biologically active form of CLA.
Although all the intricacies of CLA are not fully understood, it is widely accepted in the research community that CLA counterbalances the negative effects of linoleic acid and regulates fat and protein metabolism in animals.* Pariza, director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin said, "A growing body of data indicates that CLA is a newly recognized nutrient that functions to regulate energy retention and metabolism."*
Food intake efficiency!* CLA has been surmised in animal studies to increase growth rate through increased feed efficiency. In controlled studies, animals that had their diets supplemented with CLA increased their body protein (muscle tissue) while at the same time, had a significant decrease in body fat. This all occurred in the CLA supplemented animals while their food intake was decreased. Their lean mass increased even though they were eating less! This indicates that CLA increases feed efficiency and also points to a nutrient repartitioning effect.*
Actual human studies are on the way. CLA is a naturally occurring nutrient, which may help you pack on lean muscle, reduce body fat and at the same time possesses health promoting properties.*
CLA occurs naturally in foods such as milk, cheese, beef, and lamb as well as many processed foods. One processed food in particular that's high in CLA is Cheez Wiz. But getting enough CLA from your diet for the preferred benefit would require considerable intake of these types of foods. This is not only impractical, but would also have a seriously negative impact on your metabolism due to the high caloric penalty you would pay.
Since this research has surfaced, a more economical and efficient way to get the required CLA has been devised. Through advanced lipid technology, a CLA synthesizing process allows for precision intake through premeasured softgel capsules. This allows for precise CLA intake at determined time intervals without the high calorie food consumption. Not only has CLA been suggested to increase muscle mass while reducing body fat, studies have also shown remarkable anti-catabolic, antioxidant, immune supporting benefits.*
To the athlete looking to add more muscle and drop body fat, CLA is a unique discovery that will make accomplishing this feat easier and faster, all the while having positive effects on immune function and antioxidant status.*
Why Supplementing With CLA Is The Only Way!
On average, foods rich in CLA contain approximately 7 milligrams of CLA per gram of fat. To get the amount of CLA in one softgel capsule of AST Sports Science CLA 750, you would have to consume over 64 grams of fat! To consume the recommended intake of CLA for the desired lean muscle gain and fat loss benefits, you have to take in a whopping 579 grams of fat from foods rich in this unique nutrient. That's over 5000 calories from fat. This is totally impractical in every sense of the word. With the development of CLA 750, you put science and technology in your arsenal for building muscle. AST Sports Science uses "advanced lipid technology" to harness the muscle building, fat reducing, and health protecting power of CLA in convenient, easy to swallow softgel capsules.* Don't wait another minute. Order your supply of AST Sports Science CLA today!
Questions And Answers
Would you recommend taking CLA? Or, is this something that I could eliminate?
Don't eliminate the "good fat" you are currently getting in AST Sports Science's CLA 1000. Fat in your diet serves a vital purpose for the body. Fat acts as a structural component for all cell membranes and supplies necessary chemical substrates for hormonal production. Fat protects vital organs and carries fat-soluble vitamins. The bottom line is that your body needs fat-so don't try to avoid it completely. Many experts feel that 26-30 percent of your total dietary calories should come from fat.
There are two types of fat. Saturated fat, which is considered bad; and unsaturated, which is considered to be good fat. Some people add fat like flax seed oil, olive oil, and/or canola oil to their diets to make sure they meet their body's requirements. CLA would also be considered good fat. Studies have suggested that CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) can help build muscle, reduce body fat, and induce an optimum cellular environment to support health.*
What the heck is "good fat"? Is AST Sports Science's CLA considered to be good fat?
Essential fatty acids (Omega-3) are considered to be good fats. I am certain to get essential fatty acid into my diet through AST Sports Science's CLA 1000 and flax seed oil.
Good fat will not necessarily make you fat--as long as your diet is calorie-conscious and nutritionally balanced.
Good fat will actually help you lose your unwanted body fat--if you keep the total of fat well within the total daily calories you need to burn every day. Essential fats in the right proportion of your total calories consumed can actually augment the metabolic processes in the body the help you get and stay lean.
The typical bodybuilder's diet avoids fat. If you are a bodybuilder, workout on a consistent basis, or a hard training athlete, you need to be careful not to totally eliminate fat from your eating regimen. Your chances of being deficient of these good fatty acids are increased because of your demand and utilization of nutrients.
Essential fatty acids are essential nutrients for all bodybuilders, people who workout on a consistent basis, or a hard training athlete. This good fat starts the process of creating all other fatty acids and hormone precursors needed to build lean muscle.*
Essential fatty acid provides fuel that's needed to fuel your intense workouts and productive lives.* Essential fatty acids actually play a very important role in your body's functions.* Essential Omega-3 fatty acids are ultimately converted in the body to hormone-like components that regulate every biological process. In fact, there are over 1,000 biological actions of essential fatty acids.* Some of which include affect smooth muscle, regulate reflexes, manufacture hormones, help in the body's immune response building healthy cell walls, transporting oxygen to the body cells, keeping saturated fat moving in the blood stream, and is the number one energy source for the heart muscle.*
Essential fatty acids have been found to be essential for optimum health and athletic performance.*
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Got a neighborhood barbecue coming up? Make invites easy with this fun printable invitation.
Tourists line up year-round to visit The Statue of Liberty in New York City.
Here's a new way to learn about the Chinese Zodiac with your kids: with colorful Zodiac masks! This mask is for the Year of the Tiger.
This color by letter kindergarten reading worksheet features capital and lowercase W. Kids use a key to color the page and reveal a hidden whale picture.
Learn more about a patriotic piece of history with this informational page on the original Star-Spangled Banner.
Help your kindergartener warm up to secondary colors by having him name things he already knows that are purple.
Show your child she can be anything she wants to be with this inspirational coach paper doll.
Teach your fifth grader words like ancient, option, and achievement with this vocabulary worksheet. Learn the meanings and spellings of these words and more.
Does your third grader need help with her times tables? Enlist the help of this charming worksheet for some fun practice that includes coloring!
Print out this starry first grade addition worksheet and sneak in a little math practice before bedtime!
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The Canada goose is the most wide-spread and most familiar goose in North America. Although most people can easily identify this species with its black head and neck, white chin and cheek patch, and clear honking call, they don't realize there are 11 recognized subspecies . These subspecies range in size and weight from almost as large as a swan (up to 18 pounds; 8.2 kg) to a little larger than a mallard (about 4 pounds; 1.8 kg). Both sexes of Canada geese look alike and all have the following in common: black bill, legs and feet; black head and neck with white cheek and throat patch; gray-brown to dark brown back and wings; breast and sides gray to dark brown; and belly and rump area white with black tail feathers.
The breeding and wintering ranges of the Canada geese cover most of Canada and the United States. There are five subspecies that migrate through and use South Dakota. The most commonly known of these subspecies, and the only one that nests in South Dakota, is the giant Canada goose (B. c. maxima ). Today, the giant Canada goose breeding population is abundant in east-central and northeast South Dakota, while common elsewhere. Of the subspecies that just migrate through South Dakota, the largest concentrations occur along the Missouri River in the central part of the state. Other concentrations occur at the Big Stone power plant, Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Shadehill Reservoir, and LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge. Because of open water in the Pierre area, large numbers of geese over-winter there.
Local nesting giant Canada geese are the first to arrive back to South Dakota in the spring. Depending on the weather, some will arrive in mid-February, but most usually arrive in early March and remain in the state until fall migration, which begins in early October. The giant Canada goose is the first of all waterfowl species to begin nesting. Egg laying begins around the first of April. Canada geese form pair bonds and mate for life, but when separated by death, the survivor will seek a new mate. Canada geese have a long life span, documented at over 30 years old. Pair bonding will occur with 2 year olds, but most will first attempt nesting at 3 years of age. Fall migration begins in early October.
Canada geese are very territorial and both sexes defend the nest site. Preferred nest site locations are muskrat houses, islands, nest structures, and shorelines in open areas around lakes and wetlands. The nest size of Canada geese shows greater variation than that of any other bird species. Nests of giant Canada geese are large, ranging from 17 to 48 inches. (43-122 cm) across. Giant Canada geese lay 5 to 7 eggs per nest. The female incubates the eggs, while the male stands guard a short distance away. Incubation lasts for 28 days, with another 2 days to complete the hatching and for the young to be ready to leave the nest. Both parents protect the young (see Figure 1). The female will brood the young at night or during inclement weather throughout the first week and less often thereafter. The young grow fast and attain flight at 8 to 10 weeks of age. Adults molt their primary wing feathers so both are flightless at the same time the young are growing. Adult giant Canada geese are capable of flight again at about the time their young reach flight stage.
This species is a grazing bird that feeds on a variety of grasses and water plants, but readily takes advantage of agricultural grains
The increase in breeding range and population of the giant Canada goose
in South Dakota is one of the most successful
accomplishments of wildlife management. The near extinction of this subspecies early in this century was caused by settlers'
unlimited gathering of eggs and shooting of adult birds for food. Giant Canada goose populations rebounded after strict
management regulations were initiated. Significant restoration efforts began in 1962 by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks in cooperation with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, sportsman, and landowners. It is this cooperation that has made this program so successful. Many different types of nesting structures were strategically placed and maintained. These structures have helped achieve a high level of nesting success during the re-establishment of giant Canada geese throughout South Dakota.
Giant Canada geese are very responsive to management and readily use nest structures provided by humans. A continued interest to place and properly maintain these nest structures will ensure a healthy goose population for years to come. The protection and enhancement of our lakes and wetlands will be effective in future management of giant Canada geese in South Dakota. Today, federal, state and private agencies keep a close watch on the health of these populations. Hunting is used to manage this species. Licensed hunters may shoot a specified limit of geese during a designated time of the year. The money derived from license fees and taxes paid by the hunters is used to care for and protect these populations.
Brood - the young baby geese hatched from a nest and the actions carried out by a female allowing the young to huddle under her wings next to her body for shelter and warmth.
Incubation - to keep eggs in a favorable environment for hatching which is accomplished by the female sitting on the eggs in the nest.
Molt - annual shedding and replacement of feathers necessary because of wear.
Pair bond - a relationship when a male and female select each other and stay together throughout their life.
Primary wing feathers - flight feathers toward the wing tips that are attached to the hand and finger bones.
Subspecies - a group of living things that, although members of a species capable of interbreeding with other members of that species, have recognizable differences in either physical appearance or behavior.
Territorial - defensiveness by animals of an area of land in order to exclude other members of the same species.
Bellrose, Frank C., 1976, Ducks, Geese, & Swans of North America,
A Wildlife Management Institute Book; Stackpole Books:Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
Rue III, Leonard Lee, 1974, Game Birds of North America, Outdoor Life; Harper & Row: New York, Evanston, San Francisco, London.
SDOU, 1991, The Birds of South Dakota, NSU Press: Aberdeen, SD 57401.
Rearing and Restoring Giant Canada Geese in The Dakotas, A Publication Prepared Cooperatively By: North Dakota Game, and Fish Department, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service; Published in 1984 and available from the Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Pierre, SD.
Paul Mammenga, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Aberdeen, SD., 1997.
Bill Antonides, 514 N Arch Street, Aberdeen, SD 57401.
Dr. Dan Tallman, Biology Professor, Northern State University, Aberdeen, SD.
Publication of the Canada Goose fact sheet was funded by the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Division of Wildlife, Pierre, SD.
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The Pacific Northwest/Pacific Southwest Intertie is the high-voltage electron highway of transmission lines that allows the Columbia River to flow to California in the form of electricity.
The Intertie was Carl Magnusson’s idea, back in 1919, but it took 45 years to come to fruition. The University of Washington engineering professor envisioned a series of high-voltage power lines linking the Pacific Northwest with the Pacific Southwest states. President Franklin Roosevelt adopted the idea as part of his rationale for the Bonneville Power Administration in the 1930s — federally owned transmission lines that would link the major population centers of the West. But it was the drought of 1948 that finally jump-started the idea and made it happen.
In that year, California suffered as the drought reduced hydropower production. Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which had underestimated future demand for electricity and, as a result, underbuilt its generation system, faced the potential for blackouts. The state ordered immediate 20-percent reductions in electricity usage, and leaders of the utility and the state government looked hopefully north to the vast and seemingly untouched water resources of the Northwest. A California congressman even proposed to divert the river to his state.
Rational minds prevailed, however, and over the next five years the proposal for linking the Northwest and Southwest with high-voltage lines gained momentum. Such a transmission system would allow the two regions to share electricity, and thus alleviate shortages, provide power in emergencies, reduce California’s dependence on oil-burning power plants and help serve the power demand of defense industries during the Korean War.
For a time, the West Coast transmission proposal bogged down in Congress, where it landed because of its interstate nature and potentially high cost. Its primary sponsors were federal agencies including the Bureau of Reclamation and the Federal Power Commission; critics included Northwest governors, who worried that the lines would siphon Columbia River power to California that otherwise would help boost economic development in their own states. The Idaho Public Utilities Commission declared in 1951 that the proposal would only serve the interests of those who backed a Socialist power regime in the West, and that was a powerful metaphor in the McCarthy era of public witch-hunting for un-American activities. It didn’t help, either, that President Eisenhower’s administration favored private development of power facilities, or partnerships of public and private agencies, over federal involvement, and discouraged new federal water projects.
The idea languished through most of the 1950s, but gained momentum again late in the decade as the price of oil more than doubled (this increased the cost of electricity produced at oil-fired power plants), the aluminum market slumped and Bonneville faced its first deficits because it could not find a market in the Northwest for much of its surplus power. But there to the south gleamed the golden promise of power-hungry California.
In 1958, Pacific Gas & Electric proposed construction of a high-voltage line between California and Oregon, in conjunction with the California-Oregon Power Company (this utility eventually would merge with Portland-based Pacific Power & Light). The idea found favor in Congress, where committees conducted hearings in the early 1960s. But it was the events of 1964, collectively, that finally carried the transmission system, to be named the Pacific Northwest/Pacific Southwest Intertie, from dream to reality. In that year Congress ratified the Columbia River Treaty, which the United States and Canada had signed in 1961, authorizing the construction of three large storage dams in the Canadian Columbia River Basin for the purpose of maximizing hydropower generation downstream in the United States. Also in 1964 the Pacific Northwest Coordination Agreement was negotiated among parties that included Bonneville, British Columbia and utilities in the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest. This agreement established rules, consistent with the Treaty, for BC Hydro and Bonneville to coordinate the operation of the Columbia River power system to produce the optimum amount of firm (uninterrupted) power and nonfirm (surplus) power. Finally, in 1964 Congress approved the Pacific Northwest Consumer Power Preference Act (Public Law 88-552), which authorized power sales over the Pacific Northwest/Pacific Southwest Intertie, but only power that was surplus to needs in the Northwest. This was politically important, as it insured that investor-owned utilities in the Northwest would have access to federal hydropower that the region’s publicly owned utilities did not need. Public utilities have preference to Bonneville’s power, and investor-owned utilities, which served the majority of customers in Oregon, for example, would not have supported construction of the Intertie unless they had some assurance that they would have access to federal power ahead of public utilities in the Southwest, such as the large municipal utility that serves Los Angeles. With approval of the preference law, Congress appropriated money for initial construction of the federal portion of the Intertie, in Oregon, in the Public Works Appropriation Act of 1965 (Public Law 88-511).
The role of the Canadian Entitlement — Canada’s share of the additional hydropower that would be generated in the Unites States as the result of the Treaty storage — played an important role in approval of the Intertie. Northwest utilities only wanted to sell surplus power on the Intertie, and surplus power is a seasonal commodity in the Northwest, mostly available during the spring and early summer when the mountain snowmelt and the Columbia River dams often generate more power than the region needs. But utilities in California and the Southwest wanted firm power — power that is delivered year-round — and British Columbia wanted to sell it to them from their Treaty entitlement.
“California would consent to the Intertie only if they could get firm power. We didn’t need the Canadian power in the Northwest,” former Bonneville Administrator Charles Luce told author Gene Tollefson, whose history of Bonneville is called BPA and the Struggle for Power at Cost. “There was no political opposition to selling Canadian firm power in California. So all of a sudden, what seemed to us to be a problem and a liability, namely how to market this Canadian power, became an asset and an opportunity.”
On September 17, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson addressed the Intertie Victory Breakfast in Portland, a celebration that took place a day after Johnson met Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson at Blaine on the Washington/British Columbia border to proclaim the treaty and, importantly, present a check to Canada for $254 million. That was the calculated value of the Canadian entitlement, the money British Columbia would use from its share of the first 30 years of increased power sales to build its three Treaty dams. In his Portland remarks, Johnson said, “This system is proof of the power of cooperation and unity. You have proved that if we turn away from division, if we just ignore dissention and distrust, there is no limit to our achievements.”
The Intertie consists of both AC and DC lines. Both have been expanded over the years from their initial construction. Today, the AC lines carry up to 4,800 megawatts of electricity, and the DC lines carry up to 3,100. The AC line runs from John Day Dam to Lugo, California, near Los Angeles. The DC lines run from the Celilo substation, near The Dalles Dam, to Sylmar, California, also near Los Angeles.
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As I watch from my summer subtropical perch in Brisbane, Queensland, the somewhat unprecedented rains that deluged parts of Australia during the summer of 2010/11 have been replaced by sizzling heat waves this summer. These raise some pertinent lessons on climate and risk management for New Zealand.
OPINION: Firstly, let's look at some figures and ask the question of what are the climate mechanisms behind the heat waves.
Figures from Australia's Bureau of Meteorology figures show that the highest temperatures of 2011 occurred in the third Australian heat wave of the year. This affected the Pilbara region in the north west of Western Australia. Multiple sites broke the previous Western Australian December record of 48.8 degrees Celsius.
This month incessant heat has struck the interior with daytime highs soaring to the mid forties. As I pen this there are a few more days of this heat wave left with temperatures averaging between 35C and 40C in central Australia. Places have been recording daily lows of 30C and daily highs of close to 45C. Mean temperatures have been running over 6C above average.
Meteorologists measure the warmth of the air lying above one spot as the 500-1000 hPa thickness. The "thickness" is a measure of how warm or cold a layer of the atmosphere is. High values mean warm air, and low values mean cold air. Summer 500-1000 hPa thickness values lie between 5600 and 5700 metres over Australia. It was values of around 5760 metres that brought New Zealand's highest temperatures, in the low forties, in February 1973.
And what has been happening in late December and early January? An incredibly hot blob of air has sat over parts of inland Australia with thickness values of 5850 metres or more.
It is a simple law of physics that with more greenhouse gases in a layer of atmosphere the warmer surface temperatures get. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 now are at 392 parts per million compared with 280ppm in 1750. This means that the lower atmosphere is thicker and retains more warmth, as more CO2 in the atmosphere traps extra heat. The consequence is that global warming leads to an increase in the magnitude and incidence of heat waves.
The first lesson from the sizzling continental heat wave is that global warming has arrived for some time now, and the climate has warmed. Global warming is no longer a theory based on abstract calculations of what the climate is very likely to do in future decades. In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded: "It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent."
The second lesson - the canary in the coal mine - is that because of global warming, the frequency of these extreme weather events will increase. Thus the century old high temperature extremes will be exceeded more often in the future.
The third lesson is that there needs to be better preparation for these events by civil society. Heat waves can have debilitating effects on the elderly who are not so healthy. The 2003 European heat wave caused at least 40,000 deaths and the 2010 western Russian heat wave 55,000 deaths. Heat waves also increase the fire risk when there is little rain, as occurred in the Black Saturday heat wave and bushfires in February 2009 in Victoria.
At least New Zealand is the lucky country in this respect, surrounded by oceans which dampen down any high temperatures. However Niwa future climate scenarios show a large increase in days above 30C and 35C in eastern districts with more frequent very hot nor'westers as the 21st century progresses.
Global warming is here, now - and not a phenomenon for future generations to deal with. We must embark on a course of emissions reductions targets as soon as possible. If we do not act now the severity of such heat waves and the subsequent damage to life and property will increase. There is no time like the present to invest in our future wellbeing.
Former Niwa scientist Jim Salinger is resident for the summer as a research fellow at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffiths University, Queensland.
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Kings & Queens
House of Windsor
Line of Succession
Frequently asked Questions
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English Kings and Queens - Historical Timeline
King Offa ( 757 - 796 ) |
757 - Offa seizes the Kingdom Mercia after the murder of his cousin Aethelbald.
776 - Defeats the men of Kent at Otford
779 - Offa defeats Cynewulf of Wessex at Bensington in Oxfordshire.
784 - Offa defeats the Welsh. Around this time work on Offa's Dyke is started marking the border with Wales.
785 - Egbert son of Eahmund of Kent flees to Wessex and then to exile in the Frankish court of Charlemagne
787 - 1st recorded Viking raids on England
789 - Beorhtric of Wessex marries Offa's daughter Eadburgh
792 - Aethelred king of Northumbria marries Offa's daughter Aelfflaed
793 - St Albans Abbey founded. Offa annexes East Anglia and joins it to the kingdom of Mercia
793 - Vikings raid the Christian monastery on Lindisfarne
795 - Vikings raid the monastery on Iona in Scotland
796 - Offa's dyke is completed. The death of Offa marks the end of Mercian supremacy in England. His son Ecgfrith reigns for less than 6 months
|King Egbert ( 802 - 839 ) |
800 - Around this time the Book of Kells is written in Ireland
802 - Death of King Beorthric of Wessex
802 - Egbert returns from exile in Charlemagne and becomes King of Wessex
825 - King Egbert of Wessex wins a decisive victory over King Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellendun. Wessex becomes the dominant kingdom.
827 - Following his conquest of Mercia, Egbert controls all of England south of the Humber
829 - Egbert defeats the Northumbrian king at Dore near Sheffield
830 - Wiglif of Mercia revolts against Wessex rule
830 - Egbert subdues North Wales. He is recognized as overlord of other English kings
836 - Egbert is defeated by the Danes at Carhampton in Somerset
838 - Defeats Vikings and Cornish at Hingston Down in Cornwall
839 - Death of Egbert. He is succeeded by his son Aethelwulf
|King Aethelwulf ( 839 - 856 ) |
839 - Aethelwulf succeeds his father Egbert as King of Wessex
841 - Vikings raid Kent and East Anglia, and establish a settlement at Dublin
842 - Many die in London and Rochester during Viking raids
844 - Kenneth MacAlpine, King of the Scots, conquers the Picts; founds a unified Scotland
845 - Vikings are defeated by a Saxon force at the River Parrett
851 - Vikings forces enter Thames estuary and march on Canterbury
855 - Aethelwulf goes on a pilgrimage to Rome accompanied by his son Alfred
858 - Aethelwulf returns but finds his son Aethelbald has taken control of Wessex
858 - Aethelwulf dies at Steyning in Sussex. His son Aelthelbald becomes king.
|King Aethelbald ( 856 - 860 ) |
858 - Aethelbald marries his father's widow Judith
860 - Vikings land on Iceland
860 - Aehelbald dies and his brother Aethelbert become king.
|King Aethelbert ( 860 - 866 ) |
860 - Aethelbert becomes King of Wessex following the death of his brother Aethelbald
860 - Winchester sacked by the Danes
865 - The Viking 'Great Heathen Army' commanded by Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless lands in East Anglia and sweeps across England
866 - Vikings take York (Jorvik) and establish a North British Kingdom
|King Aethelred I ( 866 - 871 ) |
866 - Aethelred becomes king on the death of his brother Aethelbert
869 - Edmund King of East Anglia resists the Vikings and is killed
870 - Aethelred defeated by the Danes (Vikings) at Reading
871 - Aethelred and his brother Alfred defeat the Danes at Ashdown
871 - Battle of Meretun, Hampshire. Aethelred is mortally wounded and dies.
|King Alfred the Great ( 871 - 899 ) |
871 - Alfred becomes King of Wessex following the death of his brother Aethelred
872 - London falls to Viking raiders
875 - After persistent attacks by Vikings the monks of Lindesfarne travel through Northumbria and Galloway with the Lindesfarne Gospels.
878 - Guthrum's Danish army invades Wessex, and Alfred takes refuge on the isle of Athelney. Alfred defeats Guthrum at the battle of Ethandune (Edington) in Wiltshire.
878 - Treaty of Wedmore divides England into two. Guthrum accepts baptism as a Christian and agrees to leave Wessex and settle in East Anglia.
884 - Alfred defeats the Danes at Rochester
885 - Alfred imposes rules on South Wales
886 - Alfred takes London from the Danes. Danelaw - the territory occupied by the Danes in East Anglia is recognised by Alfred
890 - Guthrum dies. Alfred establishes a permanent army and navy
891 - Anglo Saxon Chronicle, source of much early British History, begun
893 - Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, completes his book The Life of Alfred the Great
894 - Northumbrian and East Angles swear allegiance to Alfred, but promptly break the truce attacking South West England.
896 - Naval victory over the Danes in the Solent
899 - Alfred dies and is buried at Winchester. His son Edward becomes king.
|King Edward The Elder ( 899 - 924 ) |
900 - Edward the Elder, son of Alfred, crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames
901 - Edward the Elder takes the title "King of the Angles and Saxons"
902 - Eric, ruler of the Danes in East Anglia, dies in the Battle of Holme
910 - Reconquest of Danelaw lands begins. The last great Viking army sent to ravage England is defeated by an army of Wessex and Mercia.
913 - Edward the Elder recaptures Essex from the Danes
915 - Edward is accepted as overlord by Ragnald ruler of the Viking Kingdom of York
916 - Edward's sister Aethelflaed of Mercia attacks and conquers most of Wales
916 - Vikings establish settlements at Dublin and Waterford in Ireland
918 - Edward becomes ruler of Mercia following the death of his sister Aethelflaed
920 - Edward takes East Anglia from the Danes
923 - The Scottish King Constantine II submits to Edward
924 - Edward dies at Farndon-on-Dee near Chester leading an army against the Welsh. He is buried in Winchester.
|King Athelstan ( 924 - 940 ) |
924 - Athelstan becomes King of Wessex and Mercia on the death of his father Edward the Elder.
926 - Athelstan annexes Northumbria, and forces the kings of Wales, Strathclyde, the Picts, and the Scots to submit to him
926 - Athelstan marries his sister to Sihtric the Viking King of York to cement his ties with the North
934 - Athelstan invades Scotland
937 - Battle of Brunanburh: Athelstan defeats alliance of Scots, Celts, Danes, and Vikings, and takes the title of King of all Britain
940 - Athelstan dies at Gloucester and is buried at Malmesbury.
|King Edmund ( 940 - 946 ) |
940 - Edmund becomes King. Scandinavian forces from Northumbria overrun the East Midlands.
942 - Edmund re-establishes control over Northumbria and rules a united England.
943 - Edmund extends his rule into southern Scotland,
945 - Dunstan becomes abbot of Glastonbury Abbey
945 - Edmund conquers Strathclyde, but Cumbria is annexed by the Scots.
946 - Edmund murdered at a party in Pucklechurch
|King Edred ( 946 - 955 ) |
946 - Edred succeeds his brother Edmund
954 - Expulsion of Eric Bloodaxe, last Danish king of York
955 - Edred dies and is buried at Winchester.
|King Edwy (Eadwig) ( 955 - 959 ) |
955 - Edwy crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames
956 - Dunstan sent into exile by Edwy
957 - Mercians and Northumbrians rebel against Edwy
959 - Edwy dies in Gloucester
|King Edgar ( 959 - 975 ) |
959 - Edgar King of Mercia and Northumbria becomes King of all England.
965 - Westminster Abbey is founded
973 - Northern Kings submit to Edgar at Chester
975 - Edgar dies at Winchester
|King Edward The Martyr ( 975 - 978 ) |
975 - 13 year old Edward succeeds to the throne
978 - Edward the Martyr murdered at Corfe Castle
|King Aethelred II The Unready ( 978 - 1016 ) |
978 - Aethelred, son of Edgar, becomes King of England following the murder of his half brother Edward
980 - Danes renew their raids on England attacking Chester and Southampton
985 - Sweyn I, Forkbeard, rebels against his father Harold Blue-tooth and deposes him
991 - Battle of Maldon: Byrhtnoth of Essex is defeated by Danish invaders; Aethelred buys off the Danes with 10,000 pounds of silver (Danegeld)
992 - Aethelred makes a truce with Duke Richard I of Normandy
994 - Danes under Sweyn and Norwegians under Olaf Trygvesson sail up river Thames and besiege London; bought off by Aethelred
1002 - Aethelred orders a massacre of Danish settlers. After the death of his first wife Elfleda he marries Emma of Normandy
1012 - The Danes raid Kent, burning Canterbury Cathedral and murdering Archbishop Alphege
1013 - King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark lands in England and is proclaimed king; Aethelred II the Unready flees to Normandy
1014 - The English recall Aethelred II the Unready as King on the death of Sweyn at Gainsborough
1015 - King Canute II of Denmark & Norway again invades England
|King Edmund II lronside ( 1016 ) |
1016 - Edmund Ironside, son of Aethelred II the Unready of England, becomes King. At the battle of Abingdon, in Essex, King Canute II of Denmark defeats Edmund. They meet on the Isle of Alney in the Severn and agree to divide the kingdom into two. Canute takes the land North of the Thames and Edmund the South.
1016 - Edmund is assassinated a few months later and Canute takes the throne as King Canute of England.
|King Cnut (Canute) ( 1016 - 1035 ) |
1017 - Canute marries Emma of Normandy, the widow of Aethelred II. Canute divides England into four earldoms - Northumbria Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia.
1027 - Canute makes a pilgrimage to Rome to demonstrate his alliance with the Church, and attends the coronation of the Pope
1028 - In addition to his existing kingdoms Canute becomes King of Norway
1035 - Canute dies at the age of 40, and his huge Northern European empire disintegrates.
|King Harold I Harefoot ( 1035 - 1040 ) |
1035 - Canute's illegitimate son Harold Harefoot usurps the throne from his half-brother, Harthacanute, the rightful heir who is away fighting in Denmark.
|King Harthacnut ( 1040 - 1042 ) |
1040 - Harold Harefoot dies and Harthacanute accedes to the throne
|King Edward The Confessor ( 1042 - 1066 ) |
1042 - Harthacanute dies and is succeeded by Edward the Confessor, son of Aethelred II.
1043 - Earl Leofric founds Coventry Abbey. His wife Lady Godiva according to legend rides naked through the streets of Coventry
1045 - Edward marries Edith daughter of Earl Godwin of Wessex
1051 - Edward quarrels with Godwin and banishes the rebellious Godwin family from England. Edward promises the throne to William, Duke of Normandy.
1052 - Godwin, Earl of Wessex, returns to England.
1053 - Godwin’s son, Harold, becomes principal adviser to the King.
1056 - Welsh led by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn attack England and burn Hereford Cathedral
1057 - Edward, son of Edmund Ironside and potential heir to the throne, returns to England but dies mysteriously
1063 - Harold Godwinson (later Harold II) and his brother Tostig of Northumberland attack Wales. Gruffydd ap Llewellyn is killed by his own troops.
1064 - Harold visits William of Normandy and swears on oath to support his claim to the throne
1065 - Northumbria rebels against Tostig who is exiled. Harold fails to support his brother and they become bitter enemies.
1066 - Edward dies and Harold Godwinson is chosen as successor, but William of Normandy declares the throne was promised to him.
|King Harold II ( 1066 ) |
1066 - Harold Godwinson becomes King Harold II
1066 - Harold II fights his brother Tostig and a Viking force under Harold Hadrada and defeats them at Stamford Bridge. He hastily marches South at the news that William Duke of Normandy with 100 ships has landed at Pevensey Bay and marched into Sussex.
1066 - Harold II is killed at the Battle of Hastings according to legend with an arrow through his eye.
1066 - Edgar the Aethling, grandson of Edmund II is elected King, but rules for only a few weeks before submitting to William of Normandy
|King William I The Conqueror ( 1066 - 1087 ) |
1066 - William and his Norman army defeat Harold II and the Anglo Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. Harold is killed and, after subduing the south of the country William is crowned King of England.
1067 - William suppresses a Saxon revolt in the southwest of England. William's Earls are given lands driving out the Anglo Saxon lords. Norman French becomes the language of government.
1068 - William puts down a revolt in the northern counties led by Edwin and Morcar and establishes fortifications. The region is laid waste in an action known as 'Harrying the North'.
1069 - Swen Estrithson of Denmark lands in the Humber and is welcomed by northern English earls who join him in expelling the Norman garrison at York. William marches north and reoccupies York
1070 - Hereward the Wake leads a revolt against the Normans.
1071 - William defeats the revolt led by Hereward the Wake in East Anglia, thus putting an end to Saxon resistance to his rule.
1072 - William invades Scotland and compels Malcolm III to pay homage to him.
1073 - Suppresses rebellion in Maine in France
1078 - Work begins on the Tower of London
1079 - William begins the construction of a Norman Cathedral at Winchester.
1079 - Robert, William’s eldest son, leads a rebellion in Normandy, but is defeated by his father at the Battle of Gerberoi and his life is spared.
1085 - William orders a survey of the shires of England; the information is recorded in the Domesday Book, which is completed the following year.
1086 - William writes to the Pope that England owes no allegiance to the Church of Rome
1086 - Domesday survey of England completed
1087 - William dies of his injuries after falling from his horse while besieging the French city of Mantes.
|King William II Rufus ( 1087 - 1100 ) |
1087 - William Il accedes to the throne on the death of his father, William I.
1088 - William crushes a baronial rebellion in Normandy led by his uncle, Odo of Bayeux. William’s brother, Robert, supports the claims of Normandy to the English throne.
1089 - Ranulf Flambard, leading adviser to William, is appointed Justiciar (the King’s judicial officer). He begins to levy heavy taxes on the church.
1090 - William leads an invasion of Normandy in an attempt to subdue his brother, Robert.
1091 - William defeats an invasion of England led by Malcolm III of Scotland.
1092 - Carlisle is captured from Scotland and Cumberland is annexed.
1093 - Malcolm III and the Scots invade England again, but they are defeated and Malcolm is killed at the Battle of Alnwick.
1095 - William suppresses revolt in Northumbria.
1095 - First Crusade begins following a call by Pope Urban II to help free the Holy Land which has been captured by Muslims.
1098 - William suppresses a Welsh rebellion against the Norman border lords.
1099 - The Crusaders take Jerusalem. The first Crusade ends.
1100 - William is killed by an arrow while out hunting in the New Forest. Supposedly an accident, it has been suggested that he was shot deliberately on the instructions of his brother Henry
|King Henry I ( 1100 - 1135 ) |
1100 - Henry I succeeds his brother, William II.
1100 - Henry issues a Charter of Liberties, pledging good governance.
1100 - Henry marries Edith known as Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland.
1101 - Robert of Normandy invades England in an attempt to wrest the English throne from his brother, Henry. After failing, he signs the Treaty of Alton, which confirms Henry as King of England and Robert as Duke of Normandy.
1106 - War breaks out between Henry and Robert. Henry defeats Robert at the Battle of Tinchebrai, imprisons him in Cardiff Castle, and takes control of Normandy.
1118 - Death of Henry's wife Matilda.
1120 - Henry's son and heir, William, is drowned at sea when returning from Normandy in The White Ship which strikes a rock and sinks. Henry’s daughter, Matilda, becomes heir.
1121 - Henry marries Adelicia of Louvain
1126 - Henry persuades the barons to accept Matilda as his lawful successor to the throne.
1128 - Matilda, Henry's only surviving legitimate child, marries Geoffrey, Count of Anjou.
1135 - Henry I dies in Rouen, France, as a result of food poisoning
|King Stephen ( 1135 - 1154 ) |
1135 - Stephen usurps the throne from Matilda, Henry’s daughter.
1136 - The Earl of Norfolk leads the first rebellion against Stephen starting civil war known as 'The Anarchy'.
1136 - Owain Gwynedd of Wales defeats the English at Crug Mawr
1138 - Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry I, deserts Stephen and pledges allegiance to Matilda.
1138 - David I of Scotland invades England in support of his niece, Matilda, but is defeated at Northallerton.
1139 - Matilda leaves France and lands in England.
1141 - Matilda’s forces take Stephen prisoner at the Battle of Lincoln, and Matilda is proclaimed queen.
1141 - Earl Robert is captured and exchanged for Stephen’s freedom.
1145 - Stephen defeats Matilda’s forces at the Battle of Faringdon.
1148 - Matilda abandons her cause and leaves England.
1147 - Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet (later Henry II) invades England but runs out of money. Stephen pays for Henry's return to Normandy
1151 - Matilda's husband Geoffrey of Anjou dies and their son, Henry Plantagenet, succeeds his father as Count of Anjou.
1153 - Henry lands in England again, and gathers support for further war against Stephen.
1153 - Henry and Stephen agree terms for ending the civil war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Westminster, Stephen is to remain King for life, but thereafter the throne passes to Henry.
1154 - Stephen dies.
|King Henry II ( 1154 - 1189 ) |
1154 - Henry II accedes to the throne at the age of 21 upon the death of his second cousin, Stephen.
1154 - Pope Adrian IV (born Nicholas Breakspear) becomes the first English Pope 1154-1159.
1155 - Henry appoints Thomas a Becket as Chancellor of England, a post that he holds for seven years.
1155 - Pope Adrian IV issues the papal bull Laudabiliter, which gives Henry dispensation to invade Ireland and bring the Irish Church under the control of the Church of Rome.
1162 - On the death of Archbishop Theobald, Henry appoints Thomas a Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that he will help introduce Church reforms.
1164 - Henry introduces the Constitutions of Clarendon, which place limitations on the Church’s jurisdiction over crimes committed by the clergy. The Pope refuses to approve the Constitutions, so Thomas a Becket refuses to sign them.
1166 - The Assize of Clarendon establishes trial by jury for the first time.
1166 - Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster in Ireland, appeals to Henry to help him oppose a confederation of other Irish kings. In response to the appeal, Henry sends a force led by Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, thereby beginning the English settlement of Ireland.
1168 - English scholars expelled from Paris settle in Oxford, where they found a university.
1170 - Pope Alexander III threatens England with an interdict and forces Henry to a formal reconciliation with Becket. However, the two of them quarrel again when Becket publishes papal letters voiding Henry’s Constitutions of Clarendon.
1170 - Becket is killed in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December by four of Henry’s knights.
1171 - Henry invades Ireland and receives homage from the King of Leinster and the other kings. Henry is accepted as Lord of Ireland.
1171 - At Cashel Henry makes Irish clergy submit to the authority of Rome
1173 - Canonization of Thomas a Becket.
1173 - Eleanor of Aquitaine and her sons revolt unsuccessfully against her husband Henry II.
1174 - Henry’s sons Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey lead an unsuccessful rebellion against their father
1176 - Henry creates a framework of justice creating judges and dividing England into six counties
1185 - Lincoln cathedral is destroyed by an earthquake.
1189 - Henry dies at Chinon castle, Anjou, France
|King Richard I The Lion Heart ( 1189 - 1199 ) |
1189 - Richard I becomes King of England upon the death of Henry II
1189 - William Longchamp is appointed Chancellor of England and governs the country during Richard’s absence abroad
1189 - Richard sets out with Philip of France on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land
1191 - William Longchamp falls from power and Richard’s brother, John, takes over the government
1191 - Richard captures the city of Acre, Palestine, and defeats Saladin at Arsuuf, near Jaffa
1192 - Richard reaches an agreement with Saladin to guarantee Christians safe pilgrimage to Jerusalem
1192 - On his way back to England from Palestine, Richard is captured and handed over to Henry VI, Emperor of Germany. Henry demands a ransom of 100,000 marks from England for Richard’s release from prison
1194 - The ransom is raised in England. Richard is released from captivity.
1195 - Richard returns to England for a brief period, before leaving to fight in France, never to return to his homeland.
1196 - The Assize of Measures standardizes weights including the lb (pound) and distance including the yard.
1199 - Richard is mortally wounded by an arrow from a crossbow in battle at Chalus, in France.
|King John ( 1199 - 1216 ) |
1199 - John accedes to the throne on the death of his brother, Richard I.
1204 - England loses most of its possessions in France.
1205 - John refuses to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury
1208 - Pope Innocent III issues an Interdict against England, banning all church services except baptisms and funerals
1209 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates John for his confiscation of ecclesiastical property
1209 - Cambridge University founded
1212 - Innocent III declares that John is no longer the rightful King
1213 - John submits to the Pope’s demands and accepts the authority of the Pope
1214 - Philip Augustus of France defeats the English at the Battle of Bouvines
1215 - Beginning of the Barons' war. The English Barons march to London to demand rights which they lay down in the Magna Carta.
1215 - John meets the English barons at Runnymede, agrees to their demands, and seals the Magna Carta which set limits on the powers of the monarch, lays out the feudal obligations of the barons, confirms the liberties of the Church, and grants rights to all freemen of the realm and their heirs for ever. It is the first written constitution.
1215 - The Pope decrees that John need not adhere to the Magna Carta, and civil war breaks out
1216 - The barons seek French aid in their fight against John. Prince Louis of France lands in England and captures the Tower of London
1216 - John flees North and loses his war chest of cash and jewels in the Wash estuary
1216 - John dies of a fever at Newark and is buried Worcester Cathedral
|King Henry III ( 1216 - 1272 ) |
1216 - Henry III is crowned King at the age of nine. England is ruled temporarily by two regents, Hubert de Burgh and William the Marshal
1217 - The French lose the battles of Lincoln and Dover and are driven back to France
1220 - Building of Salisbury cathedral begun
1222 - De Burgh successfully puts down an insurrection supporting the French king Louis Vlll’s claim to the throne
1227 - Henry takes full control of the government of England, but retains de Burgh as his main adviser
1232 - Hubert de Burgh is dismissed as adviser
1236 - Henry marries Eleanor of Provence
1237 - The Treaty of York with Alexander II of Scotland agrees the border between England and Scotland
1238 - Simon de Montfort marries Henry’s sister, Eleanor
1240 - Henry's Great Council is called 'Parliament' for the first time
1245 - Henry lays the foundation stone for the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey
1258 - The English barons, led by de Montfort, rebel against Henry’s misgovernment. They present a list of grievances to Henry, who signs the Provisions of Oxford, which limit royal power
1261 - Henry repudiates the Provisions of Oxford
1264 - The Baron’s War breaks out. De Montfort defeats Henry at Lewes. Henry is captured.
1265 - Simon de Montfort summons the first directly elected English Parliament
1265 - Some of the barons break their alliance with de Montfort and, led by Prince Edward, kill him at the Battle of Evesham
1266 - The Dictum of Kenilworth restores Henry's authority and annuls the Provisions of Oxford
1267 - In the Treaty of Montgomery, Henry recognizes Llewellyn ap Gruffydd as ruler of Wales
1272 - Henry III dies in the Palace of Westminster
|King Edward I Longshanks ( 1272 - 1307 ) |
1272 - Edward learns that he has succeeded to the throne on his way home from the Crusade
1274 - Edward is crowned in Westminster Abbey
1282 - Edward invades North Wales and defeats Llewellyn ap Gruffydd the last ruler of an independent Wales
1284 - Independence of the Welsh is ended by the Statute of Rhuddlan
1290 - Edward's wife Eleanor dies at Harby in Nottinghamshire. Her body is brought back to London and a cross erected at each stop along the journey - Geddington, Hardingston, Waltham, and the most famous at Charing Cross.
1292 - Edward chooses John Balliol to be the new King of Scotland
1295 - Model Parliament is summoned
1295 - John Balliol reneges on his allegiance to Edward and signs alliance with King Philip IV of France
1296 - Edward invades Scotland, defeats the Scots at Dunbar and deposes Balliol. He then takes over the throne of Scotland and removes the Stone of Scone to Westminster.
1297 - Scots rise against English rule and, led by William Wallace, defeat Edward at the Battle of Stirling Bridge
1298 - Edward invades Scotland again and defeats William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk
1299 - Edward marries Margaret of France
1301 - Edward makes his son Prince of Wales, a title conferred on every first born son of the monarchy ever since.
1305 - William Wallace is executed in London.
1306 - Robert Bruce is crowned King of Scotland
1307 - Edward attempts to invade Scotland again, but dies on his way north
|King Edward II ( 1307 - 1327 ) |
1307 - Edward II accedes to the throne on the death of his father, Edward I.
1308 - Edward’s favourite, Piers Gaveston, is exiled for misgovernment.
1309 - Gaveston returns from exile in France.
1310 - Parliament sets up a committee of Lords Ordainers to control the King and improve administration. The King’s cousin, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, takes control
1312 - Piers Gaveston is kidnapped by the King’s opponents and is put to death.
1314 - Edward and the English army are defeated at the Battle of Bannockburn by Robert Bruce. Scottish independence is assured
1320 - Welsh border barons, father and son, both named Hugh Despenser, gain the King’s favour,
1320 - The Scots assert their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath
1322 - Barons’ rebellion, led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, is crushed at the Battle of Boroughbridge in Yorkshire.
1326 - Edward’s wife, Isabella, abandons him and with her lover, Mortimer, seizes power and deposes Edward. The Despensers are both put to death.
1327 - Edward is formally deposed by Parliament in favour of Edward III, his son, and is murdered in Berkeley Castle on the orders of his wife, Isabella.
|King Edward III ( 1327 - 1377 ) |
1327 - Edward III accedes to the throne after his father, Edward II, is formally deposed.
1328 - Edward marries Phillipa of Hanault
1329 - Edward recognizes Scotland as an independent nation
1330 - Edward takes power after three years of government by his mother, Isabella of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer. He imprisons his mother for the rest of her life.
1332 - Parliament is divided into two houses, Lords and Commons. English becomes the court language replacing Norman French.
1333 - Defeat of Scottish army at Halidon Hill.
1337 - French King Philip VI annexes the English King's Duchy of Aquitaine. Edward III responds by laying claim to the French crown as a grandson of Philip IV though his mother Isabella. This results in the 100 Years’ War with France.
1344 - Edward establishes the Order of the Garter
1346 - David II of Scotland invades England but is defeated at Neville’s Cross and captured.
1346 - French defeated at the Battle of Crecy.
1347 - Edward besieges and captures Calais.
1348 - -1350 The Black Death, bubonic plague which caused the skin to turn black, kills one-third of the English population. It leaves an acute shortage of labour for agriculture and armies.
1356 - Black Prince defeats the French at Poitiers capturing King John II of France who is held prisoner for four years. Most of South Western France is now held by the English.
1357 - David II of Scotland is released from captivity and returns home to Scotland.
1360 - King John II of France is released on promise of payment of a ransom and leaving his son Louis of Anjou in English-held Calais as hostage.
1364 - Louis escapes and John unable to pay the ransom returns to England where he dies.
1367 - England and France support rival sides in the civil war in Castille
1369 - War breaks out again as the French take back Aquitaine.
1370 - Edward, The Black Prince, sacks Limoges massacring 3,000 people.
1372 - French troops recapture Poitou and Brittany. Naval Battle at La Rochelle.
1373 - John of Gaunt leads an invasion of France taking his army to the borders of Burgundy.
1373 - John of Gaunt returns to England and takes charge of government. Edward and his son are ill.
1375 - Treaty of Bruges. English possessions in France are reduced to the areas of Bordeaux and Calais.
1376 - Parliament gains right to investigate public abuses and impeach offenders; the first impeachment is of Alice Perrers, Edward’s mistress, and two lords.
1376 - Death of Edward, the Black Prince.
1377 - Edward III dies of a stroke at Sheen Palace, Surrey, aged 64 years
|King Richard II ( 1377 - 1399 ) |
1377 - Ten year old Richard II succeeds his grandfather, Edward III; the kingdom is ruled at first by the King’s uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas of Gloucester.
1380 - John Wycliffe begins to translate the New Testament from Latin into English .
1380 - A Poll Tax is levied, a shilling a head for the entire male population
1381 - Poll Tax leads to the Peasants’ Revolt. Watt Tyler and John Ball march on London.
1382 - Richard promises that the taxes will be repealed, but as the rebels return they are hunted and executed.
1382 - William of Wykeham founds Winchester College
1387 - Led by the Duke of Gloucester, the Lords Appellant control the government
1388 - Scots defeat Henry Hotspur at the Battle of Otterburn
1389 - Richard takes control of the government; William of Wykeham is Lord Chancellor
1394 - Richard leads English army to reconquer west of Ireland.
1396 - Richard marries Isabella daughter of the King of France and signs a 28 year truce with France.
1397 - Richard takes revenge against Lords Appellant and exiles Henry Bolingbroke
1398 - Richard (Dick) Whittington becomes Lord Mayor of London
1399 - Bolingbroke becomes Duke of Lancaster on the death of John of Gaunt, but Richard seizes his possessions. Bolingbroke returns from exile to claim his inheritance and seizes the throne.
1399 - Richard, who is away fighting at Leinster in Ireland, returns, but is deposed and imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, where he dies in 1400
|King Henry IV ( 1399 - 1413 ) |
1399 - Henry returns from exile in France to reclaim his estates seized by Richard II; he claims the throne and is crowned. His coronation was the first since the Norman Conquest in which the King's address was in English instead of Norman French.
1400 - Richard dies of starvation in Pontefract Castle.
1400 - Death of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer leaving The Canterbury Tales unfinished.
1401 - Owain Glyndwr leads Welsh revolt against English rule
1402 - State visit to England of Manuel II, the Byzantine emperor
1403 - First rebellion by the Percy family from Northumberland defeated at the Battle of Shrewsbury.
1404 - Glyndwr makes a treaty with the French, who send an army in 1405 to support the rebellion against the English.
1405 - Second Percy rebellion takes place
1406 - Henry contracts a leprosy-like illness
1408 - Third Percy rebellion takes place.
1413 - Henry dies at Westminster, worn out by constant revolts and shortage of money.
|King Henry V ( 1413 - 1422 ) |
1413 - Henry accedes to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of his father, Henry IV
1414 - Henry adopts the claims of Edward III to the French crown
1415 - Henry thwarts the Cambridge plot, an attempt by a group of nobles to replace him on the throne with his cousin, Edmund Mortisner, Earl of March.
1415 - Henry renews the war against France in order to win back territories lost by his ancestors. After a five-week siege, he captures Harfleur the leading port in north-west France.
1415 - Battle of Agincourt, at which 6,000 Frenchmen are killed, while less than 400 English soldiers lose their lives.
1416 - Death of Owain Glyndwr, leader of the Welsh revolt.
1420 - Henry marries Catherine, daughter of Charles VI. Under the treaty of Troyes, Henry will become King of France on the death of Charles VI.
1421 - Birth of Prince Henry, later Henry VI.
