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Lung-Cancer Study: Processed Meats Alert
New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates -- found in a variety of processed foods, including meats, cheeses, beverages and bakery products -- might speed the growth of lung-cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease.
The study also suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may play an important role in lung-cancer treatment. The research, using a mouse model, was conducted by Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Seoul National University, appears in a recent issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical-Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
"Our study indicates that increased intake of inorganic phosphates strongly stimulates lung-cancer development in mice, and suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may be critical for lung-cancer treatment as well as prevention," said Cho.
Lung cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer deaths in the world, and is also the most frequently diagnosed solid tumor. Non-small-cell lung cancer constitutes more than 75 percent of lung cancers, and has an average overall 35-year survival rate of 14 percent.
Earlier studies have indicated that approximately 90 percent of NSCLC cases were associated with activation of certain signaling pathways in lung tissue. This study revealed that high levels of inorganic phosphates can stimulate those same pathways.
"Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell proliferation in lung tissue, and disruption of signaling pathways in those tissues can confer a normal cell with malignant properties," explained Cho.
"Deregulation of only a small set of pathways can confer a normal cell with malignant properties, and these pathways are regulated in response to nutrient availability and, consequently, cell proliferation and growth.
"Phosphate is an essential nutrient to living organisms, and can activate some signals," added Cho. "This study demonstrates that high intake of inorganic phosphates may strongly stimulate lung-cancer development by altering those [signaling] pathways."
In the study, lung-cancer model mice were observed for four weeks and randomly assigned to receive a diet of either .5 percent or 1 percent phosphate, a range roughly equivalent to modern human diets. At the end of the four-week period, the lung tissue was analyzed to determine the effects of the inorganic phosphates on tumors.
"Our results clearly demonstrated that the diet higher in inorganic phosphates caused an increase in the size of the tumors and stimulated growth of the tumors," said Cho.
He noted that while a moderate level of phosphate plays an essential role in living organisms, the rapidly increasing use of phosphates as a food additive has resulted in significantly higher levels in average daily diets. Phosphates are added to many food products to increase water retention and improve food texture.
Explained Cho: "In the 1990s, phosphorous-containing food additives contributed an estimated 470 mg per day to the average daily adult diet. However, phosphates are currently being added much more frequently to a large number of processed foods, including meats, cheeses, beverages and bakery products.
"As a result, depending on individual food choices, phosphorous intake could be increased by as much as 1,000 mg per day."
Cho ended by saying that future studies will help refine what constitutes a "safe" level of dietary inorganic phosphate, with recommendations that will be easily achievable in the average population. | <urn:uuid:4ac71501-1ea4-46e1-bdc7-8afd07c9a4ae> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://[email protected]/lung-cancer-s%E2%80%8Btudy-processed-meats-alert | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375098468.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031818-00273-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960477 | 736 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Why computer programmers should never take their laptop to bed with them
Computer programmers, also known as developers, coders, or software engineers, is someone who writes software for computers. Software can be written in many different computer languages including Assembler, COBOL, C, C++, C#, Java, Lisp, Python and Web. Computer programmers not only write software, they also test, debug, and maintain the programs. Many like to do this work laying on their best mattress from the comfort of their own home, since it can be a solitary role.
Software engineering requires careful attention to minute details and for you to sit in front of the computer for many hours. Study show that computer programmers can be highly productive for only a few hours at a time. If you work in this field, consider the following tips to keep relaxed during your non-working hours and to replenish your mental capacity so you can work efficiently and effectively.
Practice Good Computer Habits
Because software engineers work for long hours in front of the computer, they may experience aches and pains in their bodies from minor muscle aches that lasts a few hours to tendon issues that lasts years. Common physical complaints from computer programmers originate at the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and neck. They complain of aches, pain, burning, numbness, and tingling.
Listen to Your Body
Once you start feeling any pain, do not ignore it. Pay attention to the discomfort, figure out what is causing it, and relieve the tension immediately.
Take a break every hour to stand, stretch, and walk for a few minutes. If you need to, use a timer so you can keep track of the time.
Correct Chair Position
Adjust your chair so that your feet are supported by the floor and your back is supported by the back of the seat. Your sitting posture should be slightly leaning to the back of your chair. Get rid of any armrests, as they can get in the way of good posture.
Correct Monitor Position
Adjust the computer monitor so that the top of the screen is level to your eyes and is directly in front of you when you are properly seated, about an arm’s length away.
Correct Keyboard Position
Adjust the keyboard so that it is low in height, about the height of your elbows. Your mouse should be right next to your keyboard. The keyboard should be flat so that your wrists are straight.
A computer programmer’s mind is riddled with how to solve coding issues. Their attention to detail often wreaks havoc on the software engineer’s mind. Take a break from work and recharge your mind by using any of the following relaxation techniques.
To practice deep breathing, sit or lie comfortably and close your eyes. Inhale deeply through your nose to the count of five, and hold it for a few seconds before exhaling slowly through your nose to the count of five. Set your timer for at least five minutes.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Lie comfortably on the floor and close your eyes. From your toes to your head, engage one muscle group at a time. Hold the contraction as hard as you can before releasing and moving on to the next muscle group. When you have reached your head, just breathe deeply five more times.
There are many short guided meditations available on Youtube. Pick a few out that you like, and practice guided meditation on your breaks or after work before bed. Remember to sit comfortably with your eyes closed in a quiet space.
Get Good Sleep
Nothing recharges your mind and body better than a good night’s rest. To do so, make sure you don’t eat a heavy meal right before going to bed and don’t partake in too much alcohol. Make sure the room is cool, dark, and quiet. Make your bed a sleep haven by investing in a good mattress, pillows and sheets. Only use your bed for sleep and sex, so don’t ever take your laptop in bed with you.
When you eat healthy, your body and mind can function at their optimal levels. Drink lots of water and make sure you get all your food groups in the correct proportions.
Exercising gives you energy and keeps you healthy. Make sure you are doing some sort of exercise at least four times a week for an hour so your body and your mind can attack any computer programming issue. | <urn:uuid:3b8aec31-4c4d-4c7c-854c-d09a1fe8501a> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.devidal.tv/why-computer-programmers-should-never-take-their-laptop-to-bed-with-them/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463612537.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170529184559-20170529204559-00480.warc.gz | en | 0.944975 | 903 | 3.234375 | 3 |
By Enrique Peña Nieto.
The evolution of mankind has been forged around the migration of people across regions and continents. It is therefore an honor for me to participate in the High Level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants, where we can more effectively coordinate multilateral efforts for the protection of migrants and the recognition of their contributions to development.
This is a historic meeting that brings together the sensitivity and political will of the international community to agree on a comprehensive and global approach to migration, guided by the principle of shared responsibility.
Migrants symbolize the movement that has advanced humanity. Their culture, traditions and knowledge enrich the cultural heritage of societies where they decide to settle, contributing to the fusion of cultures and the creation of new dynamic and prosperous nations. Migrants have also represented our ability to overcome adversity since time immemorial.
Today, we note with concern that migrants and refugees face rejection, discrimination and abuse. These threats are further aggravated when, through ignorance, racism or simply political opportunism, migrants are stigmatized and blamed for the problems and challenges of the countries of destination. Therefore, I am convinced that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has done well to promote better protection of the rights of migrants and public policies that address the causes of migration.
Today more than ever, migrants, their dignity and well-being must be at the center of international support. The international community has an excellent opportunity to address global migration flows. Since Mexico is a country of origin, transit, destination and return for migrants, is no stranger to this problem.
Mexico is a proudly mestizo and multicultural nation, the result of a dynamic legacy of multiple migrations throughout its history. The great cultural, economic and social wealth of Mexico and other countries cannot be understood without migrants. A clear example of this situation is the community of Mexican origin living in the United States. Mexican migrants contribute every day, through their work, talent and creativity, to the prosperity and development of that country. They produce approximately 8% of US GDP and pay billions of dollars in taxes each year, helping to finance social welfare programs throughout the United States.
The agreements resulting from this meeting of the United Nations should be based on international cooperation and responsibility. They should be focused on strengthening states’ capacities to protect migrants and their human rights, while recognizing their contributions to economic development and achieving social inclusion, with the aim of eradicating intolerance and racism.
As a responsible global player, Mexico has offered to host a Preparatory International Meeting –in 2017- to facilitate the adoption of the Global Pact for Safe, Orderly, Regular Migration and the Global Refugee, which will be adopted in 2018.
We cannot turn our backs on the suffering of millions of people leaving their countries in search of better opportunities or fleeing armed conflict, violence and humanitarian crises around the world. I am convinced that the future of humanity depends on fraternity and solidarity. Mexico will continue to work tirelessly for the protection of refugees and the recognition of migrants as agents of change and development, for the protection of their rights and combating hate and discrimination.
Published in The Huffington Post. | <urn:uuid:ee97735b-a156-422b-9b7c-35c2895d4bc5> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.gob.mx/presidencia/articulos/migration-a-crucial-force-for-development-and-global-integration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608648.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170526071051-20170526091051-00128.warc.gz | en | 0.941804 | 625 | 2.65625 | 3 |
He already lived in the Hungarian Capital city before his appointment by the ICRC, working as a trader, and originally came to Budapest as a member of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Trade. He quickly became aware of the deportation of Hungarian Jews, which began after the German Putsch in spring 1944. Following the strategy of Carl Lutz (the Swiss vice-consul), he recruited up to 3,000 Jews as workers for his offices, granting them protection, and designated several buildings as protected by the ICRC. He also managed to distribute about 15,000 Schutzbriefe, protection documents issued by the ICRC that prevented the deportation and death of many Hungarian Jews.
After the war, as most of the saviours of Budapest, such as Carl Lutz and Giorgio Perlasca, he returned to his normal life, and kept the rememberings of his actions for himself. Twenty-four years after his death, in 1987, he was designated as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. | <urn:uuid:09cd1c07-6b9d-479f-8a8c-2b31aface0bb> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Friedrich_Born | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297429.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00067-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991048 | 207 | 2.515625 | 3 |
This book presents new work on how Merge and formal features, two basic
factors in the Minimalist Program, should determine the syntactic
computation of natural language. Merge combines simpler objects into more
complex ones. Formal features establish dependencies within objects. In
this book leading scholars examine the intricate ways in which these two
factors interact to generate well-formed derivations in natural language.
It is divided into two parts concerned with formal features and
interpretable features - a subset of formal features. The authors combine
grammatical theory with the analysis of data drawn from a wide range of
languages, both in the adult grammar and in first language acquisition. The
mechanisms at work in linguistic computation are considered in relation to
a variety of linguistic phenomena, including A-binding, A'-dependencies and
reconstruction, agreement, word order, adjuncts, pronouns and complementizers. | <urn:uuid:1e4f123f-f243-4fb4-9918-11016f9e1687> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=38520 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440645298065.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827031458-00208-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896563 | 190 | 2.78125 | 3 |
From pool parties to picnics, hiking to biking: everyone loves spending time outdoors on a sunny day. But too much sun can be harmful, and it’s crucial to make sure that when you spend time in the sun, you are protecting your skin.
A suntan results from an activation of the body’s natural defense mechanism against damaging ultraviolet (UV) sun rays. Excessive exposure to UV light can overwhelm the body’s defenses and result in sunburn.
Ultraviolet A (UVA) and Ultraviolet B (UVB) are the two types of solar radiation that can harm your skin. UVB is responsible for sunburns and is partially blocked by the ozone layer. UVA is not absorbed by the ozone and penetrates the skin deeper than UVB. Neither type of UV ray is safe.
Sunburn Treatment & Remedy Tips
If sunburned, follow these steps to treat your symptoms:
- Decrease inflammation using a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). These include ibuprofen, naproxen, or aspirin.
- Apply moisturizing cream to relieve discomfort.
- Take a cool shower or bath.
- Wear dry bandages if blisters are visible to help prevent infection.
- Wear loose cotton clothing.
- Prevent further exposure to the sun.
- Do not use products that have benzocaine or lidocaine, which might make the burn worse.
Sunscreens help to protect against sunburn by blocking the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Excessive exposure to the sun’s UV rays (as well as UV rays from tanning beds) increases your risk for developing skin cancer, regardless of your age, gender, or race. Approximately one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.
How to Read a Sunscreen Label
Most sunscreens products are available for purchase over-the-counter (OTC) and are regulated under the FDA monograph system, which means that information on sunscreen labels is approved by the FDA. The Monograph outlines the requirements for which active ingredients can be used, allowable concentrations, dosage forms, and other specifications.
Sun Protection Factor (SPF)
Sun Protection Factor (SPF), is a measure of how well a sunscreen protects your skin from the kind of radiation (UVB rays) that causes sunburn, damages skin, and may contribute to skin cancer. The higher the SPF, the more protection the sunscreen will provide against UVB rays. SPF does not measure protection from UVA rays.
If your skin would normally burn after 10 minutes in the sun, applying an SPF 30 sunscreen would allow you to stay in the sun without burning for approximately 300 minutes (a factor of 30 times longer). This is a rough estimate that depends on skin type, intensity of sunlight, and amount of sunscreen used. Experts recommend that you use a minimum SPF 30 sunscreen, apply the proper amount (2mg/cm2 of skin, or about one shot glass—1 ounce—for full body coverage), and reapply every 2 hours.
The SPF (Sun Protection Factor) scale is not linear:
- SPF 15 blocks 93% of UVB rays
- SPF 30 blocks 97% of UVB rays
- SPF 50 blocks 98% of UVB rays
Physical vs. Chemical Sunscreens
There are two types of sunscreens: chemical and physical. Physical sunscreens protect your skin from the sun by deflecting or blocking the sun’s rays. Chemical sunscreens work by absorbing the sun’s rays. Some chemical filters can scatter the sun’s rays, but still mostly just absorb them.
Broad Spectrum Sunscreen
Many sunscreens combine active ingredients to provide “broad spectrum” protection—meaning protection against both UVA and UVB radiation.
UVA rays can cause premature aging of your skin (e.g., wrinkling and age spots). UVB rays can cause your skin to burn. Excessive exposure to UVA or UVB rays can cause skin cancer.
Water Resistant Sunscreen
A “water resistant” sunscreen retains its stated SPF value after a certain time in water or while sweating. FDA only allows the claims ‘Water Resistant (40 min)’ or ‘Very Water Resistant (80 min)’ to be used on sunscreens sold in the United States and does not allow sunscreen products to claim that they are “water proof.”
Active Ingredients and Allowed Levels in Sunscreen Products
There are two types of sunscreen active ingredients: organic and inorganic. Organic active ingredients, such as octyl methoxycinnamate or oxybenzone, work by absorbing UV radiation. Inorganic active ingredients, like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, work by either reflecting or scattering UV radiation. Here are some common active ingredients and their maximum allowed levels in sunscreen products:
- Aminobenzoic acid (PABA, ≤15%)
- Avobenzone (≤3%)
- Cinoxate (≤3%)
- Dioxybenzone (≤3%)
- Ecamsule (≤3%)
- Homosalate (≤15%)
- Menthyl anthranilate (≤5%)
- Octocrylene (≤10%)
- Octyl methoxycinnamate (a.k.a. octinoxate) (≤7.5%)
- Octyl salicylate (a.k.a. octisalate) (≤5%)
- Oxybenzone (≤6%)
- Padimate O (≤6%)
- Phenylbenzimidazole sulfonic acid (ensulizole, ≤4%)
- Sulisobenzone (≤10%)
- Titanium dioxide (≤25%)
- Trolamine salicylate (≤12%)
- Zinc oxide (≤25%)
Safe Use Tips
- Limit your time in the sun, especially when the sun’s rays are most intense (10AM-2PM).
- Wear clothing to cover skin exposed to the sun (e.g., long-sleeved shirts, pants, sunglasses, and broad-brimmed hats).
- Use a broad spectrum sunscreen with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) value of 30 or higher regularly and as directed.
- Always read the label to ensure you use your sunscreen correctly.
- Ask a healthcare provider before applying sunscreen to infants younger than six months.
- Apply sunscreen liberally to all uncovered skin at least 30 minutes before sun exposure.
- Reapply at least every two hours. If you are swimming or sweating, it is important to reapply more frequently.
- Always read the Drug Facts label carefully. The label tells you everything you need to know about the sunscreen, including ingredients, how much to use, and when you shouldn’t use it.
- Always keep babies and infants out of direct sunlight. Parents shouldn’t use sunscreen on a child younger than 6 months old.
- Always consult your healthcare provider if you or your child has a skin rash or irritation after applying sunscreen. | <urn:uuid:c035a8a6-ec35-4100-b2a7-7f0c35f7c958> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.knowyourotcs.org/sunburn-treatment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178361723.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20210228175250-20210228205250-00520.warc.gz | en | 0.873613 | 1,512 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Jewellery is a beautiful and often sentimental thing many people have that has much value in their lives whether they have a ring passed down through generations or they just simply love the personalised value of your own jewellery.
Jewellery designers play the vital role in producing personal pieces and it is quite a skill to have. Without their skills we wouldn’t have our beloved necklaces or fancy earring. Do you have an interest in taking your career in this direction? We might just have the perfect courses for you.
What is jewellery design?
Jewellery design is the art and profession of using metals, gems and other materials to create jewellery such as earring, necklaces, rings, bracelets and so on.
What does a jewellery designer do?
A jewellery designer requires creativity, imagination and technical knowledge. Quite a lot of jewellery designers work as freelancers or inherit family businesses. Coming into the profession or starting out you will generally work as a salaried employee. You will work with customers in order to find their ideal designs and jewellery.
Not only will you design and produce jewellery but you may also have to fix and repair old jewellery. Duties carried out include preparing moulds for casting metal, mounting, stamping, welding, soldering and polishing. You may also carry out specialist tasks such as engraving, enamelling and electroplating.
There are many courses on offer in the area across the UK. Some courses offer the opportunity to study either part time or full time. Universities may have certain restrictions in place due to Covid-19 and may offer courses online. The majority of courses available under this heading are related to landscaping. There are a number of courses available in landscaping of specific areas. Courses available include:
A postgraduate course in this area will give you the opportunity to explore your creative abilities and use your imagination to create some designs. You will explore the evolving boundaries of these different disciplines and look at different traditions when it comes to jewellery. This course is perfect for those with an interest in single artefacts, mass-market delivery and all stages in between. Modules include exploring and designing, design and professional practice and evaluation and resolution
Fine Jewellery Design
These postgraduate courses are ideal for those who are looking to advance their skills and gain expertise in the design and development of modern and fine jewellery for the luxury industry. Modules include jewellery techniques, collection and portfolio, research methods, industry placement, contextual and cultural studies and jewellery design and culture. Students will gain the relevant skills and knowledge to work in the industry and also gain hands-on experience.
There are also courses available in Design (Jewellery and Metalwork).
Entry requirements may differ from course to course or university to university. Therefore, it is important to research your specific course in detail to ensure you meet the entry requirements. As these courses are postgraduate courses, you will need a bachelor’s degree. Some courses may accept a 2.2 degree while others will require a 2.1.
Career options in this area include:
- Jewellery designer
- Product manager
Your salary can be impacted by a few different things. These include your specific employment, your location and experience. The salary of a jewellery designer can start around £16,000 and with experience, can range anywhere between £20,000 to £50,000. It is believed the average salary of a jewellery designer is around £35,000. All figures are based on estimates and are intended to be used as a guide only.
Skills and requirements
Skills and requirements helpful in this area include:
- Creative thinker
- Create a vision
- Apply knowledge to designs and production
- Time management skills
- Organisation skills
- Ability to work well with others
- Pay attention to detail
- Artistic and drawing ability
- Computer design skills
- Customer service
- Work well under pressure | <urn:uuid:dcfd46b8-dcaa-47e6-b636-5c58db2517be> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.postgrad.co.uk/postgraduate-courses-in-jewellery-design/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057427.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20210923165408-20210923195408-00486.warc.gz | en | 0.950273 | 820 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Pink ribbons symbolize breast cancer awareness. The ribbons show support for breast cancer survivors, for the fight against breast cancer and to memorialize its victims. People may wear the ribbons at any time of year, but they commonly do so during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.Continue Reading
To make a pink ribbon, use a strip of pink ribbon that is 3 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. Cut each ribbon end at an angle. Lay the ribbon horizontally with the short edge on top.
Holding it down at its midpoint, fold over the left end so it crosses the midpoint and points slightly downward. The fold can be a curved loop or a crisp fold. Fold the right end the same way, so that the ribbon sides meet about half an inch below the fold. Pin the meeting point from behind to hold it in place.
A couple of stitches with some pink thread can hold the ribbon together, or the pin can both hold the ribbon and attach it to clothing.Learn more about Symbolism | <urn:uuid:2aaf6119-fa86-47e7-a922-5883319bd8ac> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.reference.com/world-view/pink-ribbons-symbolize-8b1da57a7f8ff73e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170741.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00412-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921985 | 211 | 2.8125 | 3 |
E‑mail (short for electronic mail) is a fast and convenient way to communicate with others. You can use e‑mail to:
Send and receive text messages. You can send an e‑mail message to any person with an e‑mail address. The message arrives in the recipient's e‑mail inbox within seconds or minutes—whether he or she is your next-door neighbor or lives halfway around the world.
E‑mail is two-way. You can receive messages from anyone who knows your e‑mail address, and then read and reply to those messages.
Send and receive files. Besides text, you can send almost any type of file in an e‑mail message, including documents, pictures, and music. A file sent in an e‑mail message is called an attachment.
Send messages to groups of people. You can send an e‑mail message to many people simultaneously. Recipients can reply to the whole group, allowing for group discussions.
Forward messages. When you receive an e‑mail message, you can forward it to others without retyping it.
One advantage of e‑mail over the telephone or regular mail is its convenience: You can send a message at any time of day or night. If the recipients aren't in front of their computers and online (connected to the Internet) when you send the message, they'll find it waiting for them the next time they check their e‑mail. If they are online, you might get a reply within minutes.
E‑mail is also free. Unlike sending a regular letter, no stamp or fee is required, no matter where the recipient lives. The only charges that apply are those that you pay for an Internet connection.
To use e‑mail, you need three things:
An Internet connection. To connect your computer to the Internet, you must first sign up with an Internet service provider (ISP). An ISP provides you with access to the Internet, usually for a monthly fee. You also need a modem. See What do I need to connect to the Internet?
An e‑mail program or web-based service. You can use Windows Mail, an e‑mail program included with Windows. You can also use any other e‑mail program, once you install it on your computer.
If you prefer, you can sign up instead with a free web-based e‑mail service, such as Gmail, MSN Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail. These services allow you to check your e‑mail with a web browser from any computer connected to the Internet.
An e‑mail address. You get an e‑mail address from your ISP or web-based e‑mail service when you sign up. An e‑mail address consists of a user name (a nickname you choose, not necessarily your real name), the @ sign, and the name of your ISP or web-based e‑mail provider—for example, [email protected].
Once you have an e‑mail address and an Internet connection, you're ready to send and receive e‑mail. To use e‑mail in Windows Mail, you must first set up an e‑mail account. Before you add an account, you'll need to get some information from your ISP: your e‑mail address, password, the names of your incoming and outgoing e‑mail servers, and certain other details. See Where to find your e‑mail account information.
Open Windows Mail by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, and then clicking Windows Mail.
On the Tools menu, click Accounts.
Click Add, click E‑mail Account, click Next, and then follow the instructions.
During setup, you'll be asked to pick a display name. This is the name that recipients will see when you send them an e‑mail message.
Windows Mail checks to see if you've received e‑mail whenever you start the program and every 30 minutes after that. (To change this interval, see Check for new e‑mail.) E‑mail you receive appears in your Inbox. The Inbox is one of several folders that hold e‑mail.
To see a list of e‑mail you've received, click Inbox in the Folders list. Your e‑mail messages appear in the message list. The list shows who sent the mail, the subject, and when it was received.
To read a message, click it in the message list. The contents of the message appear below the message list in the Preview pane. To read the message in a separate window, double-click it in the message list.
To reply to a message, click the Reply button. To learn how to write and send a reply, see "Creating and sending an e‑mail message" in this article.
See also View e‑mail messages in Windows Mail.
To create a new e‑mail message in Windows Mail, click the Create Mail button. A new message window opens.
Here's how to fill out the message window in Windows Mail and most other e‑mail programs:
In the To box, type the e‑mail address of at least one recipient. If you're sending the message to multiple recipients, type a semicolon (;) between e‑mail addresses.
In the Cc box, you can type the e‑mail addresses of any secondary recipients—people who should know about the message but don't need to act on it. They'll receive the same message as the people in the To box. If there are no secondary recipients, leave this box blank.
In the Subject box, type a title for your message.
In the large blank area, type your message.
You're done! To send the message, click the Send button. It zips through the Internet to your recipients.
To change the style, font, size, or color of the text, select the text, and then click one of the buttons on the formatting bar (located just above the message area).
See also Write an e‑mail message.
Like telephone conversations and face-to-face communication, e‑mail communication has certain implied rules of behavior. These rules are referred to as e‑mail etiquette or netiquette (a combination of "Internet" and "etiquette"). For effective communication, follow these guidelines:
Be careful with humor and emotion. E‑mail does not convey emotion well, so the recipient might not understand your intended tone. Sarcastic humor is particularly risky because the recipient might interpret it literally and take offense. To convey emotion, consider using emoticons (see "Using emoticons" in this article).
Think before you send. Writing and sending an e‑mail message is fast and easy—sometimes too easy. Make sure you've thought out your message first, and avoid writing when you're angry. Once you send the message, you can't get it back.
Use a clear and concise subject line. Summarize the contents of the message in a few words. People who receive a large amount of e‑mail can use the subject to prioritize the message.
Keep messages short. Although an e‑mail message can be of any length, e‑mail is designed for quick communication. Many people don't have the time or patience to read more than a few paragraphs.
Avoid using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Many people perceive sentences written in all uppercase letters as "yelling" and find it annoying or offensive.
Be careful with sensitive or confidential information. Any recipient can forward your message to others—either intentionally or accidentally.
Additionally, in formal or business communication, avoid spelling and grammatical errors. Sloppy e‑mail conveys an unprofessional image. Proofread your messages before you send them, and if your e‑mail program has a spelling checker, use it. See Check spelling in a Windows Mail message.
Because it's often difficult to convey emotion, intent, or tone through text alone, early Internet users invented emoticons (a combination of "emotion" and "icons")—sequences of keyboard characters that symbolize facial expressions. For example, :) looks like a smiling face when you look at it sideways. Below are some examples of emoticons.
:) or :-)
Smiling, happy, or joking
:( or :-(
Frowning or unhappy
Indifferent or ambivalent
Surprised or concerned
Not saying anything
Sticking out your tongue (usually in fun)
Just as you might receive unsolicited advertisements, flyers, and catalogs in your regular mail, you'll probably receive junk e‑mail (often called spam) in your Inbox. Junk e‑mail might include advertisements, fraudulent schemes, pornography, or legitimate offers. Because it's very inexpensive for marketers to send junk e‑mail, it's not uncommon for people to receive a large amount of it.
Windows Mail includes a junk e‑mail filter that analyzes the content of messages sent to you and moves suspicious messages to a special junk e‑mail folder, where you can view or delete them at any time. And if a junk e‑mail message slips past the filter into your Inbox, you can specify that any future messages from the sender be automatically moved to the junk e‑mail folder. See Block spam and other unwanted e‑mail.
To help prevent junk e‑mail:
Use caution in giving out your e‑mail address. Avoid publishing your real e‑mail address in newsgroups, on websites, or in other public areas of the Internet.
Before you give your e‑mail address to a website, check the site's privacy statement to be sure it does not permit the disclosure of your e‑mail address to other companies.
Never reply to a junk e‑mail message. The sender will know that your e‑mail address is valid and might sell it to other companies. You're then likely to receive even more junk e‑mail.
For more information about Windows Mail, see the following topics:
Add or remove a Windows Mail account
Open or save an attachment in Windows Mail
Organize e‑mail using rules and folders
Delete messages in Windows Mail
Change the way Windows Mail looks
Troubleshoot problems with Windows Mail | <urn:uuid:bc2fb9c0-9b11-4e80-8f49-1ef991a024b5> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-vista/getting-started-with-e-mail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037663467.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004103-00064-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890424 | 2,107 | 2.96875 | 3 |
What is grapefruit?
Named for the fact that the fruits grow in grape-like bunches, grapefruits are the largest citrus fruits, growing up to 18cm in diameter. Inside, the flesh is segmented, like an orange, though the flavour is more tart.
They come in both seeded and seedless varieties and, although the skins are always yellow, sometimes with a faint blush of pink, the flesh varies from yellow-ish white through to pink and ruby red.
Grapefruits are also a good source of fibre and vitamin C.
All year round, though they tend to be juicier and sweeter during the spring and winter.
Choose the best
Look for grapefruits that are plump and firm, with a soft sheen. Avoid examples with any bruising or coarse, puffy skin, as they will be dry inside. Choose those that feel heavy for their size – they’re the juiciest.
To eat for breakfast or as a starter, cut in half, then use a serrated, curved-blade grapefruit knife to separate the skin from the flesh (leaving the flesh still cupped in the skin), then use a small, sharp knive to cut between each segment. Alternatively, peel and separate the segments as you would as orange.
In the fridge, or a cool place, for up to a week.
Eat raw on its own or add to fruit or vegetable salads; halve, sprinkle with sugar and ground ginger and grill (3-4 mins); use to make marmalade.
Try lemon or orange. | <urn:uuid:41a71b7f-81e6-46e0-9a0f-fa86ee5d97fc> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/grapefruit-glossary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585177.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20211017113503-20211017143503-00390.warc.gz | en | 0.928608 | 330 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Qualifications to teach adult education fall into three main categories: degree requirements, licensure stipulations and temperament. To get qualified to teach adult education, you will need to meet the requirements in the first two categories, and having certain personality traits will be beneficial. The minimum educational requirements in most places is a bachelor's degree, but some require a master's degree in a specific area, such as adult learning. A public school teacher license or adult education teacher license might also be required. Beyond these demands, the possession of certain temperament and personality characteristics are needed to become successful in this career.
