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How to improve your wireless signal
Summary: Find out how to optimise the strength of your wireless network signal.
If you're having problems with your wireless network, here's a few tips to help you improve the signal. Depending on your setup and circumstances, you might not be able to try everything we mention here. Don't worry if so, these are only recommendations so just do what you can.
1. Where does your router live?
2. Interference
3. What wireless channel are you using?
1. Where does your router live?
Finding the best position for your router can sometimes be tricky. There are two factors to consider:
• The best place for your broadband signal
• The best place for your wireless signal
The best place for your broadband signal
It's a good idea to connect your router to the master telephone socket (it's usually the one closest to where the telephone line enters your property). This becomes more important if you have a poor quality or long line. While you don't have to use the master socket, it's where you'll get the best broadband performance.
The best place for your wireless signal
For a strong wireless network with a clear signal, you'd ideally place your wireless router:
• Out in the open and away from the floor
• Close to where you'll be using your computer(s) (preferably in the centre of your property)
• Away from walls, metal objects and other electrical appliances (see Interference for more on this)
It's rare to be able to meet all of the above criteria, so you'll need to find the best compromise for your setup.
Remember that you don't have to use the master socket, so if your broadband works well in the other sockets in your house then feel free to use them instead.
2. Interference
Your router broadcasts using high frequency (2.4Ghz) radio signals. Like all radio signals it's possible for them to pick up interference.
Microwave ovens, security cameras, Bluetooth devices, cordless phones and baby monitors are common causes of interference so if you can't place your router away from these, be aware that you may have temporary problems when using them.
If you notice problems while using a cordless phone, a phone that broadcasts on a higher frequency, (such as 5.8 GHz, ask a retailer about this) should stop this from happening.
3. Your Wireless Channel
Interference can also be caused by other wireless networks. In the UK there are 13 'channels' (with each representing a slightly different frequency) available for use. Most modern routers will automatically detect the least busy channel and use that.
If you're having problems, it's worth checking that your router has chosen a clear channel to broadcast on.
Tools such as inSSIDer will show you how many routers are broadcasting in your area and the channel they use. Please note this is a third party application which we do not offer support for.
If you can see that your router is broadcasting on a busy channel, then it might be worth changing to a less common one. Generally you'll find the best performance on channels 1, 6, and 11.
If you're using a Plusnet router, see our Router guides for help changing the wireless channel and other advanced settings.
This page last updated 2nd August 2012
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New statute would make state witness tampering a federal crime
In the last 30 years, Congress has been feverishly adding new crimes to the federal criminal code. Now, it is criminalizing acts that are already criminal. State laws make it a crime to threaten, intimidate or kill witnesses in state criminal proceedings. However, the State Witness Protection Act, introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey, would make these acts separate, federal crimes in cases where the defendant crosses state lines, or uses interstate commerce facilities (such as mail or phone) in furtherance of the crime. Why the need to make federal crimes of acts that are already state crimes? For one thing, the new bill would give federal prosecutors the authority, effectively, to intervene in state prosecutions. And the new bill would ratchet up the penalties - it imposes a minimum penalty of 20 years, and 30 years in cases of attempted murder. And while it is politically difficult to take issue with efforts to be "tough on crime," this law would impose significant costs, further blurring the line between state and federal responsibility, and by further taxing a prison system that already jails more people than any other country in the world. Absent a compelling federal interest in supervising state prosecutions in this way, Congress would be wiser to let the states protect their own witnesses.
Related Entries:
Isaac Gorodetski
Project Manager,
Center for Legal Policy at the
Manhattan Institute
Katherine Lazarski
Press Officer,
Manhattan Institute
Published by the Manhattan Institute
The Manhattan Insitute's Center for Legal Policy. | <urn:uuid:10cee4b8-8225-4a91-b641-c59d2f2cf5db> | 2 | 2.078125 | 0.094393 | en | 0.925419 | http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/009002.php |
Chicago police use 'heat list' to prevent violence
The list contains 400 people from across the city who have been deemed by the department to be most prone to violence — either as a perpetrator or victim
By Jeremy Gorner
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Robert McDaniel was puzzled when the Chicago police commander dropped by his West Side home unannounced last month. The visit was cordial, but Barbara West's message was clear: Don't commit any more crimes or face the consequences.
Revealing that she had a folder on him back on her office desk, West told the 22-year-old that she knew his best friend had been slain last year in their crime-plagued Austin community. She cautioned that he could meet the same fate if he didn't change his ways.
McDaniel, who has multiple arrests on suspicion of minor offenses but only one misdemeanor conviction, learned to his surprise that he had made the so-called "heat list" with more than 400 others across the city who have been deemed by the department to be most prone to violence — either as a perpetrator or victim.
"I haven't done nothing that the next kid growing up hadn't done. Smoke weed. Shoot dice. Like seriously?" an incredulous McDaniel said while recalling the recent visit from police brass with a Tribune reporter.
With the help of mathematical analysis, Chicago police hope to home in on people it believes are most at risk of shooting someone or being shot themselves. The strategy calls for warning those on the heat list individually that further criminal activity, even for the most petty offenses, will result in the full force of the law being brought down on them. At the same time, police extend them an olive branch of sorts, an offer of help obtaining a job or of social services.
At least one criminologist said the department will have to take a long-term approach if it hopes to be successful with people who could be so deeply embedded in gang or criminal life that the threat of death or jail might not deter them.
The effort, funded by a federal grant from the National Institute of Justice, is formally known as Two Degrees of Association -- an acknowledgment of the importance of the interconnections among those involved in crime.
The department's efforts have been influenced by the work of Andrew Papachristos, an associate professor of sociology at Yale University whose research in the Lawndale and Garfield Park communities on the West Side found a homicide rate there more than three times worse than the Chicago average. The homicide victims in those areas, he learned, often shared similar backgrounds: lengthy arrest records, victims themselves of past shootings and arrests with others who also had been shot.
"If you hang around people who are getting shot, even if you're not actively doing anything, then you become exposed," Papachristos said in a telephone interview. "... It's just like sharing needles. It puts you at risk because of the behaviors of your friends and your associates."
Police officials said they came up with a heat list of about 420 names through a computer analysis, weighting numerous risk factors to come up with a ranking of people who in the worst cases were more than 500 times more likely than average to be involved in violence. Among the factors are the extent of a person's rap sheet, his or her parole or warrant status, any weapons or drug arrests, his or her acquaintances and their arrest histories — and whether any of those associates have been shot in the past.
"What we're trying to figure out now is how does that data inform what happens in the future," said Debra Kirby, chief of the department's bureau of organizational development, who visited some Austin homes of people on the list. "What happened yesterday may not be what happens tomorrow."
McDaniel, for instance, likely made the list in spite of his limited criminal background — misdemeanor arrests on suspicion of gambling, drug possession and domestic battery — because a childhood friend with whom he had once been arrested on a marijuana charge was fatally shot last year in Austin.
Interviewed at his Austin home, McDaniel said he was offended at being singled out by West, commander of the Austin police district. All the attention made him nervous because his neighbors noticed, leading them, he feared, to wonder if he was a police snitch. Two officers waited outside on the porch while the commander and a criminal justice expert spoke to McDaniel in his home.
"Like I said, I have no (criminal) background, so what would even give you probable cause to watch me?" said McDaniel, a high school dropout. "And if you're watching me, then you can obviously see I'm not doing anything."
A 17-year-old girl was shocked to learn she was among a handful of women on the list. Since police have contacted people only in Austin so far, the girl, who lives in the South Chicago neighborhood, hasn't been officially informed by police that she made the heat list.
The Dunbar Vocational Career Academy senior said she was arrested only once as a juvenile for mob action in the River North neighborhood.
"I'm not the bad guy," said the girl, who plans to attend college. "There's people out here doing stuff every day. And that (arrest) was years ago. I haven't been locked up ever since."
But the list proved prophetic in the case of Jacobi Herring, who was fatally shot this month as he walked home in his South Chicago neighborhood. The 21-year-old had just left a late-night party a few blocks from his home when he was gunned down at East 79th Street and South Yates Boulevard, an area known to residents as "Terror Town" because of its incessant gun violence and gang activity.
His uncle, Koland Herring, was not surprised to learn that his nephew was on the heat list, saying he succumbed to peer pressure in the neighborhood.
"He's not a hard-core gangbanger. He was never a shooter, burglarizing or stealing cars, anything like that," Herring, 49, said outside his nephew's home as friends and relatives stopped by to pay their respects to the South Shore High School graduate.
"Some of the people that he knew did. They're hard-core. And in order to get around and to be accepted out here ... you have to be around them."
Cook County court records show Herring was arrested only a handful of times, mostly on suspicion of trespassing and gang loitering. However, four others who were once arrested with Herring also made the list. In addition, another man who was once arrested with Herring was shot and killed in March in broad daylight. And Herring himself was shot in 2008 at 79th Street and Essex Avenue.
Herring's father, Floyd Redmond, recalled that the two had planned to attend the Bud Billiken Parade on the Saturday that Herring was killed.
"We talked about him getting shot all the time," said Redmond, 41. "I used to see my son hanging out, and I used to ride down on him. ... I feared for my son being out on these streets because I know what these streets are all about, man."
To kick off the pilot program last month in her district, West knocked on the doors of about two dozen people on the heat list in Austin over about a two-week period. Christopher Mallette of the City University of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who accompanied West door to door, said not all of the people were home, so they spoke to relatives and left letters warning those on the heat list of the consequences of continued criminal behavior.
After West talked about their criminal records and the dangerous crowd they hang around, Mallette offered them a chance to obtain job training, substance abuse counseling, better housing options or an array of other social services.
Some were more receptive than others.
"Some of them ... acknowledged, 'You know what? He's a bad seed.' We had two or three people say, 'Thank you for doing this,'" said Mallette, who wore a bulletproof vest his first night out with West. "It's not a threat. We're giving you information. Not just the law enforcement information ... information that there's no excuses for anyone to be out there shooting and killing."
But Arthur Lurigio, a psychology and criminal justice professor at Loyola University Chicago, said the message could be a hard sell, particularly the warnings of a police crackdown if necessary.
"Young men entrenched in a criminal lifestyle are fatalistic and are generally undeterred by the prospect of future punishments," he said.
A Tribune reporter who later went to some of the Austin addresses on the heat list found out that a number of the people didn't live at those locations or were locked up.
For instance, Daniel Hill, 21, is serving two consecutive four-year prison terms for selling heroin. His mother, Bridget Hutcherson, said she never got a visit from West, but she wasn't surprised to hear that her son had made the list. She said he is autistic and started getting into trouble in his early teens.
"If you're selling drugs or you get convicted of selling drugs, it more likely is associated with a violent crime," Hutcherson, 38, said from her front porch.
Next door lives Yvonne Carroll, who identified herself as legal guardian to Terry McCoy, 20, who also made the list.
Carroll wasn't surprised to hear McCoy was singled out because he's in the Cook County Jail awaiting trial related to a 2012 armed robbery case. But she questioned the value of the list and wondered if police were merely profiling her son.
"They stereotype a lot of the blacks anyway," said Carroll, who is African-American. "The black community is not the only community that has violence. They have it in other neighborhoods, but ... they don't stereotype it like that like they do in the black community."
But police officials defended the list, noting that the names aren't chosen randomly.
As for McDaniel, in spite of his misgivings over being named to the list, he's considering taking Mallette up on his offer of social services, especially because he has a 2-year-old daughter and another child on the way.
But he insisted he doesn't belong on the department's radar.
"As far as them trying to make me a product of their work," he said, "I don't too much appreciate that."
Copyright 2013 the Chicago Tribune
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
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Genetic advancement relies heavily on information. Researchers first must identify and isolate a gene for certain traits, before they can select for those traits.
"The most important area in genetics today is discovering individual genes that control economic traits of interest," says Max Rothschild, Iowa State University geneticist and U.S. pig genome project coordinator.
Rothschild says some of this technology is already being used to impact production, citing reduction of the porcine stress gene and increase in litter size as examples. The future will hold more of this. For example, Rothschild believes the industry will see a reduction in the negative form of the Napole (or Rn) gene within the next year or so.
These breakthroughs may be only the tip of the iceberg. "I predict that the rate at which genes are discovered will start increasing," says Rothschild. Here's an example of some projects in the works at Iowa State
University alone:
• A study is underway involving the Berkshire and Yorkshire breed effects on meat quality. Researchers are looking at the regions in the genome that affect meat quality, specifically: pH, water-holding capacity, tenderness and more. Six genetic companies as well as the National Pork Producers Council and the Iowa Pork Producers Association are cooperating in the study.
• A $700,000 multi-state, multi-institution grant is targeted for gene sequencing. Researchers hope to find 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of genes and then prioritize these to map out some 2,000 new genes. Reproductive genes will be the focus. The two-year project will start this fall.
• An ongoing project is developing practical on-farm programs to optimize selection for genes.
• Researchers are looking for genes that deal with feed efficiency, particularly feed intake as it relates to appetite. Some gene mutations in humans and mice can cause severe obesity. The theory researchers are investigating is if you can genetically select sows for feed intake, for example, you can better control body condition.
Further down the line Rothschild sees genetic efforts to reduce manure. Early signs of this come from Canada where researchers have created a genetically engineered pig that produces manure with lower phosphorus levels than "normal" pigs. This was achieved by transferring one gene from bacteria and another from mice into pigs, allowing the pigs to extract more phosphorous from their rations.
For now, here is a snapshot of some current research that may impact production on your operation today or sometime in the future.
Ultrasound Part of Heat Detection's Future
Ultrasound technology has long been used to monitor human pregnancies, so if the technology applies there, why not with sows and gilts?
University of Missouri researchers have been using ultrasound to check for ovulation in sows and for ovary examination.
"It used to be difficult to understand what was happening in the ovaries of a pig because you couldn't palpate. If the sow didn't come in to heat, you didn't know why," says Matt Lucy, University of Missouri animal scientist. "Ultrasound gives producers an option to understand what's happening inside the sow."
Lucy and colleagues Tim Safranski, Bill Lamberson, and Cynthia Bracken say ultrasound has been very accurate and it conserves time. However, the equipment is expensive and the practice remains a few years away from being practical for most producers.
"Operations with 600 sows can pay for a machine by pregnancy checking," says Safranski. "But then everybody who uses ultrasound for pregnancy diagnosis say it makes them a better heat checker, and detecting that second heat is where the machine really pays for itself."
While the scientists say these new techniques have great potential as a diagnostic tool, they're not ready to use as a production tool just yet. You should not attempt the heat-checking procedure without proper training.
For heat checking, the readings are taken rectally. The probe is attached to a one-inch plastic PVC pipe that's 24 to 26 inches long. The pipe has a 40 to 45 degree angle located 3 to 4 inches from one end and a 20-inch long 1/2-inch wide groove for the probe head and cord cut from the angled end.
The probe is attached to the handle by standard 1-inch wide athletic tape. It is lubricated before inserting into the gilt.
The Missouri research team uses an Aloka 500V ultrasound machine and a 7.5 MHz linear probe.
Bracken recommends placing a scoop of feed at the front of the restraining crate and allowing the gilt to enter on her own.
Gently insert the probe into the gilt's rectum with the probe head facing down. This may or may not stimulate the animal to defecate. If not, the feces will need to be removed in order to get a good ultrasound image.
It is important to insert the probe slowly and gently to avoid tearing the rectal wall. If the rectal wall is perforated, peritonitis will develop and kill the gilt within two or three days.
After you've inserted the probe, slide it over the pelvic bone and locate the bladder, which will appear as a large black circular structure on the ultrasound screen. To locate the ovaries turn the handle so the probe sweeps across the area on either side of the bladder. The ovaries are most easily detected when healthy follicular development is present. Follicles will appear as a cluster of small black circles on the ovary's surface.
If the gilt is cystic, the ovary will be covered with large follicles that may cover the whole ultrasound screen with a black honeycomb appearance.
It is not usually necessary to examine both ovaries as development is generally the same. Looking at just one ovary, you can check about 25 animals in an hour, or about one every 2 minutes if they are in crates, according to Bracken. Again, this is not a procedure you should try without training.
So far, there are only a few machines that can use a probe to measure backfat as well as convert to pregnancy and ovulation checking. These machines tend to be even more expensive than those with a single use. In the future, the machines may become cheaper or more versatile, and therefore a more practical production tool.
Type of ovary Ultrasound appearance
Type I Anestrus Numerous small follicles
Type II Anestrus Numerous small follicles 2 to 5 mm diameter. Flaccid cervix.
Estrus Turgid cervix, follicles 7 to 8 mm diameter, few small follicles.
Near ovulation Less turid cervix. Triangular follicles, 7 to 8 mm diameter, few small folicles.
Recently ovulated Less turgid cervix. Ovary without follicles, may see developing Corpora lutea.
Ovulated >3 days ago Corpora lutea with some small follicles (2 to 3 mm). Flaccid cervix.
Cystic 15 to 30 mm follicles. May also have Corpora lutea. Flaccid cervix.
Source: Matt Lucy, University of Missouri
ESR Gene Effects Expand
It's well known that the estrogen receptor gene can have a positive effect on litter size. Now, the same is holding true for reproductive traits.
"Early trends show that with the ESR gene, more fetuses survive to become pigs, a sow's uterus is longer and heavier, and the ovulation rate increases," says Keith Irvin, Ohio State University animal scientist. "These are all important components in determining a sow's reproductive ability."
Irvin says results look promising, but he needs to collect more data to form definite conclusions. One drawback is that the data collection process is slow and tedious. Here's the
routine. Once a sow's DNA is genetically identified and she is bred, she is slaughtered 75 days into gestation. Then Irvin removes and evaluates the sow's reproductive tract.
In his study, Irvin used 107 sows with two, one or no ESR genes in their DNA. He collected data on ovulation rate, uterine-horn length, number of fetuses, fetal mass, uterine mass, number of mummies, fetal sex, fetal placement, fetal survival and fetal space.
Results show that the beneficial form of the ESR gene had a positive impact on fetal survival, uterine length, total fetal weight, number of mummies, fetuses per horn, horn length and fetal space. Again, Irvin stresses that more studies are needed before the results can have statistical significance.
If more tests show that the ESR gene is economically beneficial, Irvin says you may be able to use it as a selection tool.
Currently, testing a sow's DNA involves collecting a blood sample and having it analyzed at a genetics lab. Some easier methods are being studied, such as collecting a DNA sample from clipped tails or ear notches.
Iowa State geneticist Max Rothschild originally discovered the ESR in 1991. His studies, based on nearly 10,000 litter records, show that by selecting for the ESR gene, you can improve your litter size by 0.5 to 1 pig per litter.
In addition, Rothschild's work on the ESR gene was chosen for a national R&D 100 award. Criteria for the award, given by R&D magazine, is based on the idea, its invention and its uses.
Sperm Sexing Speeds Up
It's not available yet, but technology that will let you choose the sex of pig litters is advancing rapidly. That means producing all-gilt market hog groups that produce lean, meaty carcasses is closer to becoming a reality.
Lawrence Johnson, head of the Germplasm and Gamete Physiology Laboratory at USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md., has improved the sexed sperm sorting technology he invented about 10 years ago.
"We have been able to increase our sorting speed by 15 to 20 times," Johnson says. "Now we can sort about 12 million X (male) and Y (female) sperm in an hour." Of course, that's still short of what's needed in a single artificial insemination semen dose.
To sort the male sperm from the female sperm, Johnson uses a fluorescent dye that sticks to the sperm's DNA. The dye binds to the sperm based on how much DNA the X and Y chromosomes are carrying. For example, male sperm carry about 3.6 percent more DNA in the X chromosome than in the Y.
Johnson can sort sperm faster now because he and his colleagues developed a new nozzle that attaches to the cell sorter that helps orient and sort the sperm. He also is using a higher-speed cell sorter. His accuracy runs between 90 percent to 100 percent.
In a recent experiment, eight litters of pigs were born using sorted female-chromosome sperm. Pigs in the eight litters were 98 percent female.
Still, the increased sorting speed isn't enough for commercial artificial insemination use in swine. A single AI semen dose contains 2 billion to 3 billion sperm, and most of you use more than one dose per sow. For now, most pigs born from sexed sperm come from sows implanted with in-vitro fertilized embryos.
Research is underway to bring the technology closer to everyday use. Johnson says researchers in his laboratory and elsewhere are working to determine how few sperm can be used to produce a pregnancy. If fewer can be used, artificial insemination using sorted semen might be more viable. Other researchers are looking at devices and methods to improve insemination by delivering the semen to the best location inside the sow.
Johnson's colleagues at ARS also are working on improving technology to freeze embryos. That could aid the entire embryo collection and transfer process and, again, would promote the use of sexed sperm – in this case, sexed embryos.
Johnson is optimistic that both of these technologies soon can advance to the point of commercial use. "If work progresses, we might be there in two to three years," he says.
Keeping Nature in Artificial Insemination
Although sperm still play the key role in impregnating sows, they need some help to do their job. Researchers are discovering that what enters the sow along with sperm also is important.
Kevin Rozeboom, North Carolina State University animal scientist, is studying the uterine inflammation that occurs in sows immediately after being bred and how that affects breeding success. He's found that having enough seminal plasma – everything in semen except the sperm – can minimize harmful inflammation and give the sperm some time to hit its mark.
"Post-breeding uterine inflammation appears to be an important method of clearing out the uterus and getting it ready to implant fertilized eggs – if it's properly regulated by seminal plasma," Rozeboom says.
The idea is that you can't take all of nature out of breeding – natural mating involves seminal plasma and uterine inflammation. The potential problem involves today's artificial insemination practices: when semen is extended into individual doses, seminal plasma can actually become diluted to a point where it can't do its job.
"When semen is extensively diluted, it appears to make the uterine inflammatory response bigger," Rozeboom says. That can negatively affect subsequent inseminations and embryo survivability.
In one experiment, for example, one set of females received extended boar semen containing no seminal plasma while another group was inseminated with sperm suspended in seminal plasma. Both sets had inflamed uteruses prior to the experimental insemination. Farrowing rates were about 30 percent higher in the group receiving the seminal plasma.
AI doses timed late in the cycle also can cause reproductive problems because of the inflammation process. Late inseminations caused a 20 percent drop in farrowing rate in first- and second-parity females. It also dropped the average litter size by 1.1 pigs per litter in females that actually farrowed.
"We've found that the sow can't clean out the uterus in time, and you're affecting embryo preparation," Rozeboom says. "But when sufficient plasma is in the semen dose, it actually speeds up the uterus clearance, and gives producers a little cushion."
Rozeboom's first advice is to work on heat detection – try to understand your herd's estrual behavior. Secondly, consider more than just sperm numbers when you're extending semen into doses. Take into account the percent of seminal plasma that will be present in each dose once it's extended. Rozeboom's research indicates each dose should contain about 12 percent seminal plasma.
Let's say you have 50 billion sperm in 100 milliliters of the ejaculate with which you're working. Normally, you could extend that into 20 AI doses to get a typical sperm count of 2.5 billion sperm per dose. But don't forget to consider the plasma: each of those doses would then only contain about 5 percent of the seminal plasma. Keeping it as close to 12 percent as possible will help fertility.
"Especially watch if your boars produce a lot of sperm with little volume, because the dilution could make the plasma percentage farther off," he says. | <urn:uuid:82a05964-4181-4e9f-a76e-773ce1baeec0> | 4 | 3.578125 | 0.028194 | en | 0.939518 | http://www.porknetwork.com/pork-magazine/features/genetic-progress-tipping-the-genetic-iceberg-114006119.html |
more... AdvancedLessonsChordsMarch 2009
Quartal Harmony
from Jody Fisher's Mastering Jazz Guitar Chord/Melody
In conventional harmony, we use chords that are constructed primarily from stacking 3rds. In quartal harmony, chords are constructed by stacking 4ths.
Chords built with 4ths have a sort of rootless character, making them rather ambiguous in regard to key centers. They have no standardized names so we will name them with the lowest note of the chord. If the bass is F, and there are a total of three notes a 4th apart, we will call the chord “F quartal 3.” If there are four notes in the stack, we will call it “F quartal 4,” and so on. Quartal chords can be used to harmonize melodies which would ordinarily be harmonized with a minor chord.
Quartal chords can also be used to create tension in a progression.
The previous examples used pure (perfect) 4ths. It is possible to employ what we call diatonic 4ths as well. When harmonizing a major scale in 4ths we need to make adjustments to the chords to stay within the bounds of the diatonic key. In the example below we are building quartal 3 chords in C. Notice that when we come to the seventh degree of the scale we use a Bb to make an augmented 4th instead of a Bb, which would make a “pure” perfect 4th. We make this adjustment to stay in key since there is no Bb in the C scale. At times you might find it preferable to use chords built from “diatonic” 4ths. It’s really a matter of taste, so experiment.
The following chart shows the chord shapes for the quartal chords in C, and what happens when we invert these shapes. | <urn:uuid:3bbf8942-79cc-444b-9caa-b3c2e91c9b37> | 3 | 3.375 | 0.105806 | en | 0.938925 | http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Quartal_Harmony |
HANOI, Vietnam—Vietnamese authorities said Saturday they detected the last signal from a missing Malaysia Airlines flight off Vietnam's southwest coast over the South China Sea.
Pham Hien, a Vietnamese search and rescue official, said that the signal was detected 120 nautical miles (140 miles; 225 kilometers) southwest of Vietnam's southernmost Ca Mau province.
Lai Xuan Thanh, director of Vietnam's civil aviation authority, said that the plane was over the sea and bound for Vietnamese airspace but air traffic officials in the country were never able to make contact.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 carrying 239 people lost contact early Saturday morning between Malaysia and Vietnam. | <urn:uuid:1dbe45aa-57e7-4dde-9bd1-9ce237204cdc> | 2 | 1.554688 | 0.038552 | en | 0.92224 | http://www.publicopiniononline.com/nation-world/ci_25300490/china-vietnam-detects-signals-from-missing-place |
Disaster Preparedness News
Self-made vs. Professional Survival Kits
Most people don't give survival kits much thought until a major disaster strikes. Suddenly, many are pulled out of their complacency to research what they need to do to ensure their families and homes are kept safe.
During a crisis, survival kits become a huge priority, but it can be a daunting task to search for a valid list of contents, and then to subsequently purchase the items that belong in survival kits. Also, one can't be sure that the items were designed and approved by experts to store safely and be ready for when you need them most.
Reliable survival kits contain many items in the following categories:
1. Food and Water
2. Shelter
3. Lighting and Communication
4. First Aid
5. Search and Rescue
6. Sanitation
The advantage of purchasing your survival kits from a reputable dealer, either online or in a store is that you will receive the reliable supplies you need in one purchase. You will not have to research what needs to be inside your survival kits, and then shop for the supplies in many different stores.
It has been done for you and the survival kits will have been designed, tested, and approved by experts.
We, at, suggest the following:
1. Purchase your survival kits before a disaster strikes. Stores sell out of emergency items very quickly.
So, be prepared.
2. Keep survival kits in your home, car, office and school, since you can't be certain where you will be
during an emergency.
3. Educate yourself in depth about disaster preparedness.
4. Check your kits to make sure everything is still there and working.
5. Visit our website often for up-to-date news and information!
QuakeKare Press
August 5th 2009
Disaster Preparedness Blog
What do you think? Share your thoughts or ask a question about this topic on our Disaster Preparedness Blog. | <urn:uuid:d8c9cf55-6286-43ff-ba54-3db1c015fb9d> | 2 | 1.835938 | 0.489892 | en | 0.940449 | http://www.quakekare.com/disaster-preparedness/survival-kits-080509.html |
ED 302 - Elementary Field Study II
(3 cr.) Students gain experience in an elementary school setting. They analyze the conceptual and chronological development of the American public school system and examine multiple ways of interpreting historical events and their impact on schooling. This course requires 20 hours of fieldwork over 10 weeks. Prerequisite: ED 301; Every Year, Spring
Spring 2015 | <urn:uuid:408694ed-9e96-43c5-a837-5a3fa1d0b2b8> | 2 | 2.046875 | 0.088337 | en | 0.862684 | http://www.quinnipiac.edu/academics/catalogs-and-calendars/course-finder/course-finder-list/course-detail/?ID=1623&Subject=&Where=&What=&CrsTerm=&spxTitle=&spxDesc=&Online= |
Newton Blog
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Burning Witches Was Good Business (for the Accusers)
Today, as evidenced by the undying popularity of Harry Potter, it seems incomprehensible that a large majority of Western society would ever look upon witchcraft with anything but sparkling adoration. Yet only four centuries ago, it probably was more common to burn witches than read about their marvelous adventures.
Europe of the 15th century was locked in the loosening, albeit terrible grips of the Black Plague. Death and decay besieged the landscape. Fear was rife, and the population was riven with it.
In trying times like these, humanity is best served by coming together. But more often than not, we unfortunately choose to tear ourselves asunder. Scapegoating becomes our primary goal. So it was in the 15th century, when the Pope and various countries labeled "heresy" as a corruption to be purged. Witches became the prime target.
In 1486, the Malleus Maleficarum -- "The Hammer of Witches" -- was written and published at the behest of Pope Innocent VIII. The manuscript called for witches to be hunted down and killed, and even contained instructions on how to recognize, torture, and execute them.
Matteson_Examination_of_a_Witch.jpgInquisitors sprung up throughout Europe, and, as Carl Sagan wrote in The Demon-Haunted World, the whole draconian enterprise quickly became an "expense account scam":
"All costs of investigation, trial, and execution were borne by the accused or her relatives --right down to the per diems for the private detectives hired to spy on her, wine for her guards, banquets for her judges, the travel expenses of a messenger sent to fetch a more experienced torturer from another city... Then there was a bonus to the members of the tribunal for each witch burned. The convicted witch's remaining property, if any, was divided between Church and State. As this legally and morally sanctioned mass murder and theft became institutionalized, as a vast bureaucracy arose to serve it, attention turned from poor hags and crones to the middle class and well-to-do of both sexes."
In Britain, witch-hunting was so lucrative that it actually fueled livelihoods. Witch-finders, also known as "prickers," received a sizable bounty for each girl or woman they turned over to the church. Because incentives were purely doled out per witch, prickers were often careless with their accusations. One man confessed that he had been the death of 220 women in his career.
In total, between 40,000 and 60,000 witches were executed in Europe between 1450 and 1750. The craze was fueled by inane fear and unquestioned belief, and it only ended when remedied with empirical reason, skepticism, and humanitarianism brought on by the Age of Enlightenment. | <urn:uuid:fbc36534-42a8-44a8-a61e-957255dc965a> | 3 | 3.171875 | 0.235402 | en | 0.977055 | http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/12/burning-witches-was-good-business-at-least-for-the-accusers.html |
In recent months, a number of companies have announced plans to develop geothermal energy projects at locations across the Caribbean, including Nevis Island, Dominica and St. Vincent. Why is the Caribbean such a promising region for the development of geothermal energy facilities? And what are the prospects for the expansion of the geothermal sector across the region? | <urn:uuid:fca8e85b-10b0-4c3c-8bd1-8e67126d64c3> | 2 | 1.742188 | 0.237265 | en | 0.927655 | http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/01/caribbean-islands-fight-high-electricity-costs-with-geothermal-energy |
RHL School
English Basics
Volume 2, Number 17, January 12, 1998
Predicate of a Sentence
The predicate of a sentence is the word or group of words that tells what the subject is doing or being.
A simple predicate is a verb that meets the above requirement.
Underline the simple predicate in each sentence. The first five have been done for you.
1.x Steven never wears a jacket in the rain.
2. xStocks fell in the final hour of trading.
3. xRoxanne is a fine young lady.
4. xPam carefully put the frog on her head.
5. xChris and Daniel played an exciting game of chess.
6. xMiss Joan bought a new computer.
7. xMelissa, please answer the phone.
8. xDid Gregg like his personalized garbage can?
9. xMany mighty monkeys might magically move my mountain.
10. Modems are very important in this modern age.
11. The president announced his position on the matter.
12. Juan silently crept under the abandoned cabin.
13. The balloon sailed around the world.
14. Sam was afraid of the mysterious moth.
15. This watch receives a signal from the atomic clock.
Copyright 1998 RHL
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Rick Perry's Texas: Leading the Nation in Percentage of Minimum Wage Jobs
It's always a good idea to do a little research when you hear something that sounds to good to be true. Because in most cases, it's not.
Case in point. Rick Perry's claim to fame is that Texas is the number one state in Job creation. Sounds good doesn't it. Well I'll just pack up my bags, my degree in math and engineering from MIT, and head on down.
But before I do, let me investigate a little further. NUMBER 1 IN JOBS, but WHAT KIND OF JOBS?
Between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than they did in Texas, and “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.” But as it turns out, Texas is leading the nation in one employment metric — the number and percentage of minimum wage jobs:
Additionally, Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour in 2010) compared to any state, according to a BLS report. In 2010, about 550,000 Texans were working at or below minimum wage, or about 9.5 percent of all workers paid by the hour in the state. Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers…From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent.
I think I'll just UNPACK MY BAGS and stay right where I am!
Anonymous said...
This is true bos, texas was the same way even before perry was governor. But look for perry to use it as his advantage. With the amount of mexicans and central americans they have, minimum wage jobs like mcdonalds and every fast food joint job is taken.
Anonymous said...
Good research, Bosman, thanks!
Robert said...
Though many people would say, and rightly so, that they would rather have a minimum wage job...than no job at all.
Anonymous said...
Rick Perry has been a conservative since at least last Wednesday. | <urn:uuid:dc295888-be59-40a8-bc98-1901256a37e5> | 2 | 2 | 0.02239 | en | 0.96379 | http://www.rightspeak.net/2011/07/rick-perrys-texas-leading-nation-in.html |
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2. December 31 is the ___ day of the year.
3. Be ___ to everyone you meet, and you will probably have a ___ life.
5. He tore a ___ out of his ___book and wrote a ___ for $88.90.
6. If you look at the ___, you will see that the 21st is on a Tuesday.
9. Please don't make any ___; what you have done is unforgivable.
10. The good ___ is that you can relax for about a month; the bad ___ is that your leg is broken.
11. Please don't be ___ for the meeting; all the top managers will be there.
15. This guy is ___ news; he's been in and out of jail about 15 times.
16. It will be a nice ___ once they get rid of the roaches.
17. ___ is the first day of the week on the calendar.
18. You have to pay one month's ___ in advance, plus the first month's ___, plus your security deposit.
19. I hate to say ___; I've had such a wonderful time visiting you.
1. You shouldn't ___ people when they're down. (Don't punch them either.)
2. ___ is so unpredictable; you never know what will happen next.
4. That store doesn't ___ credit cards or checks; you'd better have cash.
7. The ___ did a credit check on the woman who wanted to move into his apartment building.
8. Valentine's Day occurs in the month of ___.
12. Don't worry about yesterday or ___; try to enjoy today as much as you can.
13. The referee kicked the player ___ of the game after he pushed the referee.
14. New Year's Day is on ___ 1. | <urn:uuid:8d2ce79f-5a4d-4dec-9636-60113c65f0c7> | 2 | 1.570313 | 0.909706 | en | 0.926621 | http://www.rong-chang.com/easyread/ecross/ecross055.htm |
Parents | Raising readers & learners.
Home of Parent & Child Magazine
9 Ways to Make Household Chores Fun
Chores and fun in the same breath? You bet. Here, some ideas for getting kids to beat you at the cleaning game.
Learning Benefits
1. Hide treats, stickers, or pennies in, on, or under knickknacks, then ask your child to dust. She gets to enjoy the rewards only when everything is dusted.
2. Post individual lists of chores kids can do (one for each child in your family). Whenever your child accomplishes a task, have her mark it with a sticker. Whoever has the most stickers at the end of the week gets the Helper of the Week award.
3. Play "Go Fish" with a basket of clean socks. Divide the socks among the players, leaving a pile to draw from. Each player, in turn, holds up a sock and asks another player if he has the mate. If not, the asking player must take a sock from the top of the draw pile. When finished, the player with the most pairs wins.
4. Turn any socks that stay single into child-friendly dust mitts. Insert child's hand into clean but dampened sock and use it to remove dust from houseplants and furniture.
5. Have a scavenger hunt. Make a list of everyday items (newspapers, magazine, shoes, etc.). Set a timer for 5 minutes, then have kids collect stray items throughout the house. The winner is the child who picks up the most (and returns them to their rightful spots).
6. After dinner, do a "10-minute Tidy." Set a timer and have family members scatter through the house putting away the day's clutter.
7. Appoint someone to be Inspector D. Clutter. Armed with a laundry basket and plastic police badge from the dress-up box, this person roams the house and puts stray belongings into clutter "jail" (the basket). To set an item free, its owner (Mom and Dad included!) must do a chore.
8. Turn a bucket into a personalized cleaning caddy. Use permanent marker to write your child's name on it and have him decorate its with other drawings. Store supplies such as sponge, dustrag and roll of paper towels, etc.
9. Show them the money? Some experts believe allowance should be reserved for teenagers. School-aged children will easily get behind the idea that chores are something you do as a member of the family — not for money. They'll be excited just to show off their skill at completing a task.
Find Just-Right Books
The Reading Toolkit | <urn:uuid:d4c3f73e-5367-4ba6-a4e2-e4bd0f5471d2> | 3 | 2.515625 | 0.304875 | en | 0.928554 | http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/9-ways-to-make-household-chores-fun |
SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online
vol.16 issue2Tuberculosis contact control in Brazil: a liberature review (1984-2004)The aesthetics of smells: the sense of smell and nursing author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing
Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem
On-line version ISSN 1518-8345
NOGUEIRA, Lilia de Souza; DOMINGUES, Cristiane de Alencar; CAMPOS, Miriam de Araújo and SOUSA, Regina Márcia Cardoso de. Ten years of new injury severity score (NISS): is it a possible change?. Rev. Latino-Am. Enfermagem [online]. 2008, vol.16, n.2, pp. 314-319. ISSN 1518-8345.
The article is a bibliographic review which intends to present the actual range of researches comparing the Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the New Injury Severity Score (NISS). Databases were searched using the keyword NISS, with 42 articles, 23 of which didn't compare the two indexes. Most part of the 19 selected articles showed that NISS has been more accurate in predicting the outcomes (dependent variables) than ISS, moreover in severe and specific trauma. Studies with populations between 1,000 and 10,000 resulted in NISS-favorable results, whereas studies with populations larger than 10,000 or smaller than 1,000 showed either NISS-favorable results or no difference between the two groups. However, there were no studies showing ISS-favorable results. These results and the easier calculation of NISS lead to a future replacement of ISS by NISS.
Keywords : trauma severity indexes; injury severity score; wounds and injuries.
| <urn:uuid:b56c59e6-2cee-432c-a8a6-60c5f9c0e3c9> | 2 | 1.539063 | 0.026281 | en | 0.817025 | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0104-11692008000200022&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |
How Boston’s Marathon Victims Found Missing Loved Ones With Google Person Finder – How You Can Use It Too
The City of Boston’s response to the bombings at the 117 Boston Marathon serves as a model for how communities and emergency responders deploy coherent systems of communication during times of disaster. During such tragedies, the ability to connect and communicate with those who are potentially missing or hurt, is critical to ensuring that one’s family and friends are safe or able to receive medical attention.
google person finder
Familiarity with existing tools that that allow direct communication to take place between lost or dispersed individuals makes it so that in the event of a disaster, people are able to respond in both a calm and under control manner.
Google Person Finder is a free tool that allows users to either enter the name of a person they are looking for or their own personal information for those who searching. At the time of the explosions, dozens of family and friends of Boston Marathon runners immediately jumped onto Google Person Finder to search for potentially injured or lost participants and spectators.
Kelly Manning of Saratoga Springs, NY, used the application to track the progression and whereabouts of her daughter Samantha when the explosions went off. Google Person Finder immediately located Samantha and let Kelly know that her daughter was still moving before finally connecting an hour later.
“The police had cut off cell phones from making any calls,” Manning said.
“We tried calling her for a half hour without any luck. If it wasn’t for Google Person Finder, we would have had no idea if she was ok and safe.”
What is Google Person Finder?
Developed as a response to the Haiti earthquake in 2010, Google Person Finder is an open source web application that allows individuals to register and search for lost loved ones affected by a natural disaster or catastrophic event.
The application is a part of the ‘ Project’ that aims to enhance digital technology in ways that make critical information and communication more accessible in times of disaster. Along with enabling individuals to search for potentially missing or injured persons, the application also provides images and information on specific locations for shelters, road conditions, and power outages. All submitted information, including photos and personal bio descriptions, are manually transcribed and indexed in Google Person Finder.
Is It Actually Helpful? is it actually helpful
After the two bombs detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Google Person Finder immediately began tracking over 5,000 lost individuals. Since its debut in 2010, it has served over 800,000 lost individuals throughout the world from South America to Asia.
A number of high-profile disasters that Google Person Finder is connected to are:
• Haiti Earthquake, 2010 – Magnitude 7 earthquake that killed over 220,000 individuals
• Chili Earthquake, 2010 – Magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck the coast of central Chile causing blackouts for 93% of the country and causing over $30 billion in damages
• Christchurch Earthquake, 2011 – Magnitude 6.3 earthquake in New Zealand that took the lives of over 185 individuals; one of the country’s deadliest peacetime disasters
• Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, 2011 – Massive earthquake off the coast of Japan caused significant damage and tsunami flooding and displaced over 340,000 individuals
How do you use it?
Using Google Person Finder during a crisis situation is easy for the most casual internet browser.
How to search for missing person(s)
1. For those who are searching for someone lost, simply type in either the exact or partial name of the person.
2. Once a name has been entered, a message will instantly appear alerting you to whether the person has been located or not.
How to alert others of missing person(s)
1. If someone has information on the whereabouts or health of a missing person, users can click on the icon labeled, “I have information about someone.”
2. They are then directed to a landing page where information about the missing person, their health, and/or their location is submitted into a global registry.
Jason Corrigan
Jason is a Director of Organic Search and Strategy with seven years of experience developing complex, wide-scale search and social strategies for Fortune 1000 brands including Duracell, Febreze, Papa Johns and others. He is also a published author on the concept of "Social SEO" and a frequent contributor to some of the industry's most popular search journals. Corrigan owns the trademark to "SEO Without Borders" and is currently developing a non-profit organization that will connect victims in third-world countries with qualified donors across the world using digital resources and organic search.
Jason Corrigan
Comments are closed.
8 thoughts on “How Boston’s Marathon Victims Found Missing Loved Ones With Google Person Finder – How You Can Use It Too
1. This amazing tool and I really appreciate Google for this. Hope this may help people in boston to find their near dear ones.
May GOD bless ! every one and bring peace in the life of those who have been the victim of this heinous incident.
1. Thanks for the comment! I agree that this can be useful at times of disaster where traditional forms of communication are not accessible.
I was at the finish line ten minutes before everything happened and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims and their friends and family.
2. This is a great article and highlights a great example of the positive things that social networks and modern technology can produce. I have a few friends in the Boston area who actually used Google Person Finder to see if anyone had been picked up for any reason. Great stuff!!!
3. Great post Jason and I love that you have brought attention to a horrible situation and how people can respond.
Google Person Finder began in 2010 but Google has offered numerous tracking tools since Katrina in 2004/05.
4. Is there any anecdotal or other evidence that anyone used Google Person Finder to find a missing relative or friend and be reunited with them? The articles says it collected records of over 5000 persons, but what happened next?
I’ve seen this tool used time and again and it provides a cathartic bulletin board so people can feel they have done something. I’ve never seen anything that suggests that families have been reunited because of this tool.
The American Red Crosses Safe and Well site better protects the privacy, identity and location of individuals and is run by the agency responsible for mass care after disasters.
5. Actually, I am a Boston resident and I used Google Person Finder to locate my best friend’s step-sister and mother after the bombs went off.
Without it, I wouldn’t have known where they were and calling local hospitals would have been pointless due to the Hippa laws.
I don’t know think the author or anyone is saying “one is better than the other”, just that this particular tool was used, it helped 5,000 people, and that’s that.
1. I am sorry that your friend had to go through that, along with so many others!
I understand Mark’s point but as Jessica points out, I am not saying it is better than other tools, just that it exists and people can use it during such times.
Thank you both for taking the time to comment and I love your thoughts! | <urn:uuid:1fec871e-c525-4e99-960f-72b5eda97186> | 2 | 1.90625 | 0.022759 | en | 0.946364 | http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-bostons-marathon-victims-found-missing-loved-ones-with-google-person-finder-how-you-can-use-it-too/62764/ |
The Candy Man can
An old joke about Sammy Davis Jr., attributed to a mid-'50s newspaper columnist, resurfaces in the liner notes of the four-disc Yes I Can!: The Sammy Davis Jr. Story (Warner Archives/Rhino). One day the diminutive dynamo—then riding high with his first Broadway success, Mr. Wonderful—was playing golf on Long Island. The club's pro came over and asked, "What's your handicap?"
"I'm a colored, one-eyed Jew," the singer shot back. "Do I need anything else?" As anyone who's read his 1965 autobiography will corroborate, throughout Davis' 60-plus years, prejudice blinded many Americans to this energetic entertainer's gifts as a dancer, singer, actor, multi-instrumentalist, and mimic of arresting accuracy.
For many moons, I also lived in a Sammy-free zone, but not because of anti-Semitism or racism. The barrier that proscribed me from appreciating his charms was drawn around my heart. My college boyfriend couldn't stand Davis, for reasons as absurd yet sincere as anything found in Freud's notebooks.
As a young lad, several of my beau's older brothers once pinned him to the carpet and tickled him so mercilessly that he lost bladder control and wet himself. As his siblings leapt back in laughter, Davis was belting out "The Candy Man" on an AM radio somewhere in the house. The mere mention of that song forever exerted a terrifying hold on my ex. I once tried to defuse a quarrel by singing, "Who can take a sunrise. . . ." Instead of shrinking back, my beloved's rage surged so fiercely I feared he suffered from multiple personality disorder. From that moment on, Sammy Davis Jr. was persona non grata in my home.
After our break-up, I began noticing clues that Davis' talent might transcend the Cannonball Run flicks and "love ya, babe" shtick with which I'd associated him. In a record store, I spied a used copy of Our Shining Hour, his 1965 collaboration with Count Basie. Surely if his work once merited release on esteemed jazz imprint Verve, Sammy wasn't irredeemable.
The turning point came with a TV special documenting Davis' 1988 tour with Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli. The 63-year-old performer took a song I despised—"Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's loathsome The Phantom of the Opera—and wrapped himself around it so completely, not only vocally but physically, that I nearly forgot to breathe. After that showstopper, Frank and Liza came off like two dusty Muppets animated by ham-fisted mannerisms.
I often wonder why so many of my generation's hipsters swoon over Sinatra and Dean Martin yet continually underestimate Davis. Listening to his 1962 Top-20 hit "What Kind of Fool Am I?" you can practically hear the furrowing of his tormented brow. Perhaps hard work is no longer a virtue to which folks in this era of get-rich-quick investment pyramid schemes aspire.
His precision is impeccable, too. The all-live fourth disc of Yes I Can features a four-and-a-half minute "West Side Story Medley" in which Davis deftly zigzags through seven of that show's tunes with only a Latin percussionist for accompaniment. It's impossible to imagine any of his peers, with the exception of Mel Torme, executing such a stunt. The advice that dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson handed down to Sammy as a child always stuck with him: "Make it so the people can understand it. Make it look easy."
Despite his tendency to push for notes outside the ranges of his more celebrated Rat Pack peers, Davis knew when to back off. Take his 1963 rendition of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from Guys and Dolls. The song's simple verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure affords anyone singing it little room for dramatic build. Yet because of its role in the original show (a testimonial sung by a hardened gambler before a Salvation Army assembly), most Broadway babies blow their top each time they hit the chorus. But not Sammy. Like a pitcher with a slow wind-up, he elongates interpolated low notes just before the downbeat, then swings the tune gently, like a man revealing a secret. The result? His character's conversion from vice to virtue seems eminently believable.
In 1972, "The Candy Man" became Sammy Davis Jr.'s sole number one hit. Playing it for the first time in aeons, another memory, unconnected to my ex, flooded my brain: I'm five years old, dancing around my grandmother's sunny Ohio kitchen to the song on the radio. Hearing the way Sammy leans so persuasively into the phrase "talk about your childhood wishes," especially the second time it comes around and he takes it into a higher register, I realized why that line still makes me happy. Because Davis knew that no matter how unfavorable the odds, with talent, elbow grease, and dogged stick-to-itiveness, those wishes can come true.
comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:0f8fabcd-26d4-4457-9618-1fdba9223885> | 2 | 1.625 | 0.054447 | en | 0.956944 | http://www.seattleweekly.com/1999-11-17/music/the-candy-man-can/ |
"Major Nuclear Accident Would Cost France $580 Billion: Study"
"A nuclear accident similar to the one at Japan's Fukushima reactor would cost France about 430 billion euros ($580 billion), or 20 percent of its economic output, French nuclear safety institute IRSN said in a study on the possible financial impact of a nuclear crisis."
"A major disaster damaging one of France's 58 nuclear reactors and contaminating the environment with radioactive material would displace an estimated 100,000 people, destroy crops and create massive power outages, the study said.
'A major accident would have terrible consequences, but we would have to deal with them because the country wouldn't be annihilated, so we have to talk about it, however difficult it is,' Jacques Repussard, the head of the public-funded IRSN, said on Wednesday at a presentation at the Cadarache nuclear research centre in southeastern France."
Michel Rose reports for Reuters February 13, 2013.
"Edison Rejects Sen. Boxer's Claim About San Onofre Generators" (Los Angeles Times)
Source: Reuters, 02/08/2013 | <urn:uuid:a2787016-f85a-4bad-8d45-1c134feaccf9> | 2 | 1.8125 | 0.107547 | en | 0.924302 | http://www.sej.org/headlines/major-nuclear-accident-would-cost-france-580-billion-study |
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Finance Glossary
Just call us Bond. Amortized bond.
Over 700 finance terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Market Manipulation
Manipulating a market is a nasty thing to do and is illegal in the United States. (Good luck in other markets...) There are a lot of different schemes, such as wash trades, but the common element for all market manipulation is that they attempt to influence the price of a security or a basket of securities through buying and selling actions that have nothing to do with the fundamentals of the security itself. | <urn:uuid:8bf03456-d807-4f06-a614-d850fb864217> | 2 | 1.90625 | 0.074516 | en | 0.916285 | http://www.shmoop.com/finance-glossary/market-manipulation.html |
Can Government Rescue Marriages?
Scott M. Stanley & Howard J. Markman
Center for Marital and Family Studies
University of Denver and
PREP, Inc.
(303) 759-9931
There is a trend sweeping the country to make changes in legal codes to strengthen and stabilize marriages. There are two key thrusts emerging in state legislatures: the first involves changes in laws that would make it harder for couples to divorce; the second involves efforts to encourage or mandate couples to participate in premarital counseling.
It is hardly debatable that many of society's ills can be traced to the continuing high rates of marital distress and divorce. While divorce rates have fallen from the all time high in 1979, couples marrying for the first time today still have a 40-50 percent chance of divorce. Further, the links between poorly handled marital conflict and adverse psychological outcomes for adults and children are very strong--stronger, in fact, than the links between divorce and such outcomes. Added to these psychological outcomes of marital conflict, there are increasingly clear sociological effects of family fragmentation, including increased poverty, crime, and alienation between parents and children.
While strange bedfellows, there is a growing consensus among both liberal and conservative political and religious leaders that something must be done. Nevertheless, we believe that some of the trends in legal initiatives represent hurried solutions that could lead to serious unintended negative consequences.
New Fault, No Fault
The chief aim of initiatives to make divorce more difficult is to get couples to work harder at making their marriages work, and to reduce the degree to which society collectively thinks of marriages as disposable. As part of this movement, many state assemblies (e.g., Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Virginia, and others) are considering the reintroduction of fault into divorce proceedings, or introducing longer waiting periods and/or requiring pre-divorce counseling. For most couples, it will be "too little too late." Most people do not file for divorce or even seriously entertain the idea until the marriage quality is severely eroded. These issues can be understood in the context of our research on commitment.
Commitment encompasses two related but different concepts: Dedication and Constraint. Dedication refers to the intrinsic devotion of one to another, and it is evidenced by thinking as a team, desiring a future together, placing a high priority on the relationship, and protecting the marriage from attractive alternatives. Constraint refers more to forces that tend to keep people committed when they might want to leave: e.g., children, limited financial resources, social pressure, moral beliefs about divorce, and the difficulty of the steps to end a marriage.
Essentially, the legal steps to reintroduce fault in divorce proceedings or to increase waiting times enhance constraint commitment. Making it harder to end a marriage would very likely make divorce a less attractive option. And there is some evidence that when people perceive their options as less attractive, they are more likely to work harder at making their present relationship work. These are the intended, positive aims of such initiatives. However, such measures may actually increase resentment and the sense of being trapped. In the worst cases, such changes could help keep some marriages together that both conservative and liberals would agree are hugely destructive for adults and children (e.g., battering situations). Moreover, it is possible that such measures could have the unintended negative consequence of fewer people choosing to marry in the first place--thereby undermining the very institution the laws are designed to strengthen.
Whether or not making divorce more difficult is good family law (the issues are very complex), the superior goal would be to do all we can as a society to support and encourage increased dedication to spouses and marriage. Perhaps divorce laws are too liberal. Perhaps it should be less easy to cast off a marriage. Either way, divorce laws do not cause divorce--the real problem is the low quality marital relationships that lead to decisions to divorce. The force of law can make divorce harder, but such laws do not teach couples how to build great marriages.
The Move To Mandate Premarital Counseling
Following closely on the heels of the legislative movement to make divorce harder is the movement to make marriages better by mandating premarital counseling as a requirement for obtaining a marriage license. Some states are considering an incentive model, with longer delays for getting a license unless a couple gets premarital counseling (e.g., Maryland and Michigan) or by giving a tax break (e.g., Iowa), while other states (e.g., Minnesota and Mississippi) are considering an outright mandate for premarital counseling. The intention is to help couples increase their odds for successful marriage from the start. The good news is that couples can learn to have better marriages. The bad news is that government force could lead to unintended negative consequences.