1422 - Henry V dies in France of dysentery before he can succeed to the French throne. King Charles VI of France dies the following month, leaving Henry VI, Henry’s 10-month-old son, as King of France and England.
|King Henry VI ( 1422 - 1461 ) |
1422 - Henry aged 8 months becomes King of England on the death of his father, Henry V, and then, two months later, King of France on the death of his grandfather, Charles VI.
1422 - John, Duke of Bedford, is appointed Regent of France; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, becomes Regent of England.
1429 - Henry VI is crowned King of England
1429 - The young peasant girl Joan of Arc begins her campaign to expel the English from France. She inspires the French army which relieves Orleans besieged by English troops.
1431 - The English capture Joan of Arc. She is burned at the stake as a witch and heretic in Rouen on 30 May.
1431 - Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Paris
1437 - Henry assumes personal rule of England
1440 - Eton college founded giving free education to 70 scholars
1445 - Henry marries Margaret of Anjou
1453 - End of 100 Years’ War. Gascony and Normandy fall to the French. England retains only Calais and The Channel Islands.
1453 - Henry becomes mentally ill. Richard, Duke of York, is made Protector during Henry’s illness
1453 - Battle of Heworth between supporters of the Neville and Percy families marks the beginning of the feud between the Houses of York and Lancaster
1454 - Henry regains his senses but disaffected nobles take matters into their own hands. Supporters of the Dukes of York and Lancaster take sides.
1455 - Beginning of the 'Wars of the Roses'. Duke of York is dismissed. York raises an army and defeats the King’s Lancastrian forces at the Battle of St. Albans.The Lancastrian leader, the Duke of Somerset, is killed. York takes over the government of England.
1457 - Henry unsuccessfully tries to broker peace between the Yorkists and Lancastrians.
1459 - War is renewed and the Lancastrians are defeated at Blore Heath; the Yorkists are then defeated at Ludford Bridge near Ludlow. Parliament declares York a traitor and he escapes to Ireland.
1460 - Yorkist army led by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeats Lancastrians at the Battle of Northampton. Henry VI is captured and his wife, Margaret, escapes to Scotland. Richard of York is again Protector.
1460 - Margaret raises a Lancastrian army in the north and defeats and kills Richard of York at Wakefield. Henry VI captured by the Yorkists at Northampton. Earl of Warwick takes London for the Yorkists.
1461 - Yorkists win Battle of Mortimers Cross. Queen Margaret marches her army South, defeats Earl of Warwick at St Albans, and frees Henry. Edward, son of Richard of York, defeats Margaret's Lancastrian forces on 29 March at the Battle of Towton - the largest and bloodiest battle ever on British soil when 28,000 lose their lives. Margaret and Henry flee to Scotland. Henry is deposed by Edward who declares himself King Edward IV
1462 - Lancastrian revolts are suppressed.
1464 - Warwick defeats Lancastrians at Battle of Hexham; Henry VI is captured and brought to the Tower of London.
1469 - Warwick falls out with Edward IV, and defeats him at Edgecote. They are later reconciled but Warwick is banished. He makes peace with Margaret, returns to England with an army, and Edward flees to Flanders. Henry VI is restored to the throne.
1471 - Edward returns to England and defeats and kills Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Margaret is defeated at the Battle of Tewkesbury; her son Edward, Prince of Wales, heir to the Lancastrian throne is killed in battle.
1471 - Henry is murdered by being stabbed to death in the Tower of London.
|King Edward IV ( 1461 - 1483 ) |
1461 - Edward, son of Richard of York, is declared king by the Earl of Warwick following the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Towton.
1464 - Warwick defeats Lancastrians at Battle of Hexham; Henry VI is captured and brought to the Tower of London.
1464 - Edward marries Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a commoner, offending Warwick.
1469 - Warwick falls out with Edward IV, and defeats him at Edgecote. They are later reconciled but Warwick is banished. He makes peace with Margaret, returns to England with an army, and Edward flees to Flanders. Henry VI is restored to the throne.
1471 - Edward returns to England from Flanders and defeats and kills Warwick at the Battle of Barnet.
1471 - Margaret is defeated at the Battle of Tewkesbury and the Lancastrian heir, Prince Edward, is killed. Soon after, Henry VI is murdered in the Tower of London.
1474 - Edward grants privileges to the Hanseatic League of North German trading cities to conduct trade in England.
1476 - William Caxton sets up a printing press in Westminster, London
1478 - Edward falls out with his brother George, Duke of Clarence, who is then murdered in the Tower, supposedly in a butt of malmsey wine.
1483 - Death of Edward.
|King Edward V ( 1483 ) |
1483 - On the death of Edward, the crown passes to his 12 year old son, Edward V
1483 - Edward is declared illegitimate and deposed in favour of his uncle Richard Duke of Gloucester.
1483 - Edward and his younger brother Richard of York are imprisoned in the Tower of London. After a few months the princes are never seen again and are believed to have been murdered.
|King Richard III ( 1483 - 1485 ) |
1483 - Richard III declares himself King after confining and possibly ordering the murder of his two nephews, Edward V and Richard Duke of York, in the Tower of London
1483 - The Duke of Buckingham is appointed Constable and Great Chamberlain of England
1483 - In October Richard crushes a rebellion led by his former supporter, the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham is captured, tried, and put to death.
1483 - At the cathedral of Rheims, Henry Tudor swears a solemn oath to marry Elizabeth of York in the presence of the Lancastrian Court in exile.
1484 - Richard establishes his military headquarters behind the battlements of Nottingham Castle.
1484 - Death of Richard’s only son and heir, Edward, aged 9 years.
1484 - A Papal Bull is issued against witchcraft.
1484 - Parliamentary statutes are written down in English for the first time and printed.
1485 - Death of Richard’s wife, Queen Anne.
1485 - Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, lands at Milford Haven in West Wales in early August and gathers support as the Lancastrian claimant to the Yorkist-held throne.
1485 - Richard is defeated and killed by Henry Tudor’s army at Bosworth Field. The Wars of the Roses and the Plantagenet dynasty come to an end. Richard's body is taken to Leicester where it is buried at Greyfriars Church.
The grave is rediscovered beneath a car park 527 years later in 2012 and his bones reburied in Leicester Cathedral in March 2015.
|King Henry VII ( 1485 - 1509 ) |
1485 - Henry becomes King after defeating Richard III of York at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The Wars of the Roses are ended.
1486 - Henry marries Elizabeth of York, thereby uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.
1487 - Henry crushes a revolt by the Earl of Lincoln on behalf of Lambert Simnel, a claimant to the throne, at Stoke.
1491 - Henry invades France but at the Treaty of Etaples agrees to withdraw English forces in return for a large sum of money
1492 - Perkin Warbeck an impersonator who claims he is Richard the younger of the Princes in the Tower attempts to overthrow Henry, but is defeated and put to death in 1499.
1492 - Christopher Columbus crosses Atlantic and lands in San Salvador, Cuba and Haiti which he calls the 'West Indies' in the belief that he has sailed around the World to India.
1497 - John Cabot sails west from Bristol on the Matthew and discovers New-found-land. He believed it was Asia and claimed it for England.
1499 - Perkin Warbeck is hanged in the Tower of London. The Earl of Warwick is also executed.
1501 - Catherine of Aragon, daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, marries Prince Arthur, Henry’s eldest son.
1502 - Prince Arthur dies, and Prince Henry (the future Henry VIII) becomes heir to the throne, later marrying Arthur’s widow, Catherine of Aragon.
1503 - Margaret, Henry's daughter marries James IV of Scotland. The marriage gives James' descendants a claim to the English throne.
1503 - Death of Elizabeth of York, Henry’s wife.
1509 - Henry VII dies at Richmond Palace, at the age of 52.
|King Henry VIII ( 1509 - 1547 ) |
1509 - Henry accedes to the throne on the death of his father, Henry VII.
1509 - Henry marries Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the Spanish King and Queen, and widow of his elder brother, Arthur
1511 - Henry joins the Holy League against the French. All men under the age of 40 are required to practise archery.
1513 - The English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Flodden Field. James IV of Scotland is killed.
1515 - Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, becomes Chancellor and Cardinal.
1516 - Catherine gives birth to Princess Mary (later Mary I).
1517 - Martin Luther publishes his 95 theses against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church.
1518 - The Pope and the Kings of England, France, and Spain pledge peace in Europe
1520 - Henry holds peace talks with Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, but fails to get support against Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.
1525 - Hampton Court Palace is completed. William Tyndale publishes The New Testament in English.
1526 - Cardinal Wolsey re-establishes the Council of the North
1527 - Henry seeks permission from the Pope to divorce Catherine of Aragon but is refused.
1529 - Cardinal Wolsey is accused of high treason for failing to get the Pope's consent for the divorce, but dies before he can be brought to trial.
1529 - Sir Thomas More becomes Chancellor. Henry starts to cut ties with the Church of Rome.
1531 - The appearance in the sky of Halley's comet causes widespread panic and talk of holy retribution
1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns from the Chancellorship over the erosion of Papal authority.
1533 - Thomas Cranmer is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and annuls Henry’s 24-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
1533 - Henry marries Anne Boleyn.
1533 - Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) is born.
1533 - Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry
1534 - The Act of Supremacy is passed, establishing Henry as head of the Church of England.
1535 - Sir Thomas More is executed after refusing to recognize Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England.
1535 - Thomas Cromwell is made Vicar-General and starts plans to seize the Church's wealth.
1535 - First complete English translation of the Bible by Miles Coverdale
1536 - Anne Boleyn is executed and Henry marries Jane Seymour
1536 - The Act of Union between Wales and England.
1536 - Thomas Cromwell begins the dissolution of the monasteries under the 'Reformation'. .
1536 - Great northern rising, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace against the dissolution of monasteries.
1537 - Jane Seymour dies giving birth to Edward (later Edward VI).
1539 - Parliament passes the Act for the 'Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries'. The abbots of Colchester, Glastonbury and Reading are executed for treason.
1540 - The last of the monasteries to be dissolved is Waltham Abbey.
1540 - Henry marries Anne of Cleves in January but the marriage is annulled in July
1540 - Execution of Thomas Cromwell on a charge of treason.
1540 - Henry marries Catherine Howard.
1541 - Beginning of the Reformation in Scotland under John Knox.
1542 - Catherine Howard is executed for treason.
1542 - James V of Scotland dies and is succeeded by his 6 day old daughter Mary Queen of Scots.
1543 - Henry marries the twice-widowed Catherine Parr, his sixth and last wife.
1543 - Treaty of Greenwich proposes marriage between Henry's son Edward and Mary Queen of Scots. However it is repudiated by the Scots 6 months later who want an alliance with France.
1545 - Henry's flagship The Mary Rose sinks in the Solent
1546 - Henry becomes increasingly ill with what is now believed to be syphilis and cirrhosis.
1547 - Death of Henry at the age of 55, survived by Catherine Parr
|King Edward VI ( 1547 - 1553 ) |
1547 - Edward VI accedes to the throne at the age of nine after the death of his father, Henry VIII.
1547 - Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, uncle of Edward VI, is invested as Duke of Somerset and Protector of England.
1547 - The English army defeats the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh as part of an attempt to force a marriage between Edward VI and Mary Queen of Scots.
1548 - The French send over 6,000 troops to prevent the English from gaining control of the Scottish Borders.
1549 - The First Act of Uniformity is passed, making the Roman Catholic mass illegal. The clergy are ordered to remove icons and statues of the saints, and whitewash over wall paintings.
1549 - The First Book of Common Prayer is introduced, which changes the Church service from Latin to English.
1550 - The Duke of Somerset is deposed as Protector of England, and is replaced by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who creates himself Duke of Northumberland.
1552 - The Duke of Somerset is executed
1552 - Archbishop Cranmer publishes the Second book of Common Prayer.
1553 - The Duke of Northumberland persuades Edward to nominate his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey as his heir, in an attempt to secure the Protestant succession.
1553 - Edward VI dies of tuberculosis at Greenwich Palace.
|Queen Mary I ( 1553 - 1558 ) |
1553 - Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen by her father-in-law The Duke of Northumberland. After nine days, Mary arrives in London, Lady Jane Grey is arrested, and Mary is crowned Queen.
1554 - After Mary declares her intention to marry Philip of Spain, Sir Thomas Wyatt leads a revolt to depose her.
1554 - Wyatt’s rebellion is crushed. Sir Thomas Wyatt, Lady Jane Grey, and her husband are executed.
1554 - Mary's half-sister Princess Elizabeth is sent to the Tower of London on suspicion of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion
1554 - Mary marries Philip of Spain heir to the Spanish throne.
1554 - Four months after Mary's accession, Parliament meets to re-establish Catholicism in England
1554 - The persecution of Protestants begins, the heresy laws are revived, and England is reconciled to Papal authority.
1555 - Protestant bishops are burned at the stake for heresy.
1555 - Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) is released from the Tower of London
1556 - Cardinal Reginald Pole is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
1556 - Thomas Cranmer, former Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake for heresy.
1556 - Philip becomes King Philip II of Spain; he leaves England, never to return
1557 - Philip II persuades Mary to declare war on France as an ally of Spain.
1558 - Port of Calais, the last English possession in France, is captured by the French.
1558 - Mary dies at St.James’s Palace, London.
|Elizabeth I ( 1558 - 1603 ) |
1558 - Elizabeth becomes Queen on the death of her half-sister, Mary.
1559 - Elizabeth is crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey in January.
1559 - Mary Queen of Scots in Paris declares herself Queen of France, Scotland and England when her husband Francis becomes King of France. He dies a year later and Mary returns to Scotland.
1559 - Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity restore the Protestant Church in England and make Elizabeth Head of the Church of England.
1559 - The Revised Prayer Book of Elizabeth I is issued. It is less extreme than its predecessors
1560 - Elizabeth founds Westminster School
1562 - Hawkins and Drake make first slave-trading voyage to America.
1562 - Elizabeth gives aid to the Protestant Huguenots in the French Wars of Religion. English troops occupy Dieppe and Le Havre.
1563 - John Foxe’s The Book of Martyrs, the story of religious persecution, is published in England.
1563 - -1564 17,000 die of the Plague in London which is believed to have been brought back by troops returning from Le Havre.
1564 - Peace made between England and France at Troyes.
1565 - Sir Walter Raleigh brings potatoes and tobacco from the New World
1566 - Elizabeth forbids Parliament to discuss her marriage prospects.
1568 - Mary Queen of Scots, flees to England from Scotland and is imprisoned by Elizabeth.
1569 - Elizabeth I approves Sunday sports
1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth from the Catholic Church.
1577 - - 1580 Francis Drake sails around the world in the Golden Hind.
1579 - Francis, Duke of Alencon, secretly comes to England to try and marry Elizabeth.
1581 - Francis Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth on the deck of The Golden Hind.
1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh founds the first American colony and names it Virginia after Elizabeth the Virgin Queen
1584 - Oakham School founded by Archdeacon Robert Johnson
1585 - William Shakespeare leaves Stratford for London to become an aspiring playwright
1586 - Babington Catholic plot to assassinate Elizabeth I
1586 - Mary Queen of Scots, who had fled from Scotland to England, is implicated in the Babington plot and is sent to trial.
1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed at Fotheringhay Castle on charges of treason.
1587 - Drake attacks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz.
1587 - Raleigh's second expedition to New World lands in North Carolina. Drake destroys the Spanish fleet at Cadiz.
1588 - Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and a favourite of Elizabeth, dies.
1588 - A Spanish Armada of 130 ships sailing against England is defeated by bad weather and the English fleet under Admiral Drake and John Hawkins using fireships. Many were wrecked trying to return by sailing round the north of the British Isles. The English dominance of the sea leaves the way open for English trade and colonisation of America and India.
1588 - Earl of Essex leads an expedition to Ireland.
1589 - John Harrington invents the first flushing water closet at his house at Kelston, Bath. He calls it 'Ajax' a pun on the Elizabethan slang word 'Jakes' for a privy. Elizabeth I orders a Harrington WC to be installed at Richmond Palace.
1590 - Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
1593 - 15,000 Londoners die of the Plague. All theatres are closed for one year. Playwright Christopher Marlow is murdered.
1595 - Sir Walter Raleigh makes his first expedition to the South American continent. He explores 300 miles of the Orinoco searching for El Dorado.
1599 - Earl of Tyrone leads a rebellion against the English in Ireland.
1599 - The Globe Theatre is opened in London.
1600 - East India Company founded
1601 - Earl of Essex is executed for leading a revolt against Elizabeth.
1601 - Poor Law is passed introducing a poor relief rate on property owners.
1601 - First performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
1603 - Elizabeth I dies at Richmond Palace, Surrey.
|King James I ( 1603 - 1625 ) |
1603 - James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England, Scotland, and Ireland after the death of Elizabeth I uniting the thrones of Scotland and England.
1603 - The Millenary Petition is presented to James I. It expresses Puritan desires for reforms to the Church of England.
1603 - Plot against James to set his cousin Arabella Stuart on the throne. Sir Walter Raleigh is implicated and imprisoned.
1604 - The Somerset House Peace Conference results in peace between England and Spain.
1604 - The Hampton Court Conference fails to settle the doctrinal differences between the Anglican Church and its Puritan critics.
1604 - James proclaims that smoking is harmful to the lungs and imposes a tax on tobacco
1605 - Guy Fawkes and other Catholic dissidents attempt to blow up King and Parliament in The Gunpowder Plot. They are betrayed and arrested.
1606 - The Gunpowder plotters are executed. 120 colonists sail for America.
1607 - The Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel end their rebellion against English rule of Ireland and flee to Europe; Ulster is colonized by Protestant settlers from Scotland and England.
1607 - The English Parliament rejects Union with Scotland.
1607 - Common citizenship of English and Scottish persons is granted to those born after the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
1607 - Jamestown found in America by the Virginia company
1609 - Scottish and English Protestants are encouraged to settle in Ulster
1609 - Shakespeare completes the Sonnets.
1611 - The King James Authorized Version of the Bible is published.
1611 - Dissolution of the first Parliament of James I.
1611 - Arabella Stuart secretly marries William Seymour. When James finds out Seymour is imprisoned but escapes with Arabella. They are captured on the way to France and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Arabella starves herself to death there in 1615.
1612 - Henry, Prince of Wales, dies of typhoid. His younger brother, Charles, becomes heir to the throne.
1612 - Heretics are burned at the stake for the last time in England.
1613 - James' daughter Elizabeth marries Frederick V, Elector of Palatine. Their descendants in House of Hanover will eventually inherit the British Throne.
1613 - The Globe Theatre in London burns during a performance of Henry VIII
1614 - Second Parliament of James I meets.
1614 - Scottish mathematician John Napier publishes his theory of logarithms simplifying calculations for navigators.
1615 - George Villiers becomes James’s favourite.
1616 - Playwright William Shakespeare dies.
1616 - Raleigh is released from prison to lead an expedition to Guiana in search of El Dorado
1617 - George Villiers becomes the Earl of Buckingham.
1618 - Raleigh fails in his expedition and on his return is executed for alleged treason at Westminster.
1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America in the Mayflower. They land at Cape Cod and found New Plymouth.
1625 - Death of James I, aged 58.
|King Charles I ( 1625 - 1649 ) |
1625 - Charles I succeeds his father, James I.
1626 - Parliament attempts to impeach the Duke of Buckingham and is dissolved by Charles.
1627 - England goes to war with France, but at La Rochelle the Duke of Buckingham fails to relieve the besieged Huguenots.
1628 - The Petition of Right a declaration of the “rights and liberties of the subject" is presented to the King, who agrees to it under protest.
1628 - Physician William Harvey demonstrates the circulation of blood in the body
1629 - Charles dissolves Parliament and rules by himself until 1640.
1630 - The colony of Massachusetts is founded in America
1633 - Work begins on Buckingham Palace in London
1637 - Charles tries to force new prayer book on Scots, who resist by signing the National Covenant.
1639 - Act of Toleration in England established religious toleration
1640 - Charles summons the Short Parliament, which he dissolves three weeks later when it refuses to grant him money.
1640 - Long Parliament summoned, which lasts until 1660. It can only be dissolved by its members.
1641 - Abolition of the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission.
1642 - Charles fails in his attempt to arrest five MPs.
1642 - Outbreak of Civil War. Charles raises his standard at Nottingham. The Royalists win a tactical victory the Parliamentary army at the Battle of Edgehill but the outcome is inconclusive.
1643 - Royalists defeat Parliamentary army at Chalgrove Field, and take Bristol. Battle of Newbury is indecisive.
1644 - York is besieged by Parliamentary army until relieved by Prince Rupert. Royalists defeated at Marston Moor.
1644 - Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans enforce and Act of Parliament banning Christmas Day celebrations
1645 - Parliament creates New Model Army, which defeats the Royalist army at Naseby on 16 June.
1646 - Charles surrenders to the Scots, who hand him over to Parliament.
1646 - Negotiations take place between King and Parliament. King conspires with Scots to invade England on his behalf.
1647 - Charles escapes to the Isle of Wight but is captured. He is tried by Parliament and found guilty of high treason.
1648 - A Scots army supporting Charles is defeated at Preston.
1649 - Charles I is executed. There follows 11 years of rule by Parliament as the Commonwealth under Cromwell.
|King Charles II ( 1660 - 1685 ) |
1658 - Death of Oliver Cromwell. He is succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell
1659 - Richard Cromwell is forced to resign. The Rump Parliament is restored.
1660 - Charles II returns to England from Holland and is restored to the throne.
1662 - Act of Uniformity compels Puritans to accept the doctrines of the Church of England or leave the church.
1662 - Royal Society for the improvement of science founded
1664 - England seizes the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, changing its name to New York.
1665 - Outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1665 - The Great Plague strikes London and over 60,000 die.
1666 - The Great Fire of London rages for four days and three nights. Two thirds of central London is destroyed and 65,000 are left homeless.
1667 - The Earl of Clarendon is replaced by a five-man Cabal.
1667 - Paradise Lost by John Milton published
1667 - A Dutch fleet sails up the River Medway captures the English flagship The Royal Charles and sinks three other great ships
1670 - Secret Treaty of Dover, by which Charles agrees to declare himself a Catholic and restore Catholicism in England in return for secret subsidies from Louis XIV of France.
1670 - Hudson Bay Company founded in North America
1671 - Thomas Blood caught stealing the Crown Jewels
1672 - Outbreak of the Third Dutch War.
1673 - Test Act keeps Roman Catholics out of political office.
1674 - Death of John Milton
1674 - Peace made with the Dutch
1675 - Royal Observatory founded at Greenwich
1677 - John Bunyan publishes The Pilgrims Progress.
1678 - The Popish Plot is fabricated by Titus Oates. He alleges a Catholic plot to murder the King and restore Catholicism. The Government over-reacts, and many Catholic subjects are persecuted.
1679 - Exclusion Bill attempts to exclude James, Charles’s Catholic brother, from the succession.
1679 - Habeas Corpus act passed which forbids imprisonment without trial
1682 - Pennsylvania founded in America by William Penn
1683 - The Rye House Plot a conspiracy to kill Charles and his brother James and return to parliamentary rule is uncovered.
1685 - Charles is received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed.
|King James II ( 1685 - 1688 ) |
1685 - James succeeds his brother, Charles II.
1685 - Rebellion of the Earl of Argyll in Scotland designed to place the Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son, on the throne is crushed and Argyll is executed.
1685 - The Duke of Monmouth rebels against James, but is defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset.
1685 - Edict of Nantes allowing freedom of religion to Huguenot Protestants is revoked in France, resulting in thousands of Huguenot craft workers and traders settling in England.
1686 - Following their defeat at Sedgemoor, Monmouth and many of the rebels are hanged or transported by the 'The Bloody Assizes' under Judge Jeffreys.
1686 - James takes first measures to restore Catholicism in England, and sets up a standing army of 13,000 troops at Hounslow to overawe nearby London.
1686 - Edmund Halley draws the first meteorological map showing weather systems
1687 - Isaac Newton publishes Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
1688 - James, believing his Divine Right as King, issues the Declaration of Indulgence to suspend all laws against Catholics and Non-Conformists and repeal the 1673 Test Act. He seeks to promote his Catholic supporters in Parliament and purge Tories and Anglican clergy .
1688 - James’ wife, Mary of Modena, gives birth to a son and Catholic heir. His daughters Mary, married to Dutch Stadtholder William of Orange, and Anne by his first wife Anne Hyde are Protestant.
1688 - Following discontent over James attempts to control politics and religion, seven leading statesmen invite William of Orange, son-in-law of James, to England to restore English liberties.
1688 - The 'Glorious Revolution'. William of Orange lands at Torbay with an army of 20,000 and advances on London. Many Protestant officers in James' army including Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and James' own daughter Anne defect to support William and his wife Mary.
1688 - James abdicates and flees to exile in France.
|King William III and Queen Mary II ( 1689 - 1702 ) |
1689 - William and Mary become joint King and Queen.
1689 - Parliament draws up the Declaration of Right detailing the unconstitutional acts of James II.
1689 - Bill of Rights is passed by Parliament. It stipulates that no Catholic can succeed to the throne, and also limits the powers of the Royal prerogative. The King of Queen cannot withhold laws passed by Parliament or levy taxes without Parliamentary consent.
1689 - Jacobite Highlanders rise in support of James and are victorious at Killiekrankie but are defeated a few months later at Dunkeld.
1689 - Catholic forces loyal to James II land in Ireland from France and lay siege to Londonderry.
1690 - William defeats James and French troops at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. Scottish Jacobites defeated at Haughs of Cromdale
1690 - Anglo-Dutch naval force is defeated by the French at Beachy Head.
1691 - The Treaty of Limerick allows Catholics in Ireland to exercise their religion freely, but severe penal laws soon follow.
1691 - William offers the Scottish Highlanders a pardon for the Jacobite uprising if they sign allegiance him
1692 - Glencoe Massacre. MacDonalds are killed by Campbells for not signing the oath of allegiance
1694 - Bank of England founded by William Paterson
1694 - Death of Mary. William now rules alone.
1697 - Peace of Ryswick ends the war with France.
1697 - First Civil List Act passed
1701 - The Act of Settlement establishes Hanoverian and Protestant succession to the throne.
1701 - James II dies in exile in France. French king recognizes James II’s son James Edward (The Old Pretender) as “James III”.
1701 - William forms grand alliance between England, Holland, and Austria to prevent the union of the French and Spanish crowns.
1702 - William dies after a riding accident. Stuarts in exile toast 'the gentleman in black velvet' in the belief that his horse stumbled on a mole hill.
|Queen Anne ( 1702 - 1714 ) |
1702 - Anne succeeds her brother-in-law, William III.
1702 - England declares war on France in the War of the Spanish Succession
1704 - English, Bavarian, and Austrian troops under Marlborough defeat the French at the Battle of Blenheim and save Austria from invasion.
1704 - British capture Gibraltar from Spain.
1706 - Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Ramillies, and expels the French from the Netherlands.
1707 - The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish government to London.
1708 - Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Oudenarde. .
1708 - Anne vetoes a parliamentary bill to reorganize the Scottish militia, the last time a bill is vetoed by the sovereign.
1708 - James Edward Stuart, 'The Old Pretender', arrives in Scotland in an unsuccessful attempt to gain the throne.
1709 - Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Malplaquet.
1710 - The Whig government falls and a Tory ministry is formed.
1710 - St Paul's Cathedral, London, completed by Sir Christopher Wren
1711 - First race meeting held at Ascot
1713 - The Treaty of Utrecht is signed by Britain and France, bringing to an end the War of the Spanish Succession.
1714 - Queen Anne dies at Kensington Palace.
|King George I ( 1714 - 1727 ) |
1714 - George I, the first Hanoverian King, succeeds his distant cousin, Anne.
1714 - A new Parliament is elected with a strong Whig majority led by Robert Walpole.
1715 - The Jacobite rising begins in Scotland intending to place the ‘Old Pretender” James Edward Stuart, heir to James II on the throne. The rebellion is defeated at Sheriffmuir.
1716 - The Septennial Act allows for General Elections to be held
1717 - Townshend is dismissed from the government by George, causing Walpole to resign
1719 - Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
1720 - South Sea Bubble bursts, leaving many investors ruined.
1721 - Sir Robert Walpole returns to government as First Lord of the Treasury where he remains in office until 1742. He is effectively the first Prime Minister.
1722 - Death of the Duke of Marlborough.
1726 - First circulating library in Britain opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1726 - Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver’s Travels.
1727 - Death of the scientist, Isaac Newton.
1727 - George I dies in Hanover, aged 67.
|King George II ( 1727 - 1760 ) |
1727 - George II succeeds his father, George I.
1729 - Charles Wesley founds the Methodists at Lincoln College Oxford.
1732 - A royal charter is granted for the founding of Georgia in America.
1732 - Lord Frederick North born
1734 - Jethro Tull publishes essays on improving farming including the use of the seed drill.
1737 - Death of George’s wife, Queen Caroline.
1738 - John and Charles Wesley start the Methodist movement in Britain.
1739 - Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at York
1739 - Britain goes to war with Spain over Captain Jenkins’ ear, claimed to have been cut off in a skirmish at sea.
1740 - -1748 The War of Austrian Succession breaks out in Europe.
1742 - Walpole resigns as Prime Minister.
1743 - George leads troops into battle at Dettingen in Bavaria.
1745 - Charles Edward Stuart, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', lands in Scotland and raises his flag for the restoration of the Stuarts. 2,000 Jacobites enter Edinburgh. Scottish victory at Prestonpans. Charles and his Jacobite army march South into England and reach Derby before turning back.
1746 - Scots defeated at the Battle of Culloden. Duke of Cumberland, the King's 2nd son, ruthlessly represses the rebels and Scottish traditions.
1748 - Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the war of Austrian Succession
1751 - Death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, George, becomes heir to the throne.
1752 - Britain adopts the Georgian Calendar. 1st January replaces 25 March as the first day of the year.
1757 - Britain declares war against France. Start of the Seven Years’ War.
1757 - Robert Clive wins the Battle of Plassey and secures the Indian province of Bengal for Britain.
1757 - William Pitt becomes Prime Minister
1759 - Wolfe captures Quebec from the French and establishes British supremacy in Canada.
1759 - First botanical gardens laid out at Kew
1760 - George II dies.
|King George III ( 1760 - 1820 ) |
1760 - George III becomes king on the death of his grandfather, George II.
1762 - The Earl of Bute is appointed Prime Minister. Bute proves so unpopular that he needs to have a bodyguard.
1763 - Peace of Paris ends the Seven Years’ War.
1765 - Stamp Act raises taxes in American colonies.
1766 - William Pitt the Elder becomes prime minister
1768 - Richard Arkwright invents the spinning frame
1769 - Captain James Cook’s first voyage to explore the Pacific.
1770 - Lord North becomes Prime Minister.
1770 - James Cook lands in Botany Bay, South East Australia.
1771 - Encyclopaedia Britannica is first published.
1772 - John Harrisons H4 clock allows navigators to accurately measure longitude enabling long distance sea travel
1772 - Warren Hastings is appointed Governor General of India.
1773 - The world’s first cast-iron bridge is constructed over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale.
1773 - Boston Tea Party. American colonists protest against British taxes.
1775 - American War of Independence begins when colonists fight British troops at Lexington.
1775 - James Watt develops the steam engine.
1776 - On 4 July, the American Congress passes the Declaration of Independence.
1780 - Anti Catholic Gordon riots in London
1781 - Americans supported by the French fleet defeat British at Battle of Yorktown.
1782 - Ireland obtains a short-lived parliament.
1783 - On 3 Sept, The Treaty of Paris ends the American War of Independence. Britain recognizes American independence.
1783 - -1801 William Pitt the Younger serves as Prime Minister.
1783 - Robert (Robbie) Burns publishes his first book of poetry
1788 - George suffers his first attack of porphyria.
1788 - Colony of New South Wales established in Australia
1789 - Outbreak of the French Revolution. Storming of the Bastille.
1791 - Publication of James Boswell’s Life of Johnson and Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
1793 - King Louis XVI of France executed by guillotine
1793 - - 1802 War between Britain and France.
1798 - Nelson destroys French fleet at the Battle of the Nile
1798 - Wordsworth publishes Lyrical Ballads
1798 - Income Tax introduced
1800 - Act of Union with Ireland unites Parliaments of England and Ireland.
1803 - Beginning of Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon assembles a fleet for the invasion of England.
1805 - Nelson defeats French and Spanish fleets off Trafalgar, but is killed during the battle. Napoleon defeats the Russians at Austerlitz.
1807 - Slave Trade Act. William Wilberforce is successful in his campaign to abolish slave trade in the British Empire.
1808 - -1814 Peninsular War to drive the French out of Spain.
1809 - British defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna
1810 - Final illness of George III leads to his son becoming Regent in 1811.
1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons by a disgruntled bankrupt
1812 - War of 1812 between the British and Americans. Several naval engagements. American forces stopped from invading Canada.
1813 - Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published.
1813 - Monopoly of the East India company is abolished
1814 - Napoleon defeated at Laon and Toulouse. He abdicates but returns from Elba.
1815 - The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo marks the end the Napoleonic Wars.
1815 - Corn Laws passed by Parliament to protect British agriculture from cheap imports
1818 - The King’s wife, Queen Charlotte, dies.
1818 - Publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
1819 - Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, of political reform campaigners.
1820 - Death of King George Ill, aged 81 years
|King George IV ( 1820 - 1830 ) |
1820 - George IV accedes to the throne, having spent the last nine years as Prince Regent for his blind and deranged father.
1820 - A radical plot to murder the Cabinet, known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, fails.
1820 - Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery. She has popular support and the divorce proceedings fail.
1821 - Queen Caroline is excluded from George's coronation.
1821 - Michael Faraday begins his experiments with electromagnetism
1822 - Charles Babbage proposes his difference engine, a mechanical calculator and forerunner or future computers.
1823 - The Royal Academy of Music is established in London.
1823 - The British Museum is extended and extensively rebuilt to house expanding collection.
1823 - Rugby schoolboy William Web Ellis, while playing football, picks up the ball and runs with it inventing Rugby Football.
1824 - The National Gallery is established in London.
1825 - Nash reconstructs Buckingham Palace.
1825 - Locomotion No.1, built by George Stephenson, pulls the world's first passenger train for Stockton to Darlington.
1828 - Duke of Wellington becomes British Prime Minister.
1829 - The Metropolitan Police Force is set up by Robert Peel.
1829 - The Catholic Relief Act is passed, permitting Catholics to become Members of Parliament.
1830 - George IV dies at Windsor, aged 67.
|King William IV ( 1830 - 1837 ) |
1830 - William IV succeeds his brother, George IV, at the age of 64
1831 - The new London Bridge is opened over the River Thames.
1832 - The First Reform Act is passed, extending votes and redistributing Parliamentary seats on a more equitable basis.
1832 - Cholera spreads from Sunderland and runs rampant killing over 20,000 people.
1833 - Abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire following a campaign by Quakers and William Wilberforce.
1833 - Factory Act passed prohibiting children aged less than nine from work in factories, and reducing the working hours of women and older children.
1834 - Poor Law Act is passed, creating workhouses for the poor.
1834 - The Tolpuddle Martyrs are transported to Australia for attempting to form a trade union.
1834 - Fire destroys the Palace of Westminster.
1835 - The Municipal Reform Act is passed, requiring members of town councils to be elected by ratepayers and councils to publish their financial accounts.
1836 - Births, marriages and deaths must be registered by law
1836 - Dickens publishes Oliver Twist, drawing attention to Britain’s poor
1836 - Charles Darwin returns from a five year voyage on HMS Beagle researching natural history
1837 - William IV dies at Windsor Castle.
|Queen Victoria ( 1837 - 1901 ) |
1837 - Victoria succeeds her uncle, William IV
1838 - Publication of People’s Charter. Start of Chartism.
1839 - First Afghan War. British Forces capture the fortress of Ghazi in Afghanistan.
1839 - - 42 First Opium War. Britain gains Hong Kong.
1840 - Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1840 - The Penny Post is introduced. First postage stamp is the Penny Black.
1840 - First colonist settlement in New Zealand
1841 - Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister
1842 - End of First Opium War. Britain gains Hong Kong
1843 - Launch of SS Great Britain the worlds first all metal ship.
1844 - Railway building mania starts. 5,000 miles of track are built in Britain by 1846
1845 - - 1849 Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people. Many emigrate to America.
1846 - Repeal of the Corn Laws
1848 - Major Chartist demonstration in London.
1848 - Pre-Raphaelite movement begins
1849 - Harrods store in London is opened
1851 - Great Exhibition takes place in Hyde Park. Its success is largely due to Prince Albert.
1852 - Death of the Duke of Wellington
1853 - Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory.
1853 - Victoria uses chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold.
1854 - -1856 Crimean War fought by Britain and France against Russia.
1854 - Charge of the Light Brigade
1854 - 10,000 die of cholera from contaminated water in London.
1856 - The Victoria Cross is instituted for military bravery.
1856 - David Livingstone discovers the Victoria Falls
1857 - -1858 Indian Mutiny against British rule.
1858 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches The Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world and the first with a double iron hull.
1858 - First trans-Atlantic telegraph service
1859 - Publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species.
1861 - Prince Albert dies of typhoid
1861 - - 65 Civil War in America. Southern states unsuccessfully seek to involve Britain which has sufficient cotton from Egypt and India, but needs the Union North's grain.
1863 - The world's first underground railway is opened in London
1863 - Edward, Prince of Wales, marries Alexandra of Denmark
1863 - The Salvation Army is founded.
1863 - The Football Association is founded.
1865 - Slavery is ended in America with Northern Union victory in the American Civil War
1867 - The Second Reform Bill doubles the franchise vote to two million.
1867 - Canada becomes the first independent dominion in the Empire.
1867 - Karl Marx publishes the first volume of Das Kapital
1868 - Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the first time.
1869 - The Irish Church is disestablished.
1870 - First Education Act. Primary education becomes compulsory.
1870 - Death of Charles Dickens
1871 - Trade Unions are legalized
1872 - Secret voting is introduced for elections.
1872 - Henry Stanley finds David Livingstone who had been missing in Africa.
1874 - Disraeli becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
1875 - Suez Canal shares purchased for Britain.
1875 - Thomas Moy demonstrates his Aerial Steamer the worlds first flying machine at Crystal Palace, London
1876 - Victoria becomes Empress of India.
1876 - Scots Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone
1878 - Second Afghan War. British defend the Kyber Pass.
1878 - William Booths Christian movement adopts the name The Salvation Army
1879 - Tay Bridge disaster
1879 - Zulu war, British troops massacred at Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift
1880 - Gladstone succeeds Disraeli as Prime Minister
1880 - - 1881 First conflict with Boers in South Africa
1883 - British occupy Egypt
1884 - Third Reform Act all adult males given the vote.
1884 - Greenwich Meridian and Mean Time adopted
1886 - First Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass House of Commons. Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister.
1887 - Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee. She has ruled for 50 years.
1887 - Independent Labour Party is founded.
1891 - Free schooling is introduced. 11 years later school attendance becomes compulsory for all children.
1893 - Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Lords.
1897 - Victoria celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.
1897 - Marconi demonstrates wireless transmission across the Bristol Channel
1899 - -1902 Boer War in South Africa. Siege of Mafeking
1900 - Labour party founded
1901 - Queen Victoria dies, aged 81.
|King Edward VII ( 1901 - 1910 ) |
1901 - Edward VII becomes King on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1901 - Australia is granted dominion status.
1902 - Arthur Balfour becomes Prime Minister.
1902 - First trans-Atlantic radio transmission
1902 - Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit.
1902 - Empire Day is celebrated for the first time.
1902 - Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories published.
1903 - Wilbur and Orville Wright of the US make the first manned and controlled aircraft flight.
1903 - The Women’s Social and Political Union, demanding votes for women, is founded by Emmeline Pankhurst.
1904 - Britain and France sign the Entente Cordiale, settling outstanding territorial disputes.
1904 - Sigmund Freud publishes Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
1904 - Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie is published.
1905 - Motor buses are first used in London.
1906 - Construction of HMS Dreadnought
1907 - Edward VII visits his cousin Tzar Nicholas II of Russia
1907 - Taxi-cabs are legally recognized in Britain for the first time.
1907 - Baden-Powell takes the first ever group of boy scouts on holiday to Brownsea island, Dorset.
1907 - Parliament rejects Channel Tunnel scheme.
1907 - New Zealand is granted dominion status.
1908 - Production of Ford motor cars begins.
1908 - Publication of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
1908 - The fourth Olympic Games are held in London.
1908 - Herbert Henry Asquith becomes Prime Minister.
1908 - The Triple Entente is signed between Russia, France, and Britain.
1908 - The Children’s Act establishes separate juvenile courts to try children.
1908 - Old Age Pensions established in Britain for all over 70 years old with an income of less than ten shillings per week.
1909 - The People’s Budget is introduced by Lloyd George
1909 - The Women’s Suffrage movement becomes more militant in their fight for votes for women.
1909 - Introduction of Labour Exchanges
1909 - French airman, Louis Blériot, makes the first cross-Channel flight from Calais to Dover.
1909 - First rugby match to be played Twickenham takes place.
1909 - First Boy Scout Rally is held at Crystal Palace, London.
1910 - Constitutional Crisis is caused by the House of Commons’ attempt to curb the power of the House of Lords.
1910 - Edward dies of pneumonia at Buckingham Palace.
|King George V ( 1910 - 1936 ) |
1910 - George V becomes King and Emperor of India on the death of his father, Edward VII.
1911 - Parliament Act ensures the sovereignty of the House of Commons.
1911 - National Insurance Act provides sickness and unemployment benefits.
1912 - The luxury passenger ship S.S. Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage, drowning more than 1,500 people.
1913 - Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison throws herself under the Kings horse at the Epsom Derby
1914 - Anglican Church in Wales is disestablished.
1914 - The heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire is assassinated. Outbreak of World War I.
1914 - Battles of Mons, the Marne, and Ypres.
1915 - Second Battle of Ypres. Allied Gallipoli expedition fails to remove Turkey from the war.
1916 - Battle of the Somme. Naval Battle of Jutland between British and German fleets.
1916 - Easter Rising in Dublin in support of Irish independence.
1916 - David Lloyd George replaces Asquith as Prime Minister.
1917 - Battle of Passchendale.
1917 - Russian Revolution.
1918 - Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra (both cousins of George V) and their royal family are shot in Ekaterinburg.
1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II (cousin of George V) abdicates as Germany faces defeat in World War I.
1918 - The end of World War I. Armistice signed on 11 November.
1918 - Reform Act gives votes to women over 30.
1918 - General Election produces landslide victory for Sinn Fein MPs in Ireland, who refuse to take their seats in Westminster and form their own DalI parliament in Dublin.
1919 - Lady Astor becomes the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons
1919 - Third Afghan War. Afghanistan gains independence from Britain
1919 - A flu-pandemic (known as Spanish Flu) rages around the world killing over 50 million people.
1919 - -1921 Ireland partitioned into the Free State and the province of Northern Ireland.
1920 - Marconi opens first radio broadcasting station in Britain
1920 - A flu epidemic rages around the world killing more than 20 million people.
1922 - The British Broadcasting Company starts radio transmissions
1923 - Prince Albert (later George VI) marries Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
1924 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes Prime Minister of the first Labour Government
1926 - General Strike fails to reverse wage cuts and imposition of longer hours.
1926 - John Logie Baird demonstrates world's first television in London
1927 - British Broadcasting Corporation founded by Royal Charter
1928 - All women over the age of 21 get the vote.
1928 - George V falls seriously ill with blood poisoning of the lung.
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1929 - Beginning of the Great Depression which lasted almost 10 years
1931 - The Statute of Westminster recognizes independence of. the dominions.
1931 - Great Depression leads to the formation of a national government of all three political parties under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald.
1932 - George V makes the first annual Christmas broadcast on radio.
1935 - George V celebrates his Silver Jubilee.
1935 - Robert Watson-Watt demonstrates Radar
1935 - Stanley Baldwin replaces Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister
1936 - George V dies at Sandringham.
|King Edward VIII ( 1936 ) |
1936 - Edward VIII succeeds his father, George V, as King on 20 January.
1936 - Outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
1936 - Germany, under Adolf Hitler, reoccupies the demilitarized left bank of the Rhine.
1936 - Britain begins to rearm as political tension increases in Europe and the prospect of military conflict in the region becomes more evident.
1936 - Fire destroys Crystal Palace, once the home of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park but now located in Sydenham, south London.
1936 - J.M. Keynes publishes his book General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money an internationally influential study of modern economics.
1936 - Maiden voyage of luxury ocean liner the Queen Mary takes place.
1936 - Jarrow crusade of unemployed marches to London
1936 - The BBC inaugurates the world’s first television service at Alexandra Palace in London.
1936 - On 10 December Edward signs the Instrument of Abdication over his wish to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson. Witnessed by all his brothers, it is a simple declaration of his intent to renounce the throne for himself and all his descendants. He is subsequently created Duke of Windsor.
|King George VI ( 1936 - 1952 ) |
1936 - George VI accedes to the throne upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII
1937 - Frank Whittle invents the jet engine
1938 - Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signs agreement with Adolf Hitler at Munich in an attempt to stop outbreak of war in Europe
1938 - Nazi Germany annexes Austria
1939 - Germany invades Poland. Outbreak of World War II.
1940 - Retreating British troops evacuated from beaches of Dunkirk as Germans advance.
1940 - Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
1940 - Battle of Britain fought in the skies over England between the RAF and German Luftwaffe.
1940 - German bombers blitz London, Coventry and other major cities
1941 - Hitler invades the Soviet Union
1941 - America enters the War after Japanese air raid on US fleet at Pearl Harbour.
1942 - Fall of Singapore to the Japanese
1942 - British victory at El Alamein.
1944 - D-Day landings in Normandy as the Allies begin to push the German forces back across Europe.
1944 - Battle of Arnhem airborne landings
1945 - The defeat of Germany marks the end of World War II in Europe.
1945 - Japan surrenders, after US drops atomic bombs on two cities.
1946 - Start of the 'Cold War'. Churchill speaks of the 'Iron Curtain' separating Western Europe from the Communist Eastern block
1947 - India granted independence. Pakistan declared a separate nation.
1947 - Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip Mountbatten
1948 - National Health Service establishes free medical treatment.
1948 - Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated.
1949 - Berlin Airlift relieves the Soviet blockade of Berlin
1950 - -1953 Korean War
1951 - Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister again.
1952 - George VI dies.
|Queen Elizabeth II ( 1952 - ) |
1952 - Elizabeth accedes to the throne on the death of her father, George VI.
1952 - World's first jet airliner passenger service inaugurated by BOAC in Comet I aircraft
1953 - Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mount Everest just before Coronation Day
1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson unravel the mystery of DNA
1953 - - 1954 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip embark on a 6 month world tour including Australia and New Zealand
1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by Anthony Eden.
1955 - Laws restricting the burning of coal and establishing smokeless zones bring an end to London's notorious fogs
1956 - Anglo-French forces invade Egypt after the nationalization of the Suez Canal.
1957 - Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister
1957 - The Gold Coast becomes independent as Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to receive its independence.
1957 - Queen Elizabeth addresses the United Nations and opens the 23rd Canadian Parliament
1959 - Oil is discovered in the North Sea.
1959 - Queen Elizabeth tours Canada and the United States
1960 - Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister makes 'winds of change' speech in South Africa.
1960 - Union of South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth.
1962 - Jamaica gains independence
1963 - Alec Douglas-Hume replaces Harold Macmillan as the Prime Minister.
1963 - The Beatles release their first LP.
1964 - Labour government of Harold Wilson takes office
1966 - Aberfan disaster leaves 116 children dead
1967 - Capital punishment abolished in the UK for murder, and one year later for all crimes
1969 - Prince Charles is invested as Prince of Wales.
1969 - Troubles break out in the North of Ireland
1970 - Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister.
1971 - Decimal currency is introduced.
1973 - Britain joins the European Community.
1974 - Miners strike brings down Heath Government. Harold Wilson returns as Prime Minister.
1976 - Concorde begins first supersonic trans-Atlantic flights
1977 - Celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the Queens accession
1978 - The world's first test-tube baby is delivered in Oldham, Greater Manchester
1979 - Margaret Thatcher succeeds James Callaghan, becoming Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.
1981 - Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
1982 - Unemployment in Britain tops three million.
1982 - Britain goes to war with Argentina over control of the Falkland Islands
1982 - Pope John Paul II is first reigning pope to visit the UK.
1984 - Miners strike again but is defeated by Thatcher.
1986 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60th birthday.
1988 - PanAm flight 103 bombed and crashes on Lockerbie killing 270
1989 - Poll tax is introduced amid widespread protest.
1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall. End of the 'Cold War'.
1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister after 11 years and is succeeded by John Major.
1991 - The Allied forces liberate Kuwait during the Gulf War.
1992 - Princess Anne and Mark Phillips divorce. Windsor castle suffers severe fire damage.
1993 - European Parliament comes into force
1994 - Opening of the Channel Tunnel between England and France
1996 - Both the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of York divorce.
1997 - Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister and ends 18 years of Conservative government.
1997 - Hong Kong reverts to China after 155 years of British rule.
1997 - Diana Princess of Wales dies in Paris car crash
1998 - Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland
1998 - Scotland and Wales vote for their own Assemblies
1999 - Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones.
2000 - Queen Mother celebrates her 100th birthday.
2001 - Twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York destroyed by Islamic terrorists.
2001 - - 2014. Fourth Afghan War. British and Allied troops in Afghanistan.
2002 - Queen Elizabeth II marks her Golden Jubilee of 50 years of rule. Deaths of Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.
2003 - British and US forces invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein
2005 - Prince Charles marries his second wife Camilla Parker-Bowles and she is given the title Duchess of Cornwall
2006 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday.
2007 - Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister
2007 - Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip celebrate 60 years of marriage
2007 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch
2008 - World wide banking crisis. Government has to bail out two major British banks
2009 - Parliamentary integrity damaged by expenses scandal
2010 - David Cameron becomes Prime Minister
2011 - Prince William marries Catherine Middleton. They become Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
2012 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee of 60 years since her accession to the throne.
2012 - Queen opens the London 2012 Olympic Games
2013 - Birth of Prince George, son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
2014 - Scottish voters reject proposal by the Scottish National Party to leave the United Kingdom
2014 - End of 4th Afghan war. British forces leave Afghanistan.
2015 - Birth of Princess Charlotte, daugther of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
2015 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest ever reigning British monarch surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
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Computer servers at big data centers around the globe generate a lot of heat. A company in Finland has figured out a way to capture that wasted energy and use it to heat homes. The World's Technology Correspondent Clark Boyd has the story from Helsinki.
DAVID BARON: Finland used to be one of Europe's poorest countries. Now it's a hub for high-tech innovation. The big name of course is the cell phone company, Nokia. But there are many Finnish companies that run large data centers. These are essentially huge rooms of servers that computer companies around the world use to store their data. Now some of these servers are being put to a surprising use. Here's The World's Technology Correspondent Clark Boyd.