Some adult learning programs provide training in areas that equip teachers for this field. Topics include technology, instructions in teaching adults with learning disabilities and training in certain languages. Many programs administered by local or regional governments mandate the possession of a special license to teach in this area. This requirement might be in the form of a public school teacher license or an adult education teacher license. Prerequisites for a license to teach adult education typically are a bachelor's degree and the successful completion of a teacher training curriculum.
Anyone qualified to teach adult education should be a good communicator. The ability to motivate students and show respect for people from different backgrounds is essential. It might be necessary to teach how to develop basic study habits. Some adults can be intimidated about the learning process, so it is desirable that those teaching in this field have the ability to empathize and encourage
Teachers involved in the adult education programs might instruct students in the basics of reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Those who teach adult education might encounter students who have physical or mental impairments that pose special challenges. A good teacher must have familiarity with community resources in order to refer special-needs students to the help they need. This is a career in which teachers should derive much satisfaction from improving the lives of people. The acquisition of basic education will open doors that heretofore had been closed to them. | <urn:uuid:6f9ed17c-b185-4dfe-9b39-17f382a29918> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://www.wisegeek.net/how-do-i-get-qualified-to-teach-adult-education.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710953.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20221204004054-20221204034054-00414.warc.gz | en | 0.954696 | 394 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A lamp containing one or more fixtures supplied with gas-burners for giving light in a building or street.
“Among its virtues is a feel for the gas-lamp Victorian world.”
“Then the door opened wide, and Diego grinned whitely at him in the light from a gas-lamp, gesturing him inside with a flamboyant fling of his arms.”
“In 1887, he acquired the factory Würth & Co. for chemical-pharmaceutical products in Atzgersdorf and moved the entire chain of production there, creating an affluent gas-lamp industry by improving his patent in the early 1890s.”
“He lay, illuminated by a narrow shaft of pale yellow light flung out by the gas-lamp at the top of the passage steps, in a slowly widening pool of dark blood that contrasted oddly with the carrotty hue of his hair and whiskers.”
“On the shimmering gas-lamp; it turns to tears that fall on her face”
““Well, I declare to goodness it does illuminate the old place!” says Gus; but the fact was, that there was a gas-lamp opposite our window, and I believe that was the reason why we could see pretty well.”
“As we passed a gas-lamp, I saw Lady Fanny laughing as usual, and turning her great arch sparkling black eyes at Lord Tiptoff.”
“You cannot see these things as I can see them, nor can you figure — unless you know the pictures that great artist Hyde has left the world — the effect of the great hoarding by which we passed, lit below by a gas-lamp and towering up to a sudden sharp black edge against the pallid sky.”
“Two-Mile Stone, and thence I had to walk over the hill — I remember very vividly a little man with a shrill voice who was preaching under a gas-lamp against a hoarding to a thin crowd of”
“You cannot see, as I can see, the dark empty way between the mean houses, the dark empty way lit by a bleary gas-lamp at the corner, you cannot feel the hard checkered pavement under your boots, you cannot mark the dimly lit windows here and there, and the shadows upon the ugly and often patched and crooked blinds of the people cooped within.”
‘gas-lamp’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Looking for tweets for gas-lamp. | <urn:uuid:2d85ffa2-6ab0-4a74-a887-30bd9f53a41a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/gas-lamp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383160/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953295 | 562 | 2.5625 | 3 |
|Help your child stay active|
Children are becoming less physically active than they were in the past. Many are staying indoors longer to watch TV and play videogames, and parents may be less eager to have their children running around outside due to fear of abduction or traffic accidents. As these trends have increased (and as diets have become less healthy), there has been a dangerous rise of obesity in children in recent years.
Childhood obesity should be taken very seriously -- many obese children develop type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, sleep apnea, orthopedic problems, and other conditions that can last into adulthood.
The remedy for obesity is a nutritious diet and at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week. Children may, however, need as much as 2 hours of physical activity a day. Adolescents may need 1.5 hours of physical activity a day.
Your child can jump, play basketball, participate in running games, bike, or find any other way to be active and have fun. For the health of your child, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research makes the following suggestions to help develop good physical activity habits.
- Created by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
Remember, your children learn many of their habits from you. Try to set a good example and give them plenty of encouragement. You will be helping to give them a lifelong gift of good health.
The chances for heart disease may start to develop in children as early as elementary school. Children who exercise at least 2 hours a day, however, have a lower risk for heart disease than those who do not exercise. Adolescents who exercise at least 1.5 hours a day have a lower risk for heart disease.
Warburton DE, Nicol CW, Bredin SS. Prescribing exercise as preventive therapy. Cmaj. Mar 28 2006;174(7):961-974.
Andersen LB, Harro M, Sardinha LB, et al. Physical activity and clustered cardiovascular risk in children: a cross-sectional study (The European Youth Heart Study). Lancet. Jul 22 2006;368(9532):299-304.
Reviewed By: Jeffrey Heit, MD, Internist with special emphasis on preventive health, fitness and nutrition, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc. | <urn:uuid:7ae7d450-8c72-4a92-94b9-ff4ee1d149d0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://westernbaptist.adam.com/content.aspx?productId=109&pid=28&gid=000309 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948986 | 515 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Sunday, March 18, 2012
A View Of Philosophy
What Is Philosophy?
Well, what do you think philosophy is? Most people can’t answer this question. It’s too abstract. It’s also controversial. Philosophers themselves can’t agree on any answer. Sure, the name “philosophy” derives from the Greek for “love of wisdom“, but what’s that? There has been a long and glorious history of people called philosophers, but they talk about all kinds of topics in all kinds of ways. It is not clear what, if anything, they have in common that makes them all philosophers.
Still, though many philosophers would dispute what I say, I will give you one model of philosophy. For me, philosophy is defined by a goal and a method.
Philosophy’s goal is nothing less than a systematic world view. Other fields study particular kinds of things. Philosophy asks how it all fits together. For example, if you want to learn about bodies, take a course in physics or biology. If you want to learn about minds, take a course in psychology. But if you want to learn about how minds are related to bodies, or how physics is related to psychology, then philosophy (of mind) is for you. Similarly, economics, political science, and art and music courses study different values (welfare, justice, and beauty). Then moral philosophers ask how these values are similar or different, when one may be traded off against another, and where any of these values fit into the physical world. Again, historians try to discover knowledge of the past and astronomers try to discover knowledge of stars and planets, but only philosophers ask what makes any of these beliefs knowledge, and how (or whether) we can have any knowledge at all. Such philosophical questions are very abstract, but that is what enables them to cover so many different fields at once.
This goal also means that you can study anything under the name of philosophy.Philosophy encompasses subfields called philosophy of religion, of law, of economics, of biology, of physics, of mathematics, of computers, of psychology, of art, of music, of literature, and so on. Any and all of these topics can be studied in a philosophical way when one asks how they are related to each other in an overall world view.
When such disparate topics are raised, conflicts and paradoxes are bound to arise. One famous example is the paradox of freedom: Science, including psychology, leads us to believe that (1) Every act is determined by a prior cause. Law and common practices of blaming and punishing wrongdoers then lead us to believe that (2) Some acts are free. But the very definition of “free” suggests that (3) Nothing that is determined is free. Unfortunately, (1)-(3) cannot all be true, so any world view that includes all three of these claims is incoherent.
Paradoxes like this are both loved and hated by philosophers. Philosophers love them for their stimulation but hate them for their incoherence, so philosophers try hard to get rid of paradoxes. One prevalent way to resolve paradoxes is conceptual analysis. In response to the paradox of freedom, for example, some philosophers try to analyze freedom in a way that makes it compatible with determinism and thereby undermines (3). Other philosophers give accounts of blame and punishment that do not presuppose freedom, so they can reject (2). Still others analyze determinism and causation in ways that cast doubt on (1). One of these claims has to go. Conceptual analysis tries to help us decide which claim to give up.
The method of conceptual analysis might sometimes seem picky, but unclarity or imprecision in our concepts is often what leads us into paradoxes and incoherence in our world views. That is why the philosophical goal of a coherent overall world view makes philosophers adopt the method of conceptual analysis.
Philosophers use other methods as well. Many philosophers employ empirical discoveries in psychology, biology, and physics to illuminate traditional philosophical issues. (Can our moral beliefs be understood as a product of evolution?) Others use formal developments in logic and mathematics. (Does the incompleteness of arithmetic, proven by Gödel, show that computers cannot think in the way humans do?) Still others turn to literature and first-person narratives to express their ideas. (Is the position of oppressed groups best understood by listening to their own stories?) Since it is puzzling how the abstract world of numbers or the lived world of personal experience is related to the physical world of subatomic particles, the variety of methods used by philosophers reflects the issues that must be faced in formulating a coherent overall world view.
One feature is shared by almost all methods used by philosophers: Philosophers question authorities. Whereas legislators or judges have the authority to declare what the law is, and specific texts determine what is required by some religions, philosophers do not grant any special authority to anyone or anything. Every claim, no matter where it comes from, is subject to scrutiny. Even common sense is not taken for granted, which leads philosophers to put forward some very weird views.
In place of authorities, philosophers try to justify their views with arguments. Indeed, philosophers love arguments. One of the earliest examples of philosophy was an argument by Zeno, which runs like this: “The slow runner [a tortoise] will never be overtaken by the swiftest [Achilles], for it is necessary that the pursuer should first reach the point from which the pursued started, so that necessarily, the slower is always somewhat in advance.” If you think about it for a while, Zeno’s argument should be clear. What is not clear is how to respond. One popular reaction is, “That’s silly. Of course, Achilles can overtake a tortoise. It happens all the time.” Philosophers retort, “Everybody assumes that Achilles can overtake the tortoise, and it does appear that swift runners overtake slow runners, but how do you know what is really going on? And what is wrong with Zeno’s argument to the contrary? You cannot reject the argument just because you don’t like the conclusion.” In such debates, philosophers try to uncover our basic assumptions, evaluate our reasons (if any) for these assumptions, and speculate on what our world view would be like if we gave up those assumptions. This process can be liberating and fascinating, even when (or maybe because) it leads to results that seem hard to believe.
In seeking this goal through these methods, philosophers address a wide variety of problems, which can be classified into three main areas:
Metaphysics or the theory of existence addresses the questions of whether God exists, whether we have free will, how our minds are related to our bodies, what reality is, and so on. Epistemology or the theory of knowledge asks whether and how we can know or be justified in believing anything; and it also investigates particular areas or sources of (supposed) knowledge, such as perception, memory, and science. Ethics or moral philosophy studies which acts are morally right or wrong and which people or character traits are morally good or bad; then other values, such as beauty, are studied in other areas of value theory, such as aesthetics. Some of the most exciting philosophical issues (such as those raised by existentialists, phenomenologists, feminists, and philosophers of language) do not fit neatly under any of these traditional categories.
True philosophers will not rest until they combine theories about all of these various topics into a single coherent system of thought that is justified without appeal to authority. Because this ideal is so demanding, the process of doing philosophy can be frustrating, but it is also something that can fill and fulfill one’s entire life. | <urn:uuid:22d3af20-0a6a-4e33-9d7b-898b7f60cb39> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://godessofpoem.blogspot.in/2012/03/view-of-philosophy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084889542.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20180120083038-20180120103038-00136.warc.gz | en | 0.948113 | 1,614 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Ransomware is a type of malware that prevents or limits users from accessing their system. To make the infected system usable again, the victim is forced to pay (a ransom) to a remote threat actor thru certain online payment methods.
Users may encounter this threat through different means. They can either download ransomware unwittingly by visiting malicious or compromised websites. It can also arrive as a payload, either dropped or downloaded by other malware.
It is important to note, however, that paying for the ransom does not guarantee that users can eventually access the infected system.
Once executed in the system, a ransomware can either (1) lock the computer screen or (2) encrypt predetermined files with a password. In the first scenario, a ransomware shows a full-screen image or notification, which prevents victims from using their system. This also shows the instructions on how users can pay for the ransom. The second type of ransomware locks files like documents, spreadsheets and other important files.
Ransomware is considered a “scareware”, as it forces users to pay for a fee (or ransom) by scaring or intimidating them. In this sense, it is similar to the FAKEAV malware, though using a different tactic. Instead of capturing the infected system or encrypting files, FAKEAV coax users into purchasing their bogus antimalware software by showing fake antimalware scanning results.
First cases of ransomware infection were seen between the years 2005 – 2006 in Russia. We first reported this incident back in 2006, in which a ransomware variant (detected as TROJ_CRYZIP.A) zipped certain file types and overwrites these, thus leaving only the password-protected zip files in the user’s system. It also created a notepad, which poses as the ransom note to inform users that they can retrieve their files in exchange for $300.
During its initial phase, ransomware were typically files that encrypt particular file types (.DOC, .XL, .DLL, .EXE, just to name a few).
By 2011, we first reported about SMS ransomware threat, in which users with infected systems were asked to dial a premium SMS number. Detected as TROJ_RANSOM.QOWA, this variant also displays a ransomware page repeatedly to users until they finally pay up the ransom via dialing a certain premium number.
To up the ante, we uncovered a ransomware that infects the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a vulnerable system. By targeting the MBR, this variant prevents the operating system from loading. To do this, the malware copies the original MBR and overwrites it with its own malicious code. After doing this routine, it automatically restarts the system for the infection to take effect. When the system restarts, the ransomware displays its notification (in Russian).
Ransomware infection was initially limited to Russia. But its popularity and profitable business model soon found its way in other countries across Europe. By March 2012, we have noticed the continuous spread of ransomware infection across Europe (and the United States, Canda). Similar to TROJ_RANSOM.BOV, this slew of ransomware displays a notification page from the victim’s local police agency instead of the typical ransom note (see Reveton, Police Ransomware below).
We also uncovered a different tactic to spread ransomware variants. Certain threat actors compromised a popular French confectionary shop’s website to serve TROJ_RANSOM.BOV. This watering hole-like tactic resulted to widespread infection in France and Japan (where the shop has a significant fan-base). Instead of the usual ransom note, TROJ_RANSOM.BOV displays a fake notice from the French police agency Gendarmerie Nationale.
Reveton (also known as Police Ransomware or Police Trojan) is a type of ransomware that impersonates law enforcement agency. These malware typically shows a notification page purportedly from the victim’s local law enforcement agency, informing them that they were caught doing an illegal or malicious activity online.
To know which local enforcement agency is applicable to users, Reveton variants track the geographical location of their victims. Thus, affected users living in the US receive a notification from the FBI, while those located in France are shown with a notice from the Gendarmerie Nationale.
Reveton variants also employ a different payment method in comparison to early ransomware attacks. Once system is infected with Reveton variants, users are prompted to pay through UKash, PaySafeCard, or MoneyPak. These payment methods afford ransomware perpetrators anonymity, as both Ukash and PaySafeCard have faint money trail.
In 2012, we have seen different types of Reveton variants exhibiting new techniques. During the latter part of that year, we reported about variants that play an audio recording using the victim’s native language and another one bearing a fake digital certificate.
In our 2013 Security Predictions, we predicted that conventional threats like ransomware are likely to evolve gradually, as cybercriminals will focus mainly on refining existing tools. This is partly propelled by the ongoing arms race between certain cybercrime groups and security researchers. Because of the positive developments in catching these groups, like the arrests of certain FAKEAV groups and ransomware key figure, we can expect ransomware variants to contain new functionalities and other improvements in terms of stealth mechanism.
Within a couple of years, we have seen ransomware evolved from a threat targeting Russian users into an attack affecting several European and North American countries. With profitable a business model and payment schemes affording anonymity for its perpetrators, we may be seeing more of ransomware in the coming years. Thus, it is crucial for users to know how ransomware works and how to best protect themselves from this threat. | <urn:uuid:426045fd-bafe-4a48-b2d7-d9e90cf79299> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/definition/ransomware/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382503/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932333 | 1,184 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The fetch() method is used to send the requests to the server without refreshing the page. It is an alternative to the XMLHttpRequest object. It will be taking a fake API that will contain Array as an example and from that API we will show to PUT/Update data by fetch API method by making custom HTTP library. The API used in this tutorial is: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/2
Explanation: First of all we need to create index.html file and paste the below code of index.html file into that. This index.html file includes library.js and app.js file at the bottom of the body tag. Now in library.js file, first of all create an ES6 class EasyHTTP and within that class there is async fetch() function that puts the data to the api url. There are two stages of await. First for fetch() and then for its response. Whatever response we receive, we return it to the calling function in app.js file.
Now in app.js file first of all instantiate EasyHTTP class. Then by put prototype function, send url to the to the library.js file. Further in this there are two promises to be resolved. First is for any response data and the second is for any error.
Output: Open index.html file in the browser then right click-> inspect element->console.
The following output you will see for PUT request. | <urn:uuid:53cff355-1ad4-4b8d-bbec-1265a3e3ff0b> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-make-simple-put-request-using-fetch-api-by-making-custom-http-library/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243989874.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20210518222121-20210519012121-00602.warc.gz | en | 0.866453 | 301 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Tutt Library Research Guides
Use the Search Generator from Northwest Missouri State University to help you create a keyword search.
Using AND/OR/NOT (Boolean Search Operators)
Use AND to focus search and combine different aspects of your topic.Example: vegetarianism and environment
Use OR to expand your search and find synonyms/related terms.
Example: global warming or climate change
Use NOT to exclude a word or phrase from your search
Example: emissions trading not United States
Additional Search Tips
"Phrase search" - Use quotation marks (" ") to search for a particular phrase.Example: "greenhouse gas emissions"
Truncation * - Use an asterisk to find variations of a word. Put an asterisk following the root of the word to find all variations of that word, including singular and plural.Example: environment* (finds environments, environmental, environmentalist, etc.)
(Grouping/Nesting Keywords) - Use parentheses ( ) as a way to group all your search terms together.Example: (climate change or global warming) and population growth
The right keywords help to effectively search catalogs, databases, and the Internet.
Putting the 'RE' in searching
You may need to do multiple searches in each database. And with patient and persistence, you will find relevant material.
Footnotes and bibliographies are a quick way to find related materials and track the names of popular authors written in past and used in an article.
To find relevant articles since an article was published use:
- try this database to find influential articles and track citation usage.
- note the "Cited by" links
- receive emails when new articles cite the orginial target article
Ebsco Databases Academic Search Complete
- Cited References - top menu
- Find Similar Results - once in an article record | <urn:uuid:a66c8c82-5937-4e14-b1c0-723a452da9b6> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | http://coloradocollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=286917&p=1911451 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027315321.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20190820092326-20190820114326-00445.warc.gz | en | 0.772487 | 384 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Rodents such as rats and mice can carry harmful diseases. Diseases from these rodents can spread to people through bite wounds, by eating food or water rodents have contaminated, or breathing in dust with their dried urine or droppings that are stirred into the air. People can also get diseases from ticks, mites and fleas that have been feeding on sick rats and mice. The information on this page will help businesses, home owners, renters and pet owners avoid diseases from rodents.
Health Hazards From Rats and Mice
- They contaminate food and can make people sick.
- They leave urine and fecal droppings wherever they travel, feed or nest.
- They can carry more than 200 germs in their saliva, fecal droppings or urine.
- The protein in their urine can cause allergic reactions in some people.
- They can cause house fires by gnawing on wires.
- They can have a litter in 2-5 months and can have up to six litters a year. A pair of rats and their offspring could multiply to 278 rats in one year.
- They are very good at jumping, climbing, swimming, gnawing and squeezing through small openings.
Most Common Rat and Mouse Types in Fairfax County
Common (Norway) Rat
The Norway rat digs and travels through burrows, and will nest underground up to 150 feet from its food supply. It can make a nest in your home by gnawing holes in sheds, walls, etc., or by squeezing through cracks and crevices in foundations, vents, etc.
FACT: Rats can squeeze through an opening as small as a quarter!
The house mouse usually makes a nest in stored materials indoors, but can also live outside, burrowing in areas around fields and lawns. Mice often become a problem in the fall when they enter homes to seek warmth. Mice tend to nest only 10 to 30 feet from their food supply.
FACT: Mice can squeeze through an opening as small as a nickel!
Signs of Infestation
The most common signs of rats and mice are the evidence they leave behind, such as burrows, fecal droppings, tracks, chewed-out holes in walls, chewed wires, urine stains and nesting materials. You are more likely to see or hear them shortly after dark and in the early morning.
- Burrows: A burrow is an opening or a hole in the ground about the size of a tennis ball and will be smooth and clean. You may see dirt mounded up where the rat has excavated the burrow. Look for other openings in your home, garage or storage shed that could allow the rats or mice to enter the structure. Seal holes and openings to prevent entry. Mice need only a ¼ inch opening and rats a ½ inch opening to gain entry.
- Droppings: Droppings are along the path the rodents travel. Droppings should be removed via wet cleaning (soap and water) not dry (broom or vacuum).
- Runways: Runways are worn paths created by the rodent along its travel route. Rats leave a grease stain on walls and other surfaces of the areas they frequently travel.
- Gnawing: Gnawing is an early sign of an infestation. Rats often gnaw the bottom of trash receptacles; please be sure to inspect all trash and recycling bins for signs of damage.
Ridding Yourself of Rats and Mice
You must remove their food, shelter and the openings they use to enter your business, home or other buildings. Follow these three steps to control rodents:
- Seal up holes or gaps into your home or building to prevent rodents from returning.
- Trap rodents by placing traps or bait stations where rodents frequent or travel.
- Clean up their food supply, like garbage in open containers; bird and wildlife feed on the ground; pet waste in the yard.
To learn more about controlling rodents, see Got Mice? Seal, Trap, and Clean Up to Control Rodents.
Consider hiring a Virginia licensed pest management professional who can provide expertise in effectively and safely placing pesticides and traps.
Tips to Minimize Rats and Mice on Your Property
Rats and mice remain in a location and multiply due to availability of food and shelter.
- Store your food, bird and lawn/garden seed, and animal/pet feed indoors in containers with tight fitting lids.
- Clean up spilled food waste and use thick plastic or metal garbage cans with tight lids and no holes.
- Keep compost bins as far away from the house as possible (100 feet or more is best).
- Routinely mix compost piles to encourage rapid decomposition.
- Pick up dog and animal waste regularly and place in a trash can with a tight fitting lid.
- Trim vegetation and don't allow plants to grow up alongside your house.
- Clean up fallen fruits or nuts from trees.
- Seal up holes or gaps into your home.
- Keep the area around your home and outbuildings clear of unnecessary storage and debris.
- Store firewood, lumber, or other bulky items at least 12 inches off the ground and away from your home.
Making a Complaint
The Health Department does not provide pest control treatment. Contact a Virginia licensed pest control company for assistance.
If you see rats or mice at a Health Department licensed facility, such as a restaurant or hotel, you may submit a complaint.
If you see rats or mice at home, business or other property, take action to eliminate the rats and/or mice.
- Rodents - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | <urn:uuid:9954c450-3ea0-4ced-8674-69d805790201> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/environment/rats-mice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057830.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20210926053229-20210926083229-00689.warc.gz | en | 0.941067 | 1,165 | 3.171875 | 3 |
|Playing letter-sound bingo, one of Anna's favorite games.|
|Completing a cross puzzle to go along with our Jesus Storybook Bible lesson.|
|Learning about the life cycle of a frog.|
|Part of Anna's Creation Lapbook.|
|Part of Anna's Creation Lapbook.|
|Decorating frogs and toads based on their characteristics.|
|Highlight of our week: Creation Lunch! Even little brother got to participate.|
|Creation Lunch: We had a food that represented each day of Creation, and I managed to make them all allergy-proof.|
|Our classroom, in our basement for now.|
My little girl and I have been having so much fun with our kindergarten home school! I'm really enjoying the freedom of not using a specific curriculum this year, but instead planning out my own weekly lesson plans by using a variety of resources from around the Internet (Pinterest is a life saver)!
Consequently, I've been much more excited to teach and Anna has been much more excited to learn; it also enables us to work at the pace and with the learning style that works best for her. I've already seen great leaps and bounds in her reading progress in just one week compared to the frustration and lack of success we were experiencing last year!
In case you're interested, here's what our school day consists of:
- Opening: We say the Pledge of Allegiance, pray the Lord's Prayer, have a prayer request and praises time, followed by prayer, go over our weekly letter/sight words/math problems, and then work on our calendar notebook.
- Bible: We're going through the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones currently, completing a chapter a week. I'm using the wonderful resources here to supplement additional activities to go along with each chapter.
- Geography/Science: We're using the Window on the World: When We Pray God Works by Daphne Spraggett and Jill Johnstone for geography. This book has information on a variety of different countries as well as information on the Christian population with ways to pray for each country. We also use an inflatable globe, which helps in understanding where places are located. For science, I'm using various ideas from around the web, such as this week we learned about frogs and toads and all their differences/similarities and life cycle.
- Phonics/Reading/Writing: I found this amazing word families resource that we're currently using for phonics. Anna has already learned to identify her letters and their corresponding sounds last year in home school, so we are beginning the fun of reading! We also use Bob Books and some fun online reading sites such as Starfall and Progressive Phonics.
- Read aloud: We have a read aloud time with books from the library or that I already own. We've been reading Fish is Fish by Leo Leonni and Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel this week to go along with our science unit.
- Math: I purchased a math workbook that we are working through. Anna does really well in and loves math! She's already at first grade level, so we're focusing more time on reading this year, with math as a fun reward afterwards.
Anna also gets to participate in a local Christian school's afternoon art/music/PE classes. She is really enjoying the time there with friends and I'm enjoying the structure and motivation to complete home school on time each day (as a mom who tends to be Type B)!
I've found myself extra tired since school began, even managing to give myself a decent burn while trying to cook popcorn over the stove late one night, but we're enjoying the start of school and looking forward to the new year! | <urn:uuid:6ac32343-d5f6-4fae-80cd-5096d008f9e5> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.fru-gal.org/2015/09/a-peak-into-our-home-school-week.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549436316.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728002503-20170728022503-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.965806 | 782 | 2.640625 | 3 |
- Security Center
- English ▾
Protect your privacy with new targets for March 2011
Adware is a type of advertising display software that delivers advertising content potentially in a manner or context that may be unexpected and unwanted by users. Many adware applications also perform tracking functions, and therefore may also be categorized as tracking technologies. Some consumers may want to remove adware if they object to such tracking, do not wish to see the advertising caused by the program, or are frustrated by its effects on system performance.
Backdoors may open up ports on the compromised computer, allowing remote access and control of the victim's machine.
Any program that utilizes a computer's modem to make calls or access services. Users may want to remove Dialers that dial without the user's active involvement, resulting in unexpected telephone charges and/or cause access to unintended and unwanted content.
Downloaders are programs designed to retrieve and install additional files. Downloaders can be useful tools for consumers to automate upgrades of essential software such as operating system upgrades, browsers, anti-virus applications, anti-spyware tools, games and other useful applications. Unauthorized downloaders are used by third parties to download potentially unwanted software without user notification or consent.
Flooders may provide functionality that makes it possible for an attacker to send massive amount of data to a specific target. The flooding of a target may for an example disturb communication services or make various systems unresponsive. This is similar to a DDoS attack where a massive amounts of calls are launched against a system. A DDos attack may even make large systems unresponsive if the attack is launched from several computer systems that are infected by a DDoS capable Trojan Horse.
ROGUE ANTI-SPYWARE APPLICATIONS
Rogue anti-spyware applications may give exaggerated threat reports on the compromised computer, and then ask the user to purchase a registered version to remove those reported threats.
Trojans (also known as Trojan Horses) are programs that appear to do one thing but actually do another. Trojans may also download additional files to the infected system.
TrojanDDoS applicaitons provides functionality that makes it possible for an attacker to send massive amount of data to a specific target. The flooding of a target may for an example disturb communication services or make various systems unresponsive.
Trojan.Droppers will drop additional files on the infected system. These files are often other trojans or downloaders.
Trojan.TrojanNotifiers are trojans for the Microsoft Windows platform. This Trojan installs to run at system startup, opening ports on the infected system and increasing the system vulnerability. TrojanNotifiers may thereby compromise system security and user privacy.
Trojan.Spy is a type of malicious program that can steal information such as passwords, surfing habits, credit card details and email addresses.
Worms are network malware, primarily replicating on networks. Usually, a worm will execute itself automatically on a remote machine without any extra help from a user. However, there are worms, such as mass-mailer worms, that will not always automatically execute themselves without the help of a user.
This grouping contains other programs. | <urn:uuid:160694bb-eb20-4cda-874a-fa7bef869c4d> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/index.php?q=securitycenter/blog/protect-your-privacy-with-new-targets-for-march-2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917122955.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031202-00387-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.655097 | 650 | 2.84375 | 3 |
A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).
A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.
A ghost writer pens an anonymous book.
A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philter."
A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.
A speleologist studies caves.
Ballistics is the science that deals with the motion of projectiles.
Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.
DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleicacid.
"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
The side of a hammer is a cheek.
The study of insects is called entomology.
The study of word origins is called etymology.
The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. | <urn:uuid:74ab1ac8-4963-4efc-926b-b88087aeafec> | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | http://dacfh.blogspot.com/2007/08/offbeat-tuesday_21.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187823630.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20171020025810-20171020045810-00030.warc.gz | en | 0.932286 | 235 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Flows and Workflow.
The Flow Engine is the basis for all process automation and workflow in Decisions. A flow is a series of steps that do things. Steps are coordinated in a flow to form a set of processing instructions. What happens in a flow is based on which ‘steps’ are used in the flow. A flow can assign and coordinate tasks between users, show user forms, send emails, post to social networks, integrate with web services, transform data, send text messages, connect to databases and so much more.
Workflow in Decisions is any process that involves users and runs over a period of time. Think about approving a purchase request, or a new employee being hired. Workflow has tasks, deadlines, escalations to managers, and all the pieces that allow you to engage users at the right point and ensure that they get their work done. A workflow is a flow that contains steps that creates tasks for users while a flow is primarily used for processing data and connecting to systems – without user interaction. Workflows containing user interactions can host all of the steps for system interaction that a flow does. In fact the only difference between an automation flow and a workflow in Decisions is the steps in the diagram. There’s no need to do any complex conversion or planning ahead of time to make a flow into a workflow: Just add a task!
Code-less Process Automation. Really.