The Good News: Reducing Marital Distress and Divorce Is Possible
Our studies show that marital failure is predictable to a surprising degree--with up to 90 percent accuracy in classification of future outcomes for research samples, using only premarital data. Hence, for many couples the seeds of divorce are present prior to marriage. The factors that predict marital failure range from relatively static dimensions, such as history of parental divorce and differences in religion, to more dynamic dimensions such as communication and conflict management patterns. The dynamic factors make the most attractive targets for premarital counseling because these factors are both highly predictive of divorce and amenable to change. In essence, it is not how much couples love each other, but how they handle conflict that best predicts future marital distress or divorce--and conflict is inevitable.
Added to the prediction research, studies on our Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) strongly suggest that couples can learn skills and enhance ways of thinking--prior to marriage--that significantly improve their odds of having good marriages. We and our colleagues in Germany have tracked the positive effects of such training for years following the marriage ceremony, with better communication, greater satisfaction, 50% lower break-up rates, and 50% lower incidence of physical aggression.
The Bad News: Possible Unintended Negative Consequences
Trying to prevent marital distress is hardly controversial. The controversy is whether or not governments should force it on a broad scale. Government mandated premarital counseling may have serious negative effects that are not being considered.
First, many segments of society are averse to increasing governmental intervention in family life. The fact that it is harder to get a driver's license than a marriage license is often mentioned in this debate, but getting a marriage license is different. Sure, there are areas of personal behavior where most would agree that the government should intrude and some areas where the issue is highly controversial. But are people really going to accept the government's intrusion into marriage any more than they want the government telling them how to raise their children?
Second, mandating premarital counseling would be a bureaucratic nightmare. There would be endless debates about what should be required and who is qualified to provide the training. Further, we note that premarital counseling is most often conducted by religious institutions. Since government mandates usually come with government standards, mandating premarital counseling could allow the government unprecedented regulatory control over processes that are currently and preeminently the province of religious institutions. This is a significant 1st amendment concern.
Some will note that many religious institutions have been mandating premarital counseling for years, so what's wrong with the government doing it, too? Since religious institutions often are more deeply embedded in the lives and culture of people than government is, they can likely mandate without the same degree of negative consequences. After all, the idea is consistent with a degree of accountability within the community of faith. It is also not unusual for military institutions to mandate such training as a requirement for chapel based marriages. However, since there is a preexisting education and training mentality--as in religious institutions--this probably works more positively than a broader-based government effort could.
Third, we are concerned that there are virtually no data on the effectiveness of mandated programs while there is steadily growing evidence on the effectiveness when couples volunteer for such programs. We do hope, over time, to have better data on the effects of mandating premarital and marital training within both religious and military institutions.
Given the possible negatives of various initiatives to strengthen the institution of marriage, we argue for a less complicated path until we have had more discussion and research on the effects of the alternatives.
Public Education: A Better Way That Works
Legal strategies to make divorce harder or mandate premarital preparation may well work. On the other hand, some of the changes being contemplated may cause negative consequences despite the good intentions. If we had to choose today, programs oriented toward government incentives have more appeal than do government mandates. Further, attempting to bring greater delay to divorce proceedings (without encouraging opportunities for increased legal conflict) may well slow some couples down from what could be impulsive decisions toward divorce. Our key point is that couples and governments can tend to seek premature solutions to complex problems when those solutions may fail or increase frustration and conflict. While the problems cry out for solutions, more discussion of, and research on, the legal initiatives may be the wiser course.
This does not mean that we, as a society, have no means to begin tackling these problems. The most immediately effective strategies may lie in the field of education rather than in legislation. With a growing national consensus, a large scale public health education campaign could bring together educators, clergy, mental health professionals, and politicians to focus on two key goals: 1) To extol strong and happy marriages as a high value and a high priority, and 2) to encourage couples to take advantage of effective tools to make their marriages not just more stable, but truly better.
Regarding the first goal, the institution of marriage does not seem to be held in as high of public esteem as it used to be. This can be changed if a wide range of influential voices join together in saying there is something special and beneficial about marriage. As importantly, the second goal is directed at helping couples build better marriages in the first place. This, after all, is really the goal behind all these competing ideas and philosophies. Can a society transform beliefs and patterns?
We have been fairly successful in waging an assault on the deadly habit of smoking, and, to some degree, on eating habits. While there has been some regulation adding to the effect, the greatest reductions in smoking seem to have come from the combination of an increasingly negative portrayal for the habit in the media and direct efforts to educate people about the debilitating effects. The next great challenge is to change relationship habits--and there may well be even more riding on the outcome.
What if marriages were portrayed more widely in the media as as worthy of effort, with positive images and models of people working things out in their marriages? A greater number of religious organizations could emphasize the value of premarital training, or even make it mandatory. The government could encourage public service messages that promote marriage and that teach a skill or two about more effective ways to make marriages good.
We are talking about values here. Values that say marriage is important. Values that say working to resolve differences is good. Values that say preparing for marriage is wise. Values that lead to increased dedication for the task of building strong and happy marriages. These things can be done if we have the collective will. Let's get to it.
Drs. Stanley and Markman direct the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver, and co-authored the book Fighting for Your Marriage, (1994; Jossey-Bass, Inc.). | <urn:uuid:2157cae1-fcf7-4b32-91d8-5541b0e985d8> | 2 | 2.25 | 0.058521 | en | 0.951628 | http://www.smartmarriages.com/8.html |
If you have paid any attention to “health food” in the in the past 8-10 years, then you have likely heard of Kombucha. It has received a lot of publicity over time from proponents and detractors alike. The general gist seems to be similar to other healthy products that have had their time in the sun. Fans swear by the benefits and become vocal advocates and the scientific community gives it a big meh. Mostly meaning it might help, shouldn’t hurt, but no one has really bothered to study it. Seems that the only risks really come from people who make it themselves in an unsafe fashion so it becomes contaminated . There is also some minor risk that the alchohol content might creep up too high in some batches, turning this technically non-alcoholic drink into something that could cause a bit of a buzz. There is apparently a pretty big culture based upon trading and sharing different “mothers” which is the term used to describe the SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) which is required to make Kombucha.
Not a very attractive item but anything that is used as a culture rarely is. Kombucha, like cheese making or sausage is something that many people would rather leave as a mystery. With that being said it’s time for me to dive in and taste this fermented tea concoction. I purchased the most popular commercial brand and went for the original flavor so I could try to get the real experience, without seeking out a backyard brand.
The floating bits of culture in the bottle were a bit off putting but the label indicated that it was normal and expected so I was willing to put my initial bias aside. The label also told me not to shake the bottle, sadly I read that a bit too late so I had to delay my test for a few minutes while I let the fizz settle down. I found the ingredients listing kind of curious the only ingredient listed was Kombucha. I would have liked to see something like what kind of tea was used and what kind of sugar was used to feed the mother for fermentation. As a point of comparison I checked the label on a bottle of sauerkraut to see what ingredients were listed on another fermented product. The ingredients were sauerkraut and water so apparently once you create a fermented product it becomes an ingredient.
In order to be sold off the shelf as a non-alcoholic beverage it needs to be below 0.5% alcohol so I was not expecting a good Kombucha buzz early in the morning. Though the mild alcohol content does lend some credence to it’s reputation as a great hangover remedy. Hair of the dog and some vitamins is a good fit. Now that my fizz has died down it was time to taste. I cracked the seal and opened the bottle, I was greeted with a scent that was very close to apple cider vinegar. Slightly sweet but clearly acidic, not unpleasant but nothing I see Yankee Candle adding as a scent any time soon. The smell was not overpowering as I went to take a drink, a bit of a twinge in my nose from the acid but nothing so sharp that I wanted to stop.
The flavor had a mild sweetness, which was in sharp contrast to the very acidic finish. The little bit of effervescence was a great touch and really enhanced the flavor. I could immediately see why Kombucha was viewed as replacement for soda in the low carb world. It has a lot of the same satisfying fizz that you get from soda without all the sugar. I was less than thrilled when I felt the bits of the culture on my tongue but another quick sip took care of it. Even with that odd floating debris, overall I really enjoyed it. I’m curious enough to try some other flavors and styles. I may even seek out a local Kombucha brewing group to see if I can score with someones mother and make a baby of my own.
I can’t speak at all to the health benefits of the product but I really enjoyed the flavor and depending on how it makes me feel I can see this becoming something I might buy on occasion for a twist. Kombucha is a “Try It” if you are curious at all.
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3 Responses
1. Artorius
Sounds like you might enjoy drinking vinegar also based on your enjoyment of the sweetness and acidity in kombucha. My household loves the drinking vinegars I make.
2. Rodzilla
I just started getting into these myself.
I think my favorite is Kevita which contains more than just Kombucha, and a company called Clearly Kombucha
3. Kat
I love making a vinegar drink with Braggs unpasteurized apple cider vin, lemon juice, a decaf tea bag, and some stevia or honey. Amazing… especially good for when you have a cold!!
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Making a movie look good is more complicated than setting up some lighting, pointing a camera in the right direction, and hoping that no ugly people walk into frame. The most common tricks of the trade would seem outlandish to most people outside the industry.
Dealing With Height
As you might know, some actors are exceptionally short. You might have heard about some of Hollywood's biggest stars standing on crates to appear taller while filming a scene.
What you probably don't realize is that all actors - no matter their height - appear significantly shorter on camera. In fact, since the 1920s it has become standard practice for everyone to stand on a crate. Even extras. Even animals. Sometimes cars.
The most commonly used crate is a simple apple crate. Since the production and shipping of these crates actually costs more without any apples, most arrive on the set full of produce. Next time you watch a movie, keep an eye out for people eating apples in the background. Once you notice it, you'll never unsee it.
What is it about height that translates so poorly to film? One theory posits that since a frame of film is much smaller than the actual size of the scene it captures, the resulting proportions are shrunk.
This bizarre effect isn't limited to actors, either. Most films that are shot at sea level actually appear to be below the water. This is why production moved into the higher altitude of the Hollywood hills, then to Canada. It is believed that by 2018 most films will be shot in space.
Food Doesn't Look Like Food
On camera, a bowl of cereal looks exactly like a closeup of pubic lice. A banana looks like a pile of marbles. A glass of milk becomes a swirling kaleidoscope.
A hamburger takes on the appearance of a demonic printing press from the 1800s.
Basically, food doesn't look like food. When a scene calls for one of the characters to eat, the prop department must come up with replacements that - through the magic of cinema - take on the appearance of actual food.
Those rainbow afro wigs that sports fans wear? They look just like lobster thermidor. The only thing that resembles any liquid beverage whatsoever is deadly poison. By default, it looks like orange juice. Dimming the lighting just a touch turns it into water. Of course, actors must be very careful when handling deadly poison. If they drink too much, there won't be any left for later scenes.
You probably thought it was strange that hamburgers look like demonic printing presses from the 1800s. Well, when you reverse the process and put an actual demonic printing press from the 1800s in front of a camera, it takes on the appearance of - as you might guess - a chicken strip.
Filming On Water
One of the most common gripes about making a movie is that shooting on a body of water is a nightmare.
For the longest time, I assumed that this was because water damaged equipment, made camerawork unsteady, and required a lot of logistical planning for the positioning of crew members and actors.
As it turns out, these factors are easily dealt with. The real problem is that sea lions keep hamming it up.
Every time the cameras roll, one of those showy jerks emerges from the water with a beachball on his nose, making that stupid barking noise and clapping his flippers. It never fails. When someone on the set tries to drive a sea lion off, the animal disappears into the water, then comes back up in a different position and splashes the crew member. Occasionally, the stunned man or woman will then have their pants pulled down, revealing heart-patterned boxers. The sea lion usually takes this opportunity to hop on a previously unnoticed pedestal and honk a horn, nodding enthusiastically until someone feeds him a fish.
Gross Pores
No matter how good looking and well-groomed an actor may be, their skin turns into a nightmare in front of a camera. Every single pore is visible, and each contains a drooping sac of placenta-like tissue that fills up with diseased air then deflates with splattery shudders.
To alleviate this problem, all actors have their faces completely covered in toilet paper that has been dipped in plaster. This keeps the bubble sacs at bay while presenting a glistening sheen of skin-like material.
The Worst Word
There is one word which even the most swear-happy films are reluctant to use, and that is cunt.
Studios are in constant fear that the word will accidentally find its way into the final cut of their films. The most likely scenario for this isn't an actor letting the vulgarity slip, but a random person shouting it within range of the microphones.
To combat this possibility, most films employ someone to continuously shout the word-that-shall-not-be-repeated throughout every single take of every scene. The thinking behind this is that if someone else shouts the obscenity, it will be overshadowed by the professional shouter - whose efforts essentially become white noise.
Surprisingly, the audio of this is never removed or lowered in the editing process. It's always there. We have simply grown used to it over the years.
– Dennis "Corin Tucker's Stalker" Farrell (@DennisFarrell)
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Thursday, June 7, 2012
Jazz Innovations from an Economist’s Perspective
Chicago University economist David Galenson in his article "Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Human Creativity," has defined two types of innovators: the experimental and the conceptual. The experimental innovator, through years of trial and error, arrives at his or her greatest and most influential work much later in life. While the conceptual innovator makes sudden and radical breakthroughs, taking the world by storm. Often producing their most significant work while in his or her twenties.
In jazz, our conceptual innovators are commonly referred to as natural geniuses. People like Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, and Ornette Coleman--all of whom seemed to have arrived fully formed, with an innovative approach to jazz already in tact. These types of artists have ideas that appear to them “suddenly,” according to Galenson—a type of artistic epiphany--in which they quickly manifest into groundbreaking works of art.
Charlie Parker has often described how he, at age nineteen, was playing “Cherokee” at a jam session with guitarist “Biddy” Fleet, when it hit him that all twelve tones of the chromatic scale can be used during improvisation. He discovered that any note can be played on any chord change. This, of course, was the impetus for the new and radical bebop language that he developed. By his early twenties, Parker had already honed and put this revolutionary concept into practice. Parker often cites Lester Young as an influence, however, there are no recordings where he sounds like a Lester Young clone. As a matter of fact, when you hear him playing with Jay McShann at 19, he already sounds like Charlie Parker.
In addition to making sudden breakthroughs at an early age, Galenson also notes that conceptual artists tend to peak early on. He lists Pablo Piscasso as the archetypal conceptual innovator, who, even though he painted until his death at 92, created Les Demoiselles d'Avignon at age 26. This became known as his greatest work. Parker, on the other hand, made some important recordings in his thirties, such as Charlie Parker with Strings, on the Mercury label, at age 30; and Jazz at Massey Hall, on the Debut label, at age 33. His approach to the saxophone and improvisation, however, did not change since his early twenties.
Experimental innovators, according to Galenson, have to work hard at their craft for several decades just to get good. In jazz music, these types of artists are more common, being that contemporary jazz artists don’t start to find their sound until their late thirties and forties.
One of the most famous experimental innovators was John Coltrane. Even though he made a name for himself playing with Miles Davis at age 29, it wasn’t until he recorded Blue Train at the age of 31, that he became someone looked as on his way to doing great things in jazz. And it would be inaccurate to say that Coltrane practiced so many hours, just to get good. However, he does fit Galenson’s description of experimental innovators as being artists who “rarely feel they have succeeded, and their careers are often dominated by the pursuit of a single objective.” This applies to Coltrane, certainly in his later years, where his pursuit was more spiritual than musical, in some ways. Also typical of experimental innovators, Coltrane did continue to produce important work until his death at 42.
Galenson cites Paul Cézanne as the archetypal experimental innovator. Cézanne painted until his death at 67 years old, but didn’t produce his most significant work until the last decade of his life. It’s improbable to find a jazz musician who didn’t blossom until his or her early sixties. There have been many who did not begin making a descent annual income until they were well into his or her fifties and sixties; however, their music by that time had already been fully evolved for well over two decades.
In fact, many jazz musicians don’t fit perfectly into the Galenson models of experimental and conceptual innovators; many straddle the fence between the two: Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, Charlie Haden, are a few that come to mind.
And unlike some of the experimental innovators referred to in Galenson's article, a jazz musician’s early work is not typically discarded as less important, in comparison to his or her later work. Even though Coltrane’s music, while a member of Miles Davis’ famed 1950s quintet did not change the shape of jazz, it was, however, an important contribution to the hard bop period, in which players played a more tamed interpretation of bop. And from a purely physical perspective, a performing musician will start to physically decline by their late sixties, especially playing a brass instrument. So even if conceptually they are still developing, the execution of those ideas won’t be as effective, and, consequently, won’t be looked at as equal to or greater than their earlier work. Just as Michael Jordan at age 40, probably knew the game of basketball better than at any other point in his life, however, physically, he could not play the game as well.
Conceptual innovators according to Galenson “often consider they have accomplished exactly what they wanted to do, and can therefore go on to work on a very different problem, ”—which describes Miles Davis, perfectly.
Miles is the jazz musician whom I feel had the ability to make these kinds of sudden breakthroughs, having the ability to embark upon what Galenson refers to as a “very different program.” Unlike experimental innovators who work on the same idea for years, Davis was in and out of different styles once he felt he had made his point or it no longer had cultural relevance. Within a span of 20 years, he was at the forefront of five different movements in jazz. Again, it goes back to the whole idea of having a musical epiphany, and quickly bringing ones concept to fruition.
Galenson’s research concludes that experimental artists are not just those who keep trying until they get it right, but ones who get better with age. Which describes jazz musicians in both the conceptual and innovator categories. The music of the jazz musician typically becomes more refined with age, sort of like a fine wine. As a matter of fact, many contemporary jazz artists lauded early in their careers are typically credited for their potential rather than the actual the significance of their work. In some cases, these musicians not only fall short of their potential, but eventually fall off the radar all together. Moreover, most jazz musicians, if you compare their debut recordings with ones made a decade or two later, their later work is undoubtedly significantly better—reaffirming the commonly known fact that jazz is an art form for the long distance runner and not the one-hit wonder.
Still, the fact remains, conceptual innovators typically receive most of the ink in jazz history books. Which is certainly understandable. If you create a new standard by which the music is measured, then you deserve whatever accolades come your way. That said, the jazz community as a whole understands and recognizes that conceptual and experimental innovators and all those in between are part of the same continuum. One that exudes not only the American, but the human experience, helping us to embrace our individuality as well as our commonalities along the way.
1. Interesting article considering that I majored in Economics and minored in Music at UC Berkeley and have been playing sax for 32 years, non professionally, but passionately. it is most encouraging to sense that I am headed in the right direction as I'm getting into my mid 40s playing jazz improv with a more mature sense of original expression rather than copying and emulating that of others. I agree that getting older as a jazz sax player only improves ones ability to express through playing.
2. That's the great thing about playing jazz--the more life experience, the more depth you can bring to your music.
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Vietnam history class
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Our 18 full-time faculty members are committed teachers and nationally-recognized researchers whose broad expertise allows students to gain an understanding of American, European, and non-Western history. Students are taught to analyze complex -- sometimes contradictory -- evidence, to recognize bias in both contemporary and historical sources, and to understand how history is constructed. These skills enable our graduates to pursue a variety of careers that require sophisticated research and analytical skills, attention to detail, and the ability to present well-written arguments. | <urn:uuid:29502279-0f07-4dc3-be2e-aa2e9c151f2d> | 2 | 2.21875 | 0.021432 | en | 0.912118 | http://www.southernct.edu/academics/schools/arts/departments/history/index.html/stevenjuddswebpage/ |
Wednesday, March 04, 2015
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Russian spacecraft to crash soon, risks unclear
By Vladimir Isachenkov
Associated Press
LAST UPDATED: 08:43 a.m. HST, Jan 12, 2012
MOSCOW >> A Russian space probe designed to burnish the nation's faded space glory in a mission to one of Mars' moons has turned into one of the heaviest, most toxic pieces of space junk ever.
It will come crashing down to Earth in just a few days.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos' latest forecast has the unmanned Phobos-Ground probe falling out of Earth's orbit Sunday or Monday, with the median time placing it over the Indian Ocean just north of Madagascar. It said the precise time and place of its uncontrolled plunge can only be determined later, and unless someone actually spots fiery streaks in the sky, no one may ever know where any surviving pieces end up.
Space experts agree it's unlikely to pose big risks.
At 14.6 tons, the Phobos-Ground is one of the largest spacecraft ever to plummet to Earth, considerably larger than the two defunct satellites that fell to Earth last fall and landed in the water.
Roscosmos predicted that only between 20 and 30 fragments of the Phobos probe with a total weight of up to 440 pounds will survive the re-entry and plummet to Earth.
It's the third satellite to crash out of the sky in under five months: An old NASA 6-ton atmospheric research satellite came tumbling down in September, and a 3-ton German science satellite followed suit in October. But both were well past their prime.
Russia's Phobos-Ground probe is still a mere babe. It was launched in November, and a glitch left it stranded in orbit around Earth instead of bound for Mars to collect soil samples.
"What's different about this re-entry is that it's not a re-entry of an old, inert satellite that just was expected for years. It's something that is coming down because of an accident ... for me, that puts it in a different category," said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
Another striking difference is the 12 tons of highly toxic rocket fuel aboard Phobos-Ground, accounting for the bulk of its weight for the long journey to the Martian moon of Phobos. This makes it potentially the most toxic spacecraft to fall ever.
Roscosmos insists all the fuel will burn in the atmosphere and pose no danger, and some experts in Russia and the West share that forecast.
And if it's any consolation, both of the two previous uncontrolled satellites harmlessly showered fragments over water.
"The fuel indeed poses lethal danger in case of close contact, but I haven't heard of a single case of any civilians poisoned by rocket fuel from all the derelict satellites and failed rockets throughout the space era," said Igor Lissov, an independent Moscow-based space observer. "The objective reality is that it burns on re-entry. There is no reason to panic."
Some experts theorized, however, that part of the fuel might have frozen in the cold of space and could survive the fiery descent, posing a strong threat if it spills over populated areas. Such fears prompted the United States to shoot down its USA-193 spy satellite with a Navy missile in 2008.
Some botched Russian rocket launches in the past have showered fragments over populated areas in Siberia and neighboring Kazakhstan.
In the latest such mishap, fragments of a Russian satellite that failed to enter a designated orbit after its launch last month came down around Novosibirsk, the third-largest Russian city with a population of about 1.5 million, damaging some houses but hurting no one. The fragments of the Meridian satellite, however, fell from a lower altitude at a far slower speed than the Phobos-Ground debris will have on re-entry.
Engineers from the Moscow-based company NPO Lavochkin, which built the Mars probe, said in an article giving a detailed description of the design that its fuel tanks are made of aluminum alloy. That means they should melt early on re-entry, backing up official assurances that the fuel would burn up on its way down.
McDowell said the probability is low that a large lump of toxic stuff will prove hazardous.
He noted that some of the probe's equipment is dense and could survive re-entry, but added the odds are that any surviving pieces will wind up in the ocean.
"All the best rules in the world" put in place to prevent uncontrolled satellites from crashing down do little if any good in the event of a launch failure, McDowell said. "This is always going to be the risk that something breaks, and you end up with a situation like this. You can minimize it, but you can't prevent it entirely."
The $170-million Phobos-Ground mission was Russia's most expensive and the most ambitious space endeavor since Soviet times. The spacecraft was intended to land on the crater-dented, potato-shaped Martian moon, collect soil samples and fly them back to Earth, giving scientists precious materials that could shed more light on the genesis of the solar system.
The probe was successfully launched Nov. 9 and entered a preliminary orbit where its engines were supposed to fire to set it on its path to Mars. They never did, and attempts to fix the glitch by Russian and European Space Agency experts failed.
Russia's space chief has acknowledged the Phobos-Ground mission was ill-prepared and risks of its failure were high, but said that Roscosmos had to give it the go-ahead so as not to miss the limited Earth-to-Mars launch window.
Phobos-Ground marked Russia's first planned foray beyond Earth's orbit since a botched 1996 robotic mission to Mars. That probe, designed by the same Lavochkin company, crashed shortly after launch due to an engine failure. The firm also built two other Phobos-bound probes that failed in 1988.
The crash of Mars-96 generated strong international fears because of some 200 grams of plutonium onboard. The craft eventually showered its fragments over the Chile-Bolivia border in the Andes Mountains, and the pieces were never recovered.
Russian officials continue to insist the craft plunged into the Pacific, their way of deflecting criticism for not warning the inhabitants of the impact area and for failing to search for plutonium and other debris.
Fears of radiation also were sparked by the fall of a nuclear-powered Soviet spy satellite that crashed over northwestern Canada in January 1978. The Soviets claimed the craft completely burned on re-entry, but a massive recovery effort by Canadian authorities recovered a dozen fragments, most of which were radioactive.
The Phobos-Ground contains a tiny quantity of the radioactive metal Cobalt-57 in one of its instruments, but Roscosmos said it poses no threat of radioactive contamination.
AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn contributed from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
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The rachi are a nearly extinct race in Mass Effect.
Rachni are race of sapient, insect-like creatures with a eusocial organization. Rachni hives have a population of workers, warriors, and drones (also called "brood warriors") that follow the direction of a queen. They vary widely in size, with workers smaller than a human and queens as much as 17 meters in length. Rachni are strong, intelligent, and dangerous adversaries. In particular, they are capable of surviving in many environments that are toxic or otherwise intolerable to humanoids.
Rachni queens can transfer memories to their progeny, allowing them to maintain a sophisticated culture and technology base without a written language. Rachni can communicate telepathically, a form of contact that they call "singing". This telepathy works with some other species, like asari, that the rachni describe as "receptive".
The rachni posed a threat to the galaxy roughly 2000 years ago, when the only members of the Citadel Council were the asari and salarians. Territorial and aggressive, the rachni began expanding when the mass relay in their system was accidently activated by the salarians, initiating the Rachni Wars.
The salarians and asari did not have the numbers or durability to battle the rachni in their toxic homeworlds, so the salarians "uplifted" the krogan race to fight the war for them, giving them space flight technology so they could carry the fighting to the rachni homeworlds. The krogan were immensely successful, killing the rachni queens in their nests and bringing the race to the brink of extinction.
Threat Assessment
Rachni technology is not as advanced as that of most other species in Mass Effect, but they are physically strong and durable, and their queens are able to reproduce quickly enough to give them an advantage in a war of attrition.
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Guide to the History of Mathematics
The history of mathematics is a long and detailed one. With the earliest records older than 3,000 B.C., there is much information on the development of modern day math. A great deal of information has been lost during wars, religious changes and other disasters but most of it has been preserved. Every region of the ancient world from China to Europe and Africa holds records of the progress of mathematics.
The MacTutors History of Mathematics Archive: A website dedicated to the history of math with a number of interesting indexes
Mathematics: Ancient science and modern facts about math
History of Math: The history of math sorted by culture and topics
Math Around the World
Ancient East: Mesopotamia, which is modern Iraq, is also known as the era of Babylonian mathematics. A complex system of metrology was developed around 3000 B.C. After 2,500 B.C. multiplication tables were recorded on clay tablets along with forms of geometry and division. Topics which were included in the clay tablets ranged from fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations. They used the base 60 numeral system from which our modern day 60 seconds in a minute, 60 seconds in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle have been derived.
Egyptian: The most popular record of mathematics in Egypt is in the form of the Rhind papyrus which was most likely a copy of texts from about 2000 B.C. It is actually an instruction manual for students in math and geometry. The information in this manual ranged from area formulae, composite and prime numbers, how to solve linear equations, along with other theories. Other popular papyruses of the time include the Moscow papyrus and the Berlin papyrus. The first contained mathematical word problems and the second proved that Egyptians could solve second order algebraic equations.
African: The knowledge of fractal geometry arose from the African continent. This permeated all forms of life including art, design structures, architecture and even religious systems. The Nubians also used a trigonometric method similar to the Egyptians.
Greek: The mathematics of the Greeks rose to a level above that of previous cultures. Famous Greek mathematicians included Thales who was known for using geometry in calculating distances and height, and Pythagoras who established a school responsible for the actual study of math. In fact, the Pythagoreans were the ones who developed the term mathematics and created the Pythagorean Theorem. Aristotle created the laws of logic. Another famous mathematician from the area was Euclid who compiled the book Elements, including the irrationality of the concept of the square root of two and the existence of infinite prime numbers.
Oriental: The Chinese developed the most advanced number system being able to represent large numbers. From the difference between Chinese math and the rest of the world it is clear that the Chinese developed their mathematics independently of other regions. The oldest math records from China are dated at approximately 300 B.C. The Chinese developed algebra in the 13th century. Recorded work of the time explains Pascal's Triangle. However, after this period mathematical ideas began to be exchanged between Europe and Chinese mathematical ideologies declined rapidly.
Indian: The first use of numbers is shown in India to be around 3000 B.C. with the usage of counting tokens. Around the same time weights using the base 10 system were also used. After the invasion of Indo-Europeans mathematicians were aware of the idea of infinity by 1800 B.C. Because of an interest in astronomy, geography was usually a favorite subject and by 1300 an Indian astronomer called Lagadha wrote a book of rules for the movement of the sun and moon.
Islamic: Around 630 A.D. numbers were brought into the region that would soon become the Islamic Empire. This was the beginning of numbers as we know them today. Algebra followed shortly with the writing of numerous book by Muhammad ibn Musa-al-Khwarizmi. Mathematical proofs were created around 1000 AD by Al-Karaji. Other significant advancements included the decimal point, trigonometric functions, analytical geometry, algebraic geometry and algebraic notation.
European Middle Ages: The major developments of the time included the translation of Greek writings and implementation of formal schooling. People believed that math would unlock the secrets of creation and that God ordered things in measure, number, and weight. The study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music were brought into the curriculum by a philosopher named Boethius.
The History of Mathematics: Information on mathematics divided by geographical regions
Archeology Online: History of mathematics in India
Kidipede: The history of ancient Greek mathematics
Famous Mathematicians
There were numerous mathematicians throughout history all of whom contributed to our modern day math. Even facts and formulas that may have contained errors became a factor of learning as they were corrected in later times.
• Born in Greece, 578 to 505 B.C
• Major Areas of Contribution: Pythagorean theorem, discovered that a harmony of strings is possible if the length of the strings are whole numbers, diagonal of a square was not an integral multiple of its sides, irrational numbers
• Place of Birth Unkown, 476 B.C. to unknown
• Major Areas of Contribution: Approximate value of Pi, formula to calculate the value of a triangle, method to solve the first order of Diophantine equations
• Born in Egypt, 300 B.C. to unknown
• Major Areas of Contribution: Plane geometry, number theory, theory of irrational numbers, solid geometry, theory of five regular polyhedrons
• Born in Greece, 287 to 212 B.C.
• Major Areas of Contribution: Area of plane figures, areas and volumes of curved surfaces, and integral calculus
Muhammed Al-Khwarizmi
• Born in Persia, 780 to 850 AD
• Major Areas of Contribution: systematic approach to solving linear and quadratic equations, wrote On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals which was responsible for spreading of the Indian system of numbering, introducing Arabic numerals
Leonardo Fibonacci
• Born in Italy, 1170 to 1250 AD
• Major Areas of Contribution: Spread of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to Europe, creation of the Fibonacci series
Blaise Pascal
• Born in France, 1623 to 1662 AD
• Major Areas of Contribution: Pascal's triangle, created the mechanical calculator, projective geometry, probability theory and economics
Sir Isaac Newton
• Born in England, 1643 to 1727 AD
• Major Areas of Contribution: differential and integral calculus to finding areas, the length of a curve, areas, maxima and minima.
Collections of Mathematicians: A view of math history from the eyes of the people
Top 10 Greatest Mathematicians: Details of the greatest mathematicians with photos
Grade a Math Help: Details on famous math personalities
History of Mathematics Timeline
2450 BC - Egypt, first method for approximate calculation of the circle using the sacred Triangle
530 BC - Pythagoreans study the vibrating lyre strings and discover the irrationality of the square root of two
260 BC - Archimedes computes pi to two decimal places
140 BC - Hipparchus develops the bases of trigonometry
450 - The Chinese compute pi to six decimal places
1030 - Ali Ahmed Nasawi develops the division of days into 24 hours, hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds
1202 - Leonardo Fibonacci uses Arabic numerals in his Book of the Abacus
1424 - Ghiyath al-Kashi computes pi to sixteen decimal places
1596 - Ludolf van Ceulen computes pi to twenty decimal places
1665 - Isaac Newton invents calculus
1722 - Abraham De Moivre states a theorem connecting trigonometric functions and complex numbers
1811 - Carl Friedrich Gauss discusses the meaning of integrals with complex limits
1903 - Edmund Georg Hermann Landau provides simpler proof of the prime number theorem
1983 - A collaboration of about 100 mathematicians classifying finite simple groups, is completed after 30 years
2000 - The Seven Millennium Prize Problems, a list of unsolved important math questions are established by the Clay Institute
A Time Line for the History of Mathematics: A list showing advancements in math alongside the advancements of mankind
From Cave Paintings to the Internet: Mathematics and logic timeline
History of Mathematics Timeline: A graphical depiction of the history of math
Other Resources for the History of Mathematics
History of Mathematics: A brief introduction with links to books and other resources
National Center for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics: A brief history of mathematics
Epact: Medieval and renaissance mathematical arts and sciences
Recovered Science: Ancient creation stories told by numbers
The British Society for the History of Mathematics: A society dedicated to promote research into the history of mathematics
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Zimbabwe faces crayfish crisis in water ecosystem
• Article by: ANGUS SHAW
• Associated Press
• February 12, 2013 - 8:12 AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Scientists in Zimbabwe say a fresh water crayfish brought from Australia is breeding out of control in the northern Lake Kariba, devouring the food sources of other fish and putting the nation's entire aquatic ecosystem at risk.
Officials at the Zimbabwe University lakeshore research station say the red claw crayfish, introduced a decade ago for a fish farming project, has no natural predators in the wild — crocodiles don't like them — and they produce clusters of eggs up to half the size of a tennis ball that hatch prolifically.
Baby crocodiles still feeding on insects have been observed eating the crayfish, as have Lake Kariba's piranha-like tiger fish, but they generally thrive in deeper water than the crayfish.
Chief ecologist Crispen Phiri said the exploding, migrant crayfish population is infesting rivers, dams, ponds and tanks much farther afield where `'the scavenger eats everything _rotting vegetation, anything organic and micro-organisms" that other aquatic life and fish need.
The red claw crayfish, scientifically Cherax Quadricarinatus and known colloquially in Australia as the yabby, is robust and hardy and cannot be poisoned without killing other natural species, Phiri said.
It survives and multiplies in virtually any fresh water supply and though its flesh is high in protein it is not popular in the diet of ordinary Zimbabweans, even those facing food shortages in the troubled economy.
Phiri said it is not clear whether the sister crayfish, or Cherax Destructor, is infesting Lake Kariba, too. As its scientific name suggests, it is a burrower which can cause structural damage to drainage and hydroelectric installations in Kariba, one of the world's largest manmade lakes stretching about 300 kilometers (200 miles) on the Zambezi River along the northern border with neighboring Zambia.
Like professionals in most Zimbabwean institutions, the scientists are suffering acute shortages of funding. The station's only research vessel has been docked for more than five years awaiting cash for repairs. What the ecologists do know is that the red claw migrates deep into river systems.
"We have to do a lot more work on the crayfish invasion," Phiri told The Associated Press.
`'We don't know yet what will happen to the ecosystem. It is an omnivore and eats detritus, rotting vegetation, dead fish, the eggs of bream and other aquatic life as well as all the organisms that are crucial in the whole ecological chain," he said.
Nor is it known exactly how many crayfish are in Kariba lake. Phiri says they are most visible breeding unchecked close to human settlements, harbors and slipways for boats. Kariba's "kapenta" fish, a tiny tropical whitebait or sardine that has become a staple food, was also introduced into the lake but does not migrate because it only lives in deep water lake conditions.
The red claw from Australia was first "farmed" in neighboring Zambia but has already found its way deep into that country's lake tributaries where its worrying impact is also being urgently tracked.
The solution to the crayfish crisis, said Phiri, seems to lie in commercial exploitation in traps similar to those used to catch marine lobster.
In stores in Harare, it sells for $9 a kilogram (2.2 pounds), $12 still alive in fish shop aquariums, and far more in upmarket restaurants patronized by the wealthy well-traveled elite and Zimbabwe's growing Chinese community.
Phiri said impoverished villagers capture the red claw and relocate to water closer to urban markets in central Zimbabwe.
Neighboring South Africa has banned commercial operations and breeding of the still water crustacean in Argentina, Mexico and Australia is strictly controlled for environmental reasons.
`'We don't have the resources on the ground to license or police exploitation on the right scale at Kariba," said Phiri. "The important thing is we don't want people to introduce it elsewhere."
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st: xi3 with xtreg?
From "Minson, Julia" <>
To "" <>
Subject st: xi3 with xtreg?
Date Wed, 1 Jun 2011 14:46:01 +0000
Hi everyone,
I working on a data set from an experiment with a two cell between-subjects design, in which each participant provided ten observations. I am interested in the difference between conditions. I don't care about the within-subject variance. I am curious what stata does if I use the xi3 command to control for person fixed effects in combination with xtreg?
So the syntax would be:
xi3: xtreg dv iv i.participant, i(participant)
The reason I am wanting to do this is that I get a more significant effect of condition than by just using xtreg or xtmixed without the xi3 option. Also just curious what it's actually doing...
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RE: st: Comparing coefficients across sub-samples
From "Fitzgerald, James" <>
To Lisa Marie Yarnell <>, "" <>
Subject RE: st: Comparing coefficients across sub-samples
Date Thu, 2 Aug 2012 23:42:44 +0000
Do I need to divide the squared standard errors by n of each sample?
The formula you provided appears to be Welch's t-test formula, but Welch's formula would be:
z = (B1 - B2) / √(seB1^2/n1 + seB2^2/n2)
Welch, B. L. (1947). "The generalization of "Student's" problem when several different population variances are involved". Biometrika 34 (1–2): 28–35
From: Lisa Marie Yarnell []
Sent: 01 August 2012 04:29
To:; Fitzgerald, James
Subject: Re: st: Comparing coefficients across sub-samples
Hi James,
Typically the effect of a predictor in two different groups can be compared with the unstandardized beta. You can do a statistical test of the difference in the betas using the z-score formula below. I usually just calculate the difference between unstandardized betas from two different models by hand, though Stata might have a command to do this for you. Is that what you are looking for: the Stata command?
(b1 – b2) b1 and b2 are the unstandardized regression weights that you want
z = -------------------- to test the difference between
√(seb12 + seb22) seb1 and seb2are the standard errors of these unstandardized
↑ regression weights, found next to the weights themselves
This is a square root sign! in your SPSS output. Remember to square them.
Take the square root of the
entire value in parentheses.
In terms of comparing the *magnitude* of the effect in the two different subsamples, it is more correct to do this qualitatively by comparing the *standardized* beta for the variable of interest against effect size rules of thumb for small/medium/large (which sometimes differ by discipline, such as social sciences/education/engineering). Just report the standardized beta as the effect size in each group; it would be a qualitative statement about the effect in each group.
Here are rules that I have:
Standardized regression coefficients:
* Keith’s (2006) rules for effects on school learning: .05 = too small to be considered meaningful, .above .05 = small but meaningful effect, .10 = moderate effect, .25 = large effect.
* Cohen’s (1988) rules of thumb: .10 = small, .30 = medium, > (or equal to) .50 = large
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fitzgerald, James" <>
To: "" <>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 4:14 PM
Subject: st: Comparing coefficients across sub-samples
Hi Statalisters
I am running the same model on two sub-samples as follows:
xtreg ltdbv lnta tang itang prof mtb if nolowlntalowtang==1, fe cluster(firm)
xtreg ltdbv lnta tang itang prof mtb if nolowlntalowtang==0, fe cluster(firm)
I want to compare the explanatory power of lnta across the two sub-samples i.e. in which sub-sample does lnta explain significantly more of the variation in ltdbv?
Can anyone give me some advice on how to achieve this?
Thanks in advance
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Don't Wait Vaccinate
Immunization, Variolation, Measles
Don’t Wait Vaccinate
Brandy DuFrane
Baker College
Essay 1
Children begin being vaccinated against harmful diseases at birth. Vaccinations are administered throughout the United States in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and health departments. Vaccinations provide protection to children and adults from many devastating viruses and bacteria. A majority of parents vaccinate their children as recommended but some parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children because they believe them to be harmful. These parents believe that they should be able to choose to have their children vaccinated or not. While vaccines may have some risk, and while vaccines should not be forced upon parents by law, it is still a better idea to vaccinate your child than to choose not to.
When children receive vaccines they develop stronger immune systems against disease. The Chinese have been administering forms of vaccinations for smallpox since the time period between 960 and 1269. They were not always made or administered in the traditional way. The Chinese people used the scabs of an infected small pox individual to immunize themselves against small pox. They would crush the scabs into a dust and then inhale it. This would give the individual small doses of the virus causing the persons immune system to develop protection against the invading disease and thus making themselves immune to small pox in the future. This practice is called variolation, and it originated from the observation that people who survived a previous smallpox infection somehow become resistant to getting the infection again. (Young, 2012).
Vaccines today work the same way. They are developed to be less harmful to a person then the actual disease. Often a dead virus or part of the virus is used to make the vaccination that is injected into an individual. This vaccination shot causes a child’s immune system to develop a future defense against the disease. They are now immunized against certain viruses or...
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Fear as naval ship fights way through storm
Officers feel fear 'for the first time'
Last updated 11:02 25/02/2014
Captain Phil Rowe
COOL AND CALM: Lieutenant Commander Phil Rowe, the captain of the HMNZS Wellington during the storm.
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"Hell on earth" is how a 28-year navy veteran has described conditions in the Southern Ocean which forced a scientific expedition to the sub-Antarctic islands to turn back.
The HMNZS Wellington sailed through Hurricane-strength winds and 16-metre swells yesterday, forcing it to alter its course and ultimately turn around after suffering some superficial damage.
Winds gusted to 90 knots (166kmh) as the offshore patrol vessel passed through the eye of the storm, in the vicinity of the Snares Islands, with gale-force northwesterly winds buffeting it for most of the day.
The ship was forced to change direction so it was driving into the storm, rather than across it.
The nose of the ship regularly drove through the waves, sending blankets of spray across the bridge windows as it pitched and rolled and dived through the storm, sending regular groans through the ship.
On board are Conservation Minister Nick Smith, Department of Conservation and Metservice staff, businessmen Gareth and Sam Morgan, and some media.
Lieutenant Commander Phil Rowe, the captain of the ship and a 28-year Navy veteran, described it as the worst sea he had sailed in. "It was hell on earth that one. It was quite scary," he said.
"You've got 80 people on board who are relying on me for their safety. When that ship was coming down in those troughs and shaking, that's the worst part for any ship.
"A couple of those yesterday I was quite concerned and I think if you spoke to anybody else [they would say the same]."
Other officers admitted to being scared for the first time in their careers.
The crew, many of them seasick, were sent back to bed as the conditions were too rough to work in.
Rowe made the decision to turn around and seek shelter at Stewart Island as another storm approached, to undertake repairs although the damage was largely superficial.
Ross Carroll, a Metservice volunteer who has lived on two of the sub-Antarctic islands and previously sailed through the same seas, said he had never seen conditions like it.
"It's quite interesting to see how scared the crew are," he joked during the storm yesterday.
"If I was in a smaller boat I'd be nervous.
"You can see photos, you can see film but . . . you don't know the sensation of it.
Asked how he was faring with many of the crew and passengers seasick he added: "I'm not great but I'm hanging in there."
Mike Lowe, a TVNZ cameraman who couldn't leave his small top-bunk due to sea sickness, joked: "It was like being in a floating coffin.
"Just alone with your thoughts which is not necessarily a good thing."
Lying in bed he said he would try to picture what was creating the noise.
"The rolling and crashing was quite frightening, I don't know about you but I was quite scared with it," he said.
Gareth Morgan said he had never seen seas that big.
"For me the dramatic thing about the sea was that the boat couldn't turn, it had to run with it," he said.
"I've never been in a seas quite that big so that was a new experience. But today you can walk out on the deck and take photos of albatross so we're back to normal, everybody's happy."
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Asmaa Bint Abu Bakr
[Bahasu Indonesia]
from: "Companions of The Prophet", Vol.1, By: Abdul Wahid Hamid.
Asmaa bint Abu Bakr belonged to a distinguished Muslim family. Her father, Abu Bakr, was a close friend of the Prophet and the first Khalifah after his death. Her half- sister, A'ishah, was a wife of the Prophet and one of the Ummahat al-Mu 'm ineen. Her husband, Zubayr ibn al- Awwam, was one of the special personal aides of the Prophet. Her son, Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr, became well- known for his incorruptibility and his unswerving devotion to Truth.
Asmaa herself was one of the first persons to accept Islam. Only about seventeen persons including both men and women became Muslims before her. She was later given the nickname Dhat an-Nitaqayn (the One with the Two Waistbands) because of an incident connected with the departure of the Prophet and her father from Makkah on the historic hijrah to Madinah.
Asmaa was one of the few persons who knew of the Prophet's plan to leave for Madinah. The utmost secrecy had to be maintained because of the Quraysh plans to murder the Prophet. On the night of their departure, Asmaa was the one who prepared a bag of food and a water container for their journey. She did not find anything though with which to tie the containers and decided to use her waistband or nitaq. Abu Bakr suggested that she tear it into two. This she did and the Prophet commended her action. From then on she became known as "the One with the Two Waistbands".
When the final emigration from Makkah to Madinah took place soon after the departure of the Prophet, Asmaa was pregnant. She did not let her pregnancy or the prospect of a long and arduous journey deter her from leaving. As soon as she reached Quba on the outskirts of Madinah, she gave birth to a son, Abdullah. The Muslims shouted AllaXu Akbar (God is the Greatest) and Laa ilaaha illa Allah (There is no God but Allah) in happiness and thanksgiving because this was the first child to be born to the muhajireen in Madinah.
Asmaa became known for her fine and noble qualities and for the keenness of her intelligence. She was an extremely generous person. Her son Abdullah once said of her, "I have not seen two women more generous than my aunt A'ishah and my mother Asmaa. But their generosity was expressed in different ways. My aunt would accumulate one thing after another until she had gathered what she felt was sufficient and then distributed it all to those in need. My mother, on the other hand, would not keep anything even for the morrow."
Asmaa's presence of mind in difficult circumstances was remarkable. When her father left Makkah, he took all his wealth, amounting to some six thousand dirhams, with him and did not leave any for his family. When Abu Bakr's father, Abu Quhafah (he was still a mushrik) heard of his departure he went to his house and said to Asmaa:
"I understand that he has left you bereft of money after he himself has abandoned you."
"No, grandfather," replied Asmaa, "in fact he has left us much money." She took some pebbles and put them in a small recess in the wall where they used to put money. She threw a cloth over the heap and took the hand of her grandfather --he was blind--and said, "See how much money he has left us".
Through this strategem, Asmaa wanted to allay the fears of the old man and to forestall him from giving them anything of his own wealth. This was because she disliked receiving any assistance from a mushrik even if it was her own grandfather.
She had a similar attitude to her mother and was not inclined to compromise her honour and her faith. Her mother, Qutaylah, once came to visit her in Madinah. She was not a Muslim and was divorced from her father in preIslamic times. Her mother brought her gifts of raisins, clarified butter and qaraz (pods of a species of sant tree). Asmaa at first refused to admit her into her house or accept the gifts. She sent someone to A'ishah to ask the Prophet, peace be upon him, about her attitude to her mother and he replied that she should certainly admit her to her house and accept the gifts. On this occasion, the following revelation came to the Prophet:
"God forbids you not, with regard to those who do not fight you because of your faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them. God loves those who are just. God only forbids you with regard to those who fight you for your Faith, and drive you from your homes, and support others in driving you out, from turning to them (for friendship and protection). It is such as turn to them (in these circumstances) that do wrong."
(Surah al-Mumtahanah 60: 8-9).
For Asmaa and indeed for many other Muslims, life in Madinah was rather difficult at first. Her husband was quite poor and his only major possession to begin with was a horse he had bought. Asmaa herself described these early days:
"I used to provide fodder for the horse, give it water and groom it. I would grind grain and make dough but I could not bake well. The women of the Ansar used to bake for me. They were truly good women. I used to carry the grain on my head from az-Zubayr's plot which the Prophet had allocated to him to cultivate. It was about three farsakh (about eight kilometres) from the town's centre. One day I was on the road carrying the grain on my head when I met the Prophet and a group of Sahabah. He called out to me and stopped his camel so that I could ride behind him. I felt embarrassed to travel with the Prophet and also remembered az-Zubayr's jealousy--he was the most jealous of men. The Prophet realised that I was embarrassed and rode on."
Later, Asmaa related to az-Zubayr exactly what had happened and he said, "By God, that you should have to carry grain is far more distressing to me than your riding with (the Prophet)".
Asmaa obviously then was a person of great sensitivity and devotion. She and her husband worked extremely hard together until their situation of poverty gradually changed. At times, however, az-Zubayr treated her harshly. Once she went to her father and complained to him about this. His reply to her was: "My daughter, have sabr for if a woman has a righteous husband and he dies and she does not marry after him, they will be brought together again in Paradise."
Az-Zubayr eventually became one of the richest men among the Sahabah but Asmaa did not allow this to corrupt her principles. Her son, al-Mundhir once sent her an elegant dress from Iraq made of fine and costly material. Asmaa by this time was blind. She felt the material and said, "It's awful. Take it back to him".
Al-Mundhir was upset and said, "Mother, it was not transparent."
"It may not be transparent," she retorted, "but it is too tight-fitting and shows the contours of the body."
Al-Mundhir bought another dress that met with her approval and she accepted it.
If the above incidents and aspects of Asmaa's life may easily be forgotten, then her final meeting with her son, Abdullah, must remain one of the most unforgettable moments in early Muslim history. At that meeting she demonstrated the keenness of her intelligence, her resoluteness and the strength of her faith.
Abdullah was in the running for the Caliphate after the death of Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah. The Hijaz, Egypt, Iraq, Khurasan and much of Syria were favourable to him and acknowledged him as the Caliph. The Ummayyads however continued to contest the Caliphate and to field a massive army under the command of Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ath-Thaqafi. Relentless battles were fought between the two sides during which Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr displayed great acts of courage and heroism. Many of his supporters however could not withstand the continuous strain of battle and gradually began to desert him. Finally he sought refuge in the Sacred Mosque at Makkah. It was then that he went to his mother, now an old blind woman, and said:
"Peace be on you, Mother, and the mercy and blessings of God."
"Unto you be peace, Abdullah," she replied. "What is it that brings you here at this hour while boulders from Hajjaj's catapults are raining down on your soldiers in the Haram and shaking the houses of Makkah?" "I came to seek your advice," he said.
"To seek my advice?" she asked in astonishment. "About what?"
"The people have deserted me out of fear of Hajjaj or being tempted by what he has to offer. Even my children and my family have left me. There is only a small group of men with me now and however strong and steadfast they are they can only resist for an hour or two more. Messengers of the Banu Umayyah (the Umayyads) are now negotiating with me, offering to give me whatever wordly possessions I want, should I lay down my arms and swear allegiance to Abdul Malik ibn Marwan. What do you think?"
Raising her voice, she replied:
"It's your affair, Abdullah, and you know yourself better. If however you think that you are right and that you are standing up for the Truth, then persevere and fight on as your companions who were killed under your flag had shown perseverance. If however you desire the world, what a miserable wretch you are. You would have destroyed yourself and you would have destroyed your men."
"But I will be killed today, there is no doubt about it."
"That is better for you than that you should surrender yourself to Hajjaj voluntarily and that some minions of Banu Umayyah should play with your head."
"I do not fear death. I am only afraid that they will mutilate me."
"There is nothing after death that man should be afraid of. Skinning does not cause any pain to the slaughtered sheep."
Abdullah's face beamed as he said:
"What a blessed mother! Blessed be your noble qualities! I have come to you at this hour to hear what I have heard. God knows that I have not weakened or despaired. He is witness over me that I have not stood up for what I have out of love for this world and its attractions but only out of anger for the sake of God. His limits have been transgressed. Here am I, going to what is pleasing to you. So if I am killed, do not grieve for me and commend me to God."
"I shall grieve for you," said the ageing but resolute Asmaa, "only if you are killed in a vain and unjust cause."
"Be assured that your son has not supported an unjust cause, nor committed any detestable deed, nor done any injustice to a Muslim or a Dhimmi and that there is nothing better in his sight than the pleasure of God, the Mighty, the Great. I do not say this to exonerate myself. God knows that I have only said it to make your heart firm and steadfast. "
"Praise be to God who has made you act according to what He likes and according fo what I like. Come close to me, my son, that I may smell and feel your body for this might be the last meeting with you."
Abdullah knelt before her. She hugged him and smothered his head, his face and his neck with kisses. Her hands began to squeeze his body when suddenly she withdrew them and asked:
"What is this you are wearing, Abdullah?"
"This is my armour plate."
"This, my son, ls not the dress of one who desires martyrdom. Take it off. That will make your movements lighter and quicker. Wear instead the sirwal (a long under garment) so that if you are killed your 'awrah will not be exposed.
Abdullah took off his armour plate and put on the sirwal. As he left for the Haram to join the fighting he said:
"My mother, don't deprive me of your dada (prayer)."
Raising her hands to heaven, she prayed:
"O Lord, have mercy on his staying up for long hours and his loud crying in the darkness of the night while people slept . . .
"O Lord, have mercy on his hunger and his thirst on his journeys from Madinah and Makkah while he fasted . . .
"O Lord, bless his righteousness to his mother and his father . . .
"O Lord, I commend him to Your cause and I am pleased with whatever You decree for him. And grant me for his sake the reward of those who are patient and who persevere."