CLARK BOYD: This story starts in a bomb shelter deep beneath downtown Helsinki. Well, it used to be a bomb shelter. During World War II, the Helsinki City Council held its meetings down here, dozens of feet below the largest Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe. It's essentially two giant, cave-like rooms carved out of solid bedrock. These days, the space is being used for something very different. A Finnish IT company called Academica is busy installing racks for servers.
PIETERI PARVINEN: So we're actually here now at Academica's data center, which is probably the world's most eco-efficient data center.
BOYD: Pieteri Parvinen of Academica explains that data centers do more than just store bits of information. All those machines also give off a lot of heat. They need to be kept cool. And that's where something called district cooling comes in. You see, about 75 feet below the server room is a series of huge water pipes. They carry cold water, usually Baltic Sea water, throughout Helsinki. That water is used to cool homes and apartments. Or in this case, a room full of running computers.
NIKO WIRGENTIUS: And then we realized, hey, there are a lot of surplus heat related to these kind of a large scale server rooms.
BOYD: Niko Wirgentius is with a city-owned company called Helsinki Energy.
WIRGENTIUS: And then we realized that that's the resources that otherwise would be wasted or unused. So we decided to transfer that surplus heat to the heating network. This is a really simple idea. It's not rocket science. There is two pipelines. One's come from our production plant and comes here to server room. It cools down all the servers and then the warm water comes back to our production plant to heat up the houses and domestic hot water.
BOYD: Estimates are that these two server rooms can heat 500 homes for a year, even in Finland's brutal winters. And using recycled heat, the thinking goes, will also reduce some of the need for fossil fuel. For Academica, the projected cost savings is substantial, says Pieteri Parvinen.
PARVINEN: Actually, we have made calculations that our electricity bill will be around 180,000 Euros lower than in a traditional data center.
BOYD: That's around $240,000 in savings just from a small data center. The savings, Parivenen says, can be passed along to customers. Harvesting heat from data centers seems to be catching on here in Finland. A similar project is under way in Espoo, a high-tech hotbed just outside of Helsinki. Ari Karpinnen is with Tieto, the IT company involved in Espoo's green data center. He says the IT industry is responsible for about 2 to 3 percent of global CO2 emissions. That's about the same amount as the airline industry. And a lot of people, he says, would like to see a greener IT.
ARI KARPINNEN: Customers are asking that, how do we see this green IT? And what are our plans? What is our policy? Pretty hot topic at the moment.
BOYD: Other countries are paying attention to what Finland is doing. Helsinki Energy and Academica recently won a 2010 Green IT award for their data center design from the US-based Uptime Institute. The two companies already have another eco-friendly data center in the works that will be ten times larger than the one in the former bomb shelter. And they're looking for ways to make at least some of the technology work in cities that don't use large-scale water systems to heat and cool their homes. For The World, this is Clark Boyd, Helsinki.
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Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller
Challenges & Opportunities
Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching Death of a Salesman Teacher Pass
Teaching Death of a Salesman Teacher Pass includes:
- Assignments & Activities
- Reading Quizzes
- Current Events & Pop Culture articles
- Discussion & Essay Questions
- Challenges & Opportunities
- Related Readings in Literature & History
Sample of Challenges & Opportunities
That's why this play presents an excellent opportunity for you to start talking with your students about the meaning of success. How do they define it? How does Willy define it? How does popular culture define it? And whose definition is correct?
Many of your students, especially if you have 11th or 12th graders, are starting to think about their futures—what they want out of life and how they intend to achieve it—so they'll have plenty to say on this subject, and they're likely to have opinions on Willy's approach to reality as well.
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This information is for reference purposes only. It was current when produced and may now be outdated. Archive material is no longer maintained, and some links may not work. Persons with disabilities having difficulty accessing this information should contact us at: https://info.ahrq.gov. Let us know the nature of the problem, the Web address of what you want, and your contact information.
Please go to www.ahrq.gov for current information.
Half the cases of early childhood asthma are due to secondhand cigarette smoke
About half of the cases of early childhood asthma, chronic bronchitis, and wheezing are due to exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke, according to a study by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. It shows that 38 percent of children aged 2 months to 5 years in a representative sample of the U.S. population (7,680) are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the home, and 24 percent of these children were exposed by maternal smoking during pregnancy.
The impact of secondhand smoke was seen at 20 or more cigarettes per day. Children 2 months to 2 years of age who were exposed to this level of household smoke were 2.5 times as likely to develop chronic bronchitis and nearly 3 times as likely to have had three or more episodes of wheezing. Children 2 months to 5 years of age were twice as apt to develop asthma.
Children 2 months to 2 years of age exposed to maternal smoke in the womb were twice as apt to develop chronic bronchitis and twice as likely to have three or more episodes of wheezing. Those 2 months to 5 years of age with prenatal exposure were nearly twice (1.8) as apt to develop asthma. Peter J. Gergen, M.D., M.P.H., of AHCPR's Center for Primary Care Research, and his colleagues estimate that an extra 160,000 cases of asthma per year, 79,000 cases of bronchitis, and 172,000 cases of wheezing are due to ETS. However, in this study exposure to ETS was not significantly associated with the prevalence of upper respiratory infection, pneumonia, or cough.
ETS appears to increase the prevalence of asthma rather than the severity of the illness, which the researchers measured by medication use. Children exposed to tobacco smoke had similar use of prescription asthma medications to unexposed children. These findings are based on data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988 to 1994, which included reports on household smoking and maternal smoking during pregnancy.
See "The burden of environmental tobacco smoke exposure on the respiratory health of children 2 months through 5 years of age in the United States: Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994," by Dr. Gergen, Jean A. Fowler, M.S., Kurt R. Maurer, Ph.D., and others in the February 1998 Pediatrics Electronic Pages 101(2). Reprints (AHCPR Publication No. 98-R033) are available from the AHCPR Publications Clearinghouse.
Editor's note: Select for a related article by Dr. Gergen and other researchers on hospital admissions for asthma in New York City.
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Health Care Delivery
Nearly one-third of U.S. toddlers have not received complete immunizations
It is estimated that 30 percent of 2-year-olds in the United States have not received the recommended four doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine, three doses of the polio vaccine, and single dose of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. This vaccination series should be completed by age 2.
Two recent studies, supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and summarized here, highlight barriers and aids to childhood immunization. The first study (AHCPR grant HS08068) shows that in some cases physician concern about vaccine side effects and related lawsuits hinders timely vaccination of children. The second study (AHCPR contract 290-93-0038) demonstrates that public health clinics are playing an important role in the immunization of rural children.
Zimmerman, R.K., Schlesselman, J.J., Mieczkowski, T.A., and others (1998, January). "Physician concerns about vaccine adverse effects and potential litigation." Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 152, pp. 12-19.
Physician concerns about the adverse effects of vaccines and—to a lesser degree—potential litigation hinder timely vaccination of children, concludes this study. This is a problem, especially given that the major measles epidemic in the United States in 1989 to 1991 was attributed to inadequate vaccination levels.
The authors of this study recommend development of new educational materials for health care providers that explain the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine safety, and protection against litigation afforded by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). They surveyed by telephone a national random sample of family physicians, pediatricians, and general practitioners who frequently saw children younger than 6 years of age and had office-based practices in 1995.
Of the 1,236 physicians surveyed, 32 percent overestimated the risk for serious adverse effects related to DTP vaccines, and 13 percent overestimated the risks of measles vaccines. Among physicians who were not concerned about DTP-related risks, 15 percent were highly concerned about litigation. However, 38 percent of physicians who were concerned about the adverse effects of DTP vaccines also were highly concerned about vaccine litigation.
Among doctors most concerned about vaccine litigation, 22 percent—compared with 12 percent of doctors who expressed little concern—said they were unlikely to recommend the third dose of DTP for a child with a fever of 39.4o C and no other symptoms after the second DTP dose. The VICP provides no-fault compensation to individuals with a permanent injury that is temporally related to vaccination. Nevertheless, only 41 percent of doctors who were aware of the VICP believed that it afforded them substantial liability protection.
Slifkin, R.T., Clark, S.J., Strandhoy, S.E., and Konrad, T.R. (1997, Fall). "Public-sector immunization coverage in 11 States: The status of rural areas." Journal of Rural Health 13(4), pp. 334-341.
Are rural children less likely to be immunized due to less Medicaid insurance, poverty, fewer physicians, and greater distance to health care facilities? Not rural children who are dependent on the public health system, finds this study. It shows that in 11 Eastern States, rural counties had average immunization completion rates that were 2.5 percent higher than metropolitan counties, even after controlling for county socioeconomic characteristics.
States varied widely. High mean public-sector immunization completion rates in Georgia (91 percent), South Carolina (84 percent), and Alabama (79 percent) probably reflect the South's strong tradition of providing direct clinical services to the public sector. In contrast, many Northern industrial States have not traditionally viewed immunization delivery and promotion as the responsibility of the public sector. For example, Michigan and Ohio, which had the lowest public-sector immunization rates among the 11 States studied (46 percent and 53 percent, respectively), also had overall State immunization rates that were below the national average.
Rural counties had higher rates than urban counties in every State except for West Virginia. The researchers conclude that rural children fare comparatively well using the present system of immunization delivery, and they recommend maintaining it. Their findings are based on analysis of 1995 county-level immunization data generated by State public health agencies in 882 counties in 11 States east of the Mississippi River.
Laboratory testing and antibiotic therapy are often at odds with expert advice about Lyme disease care
Lyme disease (LD) is caused by the tickborne bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, but tick bites rarely result in LD. In 1995, 11,603 cases of LD were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 43 States and the District of Columbia (overall incidence of 4.4 per 100,000 population). Nevertheless, tick bites are a common reason for people in endemic areas to seek medical care.
It takes 2 weeks or longer for antibodies to B. burgdorferi to show up in the blood, but half of patients who seek care for tick bites in Lyme-infested areas have a blood test performed right away. Most receive prophylactic antibiotics regardless of whether they have a blood test or the results of the test. Thus, most patients with tick bites undergo costly blood testing before they would have detectable antibodies, and most receive antibiotic therapy of unproven benefit, concludes a study supported in part by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (HS07813).
Researchers led by G. Thomas Strickland, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, studied the use patterns of serologic testing and antibiotic therapy for 232 patients with tick bites, LD, or suspected LD by physicians in primary care practices on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1995. This is an area endemic for LD (more than 100 cases per 100,000 population).
Blood testing for LD did not appear to influence treatment of patients diagnosed as having LD. About half of the patients who sought care for a tick bite had a blood test performed at the initial visit, but did not have the followup "convalescent" assay needed to verify LD (when antibodies have had time to build up). Fifty-five percent of patients with a tick bite received antibiotic therapy, but in most cases, antibiotics were prescribed before serologic test results became available. Convalescent testing was not performed for 86 percent of the 43 patients with suspected LD who had initial negative or equivocal results. Of these patients, 68 percent did not receive antibiotic therapy. No patient with a tick bite developed clinical LD.
Details are in "Tick bites and Lyme disease in an endemic setting: Problematic use of serologic testing and prophylactic antibiotic therapy," by Alan D. Fix, M.D., M.S., Dr. Strickland, and John Grant, M.D., M.P.H., in the January 21, 1998, Journal of the American Medical Association 279(3), pp. 206-210.
Editor's note: Select for a summary of a related article by Dr. Strickland and colleagues on the use and costs of serologic testing for LD in Maryland (Journal of Infectious Diseases 176, pp. 819-821, 1997).
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Treadmill testing of certain ED patients with chest pain may substantially reduce hospital admissions and costs
About 2 million people with chest pain are admitted to the hospital each year for tests to rule out a heart attack. However, careful selection of low-risk patients to undergo early exercise stress testing—after 6 hours of uneventful observation in the emergency department (ED)—could alter this scenario. This approach could reduce the number of hospital admissions by 17 percent and days of hospitalization by 11 percent, with a potential savings of more than $500 million a year, according to a recent study supported in part by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (HS06452).
The researchers used published evidence, the experiences of local medical opinion leaders, and physician-investigators to develop a critical pathway for management of patients with acute chest pain who are at low risk for complications of ischemic heart disease. Criteria were developed to determine which patients seen in one hospital's ED for chest pain should be admitted to the hospital, directly discharged from the ED, or observed for 6 hours in the ED and, if appropriate, subjected to an exercise treadmill test. Of 4,585 patients, 63 percent were admitted to the hospital. Among those admitted, 40 percent were classified as potentially eligible for observation in the ED, and 93 percent had a benign clinical course during the initial 6-hour observation period.
The 1,068 patients observed in the ED had a mean length of stay of 3 days (plus or minus 5 days). If 47 percent of these patients had been discharged after observation and exercise testing, implementation of the critical pathway would have reduced the number of admissions by 505 (17 percent) and days of hospitalization by 1,407 (11 percent). The pathway is a step-by-step procedure for selection and management of patients. Based on the pathway, if an ED patient who was initially thought to be at low risk for heart attack (probability of 5 percent) had a benign clinical course, including a negative result cardiac enzyme testing during the 6-hour observation period, the post-test probability of heart attack would be low enough to consider noninvasive exercise stress testing. Among the patients who were stable after at least 6 hours of observation, 1.2 percent had a heart attack compared with 17.5 percent of ineligible patients.
Details are in "A critical pathway for management of patients with acute chest pain who are at low risk for myocardial ischemia: Recommendations and potential impact," by Graham Nichol, M.D., Ron Walls, M.D., Lee Goldman, M.D., and others, in the December 1, 1997, Annals of Internal Medicine 127(11), pp. 996-1005.
Heparin reduces catheter-related clot formation and may reduce catheter-related infections
Many hospitalized patients require a central venous catheter to provide access for medication, fluids, and parenteral nutrition. Also, many critically ill patients require central venous or pulmonary arterial catheters for hemodynamic monitoring and blood sampling. These catheters put them at risk for vascular thrombosis (blood clots that partially or completely block the blood vessel) and systemic infections. But administration of the anticoagulant heparin effectively reduces thrombus formation and may reduce catheter-related infections, finds a study supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (National Research Service Award fellowship F32 HS00106).
Researchers led by Adrienne G. Randolph, M.D., M.Sc., of Harvard Medical School performed a meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials evaluating prophylactic doses of heparin (as a heparin flush of the catheter between uses) or heparin-bonded catheters. They found that prophylactic heparin decreased central venous catheter-related thrombosis by 57 percent and bacterial colonization of these catheters by 82 percent. This reduction in bacterial colonization may decrease central venous catheter-related bacterial infections by 74 percent.
Analysis of two trials comparing heparin-bonded versus unbonded pulmonary artery catheters showed that heparin bonding reduced by 92 percent the risk of catheter clot formation within the first 24 hours after catheter insertion.This is significant, especially when one considers that blood clots form on these catheters in the first few hours, and thrombosis of large vessels occurs after long-term catheterization in 35 to 67 percent of patients.
For more details, see "Benefit of heparin in central venous and pulmonary artery catheters: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials," by Dr. Randolph, Deborah J. Cook, M.D., M.Sc., F.C.C.P., Calle A. Gonzales, M.D., M.P.H., and Maureen Andrew, M.D., in the January 1998 Chest 113 (1), pp. 165-171.
Moderately anemic elderly patients who undergo surgery don't necessarily require blood transfusions
The risks of blood transfusions have been evaluated extensively in recent years; surprisingly, the benefits of transfusion are far less well understood. Older patients with anemia (low blood count) who lose blood during surgery may be at increased risk of adverse events such as heart attacks, but it is not clear which patients are likely to benefit from transfusions.
A recent study, supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (HS07322), examined whether transfusions given to elderly patients undergoing surgery for a fractured hip had a positive impact on postoperative outcomes. Other goals of the study were to identify which patients were most likely to benefit and the level of hemoglobin (blood count) that signaled the need for a transfusion to decrease the risk of adverse events due to anemia.
According to the study's findings, some elderly patients may not need red blood cell transfusions following surgery, even at hemoglobin levels as low as 80 g/L (moderate anemia). Ten years ago the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference recommended that otherwise healthy patients with hemoglobin values of 100 g/L or greater rarely require postoperative transfusion, whereas those with acute anemia (hemoglobin values of less than 70 g/L) frequently do.
This retrospective study of 8,787 high-risk elderly patients who had extensive coexisting illnesses and underwent surgery for hip fracture suggests a lower transfusion trigger. The researchers studied the medical charts of these patients, who underwent surgical repair between 1983 and 1993 at one of 24 study hospitals. They found that postoperative transfusion did not influence 30-day mortality (adjusted odds ratio 0.96 [1 is equal risk], 95 percent confidence interval, 0.74-1.26). Results were similar for the 7.2 percent who underwent a preoperative transfusion.
Since there is good evidence about the risks of transfusion, such as infections and allergic reactions, physicians should reconsider whether transfusion is warranted for these patients, says Jeffrey L. Carson, M.D., of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He points out, however, that it is possible that transfusion may affect other patient outcomes, such as morbidity, readmission to the hospital, speed of recovery, and functional status.
See "Perioperative blood transfusion and postoperative mortality," by Dr. Carson, Amy Duff, M.H.S., Jesse A. Berlin, Sc.D., and others in the January 21, 1998/ Journal of the American Medical Association 279(3), pp. 199-205.
Nonclinical factors affect use of maternal corticosteroids to reduce respiratory complications in premature infants
Clinical factors primarily determine physicians' use of intravenous tocolytic medication to halt premature labor contractions, a commonly accepted practice. But patient race and site of care affect physicians' use of maternal corticosteroid therapy, an effective but less widely accepted practice that hastens maturation of fetal lung tissue to prevent respiratory complications in premature infants.
In a recent study of the use of tocolysis and corticosteroid therapy in the treatment of premature labor, black women were one-third less likely and Latino women were nearly 100 percent less likely to receive corticosteroid therapy than white women in similar clinical situations. There were no differences by race in the use of tocolysis. The study was conducted by the Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) on Prevention of Low Birthweight in Minority and High-Risk Women, which is led by Robert L. Goldenberg, M.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (PORT contract 290-92-0055). The researchers analyzed the preterm labor or delivery records of 33,792 women in the March of Dimes Prematurity Prevention Trial database from 1983 to 1986.
According to the researchers, the variation in use of corticosteroids during the 1980s appears to have stemmed from nonclinical factors, since most clinical indications, technological context, and site variations were controlled for in the analysis. This study confirms the premise that practice variation on the basis of nonclinical factors occurs more commonly for interventions where there is more uncertainty about clinical indications and effectiveness. It also identifies another area of clinical care in which aggressive and relatively uncertain interventions are used less often for minority patients, concludes lead author Janet M. Bronstein, Ph.D.
Details are in "Practice variation in the use of interventions in high-risk obstetrics," by Dr. Bronstein, Suzanne P. Cliver, B.A., and Dr. Goldenberg, in the February 1998 Health Services Research 32(6), pp. 825-839.
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Using relatively inexpensive antibiotics to treat pneumonia does not lead to poorer medical outcomes
Pneumonia caused by bacteria is typically treated with antibiotics, which range in price from less than $1 to over $100 a dose. But less expensive antibiotics seem to work just as well as more costly ones, according to a study conducted by the Pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) led by Wishwa N. Kapoor, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Pittsburgh, and supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (HS06468). The researchers compared patterns of antibiotic use at five medical institutions to assess the relationship between antibiotic use, antimicrobial costs, and medical outcomes in 927 outpatients and 1,328 hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Each institution varied significantly in its use of 17 of 23 oral antibiotics in outpatients and 18 of 20 parenteral (injected) agents used in hospital patients. The overall median cost of antimicrobial therapy was $12.90 for outpatients (range of $10.80 to $58.90) and $228.70 for inpatients (range of $183.70 to $315.60) among treatment sites. On an institutional level, the use of less costly antibiotics did not lead to poorer medical outcomes. Death and hospital readmission rates for inpatients were not significantly different across sites after adjustments were made for differences in patient demographic characteristics, other coexisting medical problems, and illness severity.
In fact, subsequent hospitalization rates for outpatients and rehospitalization rates for inpatients were lower among the treatment sites with the lowest antibiotic costs. Hospitals that restricted use of expensive antibiotics to extreme medical circumstances or required prior approval for their use by an infectious disease specialist used fewer expensive antibiotics than less restrictive hospitals.
For more information, see "Variations in antimicrobial use and cost in more than 2,000 patients with community- acquired pneumonia," by Kenneth Gilbert, M.D., M.P.H., Patrick P. Gleason, Pharm.D., Daniel E. Singer, M.D., and others, in the January 1998 American Journal of Medicine 104, pp. 17-27.
You can help us show how health services research makes a difference
We in the health services research community already know that our work makes a difference; now, we need to enhance awareness and understanding outside of our community to inform policymakers, providers, purchasers, the business community, and consumers. The easiest way to do this is to present them with examples of health services research findings "in action." Simply put, we are looking for user stories to illustrate the far-reaching and beneficial effects of our research.
Examples include both products—such as decision aids for use in emergency rooms, software programs that can detect medication errors, treatment algorithms for use in physicians' offices, and data products that policymakers and others can use—and other, less concrete effects—such as new ways of communicating with patients and information on the effectiveness and outcomes of early treatment for specific conditions.
Tell us how findings from your AHCPR-funded research are being used. Please send your user stories to Mary L. Grady, Managing Editor, Research Activities.
Stroke PORT examines post-stroke risks and outcomes of carotid endarterectomy
Stroke affects 500,000 Americans each year. Currently, there are few reliable guidelines for identifying and managing patients at risk for stroke. As a result stroke-related clinical practices vary significantly. The Stroke Prevention Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT), led by David Matchar, M.D., of Duke University, and supported by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (PORT contract 290-91-0028), is investigating clinical strategies to prevent stroke. The PORT recently published the two studies summarized here.
The first study identifies factors that increase the risk of death and recurrent stroke following a first stroke. The second study, also supported by an AHCPR National Research Service Award training grant (T32 HS00044), shows that despite resource-conserving changes in management of carotid endarterectomy, outcomes remain about the same.
Petty, G.W., Brown, R.D., Whisnant, J.P., and others (1998, January). "Survival and recurrence after first cerebral infarction." Neurology 50, pp. 208-216.
Within 1 year of a first stroke, 27 percent of those affected are at risk for death, and 12 percent are at risk for another stroke. Five years after the first stroke, 53 percent are at risk for death, and 29 percent are at risk for another stroke. The strongest predictors of death after the first stroke are congestive heart failure and ischemic heart disease. Persistent atrial fibrillation is a somewhat less powerful determinant of death, but more important than hypertension, diabetes, the patient's sex, and preceding transient ischemic attack (often called mini-stroke). Aside from older age, diabetes is the single most important predictor of stroke recurrence, according to this study.
The Stroke Prevention PORT researchers used a model to determine independent predictors of and temporal trends in survival and recurrent stroke among 1,111 residents of Rochester, MN, who had a first cerebral infarction (stroke) between 1975 and 1989. Stroke as a cause of death subsequent to first stroke declined over the study period. However, deaths due to other causes, such as pulmonary embolism or pneumonia, increased. This suggests that stroke may have become less lethal, but that the disabled survivors are more apt to succumb to pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, or other non-neurologic conditions.
Holloway, R.G., Witter, D.M., Mushlin, A.I., and others (1998, January). "Carotid endarterectomy trends in the patterns and outcomes of care at academic medical centers, 1990 through 1995." Archives of Neurology 55, pp. 25-32.
In carotid endarterectomy (CEA), plaque that is blocking one or more of the carotid arteries is surgically removed to prevent stroke. Even though CEA is being offered to increasingly older patients, resource-conserving changes in the hospital management of CEA patients have not affected clinical outcomes, concludes this study.
The researchers retrospectively analyzed hospital discharge data on 7,019 patients undergoing CEA from 1990 through 1995 at 10 U.S. academic medical centers. Over the 6-year study period, the number of CEA procedures performed more than doubled, and the percentage of hospital admissions for patients 65 years or older increased from 65 percent to 75 percent. The mean and median length of stay was cut in half, and the percentage of admissions with transfers to the intensive care unit decreased from 56 percent to 26 percent of cases.
In addition, the percentage of cases with a cerebral arteriogram performed during the same admission but prior to the day of the CEA decreased from 52 percent to 27 percent.
Despite these CEA management changes, there were no trends in inpatient deaths, discharge to an institution, or 30-day hospital readmission rate. There were no significant trends indicative of poorer quality of care as measured by the frequency of secondary diagnoses or postprocedure diagnostic test use. This suggests no detrimental outcomes related to different inpatient management policies that limited hospital resource use, conclude the researchers.
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A cell biologist from UAB is part of a team of scientists that restored the sense of smell using gene therapy in mice that had been engineered to lack it. The authors noted that the finding has the potential to lead to future treatments for genetic syndromes that interfere with the ability to smell, along with conditions throughout the body caused by related cellular mechanisms.
Bradley Yoder, Ph.D., professor within the UAB School of Medicine’s Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, was among the authors of the related article published in Nature Medicine.
Led by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan, the research team was able to cure the mice of congenital anosmia — the medical term for an inability to detect odors from birth. The mice were unable to smell because they had been born without cilia, the hair-shaped structures that grow on the surfaces of most cells in body and that have emerged as major players in many diseases, as well as healthy function.
Researchers restored olfactory function through gene therapy — infecting the mice with a virus designed to make specific genetic changes. These alterations coaxed nerve cells that transmit the sense of smell to regrow the cilia they were missing.
The study authors note that the research may become important for other cilia-related diseases, including polycystic kidney disease, retinitis pigmentosa in the eye, and rare disorders like Alström syndrome, Bardet-Biedl syndrome and nephronopthisis.
The researchers caution that the work in mice will not have immediate implications for humans who have lost the ability to smell, and will be most important first for people with genetic disorders. Whether or not the findings help those who have lost their sense of smell to aging, head trauma or chronic sinus problems is a matter for future research.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders, the National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Eye Institute.
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Table Talk: Celebrating Black History Month
- January 25, 2013 |
- by The Family Cooks
Each week, The Huffington Post presents a compelling topic to spark discussion at your dinner table.
Every February, we observe Black History Month to honor the achievements, struggles and heritage of African-Americans.
A historian and activist named Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded what was to become Black History Month in 1926. At first, the celebration was just the second week of the month, which Dr. Woodson chose to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln.
But in 1976, during the U.S. Bicentennial, America’s 200th birthday, it was officially expanded to the whole month under President Gerald Ford.
Black History Month commemorates the work and passion of people like: Civil Rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. Writers, artists and entertainers like Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Lena Horne, Smokey Robinson and Bill Cosby. Scientists and inventors from George Washington Carver to Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
These are just a handful of the leaders who’ve shaped and continue to influence our country’s history, often overcoming major adversity to do so.
Tonight, let’s talk about the importance of diversity, understanding where we came from and honoring these Americans who’ve given us so much.
Questions for discussion:
* What have you learned in school about the Civil Rights movement?
* What are you doing in school or as a family to celebrate Black History Month?
* Have you ever seen or experienced prejudice? How did you act?
Join the Discussion
Comments are closed.
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Definition of wallaby
n. - Any one of numerous species of kangaroos belonging to the genus Halmaturus, native of Australia and Tasmania, especially the smaller species, as the brush kangaroo (H. Bennettii) and the pademelon (H. thetidis). The wallabies chiefly inhabit the wooded district and bushy plains. 2
The word "wallaby" uses 7 letters: A A B L L W Y.
No direct anagrams for wallaby found in this word list.
Adding one letter to wallaby does not form any other word in this word list.
Shorter words found within wallaby:
aa aal ab aba ably aby al ala alb alba all allay ally alway aw awa away awl ay ba baa baal bal ball bally bawl bay blaw by bylaw la lab law lay wab wall walla wally waly way ya yaw yawl
List shorter words within wallaby, sorted by length
All words formed from wallaby by changing one letter
Browse words starting with wallaby by next letter
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Mathematics is not the rigid and rigidity-producing schema that the layman thinks it is; rather, in it we find ourselves at that meeting point of constraint and freedom that is the very essence of human nature.- Hermann Weyl
Perspective has been push back in a reductionistic sense and understanding in a cosmological sense. The limit to which this process could incorporate a relativistic explanation would have been a glorious one indeed?
The Navier-Stokes equations, named after Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stokes, describe the motion of fluid substances such as liquids and gases. These equations establish that changes in momentum in infinitesimal volumes of fluid are simply the sum of dissipative viscous forces (similar to friction), changes in pressure, gravity, and other forces acting inside the fluid: an application of Newton's second law to fluid.
They are one of the most useful sets of equations because they describe the physics of a large number of phenomena of academic and economic interest. They may be used to model weather, ocean currents, water flow in a pipe, flow around an airfoil (wing), and motion of stars inside a galaxy. As such, these equations in both full and simplified forms, are used in the design of aircraft and cars, the study of blood flow, the design of power stations, the analysis of the effects of pollution, etc. Coupled with Maxwell's equations they can be used to model and study magnetohydrodynamics.
The Navier-Stokes equations are also of great interest in a purely mathematical sense. Somewhat surprisingly, given their wide range of practical uses, mathematicians have yet to prove that in three dimensions solutions always exist (existence), or that if they do exist they do not contain any infinities, singularities or discontinuities (smoothness). These are called the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problems. The Clay Mathematics Institute has called this one of the seven most important open problems in mathematics, and offered a $1,000,000 prize for a solution or a counter-example.
So where is that? Where is the "perfect fluid" and what has this to do with the current state of the universe? The "effect of collisions" which produce a Cerenkov effect. Is this a "faster then the speed of light" from such a process being encapsulating in that early universe condition?
As perplexing as this sounds, it sets up the understanding that Super Cosmologists have to think outside the box. If no information is lost, then where did the information come from? There is a topological unfolding here that speak to mathematical designs all the while it integrates the Navier-Stokes equations in terms of it's relativistic explanation, derived from the very moments of that creation?
"Helium-3 experiment replicates colliding-brane theory of cosmology."
So as silly as some would have you believe that new models do not have any chance from a mathematical perspective of having lost touch with reality, is the need to explain the process in terms of natural occurrences that are going on around us, which we were not previously aware of.
Information Scrambled, Yet Reassembled
My area of research is superstring theory, a theory that purports to give us a quantum theory of gravity as well as a unified theory of all forces and all matter. As such, superstring theory has the potential to realize Einstein's long sought dream of a single, all encompassing, theory of the universe. One of the strangest features of superstring theory is that it requires the universe to have more than three spatial dimensions. Much of my research has focused on the physical implications and mathematical properties of these extra dimensions --- studies that collectively go under the heading "quantum geometry".
Quantum geometry differs in substantial ways from the classical geometry underlying general relativity. For instance, topology change (the "tearing" of space) is a sensible feature of quantum geometry even though, from a classical perspective, it involves singularities. As another example, two different classical spacetime geometries can give rise to identical physical implications, again at odds with conclusions based on classical general relativity.
Superstring theory is most relevant under extreme physical conditions such as those that existed at the time of the big bang. Recently, we have formed a new institute at Columbia called ISCAP (Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics) dedicated to understanding the interface of superstring theory and cosmology. One primary focus of ISCAP is the search for subtle signatures of string theory that may be imprinted in the precision cosmological data that will be collected through a variety of experiments over the next decade.
In levitation post I try to explain how using Susskind's thought experiment we may derive information about the geometrical conditions being developed from "Bob" entering the blackhole on the back of a elephant.
First let me remind you of where you had been taken in terms of your view of the universe. Had you realized that you are now given a micro perspective on the very nature of this universe? That given the circumstance, the elephant takes on a whole new meaning in terms of searching to understand quantum gravity at a level not considered before.
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho, what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!"
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he:
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a TREE!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
So what does Susskind do? You see the very question about interpreting events in this way, ask that we push our perceptive toward topological inferences of continuity? There are no current geometrics that can be explained from inside the blackhole. Pushing perspective needed a method to help us orientate what is happening at that geometrical level.
Quantum Gravity: A physical theory describing the gravitational interactions of matter and energy in which matter and energy are described by quantum theory. In most, but not all, theories of quantum gravity, gravity is also quantized. Since the contemporary theory of gravity, general relativity, describes gravitation as the curvature of spacetime by matter and energy, a quantization of gravity implies some sort of quantization of spacetime itself. Insofar as all extant physical theories rely on a classical spacetime background, this presents profound methodological and ontological challenges for the philosopher and the physicist.
Unfortunately I lost the link to a introduction of a book below yet showed this, to help one define the context of the work that has to be done.
Quantum gravity is perhaps the most important open problem in fundamental physics. It is the problem of merging quantum mechanics and general relativity, the two great conceptual revolutions in the physics of the twentieth century. The loop and spinfoam approach, presented in this book, is one of the leading research programs in the field. The first part of the book discusses the reformulation of the basis of classical and quantum Hamiltonian physics required by general relativity. The second part covers the basic technical research directions. Appendices include a detailed history of the subject of quantum gravity, hard-to-find mathematical material, and a discussion of some philosophical issues raised by the subject. This fascinating text is ideal for graduate students entering the field, as well as researchers already working in quantum gravity. It will also appeal to philosophers and other scholars interested in the nature of space and time.
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Philly’s Greensgrow farm: An unconventional hybrid that works
(Photos ©Michael Hanson)
It’s sunny and 94 degrees, and the pavement’s steaming after a thunderstorm rolled sideways through north Philly. Mary Seton Corboy wears a full-body, white bee suit. She stands atop a small trailer’s grassy roof on a vacant city lot. Smoke puffs from the antique-looking box in her hand, and the bees calm down.
“We put these up here originally just for security,” she says. “Figured no one would bother the equipment with a bunch of bees around.”
Mary has created a small world, called Greensgrow, here on one block. The trailer under the beehives holds farm tools. Beside the trailer, tanks for the biodiesel conversion operation transform used cooking oil into fuel for Big Yellow, the delivery truck that collects fresh produce and meat and dairy products from farms within 75 miles of this square of green in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. That food goes into the homes of 400 CSA members, some of them low-income, and for sale at the farm’s market. That is to say, the Greensgrow farm and nursery is a little bit of everything, and all of it connected, somehow, like any good old city.
Farming in Kensington, now a low-income neighborhood largely populated by Russian and Polish immigrants, is no more new than it is throughout Philadelphia. Community gardens, backyard gardens, and “guerrilla” gardens on vacant lots have been producing thousands of pounds of fresh food annually for over a century. The Vacant Lot Cultivation Association, begun in 1897, helps people access land and start market gardens. War rationing during WWI and II spurred Victory Gardens, as they did in many cities. And the early-to-mid-century exodus of African-American farmers from the sharecropper South brought a new agrarian population to the city.
There weren’t meetings or board members or conference calls. Just a need for food, empty land, and people who knew how to dig in with a shovel and hoe.
Then the community vacant-lot gardens took off in the ’70s, just as the industrial boom imploded. More than 100,000 people lost their jobs, industries ran screaming, and many people bolted for the hills, or somewhere not-Philly.
At the same time, another wave of southern African-Americans moved north, this time in conjunction with a Puerto Rican migration and Southeast Asians escaping the poisonous aftermath of the Vietnam War. Having grown their own food in their homelands, the newcomers brought that knowledge and ethic with them.
The city, meanwhile, took little interest in its agencies’ land holdings, so they barely blinked at signing multi-year leases to neighborhood farmers on empty city lots. The 1970s made inner-city blightification as American as apple pie. In Philly, pirate farmers built soils, and fed families and communities. The common-sense food production continued into the ’90s. There weren’t meetings or board members or conference calls. Just a need for food, empty land, and people who knew how to dig in with a shovel and hoe.
Mary calls a shovel “the idiot stick,” and she holds it in high regard. She came onto the scene at the tail end of that mini-urban-ag revolution. Plenty of vacant-lot and community farms still exist in Philly, but not on the scale they did 30 years ago. The decline is partly due to older farmers passing away, and partly due to increased real-estate values, the subsequent interest of developers, and city agencies’ reluctance to continue signing those multi-year leases on the empty lots. The rogue farmers have had to abandon soils they’d developed over a decade or more.
Mary doesn’t like meetings, and she looks far more comfortable in the bee suit and mask than I imagine she would in a pantsuit or dress. She’s a gritty farmer with a helluva business sense. When she takes off the bee suit, she reveals a dusty, wrinkled Subaru farm shirt. Two Subaru wagons sit along the curb between the bee and tool lot, and the larger farm and nursery — the socially progressive Subaru company financially sponsors Greensgrow.
Tom Sereduk, cofounder of Greensgrow, and Mary starting digging into Kensington in 1998. The two had restaurant experience and they saw a market for salad greens. Since they knew hydroponic growing methods (growing in water, rather than soil, with mineral supplements), they could bypass the immediate concerns over the lot’s EPA brownfield status. They opened during the growing season and sold to white-table cloth restaurants for a profit.
But Mary and Tom were like energetic hippies rolling in for half the year to grow fancy lettuce for fancy restaurants, and kids threw rocks at them over the fence. Though Tom opted out of the depressing situation, Mary stuck with it and she kept her vision open.
“Over time, we never really invested in any one thing, so when the winds of change moved in — more and more interest in local foods — we shifted. We started growing more heirloom tomatoes and micro-greens. Then we built the greenhouse, grew flowers, stayed year-round, and the neighbors got interested,” she says. “We saw what people grew in their pots here in the neighborhood and we offered them in the nursery. As we’ve grown, we’ve tried to keep one foot in this community and one in the greater city.”
At the corner of the farm, the chickens peck at the soil on one side of the chain-link fence, while neighbors cruise on bikes or stroll the sidewalk a foot away. It’s an easy symbol of the urban farm, but it actually does what you’d think it would. A few women sit on the steps of their row-houses a block away; their young kids bump Razor scooters over the sidewalk cracks, and they love the chickens.
Janice Teague has lived here for 25 years. She likes the farm. She goes every week to the Thursday market for fruit and vegetables, and she buys tomato plants to grow in her backyard garden, a 6-foot-by-2-foot sliver of soil in the tiny concrete-floor-and-cinder-block-walled back patio. She doesn’t have a car, so she can’t get to Home Depot to buy potted plants. Greensgrow lets her use the wagon to roll her purchases home, and the nursery prices are no more than Home Depot’s or Lowe’s.
“I’m not into the butter and milk and cheese stuff,” Janice says. “I get that from the regular grocery store. My daughter gets her soap from the farm. I get fruit and bread, and I get flowers that I plant in my backyard. I get peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes. They’re fresher and they’re a little more money, but I like Jersey tomatoes from the farm market better than the supermarket ones.”
Janice doesn’t see many neighbors at the Greensgrow market. The people she sees there are from elsewhere. They’re nice, but she can tell that they’re “uppy.”
I see that, I guess, as I look at the Thursday market shoppers: young folks with mustaches on their faces and baskets on their bikes, a double date popping out of a Prius, a mom with a stroller the size of a Peugeot. But there’s also a policeman and the owner of the auto-detail shop across the street.
“When you become an asset to your community or neighborhood then you’ve done something. I don’t do this just to be tan.”
Mary has always intended for Greensgrow to be profitable. She wants it to be a model for sustainable profitability, in fact. All 19 staff members are paid by the for-profit side of the business, from nursery and farm sales, which grossed $1 million last year. The Community Supported Agriculture program has 400 members. That’s enormous for a city-block-size farm, but Greensgrow has created a 75-mile web of farms and producers with the Greensgrow CSA as the mothership distribution point. It’s so big that they’ve achieved the holy grail of the CSA model — a low-income option.
It’s been a dozen years since Mary ducked rocks while hanging plastic over the greenhouse. The bees help, but mainly she and her staff and her chickens and the nursery’s petunias have put a face on the farm and the neighborhood.
“In the short term I see a positive change. I got a Google alert last night. I don’t usually check those, but I did this time. It was from a real estate listing. It said, ‘Great house, great location right next to Greensgrow Farm!!!’ When you become an asset to your community or neighborhood then you’ve done something. I don’t do this just to be tan.”
Source: the Community Gardening in Philadelphia, 2008 Harvest Report compiled by Domenic Vitiello and Michael Nairn of the Penn Planning and Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania. October 2009
All content ©Breaking Through Concrete, adapted with permission. For information regarding use of images, video, or text, please contact [email protected].
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RLA. Revista de lingüística teórica y aplicada
versión On-line ISSN 0718-4883
COLOMA, Carmen Julia; PENALOZA, Christian y REYES FERNANDEZ. Production of complex sentences in 8 and 10 year-old children. RLA [online]. 2007, vol.45, n.1, pp.33-44. ISSN 0718-4883. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-48832007000100003.
This study was designed to contribute with new information about complex syntax development in Spanish-speaking children. 30 children with 8 years and 29 children with 10 years participate in the study retelling 3 different stories. The narrative samples were analysed in order to identify complex sentences and the type of clauses (nominal, adverbial and adjective). The results showed grater syntactic complexity in children with 10 years. The evidence suggests the existence of complex syntax development in children between 8 years and 10 years.
Palabras clave : Syntactic development; complex syntax; complex sentences.
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Nothing catches the eye of a weather geek more than lightning.
Seeing a towering cumulonimbus and its accompanying bolts can be mesmerizing.
...Florida knows that more than any other state.
We lead the U.S. in lightning strikes. Sadly, that also means we lead the nation in lightning fatalities.
Hundreds have been fatally struck in our state since 1959 with nearly 100 of those in south Florida.
The deadliest months are June, July and August. (Makes sense, doesn't it? That's our rainy season.)
Now this doesn't mean those are the only months we see lightning. In fact, a lightning fatality has been documented in 11 out of 12 months. The only month without a lightning death is January.
So, what do you do if caught outside and a storm is approaching? Simply put - go inside immediately.
Once inside stay off electrical equipment, avoid plumbing, windows and doors, and unplug major appliances.
If you can't get inside a building your next best bet is a vehicle.
Sometimes you're out in the middle of nowhere and can't get to either one. In those cases you get as far away from trees, bodies of water, and conductors of electricity as possible. Get to lower ground and stay as low to the ground as possible.
Bolts of lightning can travel more than 10 miles away from its parent storm, and in rare cases, lightning can strike without a thunderstorm near.
This is why the National Weather Service's lightning safety mantra is "when thunder roars, go indoors."
Do you know how to easily calculate the distance of a storm based off the time between thunder and lightning?
Sound travels at 1 mile in 5 seconds. So if you see lightning and 10 seconds later you hear thunder -- then the storm is 2 miles away.
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Neoteny and Two-Way Sexual Selection in Human Evolution: A Paleo-Anthropological Speculation on the Origins of Secondary-Sexual Traits, Male Nurturing and the Child as a Sexual Image
By David Brin, Ph.D.
Much progress has been made in tracing the story of human origins, yet mysteries still shroud how we acquired such unique traits as bipedalism, concealed ovulation, and our prodigious brains. Paleo-anthropology suffers from both a dearth of hard data and a surfeit of enthusiastic opinions -- for example, drawing detailed conclusions about evolution from peculiar patterns of fat deposits in male and female anatomies. Or consider the question of why humans have lost nearly all their hair. It has been suggested that this adaptation enabled our ancestors to fill a niche unavailable to other predators -- keeping cool while chasing game under the noonday sun. Alas, this fails to explain why males (the presumed hunters) retain more ancestral hairiness than females, while children have the least of all .
As Herbert Spencer once commented about biological speculation -- there is nothing so tragic as a beautiful theory, foiled by an inconvenient fact. Especially in the area of human sociobiology, where evidence is scant and emotions can run high, hypotheses should be offered with good-natured humility.
In that spirit I will focus on the trait of neoteny -- or the retention of childlike characteristics in mature members of a species. This process appears so amplified in humanity that we have been called the neotenous clan of apes. Humans much more closely resemble chimp or gorilla infants than adults of either species, e.g., in the smooth, vertical dome of the forehead and the relative ease of bipedality displayed by very young apes.
Furthermore, even aged humans often retain a plasticity of behavior that is typically found among animals only in the young. Human emphasis on learned, rather than inherited, behavior, has been widely accepted as a chief driver of this trend, requiring our minds to remain supple and receptive for ever-longer spans.
This range of physical and mental traits may have a variety of unrelated causes and/or mechanisms, nevertheless they fall under the same overall theme of retention of childlike characteristics. More formally, William Calvin (1991) identifies paedomorphosis ("becoming child-shaped") as juvenilization of the appearance of the end-product, without implications about the mechanism by which it came about. Neoteny has been taken by many authors to mean the slowing of some or all aspects of somatic development.
Rather than discussing the general neotenization of our species over the last few million years, I wish to concentrate on how neoteny may have become enmeshed as part of a powerful selective cycle, going far beyond its original causes. A complex cycle of sexual selection that may have proved crucial in making human beings unique among animal species.
[image from Wikipedia]
Our starting point is a perceived dichotomy between adult men and women -- and thus potentially hazardous ground. Although evolutionary biology has lately been defended from a feminist perspective by Patricia Adair Gowaty (1992) and others, caution remains essential when stepping into this arena, hence I will at times seem to belabor the obvious. Let me also emphasize that Homo sapiens appears less riven by sexual dimorphism than most species, and exceptions exist to nearly every generalization. Nevertheless, it seems clear that past and present human dimorphisms are legitimate topics for careful discussion.
While certain neotenous traits seem to be shared equally among the sexes (e.g., curiosity and plasticity of behavior), human females certainly do appear more paedomorphic in outward physical appearance than males. Although they mature at an earlier age, women do not go on to acquire the toughened skin, coarse body hair, thyroid cartilage, bony eye ridges, or deepened voices which are the common inheritance of most adult hominoids and other primates. Jones and Hill (1993) have shown that this generalization remains valid across racial, ethnic and cultural boundaries. Difference in degree of paedomorphism is one of the few truly decisive human sexual-dichotomies, used by most of us in visually distinguishing women from men.
How did this dichotomy come about? In exploring one possible explanation, we may come to see the heritage of human beings as stranger and more poignant than previously thought.
[image from Harper College]
We'll return to the subject of neoteny, but only after first covering some preliminary ground. Often, the hardest step in speculative paleo-anthropology lies in overcoming assumptions. So let us back up and begin by asking a very basic question: Why is it that a human female generally has to compete with other women to get a mate?
May we stipulate that women do often vie over men? In one contemporary society, the United States, nearly all of the most popular magazines for women trumpet articles advising their readers how to stay competitive in what is portrayed as a desperate struggle to find and keep a mate. American women spend many times more each year on cosmetics than the nation appropriates for space research. (If we add fashion, diet food, plastic surgery, and related activities, costs compare to the defense budget.) Granted, contemporary America is an extreme case, and even women in secure marriages work on their appearance for a complex of other cultural reasons. Still, no one can reasonably dispute that female humans often do engage in zero-sum contention over an apparently limited supply of suitable males.
Now of course men compete over women, too. But among animals this is only normal. Except for some spermatophore-donating insects, and a few fish and birds, competition between males for sexual opportunity seems almost universal.
Also nearly universal is the far calmer mate-selection process engaged in by females of most species, either accepting the victor in male-male struggles or actively choosing among candidates. This is not to say that females don't compete in nature! The struggle to raise successful offspring is deadly serious. Ethologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (1981) has shown that, among our primate cousins, inter-female competition for status and access to resources may seem quieter than the flashy violence of males, but it is also generally more relentless and complex. Darwin's image of females as demure, passive watchers-and-choosers greatly oversimplified a vast domain of intricate and assertive behaviors, with rivalry as much a feature of the female sex as its vaunted propensity for cooperation .
Still, we are discussing a particular type of competition... rivalry to win a mate. And in this narrow area Darwin retains his original authority. Nature's story is nearly always about two sexes with markedly different agendas. For a male, each time he prevents one of his rivals from copulating with a female, that is one more womb which might be induced to carry forward his genetic heritage . The same is not normally true for a female, looking at males. Once engaged in gestation, her reproductive success is unaffected by copulations taking place nearby. When there is an abundance of food, one female gets little or no direct benefit by denying any other female a chance to reproduce, or to be inseminated by the same male .
So we return to our central question -- why do human females engage in rivalry over access to suitable mates?
A leading hypothesis holds that humans became paragons of adaptability by emphasizing general, species-wide behavioral and mental neoteny. Further, our offspring are born nearly unformed, or altricial, replacing reflex instinct with lessons drawn from experience and the accumulated wisdom of the tribe, channeled by only the most general of innate predispositions. This process takes a long time, during which our children are helpless as no others in the history of life on Earth.
The presumption goes that human mothers need long-term, dependable partnership to help them carry big-brained, dependent children across the hazardous, exhausting stretch from embryo to maturity. And while some human societies have used brother-sister alliances to fill this need, or communal role-sharing, the majority have left mothers primarily dependent on continued loyalty and aid from the fathers of their children.
To put this in perspective with nature at large, consider the extreme case of the elephant seal.
During each annual mating season, females congregate onshore. If food is plentiful and the beach roomy enough, there is small cause for struggle between females, so most behaviorists used to be drawn to the noisy, extravagant displays of competing males. Known as a "beach master," each bull elephant seal outweighs any female many times over. By threat, bluster, and frequent bloody fights, he drives off all male interlopers to secure a local monopoly over insemination. Females acquiesce to this situation. Indeed, should the bull be away at the far end of his territory, and a rogue male attempt mating on the sly, females will often squall for the beach master to come drive the invader out.
Why do female elephant seals prefer to share one male rather than get individual attention? Turn the question around and consider -- what does the female really need from a male? The answer is sperm, and little else. Female elephant seals, like those of most species, are generally capable of rearing their pups alone. So choice of a mate is determined solely by factors which might reflect the quality of his genes -- his heritable fitness. Is he a healthy specimen, likely to father quality offspring? Will the males he sires likely become beach masters themselves? (Of course these questions are never posed, per se. But natural selection serves up appropriate answers, just as if they had been asked.) It matters little if the bull she has chosen also impregnates scores of other females. That he is able to drive off all comers and defend a beach is testimony to potency he might pass on in his genes. Having secured impregnation, the cows depart with no apparent sentimentality. They got what they came for.
In her book, The Woman That Never Evolved, Sarah Hrdy (1981) shows that harem systems differ dramatically. Some, such as the gray langur monkey, can be much more stressful than that of elephant seals. Langur mothers don't cycle through well-timed mating seasons, but re-enter estrus when their latest child either weans or dies. Also, while a mother langur doesn't need provisioning by a mated male, she does require the security of her troop. For these reasons, the bull langur has no single rutting season. To maximize reproduction, he must "police" his harem year-round. And, since his prime period averages only a few years, it is in his Darwinian interest to see that all local females serve his reproductive needs. One bloody consequence is that a new bull, on taking over a langur troop, often kills unweaned infants so that their mothers will resume ovulating sooner.