Flows are constructed graphically using steps. Decisions has hundreds of prebuilt steps and gives you the ability to integrate with external systems using a step by step wizard. What this means is that there is no need to learn a scripting language or become a programmer to automate a process. (Of course we have a great SDK and welcome programmers to create new libraries of steps that do interesting things or talk to interesting systems.)
You can test your process in the exact same visual way that you build it. You can watch your process as it executes and view all the data as it moves through your flow.
It’s all about the steps.
The flow designer is a fully graphical (no code – absolutely none) environment designed for business users. It has a number of great features to make it really easy to build, test, and deploy flows. The resulting flows can be triggered from a form, a scheduled job, or an API call. Advanced features such as branching and merging, automated testing, and flow structure validation are included – but the capability of the flow engine is in the library of steps that are provided as well as ability to integrate new functionality into the flow using the Decisions Platform integration capability.
Flows and users.
Users can be involved in flows either as a participant or an observer.
A user can participate in a flow by initiating a process, handling an assigned task, or responding to the system using email, SMS, their mobile phone, etc. Users can be assigned to respond at steps in the flow either directly or by their group or role. If a user needs to approve something, they can be notified they have this task either in a task list or more actively (like in an email).
Users can also be involved in viewing the state and results of flows in the system with dashboards, notifications, and scheduled reports. A full set of communication steps are included in the platform to allow this involvement to be tailored to your organization’s requirements.
Flows and external systems.
While flows can be used to automate manual processes, they can also be used to create processes that involve both users and systems or deal just with data and system interactions.
Integration with external systems can be accomplished in one of three ways:
- Pre-Built system integrations: There are a number of pre-built integrations that are available with the Decisions Platform. Common protocols (IMAP/POP/SMTP/FTP/HTTP) are all supported as well as a number of enterprise products.
- Using Decisions Platform integration capability: The Decisions Platform can integrate with services (REST/WebService/WCF), databases (Oracle/SQL Server/Postgres/MySQL), any method in a .NET library (without additional coding) as well as any powershell library.
- Using our SDK: If the integration is fully custom, there is an SDK that allows additional steps to be built to integrate into the flow engine.
Data mapping. Fully graphical. (Code-less)
Steps consume data and produce data. Mapping the data in and out of steps and in and out of flows is done using a visual data mapper – where lines are drawn between the data that is ‘inbound’ to the data that is ‘outbound’.
Testing and Unit Testing
The Decisions Platform flow designer includes integrated graphical testing – allowing you to observe the flow as its running in the same paradigm that it was built – fully graphical. While testing the flow, the data within the flow can be observed, forms interacted with and the output data (process view page) can be viewed.
Unit testing is also integrated, allowing tests to be constructed with outputs described for flow executions (or rule executions. By using unit tests, it is possible to maintain a robust set of processes even while they are rapidly changed and evolved.
Features of Flows:
- Fully graphical environment for assembly of business processes without coding.
- Graphical data transformation tool that allows data to be manipulated between the steps in the process
- Graphical debugger that allows observation the execution of the process and adjusting of the data as the process is executing
- Integration of user form designer that allows end users to interact with data forms – either realtime or assigned.
- Integration with the rule engine/rule designer. This enables the business logic to be separated from the workflow process and evolved separately. Business rules tend to be declarative ie, ‘this is allowed’ where a workflow process is about doing things and moving data and actions along through a set of people or systems.
- Large library of steps including
- Text handling
- Email (IMAP, POP, SMTP)
- File Handling
- Date Handling and Rules
- Tracking and management of process state
- Calling any .Net Method
- Calling any webservice
- Twitter Integration
- Twilio Integration for Telephony and SMS
- Amazon EC2 Integration
- Number handling and rules
- Database Integration
- Excel and List data handling
- And more! | <urn:uuid:5d93b9fc-ea7b-413d-a42c-29c2e5eb1e94> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://decisions.com/platform/flows/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997888210.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025808-00028-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937789 | 1,333 | 2.90625 | 3 |
CT Scan / Digital X-ray Center
We have 128 slice CT Scan machine installed in our Hospital .We have 128 slice CT Scan machine installed in our Hospital. A computerized tomography (CT) scan combines a series of X-ray images taken from different angles around your body and uses computer processing to create cross-sectional images (slices) of the bones, blood vessels and soft tissues inside your body. CT scan images provide more-detailed information than plain X-rays do.
A CT scan has many uses, but it’s particularly well-suited to quickly examine people who may have internal injuries from car accidents or other types of trauma. A CT scan can be used to visualize nearly all parts of the body and is used to diagnose disease or injury as well as to plan medical, surgical or radiation treatment.
Also we have digital X-ray machine . Digital radiography is a form of radiography that uses x-ray–sensitive plates to directly capture data during the patient examination, immediately transferring it to a computer system without the use of an intermediate cassette. Advantages include time efficiency through bypassing chemical processing and the ability to digitally transfer and enhance images. Also, less radiation can be used to produce an image of similar contrast to conventional radiography.
Instead of X-ray film, digital radiography uses a digital image capture device. This gives advantages of immediate image preview and availability; elimination of costly film processing steps; a wider dynamic range, which makes it more forgiving for over- and under-exposure; as well as the ability to apply special image processing techniques that enhance overall display quality of the image. | <urn:uuid:796f3cd8-9b0f-4903-968a-4e03b51f7d1c> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://cmh.com.np/departments/ct-scan-digital-x-ray-center/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243988763.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20210506205251-20210506235251-00427.warc.gz | en | 0.920662 | 336 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The virus that causes COVID-19 today is not the same as the one that first sickened people way back in December 2019. Many of the variants circulating now are partially resistant to some of the antibody-based therapeutics that were developed based on the original virus. As the pandemic continues, more variants inevitably will arise, and the problem of resistance will only grow.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an antibody that is highly protective at low doses against a wide range of viral variants. Moreover, the antibody attaches to a part of the virus that differs little across the variants, meaning that it is unlikely for resistance to arise at this spot. The findings, available online in the journal Immunity, could be a step toward developing new antibody-based therapies that are less likely to lose their potency as the virus mutates.
“Current antibodies may work against some but not all variants,” said senior author Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine. “The virus will likely continue to evolve over time and space. Having broadly neutralizing, effective antibodies that work individually and can be paired to make new combinations will likely prevent resistance.”
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, uses a protein called spike to attach to and invade cells in the body’s respiratory tract. Antibodies that prevent spike from attaching to cells neutralize the virus and prevent disease. Many variants have acquired mutations in their spike genes that allow them to evade some antibodies generated against the original strain, undermining the effectiveness of antibody-based therapeutics.
To find neutralizing antibodies that work against a wide range of variants, the researchers began by immunizing mice with a key part of the spike protein known as the receptor-binding domain. Then, they extracted antibody-producing cells and obtained 43 antibodies from them that recognize the receptor-binding domain. Along with Diamond, the research team included co-first authors Laura VanBlargan, PhD, a staff scientist; Lucas J. Adams, an MD/PhD student; and Zhuoming Liu, PhD, a staff scientist; as well as co-author Daved Fremont, PhD, a professor of pathology & immunology, of biochemistry & molecular biophysics and of molecular microbiology.
The researchers screened the 43 antibodies by measuring how well they prevented the original variant of SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells in a dish. Nine of the most potent neutralizing antibodies were then tested in mice to see whether they could protect animals infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 from disease. Multiple antibodies passed both tests, with varying degrees of potency.
The researchers selected the two antibodies that were most effective at protecting mice from disease and tested them against a panel of viral variants. The panel comprised viruses with spike proteins representing all four variants of concern (alpha, beta, gamma and delta), two variants of interest (kappa and iota), and several unnamed variants that are being monitored as potential threats. One antibody, SARS2-38, easily neutralized all the variants. Moreover, a humanized version of SARS2-38 protected mice against disease caused by two variants: kappa and a virus containing the spike protein from the beta variant. The beta variant is notoriously resistant to antibodies, so its inability to resist SARS2-38 is particularly remarkable, the researchers noted.
Further experiments pinpointed the precise spot on the spike protein recognized by the antibody, and identified two mutations at that spot that could, in principle, prevent the antibody from working. These mutations are vanishingly rare in the real world, however. The researchers searched a database of nearly 800,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences and found escape mutations in only 0.04% of them.
“This antibody is both highly neutralizing (meaning it works very well at low concentrations) and broadly neutralizing (meaning it works against all variants),” said Diamond, who is also a professor of molecular microbiology and of pathology & immunology. “That’s an unusual and very desirable combination for an antibody. Also, it binds to a unique spot on the spike protein that isn’t targeted by other antibodies under development. That’s great for combination therapy. We could start thinking about combining this antibody with another one that binds somewhere else to create a combination therapy that would be very difficult for the virus to resist.” | <urn:uuid:e531c793-4af2-4272-ab54-da9aa02e4675> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://globalhealthnewswire.com/research/2021/08/22/antibody-protects-against-broad-range-of-covid-19-virus-variants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711016.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20221205100449-20221205130449-00103.warc.gz | en | 0.951516 | 921 | 3.6875 | 4 |
|Main Entry:||ghost detainee|
|Part of Speech:||n|
|Definition:||a person held anonymously in a detention center, esp. by the U.S. government|
|Example:||There may have been as many as 100 ghost detainees in Abu Ghraib.|
Dictionary.com presents 366 FAQs, incorporating some of the frequently asked questions from the past with newer queries. | <urn:uuid:b371954e-a57c-48be-a451-617f54a1eeef> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ghost+detainee?qsrc=2446 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510261958.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011741-00227-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898859 | 87 | 2.65625 | 3 |
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INTRODUCTION TO JOB 7
In this chapter Job goes on to defend himself in an address to God; as that he had reason to complain of his extraordinary afflictions, and wish for death; by observing the common case of mankind, which he illustrates by that of an hireling, Job 7:1; and justifies his eager desire of death by the servant and hireling; the one earnestly desiring the shadow, and the other the reward of his work, Job 7:2; by representing his present state as exceeding deplorable, even worse than that of the servant and hireling, since they had rest at night, when he had none, and were free from pain, whereas he was not, Job 7:3; by taking notice of the swiftness and shortness of his days, in which he had no hope of enjoying any good, Job 7:6; and so thought his case hard; and the rather, since after death he could enjoy no temporal good: and therefore to be deprived of it while living gave him just reason of complaint, Job 7:8; and then he expostulates with God for setting such a strict watch upon him; giving him no ease night nor day, but terrifying him with dreams and visions, which made life disagreeable to him, and death more eligible than that, Job 7:12; and represents man as unworthy of the divine regard, and below his notice to bestow favours on him, or to chastise him for doing amiss, Job 7:17; and admitting that he himself had sinned, yet he should forgive his iniquity, and not bear so hard upon him, and follow him with one affliction after another without intermission, and make him the butt of his arrows; but should spare him and let him alone, or however take him out of the world, Job 7:19.
[Is there] not an appointed time to man upon earth?.... There is a set time for his coming into the world, for his continuance in it, and for his going out of it; this is to man "on earth", with respect to his being and abode here, not in the other world or future state: not in heaven; there is no certain limited time for man there, but an eternity; the life he will enter into is everlasting; the habitation, mansion, and house he will dwell in, are eternal; saints will be for ever with Christ, in whose presence are pleasures for evermore: nor in hell; the punishment there will be eternal, the fire will be unquenchable and everlasting, the smoke of the torments of the damned will ascend for ever and ever; but men's days and time on earth are but as a shadow, and soon gone; they are of the earth, earthly, and return unto it at a fixed appointed time, time, the bounds of which cannot be passed over: this is true of mankind in general, and of Job in particular; see Job 14:1; the word "Enosh" i, here used, signifies, as is commonly observed, a frail, feeble, mortal man; Mr. Broughton renders it "sorrowful man"; as every man more or less is; even a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs, is attended with them, has an experience of them: this is the common lot of mankind; and if anything more than ordinary is inflicted upon them, they are not able to bear it; and these sorrows death at the appointed time puts an end to, which makes it desirable; now, seeing there is a set time for every man's life on earth, and there was for Job's, of which he was well assured; and, by all appearance of things, and by the symptoms upon him, this time was near at hand; therefore it should not be thought a criminal thing in him, considering his extraordinary afflictions, and which were intolerable, that he should so earnestly wish the time was come; though in his more serious thoughts he determined to wait for it: some render the words, "is [there] not a warfare are for men on earth?" k the word being so rendered elsewhere, particularly in Isaiah 40:2; every man's state on earth is a state of warfare; this is frequently said by the stoic philosophers l; even so is that of natural and unregenerate men, who are often engaged in war with one another, which arise from the lusts which war in their members; and especially with the people of God, the seed of the woman, between whom and the seed of the serpent there has been an enmity from the beginning; and with themselves, with the troubles of life, diseases of body, and various afflictions they have to conflict and grapple with: and more especially the life of good men here is a state of warfare, not only of the ministers of the word, or persons in public office, but of private believers; who are good soldiers of Christ, enter volunteers into his service, fight under his banners, and themselves like men; these have many enemies to combat with; some within, the corruptions of hearts, which war against the spirit and law of their minds, which form a company of two armies in militating against each other; and others without, as Satan and his principalities and powers, the men the world, false teachers, and the like: and these are properly accoutred for such service, having the whole armour of God provided for them; and have great encouragement to behave manfully, since they may be sure of victory, and of having the crown of righteousness, when they have fought the good fight of even though they are but frail, feeble, mortal, sinful men, but flesh and blood, and so not of themselves a match for their enemies; but they are more than so through the Lord being on their side, Christ being the Captain of their salvation, and the Spirit of God being in them greater than he that is in the world; and besides, it is only on earth this warfare is, and will soon be accomplished, the last enemy being death that shall be destroyed: now this being the common case of man, to be annoyed with enemies, and always at war with them, if, besides this, uncommon afflictions befall him, as was Job's case, this must make life burdensome, and death, which is a deliverance from them, desirable; this is his argument: some choose to render the words, "is [there] not a servile condition for men on earth" m the word being used of the ministry and service of the Levites, Numbers 4:3; all men by creation are or ought to be the servants of God; good men are so by the grace of God, and willingly and cheerfully serve him; and though the great work of salvation is wrought out by Christ for them, and the work of grace is wrought by the Spirit of Christ in them, yet they have work to do in their day and generation in the world, in their families, and in the house of God; and which, though weak and feeble in themselves, they are capable of doing, through Christ, his Spirit, power, and grace: and this is only on earth; in the grave there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge; when the night of death comes, no man can work; his service, especially his toilsome service, is at an end; and as it is natural for servants to wish for the night, when their labours end, Job thought it not unlawful in him to wish for death, which would put an end to his toils and labours, and when he should have rest from them:
[are not] his days also like the days plan hireling? the time for which a servant is hired, whether it be for a day or for a year, or more, it is a set time; it is fixed, settled, and determined in the agreement, and so are the days of man's life on earth; and the of an hireling are few at most, the time for which he is hired is but and as the days of an hireling are days of toil, and labour, and sorrow, so are the days of men evil as well as few; his few days are full of trouble,
Genesis 47:9; all this and what follows is spoken to God, and not to his friends, as appears from Job 7:7.
i לאנוש "mortali", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "misero et aerumnoso homini", Michaelis. k צבא "militia", Montanus, Tigurine version, Schultens; so V. L. Targum. l Vid. Gataker. Anotat. in M. Antonin. de seipso, p. 77, 78. m "Conditio servilis", Schmidt.
As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow,.... Either the shadow of some great rock, tree, or hedge, or any shady place to shelter him from the heat of the sun in the middle of the day, which in those eastern countries is hot and scorching; and very burdensome and fatiguing it is for servants and labourers to work in fields and vineyards, or in keeping herds and flocks in such countries, and at such a time of the day; to which the allusion is in Song of Solomon 1:7
Isaiah 25:4. Wherefore they "gape" for, or "pant" after some shady place for refreshment, as the word n used signifies; or for the shadow of the evening, or the sun setting, when the longest shadow is cast, Jeremiah 6:4; and when the work of a servant is ended, and he retires to his house for refreshment and rest: and since now such a shadow in either sense is desirable, and not unlawful to wish for, Job suggests it ought not to be charged as a crime in him, that he should importunately desire to be in the shadow of death, or in the grave, where the weary are at rest; or to have the night come on him, when he should cease from all his toil and labour, sorrows and pains:
and as an hireling looketh for [the reward of] his work; or "for his work" o; either for new work, what was set him being done, or rather for the finishing of it, that he might have rest from it; or for the reward, the hire due to him upon its being done; so Job intimates he desired death with the same view, that he might cease from his works, which should follow him, and when he should have the reward of the inheritance, not in a way of debt, but of grace: nor indeed is it sinful to look or have respect unto the recompence of reward, in order to engage to go through service more cheerfully, or to endure sufferings more patiently, see Hebrews 11:26; for though the hireling is an emblem of a self-righteous person, that works for life, and expects it as the reward of his work, and of false teachers and bad shepherds, that take the care of the flock for filthy lucre's sake, see Luke 15:19; yet hiring is sometimes used, in a good sense, of good men, that are hired and allured by gracious promises and divine encouragements to labour in the Lord's vineyard, and may expect their reward; see Matthew 20:1.
n ישאף "anhelabit", Montanus, Bolducius; "anhelat", Beza, Tigurine version, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens. o פעלו "opus suum", Beza Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt, Schultens.
So am I made to possess months of vanity,.... This is not a reddition or application of the above similes of the servant and hireling, Job 7:1; for that is to be understood, and to be supplied at the end of Job 7:2; that as those looked for the shadow and payment of hire, so Job looked for and earnestly desired death, or to be removed out of the world; besides, the things here instanced in do not answer; for Job, instead of having the refreshing shadow, had months of vanity, and instead of rest from his labours had nothing but wearisome nights, and continual tossings to and fro; whereas the sleep of a labouring man is sweet to him; and having laboured hard all day, the night is a time of rest to him; but so it was not with Job; wherefore this "so" refers to the common state and condition of mankind, in which Job was, with an addition of extraordinary afflictions upon him: the time of his afflictions, though but short, seemed long, and therefore is expressed by months; and some months might have passed from the time his calamities began to the present; since it must be some time before his friends heard of them, and more still before they could meet together and agree upon their coming, and were actually come to him; as also some time was spent in silence, and now in conversation with him; the Jews p make them to be twelve months: and these months were "months of vanity", or "empty" q ones; such as winter months, empty of all joy, and peace, and comfort; times in which he had no pleasure, no ease of body or of mind; destitute of the good things of life, and of the presence of God and communion with him; and full of trouble, sorrow, and distress: and these were "given him for an inheritance" r; were his lot and portion, which he received as an inheritance from his parents, in consequence of original sin, the source of all the troubles and miseries of human life, in common with other men; and which were allotted him by his heavenly Father, according to his sovereign will and pleasure, as all the afflictions of the Lord's people are the inheritance bequeathed them by their Father, and the legacy of their Redeemer:
and wearisome nights are appointed to me; one after another, in succession; in which he could have no sleep nor rest, through pain of body and distress of mind; and so became the more weary, through long lying down and tossings to and fro, through groans and tears, and much watching; and these were prepared for him in the purposes of God, and appointed to him in his counsels and decrees; see Job 23:14; or they "prepared" or "appointed" s; that is, "Elohim", the three Divine Persons.
p Vid. Misn. Ediot, c. 2. sect. 10. R. Simeon Bar Tzemach, in loc. q ירחי שוא "menses vacuos", V. L. so Tigurine version, Michaelis. r הנחלתי "accepi hereditate", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius so Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens. s מנו לי "constituerunt mihi", Pagninus, Bolducius; "mihi paraverunt", Mercerus; so Schmidt, Cocceius, Schultens.
When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise,.... Or, "then I say", c. t that is, as soon as he laid himself down in his bed, and endeavoured to compose himself to sleep, in order to get rest and refreshment; then he said within himself, or with an articulate voice, to those about him, that sat up with him; oh that it was time to rise; when will it be morning, that I may rise from my bed, which is of no manner of service to me, but rather increases weariness?
and the night be gone? and the day dawn and break; or "night" or "evening be measured", as in the margin, or "measures itself" u; or that "he", that is, God, or "it", my heart, "measures the evening" w, or "night"; lengthens it out to its full time: to a discomposed person, that cannot sleep, the night seems long; such count every hour, tell every clock that strikes, and long to see peep of day; these are they that watch for the morning, Psalms 130:6;
and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day; or, "unto the twilight"; the morning twilight; though some understand it of the twilight or evening of the next day, see 1 Samuel 30:17; and interpret "the tossings to and fro" of the toils and labours of the day, and of the sorrows and miseries of it, lengthened out to the eve of the following day; but rather they are to be understood either of the tosses of his mind, his distressed and perplexed thoughts within him he was full of; or of the tosses of his body, his frequent turning himself upon his bed, from side to side, to ease him; and with these he was "filled", or "satiated" x; he had enough and too much of them; he was glutted and sated with them, as a man is with overmuch eating, as the word signifies.
t ואמרתי "tum dixi", Beza, Piscator, Mercerus. u So Saadiah Gaon. w ומדד ערב "tum admensus est versperam", Schmidt; "extendit", Schultens; "et cor", Mercerus; so Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, and Bar Tzemach. x שבעתי "satior", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens.
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust,.... Not as it would be at death, and in the grave, as Schmidt interprets it, when it would be eaten with worms and reduced to dust; but as it then was, his ulcers breeding worms, or lice, as some y; these spread themselves over his body: some think it was the vermicular or pedicular disease that was upon him, and the scabs of them, which were all over him like one continued crust, were as a garment to him; or those sores of his, running with purulent matter, and he sitting and rolling himself in dust and ashes, and this moisture mingling therewith, and clotted together, formed clods of dust, which covered him all over; a dismal spectacle to look upon! a precious saint in a vile body!
my skin is broken: with the boils and ulcers in all parts, and was parched and cleft with the heat and breaking of them:
and become loathsome; to himself and others; exceeding nauseous, and extremely disagreeable both to sight and smell: or "liquefied" z; moistened with corrupt matter flowing from the ulcers in all parts of his body; the word in Arabic signifies a large, broad, and open wound, as a learned man a has observed; and it is as if he should say, whoever observes all this, this long time of distress, night and day, and what a shocking figure he was, as here represented, could blame him for wishing for death in the most passionate manner?
y So Sephorno and Bar Tzemach. z ימאס "liquefit", Junius Tremellius "colliquefacta est", Piscator, Mercerus. a Hinckelman. Praefat. ad Alcoran. p. 30.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,.... Which moves very swiftly, being thrown quick and fast to and fro; some versions render it "a racer" b one that runs a race on foot, or rides on horseback, agreeably to Job 9:25; where, and in Job 7:7; to it, other similes are used, to set forth the swiftness and fleetness of man's days; as they also are elsewhere represented, as swift as a tale told, a word expressed, or a thought conceived, Psalms 90:9; and so here, by the Septuagint, are said to be "swifter than speech", though wrongly translated: this is to be understood, not of his days of affliction, distress, and sorrow; for these in his apprehension moved but slowly, and he could have been, glad that they had gone on faster; but either his days in common, or particularly his days of prosperity and pleasure, these were soon over with him; and which he sometimes wished for again, see Job 29:1;
and are spent without hope; not without hope of happiness in another world, but without hope of being restored to his outward felicity in this; which Eliphaz had given him some him of, but he had no hope concerning it; see Job 5:24.
b δρομεως, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion in Drusius.
O remember that my life [is] wind,.... Or, "breath" c; man's life is in his breath, and that breath is in his nostrils, and therefore not to be accounted of, or depended on; man appears by this to be a poor frail creature, whose life, with respect to himself, is very precarious and uncertain; it is but as a "vapour", an air bubble, full of wind, easily broken and dissipated, and soon vanishes away; it is like the "wind", noisy and blusterous, full of stir and tumult, and, like that, swiftly passes and sweeps away, and returns not again: this is an address to God; and so some d supply it, "O God", or "O Lord, remember", c. not that forgetfulness is in God, or that he needs to be reminded of anything but he may seem to forget the frailty of man when he lays his hand heavy on him; and may be said to be mindful of it when he mercifully takes it off: what Job here prays for, the Lord often does, as he did with respect to the Israelites, Psalms 78:39;
mine eye shall no more see good: meaning not spiritual and eternal good, here and hereafter; he knew he should, after this life, see his living Redeemer even with the eyes of his body, when raised again; that he should see him as he is, not through a glass, darkly, but face to face, in all his glory; and that for himself, and not another, and even see and enjoy things he had never seen before: but his sense is, that he should see or enjoy no more temporal good; either in this world, being without hope of any, or in the grave, whither he was going and would shortly be; and therefore entreats that some mercy might be shown him while he lived; to which sense the following words incline.
c רוח "hali us", Cocceius, Michaelis. d So Beza, Vatablus, Drusius, Michaelis.
The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no [more],.... Or "the eye of sight" e; the seeing eye, the most acute and quick sighted eye; so Mr. Broughton renders it, "the quick eye" f: this is to be understood as "after" g death, that then the sharpest eye should not see him, he would be out of the reach of it; which must be taken with a limitation; for men after death are seen by the eyes of the omniscient God, their souls, be they in heaven or in hell, and their bodies in the grave; and as for good men, such as Job, they are at once with him in his immediate presence, beholding and beheld by him; and they are seen by angels, whose care and charge their souls become immediately upon death, and are carried by them into heaven, where they are fellow worshippers with them; and they are seen by glorified saints, to whose company they are joined; for if the rich man in hell could see Abraham, and Lazarus in his bosom, Luke 16:23, then much more do the saints see one another: but the meaning is, that when a man is dead, he is seen no more by men on earth, by his relations, friends, and acquaintance; the consideration of which is a cutting stroke at parting, see Acts 20:25; the state of the dead is an invisible state, and therefore called in the Greek tongue "Hades", "unseen"; so the dead will remain, with respect to the inhabitants of this world, till the resurrection, and then they shall see and be seen again in the same bodies they now have; for this is no denial of the resurrection of the dead, as some Jewish writers charge Job with, and infer from this and some following passages:
thine eyes [are] upon me, and I [am] not; am a dead man, a phrase expressive of death, and of being in the state of the dead, or however of being no more in this world, see Genesis 5:24; not that the dead are nonentities, or are reduced to nothing; this is not true of them, either with respect to soul or body; their souls are immaterial and immoral, and exist in a separate state after death, and their bodies, though reduced to dust, are not annihilated; they return to earth and dust, from whence they came; but still they are something, they are earth and dust, unless these can be thought to be nothing; and this dust is taken care of and preserved, and will be gathered together, and moulded, and framed, and fashioned into bodies again, which will endure for ever: nor is the meaning, that they are nowhere; the spirits of just men made perfect are in heaven, in paradise, in a state of life, immortality, and bliss; and the souls of the wicked are in their own place, in the prison of hell, reserved with devils, to the judgment of the great day; and the bodies of both are in the graves till the day of the resurrection; but they are not, and no more, in the land of the living, in their houses and families, in their shops and business, and places of trade and merchandise, or in the house of God serving him there, according to their different stations. And this Job ascribes to God, "thine eyes [are] upon me": meaning not his eyes of love, favour, and kindness, which had respect unto him; and yet, notwithstanding this, as it did not secure him from afflictions, so neither would it from death itself; for "though [his] eyes [were] upon [him]" in such sense, yet he "would not be" a, or should die; but rather his angry eyes, the frowns of his countenance, which were now upon him, and might be discerned in the dispensations of his providence towards him, by reason of which he "was not" as he was before; not fit for anything, as Sephorno understands it; or should he frown upon him, one angry look would sink him into the state of the dead, and he should be no more, who "looks on the earth, and it trembles", Psalms 104:32. Mr. Broughton renders it as a petition, "let thine eyes be upon me, that I be no more"; that is, let me die, the same request he made in Job 6:8; but it seems best to interpret it or the eyes of God's omnipresence and providence, which are on men in every state and place; and the sense be, either as granting, that though the eyes of men should not see him after death, yet the eyes of God would be upon him when he was not, or in the state of the fiend; or else, that should he long defer doing him good, it would be too late, he should soon die, and then, though he should look after him, and seek for him, he should not be in the land of the living, according to Job 7:21; or this may denote the suddenness of death, which comes to a man in a moment, as Bar Tzemach observes, in the twinkling of an eye; nay, as soon as the eye of God is upon a man, that is, as soon almost as a man appears in the world, and the eye of Divine Providence is upon him, he is out of it again, and is no more; see Ecclesiastes 3:2.
e עין ראי Heb. "oculus visus", Drusius, Piscator; "aspectus", Mercerus; so Simeon Bar Tzemach. f "Ocuium perspicacissimum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. g Posthac, Tigurine version. a "Etiam oculis tuis ad me respicientibus, me non fore amplius", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
[As] the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,.... Which being dispersed by the wind, or broke up by the sun, is never seen, or returns more; for though the wise man speaks of clouds returning after the rain, this is not to be understood of the same clouds, but of succeeding ones, Ecclesiastes 12:2; so pardon of sin is expressed by the same metaphor, to show that sin thereby is no more, no more to be seen or remembered, Isaiah 43:25; the Targum renders it "as smoke", by which the shortness and consumption of men's days are expressed,
Psalms 102:3; but by the simile of a cloud here is not so much designed the sudden disappearance of life as the irrevocableness of it when gone, as the reddition or application following shows:
so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no [more]; the grave is the house or long home that all must go to, it being the appointment of God that all should die, or be in the state of the dead; which is meant by the grave, since all are not interred in the earth; and this, as here, is frequently expressed, as if it was man's act being hither brought; and when it designs an interment in the earth, it is with great propriety called a going down; and however that be, yet the state of the dead is a state of humiliation, a coming down from all the grandeur, honour, and glory of the present state, which are all laid in the dust; and when this is man's case, he comes up no more from it, that is, of himself, by his own power; none but Christ, who is God over all, ever did this; or none naturally, or by the laws of nature, for noticing short of almighty power can effect this; it must be done in an extraordinary way, and is no less than a miraculous operation; nor will this be done until the general resurrection of the just and unjust, when all that are in their graves shall come forth, the one to the resurrection of life, and the other to the resurrection of damnation; excepting in some few instances, as the Shunammite's son, 2 Kings 4:32; the man that touched the bones of the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings 13:21; the daughter of Jairus, Mark 5:41; the widow of Nain's son, Luke 7:14; Lazarus, John 11:43; and those that rose at our Lord's resurrection, Matthew 27:53; this is further explained in Job 7:10.