By sunset, Abdullah was dead. Just over ten days later, his mother joined him. She was a hundred years old. Age had not made her infirm nor blunted the keenness of her mind.
| <urn:uuid:c5eebaa0-2c32-4670-95a5-1f1a3c20e873> | 2 | 2.25 | 0.019657 | en | 0.987251 | http://www.sunnah.org/history/Sahaba/asma.html |
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Event or State of Being?
Keraza Magazine issue 15-16 April 25, 2014
Death is an event that occurs at some point in a person's life to announce the end of this life, "And a time to die" (Ecclesiastes 3:2). This event is beyond a person's will; the train of life simply stopped suddenly, compelling the soul out unwillingly, "No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death" (Ecclesiastes 8:8). Actually, death is not simply a life event; it is an essential part of life. It is an event and a state of being simultaneously. If an event repeats with each unit of time, then it becomes a state of being.
Do not our members bear the irrefutable evidence of death and life coexisting in us? Each moment, one cell in our members dies so that another is born. Furthermore, from the moment of its inception, each one of these cells carries its plan of death. Any members that do not experience the death of its cells would not experience their life. Eventually, death comes at an appointed time, drawing the curtain on this sequential series of death and life. That is, the event of death comes along to end this state of death-life cycles. Comprehending this, St. Paul said, "So then death is working in us" (2 Corinthians 4:12). Psychologists understood this same truth, and so acknowledged two main instincts that work in a human since birth: the death instinct (which produces all decomposition and disintegration), and the life instinct (which gave birth to all integration). Contemporary philosophers also grasped this, and so coined their famous slogan, "Living to die".
Truth be told, death was not in God's intentions, nor in His Economy since the beginning, nor was it part of His creation, but it was introduced to humanity by sin: "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might exist...and the dominion of Hades is not on earth...But ungodly men by their words and deeds summoned death" (Wisdom 1:13-16 RSV). Thus, since death entered the world by the envy of Satan, death and life became joint and knitted just as the tares crowd the wheat until the time of harvest (Matthew 13:25-30).
Resurrection also is an event and a state of being simultaneously. A Christian does not await a certain date in time when time will end, The Day of Resurrection, to enjoy the resurrection and eternal life; one lives resurrection on earth as an existential state of being and as an inseparable component of the new being. In the old being, the experiences of death and pain determined a person's actions and reactions. One ate, drank, slept, worked, married, and even loved out of fear of death and pain avoidance. However, on the new person (who is united to the living God) the impact of death is ineffective, akin to a venomless viper. This new person knows perfectly well that if one does not live the state of the resurrection, bearing the new identity here on earth, one will not live it in eternity. And so, all of one's efforts would be, not to live, but rather that Christ risen from the dead lives within (Galatians 2:20), so that whatever one does, weather in word or in deed, everything is done in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17).
May you be in a state of resurrection always united in your new person with Christ who has risen in you and for you.
Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States
| <urn:uuid:0062c422-9ee4-4033-ab47-ab7395f689d8> | 2 | 2.078125 | 0.027854 | en | 0.953049 | http://www.suscopts.org/resources/literature/1084/event-or-state-of-being/ |
Cold-blooded cannibals: extreme adaptations to island life
Island life seems idyllic, but is it really? This video reveals one of the more sinister aspects of living in a very size-limited and harsh environment
Ever since I first read Alfred Russel Wallace's classic work, The Malay Archipelago, I've been fascinated by island life and by evolution on islands. But small island environments can be harsh and unforgiving, so their inhabitants must evolve extraordinary adaptations to survive.
The islands in the Mediterranean are an example; they are generally small in size and have scarce supplies of water and food. To meet the challenges of island life, Mediterranean island lizards evolved the ability to drink nectar, and to eat flowers and fruits. This adaptation not only allows them to survive, but their interactions with plants have forever changed these island ecosystems. However, these island lizards have evolved another, more sinister, adaptation that is revealed in this gorgeous video:
On many islands, vital resources are so scarce and the competition for them is so intense that it's not uncommon to see lizards eating their own eggs, or as you saw on this video, each other. If, at first, this seems distasteful, don't forget that humans (especially those living on islands) also engage in this practice.
This video was the winner of the 2011 Evolution-Themed Film Festival. All entries were three minutes or less, and explained a fun fact, key concept, compelling question, or explored an exciting area of evolution research. Entries were intended to be suitable for use in a classroom and so had to be both informative and entertaining. This film festival was organised and hosted by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), an NSF-funded science nonprofit dedicated to cross-disciplinary research in evolution. NESCent can be found on twitter: @NESCent
"Cold-blooded Cannibals" was written, filmed and edited by Nathan Dappen and Joris van Alphen; narrated by John Astbury, and produced by Days Edge Productions and Joris van Alphen photography. Filming assistance was provided by Ryan McMinds, Hannah Peck and Marina Knize. This video documentary was filmed with a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon Rebel T3i.
Days Edge Photography is on facebook and twitter: @DaysEdge
twitter: @GrrlScientist | <urn:uuid:69598ebe-e8ed-43fc-8bcb-4174b7214167> | 3 | 2.9375 | 0.02685 | en | 0.95698 | http://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/jun/22/3 |
If you’ve noticed lately, there has been a surge in the number of “health foods”. Heart healthy oils, low fat dairy, high protein eggs, magic berries and more are on the rise. Just about 50 years back, this wasn’t the case. Back then people just ate food. Eggs were eggs, butter was butter and milk was milk. There weren’t ad campaigns and commercials talking about how a specific ingredient or a particular food protected you against disease or made you healthy. Why? Because it isn’t true.
Just like there is no magic bullet or Santa Claus, there is no one food that can magically fix all your health issues. Every food item has something good in it and that is why it is classified as “food”. And it ends there. But food manufacturers stretch this too far in order to sell. Either they highlight only the nutrients (beneficial components) and hide the anti-nutrients (detrimental components) in their food product or they make ingredient related inferences that aren’t accurate.
Take breakfast cereals for example. You see on the box in big beautiful letters, phrases like “with real fruit!” It is true that it contains bits of real (dehydrated or freeze-dried) fruit, but it also contains a truckload of sugar and a few too many preservatives, additives and chemicals. Of course these are printed on the box too, but not in big colourful block letters on the front but in fine print somewhere in the back or the bottom of the box. This can be “misguiding”.
Take a product that says “with the real goodness of milk!” Milk contains nutrients that are good for you. But does this mean that every food product that contains milk is healthful? Absolutely not. Why? Because a food item may contain milk (say, milk chocolate), may also contain a host of other ingredients that are detrimental to health.
Realise that all food products are made using real food and hence contain something that is beneficial but they may also contain a hundred other components that are detrimental to your health which makes the net effect of the food negative. So next time, when you buy boxed foods, be sure to get the full story. Turn the box around to read the ingredients and look for the following.
The lesser the total number of ingredients, the better. If a product contains more than 12 ingredients, throw it out.
The first few ingredients matter more because ingredients are meant to be listed based on percentage composition. If the first five ingredients aren’t healthful real foods, you might as well skip what is inside and eat the box.
The word “sugar” may appear only once but watch out for the aliases. Maltose, dextrose, glucose, honey, cane sugar, caramel, syrups, dextran, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, sucrose etc. They’re all sugar and are equally notorious.
If you see agents, chemicals, numbers or ingredients you don’t recognise, it belongs in a lab or in the trash, whichever is closest.
Forget the latest superfoods and pseudo health products. Eat “real” food instead. Organic produce, pre-soaked lentils and legumes, free range meat and eggs, farm fresh dairy and fermented grains are, and always will be, the real deal.
Always remember — food is cooked in a kitchen and served on a plate. Not made in a lab and sold in boxes. Keep the old style grocer close and the new age food manufacturer afar and you won’t need your doctor on speed dial.
(The writer is a certified nutrition and fitness expert.)
Facts about fatApril 18, 2013
Glass of goodness?May 2, 2013
Blame it on convenienceMay 16, 2013 | <urn:uuid:c661e2a5-d952-4750-9f14-528f83ab39f4> | 2 | 2.46875 | 0.081851 | en | 0.940063 | http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/Food/think-behind-the-box/article4534122.ece?ref=relatedNews |
The Bandipur tiger, which killed three persons in a week in H.D. Kote taluk of Mysore district, was tranquilised and captured by the Forest Department officials at Chikkabargi forests on Thursday, bringing relief to people living on the fringes of the forests.
The male tiger, aged about 10, looked a little weak, its teeth broken, while a porcupine quill had pierced through its mouth making it difficult for it to chew or eat.
The combing operation was launched at around 7.30 a.m. and the officials were hopeful of tracking down the tiger as they had spotted its pug marks near the very place where the body of Basappa, who was killed by the animal, was found on Tuesday.
Basavaraju, a farmer was killed near Nidadihaadi on November 27; Cheluva, a tribal man was killed near Seegevadihaadi on November 29, while Basappa met a gory end on December 3. There was another death on November 30 when a forest guard Suresh was killed in the adjoining Nagarahole national park but the attack has been attributed to a different tiger.
It was suspected that the tiger was preying on human beings due to its inability to hunt because of old age or injury.
H.C. Kantharaj, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, who confirmed that the animal was tranquilised and caught early in the day, told The Hindu that it was the same animal which had killed three persons during the week
“We had observed its behavioural pattern during the combing operations at Seegevadihaadi and the animal never ventured beyond 500 metres to more than a km deep into the jungles from the boundary nor would it come out more than 100 metres from the demarcation line,” he said.
“Hence, we suspected that it might have been ejected out of its territory by a dominant male in a territorial fight or it was an aged tiger unable to hunt and was confining itself to the forest boundary line where stray animals were an easy pick. But unfortunately it also preyed on human beings. Then, we focussed our operations along the periphery of the forests and the demarcation line,” Mr. Kantharaj said.
The theory that the tiger could be aged or injured was corroborated when it was tranquilised and the veterinarians confirmed that its teeth had broken and that a porcupine quill in its mouth had badly injured it. The tiger could have died of starvation in a few days, according to Mr. Kantharaj.
Though the State government on Wednesday issued an order to shoot down the animal, sources in the Forest Department said that it would be a “last resort as an act of self-defence only” and their first priority was to take the animal alive as they did not want to risk shooting a wrong animal in the tiger reserve.
Though the operation to trap the Bandipur tiger has been successful, the situation was tense at Chikkabargi village. The tiger was put in a cage and there were plans to shift it to the Mysore zoo for the veterinarians to treat and study the animal. However, people in Chikkabargi village surrounded the Forest Department staff and insisted that they be shown the caged tiger.
The tiger was brought to the Forest Department office that had been vandalised two days ago following Basappa’s killing.
Tempers ran high and a section of the crowd called for “revenge” and insisted that the tiger be doused with petrol and set ablaze. However, the authorities, with the help of the KSRP men, soothed the frayed nerves of the mob and moved the animal to Mysore through the Moolehole forests.
More In: Karnataka | National | <urn:uuid:93a2fee6-6b8f-435c-9d31-49e8af39dc01> | 2 | 1.984375 | 0.022769 | en | 0.988739 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/bandipur-maneater-tranquilised-trapped/article5424942.ece |
Nov 4, 2006
FLL design theory...
This post is targeted more to coaches and FLL participants. I'm curious about your plan of attack for the challenges in this year's FLL events. Most of the NXT bots I've seen to this point do NOT use sensors (other than the built-in rotation sensors in the motors). My question is this: are you choosing to not use sensors for any particular reason (difficult to program, unsure how to use properly, etc.) or have you just not found a use for them in the challenges?
Are any of the teams out there using sensors? Without giving away your secrets, are you finding them useful for successfully completing one or more challenges?
Many of us in the NXT community are simly curious about how FLL participants are doing when it comes to programming... we'd enjoy hearing your comments.
David Levy said...
I spent two entire sessions at our school club having the students calibrate their sensors to the room's ambient light and focus entirely on navigation using the light sensor on the FLL NANO Challenge mat ( notice all the black lines?).
This was very easy for them to do because they already had gone through the Robot Educator tutorial that includes missions to "stop on a black line" as well as line following. I simply told them to refer to the Robot Educator tutorial for examples. Most of them were able to create programs that worked on the table. One child even created a line following routine that drove right to the space elevator from home base.
Unfortunately, with the exception of one team using a single "stop on black line" for the dirt trap, I don't see any use of the light sensor with their current FLL mission solutions. This may in part be due to the accuracy that can be achieved by simple dead reckoning techniques.
Kurt said...
Early on, we tested robots with ultrasonic sensors, touch sensors and light sensors. The way the team ended up doing the missions, there didn't seem to be much use for the ultrasonic and touch sensors. We are using light sensors, but it appears there are some "issues" with the NXT-G software that prevent the light sensors from working as well as we would like. The team has found ways to work around them, but add it to the list of shortcomings of the NXT-G software!
Brian Davis said...
What are the "issues" with the light sensors that you mention? Can you explain or elaborate more? I've wondered why line-following (esepcially on the nano-mat isn't more popular. I'm starting to think that there may have to be harder challenges for FLL inthe future to encorage the use of sensors. Part of the issue is that the FLL challenges are often static... for instance, you *know* where a certain element is. That doesn't have to be the case.
As a simple example, cooperative tasks between the two playing fields can easily be arranged where one task has to be done if you are the "first" to the center, while a different action or task has to occur if you are "second" to the center... and the number of points you get depends on how rapidly the cooperative task is completed. Now, each team has an incentive to cope with whatever the situation is at the center, as fast as possible (i.e., not waiting for a later run and switching programs to cope with what the other team has done).
Another example: picture a field with one element in one of two positions selected *after* the robot has left home base. The robot has to dynamicly adapt to the conditions on the playfield under autonomous control... putting the intelligence back on the robot, and moving it off the team.
Brian Davis
David Levy said...
I like the example of a playing field with an element on one of two positions. Another variation could be that a few elements vary by about 6 inches from mat to mat. Teams would be allowed to take measurements prior to a round but would not be allowed to run tests with the robot on the table. This would make it slightly more difficult to use a dead reckoning solution.
Jim Kelly said...
I think you can still use dead-reckoning with a fair bit of accuracy even with a slight variation on the location of parts... that's just got to be taken into consideration when programming. I think a combination of MOVE blocks (set to use rotation or degree values), paired with either the Touch or Ultrasonic sensor, could be used to accomplish all of the challenges.
My problem with the Light sensor and the "dark" areas on the table is that the dark area doesn't give any indication of relative position to a challenge - I mean that when the LS detects the black line, for example, you have no accuracy that you're hitting the black line from a perpindicular direction or from an angle... and this would make it difficult to use the LS to determine accurate locations on the table. Maybe I'm wrong...
The Sound sensor is completely useless in this type of competition where the sound level is always LOUD.
David Levy said...
I've been encouraging the students to try a combination of techniques for a single mission. For example dead reckoning can be used to establish a proper bearing on a mission but then the light sensor could be used as a trigger to stop or change direction.
Ejner Andersen said...
Our FLL team is using the following sensors for our NXT robot for this years Nano challange: 3 x Rotation sensors, 1x touch sensor, 1 x light sensor as well as one ultrasonic sensor. The ultrasonic sensor is being used to follow at a programmed distance along one of the walls of the table. The light sensor is used several places to detect the black lines on the field mat. The touch sensor is being used to detect that the robot is in close contact with a certain challange model.
So for our team we can only say that we are actually using all the allowed sensors in order to find our way arround on the challange table. Current status is that the team are able to make all 400 points in arround 2 minutes. It does however require that the compeeting team release the space elevator as well.
Maniac... said...
Another example: picture a field with one element in one of two positions selected *after* the robot has left home base. The robot has to dynamically adapt to the conditions on the playfield under autonomous control...
Such as the bus tickets during no limits year. I also think that variation is a good idea. Otherwise teams can program their robots every move - with accuracy, it would work - and there would be no autonomos behavior.
Anonymous said...
We haven't even started programming yet, I'm starting to worry a bit. Being a rookie coach with a rookie team, we're all a bit lost.
Anonymous said...
I'm coaching 2 teams. The older Team (Gr 7/8) are using sensors, while the younger team (Gr. 5/6) is using the motor rotations alone right now.
The sensors are easy enough to understand and use, but the younger group has seen no need for it ... yet! This may change real soon now.
We are using two light sensors and two touch sensors on our robot. We gave up on using the ultrasonic sensor because of problems with echos around the corners of the board (Aim the ultrasonic sensor at a corner while rotating the robot a bit and you will see what I mean ;)
Paul Tan.
Co-Coach of St. Clement's Lego Robotics
Toronto, Canada
Jon of NH said...
My team is made of 9 and 10 year olds, with one 12 year old. They have had most success with the rotation sensors. I think that the NXT makes it so easy to use odometry that it becomes difficult to think in terms of other sensors.
They've finished most of the missions (except the table mission), and putting on other sensors for increased accuracy is not a higher priority for the robot. Of course, higher than that is getting ready for the research and the technical presentations.
Maniac... said...
(except the table mission)
Although this has no relevance to the direction of the discussion here, the term you used "table mission" brought this thought to my head.
Our team has dubbed "the table mission" or "individual atom manipulation" TOM. It is an acronym for Table Of MAYHEM. Partly because it is so annoying to set up, and partly because one of our mentors is named Tom:-)
Does anybody else have some interesting names for some of the missions on this year's table?
Doreen said...
I have a second-year team. They are using the built-in rotation sensors, as well as a touch sensor which is used to orient the robot against the bumpers. They did some work with the light sensor but eventually decided it was unnecessary for their chosen approaches.
They also encountered the difficulty which Jim identified with the light sensor - using a single light sensor doesn't allow the robot to identify it's precise location along the line. Using two light sensors might help them out with that, but my team is simply not there yet. Dead reckoning was easier.
We had a practice scrimmage with two rookie teams a couple of days ago - one of those teams used dead-reckoning for every mission they attempted, and the other used the touch sensor to orient the robot against one of the mission models.
Doreen, in Toronto
Anonymous said...
Our team consists of children of every age between 9 and 14. We have tried and tried to find uses for the sensors but have found none that improve our accuracy or reduce time. We are using the built in rotation sensors and the nxt buttons. Last year we used a rotation sensor for distance and touch sensors to change programs so what we are doning this year is very similar.
Jon T
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Sexual Activity
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Womens Health News
• Pericoital Pill Gets Rough Ride from Press
Even though female contraception was introduced more than 50 years ago, it is still a topic that causes much debate around the world. Recently, we were surprised to read the reactions to research indicating that there was a need for pericoital contraceptives among women who attended family…
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In yet another odd twist to the mysterious story of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a New Zealand man working on an oil rig in the South China Sea has come forward to say he believes he saw the airplane on fire right around the time it disappeared.
Mike McKay, an worker on the "Songa Mercur" drilling platform, sent an email to his bosses detailing his version of events. McKay said that he "observed the plane burning at high one piece" about 50-70 KM from his location. He gave coordinates for the location of the rig, which recently moved from Cuba to the shores of Vietnam. McKay's employer confirms that the letter, posted online by several news outlets today, is authentic.
ABC's Bob Woodruff spoke with the Japanese Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co after acquiring the letter to confirm the letter's veracity. McKay, who carries a New Zealand passport, said that he tried to contact Malaysian and Vietnam officials about what he saw "several days ago," adding that he'd received no confirmation that they got his message. Vietnamese officials confirmed to ABC that they'd received the letter. Apparently, they found nothing in the water at the location specified by McKay.
Given the apparently location of the rig, and the original flight path of MH370, it's possible that McKay is correct. But that would also seem to discount the theory that the plane turned and headed in the complete opposite direction, as some military authorities have (at least temporarily) claimed.
Meanwhile, officials are expanding their search for the still-missing plane, and the 239 people on board. There are several reports indicating that the plane may have veered off its intended flight path and changed direction before disappearing from radar, but those reports conflict as to where, exactly it went. At least 10 countries are involved in the Malaysian-led search for the missing jet, which carried passengers from at least 13 different countries, although most of the passengers were Chinese citizens.
Here's the full letter: | <urn:uuid:c38220f7-3845-43bc-acff-acfb33c7c7ae> | 2 | 1.515625 | 0.201953 | en | 0.965837 | http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/03/oil-rig-worker-says-he-saw-malaysia-air-flight-370-go-down/359093/ |
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[*] Ash's discussion lead you to this didn't it?
Well I say definitely Definition, and as Carlin said: "it's a matter of term limits."
We first need to know what constitutes life and a person. But since it's just a matter of opinions there will never be an absolute answer, that's why pro-lifers usually need to back up their personal opinions with God because in their screwed up heads God's will is absolute and therefore proves their arguments. They also believe it gives them the right to meddle in other people's wombs.
[moderator: violation of forum rules removed -- personal attacks]
A) You believe that life starts at contraception
I'm pretty sure life does not begin at contraception.
You sure look like you know what you're talking about.
@Mis.... I should point out.. contraception prevents conception. So no, life doesn't start at contraception no matter how you look at it..
Ah, but you're overlooking the failure rate! LOL
Misanthrope, personhood doesn't even begin after birth. The brain has a long way to develop even then. After birth, there are still plenty of animals that have higher levels of consciousness, intelligence and self-awareness to that of the newborn.
As for who is to say right and wrong, the entire universe is composed of orderly structure where everything that exists is connected to everything else. Logic can help sort out what is right and wrong because logic finds the structure.
Cognitive development is fluid, and not static. People don't go through all the same stages of cognitive development at the same time. Infants, for instance, do not know of the awareness of an object once it has been removed from sight. After about three months, they begin to have this capability, but for some it takes much longer.
An adult dog is much smarter than an infant. As is an adult pig. Humans develop from birth into more complex intelligent animals and then into persons. Infants resemble persons, but they are not persons yet.
Sperm cells are also alive. They have the potential to create a human being. Were all those wet dreams in my youth immoral?
Once an egg is fertilized (conception) the woman is not pregnant until the egg implants itself in the uterine wall. Many pregnancies fail before this happens or very soon after.
Are you saying that this fertilized egg deserves as much consideration as a fully grown human or a new born baby?
What about a blastocyst, 5 days after fertilization, which contains significantly fewer cells than the brain of a housefly?
88 percent of abortions occur within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This is long before it can live on its own.
Do you think abortion should be outlawed? If so what is the punishment for women who have abortions? If not, what's your point? Have you researched what it is like in the few countries who have outlawed abortion?
No one is truly pro-abortion. No one likes the idea of ending a pregnancy. The issue is whether a woman should be told that she has to carry the pregnancy to term, which in my opinion is immoral.
You don't really appear to be "pro-life" yourself. I have read a few of your comments in which you have told people to kill themselves or go and die simply for pointing out flaws in your argument and disagreeing with you.
You claim you love reason and logic yet your recent post was devoid of reason and entirely illogical.
You made statements that were neither true or logical. Such as, "abortions lead to higher instances of breast cancer". This is simply not true. It is pro-life propaganda and is not in any way backed by science.
How about "woman are not warned about the dangers of abortions", this also is simply not true. I have personally accompanied a friend to an abortion clinic. She did not want to bring a baby into the world that she knew she could not support and did not want the baby to grow up in the system. She was thoroughly informed about the procedure. Doctors inform women about abortions just as much as they inform anyone about any medical procedure.
Your posts have been based on emotion. Emotion has no place in the realm of logic. It is actually possible to create a valid and sound argument against abortion but to be blunt, you failed miserably.
Do not respond with the predictable response, based on your previous posts, that I am a troll. Or that I don't think for myself, that I should go kill myself, that I sound like a Christian, or any of the other circumstantial and abusive Ad hominems that you have committed in your other posts.
If you truly love logic as you say, you would not have committed so many logical fallacies. I recommend "A Concise Introduction to Logic" by Patrick Hurley.
They teach logic at U of R don't they? I know they do at V.C.U.
Are sperm cells "alive"? I'm not sure they satisfy the criteria biologists use to define living individuals, to wit:
• an organized structure performing a specific function (check)
• an ability to sustain existence, e.g. by nourishment (probable no check)
• an ability to respond to stimuli or to its environment (limited check)
• a capability to adapt (probable no check)
• capabilit to reproduce (no check)*
* While sperm cells have a role in human reproduction, they have no reproductive system or process of their own. Not even mitosis. A sperm can't make a new sperm.
I think this list is only intended for differentiating inanimate objects from living. But not for determining at what point a living thing has produced a second living thing, or if part of a living thing can be considered alive on it's own, etc.
Because if you try to use it that way, this list would tell us that babies & sterile adults are not alive. And that no single man or woman is alive -- because a man can no more create a new man, than a sperm can create a new sperm. If we use the list this way, only a male+female pair can be considered alive.
Okay, well, in what sense is a virus NOT alive then, because biology tells us that viruses are not alive even though they do have a way of replicating themselves.
I'm starting to think that what constitutes life, like the concept of free will, tends to evaporate as you try to define it.
Interesting. Yet we know life exists . . .
You are comparing apples and oranges.
More like apples and rocket science.
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Snow People
Between December 11 and February 24, there will be two snowballs in your town each day. You can use them to build one new snowperson in your town each day. Depending on the size of the snowballs, you can build Snowman, Snowmam, Snowboy, and Snowtyke. You can receive special items from them.
Building Snow People
You can find two snowballs in your town each day between December 11 and February 14. Each one will be in a random location in your town.
Rolling and Shaping Snowballs
Roll a snowball on snow to make it bigger, or roll the snowball on dirt or stone to make it smaller. Small snowballs must be kicked around, but when a snowball is larger, it can be slowly pushed by hand.
Broken Snowballs
Be careful! If you push the snowball into water, push it against a wall, or drop it off of a cliff, it will break! If you break a snowball, go into a building and then go back outside. There will be a new snowball in a random location in your town.
Putting the Snowballs Together
A snow person is made of two snowballs. Each snowball has to be big enough that you are no longer kicking it when you move it around. If the snowball is too small, you need to make it bigger before you can use it to build a snow person.
To create a snow person, just push one snowball toward another. If both snowballs are big enough, the snowball that you are pushing will jump up on top of the other one, creating a snow person.
Different Types of Snow People
There are several different types of snow people: Snowman, Snowmam, Snowboy, and Snowtyke. Each type gives you different items.
Snowball Sizes
The type of snow person that you create depends on the size of the snowball on the bottom. Here is a list that describes the snowball sizes and the resulting snow people:
• Biggest snowball (just above your ear level): Snowman (wears a top hat)
• Large snowball (your ear level): Snowboy (has a triangular nose and black eyes)
• Medium snowball (just above your chin level): Snowmam (has eyelashes)
• Small snowball (below your chin level): Snowtyke (has a round nose)
Well-balanced Snow People
To make a good quality snow person, the snowball that you push on top should be just slightly smaller than the base snowball. If the top snowball is bigger or a lot smaller than the base snowball, the resulting snow person might not give you any gifts, or might have different requirements for the gifts.
Snow People Gifts
The four different types of snowpeople can give you gifts. The following sections explain how to get gifts from the different snowpeople.
The Snowman is made with a very large snowball as the base. He wears a top hat.
If you don't have a bingo card, talk to a Snowman to receive one. Keep in mind that the bingo card can't be dropped or thrown away. Then talk to a Snowman to get a new number on your bingo card. Each Snowman will give you one number per day. You can build multiple Snowmen in your town to get more bingo numbers per day. You can also get bingo numbers from Snowmen in other towns.
If you get five numbers in a line, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, the Snowman will give you a prize and take away the bingo card. You can get a new one the next day. Here is a list of gifts that the Snowman can give you:
• Bobsled
• Curling stone
• Lift chair
• Ski rack
• Slalom gate
• Snow machine
• Snowboard
• Snowmobile
• Ski-slope floor
• Ski-slope wall
The Snowboy is made with a large snowball as the base. He has black eyes and a triangular nose.
If you build a well-balanced Snowboy (i.e. if the top ball is slightly smaller than the base), the Snowboy will send you a letter in the mail the next day. There will be a piece of Snowman furniture or a Snowman or Snowman hat attached.
• Snowman
• Snowman Bed
• Snowman Carpet
• Snowman Chair
• Snowman Clock
• Snowman Dresser
• Snowman Fridge
• Snowman Head
• Snowman Lamp
• Snowman Sofa
• Snowman Table
• Snowman TV
• Snowman Vanity
• Snowman Wardrobe
• Snowman Wall
The Snowmam is created with a medium snowball as the base. She has eyelashes and her hair in a bun.
The Snowmam will ask you to bring her snowflakes. She will ask for fewer snowflakes if she is well-balanced (i.e. if the top ball is slightly smaller than the base). When you have a Snowmam in your town, there will be snowflakes floating around in your town even if it is not snowing. Catch them with your bug net. Give Snowmam the requested number of snowflakes to receive a piece of ice furniture:
• Ice Bed
• Ice Chair
• Ice Clock
• Ice Closet
• Ice Dresser
• Ice Floor
• Ice Lamp
• Ice Shelf
• Ice Side Table
• Ice Sofa
• Ice Table
• Ice Vanity
• Ice Wall
The Snowtyke is created with a small snowball as the base. The Snowtyke has a round nose.
To get gifts from Snowtyke, you have to have all four types of snow people in your town, and Snowtyke needs to be well-balanced (i.e. the top ball needs to be slightly smaller than the base). Depending on how well-balanced the other snow people are, Snowtyke will give you one of the following gifts in a letter the next day:
Number of well-balanced snowpeopleSnowtyke gift
The other three types of snowpeople are all well-balanced Snowman Matryoshka
Two of the other three types of snowpeople are well-balanced Snow bunny
One of the other three types of snowpeople are well-balanced Small igloo
Only the Snowtyke is well-balanced Sleigh
Snowpeople melt a little bit each day, even if it snows. A snowperson will disappear four days after it was created.
Page last updated 2014-11-28T02:00:39+01:00
Starting the Game
Stalk Market | <urn:uuid:d54e3104-726d-4bb4-a3f6-1d593769e43f> | 2 | 2.140625 | 0.034302 | en | 0.916707 | http://www.thonky.com/animal-crossing-new-leaf/snow-people/ |
Finding Dewey: The Search for West Virginia’s First Poet Laureate along the Backroads of US 219
January 4, 2013 |
He would write on a green Oliver typewriter, seated on a child-sized armchair with rollers at the bottom. Each day he would write, hour after hour, facing the trains that rushed past him on their way to the Blackwater Canyon. He’d write a poem and if he didn’t like it he would crumple it up, start over again. Day after day. Often, he would drink. It didn’t take but a few beers to drown him because Karl Dewey Myers never weighed more than 60 pounds.
Dr. Walter Barnes, the former Dean of Fairmont State College wrote that Dewey was “absorbed in the basic, eternal problems of mortal existence, struggling to make beauty and truth and mercy prevail.” In his poems, Karl Dewey Myers wrote devotedly about Tucker County, with a sensitivity to its graceful, changing beauty. He wrote of the forests transformed by railroads and logging trains, with an awe for both the natural beauty and the momentum that carried the trains up the steep mountains towards the sky.
Sometimes, Dewey’s profound sense of wonder was mixed with bitterness, as he struggled to stay above the heavy burden of grief for the dead (his older brother and mother both died when he was still a teenager). With words, he fought to persevere over the harsh cruelty of being labeled a “cripple” by the human society he craved. With women, he wrote continuously, though he never experienced romance.
But just before the nation fell into its Great Depression, Karl Dewey Myers was offered a short stint of fame. On June 9, 1927, he was named the first poet laureate of West Virginia.
Cindy Karelis, graduate student of History at West Virginia University, first drew my attention to the story of Karl Dewey Myers. Like me, she had never heard of the poet when one day last fall she found countless writings by Dewey when she was researching the archived writing from the 1930s done by the Federal Writers’ Project. A Tucker County writer for the FWP, Gordon Shrader, knew the poet personally and included Dewey’s poetry in many of his reports. The FWP was a Depression era, federally funded program which employed out of work writers and teachers to complete local guides to their communities.
Like many who befriended the small poet, Gordon Shrader was known to have carried Dewey on his back, literally, transporting him on adventures into the poolrooms of Parsons. For a brief period of time, Dewey lived with Gordon and his family. It was one of dozens of homes offered to the poet, a places of refuge. Beginning in 1932 when his father died, Dewey lived a somewhat transitory life, dependent on his hosts in more ways than he liked. His mother, who had helped him become as independent as possible despite his handicap, had died in 1923. And though many people invited him to stay, Dewey usually wasn’t welcome anywhere for more than a few months, for however long as his hosts could put up with his acrimonious fits of temper and alcoholism.
In 2012, Cindy and I traveled to Porterwood, West Virginia, in Tucker County, to interview 88-year-old Dave Strahin, who is probably the only living person today who was good friends with Karl Dewey Myers. Our conversation was joined by crates of baby chickens, just arrived in the mail. Photos covered the coffee table, piles of them scattered like decks of cards.
Dave turns to us and he says, “Oh please tell his story. Somebody’s just got to tell his story.” In his lap, he searches through a dusty hardbound book, Homer Fansler’s A History of Tucker County. Dave, Homer and Karl Dewey Myers, or “Duke”, as Dave refers to him, were close friends for years. But perhaps nobody was closer to the poet than Homer.
After a few minutes, Dave finds a chapter written by Homer about “poor old Duke,” and hands it across the kitchen table. “Homer and Duke had been friends for an awful lot of years. I guess since the time they were kids. When Homer was still in service, after WWII, he’d go and hunt Duke up and see him,” says Dave. “Poor old Duke, and poor old Homer. They just pitied each other, as all good friends do. Him and Duke used to sit down and laugh about the things they got into. It was fun to sit and listen to those two.”
Childhood friends, Homer often carried Dewey in his arms or by piggyback throughout the fields and forests of Tucker County. As teenagers, they organized a local fraternal organization, which they called the Loyal Order of Tigers, later renamed the Jolly Club. And although Dewey was unable to attend public school due to his handicapped legs, according to Homer he was a self-taught prodigy. Dewey could recite the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence from memory, as well as a number of other historical and literary writings.
As they grew older, most of the Jolly Club left for World War II, including Homer. Neighborhood children were often drawn to visiting Dewey. According to local accounts, he was adored by almost all children and animals. But on days when he’d been drinking too much, the parents in town would call each other with a warning. Then all the parents would tell their children, “You can’t go see Dewey today.” Carol Sue Carr, who was a child in Hendrix where Dewey lived for many years as an adult, told us that she never knew what happened when her mother came to tell her that Dewey was “unwell”. Was he violent, gruesome, belligerent, or sick?
To Carol Sue, this only added to the mystery and awe the children felt for Dewey. He radiated a sense of being that dies away in most people as they grow old. And he could speak! He could describe the water and the legends of the woods with such words and phrases, nothing like listening to a teacher or a parent. Yes, he could speak. And those stories stuck with the neighborhood children. They could sit and listen to him for hours. But not on the bad days, which there were more and more of, as the children got older. Then at some point, he just went away. The kids were older then and hadn’t been to see him much lately. And she doesn’t remember where he went, but it was just that he was gone, and nobody was ever like him again.
In 1951, Karl Dewey Myers made a pact with Homer Fansler that each would write the other’s biographies. At the time, Homer was stationed in Tacoma, Washington. On November 29th of that year, Homer received a package from Dewey; it was the biography he had written about Homer. The next day, Homer read of his friend’s death in the Parsons newspaper. Very likely, the biography that Dewey wrote about his friend was his final piece of writing.
Karl Dewey Myers, who died from complications due to alcoholism, was 52 years old. The former poet laureate died without a dollar to his name, with only his small green typewriter, his journals, and two published books of poetry. He passed away at the home of Mr. and Mrs. White just outside of Elkins. He was buried in the pauper’s grave at the I.O.O.F Home in Elkins.
Dave Strand said it took Homer years to complete A History of Tucker County. One of the main reasons, Dave thought, was that he still had one last chapter that sat in his files incomplete. It was the biography of his best friend Dewey. But one day Homer was diagnosed with a very severe case of Leukemia. Doctors gave him just months to live. He had to finish the book now, or never.
All writers know the reason it took him his entire life to write this final chapter of his book, because friendship is never finished. Even when the person has passed away, there is the sense that you will still see them, that they are still alive someplace, that you will make time for them somewhere, somehow. Homer and “Duke” were that type of friends.
In the brief biography, Homer wrote that “the State of West Virginia should be interested enough in its gifted writer and first poet laureate to erect a simple plaque at his last resting place.” Dave says that just before his death Homer even donated money to help pay to have his friend exhumed and moved to his family cemetery in Moore. Shortly thereafter, in 1963, more people became interested the project to moved Dewey to his family cemetery, but the poet’s body could not be found. It seems that nobody had kept records of the placement for the bodies that had been buried in the pauper’s grave, so there was no way to know just where he was buried. From the pauper’s grave in Elkins, they scooped up a bucket of dirt as a symbol of Dewey and transferred that to his family’s cemetery in Moore. The community built a monument at the Myers family’s cemetery, which is located just off U.S. 219.
In 1990, the Tucker and Randolph County Historical Societies revived the quest to locate the exact grave of Dewey, but they too proved unsuccessful. They placed another monument, this time at the I.O.O.F. cemetery in Elkins, in his honor, though it is just an approximate resting place for West Virginia’s first poet laureate, Karl Dewey Myers.
A poem by Dewey:
The Seneca Trail
(Route 219)
By Karl Dewey Myers
Where the red men swung with a stealthy stride
Through the endless oak and pin a-row,
While sharp eyes swept each rod they stepped
For the wary game or the lurking foe,
Giving the title of “Warrior Road”
To the lane that ran for a thousand miles,
In the days of old adventure bold
When it filled anon with the dusky files,
With the mad war-whoop or the friendly hail –
This was the Seneca Trail.
Where a purr of engines never ides,
And a hurry of wheels is never gone
From a belt of gray that stretches away,
Broad, smooth, beckoning on and on
From bustling village to clanging town,
Through fruitful meadows and vales of dream;
In arrowy flights to conquered heights,
And over many a harnessed stream;
By mine and quarry and burdened rail –
This is the Seneca Trail.
Poem by Karl Dewey Myers, Cross and Crown (1951, no publisher given, page 37).
Category: Blog, Deep Creek Lake to Elkins, History | <urn:uuid:45d759e4-44bf-4236-a3f6-0237a06b7e70> | 2 | 2.453125 | 0.020527 | en | 0.988454 | http://www.traveling219.com/stories/deep-creek-lake-elkins/finding-dewey-the-search-for-west-virginias-first-poet-laureate-along-the-backroads-of-us-219/ |
Really Really Free Market Next Weekend
"Because there is enough for everyone. Because sharing is more fulfilling than owning. Because corporations would rather the landfills overflow than anyone get anything for free. Because scarcity is a myth constructed to keep us at the mercy of the economy. Because a sunny day outside is better than anything money could buy." This is the philosophy behind Really Really Free Market, a day of swapping skills, goods, and entertainment, developing community, keeping useable items out of the waste stream, and having a rockin' good time. Wikipedia has a short history of the Market; if you know more about it, please do share. It sounds slightly less organized than the Freemeets, but the RRFM involves skillsharing and music as well as the giving and getting of physical objects; Treehugger loves the DIY spirit of it all. The next New York RRFM will take place on July 16th from noon to dusk at St. Mark's Church in the East Village. ::via NYC For Free; no official website available, but you can email the organizers
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Birds Can Tweet on Bird Seed-Covered Keyboard by
By: Peter Vallas - Published: • References: birdsontwitter & odditycentral is a creation by a magazine from Latvia. Voldemars Dudum is the brains behind the operation, and has created a Twitter page that is also a bird feeder and communicator for avian species that reside in Latvia.
Sarnate, a small village on the west coast of Latvia, is where this social media site is set up. Outside of Voldemars Dudum's cabin lies a keyboard that has its keys covered in unsalted fat. The fat attracts the birds as it is beneficial for them to help survive the drastic cold temperatures that Latvia can experience.
The birds peck away at the fat while the keyboard recognizes the motions and writes down what they type. Although they don't form any words, a rare "lol" or "wow" has occurred on Stats for Real-Life Tweeting Birds Trending: Older & Mild
Traction: 871 clicks in 201 w
Interest: > 3 minutes
Concept: Birdsontwitter
Related: 59 examples / 45 photos
Segment: Neutral, 18-35
Comparison Set: 21 similar articles, including: social media wedding confections, 49 terrific tumblr sites, and social media olympics. | <urn:uuid:2d6ed91d-2c64-4c62-a06b-a1d87c196b9d> | 2 | 1.820313 | 0.044546 | en | 0.898873 | http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/birdsontwitter |
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Published In: Species Muscorum Frondosorum 122. 1801. (Sp. Musc. Frond.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
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62. TORTULA Plates 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, – 89.
Tortula Hedw., Sp. Musc. 122, 1801, nom. cons. non Roxburgh, 1800. Lectotype: Tortula subulata Hedw.
Beccaria C. Müll., Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. 4: 11, 1872.
Bauriella Warnst., Hedwigia 57: 88, 1915, nom. inval. prov. Type: Tortula polyseta (C. Müll.) Warnst.
Tortula sect.? Piliferae De Not., Mem. R. Acc. Sc. Torino 40: 287, 1838, rank not indicated; inoperative in piority I.C.B.N. Art. 35.2.
Barbula sect. Amphidiopsis C. Müll., Linnaea 42: 332, 1879. Type: Barbula amphidiifolia C. Müll.
Barbula sect. Pilifera Lzaro é Ibiza, Bot. Descr. Comp. Fl. Esp. 1: 586, 1896.
Barbula sect. Orthopodiae Kindb., Eur. N. Amer. Bryin. 2: 245, 1897.
Barbula sect. Catillaria C. Müll., Gen. Musc. Fr. 425, 1900. Type: Barbula pellata Schimp.
Pottia sect. Beccaria (C. Müll.) C. Müll., Gen. Musc. Fr. 389, 1900.
Pottia subsect. Acutae C. Jens., Skand. Bladmfl. 203, 1939, nom. inval. descr. suec.
See sectional synonymy for additional nomenclature.
Found on most continents in various habitats, mainly soil.
With the segregation of various genera (Zander 1989: Chenia, Dolotortula, Hennediella, Hilpertia, Sagenotortula, Stonea, Syntrichia), Tortula becomes a fairly homogeneous group with very similar gametophytes and a characteristic tendency to reduction in the sporophyte. Thus, the correlations of season of sporophyte maturation (Zander 1979d) with genus (Pottia having spring and winter sporophyte maturation dates and Tortula in the traditional sense having dates mainly in the spring and summer) is probably a reflection of “life strategy” (cf. During 1979) rather than phylogeny, though this needs to be tested. Major characters of Tortula as presented here include presence of stem central strand (rarely absent or present in different stems of same collection, e.g. T. brevissima) and absence of sclerodermis and hyalodermis (Pl. 84, f. 2, 17); leaves usually obovate to spathulate, margins usually narrowly recurved below and entire; costal stereid band usually semicircular to rounded in section, hydroid strand present, dorsal epidermis usually present (Pl. 84, f. 7, 8, 21); upper laminal cells usually rather large and clear (i.e. walls usually relatively unobscured by the papillae, Pl. 84, f. 9); propagula absent; upper laminal KOH reaction usually yellow.
Tortula is distinguishable from Syntrichia by the semicircular to rounded stereid band (not crescent-shaped) and yellow KOH reaction of the upper laminal cells (not red). Unlike Syntrichia, a dorsal costal epidermis is usually differentiated, either completely or occasionally only laterally (Pl. 89, f. 15—as is also the case in Hennediella). The yellow KOH reaction is usually present, but some few taxa have no color reaction (e.g. T. entosthodontacea), or the basal cells may be brick red (e.g. T. raucopapillosa), or the leaves may blush red medially in the upper part of the leaf (e.g. T. atrovirens), or the older leaves may be red and the younger yellow (e.g. T. lingulata), or all leaves may have a reddish orange cast (e.g. T. nevadensis). But the characters of these taxa otherwise are those of Tortula as here emended. Hennediella is distinguished by its red KOH reaction, commonly dentate or serrate and plane upper laminal margins, and superficially flattened upper laminal cells. Papillae may be absent in some Tortula species or variously expressed in different specimens of the same species.
Chamberlain (1978) recognized Pottia caespitosa, but the leaves have plane margins, the upper laminal cells are rather small and thick-walled, and costal sections show two stereid bands. This small-statured species is actually a Trichostomum (as witness the combination Trichostomum caespitosum (Bruch ex Brid.) Jur.), differing somewhat from other species of that genus by the broadly sheathing perichaetial leaves and quite neckless capsule.
Upon examination of the sporophytes of a considerable range of species of Pottieae, there was found to be no sharp difference between traditional “Tortula” peristomes with 32 similar rami (Pl. 84, f. 12–13) and “Desmatodon” peristomes with 16 teeth cleft to near the base or to a basal membrane (i.e., 32 paired rami, Pl. 86, f. 16; 87, f. 9–10). Even if some difference was statistically demonstrable, it would cut across observed (and as taxonomically recognized here) clearly defined generic groupings based on several gametophytic characters. It is simpler to entertain convergence of one character (short, probably reduced peristomes having teeth paired) than convergent evolution of several distinctive gametophyte morphotypes two or more times. The flattened basal portion of “Desmatodon” peristome teeth may be explained as a cleft portion of the basal membrane. The proximally flat teeth of Desmatodon species are also different from the almost terete filaments of Tortula with long, twisted peristomes simply because the long filaments of Tortula have distal regions little wider than their thickness. A cladistic evaluation at the species level may clarify this.
Visotska's (1967) proposal of a subfamily Tortuloideae (no type cited), based on a chromosome number of 12 and intended to contain Tortula, Aloina and Crossidium, was criticized on cytological grounds by Nyholm and Wigh (1973) because several species of Tortula have a basic chromosome number of x = 13. Evaluation of chromosome counts given by Fritsch (1982, 1991) gave both 12 and 13 as basic numbers for both Tortula s. str. and Syntrichia as conceived in the present study; however, Newton (1972) found 7 for S. robusta and Ramsay (1974) found n = 6+m for S. papillosa.
An electron microscopical study by Lewinsky (1974) of spore ornamentation in 10 European species of Tortula s. lat. showed differences between the spores of the specimens studied (only one or two collections were examined for each species although 20–30 spores from two to five capsules were studied in each species), which probably represent differences between the species, but she found no evidence of differences between traditional sections of the genus.
Mishler's (1986a) cladogram of postulated phylogenetic relationships of several species of Tortula s. lat. recognized Tortula s. str. (as recognized here) as a primitive group (he listed T. subulata, T. mucronifolia and T. muralis) distinct from several other species (all recognized here as Syntrichia) by the upper laminal cells not strongly mammilose.
Corley et al. (1981) gave an up-to-date presentation of the sections of the genus as represented in Europe. Their apprehension of Desmatodon as a rather small assemblage of the type species and closely related taxa presages the present study. They stated that Desmatodon “is not defined by sound technical characters, and there has been much confusion about which species should be assigned to it. As with Didymodon there has been too much emphasis placed on the peristome, which is not a conservative character in Pottiaceae.”
Tortula muralis, T. leucostoma and T. altipes occasionally have a small ventral (sub)stereid band (Pl. 85, f. 3). The costa is, however, rounded in section and generally unlike that of Barbula.
Literature: Arts (1987a,b, 1988), Bachelot (1813), Bennett (1965), Brown (1894b,c), Bryan (1956), Carrión et al. (1990), Chamerlain (1978), Crundwell (1953, 1955, 1956), Dixon (1927b), Favali and Gianni (1973), Guerra et al. (1988, 1991, 1992), Häusler (1984), Hernnstadt and Heyn (1989), Holzinger (1925), Hughes (1969, 1979, 1982), Hughes and Wiggin (1969), Jiménez et al. (1990), Kanda (1981), Lazarenko (1969, 1974), Lazarenko and Lesnyak (1972), Lazarenko et al. (1961), Lewinsky (1974), Lightowlers (1984, 1985a,c, 1986a,b,c), Lobachevskaya et al. (1986), Matteri (1977a,b), Mishler (1985b, 1986a, 1990), Mishler and Newton (1988), Ripetskij (1978, 1979), Ripetskij et al. (1983), Risse (1985), Rumsey (1992), Rungby (1957), Sainsbury (1936), Saito (1973a), Savicz-Ljubitzkaya and Smirnova (1963b, 1965), Sérgio (1972a, 1978), Springer (1935), Steere (1939a, 1940), Stone (1989), Toth (1987), Ulycna (1977), Wareham (1939a), Wareham and Whitney (1939), Warnstorf (1912, 1916), Zander (1989).
Number of accepted species: 163
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Plants forming cushions or turfs, green or occasionally blackish green above, yellow-brown to dark brown below. Stems branching occasionally, to 2 cm in length, transverse section rounded-pentagonal, central strand present or very rarely absent, sclerodermis absent, hyalodermis absent; axillary hairs ca. 5–8 cells in length, basal 1–3 cells thicker walled; rhizoids often dense. Leaves appressed-incurved to lax when dry, weakly to widely spreading when moist, usually obovate to spathulate, occasionally ovate to elliptical or ligulate, 1–4(–6) µm in length, upper lamina nearly flat to concave, broadly channeled, occasionally grooved along costa, margins recurved below or rarely plane, entire or occasionally weakly serrulate near apex, marginal 1–4 rows of cells often less papillose and smaller than the medial or walls thicker, occasionally marginal cells elongate, rarely bistratose; apex broadly acute to rounded; base scarcely differentiated in shape to elliptical, rarely weakly auricled; costa short- to long-excurrent as an awn, occasionally percurrent or subpercurrent, costa with lamina inserted laterally or to 45°, superficial cells quadrate or occasionally short-rectangular and papillose or smooth ventrally, dorsally short-rectangular to elongate and papillose or smooth, 3–4(–5) rows of cells across costa ventrally at midleaf, costal transverse section circular to semicircular, ventral stereid band absent or occasionally small and represented by a few cells, dorsally present and round, elliptical or semicircular in shape, epidermis present ventrally and dorsally or occasionally only laterally on the dorsal side, rarely absent dorsally, guide cells 2(–3) in 1(–2) layers or rarely absent, hydroid strand usually present, often large, very rarely absent; rarely an elliptical pad of cells bulging from ventral surface of the costa; upper laminal cells rounded-quadrate to hexagonal, occasionally rhomboidal, ca. 15–19 µm in width, 1–2:1, walls thin or seldom evenly thickened, superficially convex; papillae usually hollow, simple or bifid, 4–6 per lumen, occasionally on a conical salient, rarely absent; basal cells differentiated across leaf or higher medially, rectangular, often rather lax, 18–25 µm in width, 2–5:1, walls thin, hyaline, rarely little differentiated. Propagula absent. Dioicous or monoicous (commonly autoicous or paroicous). Perichaetia terminal, inner leaves little differentiated or somewhat larger than the cauline. Perigonia terminal or as autoicous buds in subperichaetial or lower leaf axils. Seta very short or to 2.5 cm in length, 1 (very rarely 2) per perichaetium, yellowish brown to brown, twisted counterclockwise, clockwise or not twisted; theca stegocarpous or else cleistocarpous, 0.5–3.0(–7.0) µm in length, yellowish brown to dark brown, spherical, ovate, elliptical or cylindrical, occasionally inclined, occasionally macrostomous, exothecial cells rectangular, 25–30 µm, ca. 2–3:1, rarely 4–5:1, walls thin or evenly thickened, stomates present at base of theca, phaneropore, annulus of 1–2 rows of vesiculose cells, persistent or very rarely revoluble, occasionally absent or rarely with up to 8 circumferential weak lines of dehiscence; peristome teeth of 32 filaments or 16 triangular teeth or rudimentary or absent, long or shortly triangular, cleft to near base, spiculose, up to 2000 µm in length, with many articulations, straight to twisted counterclockwise, basal membrane absent or low or up to 1000 µm in height, tessellated and spiculose. Operculum when differentiated long-conic, occasionally shortly rostrate, 0.5–2.5 µm in length, cells twisted counterclockwise. Calyptra cucullate, smooth, 2.5–6.0 µm in length. Spores 13–30(–50) µm in diameter, light brown, papillose, rarely densely spiculose. Laminal KOH color reaction usually yellow, occasionally red medially, occasionally negative, rarely reddish orange. Reported chromosome numbers: Sect. Tortula: n = 13+m, 14, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 39, 40, 48, 48+m, 50, 52, 60, 66. Sect. Pottia: n = 12, 13, 15, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 26+m, 27, 28+1–2acc, 30, 32, 42, 52. The most often reported number for both sections is n = 26.
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Nissan has shared its vision of what the future of the SUV might look by unveiling the TeRRA concept, which will be first shown at the upcoming 2012 Paris Motor Show. The concept combines Nissan's expertise in electric vehicles and 4x4s and is powered by a fuel cell feeding voltage to three electric motors. The front motor comes from the Nissan Leaf and provides power to the front two wheels. The two rear wheels, meanwhile, receive an in-wheel electric motor each -- similar to those seen in Nissan's past PIVO concepts. Nissan claims the cost of the fuel cell stack is one-sixth that of the stack from 2005, with precious metal content reduced to one-quarter of that of the predecessor unit.
On the outside, the TeRRA combines traditional SUV design cues such as big tires, a high beltline, and prominent fenders with contemporary elements such as an aerodynamically flat underbody pan. Because there are no driveshafts, transfer cases, or other hardware traditionally associated with a 4x4 vehicle, the TeRRA also has a completely flat floor, adding to its cargo versatility. According to Nissan, inspiration for the TeRRA's design and interior packaging came from 'the lifestyles of youthful customers in Northern Europe.'
Reflecting the tastes of its target demographic, the TeRRA's interior features light-colored wood trim and acrylic surfaces with a metal frame at shoulder level designed to give the occupants a sense of security. The seating is arranged in a staggered diagonal pattern, giving the passengers better visibility out the front windshield. The three passenger seats are designed to fold into a flat cabin deck, allowing for the transport of bicycles, kayaks and, straight from the Nissan press release, 'assemble-yourself furniture from Scandinavia.'
Finally, in recognition of the increasing importance and ubiquity of technology in people's lives, the instruments and gauges are displayed on a removable tablet that acts as the vehicle's 'key' when docked or removed.
