text:
Homemade Christmas Gifts: 14 Gift Ideas & DIY Home Dcor
Bonus: Get our newsletter & special offers for free. We will not share or sell your email address. View our Privacy Policy
5 Homemade Christmas Crafts
By: The Editors at FaveCrafts
Homemade Christmas crafts speak from the heart and never get thrown out. They tell stories, they bring back memories, they're special. Not only are they lovely to get, but they are even more fun to make for someone special to give it to. Christmas is about family and being together so making something from the heart is just what the holiday is about. Homemade Christmas crafts are what everyone should make for the great gift-giving holiday. Here are your top 5 homemade Christmas crafts for the season.
Top 5 Homemade Christmas Crafts
Crystal Dove Centerpiece- This homemade Christmas craft is easy to make and it will decorate your mantel or fireplace with something special. This makes for a great accent piece in your dining room. Who doesn't like the look of crystal? And doves, they're the bird of love. Have fun this holiday season.
Girls Christmas Goblet- Have fun with your girlfriends this winter season. Paint some plain goblets and turn them into fabulously decorated designs. This one's for the girls. Get your wish list out and make these goblets, all I want for Christmas....
Stackable Holiday Trays- Fill these amazingly cute trays with many different treats. You can put little candies in there along with appetizer treats. Crackers and cheese or kisses and jelly beans. Whatever sweet tooth you have these holiday trays make for perfect homemade Christmas crafts.
Holiday Candle Ring- Decorate you lovely holiday candles with a candle ring. The holly and berries make it look so beautiful and festive. You can use this as a centerpiece at your holiday dinner or festivities.
Candy Cane Crochet Wreath- This red and white crochet wreath
For some other homemade Christmas crafts check this out!
Tags / Related Topics
Your Recently Viewed Projects
Love these projects? Get MORE delivered to your Inbox – FREE Click Here!
What's Hot
- 124 Easy Christmas House Crafts
- Crochet Snowman Family
- Crochet Candy Cane Steering Wheel Cover
- Christmas Goodie Pop Top Cans
- Unique Tampon Angel
- "26 Christmas Craft Ideas: Ornaments, Decorations, and Homemade Gifts for Christmas" free eBook
- "Make it a Red Heart Holiday" eBook from Red Heart Yarns
- Teardrop Christmas Ornaments
- Quick Spiral Quilt Christmas Tree Skirt
- Cardboard Tube Nativity Scene
Something worth saving?
- SAVE all your favorite crafts
- ADD personal notes
- QUICKLY reference your crafts
Free eBooks
- 12 Thrifty Trash to Treasure Crafts
- 17 Flower Craft Ideas: How To Make Paper Flowers, Easy Fabric Flowers and More
- 18 Crafts with Felt: Simple Craft Ideas, Felt Flowers & More
- 24 Tie-Dye Techniques: Free Tie-Dye Patterns
- 24 Valentine's Day Crafts for Kids: Lovely Kids Crafts Ideas and Projects
- 25 Cool Things to Do with Wine Bottles
- 26 Spring Crafts for Kids
- 41 Valentine's Day Crafts: Valentine's Day Cards, Gifts and More
- Cupid's Handmade Crafts
- Irish for a Day: St. Patrick's Day Craft and Recipe Guide
Our Newest Projects & Articles
- Scrappy Quilt Bracelets Fabric Craft
- Flower Petals Crochet Baby Blanket Pattern
- Learn to Embroider with the Best of Leisure Arts
- Colorful Ladybugs Toilet Paper Roll Craft
- Reworked Rainbow Table DIY Craft Project
- Leisure Arts Book Bundle
- Polyform Sculpey Clay Beginner Pack
- Red Heart Fancy Yarn Pack
- 13 Spring Crafts: Easter Craft Ideas, Spring DIY Home Decor, and More free eBook
- American Quilter's Society Gift Card


text:
Magickal Education for Youths & Adults alike! Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations. Phases of the Moon. Enter a year between 1700 and 2035 in the form below and press the "Get Data" button to obtain a calendar showing the dates of the primary phases of the Moon for that year.
Definitions For definitions of the phases, see the explanation of Phases of the Moon and Percent of the Moon Illuminated in the Astronomical Information Center. In addition, the explanation of Crescent Moon Visibility discusses the waxing crescent phase. Welcome to astrolog.org. Esoteric Archives. Lucky Mojo: Hoodoo, Magic, Mojo Hands, Occult Shop, Sacred Sex, HermeticKa: The Ceremonial Magick Webstore. CoA Events. Children of Artemis are the organisers of the larges. Tarot, Astrology, I-Ching, Numerology, Feng Shui and Psychics: T. Robin's Links to the Mystical Internet. Mythology, folklore, and religion. V-Library - Veritas. The V-Library (Veritas Library) is an online collection of e-books by various authorities in the field of metaphysics and the occult.
All the e-books are free for use and are public domain resources. "The idea for this came to me when seeing the Bob Hendricks Memorial CM Library on OccultForums and after seeing the Sacred Magick website fall victim to bandwidth strangulation. Grimoar - Occult Texts. Welcome to our library Welcome in our occult texts library.
It contains 2008 unrevised texts in pdf, doc and other formats. Internet Sacred Text Archive Home. Godchecker.com - Your Guide To The Gods. Mythology with a twist! Greek Gods Family Tree. Doing homework? Your teacher has already seen this. See Theoi; it has properly-sourced information. Known errors: Generally inconsistent sourcing. Welcome to the Chalice Well - Chalice Well Trust.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Interracial cock sucking action is right before you now and everything you should do – is to start getting as much enjoyment as it is possible staring at everything what waits for you and could be found by you here. The nasty white slut is giving great fellatio and tugjob to black male that got enormous long shlong between his legs. Oh, yeah she knows how to suck well and has already sucked hundreds of cocks. Here is the giant chocolate dong for her at Suck On It Baby.


text:
Even though it's winter, my mind is in sunny vacation mode. I have one coming up next year and I'm already planning in order to get me through the colder days. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to pack too much and absolutely refuses to check in large luggage at the airport. One reason is, I don't want to have to lug that thing back and forth. And another reason is, I like to have everything on me. I'm not the biggest fan of others handling my stuff.
I often have my rolling carry on luggage piece, but on top of that, I bring a Northface Jester backpack. See, I can put the rolling luggage in the overhead compartment and I'm allowed to hold the backpack in my lap during the trip. It works as extra storage for all the smaller things, like toiletries, my wallet, a smaller bag that I'll carry around with me sight seeing, and anything else I can stuff in there.
I wouldn't be able to go anywhere without my Northface Jester backpack. It's a seriously great investment for those who love to travel, but travel as light and easily as they possibly can!


text: Hope BloomsHi, Babs!Congratulations on becoming our fourth Cutie Mark Crusader! We're super-glad you're with us... but a lot of things still happened, and I'd like to set them square if we can.See you tonight?~Apple Bloom---Babs Seed tossed the note into a nearby wastebasket, and walked up the steps of the Apple Family's barn-house.Strange... the trip had never taken this long before. When she'd taken over Apple Bloom's room, she'd taken these steps two at a time and never broken a sweat. Now she felt weak trying to walk half a flight.Why were her legs shaking? What was with the cold weight in the pit of her stomach? Bad enough she was used to being scared of bullies back home, now she was getting scared of ponies who had already accepted and were trying to help her?Ponies who were family, even?Get it together, Babs, she scolded herself. You knew you got off too easy. Shoot, you're lucky she gave you a letter o' warnin' first. Would you have done the


text:
Greens for Life
Suggested Products:
Yoga Food
Nature's Perfect Yoga Food - Amazing Grass helps you to Cleanse, Nourish, Detoxify and Flourish.
The purpose of Yoga practice is to help the individual achieve longevity, cleansing, rejuvenation and self-realization. In order to accomplish these goals, it's essential to fuel your body with the perfect yoga food. Amazing Grass Green SuperFood and organic Wheat Grass are the perfect Yoga foods because they offer highly alkaline nutrition that cleanses and rejuvenates the body from the inside out.
Ama is the Ayurvedic term for any accumulation of toxins, undigested food, or waste material in the body which disrupts the body's assimilation of nutrients. Most of these toxins are prevalent in our bodies because of what we eat and drink, environmental pollution, and everyday stress.
Ama can have a debilitating consequence on the quality of your yoga practice. The body's ama detoxification process can adversely affect physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Amazing Grass is the perfect yoga food and can have a profound influence on your yoga practice. Amazing Grass products contain the most nutritious whole foods and essential green vegetable nutrition. The unique combination of nutrients found in our cereal grasses work together to provide a synergistic affect that positively affects a Yogi's health. Your entire body's systems including physical, mental and spiritual well-being, will benefit from this potent nutrition.
Amazing Grass's high alkalinity helps combat acidity in the blood and helps bring the acid alkaline ratio in balance. It also promotes improved circulation, digestion and regular elimination. Additionally, it's the most potent source of green vegetable nutrition. Amazing Grass Green SuperFood and Wheat Grass powders have a high degree of naturally occurring enzymes, chlorophyll, phytonutrients and anti-oxidants that work synergistically together to remove toxins and repair damaged cells.
Many Yogis consider Amazing Grass cereal grasses to possess the highest life force of all foods. Because it provides a great source of whole food energy and is light on the stomach, many Yogis are calling Amazing Grass Wheat Grass and Green SuperFood the perfect Yoga Food.
Amazing Grass contains every amino acid, vitamin, and mineral necessary to sustain human life. Since the human body was designed to get nutrition from whole foods, your body is able to rapidly absorb the nutrients and quickly convert them to fuel for your body.
Best of all, our products are available in single serving packets which mix easily with water. Many Yogis consume Amazing Grass 45 minutes prior to a class for a rejuvenating experience that leads to emotional, physical and spiritual well-being.
© Copyright 2002 - 2015 Amazing Grass, a Grass Advantage Company. Terms | Privacy
Website Development & Hosting by TechXpress.