He shall return no more to his house,.... In a literal sense, built or hired by him, or however in which he dwelt; and if a good man, he will have no desire to return to that any more, having a better house, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; or in a figurative sense, either his body, the earthly house of his tabernacle, an house of clay, which has its foundation in the dust; to this he shall not return until the resurrection, when it will be rebuilt, and fitted up for the better reception and accommodation of him; or else his family, to whom he shall not come back again, to have any concern with them in domestic affairs, or in part of the business of life, as David said of his child when dead, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me", 2 Samuel 12:23;
neither shall his place know him any more; the place of his office, or rather of his habitation; his dwelling house, his farms and his fields, his estates and possessions, shall no more know, own, and acknowledge him as their master, proprietor, and possessor, these, coming at his death into other hands, who now are regarded as such; or the inhabitants of the place, country, city, town, village, and house in which he lived, shall know him no more; no more being seen among them, he will soon be forgotten; out of sight, out of mind b.
b "Linquenda tellus et domus", &c. Horat. Carmin. l. 2. Ode 14.
Therefore I will not refrain my mouth,.... From speaking and complaining; seeing, besides the common lot of mankind, which is a state of warfare, sorrow, and trouble, and is as much as a man can well grapple with, extraordinary afflictions are laid upon me, which make life insupportable; and seeing I enjoy no good in this present life, and am shortly going where no temporal good is to be expected, and shall never return to this world any more to enjoy any; therefore I will not be silent, and forbear speaking my mind freely, and uttering my just complaint, for which I think I have sufficient reason: or "I also will not refrain my mouth" c; in turn, as a just retaliation, so Jarchi; since God will not refrain his hand from me, I will not refrain my mouth from speaking concerning him; since he shows no mercy to me, I shall utter my miserable complaints, and not keep them to myself; this was Job's infirmity when he should have held his peace, as Aaron, and been dumb and silent as David, and been still, and have known, owned, and acknowledged the sovereignty of God, and not vented himself in passion as he did:
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; or "in the straitness" d of it; he was surrounded on all sides with distress, the sorrows of death compassed him about, and the pains of hell got hold upon him; he was like one pent up in a narrow place, in a close confinement, that he could not get out of, and come forth from; and he felt not only exquisite pains of body from his boils and sores, but great anguish of soul; and therefore he determines to speak in and "of" e all this, to give vent to his grief and sorrow, his passion and resentment:
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul; his afflictions were like the waters of Marah, bitter ones, very grievous and disagreeable to flesh and blood, and by which his life and soul were embittered to him; and in and of f this he determines to complain, or to utter in a complaining way what he had been meditating on, as the word g signifies; so that this was not an hasty and precipitate action, but what upon deliberation he resolved to do; to pour out his complaint before God, and leave it with him, in a submissive way, would not have been amiss, but if he complained of God and his providence, it was wrong: "why should a living man complain?" not even a wicked man, of "the punishment of his sin", and much less a good man of fatherly chastisements? We see what the will of man is, what a stubborn and obstinate thing it is, "I will, I will, I will", even of a good man when left to himself, and not in the exercise of grace, and under the influence of it; the complaint follows, by way of expostulation.
c גם אני "etiam ego", Vatablus, Beza, Piscator, Bolducius, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens; "vicissim", Noldius, p. 222. d בצר "in angustia", Junius Tremellius, Schmidt "in arcto", Cocceius; "in angusto", Schultens. e "De angustia", Vatablus, Drusius, Mercerus, Piscator. f במר "de amaritudine", Drusius, Piscator, Mercerus. g אשיחה "meditabor et eloquar", Michaelis.
[Am] I a sea, or a whale,.... Like the restless sea, to which very wicked, profligate, and abandoned sinners are compared, that are continually casting up the mire and dirt of sin and wickedness; am I such an one? or like the raging sea, its proud waters and foaming waves, to which fierce and furious persecutors and tyrannical oppressors are compared; did I behave in such a manner to the poor and distressed in the time of prosperity? nay, was I not the reverse of all this, kind and gentle to them, took their part, and rescued them out of the hands of those that oppressed them? see Job 29:12; or like its tossing waves, which attempt to pass the bounds that are set to them; am I such an one, that have transgressed the laws of God and then, which are set as boundaries to restrain the worst of men? and am I a whale, or like any great fish in the ocean, the dragon in the sea, the leviathan, the piercing and crooked serpent? an emblem of cruel princes, as the kings of Egypt and Assyria, or antichrist, Isaiah 27:1; see Psalms 74:13. The Targum is,
"as the Egyptians were condemned to be drowned in the Red sea, am I condemned? or as Pharaoh, who was suffocated in the midst of it for his sin, since thou settest a watch over me?''
or, as another Targum,
"am I as the great sea, which is moved to extreme parts, or the leviathan, which is ready to be taken?''
or else the sense is, have I the strength of the sea, which subsists, notwithstanding its waves are continually heating, and which carries such mighty vessels upon it, and would bear down all before it, if not restrained? or of a whale, the leviathan, whose flakes of flesh are joined together, and his heart as firm as a stone, and as hard as a piece of the nether millstone, and laughs at the spear, the sword, and the dart? no, I have not; I am a poor, weak, feeble creature, whose strength is quite exhausted, and not able to bear the weight of the chains and fetters of afflictions upon me; or rather the principal thing complained of, and which he illustrates by these metaphors, is, that he was bound with the cords of afflictions, and compassed with gall and travail, and hedged in hereby, that he could not get out, as the church says, Lamentations 3:5; or could not get released from his sorrows by death, or otherwise; just as the sea is shut up with bars and doors, that its waves can come hitherto, and no further; and as the whale is confined to the ocean, or surrounded with vessels and armed men in them, when about to be taken; and thus it was with Job, and of this he complains:
that thou settest a watch over me? which Jarchi and others understand of Satan; and though in his hands, he was not suffered to take away his life; but besides him may be meant all his afflictions, calamities, and distresses, in which he lay fettered and bound, in which he was shut up as in a prison, and by which he was watched over and guarded; and from which he could make no escape, nor get a release.
When I say, my bed shall comfort me,.... When he thought within himself that he would lie down upon his bed and try if he could get a little sleep, which might comfort and refresh him, and which he promised himself he should obtain by this means, as he had formerly had an experience of:
my couch shall ease my complaint; he concluded, that by lying down upon his couch, and falling asleep, it would give some ease of body and mind; that his body would, at least, for some time be free from pain, and his mind composed, and should cease from complaining for a while; which interval would be a relief to him, and of considerable service. Some render it, "my couch shall burn" h; be all on fire, and torture me instead of giving ease; and so may have respect to his burning ulcers.
h ישא "ardebit", Pagninus; so Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. & Ben Melech in loc.
Then thou scarest me with dreams,.... Not with dreams and visions being told him, as were by Eliphaz, Job 4:13; but with dreams he himself dreamed; and which might arise from the force of his distemper, and the pain of his body, whereby his sleep was broken, his imagination disturbed, and his fancy roving, which led him to objects as seemed to him very terrible and dreadful; or from a melancholy disposition his afflictions had brought upon him; and hence in his dreams he had dismal apprehensions of things very distressing and terrifying; or from Satan, in whose hands he was, and who was permitted to distress and disturb him at such seasons; all which he ascribes to God, because he suffered it so to be: and now these dreams not only hindered sound sleep, and getting that ease and refreshment he hoped for from thence, but even they were frightful and scaring to him, so that instead of being the better for his bed and his couch, he was the worse; these dreams added to his afflictions, and in them he suffered much, as Pilate's wife is said to do, Matthew 27:19;
and terrifiest me through visions; spectres, apparitions, and such like things, being presented to his fancy, while sleeping and dreaming, which filled him with terror, and sorely distressed him, so that he could receive no benefit hereby, but rather was more fatigued and weakened.
So that my soul chooseth strangling,.... Not to strangle himself, as Ahithophel did, or to be strangled by others, this being a kind of death inflicted on capital offenders; but rather, as Mr. Broughton renders it, "to be choked to death" by any distemper and disease, as some are of a suffocating nature, as a catarrh, quinsy, c. and kill in that way and indeed death in whatsoever way is the stopping of a man's breath; and it was death that Job chose, let it be in what way it would, whether natural or violent; so weary was he of life through his sore and heavy afflictions:
[and] death rather than my life; or, "than my bones" i; which are the more solid parts of the body, and the support of it, and are put for the whole and the life thereof; or than these bones of his, which were full of strong pain, and which had nothing but skin upon them, and that was broken and covered with worms, rottenness, and dust; the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "and my bones death"; that is, desired and chose death, being so full of pain, see Psalms 35:10.
i מעצמותי "prae ossibus meis", Montanus, Tigurine version, Bolducius, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens; so Mercerus, Piscator, Michaelis.
I loathe [it],.... Or "them" k, either his life, which was a weariness to him, or his bones, which were so painful and nauseous; or rather, "I am become loathsome", to himself, to his servants, and to his friends, and even his breath was strange to his wife; or "being ulcerated, I pine and waste away" l, and must in course be quickly gone:
I would not live always; no man can or will; there is no man that lives but what shall see death, Psalms 89:48; Job knew this, nor did he expect or desire it; and this was not his meaning, but that he desired that he might not live long, or to the full term of man's life, yea, that he might die quickly; and indeed to a good man to die is gain; and to depart out of the world, and be with Christ, is far better than to continue in it. And had Job expressed himself without passion, and with submission to the divine will, what he says would not have been amiss:
let me alone; or "cease from me" m; from afflicting him any more, having as great a weight upon him as he could bear, or greater than he could well stand up under; or from supporting him in life, he wishes that either God would withdraw his afflicting hand from him, or his preserving hand; either abate the affliction, or dismiss him from the world:
for my days [are] vanity; a "breath" n or puff of wind; a "vapour", as Mr. Broughton renders it, that soon vanishes away; days empty of all that is good, delightful, and pleasant, and full of evil, trouble, and sorrow, as well as fleeting, transitory, and soon gone, are as nothing, yea, less than nothing, and vanity.
k "Aspernor vitam", Piscator; so Jarchi Ben Gersom. l מאסתי "tabui", Cocceius "ulceratus tabesco", Schultens. m חדל ממני "cessa a me", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt. n הבל "halitus", Michaelis, Schultens.
What [is] man, that thou shouldest magnify him?.... Man in his best estate, in his original state, was but of the earth, earthly; a mutable creature, and altogether vanity; so that it was wonderful God should magnify him as be did, raise him to such honour and dignity, as to set him over all the works of his hands, and bestow peculiar marks of his favour upon him in Eden's garden; but man in his low and fallen estate, being, as the word here used is generally observed to signify, a frail, feeble, weak, and mortal creature; yea, a sinful one; it is much more marvellous that God should magnify him, or make him great, that is, any of the human race, as he has some, so as "to set his heart upon them", as Jarchi connects this with the following clause; to think of them and provide for them in his purposes and decrees, in his council and covenant, to choose any of them to grace here, and glory hereafter: he has magnified them, by espousing them to his Son, whereby they share with him in his glory, and in all the blessings of his goodness; through the incarnation of Christ, by means of which the human nature is greatly advanced and honoured; and by their redemption through Christ, whereby they are raised to an higher dignity, and restored to a greater estate than they lost by the fall; by clothing them with the rich robe of Christ's righteousness, comparable to the gold of Ophir, and raiment of needlework; and by adorning them with the graces of the blessed Spirit; and, in a word, by taking them into his family, making them his children and his heirs, rich in grace, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, and kings and priests unto him; taking them as beggars from the dunghill, to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory. The words may be understood in a different sense, and more agreeably to the context, and to the scope of Job's discourse, as they are by some o, of God's magnifying men by afflicting them; according to which, man is represented as a poor, weak, strengthless creature, a worm and clod of the earth; and the Lord as the mighty God, as of great and infinite power and strength, between whom there is no manner of proportion; God is not a man, that they should come together, or as if on equal foot; nor man a match for God; to wrestle with principalities and powers, which are not flesh and blood, is too much for men of themselves, and how much less able are they to contend with God? Now Job by this suggests, that his thought and sentiment of the matter was, and in which he has a particular view to himself, and his own case; that as on the one hand it was a demeaning the might and majesty of God, by making himself a combatant with man; so on the other hand it was doing man too much honour, as if he was one of more importance and consequence, and more mighty and powerful than he is; whereas he is unworthy of the divine notice in any respect, either to bestow his favours, or lay his afflicting hand upon him; compare with this 1 Samuel 24:14. Hence a late learned writer p, agreeably to the use of the word in the Arabic language, renders it, "what is mortal man, that thou shouldest wrestle with him?" strive and contend with him as if he was thy match, when thou couldest at one blow, and even at a touch, dispatch him at once?
and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? have an affection for him, love him, delight in him, highly value and esteem him; it is wonderful that God should have such a regard to any of the sons of men; and yet it is certain that he has, as appears by the good things he has provided and laid up for them in covenant, by sending his Son to die for them, by calling and quickening them by his Spirit and grace, and drawing them with loving kindness to himself; by taking continual care of them, and keeping them as the apple of his eye: though these words may be interpreted agreeably to the other sense, "that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" or towards him, to afflict him and chastise him with afflictions, so Bar Tzemach; or to stir up himself against him, as Sephorno: and the above late learned writer chooses to render them, "that thou shouldest set thine heart against him?" q and so the Hebrew r particle is used in many other places; see Ezekiel 13:2; compare with this Job 34:14, where R. Simeon Bar Tzemach s thinks Elihu has respect to this passage of Job, and reproves him for it.
o So Simeon Bar Tzemach, Sephorno, Mercerus, Diodati, Schultens. p Schultens. q וכי תשית אליו לבך "et quod intendas cor tuum". r "Adversus eum". ibid. s Vid. Noldii Ebr. Partic. Concord. p. 57.
And [that] thou shouldest visit him every morning,.... That is, "daily", continually, as Aben Ezra interprets it; either in a way of love, grace, and mercy; so God has visited men, by raising up and sending his Son to be a Redeemer of them; the Son of God has visited them, as the dayspring from on high, by his incarnation and appearance in this world; see Luke 1:68; and the Lord visits them, by calling them by his grace, see Acts 15:14; by communing and conversing with them in a free and friendly manner; by helping right early, and by renewing his mercies to them every morning, all which is matter of admiration: or else the word may be taken in a different sense, as it sometimes is, either for punishing man for sin, as in Exodus 20:5; or for chastising the Lord's people, which is a visiting them, though in a fatherly way, and in love, and which is often and frequently done, even every morning, see Psalms 89:32; and so the sense agrees with the former, though by some given with this difference thus, "what is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?" or make him great both in things temporal and spiritual, as he had made Job in the time of his prosperity, which he may have respect unto; having been the greatest man in all the east, with respect to both characters, whereby it was plain he had interest in the love and affections of the heart of God; and "yet, notwithstanding, nevertheless, thou visitest him" t, with afflictions and chastisements continually; which may seem strange, and look like a contradiction, that thou shouldest:
[and] try him every moment? by afflictive providences; in this way the Lord often tries the faith and patience, the fear and love, the hope and humility of his people, and all other graces, whereby they appear and shine the brighter, which was Job's case, see Job 23:10; and which he doubtless had in view in all he had said, and more particularly expostulates about in the following verses.
t ותפקדנו "et tamen, nihilominus visitas eum", Michaelis.
How long wilt thou not depart from me,.... From wrestling and contending with him, and afflicting of him; the Lord was too hard a combatant for job, and therefore he chose to be rid of him, and was impatient of it; or "look off from me" u; so Mr. Broughton renders it, "how long wilt thou not look from me?" this is to be understood not of a look of love, which Job would never have desired to have averted from him; but a frowning and angry look, such as the Lord put on in this dispensation of his providence towards him; the allusion may be to that sharp and constant look, which antagonists in wrestling have upon each other while conflicting together, and so the metaphor before used is still carried on:
nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? some think Job has reference to his disease which affected his throat, that being so dried up, or having a quinsy in it, that he could not swallow his spittle, or it was with great difficulty he did it; or rather it is a proverbial expression, signifying that his afflictions were incessant, that he had no respite nor intermission, had not space enough given him to swallow down his spittle, or take his breath, as in Job 9:18; so Schultens observes, that with the Arabians this was a proverbial form of speech, when they required time for anything, "give me time to swallow my spittle"; or when they had not proper time, or any intermission, used to say, "you will not give me time to swallow my spittle"; and one being asked a multitude of questions, replied, "suffer me to swallow my spittle", that is, give me time to make an answer: or the sense is, that his antagonist in wrestling with him held him so fast, and kept him so close to it, and so twisted him about, and gave him fall upon fall, so that he had no time to swallow his spittle; or he so collared him, and gripped him, and almost throttled him, that he could not swallow it down; all which intends how closely and incessantly Job was followed with one affliction upon another, and how severe and distressing they were to him.
u תשעה ממני "respicis a me?" Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis "avertis oculum a me?" Schultens.
I have sinned,.... Some render it, "if I have sinned" w; be it so that I have, as my friends say, yet since there is forgiveness with thee, why should I be so afflicted as I am? but there is no need of such a supplement, the words are an affirmation, I have sinned, or I am a sinner; not that he owned that he had been guilty of any notorious sin, or had lived a sinful course of life, on account of which his afflictions came upon him, as his friends suggested; but that he was not without sin, was daily guilty of it, as men, even the best of men, ordinarily are; and being a sinner was not a match for a holy God; he could not contend with him, nor answer him for one sin of a thousand committed by him in thought, word, or deed; and therefore desires him to desist and depart from him, see Luke 5:8;
what shall I do unto thee? this he said, not as one in distress of mind on account of sin, and under the load of the guilt of it, inquiring what he must do to make satisfaction for it, how and what way he could be saved from it; for he knew that nothing done by him in a ceremonial way by sacrifices, nor in a moral way by the performance of duties, could take away sin, or atone for it, or save him from it; he knew this was only by his living Redeemer, and whom he knew and determined should be his salvation, and he only; see Job 9:30; but rather as it may be rendered, "what can or ought I do unto thee?" x that is, more than I have done, namely, to confess my sin unto thee; what more dost thou require of me? or what more can be done by me, than to repent of my sin, acknowledge it, and beg pardon for it? as he does in Job 7:21: or "what can I do unto thee?" thou art all over match for me, I cannot struggle and contend with thee, a sinful man with an holy God:
O thou preserver of men? as he is in a providential way, the supporter of men in their lives and beings; or, "O thou keeper of men" y, as he is, not only of Israel, but of all others, and that night and day; perhaps Job may refer to his setting and keeping a watch over him, Job 7:12; and enclosing and hedging him all around with afflictions, so that he could not get out of the world as he desired; or, "O thou observer of men" z, of their words, ways, works, and actions, and who kept such a strict eye upon him while wrestling with him, and therefore what could he do? or, "O thou Saviour of men" a, by whom only I can be saved from the sins I have been and am daily guilty of:
why hast thou set me as a mark against thee? as a butt to shoot thine arrows at, one affliction after another, thick and fast, see Job 16:12 Lamentations 3:12; the words I think may be rendered, "why hast thou appointed me to meet thee", or "for a meeting with thee?" b as one man challenge, another to meet him in such a place and fight him: alas! I am not equal to thee, I am a mere worm, not able to contend with thee the mighty God, or to meet thee in the way of thy judgments, and to endure the heavy strokes of thy angry hand; and so Bar Tzemach paraphrases it,
"thou hast hated me, and not loved me; that thou hast set, or appointed me to meet thee, as a man meets his enemy in the time of his wrath, and he stirs up against him all his fury:''
and to the same sense, and much in the same words, Jarchi interprets it:
so that I am a burden to myself? weary of his life, through the many pressing and heavy afflictions upon him, as Rebekah was of hers, because of the daughters of Heth, Genesis 27:46. The reading which we follow, and is followed by the Targum, and by most interpreters, Jewish and Christian, is a correction of the scribes, and one of the eighteen places corrected by them; which is no argument of the corruption of the Hebrew text, but of the contrary; since this was only placed in the margin of the Bible, as the Masorites afterwards did with their various readings, showing only what was their sense of this, and the like passages; and as an instruction how in their opinion to understand them, still retaining the other reading or writing; and which, according to Aben Ezra, may be rightly interpreted, and is, "so that I am a burden to thee" c; and which is followed by some, signifying, as Job thought at least, that he was so offensive to him that he could not bear him, but treated him as an enemy; was weary of him, as God is said to be of sinners and their sins, and of the services and duties of carnal professors, see Isaiah 1:14; so Abendana interprets it,
"thou hast set me for a mark unto thee, as if I was a burden to thee.''
w Vatablus, Drusius, Schmidt; so Sept. Syr. Ar. x מה אפעל לך "quid faciam aut facere possum tibi", Michaelis "debeam", Schmidt. y נצר האדם "custos hominum". V. L. Pagninus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus. z "Observator", Schultens. a "Sospitatur", Codurcus "servator", Drusius, Schmidt, Michaelis. Vid. Witsii Oeconom. Foeder. l. 4. c. 3. sect. 30. b למפנע לך "in occursum tibi", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius. c עליך επι σοι, Sept. "et tibi", Beza, Grotius.
And why dost thou not pardon my transgression,.... Or "lift [it] up" d; every sin is a transgression of the law of God, and the guilt of it upon the conscience is a burden too heavy to bear, and the punishment of it is intolerable; pardon lifts up and takes away all manner of sin, and all that is in sin; it takes off the load of sin from the conscience, and eases it, and loosens from obligation to punishment for it, which comes to pass in this manner: Jehovah has taken lifted up sin from his people, and has put and laid it, or caused it to meet on his Son, by the imputation of it to him; and he has voluntarily taken it on himself, and has bore it, and has taken it away by his blood and sacrifice, which being applied to the conscience of a sinner, lifts it up and takes it from thence, and speaks peace and pardon to him; it wholly and entirely removes it from him, even as far as the east is from the west; and for such an application Job postulates with God, with whom there was forgiveness, and who had proclaimed himself a God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin; and which he does when he both removes the guilt of it from the conscience, and takes away all the effects of it, such as afflictions and the like; in which latter sense Job may well be understood, as agreeing with his case and circumstances:
and take away mine iniquity? or "cause it to pass away" e from him, by applying his pardoning grace and mercy to his conscience, and by removing his afflicting hand from him:
for now shall I sleep in the dust; having sin pardoned, and the hand of God removed; I shall depart out of the world in peace, lie down in the grave, and rest quietly till the resurrection; there being in the bed of dust no tossings to and fro as now, nor a being scared with dreams and terrified with night visions. Mr. Broughton renders it, "whereas I lie now in the dust"; as if it referred to his present case, sitting as a mourner in dust and ashes, and his flesh clothed with clods of dust; or, in a figurative sense, lying in the dust of self-abhorrence; but the former sense seems best:
and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I [shall] not [be]; meaning not in the morning of the resurrection, for then he will be found; but it is a figurative way of speaking, as Bar Tzemach observes, just as one goes to visit a sick man in a morning, and he finds him dead, and he is not any more in the land of the living: many interpreters understand this as Job's sense, that he should quickly die; he could not be a long time in the circumstances he was; and therefore if the Lord had a mind to bestow any good thing on him in the present life, he must make haste to do it, since in a short time he should be gone, and then, if he sought for him, it would be too late, he should be no more; but the sense is this, that when he lay down in the dust, in the grave, he should be seen no more on earth by any man, nay, not by the eye of God himself, should the most early and the most diligent search be made for him. Mr. Broughton takes it to be a petition and request to die, rendering the words,
"why dost thou not quickly seek me out, that I should be no more?''
and to which others f agree.
d תשא "tolles", Montanus, Beza, Drusius, Mercerus, Michaelis. e תעביר "transire facies", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius. f So Junius & Tremellius.
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernised and adapted for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rights Reserved, Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Gill, John. "Commentary on Job 7". "Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible". https://studylight.org/
the Week of Proper 21 / Ordinary 26 | <urn:uuid:6321a231-2ccb-44ba-bca3-973e8ee37c89> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://studylight.org/commentaries/eng/geb/job-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335004.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927100008-20220927130008-00538.warc.gz | en | 0.981281 | 14,468 | 2.703125 | 3 |
George Washington was a surveyor, a farmer and a plantation owner. He was tall - he was 6'2", very athletic and very smart. He was a general during the American Revolution and commander-in-chief of the colonial army. George Washington was elected president of the United States in 1789. He was the first president elected under the Constitution. George Washington was a very popular president, general, commander, and leader. We have named streets, cities, counties, buildings, and even a state after him. There are facts, stories, tall tales, and even a couple of legends about him. Yet he was a real person and you can find his story (and a couple of tall tales about him) in the links below. | <urn:uuid:ea6ed3dd-7a5f-4b28-920a-9746a0df3ef5> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://revolution.mrdonn.org/georgewashington.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232257601.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20190524084432-20190524110432-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.991151 | 150 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Mean, Median, Variance and Standard Deviation
Plotly has built in statistical tools to help you analyze data with only a few clicks.
We’re set up for both descriptive and inferential statistics, so whether you’re looking to plot a graph with error bars (see our awesome tutorial here or do a simple statistical analysis of the ages of Nobel Prize winners, you’ve come to the right place.
Our statistics tool computes the minimum and maximum values, mean, median, quartiles, standard deviation, variance and standard error. The data in this tutorial comes from http://www.nber.org/nobel/, which was used by Jones and Weinberg in their paper “Age dynamics in scientific creativity”.
Step 1 : Set up the grid
You can load data into Plotly by typing directly, cutting & pasting or importing data from an external source. If you need help, our tutorial Add Data to Plotly’s Grid is the perfect place to start.
|In this example, we’ve loaded all the Nobel Prize winners in medicine, physics and chemistry, their birth years, and computed their age when they won their award. Copy the data here: https://plot.ly/~mariahh/8/|
Step 2: Running basic statistics
Plotly has both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. For our example we’re interested in quantitative features to describe our data set. This is exactly what descriptive statistics does. On the other hand, if you want to use a sample data set to make predictions about a larger population, inferential statistics is the tool you’ll want to use.
|Select “Basic statistics” from the ANALYSIS menu.|
|Two things happen. First, a STATISTICS box opens on the left of the browser window. We have two choices: “Inferential (N-1)” or “Descriptive”. “Inferential (N-1)” is the default, so we’ve had to change our choice to “Descriptive”.|
|Second, notice that the grid lets you choose which columns you want to use for statistics. We’ve only selected Column 5, containing the age data, but Plotly can also run statistics on multiple columns.|
|Finally, click the blue STATISTICS button in the sidebar.|
|The statistics now shows in the grid, just to the right of your last column.Some insights: the average (mean) age of a Nobel Prize winner is almost 56 years old. Half of all Nobel Prize winners were between the ages of 47 and 64 when they received the prize (Q1 and Q3). The youngest winner (min) — Lawrence Bragg — was 25 years old.| | <urn:uuid:e3e75601-4047-490b-bec3-89ac67692ac3> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://plotly.github.io/basic-statistics-mean-median-standard-deviation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608622.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20170526013116-20170526033116-00575.warc.gz | en | 0.907643 | 591 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Distribution of hydrogen in low temperature passivated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films from neutron reflectivity
Hydrogen plays a critical role in the passivation of dangling bonds in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) to enable acceptable semiconducting characteristics during operation in devices. Low temperature processing enables fabrication of high performance transistors on flexible substrates such as plastic or stainless steel foils, but also leads to a decrease in the stability of the electronic performance. Generation of defects at the a-Si:H/insulator (hydrogenated silicon nitride, SiN:H) during electrical use due to localized heating will lead to decreased performance unless the dangling bonds are passivated in-situ by residual hydrogen. For this reason, the distribution of hydrogen within a-Si:H may be critical to understanding their aging phenomena. Here the distribution of hydrogen within both a-Si:H and SiN:H layers is probed with sub-nanometer resolution using neutron reflectivity. The hydrogen concentration within the bulk of the a-Si:H (11 ± 2 at.%) and SiN:H (18 ± 3 at.%) agree well with previous reports, but the increased resolution of the neutron measurement is able to identify an approximate three fold increase in the concentration within 2 nm of the semiconductor–insulator interface. This enhanced hydrogen content may act in the short-term as a sink to passivate any dangling bonds formed during operation.
Vogt, Bryan, "Distribution of hydrogen in low temperature passivated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films from neutron reflectivity" (2011). Polymer Engineering Faculty Research. 1010. | <urn:uuid:81b6fb5e-ca32-4aff-b46b-2d5098fec6f3> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/polymerengin_ideas/1010/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917119356.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031159-00352-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.852167 | 351 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The core of the population is in the Dinaric Mountains. Today, bears are slowly coming back to Alps where they historically were widely distributed until the 18th century, but were later nearly extirpated. The size of the brown bear population in Slovenia and Croatia was estimated in DINALP BEAR project in the end of 2016.
The core area of brown bear is concentrated in Dinaric forests in Notranjska (Javorniki, Snežnik) and Kočevska region which extend across the border with Croatia into Gorski Kotar and further towards the south-east. North and west from the core area bears live in Hrušica, Nanos and Trnovski gozd, and spreads to Menišija and Krimsko-mokrsko mountains, and in the East to Gorjanci.
There are several ways to estimate a bear population size. In Central Europe, the most commonly used methods are noninvasive genetic sampling (e.g. bear scat, hairs, saliva) for estimate of total number and counting bears at permanent feeding sites to estimate trends in bear population size.
The best method for studying bear movement patterns is telemetry. Bears are immobilized and equipped with a GPS collar. This regularly connects with the signal from GPS satellites and calculates the exact locations of a bear. The data about the locations are sent to the researchers through the GSM signal. | <urn:uuid:9fed99e8-7dfa-4ed1-ad2e-ea15b88cb88f> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://www.carnivoradinarica.eu/en/large-carnivores/brown-bear/species-distribution-in-slovenia-and-croatia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487623942.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20210616124819-20210616154819-00127.warc.gz | en | 0.937126 | 297 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Every study keeps saying this but no one is listening.