Source: Nissan | <urn:uuid:a8520b5b-bba7-40c8-a224-540ccbac6374> | 2 | 1.585938 | 0.020515 | en | 0.942999 | http://www.trucktrend.com/features/news/2012/163_news120912_nissan_terra_fcev_crossover/ |
UA Magazine
Posted on
Science on the Screen: Sloppy Time Travel in 12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys is one of my all time favorite global pandemic / sci-fi time travel films. Released in 1995 and directed by Terry Gilliam, the film features Bruce Willis as James Cole, a prisoner in the year 2023, who is sent back in time to try and find evidence of how, when, and where a virus was released that would eventually out of most of the planet’s population.
Unlike movies that try to incorporate some scientific theories to somehow justify the use of technology to travel through time, the film is more focused on memory and how unreliable it can be. Cole finds himself jumping back and forth, almost haphazardly, through time and struggling to piece together what he remembers and what he is merely imagining. Traveling back in time to the 90’s he see’s and hears things from an era when he was alive as a child, which sometimes proves useful to understanding what is real and what might just be his own hallucination as a result of the stress of traveling through time.
One of the great aspects of director Terry Gilliam’s approach towards technology is the fallibility and inaccuracy of how it is used. Unlike the more precise time travel stories of the last century, the scientists in 12 Monkeys are constantly making mistakes, at one point accidentally sending Cole into the middle of a battle in World War I where he gets shot. Only to transport again minutes later to the 1990’s where he is still wounded from that gunshot.
Another dysfunctional yet I would argue, logical aspect to how Cole behaves when traveling through time is his being locked up in an insane asylum 1996. This comes as he commits the classic time-travelers sin of trying to explain to people in the past about an apocalytpic scenario that will take place in the future, the time where he comes from. As would likely happen in real life, if a self-proclaimed person from the future shows up and tells anyone who will listen about the virus that will soon decimate humanity, Cole is very matter-of-factly locked up and considered insane. As a result of this knowledge that he has and being heavily medicated, in effect, he becomes insane as a side effect of his time travel.
12 Monkeys is not known as the best time travel film of all time, but it should be considered one of the classics, above all for its imperfect take on how technology and memory can fail or turn against us. And how perhaps, even if someone told us about some terrible event that will take place in the future, we would not be able to take it seriously.
Photo: Brocco Lee / flickr
(No Ratings Yet) | <urn:uuid:aabdadf7-5c36-4afb-a036-19387506f5fb> | 2 | 1.734375 | 0.276133 | en | 0.961397 | http://www.united-academics.org/magazine/sex-society/science-on-the-screen-12-monkeys/ |
UPI en Espanol
Canadians duped out of millions in money transfer scam
Feb. 3, 2014 at 8:28 PM
OTTAWA, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Canadians have been bilked out of millions of dollars by scammers who lured them into wiring cash via Western Union, authorities say.
The victims and police are calling on Western Union to do more to protect people from the fraudsters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.
The network says the scam involves "mystery shopper jobs" posted on the Internet under the name of a fake company. Those lured into the "jobs" are told they will be testing the security of Western Union's money transfer system but wind up losing thousands of dollars of their own money.
Among the victims were Paramit Singh of Mississauga, Ontario, and Sandra Bohnert of Squamish, British Columbia, who thought they were taking part-time jobs to earn a little extra cash.
"I was aware of it that scams could happen, but they played quite well," Singh said. "It doesn't sound like a scam and there is a job to be done."
Bohnert said the come-on was "so professional."
"They name big corporations that they work for and that they want you to work for, which is a total lie," Bohnert said.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Center says the scam has cost people at least $1.5 million in the past two years, and police say the total likely is much higher.
"We believe there are a lot of suspects out there. In my experience, in our investigations, there are people or suspects who do this as a living," said Toronto police Detective Alan Spratt.
"I have been involved in investigations where the agent didn't follow Western Union's policies. For example, during the execution of one search warrant we found that one particular individual didn't ask for ID from anyone," said Spratt.
The scam victims and police are calling on Western Union to do more to tighten its money transfer practices.
Western Union says it takes various security measures to ward off scammers.
"I can assure you that preventing fraud is one of Western Union's top priorities," spokeswoman Anna Alejo told the CBC.
| <urn:uuid:0655c9fc-3000-43c3-9a1e-871741d626d3> | 2 | 1.632813 | 0.033179 | en | 0.96491 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/02/03/Canadians-duped-out-of-millions-in-money-transfer-scam/UPI-84421391477301/ |
1. The nickname for the October 1917 revolutuon in Russia, which had the Bolshevik party (Lead by Vladimir Lenin) seize control of the Czar held Government. The birth of modern Communision and beggining of the CCCP (USSR)
2. The fictional modified Typhoon Class (Russian Akula) ballistic missle Submarine in Tom Clancy's novel 'The Hunt for Red October'
3. Sometimes 'Red October' is used when refferring to the battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943) in which the German Whermacht tried to overun the City of Stalingrad in Russia.
Durring Red October the Communist took power in Russia
Did you read 'The Hunt for Red October'? Great book! Also a good movie.
The Battle of Stalingrad, or "Red October" was one of the bloodiest battles in Human history.
by ww2wizzkid October 10, 2009
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In reference to the movie, "Red October", starring Sean Connery about a Russian stealth submarine. Refers to when you have sex with someone while other people are in the room and they have no clue of what's going on until "stealth mode" shuts down and they hear one of you climaxing.
After the party, Bobby pulled a "Red October" with a random drunk girl with fifteen other people passed out in the room.
by Resident Alcoholic (aka, R.A.) March 09, 2010
That month, in Philadelphia, when the Phillies kick your ass and everyone goes apeshit.
Everyone: (soaked with beer, smashing cars in, running to broad street) RED OCTOBER MOTHAFUGGASSSSS!!!
by rwarrrrrrr October 17, 2010
Like the movie, hunt for red october, when a person goes missing or non responsive but during a business deal.
Bud: "Hey McCallister, call Bill and see where we are at in the decision process."
McCallister: "Bud, you are seriously wacked. I can't get a hold of him because he went red october after the meeting where we said he didn't have the signing power."
Bud: "True."
by D Flo July 02, 2011
An alcoholic beverage consisting of vodka (preferably mid- to low-grade), Mountain Dew Code Red, and lots of ice. It's name is coined from the Russian submarine (vodka), the drink's coloration (red), and the icy waters of the North Atlantic through which the fictional sub fled (ice). The best thing about this drink is that no matter how strong you make it, it is nearly impossible to taste the vodka, which leads to another parallel: the difficulty in detecting the vodka in the drink matches the difficulty of detecting the sub on radar.
Imbibers of this drink are commonly known to refresh the vodka contents repeatedly without adding more mixer, leading to a continual increase in the beverage's potency (and drinker's inebriation). The caffiene content of the Mountain Dew also creates a red-bull like energy burst which can propell even the most blacked-out soul through hours of forgotten misdeeds.
I don't exactly remember anything that happened last night. We were drinking Red Octobers.
I've been drinking this same Red October for an hour, but I've gone through half of 5th of Smirnoff!
by Morgan Martin January 11, 2008
Red October is the phrase used to describe a man who has poison ivy on his penis, testicles, and the general area.
Intercourse, hand-jobs, blow-jobs, etc. during the Red October period constitute in the spread of Red October. Side affects will be similar to "crabs" and can be fixed with steroids.
Most notably, intercourse will cause female Red October. Men are most likely to carry Red October as they are most likely to piss in wooded areas.
by Bitchwrinkle August 08, 2006
1.) Something (a person, animal, object, or anything) that is abnormally larger or bigger in size compared to the things around it.
2.) Something that is just pretty damn huge.
Origin: Red October is line taken from the Family Guy: Blue Harvest episode when they make the "RED" joke where they make various references of "RED" things such as Big Red (chewing gum) then they make a reference to a submarine by the name of Red October. But as they showed the image of Red October there were multiple spacecraft flying beside it that seemed much more smaller than Red October itself thus making Red October stand out in the crowd as a large object.
Ian: If you look at that huge building next to all of those small buildings it doesn't look right..
Kevin: Thats a Red October. LoL!!
Ian: Lulz
by Thrio July 10, 2008
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| <urn:uuid:33136093-1cd2-49a5-9ebe-9b18afb78889> | 2 | 1.789063 | 0.021075 | en | 0.962966 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Red%20October&defid=4288135 |
group of people,gangs
gangs like the mexican mafia,La be la mafia
by gangbang bate July 20, 2003
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Ok, I recommended many definitions for deletion. It seems everybody has thier personal version of mafia's history. I am Sicilian and the study of the Mafias (we prefer plural vs one single mafia) is one of my interests, as a Sicilian and as a student. Also... I'm no member of any "family" you may think of.
The word itself has rather obscure origins, and its history and meaning is totally unrelated with modern concept of mafia.
Modern Mafias have so many different aspects I couldn't say if one is wronger than others. Nowadays the term "Mafia" can be rightly (and sadly) related to almost every socio-political aspect of our lives. We could say the word itself has gained a more general and complex meaning since its migration from Sicily to USA.
As regards the word itself: its origin can be traced back in the centuries. Sure it had something to do with the many invasions Sicily was exposed to. During the ages, Sicily has been invaded by pretty much ALL of the peoples in the Mediterranean Area: Greeks, Romans, Normands (~French), Arabs, Spanish, Italians nowadays. This gave the island's culture an inmense richness, but as a side effect created among Sicilians some sort of silent "brotherhood" against anyone coming from the outside world.
This "brotherhood", meaning protection of the masses from the invasors, lately degenerated into an oppression of the masses. The term mafia, originally indicating (not meaning) a group of people "respected" for being charismatic members of that brotherhood, slightly but inesorably turned into a synonym for organized crime.
My personal idea is that the two different meanings still coexist in Sicilian culture, often originating a confusig and ambiguous mix.
As regards the "international" meaning... well I guess everybody has a very distorted prespective, maybe the best definition is "Those loud mouth Italian criminals talking with gestures like in the class A movie The Godfather"!
Sicilian never say the word "mafia". really, I never heard a Sicilian call it mafia. We use periphrases, I bet you'll never catch it unless you're Sicilian
by prof December 22, 2003
the bush administration
by snophish August 24, 2003
The Mafia, also referred to in Italian as La Cosa Nostra (variously translated as This Thing Of Ours or Our Thing), is the name for a secret, criminal organisation which evolved in mid 19th century Sicily, and led to an offshoot on the East-Coast of the United States emerging during the late 19th century with the waves of Italian immigration to that country. As opposed to the insular Sicilian Mafia, during the 20th century the American Mafia became more accomodating of Neapolitan criminals, and other Southern Italians among the sworn-in membership of 'made-men', and forged closer associations with gangsters of other nationalities, thus becoming distinct from the original organisation in Sicily.
The term "Mafia" describes a specific secret society in Sicily and their descendants in the USA, yet the word itself has no pin-pointed historical birthplace. In the original Palermo dialect the word 'mafioso' once meant 'beautiful', 'bold' or 'self-confident'. Anyone who was worthy of being described as a mafioso therefore had a certain something, an intangible attribute called 'mafia'. 'Cool' is about the closest modern English equivalent; a mafioso was someone who fancied himself. In fact it was the early Italian government which attached specific criminal connotations to the word and turned it into a subject of national debate. It was following the Prefect of Palermo, Filippo Gualterio's report to Rome in 1865, citing that "the so-called Mafia or criminal associations" had become more daring, that the word rapidly entered general usage as a descriptor of criminal activity. This
ties in with the theory that the word 'mafia' in Palermo dialect, came from an Arabic word adopted during the Arab occupation of Sicily, mahīya or similar meaning 'flashy'.
Today, a member of the Mafia is a "mafioso", a "manfias", or, Anglified, a "man of honor".
The Mafia spread to the United States through immigration by the 20th century.
Mafia power peaked in the United States in the mid-20th century, until a series of FBI investigations in the 1970s and 1980s somewhat curtailed the Mafia's influence. Despite the decline, the Mafia and its reputation have become entrenched in American popular culture, portrayed in movies, TV shows, and even product commercials.
Today the Italian-American Mafia remains the most powerful criminal organization operating in the USA and uses this status to maintain control over the majority of both Chicago's and New York City's criminal enterprises. It also has links to the more established organisation from which it sprung, the original Sicilian Mafia.
Mafia power in Sicily is much more well established and complete. Corruption is widespread, and local government is almost an offshoot of the organisation itself. Mafia influence in the national legislature has long been suspected, but never proved outright.
The term "mafia" has now been extended to refer to any large group of people engaged in organized crime (such as the Russian Mafia, Japanese Yakuza, and the Chinese Triads). In fact, this is an Anglicisation, as many of these criminal organisations have their own names for the style of organised crime practiced by the Sicilian and American Mafia. When unqualified, however, 'Mafia' still usually refers to the original Sicilian and offshoot American organizations.
The Mafia in Italy
Contrary to popular legend, the Sicilian Mafia actually originated during the mid 19th century, at around the same time as the emergence of the new Italian state. Italy did not actually become a sovereign country until this time, and it was the industrialisation and trade that this event brought about that was the main driving force behind the development of the Sicilian Mafia. The Sicilian Mafia has always been at its strongest in the west of the island, and especially around the city of Palermo, its birthplace. Palermo was, and still is, the centre of trade, commerce and politics for the island of Sicily, and thus the Mafia made its base here, as opposed to the rural interior of the island which was backward and underdeveloped in economic terms. The main source of exports, and thus wealth of the island from which the Mafia sprung was the large estates of lemon and orange groves that rise from the walls of Palermo up into the hills surrounding the city.
The Mafia was initially involved in the protection of these estates, the landowners needing the Mafia for protection, and the Mafia needing the landowners' political connections to operate freely. Indeed, according to some sources, members of the ruling aristocracy were also members of the 'Sect' (as the Mafia was known in the 19th century) Baron Turrisi Colonna among them, who wrote the first ever account of the organised criminality that was going on in Sicily during this time in 1864. Colonna put the age of the 'Sect' at about 20 years old, or thereabouts. Colonna was well known as a political protector of members of the Sect and it is this kind of relationship with Government which has characterised the Mafia in Sicily. In the early days of the Italian state there were two main power groups: the landowners and the politicians, who were often synonymous. However, on the sidelines lay the Mafia, quietly infiltrating and corrupting. It is hard to say for sure, but it is highly likely that the Mafia initiated members of both other groups into its number.
During the Fascist period in Italy, Cesare Mori, the prefect of Palermo, utilised special powers to fight Mafia activities, and his work resulted in many mafiosi being jailed or forced to flee abroad.
It has been said that in reality, the most important leaders of the Sicilian Mafia were enrolled in the MVSN, the fascist Militia, and only low-level suspects were charged in Mori's campaign, mainly for propaganda purposes. However, others claim that this version is nothing but US propaganda trying to relativize the cooperation of the United States government and the Mafia during World War II. Certainly many Mafia Historians such as John Dickie believe this view to be false. In actuality, Mussolini conducted the most successful anti-Mafia operation ever, albeit with severe losses of civil liberties.
Many of the mafiosi who escaped fled to the United States. Among them was Joseph Bonanno, nicknamed Joe Bananas, who eventually dominated the US branch of the Mafia for a time.
The Americans cynically took advantage of the circumstances and they utilised the Italian connection of the American Mafiosi during the invasion of Italy and Sicily in 1943. Lucky Luciano and other members of Mafia, who had been imprisoned during this time in USA, suddenly become valuable patriots and US military intelligence used Luciano's influence to ease the way for advancing American troops.
An alleged additional benefit (from the American perspective) was that many of the Sicilian-Italian Mafiosi were hardline anti-communists, as the Mafia could not bear any other form of social organisation in its heartland of Sicily, being the monopolist of power and violence on the island. They were therefore seen as valuable allies by the anti-Communist Americans, who allegedly used them to root out socialist and communist elements in the American shipping industry, the wartime resistance movements, and in many postwar local and regional governments in areas where the Mafia held sway.
According to drug trade expert Dr Alfred W. McCoy, Luciano was permitted to run his crime network from his jail cell in exchange for his assistance. After the war Luciano was rewarded by being deported to Italy, where he was able to continue his criminal career unhindered. He went to Sicily in 1946 to continue his activities and according to McCoy's landmark 1972 book The Politics of Heroin in South-East Asia, Luciano went on to forge a crucial alliance with the Corsican Mafia, leading to the development of a vast international heroin trafficking network, initially supplied from Turkey and based in Marseille — the so-called "French Connection".
Later, when Turkey began to eliminate its opium production, he used his connections with the Corsicans to open a dialogue with expatriate Corsican mafiosi in South Vietnam. In collaboration with leading American mob bosses including Santo Trafficante Jr., Luciano and his successors, took advantage of the chaotic conditions of the Vietnam War to establish an unassailable supply and distribution base in the "Golden Triangle", which was soon funnelling huge amounts of Asian heroin into the United States, Australia and other countries via the U.S. military.
The Mafia did not become powerful in Italy again until after the country's surrender in the Second World War. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, a series of internecine "gang wars" led to many prominent Mafia members being murdered, and a new generation of mafiosi has placed more emphasis on "white-collar" criminal activity as opposed to more traditional racketeering enterprises. In reaction to these developments, the Italian press has come up with the phrase La Cosa Nuova ("the new thing", a play on La Cosa Nostra) to refer to the revamped organization.
The main split in the Sicilian Mafia at present is between those bosses who have been convicted and are now in jail, chiefly Salvatore 'Toto' Riina and Leoluca Bagarella the capo di tutti capi from 1993 to 1995, and those such as Bernardo Provenzano, who are on the run, or who have not been indicted. The incarcerated bosses are currently subjected to harsh controls on their contact with the outside world, limiting their ability to run their operations from behind bars under the Italian law 41 bis. Antonio Giuffrè, a close confidant of Provenzano, turned Pentiti shortly after his capture in 2002. He now alledges that in 1993, Cosa Nostra had direct contact with representatives of Silvio Berlusconi while he was planning the birth of Forza Italia. The deal that was alledged to have been made was a repeal of 41 bis, among other anti-Mafia laws in return for electoral deliverances in Sicily. Whilst Forza Italia currently holds all 61 Sicilian seats in Parliament, no one openly suggests a link between Berlusconi and Cosa Nostra directly. Even if the allegations are proved to be baseless, Cosa Nostra feels let down by a Government it imagines, rightly or wrongly, to contain elements sympathetic towards it. A banner was recently unfurled at a Palermo Football match which read "We are united against 41 bis. Berlusconi has forgotten Sicily". These are worrying days for the Mafia's enemies, but whether Provenzano's restructuring efforts will succeed in appeasing or isolating the interned bosses, and thus uniting Cosa Nostra once again, remains to be seen.
Prominent Sicilian Mafiosi
* Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, former 'Superboss' of the Corleonesi and thus the entire Sicilian Mafia, now in jail. Succeeded by Bernardo Provenzano (see below).
* Tommaso Buscetta, the first Sicilian Mafiosi to become an informant during the 1970s. Generally known as the 'Supergrass' whose evidence was used to great effect during the Maxi-Trials.
* Bernardo Provenzano, Current 'capo di tutti capi' or Boss of Bosses of the Sicilian Mafia, a fugitive from justice for over 40 years. He is said to have been recently spotted in a medical clinic in the south of France. The authorities have reportedly been 'close' to capturing him for the past 10 years, since he took over from Salvatore Riina.
* Giovanni 'lo scanncristianni' Brusca, who personally murdered Giovanni Falcone, the investigating judge who started the first and only real fightback against the Sicilian Mafia.
Other Criminal Organisations in Italy
The Sicilian Mafia is organized into cosche (clans) in Sicily; in other regions there exist other similar organisations: Ndrangheta in Calabria, Sacra corona unita in Apulia, Camorra in Naples and the Mala del Brenta in Venice. Although the different crime empires do business with each other, these are seperate and distinct organisations from the Sicilian Mafia, which is by far the most powerful.
Mafia in the United States
Mafia groups in the United States first became influential in the New York City area, gradually progressing from small neighborhood operations to citywide and eventually international organizations. Five families dominated, named for prominent early members - the Bonanno family, the Colombo Family, the Gambino family, the Genovese family, and the Lucchese family.
Each family was ultimately controlled by a Don, who was insulated from actual operations by several layers of authority. According to popular belief, the Don's closest and most trusted advisor was referred to as the consigliere ("counselor" in Italian). In reality, the consigliere was meant to be something of a "hearing officer" who was charged with mediating intra-family disputes. An underboss was possible as well. There were then a number of regimes with a varying number of soldiers who conducted actual operations.
Each regime was headed by a caporegime, who reported to the boss. When the boss made a decision, he never issued orders directly to the soldiers who would carry it out, but instead passed instructions down through the chain of command. In this way, the higher levels of the organization were effectively insulated from incrimination if a lower level member should be captured by law enforcement. This structure is immortalised in Mario Puzo's famous novel The Godfather.
The Initiation ritual emerged in Sicily in the mid-19th century and has hardly changed to this day. The Chief of Police of Palermo in 1875 reported that the man of honour to be initiated would be led into the presence of a group of bosses and underbosses. One of these men would prick the intiate's arm or hand and tell him to smear the blood onto a sacred image, usually a saint. The oath of loyalty would be taken as the image was burned and scattered, thus symbolising the annihilation of traitors.
A hit, or assassination, of a made man had to be preapproved by the leadership of his family, or retaliatory hits would be made, possibly inciting a war. In a state of war, families would go to the mattresses - rent vacant apartments and have a number of soldiers sleeping on mattresses on the floor in shifts, with the others ready at the windows to fire at members of rival families.
Law enforcement and the Mafia
In Italy in particular, there has been a long history of police prosecutors and judges being murdered by the Mafia in an attempt to discourage vigorous policing. In the United States, murders of state authorities have been rare, largely out of fear of the backlash that would result. The mobster Dutch Schultz was reportedly killed by his peers out of fear that he would carry out a plan to kill New York City prosecutor Thomas Dewey.
In the United States, the Mafia began a steep decline in the late-1970s and early 1980s due in part to laws such as the RICO Act, which made it a crime to belong to an organization that performed illegal acts, and to programs such as the witness protection program. These factors combined with the gradual dissolution of the distinct Italian-American community through death, intermarriage, the lack of continued Italian migration, and cultural assimilation.
In the mid-20th century, the Mafia was reputed to have infiltrated many labor unions in the United States, including the Teamsters whose president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and is believed to have been killed by the Mafia. In the 1980s the United States federal government made a determined and, it believed, successful attempt to remove Mafia influence from labor unions.
There is some evidence that in Italy law enforcement seems to be finally gaining the upper hand over the Mafia organisations, through stronger laws and the breaking down of the "code of silence". A huge help in fighting the military side of Mafia has been provided by many so-called pentiti (Mafia members who dissociated for a milder judicial treatment), like Tommaso Buscetta. The Mafia allegedly retains strong financial influence. Thus, recent investigations usually research the economic movements of suspected members.
In recent decades, one of the most famous figures in Italy in the context of Mafia has been Toto Riina, who supposedly ordered the murder of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
Recently, former Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti (Democrazia Cristiana) stood judicially accused of relationships with Mafia, but was finally cleared because the trial was out of the prescription period. Suspicions, however, still remain.
Mafia structure
Known as the Honored Society among Mafiosi the chain of command is organized in a pyramid similar to a modern corporate structure.
1. Capo di Tutti Capi (The "Boss of Bosses", currently Bernardo Provenzano for Sicilian Mafia; N/A for the American Mafia)
2. Capo di Capi Re (a title of respect given to a senior or retired member, equivalent to being a chairman emeritus.)
3. Capo Crimini (A "Super Boss" known as a Don or "Godfather" of a crime family)
4. Capo Bastone (Known as the "Underboss" is second in command to the Capo Crimini)
5. Consigliere (Advisor)
6. Contabile (Financial advisor)
7. Caporegime or Capodecina (A Lieutenant who commands a "crew" of around ten or more Sgarrista or "soldiers")
8. Sgarrista or Soldati ("Made" members of the Mafia who serve primarily as foot soldiers)
9. Picciotto (A low ranking member of the Mafia who serve as "Enforcers" or "button men")
10. Giovane D'Onore (An associate member of the Mafia, usually a non-Italian or Sicilian)
people who defind mafia here they idolize here
by jason mcroja August 23, 2005
a real gangster. organized crime. gangsters now and days think their tough just becuz they are poor. crips, bloods, street gangs are all fake wannabe's. the mafia is the real gangsters.
pat aka bob dont know shit. stupid motherfucker, they may not still be around but they were the first and only real gangsters.
by SMgangsta760 January 15, 2005
Businesspeople who usually operate outside the law in order to maximize their profits. Murder, extortion, threats to families, theft, fraud, bootlegging, and broken kneecaps are regular business practices.
The MAFIA is not dead. It is simply hiding in plain sight.
by AYB June 26, 2003
A REAL gang.
The Bloods and the Crips are not gangs.
by anonymous April 27, 2004
the people who really control the world we just dont know it.
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are real gangstas.
Don't FUCK wit us Italians
by Nick June 25, 2003
Free Daily Email
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What can the church do for worker justice in America?
Article Social Justice
U.S. employers routinely violate the seventh commandment when they refuse to pay their workers their legally mandated wages.
Growing up in what she describes as a “pretty conservative church background” in Ohio, Kim Bobo excelled at memorizing her Bible verses. “I won all the contests,” she remembers. “It has served me well in my life. You can’t really know the scriptures and not realize their core commitment to caring for our neighbor. My life has been about trying to figure out how I play a role in helping people and how I can do that in the most effective way possible.”
Throughout her career, which has included stints as an organizer for Bread for the World, as the “church lady” in a training center for organizers, and as the founder and director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), Bobo has consistently worked to energize faith communities in the pursuit of social justice.
She first got pulled into her current focus on workers’ rights when she helped organize religious support for the 1989-90 Pittston Coal miners’ strike. That experience planted the seed that eventually—with the help of Chicago’s legendary Msgr. Jack Egan—led to the founding of IWJ.
Although not Catholic herself, Bobo has immersed herself in and given many workshops on Catholic social teaching. IWJ’s network of worker centers even tries to resurrect—in an ecumenical version—the now forgotten movement of 200 Catholic labor schools that taught workers’ rights in parish basements in the mid-20th century.
“For all of us,” Bobo says, “we’ve got to find the places where we can make a difference and stand up and do it.”
You founded Interfaith Worker Justice primarily to bring faith communities together with labor unions. How has your focus shifted in recent years?
Our work has expanded a lot. Initially our focus really was on putting together religious groups to support labor issues. We set out to rebuild those partnerships and work together on organizing campaigns. And we still do this work.
But in recent years the labor movement has been faced with incredible challenges. There is not only a shrinking of numbers but a shrinking of organizing going on, and on the other hand an increasing number of workers are being taken advantage of. So as we built these interfaith groups, pastors started sending us workers who had all these problems.
Can you give us an example?
I remember getting a call from a couple of restaurant workers. They hadn’t gotten paid and had experienced all kinds of horrible things. So I called my friends at the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, HERE, which is now UNITE HERE.
I said, “I’ve got a small group of restaurant workers who haven’t gotten paid. Can I send them over to you?” They said, “No, Kim, we don’t really do restaurants in Chicago. We’re really organizing hotel workers.” I said, “But you are the hotel and restaurant workers’ union, aren’t you!” We had 30 workers from the same restaurant who walked out on the job and wanted to sign union cards that very day. The union did help these workers, but it wasn’t structured to help small groups.
Now, I understand and support unions being strategic about where they focus their efforts, but we ran into many other workers with all kinds of problems in industries that no one was organizing.
At some point we decided to create a workers’ rights manual. We had assumed that one existed already, but nobody had put together a basic workers’ rights manual. I mostly saw it as a little side project, so when workers called, we could just send them the manual and then get back to our “real work.”
But once you do a manual like that, then people think you’re the experts, so more people called. We ended up hiring an organizer to do a workers’ rights training program. Whenever he went on the radio, we would get inundated with phone calls. Basically it shut our phones down.
It gradually dawned on us that we had to do something more, and that evolved into the creation of worker centers. We started helping to build worker centers around the country, and then other centers affiliated with us. Now we have 27 worker centers in our network.
Worker centers are focused on helping low-wage workers who are not unionized advocate for their rights. The primary problem the worker centers see and address is wage theft.
What exactly is “wage theft,” and where does it occur?
Wage theft is when employers illegally don’t pay workers for all their hours or don’t pay them for their work at all.
The most common way this happens is by not paying the minimum wage. The law is very clear: If you work, you have to be paid minimum wage. It’s $7.25 an hour at the federal level; in Illinois it’s $8.25.
Everybody’s supposed to get at least minimum wage, but the largest study that’s ever been done of low‑wage workers—those who earn $10 an hour or less—found that one out of four just flat out doesn’t get paid the minimum wage.
Probably the biggest wage theft occurs when workers are not being paid overtime. Again, this same study of low-wage workers showed that of those who work more than 40 hours a week—and thus are owed overtime—three out of four aren’t paid overtime.
Many middle‑income, non-exempt workers don’t get overtime either. Employers say, “I don’t pay overtime. If you want to get overtime, find another job.” In this economy, some employers will even say, “We can’t pay more than 40 hours a week. But if you don’t get your job done, you’ll get fired.” Workers will work 45 hours a week but put down 40 because they’ll get fired if they don’t.
Just the other day I saw a woman who works in a day care center. She makes $9.95 an hour. For any time she works more than 40 hours, she should be paid at time and a half—about $15—but she’s not. She’s probably cheated out of at least five hours a week. That’s $75 a week, $3,600 a year. For a worker who’s making about $18,000 a year, $3,600 is a lot of money, and her situation is not unusual.
Where else does wage theft happen?
Another big area of wage theft in this country is employers calling workers “independent contractors” when they’re really employees. This means that the employer avoids paying taxes, while the worker has to pay double payroll taxes—his or her side and the employer’s side—as well as FICA and Social Security.
It also means that they don’t have workers’ compensation; they don’t have unemployment. They’re not going to get overtime, and they’re exempt from a whole range of worker protections.
This has become very common in the construction industry, where some companies turn almost all of their workers into independent contractors. Janitors are often called independent contractors. I’ve even seen dishwashers in the back of restaurants called independent contractors.
Some say, “Oh, the laws are so complicated,” but most of this stuff is not complicated at all. If you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I’m going to work for myself,” then you are an independent contractor. If you get up in the morning and say, “I have to go work for Mr. Smith,” you’re an employee, you are not an independent contractor.
Then there are problems with tips as well. Few people know that one out of 10 tipped workers—such as waiters at restaurants—don’t get all their tips. If you put your tip on a credit card, you cannot be sure that the worker will actually get it. We always tell people to pay their tips in cash if they don’t know for sure.
And another big problem is workers not getting paid at all. Every day laborer you interview will have the experience of not getting paid at some point. Writers have the same problem. The Freelancers Union did a whole campaign called “Getting Paid, Not Played.”
There is one thing we need to keep in mind when we are talking about all of these kinds of wage theft: It’s not only about what’s fair and morally right, but it’s really about things that are blatantly illegal. The laws are clear.
So if it’s illegal, how do employers get away with wage theft?
First, there is woefully inadequate enforcement in the country. At the federal level, there are 1,000 enforcement staff to protect 135 million workers, so that’s one enforcement person for every 135,000 workers. Obviously, this is not enough to stop wage theft, even if you add the approximately 500 state enforcement staff we have in this country.
Until recently, the penalties in most places were insignificant. The worst thing that would happen to you was that you would have to pay the wages you should’ve paid in the first place and nothing more. If that’s the case, why not cheat your workers because if you’re going to get caught, it’s not a big deal.
Thankfully, some states are strengthening enforcement, and under Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis the federal government has become significantly more aggressive.
The second reason why employers can get away with wage theft is that we don’t have enough strong unions. If you have a union in the workplace, you’re probably not going to have wage theft because the union will fight against it. As we’ve seen unions decline, there’s been a decline of that advocacy force. And unions not only support their own workplaces, but they have a positive ripple effect in other workplaces.
The third reason has been the really terrible economy that we’ve had, which has left people so vulnerable about losing their jobs. People say to me all the time, “Kim, I know my employer’s cheating me, but at least I have a job.”
And the fourth reason is the fact that we have 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country with no path to citizenship. They feel vulnerable, and that creates an environment where employers who want to exploit people can find workers who are pretty easy to exploit.
We know of a number of employers here in Chicago who don’t want to hire anyone but undocumented immigrants, because they only want people who they can exploit easily.
It’s really important that we push for comprehensive immigration reform. That will not just benefit immigrants but really all workers in the country.
Where are churches and religious organizations falling down on the job, in terms of worker justice?
There are quite a few churches who pay their musicians as independent contractors. They’re not independent contractors. They have to be there at 8:30 on Sunday morning. They may be part‑time employees, but they are still employees.
Very few churches are considering workers’ pay when they contract jobs. For example, the Archdiocese of Chicago has a rule that if you have a contract that’s more than $50,000, then you’re really supposed to try and bid at union. If you bid a job union, you’re going to be assured that workers are paid fairly. What I’m told happens is that if a job is $100,000, some pastors will break it up into two or three contracts so that it can be under the $50,000 threshold and not have to meet that criterion.
Folks will go with the lowest‑bid contractor, who may do a fine job but is probably bidding that job super-low by paying people as independent contractors, because that’s what happens in the construction industry. They’re probably not paying them workers’ comp either.
I once met with a church’s contracting committee. I asked them, “What are your values around contracting?” They said, “We want good quality work for a cheap price.” I said, “Well, there is a third value you might want to consider: How about that the workers are paid fairly?” They said, “Well, maybe, but can I still get a cheap price?”
Cheap is really not a biblical value. In my family I’m the queen of cheap, but you can’t do cheap at the expense of making sure that workers are paid fairly.
When churches bid work for construction or when they go to hire a janitorial crew, they tend to always go with the cheapest price and not ask any questions about how workers are paid.
Whether it’s to remodel your kitchen or to repair the roof of the parish church, when it comes to contracting, if you don’t ask how workers are paid, you are likely contributing to wage theft.
What questions should people be asking when they get bids for contracts?
How do you pay your workers? Are they all paid as employees? Do they have benefits? Are you paying overtime? Do you pay workers’ comp?
I needed some repairs done on my back porch, and the union contractors did not want my back porch job because it was just not big enough. So I called five contractors and said, “Before I consider you, I need to ask you questions about how your workers are paid.”
The responses I got were quite interesting. Several contractors told me, “If you’re going to ask those questions, I don’t want your work.” Another guy was very forthcoming and told me, “They’ve been with me for a long time, they’re all paid as employees, they have benefits.” And then I had one guy who yelled at me, “If you’re trying to cheat my workers, they’re long-term workers, and the right thing to do is to pay them fairly!” I said, “I’m on your side, I agree with you.”
But it’s telling if they won’t answer the question. You should rule them out if they say, “They’re paid as independent contractors.”
Many churches don’t have a lot of money to pay people fair wages or benefits. To some degree, that is expected as part of working in “ministry.” Where do you draw the line here, so you’re not exploiting people?
I understand it’s not easy. When I wrote my book on wage theft, I realized that we needed to clean up a few things at Interfaith Worker Justice as well.
I used to think, “Oh, the work we do, we’re not covered by overtime,” but that wasn’t entirely true. We’ve changed some of our policies on this. Frankly, it’s been hard, because I have some employees who really want to do a good job, and sometimes that takes more than 40 hours in a week. Most of the time we have to say, “I’m sorry, you can’t work more than 40 hours, because we can’t afford to pay you more.” The law is very clear on this. It didn’t seem as clear before I worked on this issue, but it is, actually.
I certainly know what it’s like to run a nonprofit and struggle to make ends meet. I get that. I’m part of a church that’s struggling to make ends meet, but at the absolute minimum we have to follow the law. Then as employers we also have to figure out how to put a plan in place to get people up to a living wage. We may not be able to do it tomorrow in some of our nonprofits, but over time that’s got to be a value for us.
Should the church, both nationally and locally, do more for workers’ rights?
I do think churches are not doing as much as we could on a lot of levels. Part of that for me is that we’re failing the business community. We don’t talk about ethics in business from the pulpit. Business leaders who make key decisions are sitting in our congregations and not hearing anything on that.
Business schools in most Catholic universities teach virtually nothing about wage theft. There is almost nothing about labor, nothing about how you pay people. We are failing to create important values conversations within the business community.
Secondly, we do very little training on workers’ rights in our congregations. That used to be a great history in the American Catholic Church. From the 1930s to the ’50s, there were 200 Catholic labor schools that taught workers’ rights in the basements of parishes. In some ways our worker centers continue that legacy now in an ecumenical fashion.
Thirdly, I think a lot of religious leaders, whether it’s on the diocesan or parish level, don’t know enough about the businesses and the working conditions in their own communities.
Having done a lot of organizing work here in Chicago, I know that often there would be a strike about a really horrendous situation happening in a company, and when you’d call the churches in that neighborhood, no one would know anything about what was going on. Many of them were willing to get involved if I called them, but they weren’t connected.
And finally, churches could give people more advice and guidance on where to shop and eat and where not to.
If you were the pastor of a Hispanic parish here in Chicago and you had a lot of low-income immigrant workers as your parishioners, how would you go about training parishioners on workers’ rights?
The first thing I’d do is to call Arise Chicago, the worker center here, and ask them, “Would you send somebody out to do some worker rights training in our parish?” They would come and do it.
Then I would form a small team of parishioners to get trained to assist people in filing complaints when they have wage problems.
At St. Pius V Parish in Chicago, workers regularly tell the priests about wage theft or other abuses at their work. The parish then helps to organize parishioners to picket or to meet with the owner. They really put direct pressure on employers in their neighborhood. I’d love to see more parishes doing that.
In immigrant parishes, many parishioners work in sectors where wage theft is common—in construction, restaurants, home care, child care, car washes, landscaping, poultry and meat packing.
Parishes could really help people navigate those systems, understand what their rights are and that they’ve got protections. The labor law does protect people, regardless of immigration status.
If you do things together with others, your parish can stand with you. That’s what community ought to be about.
Read more about wage theft from Kim Bobo in "Resources for preventing wage theft."
This article appeared in the June 2013 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 78, No. 6, pages 18-22).
Image: Photo courtesy of Interfaith Worker Justice | <urn:uuid:bee4f0c4-f2cb-4049-8ca2-429624b95e40> | 2 | 2.28125 | 0.03654 | en | 0.973694 | http://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201304/what-can-church-do-worker-justice-america-27233 |
The Blessings of Wisdom*
1My son, if you receive my words
and treasure my commands,
2Turning your ear to wisdom,*
inclining your heart to understanding;
3Yes, if you call for intelligence,
and to understanding raise your voice;
4If you seek her like silver,
and like hidden treasures search her out,
5Then will you understand the fear of the LORD;
the knowledge of God you will find;
6For the LORD gives wisdom,
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;a
7He has success in store for the upright,
is the shield of those who walk honestly,
8Guarding the paths of justice,
protecting the way of his faithful ones,
9Then you will understand what is right and just,
what is fair, every good path;
10For wisdom will enter your heart,
knowledge will be at home in your soul,
11Discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you;
12* Saving you from the way of the wicked,
from those whose speech is perverse.
13From those who have left the straight paths
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14Who delight in doing evil
and celebrate perversity;
15Whose ways are crooked,
whose paths are devious;
16* Saving you from a stranger,
from a foreign woman with her smooth words,b
17One who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18For her path sinks down to death,
and her footsteps lead to the shades.* c
19None who enter there come back,
or gain the paths of life.
20Thus you may walk in the way of the good,
and keep to the paths of the just.
21* For the upright will dwell in the land,d
people of integrity will remain in it;
22But the wicked will be cut off from the land,
the faithless will be rooted out of it.
* [2:122] Chapter 2 is a single poem, an acrostic of twenty-two lines, the number of consonants in the Hebrew alphabet. In vv. 111, the letter aleph, the first letter of the alphabet, predominates, and in vv. 1222, the letter lamed, the first letter of the second half of the alphabet. A single structure runs through the whole: if (aleph) you search…then (aleph) the Lord/Wisdom will grant…saving (lamed) you from the wicked man/woman…thus (lamed) you can walk in the safe way….
* [2:23] Wisdom…understanding…intelligence: various names or aspects of the same gift.
* [2:1215] As in 1:819, there is an obstacle to the quest for wisdom—deceitful and violent men. Cf. also 4:1019. They offer a way of life that is opposed to the way of wisdom.
* [2:1619] A second obstacle and counter-figure to Wisdom, personified as an attractive woman, is the “stranger,” or “foreigner,” from outside the territory or kinship group, hence inappropriate as a marriage partner. In Proverbs she comes to be identified with Woman Folly, whose deceitful words promise life but lead to death. Woman Folly appears also in chap. 5, 6:2035, chap. 7 and 9:1318. Covenant: refers to the vow uttered with divine sanction at the woman’s previous marriage, as the parallel verse suggests. She is already married and relations with her would be adulterous.
* [2:18] Shades: the inhabitants of Sheol.
* [2:2122] Verses 2122 echo the ending of Wisdom’s speech in 1:3233, in which refusing Wisdom’s invitation meant death and obedience to her meant life. The same set of ideas is found in Ps 37 (especially vv. 3, 9, 11, 22, 29, 34, and 38): to live on (or inherit) the land and to be uprooted from the land are expressions of divine recompense.
a. [2:6] Jb 32:8; Wis 7:25; Sir 1:1; Jas 1:5.
b. [2:16] Prv 5:3, 20; 6:24; 7:5; 22:14.
c. [2:18] Prv 5:5; 7:27.
d. [2:21] Prv 10:7, 30; Jb 18:17; Ps 21:913; 37:22, 28.
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Mise en Place - How to improve your baking efficiency
Mise en Place - How to improve your baking efficiency Mattie
Written by Mattie
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Mise en PlaceMise en place, pronounced 'MEEZ ahn plahs', translates to "put in place". It means to have all your ingredients, cookware and your kitchen prepped and ready to go before doing your cooking or baking. With mise en place, recipes are reviewed and necessary ingredients and equipment are checked. Mise en place is used extensively in the food industry and is of equal importance to the recipe itself.
Mise in place is simply the act of just reading the directions, fully understanding and preparing yourself for the task you're about to do. If you bought furniture that needed to be assembled, you'd want to practice a variant of mise en place called "reading the directions first" for best results. You should get in the habit of mise en place every time you bake.
if you were going to make fudge that called for condensed soy milk, you would want to make sure you have the sugar and soy milk and the saucepan for the soy milk to be condensed. You would then want to see if you have your chocolate and other ingredients. Running to the store when there's a time-sensitive saucepan of hot caramel on your stove is not an option. My absolute biggest baking blunder has been running to the store for the emergency ingredient I forgot about and having the store end up being closed. For your fudge recipe you would continue mise en place by chopping your chocolate into half-inch pieces and placing them in a metal bowl so you wouldn't have to later scramble to do it on-the-fly.
In the restaurant industry and other fast paced kitchens mise en place goes one step further and becomes a state of mind where evey spare second is used to squeeze productivity out of the kitchen.
Mise en place is also an important habit to get into because it allows you to focus your full attention on your food and your recipe as you bake. Chefs on cooking shows use mise en place so they can devote their resources to the show so it's as simple descript as possible. Watching a chef chop vegetables for 10 minutes is just no good. Mise en place helps keep baking as it should be- low stress and fun.
Mise en place by allanthinks via Flickr
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Wednesday, March 04, 2015
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Recent issues show need for integrity in loyalty
July 25, 2013 at 2:25 a.m.
Editor, the Advocate:
What's more important, integrity or loyalty? A hardcore Marine asked Chuck Colson this question. Considering the Marine motto is Semper Fidelis, this was not a comfortable moment. Mr. Colson answered, "Loyalty is a virtue only if it is based upon truth." He further stated that based upon anything else loyalty would only bring destruction. There are so many issues confronting us, it's almost mind boggling. I will briefly touch on two of the major ones in the media hype at this time.
The Zimmerman debacle is one. This was a non-issue for more than a month until someone stirred things up. How many times a day are there altercations between different races? Why was this one so significant? If you followed established media outlets and read the articles without letting emotions get in the way, it is obvious this was a test case concerning the "stand your ground" laws many states have enacted. I have read of a few instances someone has abused this and most certainly should be punished. Now, we have a family, if not several, intimidated and unable to live normal lives because of threats. This is loyalty based on emotion and is causing destruction and division.
Another topic is "climate change." This has been a changeling from day one. One of the early suppositions was that excess CO2 was causing cloud cover and thereby holding in heat and raising temperatures. Years ago, I remember reading an article stating satellite pictures confirmed this over two locations. Only two? Now, the droughts all over the world are blamed on climate change. No rain means no clouds.
I wish there was more room for further discussion, but alas. Your loyalty is not based in truth if, when you are confronted with a reasonable statement that goes against your belief, you call names, accuse or even try to get the other person distracted. If so, your loyalty will only bring ______?
Tony Corte, Victoria
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Low-Alcohol Wine
Have you ever wondered what “low-alcohol wine” is, or how winemakers can decrease the alcohol content of wine? Here is a quick overview of wine alcohol content guidelines, the factors that influence wine alcohol levels, and the dynamics driving demand for “low-alcohol wine.”
Q: What is “low-alcohol wine?”
There is no universal guideline that defines “low-alcohol wine” or dictates the minimum alcohol content of wine. For example, in the United States, the Federal Alcohol Administration Act defines wine as, among other things, containing not less than 7% and not more than 24% alcohol by volume (ABV). By contrast, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), an intergovernmental organization whose members include countries such as Australia, Argentina and European Union member states, says that the alcohol content of wine “shall not be less than 8.5% vol;” but in some regions, a minimum of 7% is allowed when climate, soil, vine variety, and special qualitative factors or traditions are taken into account.
Most table wines have about 12.5%–14% ABV, although some, such as Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, can have higher ABV levels. So, any wine that has 11% ABV or less, has a lower alcohol level than is typical. By contrast, fortified wine, such as Port or Sherry, generally has between 17% and 21% ABV.
Q: Why do some wines have less alcohol than others?
Fermentation is the process whereby grape sugar is converted to alcohol. The less sugar a grape has, the less alcohol is produced. The amount of grape sugar is influenced by the climate where the grapes are grown (cooler climate equals less sugar) and how ripe the grapes are when they are harvested. Certain varieties of grapes also have a tendency to produce more sugar.
It is possible for a winemaker to lower the alcohol content of a wine through “natural means”—by picking the grapes earlier in the harvest (when they have less sugar), by using grape varieties that produce less sugar and by growing the grapes in cooler areas, thus slowing the development of sugar in the grapes. Winemakers can also use technical processes, such as spinning cones or reverse osmosis, to reduce the alcohol content of wine. These processes employ techniques such as partial vacuum evaporation, distillation and membrane techniques.
Q: What drives the demand for wines with lower alcohol levels?
Some prefer wines that are lower in alcohol because they want to reduce their alcohol and calorie intake as part of a healthier lifestyle (lower-alcohol wine generally has fewer calories). According to Mintel, the UK market for lower-alcohol wine (ABV of less than 8.5%) is not only driven by health concerns, but also because the wine is cheaper. Government excise duties are lower on wines with an ABV of 5.5% or less and, as a result, the average bottle costs £3.27 compared to £4.95. Mintel states that in the UK, value sales of lower-alcohol wine increased 40% between 2011 and 2012 to about £23 million.
Q: How big is the market for “low-alcohol” / “low-calorie” wines?
Globally, sales of wines specifically marketed as “low alcohol”/”low calorie” wine are a very small part of total wine sales. This is due, in part, to the fact that many consumers are skeptical about the taste and quality of wines which have had their alcohol content reduced using technical means.
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The development of Irish dancing into an entertainment phenomenon is puzzling. It is a rigid form of tap dance in which the dancers perform in unison with movement limited to the legs and feet and few of the high leaps that make dance so textured.
Alan Kenefick, who created and choreographed Footstorm (and dances the lead role) resolves these limitations by establishing a tribal setting for the show. Against such a background the movement of the dancers in strict harmony works perfectly. The setting also frees the dancers to perform sequences of courtship and conflict that show Irish dancing to best effect. The tap dancing aspect, that keeps Irish dancing so tied to the stage, is off-set by the sheer talent of the dancers, particularly Kenefick, who demonstrate some astonishing mid-air heel clicks.
But the talent of the dancers is hindered by ham-fisted storytelling and awful music. Kenefick is at pains to avoid Irish cliché but in an effort to steer clear of Celtic mythology he goes to another extreme with a half-baked science fiction storyline. Dance is a demanding art form requiring the audience to utilise imagination and interpret the movement of the dancers into a narrative. Perhaps not trusting his audience Kenefick spells out the story in subtitles projected onto a screen.
In 2047 a post-apocalytic earth is divided into warring tribes. By using his dancing talents a time traveller is able to generate a mystic storm of energy to rescue a kidnapped queen with whom he has fallen in love. Bad science fiction can be fun if treated with humour and affection (just look at The Rocky Horror Show) but Footstorm takes itself very seriously so that the stale ideas are embarrassing rather than amusing. Science fiction is notoriously hard to achieve visually on stage and there are some dreadful costume designs with everyone looking like they have stepped out of the Mad Max movies.
The images of a devastated landscape projected onto the rear screen are over-familiar and influenced by the covers of progressive rock albums. The show does, however, feature stunning effects with laser images that would not disgrace a Pink Floyd concert. Unfortunately the music is also rock influenced with ear-splitting electronic pulses and beats lacking both lyricism and variety. It is also so loud that it overwhelms the footwork of the dancers and deprives the audience of the thunderous tap dancing effect that is a prominent feature of Irish dancing.
Prodijig is a company with tremendously talented dancers but the efforts to make Footstorm unique are hampered by mediocre music and a confused story.
- Dave Cunningham | <urn:uuid:91012d26-ff08-4787-a40d-2972e5f942b9> | 2 | 1.507813 | 0.035124 | en | 0.949311 | http://www.whatsonstage.com/blackpool-theatre/reviews/05-2013/prodijig-presents-footstorm-tour-salford_156.html?cid=article-flyover |
Media centre
Hepatitis B
Fact sheet N°204
Updated July 2014
Key facts
• More than 780 000 people die every year due to the consequences of hepatitis B.
• Hepatitis B is an important occupational hazard for health workers.
• Hepatitis B is preventable with the currently available safe and effective vaccine.
Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is a major global health problem. It can cause chronic liver disease and chronic infection and puts people at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.
More than 240 million people have chronic (long-term) liver infections. More than
780 000 people die every year due to the acute or chronic consequences of hepatitis B.
A vaccine against hepatitis B has been available since 1982. Hepatitis B vaccine is 95% effective in preventing infection and its chronic consequences, and was the first vaccine against a major human cancer.
Geographical distribution
Hepatitis B virus can cause an acute illness with symptoms that last several weeks, including yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), dark urine, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Hepatitis B prevalence is highest in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. Most people in these regions become infected with the hepatitis B virus during childhood and between 5–10% of the adult population is chronically infected.
High rates of chronic infections are also found in the Amazon and the southern parts of eastern and central Europe. In the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, an estimated 2–5% of the general population is chronically infected. Less than 1% of the population in western Europe and North America is chronically infected.
In highly endemic areas, HBV is most commonly spread from mother to child at birth, or from person to person in early childhood.
Perinatal or early childhood transmission may also account for more than one third of chronic infections in areas of low endemicity, although in those settings, sexual transmission and the use of contaminated needles, especially among injecting drug users, are the major routes of infection.
The hepatitis B virus can survive outside the body for at least 7 days. During this time, the virus can still cause infection if it enters the body of a person who is not protected by the vaccine.
The hepatitis B virus is not spread by contaminated food or water, and cannot be spread casually in the workplace.
The incubation period of the hepatitis B virus is 75 days on average, but can vary from 30 to 180 days. The virus may be detected 30 to 60 days after infection and persists for variable periods of time.
Most people do not experience any symptoms during the acute infection phase. However, some people have acute illness with symptoms that last several weeks, including yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), dark urine, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
In some people, the hepatitis B virus can also cause a chronic liver infection that can later develop into cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer.
More than 90% of healthy adults who are infected with the hepatitis B virus will recover and be completely rid of the virus within 6 months.
Who is at risk for chronic disease?
The likelihood that infection with the hepatitis B virus becomes chronic depends upon the age at which a person becomes infected. Children less than 6 years of age who become infected with the hepatitis B virus are the most likely to develop chronic infections:
• 30–50%% of children infected before the age of 6 years develop chronic infections.
In adults:
• <5% of otherwise healthy adults who are infected will develop chronic infection;
• 15–25% of adults who become chronically infected during childhood die from hepatitis B-related liver cancer or cirrhosis.
It is not possible, on clinical grounds, to differentiate hepatitis B from hepatitis caused by other viral agents and, hence, laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis is essential. A number of blood tests are available to diagnose and monitor people with hepatitis B. They can be used to distinguish acute and chronic infections.
Laboratory diagnosis of hepatitis B infection focuses on the detection of the hepatitis B surface antigen HBsAg. WHO recommends that all blood donations are tested for this marker to avoid transmission to recipients.
• Acute HBV infection is characterized by the presence of HBsAg and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody to the core antigen, HBcAg. During the initial phase of infection, patients are also seropositive for HBeAg.
• Chronic infection is characterized by the persistence (>6 months) of HBsAg (with or without concurrent HBeAg). Persistence of HBsAg is the principal marker of risk for developing chronic liver disease and hepatocellullar carcinoma (HCC) later in life.
• The presence of HBeAg indicates that the blood and body fluids of the infected individual are highly contagious
There is no specific treatment for acute hepatitis B. Care is aimed at maintaining comfort and adequate nutritional balance, including replacement of fluids that are lost from vomiting and diarrhoea.
People with chronic hepatitis B who require treatment can be given drugs, including oral antiviral agents, such as tenofovir and entecavir, but also interferon injections . Treatment can slow the progression of cirrhosis, reduce incidence of HCC and improve long term survival. Treatment, however, is not readily accessible in many resource-constrained settings.