So while female elephant seals, gorillas and reindeer can be relatively complacent with their males, females in yet other polygynous species must look on their mates warily . Nevertheless, in all of these species the purely sexual aspects of selection are classically Darwinian... featuring inter-male struggle and various degrees of female choice. Inter-female competition, while pervasive, seldom extends to jealousy over copulation itself.
[image from UW Milwaukee]
Let us assign reindeer, langurs and elephant seals to one end of a spectrum labeled harem size -- the number of "wives" a prime male in a species impregnates during his lifetime. Along the vertical axis we then chart ratio of size between adult males and adult females for each mammalian species. By plotting this chart, R.D. Alexander and others (1979) discovered a significant correlation. Species like elephant seals, where solitary bulls struggle to hold herds of breeding females, show exaggerated size differentials between the sexes. Clearly this is not in order for male to dominate female, or else females would presumably have also grown, to compensate. Rather, it is simply because a big male is better at driving off competing would-be inseminators. Successful bulls pass on the trait of largeness to their male offspring.
At the other end of the spectrum are species whose male/female size ratio is near unity, and where harem size is reduced effectively to one. Roughly four percent of mammalian species form "monogamous" pair bonds, with the rate a bit higher among primates, such as gibbons. (It is virtually the rule for birds. Chicks must grow fast to achieve flight before the seasons change. This, plus a high metabolism, means few avian young survive on the labor of one parent alone.)
Now by definition, monogamous species have approximately equal numbers of successful male and female breeders, so one might expect both to behave similarly, competing the same amount with others of the same sex. Each should be as choosy in selecting a mate, and exhibit the same degree of jealousy about copulation. But this is not the case, because most "monogamous" males are not purely monogamous in every sense of the word. Generally, these males do not give their mates so much absolute fidelity as devotion... meaning they will do anything and everything to serve and protect the nest and their offspring. But, given an opportunity to engage in outside sex without risk or harm, they will often take advantage. Such opportunistic philandering by so-called "monogamous" males was until recently hardly discussed. Now, however, we know that it plays a distinct role in the behavior patterns of most such species.
For example, the females of many bird species force prospective mates to engage in lengthy, exhausting courtship "dances" and other displays, before becoming sexually receptive. For years this was thought to involve species identification -- preventing hybrid insemination by a related species. But plumage, scent, and a thousand other simpler markers are available to accomplish the same end. Now it is thought that mating dances serve more directly pragmatic role, by culling out philanderers. Few already-mated males can afford the time and energy -- exhausting themselves in an effort at wooing -- if they already have a mate and nest elsewhere. To male birds, monogamy may not mean absolute fidelity, but it does mean having priorities .
Thus, even monogamous species retain dimorphisms of sexual motivation and behavior. Monogamous females must remain careful and choosy, and even "monogamous" males must still prove themselves in order to win fatherhood.
[image from UW Milwaukee]
So where do human beings fit in this spectrum? Few comparative ethnologists call humanity a truly monogamous species, even by bird standards. Indeed, many men, in both behavior and avowed fantasies, lean toward the attitude of male gorillas, if not elephant seals! Our position on the male-female size ratio chart would appear to suggest that humans have a modest "natural harem size" -- between one point one and one point four -- yet some men spend their lives aiming to achieve the milestone of their bedded "hundred," or even "thousand."
Nevertheless, we also share traits with pair-bonding species. Many men and women are capable of forming tight, long-lasting and devoted associations. Moreover, our offspring are altricial, helpless, nearly impossible for a mother to rear successfully in the wild without at least some outside aid. For a very long time any woman who chose a loyal, dependable mate almost certainly had advantages over one who failed to do so.
In summary, then:
It is reasonable to suggest a selected tendency in human females to prefer mating with males who offer effective, committed support, along with their sperm.
Given the nurturing demands to be placed on the male she chooses, one can expect female humans to prefer not to share their mates with many other women.
[image from ehow]
So far we may seem to be belaboring the obvious, but we are discussing matters all-too often associated with strong opinion and emotion, so it's best to move in careful steps.
Now ideally, given desiderata 1) and 2) above, men ought to behave like male birds, and indeed, the "best" of them do seem to follow that pattern. While such men may stray on rare occasions, they seldom do so if it seems home or family might be jeopardized. But human males show an incredible range of motivation and behavior . One does not have to reach speculatively back into the Pleistocene to illustrate the difference between mating with "bird-like" or "elk-like" men. Contemporary American society shows the calamitous consequences when women bear children fathered by the latter type, who promise anything, then depart when it's convenient. Hence we have driver number three:
A large fraction of human males are not (from a solemn female point of view) suitable for pair-bonding or fatherhood. High male variability probably meant that choice remained an important, even crucial, activity for our female ancestors.
Are quality males a scarce commodity? That's no problem in polygynous species, where females simply share the alphas. But such a scarcity presents severe, even desperate difficulties where females prefer pairing! Adding factor three poses the problem starkly. Human females began competing for mates because they needed the kind of competent, collaborative devotion received by female birds -- but which only a fraction of human males seem inclined or capable of delivering. Hence it is a combination of limited supply and high demand which has created the unusual situation of competition among women for successful mating.
Put in this way, it seems a prosaic, not particularly surprising conclusion to reach after so many paragraphs. And yet, the quandary of human females, and their contention for quality mates, goes far beyond the clichéd plaint of the woman nightclub comic, who bemoans (to fervent feminine applause) the scarcity of "decent men." I contend, in fact, that this dilemma has already radically shaped the flow of human development.
[image from crystalinks.com]
Sexual Selection in Humans
Departing from the traditional view since Darwin, recent biological theory perceives evolution as a sequence of fairly rapid state changes that punctuate lengthy periods of relative equilibrium. There are several ways species can launch into rapid change:
Geographic barriers separate sub-populations, isolating divergent gene pools. Long separations result in speciation. If groups are re-united before that point, a sudden influx of stockpiled genes from the isolated reservoir can speed change within the parent stock .
High attrition rates due to new environmental factors can speed adaptation. In particular, ever-changing suites of parasites seem to offer a badly-needed explanation for the existence of "heritable fitness," and even the existence of sex itself. (S.W. Gangestad, 1993.)
Self-generated adaptation pressure occurs when a species opportunistically moves into a new niche, thereby encountering new life-threatening dangers. Thus, the novel opportunities offered by, say, taking to the trees, will be for naught unless the species soon evolves a healthy respect for arboreal snakes.
Another way evolution can accelerate is the major exception to natural selection admitted by Darwin, and the one way species can be said to design themselves: Sexual Selection. The bird of paradise and mandrill are vivid examples of what can happen when female choice of "quality" males becomes tied not just to the male's robustness or fidelity, but to some outward and apparently arbitrary physical display -- e.g., length of plumage or vividness of color.
We will not go into the details of this process, or the ongoing debate over whether or not such traits advertise health or heritable fitness (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1993). Sexual selection in humans is discussed by Gangestad (1993), where it applies to matters of simple, first-order self interest optimization by human females (the presumed choosers).
What has long escaped discussion are the second-order effects, where "runaway" sexual selection may have resulted in human traits that are as exaggerated as any bird's tail. Nor has there been much investigation of females as objects of sexual-selection, rather than simply as classical selectors.
In "runaway" sexual selection, the selected trait becomes more embedded and exaggerated with each passing generation, requiring the next wave of the selected sex (usually males) to compete from a new plateau, which amplifies the trait even more, and so on. Even if the degree of exaggeration threatens the viability of the species at large -- e.g., the titanic antlers of the extinct Irish elk -- this may not abate the driving competition among individuals for reproductive success . The models of R. A. Fisher (1958) long ago showed that evolution of a sexually selected trait, and the preference for it, can strongly correlate, with both accelerating in tandem.
Why is it nearly universally males of species who become burdened with huge antlers, giant tail feathers, or other garish exaggerations? A mistake of teleology might claim this is only fair, since females carry the major costs of reproduction, and a larger share of the risk. A more valid explanation lies in the fact that females in these species have a dictatorial veto over which males get to breed. Males wind up being selected to satisfy any criteria females get in the habit of using.
But now let us return to the situation among humans. We have seen that Homo sapiens has a queer arrangement in which both sexes must compete for partners, and both, in turn, must choose. The stage is set for trait-runaway by sexual selection to take place in an unusual two-way mode -- acting not only on males, but on females as well.
Human runaway sexual selection? At first glance we would seem too sensible a species for anything like that. We don't appear to have been saddled with burdensome exaggerations like antlers or bright tails. Or have we?
Consider the greatest exaggeration of them all... our powerful, out-sized brains. Not only do large infant craniums put human mothers in great stress while giving birth, the brains within strike some biologists as extremely perplexing. In their cups, philosophical anthropologists can sometimes be heard wondering why humans "overshot" the mental capacity we needed in order to become masters of the planet -- in other words, competent hunter-gatherers with stone tools and fire. That was enough to remove a lot of environmental stress, and should have led to a period of equilibrium. Instead, change only accelerated, until in short order we produced encephalization capable of conceiving mathematics, spacecraft design, and music more precise than any bird or whale could ever produce.
One possible solution to the problem of overshoot is that, quite simply, men and women might once have found the trait of intelligence "sexy" in each other. Brains, then, would be our equivalent of peacocks' tails... except in our case selectivity was shared by both sexes, and in turn both sexes shared in the amplified trait.
Are there other possible pivots of sexual selection? While watching out for cultural interference, consider, what do contemporary men and women say they want in the opposite sex? David Buss (1994), a University of Michigan psychologist, conducted a survey of 10,000 people in 37 cultures on six continents, concerning the traits people find attractive in the opposite sex. Oversimplifying somewhat the results of Buss and others -- those attributes listed as most desirable fit the priorities discussed in section one. Women tend to rank first kindness, intelligence, and self-confidence. Also rated highly were accomplishment, reputation, health, vigor, reliability, and sense of humor. Physical handsomeness, while appreciated, is usually not among the highest mate-choice desiderata, except when the topic is extramarital affairs. Youth is not a major consideration.
Again oversimplifying, men seem to evaluate women in two stages. Stage one begins and ends with physical attractiveness--manifested in terms of health, youth, and secondary sexual characteristics. These alone are generally enough to give rise to at least mild sexual fantasization. A whole new domain opens however, when men contemplate marriage or committed alliance, at which point some men contemplate the very same traits listed in the previous paragraph -- the sorts of things that might help determine a woman's suitability as a long-term partner and ally. The mere existence of stage two in human males is actually quite remarkable, as mammals go -- a strong sign of men's movement toward a more monogamous reproductive strategy, in which his choice is as nearly important to him as a woman's is to her. As we have seen though, this applies only to some men.
But let's go back and consider a man's stage one. Health and youth, as prime triggers of initial male arousal, make Darwinian sense. For while sperm is cheap, it makes little sense to deposit anywhere it will do no good. On selfish-gene terms, a male will be attracted to copulate with a female young and healthy enough to be fecund .
But what of those pronounced secondary female sexual characteristics which make up the third trigger of male arousal? Here we see strong indications that women have been competing with each other for quite some time, and a degree of "runaway" has indeed taken hold to dramatically alter their form and destiny.
[image from Southern Oregon University]
One exaggerated female secondary sex characteristic is large breasts. Back in the 1960s, some anthropologists proposed that the "purpose" of these enlarged glands -- often far greater than needed to produce milk for nursing infants -- was to attract males to desire copulation. Some even suggested that breasts mimic the twin globes of the buttocks, and became adaptive as a way to entice males to mount face to face. This hypothesis has major flaws:
We now know a sub-species of chimpanzee, the bonobo, or pygmy chimp, routinely mates face to face without any such adaptation. So do orangutans.
Anyone thinking that a typical male, once already aroused, needs enticement to mount simply does not understand males, period.
Anyway, the problem for human females was never to get males to copulate, but to get them to desire more than just one copulation... to willingly offer partnership lasting beyond the blush of youthful fecundity. Exaggerated breasts do nothing to enhance this, at least not directly. I will soon propose that their evolution was much more convoluted than that .
But first, let us return at last to another secondary characteristic, one with far more influence than large breasts, or even youth and beauty, over a man's willingness to consider a woman a possible mate. After all, tastes toward those attributes vary considerably, among societies and from era to era. Even hourglass figures, which Devendra Singh (1993) finds to be desired across cultural boundaries, only serve as an anchoring mean around which considerable variation in desirability is seen.
We have already mentioned this other trait, which is an obligate attraction-trigger, in that its absence can be a nearly universal turn-off of male desire. This trait is some degree of neoteny of physical appearance -- or paedomorphism. Consider the obvious. Failure to retain certain childlike body attributes can be extremely prejudicial to a woman's opportunity to breed. Give or take a shadow, here or there, we know that most human males simply will not be attracted to copulate with, or pair bond to, women possessing beards! Nor are bony eye ridges, thick necks, or basso voices considered feminine. In their presence, even monumental breasts or perfect hourglass figures will not compensate.
If any trait is a likely candidate to have "run away" with women, as they competed and were chosen by men, it is very likely to be outward physical neoteny. There are several reasons why this makes evolutionary sense.
We were already headed in that direction. As stated earlier, humankind needed to become neotenous in order to retain into adulthood our child-like, flexible brains and personalities. This was especially crucial for the acquisition of language. With juvenilization already under way in some areas -- in neural wiring and behavior -- it is reasonable to suggest the trend might become the focus of sexual selection, taken in additional directions by one sex, under strong selection pressure from the other.
Neoteny is a general fall-back variable. We are not the only species to go neotenous. Under our selective influence, most breeds of dogs now show substantial neoteny over a wide range of independent attributes, from physical form to behavior. In fact, juvenilization may be looked at as nature's way of allowing a species to back out of an evolutionary corner and try again, starting with a fresher, more plastic set of traits .
Neoteny is directly correlated with the very trait human females needed to attract in males. Consider the strange situation... human females were in competition with each other for mating, so they started developing external traits to attract males. But the problem was not simply to attract a male to desire copulation (which is trivial) but to attract the right type of male. In other words, the type of male given to protective or nurturing impulses.
Men are not langur monkeys. But even if infanticide played a role in our past behavior, there was also the countervailing tendency of tenderness to children. Studies by Robinson, Lockard and Adams (1979) showed that an infant's face -- especially smiling -- causes pleasure response at an involuntary level in many adult men, as well as large majorities of women. Countless tales of heroism by firemen and others who have risked their lives for the children of strangers show that this trait is well advanced, if not universally distributed among human males.
It is not at all preposterous, then, to suppose that when runaway sexual selection occurred in human females, it took off down a path that caused the external juvenilization of women... and that this was adaptive because it helped engender feelings of tenderness and protectiveness in some males. Tenderness which, in turn, might have been reinforced by female choosiness, so that trait was genetically rewarded in males.
The result may have been a cycle which continued round and round, accelerating with every loop... producing with each new generation females who were marginally more neotenous and choosy, as well as males who were marginally more likely to care what happens to their lovers and offspring. Such a cycle would have been self-feeding, self-reinforcing, and exceedingly powerful .
[image from Bethel University]
1. Joseph Carroll suggests that the discovery of fire may have been a driver for both hairlessness and the acquisition of clothing. "Removable fur has obvious advantages if you are experimenting with fire." (Personal correspondence.) This might also explain why the smell of burning hair is so repugnant to most people. (back to where you left off)
2. Ironies abound. Are nine-hundred dollar toilet seats worse than facial creams whose ingredients cost five cents, but which are sold at the equivalent of five thousand dollars a gallon? One cosmetics company executive explained, "We don't sell products. We sell hope." (back to where you left off)
3. Dr. James Moore, of UCSD, tells of female grey langur monkeys inciting males into battle over them. The female role certainly needn't be passive. It remains, however, nearly universally selective. (back to where you left off)
4. Even where males don't battle directly over matings, competition exists. Male chimpanzees often take turns mating with females in estrus. But they also have huge testicles, producing vast amounts of sperm. Reproductive advantage apparently goes to the male who produces enough to overwhelm his rivals' contributions. Male gorillas, who practice close harem-tending, have testes that are minuscule, by comparison. (back to where you left off)
5. Exceptions include red phalaropes and jacanas, species of birds in which the nurturing parent is the male, who is left alone with the egg while the female goes off in search of yet another male. Among phalaropes it is the female who is larger and brightly feathered, and who performs elaborate mating rituals to prove her worth to the selective male. The "choosy" sex is generally that with the most to lose from a bad call. (back to where you left off)
6. Hrdy has shown that philandering by females can be adaptive in stress-filled situations such as the langur monkey troop. Females often evade the chief bull to mate with promising young male outsiders who stand a chance of ousting him. This apparently helps confuse those outsider males over paternity, causing them to refrain from infanticide when and if they do take over. Such an adaptive path might have been followed by human females, explaining both concealed estrus and the ability to engage in subtle sexual deception. In any event, this mode of female philandering is distinct from the issue we are discussing -- how women were trapped into having to compete for the ability to reproduce at all. (back to where you left off)
7. A stereotype appears to have some basis, then. The spectrum of males ranges from langurs and reindeer (animal Don Juans?) all the way to swans and storks (Jimmy Carters?)... from committed polygamists all the way to those who are almost completely reliable -- who are tempted, but then ponder home and say, "I guess not." (back to where you left off)
8. For "variability" we might replace "volatility" or even "instability." To illustrate this, from 1960 to 1986, the proportion of women attending University of California Medical Schools rose from under five percent to forty percent. Over the same period, the female population of California prisons also started around five percent... and stayed there. Clearly women are learning assertiveness, but being selective about applying it. Males' former near monopoly on violent crime has not shifted, despite all recent changes in the stressful lives of American women. This is not to say that men are automatically bad guys. Rather they appear to show a degree of variability that is exaggerated even among primates. Consider why this high variability makes sense. First, humanity's recent rate of evolution appears to have been rapid, and Darwin showed that selection acts on variability. Among males, especially, a successful sport can pass on new, adaptive traits generously, while omitted male "failures" have little consequence. If this argument smacks of "group selection," careful re-phrasing can put the same idea in context of "selfish genes." Finally, the twin forces of sexual selection and change of reproductive strategy, have very probably contributed to making human males unstable, variable, and perhaps a little "crazy." (back to where you left off)
9. Prof. William Calvin of the University of Washington contends that the ice ages acted on humans as a genetic "pump." During boom times, populations of competent, versatile northerners would have expanded in relative isolation. When the ice returned, these groups only partly died back, but also would migrate south, infusing new traits into the (larger) parent population. (back to where you left off)
10. An analogy would be if human females found the "wild, romantic drifter" type of male irresistible, despite the harm such types do to society's ability to maintain subtle networks of interdependence. Naturally, this could never happen; it is just a hypothetical situation. (back to where you left off)
11. This generalization appears to hold particularly well for women who report a low frequency of sexual relations, especially extra-marital affairs. Gangestad (1993) accounts for this in an interesting way, presenting a theory of tradeoffs between a male's "investment potential" (IP) and his "heritable fitness" (HF). When women are not looking for a permanent mate, or have complete independence from any need for outside resource assistance, there appears to be a tendency to seek males on the basis of outward physical traits associated with genetic superiority (HF). In other words, when women need men only for seed, their attitude may swing toward that of elephant seal females. Throughout most of human history, however, a life-or-death need for loyal help (IP) probably helped drive the more prevalent attitudes reported by Buss. (back to where you left off)
12. A woman's fertile period is much narrower than a man's time as a potential father. This biological fact bodes poorly for those hoping propaganda alone might end the youth-fetishism of American males. While "good" men who have bonded to their wives can love them and continue to find them arousing until senescence -- and "age-ism" can, indeed, be ameliorated by good upbringing and consciousness-raising -- it is nevertheless almost certainly wired-in for the outward emblems of fecundity -- youth and health -- to be arousing to men. Like it or not, this is part of the foundation from which all future attempts at improved socialization and mitigation must commence. (back to where you left off)
13. I choose to concentrate on breasts here because the case is clearer. Regarding other pronounced female traits -- e.g., broadened pelvises and narrow waists -- runaway sexual selection may have been a contributing factor. For instance, Devendra Singh (1993) finds that a ratio between waist and hip circumference of 3:4 is seen as attractive in women of almost any culture, despite wide variability in taste concerning overall "plumpness." Thornhill and Gangestad (1993) contend that estrogen causes exaggerated fat deposits in the gluteal-femoral region (thighs and buttocks) while testosterone causes deposit in the abdominal region. This ties in with their theory that human sexual selection is based on choosing mates whose appearance shows averageness plus symmetry, modified by those features exaggerated by testosterone in men and estrogen in women. Those hormones, in turn, are involved in hypo-active immune systems, so such exaggerations would advertise that here is a healthy individual who has parasite resistance to spare. Alas, by that standard, beer bellies and male pattern baldness should also be deemed attractive in males, as well as violent, irrational behavior. In any event, sexual selection cannot have driven the widening of the female pelvic girdle any faster than the punishment of horrible death inflicted during a difficult childbirth, as the cranial size of human infants expanded prodigiously. With all of these complications in mind, the decision to focus on breasts seems clear-cut. (back to where you left off)
14. Consider a leap of speculation. It might be proposed that, since it is males who are the usual crucibles of sexual selection, it is the male in most species who also starts out with an intrinsically broader range of variability... or ways to misread the blueprint. It is, after all, upon minor excursions from the old floor plan that sexual selection must act. While this variability guarantees a higher failure rate, and even occasional monsters, it also offers great rewards to the successful sport or variant. Thus a modest degree of instability may be inbuilt in males. On the other hand, the female reproductive pattern in most species is conservative, no female is likely to profit enough from wild excursions from the norm to make the risk worthwhile. But what if, suddenly, it is females who must compete, subjected to the tyranny of external choice? Then their very stability in following the species plan may turn into a disadvantage, robbing individuals of the sort of variability upon which a successful runaway leader depends. But there is always neoteny. Given that women were doomed to be swept into a (more typically male) runaway race of change and adaptation against each other, neoteny may have been the easiest path to take. This is, of course, an extremely tentative extrapolation. (back to where you left off)
15. Indeed, the drive toward female paedomorphism may have added synergistically to the brain-behavior neoteny trend discussed before... possibly helping to make us the mental giants of Earth. (back to where you left off)
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Scientists recently began a series of tests they hope will shed light on why much of the contamination in the world’s largest DDT deposit off the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula mysteriously vanished about five years ago.
Environmental Protection Agency scientists collected samples from the water column and sediment last month, and they are now gearing up for fish tissue collection and data analysis early next year. EPA spokeswoman Nahal Mogharabi said the agency doesn’t have any expectations for what they will see with these results because of the surprising findings from 2009, when historically high levels of DDT and PCBs dropped to shockingly low levels.
“We’re looking at a variety of different explanations,” Mogharabi said. “It’s too early for us to know now, and that’s why we’re doing more testing.”
The contamination is a result of three decades of dumping PCBs and DDT, a chemical compound and insecticide that caused long-term health problems for marine animals and humans.
Montrose Chemical Corp. in Torrance dumped 800 to 1,000 tons of DDT and polychlorinated biphenyl into the Palos Verdes Shelf from the 1950s to the 1970s, when the environmental dangers of the chemicals were discovered. DDT was banned in 1972 because it caused devastating reproductive problems for bald eagles in the area, threatened human health, and damaged the local ecosystem.
Since the 1970s, testing has found extremely high levels of the poisonous chemicals across an area of several square miles of sediment in the Santa Monica Bay and San Pedro and Palos Verdes shelves. The chlorinated hydrocarbons settled under a thin layer of clean sediment about 200 feet below surface, and investigators planned to cap the area with more clean sediment in an attempt to keep animals from ingesting it in 2009.
But because testing at some of the site’s most contaminated spots returned results that were markedly lower than their best hopes for capping, the EPA re-evaluated its plan.
“The results of that study indicated that an interim sediment cap may be unnecessary since the post-cap installation sediment goals for DDTs and PCBs appear to have been achieved,” Mogharabi said. “Therefore, EPA suspended the sediment cap design efforts pending further studies.”
Environmentalists at Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission are as surprised as EPA officials, and are awaiting the next round of test results, said the commission’s staff scientist, Guangyu Wang.
“When we first heard the news, it was of course surprising because that DDT deposit has been there for so long and hasn’t changed much,” Wang said. “Everybody’s still trying to come up with the explanation. It’s a puzzle. In the scientific community, it’s accepted that DDT does not decay quickly unless it’s combined with a microorganism (that ingests it).”
Another possibility includes the unlikely scenario that 2009 testing missed contaminated areas. That isn’t the most likely explanation, Mogharabi said, because EPA scientists meticulously reviewed their analysis and found that the data-collection methods were consistent with what they have been for decades.
Biodiffusion, or the disbursement of sediment into the water column, is a possibility that would mean the contamination has spread beyond previous levels.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment issued an advisory in 2011 for 19 species of fish in local waters that should not be eaten regularly or at all because of pollution.
White croaker, black croaker, barred sand bass, topsmelt and barracuda taken from the Santa Monica Pier to Seal Beach Pier should be avoided, according to a 2011 report from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
Results of the current tests on sediment, the water column and fish in the Palos Verdes Shelf will be issued late next year, EPA officials said.
“Regardless of the result, the point we try to make is that it’s still a contaminated site and many fish species are still contaminated,” Wang said. “Actions are still needed — education for anglers at fishing piers, information to consumers, and enforcing that local fish markets aren’t selling contaminated fish. All these are measures to make sure people are not exposed.”
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Fixing the protocols: FAST TCP & OpenFlow
Faster pipes are still only part of the solution. The internet’s protocols were developed decades ago, for much slower speeds than needed today, so re-designing them to cope with the planned increase in bandwidth is also a major research area. Even the venerable TCP protocol is coming under fire. Caltech professor Steven Low explains that TCP’s simplistic assumption that failed packets are a result of congestion — and its response of slowing down the sending device — doesn’t fit well with today’s multi-modal network, where the failure could be due to momentary interference with a mobile phone or other wireless signal. He and his colleagues developed FAST TCP, which monitors and reacts to the average delay of packets instead individual packet failures — in the case where some packets are being lost but the average delay is small, FAST TCP will actually speed up the sender to increase throughput, instead of slowing it down.
FAST TCP helped Low and his colleagues set the internet speed record of over 100Gbps in a series of tests in 2003-2006, a record which has only been slightly bettered since. Startup FASTSOFT is working to capitalize on the commercial implications of the speedups possible with FAST TCP.
Internet on steroids: Internet2
Large Hadron Collider, Internet2 has created a 400Gbps version of the internet that now connects hundreds of groups — and has funding to increase its backbone to over 8Tbps (that’s terabits per second), running over 100Gbps fiber. In addition to featuring the use of optical technology where possible, the Internet2 is an important tool for developers of the next internet — serving as an ideal testbed for new protocols and routing strategies.
Internet2’s OS3E project uses a unique underlying network architecture called OpenFlow — code developed by researchers at Stanford and other universities that allows routers to be flexibly reprogrammed in software — to allow researchers around the globe to prototype and test new protocols directly on top of existing networks.
Fixing routing: IPv6
One key component of the future internet is already in use today. IPv6 is helping address the near-critical shortage of addresses for the older IPv4 addressing system. While the over four billion addresses available for IPv4 (32-bits) must have seemed impossibly large to the pioneers of the internet, the proliferation of smartphones as well as IP-addressable consumer and industrial devices has nearly used up the total. IPv6, by contrast, offers 128-bits of addressing — equal to 340 undecillion or 3.4 x 10 to the 38th power. Possibly enough for quite a few planets full of people, robots, and smart appliances.
Less discussed are some of the other innovations in IPv6. It has a much improved multicast capability — which might allow for much more efficient large-scale broadcasts of popular events like concerts or even TV shows over IP. IPv6’s support for a stateless configuration protocol using ICMPv6 (Internet Control Message Protocol version 6) may help make common DHCP issues a thing of the past. In a nifty twist, entire subnets can be moved without needing to be renumbered, and mobile device addressing is also improved. Individual packets in IPv6 can also be as large as four gigabytes, enough for an entire DVD — although of course the use case for such large single packets is likely to be limited to high-speed backbones, at least for now.
Testing the next internet
Unlike the current internet, which had the luxury of growing relatively slowly from a few dozen and then a few hundred research nodes over several decades, the next internet will need to spring nearly fully formed into a world where literally billions of nodes are online. To test all the new protocols and strategies being invented scientists have developed GENI, a testbed of virtual networks overlaying the physical infrastructure of the internet and allowing it to serve as a worldwide testbed running on top of Internet2.
When can I get one?
Despite the name, Internet2 isn’t really an entirely new network — nor will it ever completely replace the internet we use today. Instead, the results of the research on Internet2, and the technologies developed to support it, will be rolled out over and alongside the current internet — much like IPv6 is being rolled out in phases to replace IPv4. As demand for applications like digital telepresence and virtual libraries continues to grow they’ll first be deployed over the current Internet2 to its members, but then over time will spread to the larger internet community. No doubt the growing need for high-performance multi-player gaming and the streaming of HD movies will be equally important in driving the deployment of the new, more capable, network solutions that are being prototyped in Internet2.
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Fusen was a school of Jiu-jitsu which specialized in Ground Work (Ne Waza). In 1900, the Kodokan challenged the Fusen Ryu school to a contest. At that time Judo did not have Ne Waza (ground fighting techniques), so instead they fought standing up, as Kano had been taught in both the Tenshin Shinyo Ryu and Kito Ryu systems he studied. Both Kito Ryu and Tenshin Shinyo Ryu had excellent striking skills and effective throws.
When Kodokan Judo practitioners fought the practitioners of Fusen Ryu Jiu-Jitsu, the Kodokan practitioners realized that there was no way they could defeat the Kodokan Judoka standing, thus they decided to use their superior ground fighting skills. When the Kodokan fighters and the Fusen Ryu men began to fight, the Jiu-Jitsu practitioners immediately went to the guard position ( lying on their backs in front of their opponents in order to control them with the use of their legs). The Kodokan Judoka didn't know what to do, and then the Fusen Ryu practitioners took them to the ground, using submission holds to win the matches. This was the first real loss that the Kodokan had experienced in eight years.
Kano knew that if they were going to continue challenging other Jiu-Jitsu schools, they needed a full range of ground fighting techniques. Thus with friends of other Jiu-Jitsu systems, among them being Fusen Ryu practitioners, Kano formulated the Ne Waza (ground techniques) of Kodokan Judo which included three divisions: Katame Waza (joint locking techniques), Shime Waza (choking techniques), and Osae Waza (holding techniques). This all occurs shortly before Judo arrives in Brazil, and serves as an excellent suggestion as to why Brazilian Jiu-jitsu contains a higher percentage of techniques on the ground than most styles of Jiu-jitsu or Judo. Thus, we find ourselves faced with the impending development of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil.
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SCIENTIFIC Writing "EFFECT OF EATING HEALTHY AND BALANCED NUTRITION FOR HEALTH DEPARTMENT POLYTECHNIC STUDENT MINISTRY OF HEALTH JAKARTA II"
In the age when starting college is a good time to full activity. Weighing obligation to learn and move, making students more liked everything fast-paced and practical so forget the importance of health, such as eating fast food is incomplete nutritional content even more fat.
According to some doctors, if the content is high in calories and cholesterol and low in fiber and not balanced with physical activity or exercise usually will cause fat easily formed in the body that can cause a variety of diseases and the threat of obesity.
Once the disease is present, then we realized that there is something wrong with the lifestyle. One of the most influential is the diet. Therefore, we must be able to manage your diet is healthy and balanced. Setting a healthy diet and balanced needs to be balanced with exercise and adequate rest. Through setting a good diet, disease progression can be prevented.
Based on this, this made to the public, especially the students learn more about the importance of a healthy and balanced diet for good survival benefit, its influence
2.1 Healthy and Balanced Diet.
In a large Indonesian dictionaries, pattern is defined as a system, how to work or attempt to do something (MONE, 2001). Thus, a healthy diet can be interpreted as a way or attempt to engage in healthy eating.
Andi (2011) suggests a healthy diet is a way or effort in setting the amount and type of food for a specific purpose such as to maintain the health, nutritional status, prevent or help cure penyakit.1
While a healthy and balanced diet that is referred to in this regular diet in which foods contain nutrients that amount in accordance with the nutrition your body needs.
2.1.2 Nutritional Substances
Eating a balanced diet is an essential fundamental is recommended for everyone. Where the intake of nutrients consumed determines nutritional health aspects of each individual.
1http :/ / www.gayahidupsehat.org
Carbohydrates are needed by the body, because it is a substance that has an important role as a major energy source to support day-to-day activities of the human body. Carbohydrates contained in food:
Important presence for always taking one source of starchy foods at each meal. For example: rice, potato noodles, yams, cassava, and others. When the body has insufficient carbohydrates, the earliest symptoms are most easily found the body feel more tired than usual due to lack of power.
Sugar can be found in foods, such as: sugar, brown sugar, sugar cubes, syrup, honey and sweet cakes. But need to watch out, the pattern of sugar consumption should be limited. Review because the sugars do not contain other nutrients except carbohydrates. Thus most of the sugar will only lead to obesity on the body.
Many who do not know, that fat is an energy source as well, but because the shape is more time consuming and difficult to be absorbed by the body. Fat is a substance which acts as the body's energy reserves. Excessive fat can make the body become obese. Fats found in oils, margarine, coconut milk, chicken skin, duck skin and other animal fats.
Protein function for body growth and replace damaged tissue in the body. Obviously protein is an absolute requirement of substances needed by the body every day. Protein found in: Fish, chicken, meat, eggs, milk, tofu, and nuts.
Vitamins & Minerals
As already known, vitamins and minerals has a function to help expedite the performance of the body. Vitamins and minerals are found in many vegetables and fruits.
Fiber has many functions for the body, among other things:
Help lower blood glucose
Help lower blood fats
Healthy and balanced diet is very beneficial to the body, such as taking care of your body to stay healthy and can increase endurance. Besides a healthy and balanced diet can also improve concentration and brain performance. Diet devastating for human health and affect the performance of the body in performing daily activities. Unhealthy eating patterns will have a negative impact to the body of one of the body causing performance in carrying out daily activities.
2.2 Unhealthy Eating.
2.2.1 Examples of Unhealthy Eating.
Many people are still not aware of the importance of breakfast. Maybe for some people, breakfast means just filling food into the stomach.
Though its function is not only limited to keep the stomach is not empty, but also to increase energy and concentration in the brain and body. We eat breakfast also helps to not eat too much during the day.
Eating before bed
No studies that can prove that eating before bed can cause a person's weight gain, but eating too much or eating spicy foods, fatty foods and drink caffeine at least 3 hours before bedtime can reduce the quality and duration of sleep should we get. As a result, the next day we woke up with a limp, limp and uninspired. Experts say that eating fatty foods before bed can make the stomach work slower so the food is still left in the stomach when we sleep. While eating spicy foods before bed can make the stomach We seemed to "burn" time before bed.
Eating while doing other activities
Besides looks disrespectful, but eating while talking on the phone, playing video games or worse, unconsciously watching TV can make eating more. If you do this, do not be surprised if we continue to grow the number of scales. Eating s other activities, will make calorie counts We ignored eat. Moreover, if we eat a favorite snack. Usually more difficult to stop the number of calories that enter the body continues.
Lack of drinking water
Water is very important to the life of every living creature on earth. But that is not known by many people is a dangerous lack of drinking water. Lack of drinking water it can make the body's metabolic process is interrupted, for example, is the body needs water to burn calories, if you drink less water, automatic combustion process does not go smoothly. Instead, drink lots of water every day. Experts recommend drinking at least 8-10 glasses of water per day to maintain health. If we've been happy to drink soda, coffee or other drinks, it would be nice if we got rid of all of it and replace it with drinking water. Familiarize yourself to drink a glass of water after waking from sleep.
Eat less vegetables and fruits
Meals with vegetables or fruit flavor can not be classified in the category of vegetables and fruits. Examples are candy, popcorn, banana chips, etc.. The experts recommend to eat at least 5 fruits or vegetables per day. If you do not like to eat fruits and vegetables, we can make it interesting juices. Do not forget the body requires vitamin that comes from vegetables and fruits, because it is pity of our body.
2.2.2 Due to Unhealthy Diet and Balanced
Progress made in developing countries, including Indonesia, causing many changes, both in lifestyle and diet for the population. Lifestyle changes from simple to fast-paced or instant cause a lot of people take advantage of technological advances in the present. For example, for the time efficiency're always going to drive a motorcycle. As a result a lot less body motion.
In addition, the busyness faced by students as well cause they just sat studying, completing assignments, and deal with stress. Thinking of almost instantaneous cause many people glanced fast food or junk food consumed remedy. These changes can easily lead to many degenerative diseases at a young age, which is very detrimental to the future generation.
2.3 Effect of Healthy and Balanced Diet for Health
Diet is very influential for health, with a healthy diet and a balanced student can move well and have a strong immune system. In addition, students can have a high concentration of nutrients it needs as it needs are met in a timely manner. Thus, stamina and brain performance will be increased so that, a student can perform daily activities well.
2.4 Application of a healthy and balanced diet.
Healthy and balanced diet is very necessary to apply in daily life. In this case, guidance is needed for the creation of a healthy and balanced diet which is expected.
RI health department says that healthy eating guidelines for the general public that is often used is the guideline Four Five Perfect Health, Food Triguna, and most recently introduced guidelines are 13 basic message Nutrition Seimbang.2
Understanding triguna food is daily food should contain:
carbohydrate and fat as energy substance
protein as builder substances
vitamins and minerals as a regulator.
Guidelines 13 Basic Balanced Nutrition Messages convey messages to prevent nutritional problems and reach balanced nutrition in order to produce quality human resources are reliable. An outline of the messages as described by the Director General of Community Health, MOH (1997), among others:
1. Eat a varied diet, which contains carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber in the number and proportions are balanced according to the needs of each group (infants, toddlers, children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, adults and elderly).
2Departemen Health, 13 Basic Balanced Nutrition Book (London: Department of Health, 1996), page 3.
Benny A. Kodyat, for example, argues:
There is no one type of food that contains all the nutrients, which can make a person to live a healthy life. Therefore, everyone needs to consume diversity of food. Eating varied food is very beneficial to health. Because of lack or scarcity of certain nutrients, on one type of food, will be complemented by a similar nutrients from food others.3
Thus, each array diversity of foods in a balanced diet will complement each other. Eat a wide variety of foods will ensure the adequacy of sources of energy substances, substances builders, and regulators for one's needs.
2. Eat food to meet energy needs. Energy and energy can be obtained from food sources of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Energy needed for basic metabolism (such as to generate body heat and work organs) and for daily activities such as studying, working and exercising. Excess energy will result in obesity, while a lack of energy can lead to nutritional deficiencies such as
3. Eat a carbohydrate source half of its energy needs. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar and sugary foods should be consumed by observing the principle of timely, accurate and precise indication of the amount.
3Benny A. Kodyat, General Guidelines for Balanced Nutrition for Youth (New York: General Community Health Development, 1995), page 9.
This food should be eaten during the day when we will or are doing the activity and amount does not exceed 3-4 tablespoons of sugar / day.
Complex carbohydrates should be consumed with food is a source of other nutrients such as protein, fats / oils, vitamins and minerals. Should be 50-60% of the energy needs derived from complex carbohydrates.
4. Limit your intake of fats and oils to a quarter of the energy adequacy. Excessive consumption of fats and oils, particularly fat / saturated oils of animal, can be at risk of obesity or dyslipidemia in people who have a tendency in this direction. Dyslipidemia or increased levels of fat (cholesterol or triglycerides) in the blood is a factor for the occurrence of coronary heart disease and stroke. Consumption of fats / oils is recommended not to exceed 20% of the total kaori and keep in mind that these nutrients also has its own role as a source of essential fatty acids and also helps the absorption of some fat-soluble vitamins.
5. Use iodized salt. The use of iodized salt can prevent Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD). However, excessive use of salt is also not recommended because salt contains sodium can increase blood pressure. Salt intake should not exceed 6 grams or 1 teaspoon per day.
6. Eat food sources of iron. Foods such as green vegetables, nuts, liver, eggs and meat contain a lot of iron and should be consumed in amounts sufficient to prevent nutritional anemia.
7. Give only breast milk until the baby is 4 months old. To be able to breastfeed properly, breastfeeding mothers should increase the number and quality of food nutrition during pregnancy and lactation. Complementary feeding (PASI) should only be given after the age of infants over 4 months and the gift must age, body growth and intellectual development.
8. Make a habit of eating breakfast. Had breakfast with foods that will meet the diverse nutritional needs of the body to maintain freshness and increase productivity in the work. In children, eating breakfast will facilitate learning so that concentration can be further improved student achievement.
9. Drink clean water, safe and sufficient in number. Drinking water should be clean and free of germs. Drink up to 2 liters of clean water per day so that your metabolism running smoothly we can remember the water as a solvent is needed nutrients for metabolic purposes. consumption of water can prevent dehydration and will reduce the risk of infection and kidney stones.
10. Do a physical activity or regular exercise. Activities that will help maintain a normal body weight while increasing the freshness of the body, improving blood flow and prevent osteoporosis especially in the elderly.
11. Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages. Alcohol and cigarettes together other illicit drugs should be avoided as it can lead to the risk of various degenerative diseases, vascular and cancer.
12. Eat foods that are safe for health. The food is not contaminated, it does not contain bacteria or other parasites, do not contain harmful chemicals and processed foods properly so that nutrients and flavor not shelf, a safe food for health.
13. Read the labels on packaged foods. Labels on food packaging must contain an expiration date, the nutrients and active ingredients used. Consumers are cautious and pay attention to the label will be spared from damaged food, food is not nutritious and dangerous. In addition, consumers can assess whether or not the food is halal (MOH Director General of Public Health, 1997
From the research, the authors concluded that keeping the diet to stay healthy and balanced is very important especially among students who have a solid enough physical activity. This is because if we do not maintain our health diet and disease will be distracted very easily invade our bodies. Maintain a healthy diet can be done by consuming foods rich in nutrients, consumption of whole grains, eating in a decent size, eat regularly, balance your eating choices every day, and make changes gradually.
The authors suggest to the readers especially students to pay more attention to your diet and improve your diet regularly due to a less healthy diet to maintain a healthy and balanced so that activities run smoothly. So from now on let us change our diet to be healthy and balanced so that the quality of our self and the people of Indonesia can be better.
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Allergies and asthma in kids are on the rise – but there’s one food that may not only lower the risk of these conditions but possibly make them better. What is it? Raw milk. Unfortunately, raw milk is usually portrayed as unsafe and unhealthy – yet it’s the furthest from the truth. Keep reading to learn more.
By Dr. Mercola
Rates of allergy and asthma have been on the rise in the industrialized world for the past 50 years. It’s now so widespread that up to 50 percent of school children are sensitive to one or more common allergens.1
There are many contributing factors to the rise of allergic diseases, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that dietary factors may play a role – for better or for worse.
One food that’s shown a protective role against such diseases is one that is, unfortunately, typically demonized by health agencies and the media: raw milk.
Raw Milk Drinkers Have Lower Rates of Childhood Allergies and Asthma
School-aged children who drank raw milk were 41 percent less likely to develop asthma and about 50 percent less likely to develop hay fever than children who drank store-bought (pasteurized) milk, according to one study that used data from more than 8,000 children.2
While public health agencies are quick to say that there are no nutritional differences between raw and pasteurized milk, this study suggests otherwise. The researchers believed that the beneficial effect may have been due to whey proteins, including bovine serum albumin (BSA) and alpha-lactalbumin, in the raw milk, which were destroyed by the heating process in the pasteurized milk.
While the study didn’t find an association between any health outcomes and thebacterial contents of the milk, it did demonstrate noted differences between raw and pasteurized varieties. The researchers explained:
“The results of this large epidemiologic study add to the increasing body of evidence identifying consumption of farm [raw] milk (early in life) to be associated with a reduced risk of childhood asthma and allergies independently of concomitant farm exposures.
The results indicate that the effect is due to the consumption of unheated farm milk. For the first time, associations between objectively measured milk constituents and asthma and atopy could be demonstrated.
…The study allowed validation of parental reports of raw milk consumption against objective measurements of milk heating status and showed very good agreement.
Obviously, parental reports of the raw status of the milk are reliable and not biased by social desirability, as previously speculated.
Under the hygiene hypothesis and given the role of microbial diversity in house dust to explain farm-related reduction of asthma risk, one might assume that a higher microbial load of unboiled farm milk might be responsible for the protective farm milk effect.
Milk is an excellent growth medium, allowing rapid proliferation of microbes. Indeed, the present results showed much higher counts of viable microbes in raw farm milk samples compared with heated farm milk and pasteurized and highly heated shop milk samples, as has been reported by others”.
Whey Protein in Raw Milk May Make Some Cases of Asthma Better
According to Mark McAfee, the founder of Organic Pastures Dairy and, more importantly, one of the leaders in the raw milk movement, increasing numbers of doctors are now starting to prescribe raw organic dairy for children with asthma, recurrent ear infections or chronic inflammation, rather than just telling them to quit dairy altogether.
This is because they recognize that in most cases it’s not the dairy itself—the problem is pasteurized dairy.
Raw grass-fed milk can even be tolerated by most who are lactose intolerant and contains whey proteins that may actually improve cases of asthma. McAfee explained:
“…[T]wo huge studies were done in Europe – the PARSIFAL study done in 2006, studying 15,000 kids, and the GABRIELA study [referenced above] done in Basel, Switzerland.
Peer reviewed, internationally published, wonderful documentation showing that whey protein in raw milk stabilizes mast cells and actually makes asthma get a lot better, and in some cases, completely gone.
What we have is this polarity, these polar opposites between pasteurized milk, which has lots of dead bacteria … which actually trigger inflammation in your body because your body doesn’t recognize these waste products…
Your body then reacts by mast cells breaking open, histamines being released, and things like asthma and inflammation flaring like crazy; mucus being laid down, which causes ear infections. Raw milk does exactly the opposite…
[T]he milk is alive [with beneficial] bacteria and your body recognizes it… [These beneficial bacteria] colonize and become part of your immune system.”
Why Drink Your Milk Raw?
There’s more to raw milk than its impact on asthma and allergies. High-quality raw milk has a mountain of health benefits that pasteurized milk lacks. For example, raw milk is:
- Loaded with healthy bacteria that are good for your gastrointestinal tract
- Full of more than 60 digestive enzymes, growth factors, and immunoglobulins (antibodies)
- Rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which fights cancer and boosts metabolism
- Rich in beneficial raw fats, amino acids, and proteins in a highly bioavailable form, all 100 percent digestible
- Loaded with vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) in highly bioavailable forms, and a very balanced blend of minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron) whose absorption is enhanced by live lactobacilli
It is not uncommon for people who switch from drinking pasteurized to raw milk to experience improvement or complete resolution of troubling health issues—everything from allergies to digestive problems to eczema. When milk is pasteurized, fats are oxidized, proteins denatured and most enzymes are completely destroyed, resulting in a ‘food’ that may be more harmful than beneficial to our health.
Additionally, the bacteria killed by pasteurization are not removed, so their dead cell fragments remain in the milk to ignite immune reactions in those who ingest them, which is one major cause of milk allergies. Often the ‘milk allergy’ is not to the milk itself, but to the post-pasteurization cell fragments it contains.
The Truth About Raw Milk Safety Statistics
Government health agencies have been waging a war against raw milk farmers in the US, claiming that this whole food is a threat to public health. But drinking raw milk produced by grass-fed cows from clean, well-run farms is actually far LESS dangerous than drinking pasteurized milk. In fact, not only does raw milk contain good bacteria that are essential for a healthy digestive system, raw milk also offers protection against disease-causing bacteria.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data3 shows there are about 412 confirmed cases of people getting ill from pasteurized milk each year, while only about 116 illnesses a year are linked to raw milk. And research by Dr. Ted Beals,4 MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that you are about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk!
The Source of Your Raw Milk Matters
As with any food, where your raw milk comes from makes a major difference in its quality and safety. In concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO’s), large groups of animals are kept in a small space, oftentimes without natural light or access to the outdoors. The conditions are filthy, with animals standing in each other’s waste. Needless to say, harmful bacteria naturally thrives in these conditions.
To combat disease (and promote unhealthy growth), the animals are fed antibiotics, the result of which is they become living and breathing ‘bioreactors’ for the generation of antibiotic resistant bacteria. They may also receive hormones, which increase milk production, and they’re fed a diet of grains and soy (most of which is now the genetically engineered variety) rather than grass, which alters their gut flora and makes them even more prone to disease.
As a result, drinking CAFO milk raw would be extremely dangerous. It must be pasteurized for safety. On the other hand, milk from grass-fed cows raised on smaller, clean farms can be safely consumed without being pasteurized, provided the farmer is committed to providing a safe, quality product.
If you’re unsure of where to find raw milk, you can locate a raw milk source near you at the Campaign for Real Milk Web site.5 The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund6 (FTCLDF, which helps farmers that have been raided and/or charged with a crime, like Hershberger) also provides a state-by-state review of raw milk laws.7
Getting your raw milk from a local organic farm is one of the best ways to ensure you’re getting high-quality milk, but even then, if you’re thinking about purchasing milk from a small farmer, it would be very wise to visit the farm in person. Look around and ask questions, such as:
- Does the farmer and his family drink the milk themselves?
- How long has he been producing raw milk?
- Are the cows clean?
- What conditions are the cows raised in?
- Are there any obvious sanitation questions?
Additionally, look for the following general conditions. If a cow is covered in filth and manure, stinks, is wet and cold and doesn’t look particularly comfortable, that could be a warning sign that her milk is less than ideal for raw consumption, even if it’s from a small, local farm.
- Low pathogenic bacteria count (i.e. does the farmer test his milk regularly for pathogens?)
- The milk comes from cows raised naturally, in accordance with the seasons
- The cows are not given antibiotics and growth hormones to increase milk production
- The milk is quickly chilled after milking<
- The cows are mainly grass-fed
- Cows are well cared for
Support Your Right to Purchase Farm-Fresh Food
Right now your food freedom is on the chopping block. In North Dakota, a bill threatens to make herdshare illegal. (A herdshare is a private agreement between a farmer and an individual in which the farmer is paid to take care of an animal, cow for example, that belongs to one or more people. You essentially pay a onetime purchase fee to “buy a share” of a farmer’s herd, which entitles you to the benefits of owning that cow, such as a certain amount of milk each week.)