Check it out:
Scientists are now saying that natural climate forces account for a “substantial” amount of the region’s warming in the past three decades.
A new study found that natural forces could account for as much as half of Arctic warming.
“Rapid Arctic warming and sea-ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean are widely attributed to anthropogenic climate change,” write climate scientists from the U.S., Australia and South Korea in a study that suggests that a “substantial portion of recent warming in the northeastern Canada and Greenland sector of the Arctic arises from unforced natural variability.” | <urn:uuid:445d8af3-5953-4a07-95c1-5e6f117624bc> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://patriottribune.com/30311/study-substantial-amount-arctic-warming-due-natural-forces/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121453.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00439-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949293 | 141 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Farmworkers are the backbone of society: supplying crops for food, energy, and consumer products. These communities are vital to the survival of the country, national security, and our food autonomy as well as to those receiving aid from the U.S. around the world. Yet farmworkers are not involved, and often not even considered, in decisions and policies that subject them to substandard working conditions and toxic pesticide or chemical exposure.
Coming Clean’s Farmworker Health and Justice Team is comprised of dozens of local, state, regional and national pesticide and farmworker justice organizations. The team is campaigning for better working conditions and better health for farmworkers by reducing toxic agrichemical exposures, empowering farmworkers to speak and advocate for themselves, and demanding policy reforms to address the health and wellbeing of the most under-represented among us. In October 2015 the Team won a tremendous victory: passage of a stronger Worker Protection Standard for farmworkers, that will increase immediate protections for workers and their families.
Though pesticides are regulated differently than most other industrial chemicals, the impacts of these toxics on our bodies is very similar. And people impacted by pesticides are also exposed to many of the same toxic chemicals as the rest of us: in household products, in the food we eat, and from manufacturing sources. Therefore, better policies and corporate practices regarding pesticides are essential to ensure a healthier and more just future.
For more information on Coming Clean’s Farmworker Health & Justice Team campaigns, see ProtectFarmworkers.org. | <urn:uuid:9ede3a83-1e2b-468c-b6a7-68ef882b7604> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://comingcleaninc.org/projects/farmworker-justice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886103891.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817170613-20170817190613-00713.warc.gz | en | 0.959669 | 306 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Ideal for lung sound classification training with real lung sounds recorded from actual patients. LSAT is a single-purpose simulator for lung sound auscultation training. Lung sound auscultation is one of the essential steps in chest examination. This skill requires three areas of expertise listening to the sounds of a patient?s chest with proper use of the stethoscope, having a clear understanding of sound variations and being able to describe these sounds clearly to others. In addition, in order to give a diagnosis, relations between sounds and auscultation sites play an important role. Trainees learn not only to distinguish the sounds and their location, but to comprehensively understand what they indicate.
- Anatomical form:torso
- Options and accessories:with sound generator | <urn:uuid:7573da7c-5ebe-42f9-9d6a-3d35c495f14a> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://healthmanagement.org/products/view/auscultation-patient-simulator-torso-with-sound-generator-lsat-kyoto-kagaku | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267156252.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20180919141825-20180919161825-00082.warc.gz | en | 0.919594 | 156 | 2.875 | 3 |
Tool Used: FullWAVE, MOST
Mie’s solution to Maxwell’s equations, one of the primary formulations for modeling light-particle interactions, describes the scattering of an electromagnetic planewave off a homogeneous sphere. More broadly, the phrase Mie scattering is commonly used to refer to situations where the size of the scattering sphere is comparable to the wavelength of the light, rather than having a much smaller size (Rayleigh scattering) or a much larger size (optical scattering). For Rayleigh and optical scattering, simple and excellent approximations to Mie theory exist that are sufficient to describe the physical behavior. However, for Mie scattering, no simple approximation exists and the full analytic solution, which takes the form of an infinite series of spherical multipole partial waves, is required. Mie scattering arises in a wide variety of applications including atmospheric science, cancer detection and treatment, metamaterials, and parasitology.
FullWAVE, RSoft’s FDTD-based Maxwell equation solver, can be used to directly simulate Mie scattering and produces results in excellent comparison with Mie theory. In this application note, we simulate the Mie problem for a 3D dielectric sphere. | <urn:uuid:d2e065ef-6a97-434f-8945-89a8029b7c57> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.synopsys.com/photonic-solutions/product-applications/nanophotonics-nanostructures/mie-scattering.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057417.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20210923044248-20210923074248-00109.warc.gz | en | 0.888219 | 254 | 2.6875 | 3 |
On the 6th of January of each year we celebrate in Greece the holy day of the Epiphany1 (also called Theofania in Greek), a Christian feast day to commemorate the revelation of God the Son as a human being. It is considered an important festivity for the Orthodox Christians that culminates with the Blessing of the Waters.
The ceremony takes place close to rivers, lakes and ports all over Greece. A priest will throw a cross into the water and volunteers will dive and compete to recover it. The weather, at this time of the year, is usually is stormy and the waters are at their coldest.
The person who gets the cross first, swims back and returns it to the priest to receive in return a special blessing. It can be a fierce competition at times as the blessing is considered to be bring luck throughout the year. Then local fishermen bring their boats to be blessed by the priest.
1. Epiphany, a combined Greek word which is derived from epi: to and phainein: to show, to show forth, to shine upon; the noun is epiphaneia, meaning appearance, manifestation. | <urn:uuid:1991055e-8b7c-409d-b61e-a327cf78fae5> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://discover-rhodes.com/news/epiphany-celebrations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948620.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327092225-20230327122225-00028.warc.gz | en | 0.964004 | 234 | 3.15625 | 3 |
While ethnocentrism refers to the ways in which certain peoples or social groups may understand and interpret the world and other peoples from within their own socio-historical and cultural perspective, Eurocentrism refers to a specific form of ethnocentrism that became globalized, and which is closely associated with modernity and coloniality. While ethnocentrism refers to perspectives from within racial/ethnic boundaries and/or nation-state territorial lines, Eurocentrism is the distinct socio-historical and cultural perspective that produced those racial boundaries and nation-state territorial lines that today frame ethnocentrisms. Contrary to ethnocentrism, then, Eurocentrism moves beyond geographical, racial, and ethnic boundaries in its hegemonic reach. Indeed, Eurocentrism is inherently modern and colonial. The ‘geography of reason’ of Eurocentrism places Enlightenment thinkers (Hobbes, Locke etc.) essentially above peoples and cultures subjugated by these very ideals. The ‘temporality of reason’ of Eurocentrism places Europe as the beginning and the end of history, and operates from within a specific linear conception of time. In this way, Europe and dominant Imperial powers legitimate their own logic by claiming it inherently AS logic, and the rest as savagery, not worthy of inclusion or inexistent. As part of the modern colonial abyssal thinking, Eurocentrism is the hegemonic thought of the west/global north that essentialises itself while claiming to be universal, and categorising any perspective that points to this essentialism as being irrelevant, subjective, or uninformed.
Coloniality—the nexus of racism, capitalism, patriarchy, and the depredations of nature—is the pillar of Eurocentrism. As such, breaking with Eurocentrism implies breaking with coloniality. However, Eurocentrism produced the dominant idea of modernity that understands this last to be an internal product of Europe, and Europe was understood as a naturally superior way of being and thinking that owes nothing to the rest of the world. Similarly, contemporary global inequalities are seen as having no connection to the colonial/imperial endeavour, and in stead, Eurocentrism grounds the interpretation of these inequalities as being the result of the inherent “backwardness” and “unproductiveness” of people in the global South, and as being symptoms of the absence of modernity in specific places and among specific peoples.
Eurocentrism involves dualisms such as human-nature, mind-body, mind-spirit, reason-emotion, tradition-modernity, man-woman. These dualisms are however not in and by themselves characteristic of Eurocentrism. That which makes them characteristic of Eurocentrism is the fact that in Eurocentrism, these dualisms are organized by coloniality. Many attempts to break with Eurocentrism indeed pretend that the dualisms mentioned above are central, and that overcoming them means overcoming Eurocentrism. In doing so, these contributions continue ignoring that the condition of possibility of these dualisms is the colonial/racial ontology and politics: that which makes the separation between human and nature, mind and body, spiritual and secular, modernity and tradition, and so on, problematic, violent and epistemicidal, is their entwinement with coloniality and its death project.
Breaking with one or two of these separations does not equal to breaking with Eurocentrism, not to mention coloniality. It is possible to produce a well-written book that breaks with the idea that Europeans are modern (Latour, We Have Never Been Modern), while leaving concerns with coloniality largely unexamined. In doing so, one is basically continuing the colonial tradition of making invisible the problems of the other—and retaining the privilege of deciding what is a legitimate scientific or social problem. A person can contribute to breaking the spiritual-secular and human-nature divides by engaging seriously in the thinking of Indigenous peoples (Ingold, Rethinking the Animate, Re-Animating Thought), leaving untouched and unchallenged the problems of coloniality/racism, among them epistemic extractivism. As such, it is important to be wary of whether self-acclaimed challenges to Eurocentrism leave its pillar, coloniality, untouched. Leaving coloniality untouched and unchallenged means that the concerns with colonialism and its legacies are whitewashed and thereby neutralized. In other words, the whitewashing of the criticisms from the global south happens, among other reasons, through the selective and de-historicized challenges to separations that together articulate the ontological groundings of coloniality. Separating these dualisms from one another is to make invisible and negate coloniality; it is to engage in the practice of the death project.
References and further readings:
Lander, E. (2008), "Eurocentrism, Modern Knowledges and the ‘Natural’ Order of Global Capital", Kult, 6. 39-64. Available at
Santos, Boaventura de S. (2014), Epistemologies of the South. Justice against Epistemicide. London: Paradigm.
Suárez-Krabbe, J. (2016), Race. Rights and Rebels. Alternatives to Human Rights and Development from the Global South. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
Julia Suárez-Krabbe is a Colombian-Danish scholar and activist. She is Associate Professor of Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University in Denmark. Her work addresses the problems of race and racism in relation to (human) rights, citizenship, development, social movements, 'other'/Southern knowledges and decolonization.
Como citarSuárez-Krabbe, Julia (2019), "Eurocentrism", Dicionário Alice. Consultado a 22.04.21, em https://alice.ces.uc.pt/dictionary/index.php?id=23838&pag=23918&entry=24283&id_lingua=1. ISBN: 978-989-8847-08-9 | <urn:uuid:e6824ac8-b40a-43e1-b17b-e04bc714202a> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://alice.ces.uc.pt/dictionary/index.php?id=23838&pag=23918&entry=24283&id_lingua=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618039610090.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20210422130245-20210422160245-00112.warc.gz | en | 0.915877 | 1,279 | 3.21875 | 3 |
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Transcript of European Monarchies
in the modern age
The catholic kings
Isabel and Fernando
They conquered Granada,
the last muslim kingdom
in the iberian peninsula
He had six wives
He broke up with the Pope of Rome
and established a new christian church.
After the 100 years war, they
reestablished the power of
The Sacro Empire
The emperor controlled different
german kingdoms in the middle
Iván III "The great of
The prince of Moscú unified
the country and conquered
territories. He called himself
"ZAR" (Emperor) of Russia. | <urn:uuid:007bd100-ee6b-49f4-a386-8cd4af103598> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://prezi.com/uufu0ul6v4dt/european-monarchies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123560.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00227-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.866085 | 286 | 2.515625 | 3 |
New York Two Americans won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for measuring the oldest light in the heavens, a feat described as "one of the greatest discoveries of the century" that convinced skeptics of the big-bang theory of the universe's origin.
George F. Smoot, 61, of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., and John C. Mather, 60, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will share the $1.4 million prize equally for their work.
They were the chief architects of a NASA satellite observatory named COBE, for cosmic background explorer. Launched in 1989, the spacecraft measured feeble remnants of light that originated early in the history of the universe, about 380,000 years after the big bang, nearly 14 billion years ago. Until then the universe was opaque to light, making it impossible to directly observe anything older.
Smoot and Mather's findings revealed the ancient seeds of stars, galaxies and other celestial objects.
"It's the farthest out we can see in the universe and it's the furthest back in time," said Phillip F. Schewe, a spokesman for the American Institute of Physics.
The big-bang theory predicts that this primordial light should display a classic "blackbody" spectrum, an indicator that the whole universe started out at a uniform temperature before expanding into the much less homogeneous state we now observe. That is exactly what COBE found.
"It's just a magnificent verification of the big bang," said Lawrence Krauss, a professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
The measurements also revealed tiny ripples in the light's intensity, representing "lumps" no more than 0.001 percent richer in matter than the space around them. From those humble origins arose massive galaxies and galactic superclusters hundreds of millions of light-years across.
In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that life itself depends on the existence of those tiny fluctuations, because without them matter would be spread uniformly and thinly throughout space.
"It is one of the greatest discoveries of the century. I would call it the greatest," said Per Carlson, chairman of the Nobel physics committee. "It increases our knowledge of our place in the universe."
"We did not know how important this was at the time when it happened. We only knew it was important," Mather said.
They weren't the only ones. When Mather and Smoot presented their observations at a 1992 physics meeting "there was an audible gasp in the hall," Schewe said.
When their results were published that year, famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking called it "the greatest discovery of the century, if not of all time." | <urn:uuid:10a95fd8-ba09-4d78-9f57-b96af9f10d93> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/oct/04/americans_win_physics_nobel_validating_bigbang_the/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375098071.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031818-00028-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94514 | 559 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Entire species may have already been wiped off the face of the Earth because of climate change, scientists believe.
But due to a lack of research – caused by minimal funding from governments – it may be some time before it becomes known which species, a CSIRO marine biologist says.
On the back of a study that criticised the lack of funding oceanic research has received, Australian marine biologist Elvira Poloczanska said climate change could have already killed entire populations.
“I think it’s possible … we haven’t even discovered all the animals in the ocean,” Dr Poloczanska said.
She said that compared to land animals, marine creatures responded to changes in climate more quickly, but research into ocean life was limited.
University of Queensland marine scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said it would not be long until new species of animals would be discovered – after they have been wiped out.
“We know that they’re out there because we keep on discovering new species … that’s going to be one of the tragedies of our current pathway,” Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.
“It’s a horrific thing to think about – an undiscovered gem disappears before we find it.
“But it’s already happening.”
Dr Poloczanska said more money from governments should be put into researching the animals they were trying to protect from commercial fishing and whaling.
“Certain issues are (prioritised) higher than others … a lot of people are concerned about whaling and illegal fishing.”
But she said the cost of marine research was very high and it was much cheaper to study land-based animals than ocean-dwellers.
University of Adelaide marine biologist Bayden Russell said it was difficult for politicians to decide whether research into a particular animal was worthwhile.
“I don’t think it’s a conscious effort to ignore marine research,” Dr Russell said.
A paper co-authored by Dr Poloczanska, which appeared in the latest edition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s journal Science, found only a small percentage of research mentioned in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report addressed the marine environment.
But of those mentions, 99 per cent contained evidence of direct intervention of climate change into marine habitats. | <urn:uuid:558c7f8b-80df-40e0-99f9-42f096d7d1c8> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://climateshifts.org/2008/06/14/species-already-gone-herald-sun/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154457.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20210803092648-20210803122648-00621.warc.gz | en | 0.954844 | 510 | 3.171875 | 3 |
by Mark Miles
Whether we realize it or not, wilderness is essential to all of our lives. A short list of the major ecological services provided by wilderness includes the following: 1) regulating climate by sequestering carbon, 2) retaining topsoil through expansion of root networks, 3) preserving biodiversity by providing habitat and food sources for endemic species, 4) filtering watersheds through microorganismal and vegetal communities, 5) purifying air through respiration and storage of pollutants, and 6) supporting indigenous communities who depend on the land for the necessities of life. And best of all, these essential services are provided to us free of charge.
By contrast, if tech industries were to attempt to fulfill the same ecological services provided for free by wilderness, the cost could very easily surpass the national deficit on a monthly basis. In short, wilderness is doing all of us a favor merely by existing. Needless to say, that should be enough for our leaders to preserve wilderness at all costs. Such is not the case however.
As you may have heard, there were some sobering statistics released not long ago in the scientific journal Current Biology regarding the state of wilderness globally. The bottom line, as with so many issues relating to planetary health, is horrifying and obscene. Over a period of two decades, ten percent of all wilderness (3.3 million square kilometers or the equivalent land area of two Alaskas) was annihilated to feed the engine of industrialization. This may not seem to be much on the surface, but it is when you consider two things: 1) only twenty percent of Earth’s land area is still wilderness, and 2) the rate of global deforestation is only increasing due to the growing appetite for resources of China, Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia. Whether because of construction, manufacturing, mining, forestry, or agriculture, the result is the same: wilderness pays the price while the wealthy who run the global economy walk away with the bank. It’s the very definition of unsustainable, unjust, and unforgivably wrong.
Which is why we should be doing everything we can to protect and support wilderness wherever we are. For my part I do this by raising awareness through my blog, gardening organically, reducing my consumption, buying as little as possible, and encouraging others to do the same. But the reality is that none of these actions will stop the bulldozers, the pipelines, the paramilitary troops, or the endless waves of industrialization that are eviscerating our planet. What we need is an organized, mobilized, and uncompromisingly dedicated army of concerned citizens who want to save the planet and their children’s future before it’s too late.
And one focal point for mobilizing should be our national and state parks. These are bastions of nature, freedom, wildlife, and health which are frequently within driving distance from where we live and which are doing their best to ensure that the little of wilderness that’s left has a fighting chance for the future. To that end I’ve compiled some of my latest photography from three parks in my area of central North Carolina to demonstrate exactly what it is that all of us should be fighting for.
The trails at Eno River State Park are so extensive that even after exploring them on a monthly basis for the past year and a half, I haven’t covered all of them. The park includes 4,200 acres of land and preserves nine miles of riparian habitat along the banks of the Eno River, where I found this bubbling brook nestled amidst a bucolic valley that could’ve come straight out of a fairy tale. There are so many places in Eno River State Park that are equally beautiful and worthy of preservation, but the only guarantee we have that they will continue to exist in the future is our own efforts to fight on their behalf in the present.
The trails at Eno River State Park preserve not only opportunities for hiking but also opportunities for fishing and swimming. Though no one was swimming at Bobbitt Hole when I took the following photo, there was at least one person fishing with his girlfriend on the rocks around it. It may seem trivial to some people to preserve an opportunity for fishing when so few of us depend on the work of our own hands to survive, but it’s a reminder to all of us that our human lives are directly tied to and dependent upon the health of the land, which provides food to all of us along with beauty and recreation.
The Eno Riverwalk in Hillsborough, North Carolina is a stretch of riparian habitat that includes 1.8 miles of trails which border downtown and run through several neighborhoods in the area. It’s one of the most beautiful stretches of riverfront that I’ve ever seen and demonstrates that it is indeed possible to combine some degree of human habitation with wilderness, though obviously there are limits. Even in the quaint and historic town of Hillsborough, however, there is an increasing push to construct ever more housing that will inevitably erode the health of the river and the surrounding land.
Another feature of the Eno Riverwalk is the gradual reconstruction of a traditional Occaneechi roundhouse, which sits just southeast of the courthouse in downtown Hillsborough. The Occaneechi Indians lived in this area through the eighteenth century but were forcibly displaced by European colonization at the end of that century, only beginning to re-emerge from the shadows of history in the last quarter of the twentieth century. They’ve become active in historical recreation and have demonstrated some of their traditional habitation in this roundhouse. This place then is a testament to the importance not only of preserving wilderness but also of preserving cultures that have historically revered wilderness and sought to live in harmony with nature rather than in dominion over it.
The State Natural Area of Occoneechee Mountain is another wilderness area where I go hiking frequently. It covers 190 acres of beautiful terrain and straddles the Eno River along its northern and western borders; it was also part of the traditional territory of the Occaneechi Indians before they were forcibly displaced by European colonization. My understanding is that they regarded the mountain as a holy place where they could commune with their ancestors and the spirits of nature. It’s easy to understand how they could have come to that conclusion when you see for yourself the awe-inspiring beauty of the view from the Overlook, where I took this photo.
Sadly there is also mining for pyrophyllite and andalusite in the area surrounding Occoneechee Mountain, though you would never be able to tell from the view provided by the Overlook. Fortunately Occoneechee Mountain remains protected from the deforestation and contamination which are the inevitable byproducts of mining, but there’s no guarantee for the future. If Occoneechee Mountain were ever to be sold by the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation in order to ameliorate budgetary shortfalls, the fate of Occoneechee Mountain would be the same as that of most mining sites: it would be turned into a hollow and lifeless shell of its former self, never to be the same again.
So while there are many stretches of wilderness in my own area of central North Carolina, any or all of them could be clear-cut, bulldozed, mined, or turned into an industrial wasteland at the drop of a politician’s hat. And that is neither ethical nor acceptable to anyone with half an ounce of sense or concern for the future. If we want to live on a planet that continues to be habitable for humans as well as every other species, we need to take action now to preserve wilderness anywhere and everywhere we can, starting with the wilderness in our own backyards. Organizing, mobilizing, and acting decisively to defend wilderness while it still exists is not only our responsibility as inhabitants of this planet, it’s the best way of ensuring our survival as a species.
“Eno River State Park,” Wikipedia, accessed Nov. 29th, 2017.
Fraggoso, Alejandro Davila, “The planet is going through a ‘catastrophic’ wilderness loss, study says,” Think Progress, accessed Nov. 28th, 2017.
Harvey, Chelsea, “The world has lost a tenth of all its wilderness in the past two decades,” Washington Post, accessed Nov. 28th, 2017.
“Occoneechee Mountain — Active Mine,” Eno River Geology, accessed Nov. 30th, 2017.
“Riverwalk,” Town of Hillsborough, accessed Nov. 30th, 2017.
Watson, James E. M., Danielle F. Shanahan, Moreno di Marco, James Allan, William F. Laurance, Eric W. Sanderson, Brendan Mackey, Oscar Venter, “Catastrophic Declines in Wilderness Areas Undermine Global Environment Targets,” Current Biology, accessed Dec. 1st, 2017. | <urn:uuid:894db9d5-ff36-4508-9f76-b52af0948ed7> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | https://markallmywords.wordpress.com/tag/indians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583510754.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20181016134654-20181016160154-00544.warc.gz | en | 0.954031 | 1,852 | 2.671875 | 3 |
| James Buchanan
| Character Information
James Buchanan was the 15th President of the United States, serving from 1857-1861.
Buchanan was one of the Presidents that, to save money, Springfield Elementary School would no longer teach. The others were Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
A picture of him was seen in a book that Superintendent Chalmers showed Bart, before Bart developed an interest in Theodore Roosevelt. | <urn:uuid:fa6989e1-7596-403f-bba8-986bdc6ff799> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/James_Buchanan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178373761.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20210305214044-20210306004044-00586.warc.gz | en | 0.947343 | 100 | 2.75 | 3 |
by Zile Singh (Ambassador(Retd.)
Believing in oneself is a Magic.
If you can do that, you can make anything happen. – Johann Goethe
In English language the word Believe is a Verb. It means to accept something as true or as conveying the truth and have faith in the existence of something which can perform acts of providence. Belief, on the other hand is a Noun meaning faith, conviction, an opinion or an assumption.
Beliefs are thoughts underlying in our conscious and sub-conscious mind. We start to gather and build up beliefs from our childhood. Belief may not necessarily be correct or accurate based on logic and facts. In order to establish one’s belief, one may consciously or unconsciously look for evidence or other coincidental incidents that may confirm and reinforce that belief and save oneself from being wrong. The outside environment, which can be religious or non-religious has made all efforts to take you out of your inner nature of logic and practicality to make you believe in anything according to the norms and convenience of the society at the cost of your own will and individuality. In another words, the belief and faith have been acquired at the cost of one’s intuition, free-will and self-inquiry. Over the time, the correct or incorrect belief system becomes so strong that an individual finds it impossible to get rid of it . Instead, it becomes an inseparable part of day-to-day life and takes the form of rituals and superstitions. In religious field some beliefs compelled human beings to perform human and animal sacrifice to propitiate deities. There have been numerous social evils in the name of beliefs.
There is no unanimity of beliefs in different regions and religions. Belief systems have affected the people and the societies to a large extent. Almost all people believe in something or the other; like fate, afterlife, previous life, destiny, hell, heaven, gods, omens, ghosts etc. People go after a belief when they feel that they have nowhere else to go to get some relief from their illness or some benefit in business. Belief justify their actions and bring them comfort. To justify and uphold their beliefs, religions and sects have fought with each other for their supremacy. History is witness to the fact that humanity has suffered a lot on account of false beliefs. Whosoever tried to awaken the masses against these rituals, blind faith and illogical practices had to face severe difficulties in their lives.
To protect the society from such unfounded beliefs it is necessary to understand the value of “ Believing in Yourself”. Believing in oneself is a magic which dispel the darkness of blind faith and paves the way for a clear understanding. If you do not believe in yourself, you sabotage yourself. It induces in you a lethargic and inferior complex, dependent on outside forces including non-existent phenomena. And inferiority complex pushes you towards failure and self-pity as you start believing in certain non-existent power. Dependence on any outside element especially the unfounded belief leads to slavery and low esteem. The world is trying to make you somebody else than your own-being. To be nobody but yourself is to fight and fight the hardest. But by nature, individual has avoided genuine struggle as far as possible. Therefore, it is necessary to respect yourself enough to walk away from anyone or anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you. Also remember that a person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in a place, no one has ever been before. That is why, it is necessary to “ Believe in Yourself”. It is SOS vs SOS situation. Save our Souls vs Sense of Self. In the former case, you pray to somebody else for your safety whereas in the latter case your own effort is the panacea for all difficulties. We have to create a society where we are not swept away under the carpet by manipulative and cunning elements all around in the name of false beliefs. Flood of thoughts and emotions based on false assumptions needs to be managed carefully. Scientific attitude and believing in oneself are the handy tools to overcome the age-old false assumptions based on blind faith. Now a days there is mushrooming of sects and congregations which are taking advantage of innocent public in the name of religion, ethics, morality and spirituality. Outwardly, these establishments look appealing but inwardly these are dens of corruption whether it be moral or financial or both.
Believe in yourself and walk on a track carved out by your own logical understanding and the calling of your own conscience based on scientific temper. Your destiny is in your hands. You are the maker of your fate.
The following two quotes will sum up the article:
“I do not want to give advice to people about their religious beliefs, but I do think that it is not smart to bet against the power of science to figure out the natural world. It used to be a thousand years ago that if you wanted to explain why the moon moved through the sky, you needed to invoke God”. – Sean Carroll.
“The medicine for my suffering I had within me from the very beginning, but I did not take it. My ailment came from within myself, but I did not observe it, until this moment. Now I see that I will never find the Light unless, like the candle, I am my own fuel”. – Bruce Lee | <urn:uuid:64979ad6-37e7-49f6-a0e5-53a0daf581a3> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://progressivehindudialogue.com/2017/09/18/believing-in-oneself-dispels-blind-faith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039744368.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20181118114534-20181118135742-00035.warc.gz | en | 0.958286 | 1,121 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Generator Safety Practices
When a hurricane strikes, that usually means prolonged power outages are usually not far behind it. When riding out the storm at your home or business, hopefully, you’re set up with a standby or portable generator to help keep some level of comfort during the outage. Although generators are extremely great resources for keeping us comfortable during a storm, there are some hazards to take into consideration when you’re using a generator.
Safety should be your first priority when using a generator. There are three things you should be cautious of when operating a generator. 1. The threats of carbon monoxide emitted from the generator’s exhaust. 2. Overloading or mishandling the electricity produced by the generator. 3. The possibility of fires. Although generators present these hazards, they can be easily avoided by practicing proper generator safety.
When addressing the issue of carbon monoxide, proper ventilation is key. Portable generators produce as much carbon monoxide as several of cars and can kill a person within minutes, according to the CPSC. Carbon monoxide poisoning sends more than 20,000 people to the emergency room each year, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is why generators should never be operated anywhere inside a home, including in garages or basements. If you’re using a portable generator, it needs to be between 20 to 30 feet away from the house while it’s running to reduce the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. Proper ventilation is key. To monitor your CO levels, your house should have a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide is invisible and odorless, so detectors can warn us if there are dangerous levels in our living spaces. This can mean the difference between life and death.
Overloading & Mishandling Electricity
The electricity created by generators presents the same hazards as normal utility-supplied electricity. Shocks and electrocution can unfortunately be a result of mishandling a portable generator, but this can be avoided by practicing safe generator handling methods. Avoid attaching a generator directly to the electrical system of your home. If you have a generator that is capable of powering your whole home, you must get the generator installed by a qualified electrician.
If you’re using a portable generator to power a select number of essential appliances, make sure to always plug appliances directly into the generator using the manufacturer’s supplied cords or three-pronged (grounded) extension cords. Faulty extension cords pose a problem as well, which is why you should inspect extension cords to make sure they are not damaged, frayed, or abraded.
When dealing with any sort of electricity, there is always the threat of fires if mishandled. Overloading utility outlets in your home can produce the same effect as overloading a generator; both can result in fires. Fires also become a possibility when generators become hot from running for long periods of time and then they remain hot for long periods after they are turned off. It’s extremely important to let a generator cool down before refueling because any spilled fuel could ignite if the generator is still very hot. Because of this risk, fuel should be stored far from the generator. If gas or any other flammable material is stored near a hot generator, it could ignite from the generator’s heat.
These all may seem like drastic things to consider when using a generator, but not only are they very possible, they are easily avoided. If you take the extra steps to be cautious and practice safety when using your generator, then your generator will serve as a saving grace in a time of need during severe weather. If you have any questions about generator safety, we have our service team available to answer your questions. | <urn:uuid:d75d5846-4880-4910-ae64-7bd48777f0d2> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://totalenergysolutions.com/storm-season-safety-generator-safe-practices/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474852.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20240229170737-20240229200737-00266.warc.gz | en | 0.925732 | 762 | 3.203125 | 3 |
To preserve the benefits of what is called civilized life, and to remedyat the same time the evil which it has produced, ought to considered asone of the first objects of reformed legislation.