Liver cancer is almost always fatal and often develops in people at an age when they are most productive and have family responsibilities. In developing countries, most people with liver cancer die within months of diagnosis. In high-income countries, surgery and chemotherapy can prolong life for up to a few years.
People with cirrhosis are sometimes given liver transplants, with varying success.
The hepatitis B vaccine is the mainstay of hepatitis B prevention. WHO recommends that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours.
The birth dose should be followed by 2 or 3 doses to complete the primary series. In most cases, 1 of the following 2 options is considered appropriate:
• a 3-dose schedule of hepatitis B vaccine, with the first dose (monovalent) being given at birth and the second and third (monovalent or combined vaccine) given at the same time as the first and third doses of DTP vaccine; or
• 4 doses, where a monovalent birth dose is followed by 3 monovalent or combined vaccine doses, usually given with other routine infant vaccines.
The complete vaccine series induces protective antibody levels in more than 95% of infants, children and young adults. Protection lasts at least 20 years and is possibly lifelong.
All children and adolescents younger than 18 years old and not previously vaccinated should receive the vaccine if they live in countries where there is low or intermediate endemicity. In those settings it is possible that more people in high risk groups may acquire the infection and they should also be vaccinated. They include:
• people who frequently require blood or blood products, dialysis patients, recipients of solid organ transplantations;
• people interned in prisons;
• injecting drug users;
• household and sexual contacts of people with chronic HBV infection;
• people with multiple sexual partners, as well as health-care workers and others who may be exposed to blood and blood products through their work; and
• travellers who have not completed their hepatitis B vaccination series should be offered the vaccine before leaving for endemic areas.
The vaccine has an excellent record of safety and effectiveness. Since 1982, over one billion doses of hepatitis B vaccine have been used worldwide. In many countries, where 8–15% of children used to become chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus, vaccination has reduced the rate of chronic infection to less than 1% among immunized children.
As of 2012, 183 Member States vaccinate infants against hepatitis B as part of their vaccination schedules and 79% of children received the hepatitis B vaccine. This is a major increase compared with 31 countries in 1992, the year that the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to recommend global vaccination against hepatitis B. Furthermore, as of 2012, 94 Member States have introduced the hepatitis B birth dose.
In addition, implementation of blood safety strategies, including quality-assured screening of all donated blood and blood components used for transfusion can prevent transmission of HBV. Safe injection - unnecessary as well as unsafe injections - practices can protect against HBV transmission. Furthermore, safer sex practices, including minimizing the number of partners and using barrier protective measures (condoms), protect against transmission.
WHO response
WHO is working in the following areas to prevent and control viral hepatitis:
• raising awareness, promoting partnerships and mobilizing resources;
• formulating evidence-based policy and data for action;
• preventing of transmission; and
• promoting access to screening, care and treatment services.
WHO also organizes World Hepatitis Day on July 28 every year to increase awareness and understanding of viral hepatitis.
For more information contact:
WHO Media centre
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Bletchley Park Trust
Delivering his 2014 Budget to the House of Commons, the chancellor, George Osborne, said the government will be founding an Alan Turing Institute, which is part of a broader focus to increase Britain's science, technology and engineering output.
The chancellor claimed the institute will ensure Britain leads the way again in the use of big data and algorithm research. He praised Turing as a codebreaker who did more than almost any other single person to win the war after denouncing the persecution he suffered for being homosexual: "I am delighted that he has finally received a posthumous Royal Pardon. Now, in his honour, we will found the Alan Turing Institute... I am determined that our country is going to out-compete, out-smart and out-do the rest of the world."
The government will provide £42 million over five years to the project, which will come out of a £222 million science funding package. Educational institutions as well as other as yet unspecified organisations will be able to bid to host the new Turing facility.
The chancellor went on to emphasise the importance of modern infrastructure and industrial strategy, stating these were both crucial elements of a successful economy: "Modern infrastructure is part of a successful economy… if Britain isn't leading the world in science and technology and engineering, then we are condemning our country to fall behind."
An additional £74 million will be used to "establish new centres for doctoral training, for Cell Therapy and for Graphene -- a great British discovery that we should break the habit of a lifetime with and commercially develop in Britain." got in touch with The Bletchley Park Trust, which said it was delighted with the announcement. It feels it is yet further recognition of the work of Alan Turing and his thousands of colleagues at wartime Bletchley Park. "It seems right and fitting that an institute that will focus on the use of big data and research into algorithms should be named in his honour. It is clearly early days of this project but we will follow it with interest and it would be fantastic if whichever organisation is ultimately to host the institute was to develop an ongoing link with Bletchley Park where Alan Turing's work made such a profound impact," said a spokesperson for the organisation.
Alan Turing was a British mathematician who was highly influential in the development of computer science, as well as refining and formalising key concepts within the discipline such as "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine. Many consider him to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
Latest on | <urn:uuid:ad6801c9-d617-4faa-82c9-bef16372b650> | 2 | 1.90625 | 0.056127 | en | 0.968019 | http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/20/alan-turing-institute |
Supreme Court To Hear Birth Control Dispute In Health Care Law
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to referee another dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law, whether businesses can use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees.
The justices said they will take up an issue that has divided the lower courts in the face of roughly 40 lawsuits from for-profit companies asking to be spared from having to cover some or all forms of contraception.
The court will consider two cases. One involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees. Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts.
The other case is an appeal from Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Pennsylvania company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets. Lower courts rejected the company's claims.
The cases center on a provision of the health care law that requires most employers that offer health insurance to their workers to provide a range of preventive health benefits, including contraception.
In both instances, the Christian families that own the companies say that insuring some forms of contraception violates their religious beliefs.
The key issue is whether profit-making corporations can assert religious beliefs under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment provision guaranteeing Americans the right to believe and worship as they choose. Nearly four years ago, the justices expanded the concept of corporate "personhood," saying in the Citizens United case that corporations have the right to participate in the political process the same way that individuals do.
"The government has no business forcing citizens to choose between making a living and living free," said David Cortman of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian public interest law firm that is representing Conestoga Wood at the Supreme Court.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the health care law "puts women and families in control of their health care by covering vital preventive care, like cancer screenings and birth control, free of charge." Carney said the administration already has exempted churches and has also created a buffer between faith-affiliated charities and contraceptive coverage by requiring insurers or another third-party to provide contraceptive coverage instead of the religious employer. Separate lawsuits are challenging that arrangement.
Hobby Lobby calls itself a "biblically founded business" and is closed on Sundays. Founded in 1972, the company now operates more than 500 stores in 41 states. The Green family, Hobby Lobby's owners, also owns the Mardel Christian bookstore chain.
Conestoga Wood is owned by a Mennonite family who "object as a matter of conscience to facilitating contraception that may prevent the implantation of a humsan embryo in the womb."
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the company on its claims under the 1993 law and the Constitution, saying "for profit, secular corporations cannot engage in religious exercise."
The Supreme Court will have to confront several questions — can these businesses hold religious beliefs, does the health care provision significantly infringe on those beliefs and, even if the answer to the first two questions is "yes," does the government still have a sufficient interest in guaranteeing women who work for the companies access to contraception.
In a third case in which the court took no action Tuesday, Michigan-based Autocam Corp. doesn't want to pay for any contraception for its employees because of its owners' Roman Catholic beliefs.
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Accessing TrueCrypt Containers - Windows
1. Open TrueCrypt by double-clicking the blue TrueCrypt icon on your desktop, or by selecting it from your programs menu.
2. Select a drive letter from the list you will be shown. This will be the drive letter to which the TrueCrypt container will be mounted. Do not choose a drive on which you already have files, such as the C: drive!
3. Click Select File.
4. In the file selector, browse to the TrueCrypt My Container file, single-click it and then click Open.
5. In the main TrueCrypt window, click Mount. The password prompt dialog window should open.
6. Enter your password in the dialog window and then click OK. You should then access your TrueCrypt container.
7. The TrueCrypt container is entirely encrypted (including file names, folders, free space, etc.). You can save, copy or move files to this container and they will be encrypted on the fly as they are being written. If you open a file stored in the container, the file will be automaticaly decrypted. You may also browse to the container the way you normally browse on any hard drive or USB key.
8. To lock the container and make it inaccessible without the password, select it from the list of containers and click Dismount.
Adding TrueCrypt Volumes as Favorites
1. Open the TrueCrypt application.
2. Mount the TrueCrypt volume (see above).
3. Select the Favorites menu in the top of the TrueCrypt window.
4. In the Favorites Volumes window, give your favorite a name and click OK.
5. You will now be able to mount your favorite volume from the Favorites drop-down menu. | <urn:uuid:32d89fa4-11d4-4968-ba80-2e77d8621e61> | 2 | 1.734375 | 0.658667 | en | 0.856383 | http://www.wmich.edu/helpdesk/securitywindowstruecryptcontainers |
Browse Dictionary by Letter
Dictionary Suite
famous having widespread recognition or public esteem; renowned. [2 definitions]
fan1 a hand-held device that opens out to form a triangular shape and that is used to cool the face or body by waving back and forth. [7 definitions]
fan2 an enthusiastic follower of an activity such as a sport or a performing art or of a person or persons who engage in that activity.
fanatic one who has excessive and uncritical zeal or devotion to a principle, cause, religion, leader, or the like. [2 definitions]
fanatical driven by or springing from excessive and uncritical zeal.
fanaticism excessive or unreasonable enthusiasm or support for something.
fan belt in an automobile engine, a rubber belt stretched firmly around the crankshaft, which transfers torque to another shaft located on the cooling fan.
fancied invented or dreamed up; existing in fantasy; imaginary.
fancier a devotee of some thing or pursuit. [2 definitions]
fanciful exhibiting use of the imagination; whimsical or imaginative. [3 definitions]
fan club an organization of fans of a particular entertainer, sports team, or other famous entity. Members of a fan club are primarily linked by mail or e-mail.
fancy an idea, opinion, or preference, sometimes not based on reason or reality. [14 definitions]
fancy dress a masquerade costume, esp. one that represents a particular period or class of person.
fancy-free without obligations or commitments, esp. any love attachment.
fancywork ornamental needlework, such as needlepoint or embroidery.
fandango a lively Spanish or Spanish-American dance in triple time for a couple playing castanets, or the music that accompanies this dance.
fanfare a flourish of trumpets, used to mark an entrance or beginning. [2 definitions]
fanfold paper paper that is perforated to allow folding in alternating directions, designed esp. to lie in flat stacks or bulks for continuous feeding, as into computer printers.
fang a long pointed tooth, such as the canine tooth of carnivorous animals or the hollow, grooved tooth by which a venomous snake injects its poison. [3 definitions] | <urn:uuid:b51f63dc-8129-404e-998b-264f98f74f6e> | 2 | 2.140625 | 0.122725 | en | 0.86478 | http://www.wordsmyth.net/?mode=browse&as_word=fancy |
Gun control 2013: Joe Biden rallies House Democrats to White House gun platform
Meetings of his task force on gun violence twice were interrupted by news of school shootings, Vice President Joe Biden told House Democrats on Wednesday evening.
Biden used those instances to buttress the White House's agenda on the issue.
"When we were meeting with various groups to decide how to proceed, on two occasions in the middle of our meetings we got word that there had been additional shootings in schools," Biden said.
He continued, gesturing toward a House member, "The fourth day of our meetings - in your home state of California in Bakersfield, I get an urgent note, while we're deliberating - another school shooting. Thank God not nearly as extensive.
"Folks, you agree with me, I'm sure, enough is enough is enough. We have to stand up."
Biden was seeking to rally Democrats in Congress behind President Barack Obama's gun violence proposals at their retreat Wednesday evening. Obama had tasked his vice president with investigating the issue and proposing solutions after the deadly elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December -- an instance of violence Biden brought vividly into his pitch.
He described how he envisioned the scene in Newtown where lay "those beautiful young children, six and seven years old, literally riddled -- riddled -- with bullet holes, lying in their classroom."
He described the parents searching for their children in the school parking lot and at the nearby fire station -- a sight, he said, which the country "witnessed the profound loss of not only those families but the profound loss that America suffered."
He described the personal devastation of losing a child. His one-year-old daughter died with his first wife in a 1972 car accident.
What emerged after the meetings from the White House was a set of executive actions which Obama said he and his administration would take, as well as a set of legislative proposals - some considered more feasible on Capitol Hill than others.
Their legislative actions include reinstating the ban on assault weapons, requiring background checks on all gun sales (rather than only on sales from federally licensed dealers) and restricting the size of gun magazines.
The assault weapons ban was passed in 1994 and expired a decade later. Biden said passing the 1994 ban was "tough."
"We lost the Congress immediately after that," he said, noting that Republicans won control of the House in the midterm elections. "Some attributed it to the difficult stance people had to take particularly on the assault weapons ban. People had walked away learning the wrong lesson from that, saying, you know what, it's demonstrable that it's too risky to take on some of this stuff because look what happened last time we did this."
Biden said concern that an electoral price would be paid has kept Democrats from voting for the ban.
"I'm here to tell you the world has changed. The world has changed since 1994. Public attitudes have changed since 1994," he said.
A CNN/ORC poll conducted in December found a majority of adults favored banning large ammunition magazines (58% support) and semiautomatic weapons (56%).
But the challenge for the White House would be getting those proposals through Congress.
Biden, who spent decades on the Hill himself, made an emotional pitch to the Democratic lawmakers, who would be important votes on any measures.
He told them of the "15-year-old Chicago girl who so proudly marched by me and the president and the rest of you on inauguration day leading with pride and promise her high school band, gunned down in a park just outside her school in broad daylight."
The vice president was referring to Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot at a park on Chicago's South Side.
Biden also criticized the idea of arming teachers and other school personnel, though he did indicate support for having a police presence within schools known as resource officers.
He spoke in favor of a federal gun trafficking law, increasing the number of police officers on streets and studying both mental health and the impact of violent video games.
Obama is set to speak at the Democratic lawmaker retreat on Thursday. | <urn:uuid:ea4752e3-04b8-4099-aef6-9b7ae8f991e7> | 2 | 1.507813 | 0.055086 | en | 0.981263 | http://www.wptv.com/news/political/gun-control-2013-joe-biden-rallies-house-democrats-to-white-house-gun-platform |
Bernie Sanders's Windy Letter Blows a Lot of Hot Air
Sen. Bernie Sanders's Jan. 3 Letter in defense of the wind industry blows a lot of hot air and deploys an array of smoke and mirrors.
"Create American jobs" and "help avoid the planetary calamity of global warming," Sen. Sanders offers, except that the real-world record shows that the majority of solar and wind-turbine manufacture has moved to China. Sen. Sanders ignores the fact that renewable-energy imposition needlessly drives the cost of energy up for all consumers. Renewable-energy leader Germany claims such sources provide about 25% of energy needs. What is not mentioned is that it is also building 23 new coal-fired plants; also not mentioned is the number of industries dealing with automatic process shut-downs because of instabilities in grid-power secondary to the erratic nature of solar and wind energy. Last year the German press reported that 600,000 households per year are getting their power cut off because of unaffordable electricity bills.
Sen. Sanders rants over the tax code and subsidies for conventional power. He decries business write-offs/deductions used by all businesses. He implies unfairness in federal subsidies going to fossil-fuel and nuclear industry, and not to wind energy. He misses the fact that fossil-fuel/nuclear plants deliver reliable power 24/7, unlike intermittent wind and solar, and are a more cost-effective investment. Based on kWh produced per dollar subsidy, renewables are grossly inefficient.
There is no "calamity of global warming." The U.K. Met Office reports no global warming for the past 16 years, even as CO2 levels rise. Scientists cannot "foresee" the temperatures in 2100 because they do not have validated computer models. Current models produce a variety of answers based on incomplete or erroneous understanding of the inherently chaotic nature of climate, first documented by MIT scientist E. Lorenz in 1964.
Charles Battig
Virginia Scientists
and Engineers for Energy
and Environment
Charlottesville, Va.
Sen. Sanders utterly confuses subsidies with tax credits. Subsidies are direct payments of government funds to a benefiting entity; tax credits are reductions in the effective tax rates paid by various entities as incentives for various objectives. Exxon Mobil , cited in his letter, receives no "subsidies" whatsoever. In fact, it routinely contributes billions in tax revenue each year at the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world. (No gratitude there from Sen. Sanders.) Much of the remainder is distributed to individual shareholders, pension funds and nonprofit foundations. (None there, either.)
How strange that liberals always fail to acknowledge a primary source of the funds that enable them. Where there are no profits, there is no tax revenue.
Gary R. Layton
Interlaken, N.J.
Sen. Sanders's sanctimonious defense of federal wind-power subsidies has him looking like a 21st-century Don Quixote in reverse. Instead of tilting at windmills, he is proclaiming that their modern equivalent, the electricity-generating wind turbine, can "help us avoid the planetary calamity of global warming."
Some 40 years after Cervantes wrote his epic "Don Quixote," the planet entered the coldest depths of the Little Ice Age due to a remarkable lack of sunspots during the years 1645-1715. Despite their benign-sounding name, sunspots are incredibly powerful phenomena. They began a steady increase in annual numbers around 1820 that brought an end to the Little Ice Age around 1870. This increase peaked sharply during the 1950s and still remains above the levels of a century ago, indicating a long-term, natural warming trend.
A single solar flare associated with a sunspot emits many times the energy of mankind's most powerful nuclear bombs. Such potent disturbances combined with the "solar winds" created by sunspots have been warming the planet for nearly two centuries while secondarily raising atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide by reducing the amount absorbed in the oceans. Trying to stop the effects of sunspots with wind turbines is infinitely more futile than jousting at windmills with a medieval lance.
Moreover, Sen. Sanders's claim that wind power subsidies will provide jobs is rebutted by the modern experiences of Cervantes's native Spain. There, wind-power subsidies have effectively destroyed jobs by funneling taxpayer money into an underproductive industry plagued by the intermittent nature of the wind itself. Natural gas—now abundant and inexpensive as a result of free enterprise and private investment—provides a less quixotic alternative for America's energy needs.
Robert M. Petrusak
Fairfax, Va.
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Christian Answers to Hard Questions
October 27, 2013
New apologetics booklets featuring Westminster faculty.
Westminster Seminary Press in partnership with P and R Publishing Company have produced six booklets in a series entitled Christian Answers to Hard Questions. Westminster faculty who contributed include Drs. Brandon Crowe, Vern Poythress, K. Scott Oliphint, and Gregory Beale. In the coming years, expect more titles to be added to this series.
"Written to equip and strengthen laypeople in their defense of the faith, Christian Answers to Hard Questions challenges contemporary opposition to Christianity with concise, practical answers."
Order your copies at the Westminster Bookstore!
Christianity and the Role of Philosophy
by K. Scott Oliphint
"A philosophy, as a worldview, must have an anchor if it is to be meaningfully discussed and assessed. If God exists, then philosophy must find its anchor by being subservient to theology.
Christian Interpretations of Genesis 1
Vern S. Poythress
Scholar of science and theology, Vern Poythress, examines which of the contemporary interpretations of Genesis are most consistent with scientific evidence and careful biblical interpretation. He presents the case for young-earth creationism, mature creation, the day-age theory, the analogical-day theory, and the framework hypothesis to see which of them stand up to scrutiny.
Morality of God in the Old Testament
by G. K. Beale
How can God be morally good if he commands apparently evil actions—for example, the extermination of the Canaanites? This booklet explores this important Old Testament topic.
Should You Believe in God?
by K. Scott Oliphint
As society increasingly demonstrates a disbelief in God, what happens when that viewpoint is questioned? In a conversational style, Oliphint discusses why belief is a preferable and more coherent position than unbelief and answers objections to common questions about Christianity.
Was Jesus Really Born of a Virgin?
by Brandon D. Crowe
Why do Christians hold so strongly to Christ’s virgin birth as a significant doctrine? Can it be discarded from its key position in our faith? Crowe looks at seven objections to the virgin birth and investigates the relevant biblical texts.
Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design
by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards
What are creationism, evolution, and intelligent design really about? Do they have similar levels of credibility, or has materialism displaced God as the best explanation for our existence? Gonzalez and Richards serve up a guide for the perplexed that shows us the real issues at stake. | <urn:uuid:4abbe880-37f3-4de9-8c07-ce302a2f3250> | 2 | 1.867188 | 0.022383 | en | 0.869077 | http://www.wts.edu/stayinformed/view.html?id=1622 |
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — With summer's arrival comes an influx of thousands of Silicon Valley interns, and these kids aren't just fetching coffee.
Well paid and perked, young up-and-comers from around the world who successfully navigate the competitive application process are assigned big time responsibility at firms, where executives hope they someday will come back to launch careers.
Here are five things to know about Silicon Valley internships.
BIG BUCKS: Tech firms pay interns more than any other sector in the U.S., according to a Top 25 list of 2014 intern pay by online career website Glassdoor. Palo Alto-based Palantir Technologies, a cybersecurity firm, topped the list with $7,012 average monthly base pay, followed by social media and software firms including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, eBay, Google and Apple, which pay more than $5,000 a month, the equivalent of $60,000 a year for full time jobs.
PERKS: Benefits differ from company to company, but they include free meals, bikes to borrow, commuter buses, massages, swimming pools, dance and language classes, nap pods, parties and paid flights and hotels.
THE COMPANIES: Virtually every major tech firm including Apple, eBay, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard, and Intel, as well as many startups, offer internships.
HOURS: Interns put in long hours; the requirement is 40 hours a week, but the reality is they are immersed in projects they want to produce, and often put in longer hours.
THE WORK: While most positions are for computer science, programming and developing, there are plenty of non-tech internships for designers, bankers, marketers, public relations workers, artists and more. | <urn:uuid:453f0fac-0021-48f8-a190-9ee298705966> | 2 | 1.648438 | 0.062084 | en | 0.944811 | http://www.ydr.com/nation-world/ci_25923594/silicon-valleys-interns-enjoy-perk-filled-summer |
Where the world comes to study the Bible
Matthew 6:25-34
The Clock that had a Nervous Breakdown
In his sermon entitled “How to Worry” Ralph Phelps tells about the clock that had a nervous breakdown. This new clock was ticking away on the shelf two ticks to the second as any good, self-respecting clock should tick when it began to think about how many times it was going to have to tick. “Two ticks to the second means 120 ticks per minute,” it mused. “That’s 7200 ticks per hour, 172,800 ticks per day, 1,209,600 per week for 52 weeks, and a total of 62,899,200 per year.” Horrors! Straightway the clock had a nervous breakdown.
Faith is ticking one tick at a time. Knowing that God will give us strength for the next tick. According to I Peter 1:8 we can have a “joy inexpressible.” Yet just like those oppressed and persecuted Christians to whom Peter was writing, we need to remember that this joy will never come through external stimuli, only through our internal mindset—one of faith—one of ticking one tick at a time, knowing that God will give us strength for the next tick.
John Scott
Swindoll, You and Your Problems
1. Worry ignores the logic of life (v. 25)
2. Worry ignores the value of life (v. 26)
3. Worry ignores its own limitations (v. 27)
4. Worry ignores God’s faithfulness (vv. 28-30)
5. Worry ignores the love of God (vv. 31-33)
6. Worry ignores the present (v. 34)
Today in the Word, July, 1990, p. 33
The Bird’s Nest
A construction crew was building a new road through a rural area, knocking down trees as it progressed. A superintendent noticed that one tree had a nest of birds who couldn’t yet fly and he marked the tree so that it would not be cut down. Several weeks later the superintendent came back to the tree. He got into a bucket truck and was lifted up so that he could peer into the nest. The fledglings were gone. They had obviously learned to fly. The superintendent ordered the tree cut down. As the tree crashed to the ground, the nest fell clear and some of the material that the birds had gathered to make the nest was scattered about. Part of it was a scrap torn from a Sunday school pamphlet. On the scrap of paper were these words: He careth for you.
Bits and Pieces, November, 1989, p. 23 | <urn:uuid:c1bad855-a0bc-4355-8e8a-04c044f3dbc6> | 3 | 2.515625 | 0.042479 | en | 0.974888 | https://bible.org/illustration/matthew-625-34 |
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Appendix A
Structure and Process of Strategic Planning 2010
The structure of this planning effort involved two types of groups: First, there was an eight-person faculty group at the center of the strategic planning effort, the Strategic Planning Advisory Council (SPAC). That council was charged with developing and writing the strategic plan. All ideas and input were processed through and by that group. Second, there were four working groups consisting of a total of 54 faculty, students, and staff, each focused on one of the following areas: Education; Research, Scholarship, and Creativity; Public Engagement; and Organizational Stewardship.
The SPAC provided questions and issues for these working groups (WGs), and members of the WGs "drilled down" more deeply into the goal areas of the plan and provided detailed input and suggestions to the SPAC.
Membership of Strategic Planning Advisory Council
• Lance Collins, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Jonathan Culler, English
• Sandra Greene, History
• Martha Haynes, Astronomy
• Katherine Hajjar, Cell and Development Biology, Weill Cornell Medical College
• Edward Lawler, Organizational Behavior, ILR School (Advisory Council Chair)
• Susan McCouch, Plant Breeding and Genetics
• Michael Waldman, Economics, Johnson Graduate School of Management
Steps in Planning Process
The major steps in the planning process were as follows:
1. The SPAC developed a set of questions and issues which Working Groups (WGs) analyzed in more depth.
2. The WGs provided reports to the SPAC from which the SPAC developed draft objectives and actions for several goal areas.
3. The SPAC sent these back for comment and suggestions to WGs, the president, provost, deans, vice presidents, and vice provosts.
4. A draft plan outline was made available to the university community for comment on January 25, 2010. February and early March were devoted to gathering feedback across campus through meetings in every college, with student groups, and with staff.
5. During that period, the SPAC set priorities among the objectives in each section, formulated seven strategic initiatives for 2010-2015, and developed metrics for assessing progress.
6. On March 11, 2010, a complete draft of the plan outline was made available to the university community for further comments and suggestions.
7. On April 7, 2010, the trustees spent half a day at a retreat discussing the plan.
8. Breakout groups of trustees, based on the goal areas of the plan, provided valuable input to the SPAC.
9. April to May, the SPAC drafted the final version of the Strategic Plan.
Appendix B
Open Doors, Open Hearts, and Open Minds
Open Doors
"I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." This statement, made by Ezra Cornell in 1865, proclaims Cornell University's enduring commitment to inclusion and opportunity, which is rooted in the shared democratic values envisioned by its founders. We honor this legacy of diversity and inclusion and welcome all individuals, including those from groups that have been historically marginalized and previously excluded from equal access to opportunity.
Open Hearts
Cornell's mission is to foster personal discovery and growth, nurture scholarship and creativity across a broad range of common knowledge, and affirm the value to individuals and society of the cultivation of the human mind and spirit. Our legacy is reflected in the diverse composition of our community, the breadth of our curriculum, the strength of our public service, and the depth of our commitment to freedom, equity, and reason. Each member of the Cornell community has a responsibility to honor this legacy and to support a more diverse and inclusive campus in which to work, study, teach, research, and serve.
Open Minds
Free expression is essential to this mission, and provocative ideas lawfully presented are an expected result. An enlightened academic community, however, connects freedom with responsibility. Cornell stands for civil discourse, reasoned thought, sustained discussion, and constructive engagement without degrading, abusing, harassing, or silencing others. Cornell is committed to act responsibly and forthrightly to maintain an environment that opens doors, opens hearts, and opens minds.
Appendix C
Student Learning Outcomes
In fall 2009 the provost and vice provost for undergraduate education formed a Core Assessment Committee to develop mechanisms for assessing the outcomes of educational programs, in particular the impact on students. To accomplish this, the committee pulled together "assessment agents" designated by each college. The educational goals and competencies that were first developed in each college became the basis for the competencies defined below.
Draft Core Competencies for Cornell Students
1. Courses of study at Cornell should generate proficiency in the following core academic competencies:
1. Disciplinary Knowledge: demonstrate a systematic or coherent understanding of an academic field of study.
2. Critical Thinking: apply analytic thought to a body of knowledge; evaluate arguments, identifying relevant assumptions or implications; formulate coherent arguments.
3. Communication Skills: express ideas clearly in writing; speak articulately; communicate with others using media as appropriate; work effectively with others.
4. Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning: demonstrate the ability to understand cause-and-effect relationships; define problems; use symbolic thought; apply scientific principles; solve problems with no single correct answer.
5. Self-Directed Learning: work independently; identify appropriate resources; take initiative; manage a project through to completion.
6. Information Literacy: access, evaluate, and use a variety of relevant information sources.
7. Engagement in the Process of Discovery or Creation: demonstrate the ability to work productively in a laboratory setting, studio, or field environment.
2. In addition, the Cornell environment strives to foster collegiality, civility, and responsible stewardship. Through academic studies and broader experiences on and off campus, Cornell graduates should attain proficiency in the following:
1. Multicultural Competence: have knowledge of the values and beliefs of multiple cultures; effectively engage in a multicultural society; interact respectfully with diverse others; develop a global perspective.
2. Moral and Ethical Awareness: embrace moral/ethical values in conducting one's life; formulate a position/argument about an ethical issue from multiple perspectives; use ethical practices in all work.
3. Self-Management: care for one's self responsibly; demonstrate awareness of one's self in relation to others.
4. Community Engagement: demonstrate responsible behavior; engage in the intellectual life of the university outside the classroom; participate in community and civic affairs.
Assessment Implementation Plan and Benchmarks
Stage 1 - Initial Implementation
• Each college establishes an assessment process (utilizing standing committees, e.g., curriculum committees or educational policy committees, or setting up a new committee).
• Each college surveys already-existing assessment activities (including those generated by external review requirements and those conceived within ongoing program and course conceptions), in order to incorporate these into the college process.
• Each college generates an educational goals/outcomes statement for the college.
• These statements are added to a specifically designated assessment site on the college web site.
• Each college targets 2-3 majors or programs for which an assessment plan will be generated and incorporated into curricular materials. These should be stable programs, ideally representing a range of fields/areas.
• For each major/program, 2-3 program goals should be provided and learning outcomes should be collected, using both direct and indirect measures (at least 2 measures per major/program).
• Statements of these goals/outcomes should be posted on the college web site and on other sites (to be determined).
• These activities of the colleges are coordinated and facilitated by the Core Assessment Committee.
Stage 2 - Full Implementation
• College assessment sites are maintained and expanded to include department and program goals.
• Each college continues the process of generating assessment plans for the majority of its majors/programs, with this process to be completed by the end of spring 2011.
• Progress is reviewed; process is revised as necessary; further need for resources is reviewed; wider inclusion of the campus is reviewed.
• The Core Assessment Committee becomes a standing committee, overseen by the provost's office, and given the task of coordinating and facilitating college assessment processes.
Stage 3 - Institutionalization
• College committees with designated responsibility regularly review educational goals, according to a timetable.
• Colleges maintain and update their assessment web sites regularly (according to a timetable designated within each college).
• Departments/programs review their assessment outcomes (according to a regular process established internally).
• New programs are included in the assessment process (according to the established process within each college).
• The Core Assessment Committee facilitates the assessment process, identifies needs as they arise, addresses challenges, and provides an annual report to the provost.
Appendix D
Assessing Progress
This section proposes a general approach and set of assumptions that should guide the development and use of metrics and qualitative indicators for assessing progress on plan goals, objectives, and strategic initiatives. It includes an initial list of core metrics as well as an elaboration of qualitative and quantitative indicators for each objective in the plan. The Strategic Planning Advisory Council is offering this broad framework for using existing data or institutional capacities to assess and track progress on plan priorities and objectives. This proposal is a first step, intended to be a starting point from which appropriate groups of administrators, faculty, and staff can develop and further refine the appropriate metrics and qualitative indicators.
1. General Approach:
1. Focus on university-wide (aggregated) metrics and qualitative indicators but include, where appropriate, unit-level ones.
2. Organize metrics and qualitative indicators around goals and priorities.
3. Include both quantitative and qualitative indicators.
4. Have multiple indicators for each goal, given the complexity of the assessment, but as few as possible to enhance focus.
5. Make the metrics flexible and adaptable to be useful across a wide range of academic areas or units.
6. Consider the need to minimize the amount of staff time or additional staff to implement the metrics.
7. Insofar as possible, use existing sources of data and information.
2. Assumptions
1. It is exceedingly difficult to develop fully adequate measures of progress toward greater excellence in a research university.
2. No particular metrics or qualitative indicators will be sufficient, but some sets or combinations of them will be significantly better for tracking progress than others or than having none.
3. Metrics and qualitative indicators need to be developed in consultation with those people in the areas being measured (faculty, students, and staff). The metrics developed in this plan, therefore, must be considered a draft for further consultation and development.
4. Metrics help to promote progress and improvement by holding the institution or units accountable for working toward goals or objectives, but they also can do harm if action is focused on moving particular numbers or indicators rather than the larger purposes for which they are created.
5. Any set of metrics will have unintended consequences that are important to analyze and anticipate.
6. Any set of metrics or indicators should be viewed as a whole and be part of an overall qualitative assessment and judgment.
3. Core Metrics
With the above approach and assumptions as context, listed below are a provisional set of core metrics that are important to track over the next five years. These are related to strategic priorities and initiatives in previous sections of this plan. This list should be modified and developed further over time with assumptions 4 and 5 above in mind.
• Faculty and staff compensation
Compare salaries and fringe benefits to peer institutions (faculty) or appropriate markets (staff).
• Amount and nature of faculty hiring and retention
Number of hires/year; rank distribution of hires; tracking of changes in faculty size; yearly assessment of faculty exits.
• Age distribution of the faculty
Percent of faculty 55 and above; 60 and above (university-wide and by unit).
• Diversity of faculty, students, and staff
Percent women and underrepresented minorities. For faculty, comparison to specific goals of 20% or pipeline percent (whichever is higher). Set comparable goals for students and staff.
• Number of top-ranked departments and programs
Select appropriate NRC criteria; discipline-specific rankings; regular program reviews.
• Sponsored research
Total expenditures; expenditures per faculty member.
• Student learning outcomes and health
College assessments of learning outcomes based on core competencies (see Appendix C); data from Gannett on student mental and physical health.
• Student access
Cost of Cornell education by family income quintile.
• Student surveys (undergraduate, graduate, and professional)
Satisfaction with teaching; satisfaction with research opportunities and training; perceptions of international and public engagement opportunities; ease of taking courses across boundaries and administrative/bureaucratic barriers; perceptions of living-learning environment at Cornell.
• Library rankings
Compare to research university libraries, using appropriate measures from the ARL (Association of Research Libraries).
• Faculty and staff surveys
Conduct surveys on a regular schedule.
• Ithaca-Weill interactions
Joint research grants; collaborative teaching programs; and cross-usage of core facilities.
• Stature of university as a whole
Institutional reputation based on appropriate high-quality rankings of research universities (e.g., based on NRC data and criteria); use of select metrics from above list (e.g., faculty quality, student quality; external research funding; library rankings including collections).
Indicators for University-Wide Excellence
1. Institutional Reputation and Stature
1. Select reputational rankings of research universities.
2. Aggregate data on the university and academic units (e.g., indicators of faculty excellence, student quality, and excellence of research, scholarship, and creativity).
3. Choose a set of metrics from forthcoming National Research Council evaluations to track institutional progress toward the university's aspiration.
Indicators for Faculty Excellence
1. Faculty Recruiting and Size (Objective 1)
1. Amount and nature of faculty hiring.
2. Have there been pre-fills where future faculty quality warrants it?
3. Funding for new faculty positions in strategically important departments or programs (from fund-raising, internal reallocation, or other sources).
4. Has Cornell's dual-career program expanded the window for commitments beyond three years? Are there new elements that distinguish Cornell from its competition?
2. Faculty Diversity (Objective 2)
1. Comparison of proportion of women in departments to a 20% absolute standard or the pipeline level (whichever is higher), with the federal standard as a reference. This extends the CU ADVANCE standard across departments and colleges.
2. Comparison of the proportion of underrepresented minorities to the appropriate pipeline and federal standards. Develop an absolute standard that serves the same purpose as the CU ADVANCE standard does for women in science.
3. How many departments have reached the 20% or pipeline goals for women and underrepresented minorities? How many have reached the federal standards?
4. Have funding mechanisms to promote diversity improved?
5. Is there an efficient and effective monitoring mechanism in place for each hiring unit?
3. Competitive Faculty and Staff Compensation (Objective 3)
1. Define peer groups appropriate to given disciplines, fields, departments, professional schools, and staff job categories.
2. Track faculty and staff salaries and fringe benefits against appropriate peer institutions.
4. Faculty Retention (Objective 4)
1. Have efforts to prevent exits by highly valued faculty increased?
2. A qualitative assessment each year of cases in which highly valued faculty have left (to determine how responses can be improved).
3. Have dual-career and work-life issues (e.g., childcare) been given appropriate attention in retention efforts?
4. Track percent of faculty exits per year across faculty career stages (pre-tenure, tenure to mid-career, and more senior).
5. Rewarding Outstanding Faculty (Objective 5)
1. Have new forms of recognition and reward for outstanding performance among faculty (in teaching, research, and public engagement) been implemented in departments and colleges?
2. Faculty awards and honors; leadership positions in field.
3. Number of faculty in distinguished national academies (e.g., the National Academy of Sciences).
4. Do all departments have systems for reviewing the teaching, research, and public engagement of faculty after tenure?
6. Intellectual Environment (Objective 6)
1. What new cross-college or cross-department interdisciplinary collaborations have formed? What is the potential impact of these?
2. Has a sustainable "faculty club" been developed and/or other measures to promote informal conversation and dialogue?
3. Have concerted efforts been made to improve or maintain a strong culture of collaboration in departments? Have these efforts had an impact?
Indicators for Excellence in Education
1. Shared Educational Student Experience (Objective 3)
1. Have academic or administrative barriers to students in one college taking courses in another been reduced?
2. Have additional shared educational components for Cornell undergraduates (living-learning programs, courses, and so forth) that address core competencies been added? What impact have these had?
3. Have course or credit hours out-of-college for Cornell undergraduates increased?
4. Senior survey results on perceptions of how easy or difficult it is to take courses outside of their department or college.
2. Student Learning Outcomes
1. Assessments by colleges and other units of how they contribute to students' acquisition of core competencies.
2. Are mechanisms for measuring learning outcomes, indicated by these core competencies, in place? [See Appendix C.]
3. Student Psychological Health and Well-Being (Objective 5)
1. Staffing levels directed at quick, effective response to students experiencing excessive stress.
2. Waiting or lag times between contact and appointment or intervention.
3. Regularity of communications and outreach to encourage students to seek help and ensure that they know how to do so.
4. Surveys of student psychological health and well-being.
5. Programs to enhance faculty and staff knowledge of and capacity to detect students undergoing excessive stress and encourage them to seek help.
4. International and Public Engagement Opportunities for Students (Objective 4 in Education and Objective 1 in Public Engagement Section)
1. Student participation rates (for credit and noncredit).
2. Are more programs offering public engagement opportunities to students under faculty supervision and leadership?
3. Have costs to students for study abroad decreased? Have administrative obstacles been reduced for international and public engagement experiences?
4. Have we examined and affirmed the quality of current international and public engagement options for students?
5. Student survey data about these experiences.
5. Culture in Support of Teaching (Objective 1)
1. Develop Cornell benchmarks for rigorous assessment, by identifying good models within Cornell, and use these to compare departments' attention to and support for teaching excellence.
2. Have forms or ways to recognize excellence in teaching increased?
3. Student survey data on teaching environment.
4. Per capita credit hours (or courses) taught by senior faculty (full professors).
6. Supporting Pedagogical Innovation (Objective 2)
1. Usage rate of technological support.
2. Increase in number of teaching projects supported by the office of the provost.
3. Has team teaching across colleges or disciplines increased?
7. Undergraduate Student Quality and Diversity (Objective 6)
1. Standard student quality measures for enrolled students.
2. Competitive position of financial award packages.
3. Acceptance rate, retention rate.
4. Costs of a Cornell education by income quintile.
5. Has the percent of underrepresented minorities in each entering class grown? Has it reached 20% or greater?
6. Quality of URM educational experience: percent of URMs who are deans' scholars or whose GPA is in the upper quartile.
7. Senior student survey data on minority experience and perceived educational benefits from a diverse community.
8. Student survey data on perceptions of academic and personal dimensions of student life at Cornell.
8. Graduate Student Diversity and Quality (Objective 7)
1. Standard student quality measures.
2. Competitive position of stipend and benefit levels.
3. Graduate student surveys (overall satisfaction; perceptions of support for research and of opportunities to develop as teachers).
4. Have graduate fields been reduced in number or consolidated?
5. Do more fields have teaching components in their graduate programs?
6. Have fellowships for entering graduate students increased?
7. Quality of job placements (graduate and professional students).
8. Has the percentage of women in graduate fields or professional programs reached the pipeline or 20% (whichever is higher)? Has the percentage of underrepresented minorities reached the pipeline, 20%, or the federal standard (whichever is higher)?
Indicators for Research, Scholarship, and Creativity
1. Leadership Position/Department or Program Stature (Objectives 1 and 2)
1. Have dimensions for comparing departments to peers been defined, and are they being used by departments and colleges to track changes?
2. Number and quality of faculty publications, appropriate to discipline or field (e.g., citation data, journal publications, book publications, qualitative assessments).
3. Scholarship evaluations in regular external reviews of departments.
4. Placements of Ph.D. graduates and of postdoctoral associates.
5. Metrics on grant support (where appropriate), e.g., percent of faculty who are PIs on external grants; total sponsored research per FTE faculty; proposals submitted/successful, etc..
2. Support for Interdisciplinary Initiatives (Objective 3)
1. Inventory new interdisciplinary initiatives emerging from the faculty, how they were nurtured, and the impact to date (actual or potential).
2. Annual review of faculty search results, assessing cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary impact.
3. Have academic units reviewed tenure and promotion policies to determine if interdisciplinary work of untenured faculty is evaluated in appropriate and effective ways?
4. Assess the success of seed funding programs on a regular basis.
3. Administration and Support for Research Grants (Objective 4)
Central and Units:
1. Administrative and support services: annual customer satisfaction surveys-both centrally (OSP, ORIA, SFA) and at unit level.
2. Ratio of cost of research administration to sponsored funding (expenditures).
3. Number of proposals submitted per research administrator.
1. OSP-average number of days to execute awards by sponsor category.
2. ORIA (IACUC, IRB, IBC)-average number of days to review protocols.
1. Quality of quarterly financial management reports.
2. Number of proposals submitted error-free.
3. Number and dollar value of awards per unit research administrator.
4. Number of overdue sponsor reports.
[Any metrics for improving the administration of external research grants need to be vetted by focus group discussions with faculty PI's and administrators.]
4. University Library (Objective 5A)
1. Annually publish the library's acquisition budget by area of research and scholarship.
2. Publish comparisons to other major research universities with respect to collections, subscriptions, etc.
3. [Focus groups on library services every year or two with faculty and students from different disciplinary groupings.]
5. Shared Research Facilities (Objective 5B)
1. Report annually on each university-supported shared research facility-number of users served, user fees generated, and the dollar amount of externally funded research enabled by the shared facility.
2. Yearly number (and dollar value) of instrumentation grants submitted for and by the shared facilities, and the success rate.
6. Ithaca-Weill Collaborations (Objective 6)
1. Have new synergies or collaborations developed between faculty and graduate students on the Cornell campus in Ithaca and faculty and graduate students at Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate School? Joint research grants? Collaborative teaching programs? Cross-usage of core facilities?
2. Has there been improvement in administrative issues or barriers? Is it easier for graduate students to take courses at both locations?
Indicators for Excellence in Public Engagement
For public engagement, the appropriate metrics and indicators should come from the proposed university-wide assessment of public engagement programs and activities. The action items within each objective suggest some things to consider tracking in the interim. For example:
1. Unified Concept (Objective 2)
1. Has there been an increase in the use of electronic media and the internet to deliver public engagement (including extension) programs?
2. Have new innovative connections among disparate outreach or public engagement programs been developed? What impact have these had?
2. Research Foundation (Objective 4)
1. Have new or deeper ties to research been developed?
3. Partnerships with Stakeholders (Objective 5)
1. Have new partnerships with stakeholders been developed or existing ones strengthened?
2. Data on technology transfer (patents, licensing).
3. Have we capitalized on Cornell's base in New York City in new ways?
Indicators for Staff Excellence and Organizational Stewardship
Metrics and qualitative indicators for assessing the objectives for staff excellence and excellence in organizational stewardship should be developed by the professionals in those areas.
Concluding Comment
This framework is provisional. There are many objectives in this strategic plan. While we do believe the institution should move on all of these fronts, some objectives are more important than others, and progress on some is easier to track than on others. Some may receive greater priority now and others be deferred for later. This appendix does not distinguish among the most and least important but does offer methods for tracking the university's movement along them. The purpose is to provide a general framework for the implementation stage of the university strategic plan. | <urn:uuid:549c4f79-b9eb-490e-8d8d-622a78a6738e> | 2 | 1.71875 | 0.0582 | en | 0.926466 | https://cornell-classic.univcomm.cornell.edu/strategicplan/appendices.cfm |
Gender and Language: Signs and Signifiers on the Road
A random question regarding language and typically male words.
I was driving down the road and saw this sign. I began to wonder do highway departments use different “Men Working” signs if there is a woman on the crew? Do some states use “People Working” or “Workers Ahead”? There was actually a Time piece on this issue and it seems in Georgia the offending signs were replaced. I guess that campaign has not reached Northeast Ohio yet.
Gender bias in road construction?
The gender neutral replacement
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Connecting to %s | <urn:uuid:fe961b40-e66b-4b90-a7f0-9eb9d83772b5> | 2 | 2.125 | 0.050329 | en | 0.897535 | https://differenttogether.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/gender-and-language-signs-and-signifiers-on-the-road/ |
Last modified on 13 January 2014, at 15:40
Wikijunior:Small Numbers/10
Caligrafia do número 10 (recorte).svg
Some examples of the number 10
Bowling-pins.jpg In the game of bowling, the goal is to strike at once all the ten pins!
It is possible to write any number, no matter how great, with only ten types of digits.
Soft ruler.jpg A centimeter is divided into ten equal parts, called millimeters.
Previous number... Previous number... Previous number... | <urn:uuid:46cd272b-d253-496e-b374-5993469d4ee8> | 3 | 2.890625 | 0.139161 | en | 0.744177 | https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Small_Numbers/10 |
Behind The Scenes Look into World War Z’s Special Effects
The summer zombie blockbuster film ‘World War Z’ starring Brad Pitt was rolled out to theatres everywhere a couple weeks ago, and showed the world some of the most in-depth special effects used to date. Hordes of tens of thousands of zombies showed us, perhaps, a realistic view of what the surely impending zombie apocalypse would really look like. Now they want to show us how it was done.
Special effects company Moving Picture Company is no amateur to the digital special effects industry. With credentials that include the Harry Potter series, the X-Men series, and Chronicles of Narnia, it goes without saying that MPC is one of the biggest and best companies in the special effects era. However, taking on World War Z was still no easy task.
Using their proprietary crowd-simulation program, named Alice, MPC gave each zombie a specific set of rules and objectives to complete. From there, the simulation is ran at mass scale, making it so they collide with each other and move individually from the crowd to achieve their objective. “All complex crowd shots got layers of hand-animated zombies,” said Moving Picture Company’s senior CG supervisor Max Wood. “We'd start off setting the shots up in Alice, our in-house crowd tool, then we'd work out where we wanted to add the additional animation detail.”
Watch the videos above to see a great behind the scenes look into how it was all done and how it all came together at the end.
[via WIRED]
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Mike Seymour kinda looks like Joe McNally.
Terrible film.
JOE DDD (Daniel Dalin Drechsler)'s picture
just one long pepsi commercial it seems :) to bad.
I WAS HOPING it would be as good as the previews led me to believe..
I was disappointed. | <urn:uuid:b5f368f5-c207-42f5-abec-003203dd8184> | 2 | 1.554688 | 0.026778 | en | 0.952496 | https://fstoppers.com/video/behind-scenes-look-world-war-zs-special-effects-2839 |
Version 7 (modified by heisenbug, 3 years ago) (diff)
note 7.4
List of tools needed to build GHC
Here are the gory details about which programs and tools you need in order to build GHC. For instructions tailored to your particular operating system, see Building/Preparation.
In most cases the configure script will tell you if you are missing something.
GHC is required to build GHC, because GHC itself is written in Haskell, and uses GHC extensions. It is possible to build GHC using just a C compiler, and indeed some distributions of GHC do just that, but it isn't the best supported method, and you may encounter difficulties. Full instructions are in Porting GHC.
GHC can be built using either an earlier released version of GHC, or bootstrapped using a GHC built from exactly the same sources. Note that this means you cannot in general build GHC using an arbitrary development snapshot, or a build from say last week. It might work, it might not - we don't guarantee anything. To be on the safe side, start your build using the most recently released stable version of GHC.
In general, we support building with the previous 2 major releases, e.g.:
• To build 6.8.* you need GHC >= 6.4
• To build 6.10.* you need GHC >= 6.6
• To build 7.4.* you need GHC >= 7.0.1
Perl version 5 at least is required. GHC has been known to tickle bugs in Perl, so if you find that Perl crashes when running GHC try updating (or downgrading) your Perl installation. Versions of Perl before 5.6 have been known to have various bugs tickled by GHC, so the configure script will look for version 5.6 or later. Perl should be put somewhere so that it can be invoked by the #! script-invoking mechanism.
GNU C (gcc)
Most GCC versions should work with the most recent GHC sources. Expect trouble if you use a recent GCC with an older GHC, though (trouble in the form of mis-compiled code, link errors, and errors from the ghc-asm script).
If your GCC dies with "internal error"" on some GHC source file, please let us know, so we can report it and get things improved. (Exception: on x86 boxes, you may need to fiddle with GHC's -monly-N-regs option; see the User's Guide).
GNU Make
The GHC build system makes heavy use of features specific to recent versions of GNU make, so you must have at least GNU make 3.80 installed in order to build GHC.
Happy is a parser generator tool for Haskell, and is used to generate GHC's parsers.
If you start from a source tarball of GHC (i.e. not a darcs checkout), then you don't need Happy, because we supply the pre-processed versions of the Happy parsers. If you intend to modify the compiler and/or you're using a darcs checkout, then you need Happy.
Happy version 1.16 is currently required to build GHC. Grab a copy from Happy's Web Page.
Alex is a lexical-analyser generator for Haskell, which GHC uses to generate its lexer.
Like Happy, you don't need Alex if you're building GHC from a source tarball, but you do need it if you're modifying GHC and/or building a darcs checkout.
Alex is written in Haskell and is a project in the darcs repository. Alex distributions are available from Alex's Web Page.
Haddock is a documentation generator for Haskell, used for making the docs for the libraries. If you don't want to build the docs then you don't need haddock.
Haddock is only needed for GHC 6.8.3 and older; GHC 6.10 comes with Haddock. For GHC 6.8 and older you need a 0.* version of haddock; 2.* versions won't work.
autoconf and automake
These are needed if you intend to build from the darcs sources, they are not needed if you just intend to build a standard source distribution.
Version 2.52 or later of the autoconf package is required. NB. version 2.13 will no longer work, as of GHC version 6.1. Version 1.9 of automake is known to work, use others at your own risk.
autoreconf (from the autoconf package) recursively builds configure scripts from the corresponding and aclocal.m4 files. If you modify one of the latter files, you'll need autoreconf to rebuild the corresponding configure.
Most Unix installations and Cygwin/MSYS on Windows already come with sed, so you're probably OK. GNU sed version 2.0.4 is no good! It has a bug in it that is tickled by the build-configuration. 2.0.5 is OK. Others are probably OK too (assuming we don't create too elaborate configure scripts.)
Most installations should have this by default, but inexplicably Cygwin does not bundle it by default.
Required for running the testsuite. Version 2.5.2 or later is preferred, because you'll get support for running the testsuite in parallel. Stay away from 3.0 and later for now.
If libedit is installed, ghci will be built with a nice interactive line-editing interface. Version 2.6.9 and later are known to work; note that the libeditline package listed on some distros is too old. If a suitable version of libedit cannot be found, ghc/ghci will still build fine, just without the nice line-editing capabilities.
If your installation does not have libedit by default, you may either download and build it yourself from the link above, or else install your distro's relevant package (sometimes called "libedit-devel" or "libedit-dev").
GHC does not use libedit on Windows; instead, it uses the console's default line editor.
TODO Document this. I stumbled on this as a new dependency as a user, but I cannot comment further.
To build the nofib suite, you will also need to have installed:
1. The Haskell html and regex-compat packages
2. The dos2unix tool (sometimes provided by the "tofrodos" package) | <urn:uuid:cf032de9-20a7-4519-a23e-11204a7c3400> | 3 | 2.515625 | 0.02043 | en | 0.917147 | https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building/Preparation/Tools?version=7 |
Journals Higher Education
15 October 2008
410 Pages
ISBN: 9780195698343
Bookseller Code (06)
Images of the World
T.N. Madan
India occupies a unique place among the democratic countries of the world for the importance it accords to the primordial identities of religion, language, and caste. Religion as personal faith is a significant psychological and social resource in the lives of millions of Indians. However, in a multi-religious society, a religiously neutral state is an imperative. The Indian state protects and even facilitates public expression of religious beliefs and practices. This often creates problems. In this collection, one of India's leading sociologists explores these issues.
Also of Interest | <urn:uuid:b2d54008-5f97-4e8a-9985-21c6130ab864> | 3 | 2.59375 | 0.033982 | en | 0.90557 | https://global.oup.com/academic/product/images-of-the-world-9780195698343?cc=us&lang=en |
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The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership
From the July 2011 Issue
The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership
View more from the
The Idea in Brief
Firms typically cluster around a few strategic positions, leaving others unoccupied.
The intense competition on those occupied mountaintops makes it hard for firms to gain attractive returns. Superior opportunities lie on the unoccupied mountaintops. Because they are “cognitively distant”—far from the status quo—they’re hard to recognize and act on, and therefore competition is weak.