In New Mexico, a bill has been introduced that would ban the sale of raw milk, while a proposed regulation in Illinois would similarly restrict access to raw milk. This fight for food freedom isn’t just for those who love raw milk – it’s for everyone who wants to be able to obtain the food of their choice from the source of their choice. So please, get involved! I urge you to embrace the following action plan to protect your right to choose your own foods:
- Get informed: Visit www.farmtoconsumer.org or click here to sign up for action alerts.
- Join the fight for your rights: The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) is the only organization of its kind. This 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization provides a legal defense for farmers who are being pursued by the government for distributing foods directly to consumers. Your donations, although not tax deductible, will be used to support the litigation, legislative, and lobbying efforts of the FTCLDF. For a summary of FTCLDF’s activities in 2012, see this link.
- Support your local farmers: Buy from local farmers, not the industry that is working with the government to take away your freedoms.
This article originally appeared on Mercola.com.
Photo credit: DepositPhotos.com / KobyakovThis post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure.
Sign up to get a FREE copy of my e-book, The Essential Home: Quick Start Guide to DIY - available exclusively to subscribers.
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Many of the earliest definitions of art were probably intended to emphasize salient or important features for an audience already familiar with the concept, rather than to analyse the essence possessed by all art works and only by them. Indeed, it has been argued that art could not be defined any more rigorously, since no immutable essence is observable in its instances. But, on the one hand, this view faces difficulties in explaining the unity of the concept – similarities between them, for example, are insufficient to distinguish works of art from other things. And, on the other, it overlooks the attractive possibility that art is to be defined in terms of a relation between the activities of artists, the products that result and the audiences that receive them.
Two types of definition have come to prominence since the 1970s: the functional and procedural. The former regards something as art only if it serves the function for which we have art, usually said to be that of providing aesthetic experience. The latter regards something as art only if it has been baptized as such through an agent’s application of the appropriate procedures. In the version where the agent takes their authority from their location within an informal institution, the ‘artworld’, proceduralism is known as the institutional theory. These definitional strategies are opposed in practice, if not in theory, because the relevant procedures are sometimes used apart from, or to oppose, the alleged function of art; obviously these theories disagree then about whether the outcome is art.
To take account of art’s historically changing character a definition might take a recursive form, holding that something is art if it stands in an appropriate relation to previous art works: it is the location of an item within accepted art-making traditions that makes it a work of art. Theories developed in the 1980s have often taken this form. They variously see the crucial relation between the piece and the corpus of accepted works as, for example, a matter of the manner in which it is intended to be regarded, or of a shared style, or of its being forged by a particular kind of narrative.
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Thomas Kast is freezing. Blackness surrounds him. It’s three o’clock in the morning. He’s standing in a snowy forest glade in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the Northern Lights, also known as Aurora Borealis. You can see the resulting photos in our slideshow below.
Kast is exhausted. The thermometer shows 18 degrees below zero Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit). His eyes scour the night sky. His camera is displaying early signs of freezing up. For hours he’s been standing in the cold, hoping to experience a moment of magic: the appearance of the Northern Lights.
Originally from near Karlsruhe, Germany, Kast has lived in Finland since 2000 and works for a major mobile network company based in Oulu, a university town of 190,000 people about 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle. He came to Finland for career reasons and wound up staying after he met the love of his life. After his family, the Northern Lights form his other great passion.
A camera, a tripod, spare batteries, a torch and a flask of tea: That’s about all he needs when he sets out into the night – apart from three or four layers of clothing and warm boots, of course.
“The worst thing is the cold fingers,” Kast says. It’s impossible to operate the camera’s small buttons wearing thick thermal gloves.
Before he heads out, the Northern Lights obsessive pores endlessly over various websites giving predictions of where to catch the Aurora Borealis. A blur of tables, graphs and figures demands to be deciphered and correlated. Geomagnetic fields, wind speeds, the surface activity of the sun and many other factors influence his decision. And you need patience and, if possible, absolute darkness. Even streetlights can hinder visibility.
“And then the weather has to play along,” he says. “Recently, unbelievably strong auroras were being predicted, but what good is that if the sky here in Oulu is covered with clouds? Then there’s no chance of seeing the lights.”
Sometimes Kast journeys for hundreds of kilometres just to enjoy cloud-free skies somewhere in northern Finland – just to capture the mesmerising Northern Lights. More than 60 freezing nights resulted in hundreds, maybe even thousands of photographs, from which Kast created a time-lapse video entitled Aurora: Queen of the night.
Long exposure time
The Northern Lights don’t lend themselves to being filmed. A still photo with a long exposure time is required to capture them, so Kast made a time-lapse video instead. “In this respect, the human eye is far superior to technology,” he says.
What began as a hobby now takes up an increasing amount of space in his life. He blogs about it, offers Aurora Borealis trips for tourists and has published a calendar of his photos.
Oulu’s Tietomaa Science Centre bought Kast’s four-minute film and shows it on a screen eight metres long and four metres high (26 by 13 feet). “The film is a long-held dream come true”, says Sampo Puoskari, Tietomaa’s liaison coordinator.
“For several years we’ve wanted to set up a special exhibition about the Northern Lights in our region. That’s important to us. The video has finally made that possible. We set up a special space in the centre’s 45-metre (148-foot) tower.”
Kast stands before the huge screen in the otherwise pitch-black space and gazes, entranced, at his time-lapse sequences. His eyes shine.
“It’s really amazing to see your own pictures this big,” he says. “I hope that I manage to share some of my fascination with the Northern Lights through this film, that people become inspired to see the phenomenon for themselves.”
He still finds it magical when he sees the Aurora Borealis dancing in the night sky with his own eyes. The cold and exhaustion are forgotten. “Sometimes it’s so magnificent that I’m rendered speechless with awe,” he says.
There’s no way he’ll ever get bored with it. “It’s different every time. It’s mesmerising every time.”
This is why people chase the Northern Lights
Photos: Thomas Kast/Salamapaja
By Tarja Prüss
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As it is always the case, many products from Texas Instruments require a CC-Debugger to flash program memory. Bluegiga’s BLE112 module is not an exception. But when one compares BLE112 and CC-Debugger prices things don’t look bright anymore – there is a little sense (if any) to pay $50 US dollars for a CC-Debugger to program an $11 dollar module. Things become even more ridiculous when a hobbyst is simply willing to flash his/her module only once using the code that is already compiled and debugged by someone else. Would it be possible to find a replacement for a CC-Debugger? Yes, but as always, something is to be sacrificed.
There is a great project at Github called CCLib that uses an Arduino which acts almost like a CC-Debugger. Indeed, nowdays Arduinos are very popular piece of hardware and if you are that kind of person who needs to flash a BLE module, chances that you already have Arduino board in stock are pretty high. But even if it is not the case, buying a basic Arduino board still will be much cheaper than CC-Debugger, besides, immediately after flashing Arduino could be used for another project. The solution works just fine, the only downside of this is an enormously long flashing time, this is because Arduino script works literally as a proxy for business logic implemented in Python scripts on a PC side. The datapackets traveling between PC and Arduino are short resulting in tremendous round trips when it comes to uploading or downloading BLE112 memory snapshots. So, to flash 128Kb it takes 1.5 hours! For some people it could be acceptable but we decided to redesign the whole concept of CCLib focusing on highest possible performance.
First, the logic implemented in Python scripts has to be translated to C/C++ and relocated to Arduino side so the data packets would essentially contain packetised binary files including just a little bit of overhead – packet type, packet length, block number, checksum etc. Second, the size of a single packet would need to be as big as Arduino’s buffers are capable to accommodate, this would be achieved by making Arduino’s app to send the size of its RX buffer before actual data exchange takes place. So, the more advanced Arduino board is used, the bigger its RX buffer and the more effective data exchange would be. Third, standard Arduino’s library is extremely slow when it comes to digital in/out which is very critical for this particular application so faster equivalents of those functions would be used.
The PC application would need to have GUI interface, no nasty command lines with pathetic attempts to display a progress bar. CSharp is probably the most popular language now so the app would be designed for Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition which any hobbist can download for free and use without limitations. Of course, everything is going to be opensource, as usual.
The final result of development effort is given below. Additional total 2k lines of source code has been added to the CCLib project effectively replacing Python scripts. On a PC side an app called ‘Arduino CC-Debugger’ has three configuration parameters in CCLibFrontend.exe.config file which are SerialPort, Baudrate and LogPath. All of them must be set to appropriate values once as they pretty much remain unchanged on a given PC. SerialPort is set to a USB-to-Serial port name which appears in Device Manager list upone plugging in Arduino board to the PC. Baudrate is set to 115200 which matches the port speed on Arduino side. LogPath is set to a directory that would contain log file generated by the Arduino CC-Debugger.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=184.108.40.206, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" > <section name="CCLibFrontend.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=220.127.116.11, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false" /> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <userSettings> <CCLibFrontend.Properties.Settings> <setting name="SerialPort" serializeAs="String"> <value>COM3</value> </setting> <setting name="Baudrate" serializeAs="String"> <value>115200</value> </setting> <setting name="LogPath" serializeAs="String"> <value>C:\CCLib-Frontend\</value> </setting> </CCLibFrontend.Properties.Settings> </userSettings> </configuration>
GIU interface is intuitive and self-explanatory, there are only 3 buttons initiating either reading/writing or chip info retrieval sequence. There are fields for displaying the following information: chip ID, flash size, SRAM size, USB support flag, IEEE address, BT address, hardware version and license. Out of all these fields BT address, hardware version and license are kept at a special location in regular program memory so they could be wiped out or replaced, either accidentally or deliberately. That is why it is highly recommended to do a read operation on your module and keep the file as a backup before doing any writing. Also, for the sake of capturing screenshots and doing video presentations there is a ‘Hide values’ tick which, when enabled, shows only first two digits of your BT address and license preventing them from being stolen and at the same time allowing screenshot/video sharing. And finally, the screen form contains a progress bar which keeps an end user updated during lengthy operations. The total operation time is shown in seconds at the right bottom corner.
The Arduino CC-Debugger app accepts either binary (*.bin) or Intel HEX (*.hex) files. HEX files are parsed by another great third-party project, so-called LibGIS for .Net which is made part of the application. If a file is provided in HEX format, it will be converted to binary and written as image.bin. Then before flashing sequence BLE storage, BT address, hardware version and license will be read from the chip and merged with the content of ‘image.bin’ resulting in creation of ‘image_merged.bin’. Memory snapshots are generated by ‘Read’ command and written in binary format as ‘read.bin’. Each subsequent read operation overrides old file if it exists, same applies to ‘image.bin’ and ‘image_merge.bin’.
Physical connection between Arduino and BLE module comprises of three signal lines (DD, DC and RST) and in total requires 5 wires as Arduino uses two GPIOs for DD signal (one pin is configured as input for incoming data, one pin is configured as output for outgoing data ) plus one wire for ground. Mapping these four signals to Arduino’s GPIOs is done in ArduinoCCDebugger.ino in ‘Pinout configuration’ section and can be redefined to something else if needed. The BLE module’s inputs are not 5V tolerant so there must be resistor dividers as shown on the picture below.
Alternatively, a 3.3V Arduino could be used eliminating necessity of resistors. For example, Seeeduino V.3.0 board has 3.3V/5V selector and therefore it doesn’t require resistors when set to 3.3V mode. Another big plus of Seeeduino is two LEDs connected in parallel to RX/TX lines which conveniently provides with visual indication of data traffic over serial interface so no need in external LED which is used in CCLib project.
A BLE module is connected to Arduino via flat cable and 2.5mm-to-1.27mm adapter as shown on the picture below. The adapter could be the one which comes with CC-Debugger, it is also possible to buy it from ebay or simply build.
The full blown ‘ready-to-flash’ setup is provided on the picture below:
The comparison tables below highlight cost factors for all three solutions mentioned in this post:
|Variant I – flashing with original CC-Debugger|
|Item||Flashing time||Price, USD|
|Variant II – using Arduino + CCLib|
|Item||Flashing time||Price||You save|
|CCLib project + Arduino Uno||1.5 hours(!)||Starts from $3 USD at aliexpress|
|Variant III – using Arduino + Arduino CC-Debugger|
|Item||Flashing time||Price||You save|
|Arduino CC-Debugger + Arduino Uno||80 secs(!)||Starts from $3 USD at aliexpress|
|Total||3.00*||46.00 + a lot of time!|
*Note, that you may end up spending 0 if you already have Arduino.
This project also opens the following possibilities:
1) run the code on faster Arduinos and therefore achieve performance close to the original CC-Debugger or even run it on such boards as Particle (formerly Spark) and flash BLE modules from Apple/Android devices via Cloud;
2) in systems where BLE module works as a slave under control of a host microprocessor it becomes very easy to upgrade/update BLE firmware using host controller through its Serial/WiFi/USB/whatever capabilities.
The video summarising development effort is given below:
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- Insights on how we use words differently in English versus other languages, including fewer adjectives, more "suffocating" words with Latin roots and more Anglo-Saxon active verbs.
- "Simple is good," advice that gets at the core of what works well in English, is approachable for a non-native speaker and essential for any speaker who wants to be clear. Zinsser thoroughly dismisses the notion that you need complex words in order to be taken seriously.
- An emphasis on storytelling that the audience can follow, through a simple order of events, clear words, and active verbs that move the story forward.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Members of Congress need to be good at a lot of things if they want to be effective, but chief among them is the ability to communicate....When I say "communication" I mean it in the broadest sense: formal and informal; one-on-one and before a mass audience; in writing, in speeches and in discussion; with small, friendly groups of admirers and in front of larger, not-always-friendly crowds; on television, on the radio, on the Web, and in print; in the formal setting of the House or Senate floor and sitting at a formica-topped luncheonette table over coffee and doughnuts.
Among the pointers Hamilton offers:
- Learn to speak off-the-cuff: While politicians do deliver prepared speeches, "more often they have to speak off the cuff, weighing the import of their words even as they say them....for lots of us it's a skill we learn with practice, and it's invaluable to a politician."
- Be flexible and prepared for topic changes: "More than a few times, I've prepared for a public appearance only to have my speech become irrelevant when some national issue became the only topic people were interested in discussing."
- Give thought to how you are presenting your points: "Speak clearly: don't slur your words, don't let your voice fade - you'd be amazed how many people have difficulty hearing."
- Bring energy and passion to your speaking: "If you don't believe what you're saying, your audience won't either."
- Let your speaking fit the medium: "You'll be much more convincing on television if you speak conversationally than if you come across as angry or impassioned; but before a crowd, speaking conversationally will just put the audience to sleep."
- Listen to your audience--they might teach you something: "Being a good politician means being a good conversationalist, not simply scoring a few rhetorical points and then going home."
How to do all that? Hamilton recommends practice as the only way to learn these skills and to become comfortable with your public speaking. Can't argue with that one.
Related posts: See all our posts on public speaking by women in politics
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|Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute||Home|
Zelda L. Kravitz
The effect of Marijuana, cocaine, L.S.D. and others on thought processes can be stated as action and reaction data. Even the effect of psychopharmacologists, and neuropharmacologists working on experimental drugs to boost mental sharpness, can be better understood when one learns more of chemical brain carriers. Urine testing is also a good way to determine the results of body metabolism.
The study of matter leads to a better understanding of the unique chemical nature of our lives; even to the care that we must take in handling of plants, or even leaves of plants that we admire, or eat parts of.
- A. Statement of Law
- B. Techniques of measurement
- ____1. Mass
- ____2. Volume
- C. Structure of Matter
- ____1. Atoms
- ____2. Leptons
- ____3. Quarks
- D. Action and Reaction
- ____1. Word equation
- ____2. Chemical equation
- E. Pharmacology
- ____1. History
- ____2. Prescription drugs
- ____3. Non-prescription drugs
- ____4. Hazards
- ________a) Narcotics, non-prescription drugs
- ________b) Plants
- ____5. Chemical aids to illness
- ________a) Mental health
- ________b) Physical health
- F. Conclusion: Study of matter leads to better understanding of chemical nature of life.
Since the skills of the students approaching this course are unknown; they arrive with their concept of a laboratory as “Is this where we have explosions?” “Aw, come on and do some experiments for us and blow up this place!”
Of course neither of these statements are followed through or planned for.
The purpose of this unit is to help the student to:
Since the laboratory contains equipment graduated in the SI units (system international); and since the international metric system is a certainty for use eventually in the United States, we have to develop the concept of the Metric System and its basis of units of ten. To make the Metric System less difficult labs can be organized very quickly when the child is taught that meter designated by measures distance, liter symbolized by 1 measures volume, and mass is measured in grams symbolized by g.
- 1. Develop his skill in observing, obtaining, recording, analyzing problems dealing with matter.
- 2. Handle equipment which either he has constructed or assembled.
- 3. Learn scientific mathematical skills needed for an introduction to science.
- 4. Understand his environment and his relation to it.
- 5. Learn how chemicals, naturally found, and laboratory produced affect his behavior, and well-being.
To give the concept of units of ten (10) the abacus can be displayed showing each of the 10 balls comprising one line, and ten balls equal one line. thus each ball is 0.1 of a line. A simple way for a child to remember metric units is to show him that this unit is based on tens and moving the decimal point to the right or left increases or decreases by units of tens. Usually it is not necessary to go beyond the units of 0.001 or 1,000, so the student learns only three terms; meter, liter, and grams. Then the prefix with the decimal values which are the same are attached, and we are ready to move into an experiment, centi equaling 0.01, milli equaling 0.001 and kilo equaling 1,000. We can also introduce the thermometer at this point since the Celsius thermometer is based on units of one-hundred.
Before actually doing the measurements, laboratory equipment, baby bottles, soda bottles, small wrenches, advertisements of 98 mm watches can be shown, mobiles from cereal boxes, and labels can be constructed. It is also helpful to teach that the thickness of the fingernail is approximately one mm and the width of the little finger is one cm.
We have given the student the basic tools and now we proceed with our experiment. We have to set the form at first as a guideline, and as the year proceeds the student learns to set up his own problem. To suddenly thrust this onto him will frighten him.
Although we have the measuring tool, we also have at this time to develop the idea of what we are measuring. The general concept of matter that has mass.
We begin with the students body and handy materials: cigarettes, weighing of a hair, fingernail, paper clip, pencil, sheet of paper, etc. See Experiments I III.
If equipment is limited, the teacher can ditto a metric ruler for perhaps 20 cm, and the child can be given a copy to paste in his book. For the construction of a simple balance using a can cover, string, and a small piece of wood can be constructed. A paper clip (medium size) has been found to be an acceptable gram weight.
Knowing that matter occupies space and has mass, in the introductory experiments, we now need to learn something about the structure of this matter. However, to stimulate the child’s interest in matter’s structure, how matter acts and reacts, and why it does so, calls for a series of simple experiments first; and then we can develop the interest for and why things happen.
Purposely the three forms of matter have been omitted as a separate series, because more than anything else, liquid, solid, and gas are previously taught, and can be added incidentally. Plasma as a form of matter is not necessary in our discussion here, at this point.
Our world is made up of many things. Some are large like mountains, some are small like grains of sand on the beach, and others are like us. Our study of matter will help to explain how things are made up. The simplest kind of matter is the element and is made up of one substance, however, the elements are of two types. Some are natural and some are made artificially lasting fractions of seconds. Ninety-two are natural and 14 are manufactured or synthesized. This information is a long step from the days of Democritus in the fifth century who thought there were only four elementary substances: stone, air, fire and water. The smallest particle of the element is the atom, and everything in the world is made up of these atoms or combinations of atoms called compounds. Each element has been named and scientists have devised a shorthand method, acceptable throughout the world.
The atom has two main parts, the nucleus in the center and the electrons which circle in layers or tracks outside the nucleus. Inside the nucleus are two main substances called protons which have a positive electric charge; and neutrons which have no charge and are neutral. The proton is 2,000 times heavier than the mass of the electron. There are other particles in the atom. Atoms are very small. A quarter billion of them would measure only about 25.4 mm in length, however, most of the atom is empty space. Mesons are like a nuclear glue which holds protons and neutrons together. The mass of the meson is between that of the protons and electrons. There are two kinds of mesons called m, or pions. The lighter ones are called muons u and there are also neutral pions m’. Pions live 10-18 seconds, mesons live 10-6 seconds. Bohr said the electrons travel in the orbits but when they jump from one orbit or path to another they give off radiant energy. Recently in 1974 when there was a high energy collision of matter, particles called leptons and hadrons were discovered. The hadrons are complex, and evidence seems to show they have not only an internal structure, but 100 kinds have been identified; and some of the hadron, that is the simpler part, is called a quark. There was another particle discovered called the lepton. There are four known leptons which include the electron and muons above mentioned and two kinds of neutrinos. The muon is about two-hundred times heavier than an electron. There is belief that quarks are so entangled inside the hadron that they can never be separated. Hadrons decay very rapidly and their lifetime is 10-23 seconds; but they are a distinct type of matter.
An even newer particle called the Psi was discovered and led to the discoverers Samuel C. Ting and Burton Richter sharing the Nobel prize. The Psi particle has a lifetime of 10-20 seconds or 1,000 times that of the hadron even though it has the same mass. There is something yet undiscovered in the Psi which slows its decay. These recent discovered particles are the result of electrons and positrons being made to collide at high energy, and then the particles are sorted out from the remains of the collisions. The collisions take place in a piece of equipment called a Spear in which electrons and positrons circulate in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light while 10” electrons circle clockwise. Interestingly the electrons for this experiment are boiled off a hot filament as in a vacuum tube. Thus we see the scientists are constantly searching and finding new particles of matter.
All matter possesses chemical properties which determines how the matter acts. How matter combines with other matter will be our concern. As the electrons revolve in their orbits around the nucleus, the distance of the electrons from the nucleus and the number of electrons in the outer orbit will determine how the matter acts. The atom as the basic unit of matter can combine with another atom provided that the required number of electrons in each atom’s outer orbit doesn’t exceed the number of electrons based on the required amount.
Although the model of the atom has remained fairly stable over the years, a newer theory has shown that because of the high speed of the electrons an electron cloud is possible, similar to that of a whirling fan when you couldn’t see the separate blades, but only blurred ones.
When an atom gains one or more electrons or when it loses one or more electrons it becomes an ion and has an electrical charge. This gaining and losing of electrons results in the formation of compounds as a result of bonding together. The gaining and losing of the electrons does not destroy matter, but merely changes the appearance of the matter. The matter doesn’t go anywhere, it just shifts around. This is called the Law of Conservation of Matter. By following this law we can better understand what happens to substances when they combine whether by the use of heat, or chemical action, or even enzyme action within our bodies. Since everything is made of something, and since these somethings can combine or bond, this can also help to explain how matter is formed; and many combinations are possible. How electrons bond causes chemical reactions, and is changing the world.
When battery acid is dropped on clothing the remaining substance is black carbon. When sulfur fumes are released from car pollution they combine with oxygen in the air to form noxious fumes; and when these fumes combine with moisture in the air, buildings crumble slowly; statues lose some of their smooth surfaces. When proper food is taken into the body the chemicals in the mouth start the food on its trip through the body to become the necessary protein, by the action of chemicals.
By understanding the interaction of matter, we learn how nerve cells secreting hormones can influence the activity of brain cells for example. We learn how medications which are chemicals can influence thought and action; and how the lack of chemicals can cause alcoholism and mental breakdowns, or even blindness for example.
Since nerve cells communicate by releasing neurotransmitter chemicals at synaptic junctions, anything that interferes with binding of the neurotransmitter can disturb or change communication and disturb behavior. If a drug can be introduced that is the same as what is lacking, it can make it possible for the message to reach the cell, then the behavior can be normalized. For example, it was thought that Parkinson’s disease or shaking palsy was the result of degeneration of neurons near the center of the brain. It was found that the normal amount of dopamine needed was not naturally there, and the brain was depleted, so the tremor, rigidity, and movement delay resulted. With the addition of L.-DOPA given by mouth, the L.-DOPA stimulates the receptors in the brain and the patient is able to walk better. In certain mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia, there seems to be an excess of dopamine from the nerve endings causing an over activity in the person. Here a medication is given that blocks the excessive amount of dopamine, prevents over stimulation, and diminishes the symptoms of schizophrenia which is one of the most common mental illnesses; with such a scope of afflicted individuals, that the World Health Organization has launched an extensive research program to try to eradicate the illness due to the biochemical nature of the many dopamine receptors in the basal ganglia of the brain.
There also was a finding of an enzyme adenylate cyclase of the basal ganglia of the brain. With this finding there is a new method of screening of drugs as dopamine agonists (agents) against Parkinson’s disease or antagonists (agents against schizophrenia). With this information just about eight years old it is possible to evaluate illnesses by the presence of the dopamine and prescribe medication earlier.
Research has also shown that the role of the enzyme cyclase was not limited to the nervous system of vertebrates but also that the enzyme serotonin could affect insects and that drugs could affect neurotransmitter receptors. Insecticides such as Parathion and Malthion were developed.
Drugs affecting neurotransmitter receptors frequently produced changes that occurred in patients with neutral or neurological diseases. As a result miners who were exposed tomanganese poisoning when given antischizophrenic drugs show Parkinson symptoms. An interesting factor has been that L.S.D. can produce hallucinations similar to those of schizophrenics. These abnormal conditions may be genetic through mutation, or acquired through exposure to such toxins as manganese.
Many neurobiologists have shown that nerve cells respond to stimulation at the synopses, of one or more ions. This may change the ability of ions to flow across membranes, thereby changing the person’s voltage at that point. The neuron acts by absorbing the hundreds of chemical messages; and deciding when to react; research led to an understanding of such actions as to how glycogen (sugar) was broken down, protein metabolism, muscle contractions, pupilary dilation, intestinal peristalsis, and action of hormones and drugs that affect behavior. From this information, a better understanding of the brain, neurotransmitters, and the effect on genetic material that may in the end lead to changes of behavior, such as memory has been obtained.
Szent-Gyorgi has said, “If we want to find out something about the world around us we have to ask questions modestly, that is, do experiments.” With the above in mind, I have suggested the list of experiments to be done by students in order that they may understand the actions and reactions of matter so that they can better understand that which surrounds them; that what is taken into their body reacts and changes and that matter is not destroyed but merely changed around.
In the study of actions and reactions it is important for the student to realize that whatever is taken into the mouth may be affected by chemicals within his body, and for that reason a brief introduction to pharmacology is necessary as it has developed over the years; and is as old as man himself.
Early man looked for spirits to combat sickness. Alcohol was used to ease pain. Today we know it as an anesthetic. The bark of cinchona was the source of quinine to treat malaria. Curare was developed as a fatal poison. Thus, we had the beginning of pharmacology, drug actions and reactions, and chemical-biological reactions.
It is important to understand how chemical agents affect living processes, whether as the results of prescription or non-prescription drugs, living organisms, or plants, many of which are in the backyard or even the house. The most ancient records were found from 1600 B.C.E. in Egypt where 700 remedies were listed, and a person was able to choose which doctor he wanted. Babylonians lived in a world of demons, but doctors were separated from clergymen, and fees were set by law. In Greece and India the temple was the most common place of treatment, and in 500 B.C.E. a professor in India grafted skin from one person to another. In the sixth century B.C.E. smallpox vaccination was known, but did not reach Europe for 2,000 years. Hippocrates in 440 377 B.C.E. taught that disease came from natural causes, and that the body can recuperate with the help of fresh air, good food, purgatives, enemas, and blood letting. Galen originated such things as tincture of opium and vegetable drugs, and so influenced medicine for 1500 years. During the middle ages the Crusaders brought back medicinal information, and used their texts as late as the seventeenth century, for compiling hundreds of drugs. The Arab world developed accurate record keeping; Moslems established apothecary (drug) stores, and set state inspections, early consumer protection. After the thirteenth century pharmacies developed in Europe and the search for the “elixer of life” was developed. Florence, Italy issued the first book in the fifteenth century. Paracelsos believed the body was composed of chemicals in early sixteenth century; and he used tincture of opium, and mercury to treat syphilis. He said all drugs were poison, but the dosage changes it.
In 1628 Harvey gave drugs in the vein, and said they were better than by mouth. John Wepfer in the early seventeenth century performed experiments on animals. In 1776 a pharmacist’s apprentice stated a relationship between the amount of drug given and the biological response. In 1806 Frederick Serutrner isolated a pure vegetable drug and the synthetic manufacture of drugs began. Their reactions on the body was studied. Curare, which paralyzed the muscles, had to be studied to find what part of the body was affected by drugs. In the late nineteenth century the physiochemical reactions in cells with drugs, was studied. In 1841 James Blake stated that the chemical structure of drugs determines their effect on the body. In 1923 Ehrlich showed that drugs interact with biological material to produce certain effects. In 1842 it was found out that the effect of drugs can be changed or stopped by chemical conversion in one’s body. Pharmacology is now the study of reactions in a living organism by chemicals, except foods. About 1908 a Department of Pharmacology was expanded at the University of Michigan. In 1921 insulin led to the successful diabetes treatment. Chemistry supplies pure compounds,; physiology supplies experimental techniques all necessary for determining the biological effects of pure chemicals.
As we see, the development of pharmacology is one of using pure compounds. We can’t forget the danger in our home and outdoors, especially from plants. There are many poisonous plants, to eat and touch. Twelve thousand people have been poisoned in one year, especially children under five years of age, who pop anything into their mouths. People try to make “tea” out of weeds and unknown plants. Poison ivy as an irritant is the best known in this country. The toxin inside the leaf can cause a skin rash. Poison oak and sumac, the leaves and vines tomatoes and potatoes contain poisons called alkaloids. Cherry twigs contain cyanide. Seed kernels from peaches and apricots contain cyanide; “a cup of apple seeds may kill a person.” Green leaves of rhubarb contain oxalic acid poisonous, damaging human kidneys. Leaves of tomatoes, potato, and eggplant are so poisonous that handling may be fatal, causing rapid heartbeat and nervous system disorders. Jimpson weed grows in backyards; fox glove is a source of digitoxin affecting heart muscles; digitalis is made from fox glove and, as a medicine, makes heart muscles contract to pump more blood. Wisteria can poison children. Buttercup sap irritates the mouth. Lily of the Valley makes a poison like digitoxin and acts similarly. Even dandelion leaves can be poisonous, when eaten.
Matter is seen everywhere. Matter interacts for good or bad. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, but eating some matter may destroy you. Be Careful!
Many different experiments are included to aid the teacher in having enough of a variety to reach various ability students or to reinforce or review concepts already learned.
Many educators and philosophers worry about what children can’t do, we instead are concerned with all the things they can do; and reinforce those skills in which they are weak.
If at first children are afraid to work alone, groups of three or four can be started; and as confidence is gained and equipment becomes more available, individual experiments are most beneficial.
All children should write their own reports, and keep them, after correction, in a notebook. Experiments should be marked differently than regular work. For example, if anything is missing a “0” denotes this and the work is corrected and returned for recorrection.
I made slides and photographs of some of the materials in the above display cases. They have not been developed yet. (Great courtesy extended by the reference librarians.)
- Chapple, Joe Mitchell, “Heart Songs”, Joe Mitchell Chapple, Inc., Boston, 1937, p. 140. “O Dear What Can the Matter Be?”, a lilting early American Ballad, to introduce the unit.
- Introduction to Chemistry, series of four tapes and film strips, very good for students.
- Showaiter, v., Education research council, 1971, Man and Molecules, series of 15 minute tapes and the exploring of scientific accomplishments in: space, environment, mind, aging, discovery of elements, molecules, etc.
- Newton, David, Activities for Exploring Careers in Science, J. Weston Welch, Portland, Maine, 1976.
- Trip to Yale Medical School Historical Museum for exhibit of ancient measuring materials, and including the Streeter collection of weighing and measuring devices in medicine and pharmacy.
Everything takes up ........... and has .................
- I. Teacher places the word MATTER on board (large letters).
- II. Tape recorder in background plays “0 Dear What Can the Matter Be?”
- III. Teacher canvasses the class to see if the relationship between the word and the tune can be established.
- IV. Teacher blows up balloon, lets it move in room.
- V. Teacher drops in rapid succession: ball, potato, pen.
- VI. Class is told to record what connection there is between what is happening in class and word and song.
- VII. Teacher chews cracker and places litmus strip in mouth. Class notes color change, if paying attention.
- VIII. Teacher lets out hints about properties of the substances she is using, and guides students to song relationship. Teacher uses such phrases as: everything is made up of ...............
________ (space) (mass)
Everything is made up of ........................
- IX. Teacher lists Matter, Mass, Volume on board.
- ____1. Teacher asks pupils to list things which would fit under each of the words.
- ____2. Pupils given assignment to list the three words on board, and then go home and list three examples for each word.
- X.. Next day Laboratory work on properties of matter.
We try to be very neat. Don’t spill. Return spoons, stoppers, only to bottles they belong to. Don’t mix chemicals, or solutions unless so directed. Things spilled should be wiped up.
Safety and caution are the keywords.
To prepare for an experiment:
If substances fall on desk, always leave clean or neutralized.
- 1. Always read directions until you understand them. Do your homework to prepare for an experiment.
- 2. Never start an experiment until you are sure what to do.
- 3. Ask for assistance if in doubt.
- 4. Liquid wastes go into the sink.
- 5. Solid wastes go into separate containers.
- 6. Returned equipment or used equipment must be left clean.
- ____a. clean test tubes are put on draining rack.
- 7. DON’T TASTE ANYTHING UNLESS TOLD. SOME SUBSTANCES MAY BE HARMFUL.
- 8. IF ACIDS ARE USED AND SPILLED RINSE immediately, call instructor AND NEUTRALIZE (MAKE WEAKER) WITH A BASE.
- 9. Acid on body, rinse with water, wash with soap, CALL instructor.
- 10. Alkali on body rinse with water, wash usually with vinegar, CALL instructor.
Sloppy handling of materials may result in expulsion from the laboratory.
Supplies and equipment cost money. Careless use can cause you to lose credit for your work, and pay for broken equipment.
II. Solve the following problems: Do all work on paper.
- _______ . 1. Add water to acid or acid to water.
- _______ . 2. Metric units are based on ___ units.
- _______ . 3. 0.1 is a ___ .
- _______ . 4. Gram is a measure of ___ .
- _______ . 5. Liter “ “ “ “ ___ .
- _______ . 6. A graduate is used in the laboratory to ___ .
- _______ . 7. A meter stick is used to measure ___ .
- _______ . 8. Mass is a measure of ___ .
- _______ . 9. Meniscus measures ___ .
- _______ . 10. Density is a measure of ___ .
|1. ___.||2. ___ .||3. ___ .||4. ___ .||5. ___ .|
|6. ___ .||7. ___ .|
- ____ ___ 8) Draw a 2 centimeter line.
- ____ ___ 9) Divide the 2 cm. into 20 millimeters-
- ____ ___ 10) Where is 40 ml. on the container.
- ____ ___ 11) Decibels measure sound light heat.
- ____ ___ 12) Light is measured in angstrom, density, velocity.
- ____ ___ 13) From the graph answer the following questions:
II. Materials: test tube rack
- ____ ___ 13) In 8 minutes the temp.
- ____________is 3’, 30’c, 3’c.
- ____ ___ 14)
- ____ ___ 15) Centigrade is the metric temperature scale.
- ____ ___ 16) Heat and temperature can be measured the same way yes, no, maybe.
____litmus paper; 5 red, 5 blue
- Caution: Keep fingers, table, and paper strips dry until you wet them with the powder or liquid.
- ____1) Place 20 drops of each liquid and/or each powder in each test tube. Return eye dropper to jar taken from. DON’T MIX THEM UP. OTHERS WILL SUFFER AND YOU WILL LOSE CREDIT!!!
- ____2) Add 1 strip of each color litmus paper to each tube. What happened?
- ____3) Rinse tube thoroughly.
- ____4) Add 1 tsp. powder (white) to each tube.
- ____5) Add 10 drops of each liquid.
- ____6) What happened: Describe, color, odor.
- ____7) Add litmus strips: one strip each. Was there any change: color, odor?
- ____8) Record information in chart below:
|Red Litmus||Blue Litmus||With White Powder|
IV. What do you think the reason was for doing the experiment?
- ____A. State the Problem.:
- V. What facts did you learn from this experiment that is you conclusion. List them briefly, but accurately. The conclusion should answer the problem.
- 1. Burn a candle. Light it and be sure that it is on a piece of metal, as a can cover. Throw match in a metal can or beaker filled with water.
- 2. Let an ice cube melt at room temperature on paper towel (precautions removed).
- 3. Place a snail on a towel. Bring a lighted natch near, but NEVER touching the snail.
- 4. Burn a cube of sugar (precautions removed).
- 5. Burn a piece of bread (precautions removed).
- 6. Burn a wooden splint (take precautions).
- 1. Blow up a balloon, weighing it before and after blowing up to the largest size without breaking.
- 2. Measure Fe filings. Weigh them, and put them aside until the entire is covered with rust. To hasten this process, a measured amount of water may be added. Leave for a few days.
- 3. Fill an empty medicine bottle (plastic-small) bottle one-third full of water. Add one-fourth of one-third water. Add one-fourth tablet of alkaseltzer, and immediately seal the bottle. (Remember that one cubic centimeter or one ml. or water weighs one gram.) (We will neglect the room temperature at this time.)
- ____a. Using a word equation explain the source of the gas.
- ____b. What was destroyed? Was anything destroyed?
- ____c. Use a chemical equation to explain the gas source.
- ____d. Using limewater, test the gas. You may have to do the experiment again without weighing everything. Blow gently into the straw.
e. How can you explain the result? f. Write an equation, word or chemical, showing what happened. g. Label all answers.
- 1. Have a smoker take several puffs of a cigarette, and blow smoke through several sheets of facial tissue.
- ____a. The teacher should in advance call the Southern Connecticut Lung Association and borrow their equipment for CO gas detection, and the other apparatus, to measure before and after smoking.
- 2. Breathe through a straw into limewater, and report the changes.
- 3. Using litmus paper, phenothalein, pH paper, separately test: saliva, toothpaste, milk of magnesia, vinegar, baking soda solution, and mouthwash. Record data in a chart you set up yourself.
- ____a. Rinse mouth with mouthwash and test mouth with indicators again separately.
- ____b. Is there any change?
- 4. Place Iodine solution on a cracker. Chew cracker, and spit into the plastic receptacle. Test with iodine again.
- ____a. Repeat the chewing of the cracker again, etc. and this time test the substance with Benedicts and Fehling solutions, separately.
- 5. Combine baking soda and vinegar. Use 10 grams of baking soda. How many drops of vinegar will cause something to happen?
What is here but we can’t see it?
- 1. Using solutions such as NaCl, KCl, Li2Co3, or any other, place a wire loop in the solution and then in the hot part of the bunsen burner flame. Record results in a chart.
- 2. Insert the tip of a strip of strip filter paper into black (India Ink), be sure that is is real India Ink. Don’t let the filter paper touch the sides of the container. Use either a 1,000 ml. tube, or a quart size milk carton. Try doing the same thing with tomato juice, red ink, cocoa mixture and black paint. Leave this overnight, and cover the top.
- 3. Take a stained piece of cloth. Add bleach to one piece, and peroxide to another. Did anything happen?
Can we time what we do?
Does Temperature Affect the Volume of Matter?
Sometimes we want to find out what happens to matter over a period of time. We need to record the information of a graph. This can be shown by heating a test tube one-half full of anti-freeze, and one test tube of the same amount of water. Inserted in each tube is a Celsius thermometer. Both are heated by bunsen burners. Children doing this experiment should work in groups with each one furnishing a separate report; the information is best collected in a chart, and then transferred to a graph. What happened to the volume of the liquid?
I’ve found that the concept of comparing two or more substances over a period of time can be introduced by using a metronome, which pivots on a shaft, and can be adjusted to various speeds; and comparing it to the movement of a clock; thereby giving the student the concept of a graph being able to compare two or more substances. The student then can be shown how to collect data, place it on a chart and from the chart onto a graph, which he makes himself. Early fall is a good time to do this experiment, as people are starting to think about winterizing their cars.
A homework assignment might be for the child to go home, look in the toilet tank, and try to find out the function of the ball cock in the toilet tank; and also in the interest of conservation, a brick placed in the toilet tank will conserve water. The fact that matter has volume needs to be stressed here.
Doing an experiment at home?
Children at home can be directed to have a box of baking soda near the range or oven. Then they can be asked to figure out why baking soda can be used to put out a flame. The teacher should demonstrate this, as it may be a bit of a mess if all children try it in the class first.
- 1. What is matter?
- 2. How do we measure matter?
- 3. What units do we use to measure matter?
- 4. How did you measure matter to find out how much mass it had? What are units measured in?
- 5. How did you find out how much space a substance occupied? What is that space called?
- 6. Below is a puzzle. Find as many words related to what we have been studying. List the words. Words are shown in all directions.
The metric system is very easy. All you have to remember is that it is based on units of ten (10), and when you use these units, they can be used to measure how much space (volume), mass and distance.
1. grams-measures mass (how closely particles are packed)
You will make your own meter ruler, or you can buy one. (See next sheet for details.)
To show you how good the metric system is, do the following and complete the chart:.
1. Measure the thickness of your hair in metric units.
1 hair (thickness)
thickness of your eyeglasses
regular & king size cigarettes
thickness of a sheet of paper
distance between your eyes
distance from outer edge to center of eyeglasses
length of thumb
thickness of paper clip
length of the room
thickness of the door
What is the problem in this experiment?
What is your conclusion?
To Determine the Problem.
This experiment may take 2 periods.
- I. Take snail from Pail.
- II. Place snail on desk.
- III. What happens after every 5 minutes (for 20 minutes record what you see.)
- IV. After 20 minutes touch snail with pencil.
- ____A. What happened?
- V. Place lighted match near to snail but not on it. Describe what happened.
- (VI. Use format of ice-cube!)
The candle gives off ___ and ___ .
The candle moves when ___ .
The snail ___ when touched.
The snail ___ even when not ___ .
The snail ___ when touched with a pencil.
The candle ___ when touched with a pencil.
The problem this experiment tries to explain is:
How does your conclusion explain the problem: Or how do the results of the experiment explain the problem?
New words learned to date. Know their meanings, and how to use them.
|1) observant||6) laboratory||11) blue litmus|
|2) problem||7) safety||12) color|
|3) materials||8) science||13) odor|
|4) observation||9) litmus paper||14) procedure|
|5) conclusion||10) red litmus||15) caution|
To find out what happens when you breathe into a clear liquid.
Axelrod, Julius. “Listening to “Listening to Nerves Talk,” Science Quest, Vol. 52 #7, Sept., 1979, p. 18. Very well told story of how nerves transfer impulses; story told by Nobel Prize winner.
Gallant, Ray. Explorers of the Atom, Doubleday, 1977. Historical data well illustrated.
Gamow, George. The Atom and its Nucleus. N.J., 1961. A good book for structure, well illustrated.
Goodrich, Warren. Learning About Science through Games. Stackpole Books, 1964. Delightfully illustrated.
Hardin, J., & Arena, J. Human Poisoning from Native Cultivated Plants. Duke University Press, 1974. An excellent sourcebook.
Krockmal, Arnold & Connie. Guide to Medicinal Plants of U.S.. Quandrangle, N.Y., 1973. Excellent source for adults, pictures.
Feinberg, G. What is the World Made Of? Doubleday, 1977. Atoms, Nuclei, particles, quarks fully discussed.
Milgrim, H. Exploration in Science. E.P. Dutton, N.Y., 1967. Basic experiments, child could also use.
Meyer, Roger & Miriam. “The Heroin Stimulus,” Review of the Sciences,
May/June, 1980, p. 23. Certain drug block heroin. (New Haven
Register on Saturday, July 26, 1980 reported this used in heroin local drug overdoses.)
Mullen, Virginia L. Chemistry Experiments for Children, Dover Pub. Inc., N.Y., 1968, pp. 85-94. Kitchen chemistry of everyday things, well illustrated, easy for students.
New Sciences, New York Academy May/June, 1980, p. 29. “Artificial sweetners may be hazardous for heavy smokers.”
Romer, Alfred. The Restless Atom, Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1960. Up to date of publishing, historical contributions of famous scientists, based on their experiments.
Shapiro, Gilbert. Physics Without Math. Prentice-Hall, 1979, p. 344. Excellent reading list, useful.
Shell Oil Co. Chemical Do’s and Don’ts Book, 1979. Practical for home distribution, discussion of safe use and storage of many household products.
Science from Toys. (no author) Macdonald Educational Co., 1972. Idea of teachers banding to make science equipment.
Townsend. Energy Matter and Change. Scott Foresman, 1973. A text very well illustrated pictures very interesting, p. xiv: excellent metric puzzle for students.
Unesco, 700 Experiments for Everyone. Doubleday, 1962. Very good directions and diagrams for the constructing of simple equipment.
A.A.E.A. Pharmacy. Guide to Generic Medicines. Modern Maturity, June-July, 1978, p. 39. Lists of medicines.
Armstrong, J.A., Slaughter, G.S. Marks, & Armstrong, P.W., Canadian Journal Physiol, Pharmacology, May 1980, 58: 459-462. There is a rapid disappearance of nitroglycerine following incubation with human blood, and belief is that the metabolism occurs in other organs in addition to the liver, perhaps even in the red cells.
Barbuto, Joan, “Women to get Help on Math.” New Haven Register, Feb. 24, 1980.
Barnes, Porter, “Effects of Aging on the Distribution of Lutenizing Hormone.” Endocrinology, June 1980, 0013-7227, p. 1980
Halden. “Behavioral Medicine, an Emergent Field,” Science, July 25, 1980, p. 479. This field attempts to locate neurochemical mechanisms by which such states as emotional stress leads to disease. There is a chemical indicator of maternal deprivation which stunts physical and emotional development of babies. (ODC) Interesting.
“Health committee might attempt to curtail use of penicillin and tetracycline in feeds,” Science, July 18, 1980, #3209, p. 481.
Bernstein, I., & Sigmundi, R. Science, #209, July 18, 1980, p. 416. There is evidence that a tumor will induce changes in taste.
Science, May 23, 1980, vol. 208, p. 826-28. A very extensive report discussing the reliability of new compounds being developed to replace worn out ones in body. June, 1980, #401, p. 208, describes how genetic variation affects enzyme structure or changes protein metabolism.
Blaine, Tom & Hoffer, A. A Mental Health Through Nutrition. Citadel Press, N.Y., 1975. Author shows how diet can influence mental health, even though this is a highly debated subject; this is a new approach in biological psychiatry, perhaps a cure for depression.
Chapple, Mitchell. Heart Songs, Boston Mass., 1937, p. 140. “0 Dear What Can the Matter Be?” An old ballad which might introduce this unit.
Clark, Goaqwll, Shapiro, Huck, Morbach. “Drugs and Psychiatry.” Newsweek, Nov. 12, 1979, pp. 98-104. Excellent biochemical discussion of mental illness; reference to research at Yale. Pupils might find parts interesting, gives hope to mentally ill.
Crossland, Maurice. The Science of Matter. History and survey with selected readings. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1971.
“Drug blocks biosyntheses cholesterol.” Chemistry and Engineering News, June 23, 1980, vol. 58, #25, p. 39. Maybe we’ll eliminate another cardiac factor!
Drug Therapy. Journal of Prescribing Information, Vol. 10, #6, June, 1980, p. 11. Lead is found in milk from cans of formula, as the edge is soldered. p. 19, holistic medicine, stresses that it is the individuals duty to stay well, and not expect the M.D. to correct the damage. p. 45, the acid content of the eye is a healthy sign.
Eggins, B. Chemical Structure and Reactivity, Barnes & Noble, 1977.
Fano. Physics of Atoms and Molecules. University of Chicago Press, 1972. Adult level only.
Fermi, E. Elementary Particles. Yale University Press, 1961. Not so elementary.
Gamow, George. Matter, Earth and Sky. Prentice-Hall, 1965. Good teacher reference even though not too modern.
Geier, A. & Lamm, N. Mathematics and your Career, Amsco School Publications, 1978. Many careers grouped in 15 major groups, with each chapter introducing topics and associated careers, good reference.
Gibson, John. Nurses Materia Medica. Blanchinell Scientific Pub., London, 1976. An aid to teachers, dealing with drugs, individual responses, and dangers. Compact.
Jackson, Kevin, Rudnick, N., Hyman, R. Experience With Everyday Objects. Prentice-Hall, N.J., 1978. Fun experiments for teacher and student, especially p. 120, mothball race, and p. 122, coloring liquids.
Kalsner, Stanley, Chai, Chi-Chung, “Inhibition by Dopamine of the effect of 3H Noradrenaline,” Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacy, Vol. 58, #5, pp. 504-511. Behavior of drugs which interact with the neuronal release system, a detailed report.
Kisch, Bruno. Scales and Weights. Yale University Press, July, 1966, 92nd printing. Excellent history of weighing. Photographs. Reference to Streeter collection of measuring and weighing devices on display in Yale Medical History Library.
Keller, J.J. & Associates. Official Metric System. Keller Assoc. Pub. Neenah, Wisconsin, 1975. A quick source of information on metric system and application utilizing charts, conversion factors, and definitions.
Krauskopf and Beiser. The Physical Universe. McGraw-Hill, 1960. Helpful, best for teacher, historical data.
Levine, Ruth R. Pharmacology Drug Actions and Reactions. Little Brown, 1973. Excellent source; historical, and exceedingly detailed. In depth discussion of chemicals and their effect on the body.
Lowery, L.F. The Everyday Science Book. Allyn & Bacon, 1978. Excellent sourcebook for teachers and students. Ideas for teaching elementary and middle school science; hundreds of experiments.
Margenau, Henry. Ethics of Science. Robert Kreiger Pub. Co., Huntington, New York, 1979. Excellent, provocative, detailed description of parallelism between ethics and science, and differences; science states a fact, ethics appeals to human nature (first time I knew an author who’s a neighbor).
Conradie, J.D. “Recent Developments of Blood Transfusion,” South African Journal of Science, April, 1976, pp. 149-150. Discussion of uses and parts of blood uncommonly known, for ex. antibodies for anti-tetanus injections, monitoring of Fe of blood donors, so they don’t become anemic. p. 154, Heat Intolerance:. Its Detection and Elimination in the mining industry; heat intolerance men have lower maximum oxygen intake than heat tolerant counterparts. Underweight men develop heat stroke on first exposure to heat, and failed to acclimate in normal way. Very helpful.
May, Albert. “Psychiatry-Is there really a method?” St. Raphael’s Hospital Magazine, Summer, 1978, p. 6. The state’s biggest development in psychiatry has been in drugs in the last twelve years.
Muntya. Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology, vol. 15, #5. “Decomposition of Cholesterol continued in human blood.” New York Times, “Evidence Builds Against Marijuana,” May 21, 1980, and “Lead Persists Threat to Young.”
“Nitrites,” New York Academy of Science, May/June, 1980, p. 2. Article states there is a direct relationship between nitrites and cancer.