text:
Start learning with our library of video tutorials taught by experts. Get started
Get quickly up to speed on the new and enhanced features of Adobe Photoshop CS5.
"Since joining lynda.com, my technical skills and creativity have improved tremendously. Kudos for making learning fun." —Jim F.
more from our members »


text:
- @BrownEyedGirlCA Wwo, electrocuted... I hope he's well :) ^eo
Canada's fastest smartphone coming exclusively to Rogers
Want to get your hands on Canada's fastest smartphone? Today, with LG, we announced our unique 2600 MHz enabled version of the upcoming LG Optimus G, a premium Android LTE-enabled smartphone, which will be exclusively available from Rogers this November.
The LG Optimus G is an Android 4.0 smartphone is the first LTE device featuring a Snapdragon™ S4 quad-core processor in Canada. With this new processor, you can expect an enhanced gaming experience with more visuals per second, smoother play and support for HD resolution displays. Additionally, customers will find it easier to multi-task and use multiple applications and features simultaneously. For example – it's easy to continue a movie while you check and read text messages.
The LG Optimus G also has a beautiful 4.7-inch True HD IPS display for an unparalleled viewing experience. With 320ppi high pixel density, you get sharper and crisper images using less power. And, this device has a stronger touchpad so it can withstand impact damage even if you drop it or it falls off a table.
With all these awesome features, you'll never want to put this thing down so it's great that it also comes loaded with a 2,100 mAh high-density battery to keep this device powered up all night long. It also has an 8MP camera with HD video capture to give you the best shot every time.
Operating at the fastest available speed in Canada
The LG Optimus G takes speed to the next level by offering maximum theoretical LTE download speeds of up to 100 Mbps and will be the first smartphone to support connectivity on the 2600 MHz spectrum*. The advantage of 2600 MHz spectrum over other LTE bands is that it is able to deliver higher speeds over the same distance allowing to do more with you mobile device at faster speeds than ever before for live streaming HD sports, downloading large files and streaming YouTube video clips and movies. Customers can begin to preorder the LG Optimus G mid October at www.rogers.com.
Rogers was first in Canada to introduce LTE devices a year ago, and today we have the largest selection of LTE devices in the country. We're also the first Canadian carrier to offer theoretical maximum network speeds of up to 150 Mbps (typical speeds range up to 40 Mpbs). Rogers LTE network is available in select Canadian cities. Visit www.rogers.com/coverage for details.
What's your favourite feature of the new LG Optimus G?
Katie is a regular contributor to RedBoard
* Within Rogers LTE network footprint. Based on tests comparing data throughput speeds and on geographic coverage area comparison (in square kilometers) to Bell and Telus' LTE networks. See www.rogers.com/coverage for full details on Rogers LTE network coverage
The information in this post is current at the date of posting and is subject to change without notice.
Canada's fastest smartphone coming exclusively to Rogers ,More from RedBoard
16 Comments
Are you sure its the 8MP camera version on this phone. We would like the 13MP version please…
Please tell me the 8mp camera is a typo and Canadians are gonna get the 13mp version. You would have a solid customer for this phone if it had the appropriate camera.
It's not a typo, Stephen. This is the device that the manufacturer is making available in Canada.
don't lie. Rogers & At&t don't want to pay for it…Sprint is getting 13mp option…
Is this faster than IPhone 5?
Thanks for the announcement, great news! FYI, the link on "announced" is pointing on Miranda Macdonald's PC's c: drive, so its not working ;)
Oops! Updated! Thanks Olivier!
When is the release date ? I really wish it would come with the 13 mp camera cause then it would be the perfect phone next year all phonea will have 12-13mp camera if i get rhis phone a couple months later its out dated the 13mp would keep it relevant for atleast a year or 2
2600 Mhz is "not exclusive" to Rogers. Bell and Telus also have 2600 Mhz spectrum. One would think that the author of this article would have checked out the facts before making such a bold statement.
Bell and Telus may have a 2600 Mhz spectrum but the LG Optimus G model which is capable of accessing this band is exclusive to Rogers.
The LTE coverage area map that Rogers provides is a joke. I'm in the middle of an LTE zone yet can get no better than 3G coverage.
Perhaps with a 1 watt LTE receiver …but not a cellphone.
"It also has an 8MP camera."
Does LG know it's not 2010 anymore?
Why do these manufacturers always cheap out on at least one major feature with every release? Those beancounter decisions just ruin the devices, yet the manufacturers still expect people to drop 600 or 700-plus bucks on them.
Just once, it'd be nice to see one of these manufacturers release a compromise-free phone.
Yah, I know- it'll never happen.
Hello is Rogers getting the Quadcore LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2 on the LTE 2600 Mhz frequency?
Agreed. 8mp camera is very disappointing. Why are we as Canadians relegated to a lesser product than what has been widely publicized? Rogers prides itself on being an industry leader with the best technologies, yet it seems content to provide this product with inferior specifications. I think Rogers needs to approach LG and fix this issue.
It's not LG making the decision, rather the carriers (Rogers included) have the option which version of the product to offer its customers. Seems Rogers has decided to go the cheaper route…
Please check this link:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/LG-Optimus-G-will-be-offered-in-two-variations-one-with-13MP-camera-and-one-with-8MP-shooter_id34597 -
The 13mp vs 8mp camera is really a non-issue for me, but what other compromises are being made for this *exclusive* 2600mhz LTE radio? DOes it give up other LTE bands such as 2100mhz (most Asian carriers) 1800mhz (most European carriers) or 1700mhz (LTE bands) as well? When I travel for work or vacation outside Canada, will I get LTE service on O2, T-Mobile, AT&T or DoCoMo, or will I be falling back to HSPA because of this exclusive benefit?
Roaming and tethering support may not matter to most Rogers users, but they do to plenty of people who would be buying a bleeding-edge high speed phone such as this.
Trackbacks & Pings
Open list- LG Optimus G: le téléphone intelligent le plus rapide au Canada | Rogers FilRouge
- Two Hot New Phones Appear At Rogers « The IT Nerd
- Rogers Releasing Canada's Fastest Smartphone In November | Current. Relevant. Entertaining. Canada's ultimate source for technology and business news.
- Optimus on Rogers.. - Android Forums


text:
MANcation Giveaway
Enter to win our MANcation Giveaway! Our winner can choose one of the following prizes worth $1,500:
- Gas card for summer travels from State Building Company!
- Cub Cadet Lawn Tractor from Atherton Road Sales!
- Man's ultimate fishing package from Rocky's Great Outdoors!
- Hog wild trip for two from Shiawassee Sports Center!
Entries cost just 500 VIP points.
Ends: Saturday June 16 at 12:48PM EDT


text:
There are many corners with famous names in Formula One racing, such as the Parabolica at Monza or Becketts at Silverstone. But those are not the only corners that can decide a race: on every track, the corner drivers pay most attention to - and which often commands the most interest from the fans - is the first corner after the race begins.
The battle for the first corner is very brief. When the start lights go out, the drivers have just a few seconds to get into position among the mass of 22 cars charging towards the eye of the needle at the end of the start/finish line. For them, the stakes are extremely high.
It is much easier to catch up or lose places at the start than during the rest of the race, Williams technical director Sam Michael told team sponsor Allianz. So only one motto applies for the drivers up to the first corner: keep your eyes straight ahead and put your foot down.
Thats easier said than done at the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring. Of course, every driver tries to approach the first corner on precisely the ideal line, which as a rule is an extremely narrow corridor and only has space for one car. So the drivers have to concentrate fully on the perfect position and the right braking point and also watch very carefully what is happening in front of and next to them. A glance in the rear-view mirror cant hurt either - because in these few seconds at the absolute limit, one thing is clear: anyone who makes even the tiniest mistake can not only completely ruin his own chances, but also those of his team mates or his rivals.
In order to keep their nerves in this exceptional situation, drivers have to be absolutely physically and mentally fit. In no other phase of the race is the pressure so great, or must they absorb and process so much information at the same time. Thanks to their concentration and training, the drivers are able to maintain their pulse at 130 beats per minute at the start. Then the body takes over from the psyche. While they race towards the first corner, the pulse rate climbs to 180. Under such stressful conditions, a normal car driver could expect a circulatory collapse.
The battle for the first corner is one of the most exciting moments in any Formula One race. It is no wonder that the drivers prepare for it specifically. Because every track is different, its important to analyse the racing lines through the first corner using video recordings from recent years. Sam Michael warns his drivers before every race to be particularly careful in the first corner, even though the drivers are perfectly aware of that. In those critical few seconds, so many things are happening around them that sometimes the drivers can forget. As a result, Michael is all the more relieved when everything has gone well and his drivers have mastered this difficult situation successfully. However, experience has shown him that to get through the first corner unscathed takes luck as well as skill.
Because jostling is inevitable in the battle for the first corner, the FIA has done a great deal to make sure it doesnt have serious consequences for the drivers or spectators. The implementation of generous run-off zones in this area has guaranteed greater safety at the start, as has the restriction of frequent sudden lane changes on the start/finish straight. As a result, the car in front can now only change position once to prevent the car behind from overtaking, with anyone who infringes the regulation liable to be penalised.
All these measures have helped to keep the start exciting, whilst also making sure fewer and fewer drivers have their race finished right at the outset.


text:
Hi all,
My name is Willem and I live in Holland, in Hekelingen to be exact, not far from Rotterdam. Today we bought a Fiesta1.25 in Titanium trim, not sure if that model is available in the UK at all but it has full specs, apart from leather and heated seats. The car is only 4 months old, has just 1100 kms on it, roughly 600 miles, so it was a quick decision. Only setback, in my opinion, the rather weak engine. So I want to know if chip tuning would be worth the trouble. I hope enough Ford specialists are around here who can inform me. Ford doesn't give any information on this, but given the fact that both versions have the same engines it comes down to simple chip tuning.....or? Point is that the 60ps version doesn't have enough power for overtaking in critical situations. It is that the offer was just too good to refuse. Anyone here who can shine some light? Just too many opinions on Dutch fora, useless. And the UK is a real Ford Island......judging from my experiences while being in your beautiful country!