Strategists are trained to analyze economic forces when they want to identify superior opportunities. But analytics usually won’t uncover the kinds of ideas that overturn the status quo.
Recent research on human cognition suggests that leaders would do better to use associative thinking to spot, act on, and legitimize distant opportunities. They should learn to make analogies with businesses in other industries, for example. Reinvention, it turns out, draws on intuition as much as it does on rationality.
This article explores ways to jump-start associational thinking—and to bring stakeholders along on the journey.
Michael Porter opened his classic “five forces” article with these sentences:
It would be difficult to imagine a more appropriate opening here. In this article, I argue that today’s dominant ideas about the practice of business strategy—defined by Porter in these pages three decades ago—hinge on a specific and therefore partial interpretation of competition. The result is an equally partial picture of the strategist’s job.
The problem lies not in what strategists are trained to do: Porter’s perspective is powerful—so powerful that it has dominated both the teaching and the practice of business strategy for 30 years. The problem lies instead in what strategic leaders are not trained to do. In caricature, Porter’s view casts strategists as practitioner economists who expertly analyze and manage market forces. I suggest that strategic leaders must also be practitioner psychologists who expertly analyze and manage their own and others’ thought processes. To broaden the strategist’s role in this way, I pursue an interpretation of the competitive game that differs from Porter’s. Let us see how.
In thinking about the strategic leader’s job, competition is a natural point of departure. Intense competition makes it difficult for companies to gain attractive returns on investments. This general truth implies that strategists should search for opportunities where competition is weak. Porter’s great insight was that companies compete not only with their direct rivals but also with their customers and suppliers. All these players create value—and compete for a piece of the pie. To identify the best positions, the strategist must pay attention to the entire vertical chain of economic activity. This more-comprehensive picture greatly helps strategists identify successful strategies—which, as Porter asserts, are those that are “different, unique, and distant from the status quo.”
Now let’s look at competition from another, strategist-centered perspective. The strategist must still search for opportunities where competition is weak. But the intensity of competition that a firm faces isn’t considered in the context of how vulnerable the firm is to market forces in the value chain. Instead, it’s considered in the context of how hard it is to identify superior opportunities and deliver on them. An opportunity might be free of competitive pressure precisely because no strategist has been able to conceive of it, or lead the organization toward its execution. Following this logic, the best strategic opportunities are those that are the hardest to spot and execute.
Let’s follow this logic more closely. Imagine a business landscape with numerous opportunities and competitors. Imagine that all these firms are led by omniscient leaders who can see the full landscape of opportunities and easily move their troops toward the desired positions. What would happen in such a scenario? All superior positions would be quickly competed away. But in the real world, strategic leaders are not omniscient, which means superior opportunities remain available. What’s more, because in most businesses strategists have similar mental representations, they perceive and pursue the same opportunities—and overlook the same attractive opportunities.
These overlooked opportunities, which I call “cognitively distant” because recognizing them requires a mental leap, are not only hard to spot. They’re also hard to act on because they often require changes in a firm’s identity, which employees generally resist. And they’re hard to legitimize because they contrast with the representation of the company that key external stakeholders, such as financial analysts, maintain. This way of thinking suggests that a crucial component of strategic leadership is the mental capacity to spot opportunities that are invisible to rivals and to manage other relevant parties’ perceptions to get them on board.
A famous business story highlights the differences between the two perspectives. In the late 1930s, Charlie Merrill took the banking community by surprise with a strategy that extended banking services to a vast new middle-class market and made Merrill Lynch one of the most successful companies in the history of corporate America. Through Porter’s lens, this opportunity existed because one competitive force (customers) was vulnerable to another (banks, as reconceived at Merrill Lynch). Other competitive forces were strong, but customers were weak, and Charlie Merrill capitalized on this vulnerability. Merrill was a great leader, Porter’s lens tells us, because of his superior ability to read the fundamental economics of the business.
But through the lens I’m proposing, a different picture emerges: The opportunity Charlie Merrill discovered—banks as “financial supermarkets” offering an array of products to a variety of customers—had not been exploited earlier because nobody had been able to conceive of it, even though many bankers were frantically scrambling for profits. In other words, Merrill didn’t just read the economics of the business—he reconceived it through an analogy that contained a great insight that other bankers did not have. What’s more, he persuaded both internal employees and external stakeholders, such as customers and capital lenders, that his idea had merit. Merrill was a great leader because of his superior ability to manage mental processes—his own analogical reasoning, which led him to envision the financial-supermarket strategy, and the thinking of others, helping them embrace the reconceptualization of the business and bringing stakeholders on board.
The shift in perspective is radical. It’s a shift from markets to minds, from strategic leaders who need to understand and cope with market forces to ones who also need to understand and cope with mental processes. This shift does not diminish the economic approach to business strategy—an in-depth appreciation of market forces is a crucial component of the strategist’s job. Rather, it mitigates an unintended consequence of the dominance of Porter’s lens: inadequate attention devoted to the strategist’s noneconomic role, especially to the psychological aspects of strategic leadership.
In the pre-Porter era, sophisticated knowledge about market forces existed, but it had not been interpreted through the lens of what it takes to achieve superior performance. It was thus not a useful, actionable guide to competitive strategy. Porter’s key contribution was to develop this lens, using a framework that linked superior opportunities to the intensity of market forces, and showed strategists how to search for vulnerabilities in those forces and exploit them. Today, advances in behavioral and cognitive disciplines give us new knowledge that can usefully expand the strategic leader’s role. Again, we need a lens that helps strategists interpret this knowledge as it relates to the pursuit of superior performance. The lens I propose links superior opportunities to strategic leaders’ ability to spot, act on, and legitimize them. I use recent work in the cognitive and neurological sciences to illuminate how strategic leaders can manage relevant mental processes and overcome their own and others’ cognitive limitations in pursuing distant opportunities.
The difficult quest for distant opportunities requires strategic leaders who are good economists and good psychologists.
Porter’s framework and the one advanced here cover different ground. Despite their differences, the two approaches converge on the idea that the best opportunities lie far from the status quo. They are thus complements, not substitutes. The difficult quest for distant opportunities requires strategic leaders who are good economists and good psychologists.
The Trouble with Cognitively Distant Opportunities
In laying out this new perspective, the first step is to explore what makes it especially hard for strategic leaders to do their three key jobs: spot opportunities, act on them (get employees engaged), and legitimize them (get external stakeholders on board). The limitations all result from the challenges of managing the mental representations through which people interpret the competitive landscape.
Spotting opportunities.
Research tells us that managers are fairly good at identifying opportunities—and predicting the outcomes of actions—that are cognitively close to what their companies are already doing. Walmart’s expansion into suburban territory is an example of a “close” opportunity. The company’s original strategy was to locate stores in rural areas only, so the move did represent a big, complicated change: Walmart’s cost structure and operational organization shifted; on top of that, the company needed to respond to the very different habits of suburban shoppers. Nonetheless, the move was incremental in the sense that Walmart was changing only one of its many strategic pillars. Its executives were able to recognize the opportunity easily and evaluate it skillfully.
We also know that in most industries companies cluster around a relatively small number of strategic positions and within each cluster hold similar conceptions of how to compete. Consider the motorcycle industry, which has two major clusters of firms. The Japanese manufacturers—Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki—compete on technical innovation and lower costs. The Harley-Davidsons and Ducatis of the world view their business through a very different lens—as entertainment. Here’s how Federico Minoli, the CEO and chairman of Ducati from 1996 to 2007, described his decision to build a museum celebrating the firm before he repaired a damaged factory: “Ducati is not, or not only, a motorcycle company. We sell something more: a dream, passion, a piece of history.” Analyze most industries, and you’ll find a similar situation: two or three groups of companies jostling for position upon the same two or three competitive mountaintops. Now consider the major U.S. airlines. They all struggled for many years in cutthroat competition around the same position until Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines saw a different, low-cost way to compete.
It is unlikely that truly superior close opportunities exist that have not been spotted. Within each position, we have many firms with myopic managers who all wear the same lenses. They see well what is close to them, and they view the competitive landscape the same way. To the extent that superior opportunities exist, they will be those that are cognitively distant. The challenge for strategic leaders is, therefore, to learn how to see them.
It was only when Merrill reimagined financial services as a supermarket that a new way to compete became visible to him.
Let’s revisit Charlie Merrill’s concept of the financial supermarket. This truly radical idea broke numerous industry conventions: It focused on middle-class rather than wealthy Americans; it adopted low-cost, high-volume merchandising; it introduced the chain of outlets concept; and it offered a great variety of products. How was Merrill able to spot this cognitively distant opportunity? It turns out that he thought quite literally about supermarkets when he developed the idea. (A 1941 Fortune article reported it like this: “The theory was that, if it is good business for a grocery chain to offer the purchaser of vegetables a choice of meats, then it should be equally sound for Merrill Lynch to offer a commercial hedger a chance to invest in a new issue or to open a stock account.”) It was only when he reimagined the managed investment business as a supermarket business that a new way to compete became visible to him.
Acting on opportunities.
The fact that a strategic leader is able to make the cognitive leap required to see a distant opportunity does not mean that the rest of the organization is also able to make the leap. Getting others to see what he or she sees—and embrace it—is extremely difficult. (It’s much easier to persuade an organization to pursue incremental, less risky opportunities. In fact, that’s what organizations are set up for.) When the cognitive shift requires a change in a firm’s identity, the resistance is even more stubborn, especially when the identity has a long history and is infused with moral value. In the words of Stanford’s James March, a living legend in the study of organizations, “If a leader tries to march toward strange destinations, the organization is likely to deflect the effort.”
When George Fisher took the helm of Kodak in 1993 (having just led a spectacular turnaround of Motorola), he realized that the firm’s greatest opportunity was in digital cameras. He envisioned a radical strategic redirection. The problem was, the organization held an entrenched view of the photography industry and its own position: In photography, there were cameras and there was film. The organization firmly believed that Kodak was a film company. Thus, even though Kodak had about the best digital-camera technology available worldwide, the organization couldn’t make the leap to seeing itself as a camera company. When Fisher launched his strategy, he probably did not sufficiently appreciate the distance between his vision and Kodak’s sense of itself. The company’s managers, especially its middle managers, complied superficially but ultimately resisted Fisher’s redirection. As a result, despite his strategic acumen and managerial ability, a frustrated Fisher left the company a few years after his arrival.
Persuading a workforce that the company’s historical identity needs to be reconceptualized is the most difficult of the many hurdles a leader may need to clear in bringing along internal stakeholders. For instance, a firm may have to acquire unfamiliar capabilities or key talent, and those activities, too, are problematic.
Legitimizing opportunities.
External stakeholders are, if anything, even more reluctant to accept a new conceptualization of a company’s identity or of the strategic possibilities inherent in an industry. Their reluctance often feeds back into the company and can cause managers to abandon promising new directions prematurely.
For instance, in the early days of internet portals, at least two business models competed for legitimacy. Some firms, including Lycos and Infoseek, saw themselves as high-tech competitors in a technology industry. Others, including Yahoo, viewed themselves as media companies; this group was especially proactive about communicating with industry stakeholders. The alternative representations competed for attention and resources. Ultimately, external stakeholders—financial analysts, specialized press, potential customers, and so on—endorsed the media representation. As a result, most companies in the business started to compete as media companies. The arguably better strategy remained untapped, not because companies failed to spot it and act on it but because they failed to legitimize it in the eyes of external stakeholders. When Google entered the business a few years later, it made a resounding case for the technology strategy, and we know how that story unfolded.
Why is it difficult for external players to accept a new strategic landscape? The problem, again, is with cognitive processes. The stakeholders have a set way of organizing and interpreting the industry. Research by MIT’s Ezra Zuckerman shows that the further away a new strategy takes a firm from its historical identity, the more the strategy is discounted by financial analysts and other institutional players. And this negative reaction from external stakeholders affects firms’ competitive behavior: Research by the University of Minnesota’s Mary Benner suggests that when firms meet such resistance, they tend to shy away from their intent to pursue the new initiative.
The Power of Associative Thinking
Limitations on strategic leaders’ ability to spot, act on, and legitimize distant opportunities stem from a common root: the challenges of managing one’s own and other people’s mental representations. Charlie Merrill’s competitors scrabbled for a position atop the same mountain, failing to come up with new lenses on banking that would reveal distant opportunities. George Fisher failed to persuade Kodak employees that their representation of the company as a film company was outdated. And Lycos abandoned a good strategy because it could not persuade Wall Street that its conceptualization of the new business was best. In each case, the failure was directly related to whether strategic leaders could manage their own and others’ mental representations.
Associative thinking can help strategic leaders manage mental representations. When we are faced with a new situation, our brains automatically search for and retrieve from long-term memory past experiences or types of experiences (that is, categories) that have some similarity. Once evoked, these mental structures move to the front of our consciousness. (Douglas Hofstadter, a major contributor to the research on analogy, describes it this way: The mental structure moves from “being asleep in the recesses of long-term memory to gaily dancing on the mind’s center-stage.”) They become the basis on which we represent and interpret the new situation. Brain research shows that associations are central to thinking—and are influenced by biases, attitudes, and emotional states.
Associative thinking is a natural mechanism for intelligent reasoning about contexts that are novel and ambiguous.
Why are associations so useful in identifying distant opportunities? Let’s return to our two main perspectives on strategic thinking. The first is to use logical, deductive reasoning. Porter’s five-forces framework exemplifies this approach: It imposes discipline and simplifying assumptions that help the strategist identify likely future scenarios and deduce an appropriate strategic solution. The second approach is centered on associations. Here, the strategist compares a business situation with something else she has experienced directly or indirectly. She then forms a new mental representation that recasts the current situation in terms of the older one. Whereas deductive reasoning is extremely information-thirsty, associative thinking requires only that the strategist identify a few parallels between two situations. Thus the deductive method is particularly powerful in relatively familiar contexts—as with Walmart’s expansion into suburban markets. Analogy is a more natural mechanism for intelligently reasoning about contexts that are novel and surrounded by substantial ambiguity. (See the sidebar “What Is Associative Thinking?”)
There’s a second, and in my view more important, reason that associative processes are, in certain situations, a more powerful basis for identifying distant opportunities. Analytical frameworks like Porter’s are used widely by corporate strategists and strategic consultants alike. The problem is, they result in shared mental representations that lead companies to the same places: Industry players identify and act on the same opportunities. To break this equilibrium, the strategist must cultivate genuinely novel representations of the competitive space, as Charlie Merrill did for banking. He started out with the traditional one (banking as a buttoned-down service for the wealthy). He then created a different picture of that reality for himself (a supermarket, with a variety of products and customers), which allowed him to reinterpret the competitive landscape in a new and powerful way. By using an analogy to bring previously distant ideas (“bank” and “supermarket”) into relationship with each other, he was able to see opportunities that were invisible to his competitors.
Clearly, the annals of business contain a boundless source of strategic contexts that managers can tap to create new representations. What makes analogy especially powerful vis-à-vis other less-structured forms of creative thinking (for example, brainstorming or recombination) is that it’s quite possible to create disciplined processes to guide this kind of thinking. (See the sidebar “How to Teach Associative Thinking.”)
Associative thinking also supports the work of persuading an organization or external stakeholders that a new opportunity makes sense. Human beings are walking associative machines. Employees responding to a strategic leader’s new idea will make associations whether they’re aware of it or not. They’re going to categorize the idea—to classify it as similar to something else they know or have experienced. Categories embody value judgments: Some categories we like; others we don’t. Some of them we consider to be right; others wrong. When an idea is categorized, it is immediately imbued with those judgments. If the category connotes something negative, people will resist the idea. A key imperative for a strategist is therefore to keep people from making associations that are heavily charged or contentious. Evoking the wrong category can have disastrous consequences on a persuasion effort.
Let’s go back to Kodak and employees’ simple categorization of the photography business. For them, film was good, and cameras were bad. Fisher had a great strategy for Kodak. But his rhetoric—we’re a picture company, not just a film company—is likely to have touched the wrong nerve, evoking the film-camera dichotomy and pushing his strategy to the wrong side of that divide.
The Strategic Leader’s Role
To discover distant opportunities, the strategist must identify appropriate re-representations of the business. The best way to do that is by using associative thinking techniques. But make no mistake: It’s hard to use associative thinking properly. Strategists often draw superficial similarities between novel situations and past ones. (Jan Rivkin and I wrote about this problem in “How Strategists Really Think: Tapping the Power of Analogy,” HBR April 2005.) This tendency is exacerbated by the human mind’s confirmatory nature. Deep experiences in one industry might predispose a strategist to look at another industry through the same lens, even if the two aren’t similar in relevant ways. Strategists often look selectively for evidence that supports the analogy, instead of searching for cues that support and undermine it. Emotional factors can also skew thinking. Good strategists must recognize and counter these tendencies.
When it comes to acting on and legitimizing a distant opportunity, a strategist is navigating a difficult course. Simply raising the possibility of a change will evoke associations in internal and external stakeholders. (Many of these will be unconscious, but no less powerful for that.) The leader must find metaphors, analogies, and images that elicit the associations he hopes for. To achieve this unfailingly, the strategist would need a near-perfect understanding of how stakeholders’ minds work. Although that is clearly an impossibility, the good news is that research into the psychology of categorization has made enormous progress in the past few decades, and great strides are soon to be made in applying this work to the competitive situations that are relevant to strategists.
Strategists are often exhorted to “think outside the box.” Indeed, a lot of what is strategically relevant is cognitively distant. But the idea that people can simply decide to think differently from the way they have in the past, or from the way their competitors do, is delusional. They need tools that bring a new dimension of psychological insight to the strategist’s role.
Using structured associative thinking, leaders can learn how to deal with the cognitively distant and develop techniques for reconceptualizing a business. They can learn how to induce others to make similar reconceptualizations by evoking the right associations. With this new psychological conception of strategic leadership, the cognitively distant is within reach.
Giovanni Gavetti ([email protected]) is an associate professor at Harvard Business School. This is his third article for HBR. | <urn:uuid:c793d601-fe5e-4c4a-a29c-dc1d7d5aa3fe> | 2 | 1.992188 | 0.023832 | en | 0.953975 | https://hbr.org/2011/07/the-new-psychology-of-strategic-leadership/ar/1 |
This Week’s Finds (Week 314)
This week I’d like to start an interview with Thomas Fischbacher, who teaches at the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Southampton. He’s a man with many interests, but we’ll mainly talk about sustainable agriculture, leading up to an idea called "permaculture".
JB: Your published work is mainly in theoretical physics, and some of it is quite mathematical. You have a bunch of papers on theories of gravity related to string theory, and another bunch on magnetic materials, maybe with some applications to technology. But you’re also interested in sustainable agricultural and building practices! That seems like quite a leap… but I may be trying to make a similar leap myself, so I find it fascinating. How did you get interested in these other topics, which seem so very different in flavor?
TF: I think it’s quite natural that one’s interests are wider than what one actually publishes about—quite likely, the popularity of your blog which is about all sorts of interesting things witnesses this.
However, if something that seems interesting catches my attention, I often experience a strong drive to come to an advanced level of understanding—at least mastering the key mechanisms. As far as I can think back, my studies have been predominantly self-directed, often following very unusual and sometimes obscure paths, so I sometimes happen to know a few quite odd things. And actually, considering research, I get a lot of fun out of combining advanced ideas from very different fields. Most of my articles are of that type, e.g. "sparse tensor numerics meets database algorithms and metalinguistics", or "Feynman diagrams meet lazy evaluation and continuation coding", or "Exceptional groups meet sensitivity back-propagation". Basically, I like to see myself in the role of a bridge-builder. Very often, powerful ideas that have been developed in one field are completely unknown in another where they actually can be used to great advantage.
Concerning sustainability, it actually was mostly soil physics that initially got me going. When dealing with a highly complex phenomenon such as human civilization, it is sometimes very useful to take a close look at matter and energy flows in order to get an overview over important processes that determine the structure and long term behaviour of a system. Just doing a few order-of-magnitude guesstimates and looking at typical soil erosion and soil formation rates, I found that, from that perspective, quite a number of fundamental things did not add up and told a story very different from the oh-so-glorious picture of human progress. That’s one of the great things about physical reasoning: it allows one to independently make up one’s mind about things where one otherwise would have little other choice than to believe what one is told. And so, I started to look deeper.
JB: So what did you discover? I can’t resist mentioning something I learned from a book Kevin Kelly gave me:
• Neil Roberts, The Holocene: an Environmental History, Blackwell, London, 1998.
It describes how the landscape of Europe has been cycling through glacial and interglacial periods every 100,000 years or so for the last 1.3 million years. It’s a regular sort of pattern!
As a glacial period ends, first comes a phase when birches and pines immigrate from southern refuges into what had been tundra. Then comes a phase when mixed deciduous forest takes over, with oak and elm becoming dominant. During this period, rocky soils turn into brown forest soils. Next, leaching from rocks in glacial deposits leads to a shift from neutral to acid soils, which favor trees like spruce. Then, as spruce take over, fallen needles make the soil even more acid. Together with cooling temperatures as the next glacial approaches, this leads to the replacement of deciduous forest by heathland and pine forests. Finally, glaciers move in and scrape away the soil. And then the cycle repeats!
I thought this was really cool: it’s like seasons, but on a grand scale. And I thought this quote was even cooler:
It was believed by classical authors such as Varro and Seneca that there had once been a "Golden Age", "when man lived on those things which the virgin earth produced spontaneously" and when "the very soil was more fertile and productive." If ever there was such a "Golden Age" then surely it was in the early Holocene, when soils were still unweathered and uneroded, and when Mesolithic people lived off the fruits of the land without the physical toil of grinding labour.
Still unweathered and uneroded! So it takes an ice age to reset the clock and bring soils back to an optimum state?
But your discovery was probably about the effects of humans…
TF: There are a number of different processes, all of them important, that are associated with very different time scales. A general issue here is that, as a society, we have difficulties to get an idea how our life experience is shaped by our cultural heritage, by our species’ history, and by events that happened tens of thousands of years ago.
Coming to the cycles of glaciation, you are right that these shaped the soils in places such as Europe, by grinding down rock and exposing freshly weathered material. But it is also interesting to look at places where this has not happened—to give us sort of an outside perspective; glaciation was fairly minimal in Australia, for example. Also, the main other player, volcanism did not have much of an effect in exposing fresh minerals there either. And so, Australian soils are extremely old—millions of years, tens of millions of years even, and very poor in mineral nutrients, as so much has been leached out. This has profound influences on the vegetation, but also on fauna, and of course on the people who inhabited this land for tens of thousands of years, and their culture: the Aborigines. Now, I don’t want to claim that the Aborigines actually managed to evolve a fully "sustainable" system of land management—but it should be pretty self-evident that they must have developed some fairly interesting biological knowledge over such a long time.
Talking about long time scales and the long distant past, it sometimes takes a genius to spot something that in hindsight is obvious but no one noticed because the unusual situation is that the really important thing that matters is missing. Have you ever wondered, for example, what animal might eat an avocado and disperse its fairly large seed? Like other fruit (botanically speaking, the avocado is a berry, as is the banana), the avocado plant co-evolved with animals that would eat its fruits—but there is no animal around that would do so. Basically, the reason is that we are looking at a broken ecosystem: the co-evolutionary partners of the avocado, such as gomphotheres, became extinct some thousands of years ago.
A blink with respect to the time scales of evolution, but an awfully long time for human civilizations. There is an interesting book on this subject:
• Connie Barlow, The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms, Basic Books, New York, 2002. (Also listen to this song.)
Considering soils, the cycle of glaciations already should hold an important lesson for us. It is important to note that the plow is basically an invention that (somewhat) suits European agriculture and its geologically young soils. What happens if we take this way of farming to the tropics? While lush and abundant rainforests may seem to suggest otherwise, we have old and nutrient-poor soils here, and most mineral nutrients get stored and cycled by the vegetation. If we clear this, we release a flush of nutrients, but as the annual crops which we normally grow are not that good at holding on to these nutrients, we rapidly destroy the fertility of the land.
There are alternative options for how to produce food in such a situation, but before we look into this, it might be useful to know a few important ballpark figures related to agriculture—plow agriculture in particular.
The most widely used agricultural unit for "mass per area" is "metric tons per hectare", but I will instead use kilograms per square meter (as some people may find that easier to relate to), 1 kilogram per square meter being 10 tons/ha. Depending on the climate (windspeeds, severity of summer rains, etc.), plow agriculture will typically lead to soil loss rates due to erosion of something in the ballpark of 0.5 to 5 kilograms per square meter per year. In the US, erosion rates in the past have been as high as 4 kilograms per square meter per year and beyond, but have come down markedly. Still, soil loss rates of around 1 kilogram per square meter per year are not uncommon for the US. The problem is that, under good conditions, soil creation rates are in the ballpark of 0.02 to 0.2 kilograms per square meter per year. So, our present agriculture is destroying soil much faster than new soil gets formed. And, quite insidiously, erosion will always carry away the most fertile top layer of soil first.
It is worthwhile to compare this with agricultural yields: in Europe, good wheat yields are in the range of 0.6 kilograms per square meter per year, but yields depend a lot on water availability, and the world average is just 0.3 kilograms per square meter per year. In any case, the plow actually produces much more eroded land than food. You can see more information here:
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, FAOSTAT.
Concerning ancient reports of a "Golden Age"—I am not so sure about this anymore. By and large, civilizations mostly seem to have had quite a negative long term impact on the soil fertility that sustained them—and a number of them failed due to that. But all things considered, we often find that some particular groups of species have a very positive long term effect on fertility and counteract nutrient leaching—tropical forests bear witness to that.
Now… what single species we can think of would be best equipped to make a positive contribution towards long-term fertility building?
JB: Hey, no fair—I thought I was the one asking the questions!
Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe some sort of rhizobium? You know, those bacteria that associate themselves to the roots of plants like clover, alfalfa and beans, and take nitrogen from the air and convert it to a form that’s usable by the plants?
But you said "one single species", so this answer is probably not right: there are lots of species of rhizobia.
TF: The answer is quite astounding—and it lies at the heart of understanding sustainability. The species that could have the largest positive impact on soil fertility is Homo sapiens—us! Now, considering the enormous ecological damage that has been done by that single species, such a proposition may seem quite outrageous. But note that I asked about the potential to make a positive contribution, not actual behaviour as observed so far.
JB: Oh! I should have guessed that. Darn!
TF: When I bring up this point, many people think that I might have some specific technique in mind, a "miracle cure", or "silver bullet" idea such as, say, biochar—which seems to be pretty en vogue now—or genetically engineered miracle plants, or some such thing.
But no—this is about a much more fundamental issue. Nature eventually will heal ecological wounds—but quite often, she is not in a particular hurry. Left to her own devices, she may take thousands of years to rebuild soils and turn devastated land back into fertile ecosystems. Now, this is where we enter the scene. With our outstanding intellectual power we can read landscapes, think about key flows—flows of energy, water, minerals, and living things through a site—and if necessary, provide a little bit of guidance to help nature take the next step. This way, we can often speed up the regeneration clock a hundredfold or more!
Let me give some specific examples. Technologically, these are often embarrassingly simple—yet at the same time highly sophisticated, in the sense that they address issues that are obvious only once one has developed an eye for them.
The first one is imprinting—in arid regions, this can be a mind-blowingly simple yet quite effective technology to kick-start a biological succession pathway.
JB: What’s "imprinting"?
TF: One could say, earthworks for rainwater harvesting, but on the centimeter scale. Basically, it is a simple way to implement a passive resource-concentration system for water and organic matter that "nucleates" the transition back from desert to prairie—kind of like providing ice microcrystals in supercooled water. The Imprinting Foundation has a good website. In particular, take a look at this:
• The Imprinting Foundation, Success Stories.
This video is also well worth watching—part of the "Global Gardener" series:
• Bill Mollison, Dryland permaculture strategies—part 3, YouTube.
Here is another example—getting the restoration of rainforest going in the tropical grasslands of Colombia.
• Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), Reforestation.
Here, the challenge is that the soil originally was so acidic (around pH 4) that aluminium went into the soil solution as toxic Al3+. What eventually managed to do the trick was to plant a nurse crop of Caribbean pines, Pinus caribbea (on 80 square kilometers—no mean feat) that have been provided with the right mycorrhizal symbiont (Pisolithus tinctorius, I think) that enabled the trees to grow in very acidic soil. An amazing subject in themselves, fungi, by the way.
These were big projects—but similar ideas work on pretty much any scale. Friends of mine have shown me great pictures of the progress of a degraded site in Nepal where they did something very simple a number of years ago—puting up four poles with strings between them on which birds like to gather. And personally, since I started to seriously ponder the issue of soil compaction and started to give double-digging a try in my own garden a few years ago, the results have been so amazing that I wonder why anyone bothers to garden with annuals any other way.
JB: What’s "double-digging"?
TF: A method to relieve soil compaction. As we humans live our lives above the soil, processes below can be rather alien to us—yet, this is where many very important things go on. By and large, most people do not realize how deep plant roots go—and how badly they are affected by compaction.
The term "double-digging" refers to digging out the top foot of topsoil from the bed, and then using a gardening fork to also loosen the next foot of soil (often subsoil) before putting back the topsoil. Now, this method does have its drawbacks, and also, it is not the "silver bullet" single miracle recipe for high gardening yields some armchair gardeners who have read Jeavons’s book believe it to be. But if your garden soil is badly compacted, as it often is the case when starting a new garden, double-digging may be a very good idea.
JB: Interesting!
TF: So, there is no doubt that our species can vastly accelerate natural healing processes. Indeed, we can link our lives with natural processes in a way that satisfies our needs while we benefit the whole species assembly around us—but there are some very non-obvious aspects to this. Hacking a hole into the forest to live "in harmony with nature" most certainly won’t do the trick.
The importance of the key insight—we have the capacity to act as the most powerful repair species around—cannot be overstated. There is at present a very powerful mental block that shows up in many discussions of sustainability: looking at our past conduct, it is easy to get the idea that Homo sapiens‘ modus operandi is to seek out the most valuable/powerful/convenient resource first, use this up, and then, driven by need, find ways to make do with the next most valuable resource, calling this "progress"—actually a downward spiral. I’ve indeed seen adverts for the emerging Liquefied Natural Gas industry that glorified this as "a motor of progress and growth". Now, the only reason why we consider this is that the more easily-accessible, easy-to-handle fuels have been pretty much used up. Same with deep-sea oil drilling. What kind of "progress" is it that the major difference between the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Ixtoc oil spill in 1979 is that this time, there’s a mile of water sitting on top of the well—because we used up the more easily accessible oil?
• Rachel Maddow, Ixtoc Deepwater Horizon parallels, YouTube.
Now, there are two dominant attitudes toward this observation that we despoil one resource after another.
One is some form of "denial". This is quite widespread amongst professional economists. Ultimately, the absurdity of their argument becomes clear when it is condensed to "sustainability is just one problem among many, and we are the better at solving problems the stronger our economy—so we need to use up resources fast to get rich fast so that we can afford to address the problems caused by us using up resources fast." Reminds me of a painter who lived in the village I grew up in. He was known to work very swiftly, and when asked why he always was in such a hurry, wittily replied: "but I have to get the job done before I run out of paint!"
The other attitude is some sort of self-hate that regards the key problem not as an issue of very poor management, but inherently linked to human existence. According to that line of thinking, collapse is inevitable and we should just make sure we do not gobble up resources so fast that we leave nothing for our children to despoil so that they can have a chance to live.
It is clear that as long as there is a deadlock between these two attitudes, we will not make much progress towards a noticeably more sustainable society. And waiting just exacerbates the problem. So, the key question is: does it really have to be like this—are we doomed to live by destroying the resources which we depend on? Well—every cow can do better than that. Cow-dung is more valuable in terms of fertility than what the cow has eaten. So, if we are such an amazing species—as we like to claim by calling ourselves "Homo sapiens"—why should we fail so miserably here?
JB: I can see all sorts of economic, political and cultural reasons why we do so badly. But it might be a bit less depressing to talk about how we can do better. For example, you mentioned paying attention to flows through systems.
TF: The important thing about flows is that they are a great concept tool to get some first useful ideas about those processes that really matter for the behaviour of complex systems—both for the purpose of analysis as well as design.
That’s quite an exciting subject, but as you mentioned it, I’d first like to briefly address the issue of depressing topics that frequently arise when taking a deeper look into sustainability—in particular, the present situation. Why? Because I think that our capacity as a society to deal with such emotions will be decisive for how well we will do or how badly we will fail when addressing a set of convergent challenges. On the one hand, it is very important to understand that such emotions are an essential part of human experience. On the other hand, they can have a serious negative impact on our judgment capacity. So, an important part of the sustainability challenge is to build the capacity to act and make sound decisions under emotional stress. That sounds quite obvious, but my impression is that, still, most people either are not yet fully aware of this point, or do not see what this idea might mean in practice.
JB: I’ve been trying to build that capacity myself. I don’t think mathematics or theoretical physics were very good at preparing me. Indeed, I suspect that many people in these fields enjoy not only the feeling of "certainty" they can provide, but also the calming sense that the universe is beautiful and perfect. When it comes to environmental issues there’s a lot more uncertainty, and also frequently the sense that the world is messed up—thanks to us! On top of that there’s a sense of urgency, and frustration. All this can be rather stressful. However, there are ways to deal with that, and I’m busy learning them.
TF: I think there is one particularly important lesson I have learned about the role of emotions, especially fear. Important because it probably is quite a fundamental part of the human condition. Emotions do have the power to veto some conclusions from ever surfacing in one’s conscious mind if they would be painful to bear. They can temporarily suspend sound reasoning and also access to otherwise sound memory.
This is extremely sinister, for you are not acting rationally at all, you are in fact driven by one of the most non-rational aspects of your existence, your fear, yet you yourself have next to no chance of ever discovering this, as your emotions abuse your cognitive abilities to systematically shield you from getting conscious access to any insight which would stand a chance of making you question your analysis.
JB: I think we can all name other people who suffer from this problem. But of course the challenge is to see it in ourselves, while it’s happening.
TF: Insidiously, having exceptional reasoning abilities will not help the very least bit here—a person with a powerful mind may be misguided as easily as anybody else by deep inner fears, it’s just that the mind of a person with strong reasoning skills will work harder and spin more sophisticated tales than that of an intellectually average person. So, this essentially is a question of "how fast a runner do you have to be to out-run your own shadow?" How intelligent do you have to be to recognize it when your emotions cause your mind to abuse your powerful reasoning abilities to deceive itself? Well, the answer probably is that the capacity to appreciate in oneself the problem of self-deception is not related to intelligence, but wisdom. I really admire the insight that "it’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head."
JB: Richard Feynman put it another way: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool." And if you’re sure you’re not fooling yourself, then you definitely are.
TF: Of course, everything that has an impact on our ability to conduct a sound self-assessment of our own behaviour matters a lot for sustainability related issues.
But enough about the role of the human mind in all this. This certainly is a fascinating and important subject, but at the end of the day, there is a lot of ecosystem rehabilitation to be done, and mapping flows is a powerful approach to getting an idea about what is broken and how to repair it.
JB: Okay, great. But I think our readers need a break. Next time we’ll pick up where we left off, and talk about flows.
Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than
– Bill Mollison
25 Responses to This Week’s Finds (Week 314)
1. […] extremely interesting interview of Thomas Fischbacher by John Baez on his Azimuth blog […]
2. DavidTweed says:
Related: Robert Rapier has just put up an interesting blog post giving a table of results about the effect of using non-food parts of food crops for biomass on soil nutrients. As a non-expert it looks like the biomass people are saying “yes there’s a small effect but it’s manageable”. It certainly looks like biomass removal has less effect than the “food part” removal, but what all this means in an absolute sense (maybe although we’re used to it, food-part removal is seriously deleterious and biomass is just a bit deleterious) isn’t clear to me.
• John Baez says:
In case I wasn’t the only one who was a bit confused about the term “biomass” here… Robert Rapier is talking about plans to:
use biomass left over from corn production — corn cobs, leaves, husks, and stalks — to produce cellulosic ethanol.
By the way, these are the same leftovers that Gregory Benford wants to sink to the bottom of the sea, to sequester carbon:
• Robert A. Metzger and Gregory Benford, Sequestering of atmospheric carbon through permanent disposal of crop residue, Climatic Change 49 (2001), 11-19.
• Stuart E. Strand and Gregory Benford, Ocean sequestration of crop residue carbon: recycling fossil fuel carbon back to deep sediments, Environmental Science and Technology 43 (2009), 1000-1007.
We talked about this on week310. The effect on soils would be a consideration here too.
• DavidTweed says:
Thanks John. I’ve forgotten that this stuff is specialised terminology. To clarify, there are at least two ways to use crops to make biofuels:
1. Fermenting sugars in the plant (as used in sugarcane or corn ethanol). Because the sugars are mostly in the parts of the plant people eat, it could be said to be competing with food.
2. Doing some chemical processing (still classed as fermenting?) to the cellulose in the residue left after the sugar-rich food parts of the crop have been harvested. Using “leftovers” like this is less competing with food.
Among other things, significantly less energy is needed to make biofuels from sugars than from cellulose.
3. horsh says:
Most of my articles are of that type, e.g. “sparse tensor numerics meets database algorithms and metalinguistics”, or “Feynman diagrams meet lazy evaluation and continuation coding”, or “Exceptional groups meet sensitivity back-propagation”
Google finds nothing on those titles. Can we get some references?
• Frederik De Roo says:
These are probably nicknames. I suppose all of the papers will be on arXiv , you can e.g. search for Thomas Fischbacher, or use advanced search for some specific keywords from those nicknames.
• neelk says:
“Feynman diagrams meet lazy evaluation and continuation coding” is a very natural connection.
Look at Blute and Panangaden’s “Proof Nets as Formal Feynman Diagrams”.
As you read this, Google for “linear logic”, “proof nets”, “geometry of interaction”, and “classical logic and continuations”, in an on-demand fashion. The people whose papers you should be reading will all prominently cite at least one of Girard, Abramsky, and Herbelin.
• John Baez says:
However, I don’t think Thomas is talking about the (wonderful) formal connection between Feynman diagrams and computer science, which I tried to explain here. I think he’s talking about ways to efficiently calculate billions of Feynman diagrams.
But if we visualize the computation using diagram techniques, then we can imagine that he’s using Feynman diagrams to compute Feynman diagrams.
4. Thomas Fischbacher says:
Well, as I said, “are of that type”. The sparse tensor and database article was this one: http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0208218 (a contribution to the Heinz Billing Award for the advancement of scientific contribution). Ad Feynman diagrams and lazy evaluation and continuations, take a look at: http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0412331 – that actually was a really sinister calculation indeed. Concerning exceptional groups and sensitivity backpropagation – well, that’s the essence of http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.1636.
5. Thomas Fischbacher says:
erm… “scientific computation” – this article was one of the finalists in 2002: http://www.billingpreis.mpg.de/hbp02/inhalt02.htm
6. José Marão says:
Dr. John Baez,
I am Brazilian and quaternions and octonions (Hypercomoplex Analysis) study. I found very interesting your page.
It was a pleasure to get in touch.
• John Baez says:
Thanks! You may enjoy the thesis of my student John Huerta, called Division Algebras, Supersymmetry and Higher Gauge Theory. It will be done by June 10th.
For now I recommend the talks on his webpage, especially his talk on L-superalgebras for superstring and M-theory, and also my own talk on his work, Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings. This is where the octonions really come into contact with popular theories of physics. Superstring theory and M-theory could easily be wrong, but if they’re right, the octonions have a lot to do with what’s special about 10 and 11 dimensions.
We also have a popularized article explaining this idea in Scientific American. I will put a copy of this article on my website in August (90 days after it was published).
And if you like exceptional Lie groups and supergravity, try some of Thomas Fischbacher’s papers!
7. John Baez says:
I found the video by Rachel Maddow to be really informative. I hadn’t known much about the 1979 Ixtoc oil spill—just that it was one of the biggest accidental oil spills the world has seen. I certainly hadn’t known how similar it was to the recent Deepwater Horizon spill!
(Quiz question: why did I say “accidental”?)
8. John Baez says:
One big question, too big for the interview itself, is how much energy we should be focusing on ‘sustainability’ as opposed to, say, nuclear energy or geoengineering à la Benford, or for that matter blue-sky technologies like Yudkowsky’s ‘friendly AI’, or nanotech.
One interesting point of agreement is that both Yudkowsky and Fischbacher emphasize the importance of recognizing cognitive biases — standard ways of getting fooled, essentially.
I suspect, however, that each would think the other’s choice of research is the result of certain cognitive biases!
• Tim van Beek says:
A heuristic measure of the “rationality” of a discussion is the integral of the inverse density of the word “rational” and its derivatives over all statements.
Or, simply said, the more the word “rational” is mentioned the more irrational the debate actually is, which gives Thomas Fischbacher a head start :-)
• Thomas Fischbacher says:
I fully agree with your heuristic. (Ms. “I am Rational” Ayn Rand did in fact convince Nathaniel Branden that it would be “rational” to have an extramarital affair with her. Now that’s an interesting kind of “rationality”, isn’t it?)
• Thomas Fischbacher says:
Well, it certainly is – and the insidious thing is that the conscious mind is very good at shielding us from understanding the actual reasons why we decided one way or another.
I cannot speak for Yudkowsky of course, but the way I explain to myself how I came to looking deeper into gardening-based approaches is as follows:
1. The problem is complex and multi-layered, but when dealing with a complex problem, it is often useful to ask the question: “what are we most certain about?” It is quite clear that we will have to e.g. close certain mineral nutrient cycles which are badly broken at the moment (such as the phosphate cycle) – it will happen one way or another, as a system that does not cycle phosphate cannot go on for long. So, depending on how we approach this issue, it can become fairly straightforward and simple, or very painful. Many questions of the “what are we most certain about” type quite naturally seem to lead to answers that are related to gardening.
2. I think it is generally problematic to rely on the invention of some new and shiny miracle technology to magically solve all our problems. Let’s take nuclear power for example. Isn’t it curious how it always is the next generation of reactors to be built that will finally be safe and clean and provide abundant cheap energy? In other places around the world, people are still dreaming of Thorium high temperature reactors. Turns out we did operate one in Germany which was shut off more than 20 years ago (under Helmut Kohl’s conservative government by the way), THTR-300 in Hamm-Uentrop. That design actually wasn’t overly convincing and had a number of nasty problems. It did look great on paper – before we found out what the relevant engineering issues are we had not known about beforehand.
I don’t say that technological advances don’t solve massive problems – but we usually only learn afterwards what the problems are that are easily solved with new tech and that are not. Remote communication, for example, never occurred to us as being technologically simple before Maxwell found the displacement current term.
So, I am naturally a bit skeptic when technological progress is turned into religious belief – this may well be a symptom of a misguided human ego believing in its omnipotence.
3. Concerning gardening – we can do that NOW, and we know it WORKS, as pioneers have demonstrated a number of viable models that combine a satisfying lifestyle with responsible use of fossil energy. This is Chris Dixon’s carbon footprint analysis:
If we all could get just halfway there (and there are numerous very different lifestyle models that would be compatible with this), that would pretty much solve a number of pressing problems.
This video is part of a BBC documentary (actually a fairly shallow general-audience one) from two years ago featuring a very short interview with Chris:
The “before” picture at 2:42 is quite interesting.
• Thomas Fischbacher says:
Nah. One can tell youtube to skip to a certain point in a video by adding #t=MmSS (M=minutes, SS=seconds), but wordpress evidently does not know about that in embedded videos.
The part I wanted to reference above starts at 02:00.
(The guy at the beginning of this video is Patrick Whitefield, author of the Earth Care Manual.)
9. Frederik De Roo says:
Can you suggest some good books on permaculture? (either from the theoretical point of “flows”, or from the point of view of applying the theory to one’s own garden)
Perhaps I should await the second part of the interview.
• Thomas Fischbacher says:
Depends on what you want to focus on. Concerning a practical hands-on introduction, Bill Mollison’s Introduction to Permaculture probably is the most evolved text.
If you want more theory but are fine with a less refined piece of work, then Permaculture – A Designer’s Manual is quite useful.
Concerning temperate climates (in particular, Europe), Patrick Whitefield’s The Earth Care Manual is a well researched piece of work that almost could be used as a college textbook. For Europeans, this would probably be my first recommendation.
There are numerous books I would not recommend, even by well known authors, but these three are quite readable. (The Designer’s Manual is a bit difficult to comprehend in some places, though, and it really helps to know a little bit about Mollison’s biography to put it into context and see where certain ideas come from.)
• John Baez says:
The second part of the interview is all about flows and permaculture. But Thomas did not in his interview recommend any books on these subjects (although he actually gave me a book, which I left back in California). So, I’ll add the above recommendations to “week315″.
• Thomas Fischbacher says:
…and that was “Introduction to Permaculture”, as a little thank-you for the “This Week’s Finds” series from which I learned quite many very useful and interesting things. ;-)
10. Phil Henshaw says:
Yes, great interview. It’s the discovery approach Thomas is taking that is refreshing, like “biomimicry” research. It’s also not too different from the approach I’ve been taking in figuring out “what’s the problem with math and nature anyway”. In looking for what animates natural systems I started finding reasons why our models are invariably missing much of the key information needed.
I very much like his statement about physical science reasoning:
The main place nature keeps hiding scads of important information, the kind our models always seem to be missing is *inside* the animated processes that nucleation nucleates. So I’m very pleased to hear someone talking about employing nucleation. Those kinds of processes are not following external rules but internal paths of accumulation. That science has not looked for that before has meant, categorically, that our models contained information about inanimate relationships and not about the animating processes. That’s a VERY BIG “tell-tale omission” for the study of individually animated systems!
Following that lead is also partly how I discovered that the present standard method for measuring the energy consequences of business decisions measures only the energy uses of the inanimate parts of businesses. It results in overlooking the fourfold or greater energy requirements for supporting the business’s operating, manging and supporting parts. Those are the vast array of human services needed to make the inanimate parts operable, that don’t write down their energy uses for business accountants to see.
So, energy uses of the machines are already all written down and in the file cabinet…, but those of supporting human services are not. That resulted in those energy uses being visible, and being defined as “the system”. Applying a physical science approach to reasoning would lead you to “follow the energy” to see what really makes the business work, exposing the major underestimate of (nominally) 500% and the complete mischaracterization of businesses as environmental systems with no animating parts!
Physical science reasoning can connect the dots, once you start looking for where nature is hiding the missing information.
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HERvotes: 11 Doctors Explain Why All Employers Should Cover Birth Control
Some religious institutions are objecting to new federal rules requiring that they cover contraception for their employees in their health insurance policies. Below, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) physicians remember patients whose stories show the importance of affordable birth control for all women, no matter where they work. (Patients’ names have been changed.)
Mary is a 28-year-old mother of two. She works as a medical assistant at a religiously-affiliated hospital. She had multiple complications with her most recent pregnancy and was told that she should never become pregnant again. For Mary, another pregnancy could be life-threatening. Mary loves her two children and wants to make sure she stays healthy for them. She and her obstetrician decided that an IUD would be the best way to prevent a future pregnancy.
At her doctor’s office, she found out that her insurance, because it is through her work, does not cover contraception. She was surprised and confused that, despite her doctor’s recommendation of an IUD, her insurance would not cover it.
I met Mary when she came to our Title X clinic. We were able to provide her with an IUD through a family planning grant. It was unfair to Mary that her insurance did not adequately protect her health and that she did not know in advance about the gaps in her coverage. I hope that in the future women like Mary can rely on their insurance plans for the resources to stay healthy and be there for their families.—Tara Kumaraswami, MD, Chicago, IL
Maria is 15 years old. I met her after she had her first menstrual period. She bled so heavily that she had to be admitted to the hospital and receive a blood transfusion. The best treatment for Maria’s condition (menorrhagia) is birth control pills. They regulate the menstrual cycle and prevent dangerous bleeding for patients like Maria. In fact, one-third of U.S. teens use contraception for reasons other than avoiding pregnancy.
Maria and her family are practicing Catholics. I discussed birth control pills with her parents. If she did not start the medication, every time she had her period she would be at risk of bleeding so much she would need another transfusion—possibly every month. After carefully weighing the decision, her parents decided that birth control pills would be the best way to keep Maria healthy and out of the hospital.
Birth control pills are not just for contraception—they help manage conditions like Maria’s as well as lower the risk for certain cancers. All families need affordable access to medications that safeguard their health, including birth control.—Yolanda Evans, MD, MPH, Seattle, WA
When I was in residency, I took care of Rita, a young Catholic mother of five. Rita was suffering from a serious heart defect. She was six weeks pregnant and had a defective cardiac valve that had to be replaced with a synthetic one. Pregnancy put her at high risk for a blood clot forming on the new valve and traveling to her brain, where it could kill her.
Rita had not been using contraception because she had no insurance to make it affordable—not because she didn’t want to use it. While in the hospital, despite taking blood thinners to treat her clots, Rita had a stroke. The woman I had spent hours with talking about caring for her five living children, her marriage, how to handle her unplanned pregnancy—that woman could now no longer speak or walk. When I think of birth control access, I think of Rita and her family.—Jennefer Russo, MD, Pittsburgh, PA
Four years ago I graduated from medical school. I had paid for school on my own and was deeply in debt. I was excited to begin my residency and start earning a small paycheck. At the beginning of my residency I had an intrauterine device (IUD) placed using my new health insurance from Catholic Healthcare West. I wanted to be sure that I didn’t become pregnant and I knew an IUD was the best option for me. IUDs cost about $1,000 up front to insert. There was absolutely no way I could have afforded the payment without insurance. I shudder to think of women out there who would be left with few options if religious insurance plans were allowed to refuse this coverage.—Angela Angelucci, DO, Los Angeles, CA
My patient Ava is 45 years old and has four children. Two years ago she suffered a stroke. To prevent future strokes, Ava must take a blood thinner. Her condition is complicated because that medication causes heavy, sometimes life-threatening, bleeding when she has her period. An IUD is the safest option to reduce that bleeding.
But Ava’s husband works as a facilities engineer at a large Catholic hospital, and his insurance will not cover contraception for any reason. The fee for an IUD is over $1,000, an outlay that Ava and her family could not afford. I had to refer her to a Title X clinic for assistance. IUDs not only prevent unintended pregnancy, but they also help keep women like Ava healthy. An employer’s refusal to cover this necessary medication creates hardship for families like Ava’s and stretches the safety net meant to cover those without insurance.—Lori Gawron, MD, Chicago, IL
I care for many women who are employees and students at a large, well respected, Catholic college. These women have no objections to birth control—they are either not Catholic, or among the ninety-eight percent of Catholic women who have used birth control. Most have no idea their insurance does not cover birth control pills or any other contraceptive until they begin working or studying there. When they find out, some panic because they cannot afford the full cost. These amounts can be prohibitive for a family on a budget. The college educates and employs thousands of women; they should not be denied affordable birth control as a condition of studying or working there.—Anonymous U.S. physician
I recently cared for a 24-year-old woman named Somsri. She had come to see me about contraception. Somsri has a genetic blood disorder that caused a dangerous blood clot in her leg. To manage this condition, she needs to be on an anticoagulant cocktail for the rest of her life. Somsri also should not get pregnant because it would be very dangerous for her.
An IUD would be the best form of contraception for Somsri. Unfortunately, her health insurance did not cover the IUD’s cost, and she did not have $1,000 to pay for it out-of-pocket. Somsri left without an IUD. Her only affordable option was condoms, which have a significant failure rate.
Six months later Somsri was pregnant. Because of her condition, her pregnancy was very complicated and she nearly died, ultimately needing a hysterectomy to stop her bleeding.
All women deserve accessible and affordable contraceptive services, no matter where she works or how much money she makes.—Orawee Chinthakanan, MD, Atlanta, GA
However, Melanie could not afford the nearly $1,000 for the IUD and its insertion. Instead, Melanie obtained an IUD from a nearby study of a new, experimental type of IUD. Her need for an IUD plainly outweighed her worries about using a contraceptive without FDA approval.—Anonymous U.S. physician
Liz is 27 years old and has three children. I cared for her last year when I delivered her youngest child. Ever since then we have been trying to find her an affordable form of birth control. She is on Medicaid and has a managed care plan through a religious carrier. Most Medicaid plans cover birth control, but her policy has an exemption for contraception.
Liz lives with her children in a homeless shelter. She is trying to get on her feet and create a better life for her and her family. Her inability to access affordable contraception puts her at high risk of unintended pregnancy at a time in her life when she is already struggling for survival.—Dana Schonberg, MD, New York, NY
My patient Julia is in her 20s and poor. Julia loves her two children very much, but their births were medically complicated, and Julia does not want to have another baby. She is content with her family.
Even though Julia is Catholic, she decided that a tubal ligation—or “tying her tubes”—was the best way to prevent an unintended pregnancy. But Julia has Medicaid through a religious carrier, and her plan will not cover a tubal ligation. She had had no idea that her plan could refuse to cover certain services. Now Julia has to go back to using less effective forms of contraceptives that have failed her in the past.—Kathleen Morrell, MD, Brooklyn, NY
Kristen worked as a nursing assistant at a Catholic hospital. Her insurance did not cover contraception. Kristen, who is not Catholic, did not know about this policy until after she started working at the hospital. When Kristen first refilled her prescription for birth control pills, she discovered that she would need to pay $50 per month, a new expense for which she had not budgeted, as her last employer had covered contraceptives.
Kristen was able to afford her prescription for a few months, but could not continue. She later had an unintended pregnancy and needed an abortion.—Anonymous U.S. physician
Part of the #HERvotes blog carnival.
Photo from Flickr user nateOne under Creative Commons 2.0
1. Wow, this is really great. It should be shown EVERYWHERE-not to mention other women’s stories re: contraception that don’t have to do with them working for a Catholic affiliated organization. People need to hear these stories!
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NFCA Drill: Bunting (Posted 08/28/2002)
By Judy O'Connell-Lawes, Head Coach
Kutztown University (Pa.)
Name of Drill: Bunting in Pressure Situations.
Equipment Needed: Pitcher, catcher, first base, third base.