Whether that state that is proudly, perhaps erroneously, called civilization,has most promoted or most injured the general happiness of man is a questionthat may be strongly contested. On one side, the spectator is dazzled bysplendid appearances; on the other, he is shocked by extremes of wretchedness;both of which it has erected. The most affluent and the most miserable ofthe human race are to be found in the countries that are called civilized.
To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is necessary tohave some idea of the natural and primitive state of man; such as it is at this day among the Indians of North America. There is not, inthat state, any of those spectacles of human misery which poverty and wantpresent to our eyes in all the towns and streets in Europe.
Poverty, therefore, is a thing created by that which is called civilizedlife. It exists not in the natural state. On the other hand, the naturalstate is without those advantages which flow from agriculture, arts, scienceand manufactures.
The life of an Indian is a continual holiday, compared with the poor ofEurope; and, on the other hand it appears to be abject when compared tothe rich.
Civilization, therefore, or that which is so-called, has operated two ways:to make one part of society more affluent, and the other more wretched,than would have been the lot of either in a natural state.
It is always possible to go from the natural to the civilized state, butit is never possible to go from the civilized to the natural state. Thereason is that man in a natural state, subsisting by hunting, requires tentimes the quantity of land to range over to procure himself sustenance,than would support him in a civilized state, where the earth is cultivated.
When, therefore, a country becomes populous by the additional aids of cultivation,art and science, there is a necessity of preserving things in that state;because without it there cannot be sustenance for more, perhaps, than atenth part of its inhabitants. The thing, therefore, now to be done is toremedy the evils and preserve the benefits that have arisen to society bypassing from the natural to that which is called the civilized state.
In taking the matter upon this ground, the first principle of civilizationought to have been, and ought still to be, that the condition of every personborn into the world, after a state of civilization commences, ought notto be worse than if he had been born before that period.
But the fact is that the condition of millions, in every country in Europe,is far worse than if they had been born before civilization begin, had beenborn among the Indians of North America at the present. I will show howthis fact has happened.
It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its natural,cultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the commonproperty of the human race. In that state every manwould have been born to property. He would have been a joint life proprietorwith rest in the property of the soil, and in all its natural productions,vegetable and animal.
But the earth in its natural state, as before said, is capable of supportingbut a small number of inhabitants compared with what it is capable of doingin a cultivated state. And as it is impossible to separatethe improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which thatimprovement is made, the idea of landed property arosefrom that parable connection; but it is nevertheless true, that it is thevalue of the improvement, only, and not the earth itself, that is individualproperty.
Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community ground-rent (for I know of no better term to express theidea) for the land which he holds; and it is from this ground-rent thatthe fund prod in this plan is to issue.
It is deducible, as well from the nature of the thing as from all the storiestransmitted to us, that the idea of landed property commenced with cultivation,and that there was no such thing, as landed property before that time. Itcould not exist in the first state of man, that of hunters. It did not existin the second state, that of shepherds: neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor Job, so far as the history of the Bible may credited in probablethings, were owners of land.
Their property consisted, as is always enumerated in flocksand herds, they traveled with them from place to place. The frequentcontentions at that time about the use of a well in the dry country of Arabia,where those people lived, also show that there was no landed property. Itwas not admitted that land could be claimed as property.
There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did notmake the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it,he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuityany part of it; neither did the Creator of the earth open a land-office,from whence the first title-deeds should issue. Whence then, arose the ideaof landed property? I answer as before, that when cultivation began theidea of landed property began with it, from the impossibility of separatingthe improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which thatimprovement was made.
The value of the improvement so far exceeded the value of the natural earth,at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the end, the common right of allbecame confounded into the cultivated right of the individual. But thereare, nevertheless, distinct species of rights, and will continue to be,so long as the earth endures.
It is only by tracing things to their origin that we can gain rightful ideasof them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we, discover the boundarythat divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know his own. Ihave entitled this tract "Agrarian Justice" to distinguish itfrom "Agrarian Law."
Nothing could be more unjust than agrarian law in a country improved bycultivation; for though every man, as an inhabitant of the earth, is a jointproprietor of it in its natural state, it does not follow that he is a jointproprietor of cultivated earth. The additional value made by cultivation,after the system was admitted, became the property of those who did it,or who inherited it from them, or who purchased it. It had originally noowner. While, therefore, I advocate the right, and interest myself in thehard case of all those who have been thrown out of their natural inheritanceby the introduction of the system of landed property, I equally defend theright of the possessor to the part which is his.
Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever madeby human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value. But thelanded monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil. It hasdispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their naturalinheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, anindemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of povertyand wretchedness that did not exist before.
In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right,and not a charity, that I am pleading for. But it is that kind of rightwhich, being neglected at first, could not be brought forward afterwardstill heaven had opened the way by a revolution in the system of government.Let us then do honor to revolutions by justice, and give currency to theirprinciples by blessings.
Having thus in a few words, opened the merits of the case, I shall now proceedto the plan I have to propose, which is,
To create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person,when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling,as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance,by the introduction of the system of landed property:
And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every personnow living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arriveat that age. | <urn:uuid:eabb8541-d7b4-4be1-ad05-a589bbf435cc> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Paine/agrarian.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463613135.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20170529223110-20170530003110-00191.warc.gz | en | 0.974071 | 1,782 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Mexican immigration to the United States officially began in 1848. It has continued to the present without any significant interruption, something that makes this labor migration quite distinct as an essential component of the American labor market.
When Did Mexican start coming to America?
Mexican American history, or the history of American residents of Mexican descent, largely begins after the annexation of Northern Mexico in 1848, when the nearly 80,000 Mexican citizens of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico became U.S. citizens.
When did most Mexicans immigrate to the US?
Mexican immigrants have been at the center of one of the largest mass migrations in modern history. Between 1965 and 2015, more than 16 million Mexican immigrants migrated to the U.S. – more than from any other country.
Why did many Mexican immigrants come to the United States in the 1940s and 1950s?
As wartime industries absorbed U.S. workers, farmers became desperate for low-cost labor and urged the government to take action. In 1942, the U.S. and Mexico jointly created the bracero, or laborer, program, which encouraged Mexicans to come to the U.S. as contract workers.
How did Mexican migrate to America?
Mexican immigration began in 1848, at the conclusion of the US-Mexican War. Driven by annexationist designs for additional western lands and resources, the United States militarily invaded Mexico and occupied its sovereign space for almost two years.
Where did the Mexican come from?
Europeans began arriving in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire; and while during the colonial period most European immigration was Spanish, in the 19th and 20th centuries European and European-derived populations from North and South America did immigrate to the country.
Why did Mexican immigration start?
Economic inequality, rural poverty, significantly lower wages, and better opportunities have also played a role throughout the 20th century as factors pulling Mexicans to migrate to the US.
Why did Mexican migration to the US drastically change in the 1930s?
Why did Mexican migration to the United States drastically change in the 1930s? During the Great Depression jobs dried up, the land dried up (Dust Bowl) and those farmers and workers headed west looking for work. That led them into competition with Mexicans and Mexican-Americans already in the Southwest.
Where did Mexican immigrants typically settle?
Mexican immigrants mainly settle in “traditional” destination states like California and Texas, which combined are home to well over half of this group.
What was the Mexican American population like in the 1960s?
In 1980, with a population of 14.8 million, Hispanics made up just 6.5% of the total U.S. population. Read the accompanying blog post, “How the U.S. Hispanic population is changing.”
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|Year||Mexican origin||Non-Mexican Hispanics|
What issue did Mexican Americans face during the 1950s?
Mexican Americans whose local families went back generations were lumped with illegals by mainstream white society, and were forced into competition with contract laborers and “wetbacks.” As a consequence, the Mexican American civil rights movement that emerged during the 1950s and early 1960s was deeply altered from …
What was the main reason immigration from Mexico to United States increased between 1900 and 1950?
What was the main reason immigration from Mexico to the United States increased between 1900 and 1950? Mexicans wanted to escape an oppressive government. Migrant workers arrived to work on farms and railroads.
When did the Mexican Revolution started?
The Revolution began with a call to arms on 20th November 1910 to overthrow the current ruler and dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori. Díaz was an ambitious president, keen to develop Mexico into an industrial and modernised country.
What did Mexico bring to America?
The Land Changes Hands
This treaty gave the victorious nation an enormous amount of land, including what would later become the states of California and Texas, as well as parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada, in exchange for a token payment of $15 million. | <urn:uuid:a8206956-4a91-4f45-9142-93d2d3ab161b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://migrationcompared.com/immigration-attorney/when-did-mexican-started-to-migrate-to-america.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335424.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930020521-20220930050521-00141.warc.gz | en | 0.971794 | 925 | 3.921875 | 4 |
An interactive game to learn names and qualities about people in a group, that teaches skills of investigation, appreciating diversity, identifying similarities and differences. Photocopy a “human bingo” sheet (many samples are online) for each participant. Each box will have a characteristic or something a person can do or that they possess. Examples include: “can sing”, “has a brother”, “traveled to another country”, “plays soccer”, and “likes licorice”. All participants mingle and try to fill up their entire sheet (not just one column) with names of people who match the various boxes. Only rule is that no one can sign more than one box on any person’s sheet! This encourages camaraderie and connection. | <urn:uuid:f48721d1-fd5e-498e-af35-91ad52d8f5fd> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.ceedsofpeace.org/human-bingo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370503664.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20200331181930-20200331211930-00525.warc.gz | en | 0.913493 | 171 | 2.8125 | 3 |
So I may have gotten a bit carried away before with the whole egg thing. Tried building a working prototype without first doing some experimentation to make sure it is possible to tell how boiled an egg is by using sound waves. I’ve gone back to the basics and done some experimentation. The results are not conclusive really so some further eggsperimentation will be required. I posted about this on reddit and received some great input from several users. One person suggested measuring the time delay between the input and output signal and observing how this changes between boiled and unboiled eggs. In this experiment I measured both amplitude and time lag the results are recorded below.
I bought a six pack of eggs and labelled them individually as seen in this photo:
A sine wave with amplitude 9.44V and frequency of 4.46KHz was input into one of the transducers. For this experiment I placed eggs 1-6 in the rig and measured two variables : amplitude ( at receiver piezo ) and the time taken for the sound wave to travel from sender to receiver. This time difference variable will be referred to as delta t in the results. I did this procedure three times for the un-boiled eggs and three times for the boiled eggs. The eggs were boiled for different amounts of time. All of the eggs were placed in one pot, the water was brought to boiling temperature and every two minutes an egg was taken out. So egg 1 was in for 2 mins and egg six was in for a total of 12 mins. Here are some photos of the egg boiling setup:
These are the results from before and after boiling the eggs. The reason I did each test three times was to reduce any errors caused by poor contact between an egg and the transducers and other errors of that nature. Delta T refers to the time lag between the input signal and the output (received) signal it is measured in microseconds. mV refers to the amplitude of the output (received) signal.
Taking the difference between each set of numbers gives the following set of data. So to be clear, mV_var refers to the change or variation in output between the unboiled egg and the boiled egg. t_var refers to the change in time lag between the unboiled egg and the boiled egg. T_var is in microseconds still.
From the graph on the right, the results looked quite promising up until minute 12 which was egg 6. Egg 6 was the only egg that cracked during boiling. The egg was mostly fine but the reason for the rather low output may be due to the fact that the egg surface had cracks in it. This may be a good reason to repeat this experiment to make sure. Another thing that I’ve noticed is the extremely low amplitude of the received signal, it is normally in the order of tens of milli-volts at best. The piezo transducers used for this experiment are intended for use as speakers presumably for toys and things of that nature. This means that they have a frequency response of only around 1Khz to 7Khz before the sound output drops away to nothing. It may be the case that a higher frequency would pass through an egg much more effectively giving a greater output which would allow for more concrete results. The graph of time lag versus boil time is all over the place, I really don’t know that to make from it. Another thing is that there may be something I’m missing with the data. As in, I’ve graphed change in amplitude and time lag against boil time but this may be the wrong way to think about it. If you have any ideas about this, let me know! | <urn:uuid:4c940067-0e18-445b-a968-837fd8c45168> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | http://www.wattnotions.com/testing-egg-boiled-ness-using-soundwaves-experimental-results/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487608702.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20210613100830-20210613130830-00146.warc.gz | en | 0.978781 | 754 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Bipolar disorder - also known as manic depression - is a psychological condition causing individuals to experience extreme shifts in mood, attitude, behavior and energy. Individuals with bipolar disorder experience manic highs and depressive lows, which can last for prolonged periods of time.
An individual experiencing bipolar disorder may find symptoms worsen over time. Since the disorder comes with an increased risk of suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, it is important for afflicted individuals to seek professional treatment in a timely fashion.
What are the effects of bipolar disorder?
Bipolar symptoms may include:
- Extreme highs or optimism, followed by despair, sadness or emotional numbness
- Severe irritability and/or angry outbursts
- False, unrealistic and inflated beliefs about one’s talents and capacities
- Increased rates of speech and thoughts
- Trouble focusing on tasks or concentrating
- Diminished capacity for judgement
- Uncontrolled spontaneity without a sense of consequences
- Delusional thinking and hallucinations
- Inability to experience pleasure
- Physical and mental inertia
- Appetite/weight fluctuations
- Trouble sleeping or extreme changes in sleeping patterns
- Inability to remember things
- Feelings of despair, unworthiness, and/or guilt
- Preoccupation with death or ideas about suicide
Individuals experiencing the above symptoms should seek professional help to see if their condition is, in fact, bipolar disorder and to learn how they can regain control over their lives.
Bipolar Disorder Treatment For Young Adults
Bipolar disorder is a serious condition. The Claudia Black Young Adult Center can help individuals suffering from bipolar disorder regain control over their lives. We offer a comprehensive holistic bipolar disorder treatment program that focuses on healing all aspects of the mind, body, and spirit. We invite you to get an accurate diagnosis and treatment. To learn more, visit us here or feel free to call 855-333-6075 to find out how we can help. | <urn:uuid:d630d11a-4fe1-4717-8e07-11f34543024b> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.rioretreatcenter.com/8-conditions-we-treat/14-what-is-bipolar-disorder | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195528013.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20190722113215-20190722135215-00549.warc.gz | en | 0.899349 | 393 | 2.875 | 3 |
26th June 2017
Qatar has ceased helium production
Qatar, the world's second largest helium producer, has been forced to close it's helium production plants after Saudi Arabia closed its border with Qatar, blocking overland exports of the gas.
The Qatar helium market has come to a standstill, no small thing considering that the Qatar Helium 2 project is the world's largest helium refining facility, able to produce 1.3 billion cubic feet of helium a year and, until now, positioning Qatar as the second-largest helium producer in the world. The instant 25% reduction in production of the finite gas will affect supplies globally - prices have started to rise again (prices in places like North America had already been rising rapidly without the added backdrop of a helium shortage, with January 2017 bringing a price rise from Praxair of 15%) and some gas suppliers have already started making preparations to cease the supply of 'uneccessary' helium, i.e. for balloons. Helium is widely used accross many industries and is currently used as a coolent in both MRI scanners and satellite instruments.
Another popular use for helium is to supply laboratory instruments such as Gas Chromatographs. These instruments are used for analyzing compounds in a wide variety of fields from Medicine and Pharmacy, to Food and Electronics. The good news for those using helium for Gas Chromatography (GC) is that they can switch from using helium gas to using hydrogen gas. In fact, hydrogen has been proven to produce faster results for GC and it is not a finite resource affected by dwindling and unreliable supplies and rising prices. Hydrogen generators make it possible to have your own in-house supply of gas which never runs out, completely removing the worry of securing an adequate gas supply.
Switching from helium to hydrogen is easy, you can read our step-by-step guide on doing just that here.
If you use Helium for your GC analysis, there has never been a better time to switch to hydrogen. With a quarter of the world's supply unavailable while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar, creating great unease in the global helium market, helium supply has never been more unstable.
Qatar Blockade - It's time to switch to hydrogen
An unrealiable supply and possible helium shortage isn't the only reason to ditch helium cylinders in favour of a hydrogen or nitrogen gas generator, cylinders contain large quantities of gas at high pressure and therefore present a potential health and safety problem. Not only must the cylinders, which are fairly heavy, be periodically moved, but an accident can release a large volume of gas into the lab environment, which could prove fatal. Changing cylinders can also allow air and impurities into the analytical instrument, and new cylinders must be monitored, ordered and swapped out, taking up valuable time of lab personnel. The other potential problem with cylinders is inconsistency in purity from cylinder to cylinder. Impurities collect at the bottom of the cylinder meaning that the last 10% of the gas is not of as good a quality and is not recommended for use. In addition to these factors, there is the transportation of cylinders which are usually transported by road and therefore add to street congestion and pollution.
All of these problems can be solved with a gas generator, a safe and convenient way of providing a constant and consistent supply of gas for lab applications, without risking the safety of lab users.
Finally, it is worth noting that whilst Qatar has the option of resuming helium production, it is likely that sea routes will be blockaded if the sanctions against Qatar remain in place. With alternative routes out of the region being much less reliable and more costly it is easy to assume that, even if production starts up again, helium prices will likely still rise and supply may not always be able to meet demand.
Found this article useful? You might also like: | <urn:uuid:a4baafbd-7980-4019-8385-ee2f23a96dbc> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://www.peakscientific.com/discover/news/qatar-has-ceased-helium-production/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400187899.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20200918124116-20200918154116-00615.warc.gz | en | 0.948047 | 788 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Among the most typical reasons for short-term hearing loss is an accumulation of ear wax, which obstructs the ear canal and disturbs hearing. People who have experienced this, and experienced a reduced ability to hear, clearly want to find out how to clean out their ears to avoid it. Having said that, you need to clean the ears correctly and safely, or else you may cause permanent injury to your ears.
To stress safety when cleaning your ears, let’s begin with what not to do. Don’t insert any physical objects into your ear. No matter if it‚Äôs a cotton swab or other object, you’re more likely to make the condition even worse by further compacting the ear wax if you start poking around in your ear. Another thing you shouldn’t do is use any device that injects water under pressure (such as a WaterPik) directly into your ears; to do this risks rupturing your ear drums. Finally, if you know that you have a ruptured eardrum, leave cleaning your ears to a hearing specialist. The same is true if you think you have an ear infection. Symptoms of ear infections include ear pain, fever, fluid draining from the ears and vomiting or diarrhea.
To clean your own ears gently at home, all you need is a syringe or bulb, obtainable at any drug store, and a solution with which to safely rinse out your ears. You can buy a carbamide peroxide solution at the drug store, or make your own solution by combining equal measures of glycerin, mineral oil and 3%-4%.
When using this solution, it is best to lay on your side on top of a towel to catch any dripping solution, or lean over a sink or bowl; then you simply squeeze the solution carefully into each ear, ideally without touching the ear with the syringe or bulb. Leave the solution in each ear for a couple minutes giving it time to work on dissolving the ear wax.
Once the ear wax has been softened and loosened by the solution, rinse each ear again with lukewarm water, and then dry the outer ears carefully with a soft towel. If the congestion continues, repeat this procedure for cleaning your ears twice a day for 2 or 3 days. Check with your a hearing specialist or audiologist if the problem continues. | <urn:uuid:429063b9-5dd0-4dd6-b3ce-39ba340d763a> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://www.houseofhearingclinic.com/there-is-a-right-and-wrong-way-to-clean-ears-and-eliminate-wax/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583705091.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20190120082608-20190120104608-00375.warc.gz | en | 0.9471 | 483 | 3 | 3 |
This page, and the pages linked from it show the yearly lifecycle of a bumblebee colony. You can either follow the lifecycle in chronological order by looking at all of the pages in turn, or you can skip to whatever part you are interested in by clicking the links below.
Stage 1, the queen emerges from hibernation and starts new colony by herself.
Stage 2, workers (females) are produced and start to forage; the colony develops and grows.
Stage 3, unfertilized eggs (males) are laid and worker larva develop into new queens.
Stage 4, males and new queens mate, the colony disintegrates, the old queen, workers and males die, and new queens hibernate.
Bumblebee colonies have a yearly cycle, except for some tropical bumblebees where the year-round availability of flowers allows colonies to survive for more than one year, and some Bombus terrestris nests in New Zealand (where the bees were introduced from the 1890s).
Queens that have mated in late summer the previous year hibernate, usually in the soil, and emerge in spring. Bombus terrestris is usually the first species to emerge in northern Europe. In the north east of Scotland the first queens are usually sighted in late March or early April depending on weather conditions.
These queens haven't eaten anything since the previous summer, so they are hungry. This is why it is vitally important that they find early flowers to feed. Newly emerged queens eat both nectar and pollen, and it is the pollen that helps her ovaries develop.
A bumblebee cannot fly unless her flight muscles are at 30 oC, so she has to brave the cold weather to feed or else she will sink into torpor and never wake up. She continues feeding and sheltering at night near the food plants in nooks and crannies for a few weeks until her body signals her that it is time to find a nest site.
The image below is a summary of the yearly lifecycle of a bumblebee colony, and was taken from the book Bumblebees by Prys-Jones and Corbet.
The queen starts nest searching once her ovaries have plumped up. Deserted small rodent nests, dead, tussocky grass, and the base of untidy hedges are popular sites. Each species has its own nesting preferences, and more about these can be found on the individual species pages.It is unfortunate that tidy gardeners often destroy what a queen would regard as a highly desirable residence.
It is at this time that you most commonly find bumblebees straying into your house and behaving strangely. They will investigate any dark corner, flying slowly and sometimes even disappearing down holes, or even into pockets. They seem oblivious to their surroundings, and not at all interested in flowers. These are queens looking for a safe site to begin the colony.
Once a queen has found a suitable site she builds a wax honey pot and fills it with regurgitated nectar (honey). The wax for the honey pot is exuded from between the segments of the abdomen. The queen also builds up a store of pollen, some of this she eats, and the rest she forms into a ball moistening it with nectar and saliva, this is sometimes called "bee bread". It is believed that the saliva provides some protection against spoiling by fungi and bacteria. This store of pollen and nectar will enable the queen to survive a day or two of bad weather without foraging. So any queen found carrying pollen in her pollen baskets has already found a suitable nest site.
The pollen stimulates the ovaries to produce eggs, which the queen lays in batches of 4 -16 on the ball of pollen, this is then covered with wax. The eggs are pearly white and slightly curved like a sausage, and are about 2.5 - 4.0 mm long.
The ball of pollen with the eggs is placed within reach of the honey pot; this enables the queen to brood the eggs and drink honey at the same time (see the drawing above of a queen brooding eggs). Like birds queen bumblebees brood their eggs to keep them warm. Bumblebees are very hairy, but the underside of the abdomen has a bare patch, and so the heat from the queen's body can pass directly to the clump of wax-covered eggs. During this stage the queen rarely leaves the eggs for long and she keeps them at about 30 oC (see temperature regulation). So you see it is not really correct to say that the bumblebee is cold blooded. If the temperature does fall below 30 oC the larvae's growth will be stunted.
After about 4 days the eggs hatch. In the early days of the nest it is estimated that a Bombus terrestris queen may have to visit as many as 6000 flowers per day in order to get enough nectar to maintain the heat needed to brood her eggs. And during every foraging trip the brood will cool down, so the trips should be short. This is why it is vital that the nest is located close to rewarding flowers.
After this stage the various species differ slightly in the way the larvae are fed, but in all cases their main food is pollen. The larvae grow and pupate then emerge as adults. The larva usually have 13 segments with a pair of spiracles (air holes) in each segment (see below). The antennae are nothing more than buds, they have no eyes or legs, and very limited powers of movement. They are eating machines. However though they eat and grow they do not defecate. They have what is known as a blind gut. This means the end of their gut is closed, so all the waste material remains inside the larva. Because of this the larval cell and food remain uncontaminated with waste. The waste is expelled just before the pupal stage, and stays in the cocoon.
The cocoon is made from silk produced in glands near the mouth. The faeces is smeared on to the inside wall of the cocoon becoming part of its structure. The outer walls of pollen grains are very tough and not digested by the grub. So by examining the faeces in the cocoon the pollen husks can be identified to show which flower species the adult bumblebees have been foraging from. Bumblebees usually have 4 or 5 instars. An instar is the period between moults.
At this stage it is only the queen who lays eggs, and all the eggs she lays are fertilized, and so will develop into females (workers). Fertilized eggs can develop into workers or queens. Queens are produced at a later stage in the life of the colony. It is thought that fertilized larvae develop into queens and not workers when the queen stops secreting a certain pheromone. These larvae destined to be queens are fed more frequently and for longer than larvae destined to be workers.
The queen usually lays another batch of eggs while the first batch is still in the larval stage. Bumblebee larvae are milky white and look a bit like maggots (see above). It takes 4 -5 weeks from egg to adult bumblebee. About half the time is spent as a larva feeding, then the rest of the time as a pupa in a cocoon.
In a series of studies by A. D. Brian it was found that of the eggs laid by the queen 71% hatch, of these larvae 75% go on to become pupae, and of the pupae 90% hatch out as adult bumblebees. So only about 47% of the eggs laid go on to produce adult bumblebees.Next, the bumblebee colony develops
BBC video of the whole lifecycle of a nest | <urn:uuid:dab02988-64ea-4813-90f3-4ea57d793922> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.bumblebee.org/lifecycle.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187113.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00203-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965361 | 1,615 | 3.765625 | 4 |
This is probably one of the most common questions among coffee drinkers or even those who are just interested in starting to drink coffee due to the fact that over-consuming caffeine has been proven to have negative effects to our health. Therefore, decaffeinated coffee has started to get tons of attention.
However, a new set of questions suddenly arose with this. Does that mean decaffeinated coffee has fewer or less effective health benefits? Or does that mean that decaffeinated coffee is a healthier and better alternative?
To answer that question, first, we need to understand how decaffeination works.
The Process of Decaffeination
Decaffeination started in the early 1900s when Ludwig Roselius, a coffee merchant, accidentally discovered it. It happened after one of his coffee bean shipments were soaked in seawater during transit which naturally extracted some of the caffeine from them.
After that incident, he began decaffeinating coffee using his own patented method using a chemical solvent called benzene. That chemical, however, is proven to have adverse effects to our body.
Fortunately, however, modern decaffeination techniques are much safer.
Today, there are several methods of removing caffeine from green, unroasted coffee beans.
One is by using a chemical solvent called methylene chloride (or dichloromethane). Although it also is a chemical solvent, it’s not as dangerous as benzene, the earliest solvent used for decaf. However, high amounts of methylene chloride can have health risks, that’s why there’s an FDA regulation in place to ensure that only proper amounts of this chemical are used and present in decaffeinated coffee.
Another one is called the ethyl acetate method. Here, coffee beans are steamed for 30 minutes to open their pores. Then, they will be repeatedly rinsed with either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate for ten hours. The rinsing is what removes the caffeine.
There’s another method called swiss water process (SWP for short) which was “invented” in Switzerland, hence the name. In this method, the beans are soaked in very hot water to remove the caffeine. Once enough time passes, the water is separated from the beans. The beans are now flavorless, while the water has everything the beans have and from that, it is then again filtered to remove caffeine molecules and what’s left is the green coffee extract and this extract is used to remove caffeine from a new set of fresh coffee beans.
It is important to note that none of today’s existing decaf method removes 100% of all caffeine. That means your decaf coffee actually contains a little amount of caffeine.
Are There Risks?
Now that you’ve learned how decaf works, you know that some of the methods are using chemicals (SWP is relatively 100% safe, but it’s quite hard and expensive to do). And we’ll be frank to you: increased intake of chemicals used in decaf poses health risks. Luckily, however, the FDA has concluded that the trace amounts of them you get in decaf coffee are negligible. In addition to that, there is a regulation in place that the chemicals should be no more than 0.001% of the final product.
Decaf or Not?
Now that we understand that decaf coffee poses fewer health risks than regular coffee due to massively reduced caffeine, the question seems obvious: you should drink decaf. But that’s not really the case at all.
While many people would want to and will probably benefit from decaf coffee, regular coffee is still superior when it comes to benefits and effects, provided that it is consumed in safe amounts.
Regular coffee, which decaf can’t, can help you improve your mood, reaction time, memory and mental function, help burn fats, increase metabolism, reduce the risk of mild depression and many others. This is because of the higher presence of caffeine, which is proven to provide us with many health benefits when consumed in moderation.
Of course, decaf coffee won’t lose. Decaf is perfect for those who have problems with caffeine looking to enjoy a cup of coffee along with the majority of its health benefits. Examples are people who are sensitive to caffeine or those who have certain medical conditions. In addition to that, decaf coffee allows pregnant women to enjoy coffee via decaf versions.
Coffee is one of the most popular and healthiest beverages on the planet. It’s loaded with antioxidants and is packed with energy (especially regular coffee) that it’ll make your day a whole lot better. That’s why here, at Taza Coffee, offers you only the best decaf and regular coffee along with additional mood boosters to make your day a whole lot better! | <urn:uuid:e14fac8e-e3c3-4b89-8dc3-c593bcdba3f5> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.taza.cc/is-decaffeinated-coffee-better-for-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250592565.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20200118110141-20200118134141-00263.warc.gz | en | 0.967644 | 1,000 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Access For All!
The steps of the project
A lot remains to be done so as to make sure that the access to counselling and support for women and girls with disabilities becomes more barrier-free. The following steps and measures were part of the Access for All!-project.
- Counselling and support for counsellors in the women’s counselling centres
- Create access – Barrier-free information for women and girls with disabilities
- Strengthening cooperation and networks
- Promoting the right to live without violence – implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
1. Counselling and support for counsellors in the women’s counselling centres
In concrete terms, women’s counselling centres need to remove barriers and create access so as to counsel and support women and girls with disabilities. The support system needs to be opened up.
It is an important step to make the women’s counselling centres competent and support them in their endeavours for accessibility and also target group-specific services.
Some documents and information have been provided for professional counsellors and other interested parties. This includes:
- "Barrier-free access in women’s counselling centres for women and girls. A practical manual." (in German)
- Handbook for the first contact with disabled women affected by violence (in German)
Likewise, it is important to make people more sensitive to the issue so as to make them more aware that women and girls with disabilities need better protection against violence and need counselling and support.