text:
Looking ahead to Big 12 pro day schedule
February, 28, 2013
David Ubben | ESPN.com
The NFL scouting combine has come and gone, but there are still plenty of workouts left on the table and guys who can make a name for themselves in the next month and end up getting drafted.
Campus pro days will kick off in March, and here's when the Big 12's teams will be holding theirs, according to NFL.com.
Baylor - March 20
Iowa State - March 26
Kansas State - March 12
Texas Tech - March 6
West Virginia - March 14
Campus pro days will kick off in March, and here's when the Big 12's teams will be holding theirs, according to NFL.com.
Baylor - March 20
Iowa State - March 26
- You'll be able to get a look at A.J. Klein and Jake Knott here for sure. Klein missed a few workouts this week after suffering a knee injury, and Knott is still waiting for his shoulder to heal up from surgery. Both should be on display at this workout.
Kansas State - March 12
- An injury kept Arthur Brown from recording a 40 time and doing a handful of other workouts, so expect a whole lot of NFL teams to show up in Manhattan for this one. We'll see if Collin Klein sticks with his plan to stay at quarterback or does some other position work at pro day, too. I'm betting on the former, but you never know. This is probably the most interesting pro day of any in the Big 12.
- Kenny Stills was blazing and did a nice job on the bench press at the combine, so expect him to take a seat for much of Oklahoma's pro day, but we'll see what Landry Jones has to offer, too.
- Not a ton of intrigue in Stillwater, but I'm interested in seeing if Joseph Randle can improve on a poor 40 time at the combine. He tallied a 4.63 40 time in Indianapolis. He doesn't have breakneck speed, but that seems about a tenth of a second slow for him. Something in the 4.55 range would help him out. He can get there. Randle should also do some position work and the bench press after sitting out following thumb surgery at the end of the season.
- Marquise Goodwin did some major damage at the combine with the fastest 40 time of anyone in attendance, but his position-specific work could talk more scouts into him and improve his stock. He's got to show a better ability to track the ball and haul it in.
TCU - March 8
Texas Tech - March 6
West Virginia - March 14
- Not a ton to see here. Geno Smith sounds like he was the best of the QBs at the combine, but USC's pro day when Matt Barkley throws may have more impact on Smith's stock. Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey are who we thought they were after a strong combine.
You must be signed in to post a comment
You are fully responsible for the content you post. Content that includes profanity, personal attacks or antisocial behavior (such as "spamming" or "trolling"), or other inappropriate content or material will be removed. We reserve the right to block any user who violates our terms of use, including removing all content posted by that user.


text:
'The Late Late Show With James Corden' Will Premiere March 9, 2015
Get ready for a British invasion on you late night line-up when "The Late Late Show with James Corden" debuts on CBS.
Dave Chappelle Talks Quitting "Chappelle's Show" With David Letterman
Dave Chappelle made his first late-night appearance in more than six years Tuesday, and one of the first questions he was asked was why he quit his cult sketch comedy show "Chappelle's Show."
The Humor Code's Five Best Comedy Clubs In The US
While traveling the world exploring the science of what makes things funny, we stumbled on an important question: What makes a good comedy club? According to many of the comics we interviewed, a "good room" is one that's dimly lit, densely packed, with hard chairs, low ceilings, a red curtain, and nothing at all that's blue.
Dave Chappelle: "If North Korea Ever Drops A Bomb On This Country, I Hope It Lands In Hartford"
Dave Chappelle has spoken out about his brief appearance last week in Hartford when he walked off stage after being heckled. And it's not pretty.
Comedy Giants Contend For Emmys: Which Actors Will Bring Home The Win?
The comedy categories in this year's prime time Emmy Awards are packed with major talent. From Lena Dunham to Bob Newhart, there are major stars vying for the top honors this year. Check out who might take home the Emmy – do you agree?
Jerry O'Connell Gets Skimpy On "We Are Men"
Jerry O'Connell got a surprise when he saw part of his character's wardrobe in the new CBS comedy "We Are Men."
Best Places For Stand-Up Comedy In Connecticut
Whether you prefer a large venue such as the MGM Theater at Foxwoods, a classic urban comedy club in a basement or a Litchfield County dinner theater, there are plenty of places across the state of Connecticut to tickle your funny bone. Here are some of the best places in the Nutmeg State.
Top Spots For Cabaret In Connecticut
Where else can you dine, whet your whistle and still see a great show? This is what makes cabarets so enjoyable.
A Peek Behind the Curtain: February Theatre Preview
By Joanne Greco Rochman This February, there is an abundance of great performances and great stories from the stage. Check out our picks for must-see theatre in Connecticut this month. The Bushnell 166 Capitol Avenue […]


text:
Based off of functional reactive programming, oscillo gives you a signal that represents a value changing over time. You can manipulate signals and combine them together in various ways.
- source: https://github.com/evant/oscillo
- documentation: http://rubydoc.info/gems/oscillo/0.0.1/frames
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'oscillo'
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install oscillo
Creating and using signals
Creating a signal is as simple as
s = Oscillo::Signal.new
You modify the value of the signal with s << :value
and you get the current
value of the signal with s.value
, or s.val
if you want to save a couple of
If you want to give a signal a starting value, you just pass it to the constructor.
s = Oscillo::Signal.new(0)
Following other signals
If you pass another signal as an argument to new
, the signal's value will
follow the other one.
a = Oscillo::Signal.new
b = Oscillo::Signal.new(a)
a << :value
b.val #=> :value
You can pass a block to new
to modify how the new signal follows the old.
a = Oscillo::Signal.new(0)
b = Oscillo::Signal.new(a) { |v| v * 2 }
a << 3
b.val #=> 6
You can also follow multiple signals at once. The new signal will change if any of the signal that you follow changes.
a = Oscillo::Signal.new(0)
b = Oscillo::Signal.new(0)
c = Oscillo::Signal.new(a, b) { |v1, v2| v1 + v2 }
a << 2
c.val #=> 2
b << 3
c.val #=> 5
Reacting to signal changes
Eventually, you want to perform some action when the value of the signal
changes. To do this, register a callback with the #on_change
method. You can
also use #each
if you want to think of it as an Enumerable.
s = Oscillo::Signal.new
s.on_change { |v| puts "The new value is: #{v}" }
s << 1
#=> "The new value is: 1
Useful methods in the block
The last argument given to the block passed to new is the signal itself. This is so you utilize other methods to query the signal and modify it's changed value.
Oscillo::Signal#abort aborts the new value change, keeping the old one.
a = Oscillo::Signal.new
b = Oscillo::Signal.new(a) { |v, s| s.abort if v == :bad; v }
a << :good
b.val #=> :good
a << :bad
b.val #=> :bad
Oscillo::Signal#source gives the original signal that caused the cascade of changes. This is useful if you are following multiple signals and want to know which one actually changed.
a = Oscillo::Signal.new
b = Oscillo::Signal.new
c = Oscillo::Signal.new(a, b) do |v1, v2, s|
"The last change was to #{s.source.val}"
a << 1
c.val #=> "The last change was to 1"
b << 2
c.val #=> "The last change was to 2"
Combining signals
You can combine signals together in different ways. For example, Oscillo::Combine.either updates the new signal to the value of whichever was the last signal to change.
a = Oscillo::Signal.new
b = Oscillo::Signal.new
c = Oscillo::Combine.either(a, b)
a << "a changed"
c.val #=> "a changed"
b << "b changed"
c.val #=> "b changed"
See Oscillo::Combine for all combination methods.
A signal can thought of a sequence of values over time. Therefore, Oscillo::Signal implements a large number of Enumerable's methods. For example,
a = Oscillo::Signal.new(0)
b = a.map { |v| v ** 2 }
a << 3
b.val #=> 9
See Oscillo::Enumerable for all the methods implemented.
- Fork it
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b my-new-feature
) - Commit your changes (
git commit -am 'Added some feature'
) - Push to the branch (
git push origin my-new-feature
) - Create new Pull Request


text:
4Gb/s Storage Systems: When Should I Plan for Them?
{mosimage}In the storage networking industry technology migration to next-generation solutions is a pervasive theme. Out with the old, in with the new, as vendors are constantly refreshing technology, while users anticipate worthwhile changes and proceed with optimism.
By Steve Gardner
Recently, the storage industry witnessed the introduction of the 4Gb/s Fibre Channel storage system. The development of the 4Gb/s system is part of the natural evolution of the storage industry. Storage vendors regularly improve their technology and make better, faster and less expensive solutions available to the marketplace. Storage buyers have anticipated 4Gb/s technology for months and are simultaneously evaluating these new offerings while wondering where does 4Gb/s fit?
The first customers to adopt 4Gb/s technology will be those in the High Performance Computing (HPC) market. These are customers who need to move large volumes of data quickly and frequently. The HPC category includes government research labs, seismic research, oil and gas, entertainment and scientific research centers. 4Gb/s technology will allow these customers to move their vast amounts of data off the storage systems onto the servers and run more queries in less time.
As the HPC users understand, 4Gb/s Fibre Channel technology will provide nearly twice the throughput through a single channel as the current 2Gb/s technology. The reduction in throughput time can have a corresponding reduction in the time necessary to perform functions such as disk-to-disk backup, restore, moving volumes to tiered storage, and campus-wide mirroring.
Data consolidation and the ability to better manage workloads are also both greatly enhanced by 4Gb/s technology. Networking storage systems and consolidating data from more servers onto fewer storage systems saves money through improved utilization. The benefits of storage consolidation are well understood. The combination of 4Gb/s technology to improve the interconnection speed coupled with larger and more powerful storage systems allows larger consolidations reducing the number of storage systems required.
How long will the transition from 2Gb/s to 4Gb/s take? To make an estimate, we can look at the previous transition from 1Gb/s to 2Gb/s. According to a 2003 IDC report, 2Gb/s Fibre Channel accounted for only six percent of the market in 2001, but by the end of 2002, 2Gb/s was 70 percent of the market. IDC also predicted that by the end of 2003, virtually no 1Gb/s technology would be sold. The transition from 1Gb/s to 2Gb/s was simple and fast because it offered backward compatibility, no infrastructure change, and pricing was equal. The adoption of 4Gb/s technology is likely to follow a similar pattern, because it has the same benefits, backward compatibility, no infrastructure changes, and equal pricing. Since the industry has made this type of transition once before, we have learned quite a bit, which should make the transition to 4Gb/s even faster. 4Gb/s Fibre Channel should be the dominant host interconnection for storage systems by December 2006.
In February, when 4Gb/s Fibre Channel was introduced, prices were approximately the same as 2Gb/s technology. The value proposition for end-users is simple – equal cost; twice the throughput; less SAN infrastructure (fewer switches with fewer ports, fewer host bus adapters); increased reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS). 4Gb/s Fibre Channel is able to provide better RAS because there are fewer components, thus fewer points of failure.
As 4Gb/s Fibre Channel becomes more widely available from suppliers, the General Purpose Computing (GPC) market will likely also adopt the technology. GPC customers that could benefit immediately from 4Gb/s Fibre Channel, include those seeking faster restores, content providers that stream video on demand; medical professionals who exchange images, send data over great distances or save large numbers of patient files; and organizations conducting data mining and data warehousing; as well as those that have implemented RFID technology or move large amounts of data on a regular basis.
Users who plan to adopt 4Gb/s technology should choose a vendor with whom they are comfortable working. Customers should closely examine the interoperability/compatibility matrix to ensure that their current infrastructure (or components that they might purchase in the future) will work with the 4Gb/s solution being considered. As always, customers should evaluate the total cost of the solution, including both initial software and hardware costs, and ongoing maintenance costs. Storage systems have typically been in productive use for a period of three years; however some users are now extending this time to four or more years. Like the change of seasons, technology innovation is constant. Since 4Gb/s is likely to be the predominant storage standard by 2006 it makes good sense to purchase what is anticipated to become the industry standard during the life of your new system.
Steve Gardner is director of product marketing for Engenio Information Technologies, Inc. (Milpitas, CA)