Explanation of Drill: Defensive players are in position. Batter is at plate while the rest of the team is in a line along the home-to-third base line.
The batter goes up against a live pitcher and must put a bunt down fair on the first strike. If she executes, she runs through first base. She can (and should) lay off balls. If the batter misses, bunts a pop-up or foul ball, she and the rest of her teammates do a sprint to the first-to-second base line and back. The batter remains at the plate until a proper bunt is executed. Then she goes to the back of the line and the next athlete steps up. Everyone on the team takes her turn and the team encourages the batter. | <urn:uuid:ff1d85c9-b854-421d-a2ce-b73ec053150c> | 3 | 3.328125 | 0.031105 | en | 0.912123 | https://nfca.org/index.php/front-page-news/1840-nfca-drill-bunting-posted-08282002 |
Posts Tagged ‘PPP’
Guyana is now a full-fledged criminal republic. Criminality has found a safe haven in Guyana
October 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Crime and criminality under the PNC and the PPP
No country can flourish in a society of criminality, crime, wrongdoing and breakdown of the rule of law. This is the kind of society Guyana has become under the PPP. The drug trade flourished under the PPP when other countries in the region saw major decline in drug trafficking. While Colombia has reduced the impact of drug trafficking, Guyana has become a drug trafficking haven.
As long as we continue to have drugs in Guyana, we will have serious crime, corruption and the breakdown of law and order. Guyana is now a full-fledged criminal republic. Criminality has found a safe haven in Guyana. Let’s get something straight. Crime in Guyana did not start with the PPP. Crime has been around for time immemorial and upsurged under the PNC regime.
What the PPP did was that it took crime and criminality in Guyana to an entirely crippling, sickening and frightening other level. Everything in terms of crime we had under the PNC we basically have under the PPP with some differences and exceptions.
In every society we will have crimes of passion, domestic violence, crimes against people and property, crimes of opportunity and crimes of corruption. Guyana under the PNC of particularly the 1980s saw its fair share of such crimes. We have seen more crime and criminality under the PPP despite its boast of economic development.
What is it that has caused these richer or less poorer and better living Guyanese to engage in more murdering, killing, slaughtering, domestically abusing, robbing, thieving, kicking down doors, filling their pockets and corrupting than they ever did when they were dirt poor, starving and destitute under the PNC?
The collapse of the rule of law, the drug trade and the rampant corruption and stealing from the public treasury are important answers. However, the PPP has encouraged a permissive culture of condoning corruption, immorality and stealing. Its bigwigs not only steal, but arrogantly display their stolen goods in extravagant style, throwing up mansions, driving luxury vehicles out of the reach of even the middle class in developed countries and living in brazen style.
This creates greed, covetousness, envy, keeping-up-with-the-neighbours mentality and copycat tendencies, particularly when others know the spoils were from ill-gotten. So, the decent-minded citizen will start accepting bribes or pilfering money from the people. Or the cop will leave his job and become a drug cartel enforcer. Then there is another set of criminals who think there is nothing wrong in invading the homes of these individuals and robbing them.
One cannot discount the skyrocketing cost of living issue. Everything costs a lot of money in Guyana. Criminality has made a handful of criminal entrepreneurs and those they bribe very wealthy. So has those outrageous fat cat salaries paid by the PPP to thousands of party hacks. This has created another small cabal of wealthy, using taxpayers’ money. Then there are the thieves who steal the public money and fatten themselves on the backs of the people. The spending of this small group of crooks and the corrupt, places significant pressure on the working class man and woman. Because these vagabonds can pay more for a product, they are constantly driving prices up.
When Pradoville mansions with ten bedrooms are being built, it drives up the price for building materials for the family of six building a simple home. People pressed economically start making immoral decisions and the downward spiral occurs.
Under the PNC, crime and criminality was kept to a petty level except for politically motivated crimes such as the assassination of Walter Rodney. Gun crimes were infrequent but are now a common occurrence. The drug trade existed under the PNC but was marginal at best. Contraband trading was big business but many viewed it as a moral necessity in the face of food bans.
The drug trade, proceeds from crime and the underground economy are now major centrepieces of Guyana’s economy under the PPP. The fact that the drug trade continues untouched under the PPP suggests the party sees the drug trade and the criminal economy as vital to the country’s economy.
One may argue the VAT was instituted to tax the spending of illegal wealth in Guyana. The PNC did not have a similar tax imposed on the proceeds of contraband trafficking. In fact, contraband trafficking and smuggling under the PPP is much larger than it was under the PNC.
The evidence of inaction against drug cartels points to the PPP strategically deciding to make the proceeds from drug trafficking and the underground economy a facet of its economic policy. The fact that the PPP refused to allow the DEA and the British entry to Guyana to fight the drug scourge and its denial of serious external help, strongly indicates the PPP sought to profit from the economic spinoffs of the drug trade.
Like every other jumbie and voodoo economic miscalculation of the PPP, this one backfired. Guyana grew 3.54% per annum under the PPP and 2.23% under Jagdeo, under whose rule the drug trade flourished in Guyana. There was far greater annual growth in Guyana under Cheddi Jagan when the drug trade was in its infancy.
It was a shameless, gutless and intellectually backward decision to refuse to crush the menace of the drug trade when the opportunity presented itself. Today, the drug trade benefits only a few who control it and those who are bribed by it.
The PNC had the same moral and economic dilemma as the PPP. During the heyday of the drug trade in the 1980s, where drug cartels made their most profits, the PNC could have allowed this scourge to take root to reap the economic spinoffs. But for all its skulduggery and wrongdoing, the PNC refused to take this step. Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte were patriotic enough to know the price of social devastation from encouraging criminal cartels and drug networks. They knew that drug cartels do not benefit a nation. They benefit the few leaders of that cartel and the corrupt who feed off of them. Corruption under the PPP dwarfs the stealing by the PNC. The PPP is showing us what thieving and bribery really is.
A bribe for a soft drink and a tennis roll or a small pittance to feed the family for a day in the PNC days is now a demand for millions, a car, a house and school fees for an entire year for the crook’s children. When men stole under the PNC to fix the leaking roof of their existing house or their fences, men today under the PPP are stealing enough to build several mega-mansions.
The scale of corruption and pilfering under the PPP is alarmingly outlandish. These are men with the impunity and unchecked greed. There is far more money collected from tax revenues available to the bandits within the PPP. It is evident that both the PNC and the PPP created criminal states or nations wracked by criminality. But the criminality and crime has attained a catastrophic scale under the PPP. Guyana is a narco-state.
For all their wrongs, Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham knew when to draw that line in the sand. For all their flaws and there are many, these men knew that some things simply could not ever be allowed to set foot upon the country of their birth and the land of their political sacrifices. They may have loved power and worshipped foreign ideologies and run dictatorships, but they knew when nation trumped everything else. These were men who were wrong on many things, but right on a few things that matter. The prospect of economic prosperity from drug trafficking at enormous cost to the nation was not an option to these men. They preferred a life of poverty, free of drug cartel-created crime, than a life of illicit wealth created by a poisonous substance that filled the nation with crime, fear and the rawness of blood spilling.
Drug cartels and crime networks are run by a few for the benefit of a few. Wherever the drug trade blooms, death, crime and inequality take off. This is the deathly legacy of the PPP.
M. Maxwell
Categories: Cocaine, DEA, PPP, Roger Khan Tags: ,
Elites control Guyana two major political parties
August 29, 2012 Leave a comment
Dear Editor,
The PPP and PNC are elitist political organizations. As race-based parties, they use their primarily Indian and African support and see these two ethnic groups as politically expedient. These parties have always acted in the interests of the few who dominate them. This elite is comprised of a handful of men and a few women who believe they own these parties.
There are no term limits and an incestuous system of cronyism and nepotism within these parties that ensure the elite remains firmly entrenched in power. The PPP and PNC may pretend to be working class parties but they are in fact bourgeoisie entities. Once in power, those who dominate the party situate themselves, their families and friends in plum positions where they benefit handsomely while the ordinary man and woman in the street who voted for them is left holding the empty end of the stick. A scan of the executives of both parties shows the majority have been there for decades. There is functional superiority galore. Decisions are made that offend the dignity and good sense of the membership but the leadership elite does not care. PPP supporters who are enraged that Kwame McCoy remains in the PPP upper hierarchy despite his recent conviction are ignored. PNCR supporters angry with APNU’s sloth and laziness on a legislative agenda since the last election are ignored.
The PPP and PNC are con artists. The AFC will head down that same road if it does not change its ways. Racial politics make it easier for a few members to accomplish control. The ordinary rank-and-file membership of the PPP and PNC is there simply to rubberstamp these individuals back into power congress after congress. The congresses are carefully controlled affairs, to ensure the old boys club is maintained. Where the party feels its elite will be threatened, it suspends the congress to prevent ordinary members from voting. This is what the Jagdeoites did with the PPP. Donald Ramotar was handpicked by the Jagdeoites and rammed down the throats of PPP supporters. What the Jagdeoites did by suspending a congress was to annul democracy within the PPP. Forbes Burnham is probably rolling in his grave wondering why PPP supporters and mainly Indians were so vehemently opposed to him then for disregarding democracy when PPP supporters approved and endorsed the candidacy of Donald Ramotar which was imposed on them, and delivered the sound of silence on the suspension of the party’s congressional election. It becomes profoundly difficult to argue that it is acceptable to condone authoritarian behaviour from your own but not from others. You are either for or against it in all its manifestations.
Elitism within the PPP and PNC leads to corruption, as these individuals believe they are un-touchable. They also assume delusions of grandeur. The PNC did not fix the debacle of the 1980 Burnham constitution, although it knew fully well it was going to lose power in 1992. The PNC wanted that exact same instrument in place if it regained power. It backfired on PNC supporters who felt the brunt of the PPP’s use of that constitution against them. Similarly, the PPP has gone from condemning corruption while in the wilderness to condoning it by implication.
Strong anti-corruption legislation will never be passed in Guyana because there are many skeletons in the closets. This is why the American political system allows for a John F Kennedy or a Barack Obama to emerge to shake the very foundations of power and redraft the social contract. That will never happen in Guyana.
Dynamic figures will be vilified by the elites in these parties and forced to toe the line. When an entire country is held to ransom by a handful of elites controlling political parties, and those elites have a deep-seated self-interest in preventing good, decent and virtuous laws to be enforced, that country cannot advance.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
Categories: Corruption, Cronyism, PNC, PPP Tags: , ,
The PPP has seen a steady decline in its support
February 15, 2012 Leave a comment
Dear Editor,
From 1992 to 2006, the PPP dominated Guyana politics. However, change was reshaping the PPP and the political landscape from 2006. 2011 delivered the first sign of the dimming future the PPP faces.
While it remains the strongest political party in terms of numerical support, the PPP has seen a steady decline of its support from a high of 220,000 in 2001 to 166,000 a mere decade and two elections later. Of all the major parties, the PPP is the only party that has steadily declined from its 2001 high. The PNC has see-sawed back from its 2006 demise while the AFC has made steady but marginal gains.
The PPP on the other hand has steadily lost some 54,000 votes since 2001. These losses can be explained by demographic changes affecting the PPP’s main voting support group, Indians, which as a population is declining at the fastest rate amongst all ethnic groups due to migration and lower birth rates.
Then there is the growing Indian disenchantment with the corruption, internal dictatorship, hijacking of the party apparatus by a few, wrongdoing and other ills that are commonly associated with the PPP power cabal. Before the arrival of the AFC, the PPP obtained the largest percentage of crossover ethnic votes from Amerindians and Mixed Races.
The AFC has split this vote while a substantial segment of these two ethnic groups have stopped voting at all. Combine these chilling facts with the dramatic decline in ethnic voting determined by support for ethnic parties (only 61% to 63% voted for PPP and PNC/APNU since 2006 whereas both got 90% of total votes in 2001) and the future of the PPP is only going to get bleaker. The internal wranglings of the PPP have deflated many of its traditional supporters.
With weak handpicked leadership in the presidency, internal dictatorship dominating the party machinery, no real change in personnel (Rohee is still around), the continuation of square pegs in round holes like Bishop Juan Edghill as Junior Finance Minister, the strongly suggestive influence of the reviled Bharrat Jagdeo, corruption continuing unabated, no dynamic new leadership on the horizon, Indian awakening and independence and Indian psychological liberation from the PPP (see Berbice in last election), decreasing ethnic voting, alienation of its own membership, campaigning laziness (‘wine-down sessions as opposed to intensive campaigning), hijacking of the party by a handful of suspect types and the continued full exhibition of incompetence, mismanagement and maladministration, the PPP is in a serious bind for the future.
Unless the PPP undergoes a radical democratization and transparency transformation like the PNC with new leadership on board, it will likely suffer further losses in the future. Even if some Indians who departed for the manna from Moses (Nagamootoo) are to return, demographic realities impacting Indians and an even further massive disappearance of the crossover votes from Amerindians and Mixed Races will harm the PPP in 2016. Whereas in the past the PPP needed these crossover voters to secure a majority, the party needs them now to secure a plurality.
The PPP is losing the little multiethnic appeal it held to Amerindians and Mixed Races while it is bleeding Indian supporters, particularly the younger Indian generation which is no longer an assured vote for the PPP. That is a volatile and depressing combination. As the election result demonstrated, the attempt to resurrect fear amongst Indians failed or only partially succeeded.
It is no longer a proven political ballistic. Indians want more than fear and the PPP has not offered it. Indians want credible political leadership. The PPP cannot offer it.
Unless the PPP allows the brilliant sunshine of democracy to erupt within its party, it will face more apathy and revulsion from its traditional supporters. Its arrogant refusal to change that which failed before and jettisoned its supporters will generate more political casualties.
What is truly tragic is that the PPP led by that celebrated incompetent, Robert Persaud, rather brazenly and barefacedly tried to blame PPP supporters and Indians in particular for the party’s inability to secure a majority without casting the entire quarry of stones at the cabal running the PPP that has deformed the party and wrecked its integrity and symbiosis with the people.
The Guyanese people have advanced beyond the PPP’s model of building often shoddy infrastructure and bottling it as the entirety of progress and development. People want a better quality of life that values life and human dignity.
While it is difficult to see the PNC/APNU overcoming that 26,000 gulf in votes between it and the PPP in the next election, it could in the election thereafter. What if by some miracle the PNC/APNU wins power in 2016. Has the PPP prepared its followers for that reality? The future of the PPP lies not in ethno-politics but in trying to erase ethno-politics to appeal to the changing demographics of its own support and to try to win back the departing droves.
A minority government run by a race-based party cannot offer security to its supporters and to the nation without serious change in the way its does business. The fact of the matter is that the PPP has not changed at all or has not metamorphosed to enable its own supporters to face a better future.
The handful of failed leaders running the PPP inner circle are so consumed with getting power and filling pockets that they have missed the potential consequences of their actions upon their supporters and the nation in general.
As it stands, the Parliament and most importantly, the armed forces (army and police) are dominated by non-PPP parties and supporters. Has the PPP considered where the allegiance of the army lies when a delicate matter of national importance puts the executive and the majority in Parliament at loggerheads? What if this minority government situation existed in the early 2000s during the crime wave? Could there ever arise an instance where the armed forces back the decision of Parliament over the executive?
The future of the PPP lies in using the next five years to implement serious changes to erase ethnic imbalances so that it can regain its crossover votes, minimize ethnic insecurity and bring fairness and equity back into the fold. The PPP must start with serious ethnic balancing of the armed forces. Continue with making Gecom independent and hardened to political manipulation. Implement various rights-based and equity oriented organizations and commissions.
Even if some in the current PPP inner circle may consider keeping power by any means, the reality is that the armed forces which had no problems with the PNC’s propagation of dictatorship will not take kindly to any contemplation of dictatorship by the PPP. This raises the question of whether the PPP will consider rigging the vote in 2016 if its support continues to fall and the PNC is in danger of pipping it?
Will an ethnically imbalanced security forces ever take electoral skulduggery from the PPP lying down? Believe it or not, the future of the PPP lies not, as it presently appears, in the pursuit of internal dictatorship or in ethnic voting but in democracy and the reduction of ethnic voting.
Outside of the AFC, it is the party with the best ability to transform into a strong multiethnic force and to capture votes outside of the African and Indian majority populations. The future is darkening for the PPP. As long as it continues down this autocratic and arrogant road, encroaching darkness may end up being a permanent blackout.
M. Maxwell
The PPP has an authoritarian culture
January 30, 2012 2 comments
Dear Editor,
Freddie Kissoon is bang-on with his position that the PPP has and has always had an authoritarian culture. However, Mr Kissoon did not examine why. I must state that many features of the analysis below are applicable to that other political wrecker-in-chief, the PNC, now APNU. It starts with the fact that the PPP remains a communist party at heart. Communist parties are totalitarian in structure and practice. Nonsensical notions like democratic centralism are used only to hoodwink the followers. At the end of the day, a handful of men and women handpicked by the bigwigs have always controlled all the power within the PPP, excluding the rank and file. Ever since Balram Singh Rai challenged the Jagans, the PPP has centralised power in the hands of a few who make all the decisions for the hundreds of thousands who support the party. It is this travesty that saddled this nation with a neophyte like Mr Jagdeo who went on to rival Burnham for his authoritarian tendencies and currently Donald Ramotar, who had many questions surrounding his qualifications for the presidency. The autocracy started with the Jagans and has continued. Cheddi Jagan’s political skill and class made him an obvious choice for leader but there was nothing wrong in Cheddi being re-elected in a proper transparent democratic process.
Authoritarianism thrived in the PPP because of several factors. Firstly, the PPP inner circle fooled its membership into believing that internal dictatorship was necessary for the survival of the PPP in order to prevent Western intrusion. Secondly, this argument was extended to the claim that PPP’s internal dictatorship was necessary to fight the PNC dictatorship. Thirdly, the PPP inserted serious anti-dissent clauses in its communist constitution to keep the membership in line. Fourthly, totalitarian concepts like democratic centralism were masqueraded as democracy when they were nothing but rank autocracy. Fifthly, the PPP exploited the lack of education about democracy among its supporters. Sixthly, the PPP exploited ethnic insecurity and promoted the concept that democracy within the party was expendable in order to maintain the PPP’s standing as the provider of security for Indians. The PPP blurred the lines between ethnic affinity and party fairness. Ethnic security or insecurity is no barrier to internal party democracy. In fact, the PNC has just demonstrated that fact. Democratic elections within the PPP would have still delivered Cheddi and Janet Jagan as leaders, but likely not Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar.
Ninth, the PPP practised blame transference by focusing on the PNC’s dictatorship to deflect its own internal autocracy. Tenth, the PPP congresses were carefully managed, controlled and influenced events which led to the same set of people getting selected again and again to the prime positions within the PPP. Eleventh, the PPP centralised power to small groups such as its Executive Committee, a group of 15 that directs and controls the party. Twelfth, the PPP fosters functional superiority where an incompetent who is loyal must be put on a pedestal by the general membership simply because he has ingratiated himself with those who were handpicked for power. The incompetent serving as a minister or as a party executive must not be questioned and must be embraced at all costs. This is classic functional superiority and leads to party totalitarianism. Mr Jagdeo who could not hold a candle to men like Mr Nagamootoo and Mr Ramkarran within the PPP obtained functional superiority over these giants by an innately undemocratic selection process led by Janet Jagan. The same could be said for Donald Ramotar’s selection as the PPP’s presidential candidate. Thirteenth, the PPP has planted some fears in its supporters such as don’t-split-the-vote and unity-at-all-costs to detract PPP supporters from the real problem of internal dictatorship.
There is nothing wrong in the PPP having an internal revolution akin to what occurred in the PNC after its 2006 election debacle. Despite its continuing flaws, the PNC has become more democratic than the PPP and has elected its presidential candidate in a far more transparent process than the PPP. It is quite ironic that PPP supporters who complained bitterly about the PNC dictatorship had nothing to say about the PPP’s own internal dictatorship. The PPP supporters must demand democracy within the PPP before it wrecks itself. It is not only the loss of Indian support that internal authoritarianism brings, it is the loss of ethnic crossover voters who are necessary for the PPP to win a majority.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
Recycled crowds at rallies…what a shame
October 20, 2011 1 comment
The PPP/C continues to boast about the large crowds they are attracting at their rallies all over Guyana. What they are in fact doing is recycling crowds at these events. It is the same set of people all the time with a few additions trucked or bussed into areas where rallies are being held. Guyanese are not fools, they are fully aware of this kind of politics. The PPP/C has a mobile and easily transportable crowd of supporters.
Another thing, they are presumptuously using state resources to propagate their message. This is cheap politics that has no place in democratic societies. State resources belong to the people not the government and therefore political parties have no business using it for partisan political activities. GuySuCo is an ailing company, workers are underpaid, yet its vehicles and fuel are used to make the PPP/C look good at their rallies. Also, other vehicles belonging to other ministries are being used to transport people – supporters and sympathizers to these rallies. What a shame.
Then they are using public servants on their political platform. This is in breach of the public service rules. How can public servants be politicians, speaking at public rallies on behalf of a particular party and still carry out their Ministries’ tasks in a professional manner. It is not only illegal but affects the behaviour of all other employees who may not be inclined to get involved in party politics. Further, the government is encouraging public servants to flout the rules which were put in place to preserve the integrity of the public service.
Also, the goings-on at these rallies are to say the least very distasteful. Imagine, the president of this country, the presidential candidate and other party supporters wining on stage at their rallies. Serious political meetings, which should be used to inform the public on very important issues like the alleviation of poverty, approaches to tackle corruptions and nacro-trafficking, which continue to embarrass this country, have become entertainment shows with inappropriate actions and antics by senior politicians in this country. These rallies are fast becoming monkey business.
On the face of it, APNU has made the best decision not to get involved in ‘big rallies’ which could never be a true indicator of solid support. It would really be stupid for anyone to think that crowds at rallies equal support or votes. APNU must meet people on the ground in all areas and let the people know the truth about this government.
It seems good to say that APNU should not have to spend too much to score a landslide victory at these elections, because the facts are just public for everyone to see. In spite of the loud promises of the PPP/C, all Guyanese who live here know exactly what happened for nineteen years, the crime, the corruption, executive lawlessness, the phantom squad, the killings in 2002, Roger Khan’s army which took this nation into moral decline, the piracy on the high seas, the unsolved murder cases, discrimination against people, awarding of big contracts to party favourites, and the host of evils and their impact on the populace.
Joy Smith
Lindeners do not be fooled, you deserve much better
October 20, 2011 2 comments
Dear Editor,
Phillip Bynoe’s presence on the PPP/C stage for its Sunday, October 16th Linden Rally is a stark reminder of the nature of the governance Guyanese have suffered for 19 years, and a man without a soul.
Along with me, Bynoe was on July 15, 2002, charged with treason. This charge which infers the accused is engaged in acts inimical to the state’s interest, was as a result of my presence in front of Office of the President.
My presence there that day was to lend solidarity to the Lindeners’ struggle for equal rights and justice. I had a loud hailer in my hands appealing to the heavily armed Presidential Guards not to shoot the unarmed protesters who were seeking an audience with the President.
In pursuit of justice, several unarmed persons were shot to death, and dozens injured by trigger-happy Presidential Guards.
At that time, Bynoe and others were leading daily vigils in front of State House with persons primarily from Linden who were seeking the attention of the government to ensure social and economic justice for their community.
This was the call the PPP resisted and proceeded thereafter to gain public acceptance of their discriminatory management by demonising the group and calling them names like hooligans and criminals.
Having spent over five years in the Camp Street jail, in solitary confinement (and my case called just once in the High Court, with 11 of the 12 jurors bringing back a ‘not guilty’ verdict.)
I was finally released on August 27, 2007, with a critical period of my youthful life spent behind bars on a charge I was never guilty of, and of which President Jagdeo used as a pretext to show his ‘omnipotence’ and drive fear into this nation by saying he has forgiven me and hope I have learnt my lesson.
During those five years Bynoe was on the ‘run’ and writing/calling President Jagdeo seeking his pardon. Pardon for what – was he guilty of a crime when the court, who has the authority to make such a judgement, never ruled on the matter.
The people of Linden in 2002 were protesting for social and economic justice, their conditions are worse off today than in 2002.
Among some of the injustices are high unemployment, increasing poverty, poor school conditions, absence of a pension and where such exists, it is measly. Injustices have also been meted out to workers employed by the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), a company owned by the Government of Guyana and RUSAL.
And, even after almost 10 years since the protests, Lindeners have still not achieved economic and social justice. Yet, Bynoe wants Lindeners to support such a heartless regime.
It is under this PPP administration that the people of Linden have been targeted in a manner never seen before in this country.
Bauxite which has been the mainstay of this town has seen the government caring little or nothing about what happens to this industry, and how the workers are treated.
Over the years bauxite workers have had to suffer such injustices as the government took away the tax-free overtime they fought for, in as much as they keep it for sugar workers.
Bauxite workers have been wrongly dismissed and going on to two years the government refuses to enforce the Labour Laws to ensure justice prevails. For the many without a job, they have to subsist with the help of overseas support or having to do menial day-to-day jobs, in as much as they are highly skilled.
Linden, a once thriving town, is now dying as a result of the vindictive, racist and cruel PPP regime. The people are crying out for economic and social justice – theirs are like voices crying in the wilderness.
Having spent my early years in Linden (and a product by birth) I know the people of Linden are proud.
They are not lazy or incompetent, but want what is theirs by right. This is the town the PPP chose to make its political pitch on Sunday, October 16th, touting it as the largest rally in history when it came nowhere near the tens of thousands that attended the rallies during the earlier years of the PNC.
This is the town the PPP punished for 19 years even though Prime Minister Sam Hinds was rescued by Linden and worked in bauxite.
This is the town the PPP went to ask for another five years, making false promises of value added products to bauxite and bringing 2000 new jobs when the truth be told they took away thousands of jobs from Lindeners, seeking to bring the people to their knees.
Bynoe did what he thinks he had to do, but for those who know better and believe in better, his support of the PPP and calling on Lindeners to support the party – knowing fully well of the people’s sufferings under this PPP regime – is mere pandering and singing for his supper (eating the King’s Meat.)
And, most importantly, it reveals the nature of the man without a soul – a self-serving person who will do anything to satisfy his interest, even exposing his people to more injustices and deprivations.
I ask the people of Linden not to vote PPP. You deserve better. Do not be fooled by their promises, free t-shirts, small piece to attend rallies and wine down, because should you let them win on November 28th they will make your lives worse off than now. Time to take back Linden, and the entire Guyana from the hands of modern-day ‘massas’, and slave drivers.
Mark A. Benschop
The hypocrisy of the PPP/C
October 11, 2011 Leave a comment
Harris’s harvest, Hamilton’s hambroline, history’s heaven
Next to Heaven, the most reassuring place is history. History tells us what we didn’t know. History opens our eyes. And history makes liars of those who try to fool us. Shall we look at history, Adam Harris, Joseph Hamilton, the former PNC leader now turned PPPite, then speak to the residents of Albion in Berbice and nearby districts? Yes we should!
For the second time in less than a year in addresses to Berbice audience, President Jagdeo, attempting to paint the Kaieteur News as an opposition newspaper affiliated to the PNC, told his listeners that the paper’s editor, Adam Harris, is a man who worked for the PNC Government. The latest of such an announcement was at the Albion election rally of the PPP last Sunday.
The ironic moments in the life of the present government are so oceanic or mountainous or simply countless that it is useless trying to measure which one is more shocking than the others. Just before President Jagdeo told the gathering at Albion that Adam Harris used to work for the PNC Government, Mr. Joseph Hamilton came up the platform and was introduced as a PNC convert to the PPP cause. Can you get a more blatant irony than this? The listeners are told to be suspicious of the Kaieteur News because Adam Harris edits it and he was once a part of the PNC Government. Joseph Hamilton worked for the PNC Government and remained with the PNC long after it lost power in 1992.
The PPP leaders were lucky that no drunken fool didn’t walk up on stage and reminded them that Mr. Hamilton was once part of the PNC.
Let us peep inside history’s heaven to see how beautiful are the flows of history. Mr. Donald Ramotar once pointedly asked me in a letter in this newspaper what did I mean by the words, “the poetic essence of history.” I didn’t reply but I will tell him in person when I visit one of the PPP meetings in South Georgetown where I have my roots.
So what is inside of history that is so instructive that PPP supporters and the goodly folks of Albion can be educated about the contents of past epochs in this country?
Kwame McCoy once worked with the PNC Government in a close capacity. He functioned in the office of the Prime Minister. When the PNC lost power in 1992, Mr. Mc Coy worked with Mayor Hamilton Green. Shall we remind Berbicians that the said gentleman is a powerful figure in the Office of the President working closely with the very man who reminded us last Sunday that Adam Harris was once a functionary with the PNC regime?
Mr. Odinga Lumumba and I have a little score to settle. I will not go into details. But when it comes to my family, I see red. When my wife occupied the post of a project officer in Guyana Office for Manufacturing and Industrial Development Agency (GUYMIDA) in the PNC presidency of Desmond Hoyte, Mr. Lumumba, a long-standing PNC official then, made a remark to her about her husband. Maybe when I speak on the platform of one or all of the opposition parties, I will describe what happened.
The entire Guyana knows that Mr. Lumumba was an employee under both Burnham and Hoyte. Mr. Lumumba is an advisor to the man who told us last Sunday that Adam Harris was once a PNC Government employee.
This writer saw Sir Shridath Ramphal on television delivering a panegyric on President Jagdeo in honour of the Day of Appreciation. The goodly knighted gentleman remains an admirer of Forbes Burnham and was one of President Burnham’s closest advisors. Under President Jagdeo, there was a diplomat who served under the presidencies of both Hoyte and Burnham. His name is Rudy Insanally. He was named Foreign Minister by President Jagdeo.
Shall we go on about the harvest years of Adam Harris? And return to Hamilton’s hambroline? Or continue to look inside history’s heaven?
Let’s recount the past before we conclude. Justice Prem Persaud was made a magistrate and judge under the PNC Government. Khurshid Sattaur was deputy to Edgar Heyligar at the tax department. But wait! Here is a salacious part. Do you know the owner of a certain television station who is extremely close to the President was once on a committee to re-elect Mr. Desmond Hoyte in the 1992 elections?
Finally, when Manzoor Nadir was in opposition to President Jagdeo, he threatened to write the US Government about Guyana’s trade with Cuba. Some people are too foolish to remember the past. | <urn:uuid:5787d8e0-641e-450c-8857-fc6c8bd3be0b> | 2 | 1.734375 | 0.026365 | en | 0.963117 | https://saveguyana.wordpress.com/tag/ppp/ |
The Medieval Review 10.05.15
Conley, John J., S.J. Adoration and Annihilation: The Convent Philosophy of Port-Royal. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009. Pp. 336. $50.00 ISBN 978-0-268-02296-9. .
Reviewed by:
Nancy Warren
Florida State University
In Adoration and Annihilation John J. Conley presents a fascinating exploration of the writings of three seventeenth-century abbesses of Port-Royal, Mère Angélique Arnauld, Mère Agnès Arnauld, and Mère Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly. The book consists of an introduction, a chapter devoted individually to each abbess and her writings, a conclusion, and a series of three appendices comprising generous excerpts from the women's writings. These appendices are particularly welcome, since, as Conley points out, there is no complete, let alone critical, edition of these three women's work, and translations into languages other than French "are virtually nonexistent" (4). Not only does Conley introduce readers to a little studied corpus of early modern women's writing, but he also builds a convincing case that this corpus makes important contributions to early modern philosophy. As he observes, these women develop "their own neo-Augustinian philosophy, notable for its original treatment of the divine attributes, moral virtue, and personal freedom" (1).
Conley's substantial introduction in Chapter 1 does much more than provide the expected synopses of each chapter that follows. Centrally, the introduction outlines the ways in which the abbesses' writings meet criteria for consideration as part of the philosophical canon; throughout, Conley devotes significant attention to the Augustinian elements of the writings of the Port-Royal nuns. Conley explores the reasons behind the almost complete disappearance of these nuns and their writings from the study of philosophy. As he points out, the monastic genres of the texts in question, their theological content, and political factors all worked to make the abbesses' writing "an invisible canon" (3). Conley sets out a detailed history of the convent of Port-Royal; the political connections of the women professed there; the twists and turns of the community's involvement, beginning in the 1630s, with the Jansenist movement; and the persecutions the community experienced as a result of this involvement. A section of the introduction is also devoted to the history of the Arnauld family, which not only produced the three influential abbesses who are the subject of this book, but also "many other nuns and many of the solitaires renowned for their scholarly work as associates of the convent" (19). Furthermore, members of the Arnauld family featured prominently in the Jansenist movement; the movement's "foremost theologian" (19), for instance, was Antoine Arnauld.
In chapter 2, entitled "Mère Angélique Arnauld: Virtue and Grace," Conley turns to the first of the Arnauld women under consideration. Mère Angélique Arnauld (1591-1661) came from a prominent family of the noblesse de robe; her parents, the lawyer Antoine Arnauld and Catherine Marion Arnauld, designated her for the convent early in her life. Her mother used her political connections to have King Henri IV name her daughter as abbess in June of 1599, when the girl was only seven years old; her family falsified her age, engaging in an act of fraud that would cause considerable trouble for Mère Angélique later in her life. Though her education was rather unsophisticated, Mère Angélique developed into a prolific correspondent, an able monastic reformer, and a subtle philosophical writer. It was through Mère Angélique that Saint-Cyran, an important interpreter of the works of Cornelius Jansen, was introduced as spiritual director at Port-Royal, and his writings "became staples for personal devotion, the formation of young nuns, and the catechesis of laywomen in the convent's schools" (51). Her work as a reformer extended beyond the walls of Port-Royal to the abbey of Maubuisson, and in her reform efforts her commitment to "the personal freedom of vocation" emerges strongly (47), as does her commitment to the spiritual authority of women.
Mère Angélique did not write philosophical treatises; rather, she produced an autobiographical text called the Report Written by Mère Angélique Arnauld Concerning the Major Occurrences at Port-Royal, a massive corpus of correspondence, and a series of "spiritual conferences she delivered to the Port-Royal nuns" (55). As Conley observes, her writings are steeped in apophatic theology, and she "constructs a detailed Augustinian philosophy concerning God, and virtues, and freedom" (43). A good portion of the chapter is devoted to her correspondence, which was published in three volumes by Jansenist exiles in the 1740s. This body of epistolary material includes more than 1300 letters addressed to over 100 recipients, including other nuns, prominent laywomen and laymen, priests, and dignitaries both political and ecclesiastical. In her letters, as in her other writings, important themes are the incomprehensibility and inscrutability of God as well as the fundamental necessity of grace "for the exercise of all human virtues" (84). Indeed, her letters provide a strongly Augustinian perspective on virtue, and for Mère Angélique, the central virtue is piety that "focuses on the mystery of God" and "abolishes any trace of preoccupation with oneself or the world" (65).
Chapter 3, "Mère Agnès Arnauld: Adoration and Right," focuses on Mère Angélique's younger sister Mère Catherine-Agnès de Saint-Paul (1593-1671), popularly known as Mère Agnès. Conley seeks to reconsider the contrasts that commentators have typically drawn between the two sister abbesses: "Angélique the entrepreneur, Agnès the mystic; Angélique the intransigent, Agnès the indulgent; Angélique the rationalist, Agnès the emotivist" (113). In fact, Mère Agnès was a zealous supporter and defender of her sister's reform efforts and her pro-Jansenist commitments in the face of ecclesiastical opposition. Furthermore, commentators who have accepted these stereotypical assessments of the two abbesses have, Conley argues, erased the philosophical contributions of Mère Agnès's voluminous writings which exhibit a striking "militant theocentrism" (171).
Conley's third chapter systematically considers Mère Agnès's writings, beginning with her Private Chaplet of the Blessed Sacrament, an apophatic devotional treatise which outlines her understanding of God's distance from humanity. He analyzes her Image of a Perfect and an Imperfect Nun, which provides a detailed account concerning the performance of the virtues in a monastic context, and he addresses her Spirit of the Monastery of Port-Royal, which also focuses on the virtues, not in relation to the individual nun but rather in relation to the "convent's moral character" (113). He then discusses the Constitutions of the Monastery of Port-Royal of the Blessed Sacrament, of which Agnès is the principal author. The Constitutions not only "provides elaborate regulations for the officers, worship, and daily order of Port-Royal" (153) but is also a philosophically important work in that it develops a strong defense of women's spiritual freedom and authority. Conley finally turns to Mère Agnès's Counsels on the Conduct Nuns Should Maintain, which instructs nuns in the correct actions and attitudes to adopt in the face of violations of conscience imposed by political and ecclesiastical authorities. In this text too she "develops a gendered account of freedom and resistance" (169).
Chapter 4 is entitled "Mère Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly: Persecution and Resistance." Mère Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly (1624-1684) was the niece of Mères Angélique and Agnès; she entered the convent school at age 6 and remained enclosed there until her death during her abbacy. Unlike Mère Angélique, who had comparatively little formal education, Mère Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly was a renowned scholar with formidable abilities in Greek and Latin. She too was a prolific correspondent; approximately 900 of her letters are archived in the Bibliothèque de la Société de Port-Royal in Paris. In addition to numerous letters, she wrote treatises, works focusing on the history of the convent and its reforms, and a large body of spiritual conferences in which she engages in commentary on both the Benedictine Rule and her aunt's Constitutions for Port-Royal. In these writings, she "developed an elaborate theology of the monastic life" centering on "strict resistance to an allegedly oppressive church and state" (174). She is the most radical and most militant of the three abbesses whose works Conley treats, a stance that is not surprising since she had experienced exile from Port-Royal and even imprisonment for her refusal to compromise her Jansenist commitments and was, as Conley puts it, as abbess in the position of guiding "a doomed convent into its obscure future" (232). Of particular philosophical interest is her Reflections to Prepare the Nuns for Persecution. This text tackles the topic of the virtues that had so interested her predecessors, develops a philosophy of resistance, and revisits apophatic philosophy in the context of persecution that, she believes, serves to increase a sense of distance from God. Her On the Danger of Hesitation and Doubt Once We Know Our Duty also has great philosophical significance. This work explores the epistemology of resistance and the "moral perils posed by the exercise of doubt" (225). As Conley observes, this text "makes a signal contribution," since it delineates a radically different approach to methodic doubt than the one that had "acquired general philosophical prestige" thanks to Descartes (234).
The conclusion bears the title "A Nocturnal Philosophy," a phrase that aptly describes the rigorous, neo-Augustinian, apophatic thought characteristic of Port-Royal. In the conclusion, Conley makes a final case for the inclusion of the writings of the Arnauld abbesses in the philosophical canon, situating their ideas in relation to other philosophical schools and movements. For instance, he notes that the abbesses' apophaticism has "an affinity with the 'religious turn' that has characterized recent Continental phenomenology" (239), and he argues that "the virtue theory of the Port-Royal nuns bears certain resemblances to the sectarian moral philosophy proposed by Stanley Hauerwas and his associates" (243).
Conley does an admirable job of presenting complex philosophical material lucidly in Adoration and Annihilation, and indeed, the book does many things quite well. It provides an excellent history of the foundation and its embroilment in a very important early modern religious controversy. It introduces readers to the extraordinarily rich, and radically understudied, field of early modern convent writing. Additionally, it makes a compelling case for the expansion of the philosophical canon through the inclusion of religious works by women, a move that medievalists interested in women's religious texts ought to consider emulating. Though the central arguments of Adoration and Annihilation concern philosophy, this book should be of interest to a much wider audience than philosophers alone. Scholars of early modern women's writing and of early modern religion will also find much to appreciate in Conley's book. | <urn:uuid:e299fc22-6f91-4c42-9031-14758e5fdfc6> | 2 | 2.03125 | 0.022079 | en | 0.937926 | https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/7236/10.05.15.html?sequence=1 |
Transplant patients in dire need of dermatological care
By Fiona O'Reilly Zwald, MD
I was working at a kidney transplant center in Dublin, in my native Ireland, and I was on my way — I thought — to a career in internal medicine and nephrology. But as I worked with patients who had undergone drastic, yet life-saving, solid organ transplant procedures, one thing began to stand out: The toll it took on their skin.
An intense regimen of immunosuppressant drugs kept their bodies from rejecting life-giving donor organs, but it left their skin vulnerable to various infections, and even cancers. With time, I began to feel like I could almost tell which procedures patients had undergone and which medications they were taking just by looking at their skin. It was a medical history recorded in dermatological signs.
Transplant patients are subject to an increased risk of any number of skin diseases. Owing to their medically suppressed immune systems, they are vulnerable to fungal and viral infections, and can also develop pigmentation disorders and steroid-induced acne.
It is the role of the transplant dermatologist to not only treat these problems, but also monitor the patient’s overall health as revealed in the skin. Dermatological problems often result from oversuppression of the immune system, and the dermatologist may work closely with other members of the transplant team to dial in the optimum dosage of medication.
Skin cancer is a primary concern. Recipients of solid organ transplants have a skin cancer risk up to 65 times greater than those of people without transplants. The ongoing use of immunosuppressants, a history of exposure to sunlight, and a fair, easily burned skin type can be a lethal combination.
Problems tend to arise about 7 to 10 years after the transplant procedure, but skin cancers can develop even sooner. As with all cancers, timing is critical in determining outcomes. In the Atlanta metropolitan area, wait times to see a medical dermatologist can approach three to four months, an interval that could mean the difference between life and death for some patients.
With a dermatologist as an active member of the transplant team, however, a patient gains speedy access to care. The transplant dermatologist can screen the patient for skin cancer before and after the transplant procedure.
The dermatologist can also educate patients to better prepare them to mitigate risks. Patients can be | <urn:uuid:8cbd52a6-5ba5-4945-878a-021ba0eb3bdf> | 3 | 2.75 | 0.056875 | en | 0.96087 | https://www.aad.org/members/publications/member-to-member/2013-archive/october-11-2013/dire-need-for-dermatological-care-for-transplant-patients- |
X-Ray Exam: Ankle
X-Ray Exam: Ankle
What It Is
An ankle X-ray is a safe and painless test that uses a small amount of radiation to make an image of the ankle. The ankle joint is made up of the ends of the leg bones (tibia and fibula) and the bones in the back part of the foot (tarsal bones).
An X-ray machine sends a beam of radiation through the ankle, and black and white images of the bones and soft tissues are recorded on a computer or special X-ray film. Dense structures that block the passage of the X-ray beam through the body, such as bones, appear white. Softer body tissues, such as the muscles, allow the X-ray beams to pass through them and appear darker.
An X-ray technician in the radiology department of a hospital or a health care provider's office takes the X-rays. Three different pictures are taken: one from the front (anteroposterior view, or AP) of the ankle, one from the side (lateral view, or lat), and one at an angle (internal oblique or mortise view).
Why It's Done
An ankle X-ray can help find the cause of symptoms such as pain, tenderness, and swelling, or deformity of the ankle joint. It can detect broken bones or a dislocated joint. After a broken bone has been set, an X-ray can help determine whether the bones are in proper alignment and whether they have healed properly.
If surgery is required, an X-ray can help in planning the procedure and to assess the results after it. Also, an X-ray can help to detect cysts, tumors, later stage infections, fluid in the joint, and other diseases in the bones of the ankle.
Depending on the results of the ankle X-ray, a follow-up radiology test like a CAT scan or MRI might be needed. These can give different types of information to a doctor when determining the treatment plan.
This is a quick procedure. Although it may take about 15 minutes or longer, actual exposure to radiation is usually less than a second.
The technician will position your child on the table, and will then step behind a wall or to an adjoining room to operate the machine. Three X-rays are usually taken (from the front, side, and at an angle), so the technician will return to reposition the ankle for each X-ray. Occasionally doctors request an X-ray of the opposite ankle for comparison.
A stress X-ray may also be done to check how tightly the ligaments are holding the ankle together. To do this, the doctor or technician stretches the ankle joint while the X-ray is taken to see if the pressure moves the bones apart.
Older kids will be asked to stay still for a few seconds while the X-ray is taken; infants may require gentle restraint. Keeping the ankle still is important to prevent blurring of the X-ray image.
What to Expect
The positions required for the X-rays may feel uncomfortable, but they only need to be held for a few seconds. If your child has an injury and can't hold the required position, the technician might be able to find another position that's easier on your child. Some patients may need medication to relieve the pain a bit before an X-ray is taken. Babies often cry in the X-ray room, especially if they're restrained, but this won't interfere with the procedure.
Getting the Results
A radiologist, a doctor specially trained in interpreting X-ray images, will look at your child's X-rays and send a report to your doctor, who will discuss the results with you.
In general, X-rays are safe. Although there's some risk to the body with any exposure to radiation, the amount of radiation used in an ankle X-ray isn't considered dangerous. It's important to know that radiologists use the minimum amount of radiation required to get the best results.
Helping Your Child
You can help your child prepare for an ankle X-ray by explaining the test in simple terms before the procedure. It may help to explain that getting an X-ray is like posing for a picture.
If You Have Questions
Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD
Date reviewed: May 2014
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Company is association of a people or institution or group of associations which form a single unit to carry out its main objective. Such main objective needs factors of production like land, labour, capital and enterpreneur. All these factors are dependent on one another. E.g. In order to acquire land, labour and enterpreneur, we want capital. Thus capital becomes vital factor of production. Like wise, in order to acquire capital, land and enterpreneur, we want labour and so on. Among these four factors of production, let us discuss about the capital.
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In case of external sources of finance, capital can be raised mainly by issuing shares and debentures to the investors. Share capitals are nothing but the 'owned capital' of the company. On the other hand, debentures are the 'borrowed capital', which is raised by the company for some specific purposes. Hence here comes the difference between shares and debentures :-
1. The shareholders are the owners of the company and debenture holders are the creditors of the company.
2. Debentures have a fixed rate of interest. Whatever be the financial condition of the company, the debenture holders get their interests regularly. Therefore, at the time of liquidation of the company also, the debenture holders and creditors are paid off first and then the shareholders's interests are met.
Other than debentures, there are also some other sources of borrowed capital like Loans from Financial Institutions(IFCI,SFCs,IDBI,NIDC,ICICI,etc) and other Medium or short term sources(Lease financing, hire purchase,bill of exchange, public deposits,etc). | <urn:uuid:18c3ff7e-f45a-4d62-ab12-e2f23c4ba2d4> | 3 | 2.546875 | 0.02749 | en | 0.937277 | https://www.boddunan.com/education/23-Business%20Management/18053-sources-of-capital.html |
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Un cammino attraverso la Commedia (Purg. 9-18)
Now that we have reached the middle of the Purgatorio and, therefore, the middle of the Commedia as a whole, I can't help but marvel again at how miraculous this poem is. It would be one thing to spin the story Dante spins, another to blend theology and philosophy and political history with narrative the way he does, yet another to mix without confusion and without syncretism the sacred and profane, the Christian and the pagan, as he mixes them, and still yet another to maintain a rhyme scheme and structure of the poem. Yet he does all this at the same time. I fear, of course, that I'm simply enthusing here, but I can't help but think such enthusiasm is the only proper response. And I also fear that Dante would only appreciate my enthusiasm if it led to repentance and prayer, to rightly ordered loves. As I read these last few days, I couldn't help thinking: only Dante can make James Joyce look sloppy.
Dante reminds us that order is necessary for delight. The more we recognize how deeply ordered the Commedia is, the more we enjoy it. I can't help but think that Robert Hollander has not wasted a minute of his scholarly life by working on Dante the way he has. Hollander makes explicit what Dante leaves implicit. The scholar uncovers the poet's order. I want to explore that order a bit here because reading the Purgatorio right after reading the Inferno has helped me notice things I hadn't noticed before. Most importantly, I've come to realize that the order of the Commedia has a moral as well as an aesthetic goal.
For starters, let's stick with the punishments that the shades suffer in Purgatory. As Dante and Virgil climb the mountain, the sins the penitents committed become increasingly less severe. Thus pride is worse than envy, which is worse than wrath, which is worse than sloth. The punishments are less severe as well. The proud, who in their earthly lives held their heads high and never deigned to look down to the level of others, must spend the time until the Day of Judgment with their books stooped looking down. The envious, who constantly gazed on others and wished bad for them, must await the Day of Judgment with their eyes sown shut. The wrathful, whose anger separated themselves from others, must pray unceasingly in community. And my favorite is the slothful who, because of their laziness in life, continually run on their level of the mountain! The point of all of these, of course, is to correct the behavior of the penitents. The shades in Hell continue in their sins because they did not accept God's love. The shades in Purgatory repent from their sins because they did accept God's love.
Dante too has changed. As when he was in Hell, Dante ever so slightly undergoes the punishments that the shades in Purgatory suffer. For example, he must bend over to talk to the proud. He promises to join his prayer with the prayers for the wrathful. Dante's literal sympathy with the shades in Hell and Purgatory underscore, I think, the idea that he is less interested in keeping score with his political friends and enemies than he is with learning from them so that he can transform himself. And he seems to be just as worried about us, his readers.
His concern for his readers shows itself in part in the Scholastic discussions of love in Cantos 17 and 18. Hollander notes that these discussions come at the numerical center of the entire Commedia, which clearly wasn't an accident. Virgil tells Dante, "Neither Creator nor His creature, my dear son, / was ever without love, whether naturalor of the mind, he began and this you know. / The natural is always without error, / but the other may err in its chosen goal / or through excessive or deficient vigor. / But when it bends to evil, or pursues the good / With more or less concern than needed, / Then the creature works again his Maker" (Purg. 17:91-102). Human beings don't choose whether or not they love, but they do choose what and how they love. We are at fault when we love with excessive or deficient vigor as well as when we err in what we love. Yet Virgil also notes, "The mind, disposed to love at its creation, / is readily moved toward anything that pleases / as soon as by that pleasure it is roused to act" (Purg. 18:19-21). Given that all human beings love, and given that the mind is readily moved toward anything that pleases it, the pressing issue for Dante is to offer a poem that directs his readers pleasures. And such direction can only occur as any athlete or musician or monk can tell you through an intense, structured training.
In other words, the miraculous order of Dante's poem aims to help his readers see what is worth choosing. (In this way, Dante's aims are the aims of all education worth the name.) There are countless precedents for such structure in the ancient world and in the history of Christian theology. One only need think of Bonaventure's Itinerarium or Thomas's two Summae. Thus, Dante passes along a venerable tradition in the Commedia, but in his hands the tradition takes a supremely beautiful form. The moral end of the form only heightens the aesthetic beauty. Today we separate the moral from the aesthetic. Dante would not have done that. I think Dante has convinced me we're wrong.
Helen asked in a comment on a previous post if there are any records of people changing their lives because of reading the Commedia. If there aren't (and I'm certain there are), it wasn't for a lack of trying on Dante's part. He, like Virgil and like Beatrice, can only offer instruction as lovely and lovingly as possible.
[For part one of our discussion of the Purgatorio see here, with links to discussion of the Inferno.]
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Commenting Guidelines
The more I read the Divine Comedy, especially this Purgatory section, the more astounded I am at the amount of knowledge that Dante has about ancient mythological characters, Church liturgy, scripture, and theology, as well as contemporary political intrigues and persons. Although he was exceptionally literate, I would assume that with the scarcity of books during his time that he held all this knowledge in his head. Hes a Medieval Wikipedia!When Dante arrives at St. Peters Gate in Canto IX an angel with two keys from St. Peter opens the gate. Dante says that the angel was told by St. Peter to err on the side of leniency. A consoling and understandable comment coming from the first pope who denied Christ three times and repented.The sin in each level of Purgatory is paired with an opposing virtue that must be developed. The objective in Purgatory is not only to be purged of the sin but also to become aware of and skilled in a virtue, e.g., humility and gentleness as opposed to pride and wrath. I find it interesting that the virtue to be cultivated in opposition to envy is not contentedness, which is what I would have thought. Rather the virtue is generosity of spirit toward others. In addition to being an awesome poet, Dante shows himself to be an excellent teacher when he uses positive pedagogy by integrating an appropriate Beatitude into each of the levels. Indeed, he tells us that how blessed it is to be on the path to holiness.In Canto XVI Mark the Lombard excoriates the papacy for usurping the functions of the emperor and thus becoming corrupted by the dual office. Is Dante promoting separation of Church and State in the Middle Ages?
You're right, Helen. Dante did not believe the Pope should wield temporal power. He was not alone in the 14th Century in thinking so, and there was a long line of political and ecclesial thinking that agreed with him.
Last week I read an article on Paradise Regained (by an eminent Miltonist, who I'm sure knows his Dante) that declared that Milton is literature's best poet-theologian. At the time I laughed, but I've been thinking about that statement as I caught up with our reading in the Purgatorio. I do think Milton is a more *original* theologian than Dante, probably because he so freely dismisses everything that doesn't make sense to him or that doesn't align extremely closely with his reading of the Bible. But Dante's patient explications and exemplaria are equally as impressive--and I have to admit that I find the theology in Dante's poetry more useful and more moving. Maybe that's because he's working within my own faith tradition, or maybe it's a function of his particular narrative project (unlike Milton, he doesn't make God a character, so he avoids some of those pitfalls), but Dante's treatment of free will and the problem of evil, in Canto 16 and elsewhere, though essentially the same as Milton's, is just so much warmer. There's an emphasis on divine love, and the human desire for God and to know the good, that's ultimately more true to my understanding both of human nature (e.g., not purely rational!) and of humankind's relationship to God than Milton's version. Really, in so many ways, Purgatorio answers many of the things that I found troubling about the Inferno--both theologically and artistically.I also continue to be interested in the changing relationship between Dante and Virgil. While the Purgatorio is certainly a much more joyful poem than the Inferno, their relationship, or Virgil's stature and status, is at least a partial exception.