For barrier-free access alone is not enough. Specific services of the women’s counselling centres also need to approach women and girls with disabilities directly.
Moreover, we offer presentations and seminars on various topics within the context of the Access for All!-project.
2. Create access – Barrier-free information for women and girls with disabilities
Some women and girls with disabilities but also professionals and caregivers know little about existing support and counselling services. They do not know whom they can contact for help. Some target group-specific barrier-free documents were compiled within the context of the Access for All!-project to change this:
- A leaflet and a poster in plain language: "NO! to violence against women and girls with disabilities";
- Information in German sign language;
- Information in an audio format for blind and partially sighted women and girls.
Women and girls with disabilities shall thus get better information about everything that is violence, how they can defend themselves and where they can find help and support.
The documentation can be ordered from the bff.
3. Strengthening cooperation and networks
It is vital to establish and improve cooperation and networks with institutions supporting disabled people as well as self-help associations and organisations for people, and especially women, with disabilities.
An advisory council was set up for the Access for All!-project. It comprises important players from the political arena, self-help groups and welfare organisations. The Council has an advisory function and will give advice and support to the project. An opportunity for exchange, cooperation and further networking has thus been created.
4. Promoting the right to live without violence – implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
With its Access for All!-project, the bff promotes the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
To this end, the bff is a member of the second expert committee “Civil Rights and Liberties and Protection Rights, Women, Relationships, Family and Bioethics” of the coordination mechanism within government. This committee is affiliated to the Federal Government Commissioner for the concerns of people with disabilities. Various issues are dealt with in a total of four expert committees so as to propose specific measures for implementing the CRPD. Violence against women with disabilities has been determined as one key issue.
In the context of the Access for All!-project, the bff is also a member of the BRK alliance, which is a broad alliance of civil society organisations. Its objective is to provide critical comment on the first national report of the Federal Republic of Germany on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by publishing a “parallel report”.
More than 70 organisations have teamed up in the alliance. They represent a broad range of German associations, which are active in the field of disability policy.
Just like the national report, the parallel report shall be submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva. It will illustrate the real life situations of about 10 million young and old people with disabilities in Germany.
You will find further information in German on the BRK alliance here: | <urn:uuid:c959fe1d-3022-473b-8b69-8a92d122c65c> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://www.frauen-gegen-gewalt.de/en/the-steps-of-the-project.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499801.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130034805-20230130064805-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.946866 | 978 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Introduction the six step problem solving process giv three levels of business planning the picture of dorian gray essay es guidelines as to how one can be able to solve some different issues . you solve word problems every day in your work or even while you’re just out and about. all how to start a comparison essay this sounds very obvious, but six steps to problem solving requires clear thought and analysis this six step process will explain essays for college how… start with the ‘low-hanging fruit’. 4.3/5 (3) critical thinking and six six steps to problem solving steps to problem solving.docx https://www.coursehero.com//critical-thinking-and-six-steps-to-problem-solvingdocx critical thinking and six steps to compare and contrast essay questions type my essay for free problem solving 2 life likes to throw new problem at us every day. why effective communication is the main concern which how to learn critical thinking stops companies from outsourcing software development and how it can be mitigated? — “what are our most plausible three or four options?” analyze options. best professional cover letter mess-finding / objective finding. steps well written blog one …. knowledge, how to improve your creative writing skills comprehension, application, …. try to make your step 3: not all problems follow these steps linearly, especially for can you start an essay with a quote very challenging six steps to problem solving problems problem solving is centered on your ability to identify critical issues and create or identify solutions. | <urn:uuid:1ee26845-6019-49d7-be95-850361a4768e> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://best-essay-buy.org/2020/09/12/six-steps-to-problem-solving_qw/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153391.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20210727103626-20210727133626-00182.warc.gz | en | 0.928419 | 314 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Seawater clarity is often assessed based on the concentration of suspended particles in the water column, also called turbidity. This suspended particulate material (SPM) includes mineral particles, as well as living and dead plankton. Here, suspended particulate inorganic matter (SPIM), measured by ocean colour satellites from space, is used to summarise the turbidity in Scottish waters.
Increased turbidity of marine waters has the potential to impact the productivity of photosynthetic marine organisms, by reducing the amount of light that passes through the water column. However, suspended particles may also increase the nutrient concentrations and therefore positively affecting primary producers.
SPIM can be brought from land to sea by freshwater outflows (river or sewage discharge), and can also be re-suspended from the sea bed into the water column by turbulent mixing (from tidal currents and wind). SPIM can also be affected by activities on the sea bed e.g. dredging, trawling and marine construction. Due to these processes, shallow, coastal waters generally have higher SPIM concentrations than deep, offshore regions.
Satellite ocean colour measurements allow for the observation of SPIM on a large spatial scale, but often include some degree of temporal averaging and interpolation to deal with cloud cover. Moreover, algorithms to derive SPIM concentration from satellites are often developed for specific regions and may not yield accurate results in other regions.
The assessment of turbidity was undertaken by Marine Scotland Science, based on data compiled by CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) for the Marine Online Assessment Tool.
The assessment of turbidity in Scottish waters was based on satellite observations of SPIM. Overall, these data are sufficient for an overall descriptive state of SPIM in Scottish waters. However there is not enough confidence to investigate trends without further in situ observations of suspended sediments and optical properties in Scottish waters to validate the satellite observations and the algorithms applied.
Data were provided by Silva (2016). These are daily estimates generated by IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer) from multiple ocean colour remote sensing platforms (SeaWifs, MODISv, MERIS, VIIRS) and interpolated to a 1.1 x 1.1 km grid. These estimates were further averaged to create monthly/annual averages and averages for the period 1998 - 2015. Detailed methods for data analysis can be found in CEFAS Report (2016).
Ocean colour satellite sensors measure sunlight being backscattered by the water and its constituents (dissolved coloured matter and particles). To convert this colour to meaningful quantities (such as chlorophyll a or suspended sediments), a number of algorithms have been developed. These can be sensitive to the initial region for which they were established, creating uncertainties in the data.
The data do not cover all of Scottish waters, and extend from 54° N to 57° N and from 12° W to 5° E, due to satellite measurement constraints. The following Offshore Marine Regions (OMRs) and Scottish Marine Regions (SMRs) are only partially represented: Bailey, Rockall, Faroe-Shetland Channel, North Scotland Shelf, North and West Shetland Shelf, East Shetland Shelf and Shetland, so additional care should be taken in interpreting data in the regions. There are no data for the Hatton OMR. Winter sun angle, weather conditions and cloud cover all affect the collection of ocean colour data north of 57° N.
The 1998-2015 climatological average shows there is a marked difference in SPIM concentration between the north/south and coastal/offshore regions within Scottish waters (Figure 1). Turbidity is highest in the coastal areas with high freshwater input i.e. Solway Firth, Clyde, Argyll and Forth & Tay river plume. The more northerly coastal regions have lower SPIM loads than the southerly regions. The offshore regions have lower SPIM than the coastal regions. Compared to the southern North Sea, the northern North Sea has much lower concentrations of SPIM.
Offshore marine regions
Overall the monthly average of SPIM in the OMRs is <1.5 mg/l year round. All regions appear to increase in SPIM in the summer months, highest in June (Figure 2). A winter peak in SPIM is most pronounced in the Long Forties region from 2006 onwards. However, high SPIM in the summer months may be an artefact of the method and algorithm used to estimate SPIM from ocean colour data.
It is not appropriate to assess trends using this data set, due to the poor spatial coverage of some regions. Data for December are missing for 7 out of 10 regions from 2007 onwards (most likely due to cloudiness and winter sun angle reducing observations).
Scottish marine regions
In general, SPIM concentrations in the SMRs are higher than in the OMRs (note the colour bar change in Figure 2 and Figure 3). This is due to their general shallower bathymetry and closer proximity to sources of land run-off. The Solway Firth has by far the highest SPIM concentrations, on average between 4 and 6 mg/l (Figure 3) but greater than 20 mg/l during isolated events (potentially linked to high river run off). The high SPIM concentrations in the Solway can last for several months at a time.
Relatively high SPIM concentrations (>3mg/l) occur in the Forth and Tay, Clyde, Argyll and North East regions. These concentrations are on average not as high as those in the Solway, and the duration of high concentrations is also not as long as for the Solway. Highest SPIM occurs in the winter months as more river run off means more sediments are washed down to the sea. Also, stronger winds and waves and storm events act to re-suspend sediment from the shallow coastal waters. There are missing data for northerly coastal regions in December 2007 onwards.
The high SPIM concentrations in the Solway and Forth and Tay (and to a lesser extent North East) regions are most likely due to the large estuaries in these regions.
No trend assessment has been included due to insufficient data and the need for more in situ observations to validate the satellite data. Ocean colour measurements and algorithms are continuously improving, but often rely on detailed measurements of water optical properties and suspended sediment concentration.
No comparison has been made to the 2011 data. The previous marine assessment (Baxter et al., 2011) displayed turbidity data from a numerical model.
Here, an improvement has been made on the previous assessment method by using a validated and quality assured observational data set. However, the algorithms used to derive SPIM from ocean colour remote sensing images are complex, and sensitive to the regions where they were initially developed for. More work on remote sensing of suspended matter in Scottish waters is needed to improve confidence in these data, and allow for the analysis of trends.
Large gaps in knowledge exist due to limitations of ocean colour satellite data.
The highest SPIM concentrations occur in the coastal regions with high river influx and during the winter months.
In general, most regions have low SPIM concentrations (<3mg/l) on average.
Due to the nature of the observations there is limited confidence in offshore regions, although these are also where SPIM concentrations are lowest.
Three main knowledge gaps have been identified:
- lack of ground-truthing of data in Scottish waters for ocean colour algorithm;
- lack of data for offshore marine regions, particularly in the winter months;
- restricted spatial extent of current data set – limited conclusions can be drawn particularly for Hatton, Faroe-Shetland Channel, North & West Shetland Shelf, Shetland and East Shetland Shelf. | <urn:uuid:57a2497b-b640-45f9-9e9e-e14e7d253290> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://marine.gov.scot/sma/assessment/suspended-particulate-inorganic-matter-turbidity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571097.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810010059-20220810040059-00693.warc.gz | en | 0.937061 | 1,630 | 3.5625 | 4 |
An Open Education Resource (OER) is a teaching resource that can be used and reused freely for educational purposes because the author(s) have freely released the work to the public for that purpose - usually using one of the six types of a Creative Commons licence.
"The 5 Rs".
In order for a resource to qualify as Open Access, users should be able to
Open Access Educational Resources come in many forms, from images and media files that can be used in teaching to presentations, lecture notes, assignments, and free textbooks. This guide provides a list of high quality sources of Open Access Educational Resources organized by format. All of these OERs can be used freely for non-commercial purposes usually only with the condition that you cite or attribute the work.
Video from teachonline.ca by http://contactnorth.ca is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. | <urn:uuid:46139f87-c737-4ec3-805e-4eae7319033b> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://learn.library.ryerson.ca/OER | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320201.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623220935-20170624000935-00089.warc.gz | en | 0.88627 | 186 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The last few weeks have been so hot weather wise that it's been a little hard to get into the mood for autumn and we've been finding ourselves thinking back to summer fun. One activity we've enjoyed on hot days in the past is doing a Sink or Float exploration.
For this exploration we took it outside and collected items from nature to experiment with.
Materials for this type of set-up can be easy: a plastic tub with water and some found objects. We like to add in a record keeping sheet as well. We use the sheet to list the object, make a prediction about whether or not it will sink or float, and then write down if we were correct. Click here for a free printable copy of the sheet we used for this exploration.
The boys and I searched the yard for some different natural objects. For this exploration we came up with: a crab apple, an acorn, a stick, two different sized pinecones, a rock, a flower, and a fern.
The boys took turns selecting an object and then making a prediction about whether it would float or sink. Big Brother was pretty much always on target with his predictions. For Little Brother, he was actively learning during the process and was surprised a few times when something floated.
For the most part everything floated except our rock (the leaf would sink if it was pushed down to the bottom.) We continued to record our objects, predictions, and results.
Not only was this activity great for a hands-on (and after school) learning experience, but it also gave us a chance to cool off a little by playing in the water.
With temps still up in the 80's, we may be experimenting again with another sink and float activity soon!
This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties. | <urn:uuid:fb50c00f-bd3c-4fb2-ba42-4efda66292ed> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://kitchenfloorcrafts.blogspot.com/2015/09/nature-objects-sink-or-float-exploration.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170875.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00615-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96947 | 375 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The landscapes and geological formations of Canyonlands National Park never fail to impress visitors. The park is also rich in biological resources; yet, due to the shy, cryptic nature of mammals and their...
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park, established in 1964, preserves 527 square miles of colorful landscape that has eroded into countless canyons, mesas, arches and buttes by the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Colorado and Green rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers themselves. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character and offers different opportunities for exploration.
Known as a "high desert," with elevations ranging from 3,700 to 7,200 feet above sea level, Canyonlands experiences extremely hot summers, very cold winters and less than ten inches of rain each year. Temperatures may fluctuate as much as 50 degrees in a single day.
Discover Canyonlands National Park
Real Stories From Park Fans
Be the first to share your storyShare Your Story | <urn:uuid:d55a795b-22ee-47f1-94d5-f6b7e46ff051> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/canyonlands-national-park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704054863/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113414-00082-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937718 | 224 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Waldgirmes: village in Germany, site of an ancient Roman city.
West of Waldgirmes, a small town in Germany, archaeologists are excavating the remains of an ancient Roman settlement. There are many Roman settlements in Germany, but this is a civil one, and what is more interesting: it is 100 km east of the Rhine. Moreover, it dates back to the first decade of our era, to the period in which Roman commanders like Drusus, Tiberius, and Varus attempted to subdue the Germanic tribes. Hardly any military objects have been excavated, and barracks have not been identified. Perhaps it was a town for veterans (colonia).
The foundations of the central building were made out of natural stone. In other words, the Romans intended to remain permanently in their new city. This is also shown by the gilded equestrian statue of the emperor Augustus on the central court of this monumental building - hardly an object for a settlement that is not intended to be permanent. Although the building looks like the headquarters or principia of a fort, it can probably better be called a forum, market place.
It measured 54x45 meter, or 36x30 Roman passus; the foundations were about two feet wide. Today, a line of stones gives the visitor an impression of the entire building. The greater part is authentic.
The settlement was situated in the fertile valley of the river Lahn, close to a legionary base at Dorlar and a native hillfort (oppidum) on the Dünsberg.
On the photos of the excavation you can see the western wall in 2005. You can see the traces of a double ditch and a palisade. The wall surrounded a surface of about eight hectares. It appears that the settlement was evacuated and it is easy to identify the occasion: the disaster in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE, in which three legions (XVII, XVIII, and XIX) were destroyed. The evacuation must have taken place in a hurry, because the gilded equestrian statue was left behind.
The site of Waldgirmes was identified in 1990, the forum with the stone foundations was discovered in 1997, and excavations were still going on in the late summer of 2005. Remains of the gilded statue were found in the 1990s, but the discovery of the splendid head was announced in 2009.
The finds from the Waldgirmes excavation are on display in the local Heimatmuseum. Some finds are in the Archaeological Museum of Frankfurt am Main. | <urn:uuid:e791ca6f-881c-4152-b9c0-0198a9b8b44b> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.livius.org/articles/place/waldgirmes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224657144.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610062920-20230610092920-00172.warc.gz | en | 0.969873 | 543 | 3.0625 | 3 |
19 Dec When disaster strikes: check your mobile (blog by Vincent Traag)
This Christmas it will be ten years ago that a huge tsunami struck the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia, India and several other countries surrounding the Bengal Bay and the Indian Ocean. The huge waves reached up to thirty meters and were triggered by one of the largest earthquake ever. Its effects were felt as far away as the shores of Africa. Most of the 200 thousand casualties were concentrated in the Aceh province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, only a couple of dozen kilometres away from the epicentre. Preparations for remembering this tragedy are under way, and the provincial capital Banda Aceh will be the centre of the commemorations.
Unfortunately, such natural disasters are no exception to the region. Sumatra and Java lie at the fault line between the Eurasian and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, and earthquakes hit with some regularity, sometimes leading to tsunamis. But the region is also home to many volcanoes, with varying activity. Historically, some of the worst eruptions took place in Indonesia. About 70 thousand years ago the Toba eruption triggered a global cooling and is hypothesised to have lead to the near extinction of humanity. The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 caused some 100 thousand casualties. The last major eruption is already some time ago, but still people need to be regularly evacuated. A bit further up north, the Philippines are plagued by typhoons, with last year’s typhoon Haiyan being one of the most severe, killing over six thousand people. Recently, it was feared that history would repeat with the landfall of typhoon Hagupit. Although the storm left some victims in its wake, it did not bring about the devastation of last year’s typhoon.
The frustration of such natural disasters is that there is almost nothing we can do to prevent them. We can only do two things: try to warn people as early as possible, and to respond as best we can to the aftermath. Of course, it would be best if scientists could predict exactly when earthquakes, eruptions, tsunamis or typhoons will strike. But that is notoriously difficult, and the goal instead is to spot such disasters as soon as possible. Such early warning systems usually rely on closely monitoring physical sensors: seismometers to register earth’s movement, oceanic buoys to register sea levels, barometers to measure atmospheric pressure and so on. Such networks need a lot of maintenance and expertise, and it is difficult to cover an extensive area.
Increasingly, however, more people have mobile phones, and many of them have smartphones. The latest models are equipped with an impressive array of sensors such as an accelerometer, a magnetometer, an ambient light sensor, a barometer and of course GPS. All these sensors provide a trove of information, giving an unprecedented large sensor network. For example, researchers at Berkeley, California are developing a smartphone app called iShake to use the accelerometer to know if an earthquake occurred. It can also be used to provide a more extensive meteorological sensor network to provide maps of temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure. In this way, smartphones help to warn people in time to seek help or shelter.
These same phones also play a critical role in the dissemintation of information. Governments can for example alert all mobile phones in a certain region of an imminent threat or danger. Of course they are also vital in searching your friends and family, and knowing if they are all right. Online services and social networks also try to do their share. Google launched a service they called Crisis Response, collaborating with partners to provide a source of information on a wide range of alerts and information in a crisis situation. Similarly, Facebook launched a Safety Check to let your friends and loved ones know you’re safe in case of an emergency situation.
But smartphones are not only useful before and during a disaster. They are also very useful in the aftermath. When typhoon Haiyan struck in the Philippines many people fled the area and more than four million people were displaced. Knowing where they went is essential for effective relief aid. Mobile phones provide a very simple way to estimate where people are. You don’t even need smartphones, because the location can be determined through the antennas used to service them (if they have not been destroyed in the disaster itself). When researchers looked at displacement after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, they found that people mostly went to where they also went for Christmas and New Year, suggesting displaced people tend to go to close friends and relatives. This is vital information for relief workers, which enable them to target relief there where it is most needed. During such crisis times, the situation is often aggravated by the additional spreading of diseases. Again, it is essential to know where people are, and how they move across the country. Many diseases spread via close physical contact, as West Africa has witnessed with the outbreak of Ebola earlier this year. Without knowing where people move it is difficult to understand how the disease is likely to spread, and even more difficult to try to contain it.
So, mobile phones can contribute to our safety in many different ways. They can be used as sensors for early warning systems. Furthermore they provide a good way for disseminating information and warning people in time to prepare for the coming danger. Finally, they can be used to understand how the population is displaced and where to target relief efforts. Perhaps it would also be possible to use them in the case of man-made emergencies: terrorist attacks, riots or other large scale violence. How can we use mobile phones to keep people safe in such situations? And since such crises are created by people, perhaps we can also understand something of how they come about using mobile phones? In this way, mobile phones can perhaps help to make the world a bit safer. | <urn:uuid:013ac8a0-f0eb-4edc-b5dc-d3c0639d1b9f> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.kitlv.nl/disaster-strikes-check-mobile-blog-vincent-traag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439736962.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20200806121241-20200806151241-00489.warc.gz | en | 0.963633 | 1,192 | 3.59375 | 4 |
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economy, Taxes, The United States | Tags: Defining the Poor, Obama's Recession, Wealth & Poverty
As long as “the poor” are described as the bottom 20% of the income pile, we will always have poor people. This truism often gets lost when we talk about the poor. The poverty line or poverty threshold is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a given country, and is considerably higher in developed countries than in developing countries.
Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. Absolute poverty is defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, health care and shelter. So you’ve got, definitionally: poverty, statistical poverty, relative poverty , absolute poverty or extreme poverty. Wikipedia goes on at great length with definitions. Anti-poverty programs, housing assistance, Medicaid, school lunches do not count as income, so in spite of all the emphasis on changing poverty with special welfare programs they don’t count towards changing the definition of poverty.
Poverty in rural areas is usually less onerous that in cities. If you have a little bit of land, you can plant a garden, and if you have a gun, a fishing pole, and some twine for snares, you can partially, at least, live off the land. Where I grew up, hunting season was when you filled up your freezer for the winter months.
When it comes to politics, people may talk about poverty, but they are really speaking of “income inequality,” something that leftists consider as being of great importance. President Obama said in his Osawatomie, Kansas speech:
In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250 percent to $1.2 million per year,” Obama said. “Now, this kind of inequality — a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression — hurts us all.
The current question is — Do higher taxes on the rich reduce income inequality? Not, says Conn Carol in the Washington Examiner, according to a quick comparison of state inequality data and their corresponding tax codes.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the states with the highest levels of income inequality are: 1) Arizona, 2) New Mexico, 3) California, 4) Georgia and 5) New York. The CBPP report identifies a “more progressive tax code” as one way states can battle inequality, but it doesn’t identify the states with the most progressive tax systems.
California and New York have two of the most progressive tax systems in the country, and the highest State income taxes — only New Jersey and Vermont have a higher rate. Many on the left believe that stronger unions help to reduce income inequality, but there is no evidence that this is so. And take a look at the inequality between Union officials and the members. California, New York and New Mexico are all forced-unionization states. The three states with the least income inequality 1) Iowa, 2) Utah and 3) Wyoming are all right-to-work states.
The biggest difference is that states with the highest income inequality are the states with the highest illegal immigrant populations, a fact that Liberals are not about to mention. But it is a fact that needs to be part of the discussion. If you cannot talk about a subject honestly, you cannot arrive at successful solutions.
The discussions of income-inequality assume that people stay put in their income classifications, which they don’t. There is tremendous income mobility in America — including among the rich. If you follow the Forbes annual list of America’s richest people, folks drop off the list with great regularity. The normal life encompasses all of the wealth divisions. First jobs are mostly poorly paid, people get promoted, take better jobs, marry, have kids, buy houses, save, retire and often get poor again.
When you have an amateur in the White House, intent on raising taxes on “the rich.” pretending that will decrease income inequality, we’re in trouble. Increasing taxes on the rich will bring in less revenue, drive up unemployment, and to increase income inequality — the revenue would have to be directed to “the poor,” but this is not the case. The revenue is not even to be directed to reducing the deficit. It is to be directed to useless Keynesian stimulus, and more useless energy projects. That’s the real problem.
Filed under: Humor, Intelligence, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear | Tags: Mistakes in Big Print, Proofreading Failure, Schadenfreude
Everyone who has ever worked in advertising or journalism fears making a mistake in print, especially in a major headline or even worse— on a billboard. But despite competent proofreaders, it still happens. Freakonomics has a wonderful collection. Some are so profoundly stupid that you cannot believe that a proofreader didn’t notice, but there you are. We are fallible humans.
This is one of the milder mistakes. The rest are here. Careers have been ruined, proofreaders have been fired or demoted. Stupidity has been displayed in really big black type for everyone to see. Enjoy.
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economy, Politics, Progressivism, Statism | Tags: Andrew Klavan, Compulsive Spending, Crony Capitalism
President Obama has been trying for four years to promote the claim that the financial crisis was caused by the hated Bush tax cuts for “the rich.” Democrats always hate tax cuts, because they believe in BIG government, and you can’t have BIG government without lots of tax revenue.
Democrats also believe in “fairness” which means that income should be redistributed from those who earned income to those who didn’t earn any or enough. It just isn’t fair that some people should work harder or have more expertise or be luckier than others who don’t work hard or have any expertise and just aren’t lucky. Although “luck” isn’t always as lucky as people think. Statistically, the people who win lotteries usually turn out to be less lucky than they were in the first place.
Bill Clinton left a recession for George W. Bush. The “booming” Clinton economy was booming largely because of the “dot-com bubble” when everybody with a computer thought they were going to make their fortunes online. President Obama wants to go back to the Clinton tax rates because the rich paid more then, but he wants to pretend that Bill Clinton’s much lower spending didn’t exist, didn’t happen, spending is good, don’t even suggest that I should cut back on spending. Did you know we have 54 Christmas trees in the White House? Although we’ll be in Hawaii for most of the Christmas season. Out of touch.
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economy, Election 2012, National Security, Politics, Statism, Taxes
Democrats hate tax cuts. They like having all lots of revenue to spend on doing nice things for people who then will vote for them. So, naturally when the Clinton administration ended, and there was a recession left for George W. Bush to deal with, they talked about the surplus, and did not mention the recession at all.
Tax rates were much higher during the Clinton administration, but the economy was in the middle of the dot.com boom, when everyone thought they had the perfect online business that would make them rich. Such enthusiasm often turns into a bubble, and so it did. The bubble burst, and a recession was the result.
To deal with the recession, George W. Bush wanted to cut taxes. Democrats hate tax cuts, but Bush got them through in 2001 and 2003, barely, but only by making them temporary. The Democrats and their compliant, dishonest major media institutions spent the next ten years raging about the “Bush tax cuts for the rich,” attempting to create the impression that Republican nature was to do favors for the rich while ignoring ordinary folk. Curious, because everybody got a tax cut, and the lower and middle income taxpayers got a bigger tax cut than the rich did.
The top tax rate was cut by only 13%, while the lowest rate was cut by one-third, 33%. The result was that the top 1% of income earners paid $84 billion more in taxes in 2007 than in 2000 before the tax cuts were passed. The share of total federal income taxes paid by the top 1% rose from 37% in 2000 to 40% in 2007, after the tax cuts took effect. Didn’t stop the Democrats. The Big Lie technique usually works. Repeat something often enough and people probably believe it.
That wasn’t all, though. The tax cuts also included a doubling of the child tax credit from $500 per child to $1000 per child. Because of that, and the 33% cut in the bottom tax rate, nearly 8 million more people dropped off the federal income tax rolls entirely, paying no federal income taxes at all.
The Bush tax cuts did not explode the deficit either, as Obama has claimed. By 2007, the deficit was down to $160 billion, less than 15% of Obama’s deficits today. Bush did increase federal spending as a percent of GDP by one-seventh, erasing the federal spending cuts enacted by the Republican Congressional majorities in the 1990s.
Even with that, deficits during the Bush years averaged just 2% of GDP, one-third less than the average over the prior 50 years. President Obama’s deficits have averaged 5 times as much, at 9.1% of GDP.
Business investment spending, which had declined for 9 straight quarters, reversed and increased by 6.7% per quarter, producing 8 million new jobs. Because of the increased investment, labor productivity soared by 2.5% annually, higher than the averages of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Real after-tax income per capita increased by more than 11%.
Manufacturing output soared to its highest level in 20 years. The stock market revived, creating almost $7 trillion in new shareholder wealth. From 2003 to 2007, the S&P 500 almost doubled. From 2000 to 2007, real GDP grew by more than 17%. Not exactly what President Obama has been claiming, is it?
The boost the Bush tax cuts had given the economy was ended by the collapse of the housing bubble which was created by the excessive overregulation of Democrat’s promotion of home ownership which created the subprime mortgage market, increased by the ill-advised work of community organizers who fought for more loans to less qualified people. Obama’s dishonest claim that the Bush tax cuts caused the financial crisis should have disqualified him from office.
If Congress imposed a 100% tax , taking all earnings over $250,000 per year, it would bring in about $1.9 trillion. That would keep Washington running for 190 days. And it would leave 175 more days to be paid for with …?
The profits of the Fortune 500 richest companies in America come to about $400 billion. That would keep the government running for another 40 days, to mid July. If Congress fleeced America’s 400 billionaires with a combined net worth of $1.3 trillion of their assets, stocks, bonds, yachts, airplanes, mansions and jewelery, it would get us to late fall. “Making the rich pay their fair share” (they already do) isn’t going to solve our budget problems. The rich receive about 50% of the nation’s income, yet they already pay 70% of all taxes. The problem is not revenue. The problem is spending.
Obama cannot envision cutting spending. His incomprehension is aptly illustrated by a White House decorated this year with 54 Christmas trees, and a coming $4 million Hawaiian Christmas vacation, when 540,000 American have become so despairing that they are no longer even looking for a job. Now that the election is over, the economy is no longer recovering. So Obama wants $1.6 trillion in new taxes on “the rich,”— including $50 billion for roads, $30 billion in extended unemployment benefits and some short-term tax breaks.
Mr. Obama wants to become a “transformational” president and change the historic trajectory of America’s domestic and foreign policy. He intends to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table and create a permanent peace in the Middle East. He wants to open a “constructive dialogue” with Iran and North Korea, and through his powers of persuasion, help them see the error of their ways. He has passed and will continue to support legislation to revolutionize the country’s health care system and the country’s energy policy. And he will inject the regulatory hand of the federal government into the American economy in an effort to create”a more just and equitable society.” *
If Obama gets his way, there will be more spending, more unemployment, more debt and a second recession. Obama is still trying to play political gotcha games with Republicans. He will not negotiate seriously, and he clearly doesn’t understand the predicament the country is in. Too much fun being the imperial president. It’s very frightening.
*See The Amateur by Edward Klein | <urn:uuid:b7b31c63-8410-4d1a-a9d4-0bb6c1d14fea> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | https://americanelephant.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246656887.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045736-00032-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966932 | 2,820 | 2.75 | 3 |
Diabetic patient education is the first requirement that diabetics need. They need to be educated about what causes diabetes as well as the problems that they can encounter They will also need to learn the areas that they will have to have self care responsibility over.