text:
A few months back someone on another forum posted a pic of his 1911. It had the nicest grips I have ever seen. They were made from rosewood, checkered, and had the USMC eagleglobe and anchor cut in. Not burned or etched on the surface, but cut in deep.
Someone on the thread asked where he got the grips and he stated that they were a gift from his wife, and he thought she found them on ebay and that they were Kimber grips.
I have since searched high and low and can find no grips like them. I HAVE TO find some, so I am asking for any leads on where I can get a pair.


text:
Fed's tapering hints hit $A forecasts
PUBLISHED: 20 Jun 2013 08:05:00 | UPDATED: 21 Jun 2013 04:36:06PUBLISHED: 20 Jun 2013 PRINT EDITION: 20 Jun 2013The Australian dollar fell as low as US92.47¢ after Ben Bernanke's comments, marking the first time it has been below US93¢ since September 2010. Photo: Virginia Star
Bianca Hartge-Hazelman and Jason Murphy
Currency strategists are likely to change their forecasts for the Australian dollar after the world's most powerful central bank announced it may start gradually reducing its stimulus program later this year.
The Australian dollar fell as low as US92.47¢, marking the first time it has been below US93¢ since September 2010.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the bank will begin tapering its $US85 billion a month in long-dated bond purchases in the second half and end it altogether by the middle of next year if expectations for better growth and unemployment are borne out.
At an Australian Financial Review roundtable on Wednesday before Mr Bernanke's speech, Westpac chief currency strategist Robert Rennie said that the bank would "have to revise our forecasts for the Australian dollar" if the US Fed chairman suggested tapering would take place soon.
Currently, Westpac has a forecast of US96¢ by the end of the year.
National Australian Bank head of foreign exchange strategy Ray Attrill also told the Financial Review: "Depending on how fast US [bond] yields rise [in response to Bernanke's speech], that may determine if we revise our forecasts."
Mr Attrill said NAB sees the Australian dollar at $93¢ by the end of the year if tapering were to start sooner than expected.
On Thursday morning, ANZ strategist Andrew Salter argued the reaction to news the US government could change monetary policy had been far clearer and simpler than the news itself.
"The market reaction thus far has been binary. But last night's Federal Reserve policy communications were anything but," he said by email.
"Tapering depends on the committee's forecasts being realised. Historically they have been overly-optimistic."
"In terms of trading, if we do get an impulsive move below USD0.90 that's an opportunity to start scaling into long positions."
Westpac economists were also skeptical about US growth forecasts.
"The Fed has repeatedly extrapolated turn of year strength in the jobs, survey and other activity data to year end and beyond. But the data slumped in mid 2010, 2011 and 2012 causing forecast misses," they told clients shortly after the announcements.
"Over this four-year period Westpac has correctly forecast year end growth not to materially exceed 2 per cent."
US treasuries sold down
US treasuries were sold down aggressively in the wake of Thursday morning's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, with the 10-year Treasury note yield touching 15-month highs of around 2.3 per cent.
While the Fed expressed concern about the high American unemployment rate, it also forecast growth firm enough to justify a dilution of its quantitative easing (QE) program.
The Australian dollar plummeted after Bernanke said the Fed could begin winding back its QE program some time later this year and bring the operation to a close by mid-year 2014.
BK Asset Management managing director Kathy Lien said the Australian dollar was sold off more than other currencies, as traders contrasted the US Fed's position with the Reserve Bank of Australia's signal this week that it could cut rates further.
"The Aussie's been hit the hardest," she said from New York.
"There's been a lot of people short on the Australian dollar and they were, basically, adding to their short positions."
Ms Lien said foreign investors who had bought the Aussie now had an excuse to invest in the greenback, as a scaling down of QE reduced the supply of US dollars and increased its market value.
"Less quantitative easing means the Federal Reserve is pumping less money into the economy and no longer aggressively devaluing the (US) dollar."
Volatile forex markets
Trading in New York overnight was volatile, as had been expected, with the euro initially hitting a session high against the dollar after the announcement before swinging to losses. The euro last traded at $US1.3280, down 0.8 per cent on the day and well off the session peak of $US1.3414.
Against the yen, the dollar was at 96.71 yen, up 1.5 per cent, with the session peak at 96.93 yen. The dollar's move from low to high on the day exceeded 2 yen.
Economists expect interest rates to stay on hold until 2015, but the view in financial markets of when the Fed would tweak policy had shifted forward since comments by Bernanke last month fired up speculation that the central bank could soon curb its asset buying.
In fresh quarterly economic projections released earlier today in Washington, 14 of the 19 members of the Fed's policy-setting committee said they did not think it would be appropriate to raise rates until some time in 2015.
With Reuters
Related News
Read more
Topics | Financial Markets /Foreign Exchange Markets |