Flavia, you certainly know Milton _much_, _much_ better than I do, but I think you've hit on an important theological issue in your comment. Today we tend to think (especially if we're academics!) that originality ought to be praised. Indeed, no one writes an article or a monograph unless that person has something original to say. I think Dante would argue strenuously that nothing in the Commedia was theologically novel. Now his presentation is novel, and it's clear that he thinks he's as good a poet as the greats who came before him. (I think it's clear that he thinks he's _better_ than the ones who came before him, especially Virgil, but that's a debatable point.)I wonder if in Milton it's actually the opposite. For Milton, Shakespeare is the great one. And Paradise Lost is, in one way, Milton's way of avoiding Shakespeare by focusing on the Bible. But Milton is much less afraid of being theologically novel.There's a monograph here somewhere. Perhaps even -- dare I say it -- an original one. But I'm sure it's already been written.
Scott, I think you're right about the premium we place on originality--and this actually intersects with some of what you had to say in your original post, about Dante's artistry. Maybe the toughest thing to explain to students of earlier literature is that originality, for its own sake, just wasn't anything the culture valued (indeed, to call something an "innovation" was to condemn it rather strongly!). This isn't to say that new works and approaches weren't celebrated or commended, but they had to be framed as a continuation, or perfection, or rediscovery, of the old.In this, actually, Milton was in much the same position (or much the same bind) as Dante: he absolutely believed that everything he believed was what Jesus taught, what the early Church practiced, and what God intended--and whenever he does something bold and new (artistically or politically), he claims it's actually a recovery of something done by the Greeks and/or the ancient Israelites. The difference is that--although he too is ferociously learned and deeply versed in all the writings of the ancients--he has no interest in tradition for tradition's sake, and the idea of submitting his reason to any person or any institution is totally repugnant to him.As you say, we probably have an easier time relating to that kind of rational individualism than to one of thoughtful, educated, reasoned submission to an existing theological or ecclesiastical model. But what I'm loving about Dante is the way he illustrates both how pleasurable it is not to fully know or understand certain mysteries--and how much scope there is for exploration and creativity even within the theological system he inherits. | <urn:uuid:f2a885b7-1c85-4577-a7a1-3c0506b5a05c> | 2 | 2.0625 | 0.027019 | en | 0.974054 | https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/comment/172486 |
Thin Film Resistance
Model ID: 31
In modeling of transport by diffusion or conduction in thin layers, we often encounter large differences in dimensions of the different domains in a model.
If the modeled structure is a so-called sandwich structure, we can replace the thinnest geometrical layers with a thin layer approximation, provided that the difference in thickness is very large.
This method can be used in many diffusive problems, such as heat and current conduction as well as molecular diffusion. In this model, this technique is used to model a conductive media problem, where a thin film is located between two plates. The thin film approximation model is then compared with the full 3D model.
This model was built using the following:
COMSOL Multiphysics | <urn:uuid:4cfa8321-2915-4c39-8d7a-780b0a320f33> | 3 | 2.984375 | 0.037107 | en | 0.947994 | https://www.comsol.eu/model/thin-film-resistance-31 |
Why You Should Care About the Debt Ceiling Debate
Prices and interest rates up, stocks down — how the debt ceiling debate could affect you.
In just two days, the U.S. government will run out of money to cover its bills unless Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling.
Whether that will happen is still unclear. But a 48-hour resolution seemed increasingly unlikley on Tuesday after the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced competing plans. Even if lawmakers are able to stop squabbling and resolve their differences before Thursday, Bill Hampel, chief economist at the Credit Union National Association, says "consumer confidence is likely to take a major hit." And that could slow the economy for the rest of the year.
But the impact will be even more severe if more time passes without action. Here's why.
If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the government will be in default, which could mean it will not pay the holders of public debt, such as Americans who own government bonds or foreign countries like China, which hold U.S. Treasury securities. Alternatively, the government could be in “technical default,” meaning it would stop paying its other financial obligations, like federal grants for Head Start preschool programs or Social Security and Medicare payments, says Edmund Moy, chief strategist at IRA provider Morgan Gold.
Because of the implications of a government default, experts say the debt ceiling debate is more crucial than the current government shutdown. A default could destroy the faith investors’ place in the U.S. government. “If holders of U.S. debt, both here and around the world, do not receive the interest payments they had been expecting, this would likely permanently destroy the United States’ preeminent position in world financial markets as the last safe place to invest in times of uncertainty,” Hampel says.
Because the U.S. dollar is no longer backed by gold, it is backed by creditors’ “full faith that the United States will be good on paying back the money it borrows,” Moy says. “If that [faith] is damaged, then our credit rating gets lowered and our borrowing costs increase. But also, U.S. prestige takes a huge hit and clears the way for other countries to wean their dependence on the U.S. dollar and argue for a market basket of currencies.”
Ouch. And you could feel the impact directly.
1 2
Tagged in: Nancy Mann Jackson | <urn:uuid:9a11f577-27ae-45a5-b95d-cce369629710> | 2 | 2.21875 | 0.337218 | en | 0.942844 | https://www.dailyworth.com/posts/2186-how-the-debt-ceiling-debate-could-affect-you |
Pancreatic Islet Autoantibodies as Predictors of Type 1 Diabetes
Many autoimmune diseases, such as lupus erythematosis and type 1 diabetes, are caused by autoantibodies. An autoantibody is an antibody (a protein) produced by the immune system of an individual, which is directed against a different protein of the the same individual.
An antibody is typically produced in response to a foreign protein in the body, for example, an infectious organism. The immune system is usually able to recognize and ignore the body’s own cells and not produce antibodies against them. At times, however, the immune system fails to recognize a protein in the body as “self” and produces autoantibodies which attack the protein. This can lead to tissue or organ inflammation and damage.
There is limited information in the scientific literature concerning the predictability of type 1 diabetes based on specific types of pancreatic islet autoantibodies, either alone or in combination. Pancreatic islet cells produce insulin, a hormone that allows cells in the body to absorb glucose from the blood.
A study published in the December 2009 issue of Diabetes Care attempted to determine which pancreatic islet autoantibodies, or what combination of autoantibodies, best predict type 1 diabetes. Subjects were taken from the Diabetes Prevention Trial-Type 1, who were previously screened for islet cell autoantibodies (ICAs).
Autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65), insulinoma-associated antigen-2 (ICA512), and insulin (micro-IAA [mIAA]) were measured in participants of the study. The participants were then followed for the occurrence of type 1 diabetes. As it turns out, autoantibody number was highly predictive of type 1 diabetes. Single autoantibodies ICA, GAD65, and ICA512 were all similarly predictive of type 1 diabetes. However, no subjects with mIAA as single autoantibodies developed type 1 diabetes.
The data, examined by corresponding author Jay M. Sosenko in the Division of Endocrinology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, and colleagues, revealed that that the number of autoantibodies is highly predictive of type 1 diabetes. However, mIAA is less predictive of type 1 diabetes than other autoantibodies. The authors concluded that autoantibody number, and the type of autoantibody must be carefully considered in planning future prevention trials for type 1 diabetes.
This information about the process of developing the autoimmune disease diabetes moves us closer to the point that we can predict and prevent it from occurring -closer to a cure.
Diabetes Care December 2009
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Interactive Exhibit: Lights at Night
Explore Earth images at night. Use online satellite images to zoom in on your hometown or view places far away. Compare satellite images from 2003 and 2012 to infer changes in population, energy consumption, energy efficiency and economic activity. What patterns of human activity can you find?
The National Academies produces resources for policy makers and the general public on issues related to energy. For more information, please explore the links below.
As debates about energy grow more intense, Americans need dependable, objective, and authoritative energy information. The National Academies, advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine, provide the facts about energy—a complex issue that affects us as individuals and as a nation.
This work will provide authoritative estimates of the current contributions and future potential of existing and new energy supply and demand technologies, their associated effects, and projected costs so that policy options can be productively considered, debated, and decided by the nation.
Reports covering the areas of energy supply and demand technologies and systems, including resource extraction through mining and drilling, energy conversion, distribution and delivery, and efficiency of use; environmental consequences of energy related activities; environmental systems and controls in areas related to fuels production, energy conversion, transmission, and use; and related issues in national security and defense.
Work from the National Academies on a broad range of energy technologies and practices, including those associated with energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy, clean vehicles and alternative transportation fuels, clean coal, nuclear power, and other technologies can potentially contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while promoting economic growth, enhancing energy security, and reducing pollution.
List of sustainable energy activities at the National Academies.
Lights image provided by NASA. | <urn:uuid:25d5a776-3672-4d09-a06f-96adbb202479> | 3 | 2.921875 | 0.0639 | en | 0.894933 | https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/explore-the-science/lights-at-night?mini=2014-08 |
Mount Sinai Researchers Identify Novel Function of Insulin in the Brain
Brain insulin suppressed release of fatty acids from fat. Impaired brain insulin signaling increases the release of fatty acids which can lead to or worsen diabetes.
New York, NY
– February 16, 2011 /Press Release/ ––
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a novel function of brain insulin, indicating that impaired brain insulin action may be the cause of the unrestrained lipolysis that initiates and worsens type 2 diabetes in humans. The research is published this month in the journal Cell Metabolism.
Led by Christoph Buettner, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the research team first infused a tiny amount of insulin into the brains of rats and then assessed glucose and lipid metabolism in the whole body. In doing so, they found that brain insulin suppressed lipolysis, a process during which triglycerides in fat are broken down and fatty acids are released.
Furthermore, in mice that lacked the brain insulin receptor, lipolysis was unrestrained. While fatty acids are important energy sources during fasting, they can worsen diabetes, especially when they are released after the person has eaten, as happens in people with diabetes. Researchers previously believed that insulin’s ability to suppress lipolysis was entirely mediated through insulin receptors expressed on adipocytes, or fat tissue cells.
"We knew that insulin has this fundamentally important ability of suppressing lipolysis, but the finding that this is mediated in a large part by the brain is surprising," said Dr. Buettner. "The major lipolysis-inducing pathway in our bodies is the sympathetic nervous system and here the studies showed that brain insulin reduces sympathetic nervous system activity in fat tissue. In patients who are obese or have diabetes, insulin fails to inhibit lipolysis and fatty acid levels are increased. The low-grade inflammation throughout the body’s tissue that is commonly present in these conditions is believed to be mainly a consequence of these increased fatty acid levels."
Dr. Buettner added, "When brain insulin function is impaired, the release of fatty acids is increased. This induces inflammation, which can further worsen insulin resistance, the core defect in type 2 diabetes. Therefore, impaired brain insulin signaling can start a vicious cycle since inflammation can impair brain insulin signaling." This cycle is perpetuated and can lead to type 2 diabetes. Our research raises the possibility that enhancing brain insulin signaling could have therapeutic benefits with less danger of the major complication of insulin therapy, which is hypoglycemia."
Dr. Buettner’s team plans to further study conditions that lead to diabetes such as overfeeding to test if excessive caloric intake impairs brain insulin function. A major second goal will be to find ways of improving brain insulin function that could break the vicious cycle by restraining lipolysis and improving insulin resistance. This study is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association. First author of the study is Thomas Scherer, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease.
About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
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Michigan Dairy Review
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Real-world Experience via Internship: Josh First
Ike Iyioke
Dept. of Animal Science
Josh First
The MSU Ag Tech Dairy Management Program is a 1.5-year long program designed to provide students with a basic foundation of knowledge about dairy production and management. Basic principles of dairy nutrition, reproduction, health, business and management, are studied.
Every effort is made to match each student’s goals and interests with specific internship opportunities. Over 50% of 2011 internships were outside the state of Michigan. The size of herds utilized for internships ranged from 60 cows to over 7,000 cows and represented all types of dairy operations including purebred, commercial, grazing, and organic.
Where did you intern?
Lew-Max Holsteins, a 450-cow farm in Belding Michigan, owned by Ken and Aaron Gasper.
What was your prior experience?
I worked on 200-cow family dairy farm in Ionia. I assisted my father in doing different types of work from treating cows to planting and harvesting crops.
What were your responsibilities as an intern?
Assisting the herdsman at first with fresh cows and sick cows was my main job, but I also did vaccinating, dehorning, worked on lame cows, pulled calves, and pretty much anything else since it was a smaller farm. When the herdsman went on vacation for about 10 days I was in charge of all the animal healthcare and breeding on the farm.
In what ways was the farm you interned at similar and different from farms to which you are accustomed to?
We both do a lot of the same practices when it comes to managing and caring for the animals except that this farm just dealt with a larger number of them. This farm had heifers that were custom raised which is different from my farm. Both of our farms are high-producing farms so we both used newer technology and techniques to stay on top of challenges that may arise and to keep progressing.
What did you learn from your internship?
That was my first experience working for someone other than my dad so it was good to learn what it felt like to work for a different boss and be more of an "employee" and not just a family member. It was also good to learn how another farm dealt with different issues and challenges on the dairy.
What were your expectations before the internship? How did they differ from reality?
I basically just wanted to know what it was like to work for someone else and learn how a very good farm was managed. I wanted to gain as much knowledge as I could so I could implement that on our dairy to make it better. My expectations were met for the most part but if I had the opportunity to devote more time to the internship (I only worked about 7 hours a day), it would have been better for both me and my boss.
What general advice would you give to future interns?
Go in with an open mind because everyone does things differently and you are there to learn what would make them successful. I also would make sure you go away from home so you can meet new friends and form a closer relationship with your boss and his family.
What specific aspects of the internship would you recommend to would-be interns?
Make sure you go to work willing to learn and get as much knowledge as possible from your co-workers. Ask as many questions as possible and get to know your co-workers on a personal level.
What are you doing now?
I purchased the farm from my parents in the spring of 2011. We currently have 240 cows and farm 700 acres. | <urn:uuid:e08416bc-38ea-49b9-b4b3-1603cdeab0ff> | 2 | 1.515625 | 0.051328 | en | 0.96827 | https://www.msu.edu/~mdr/vol17no3/joshfirst.html |
LESS precompiler and CSS plugin for grunt-browserify
Version 0.0.1
LESS precompiler and CSS plugin for grunt-browserify. Forked from node-lessify.
When bundling an app using Browserify, it's often convenient to be able to include your CSS as a script that appends the style declarations to the head. This is particularly relevant for self-assembling apps that attach themselves to a page but otherwise have reserved real-estate on the DOM.
This small script allows you to require() your CSS or LESS files as you would any other script.
npm install grunt-less-browserify
Write your LESS or CSS files as you normally would, and put them somewhere where your script can find it.
Then simply require them as you might anything else:
module.exports = function(grunt) {
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
browserify: {
dist: {
files: {
'build.js': ['main.js']
options: {
transform: ['grunt-less-browserify'],
lessBrowserify: {
imports: ['helpers.less'],
output: 'dist/word.css',
jsAppend: false
• imports: A list of files that should be imported before compiling every less file. This is very useful for less helper libraries.
• output: An output file for the concatenated stylesheet.
• jsAppend: Whether or not to add the stylesheets using javascript in the browserify output. (default true)
The stylesheets are compiled (in the case of LESS), minified, and bundle into a function that creates a new <style> element and appends it to the <head> using native Javascript.
LESS allows one to @import other LESS files. This module synchronously imports those dependencies at the time of the bundling. It looks for the imported files in both the directory of the parent file and the folder where the module itself lives, so it should work so long as the paths in the @import commands are correct relative to the importing file, as usual. It is not currently tested for recursive importing. | <urn:uuid:0a1e3c41-bbd2-433a-8b52-d1a9cdfb5b2d> | 2 | 1.671875 | 0.198666 | en | 0.698427 | https://www.npmjs.com/package/grunt-less-browserify |
Electron Scattering Project
Scattering of Electrons in Matter
"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis...that all things are made of atoms-little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."
-- Richard Feynman
By the early part of the 20th century, the existence of atoms was not seriously in doubt, but little was known about their structure. Experiments had shown that electrons exist and come from atoms. These particles have very small mass (compared to that of the atom as a whole) and negative electric charge. Clearly there must be something else inside the atom, since most of the mass cannot be accounted for by electrons alone. Furthermore, since atoms are electrically neutral, some part of the atom must have a compensating positive charge. The questions were: what is this positively-charged "stuff"; and how are it and the electrons put together to make an atom?
One popular theory, called the "plum pudding" model, had the negatively charged electrons embedded like plums in a "pudding" of positive charge. (Think of negatively charged chocolate chips in positively charged cookie dough, if you like.) The atom was static, with the electrons at rest in the "pudding."
Ernest Rutherford and his collaborators Marsden and Geiger (of Geiger counter fame) settled this question in a series of classic experiments carried out between 1908 and 1913. They bombarded thin foils of gold and other materials with heavy "alpha particles," and observed how these were scattered. Interestingly, some of the particles bounced straight back from the foil. Rutherford concluded that the only way this was possible was if the positive charge and most of the mass was concentrated in a tiny region at the center of the atom, which he called the "nucleus," and not spread out as in the plum pudding model. Only such a concentrated region of mass and charge could provide the strong repulsion needed to turn the bombarding particles around and send them back.
This immediately raised a new question: What keeps the negatively charged electrons from being attracted to the positively charged nucleus and falling into it? Rutherford proposed a model in which the atom behaves like a miniature solar system: the electrons move around the nucleus fast enough that their momentum keeps them in orbit against the attractive force of the opposite charges. Unlike the plum pudding model, Rutherford's atom is dynamic;the electrons are constantly in motion. Also, unlike its competitors it is correct. Literally thousands of experiments have since confirmed this basic picture of the atom. In fact Rutherford's discovery went well beyond providing a snapshot of the atom; his results had extremely important consequences for the further development of physics. His experiments are thus among the most important in the history of science.
In this project we will consider a variation on Rutherford's theme and develop a simulation of a beam of electrons bombarding a thin foil of some material. This basic process underlies the operation of a number of modern devices, including Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopes (SEM and TEM). The basic idea behind these is to use the pattern of scattered electrons to reconstruct a picture of the object under study.
As they wend their way through the foil, the electrons interact with the foil atoms in various ways, losing energy and bouncing off the nuclei in different directions. Some fraction of them eventually make it through the foil, some fraction are reflected, and a few wind up losing so much energy that they are captured. The goal of our simulation will be to calculate these fractions. We can then compare the predictions of our model to actual laboratory data, to see how well it works.
The heart of the simulation is the basic physics that governs how the electrons interact with the foil atoms. These are equations of "quantum mechanics," which determine how much energy is lost and how much the direction changes in a single collision. Ultimately it is these laws that determine the fractions of transmitted, reflected and captured electrons.
To calculate these fractions we will use the Monte Carlo technique. This is a popular approach to solving complex problems, and has as its basic feature the averaging of a large number of random events. To take a simple example, consider the problem of determining the value of pi. A typical Monte Carlo approach might begin by drawing a square with a circle inscribed in it:
The circle has radius R, and the square has sides of length 2R.
Now imagine throwing darts randomly in the square. After many darts have been thrown, the ratio of the number of darts that land in the circle to the total number of darts will be about the same (if the darts really are thrown randomly!) as the ratio of the area of the circle to the area of the square. But this ratio is just
So by counting the fraction of darts that land in the circle, and multiplying by four, we get an approximate value for pi. The approximation gets better and better the more darts we use.
In our problem we will consider a large number of electrons and follow each one as it works its way through the foil. As it travels, each electron bounces randomly off the atoms in the foil according to known quantum-mechanical interactions. Ultimately it will either escape, be reflected, or be captured. After simulating a large number of electrons, the resulting fractions of each type of particle should be a good approximation to the actual transmission, reflection and capture rates predicted by the model.
We will be using AVS/Express to visualize our results in various ways. One interesting possibility is to create images of particle tracks in the foil. This example shows the tracks of 70 electrons as they impact a thin foil of gold. The incoming beam is represented by the heavy red line. The colors of the tracks indicates the energies of the particles, with red being higher and blue lower values. On average, each electron undergoes several hundred collisions before escaping the foil.
Dave Robertson is the OSC coordinator for the Electron Scattering project.
For assistance, write [email protected] or call 614-292-0890. | <urn:uuid:5f28490c-87c9-4ac1-925f-a897c3161617> | 4 | 3.5625 | 0.738987 | en | 0.949954 | https://www.osc.edu/education/si/projects/electron_scattering |
Quantum harmonic oscillator with harmonic perturbation
Let's consider a harmonic oscillator with a harmonic perturbation:
[tex]H = \frac{p^2}{2} + \frac{x^2}{2} + a \frac{x^2}{2}.[/tex]
Exact solution is known, but we want to derive it using perturbation theory. More specifically, suppose we want to obtain a series for the ground state energy [itex]E(a)[/itex]. This series is known to be a convegent one (when [itex]|a| < 1[/itex]) with sum equal to the exact answer ([itex]1/2 \sqrt{1+a}[/itex]). We want to comfirm this fact by a direct calculation.
2. Relevant equations and 3. The attempt at a solution
Well-knows recurrence relations of Rayleigh-Schrodinger theory are applicable, and I've manually checked first five orders. The calculations quickly become very cumbersome, and there seems to be no easy way to obtain a general expression for n-th order (known in advance from the exact answer).
What is the most straightforward way to obtain this series? Will the Kato's theory be of any help in this case?
Thank you in advance.
Last edited: Aug 18, 2011
2. jcsd
3. dextercioby
dextercioby 12,294
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
Are you using a ladder operator approach ? The calculations should be the simplest.
4. Sure, I use them to calculate matrix elements of perturbation. This part of calculation is indeed simple. What seems to be not simple is the calculation of the n-th order of perturbation series and not just 1st and 2nd like most textbooks do.
1st order correction is [itex]A |2\rangle[/itex], 2nd order - [itex]B |2\rangle + C |4\rangle[/itex], 3rd order - [itex]D |2\rangle + F |4\rangle + G |6\rangle[/itex] and so on. The number of terms grows with n.
There should be an elegant way to do the calculation even in the framework of an "old" perturbation theory. I deliberately avoid using diagramms here. | <urn:uuid:b1f42877-df89-49ab-9b1a-3d4f0ced1309> | 2 | 1.960938 | 0.206912 | en | 0.899478 | https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/quantum-harmonic-oscillator-with-harmonic-perturbation.522595/ |
Reflectivity of copper
1. We have a question that asks us what thickness of copper is necessary to achieve optical reflectivity. I know that the answer is just basically several times the skin depth (says 10 times). the only problem is that this contradicts a previous result that I've seen. We can prove that when a wave is incident on a metallic surface that the power dissipated per unit surface area is equal to (H^2)/2sigma*delta
where sigma is the conductivity and delta is the skin depth. We get this by integrating the poynting vector at z=0. This seems to suggest that the energy reflected from the surface of the conductor is independent of the depth of the copper, so surely it shouldn't matter thow thick the actual layer of copper is?
thanks for your help.
2. jcsd
3. berkeman
Staff: Mentor
It seems that the surface finish will have a large effect on the amount of reflected optical energy. But assuming that the surface is highly polished, then maybe the two effects that you mention are not completely at odds. Only some of the optical energy will be reflected, regardless of how many skin depths deep the copper is. If the copper is only 1 skin depth thick, then some of the optical energy gets transmitted, some gets absorbed, and some gets reflected. If the copper is many skin depths thick, then none gets transmitted, some gets absorbed and some gets reflected. Can you reconcile the amount absorbed with the amount reflected? | <urn:uuid:43bbad25-f834-4b50-91a9-7ea8f0ccc0e3> | 3 | 2.78125 | 0.98216 | en | 0.940755 | https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/reflectivity-of-copper.115721/ |
Baby Steps to Grown-Up Control
Flex your willpower muscle in everyday life and your diet will benefit.
By David Adler, published on January 1, 2007 - last reviewed on November 5, 2014
The pickled bologna offered at the bar in Michigan certainly caught the attention of Joseph Korely. A New York artist, Korely was on his annual Christmas trip back home to visit the family, a regular occasion for digging up old hatchets. As the evening wore on, Korely exercised steely self-control, remaining impeccably polite to his brother despite several provocations. At the same time, Korely, a trim man who is careful about what he eats, found himself nibbling at a platter of pickled bologna. As Korely explains, "I kept it together with my brother. But I lost it with the bologna." He polished off a whole platter. Then ordered another.
Kathleen Vohs, a professor of consumer behavior at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, is not surprised to hear stories of people pushing themselves so hard that they break down. "Self-control is in many ways a limited resource, like a muscle that gets depleted if overworked," she says.
Anatomy of a Failure
Don't push yourself too hard, or your discipline will buckle. More is not always better.
Psychologist C. Peter Herman of the University of Toronto studies breakdowns in dieting. Herman's experiments involve tempting dieters with food. If people are calm, they can typically stick to their diet. But when stress, intoxication, or fatigue are induced, dieting tends to fail. Herman looks at it this way: "If your mind is disturbed or occupied, you don't have the wherewithal to maintain focus. So if you relax your defenses, your palate will take over."
Even the stress of simple boredom can throw off a diet. For example, Elizabeth De Lotbiniere, an American novelist based in London, found that she could keep to her diet each day until the time her husband came home. Then she would have to listen to the details of his day. "It was just so boring," De Lotbiniere says. "I kept thinking if I have to listen to this I'm going to at least have some peanuts." Now separated from her husband, she found that her "snacking problem left with him."
Structuring Success
Why diet boot camp isn't such a bad idea.
Dan Ariely, a psychologist at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, has examined people's insights into their abilities for self-regulation. Ariely points out that people can promise themselves they will stick to a diet, but without external controls and penalties, they're unlikely to follow up on their commitments. Leaving it up to ourselves may be too hard. This explains why people need to turn to Weight Watchers, diet boot camps, or even stomach stapling. Ariely notes several tools to aid self-control, such as ordering foods online to avoid the temptation of seeing it at the supermarket. Ariely also points out that it's hard to define a portion size and find a natural stopping point. One solution is to use plates with preset amounts, such as frozen dinners.
The Hard Science of Hard Lessons
A neurologist's view.
If self-control can be depleted like a muscle, then it can also be built up, too. And brain research supports the muscle metaphor. Richard Restak, a neurologist at George Washington Medical School, has studied brain scans of people with eating disorders and problems with inhibition. Restak is currently treating a patient with damage to the prefrontal cortex, the result of a traffic accident. The PFC is the brain's executive command center. "The patient has very limited self-control. He lashes out, yells at people, and is a compulsive shopper," Restak explains.
Based on his work with this patient and others, Restak believes you can improve the performance of the brain itself. "Increasing activity in the area that regulates self-control (the PFC), for example by thinking twice before you buy something, enhances the functionality of this area permanently," he says—and these changes are visible using neuroimaging. In other words, the brain bulks up.
Building the Muscle of Self-Control
Exercising restraint in other realms can carry over into dieting discipline.
You can build that psychic six-pack through a few simple psychological and physical strategies. Vohs and psychologist Roy Baumeister of Florida State University are pioneers in this area. Their work shows the importance of being physically self-aware, and using small actions to build the mental muscle of self-control.
"We call these 'baby steps,'" Vohs says. They are small but easily achievable. For example, if you are used to having a glass of wine when you come home from work, Vohs suggests trying to skip it for a few days. It's not as much for the saved calories (though this can't hurt) as it is to create an interruption that builds awareness. By building the self-control muscle through daily tiny tests of will, you may be able to tackle bigger tasks—like a major diet. "By taking small steps, you end with a sense of discipline that is more meaningful and powerful," Vohs says. "It's so simple. Start small and build the muscle of self-control to get your body and mind in tune."
Four baby steps to improving restraint.
Try these exercises to build the mental muscle that can actually help you diet.
• Focus on eliminating "um"s or other unnecessary words from your speech.
• Spend a week or two avoiding alcohol.
• Try brushing your teeth with your less dominant hand.
• Remind yourself to sit up straight.
Control Measures
How much self-discipline do you really have? Take this quiz—designed by Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota—to find out.
never = 1
sometimes = 2
frequently = 3
almost always = 4
___ How often do you hit the snooze button on the alarm clock?
___ Do you find that even when you try to control your emotions, others can tell what you are feeling?
___ On days when you feel tired and lethargic are you unable to get yourself to the gym or exercise class?
___ Do people say you have no patience?
___ At the end of a party, how often do you regret some of the things you've said?
___ Do you have a problem controlling your urges? For instance, have you found you can't control your desire to drink alcohol or to gamble?
___ How often do you act on the first impulse you have?
___ Do your friends tell you that you're bad with money and unable to manage your finances?
Scoring: How muscular is your restraint?
• 26-32: Weak. Start flexing today. You need to bulk up.
• 19-25: All right. Nice tone, but a few problem areas.
• 8-18: Strong. You could put the world on your shoulders. | <urn:uuid:f1687005-ba07-418c-9ea8-55cef77573ae> | 2 | 2.21875 | 0.03653 | en | 0.964762 | https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200701/baby-steps-grown-control |
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Grant Fritchey
Why Put Your Database into Source Control?
08 July 2014
Database Lifecycle Management Patterns & Practices Library Stage 2
Stage 2: Version Control
Checking program code into source control is a daily ritual for most developers, but versioning database code is less well-understood. Grant Fritchey argues that getting your databases under source control is not only vital for the stability of development and deployment, but it will make your life easier when something does go wrong.
Software development is a difficult and demanding discipline. It gets even more difficult when you bring teams of developers together on a single project. One of the fundamental issues arises around the code itself. Who is responsible for what piece of it? What changes have they made? How do you get those changes from one member of the team to the next? How do you keep a history of each change, in case it causes problems later that you need to track down and fix? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is to manage your code through a source control system.
Source control systems, also called version control systems (VCS) or revision control systems, date back to the birth of modern computing. One of the first be developed was in 1975 when there was finally enough disk space to store a second copy of the program, just in case. Since then, getting application code into source control has gone beyond being an industry standard practice to simply a part of programming, like writing a function or an IF clause. Yes, there are some shops or individual developers who don't use source control for their code, but those are the glaring exceptions that prove the almost universal rule that code goes into source control.
But databases are different.
The history of databases diverges from the history of code. At some point developers were no longer responsible for databases. Instead they moved into the hands of system administrators or dedicated database administrators, who, frankly, looked at the world quite a bit differently than developers. They spent time worrying about backups, availability, integrity and performance.
In many cases, database development work moved into the realm of the DBA. While many DBAs came from the ranks of developers, they spent more time worrying about all those administration tasks than the development tasks, and some of the best practices and methods created for managing code just weren't applied to databases. But they should be.
DBAs are very good at putting in place backup schemes that will protect the production data. However, when working with the code of a database, and the SQL that defines data structures and stored procedures is nothing but code, a full database backup is an unwieldy device by which to maintain copies of the schema, for retrieval of changes and historical tracking. For example, to find out what changed between the previous and current versions of a stored procedure a DBA would be forced to use a third party tool that could directly compare to a backup, or to run a full restore of the database to a secondary location, and then extract the stored procedure definition. This isn't always possible, it's frequently impractical and it's certainly going to be slow.
Getting a database into source control provides a much more efficient mechanism for backing up the SQL code for your database. Retrieving a previous version of a stored procedure from entails simply inspecting the history of changes within your VCS. Retrieval is nearly instantaneous.
Once you realize that your SQL is code, it immediately makes sense to use the same backup mechanisms that code uses, which is a VCS.
Within most database management systems, it's possible to find out when an object was created or last modified, and which login performed that action. However, there is usually no historical record of any previous modifications to that object. Further, depending on the security mechanism within the database, you may simply see that a system administrator or database owner made the change, with no indication as to the actual identity of the person working within that role.
If you have your database in a VCS, and use that VCS as a fundamental part of your development and deployment mechanisms, then it will provide exactly that type of tracking. All changes originate in the VCS and are not made directly against the production system outside the process around your VCS. You'll know who made what change and when it was made.
Many organizations have to comply with legal requirements for change auditing, such as those mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley. Implementing a VCS could be the quickest and easiest way to provide the required level of historical tracking of all changes so that for every change to the database you know who did it and when.
As soon as we enter a new code file into the VCS, it assigns it a version. Each time we commit a change to that file, the version increments, and we have access to the current version and all previous versions of the file. When we put a database into the VCS, this means that every database object (table, view stored procedure and so on) in the VCS has a version number. We can also create labels, or tags, that allow us to assign meaningful "build number" to the set of files that comprise a particular version of a database.
Furthermore, having the database in source control directly alongside the application will integrate the database changes with the application code changes, so that you'll always know that the version of the database being deployed directly corresponds to the version of the application being deployed. This direct integration helps to ensure better coordination between teams and it can help when troubleshooting issues.
Automating Deployments
If all changes needed for a production system are in a development database somewhere instead of inside a VCS, deployments are necessarily going to be a manual affair. You will need a process that will generate changes from your development database in order to make the production database mirror the newer design. There are third party products that can help, but how do you differentiate between objects that are meant to go out with one version and objects that are meant to go out with a different version of your code? From within a development database this is frequently impossible since there is no clear and easy methods for differentiating object changes within that database.
Once you start generating your deployment scripts from source control, a number of opportunities open up. You'll be able to differentiate the database objects into known versions which will allow you to control what is getting deployed. Once you can control what is being deployed, you can bring automation to bear on the deployment process. You'll be able to take advantage of continuous integration and other automated deployment and testing mechanisms that application code already uses. Automated deployments also means more testing and validation of those deployments which can help to ensure the final deployment to production is successful.
Since the SQL that defines a database is code, it just makes sense to take advantage of the existing and long-established mechanisms for managing that code. You'll have a better way to backup that code, and, more importantly, retrieve previous versions of that code. Source control for the database provides an audit trail to help with troubleshooting and legal compliance. You'll get better integration with your application code through shared source management. Finally you'll be able to automate your deployments. All these reasons makes putting databases into source control a smart move to help improve management of systems within your organization.
If you'd like to learn more about database source control, Red Gate has put together a free whitepaper "5 Common Barriers to Database Source Control, and How You Can Get Around Them".
Download the whitepaper
This article is part of our Database Lifecycle Management patterns & practices.
Return to the library to find more articles on DLM, or visit for more information about SQL Server products for database lifecycle management.
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Subject: One other consideration for auditing
Posted by: paschott (view profile)
Posted on: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 at 12:12 PM
Message: DDL triggers work really well for auditing and can also help catch if someone makes a change to an object outside of VCS. That's saved me some trouble in the past if we did have a change made for any reason that wasn't checked in. I know that they work in SQL Server for 2005+, but not sure how or if this is implemented in other DBMS platforms.
Great article on why to get your DB in source control and I can only hope people take this to heart and do it.
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Paphos, Cyprys
Golden beaches lining its coastline, mountains further inland, protected by UNESCO and the birth place of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. This is Paphos!
The second largest island of the Mediterranean Sea: Cyprus. At the west of this fantastic island lies the city of Paphos. For many sun worshippers, a ticket to this beach town means golden sandy beaches and clear blue water. But the reason for a visit to Paphos could also be the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. The Baths of Aphrodite lie just outside the town. There is plenty of good hiking opportunities in the mountains inland.
Fly to Roman Paphos
During the Roman period, Paphos was the capital city of Cyprus. This rich history has placed the city under UNESCO protection. Visit the ruins or one of the museums, such as the Byzantine Museum, in the old part of Paphos. Have you worked up an appetite after a day of sightseeing? Try the delicious fish dishes in one of the lively restaurants in the harbour. Book an affordable flight to Paphos! | <urn:uuid:bdaac625-1899-4d80-84b3-fa36aaff47ca> | 2 | 2.234375 | 0.067461 | en | 0.918238 | https://www.transavia.com/en-EU/destinations/cyprus/paphos/ |
Digestion & GI Health – The Truth About pH Balance
by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP
Think fast: what’s your pH?
If you are like a lot of my patients, you might be familiar with the term “pH” from biology class or a skin cleanser commercial. And the idea of balancing your inner pH has become trendy these days, being featured in magazines and spawning an assortment of products in health food stores. But beneath the “trendiness” lies an important concern: the fact that the diet of most Americans is overloaded with foods that are acid-forming — that tip the body’s pH toward acidity. And while our bodies are equipped to counterbalance a certain amount of acidity, what we’re seeing is that the standard American diet overwhelms our ability to buffer the acids in our diets — particularly when other acid-promoting factors such as stress enter the picture.
When they learn about the pH trend, my patients often ask, “When it comes to health, what role does pH really play?” Some proponents would have you believe that balancing your pH will cure all health woes. While pH is one of many factors I look at when considering a woman’s health, I never consider it in isolation. That would be too simplistic an approach, and would fail to take into account the complex role pH plays in our physiology. That said, it is an essential factor in our overall health equation, so let’s take a look at how pH imbalance affects us — and what we can do to correct it.
Chronic GI Support Nutritional Supplement System
Understanding the pH scale
The derivation of the “pH” is variously traced to terms meaning potential for hydrogen or hydrogen power.
The pH scale measures acidity in terms of hydrogen ion (H+) activity in a solution. A solution is acidic when it has more free hydrogen activity, and alkaline when there is a lack of free hydrogen activity.
The lower the pH reading, the more acidic the solution. Readings from 0–7 are considered acidic, and numbers from 7.0–14 are considered basic, or alkaline. Pure water, in the very middle of the (logarithmic) pH scale, has a pH of 7.0, which is considered neutral.
Body pH balance
In terms of body pH balance, there is no one “correct” reading for the entire body. For instance, healthy human skin has an approximate pH of 5.5 (slightly acidic). Saliva, on the other hand, has a pH of around 6.5–7.4 (teetering on either side of neutral). Your digestive tract’s pH can range from 1.5 to 7.0, depending on what stage of digestion is underway. And when the body is in good working order, human blood reveals a narrow pH window of about 7.35–7.45 (slightly alkaline). Other parts of a healthy, well-functioning body will show still other pH readings.
Why is this? It’s all part of the same body, so why wouldn’t a person’s acid–alkaline balance be the same all over? Because different parts of our bodies serve different purposes. Each of these purposes and their related processes requires a particular acid–alkaline environment for optimum function.
Skin needs to be slightly acidic in order to deal with environmental factors like bacteria and other toxins. Likewise, the vagina maintains an acidic environment to protect itself, and when the pH is raised too high, infections like bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections can result. The stomach and other parts of the digestive system are highly acidic out of biological necessity. The digestive acids are part of how we process and use the foods we eat as fuel. They are part of our internal combustion for nutrition.
Part of the confusion over body pH arises from the close-to-neutral pH balance of our blood, saliva, and urine — substances we can test easily. This has led to the mistaken belief that pH levels are static throughout the body, when in fact they are not. Eating more alkalizing foods (such as leafy greens and dried fruits) can help balance and maintain the pH level of your body and ultimately promote better well-being, but this doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and it also doesn’t happen overnight. Along with a diet rich in alkalizing plant foods, it takes time and commitment to certain lifestyle changes, including exercise and regular detoxification. It also takes knowing whether or not your pH is truly off-balance.
Enthusiasts of the “pH miracle” say that simply living in the modern world — with its reliance on refined grains and sugars, corn-fed beef, and unhealthy fats — means we are all overly acidic. To rectify this, we should focus all our attention on restoring “healthy pH,” by which they mean a blood pH of 7.35–7.45. I fully agree that most people could benefit by addressing their acid–base balance, but before anyone begins megadosing on supplements or downing gallons of “green” water, they need to define their individual needs. (Remember, the key to pH is balance!) And the best way to do this? Test your pH.
Testing your pH
Physicians use esophageal and gastric pH meters to help identify the causes of heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD). Such tests determine the amount of acid in the environment being tested. Similarly, you can test the pH of your saliva and/or your urine with simple litmus strips, which are available in most pharmacies. Keep in mind that in order to get the full picture of your body’s pH, you’ll need to carry out the test not just on one day, but daily for a period of time.
Tracking your urine or salivary pH over the course of a week or so will provide a window into what is going on in your internal world. A diet that lacks essential vitamins and nutrients and is high in acid–forming foods will show up in acidic urine. This is a good indicator that your body is struggling to maintain an optimal digestive environment (also affected by your intestinal flora and immune system), which could be contributing to systemic inflammation — that ubiquitous bugaboo at the root of so many chronic health concerns, including heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity.
If conditions of hyperacidity and inflammation are occurring in your body, the next step is to take a look at the source of the acidity — and food is the first place to start. Imbalanced pH is primarily a product of what you eat — although this might not mean what you think it does.
You may think it’s acid — but it’s not
Considering whether a food is acidifying or alkalizing in the diet can require some mind-bending, because some foods that we think of as “acidic” are, in fact, alkalizing in the diet. It’s actually better to look at whether the food is acid–forming or alkaline–forming, not where the food itself falls on the pH scale. So even though we think of citrus as acidic, fruits like lemons and tangerines are alkalizing because when they’re consumed, they break down and donate alkaline mineral salt compounds like citrates and ascorbates.
Similarly, foods we might normally think of as meek and mild in nature are acid-forming when ingested. Grains and milk are two examples. What’s important is not so much the pH of the food as it goes into our bodies, but the resultant pH once the food is broken down — and this is dictated by the residues the broken-down nutrients leave behind, particularly sulfates and phosphates.
But this isn’t the sort of association most of us can readily make, so we have compiled a list of common acidic and alkalizing foods to guide you (refer to our Acid Alkaline Food Chart). But why is it important to have a certain acid–alkaline balance in our diets? The answer has to do with the dance that occurs between acid and alkaline elements in our digestion.
Digestive enzymes, microbes, nutrients, and pH balance
As mentioned earlier, pH within the digestive tract isn’t a constant, and in each zone of increasing acidity, there are different digestive enzymes and beneficial microbes present. In the mouth, where the process begins, the pH is only mildly acidic, and the enzyme amylase is present. Amylase, responsible for breaking down starch, works in a fairly neutral environment, so when the pH falls below 6.5 it is no longer active.
Acid isn’t all bad…
The acidic environment of the stomach is not only necessary for processing food, but it also helps to protect your body from pathogenic organisms or food antigens that shouldn’t be there.
Interestingly, many people with acid reflux and heartburn — a condition conventional medicine blames on acid-containing foods like fruits and vegetables — actually have too little acid in their stomachs, a problem that’s compounded by medications like Pepcid and TUMS that increase alkalinity in the stomach.
In my experience, many of my patients get rid of their heartburn and acid reflux by adding more acid to their diets. For more on this, please see our article on the link between IBS, acid reflux, and antacids.
As food makes its way from your mouth to your stomach, the digestive tract becomes more acidic. Pepsin, the enzyme responsible for protein breakdown, needs an acidic environment and therefore gets released into the stomach, where pH is very low (about 2.0–1.5). Your small intestine is where most of the nutrients in your food get absorbed, and where the pH increases from 2.0 to 6.5 as the food travels from the stomach to the small and large intestines.
Protein — particularly in the form of red meats — requires huge amounts of alkaline minerals for complete digestive processing. When the system goes looking for the alkalinity needed to offset the acid load, it looks first to the minerals currently in the digestive tract. If it fails to find alkaline nourishment there, it draws on the calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium minerals stored in our bones.
This is where the good greens and essential vitamins and minerals come in. When we eat a diet that is rich in nutrients, there’s no need to draw on the stored minerals in the bones. It’s when we don’t consume a nutrient-rich diet — or, worse, when we over consume foods that promote acidity in the body — that we start tapping our bone resources. In the short term, this isn’t an issue, but in the long run, it can have serious consequences, not just for our bone health but for our overall health.
pH and disease
It make sense, given that the bones are the storehouse for alkalizing minerals, that when the body has to drain the stores to offset acid overload in the digestive tract, the net result can be loss of bone density, which can lead to osteopenia and ultimately osteoporosis. We talk about this at length in our bone health section. But bone loss is not the only health issue that stems from overdrawing our account at the bones mineral bank.
As I mentioned earlier, when your body struggles to maintain the relatively tight blood pH required for survival, it can result in inflammation. Over time, this struggle may be mirrored by a steady rise of the pro-inflammatory blood acid homocysteine in your blood. Studies show that high levels of homocysteine in the blood double the risk of osteoporosis–related fractures, along with other inflammatory conditions like heart attack, stroke, fuzzy thinking, and Alzheimer’s disease. A recent report published in the New England Journal of Medicine explains how elevated homocysteine levels inhibit new bone formation by interrupting the cross-linking of collagen fibers in bone tissue.
Homocysteine levels can be stabilized by eating foods and taking a vitamin supplement rich in folic acid, B12, and B6. Some researchers also describe a beneficial synergistic effect on homocysteine levels between omega–3 fatty acids and the metabolism of these vitamins.
Be aware that a minority of the population cannot convert folic acid due to certain enzyme deficiencies. If your homocysteine levels remain high even after a few weeks of B supplementation, you may want to ask your practitioner about adding a more bioavailable form of folate called 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate (MTHFT) to your diet.
Naturally improving your pH balance
Proponents of alkaline diets sometimes talk as though eating alkaline is the only step to good health. It’s true that our bodies know intuitively where balance lies, and they can maintain balance on their own if provided what they need through healthy diet and nutritional supplements. But it’s important to understand that you can’t simply load up on alkalizing foods and supplements and presume they’ll offset any amount of acid you consume or create. To restore pH balance, you must address other sources of metabolic acidity as well, because in most situations, no amount of alkalizing can balance a toxically acidic environment. And to cap it off, detoxification takes place more slowly in an overly acidic environment.
Here are some ideas on how to restore pH balance to your diet, support healthy digestion, keep blood pH levels on track, and protect your bones and kidneys, too.
• Take a high-quality daily multivitamin. This will offset any nutritional gaps and insure that your body has the reserves it needs. Your supplement should contain essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and magnesium in their most bioavailable, alkalizing forms. In addition, I recommend an essential fatty acid supplement and a top-quality probiotic to help the body absorb the minerals that are all-important to your bones. Women to Women has formulated high-quality and pure supplements to assist you with this goal.
• Fill your plate with fresh vegetables, particularly the dark green leafy kind. Add fresh lemon or lime juice to foods and beverages as a highly alkalizing flavor accent. Enjoy plenty of fruit, especially fruit with a low glycemic index. Women in perimenopause and menopause, particularly, benefit more from fruits that are lower in sugars, to avoid concerns about insulin resistance. Again, foods that are fresh, organic, and deeply pigmented or brightly colored are the kinds that benefit you the most!
• Choose root vegetables, too, as excellent sources of alkalizing mineral compounds. Eating foods such as slow-roasted sweet potatoes, onions, and leeks, which are also high in inulin, can optimize your body’s ability to fully absorb the calcium present in your food and thereby decrease your risk for osteoporosis. Inulin is a type of prebiotic — it is believed to serve as a welcoming “fuel” for friendly gut flora, paving the way for beneficial bacteria to thrive further down into the colon, where it lowers the pH and improves the solubility and absorption of calcium by the body.
• Consider boosting your diet with “green foods” or “green drinks,” which contain the pigment chlorophyll in abundance. The plant world’s equivalent of the hemoglobin in our blood, we can thank chlorophyll as the original source of all our food (except perhaps fungi!) It works in the body as a strong detoxifier and immunity–building agent. Foods that contain high levels of chlorophyll include the algae spirulina and chlorella and the juice of wheat grass and other sprouted grains. These foods offer high levels of other micronutrients as well, and their neat packaging can be especially helpful for those who lack time to prepare whole balanced meals or people recovering from illness.
• Eat plenty of vegetable protein, watch your red meat intake, and keep your servings of the acidifying animal proteins down to four ounces per meal (the size of a deck of cards).
• Avoid refined carbohydrates whenever you can, including sugar, and when you include grains, be sure to emphasize the “whole” in whole grains. Eliminate all processed foods, particularly those that contain partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats).
• Clear the digestive slate with a gentle detox plan, to get a better reading on how your diet — and pH — are affecting your sense of well-being. You may be surprised at how well you feel!
• If you suffer from IBS, acid reflux, or regular heartburn, consider testing your pH. Remember that you may have too little acid in your stomach, not too much. Don’t just assume that an acid stomach means you’re too acidic.
• Chew your food slowly and thoroughly. Enjoy every bite!
The beauty of balance
The subject of body pH may be having it’s 15 minutes of fame — but if it helps you to tune in to what’s going on in your body and eat a healthier diet, I’m all for that. Indeed, there are some people whose pH levels warrant attention — but you won’t know until you test your pH, and you may need a good functional medicine practitioner to guide you. Even so, pH is only one, albeit fundamental piece of the puzzle. To my mind, pH is a helpful indicator of overall balance in the body. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg, and no amount of trendy drinks or diet plans will make it more than that.
That being said, paying attention to your pH is one place you can begin to make an immediate positive change to preserve your long-term health. If it feels like a good place for you to start taking better care of yourself, I encourage you to do so. From there, it’s my hope that you will continue to listen to your body and help it find balance on all fronts, including your hormones, your emotions, and your lifestyle. | <urn:uuid:c1179f2f-294d-4de5-83f0-473e813f9968> | 2 | 2.4375 | 0.019151 | en | 0.933312 | https://www.womentowomen.com/digestive-health/digestion-gi-health-the-truth-about-ph-balance/ |
What is a business plan?
A Business Plan
The simple definition of a business plan is that it is a roadmap for how you are running or how you intend to run your small business. It is comprehensive and covers virtually every aspect of your business; from sales and marketing, to human resources and production, to customer service and the competition. The value lies in considering everything.
Entrepreneurs tend to have seemingly well defined business plan, or visions of their endeavor, in their head and they are often confident that they have considered all the factors that would contribute to making their business a success. However, our experience has been that the exercise of formulating a cohesive strategy around this plan and memorializing this strategy on paper will almost always result in a plan change. For instance, if the business owner plans on opening a store in a new area, s/he would need to look up some of the local government regulations, which can be very different from their existing local.
There are many styles of writing business plans and some elements vary but common elements include:
1. Cover sheet
1. Brief and to the point
2. What's the business in simple English?
3. How much money do you need?
4. What's your advantage?
2. Executive Summary
1. Since this is a summary, it should be written last.
3. Table of contents
4. Body
1. Business overview
1. Business description
1. Description and location
2. Marketing plan
1. Who are your customers and how will you attract them and at what price.
3. Competition
1. There is ALWAYS competition so don't ignore them. Also remember you don't need to be the best at everything.
4. Operations
1. How do you plan on operating your company?
5. Personnel plan
1. What are your human resource needs and where will you find them?
6. Financial overview
7. Breakeven analysis
1. When will you start paying back investors?
2. When will you start earning a profit?
8. Loan applications and capital requirements
9. Pro forma statements (profit and loss statements)
1. CASH FLOW (most important statement)
2. Income statement
3. Balance sheet (least important)
10. Three to five year forecasts
1. Detailed month-to-month for first year
2. Detailed quarterly for each additional year
11. All assumptions
3. Supplemental documents
1. Tax returns for owners or partners
1. Last three years
2. Personal financial statements
2. Copies of key contracts
1. Leases
2. Franchise agreements
3. Loans
3. Copies of legal documents
1. Articles of incorporation
2. Partnership agreement
4. Resumes for senior management
5. Exit strategy
1. With investors who intend to be paid back, there are four scenario's
1. There is an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and the money raised is used to pay back initial investors
2. Shares are sold to subsequent private investors and the money raised is used to pay back initial investors
3. The owner or company buys back the shares owned by the initial investor
4. The business fails
1. This scenario should not be placed in your business plan! | <urn:uuid:59915b1a-6fc6-4c65-a46a-564a310b2a99> | 3 | 2.875 | 0.483167 | en | 0.864671 | https://youngstown.score.org/node/833535 |
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Gregorian Chants vs. Secular Rants
It stands to reason that any secular music that openly and proudly sings the praises of mortal sin (or any sin) is something to be avoided entirely, but what of popular music whose lyrics and rhythms are seemingly harmless?
I recently finished The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton; a fascinating autobiography of a man that went from Atheist to Trappist in the first half of the 20th century. The book made a brief mention of music that gave me pause. The author described the austere warmth of Gregorian Chant. He describes it as something glowing, like a living flame which draws you within yourself. Here you are lulled into a peace and recollection and where you find God. This is why some never grow tired of it. Perhaps this is also why some can’t stand it.
In sharp contrast, Merton described other types of music that seem to do the opposite. They wear you out by making cheap demands on your sensibilities, toying with your soul so to speak. Once your feelings are drawn-out in the open, the devil, together with the vulgarity of your own corrupt nature & imagination, can get at you with their blades and cut you to pieces.
Thomas Merton
Trappist Monk
1915 - 1968
This is about where I paused in the book and recalled certain songs or types of popular music that may contain nothing objectively wrong, but somehow drew me out of myself in a bad way, to a place where peace is disturbed and God is forgotten. Impetuous rhythms can take up residence in the mind without any conscious effort on our part. Vulgar or perhaps just senseless lyrics repeat in our heads over and over. This makes it all the easier to lose God, and if God is lost, what will boogie-on-in to fill the void?
Is that what a fox says? Really?
Prayer, simply put, is directing one’s life toward God and I’ve heard it said that he who sings “well” prays twice. If this is the case, perhaps he who sings “badly” directs his life away from God twice as fast as he who does not sing at all. Certainly, listening to morally neutral music is not objectively wrong, but maybe having ear buds in your head all day long is. Just like eating candy, moderation and temperance is in order with an awareness of its effects. Perhaps with music, just like with anything else, we should ask ourselves now and then, “Is this bringing me closer to union with God or further away?”
1. So...yeah. I'd say listening to the Ramones is like riding in the back of a noisy city cab, while listening to Mozart is like reclining on a sail boat in the middle of the ocean. My wife is a music nut and she has taught me the amazing power of music to stir the soul and kind of open up our higher senses. Chant does it. I once heard a three piece string trio perform out in the crisp cool forrest and I swear the trees grew 50 ft higher and I could almost breath through my eyelids. The most amazing thing I've ever heard.
2. Well As Pope Benedict stated " Tradition has been replaced with Progress" Father Z. said in Rome, March 2013, "When you change the way People Pray, you change what they believe"...the replacement of Gregorian Chant is the Most Horrid thing that came out of the council.....besides Bugnini's Invention of the Novus Ordo.....in short the "MODERN CHURCH music if you want to call it that, is in need of replacement...... | <urn:uuid:507476c3-9fa2-444b-95b8-52f0cd074daa> | 2 | 1.664063 | 0.020711 | en | 0.964609 | http://2catholicmen.blogspot.com/2013/10/gregorian-chants-vs-secular-rants.html |
Subsets and Splits