Polya, F. How to Solve It. Princeton Press, Princeton, N.J., 1973(2). How a teacher can challenge a student to solve problems. Helpful.
“Psychiatry’s Depression,” Time, Vol. 113, #14, pp. 74-82. Excellent article, excellent diagrams, superior discussion of chemistry of brain; where dopamine is suspected as the culprit in disabling mentally depressed, and hope for more chemicals to prevent depression and improve behavior is expressed.
Rutheroford, Ernest. A bibliography of his technical writings. Office of History of Science and Technology, Univ. of Calif., 1979. Paperback.
Schrodinger, Ervin. What Is Life? Mind and Matter. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1951 (On display in Yale Med. school rotunda), a classic in its field, if you can find it (5 copies are missing from Yale Med. School).
Shapely, Harlow. New Treasury of Science. Harper & Rowe, 1965.
Sizer, Irwin. “Technology and the Quality of Life,” Science, Feb., 1980, p. 21. Very good article dealing with effect of science on life.
Slater, John Clarke. Quantum Theory of Matter, McGraw-Hill, 1968. More detailed and advanced.
Svent-Gyorgi. Lost in the 20th Century, 1965. Excitement and fascination of science; many brief quotable phrases make for exciting reading.
Thompson, John D. Professor of Hospital Administration Yale Medical School. Many helpful suggestions.
Tobias, Sheila. Overcoming Math Anxiety. W. Norton Co., N.Y., 1978. Very good; this may help many.
Traub. “Flourishing like Weeds,” Barron’s, July 14, 1980, pp. 9, 10, 28, 30. Excellent social and economic analysis of the drug and paraphernalia business (drug paraphernalia shops are also known as “head shops”).
Science. Jan. 1980, Vol. 207, #4426, p. 28. Cigarette smoking associated with sleep difficulty.
________Feb. 22, 1980, p. 859. Why aspirin works in the brain but not in the heart is unclear.
________April 11, 1980, Vol. 208, #4440, p. 198. Mg. deficiency produces spasms of coronary artery.
________June 6, 1980, Vol. 208, p. 1127. Calcium now helps control angina.
________July 4, 1980, “Centennial Edition,” Vol. 207, #4452, entire edition is stuffed with excellent material from Feedstock in transition, so as the knowledge of chemistry in biology increases so the ability to design molecules for medicinal and agricultural uses develops. A copy worth having.
Trends in Neuro Science. June, 1980. Biomedical press, Vol. 3, #6, p. 1. World Health organization found 1% of the population has schizophrenia, and is studying this all over the world to control, or learn how to control this, by studying populations and the different cultures.
________p. 154, Malaria to pathologic problems because of inadequate oxygen supply at that time.
Yianilos, Theresa Spero, J. Educational Associates, 1976. This source book for teachers and some students is excellent in its study of poisonous plants, and lists of medical uses of plants.
Contents of 1980 Volume V | Directory of Volumes | Index | Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute
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OSH Answers Fact Sheets
Easy-to-read, question-and-answer fact sheets covering a wide range of workplace health and safety topics, from hazards to diseases to ergonomics to workplace promotion. MORE ABOUT >
What is ionizing radiation?
Ionizing radiation is radiation that has enough energy to remove electrons from atoms or molecules (groups of atoms) when it passes through or collides with some material. The loss of an electron with its negative charge causes the atom (or molecule) to become positively charged. The loss (or gain) of an electron is called ionization and a charged atom (or molecule) is called an ion.
What are some examples of ionizing radiation?
Forms of ionizing radiation include:
- Gamma rays
- X rays
- Alpha particles
- Beta particles
X rays refer to a kind of electromagnetic radiation generated when a strong electron beam bombards metal inside a glass tube. The frequency of this radiation is very high - 0.3 to 30 Ehz (exahertz or billion gigahertz). By comparison FM radio stations transmit at frequencies around 100 MHz (megahertz) or 0.1 Ghz (gigahertz).
Some compounds like uranium are radioactive and give off radiation when the nucleus breaks down or disintegrates. The three kinds of radiation generated by radioactive materials or sources are alpha particle, beta particles and gamma-rays.
What properties are considered when ionizing radiation is measured?
Ionizing radiation is measured in terms of:
- the strength or radioactivity of the radiation source,
- the energy of the radiation,
- the level of radiation in the environment, and
- the radiation dose or the amount of radiation energy absorbed by the human body.
From the point of view of the occupational exposure, the radiation dose is the most important measure. Occupational exposure limits like the ACGIH TLVs are given in terms of the permitted maximum dose. The risk of radiation-induced diseases depends on the total radiation dose that a person receives over time.
What units are used for measuring radioactivity?
Radioactivity or the strength of radioactive source is measured in units of becquerel (Bq).
1 Bq = 1 event of radiation emission per second.
One becquerel is an extremely small amount of radioactivity. Commonly used multiples of the Bq unit are kBq (kilobecquerel), MBq (megabecquerel), and GBq (gigabecquerel).
1 kBq = 1000 Bq, 1 MBq = 1000 kBq, 1 GBq = 1000 MBq.
An old and still popular unit of measuring radioactivity is the curie (Ci).
1 Ci = 37 GBq = 37000 MBq.
One curie is a large amount of radioactivity. Commonly used subunits are mCi (millicurie), µCi (microcurie), nCi (nanocurie), and pCi (picocurie).
1 Ci = 1000 mCi; 1 mCi = 1000 µCi; 1 µCi = 1000 nCi; 1 nCi = 1000 pCi.
Another useful conversion formula is:
1 Bq = 27 pCi.
Becquerel (Bq) or Curie (Ci) is a measure of the rate (not energy) of radiation emission from a source.
What does half-life mean when people talk about radioactivity?
Radiation intensity from a radioactive source diminishes with time as more and more radioactive atoms decay and become stable atoms. Half-life is the time after which the radiation intensity is reduced by half. This happens because half of the radioactive atoms will have decayed in one half-life period. For example a 50 Bq radioactive source will become a 25 Bq radioactive source after one half-life.
|Number of half-lives elapsed||Percent radioactivity remaining|
Half-lives widely differ from one radioactive material to another and range from a fraction of a second to millions of years.
What units are used for measuring radiation energy?
The energy of ionizing radiation is measured in electronvolts (eV). One electronvolt is an extremely small amount of energy. Commonly used multiple units are kiloelectron (keV) and megaelectronvolt (MeV).
6,200 billion MeV = 1 joule
1 joule per second = 1 watt
1 keV = 1000 eV, 1 MeV = 1000 keV
Watt is a unit of power, which is the equivalent of energy (or work) per unit time (e.g., minute, hour).
What units are used for measuring radiation exposure?
X-ray and gamma-ray exposure is often expressed in units of roentgen (R). The roentgen (R) unit refers to the amount of ionization present in the air. One roentgen of gamma- or x-ray exposure produces approximately 1 rad (0.01 gray) tissue dose (see next section for definitions of gray (Gy) and rad units of dose).
Another unit of measuring gamma ray intensity in the air is "air dose or absorbed dose rate in the air" in grays per hour (Gy/h) units. This unit is used to express gamma ray intensity in the air from radioactive materials in the earth and in the atmosphere.
What units are used for measuring radiation dose?
When ionizing radiation interacts with the human body, it gives its energy to the body tissues. The amount of energy absorbed per unit weight of the organ or tissue is called absorbed dose and is expressed in units of gray (Gy). One gray dose is equivalent to one joule radiation energy absorbed per kilogram of organ or tissue weight. Rad is the old and still used unit of absorbed dose. One gray is equivalent to 100 rads.
1 Gy = 100 rads
Equal doses of all types of ionizing radiation are not equally harmful. Alpha particles produce greater harm than do beta particles, gamma rays and x rays for a given absorbed dose. To account for this difference, radiation dose is expressed as equivalent dose in units of sievert (Sv). The dose in Sv is equal to "absorbed dose" multiplied by a "radiation weighting factor" (WR - see Table 2 below). Prior to 1990, this weighting factor was referred to as Quality Factor (QF).
|Table 2 |
Recommended Radiation Weighting Factors
|Type and energy range||Radiation weighting factor, WR|
|Gamma rays and x rays||1|
|Neutrons, energy |
< 10 keV
> 10 keV to 100 keV
> 100 keV to 2 MeV
> 2 MeV to 20 MeV
> 20 MeV
Equivalent dose is often referred to simply as "dose" in every day use of radiation terminology. The old unit of "dose equivalent" or "dose" was rem.
Dose in Sv = Absorbed Dose in Gy x radiation weighting factor (WR)
Dose in rem = Dose in rad x QF
1 Sv = 100 rem
1 rem = 10 mSv (millisievert = one thousandth of a sievert)
1 Gy air dose equivalent to 0.7 Sv tissue dose (UNSEAR 1988 Report p.57)
1 R (roentgen) exposure is approximately equivalent to 10 mSv tissue dose
What effects do different doses of radiation have on people?
One sievert is a large dose. The recommended TLV is average annual dose of 0.05 Sv (50 mSv).
The effects of being exposed to large doses of radiation at one time (acute exposure) vary with the dose. Here are some examples:
10 Sv - Risk of death within days or weeks
1 Sv - Risk of cancer later in life (5 in 100)
100 mSv - Risk of cancer later in life (5 in 1000)
50 mSv - TLV for annual dose for radiation workers in any one year
20 mSv - TLV for annual average dose, averaged over five years
What are the limits of exposure to radiation?
The Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) published by the ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists) are used in many jurisdictions occupational exposure limits or guidelines:
20 mSv - TLV for average annual dose for radiation workers, averaged over five years
1 mSv - Recommended annual dose limit for general public (ICRP - International Commission on Radiological Protection).
What is the relationship between SI units and non-SI units?
Table 3 shows SI units (International System of Units or Systéme Internationale d'unités), the corresponding non-SI units, their symbols, and the conversion factors.
|Table 3 |
Units of Radioactivity and Radiation Dose
|Quantity||SI unit and symbol||Non-SI unit||Conversion factor|
|Radioactivity||becquerel, Bq||curie, Ci||1 Ci = 3.7 x 1010 Bq |
= 37 Gigabecquerels (GBq)
1 Bq = 27 picocurie (pCi)
|Absorbed dose||gray, Gy||rad||1 rad = 0.01 Gy|
|sievert, Sv||rem||1 rem = 0.01 Sv |
1 rem = 10 mSv
What is a "committed dose"?
When a radioactive material gets in the body by inhalation or ingestion, the radiation dose constantly accumulates in an organ or a tissue. The total dose accumulated during the 50 years following the intake is called the committed dose. The quantity of committed dose depends on the amount of ingested radioactive material and the time it stays inside the body.
What is an "effective dose"?
The effective dose is the sum of weighted equivalent doses in all the organs and tissues of the body.
Effective dose = sum of [organ doses x tissue weighting factor]
Tissue weighting factors (Table 4) represent relative sensitivity of organs for developing cancer.
|Table 4 |
Tissue Weighting Factors for Individual Tissues and Organs
|Tissue or Organ||Tissue Weighting Factor |
|Gonads (testes or ovaries)||0.20|
|Red bone marrow||0.12|
** The remainder is composed of the following additional tissues and organs: adrenal, brain, upper large intestine, small intestine, kidney, muscle, pancreas, spleen, thymus and uterus.
What are "working level" and "working level month"?
In underground uranium mines, as well in some other mines, radiation exposure occurs mainly due to airborne radon gas and its solid short-lived decay products, called radon daughters or radon progeny. Radon daughters enter the body with the inhaled air. The alpha particle dose to the lungs depends on the concentration of radon gas and radon daughters in the air.
The concentration of radon gas is measured in units of picocuries per litre (pCi/L) or becquerels per cubic metre (Bq/m3) of ambient air. The concentration of radon daughters is measured in working level (WL) units this is a measure of the concentration of potential alpha particles per litre of air.
The worker's exposure to radon daughters is expressed in units of Working Level Months (WLM). One WLM is equivalent to 1 WL exposure for 170 hours.
1 WL = 130,000 MeV alpha energy per litre air
= 20.8 µJ (microjoules) alpha energy per cubic meter (m3) air
WLM = Working Level Month
= 1 WL exposure for 170 hours
Often people use the concentration of radon gas (pCi/L) in the air to estimate the WL level of radon daughters. Such estimates are subject to error because the ratio of radon to its decay products (radon daughters) is not constant.
Equilibrium factor is ratio of the activity of all the short-lived radon daughters to the activity of the parent radon gas. Equilibrium factor is 1 when both are equal. Radon daughter activities are usually less than the radon activity and hence the equilibrium factor is usually less than 1.
mJ-h/m3 = millijoule hours/per cubic metre
MBq-h/m3 = megabecquerel hours per cubic meter
Joule is unit of energy
1 J = 1 Watt-second = Energy delivered in one second by a 1 Watt power source
1 calorie = 4.2 J
MBq/m3 = megabecquerel per cubic metre
WLM = Working Level Months
Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information, CCOHS does not guarantee, warrant, represent or undertake that the information provided is correct, accurate or current. CCOHS is not liable for any loss, claim, or demand arising directly or indirectly from any use or reliance upon the information.
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| 0.862449 | 2,792 | 4.15625 | 4 |
By Leslie Becker-Phelps, PhD
Benjamin Franklin famously stated, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” While this wry humor almost never fails to make me smile (or at least smirk), I see everyday how it is inaccurate in at least one way. Pain is also certain. However, the way this touches people’s lives is up to them.
People suffer for innumerable reasons. For instance, they endure watching a loved one die from the ravages of cancer; they are seriously injured in a car accident; or they are engulfed by unbearable and inexplicable depression. When people are in the thick of it, such suffering can seem intolerable. However, it can also have its benefits. Recent research (Seery, 2011) has shown that people are more resilient when they have a history of some (but not too much) adversity.
The first step in coping with adversity is often learning to accept pain– to stop fighting its existence. This can be an extremely scary step, leaving people to feel that they might get so lost in their pain that they will be in agony for the rest of their lives. Nonetheless, the pain is there. Denying it will not make it go away. So, the best alternative is to stop fighting against it and accept its existence. Though this takes courage, it frees you from your struggle within yourself. You can then learn to cope by looking beyond your pain to your connection with others and to a greater meaning.
By considering the experiences of others, you can see that you are not alone. Many people suffer in ways similar to you. You can come to see this simply by thinking about others, or by actually reaching out to people who have experienced similar struggles. While this does not exactly reduce your pain, it can help you to feel less flawed as a person or less like you were singled out for a difficult life. You can see that your difficulties are a part of being human, which can be comforting, or at least validating.
You can also find meaning in your struggles. Some people believe that their difficulties were ‘meant to be.’ Others just accept their circumstances have happened and look for a way to find meaning in them. In both cases, seeing their pain as part of a bigger picture helps them to find some peace within themselves.
The book Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt, and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries (which provides direct and helpful advice for many different life struggles) offers a helpful exercise in doing this. The author, psychologist Guy Winch, suggests imagining that in ten years from now you “achieve something meaningful and significant” to you, that relates in some way to your current struggle. Then he suggests reflecting back on your journey to that moment. As a way to guide your thinking, he directs you to take some quiet and uninterrupted time to complete the following sentences:
- I never imagined back then that such tragic events would lead me to:
- What I did was significant and very meaningful to me because:
- The first step of my journey toward the achievement was when I:
- My achievement was possible because I changed my priorities such that:
- Changing my priorities led me to make the following changes in my life:
- Along the way I realized my purpose in life is:
Painful life experiences are just that – painful. However, by connecting with a larger community and finding personal meaning, you can help yourself through them and to a sense of emotional well-being.
The Art of Relationships blog posts are for general educational purposes only. They may or may not be relevant for your particular situation; and they should not be relied upon as a substitute for individual professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you need help for an emotional or behavioral problem, please seek the assistance of a psychologist or other qualified mental health professional.
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By Alejandro Alva Balderrama
Earthen architecture is one of the oldest forms of construction. It is composed of structures made from unfired earthen materials, including adobe (or sun-dried mud brick), rammed earth, and a host of other earthen components and construction techniques that vary from culture to culture and region to region. Not only do earthen materials serve as the primary structural element in such architecture, they are also often used for rendering or for decorated surfaces.
The tradition of building with earth is evidenced the world over.
In many parts of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, earth
remains a prevalent building material. According to the United Nations,
an estimated 30 percent of the world's population lives in
houses made of earth.
The variety of earthen structures ranges from simple forms to vast, monumental sites of high complexity. Indeed, earthen sites compose 10 percent of the World Heritage List of UNESCO. But many significant sites are threatened; 16 of the 100 places on the World Monuments Watch 2000 List of 100 Most Endangered Sites—as well as 57 percent of the sites of the World Heritage List in Danger—are of earthen construction.
Commonly perceived as only a vernacular form of architecture, new earthen construction—abetted by the environmental movement—has seen increasing standardization and industrialization in recent decades. But the conservation of earthen architecture has been slower in its evolution. Progress in conservation and in new earthen construction is in many ways interreliant; the continuity of the tradition of building with earth informs conservation practice, while preservation of this important architectural legacy inspires its future use. Yet conservation of earthen architecture is still coming into its own as a discipline.
Two series of events in the last 30 years have profoundly affected the development of the field. The first is a sequence of international conferences on earthen architecture conservation that began in Iran in 1972. Eight international conferences have been hosted in total, the most recent in Torquay, England, in May 2000. Each conference made its mark on the earthen architecture landscape by articulating the needs of the field, motivating particular activities, and promoting a network of practitioners around the world.
The second set of events was a series of educational activities for professionals in the conservation of earthen architecture. The Pan-American Courses on the Conservation and Management of Earthen Architectural and Archaeological Heritage (known as the "PAT" courses) offered from 1989 to 1999—in addition to a host of regional workshops, courses, seminars, and other educational initiatives—built skills in this challenging area of conservation and advanced the field of study related to earthen architecture conservation. As with the conferences, these activities have fostered the development of the field. The exchange between the more global conferences and the specific educational activities has itself spawned important field projects, research initiatives, and advocacy efforts.
An Awakening Interest
In some places, earthen architecture dates back millennia, while in others it represents a recent development. Today it is a growing field. New avenues are opening for its study as this building tradition comes to be recognized as an indispensable part of our heritage. There is new interest in conserving culture through the development of earth-building skills. The tradition embodied by the various cultures of construction—using earth or other materials—is not, as cultural homogenization would suggest, "an illusion of permanence." Rather, such a tradition provides a foundation for a modernity that acknowledges specific identities. Today more than ever, such approaches are needed to respond to cultural homogenization and globalization, which threaten the values, origins, and expressions of identities of countless communities.
Interest in the study and conservation of earthen architecture
grew during the last half century. The 1950s and 1960s witnessed
the first formal indications of this interest. At the first inter-national
conference on earthen architecture, held in Iran in 1972, the keynote
address acknowledged earthen architecture as "the oldest and
most widespread" architectural expression of our monumental
The recommendations that grew out of subsequent meetings reflected the vast array of issues in the field. In part, the conferences contributed to an awakening of a consciousness regarding monumental earthen architecture and its pervasiveness. But just as importantly, the gatherings also noted the necessity to promote the conservation of earthen architecture through study and the application of conservation skills.
For many years, these conference conclusions remained mere declarations. Efforts to take on specific problems—particularly in archaeological zones—consisted mostly of "solutions" to problems encompassing only small areas of physical material. This approach grew out of the widely held orientation of traditional conservation toward solving material problems by modifying the physical and chemical properties of the original material—or, in the best of cases, through some protection of exposed structures.
The plenary sessions of these international conferences not only recognized the importance of our architectural heritage built of earth but also encouraged a comprehensive exploration of issues involved in conserving that heritage. In relating the conservation problems of earthen architecture to issues of education, research, professional practice, public awareness, methods, and other elements of this complex cultural expression, it became clear that earthen architecture conservation could not be reduced to an intervention aimed at stabilizing or consolidating a given surface or wall. Treatment with such and such a product or a focus on a stabilized square meter or square centimeter were not approaches that successfully could promote the conservation of such an enormous, yet fragile, architectural heritage.
The Need for Education
While the fourth international symposium on earthen architecture, held in Peru in 1983, reiterated the need for intensive educational programs, it was not until the fifth symposium in Rome in 1987 that the International Centre for Earth Construction-School of Architecture of Grenoble (CRATerre-EAG) assumed responsibility for such programs. Two years later, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) agreed to share that responsibility.
Educational activities in the period from 1989 to 1994 brought the complex character and needs of earthen architectural heritage to the attention of the academic and professional communities dealing with architecture and its conservation. To preserve the cultural tradition of earthen construction, a dialogue was required between conservation-oriented disciplines and disciplines focused on new construction and planning. It was necessary to emphasize the relationship between tradition and modernity as a way to preserve earthen architecture as a resource and a "constructive culture." In terms of training, this meant teaching those charged with the conservation of earthen architecture about construction materials and techniques. They needed to experience the use and application of earthen materials in order to understand their behavior and preservation. At the same time, those engaged in new construction needed more understanding of the past. Only a vision for the future based on a profound knowledge of history and of local and regional traditions could counteract the devastating effects of acculturation.
The 1989 agreement between CRATerre-EAG and ICCROM on educational programs led to their formation of the Gaia Project, which conceived of creating intensive on-site education. Initial optimism for the institution of an on-site educational program rapidly faded in the face of a series of obstacles. Then, in 1994, a proposal from authorities in Peru and contact with the GCI Training Program resulted in the institutional cooperation that led to the joint organizing of PAT96, the first major on-site educational program on the conservation of earthen architecture. Later, another agreement was reached for developing a new institutional collaboration program between CRATerre-EAG, the GCI, and ICCROM that would supplant the Gaia Project. Called Project Terra, the initiative organized PAT99. Today it serves as an institutional framework for the Terra Consortium and for several research activities now under way.
While policies and approaches can be promoted internationally,
substantive action must occur at the local and regional levels.
During the 1990s, several regional activities significantly advanced
the cause of earthen architecture. Of particular importance was
work in Portugal, England, and Italy.
In Portugal, the Bureau of Buildings and National Monuments (DGEMN) assumed responsibility for organizing the seventh international conference of earthen architecture—Terra93, as the event was known. Besides working for broad international professional participation at the conference, the DGEMN promoted earthen architecture conservation education among professionals and the general public with the opening of the "Des architectures de terre" international exhibition in Lisbon. At the conference, the basis was laid for what would later be PAT96 and then PAT99. In addition, among other efforts, the DGEMN encouraged the earthen construction of the new municipal library in the historic city of Silves (the venue for Terra93) and the establishment of a course for craftsmen of earthen construction at the Escola Nacional de Artes e Oficios Tradicionais in the Portuguese city of Serpa.
The Terra93 conference also helped spark other regional initiatives, including the 1994 "Out of Earth" conference in Devon—the first national conference in the United Kingdom on the conservation of earthen architecture. This conference followed the creation of the Earth Structures Committee of ICOMOS/UK and the establishment of the National Centre for Earthen Architecture at Plymouth University in Devon—both of which were encouraged by English Heritage. All three organizations together hosted the 8th International Conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthern Architecture, held in Torquay, Devon, in May 2000.
The Italian experience is characterized by academic and scientific rigor, the integration of methodologies for planning the conservation of historical centers built out of earth, and the opportunity for defining a national policy for the study and conservation of earthen architecture, based on a major cultural movement that promotes it. A milestone event was the Conference of Quartu Sant'Elena in 1990, the first of a series of events in Italy that led to the establishment of the National Association of Districts of Earthen Architecture. This association of municipalities with a tradition of earthen architecture is significant because of the strong influence that Italian regional governmental authorities have on the management and development of the built and natural environment. The charter of the association was signed at another conference in Quartu Sant'Elena—Terra Cruda 2000—held 10 years after the first.
Action for the Future
The vision and hard work of innumerable persons contributed to
the initiatives and events mentioned above. Of equal importance
was the role played by international organizations. These organizations
have facilitated, promoted, and—with their presence and authority—sanctioned these valuable efforts. They likewise have contributed
to the dissemination of ideas, placing them in a world perspective
and facilitating access to information.
Still, it would be an illusion to treat such achievements as indicative of overall success in the study and conservation of earthen architecture. While in some regions it is now more possible to improve policies regarding this heritage, the majority of the world has yet to implement significant measures promoting earthen architecture and its conservation. Entire regions where earthen architecture is a fundamental part of the culture and heritage have been insufficiently influenced when it comes to responding to architectural acculturation. The historical heritage of earthen architecture is in jeopardy, disappearing from a great part of the planet either through negligence or because it is being replaced by other forms of construction. Governmental authorities frequently consider earthen construction to be substandard, even though it may meet the housing needs of the population more appropriately than other building materials and techniques.
In a handful of cases—after years of academic, institutional, and professional efforts—some earthen architectural heritage enjoys a degree of sponsorship, thanks to legislative action. Achievements have also been made in creating awareness as to earthen architecture's importance. In addition, the lists compiled by international heritage organizations have had some effect in retarding irreparable losses of these treasures. In rare instances—at Chan Chan in Peru, at Joya de Cerén in El Salvador, and in a few historic city centers—comprehensive measures are being put in place for long-term preservation. Even so, the concepts of planning and management still lack sufficient acceptance in the field of conservation to be able to redirect efforts away from traditional, narrowly focused treatment approaches.
In coming years, as the architectural acculturation already under way becomes more acute, new, ongoing, and diverse responses for conserving earthen architecture will be needed. Such responses must integrate all the issues involved and take into consideration the vast range of local and regional conditions.
In some instances, these responses will find support in legislation that imposes regulations to protect the heritage. In other cases, support will come through the promotion of planning and management, or through capitalizing on ecological agendas, such as bioarchitecture and sustainable construction. The ecological approach suggests scenarios in which the conservation field—in its own interest—will have to promote new earthen construction and planning. International organizations will need to encourage specific activities in specific regions to increase political and administrative awareness of earthen architecture. Because all political and administrative responses are founded upon a solid cultural base, these movements must be built upon that base. The issue of conserving earthen architecture is no exception.
The conservation of earthen architecture requires an integration of actions: cooperation, the synergy of disciplines and initiatives, building and maintaining institutional and professional networks, the promotion of study, and a rigorous consideration of cultural diversity. Even so, we should not be obligated—for the umpteenth time—to justify our concern over the issue, in particular among the professional community and institutions presumably interested in conserving this heritage. Paraphrasing the text of an amusing book published several years ago, we could say, "There are so many without whom all of the above would have been impossible. There are many others [who fortunately are less in number] without whom all this would have been a heck of a lot easier."
A renewed commitment to the conservation of earthen architecture and the promotion of its values is essential for this heritage to be universally recognized as an area of study and of professional practice. And it is the study of earthen architecture—and a continued search for new and better ways to conserve it—that will allow us to build upon the foundation of a field already rich in reflection, conviction, and passion.
Alejandro Alva Balderrama is the director of the Program on Architecture and Archaeological Sites of ICCROM and codirector of Project Terra, a collaborative project of CRATerre-EAG, the GCI, and ICCROM.
International Conferences on Earthen Architecture
Premier colloque international sur la conservation des monuments
en brique crue
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Books / Bibles / Scrapbooks
Books are complex structures of several
materials. They are a "collection
of written, printed, illustrated, or blank leaves of paper, parchment
(or vellum) papyrus or other flexible or semi-flexible material,
strung or bound together.
Specifically, a book is a collection
of single sheets or folded leaves,
bearing printing or writing, that have been folded, stitched,
sewn, or secured by adhesive along the binding edge, generally
rounded and backed, and usually secured between boards that have
been covered in cloth, paper, or like material, or which have
been bound in leather."
- Store in acid-free, lignin-free boxes.
- Avoid stick-on labels.
- Control humidity to prevent mold (below
- Use clean hands or wear gloves.
Books are generally cared for by paper
conservators or those that have specialized in books alone.
Bibles, Declarations of
and Signed Book
More on Foxing
Film Book Supports
Reproduction or Artist Original ?
If you have any questions, ask
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| 0.891439 | 239 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Public Health Emergency Preparedness
This resource was part of AHRQ's Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program, which was discontinued on June 30, 2011, in a realignment of Federal efforts.
This information is for reference purposes only. It was current when produced and may now be outdated. Archive material is no longer maintained, and some links may not work. Persons with disabilities having difficulty accessing this information should contact us at: https://info.ahrq.gov. Let us know the nature of the problem, the Web address of what you want, and your contact information.
Please go to www.ahrq.gov for current information.
Step 1: Select a Scenario
After you direct your Web browser to http://www.ahrq.gov/prep/hospsurgemodel/ and select the "Start" button, the Scenario Selection screen is displayed.
- Select one of the scenarios, and click Next to specify additional options for the scenario (described in Step 2).
- Select Help to display the User Manual (note: you may need to disable your pop-up blocker to view the User Manual).
Scenario Selection Screen
Version 1.3 of the AHRQ Hospital Surge Model includes 13 scenarios.
- The covert release of aerosol Bacillus anthracis through a city.
- The covert release of smallpox virus in a large indoor theater.
- A pandemic flu outbreak that spreads across the country.1
- The covert release of airborne Yersinia pestis, producing rapidly progressing cases of pneumonic plague.
These four scenarios include both communicable and noncommunicable diseases; diseases that are treatable and not treatable with antibiotics; and indoor and outdoor attacks. The flu scenario incorporates hospital resource utilization and patient outcomes similar to those documented during the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic.
- The overt explosion of a liquid chlorine tank in a densely populated suburb.
- The overt release of the blister agent sulfur mustard at a large outdoor event.
- The semi-covert release of the nerve agent sarin in a crowded arena.
These three scenarios include both indoor and outdoor scenarios, as well as attacks with toxic industrial chemicals, blister agents, and nerve agents.
- The overt detonation of 1KT of nuclear material (improvised nuclear device) in a city center.
- The overt detonation of 10KT of nuclear material (improvised nuclear device) in a city center.
- The overt release of cesium-137 dust (commonly referred to as a "dirty bomb" or radiological dispersal device) in a city center.
- The covert placement of a cesium-137 point source in a public place.
These four scenarios include threats posed by radionuclides, which can be dispersed in an extremely violent reaction (nuclear), more gently (radiological dispersal device), or not at all (radioactive point source).
- The contamination of several ingredients of a popular food product with botulinum toxin. This product is then processed at the factory and distributed nationwide.
- Terrorists place small-scale improvised explosive devices in several subway stations during rush hour.
1. The Surge Model project team acknowledges the assistance of the Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) group in the development of this scenario. For more information about MIDAS, go to http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Initiatives/MIDAS/
Return to Contents
Proceed to Next Section
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Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age Settlement
Min. of Labour & Home Affairs
The Secretariat of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Heritage Centre do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information or documentation provided by the States Parties to the World Heritage Convention to the Secretariat of UNESCO or to the World Heritage Centre.
The publication of any such advice, opinion, statement or other information documentation on the World Heritage Centre’s website and/or on working documents also does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of UNESCO or of the World Heritage Centre concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its boundaries.
Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party
Toutswemogala Hill lies 6.5 km West of the North-South Highway in the Central District of Botswana. It is situated about 50 km north of the village of palapye. Toutswemogala is an elongated flat-topped hill rising about 50 meters above the surrounding flat mopane veld. It is an Iron Age settlement, which has been occupied on two different occasions. The radio-carbon dates for this settlement range from 7th to late 19th century AD indicating occupation of more than one thousand years. The hill was part of the formation of early states in Southern Africa with cattle keeping as major source of economy. This was supplemented by goats, sheep and foraging as well as hunting of wild animals. The remaining features of Toutswe settlement include house-floors, large heaps of vitrified cow-dog and burials while the outstanding structure is the stone wall. There are large traits of centaurs ciliaris, a type of grass which has come to be associated with cattle-keeping settlements in South, Central Africa.
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| 0.930677 | 398 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Do not Overlook Important Factors when Writing the 3 Paragraph Essay
If you are assigned the writing of a 3 paragraph essay, do not make the mistake of underestimating it to be too easy. Writing a complete essay within just 3 paragraphs takes skills in writing concisely and precisely. This is the stepping stone into more advanced essay writing and the format is taught to students from middle school. If you master the skills of how to write essay with 3 paragraphs, you will find the writing of the more complex five paragraph essay, a simple task. You should not however, overlook some extremely vital factors when writing the essay. Let us run through these main points needing due attention. .
Structure of the Essay
As the name suggests your essay contains only three paragraphs. The first section of the essay is the essay introduction. This is the part where you will introduce the topic and the thesis statement. This is where you will inform the reader about what you will be discussing in the essay. This section should be intriguing to the reader, as this is where you will be able to catch the reader’s attention. If you can get the reader to go past the introduction, you have achieved a crucial goal. The second section of the essay is referred to as the “body”. This section will build on the thesis statement and provide proof to the theories presented with reputed sources. The last section of the essay is the conclusion. This states that you have argued your points, and now the essay is complete.
More about the Essay and its Sections
As mentioned above, the 3 paragraph essay has only three sections. These are the introduction, body and conclusion. The writing of this essay requires the formulation of an essay outline. This will help you in arranging the content in a coherent manner. It is always advisable to engage in prewriting activities as brainstorming, title formulation, drafting structure and outline etc. before you embark on the actual writing. Once you start off the introduction, close it with a proper thesis statement. The body of the essay must add credibility to your essay. This comes in the form of information which you would present to the reader. Research for your topic can be found through online sources and libraries. However, you should be careful about online sources as some of them may not be reputed. In addition, when writing the essay, you should also consider the citations. For example, if your essay is written according to the MLA style, your citations should be in adherence to this style of writing. The conclusion of the essay should provide closure to the reader. You will summarize and emphasize the main points of the essay in this section and end with a call for action depending on your topic.
Writing an essay of any type can be extremely tough for some students. These students will be benefited by going through some examples of essay written in 3 paragraphs. If you need help writing your 3 paragraph essay, you should go through some samples from our sample gallery. This will help you figure out how to write essay in a simple 3 paragraph structure.
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Date: 01/10/98 at 22:48:06 From: James Subject: Fractals and fractal dimensions How do you calculate the fractal dimension of a fractal? Thank you.
Date: 01/11/98 at 14:38:30 From: Doctor Anthony Subject: Re: Fractals and fractal dimensions Dimensions of Fractals. If we divide a line segment into equal parts, each 1/nth of the whole, we will need n^1 parts to reassemble the original line segment. The dimension of the object is equal to the exponent. If we divide a square into smaller squares, each with side 1/n of the whole, we shall require n^2 parts to reassemble the original square. Again the mathematical dimension is equal to the exponent. Similarly, if we divide a cube into smaller cubes, each with edge 1/nth the original cube, we shall require n^3 parts to reassemble the original cube. Again the dimension is equal to the exponent. In all three cases - the line segment, the square, and the cube, we can piece together n^d smaller parts with edge scaled down by 1/n from the original, and rebuild the original. Now the SIMILARITY DIMENSION 'd' is defined as the ratio: log(number of parts) d = --------------------------- log(1/linear magnification) Thus for the line segment ln(n^1) d = ------- = 1 ln(n) For square ln(n^2) 2.ln(n) d = ------- = -------- = 2 ln(n) ln(n) For cube ln(n^3) 3.ln(n) d = -------- = -------- = 3 ln(n) ln(n) The similarity dimension is a basic tool in studying fractals. If you think of the Koch snowflake, each side of the triangle develops into 4 smaller parts; scaled down to 1/3 size, the triangles are self- similar. Hence the dimension ln(4) snow flake d = ------- = 1.261... ln(3) ln(3) The Sierpinski triangle d = ----- = 1.584..... ln(2} ln(8) The Sierpinski carpet d = ------- = 1.892.... ln(3) ln(20) The Sierpinski sponge d = ------ = 2.726.... ln(3) ln(2) The Cantor set d = ------- = 0.630.... ln(3) The large dark areas of the Mandelbrot set are two-dimensional but the entire set, being not exactly self-similar, does not have a similarity dimension. On the other hand, the similarity dimension is only one of many that yield fractal dimensions. The boundary of the Mandelbrot set wiggles so violently as to be considered two-dimensional in the Hausdorff-Besicovich dimension. -Doctor Anthony, The Math Forum Check out our web site! http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
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© 1994-2015 The Math Forum
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Citizen Fear of Terrorism in the Americas
Increased sophistication, scope, and fatalities define modern terrorism and leave few corners of the globe immune from its threat. Terrorism (destructive attacks against non-military targets typically for political purposes) has had a greater presence in some countries in the Americas, such as Colombia and Peru, but terrorist acts have been recorded elsewhere in recent years including Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Even in countries that have not experienced significant terrorist attacks, many citizens express concerns about terrorism so that, on average, worry about terrorism in the Americas is relatively high.
(Image of bomb explosion in Buenaventura, Colombia by: Globovision Junio 2010)
Fear of terrorism is important because it affects the ways people think about others and about government. Merolla and Zechmeister (2009) show that the threat of terror can increase distrust and authoritarianism, change how people evaluate political leaders and affect preferences over the balance of power, civil liberties and foreign policy. This shows there is important reason to be concerned about the extent to which people in the Americas are fearful of terrorist attacks.
This Insights report provides a portrait of worry about terrorism in the Americas and assesses some factors that predict it. Respondents to the 2010 AmericasBarometer survey by LAPOP were asked the following question: how worried are you that there will be a violent attack by terrorists in [country] in the next 12 months?
Figure 1. Fear of Terrorism in the
Figure 1 shows mean responses (with confidence intervals) by country to this question, with responses recalibrated on a 0-100 scale, where 0 means “not at all worried” and 100 “very worried”. Mean levels of worry about terrorist attacks are above the 50-unit mid-point on the scale in ten of the 24 countries.
Not surprisingly, Colombia and Peru, two countries that have suffered from numerous terrorist attacks, are found in the top tier of the list of countries, with mean levels of worry of 67.3 and 63.0, respectively. The RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents reports 46 attempted and/or successful terrorist attacks in Colombia in 2009, most of which are attributed to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Fewer incidents were reported in Peru, but the country has nonetheless continued to see occasional attacks, typically attributed to the Shining Path, which serve as reminders of much greater levels of terrorism in the 1990s.
Interestingly, Ecuador and Paraguay are at the top of the list, suggesting high levels of concern about security in those countries. For Ecuador, this may be due to concerns about FARC activity within its borders. Levels of worry are strikingly low in Jamaica, Argentina, and especially Uruguay. While some might expect the United States to place higher, its placement in the middle of the scale can be attributed to the economic decline that rivaled for the public’s attention in 2010. The public’s concern about terrorism also likely had been dulled by nearly nine years of repeated terror alerts typically followed by little to no sign of terrorist activity.
What determines variation in levels of worry about terrorism in the Americas? For one, it appears that country context matters and it is possible that individual characteristics do as well.
Effect of the Rule of Law
Among the country level factors that may influence worry about terrorism, it is likely that the stronger the rule of law, the more protected citizens should feel from violence by terrorists or others. A weak rule of law could create a climate that foments extremist views and/or might act as a proxy for state failures in the realm of the provision of security.
In addition to country context, characteristics of individuals and the neighborhoods where they live can explain variation in levels of worry about terrorist attacks. It can be expected that worry about crime (perception of neighborhood insecurity) would correlate with worry about terrorist attacks. Also it is likely that those who have been previously victimized by crime, or have a household member who was victimized, will be more concerned about the possibility of a violent attack by terrorists. In terms of political ideology, it can be expected that those on the Right will be more worried about violent acts, in part because Latin American guerrillas are usually considered to the Left. Those with relatives abroad may have heightened perceptions of the risk posed by terrorism, given the prevalence of discussions about terrorism as well as terrorist incidents in both the United States and Europe, where most members of the Latin American and Caribbean diasporas reside.
Taking these multiple factors into account—and controlling for basic socioeconomic and demographic factors—results of our multilevel analysis show that those who live in smaller towns and/or more rural areas, those who are poorer, less educated and who perceive of their own economic situation in a relatively worse light are more concerned about terrorism.
Likely this reflects an important reality of terrorism: the typical terrorist attack in the Americas inflicts more harm on groups of individuals who are marginalized in these ways. We see also that women are far more concerned than men, and those with relatives abroad are more worried about terrorism—a reality that may reflect transmission of information from places abroad where the threat of terrorism on a daily basis is more palpable than it is in most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. As expected, variables measuring crime victimization, insecurity and having an ideology to the Right are positively related to worry about terrorism.
Turning to the country-level indicator, a country’s level of rule of law is indeed associated with worry about terrorism. Citizens in countries with lower rankings on the Freedom House Rule of Law scale are more worried about terrorism than citizens in countries where the rule of law is more secured. In short, the ability of a state to maintain well-functioning courts and security forces that ensure rights and oversee a relatively peaceful citizenry is key to promoting perceptions of protection from the threat of terrorism.
Worry about the threat of violent attacks by extremist individuals and groups is relatively high in many countries in the Americas, which is consistent with a reality in which both international and domestic terrorism is becoming more lethal, sophisticated and brazen. This is also a reality in which security concerns in general are quite high. When asked about the most serious problem facing the country, the 2010 AmericasBarometer survey shows that 29.6 percent of respondents in 25 countries in the Americas indicate an issue related to security.
Of course, not all individuals are worried about terrorism, and the overarching question was designed to take into account the fact that an important number of respondents would not have thought about terrorism.
There is important reason to be concerned about the extent to which individuals are worried about terrorism. A chief objective of terrorism is the spread of anxiety and various negative emotions, and research shows clearly that terror threat significantly affects political attitudes, evaluations and behaviors in ways that may stress democratic values, processes and even institutions (Merolla & Zechmeister, 2009).
Statistically, countries in which the rule of law is strong are those in which citizens are less worried about terrorism. It could be that such environments are less likely to breed extremists, either because efficient, well-executed, professional security policies act to prevent the growth of terrorist activity, or because such features and a general respect for individuals’ legal rights stymie attempts by extremists to convert others to their cause. Alternatively, our rule of law variable may simply proxy for the general state of security in the country, leaving individuals feeling more secure with respect to terrorism, but likely also other types of crime, in contexts where the rule of law is judged to be comparatively high.
Regardless of which interpretation, or whether a mixture of these interpretations, is most accurate, the results at least suggest the utility of a strong rule of law for promoting feelings of security.
1. The Insights Series is co-edited by Professors Mitchell A. Seligson and Elizabeth Zechmeister with administrative, technical, and intellectual support from the LAPOP group at Vanderbilt. The opinions expressed in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsoring organizations.
2. This is adapted from an article published by the same authors in the Insight Series. The full article is available at the Insight Series website.
3. Funding for the AmericasBarometer has mainly come from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Important sources of additional support were also the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and Vanderbilt University.
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Late in life, Pope John Paul II gave a series of interviews subsequently collected in the book Memory and Identity (2005). There, in response to a question about the pervasive ideologies that had swept Europe during the past couple of centuries, and which had resulted in the slaughter of millions, he contended that in order to explain all this,
we have to go back to the period before the Enlightenment, especially to the revolution brought about by the philosophical thought of Descartes. The cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) radically changed the way of doing philosophy. In the pre-Cartesian period, philosophy, that is to say the cogito, or rather the cognosco, was subordinate to esse, which was considered prior. To Descartes, however, the esse seemed secondary, and he judged the cogito to be prior. This not only changed the direction of philosophizing, but it marked the decisive abandonment of what philosophy had been hitherto, particularly the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and namely the philosophy of esse.
Before Descartes, philosophy was concerned with being (esse), with what was real and with the reasoning necessary to bring the mind to an adequate knowledge of that reality. Since Descartes, the concern has been primarily (even exclusively) with questioning the instrument of reason—that is, with analyzing thought. Citing this shift from metaphysics to epistemology as first philosophy was not an especially new observation.
What was new was the pope’s resurrecting this reading of intellectual history when he did. In the early twentieth century, the advocates of neo-Thomism (a renewal of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s method of philosophy and theology) chose this Cartesian “break” as the obstacle to be overcome: we must get back to the reality of being and out of the cobwebbed darkness of thought, where philosophy had in a sense languished, turning and turning upon itself, unable to gain any traction. The two best-known Catholic philosophers of the age, Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson, averred that, if one took the Cartesian cogito as the starting point for philosophy, one could never get outside it. Extra-mental being was prior to thought and consciousness: real things stir the intellect into activity in the first place, and so there was no reason to begin philosophy in thought. Thought, in a sense, begins in being.
Such an overtly counter-modern agenda had been abandoned by most Catholic philosophers and theologians after the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) in favor of roughly four projects: (a) historical theology, the study of the source texts and historical contexts of Christianity; (b) ecumenism, an effort to rearticulate Catholic doctrine in hopes of reaching out to other Christians, Jews, and non-Christians and moving toward reconciliation and cooperation where possible; (c) “relevant” evangelization, a turning away from speculative philosophy and theology in favor of trying to address the Gospel to varied generational and individual needs; and (d) philosophical and theological pluralism, in which theologians, abandoning the strict, some would say constricting, neo-Thomism of the previous half century or more, looked back to Patristic and other medieval traditions of thought in hopes of discovering other ways of thinking about the Revealed Word.
In many ways, John Paul II had played a supportive role in each of these post–Vatican II endeavors. As a philosopher trained in the Continental phenomenological tradition, he had distinguished himself in calling attention to personhood as the decisive terrain where the mystery and meaning of life must be addressed. Phenomenology’s prioritization in experience and subjectivity often seemed an advanced form of Cartesian philosophy, and certainly seemed to embrace the cognito and abandon esse. As pope, John Paul II scandalized traditionalists by praying with the leaders of other faiths and by emphasizing the inculturation of Catholicism into non-Western traditions. His failure to embrace the courtly practices of past popes, his very public travels, and his acceptance of rock-inspired liturgical music aimed at Western youth, patently set him apart from pontiffs past and raised many eyebrows. Was he placing the appearance of “relevance” ahead of the timeless truths expressed in doctrine?
In his major encyclical, Fides et Ratio (1998), John Paul II praised the achievement of these sorts of approaches to philosophy, theology, and evangelization, but far from suggesting they were achievements made possible by an abandonment of the traditions of Aristotelian and Thomist metaphysics, he suggested that these projects must be undertaken in the context of, and founded on, a sure philosophy of being. If theology lost its grounding in sound realist metaphysics, its truths would inevitably be lost-by-metamorphosis in the processes of inculturation and ecumenical rearticulation. If humanity in general lost confidence in being as the ground of reality and in reason as ordered to being, as the neo-Thomists claimed it was, then there would be no platform on which honest dialogue could occur among believers and nonbelievers.
We see the effort at reconciling what had been thought oppositional positions—Cartesian-inspired phenomenology and Thomist metaphysics—in the first chapter (“The Revelation of God’s Wisdom”). The pope emphasizes that it is in our particular, personal encounter with God’s revelation within the horizon of historical experience that all our reasoning takes place. In the personal interior experience of wonder and desire to know, and in the absolute universality and absolute historical particularity of Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word of God (§11–15), we wonder, we think, we desire to know the truth about ourselves and about reality. And, in that subjective experience, we become open to encountering in faith what God alone can reveal. In this account of human experience, the distinction between modern “subjective” philosophy and pre-modern “objective” metaphysics vanishes: what we, as subjects, want to know is the truth, that which is objective—unconditioned being, esse, what is real. All truth is universal, but our most profound natural questions call out for answers from a truth that is also absolute and so brings our inquiries—our infinite yearning—to rest (§27).
What stimulates the pope to write, however, is not merely a desire to reconcile competing but independently acceptable philosophical traditions. In the interview quoted above, after all, he suggests that modern philosophy contributed to the disasters of the world wars and the rise of communist and fascist ideologies that had taken turns torturing and dominating John Paul II’s native Poland for much of six decades. Post-Cartesian philosophy, with its impetus to doubt everything, to deny human experience and tradition, and to settle for nothing less than apodictic (self-grounded and self-demonstrating) “mathematical” certainty, ultimately led to a shrinking of mankind’s trust in reason and to a consequent shrinking of the horizon of human experience. If man is, as the pope claims, the creature who knows himself, then this emergence of a culture of doubt was itself dehumanizing. Persistent doubt, in turn, led not to the shelving of expired ideas but to a clearing of the field for evil ones.
Depending on which moderns one reads, man despairs of knowing the truth and despairs of life having meaning at all (e.g., Friedrich Nietzsche) or he refuses to give any further thought to the intractable problems that nonetheless reside at the very core of his being (e.g., David Hume). These amount to surrendering both the subjective and objective drives to philosophy: we decide we cannot know being and we consequently devalue the experience of human nature as a rational animal, as a creature who seeks to know the truth about himself. Thus, in the broadest context, the Pope summons us to thought in an age largely mired in nihilism (those who do think, believe nothing), pragmatism (the refusal to think in any terms outside those regarding what man can control or dominate), and historical relativism (the presumption that thought is always the useless expression of one’s historically contingent feelings; we thus assume anything is right to the extent it conforms to our pleasurable feelings, even as we recognize that the term “right” is mostly empty of content).
Contemporary philosophers and theologians manifest symptoms of this larger cultural malaise. The dominant figures in philosophy either shrink from or smile darkly upon the questions the pope sees as central to their discipline. Contemporary Continental philosophy takes its orientation from Nietzsche and, largely, sets out merely to describe what the world looks like to one who no longer believes in the integrity of the human person as subject or the integrity of the world as grounded in truth and being. Contemporary analytic philosophy could be called, in a sense, Humian, in that it gives up “idle speculation” about big questions and restricts its inquiry to describing the nature and function of statements in human language. It deliberately does not ask “big questions,” though it may explore the structure of a phrase like “big questions.” Neither of these traditions answers the subjective need to philosophize born of wonder, and neither leads us to a certain encounter with the foundations of being. Theologians since Vatican II, as we have seen, have also turned away from questions of reality in favor of a call to relevance that leads to relativism and a call to historical study that leads to a pedantic historicism. These theological turns distrust reason and consequently stop asking fundamental questions in favor of either seeking out facts (historical positivism) or of assuming an “irrational” or nonrational foundation behind theology (such as we find in Protestant and postmodern forms of fideism).
The pope’s summons proves extremely daunting: he wants a philosophy attentive to metaphysics in order to reground modern theology in a concern with reality—with objective and absolute truth. But, in 1998, he finds no one (or few) in contemporary philosophy turned toward the questions of being. Who any longer treats philosophy as founded in its sapiential dimension—that is, in its drive to explore the foundational human questions all persons need answered if they are to live fully (§81)? And who endeavors to arrive at philosophy’s “genuinely metaphysical range” (§83), its concern with being, with what is real? And so Fides et Ratio makes an intervention in philosophy in hopes of building up a population of philosophers who might, someday and in turn, help to rebuild modern theology as a discipline attentive to the foundations of reality rather than merely the phenomena of history or experience. Beyond analytic and Continental philosophy, we need, as it were, a renewal of “plain old-fashioned philosophy.”