text:
NOTE: To subscribe to the SciTech Library Newsletter list, simply send an email message to email@example.com. In the text of your message, put the phrase "subscribe sci-tech_lib_news". Do not add a signature to your message. Or contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
National Action Plan for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education: Draft for Public Comment.
National Science Board, 2007.
Federal support for research and development.
Impact of Proposal and Award Management Mechanisms: Final Report.
Report of the External Review Committee Assessment of the Inter American Institute for Global Change Research.
The do's and don'ts: creating a path to impact science and math literacy.
Satellite tracking reveals threats to Borneo pygmy elephants.
Word Wildlife Federation, 2007.
The Power to Reduce CO2 Emissions: The Full Portfolio.
Electric Power Research Institute, 2007.
Re-thinking Policies to Cope With Desertification.
Where Does the Nano Go? End-of Life Regulation of Nanotechnology.
Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, 2007.
Social Impacts of Heatwaves.
Environmental Agency (UK), 2007.
Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments: A Report From the NAEP Technology-Based Assessment Project.
National Center for Education Statistics, 2007.
An Assessment of the Small Business Innovation Research Program at the National Science Foundation (prepublication).
Exploration of Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments: Environmental and Scientific Stewardship.
International Benchmarking of U.S. Chemical Engineering Research Competitiveness.
The Third Domain.
An Assessment of the Small Business Innovation Research Program (prepublication).
Assessment of Wingtip Modifications to Increase the Fuel Efficiency of Air Force Aircraft.
Improving the Efficiency of Engines for Large Nonfighter Aircraft.
Improving the Social Security Representative Payee Program: Serving Beneficiaries and Minimizing Misuse (prepublication).
India's Changing Innovation System: Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities for Cooperation: Report of a Symposium.
Models in Environmental Regulatory Decision Making.
A Path to the Next Generation of U.S. Banknotes: Keeping Them Real.
Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making (2007).
Social Security Administration Electronic Service Provision: A Strategic Assessment (prepublication).
Understanding American Agriculture: Challenges for the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (prepublication).
Investing in innovation.
Pew Trust, 2007.
Prospective Evaluation of Applied Energy Research and Development at DOE (Phase Two).
Product innovation by incumbent firms in developing economies: the roles of research and development expenditures, trade policy, and the investment climate.
World Bank, 2007.
Review of Chemical Agent Secondary Waste Disposal and Regulatory Requirements (forthcoming).
Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Education: Status and Issues.
Strategy for an Army Center for Network Science, Technology, and Experimentation (prepublication).
Advanced Mathematics and Science Coursetaking in the Spring High School Senior Classes of 1982, 1992, and 2004.
International Education and Foreign Languages: Keys to Securing America's Future.
"CTWatch Quarterly is an online journal that focuses on cyberinfrastructure related research critical to collaboration and information dissemination within the science community as a whole. Each issue of CTWatch centers on a topic with currency and importance to this community with articles written by experts in their field from both academia and industry. CTWatch Quarterly … is a publication of the CyberInfrastruture Partnership (CIP) … a joint effort led by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) to help scientists and engineers take full advantage of the high-end cyberinfrastructure resources funded by the National Science Foundation…"
CTWatch Quarterly, Volume 3, Number 3, August 2007
The Coming Revolution in Scholarly Communications & Cyberinfrastructure
Introduction —
Lee Dirks, Microsoft Corporation; Tony Hey, Microsoft Corporation
The Shape of the Scientific Article in The Developing Cyberinfrastructure —
Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Next-Generation Implications of Open Access —
Paul Ginsparg, Cornell University
(this article is currently password-protected: this is probably a bug and CTWatch will fix)
Web 2.0 in Science —
Timo Hannay, Nature Publishing
Reinventing Scholarly Communication for the Electronic Age —
J. Lynn Fink, University of California, San Diego;
Philip E. Bourne, University of California, San Diego
Interoperability for the Discovery, Use, and Re-Use of Units of Scholarly Communication —
Herbert Van de Sompel, Los Alamos National Laboratory;
Carl Lagoze, Cornell University
Incentivizing the Open Access Research Web: Publication-Archiving, Data-Archiving and Scientometrics —
Tim Brody, University of Southampton, UK;
Les Carr, University of Southampton, UK;
Yves Gingras, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM);
Chawki Hajjem, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM);
Stevan Harnad, University of Southampton, UK; Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM);
Alma Swan, University of Southampton, UK; Key Perspectives
The Law as Cyberinfrastructure —
Brian Fitzgerald, Queensland University of Technology, Australia;
Kylie Pappalardo, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Cyberinfrastructure For Knowledge Sharing —
John Wilbanks, Scientific Commons
Trends Favoring Open Access —
Peter Suber, Earlham College
Congress Endorses Competitiveness Increases, Adds Funds for Biomedical, Environmental, & Energy R&D
"As of the August congressional recess, Congress is poised to add billions
of dollars to proposed budgets for the federal investment in research and development
(R&D) for fiscal year (FY) 2008, according to the newly released AAAS August
R&D Funding Update. The House and Senate would endorse large proposed increases
for select physical sciences agencies in the President's American
Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) and would continue to support Administration plans
to expand development investments for new human spacecraft. But instead of cutting
funding for other R&D programs as requested, the House and the Senate would
provide increases to every major nondefense R&D funding agency, and would turn
proposed cuts into significant increases for the congressional priorities of
biomedical research, environmental research (particularly climate change research),
and energy R&D. The added billions in FY 2008 appropriations so far would turn a
requested cut in federal support of basic and applied research into a real increase,
after three years of decline. But these increases depend on an overall congressional
budget plan allocating $21 billion more for domestic appropriations than the
President's budget; because the President has threatened to veto any
appropriations bills that exceed his budget request, these R&D increases could
disappear or diminish this fall in negotiations between the President and Congress
over final funding levels." (From the AAAS Funding Update)
House and Senate Pass Landmark Innovation Legislation
"After two years of discussion, Congress has finally agreed to a
comprehensive 'competitiveness' legislative package [The America Competes
Act (H.R. 2272)] intended to create, expand and bolster programs that foster innovation
and domestic talent. The legislation takes two basic approaches to fostering innovation.
First, it supports research. It does this largely by authorizing more funding for
several key research agencies. The budgets of the National Science Foundation, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Department of Energy's
Office of Science would be placed on a path toward doubling over the next 7 years. (This
doesn't mean that they will double as the law sets the targets that then must be
met by annual appropriation bills.)
Second, it creates and bolster a diversity of STEM education programs. The bill authorizes $43.3 billion over the next three fiscal years for STEM education programs across the federal government. The variety is impressive ranging from new K–12 teacher programs to new opportunities for undergraduate and graduate STEM students.
In addition, the legislation has several provisions that expand outreach to women and minorities in STEM fields. The lack of females and minorities has been a key problem in computing, so this is another welcome effort. …" (From ACM Washington Update)
NAS, NAE, & IOM Presidents Salute Signing of America Competes Act
"The America Competes Act signed by President Bush will help maintain and strengthen America's position in the global marketplace and pre-eminence in science and technology. On the bill's passage, the presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine thanked Congress, the many public policy and business groups who highlighted the urgent need for action, and the National Academies committee that contributed key recommendations in its report Rising Above the Gathering Storm."
Patent Reform Legislation Advances in Congress
"Patent reform legislation is making its way through both houses of Congress.
The Senate Judiciary Committee considered S. 1145, and, after lengthy
consideration, approved it on July 19 on a nearly party-line vote. The
previous day, the House Judiciary Committee passed its bill, H.R. 1908, by a
voice vote. The bills are largely similar, and represent a major shift in
several provisions of patent law. The reforms are, in part, an effort
toward international harmonization of intellectual property standards."
(From ACM Washington Update)
Remaking Transportation Infrastructure
"Potholes, rough surfaces, and rusting bridges are manifestations of
America's deteriorating infrastructure, tragically demonstrated with the
disaster in Minneapolis. Brookings's Metropolitan Policy Program has
broadly reassessed the nation's transportation policies, providing options
beyond the current hodgepodge of pet projects and earmarks to better address
these critical needs." This website from the Brookings Institution
contains full text of numerous documents addressing the US transportation
infrastructure needs and policies.
Representative Ehlers Introduces Bill to Strengthen the Department of Education Math and Science Par
Representative Vernon Ehlers introduced the Improving Math and Science Teacher
Quality Act, a bill to strengthen the Math and Science Partnerships program.
Read more in the fact sheet distributed by his office.
UK Science Advisor Urges Global Emissions-Reduction Pact
"Speaking to an audience at AAAS headquarters on 13 July, Sir David King
stressed the urgency of a carbon dioxide emissions-reduction global agreement
among wealthy and developing nations by 2009 to come into force by 2012, calling
for a leadership position from the United States. King, the UK's Chief
Science Advisor and head of the UK Office of Science and Innovation, cited UK
experience demonstrating that environmental and economic goals need not conflict.
Watch a video of the talk, see the PowerPoint presentation, and access a
comprehensive file of AAAS climate change resources." (From AAAS)
House Panel Considers Bayh-Dole Act
"On July 17 the House Science and Technology Committee's Technology
and Innovation Subcommittee held a hearing assessing the 27-year-old Bayh-Dole
Act — formally PL 96-517, Amendments to the Patent and Trademark Act of
1980 — that enables universities to retain title to inventions made through
federally-funded research. The five witnesses, all with backgrounds in
universities and industry, testified to the positive impact of the legislation
but acknowledged some concerns. Specifically, witnesses noted that universities
focus too much on rare home-run patents, and that IP considerations have made
private-sector collaborations with universities increasingly difficult and
time-consuming, leading businesses to seek out more partnerships with foreign
universities. However, all witnesses seemed to prefer institutional or
administrative reforms over legislative changes. The subcommittee plans to further
explore this topic, as well as the Stevenson-Wydler Act, which governs
collaborations between industry and federal laboratories, in future hearings.
— Erin Heath" (From AAAS "Science and Technology in Congress")
Nanotech News: Small Particles, Big Questions
"Government regulation of nanoscale particles has recently come under scrutiny,
leading to action on Capitol Hill and by federal agencies. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) held a public meeting on August 2nd to discuss and obtain
feedback the agency's draft plan for addressing the tiny science. The U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) released a nanotechnology task force report that
recommends the agency improve its scientific knowledge of nanoscience in order to
improve its oversight and regulation. Meanwhile, in Congress, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA)
introduced legislation encouraging nanotechnology research and commercialization."
(From AAAS "Science & Technology in Congress Newsletter")
House Energy Debate Concludes During Rare Weekend Session
"After extending the session into the weekend, House members tackled the
energy debate on Saturday, August 4th, passing the New Direction for Energy
Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act (H.R.3221) and the
highly contested Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act (H.R. 2776).
The conference between the House and Senate energy bills will be a challenge,
as the two differ in key provisions." (From AAAS "Science &
Technology in Congress Newsletter")
Apply for NSTA's Teacher Awards and Recognitions
NSTA and its sponsors recognize and reward exemplary teachers (pre-K–College),
principals (middle level and high school), and students (K–12) with cash,
trips, workshops, science program materials, and more. These awards offer
opportunities to receive professional and personal recognition and to share your
school's science education success stories. Don't miss the application
deadline for NSTA's Awards: October 15, 2007. Applications for the SeaWorld
Outstanding Environmental Educator Award has a November 30 deadline.
Faces of Science Exhibit at NAS Aug. 1 – Sept. 30
Photographer Mariana Cook turns her camera on some of the most prominent men
and women of the scientific community. The portraits together with the texts
that accompany them offer a look at the remarkable qualities of an
extraordinary group of people. The exhibit will be on view to the public
from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30 at the National Academy of Sciences building, 2100 C
St., N.W.
National Geographic All Roads Film Festival — October 4–7
National Geographic All Roads Film Project showcases breakthrough film and
still photography from indigenous and under represented minority cultures
around the globe. Launched in 2004, All Roads supports diverse cultural
perspectives with an international film festival, funding, networking, and
distribution opportunities to bring together voices that celebrate the
vibrant cultural stories of our world.
Also Los Angeles, CA: September 27–30 and Santa Fe, NM: November 28 – December 2
Can We Compete? Trends in America's Scientific and Technical Workforce Nov. 2007
Save the Date! The Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology will
host a national conference on November 1–2, 2007 in Washington, DC. The
conference will bring together policymakers, higher education administrators,
corporate hiring mangers, non-profit and business executives, workforce
analysts, and others to address major issues impacting America's
scientific and technical workforce. Plenaries and panel presentations featuring
experts on science and engineering data, policy and practice will focus on
innovation and the STEM workforce, scientific workforce trends, skills and the
global market, and cross-national supply and demand. The conference will draw
in part on data derived from CPST's Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-funded
STEM Workforce Data Project.
There is no charge to attend the conference, but registration is required. To register online, or for more information, visit the CPST website.
Conference Venue
Please mark your calendars now and plan on attending in November!
Electronics on Plastic: A Solution to the Energy Challenge or a Pipe Dream?
"As urgency to address climate change mounts, there's ever greater
interest in harnessing the unlimited potential of the sun to replace fossil
fuels. This tantalizing prospect has inspired a raft of new scientific ventures,
reports Stephen Forrest. A theoretical field of silicon solar cells that is 120
miles on one side and 120 miles on the other, plunked down in a temperate zone,
has the capacity to generate 20 terawatts of power. While such a solar array
could more than address the needs of today's global population, the scheme
is impractical and the costs prohibitive. … So scientists are exploring
how organic materials — not living cells, but carbon-containing compounds
— might make solar power more economical. Organic photovoltaic cells, made
of thin layers of fluorescing molecules, seem to hold out hope of an inexpensive
alternative to silicon. But so far, these cells don't offer the same kind
of power efficiency as silicon-based technologies."
Speaker: Stephen R. Forrest, Vice President for Research, University of Michigan
Workshop Presents Cutting-Edge Science Education to US School Boards
"A day-long workshop held in June for nearly 100 elected school board
members from Kansas and Missouri was the latest phase in a historic three-year
national project to help develop policies and support for state-of-the-art science,
technology, and mathematics (STM) curricula. The project, co-sponsored by AAAS and
the National School Boards Association (NSBA), targets the improvement of STM
capability as schools begin testing students' science proficiency under the
US No Child Left Behind law. The findings from extensive interviews and surveys, a
website, and training materials from the project are to be delivered to state school
board associations in all 50 states during February 2008." (From AAAS).
Website includes 12 minute video.
Podcasts from the National Academies
The National Academies provides podcasts on subjects in all areas of science,
engineering, medicine, and technology. Includes:
National Academy of Engineering Annual Meeting: Public Events
The National Academy of Engineering's 2007 Annual Meeting public events will
be held in Washington, D.C., on September 30 – October 1. Highlights on
September 30 include the new NAE member induction, the Founders Award and Bueche
Award ceremonies, the Gordon Prize Recipient Lecture, and other special guests.
Participants at the Oct. 1 NAE symposium, "Engineering Health Care as an
Adaptive Enterprise," will explore the promise, dynamics, and implications
of converging revolutions in bioengineering and the life sciences, which will
impact the future of health care and engineering research, education, and practice
in the United States. This public event will be held at the National Academies
building in Washington, D.C. Advance registration is required, as space is limited.
Mop Top the Hip Hop Scientist
"Description: The 'Hip Hop' Science Shop provides basic
biographical information about a dozen or so African Americans in the science
profession. Designed for younger students, there is some interactivity and the
interface is colorful and easy to use. Two different links were not working
(alphabetic navigation under 'and more scientists' and Links);
however the working content was useful. Some links lead to content and
activities on other sites." (From Blue Web'N)
"In recent years, people in the fields of business and technology have
developed a keen interest in creating products that are socially responsible.
As a partnership between two nonprofit organizations (Business for Social
Responsibility and the Green Business Network), the ClimateBiz website is a
place for such persons to come together and learn from each other. The section
titled ClimateBiz 101 is a good place to start, as it offers an overview of the
interactions between the world of business and climate change, and also provides
insights into how to best utilize the entire site. Other sections are more
self-explanatory, and include background articles (such as Who's reviving
the electric car? and an Ask the Climate Expert feature. [KMG]"
(From the Scout Report)
Quickly Move from Search Tool to Search Tool with Intelways
Intelways (Formerly CrossEngine & MrSapo)
"Having the best name possible for your site or service is so important.
Let's review this point by reviewing three name changes (in about 3 years)
at a useful web research tool? First, in 2004, there was MrSapo, a site that allowed
users to quickly move around and search various databases organized by categories. The
service was developed and maintained by Juan Sosa. Note that the page is copyright
Intelways. Second, in early 2007, MrSapo changed its name to CrossEngine. This SEL
report documents the change. During this time, the site was constantly under
construction with new looks and new search tools being added. Now, the name has
changed again to IntelWays (the name of its parent company).
Search Tools are Listed in 11 Categories:
Btw, also note the box in the upper right hand corner to have results pages open in a new browser window and icons for the most popular engines now remain constant on the interface. Look for the icons directly to the right of the search box. We've become regularly users of Intelways. It can not only make comparison searching and web search training easier but it also is useful to learn about new specialty tools. Kudos to the Intelways team and keep up the good work.
Update: It's important to remember that Intelways is NOT a meta or federated search engine where results from disparate databases are merged together into one results list. Vivisimo's Bio-Meta Cluster would be an example of a meta/federated search tool."
Maps of Science
Ever wonder how the various disciplines in science interconnect? This beautiful
website has just been updated with a 'globe of science', showing the
connections, through journal article citation analysis, of all the fields of science.
"These maps were constructing by sorting more than 16,000 journals into disciplines. Disciplines, represented as circles, are sets of journals that cite a common literature. Links (the lines between disciplines) are pairs of disciplines that share a common literature. Links are treated as rubber bands (attempting to bring two disciplines close to each other). The lack of a link is similar to a repulsive fource (pusing two disciplines apart). A mathematical model, using the attractive-repulsive fources, generates the visualizations shown below directly from the data."
The maps are interactive, allowing you display the funding patterns of several agencies, and to drill down through "disciplines" and "paradigms". A most interesting way to look at the connections and interconnections in science.
ticTOCs Project will transform journal current awareness
"ticTOCs is a project to develop a freely available service which will transform
journal current awareness. The ticTOCs service will make it easy for academics,
researchers and anyone else to find, display, store, combine and reuse journal tables
of contents (TOCs) from multiple publishers in a personalisable web based environment.
JISC is the primary funder of the ticTOCs project, which will run for two years from
April 2007. A consortium of fifteen partners are involved in the project. Lead by the
University of Liverpool Library, the consortium includes Heriot-Watt University,
Cranfield University, CrossRef, ProQuest, RefWorks, Emerald, Nature Publishing Group,
SAGE Publishers, Institute of Physics, Inderscience Publishers, MIMAS, Directory of
Open Access Journals, Open J-Gate and Intute.
Efficient journal current awareness services are of the highest importance to researchers and academics, whatever their discipline. Ensuring efficient and easy access to the contents of the latest journal publications is also important for publishers of scholarly journals, a business which is estimated to be worth $5 billion per annum. Authors of articles in scholarly publications also want their output to be available to as wide an audience as possible, as soon after publication as possible. The ticTOCs project will develop a freely available service which will benefit not only academics and researchers, publishers and authors, but also service providers such as libraries, aggregators, discovery services and journal directories. As such, ticTOCs is likely to become a very important component of the scholarly communications process. ticTOCS will develop a service to enable academics, researchers and anyone else, without having to understand the technical or procedural concepts involved in the process, to discover, subscribe to, search within, be alerted to, aggregate, export and re-use standardised Table of Contents RSS (really Simple Syndication) feeds and their content for thousands of journals and numerous publishers. In addition, it will facilitate the re-use of aggregated journal TOC content on a subject basis by gateways, subject-based resource discovery services, library services and others, where it can act as a showcase of the latest research output. It will also make it easy for users of library and information services, commercial and open access journal publishers, online gateways, content aggregators and journal directories to subscribe to journal TOC RSS feeds of interest, with one click, via a freely available personalisable web-based interface. ticTOCs will encourage the production of standardised journal TOC RSS feeds, and thereby facilitate their interoperability and improve the quality of their data.
A prototype service is expected to be up and running by April 2008. The project has been named ticTOCs because part of the service will involve the ticking of selected TOCs (Tables of Contents) of interest, from an easy to use online directory of thousands of feeds.
More information about ticTOCs is available at the ticTOCs project website (http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/). A ticTOCs news blog (http://tictocsnews.wordpress.com/) is also available.
Contact: Joe Hilton, ticTOCs Project Manager, Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool, Chatham St, PO Box 123 Liverpool, United Kingdom, L69 3DA. Email: email@example.com"
(From Roddy MacLeod MA, DipLib, MCILIP)
The Naked Scientists
"Ever wonder exactly how thunderstorms work? What about genetic fingerprinting?
Do you have nightmares about getting stuck in quicksand? This group of (thoroughly clothed)
Cambridge University researchers and physicians wants to answer your questions and help you
have fun with science. Try an experiment, such as using simple kitchen objects to measure
the speed of light, figuring out how to tell if an egg is raw, or discovering the simple
magic required for making sugar cubes glow. Already think you're an Einstein? Test
your knowledge of science with their quiz. Tune in to a podcast or read an article. Ask a
question on their radio show or get it answered right now in the forums. Just think how all
this new wisdom will impress your friends and family. They might start calling you
'Doctor.'" (From Yahoo's Picks)
T-Rex Blood?
"In 2005, Mary Schweitzer and her team shocked the paleontological world when
they reported, in the journal Science, that they had come upon soft
tissue surviving deep within the fossilized thigh bone of a 68 million-year-old
Tyrannosaurus rex. The tissue included transparent, stretchy, and still-soft
structures that looked like blood vessels, along with possible red blood cells.
Surprised as anyone by the discovery, Schweitzer, a paleontologist and research
curator at North Carolina State University, decided she had to see if it was a
fluke. Did other ancient fossils harbor such prizes? Here, see what Schweitzer
and her team brought to light from bones as old as 78 million years."
NOVA Science Now brings this companion site with video and images.
Watch the dissection of a sheep brain to show us "the anatomy of memory."
on this website from the Exploratorium. See works of an artist who paints entirely
from memory. (Compare his paintings to photos of places.) Play interactive games
that test your memory — learn ways to improve it. Discover why some things are
easier to remember than others (droodles game). Which facial features help us remember
a face? Which image of the penny is correct? Try a mnemonic device called
"elaborative encoding." (From EdInfo Resources)
Brains Rule
A simple website with a lot to offer. "Games" about the brain for kids,
interviews with neuroscientists, spotlighted teachers, newsfeeds and grant opportunities
for researchers — something for everyone. www.brainsrule.com is a collaboration
between The University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Texas Health Science
Center at Houston.
Genome Island (Second Life)
"Genome Island includes the Abbey of St. Thomas, historic
displays about Mendel, scientific slideshows and games, cell models,
DNA models, and much more. The Tower has a nice poster that describes
major sections of the sim and a lab notebook that you can take away.
There are teleporters all over to move you around. It's a large sim
so take your time and explore." (From Blue Web'N)
"The MicrobeLibrary is an online collection of peer-reviewed resources for
teaching microbiology supported by the American Society for Microbiology. Its
contents include visual images and animations; curriculum activities for both
classroom and laboratory; articles from Focus on Microbiology Education,
Microbiology Education journal, as well as feature articles from microbe (formerly
ASM News); and reviews of educational resources such as websites, software, videos,
and books." About 40% of the content is available free, the rest requires a
Welcome to Whyville
"Whyville is a virtual world of over 1.7 million citizens
(membership is free). It's where tweens can learn about science and
business through games and roleplay as well as communicating with other
students from around the world. You can earn clams by playing
educational games, go to town events at the Greek Theater,learn about
phytoplankton blooms, get involved in the simulated government, and
more. Whyville is also working in conjunction with other content
providers to provide educational materials; for example the
Getty Museum (http://www.getty.edu/education/for_kids/).
Numedeon, Inc., Whyville's parent company, develops virtual worlds
that promote learning through interactivity and engagement. Numedeon's
founders are scientists, who combined research experience with education
expertise to conceive an innovative way to harness the power of the
Internet for the purpose of engagement and education.
Take a tour of Whyville (http://www.whyville.net/top/newbieTour/Page001.html)."
(From Blue Web'N)
Apply Today to Become a NASA Explorer School
Applications are now available for educators interested in joining NASA Explorer
Schools (NES) during the 2008–2009 school year. Schools from the 50 states,
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands may apply for the
NES 2008–2009 school year. NES offers unique opportunities designed to engage
and educate the future scientists who may someday advance U.S. scientific interests
through space exploration. Teams composed of full-time teachers and a school
administrator develop and implement a three-year action plan to address local
challenges in science, technology, and mathematics education for grades 4–9.
During the three-year partnership, the chosen schools are eligible to receive
funding to purchase technology tools. The project also provides educators and
students with content-specific activities that can be used within the curricula to
excite students about science, technology, engineering, and math. Applications are
due Jan. 31, 2008. (From NSTA)
75 Fewer Minutes for Elementary Science Per Week as Result of NCLB Says CEP Report
The Center on Education Policy (CEP) released a survey last week that examines the
amount of time spent during the school week on core academic subjects and how the
allocation of time across subjects has changed since the 2001–2002 school year,
when NCLB was enacted. The report finds that approximately 62% of school districts
increased the amount of time spent in elementary schools on reading and language arts
and/or math, while 44% of districts cut time on science, social studies, art and music,
physical education, lunch, and/or recess. According to the new survey, the average
change in instructional time in elementary schools since the law's enactment has
been 140 additional minutes per week for reading, 87 additional minutes per week for
math, 76 fewer minutes per week for social studies, 75 fewer minutes for science
(emphasis added), 57 fewer minutes for art, and 40 fewer minutes for gym, writes New
York Times reporter Sam Dillon.
Student Results Show Benefits of Math and Science Partnerships
The National Science Foundation is reporting that students' performance on annual
math and science assessments improved in almost every age group when their schools were
involved in a Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program. MSP-participating school
districts found that a significantly higher proportion of students scored at the
"proficient" level or higher on state math and science assessments in the
2004–2005 school year than they had in 2003–2004. Progress among elementary
math students was particularly noteworthy, with student proficiency rising by more than
15 percentage points from one school year to the next. The MSP currently supports 52
such partnerships around the country that unite some 150 institutions of higher
education with more than 550 school districts, including more than 3,300 schools in 30
states and Puerto Rico. More than 70 businesses, numerous state departments of education,
science museums, and community organizations are also partners.
Students in Rural Areas Do Better in Science Says New NCES Report
Last week, a new report issued by the National Center on Education Statistics on rural
schools found that students in rural areas do better in science than their counterparts