Thus, the provisional nature of this encyclical. It makes insightful arguments about the history of religions and intellectual inquiry in general; it recovers a reading or narrative of history often dismissed as the alibi of an anti-modern Church; but in doing so it primarily makes the case for others to begin a new work: the rediscovery of human life as an intellectual and spiritual pilgrimage whose terrain is always what is real (being) and whose horizons are the specific historical revelation of God’s Word and the “infinite mystery” of God Himself (§14). We are asked to rediscover that the reason of “separate philosophy” leads finally to despair of reason. If, on the contrary, we recognize that reason is preceded by faith (as we experience, for instance, in the already present desire to know the truth about ourselves) and that reason is completed by faith (reason opens onto truths that, finally, surpass it and that it can see in only fragmented fashion) (§13)—we discover something grand. Reason participates in the human being’s circular journey from the gift of being and the gift of revelation toward a theological understanding of those gifts. It is man’s natural means of searching for a truth that ultimately transcends human life and reason alike and brings all searching to an end (§73).
In the years since the encyclical’s publication, the rise of the Radical Orthodoxy theologians—some of whom are Roman Catholic, but most of whom are Anglo-Catholic—suggests that John Paul II’s commission did not fall on deaf ears. John Milbank, their best-known representative, has called into question what he calls “secular reason,” the consensus view of reason in a “scientistic” liberal society. By this term, he intends the notion of reason as self-grounded in its own powers—a conception we often express in terms of rational “disinterestedness” and “objectivity,” and which we implement by insisting that it is only rational to affirm as true that which is based in verifiable empirical observation and thorough quantitative analysis. Like John Paul II, Milbank argues that human reason is conditioned by a faith prior to it and finds its completion in truths that transcend it. We misrepresent our own everyday reasoning if we think it is grounded in the empirically self-evident. We foil the aspirations of our reason if we close it off to truths given from a source beyond its control.
Radical Orthodoxy also recovers for theology the metaphysical dimension John Paul II called on philosophy to provide. But its metaphysics is chiefly that of Christian Platonism. Does this fully answer the call? It is hard to say, but I would suggest that if the demolishing of secular reason was long overdue, it does not necessarily entail the loss of what we might call “secular being.” John Paul II clearly believed as much. While he affirmed that reason is preceded and completed by faith—or rather, while he affirmed that the journey of faith “uses” philosophical reasoning instrumentally—he did not suggest that faith closes off the truth of the Christian from speaking to and hearing the nonbeliever. It is in philosophy, above all in metaphysics, that we discover the “only ground for understanding and dialogue with those who do not share our faith” (§104). Being is in this sense “secular.” We encounter it, and think in its terms, regardless of whether we perceive that our reason is grounded beyond itself and beyond being. If the surpassing of “secular reason” is not to prove yet another postmodern withering of reason, then it shall probably have to acknowledge the secularity of being—that being is the term all human intellects drink and is the primary act of the real. Only a philosophy that can meet this metaphysical challenge will answer John Paul II’s summons and help us to overcome the centuries of destruction, doubt, and diminished horizons that many persons still have the naiveté to call “progress.”
This article originally appeared on First Principles on April 15, 2010, and is reprinted with permission from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
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More specifically, your professor wants to know that you understand the concept of a logical bug (as opposed to a syntactic bug). The idea is that the program compiles, but does not produce the correct results.
An example: a program that is supposed to determine the maximum of 2 numbers input by the user, but instead outputs the minimum. The logical error is highlighted in red.
using namespace std;
int i1, i2, iMax;
cout << "Please insert your first number: ";
cin >> i1;
cout << endl << "Please insert your second number: ";
cin >> i2;
iMax = i1;
if (i2 < i1)
iMax = i2;
cout << endl << "The highest number was " << iMax << endl;
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Britannia.com Time Capsule
Take a journey back in time to the Panorama Archives....
Panorama Archives: 2000
High Tech Fish Farming at Leeds
By Michael Boyd
Technology being developed by an international team led by British
researchers will enable fish to be farmed with a system that not only
secures conditions suitable to grow fish intensively in a tank but is
also friendly to the neighbouring environment.
The world-first project at Leeds University, northern England will,
it is claimed, eventually solve the serious waste-disposal problems
that beset all types of budding mariculture.
It is expected to be of especial value to the massive hatcheries set
up in the Far East. In the longer term the system will also enable
sea fish to be farmed at coastal locations in the desert and help
provide people living in barren regions with a vital source of
protein and a valuable, if unlikely, cash crop.
The intensive fish-growing system being developed is said to be
suitable for setting up anywhere in the world. Environmental
geo-chemist Dr Michael Krom is coordinating the 600,000 pounds
sterling FAIR programme funded by the European Commission that aims
to produce a working system within 18 months.
Growing marine fish in artificial environments is difficult because
the fish produce nitrogen-rich fish waste has to be constantly
removed. Bacteria bio-filters can do this effectively but the
cocktail of chemicals in sea water means that the bugs can also
produce gas which poisons the fish.
In essence the bacteria use oxygen to convert the ammonia excreted by
the fish into the water into nitrate in a process known as
nitrification. But in a closed system where the water is constantly
being recycled, it is inevitable that the nitrate will continue to
build up until it becomes a problem. Solving this problem by washing
the nitrate out of the system with replacement water would only
pollute the marine environment.
The Leeds system is modular in design. One unit holds the fish, the
next is a sedimentation tank to separate out the solid particles, and
the third contains the bacteria in a bio-filter. All of this layout
is quite conventional in aqua-culture. Where this project breaks new
ground is by adding for the first time a new de-nitrification module
where the nitrates are converted into nitrogen gas.
"This has been done in fresh water systems and we say that there is no
reason why it should not work in a marine application," said Dr Krom.
"The reason that nobody has yet tried it is very simple. If you get it
slightly wrong and use up all the nitrate, the bacteria will switch
their attention to sulphate and convert it into sulphide producing
the very toxic gas, hydrogen sulphide."
To avoid this happening Dr Krom's team is developing a transparent
cartridge containing red iron oxide which is chemically similar to
rust found on some metals. That achieves three things. It removes any
hydrogen sulphide from the water and as it does this the iron oxide
turns black warning the operator that something is amiss. Finally, it
also removes phosphate from the system. Also under consideration is
the addition of another process stage where ozone is added to
sterilise the water before it is recycled back into the first module
that contains the fish.
The team is in the middle of extensive laboratory trials to
understand quantitatively how each individual module works. Should
there be any unexpected behaviour they hope to isolate the unknown
factors before scaling up to a small-scale, pilot fish-farm system.
This is planned to be built in the Negev desert at Eilat, Israel, and
will be home for thousands of sea bream. This phase will be carried
out in conjunction with Dr Amir Neori at the National Marine Culture
Centre in Eilat. Also playing an important part at this stage will be
Dr Jaap van Rijn at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who is an
expert in the operation of bio-filters in aqua-culture systems.
The computer modelling is in the hands of a father-and-son team of
Professor Henry Blackburn, a world expert on bacteria in the
environment, and Dr Nick Blackburn, an ecological modeller. Both are
from the University of Copenhagen in Elsinore.
The final scale-up before creating a commercial venture will take
place in Greece under Dr Antonis Kokkinakis at the Fisheries Research
Institute at Kavala, working with the Fisheries Association of
"What we are ultimately trying to do is create an international marine
agriculture in the same sense that we already have a mammal
agriculture,'' said Dr Krom. "Our present method of fishing from the sea
is playing havoc with the marine ecosystem. Not only are we
destroying the top predators but we are decimating the existing fish
stocks. This is why there has been a concerted move over the last 20
years to create a marine agriculture. We expect this project will be
a major contribution to this."
For information, contact:
Dr Michael Krom
School of Earth Sciences, Leeds University
United Kingdom, LS2 9JT
Back to the 1999 Archive
Copyright ©1999 Britannia.com, LLC Questions? Comments!
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| 0.906327 | 1,132 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Places in the centre of the Mediterranean sea, including Sardinia, Sicily and Malta, all receive a Mediterranean climate.
In the winter months, the Mediterranean locations are generally milder than further north, although probably not warm enough for serious sunbathing. Average daily maximum temperatures are about 15-16 °C (59-61 °F), with between 4 and 6 hours of sunshine each day. Sicilian and Sardinian dry days average about 23, whilst Malta is about 4-5 days wetter.
Springtime sees the temperatures warming up nicely, attaining an average daily maximum of about 23 °C (74 °F) by May. Daily sunshine hours will have increased to some 10 hours by the end of the spring, and on average there are between 25 and 29 dry days each month.
June, July and August are the major holiday months for the area, with long spells of fine sunny weather. Average daily maximum temperatures reach 30-31 °C (86-88 °F) in August on Sicily and Sardinia, but refreshing sea breezes tend to keep Malta 2 or 3 °C lower. The summer months tend to be dry, with only one or two wet days expected on average. Daily average sunshine levels out at about 11 hours.
September often tends to prove to be an extension of summer in the Mediterranean, but there soon follows a marked drop in temperature, daily average maxima falling to about 19 °C (66 °F) by November. However, that is not before the possibility of a visit from the 'Sirocco' warm wind, and the sea is still comfortably warm to swim in at first. By November, there are an average of 22 dry days, coupled with about six hours of sunshine.
Last updated: 22 May 2015
Climate and weather information for popular holiday destinations across the globe.
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In a reaction paper, the author discusses and responds to an article or articles s/he has read. The reaction paper requires you to understand the article(s), summarize its main points, show the relationship among the different readings (if it involves more than one article) and express your opinion. The opinion you express must be well-reasoned and based on a fair and accurate assessment of the articles. Your opinion should carefully weigh the arguments in the reading(s), evaluate the evidence and raise questions. The key to the reaction paper is the statement of your opinion or evaluation of the reading. Simply summarizing the reading is not sufficient, and would not meet the criteria for a reaction paper.
Reaction Paper Outline
a. Introduce the reading(s)
b. Introduce the main theme that you will be addressing in the paper
II. Information Summary
a. In a few paragraphs, summarize the information presented in the article(s). If there is more than one article, you may choose to summarize them together by selecting common themes, or you may summarize them separately.
b. Use direct quotes sparingly, and only if they convey something that cannot be paraphrased effectively.
a. Organize your opinion, critique or evaluation of the readings by theme. Each paragraph should address a specific issue. Remember that a critique does not necessarily mean you are saying the article is bad—you are providing an evaluation of the author(s)’ points.
a. The final section of the paper is your overall reaction to the reading(s). Was the reading a good choice? Was it informative to you? What did you learn or how did the reading affect you?
a. Provide a concluding paragraph that wraps up your main points. It should parallel your introduction and provide closure for the reader.
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| 0.921553 | 370 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Getting your students to take part in Chance to be Chancellor couldn’t be easier!
Paying for It Teachers’ Notes provides guidance on using Chance to be Chancellor in an enrichment day or over a term / half term in conjunction with Paying for It’s lesson plans. Below is a step by step guide for a 45-60 minute lesson in a classroom with ICT access.
Step 1: Starter (10-15 mins)
Open by asking students who is the Chancellor and what is the Budget. Use HM Treasury’s video (1:43) to explain afterwards. Follow up by briefly asking the students:
- How does the Government collect the money it spends?
- How does the Government spend public money?
- What challenges does the Government face in deciding how to collect and spend public money?
Step 2: Taking part (20-40 mins)
Explain that ‘Chance to be Chancellor’ is an online challenge asking young people what they would do if they had the chance to be chancellor? Depending on how much time you have, you can use the HOW IT WORKS and WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW sections to give the students a bit more context.
Ask students to visit www.chancetobechancellor.org.uk, and click on REGISTER. This is so that their entry can be officially counted and also so that they can go back to their entry to change it (and enter the video competition) at a later date. Students should complete the form and keep a note of their login details.
Once they have registered, they should click on ENTER NOW. This will take them to their brief which they should read and then click GET STARTED when they are ready.
Once students complete the challenge they will see a SUMMARY of their choices, which compares their budget to the Government’s. Ask students to remain on this page once they are finished.
You can then use the information on the YOUTH BUDGET page to explain how their opinions will be collated and published.
Step 3: What next? (5-10mins)
Ensure students have noted their registration details so they can return to their accounts. They can now take three further actions: suggest an idea for a policy, take part in the competition and share their budget.
Use the information on THE COMPETITION page to explain how they can take part in the video competition. Consider in advance whether you could set their competition entry as a homework task.
Here is a link to an inspirational article on using smart phones to make short films.
No ICT access?
Don’t worry – you can set Chance to be Chancellor as a piece of homework and ask students to bring in a print out of their summary page.
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Dengue fever (pronounced UK: /ˈdɛŋɡeɪ/, US: /ˈdɛŋɡiː/) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics, and caused by four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. It is also known as breakbone fever. The geographical spread includes northern Australia, northern Argentina, and the entire Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mexico, Suriname, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Barbados, Trinidad and Samoa. Unlike malaria, dengue is just as prevalent in the urban districts of its range as in rural areas. Each serotype is sufficiently different that there is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes (hyperendemicity) can occur. Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti or more rarely the Aedes albopictus mosquito, which feed during the day.
The WHO says some 2.5 billion people, two fifths of the world's population, are now at risk from dengue and estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year. The disease is now epidemic in more than 100 countries.
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Plenoptic Imager for Automated Surface Navigation
- Created: Wednesday, 01 September 2010
An electro-optical imaging device is capable of autonomously determining the range to objects in a scene without the use of active emitters or multiple apertures. The novel, automated, low-power imaging system is based on a plenoptic camera design that was constructed as a breadboard system. Nanohmics proved feasibility of the concept by designing an optical system for a prototype plenoptic camera, developing simulated plenoptic images and range-calculation algorithms, constructing a breadboard prototype plenoptic camera, and processing images (including range calculations) from the prototype system.
The breadboard demonstration included an optical subsystem comprised of a main aperture lens, a mechanical structure that holds an array of micro lenses at the focal distance from the main lens, and a structure that mates a CMOS imaging sensor the correct distance from the micro lenses. The demonstrator also featured embedded electronics for camera readout, and a post-processor executing image-processing algorithms to provide ranging information.
This work was done by Byron Zollars, Andrew Milder, and Michael Mayo of Nanohmics, Inc. for Glenn Research Center. For more information, download the Technical Support Package (free white paper) at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Physical Sciences category.
Inquiries concerning rights for the commercial use of this invention should be addressed to NASA Glenn Research Center, Innovative Partnerships Office, Attn: Steve Fedor, Mail Stop 4–8, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44135. Refer to LEW-18525-1.
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We know that smoking causes cancer, yet we still light up. We know that overeating causes obesity and diabetes, yet we still overeat. We know that exercise makes us healthier, yet we can’t resist the couch’s siren song.
We all want to be healthier, and we know how to become so. Yet we just don’t do it.
S.V. Subramanian, associate professor of society, human development, and health at the Harvard School of Public Health and a researcher at the Center for Population and Development Studies, has heard all of the theories explaining why living a healthy lifestyle is so difficult. We’re predisposed to pack on pounds to survive the famine that, in olden days, was certainly coming. We’re addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes and the fat in burgers, which get their hooks into us. Convenience is key: Who can drag themselves to the gym every day and cook healthy meals of nuts, fruits, and vegetables when the golden arches beckon?
Subramanian understands that those theories may help explain our resistance to things that are health promoting. Indeed, explanations based on the idea that we are programmed to be who we are and do what we do appear to be returning with some force in recent years with an explosion of genetics research.
But he feels that this has often come at the exclusion of other factors. In particular, the idea that our environments — the places where we live and work and play — may also be important.
“If it’s environment, then there are levers we can pull,” Subramanian said.
Subramanian has embarked on a study that will examine the link between health and location. The study will utilize several longitudinal nationwide data sets to get to the roots of the linkages between neighborhoods and health.
In doing so, he’ll compare health statistics such as those gathered by the Framingham Heart Study, which recorded health outcomes of three generations and followed people as they moved around the country. He’ll probe the age when healthy behavior is formed in the National Longitudinal Study for Adolescent Health, which examines 9- to 16-year-olds. The third data set is a national health and retirement survey of those 50 and older who were recruited in 1992 and revisited several times since then.
Subramanian also plans to use data from national geographic information systems (GIS) and plot the locations of businesses that might be detrimental to health, such as liquor stores and fast-food restaurants, as well as those that might be helpful to maintaining a more beneficial lifestyle, such as health clubs and parks. He can overlay that information with data from the studies and census data on income, race, and ethnicity, creating a rich picture of health and location.
“There’s a thought that poor neighborhoods are underserviced, but we don’t know if that’s true,” Subramanian said.
Subramanian, who received an investigator award in health policy research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to pursue this work, said the effort is like finding hot spots, places that are both socially and resource disadvantaged. In addition, he said, instances when these two aspects do not appear together may also offer interesting insights.
Though medical science often looks to intervene at the personal level — helping a patient to make healthy choices — the research may show that there are also effective interventions that can be made at the neighborhood level, such as tax cuts for health-related industries to move into a neighborhood, or incentives for nonprofits to conduct activities that encourage better health.
“What are the things that we can change about a place without having to move the people?” Subramanian said. “It’s an interesting public policy question: Should interventions be at the person level or a higher level, a school or neighborhood?”
One unusual wrinkle that Subramanian is planning to investigate is the extent that free will plays in people living in unhealthy neighborhoods. People generally choose the places where they live, and while some seek parks and good schools, others may select for other factors. Though there is a myth of social mobility in this country, Subramanian said it is actually quite difficult to change social class, and most people end up in neighborhoods like the one they left out of constraints or choice.
“We can learn about health-seeking behavior,” Subramanian said. “I want to quantify how much health and health-related conditions drive the choice of neighborhoods.”
Subramanian said examination of that last factor is important because it has been raised in critiques of other studies, and Subramanian wants to bring data to bear on it.
It’s important, Subramanian said, to understand that exposure to neighborhood landscapes doesn’t equate to taking a fast-acting pill or poison. Instead, effects of neighborhood conditions may lag exposure or accumulate over time. In addition, the life stage at which one is exposed may also matter. When the three-and-a-half-year study is completed, Subramanian plans to write a book on health and disadvantage in American neighborhoods.
“If you have an environmental exposure in a neighborhood, it’s not going to show up for a long time,” Subramanian said. “If you’re exposed in utero, it may not show up for 25 years.”
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Top Scientists, Government Agencies and Publications Have – For Over 100 Years – Been Terrified of a New Ice Age
April 16, 2012
There has been an intense debate among leading scientists, government agencies and publications over whether the bigger threat is global warming or a new ice age. As we’ve previously noted, top researchers have feared an ice age – off and on – for more than 100 years. (This post does not weigh in one way or the other. It merely presents a historical record.)
On February 24, 1895, the New York Times published an article entitled “PROSPECTS OF ANOTHER GLACIAL PERIOD; Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again”, which starts with the following paragraph:
The question is again being discussed whether recent and long-continued observations do not point to the advent of a second glacial period, when the countries now basking in the fostering warmth of a tropical sun will ultimately give way to the perennial frost and snow of the polar regions.
In September 1958, Harper’s wrote an article called “The Coming Ice Age”.
On January 11, 1970, the Washington Post wrote an article entitled “Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age – Scientists See Ice Age In the Future” which stated:
Get a good grip on your long johns, cold weather haters–the worst may be yet to come. That’s the long-long-range weather forecast being given out by “climatologists.” the people who study very long-term world weather trends.
In 1972, two scientists – George J. Kukla (of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory) and R. K. Matthews (Chairman, Dept of Geological Sciences, Brown University) – wrote the following letter to President Nixon warning of the possibility of a new ice age:
Dear Mr. President:
Aware of your deep concern with the future of the world, we feel obliged to inform you on the results of the scientific conference held here recently. The conference dealt with the past and future changes of climate and was attended by 42 top American and European investigators. We enclose the summary report published in Science and further publications are forthcoming in Quaternary Research.
The main conclusion of the meeting was that a global deterioration of climate, by order of magnitude larger than any hitherto experience by civilized mankind, is a very real possibility and indeed may be due very soon.
The cooling has natural cause and falls within the rank of processes which produced the last ice age. This is a surprising result based largely on recent studies of deep sea sediments.
Existing data still do not allow forecast of the precise timing of the predicted development, nor the assessment of the man’s interference with the natural trends. It could not be excluded however that the cooling now under way in the Northern Hemisphere is the start of the expected shift. The present rate of the cooling seems fast enough to bring glacial temperatures in about a century, if continuing at the present pace.
The practical consequences which might be brought by such developments to existing social institution are among others:
(1) Substantially lowered food production due to the shorter growing seasons and changed rain distribution in the main grain producing belts of the world, with Eastern Europe and Central Asia to be first affected.
(2) Increased frequency and amplitude of extreme weather anomalies such as those bringing floods, snowstorms, killing frosts, etc.
With the efficient help of the world leaders, the research …
With best regards,
George J. Kukla (Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory)
R. K. Matthews (Chairman, Dept of Geological Sciences, Brown U)
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Caravaggio and the Painters of the North
From 21 June to 18 September 2016
Mates was a painter working in Catalunya between 1391 and 1431 whose work falls within the international, Catalan Gothic style that developed around the figure of Luis Borrassá. Mates was an expressive painter who used contrasts of lines to model the figures, resulting in works that are primarily notable for their elegance and in which the influence of Franco-Flemish illuminators has also been detected. His style developed over the course of his career and became more mannered. Mates executed important commissions, primarily in Barcelona and also in Huesca. He completed the Saint Thomas and Saint Anthony Altarpiece for Barcelona cathedral, which had been left unfinished by Pere Serra on his death. Documented works by Mates include the Saint Martin and Saint Ambrose altarpieces, again for Barcelona cathedral, of 1411; the Saint Sebastian Altarpiece of 1417–25 (Museo Nacional de’Art de Catalunya); and the altarpiece of the high altar of the church of Santa María in Vila-Rodona of 1422
The. exact date of Mates’ death is not known, but he made his will in 1431. His son Jorge followed his father’s profession and became an apprentice in the workshop of Jaume Huguet in 1469.
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Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, comes to Jesus “by night.” (John 3:1-2)
Not “that night,” which would have made the detail another instance of John’s treating setting at first glance as mere overlay. It’s not that way here, even at first glance.
The place-and-time overlay in John is often loose fitting and follows the event, flapping like a cloak behind the event’s rush. (E.g., chapter 1’s “This took place at Bethany” and “It was about four in the afternoon.”)
Not here (or now).
In fact, Nicodemus’s two later, briefer appearances in John come with “by night” as an identifier: “the same came to Jesus by night.” (See John 7:50 and 19:39.)
In the later references that include “the same came to Jesus by night,” I expect the reader to react, “Oh, yeah, the coward.”
“Rabbi,” he said, “we know that you are a teacher sent by God.” (John 3:2, REB)
But Nicodemus’s first statement here prevents me from concluding that he’s a coward. Nicodemus begins, “we.” Not “I/they.” Not, “Look, I know you’re a teacher sent from God, but they don’t.” In the visible-brushstroke, impressionistic world of John’s writing, “we” contradicts the “by night” and thereby sets up a tension with “by night.” It’s all we need, or all we should need, or all we’re going to get, to explain the contradictions in Nicodemus and the contradictions we feel in fathoming him. Everything we later learn about Nicodemus, except for his need for time to process (okay, maybe that, too), is in the “at night” vs. “We.”
“Rabbi,” he said, “we know that you are a teacher sent by God.”
“We”: Does Nicodemus come as the Pharisee’s representative? Come by night because the Pharisees don’t want the people to know they wish to dialog with Jesus in a less confrontational way? Come by night because he’s not come as a representative and doesn’t want the Pharisees to know he’s come? Is Nicodemus conflicted? Or just busy?
The “by night”/”we” tension makes him rounder, makes him human, makes him more than torn, more than tentative. He chooses to associate himself with the Pharisees to Jesus, maybe even apologizes for them (“they realize more than you may realize they do”) or betrays them (“they realize you’re a legitimate prophet”), but it’s “we,” not “they,” as if he didn’t come by night.
Maybe three brushstrokes, and we have a character as round as any in literature. But the roundness, like the other important information in John, develops in the reader’s mind from what isn’t said.
John builds spaces like a poet. Or like an architect conscious of the visitor’s movement more than he is of his building or landscape.
Figure-ground theory states that the space that results from placing figures should be considered as carefully as the figures themselves. Space is called negative space if it is unshaped after the placement of figures. It is positive space if it has a shape.
Matthew Frederick, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (Thing #3). In John, space (the lack of information) feels negative, but I swear it’s positive. If creation argues that God exists, then John’s gospel argues that John exists. Just don’t assume John’s existence too quickly: you’ll miss out.
With “by night”/”we,” the tension and the space that adds to the tension don’t initially create a relationship, as it does with Nathaniel and Jesus and then with Jesus’ mother and Jesus (though we learn about all three from the relationships), but a character. With Nicodemus, John creates character development first and relationship second. And assuming John is not changing his literary ways, what does that say about Nicodemus?
[I’m reading John’s gospel. My reactions here vacillate between notes — a list of impressions — and something less sketchy. A note on nomenclature: the note number in my post’s title indicates the chapter of John’s material I’m reacting to. A title’s letter, though, differentiates the post from earlier posts about that chapter. “John field note 2c,” then, is my third post about something in John’s second chapter. N.B.: 12a may precede 3d: I skip around.]
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| 0.956012 | 1,156 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Objectives: In this tutorial, we define what it means to take a limit as the variable x approaches either infinity or negative infinity. We
investigate this concept from the numerical, graphical and symbolic points of
view. Using this concept, we define what is meant by a horizontal asymptote.
After working through these materials, the student should be able
- to understand the definition of what it means to say that x approaches infinity;
- to become familiar with the definition of a horizontal asymptote;
- to recognize graphically a horizontal asymptote; and
- to compute symbolically limits where x approaches infinity and the resulting horizontal asymptotes.
Let y = f(x) be a function. Suppose that L is a number such that whenever x is large, f(x) is close to L and suppose that f(x) can be made as close as we want to L by making x larger.
Then we say that the limit of f(x) as x approaches infinity is L and we write
Similarly, suppose that M is a number such that whenever x is a large negative number,
f(x) is close to M and suppose that f(x) can be made as close as we want to M by making x a larger negative number.
Then we say that the limit of f(x) as x approaches -infinity is M
and we write
In either case, we refer to the each of the lines y = L and y = M as a horizontal asymptote of the function f.
- Discussion [Using Flash]
- A LiveMath notebook to be used in graphically determining horizontal asymptotes.
- Using the example in the previous LiveMath notebook as a model, we make the following definition.
Let y = f(x) be a function. We say that the limit of f(x) as x approaches infinity is L
and we write
if, given e > 0, there exists N such that x > N
implies |f(x) - L| < e.
- An argument similar to that given in the previous example can be used
to show the following.
Let n be a positive real number. Then
- We can use this theorem to calculate limits of rational functions. Suppose that f = g/h is a rational function where the degree of the polynomial g is r and the degree of the
polynomial h is s. Let n be the larger of r and s. We divide
each of g and h by xn and then calculate the limit.
- We note the following limits:
Drill problems on finding horizontal asymptotes.
- Using a graphing calculator to numerically determine horizontal asymptotes.
- Problems in using a graphing calculator to numerically determine horizontal asymptotes.
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| 0.88479 | 598 | 3.875 | 4 |
SOME PRINCIPLES OF GRAFTING FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WEEPING TREES
Nelson R. Wilson
Plants may be grafted in a multitude of ways for many different reasons, but grafting is usually employed for one of the following reasons:
- To propagate plants which are difficult to propagate by cuttings;
- To join plants, the roots or shoots of each being selected for special purposes such as disease resistance and/ or adaptability to special conditions such as soil or climate;
- To invigorate weak plants, or repair damage;
- To allow one root system to support more than one cultivar;
- To produce clonal material usually on more vigorous rootstocks than itself; and
- To eliminate problems of structure, growth, and disease.
Grafting is widely used for the commercial production of fruit trees and a variety of other ornamental nursery lines derived from clonal selection. These include flowering fruit trees, elms, ashes, liquidambar, etc.
Grafting is also widely used to create "special effect" plants that could not otherwise be grown to display their best features. These "special effect" plants include most
ISHS members & pay-per-view
(PDF 219621 bytes)
IPPS membership administration
ISHS membership administration
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| 0.908504 | 273 | 3.15625 | 3 |
In the twentieth century there can be little doubt that electroplating
is the best way to develop a gold coating on a metal object. It provides
successful results in many colors and can be adapted to one-of-a-kind
or mass production. Knowing this, it might seem peculiar to devote the
following section to the ancient art of fire gilding. It is more time
consuming than modern methods, it requires more material, there is a greater
risk of failure, and it is a health risk unless performed under ventilation.
Why then should it be included?
For one thing, it is vital that the field of goldsmithing remember its
origins in order to keep the sense of history alive. For another, when
antique work is to be repaired or an exact replica made, modern techniques
simply will not do. There is a clearly visible difference between the
intense saturated layer of gold created in this process and the mechanically
different layer that results from electroplating.
SAFETY NOTE: Mercury evolves poisonous,
invisible vapors even at room temperature. As mercury is heated the vapors
are even more aggressively released. These vapors are absorbed through
the lungs and stored in the body; they cannot be cast off and therefore
accumulate. This means that even minor exposure will result in a health
risk eventually. The first signs of mercury poisoning are gum and throat
inflammations, nervous disturbances, irritability, general aches and pains,
muscle tremors, and fainting.
Mercury should be stored in sealed containers under water. Because mercury
can be absorbed through the skin, direct contact should be avoided; always
were thick rubber gloves and tight protective clothing. Because the vapors
are so dangerous only ventilation systems with the highest rating will
allow safe use of mercury. If any symptoms appear, stop work and see a
Making the amalgam The first step in the process is to make a paste or amalgam of gold in
a vehicle that will later be driven off. The amalgam will be made by joining
fine gold and mercury. It is widely known that the phrase "mad as
a hatter" comes from the brain damage that was common among tradesmen
who made hats because of the use of mercury in that process. Though goldsmiths
seem to have avoided the bad press, they are just as susceptible to the
neurological damage of mercury. Industrial strength ventilation is mandatory
for this process.
In order to provide the maximum amount of surface area, a sheet of fine
gold is rolled as thin as possible and then cut into tiny pieces. The
process resembles the cutting of solder chips but the pieces should be
much smaller. If the pieces curl this has the advantage of preventing
them from lying flat on the floor of the crucible.
It is impossible to mix mercury and gold by melting them together because
the mercury vaporizes at a relatively low temperature. Instead the two
metals are put into a mortar and pestle and ground together. The process
will be assisted a little if the gold and mercury are first put together
into a closed container and allowed to diffuse into each other. In order
to reduce the danger of exposure to toxic mercury fumes the grinding is
The process is among those that was well documented by Theophilus, Pliny
and other early writers about metalworking. The proportions given in those
ancient sources, still relevant today, are 1 part gold to 8 parts mercury,
or 11.1% Au/88.9% Hg.
A phase diagram of the Au-Hg system shows that the amalgam of this composition
has a liquidus temperature of about 290C (550F). As the amalgam cools
to temperatures approaching 124C, mixed crystals of the concentration
of about 22% Au, 78% Hg precipitate out of the melt. At 124C these mixed
crystals have a proportion of the entire mass of only about 17%, which
is to say that despite these crystals, the greatest part of the amalgam
is still fluid.
Upon further cooling a structural change occurs: the b-mixed crystals
transform themselves and there develop crystals of the intermetallic phase
Au2Hg3 (a concentration of about 39% Au; 61% Hg), which swim in the mercur-rich
At room temperature the mixture is about 37% solid Au2Hg3 and 63% fluid
mercury. The gold may be described as "floating" in the mercury
in the same way that crushed ice floats in water. This yields a spreadable,
pasty gilding material.
Even if the proportions are changed somewhat because of the burning off
of mercury, the mix will still work. If the proportion of gold were to
drop below 39% the mixture would start to harden, but this is very unlikely
as long as you start with initial mixture of 1 part gold; 8 parts mercury.
Working under a fume hood, the mercury and gold is heated to the boiling
point of the mercury (357C; 675F). More gold can be introduced into the
crucible at this point and the whole mass is stirred with an iron or titanium
wire until solid pieces of gold can no longer be felt.
The mix is poured into a basin of clear cold water at this point to force
a crystallization of the amalgam. Because of the rapid cooling the transformation
of the b-mixed crystals into the intermetallic phase Au2Hg3 is repressed
and the condition of the temperature zone between 290-1240 C is "frozen
in." It is this process that leaves the b-mixed crystals floating
in fluid mercury.
To remove excess mercury the mass is collected and set onto a square
of chamois leather that is then pulled up into a pouch and twisted tight
at the neck. Small drops of mercury will be wrung from the mass and should
be scraped off the leather. This is a very dangerous process because mercury
can be taken in through the skin. Wear heavy rubber gloves and work in
a fume hood! The finished amalgam should be pale yellow and as spreadable
Metals able to be gilded Mercury gilding works very well on silver/copper alloys like sterling
and it is no surprise that this was its most common use. These objects
- a layer of gold applied to sterling - are still called vermeil (ver-MAY), after the French term for fire gilding. It is also possible
to deposit a layer of gold onto copper, iron and bronze, but the surface
must be specially prepared first. In principle brass can also be gilded,
but the results are often spotty. To prepare iron and brass, a layer of
copper is deposited, either by electroplating or by immersing the work
in a saturated pickle. In the case of bronze, steel wire is wrapped around
the piece to hasten the plating reaction.
Preparing the article The article to be gilded must be perfectly clean, a state that is best
achieved with a bright dip of diluted nitric acid. The precise mix will
depend on the alloy being used but something in the range of a 50-50 mix
Immersion of a few seconds is usually sufficient to remove all grease,
dirt and oxidation. Longer dips are not recommended because they eat away
from the surface and leave it matte. The microscopic craters that result
from this etching will require extra gilding to fill in and are therefore
something to be avoided.
Quicking the surface Amalgam will adhere well to alloys that contain over 3/4ths silver. For
metals of lower silver content, including copper and copper alloys like
brass, a preparatory step called quicking is required. The preparation
of this chemical is described in Chapter
11, Section 2. In this process a layer of mercury is laid onto the
article first to provide a better adhesion of the gold amalgam.
Applying the amalgam The amalgam paste is spread onto large objects with a brass brush. For
smaller objects it can be more convenient to use a spatula-shaped steel
rod. Quick the end of the rod and pick up a mass of amalgam then spread
it onto the piece as you might spread butter.
It is wise to work over a dish that will catch the excess as it falls
off, and of course it is worth repeating that this process can only take
place under ventilation. Remember that mercury is always releasing harmful
Evaporating (literally, "smoking off") The traditional way to drive off the mercury is to warm the piece over
a charcoal fire. This will of course still work and has the advantage
of creating a gentle uniform heat. It would be possible, for instance,
to build a fire in an outdoor hearth, to set the work on a steel grill
and in this way remove the mercury. It would be unsafe to use this grill
for cooking food after this use.
In the case of ventilation systems, mercury causes a special problem
because it often precipitates onto the walls of the ventilation pipes
after it has been removed from the immediate vicinity. Even a properly
functioning ventilation system can be contaminated by mercury in this
way unless special filters are used. As mentioned at the outset, it is
no wonder that this process has been superseded by electroplating!
Over the fire the amalgam gives up the mercury, possibly turning into
a fluid coating if the heat is high enough. This is not required for the
process to work, nor does it cause a problem, but in large pieces like
vessels the work must be rotated to prevent the fluid from flowing down
the sides of the form.
When the mercury has been completely dissipated the surface will be left
with a pale yellow matte covering. If the coating does not appear complete,
additional amalgam can be added at this stage. The area is re-quicked,
fresh amalgam is applied, and the piece is heated. When the covering seems
adequate the piece is allowed to cool.
It is normal for 5-15% of the mercury to remain behind permanently bound
up with the gold, but if more than this remains the result is a pale color.
To avoid this the amalgam is heated further, but care must be taken not
to go so far that the gold fuses into the surface where it will make an
alloy with the silver of the article.Finishing treatment A soft golden color can be obtained through scratchbrushing, but it is
more common in fire gilding to seek a bright gold. This can be achieved
by depletion gilding; that is, by heating the article and immersing it
in pickle. A more uniform coating can be achieved by mixing the following:
Mix the three ingredients together with enough water to make a paste,
heating the whole to a boil to complete the blending. Apply the paste
to the gilded surface and suspend the work over a fire (or set it on a
screen and heat it with a bushy flame) until the paste has solidified
into a salty crust. The piece is then quenched in water, which will cause
the crust to break away and dissolve. The piece is then cleaned in a dilute
nitric acid bright dip and rinsed.
- 40% potassium nitrate
- 35% table salt
- 25% alum
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Tropical plants are categorized as such because of their low tolerance for freezing temperatures. These plants should only be grown out of doors in tropical climates with mild winters. However, weather can be a tricky thing. Even the Deep South can fall victim to a sudden, uncharacteristic freeze. And even a few nights of below-freezing temperatures can cause considerable damage to a tropical plant. However, if the damage is not too extensive, most tropical plants can be saved.
Wait until spring to treat frost damage. In the interim, if there is any danger of temperatures falling below freezing again, your tropical plants must be protected. Spread a 1- to 3-inch layer of mulch around the base of the plant to help it retain heat. Then cover it with burlap and secure the ends of the burlap by weighing it down with bricks. Remove any fruit on the plant as soon as possible.
Wait until the plant exhibits new growth to prune away the damaged tissue and leaves. Branches that produce new growth should not be pruned.
Check unproductive branches to see if they are dead. Use a sharp knife sterilized with bleach to make a shallow incision into each unproductive branch. If it is alive, the tissue underneath the top layer will be green or a light color. Do not prune any branches with living tissue.
Prune the dead limbs of the plant with a pair of sharp pruning shears sterilized with bleach. Prune these branches as close to the parent branch as possible so that no stump is left behind. Do not prune more than one-third of the plant at a time. Any remaining dead tissue should be left until next spring.
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| 0.930015 | 344 | 3.234375 | 3 |
The following is a summary of an article by Rhoda Reardon, John Lavis, and Jane Gibson.
What works and what doesn't when trying to get research into the hands of people who need it to make decisions? Researchers Rhonda Reardon, John Lavis, and Jane Gibson have put together a simple guide based on the evidence and experiences of practitioners in the knowledge transfer field. The guide is of particular value to individuals who want to disseminate research results.
From Research to Practice: A Knowledge Transfer Planning Guide is organized around five basic principles, or questions, developed to put the theory of knowledge transfer into practice. The authors recommend practitioners ask themselves 1) What is the message? 2) Who is the audience? 3) Who is the messenger? 4) What is the transfer method? and 5) What is the expected outcome? to put the five principles into action.
Five worksheets offer a step-by-step approach to answering those questions. What follows is a broad overview of the guiding principles related to each question.
What is the Message?
The message should communicate what the research means and why it is important. The guide identifies three different types:
- a message driven by facts or data;
- a message that expresses an actionable idea; and
- a message that can provoke discussion among the stakeholders but cannot direct decisions because the evidence is limited.
According to the authors, determining the message type can help with the decision of how best to communicate it.
Who is the Audience/Who Should be the Messenger?
The guide underscores the importance of targeting an audience (determining those best positioned to use the research results) and learning all there is to know about that audience before bringing researchers and decision makers together. Taking into account the impact of a proposed change on decision makers also improves the chance the message will be heard. The authors recommend practitioners consider the costs, resources, or expertise required and their
availability when crafting their message.
Another way to get their message heard, according to the authors, is to choose the right messenger. Credible messengers deliver results.
What is the Transfer Method?
Research shows the best way to get evidence into the hands of those who need it is to bring researchers and decision makers face-to-face. However, that's not always possible.
The guide identifies other ways to try to get research used by decision makers. These include offering lectures and educational materials; using reminder messages to prompt evidence-informed actions; designing interventions to overcome identified barriers; performing audits and providing feedback; directing evidence to respected opinion leaders within a given discipline to influence the actions of others; and encouraging patient involvement when it will
What is the Expected Outcome?
The guide also recommends practitioners define their expected impact, even if they don't intend to monitor the outcome of their efforts. This helps determine not only the scope of a given plan but also the best approach to use.
The guide asks practitioners to think about impact in terms of how much the information exchange could 1) change attitudes or awareness; 2) change policies; or 3) validate decisions already made. Electronic and media monitoring are offered as tools for assessing outcomes if practitioners are interested in finding out whether and how much their efforts paid off.
The principles outlined in the guide apply to all knowledge transfer initiatives, but the authors maintain they deliver the best results when ongoing relationships have already been established between researchers and decision makers.
Reardon R et al. 2006. From Research to Practice: A Knowledge Transfer Planning Guide. Institute for Work & Health, Toronto.
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| 0.913792 | 729 | 2.75 | 3 |
Start solving the world’s sustainability issues at summer camp! Teens empower themselves with knowledge through fun hands-on engineering projects and tours. Read More!
The UVM/GIV Engineering Institute summer camp enrolls approximately 100 high school students, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. "The Institute focuses on implementing sustainable engineering practices, which is the challenge all engineers and scientists currently face -- how to use global resources in sustainable and equitable ways," says Bernard "Chip" Cole, Interim Dean of the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. "These students will be empowered with knowledge on how technology impacts our world." Through hands-on engineering projects, laboratory experiences, faculty presentations, and enlightening tours, teenagers will work on real projects in project groups using systems approach solutions. Start solving the world’s sustainability issues now! Projects include:: Renewable/Sustainable Engineering, Robotics Systems, Aerospace Engineering, and Engineering Design Challenges. Each student will select a first choice project and will submit an essay delineating the reason why and how research in this area will impact our world. Recognition will be given for Sustainability, Benefit to Humanity, Cost Benefit Analysis, and Communications.
(From www.cems.uvm.edu)Read More!
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| 0.890728 | 260 | 2.765625 | 3 |
About The Charts and Nutrition Facts
- For accuracy, the calorie chart and fat chart are based on the biggest serving size available.
- These nutrition facts came directly from the USDA or manufacturer/restaurant.
- If you're using a calorie counter, remember that Fat, Carbs, and Protein calories are just close estimations based on the Atwater factors:
Fat: 9 cal/g Carb: 4 cal/g Protein: 4 cal/g
- Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Please remember this when using this information to make healthy food choices for your diet.
Calories - Total Calorie count at this serving size: 120 Calories. The calorie chart below shows the breakdown for Fat, Carbs, and Protein. In this case, Calories from Fat = 22, Calories from Protein = 8, and Calories from Carbohydrate = 88.
Fat - One serving has 2.5 grams of Total Fat. There are zero grams of Saturated Fat and unfortunately the Trans Fat amount was not listed for this food. The rest of the Fat (2.5 grams) is unaccounted for.
Cholesterol - A serving of this size contains no Cholesterol. This is good news if cholesterol is part of your healthy eating plan.
Carbohydrates - One serving of this food has 22 grams of Carbohydrate. A closer look reveals no Sugar and 2 grams of Fiber. Also, a serving of this size has 20 Net Carbs. Net Carbs are calculated by subtracting Fiber and Sugar Alcohols (if known) from the total Carbohydrate amount. This is useful to know if you are counting carbs or living with diabetes.
Protein - For Protein, one serving of this food has a total of 2 grams.
Minerals - We were unable to obtain the Iron and Calcium quantities for this food.This serving size contains 5 mg of Sodium.
Vitamins - The amounts of Vitamin A and Vitamin C are unknown for this food.
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Naturally fallen trees will become a dramatic artwork
A 'ghost rainforest' of huge tree stumps from the jungles of Africa is to form a dramatic artwork in London's Trafalgar Square.
The display aims to highlight the threat of deforestation.
It will surround Nelson's Column - which at 169 feet is about the same height as the trees while alive.
By night green laser beams will shine upwards to mark where the trees would have reached if they were still standing in their rainforest in Ghana.
The project is the brainchild of artist Angela Palmer who ventured to a remote logging camp in the west of the country to locate naturally fallen trees for the exhibit.
Her hope is to raise awareness of the rate at which tropical forests are being cleared and the resulting impact on global warming.
The destruction of tropical rainforests currently releases nearly one-fifth of all man-made greenhouse gases.
"Just as it is shocking to see a rhino with its horn hacked off, so it will be shocking to see these stumps - evidence of man's hand in an act that could devastate our world.
"For some people, the stumps may appear to be beautiful sculptures.
"But for others they'll evoke the stark landscapes of the First World War where only the splintered tree stumps remained."
The artwork has the support of the authorities in Ghana which after years of heavy logging became the first African country to sign an agreement with the EU outlawing trade in illegally-felled timber.
The stumps will be cleaned for shipping by one of Ghana's largest timber producers, John Bitar. A British firm, Timbmet, is helping with logistics.
One of Britain's leading rainforest specialists, Professor Yadvinder Malhi of Oxford University, is providing advice and plans to study the trees' roots.
In an operation starting at midnight on November 15, the 'ghost forest' will be hauled into position ready to be unveiled the following morning.
The office of the Mayor of London has given permission for the stumps to remain in Trafalgar Square for a week.
Oxford-based Angela Palmer hopes the artwork will then be moved to Copenhagen for the crucial United Nations conference on climate change in December. The fate of the rainforests will be high on the agenda.
"My intention is that on the last five days of the Copenhagen Conference, a lumberjack will chop the stumps into thousands of pieces - an unforgettable reminder to press into the hands of each delegate there."
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Purdue Physics seniors take to the sky to recreate 100 year old experiment01-04-2013
Purdue Physics senior Chris Kraner and the program's cosmic ray detector will travel in a hot air balloon in the early spring to recreate physicist Victor Hess' experiment from 100 years ago.
For new science to be discovered, bright men and women have had to think against the grain for centuries
Their bold ideas were often met with derision, even from fellow scientists.
A century ago, radiation was commonly thought to originate from the ground we walked on, the earth. Using primitive electroscopes to obtain their measurements, early 20th century scientists saw that the further you are from the ground, the weaker the readings became. They used the top of the Eifel Tower for this conclusion, which stands more than 1,000 feet in the air.
Austrian physicist Victor Hess sought to test further. He set up a hydrogen balloon flight, packed up his instruments and soared to an astounding 17,400 feet in the air — a dangerous prospect for any balloonist today but especially back in 1912.
The daring flights Hess endured saw radiation levels go down at about 2,000 to 3,000 feet but then dramatically increase the higher he went. Hess had discovered what would later be dubbed cosmic rays. He was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize for his findings.
What Hess found would help open the door to many other discoveries in nuclear physics. The electron had been discovered just 15 years before Hess climbed into the balloon. Cosmic rays were eventually found to be mostly protons with small percentages of alpha particles, charged particles, electrons and antimatter particles.
The Purdue Physics Outreach will recreate the balloon flight with Physics senior Chris Kraner and Stephen Claypool, a senior at McCutcheon High School, as the main passengers and scientists. McCutcheon is one of the many area schools Physics Outreach works with. McCutcheon physics teacher, Cheryl McLean was also one of nine teachers participating in a weeklong 2012 summer institute dealing with cosmic rays, their detection and analysis.
The students will be taking up a cosmic ray detector, a much more modern piece of equipment that what Hess got to use. The device is comprised of scintillation plates and photo multiplier tubes that send readings for a computer to translate. The device measures “counts,” which increase when levels of cosmic radiation are more intense. New with the 2012 software updates, the cosmic ray detector can now give real-time results and draw graphs as soon as the counts come in.
Reaching new heights
Claypool and Kraner have already tested their detector on the ground and in a four-seater airplane that soared to 9,000 feet. Claypool is looking forward to seeing how the machine works in the open air, floating at 10,000 feet.
“I’m a little bit nervous because I’ve never been in a hot air balloon before but I think it’s a really good opportunity,” Claypool said. “It’s really important to think of how a scientist that first discovered these things would have gone about it in modern days.”
The launch is set for “early spring” 2013, according to David Sederberg, director of Purdue Physics Outreach. It will either take place around Greater Lafayette or Indianapolis. Two central Indiana balloon companies, Midwest Balloon Rides and Stars and Heights, are aiding this project. They gave Sederberg the window of January through May but he anticipates it will most likely be by late January when Kraner and Claypool take to the skies.
Claypool and Kraner will be the only ones in the balloon but a basecamp of scientists will be on the ground, monitoring their measurements.
Science superstarMcCutcheon physics teacher Cheryl McLean selected Claypool for this event for his outstanding science work in and outside of class.
“He’s always engaged in modern science,” McLean said. “He has a love for it, an interest in it and he puts time in it. … He does his calculus two weeks in advance.
“When you have a student that is highly motivated to work independently like that, this is a natural thing for him to spend time on. That’s what you need: someone that will go above and beyond. And he’s really good with technology.”
Claypool’s science abilities are broad. He excels in most STEM-based classes. However, working with the cosmic ray detector combines his loves for computers and astronomy.
Claypool has been working with Purdue Physics since the summer and he plans on attending Purdue in the fall. However, the teen hopes to study Computer Information Technology with a specialty in Information Systems.
McLean is thrilled for Claypool’s opportunity to be a part of a project that goes far beyond a fundamental high school physics class.
“It’s really hard to teach a subject like chemistry or physics when you spend a year or two or three years on fundamentals,” McLean explained. “The current research is really exciting and it’s not in text books.”
“When we have an opportunity like this, not only does it help me to get connected to my colleagues to be connected to current research, it helps me bring the opportunities back to the classroom.”
Kraner, a native of Mishawaka, wishes he had such an opportunity when he was in high school.
“I could never dream of doing something like this in high school,” Kraner said. “We went up in the airplane a couple months ago and Stephen pretty much ran the experiment. I was just kind of there for some moral support. He did very well. It’s an absolutely fantastic opportunity for him.”
Kraner was chosen from his work in the Cosmic Ray Detector Program at Purdue Physics, as overseen by Prof. Matthew Jones. Hess’ landmark experiment was one of the reasons Kraner joined the program.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Kraner, who has done independent research on Hess’ experiment and the history of cosmic rays. “I’m really excited to do it. I’m a little hesitant on it, too, because I’ll be basically standing on a platform up high in the air. I’m a little worried about that but I think it’s going to be a whole lot of fun. I think it’s also really cool that we are doing this in the form of Victor Hess’ experiment. Really recreating that historical thing is something that is fantastic.”
Stephen Claypool spends some time with the cosmic ray detector at the physics and chemistry room at McCutcheon High School.