in urban schools. The Status of Education in Rural America provides a series of indicators
on the status of education in rural America, including the findings that in 2003–2004
more than half of all operating school districts and one-third of all public schools in the
United States were in rural areas, yet only one-fifth of all public school students were
enrolled in rural areas. A larger percentage of rural public school students in the 4th and
8th grades in 2005 scored at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) reading, mathematics, and science assessments than did public
school students in cities at these grade levels. However, smaller percentages of rural
public school students than suburban public school students scored at or above the
proficient level in reading and mathematics.
Resource: Teaching High School Science
"Both new and experienced science high school teachers will find something
of interest within this six-part series created by WGBH Boston. The creation of
the program was supported by the Annenberg Media organization, and visitors can
view all of these programs in the comfort of their home (or classroom). As the
program site notes, The Teaching High School Science library will help teachers
integrate national science standards and inquiry learning into their curricula.
The programs include classrooms investigating chemical reactions, expereiments
involving crickets, and explorations into how the Mars landscape may have formed.
After viewing these programs, visitors can also view a list of related programs
that are also made available as part of the Annenberg Media's online video
library. [KMG]" (From the Scout Report)
Exploratorium: Iron Science Teacher
"People in the Bay Area love to cook, and that can mean mixing up everything
from home-grown arugula to free trade pumpkins. The good folks at San
Francisco's Exploratorium have cooked up the Iron Science Teacher
presentations in an attempt to bring together the worlds of science and the
culinary arts. To no one's surprise, they have succeeded, and the results
include a fine mix of science activities that are both fun and enlightening.
Visitors can dive right in by looking over some of their recent endeavors,
which have included such items as candy, apples, chocolate, fruit cake,
pumpkins, and marshmallow peeps. There are other areas of the site that
bring together previous webcasts that have covered kitchen items, common
household items, and even things one might find in a recycling bin. [KMG]"
(From the Scout Report)
Friendly Robots
A daring engineer designs robots to communicate and interact the way people do.
Listen and watch while Cynthia Breazeal shows off her friendly robots.
Mars Exploration Rovers
Mars Exploration Rovers tells the story of Spirit and Opportunity, two rovers that
are investigating the hills and craters of Mars. See an animation of Spirit's
journey from launch pad to Mars. Learn about its instruments. See a slide show of the
most detailed images of Mars' surface ever captured. A lesson on the distance
and relative size of other planets is included. (From EdInfo Resources)
National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS)
"Documents related to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) bridge inspection
program regulations, which were 'developed as a result of the Federal-Aid Highway
Act of 1968,' and were revised with the National Bridge Inspection Standards
(NBIS; took effect in January 2005). Includes the full text of the NBIS regulation, a
FAQ, documents related to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI), and related material.
From the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation."
(From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
How Bridges Work
"This site describes the engineering of bridges in general and looks at the beam,
arch, and suspension bridge, illustrating different types of bridges, factors such as
'how each bridge type deals with two important forces, compression and
tension,' and related details. Includes links to other engineering articles. From
HowStuffWorks." (From Librarian's Index to the Internet)
Code of Ethics for Robots
"The government of South Korea is drawing up a code of ethics to prevent human
abuse of robots — and vice versa. The so-called Robot Ethics Charter will cover
standards for robotics users and manufacturers, as well as guidelines on ethical
tandards to be programmed into robots, South Korea's Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Energy announced last week."
Same story covered by the BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6425927.stm)
International Space Station: An Interactive Reference Guide
"NASA can really put together a website, and the dramatic visual and audio
introduction to their online interactive guide to the world of the
International Space Station (ISS) is worth sitting back and watching in its
entirety. After the introduction, visitors can listen to Commander Mike
Fincke talk about the various scientific endeavors that are part of the
Station's mission. The rest of the materials on the site are divided into
three sections: 'How the Crew Lives', 'How it Works',
and 'ISS 360 Tour'. While all of the sections are equally interesting,
the 'How the Crew Lives' is quite a treat, as visitors can watch videos
demonstrating how the crew eats, sleeps, and exercises. Of course, visitors with a
penchant for engineering technology should definitely not miss the 'How it
Works' area, which contains explanations of how the ISS is operated and
supported. Finally, the site also contains a music video which blends together what
sounds like early 1990s-techno music with in-flight scenes of space scientists at
work and play. [KMG]" (From the Scout Report)
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), is pleased to announce the release of the TerraLook
data product. A TerraLook product is a user-specified collection of JPEG images
created from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)
images from the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, and
Tri-Decadal Global Landsat Orthorectified images from the USGS archive. TerraLook
will serve GIS, natural resource management, education, and other communities, and
provide easily accessible remotely-sensed data. TerraLook images are designed for
visual interpretation and display, and are of value to anyone who wants to see the
changes to the Earth's surface over the last 30 years.
Dino Directory
"Do you know your Gallinimus from your Barosaurus? If not, it may be high time
to take a close look at The Natural History Museum's Dino Directory. Updated
regularly, the Dino Directory provides basic information on 229 of the most well
described dinosaurs. Complemented by 933 images, the dinosaurs can be searched by
scientific name, body shape, or by time period. One very nice feature of the site is
the Living Together area, which allows users to discover which dinosaurs could be
found on different continents during each era. For those concerned with
locating dinosaurs by the contemporary boundaries of such countries as Argentina,
Brazil, and others, that option is also available. For each dinosaur, visitors can
look at various speculative renderings, and also learn about their diet and habitat.
[KMG]" (From the Scout Report)
Galaxy Zoo — Call for Public Participation
"A new project known as Galaxy Zoo is calling on members of the public to log
on to its website and help classify one million galaxies. The hope is that about 30,000
people might take part in a project that could help reveal whether our existing models
of the Universe are correct. Computer users undergo a three-minute online tutorial and
are then allocated a series of images and asked to decide whether each one shows a
spiral or an elliptical galaxy. If it's a spiral galaxy, they're asked to
decide which way it appears to be rotating. The images come from the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey telescope in New Mexico, US." (From the BBC Science & Nature Newsletter)
"ChemxSeer, the first publicly available search engine designed specifically for
chemical formulae, can sort out when He refers to helium and a person more than nine
times out of 10, according to the Penn State College of Information Sciences and
Technology (IST) researchers who created the tool. With the new engine, scientists
searching for research on CH4 or methane no longer have to wade through search results
about Channel 4 or Chapter 4 as ChemxSeer will only return documents with references
to the chemical formula. Results from our search engine are much more relevant than
results returned by popular search engines, Gil said. It is one of several tools under
development in our lab which will enable better access to and sharing
of information and data among scientists and scholars."
This gorgeous and informative site is from NASA. "In the first few decades of this
new century astronomers will largely complete the study of cosmology: the description of
the universe on the largest scales and how it works. With the Space Infrared Telescope
Facility (Spitzer) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) we will also begin to write
the final chapter of the story of galaxies, witnessing the actual birth of these continents
of stars."
Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles
"Created by Alexander Bogomolny, this site is a clearinghouse of fun and engaging
mathematics exercises, puzzles, and other such activities that teachers can utilize in
their classrooms. Of course, students might happen across the site and they might become
math converts along the way. First-time visitors might wish to read Bogomolny's
manifesto for the site, and then they can dive right into the material offerred here. The
offerings are divided into a number of sections, including Visual Illusions, Algebra, and
Probability. One particularly nice feature of the site is that many of the exercises and
activities here are accompanied by helpful Java applets that include charts, graphs, and other
such dynamic elements. Finally, visitors shouldn't leave without visiting the Mathematical
Droodles section as it's both engaging and thought-provoking. [KMG]"
(From the Scout Report)
Life in the Solar System
"Over the next few years, space probes will be visiting alien worlds looking
for life. Our first contact with extraterrestrials could be just around the corner."
The main candidates in the Solar System to harbour life are Mars, Europa and Titan. This
attractive website from the BBC explores these possibilities and links to related BBC
Physics To Go
"Many things in this world are offered on a 'to-go' basis. Some might not
immediately think of 'Physics To Go', but thank goodness the talented people
at the American Physical Society and the National Science Digital Library
have done just that. Essentially, this site is an excellent collection of
websites where visitors can learn physics on their own through a variety of
formats, including webcasts, online exhibits, and games. Educators will
enjoy these materials a great deal, and they may wish to recommend the
'Physics in Your World' section to fellow travelers and students. In this
section, visitors can learn about centripetal force through the world of
water-skiing and the principles behind optical microscopy. There's also the
'Physics at Home' archive which brings together information on building a
telescope at home and ways to learn about diffraction with just a few
pencils and a miniature light. [KMG]" (From the Scout Report)
Meteor Showers
A brief introduction to meteor showers from the BBC. This site is heavily linked.
Go from meteors to comets, for example, where you can play games like "The
solar system jigsaw", "Alien invaders game" or "Asteroid
attack game". Find video clips, vote on whether life arrived on a comet, or
go further and explore recommended sites from NASA, and SEDS.
Apollo Moon Project Photographic Record in New Digital Archive
"Arizona State University and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
have teamed up to make high-res scans of original Apollo flight films available
online. There is a minimum amount of content available on the Web site at the moment,
the project has just started and will take about three years to complete. About
36,000 images in total will be scanned, including about 600 35mm frames and about
4,600 panoramic camera frames. You can
see a preview of how the pictures are going to be scanned (http://apollo.sese.asu.edu/METRIC_PREVIEW/index.html).
Each frame has a Web page, with several different sizes of images to download
(I saw one original scan that was over a gig.) The frames have extensive details
about where and when they were taken as well. This is just the beginning for this
archive, but one to keep an eye on." (From ResearchBuzz)
The Mysterious Bogpeople
"Despite the seemingly spooky title of this site, visitors should not be
afraid of entering and exploring around the contents of this very interactive
site. Created through a collaborative partnership between organizations such
as the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Drents Museum, this site
concerns itself with the artifacts and material world created by the so-called
bogpeople of northwestern Europe who lived approximately 10,000 years ago.
Visitors can explore their world through sections that include Science, Timeline,
Profile and Mediatheatre. The Mediatheatre section is a good place to start as
visitors can view short film clips that cover the mysteries of the bog, fishing
with a harpoon, and the fabled Ubbena wheel. Moving along, the Timeline area
gives some nice chronological context to the events and transformations covered
by the site, and the Science area includes some insights into what archaeologists
do in the field. [KMG]" (From the Scout Report)
The BigMac Index
Brought to you by The Economist, this website uses the cost of a Big
Mac around the world to examine which currencies are undervalued and overvalued.
Tongue in cheek, perhaps, but pretty accurate as well. Included is a video clip
that explains the theoretical underpinnings, as it were.
Internet Crossroads in Social Science Data
From the University of Wisconsin a plain vanilla but very useful portal to social
science data.
(From U of Michigan Document Center)
Video in the News: Egypt's Most Famous Female King Found
Brought to you by National Geographic is a variety of videos in the news, this one on
the identification of Hatshepsut's mummy. "Watch as archaeologists reveal
how they identified the long-lost mummy of Hatshepsut, an Egyptian ruler famous for
donning the male garb of a pharaoh."
Video in the News — Penguins
National Geographic brings you a range of videos in the news, this one about the
problems faced by Antarctic penguins dealing with climatic changes.
"The National Science Teachers Association salutes NSTA member Barbara Morgan, a former Idaho elementary science teacher, and her upcoming launch aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. Morgan is one of seven STS-118 crewmates selected for the 11-day construction mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled to launch Wednesday, August 8.
In addition to leading in-orbit educational activities, Morgan's duties will include operating the shuttle's and station's robotic arms during spacewalks and other activities and overseeing the transfer of 5,000 pounds of supplies and equipment between the shuttle and station. Additionally, Morgan and her crewmates will be transferring a set of plant growth chambers, as well as 10 million basil seeds, to the ISS. Expedition 15 astronaut Clayton Anderson will cultivate some of the seeds over 20 days as part of a NASA Engineering Design Challenge. The remaining microgravity-exposed basil seeds, along with a control set of seeds, will later be distributed to students across the U.S. to grow in their own home-built growth chambers." (From NSTA Express)
"The television show Star Trek, while not tremendously popular during its initial run in the early 1960s, soon garnered a following that could, at the very least, be described as thoroughly devoted. Over the past forty years, the show has been shown in syndication almost continuously, and has also served as the inspiration for a movie franchise, several additional television series, dozens of books, and the requisite merchandise and memorabilia industries. Many famous characters were created as part of the original series, including Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott. James Doohan, who played the chief engineer of the crew's hardy vessel, the Starship Enterprise, passed away last July at the age of 85. He had always expressed a strong desire to travel into space, and it seems that he will now get his wish, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. Earlier this week, it was announced that several grams of Doohan's ashes would be placed on a 15-minute suborbital flight that will leave from southern New Mexico this coming fall. His widow commented, 'It's a way to honor something he would have loved to have done.' As of this writing, it is not known whether William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, or any of the other original cast members have a similar wish for their own ashes. [KMG]" (From the Scout Report)


text:
Antioxidants may cut pancreatic cancer risk
Consuming a diet high in foods that contain antioxidants, such as fruit, may cut the risk of pancreatic cancer by two-thirds. "It is estimated that 35 percent of cancers are related to carcinogens in the diet," said one doctor of oncology and hematology. "Antioxidants have been the subject of numerous trials because in theory they could be instrumental in the prevention of carcinogenesis."


text:
I love food. I love to shop for it, prepare it, take pictures of it, write about it and, over all, eat it. That's why there is a word that really scares me every time I hear it. Diet. Maybe you have faced that concept before. In our modern and hectic lives sometimes the last thing we worry about is our health and as a result we end up with another even uglier word and concept. Overweight.
I used to be a little scrawny boy. But around the age of 12 I became a chubby little boy. I didn't eat junk food or a lot of sweets or fast food (my parents never fed us that kind of food) but I ate a lot for a boy that age. I ate a lot of fruit, vegetables, grains, chicken and just about anything they put in front of me. And as a result I ended up being a chubby kid. Fortunately for me, my teen years hit and I grew tall and my belly went away.
Since then I haven't suffered from a serious overweight problem. My worst problem was being 10 pounds over my ideal weight, but now that my third decade has almost come to an end I know I have to be a lot more careful with what I eat. That's why I have lately been thinking about that ugly word.
Is dieting the key to lose weight? I believe that the answer is yes and no. Let my try to explain myself.
Yes because a balanced diet helps not only to lose weight, it is also the foundation of a healthy life. The math to lose weight is very simple. You need to burn more calories than what you eat during the day. That means that if you eat 2,000 calories a day and burn 2,100 then you are in the right track. This leads to the other part of my answer.
Dieting is not the key to lose weight. Not the dieting most people associate with losing weight, anyway. When they think about going on a diet, most people think about starving themselves and avoid eating certain food groups. But a healthy, balance and well-thought diet doesn't have to be that way.
The key for me (and this is what this section of the blog is about, trying to find what works for me on my road to a healthier life and share that knowledge) is balance. I could never restrain myself from eating certain foods, unless they could kill me. So what I try to do is eat more of the foods that are good for my body and less of the foods that are not so good, no matter how yummy and delicious they look and taste. As I get older, I am also reducing the amount of other foods that my body doesn't need as much now. I already stopped growing so I don't need to drink as much milk or eat as much meat as before.
One of the greatest guides one can find out there for a healthy diet is the food pyramid. It's really easy to follow, eat lots of the food at the bottom and just very little of the food on top with varying amounts of everything in between. Also drink lots of water, 8 glasses a day, and exercise routinely.
Planning balanced meals and daily exercise might seem time-consuming and difficult for such modern and busy creatures like ourselves. I stopped looking at it as a pain in the butt long ago because when you really think about it, isn't it worth it dedicating a couple of hours to our bodies so they can perform even better in the modern and hectic lives we lead? It is to me. We always have options and I have chosen health.
Useful resources related to this post:
The World's Healthiest foods
Healthy eating overview
Diet and dieting problems
Related Articles
About Author
(8) Readers Comments
And moving. A lot. Exercise is such a key component of living a healthy life. And getting enough sleep. They're all important in the balance of things.
It gets harder and harder,and the blogging doesnt help. I try to walk a lot as I dont belong to a gym any longer.
I definitely carry an extra 15-20 pounds on me. I've been "voluptuous" since puberty. As I too, am nearing 40, I do worry about the health complications that my excess baggage can provide (my grandmother is diabetic). I find that I lose weight most easily when I concentrate on only eathing whole foods. If I do my best to eliminate sugar, white flour, chemicals, HFCS, and any other overly-refined foods, I seem to naturally eat fewer calories and lose weight. Of course it's really hard to always be clean, so I aim for 100% clean 90% of the time. It works for me.
well i carry an extra HUNDRED lbs on ME, and i can tell you if it was calories in calories out, i wouldn't have a problem would i? all the stupid times i have tried to lose weight and succeeded would have been the end of the story, but your body has a mind of it's own, and it WILL go back up to your previous weight PLUS MORE for good measure. even people that get all their intestines cut out with weight loss surgery gain the weight back, defying all logic… don't even SAY the word diet to me, i can't afford to get any fatter
I wanted to comment and thank the author, good stuff
I will take your rss feed, it's surely great sites for noob like me,thx
Keep working, great job so far
Thank you! I liked it a lot.