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From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
March 15: Julius Caesar's Birthday, Ironic Birthday Day (Italy)
- 35,000 BC - An unkown homo sapien pens Diary of a Caveman, a revealing look into caveman culture, fashion, and etiquette.
- 1895 - Oscar Wilde is convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor. He beats charges of assault and battery using rapier wit.
- 1952 - John Cage composes 4'33" and becomes widely known as "that douche who didn't play any music."
- 1967 - The first computer game is introduced, when Grandmaster Gary Chekov loses a game of chess to a large supercomputer.
- 2000 - The first Y2K doomsayers quietly come out of their caves and begin attempting to live normal lives; most fail and are ridiculed.
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Scientists have discovered a new type of silk that combines the legendary stickiness of barnacles with the strength of spider silk (which is strong as steel and five times less dense). But the new material doesn’t come from a lab—it’s made by the small shrimp-like animal Crassicorophium bonellii. These crafty amphipods spin the silk using their legs like spiders to fashion mud-coated tubes in which they live.
In a study published this month in the journal Naturwissenschaften, researchers from the Oxford Silk Group found that the silk is extremely sticky and can cement underwater, like the glue used by barnacles to stick to virtually anything. But it’s also strong and flexible, with a solid fiber core like that seen in spider silk. Also like many spiders, the creatures process and excrete the material from ducts in their legs, which they then use to spin it and fashion themselves a home.
The material is first made in a gland similar to that of barnacles. The researchers think the similarities to spiders, both in the strength/flexibility of the fiber and spinning process with the legs, evolved independently, since C. bonellii are more closely related to barnacles than arachnids.
Since the material can form bonds and retain its flexible strength in salty, watery conditions like those inside the human body, researchers say they think it could be used in a variety of biomedical applications. They also told the BBC insights into its structure could help design barnacle-resisant coatings for boats.
[Via The Economist]
Reference: Katrin Kronenberger, Cedric Dicko and Fritz Vollrath. A novel marine silk. Published online 5 November 2011. Naturwissenschaften. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0853-5
Image credit Katrin Kronenberger.
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Samuel Calmin Kohs (June 2, 1890 – January 23, 1984) was American psychologist who spent his career in clinical and educational psychology. At age 28, he developed a set of small variously colored blocks that are used to form test patterns in psychodiagnostic examination, the Kohs blocks.
Samuel Kohs was born in New York City]]. From 1918 to 1922, he was a professor at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, and at the University of Oregon. During this time, he was also a psychologist for the Portland Court of Domestic Relations. After he left Portland, from 1924 to 1926, Kohs was the executive director of the Jewish Welfare Federation in Alameda County, California. In 1925, he founded the Oakland Placement and Guidance Service. After he left the Jewish Welfare Federation in 1926, he served as the executive director for the Jewish Family Service Agency, in San Francisco. Leaving there in 1928, he relocated to Brooklyn, New York, where he worked for the next five years at the Federation of Jewish Charities. In 1928, Kohs became the eastern representative on the Jewish Committee for Personal Service in the state institutions of California. In New York City, he also served as the chair of the Dept. of Social Technology, in New York University]]'s Graduate School of Social Work. From 1938 to 1940, Kohs directed the Resettlement Division of the National Refugee Service (an organization now known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (or H.I.A.S.)). From 1939 to 1941, he worked on the Refugee Service Committee in Los Angeles, Calif. After he left the Refugee Service Committee, he worked as the administrative field secretary of the Jewish Welfare Board's Western States Division. He was employed in this capacity until 1956. During part of this time, from 1942 to 1947, Kohs was the director of the Bureau of War Records, in New York City. In addition to his time as the head of various organizations, Kohs also compiled information about Jewish participation in World War II; invented the Kohs Block Design Testthe IQ slide rule, and designed the Ethical Discrimination Test.
The Western Jewish History Center, of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, in Berkeley, California has a large collection of personal papers, documents, and photographs relating to Samuel Kohs, his work and to members of his family.
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Two years ago, Roger Deere traveled to an eastern Ohio coal town, where he visited a four-room Sears pre-fabricated house whose ceiling bowed down from the weight of all the stuff in the attic. The homeowner had died; a relative poking through the accumulation had run across something he thought might be of interest to Deere. Along with everything else, the attic contained the radio equipment for a B-17 bomber.
From This Story
Deere did not ask how radio equipment got into the attic. He did not want an explanation; he wanted the equipment.
In time, it will be placed in the Memphis Belle, a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress now being restored at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, where Deere is the chief of the restoration division.
During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces required heavy-bomber crews to complete 25 missions before they could go home. In 1943, having flown over France, Belgium, and Germany, the Memphis Belle crew became one of the first to reach that goal. After returning to the States in June 1943, the bomber and many of its crew served as the centerpiece of a 31-city War Bonds tour. Academy Award-winning director William Wyler documented the Belle’s service in a 41-minute color film (Europe.
The bomber retains its fame today. Those too young to remember it from the war may know its story from the fictionalized 1990 movie Memphis Belle, or from the B-17 (used in that movie) that now tours airshows in Belle markings.
The real Belle owes its present-day survival to a combination of romance and civic pride. In 1946, it was sitting with hundreds of other B-17s in Altus, Oklahoma, ready to be chopped up for scrap. A newspaper reporter learned of its fate and told Memphis mayor Walter Chandler; Chandler bought the B-17, originally costing $314,000, for the $350 salvage price as a way to honor the city’s namesake (“Memphis Belle” is a tribute to resident Margaret Polk, the pilot’s girlfriend). But after six decades, local groups concluded they could not raise the funds to complete a needed restoration. In 2004, the Air Force announced plans to relocate the aircraft to its national museum and finish restoring it.
The next year, two convoys trucked the disassembled aircraft to the cluttered World War II-era hangars that now house the restoration effort. When, five or more years from now, the work is complete, the museum will permanently display the Belle to visitors.
In 25 missions the Memphis Belle had its tail splintered, five engines shot out, and its body pocked with hundreds of holes from German flak. The worst damage, however, came in peacetime: Vandals made off with almost everything not fastened down; “Sometimes they pried things off the walls,” says Deere. The Belle is now missing most of the interior: the pilot, copilot, and navigator seats, the control yokes, and much more.
Finding replacements is difficult. While the United States built 13,700 B-17s, fewer than 100 remain. “There are structural parts we’re never going to find unless somebody runs across a B-17 sitting out in a field somewhere,” Deere says.
For some pieces, replacements are being fabricated. Molds have been made for the plexiglass in the top turret, and for an aft fuselage ring frame. The engines that came with the Memphis Belle’s other parts were not original to a B-17, so they’ll be replaced with rebuilds assembled from the museum’s substantial accumulation of aircraft parts.
The original cloth-coated wire is no longer made in the United States, so the restorers are buying it new in Great Britain. Though the wires will be out of sight, the restorers are intent on making the aircraft as authentic as possible.
As for the body, all the paint is being stripped. Paint, Deere says, “hides a lot of corrosion. We want to get it stripped down so we can undertake the structural repairs first.” The work is slow, in part because no chemical strippers are being used on the interior. “Manufacturers claim their chemicals are not corrosive,” says Deere. “Maybe it’s not corrosive now, but what about in five or ten years?” Working with the restorers, private-sector chemists modified an existing product into a sand-like dry stripper that addressed Deere’s concerns. The entire aircraft should be stripped by year’s end.
Besides revealing underlying corrosion, stripping brought to daylight more than 1,000 names inscribed in the aircraft’s tail and fuselage by the public during the bond drive. The names have been photographed; they will disappear again when the aircraft is repainted.
The aircraft arrived with several large patches on its tail. They were quick-and-easy fixes made with flat sheet metal; the original tail, however, had a compound contour. Those are much harder to fabricate.
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As the sun begins to set in the west tonight, the moon will rise in the east. This happens every night, but this evening a special occurrence will take place in the sky.
Perigee full moon, or supermoon as it has come to be known in recent years, will be in the sky tonight.
The moon will come within 222,000 miles of Earth and turn full around 7:30 a.m., making it the best time to view.
Perigee means when the moon is nearest to the Earth, said Darlene Smalley, program director at the USC Aiken DuPont Planetarium.
Supermoon was coined in 1979 by astrologer Richard Nolle. Nolle defined the term as “a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90 percent of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit.”
Basically, tonight’s full moon will be bigger and brighter. In fact, the moon will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual, according to NASA.
While the moon will appear 14 percent larger normal, skywatchers won’t be able to notice the difference with the naked eye. Still, astronomers said it’s worth looking up and appreciating the cosmos.
“It gets people out there looking at the moon, and might make a few more people aware that there’s interesting stuff going on in the night sky,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email to the Associated Press.
Supermoons are not a rare event. Each year, there are three perigee full moons.
“Perigee full moons occur in three consecutive months out of the year,” said Smalley. “This year it will occur in May, June and July.”
In recent years, perigee full moons have occurred around the time of natural disasters, such as the 2011 earthquake in Japan. This was followed by people blaming the supermoon for the destruction.
The moon is not to blame, Smalley said.
The only thing that will come as a result of the perigee full moon will be higher and lower tides. This occurs as the moon’s gravitational pull will be stronger due to the moon being closer to the Earth.
But, will you really be able to tell a difference between a full moon and a perigee full moon? Smalley said that, if you were to take a picture of the moon at perigee and a picture of the moon at a later date, you would see a difference.
The official moonrise will be Saturday at 7:56 p.m., and the moon will set Sunday at 5:26 a.m.
For those who miss the opportunity to see it tonight, there will be another chance to see it July 22.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The moon illusion
Due to a little-understood optical effect called the moon illusion, the full moon can seem huge when rising behind distant objects on the horizon. A supermoon could appear especially impressive.
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Today is Wednesday, April 30, the 120th day of 2014. There are 245 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office in New York as the first president of the United States.
On this date:
In A.D. 311, shortly before his death, Roman Emperor Galerius issued his Edict of Toleration ending persecution of Christians.
In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.
In 1812, Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union.
In 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis' five-year-old son, Joseph Evan Davis, died in a fall at the Confederate White House in Richmond, Va.
In 1900, engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad died in a train wreck near Vaughan, Miss., after staying at the controls in a successful effort to save the passengers.
In 1939, the New York World's Fair officially opened with a ceremony that included an address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1945, as Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.
In 1958, the American Association of Retired Persons (later simply AARP) was founded in Washington, D.C., by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus.
In 1968, New York City police forcibly removed student demonstrators occupying five buildings at Columbia University.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean, who was actually fired.
Thought for Today: "In America, getting on in the world means getting out of the world we have known before." -- Ellery Sedgwick, American editor (1872-1960).
In 1988, Gen. Manuel Noriega, waving a machete, vowed at a rally to keep fighting U.S. efforts to oust him as Panama's military ruler.
In 1993, top-ranked women's tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg, Germany, by a man who described himself as a fan of second-ranked German player Steffi Graf. (The man, convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, was given a suspended sentence.)
Ten years ago: Arabs expressed outrage at graphic photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. military police; President George W. Bush condemned the mistreatment of prisoners, saying "that's not the way we do things in America." On ABC's "Nightline," Ted Koppel read aloud the names of 721 U.S. servicemen and women killed in the Iraq war (the Sinclair Broadcast Group refused to air the program on seven ABC stations). Michael Jackson pleaded not guilty in Santa Maria, Calif., to a grand jury indictment that expanded the child molestation case against him. (Jackson was acquitted at trial.) Former NBA star Jayson Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of a limousine driver at his New Jersey mansion, but found guilty of trying to cover up the shooting. (The jury deadlocked on the second major charge, reckless manslaughter; Williams later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and served 18 months.)
Five years ago: Riding a crest of populist anger, the House approved, 357-70, a bill to restrict credit card practices and eliminate sudden increases in interest rates and late fees. Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection; the federal government pledged up to $8 billion in additional aid and to back warranties. The Iraq war formally ended for British forces as they handed control of the oil-rich Basra area to U.S. commanders. A man drove his car into a crowd of parade spectators in Amsterdam, killing seven people in an attempt to attack the Dutch royal family (the attacker, Karst Tates, died of his injuries).
One year ago: President Barack Obama said he wanted more information about chemical weapons use in the Syrian civil war before deciding on escalating U.S. military or diplomatic responses, despite earlier assertions that use of such weapons would be a "game-changer." The FDA lowered to 15 the age at which girls and women could buy the Plan B emergency contraceptive without a prescription, and said it no longer had to be kept behind pharmacy counters. Willem-Alexander became the first Dutch king in more than a century as his mother, Beatrix, abdicated after 33 years as queen.
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Editor's Comment: This study explains why patients with recurring or reactivated viral infections experience cycles of relapse and remission. The answer, according to the researchers, is that no special trigger is needed to induce viral reactivtion (known as a viral "blip"). The researchers propose that their model can be extended to autoimmune diseases, as well as to other diseases in which symptoms wax and wane.
Press Release: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, May 31, 2013
Philadelphia, PA—Recurrent infection is a common feature of persistent viral diseases. It includes episodes of high viral production interspersed by periods of relative quiescence. These quiescent or silent stages are hard to study with experimental models. Mathematical analysis can help fill in the gaps.
In a paper titled Conditions for Transient Viremia in Deterministic in-Host Models: Viral Blips Need No Exogenous Trigger, published last month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, authors Wenjing Zhang, Lindi M. Wahl, and Pei Yu present a model to study persistent infections.
In latent infections (a type of persistent infection), no infectious cells can be observed during the silent or quiescent stages, which involve low-level viral replication. These silent periods are often interrupted by unexplained intermittent episodes of active viral production and release. "Viral blips" associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are a good example of such active periods.
"Mathematical modeling has been critical to our understanding of HIV, particularly during the clinically latent stage of infection," says author Pei Yu. "The extremely rapid turnover of the viral population during this quiescent stage of infection was first demonstrated through modeling (David Ho, Nature, 1995), and came as a surprise to the clinical community. This was seen as one of the major triumphs of mathematical immunology: an extremely important result through the coupling of patient data and an appropriate modeling approach."
Recurrent infections also often occur due to drug treatment. For example, active antiretroviral therapy for HIV can suppress the levels of the virus to below-detection limits for months. Though much research has focused on these viral blips, their causes are not well understood.
Previous mathematical models have analyzed the reasons behind such viral blips, and have proposed various possible explanations. An early model considered the activation of T cells, a type of immune cell, in response to antigens. Later models attributed blips to recurrent activation of latently-infected lymphocytes, which are a broader class of immune cells that include T-cells. Asymmetric division of such latently-infected cells, resulting in activated cells and latently-infected daughter cells were seen to elicit blips in another study.
These previous models have used exogenous triggers such as stochastic or transient stimulation of the immune system in order to generate viral blips.
In this paper, the authors use dynamical systems theory to reinvestigate in-host infection models that exhibit viral blips. They demonstrate that no such exogenous triggers are needed to generate viral blips, and propose that blips are produced as part of the natural behavior of the dynamical system. The key factor for this behavior is an infection rate which increases but saturates with the extent of infection. The authors show that such an increasing, saturating infection rate alone is sufficient to produce long periods of quiescence interrupted by rapid replication, or viral blips.
These findings are consistent with clinical observations where even patients on the best currently-available HIV therapy periodically exhibit transient episodes of viremia (high viral load in the blood). A number of reasons have been proposed for this phenomenon, such as poor adherence to therapy or the activation of a hidden reservoir of HIV-infected cells. "If adherence is the underlying factor, viral blips are triggered when the patient misses a dose or several doses of the prescribed drugs," explains Yu. "If activation is the cause, blips may be triggered by exposure to other pathogens, which activate the immune system. Our work demonstrates that viral blips might simply occur as a natural cycle of the underlying dynamical system, without the need for any special trigger."
The authors propose simple 2- and 3-dimensional models that can produce viral blips. Linear or constant infection rates do not lead to blips in 2-, 3- or 4-dimensional models studied by the authors. However, a 5-dimensional immunological model reveals that a system with a constant infection rate can generate blips as well.
The models proposed in the paper can be used to study a variety of viral diseases that exhibit recurrent infections. "We are currently extending this approach to other infections, and more broadly to other diseases that display recurrence," says Yu. "For example, many autoimmune diseases recur and relapse over a timescale of years, and once again, the 'triggers' for episodes of recurrence are unknown. We would like to understand more fully what factors of the underlying dynamical system might be driving these episodic patterns."
Reference: SIAM J. Appl. Math., 73(2), 853–881. Wenjing Zhang, Lindi M. Wahl, and Pei Yu
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This book examines a wide array of current computer-graphics methods. Aimed at readers familiar with computer graphics and looking for a mathematically easy presentation of geometric modeling, it may be used in a classroom setting or as a general reference.
The practical text uses Mathematica
throughout. It includes many examples, exercises, and answers. It requires mathematical background including polynomials, matrices, vector operations, and elementary calculus, but no previous knowledge of curves, splines, or surfaces.
Basic Theory | Linear Interpolation | Polynomial Interpolation | Hermite Interpolation | Spline Interpolation | Bèzier Approximation | B-Spline Approximation | Subdivision Methods | Sweep Surfaces | Appendix A: Conic Sections | Appendix B: Approximate Circles | Appendix C: Graphics Gallery | Appendix D: Mathematica
Notes | Answers to Exercises
, Computer Science
, Modeling and Simulation
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|The Nizam of Hyderabad|
One of the few princely states that resisted integration into the Indian Union was the State of Hyderabad. Theb state of Hyderabad had a Muslim ruler and a mostly Hindu population (~85%). It was located in the south-central region of the Indian subcontinent, and was ruled, from 1724 until 1948, by a hereditary Nizam. In 1947, under the rule of the then Nizam, Osman Ali Khan, it was the oldest existing Muslim Empire in India. Although landlocked, with an area of over 200,000 sq. km and a population of over 16 million, Hyderabad was self sufficient in food, cotton and coal. The Nizam owend over 10% of the land of the state and most of the rest was owned by large landlords and very rich nobles. The bulk of the population, both Muslims and Hindus, worked as factory hands, artisans, labourers and pesants. The Nizam had ascended the throne as far back as in 1911 and was one of the richest men in the world.
In 1946-47, the Nizam was determined to continue his rule over the state after the British left. In his discussions with the viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, the Nizam emphasized that if pressed into signing the Instrument of Accession he would seriously consider joining Pakistan. Such an alternative if realized would cut the young nation into two halves. Experts pointed out that India might be able to live with its two arms in the Northwest and the Northeast cut off but may not survive without its midriff.
|Princely State of Hyderabad|
In the conflict the Indian Union was supported by the Hyderabad State Congress which pressed hard for Hyderabad to meger with the rest of India. Its leaders organized protests, rallies and courted mass arrests. The Nizam was supported by Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen (meaning 'Unity of Muslims') party which in 1946-47 was getting increasingly radicalized by its new leader, Kasim Razvi. Under him, the Ittihad had developed a militia called the 'Razzakars' whose armed members demanded an independent Hyderabad.
The Nizam's ambitions gained strength from the support of the Conservative Party of Britain. Even Winston Churchill stood in support of the Nizam and speaking in the House of Commons argued that Britain had a personal obligation not to allow one of its frinedly states that had declared its sovereignity to be strangled, starved out or actually overborne by violence. The Nizam and specially the Razzakars found further strength from the support shown by Pakistan. Jinnah had declared to Mountbatten that if Congress attempted to take over Hyderabad, every Muslim in the subcontinent would rise to defend it.
On 15th August, 1947, the same day India became independent, the Nizam declared the independence of Hyderabad. Alarmed by the idea of an independent Hyderabad in the middle of India, the Indian government offered Hyderabad a 'Standstill Agreement' which made an assurance that the status quo would be maintained and no military action would be taken. Under the agreement multiple discussions were held between Indian representative, K M Munshi and the Nizam's dewan, Mir Laik Ali. However no common grounds could be reached. By March, 1948 the Razzakar militia had grown in strength to over 1 lakh and the real power in Hyderabad had passed to Kasim Rizvi. The Razzakars saw the entire struggle in communal light while the Congress on the other hand saw it as a fight between democracy and autocracy. As months passed the tension grew as there were rumurs of arms supply to Hyderabad from Pakistan and the flood of Hindu refugees kept flowing into adjoining Inidian provinces.
On 24 August 1948, Hyderabad formally asked the Secretary General of the new United Nations Organization for its Security Council, under Article 32 of theUnited Nations Charter, to consider the "grave dispute, which, unless settled in accordance with international law and justice, is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security." This provoked the Indian Union to take military action before the UN could intervene.
On 13th September 1948 Indian troops invaded Hyderabad from all points of the compass in a campaign code named"Operation Polo" because at that time, Hyderabad state had some 17 polo grounds, the largest number in India. The fighting lasted four days and was mostly between the Indain army and the Razzakars. Around 32 Indian soilders were killed in the operation while the losses suffered by Hyderabad state forces and Irregular forces combined were 1,863 killed, 122 wounded, and 3,558 captured. On 17th September the Nizam spoke on the radio calling on the people of Hyderabad to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the people of India.
For his final accesstion to India, the Nizam was rewarded with the designation of Rajpramukh (governor) of the newly formed state of Hyderabad but resigned from this office when the states were re-organized in 1956 on linguistic basis and large parts of Hyderabad state went to Bombay State, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Many officials and members of the royal family fled and re-settled in Pakistan where they now live.
Razvi was placed under house arrest and tried under Indian laws on seditious activities and inciting communal violence. He was jailed 1948-1957. He agreed to migrate to Pakistan as a condition of his release from prison.His family had been residing there since 1949.
TIME Correspondent Robert Lubar, together with a LIFE reporter and photographer, set out in a hired 1935 Ford to have a look at the war between India and Hyderabad. The Indian army had undertaken a "police action" (which it also called a "mission of mercy") against Hyderabad, whose predominantly Hindu population was ruled by a stubborn Moslem Nizam. The would-be war correspondents sped 180 miles toward the front, found that the war was over by the time they got there. All in all, it had been one of the shortest, happiest wars ever seen. Cabled Lubar:
Everyone is satisfied. The aggressive section of Indian public opinion has been appeased. Hyderabad, which was never really out of India, is now indisputably part of India. There have been no terrible outbreaks of communal violence. The Nizam, who capitulated in four days and 13 hours, satisfied the demands of his ego for at least a token fight. Said Lieut. General Sir Maharaj Rajendrasinghji, the Indian generalissimo: "It is not our job to hurt anybody who is law-abiding." This presumably included the Hyderabad army. There were no casualty reports (by the best available count, twelve Indian soldiers were killed).
Just the same, eager Indian war correspondents sent back reports which turned up under headlines like NIZAM'S FORTRESS TOWNS FALL LIKE NINEPINS. The reports failed to mention that the fortresses had been built in the 15th Century.
"He Is Sorry." At the Hyderabad border we were greeted by Hindu peasants who were obviously all for the Indian "invaders." At Naldrug camp, where we breakfasted, soldiers were gathered around a radio listening to a rebroadcast of the Nizam's surrender speech. A soldier translated the gist to me: "He is sorry. He wants to be friends."
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Ted Steinberg. Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. xiv + 347 pp. $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-514009-5; $39.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-19-514010-1.
Reviewed by Mara Drogan (History Department, The University at Albany, State University of New York)
Published on H-Environment (April, 2004)
In the Classroom
On the first day of summer school at Baruch College in Manhattan, the twelve business students enrolled in my "Themes in American History" class informed me, in no uncertain terms, that they were taking my class only because it fulfilled a requirement. They were uniformly uninterested in history, they declared. My promise that our theme for the next six weeks--the role of the environment in American history--was an engaging and important one, and that our primary text--Ted Steinberg's Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History--was unlike other textbooks forced on them in the past was met with dubious silence. (Their blank stares and barely contained resentment will perhaps not be unfamiliar to the readers of this list.)
It was a far different group of students who assembled two days later, having read the introduction and first chapter of the book. "It's so interesting!" they exclaimed. "It's like a novel or something you'd actually want to read!" They said they had never thought of nature having a history ("I thought history was just dead presidents and stuff"), nor considered the ways in which the environment shaped people's choices and therefore affected the history of this nation and the world. Thus began a lively and wide-ranging six-week conversation on American environmental history. My students came to each class after a long day of work while the rest of New York City was watching baseball in the boroughs or swing-dancing at Lincoln Center, but their interest rarely flagged, thanks in large part to Steinberg's excellent work.
Down to Earth consists of sixteen chapters organized into three parts. A brief prologue challenges students to consider why U.S. history textbooks begin the way they do--with the Bering Strait or Columbus or Jamestown--and introduces the basic geology of North America. The three chapters in part 1, "Chaos to Simplicity," take the reader quickly from Paleoindians to the rise of the market in the early nineteenth century. The seven chapters in part 2, "Rationalization and Its Discontents," focus on key issues in the nineteenth century, including southern agriculture and slavery, westward expansion, conservation, and Gilded Age urbanization and industrialization. The six chapters in part 3, "Consuming Nature," move into the twentieth century and explore topics such as consumerism, environmentalism, and globalization.
Steinberg states in the introduction that the layout of the book corresponds to his thesis that there are three key turning points in U.S. environmental history: the arrival of Europeans on American shores, Jefferson's adoption of the Cartesian grid as the logic by which the United States would be settled, and the "rise of consumerism in the late nineteenth century" (p. x). He argues that "the transformation of nature into a commodity was the most important single force behind these shifts" (p. xi). In adopting an openly thesis-driven approach, Steinberg provides a useful pedagogical tool. Throughout the term, we returned again and again to these arguments to debate their strengths and weaknesses, offer other turning points, and consider how current events supported or challenged Steinberg's key arguments. Down to Earth is well written and provocative; each chapter spurs classroom debates and conversations. The chapters are sometimes uneven, yet for each student who criticized a particular chapter or topic for some shortcoming, several more students were quick to defend it as informative, interesting, or thought-provoking. Such debates enabled us to consider the role of evidence, values, and interpretation in the study of history.
My experience in using Down to Earth in the classroom was positive, but I would add some caveats in recommending Steinberg as the primary text in an undergraduate course. Because Steinberg takes a topical approach, students who are not well-versed in U.S. political and social history will need additional guidance in placing each chapter in context. This is easily done through lectures and supplementary readings, but I would strongly recommend that a future edition of Down to Earth include some basic timelines so as to make the book more classroom-friendly. Additional maps and pictures would also augment the text.
Similarly, every historian and teacher will quibble about key issues or events that were excluded. My students and I wished that more attention had been given to the colonial and early republican periods. The chapter on the Civil War was very strong, but we lamented that other wars were not given the same attention. Likewise, in the latter twentieth century, the military-industrial complex, space race, and nuclear industry receive very short shrift. Other readers will no doubt have other topics that they would add. But of course, this too provided an opportunity for learning as we debated why Steinberg made the choices he did and as students proffered their own suggestions for a second edition. But the very fact that they wanted to see a second edition is testament to the first edition's strength. (It was a singularly unique experience to have my students suggesting that a book should be longer.)
My experience working with Ted Steinberg's Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History was highly positive and I recommend it to other teachers looking for a stimulating and engaging text for the undergraduate classroom.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-environment.
Mara Drogan. Review of Steinberg, Ted, Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History.
H-Environment, H-Net Reviews.
Copyright © 2004 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at [email protected].
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A Brief History of E-coat
Even though E-coat has been with us since the 1930, it is mainly due to large interest and capital investment in the 70's by the automobile industry for primers that made it popular. Since then the technology has found its way into the more decorative and functional (non primer) single coat application like CLEARCLAD.
|-||Cathodics electropaints are stable except at high (alkaline) pH. Anodics are stable except at low (acid) pH|
|-||Electrolysis of water causes the cathode to become alkaline and the anode to become acid.|
Electrophoresis is a well documented process whereby electrically charged particles in a conductive medium will migrate to the electrode bearing the opposite charge under the influence of D.C. voltage. Although many technical descriptions of electropaint ascribe electrophoresis to the deposition process it is not the predominant mechanism. However, it is very common to refer to electropaint as "Electrophoretic"
An unfinished product is immersed in a bath containing the electrophoretic paint emulsion, and then an electric current is passed through both the product and the emulsion. The paint particles that are in contact with the product adhere to the surface, as described in the above mechanism, and build up an electrically insulating layer. This layer prevents any further electrical current passing through, resulting in a perfectly level coating even in the recessed parts of complex-shaped goods. The product is then removed from the paint bath and baked in an oven.
How does this compare to plating
Due to the insulating nature of the deposit as described above, it is possible to accurately control the thickness over the part. Whereas with plating and anodizing thickness is controlled by amp/time relationship;
With e-coat the thickness is controlled by voltage. Time is not as critical, as once the part is coated and insulated, no more coating will take place. Depending on surface area and complexity of the parts, most coating is easily accomplished with 2 minutes. This highlights one of the big equipment differences. Plating and anodizing require low voltage and high amperage rectification. E-coat requires high voltage and low amperage (1 sq. ft. draws 1.5 amps max) rectification.
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The Keystone State stood as the backbone of the Union arsenal — upheld by industrial achievements, natural resources, railroad systems and agricultural wealth. But more than 360,000 Pennsylvanians wore Union blue, and more African-American soldiers served in the Union Army under Pennsylvania than any other state. The most devastating effect of the Civil War was the total disruption of family and community.
Many of Pennsylvania’s historic sites, museums and monuments not only commemorate famous war personalities like President Abraham Lincoln and General Robert E. Lee, but they also tell the tales of the average soldier, household and community, giving visitors the chance to experience its rich history firsthand.
The National Civil War Museum addresses the war from both the Northern and Southern perspective while showcasing more than 24,000 artifacts, documents and photos, including General Robert E. Lee's personal Bible.
The Lackawanna Historical Society joins the Steamtown National Historic Site to present the Civil War Train to mark each year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Costumed Civil War generals will present short programs in Carbondale and Jessup and conclude with a meet and greet at Steamtown.
The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Reading, which houses The Central Pennsylvania African American Museum, witnessed the Civil War firsthand; the church was a stop on the Underground Railroad and the museum now contains artifacts relating to American black slavery.
Living history demonstrations at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site near Pottstown show visitors the severity of the Civil War — those who worked there produced pig iron for weapons.
Paying Tribute to the Infantry
Go on a journey through Pennsylvania’s hallowed grounds and discover the tales of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Civil War.
Join re-enactors and living historians as they march in Gettysburg’s annual Remembrance Day Parade and Illumination in November to commemorate those who lost their lives during the Battle of Gettysburg
Downtown Huntingdon is home to two important wartime figures: David McMurtrie Gregg and Horace Porter. Gregg played a pivotal role in securing the North’s victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, and Porter served as a personal aide to Major General Ulysses S. Grant. The nearby Riverview Cemetery is home to the graves of many Civil War Colored Troops, and more than 400 Civil War Veterans.
Bucktail Monument in Driftwood pays tribute to the Bucktails, or 700 soldiers of the 42nd infantry who fought in the Civil War. The Bucktail Regiment was engaged in numerous critical battles including Dranesville; the Seven Days Battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, New Market Crossroads and Malvern Hill; Second Bull Run; South Mountain; Antietam; Fredericksburg; Gettysburg; the Wilderness and Spotsylvania and finally, Bethesda Church.
All Men are Created Equal
If you find yourself in the city of Brotherly Love, visit the beautiful, historic building that houses the Union League of Philadelphia. There, you will discover Civil War-era collections that reflect the building's founding mission: to support the policies of President Abraham Lincoln.
Follow in President Lincoln’s tracks as he traveled through York County to give one of the most iconic speeches in history — the Gettysburg Address. Steam Into History and the William H. Simpson #17, a faithful-replica locomotive of the period, whisk you along the rails and back in time to relive the experiences of this historic era.
On permanent display at the Columns Museum in the Pocono Mountains is the Lincoln Flag — the 36-star American flag that was draped over the rail of the President’s Box at Ford’s Theater, and after he was shot, was placed under Lincoln’s head.
Visit the town of Columbia, where residents set fire to its bridge to stop the Confederate army’s eastward advance forcing the troops to head west instead — a pivotal change that eventually led to the Battle of Gettysburg and turned the tide of the Civil War.
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Ben Bernanke has said many times that Marriner Eccles, the head of the Federal Reserve in 1936/37 made a mistake by tightening credit (raising reserve requirements). Bernanke blames Eccles's actions for the 50 percent stock market collapse in 1937 and the second leg of the depression that followed.
Bernanke's interpretation of Eccles's actions is widely held by
historians. It was FDR who first (conveniently) blamed the Fed. I
think that Bernanke is also (conveniently) blaming Eccles. He is
using history's interpretation to support his position that
monetary policy must be set on MAX for the next three years. He
has said that he will not make the same mistake that poor old
Eccles was in a bind. His job at the Fed was to maintain relative stability of prices and the stock of money. In the years prior to 1937 money flowed into the USA from Europe. This "flight capital" fled to the USA in the form of gold shipments. The money came because the holders of wealth were anticipating a major war. With gold reserves rising, so did the supply of money. M1 increased 55 percent, and money in demand accounts rose 71 percent from 1933 to 1936. More troubling were rising inflationary pressures. In the first six-months of 1936, wages rose by 11 percent. Wages in the critical steel industry rose by 33 percent. These conditions would scare any reasonable Central Banker.
The Fed itself answered the historical question of whether the Fed's actions in 1936-37 was responsible for the 1937-38 double dip. In a research paper, (PDF Link) St. Louis Fed researcher Charles Calomiris concluded:
We find that despite being doubled, reserve requirements were not binding on bank reserve demand in 1936 and 1937, and therefore could not have produced a significant contraction in the money multiplier.
Much of today's monetary policy is based on the historical interpretation of the consequences of the Fed's actions. If the Fed was not to blame for the 1937 crash, then who/what was? In her book, "The Forgotten Man", Amity Shlaes provides some answers. She points to a critical speech by then Treasury Secretary Morgenthau on November 10, 1936:
The war against the Depression had required deficit spending. But the emergency is ending, and the domestic problems we face today are essentially different from those which faced us four years ago. We want private business to expand. We believe that one of the most important ways of achieving these ends is to continue toward a balance in the federal budget.
Morgenthau's comments 75 years ago (and the following cut backs
in federal spending that took place in 1937) remind me of where
we sit today. After four-years of spending like mad to fight the
recession/depression of 2008, the federal government has
committed itself to dramatic cuts in spending starting in January
of 2013. Coupled with those cuts are across-the-board tax
increases for every individual who has income.
In the book, Shlaes points to other factors that contributed to the crash of '37:
*The rapid rise of wages/raw materials in 36/37 led to a conclusion by many that corporations were going to face a profit squeeze. It was this threat that led to the 1937 stock market fall. We face a similar situation today. Rising commodity prices and global wages will impact consumers and company's bottom line. (Think Apple and Foxconn)
*Social Security was collecting money from every paycheck by 1937. This reduced disposable income and contributed to the recession. This is not unlike what we face in 2013 when SS taxes are scheduled to rise by 2 percent.
*FDR wanted to balance the budget. He raised taxes in 1937; this was a big factor in the decline of the economy. We face the same scenario in 2013 when large increases in taxes are scheduled.
*In November of 1936 Nazi Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Act with Japan and Italy. While there were many like Neville Chamberlain, who ignored the evidence that a war was coming, the financial markets did not. This too, has similarities with 2012.
I think we are about to re-make many of the mistakes of 1936/37. The programmed spending cutbacks, coupled with the many impending tax increases on 1/1/2013, will certainly cause a sharp contraction in economic activity.
Bernanke's Fed has sworn that it won't make the mistakes of 1936/37. But I've shown (and the Fed's own research confirms) that Fed policy was not the cause of the '37 crash. Bernanke is relying on a false interpretation of history to justify his monetary policy today.
We will face an economic slowdown due to lower federal spending, and at the same time, inflation will be rising as a result of the excessively loose monetary policy. Stagflation is in our future. Should this be the result, the historians will say that both the Fed and fiscal policy are to blame. In other words, we have not learned a thing from our past mistakes.
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Use of Poetry in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
| Use of Poetry in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
The use of poetry is a way in which people can express themselves in speaking or writing in a creative and meaningful way. In the film Dead Poets Society, starring Robin Williams, a man who is a teacher helps extend his students’ minds; he also implements their right to bold acts of love for life and poetry, while refuting society. There is a very strong use of poetry in William Shakespeare’s literary work The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Throughout this whole entire work the instances involving different kinds of poetry use are almost countless. The three most common examples of the use of poetry in this literary work are rhymes, rhythm, and sonnets. One of the more challenging aspects of catching certain types poetry use is rhymes because of the numerous ways in which this literary device can be used.
Rhymes are the repetition of accented vowel sounds in words that are close together in a poem. The use of rhymes in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is plentiful and strategically smart. There are many ways and forms in which rhymes are used in this story. The first way in which it is used is through couplets. Couplets are two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. William Shakespeare’s use of couplets throughout The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet can be found on almost every page and they can definitely catch one’s eye. Next are rhyme schemes used in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. A great example of the use of rhyme schemes is near or slant rhymes. A near rhyme is a rhyme in which the sounds are similar, but not exact. A great example of the use of a near rhyme in rhymes can be found in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in Act III, Scene 5, on lines 54-55. In this scene, where Juliet finds that her parents are getting her married to Paris and Romeo shows up unexpected at the Capulet house, Juliet says to Romeo, “O God, I have and ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low(3,5,54-55).” Lastly is the use of end rhymes in this work. End rhymes are rhymes in which the end of two or more words sound alike. Once again, the use of rhymes such as end rhymes can be found many times throughout The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. So as one can see, rhymes play a big part in the use of poetry. Along with the importance of rhymes in the use of poetry also comes rhythm.
The next aspect of the use of poetry in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is rhythm. Rhythm is the musical quality in language produced by repetition. The first example of the use of rhythm is the way in which the Capulets, mainly Lady Capulet, speak. Lady Capulet speaks with great rhythm and seeks purpose. To also add on to this she has many lines throughout the whole work, so her tone of rhythm can be easily identified. The next example of rhythm in the use of poetry is the manner in which the Nurse speaks. In the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet the Nurse is more of a mother-like figure to Juliet because of all the situations she helps her with and also all of the wonderful advice she gives Juliet. A great example of this is in Act 1, Scene 3, lines 59-62. In this scene, where Juliet, Lady Capulet, and the Nurse are talking about Juliet’s age and a possible marriage, the Nurse says, “Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace! Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed. And I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish(1,3,59-62).” Last is the rhythm which Romeo speaks with. Throughout this whole story, Romeo speaks with much caring love and compassion. This is most effectively shown when he is talking to his love, Juliet. Rhythm in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet helps to maintain and balance consistently varying feeling and mood in the story. Finally, besides rhymes and rhythm in the use of poetry in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, are sonnets.
This last facet in the use of poetry, sonnets, is truly effort-filled considering the extensive length which it contains. A sonnet is a 14 line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter. One of the types of sonnets is Shakespearean or English. This type of sonnet consists of 3 quatrains plus a couplet and has the rhyme scheme of: abab cdcd efef gg. The name of this type of sonnet pretty much says it all; it is almost guaranteed to find this type of sonnet throughout the story. The next example of sonnets in the use of poetry is the prologue to The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. This 14 lined sonnet carries much importance and is a great way to dive into the story comfortably. The prologue is as follows:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
The last example of sonnets in the use of poetry is the chorus. A chorus is usually a type of sonnet that sets the mood for the act. A chorus, in the case of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, always starts off an act.
The use of sonnets is just another example of how creative William Shakespeare is in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare is one of the most accomplished and skillful rhetoricians of all time. Through these three main uses of poetry, rhymes, rhythm, and sonnets, he was able to create a touching and very admirable work of art. The use of poetry can be used in more than writing, but also in everyday life. It is an artistic aspect of great meaning and tradition that can change anything from bland dullness to extravagancy.
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From the Sarasota Herald Tribune:
Arctic blasts like those that plagued Florida in 2009 and 2010 could become the norm in coming decades.
The culprit is something weather experts call "blocking," which occurs when high pressure locks in place and forces the jet stream to go around it.A blocked jet stream — the current of air that drives weather eastward around the northern hemisphere — can steer far south bitterly cold air that is usually confined to the Arctic.Some blocking is likely again in the Atlantic this year, sending Florida at least a few blasts of cold air, one researcher predicts. And it may happen more in the future, leading to more cold winters.
"It wouldn't happen every year, but it would be more common," said Anthony Lupo, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Missouri.Meanwhile, weather experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say a Florida drought is almost certain this winter. But the agency did not make a temperature forecast, partly because of the uncertainty over that Arctic air.Common weather patterns periodically make the jet stream shift. La Niña, for example, a phenomenon driven by cooler-than-normal seas in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, makes the jet stream move north. La Niña winters, such as this one, can sometimes result in slightly warmer Florida temperatures.But La Niña also helps to set up a bubble of high pressure over the eastern Pacific. That high pressure blocks the jet stream, forcing it to shunt Arctic air south into central Canada and the United States....MORE
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Writing Activities, Book Resources
Charlotte's Web Writing Prompt
- Grades: 3–5, 6–8
About this book
Writing: Add Captions
Point out that the illustrations in the book do not have captions. Have students work in teams to write captions for assigned pictures. Explain beforehand that a caption usually describes or identifies what is in the picture and may give additional information as well. Students can read their captions as the rest of the class looks at the illustrations.
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Due to the difference in manufacturing methods for the various plywood products, they can vary in weight considerably. Basically, since the resins and glues used to hold the wood together are heavier than the wood or wood fibers, the greater the percentage of glue or resin found in the plywood product, the greater the weight of the plywood.
Let’s start with the most common plywood product, softwood plywood. The APA (American Plywood Association) has created design specifications for the production of various plywood products. In it, they state that softwood plywood should weigh approximately 3 pounds per square foot, per inch of thickness. Actual plywood weight is slightly less, as the specification is for pre-sanded sheets. The organisation offers a bunch of technical informations and educative content. To compare and visualize the difference in weight and thickness, look at the following tables below.
Softwood Plywood weight chart:
In the next chart, we’re going to compare the weight of other plywood products to Softwood plywood. For the sake of simplicity, we’re only going to compare 1/2” thick plywood. Click to sort by plywood weight or percentage.
|Plywood Type:||Weight per Sheet||Percentage
(compared to Softwood)
|Softwood Plywood||40.6 lbs||100%|
|Hardwood Plywood||45 lbs||111%|
|Marine Plywood||50 lbs||123%|
|Particle Board||61 lbs||150%|
|Baltic Birch||48 lbs||118%|
Note the weight may greatly impact the price. Weight chart is closely related to price chart.
After selecting the type of wood, please enter thickness, width and length with appropriate units of measure (inch, foot, millimeter, centimeter, meter) in order to calculate weight. Results in pounds and kilos are available. Important note: as wood density varies depending on contents of moisture, tolerance for weight may be up to 20%. If you wish to use this calculator on your website, please contact us.
Select wood, enter thickness, width and length (e.g. 2, 3/4, 5/32), select units (e.g. inch, foot, cm)
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| 0.849142 | 481 | 2.734375 | 3 |
b. 3-13-1907; Bucharest, Romania
b. 4-22-1986; Chicago
Mircea Eliade, best known as a historian of religion, philosopher, interpreter of religious experience, and professor, also wrote fiction.
Eliade understood religion as the manifestations of the Sacred (hierophany) and his “Eternal Return” described religious behavior as both an imitation of, and paricipation in, sacred event restoring the “mythical time of origins” evident in cross-cultural parallels.
Eliade was influenced by Rudolf Otto, worked with Carl Gustav Jung, and participated in the Eranos group.
Mircea Eliade quotes ~
• “The crude product of nature, the object fashioned by the industry of man, acquire their reality, their identity, only to the extent of their participation in a transcendent reality.”
• “The Experience of Sacred Space makes possible the ‘founding of the world’: where the sacred Manifests itself in space, the real unveils itself, the world comes into existence.”
• “Myth is an extremely complex cultural reality, which can be approached and interpreted from various and complementary viewpoints.”
• “In short, myths reveal that the World, man, and life have a supernatural origin and history, and that this history is significant, precious, and exemplary.”
• “The great cosmic illusion is a hierophany.... One is devoured by Time, not because one lives in Time, but because one believes in its reality, and therefore forgets or despises eternity.”
• Mircea Eliade at Amazon.com
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| 0.939576 | 358 | 2.625 | 3 |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
In statistics, path analysis is a type of multiple regression analysis. The term path analysis has been used to refer to the analysis of causal models when single indicators are employed for each of the variables in the model. Other terms used to refer to this model are causal modeling, analysis of covariance structures, latent variable models, structural modeling, and structural equation modeling. In the hypothetical model below, the two exogenous variables are taken as correlated and are shown to have direct as well as indirect effects (through En1) on En2.
Using the same variables, alternative models are conceivable. For example, it may be hypothesized that Ex1 has only an indirect effect on En2, thus the arrow from to Ex1 to En2 would be deleted. It may be that the endogenous variables (dependent variables) are also affected by variables other than the identified exogenous variables (independent variables) and thus not in the model. The effects of such extraneous variables are depicted by the various e’s in the figure.
See Also Edit
- Causal analysis
- Factor analysis
- Latent variable model
- Multiple regression
- Structural equation model
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|
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| 0.901804 | 271 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Signs of an Unseen Planet
Published: June 23, 2005
An image of the star Fomalhaut taken by the Hubble Space Telescope gives strong evidence that an unseen planet is affecting its ring.
The center of the ring is offset 1.4 billion miles from the star, indicating that the gravitational pull of a planet with an elliptical orbit is reshaping the ring.
Diagram shows star, possible orbit of planet and offset dust ring.
(Sources by NASA; ESA; P. Kalas and J. Graham/University of California, Berkeley; M. Clampin/NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center)
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| 0.872399 | 129 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Thursday November 5 2015
The test can detect changes to blood DNA
"A blood test can determine whether prostate cancer patients are likely to respond to drugs," BBC News reports.
The test assesses whether men with prostate cancer have a good chance, or not, of responding well to a drug called abiraterone – a hormonal treatment designed to block the effects of testosterone, which can stimulate the growth of a tumour.
Many cancers develop resistance to abiraterone, so the drug can be ineffective, but still trigger a range of unpleasant side-effects.
This new test was designed to assess whether it was likely that a cancer was resistant to abiraterone.
The study looked for abnormal genes in DNA from prostate cancer tumours. which were found in the blood serum. The test made use of new technology, meaning that an invasive biopsy wasn't necessary.
In the study, men who carried an abnormal gene relating to the body's androgen receptors were much less likely to respond to abiraterone, compared to men without these abnormal genes. They didn't live as long, and their cancer got worse faster.
The researchers say their test could be used to help decide whether men would benefit from abiraterone, or whether they should take other treatments such as chemotherapy. However, as this was a small study (of just 97 men) more research is needed to be sure the test is reliable.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Trento in Italy, the Institute of Cancer Research in London, the Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Italy, the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and Weill Cornell Medicine in the US.
It was funded by grants from Cancer Research UK, Prostate Cancer UK, the University of Trento, the National Cancer Institute, the Movember Global Action Plan, and the Institute for Cancer Research.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine.
The Institute for Cancer Research, which employs some of the researchers and provided funding, makes the drug abiraterone. This is not unusual with pharmaceutical research.
The trial was covered well by the BBC and The Independent, both of which made clear that further research will be needed before the test can be widely used.
What kind of research was this?
This was a cohort study that looked for links between specific gene mutations in tumour DNA and the effects of the hormonal treatment abiraterone. This treatment aims to block the production of testosterone, as testosterone is needed for prostate cancer cells to grow.
Abiraterone is only effective for some men, so the researchers wanted to see if they could develop a test to predict which men it would be unlikely to work for, so that other treatments could be used instead.
What did the research involve?
Researchers collected blood samples from men with advanced prostate cancer, who had stopped responding to their first therapy, but had not yet started on abiraterone. They were able to analyse samples from 97 patients.
The researchers looked for different types of gene mutations in blood from the start of the study, and as the study progressed. They measured how the men responded to treatment, looking for links between gene mutations and how well the drug worked.
The researchers concentrated on looking for gene mutations which affect the cancer's androgen receptors. Abiraterone works by blocking these receptors, but genetic mutations affecting the receptors may stop the drug from working. The researchers captured DNA from the most common tumours seen with prostate cancer, while ignoring DNA from the body's cells.
They measured the response to the drug by looking at what happened to men's prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. PSA, which is also measured by a blood test, is a chemical produced by the prostate. It is normally present at low levels in the blood, but increases with age and if a person has prostate cancer.
The men were thought to have responded to the drug if their PSA levels had dropped by 50% (partial response) or 90%. Because PSA levels don't always translate into what happens to the cancer, the researchers also looked at how long before the men's tumours started growing again, and how long they lived.
What were the basic results?
The men who had mutations to the androgen receptor gene were much less likely to respond to abiraterone. They were five times less likely to have a partial response and eight times less likely to have a full response. They were also less likely to live to the end of the study (hazard ratio (HR) 7.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.51 to 15.34) or to reach the end of the study without their cancer beginning to grow again (HR 3.73, 95% CI 2.17 to 6.41).
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers say they have shown that genomic aberrations in tumour DNA are closely linked to results of treatment, and that the tumour DNA found in plasma in the blood may be a good indicator of mutations in the tumour that have become resistant to treatment.
They say this, "could suggest that patients with aberrant plasma androgen receptor should be selected for treatments such as chemotherapy or radiopharmaceuticals".
They add that this hypothesis needs to be tested in randomised controlled trials, to be sure this strategy would improve outcomes.
Abiraterone is an expensive drug, which can work well in some men, but not in others. NICE is yet to make a decision on whether it can be widely used on the NHS because of cost concerns.
The cost would be far more palatable if it was possible to tell in advance which men would benefit from using the drug.
This is an early-stage study that establishes an apparent relationship between certain gene mutations detectable on blood tests and the chances of a man benefiting from abiraterone after his cancer has progressed and is no longer responding to first treatments.
The results need to be confirmed in larger studies. The researchers suggest prospective clinical trials, in which men are selected for treatment on the basis of their test results, to see if this strategy helps men get the treatment most suitable for their tumour. This would be a big step towards "personalised medicine" for prostate cancer, in which treatments can be targeted at those most likely to benefit.
However, we do need to be cautious. Only 17 of the men had a complete response to abiraterone, and many who had no gene mutations related to androgen receptors either had a small response, or no response to treatment.
The study seems to identify a group who are less likely to benefit from treatment, but it does not follow that everyone who isn't in that group will benefit. We also don't know the effect of treating men who do have gene mutations with other types of treatment. It may be that they do no better.
This study gives hope that prostate cancer treatments may be better targeted in future, but there is some way to go before the test is used like this in practice.
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| 0.974167 | 1,474 | 3.171875 | 3 |
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