Diabetics self care responsibilities include daily glucose monitoring, changing eating habits, starting an exercise plan, and what the patient needs to do to cooperate with the members of their healthcare team. Care for diabetes includes monitoring, managing and control.
First and foremost is monitoring the disease. There are many monitoring devices on the market and many companies that produce monitoring devices. Most of these companies will usually give newly diagnosed patients their first monitor free. The diabetic’s doctor’s staff can advise and teach the diabetic on using these devices. Glucose daily monitoring is the diabetic’s first line of defense and extremely important for the managing and treatment of this disease.
Diet and nutrition will need to be managed as well. An exercise program also needs to be developed to maintain a healthy weight as well as for overall fitness. Exercise is important in keeping blood pressure under control as well as helping medication or insulin therapy work correctly.
Diabetics also need to be taught by medical professionals about the importance of managing their eye health, foot care health and good oral health as these can be problem areas for diabetic patients. Because of narrowing of blood vessels, problems can develop with the eyes and diabetic patients need to have regular eye exams involving dilation of the eyes so the eye professional can better examine the blood vessels in the back of the eyes.
Another area needing education and management is oral hygiene especially gum health. This is caused by the narrowing of blood vessels in the mouth. So, diabetic patients need to have regular scheduled dental visits and learn good daily gum and teeth care.
The most important area of care is foot care. Diabetics have a lot of problems with feet. This happens because of nerve damage in the foot and narrowing of blood vessels in the legs. These two problems together can cause a small cut to become infected easily and can lead to gangrene of the foot. Gangrene often leads to amputation of the leg or foot. But the good news is that all these problems can be prevented with proper foot care. Proper foot care includes daily washing and carefully inspecting the feet for breaks in the skin, small cuts, blisters, corns and calluses. Calluses and corns need to be treated by medical or nursing staff. Small cuts should be treated with antibiotic ointments. It is extremely important to keep toe nails properly trimmed to avoid ingrown toenails as this can also be a source of infection or foot problems.
Free diabetes patient education is available in most communities. Newly diagnosed diabetics will be referred to these programs by their primary care physician. Diabetic patient education is the first requirement that newly diagnosed diabetics need. They need to be educated about what causes diabetes as well as the problems that they can encounter They will also need to learn the areas that they will have to have self care responsibility for.
Drink lots of water because it is calorie free and helps to flush away the toxins. Did you know that flavored carbonated water has no calories, sugar, body, sweetener, color or preservatives? | <urn:uuid:f3a2db26-d425-40bf-b35d-11a49615a382> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.customhouseessay.com/free-diabetes-patient-education-and-what-needs-to-be-taught/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572220.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20220816030218-20220816060218-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.972845 | 672 | 3.34375 | 3 |
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Preventing Zika Infection When You Travel
The Zika virus is active in south Florida and certain other parts of the world. If you travel to areas where Zika is currently active, you are at risk for a Zika infection. There is no vaccine to prevent Zika infection, so you’ll need to take steps to protect yourself.
How does Zika spread?
The Zika virus spreads through mosquito bites and sexual activity. To prevent infection, you need to protect yourself from mosquitoes, and use protection during any sexual activity. You’ll need to do this both during travel and after travel.
Travel and pregnancy
If you are pregnant, you should not travel to an area with Zika. If your partner is pregnant or you are planning a pregnancy, talk with your healthcare provider before traveling. This is because Zika can cause severe birth defects in a baby when a pregnant woman has Zika.
Areas where Zika is active
Zika is currently active in these areas:
Miami-Dade County in south Florida
Many countries in South America such as Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina
Many countries in Central America such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama
Islands in the Caribbean such as the Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico
Pacific islands such as Samoa, Fiji, and Marshall Islands
Cape Verde in Africa
Outbreak locations change. Before you decide to travel to an area, see the full up-to-date list of countries of where Zika is active by checking the CDC website at www.cdc.gov/zika.
Before you travel
When you are getting ready for your trip:
Choose protective clothing. Bring clothing that covers your body to prevent mosquito bites. Pick clothing with long sleeves and long pant legs. Bring socks and shoes to cover your feet.
Buy permethrin. This is a type of insecticide you can apply to fabrics. If you are going camping, treat your clothing, shoes, and your tent with permethrin. You can also buy gear that’s already treated. Don’t use permethrin directly on your skin.
Pack a mosquito net. You’ll need to use a mosquito net if you are sleeping outdoors or in a place with no screens or air conditioning. If you don’t know if you will have access to a net, pack your own. Bring enough nets for all members in your group.
Buy EPA-approved insect skin spray. Bring a skin spray that is EPA-approved and contains DEET, picaridin (also called KBR 3023, Bayrepel, or icaridin), oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthan-diol (PMD), or IR3535. Some insect sprays should not be used on children. Make sure to follow the instructions on the label about who should use it, how to apply it, and when to reapply.
While you are traveling
When you are in an area with Zika:
Look for air conditioning or screens. When picking a restaurant, hotel, or other venue, choose places with screens in windows and doors, or air conditioning.
Wear your protective clothes. When you go outside, wear clothes that covers your body to prevent mosquito bites. Choose long sleeves and long pant legs. Wear socks and shoes to cover your feet and ankles.
Use insect spray often. For skin that’s not covered with clothes, apply your insect spray as the label directs to prevent mosquito bites. Do this both during the day and at night.
Sleep with a mosquito net. Make sure to use a mosquito net if you are sleeping outdoors or in a venue with no screens or air conditioning.
Use protection if you have sex. Zika can be spread during vaginal, oral, and anal sex, and shared sex toys. Use condoms and dental dams during your travel.
When you get home
After you return from your trip, make sure to:
Prevent mosquito bites for 3 weeks. This is to avoid infecting mosquitoes that can then carry Zika from you to others.
Use condoms or don’t have sex for at least 6 months after your symptoms start if you are a man, or 8 weeks if you are a woman.
If your partner is pregnant, use protection every time you have vaginal, oral, or anal sex. Or don’t have sex during the pregnancy.
If you are a woman, don’t try for a pregnancy until at least 8 weeks after your Zika symptoms start.
If you are a man, don’t try for a pregnancy until at least 6 months after your Zika symptoms start.
If only the male partner traveled to the Zika area, the couple should use condoms or not have sex for at least 3 months, even if the male partner has no symptoms.
Contact your healthcare provider right away if you have symptoms of Zika after travel. Symptoms may occur within a week or two of travel. They may be mild and can include fever, rash, joint pain, red eyes, muscle aches, and headache. You may need a blood or urine test to check for the virus.
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L Renee Watson MSN RN
Online Medical Reviewer:
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© 2000-2019 The StayWell Company, LLC. 800 Township Line Road, Yardley, PA 19067. All rights reserved. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Always follow your healthcare professional's instructions. | <urn:uuid:f5648b6a-f45d-4300-8338-9636b84153d8> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://healthlibrary.christianacare.org/Library/DiseasesConditions/Pediatric/Infectious/3,90869 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540481076.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20191205141605-20191205165605-00065.warc.gz | en | 0.910029 | 1,212 | 3.25 | 3 |
Facts about the State of the Environment
Each year, humanity pours 5.7 billion tons (and rising) of pollutants into the atmosphere from industrial stacks, automobiles, and the burning of forests. The greenhouse effect is causing a rate of climate change 100 times faster than at any time in human history. The warmest years on record have occurred in the last decade. Earth’s surface and atmosphere are warming; oceans are expanding and currents are slowing; ocean levels are rising; ice shelves are melting faster than projected; spring is coming ever sooner; storms are more intense and longer-lasting; rainfall patterns are changing, which will shift growing belts; North American migratory birds are ranging further north; the ability of the earth to self-regulate to resist warming appears top be waning. Has anything happened in recent years to cause a reasonable person to switch sides in the global-warming debate? Yes: the science has changed from ambiguous to near unanimous. (Gregg Easterwood)
Worldwide we are losing forests at the rate of one-half the size of California each year. Some areas have lost forests due to burning at the rate of a football field each second.
We sustain an irreversible loss of arable land to desert at the rate of an area the size of Kansas each year.
Scientists estimate that each day human activity is driving 100 plant and animal species to extinction. The issue is not just the loss of species but of the eco-systems they support. Every type of ecosystem is at stake. You can plant a tree but you cannot plant a forest.
The U. S. alone produces 10 billion metric tons of waste each year—threatening land, lakes, rivers, oceans, and human health. In the year 2000, each person in the United States threw away approximately 4.5 pounds of waste each day, totaling 231.9 million tons of municipal solid waste. Food scraps accounted for 11.2% of that landfill waste, amounting to 25.9 million tons of food waste produced in the U.S. in 2000.
It is estimated that people flush 12 billion pounds of traditional household cleaning products down the drain each year. These chemicals, such as sodium acid oxalate, break down slowly in the environment, cause water pollution, and are stored in the fatty tissue of wildlife.
In 1985, scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer of the atmosphere over the Antarctica. Chlorine atoms destabilize ozone for up to a hundred years—threatening the health of many life forms and affecting the food chain from micro-organisms in the ocean up to humans.
Population is the most difficult problem. Humans are like an infestation, taking over and destroying virtually every eco-system we inhabit. The world population is now more than 5 billion. Because population increases exponentially, it is projected to double by 2030. This increase in population will tax and exacerbate all ecosystems. Human conflicts over limited resources and crowded spaces will also increase.
Environmental degradations have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable—the poor, third world countries, people of color, the ill, the elderly, and children. Human justice issues are multiplied by ecological destruction.
It takes 12 pounds of grain to produce one pound of hamburger. This could make 8 loaves of bread, or 24 plates of spaghetti. Cattle consume 70% of all U.S. grain. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of hamburger. This could be used to grow more than 50 pounds of fruits and vegetables. Half of all water consumed in the United States is used to grow feed and provide drinking water for cattle and other livestock. In addition, wastes from factory farms, for hogs, chicken and cattle emit high levels of ammonia into the air and waste from the animals puts dangerous levels of nitrogen into ground water.
Food in the U.S. travels an average of 1,300 miles from farm to supermarket. Almost every state in the U.S. buys 85% of its food from some place else. Like wise, the current trend towards large corporate farms that
produce ‘mono-crops’ is destroying not only the environment by also the family farm and the local economy in rural areas.
According to United Nations statistics, approximately 800 million people, out of a global population of six billion are either malnourished or on the verge of starvation. This is not from a shortage of food. The real causes of hunger are poverty, inequality and lack of access to food.
Replacing a single incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb. If everyone in the U.S. used energy-efficient lighting, we could retire 90 average size power plants. Saving electricity reduces CO2 emissions, sulfur oxide and high-level nuclear waste.
The wind in North Dakota alone could provide about 1/3 of U.S. electricity. Additionally, about 20% of U.S. energy demand could be provided at an economical price by wind power.
If fuel economy were improved by 5 m.p.g., American consumers would save 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, more than half of what the U.S. imports from the Middle East. Henry Ford’s world-changing Model T got about 25 miles to a gallon of gas. In 2002, all of Ford’s total fleet averaged 24.3 miles per gallon, while the entire fleet of American-made cars averaged 24.6 miles per gallon.
While war has a obvious and devastating impact on humanity, it also is one of the great causes of environmental devastation. One study of tank tracks in the Arizona desert suggested full recovery of the soil only after 1,000 years. The Mesopotamian Marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have experienced decades of war. Since 1991, his wetland, once larger than the Florida Everglades, having been drenched in bombs, napalm, spilled oil and depleted uranium, has gone from 15,000 square kilometers (5,800 square miles) to just 50 square kilometers (20 square miles).
The majority of Americans have common pesticides in their bodies. Studies have found a breakdown product of the roach, termite and flea insecticide chlorpyrifos in the urine of 92 percent of the children and 82 percent of the adults evaluated. Children who have been exposed to household insecticides and professional extermination methods within the home are three to seven times more likely to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma compared with children who have not been exposed to pesticides.
Indoor plants help reduce 'sick building syndrome'. Research has been conducted by NASA into the presence of Volitile Organic Compounds (VOC) in offices. Carpets, upholstery, copier machines and cleaning products emit VOCs. NASA's research recommended that the inclusion of indoor plants in the office environment would reduce substantially the amount of VOCs that employees are daily exposed to. The direct benefits of indoor plants to the air we breath are twofold: Pollutants are filtered from indoor air; and oxygen is released and humidity levels are reduced.
Junk mail is one of the leading contributors to our over consumption of paper. It would take 340,000 garbage trucks to haul all of the un-recycled junk-mail to US Landfills and incinerators every year!
Since 1980, paper consumption has increased 74 percent. In 1999, in the US alone, each citizen used an average of 784 pounds of paper. In our offices we use approximately 7 million tons of paper, or 1.4 trillion sheets of paper. For every ton of new paper that we consume we use 24 more trees, 7,000 more gallons of water, 4,100 more kilowatts of energy than to produce a ton of recycled paper. | <urn:uuid:cb518498-dfc9-42e3-9d43-227759024d68> | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | http://www.racinegreencongregations.org/home/bulletin-newsletter-items/amazing-facts-about-the-environment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1409535920849.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20140909042648-00059-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937296 | 1,623 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, is known to host at least one terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit. Here the European Space Agency reports the ALMA detection of the star at 1.3 mm wavelength and the discovery of a belt of dust orbiting around it at distances ranging between 1 and 4 au, approximately. Given the low luminosity of the Proxima Centauri star, they estimate a characteristic temperature of about 40 K for this dust, which might constitute the dust component of a small-scale analog to our solar system Kuiper belt.
The estimated total mass, including dust and bodies up to 50 km in size, is of the order of 0.01 Earth masses, which is similar to that of the solar Kuiper belt. Our data also show a hint of warmer dust closer to the star. They also find signs of two additional features that might be associated with the Proxima Centauri system, which, however, still require further observations to be confirmed: an outer extremely cold (about 10 K) belt around the star at about 30 au, whose orbital plane is tilted about 45 degrees with respect to the plane of the sky; and additionally, they marginally detect a compact 1.3 mm emission source at a projected distance of about 1.2 arcsec from the star, whose nature is still unknown.
In 2016, astronomers discovered that an exoplanet roughly the size of Earth orbits around Proxima Centauri in its habitable zone.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements. | <urn:uuid:795f713e-8ff4-4f7a-8ebe-fdfe3645b05c> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/11/proxima-has-dust-belt-likely-outer-comet-belt-and-possibly-other-exoplanets.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046153814.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20210729011903-20210729041903-00625.warc.gz | en | 0.938761 | 454 | 3.125 | 3 |
Dagobert is a very greedy crocodile. Like everyone, he loves candy, lollipops, muffins and all sorts of goodies. But, one day Dagobert had a terrible toothache. And that’s when he discovers the importance of taking care of himself and Mother Earth!
Oscar, the pacifier gnome works like Santa’s helper. Find out where the pacifiers go to when there is no need for them anymore and about recycling and the use of transportation that does not pollute the environment.
Human beings have incredible brains which can do remarkable things, but Mother Nature continues to teach us more and more that other animals can also think, solve problems and even do mathematics. Come and discover some of the most intelligent animals in the world, and learn a little more about each of them in this book. | <urn:uuid:d1bf2d2b-56b5-482c-b0fd-097a6c9bdec7> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://jpcolemonts.be/childrens-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506420.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20230922134342-20230922164342-00108.warc.gz | en | 0.937382 | 176 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Expert says health conditions are linked to early microbiome composition
8 August 2016
Caesarean delivery or natural birth, breastfed or formula fed – all these may be very personal choices, yet they can have a huge impact on a child’s gut microbiome.
Professor Mark Seielstad said conditions including asthma, allergy, and autoimmune diseases have all had links to early microbiome composition.
“When foreign food is introduced, and when you are exposed to antibiotics, vaccination and infection history – all these contribute to your microorganisms’ diversity, and will have long-lasting health effects,” he said.
The gut microbiome is a vast bacteria community in our digestive tract that is integral to our metabolic system.
The Stanford and Harvard educated Prof Seielstad was speaking at the Sir John Monash Lecture on “Nature and Nurture in the Growing Diabetes Epidemic” at Monash University Malaysia.
His research focuses on the identification of genetic variation contributing to human diseases, such as Type 2 Diabetes and autoimmunity. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder affecting either insulin production or responsiveness, leading to chronic hyperglycemia or high blood glucose.
According to Professor Seielstad, more than 90% of diabetic patients are suffering from Type 2 Diabetes.
Over-eating and obesity are major modifiable risk factors. They can exhaust the pancreas with excessive glucose spike after each meal. In Malaysia, diabetes costs 16% of the national healthcare budget.
Prof Seielstad said it is possible to cultivate healthy microbiome that will keep a person lean and non-diabetic.
“You can introduce microbiome into your body by taking probiotics – yogurts and fermented food – and prebiotics, which are chemical nutrients that increases the growth of a particular family of microbiome.”
“Another alternative is to eliminate a particular species or families of bacteria that are harmful, through targeted or intelligent use of antibiotics. Ultimately, fecal transplantation which is used in various gut infection treatments can be performed,” he explained.
Fecal microbiota transplant restores a patient’s colonic microflora by introducing healthy bacteria flora from a healthy donor.
Currently, Prof Seielstad is collaborating with his counterparts in the Philippines to design a study to disentangle the effects of genes and the environment.
This research will study three groups of Filipino communities – those born and living in the Philippines, those born in the Philippines but live in the US, and those born and living in the US.
Prof Seielstad said the study will enable researchers to look at people who are genetically similar but living in radically different environments. The research would then show the impacts of genes versus the environment, including microbiome.
“Through the study, we will be able to disentangle the effects of inheritance and environment on complex diseases. It will also add substance to tantalising clues on epigenetic variations and microbiome composition on the aspects of metabolism,” he said.
Professor Mark Seielstad is a professor of human genetics at the University of California, San Francisco. He holds a PhD in biology from Harvard University, and has also served on the Faculty of Harvard University’s School of Public Health, as well as the National University of Singapore.
The talk was organised by Monash University Malaysia as part of the Sir John Monash Lecture, in partnership with the Jeffrey Cheah Distinguished Speakers Series. The Sir John Monash Lectures engages high-profile thought leaders in the spheres of policy-making, corporate and academia to address key issues pertinent to stakeholders around the region. | <urn:uuid:89243294-8e67-472b-899c-8e990303e68a> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://monash.edu.my/news-and-events/talks-and-lectures/sir-john-monash-lectures/expert-says-health-conditions-are-linked-to-early-microbiome-composition | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039741491.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20181113194622-20181113220503-00055.warc.gz | en | 0.932981 | 741 | 2.984375 | 3 |
New global alliance launched to end AIDS in children by 2030
Accessed from the world wide web at 12:00 hrs 26.07.22.
Globally, only half (52%) of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment, far behind adults where three quarters (76%) are receiving antiretrovirals, according to the data that has just been released in the UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2022. Concerned by the stalling of progress for children, and the widening gap between children and adults, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO and partners have brought together a global alliance to ensure that no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade and to prevent new infant HIV infections.
The new Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children by 2030 was announced by leading figures at the International AIDS Conference taking place in Montreal, Canada.
In addition to the United Nations agencies, the alliance includes civil society movements, including the Global Network of People living with HIV, national governments in the most affected countries, and international partners, including PEPFAR and the Global Fund. Twelve countries have joined the alliance in the first phase: Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Consultations by the alliance have identified four pillars for collective action:
- closing the treatment gap for pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and women living with HIV and optimizing continuity of treatment;
- preventing and detecting new HIV infections among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and women;
- accessible testing, optimized treatment, and comprehensive care for infants, children, and adolescents exposed to and living with HIV; and
- addressing rights, gender equality, and the social and structural barriers that hinder access to services.
Addressing the International AIDS Conference, Limpho Nteko from Lesotho shared how she had discovered she was HIV positive at age 21 while pregnant with her first child. This led her on a journey where she now works for the pioneering women-led mothers2mothers programme. Enabling community leadership, she highlighted, is key to an effective response.
“We must all sprint together to end AIDS in children by 2030,” said Ms Nteko. “To succeed, we need a healthy, informed generation of young people who feel free to talk about HIV, and to get the services and support they need to protect themselves and their children from HIV. mothers2mothers has achieved virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV for our enrolled clients for eight consecutive years—showing what is possible when we let women and communities create solutions tailored to their realities.”
The alliance will run for the next eight years until 2030, aiming to fix one of the most glaring disparities in the AIDS response. Alliance members are united in the assessment that the challenge is surmountable through partnership.
“The wide gap in treatment coverage between children and adults is an outrage,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. “Through this alliance, we will channel that outrage into action. By bringing together new improved medicines, new political commitment, and the determined activism of communities, we can be the generation who end AIDS in children. We can win this – but we can only win together.”
“Despite progress to reduce vertical transmission, increase testing and treatment, and expand access to information, children around the world are still far less likely than adults to have access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “The launch of the Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children is an important step forward – and UNICEF is committed to working alongside all of our partners to achieve an AIDS-free future.”
“No child should be born with or grow up with HIV, and no child with HIV should go without treatment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The fact that only half of children with HIV receive antiretrovirals is a scandal, and a stain on our collective conscience. The Global Alliance to End AIDS in Children is an opportunity to renew our commitment to children and their families to unite, to speak and to act with purpose and in solidarity with all mothers, children and adolescents.”
Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health of Nigeria, pledged to “change the lives of children left behind” by putting in place the systems needed to ensure that health services meet the needs of children living with HIV.
Nigeria, Dr Ehanire announced, will host the alliance’s political launch in Africa at a Ministerial meeting in October 2022.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.
Dedicated to the well-being of all people and guided by science, the World Health Organization leads and champions global efforts to give everyone, everywhere an equal chance at a safe and healthy life. We are the UN agency for health that connects nations, partners and people on the front lines in 150+ locations – leading the world’s response to health emergencies, preventing disease, addressing the root causes of health issues, and expanding access to medicines and health care. Our mission is to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. | <urn:uuid:d4287402-34ef-40bf-b50a-457c89084e11> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://healthelearning.online/news/new-global-alliance-launched-to-end-aids-in-children-by-2030/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500041.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20230202232251-20230203022251-00625.warc.gz | en | 0.941089 | 1,288 | 2.625 | 3 |
|The Question: I was told by a doctor that a banana is not a fruit but an herb. Is the banana in the herb family?
Submitted by: Erin, USA
The Short Answer: There are really two questions here. Let’s deal with the easy one first. There are two ideas of what qualifies as a fruit. The culinary definition says any generally sweet plant parts are fruits. This includes all the things we typically think of as fruit, such as apples, pears, and berries of many kinds. It also usually includes things like rhubarb. And it definitely includes bananas.
To a botanist a fruit is “… any ovary and its accessory parts that has developed and matured. It also usually contains seeds.” (From Introduction to Plant Biology, by Kingsley R. Stern) The ovary of a plant is part of the flower pistil. Most pistils are shaped like a vase, with a rounded bulb and a thin neck. The ovary would be the bulb. Once the pistil is fertilized with pollen, the seeds develop in the ovary and the ovary often becomes large and fleshy, like an apple or a peach. The botanist’s definition of fruit includes most of the things we usually think of as fruit, such as apples, peaches and berries. It would not include rhubarb, which is a plant stem and does not come from the ovary. It would also include some things people don’t typically think of as fruit, such as tomatoes, green beans, and avocados.
The botanist’s definition would most definitely include bananas, which are the developed ovaries of the banana plant. So by any definition I’m aware of, a banana is a fruit.
Is a banana tree an herb? Here’s where I think your doctor’s confusion comes from. The culinary definition of an herb is basically any plant part that has a distinctive odor or taste useful in cooking. I’m not sure a banana qualifies for that definition. Botanists however, split plants into two major groups, herbs and trees. Trees have a woody interior that persists year after year and supports the plant. Wood is the interior structure of mostly dead cells that strengthens the tree, allowing it to grow tall and survive multiple years. Trees can be as huge as redwoods or as small as the dwarf willow (Salix herbacea), which only grows to be about six cm tall (2 in.). Many botanists would limit the use of “tree” to plants that grow much larger (as hinted at by the dwarf willow’s Latin name “herbacea” which suggests that it’s like an herb).
Herbs include almost everything that isn’t considered to be a tree. It’s important to note that this is a descriptive term, not a taxonomic or evolutionary category. A spruce tree and a willow tree are clearly both woody trees, but they are not at all closely related. The willow is an angiosperm, a flowering plant, whereas the spruce is a gymnosperm. Most herbs are angiosperms, much more like the willow tree than they are like a spruce.
Banana trees grow from an underground root system called a corm, which can last for many years. Each corm sends up one or more shoots, which develop large leaves. The thick stalks of these leaves wrap around each other and thicken into the trunk of the banana “tree.” A central stem comes up through the leaf stalks and develops the banana “heart,” which is a structure that includes multiple small flowers, each of which has an ovary that develops into a banana. Once the bananas have ripened, the entire plant dies back to the ground, and the corm sends up a new shoot. Even though a banana plant can get to be over 7.5 meters tall (25 feet), it only lasts about a year or so. And the interior of it is not a structure of dead cells as with wood. So a banana “tree” is not technically a woody tree.
Therefore, to a botanist, banana is an herb. Your doctor is right about that. But from a botanist’s standpoint, whether something is an herb or not is about the plant, not the fruit. Many, if not most, herbs have fruit, including the banana tree.
If a banana is a fruit, where are the seeds? Ah, interesting question. Bananas and plantains come from plants in the genus Musa, which is native to Southeast Asia. The commercially grown banana is a hybrid of at least two species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. As with many hybrids, when M. acuminate and M. balbisiana combine, the pairing of chromosomes often goes awry, with the resulting hybrid offspring ending up with three sets of chromosomes, instead of the usual two. As is also often the case, the “triploid” hybrid is almost entirely sterile. Seeds rarely form. Which is nice for those of us who love the banana fruit. The picture here shows what a wild banana looks like and as you can see, it is full of fairly large seeds, which would spoil the fun of a banana split, I’m afraid.
So even if you don’t care whether a banana tree is a true tree or really just a large herb, you should be glad it is a sweetly defective fruit.
Hippolyte, I, Jenny, C, Gardes, L, et al. (2012). Foundation characteristics of edible musa triploids revealed from allelic distribution of ssr markers. Annals of botany, 109(5), 937-51.
Stern KR, Jansky S, Bidlack, J. (2003). Introductory Plant Biology. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. New York. | <urn:uuid:e1817329-fc45-4396-acce-df2c3b7510d4> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | http://askanaturalist.com/category/plants/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986655554.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20191014223147-20191015010647-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.963148 | 1,255 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Links for Agricultural Librarians
General Guides to Agricultural Web Sites
- Agriculture Online — news and information for producers by publishers of Successful Farming.
- Agriculture Network Information Collaborative (AgNIC) — a voluntary alliance and partnership of nearly 60 member institutions and organizations working to offer quick and reliable access to quality agricultural information and sources.
- AgWeb.com — useful site for agricultural news, produced by the experts who publishFarm Journal and Beef Today and several other web journals; the separate journals are incorporated into this site.
- Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) — a core electronic collection of agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century.
- E-answers — hosted by the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), this site provides research-based information on a wide range of Extension subjects, including: agriculture, forestry, fishing, family/consumer issues, lawn and garden, child development, 4-H/youth, environment, public policy, economics, water quality and communities.
- Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station publications and video tape presentations — links by state to publication catalogs and full-text document, compiled by Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service.
- Farmland Information Center — a clearinghouse for information about farmland protection and stewardship. It is a partnership between the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and American Farmland Trust.
- Holistic Agricultural Library — full text on-line editions of some of the classic books of agriculture.
- International Agricultural Trade Information — compiled by Diana Farmer. Presented at the USAIN 2005 Conference. Updated October 2011.
- NewCrop — a great source for information on less common crops by the Center for New Crops and Plant Products at Purdue University.
- Plant Facts— has merged several digital collections developed at Ohio State University to become an international knowledge bank and multimedia learning center.
- Web-Agri — produced by Terre-net Média, a French agricultural portal.
Databases on the Web
- AGRICOLA database of bibliographic records created by the National Agricultural Library (NAL) and its cooperators, which contains citations for books, audiovisual materials, and journal articles, and web publications.
- AGRIS, created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1974, to facilitate information exchange and to bring together world literature dealing with all aspects of agriculture. AGRIS and several other FAO databases covering statistics, nutrition, plants, pests, and early warning systems are available through WAICENT.
- Current Research Information System (CRIS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) documentation and reporting system for ongoing and recently completed research projects in agriculture, food and nutrition, and forestry. Projects are conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, the state land-grant university system, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in USDA's National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program.
- PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.
- Small Farm Center Online Library by University of California references over 2900 documents, with online forms for requesting publications to be delivered by mail or fax.
Libraries and Library-related Sites
- National Agricultural Library, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Produces AGRICOLA and a wide variety of information resources useful to producers, consumers, librarians, and teachers.
- Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) is a partnership-based e-learning initiative, facilitated by FAO to train individuals and support institutions and networks world-wide in the effective management of agricultural information. IMARK consists of a suite of distance learning resources, tools and communities on information management.
- All That JAS: Journal Abbreviation Sources a registry of Web resources that list or provide access to the full title of journal abbreviations.
- Cataloger's Reference Shelf, by TLC (formerly,The Library Corporation),provides an extensive collection of online resources on MARC cataloging, rules for different formats, outlines for Library of Congress classification, and cutter numbers.
- PubList.com provides information on domestic and international print and electronic publications including magazines, journals, e-journals, newsletters, and monographs.
- USDA Economics, Statistics and Market Information System (ESMIS), a collaborative project between Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University and several agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, contains nearly 2500 reports and datasets covering U.S. and international agriculture and related topics.
- Agricultural Law
National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information — includes full-text of federal and state laws relating to agriculture and environment.
Aquaculture Network Information Center (AquaNIC) — created through grants from USDA-Extension Service, the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program, and Purdue University Libraries.
- Invasive Species
National Invasive Species Information Center— gateway to invasive species information; covering Federal, State, local, and international sources, by National Agricultural Library.
Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database — created by Eileen Herring of University of Hawaii at Manoa, searchable by botanical, Hawaiian, and English names, includes photos and descriptions, habitat, and propagation information.
- Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses — developed by Mike Haddock of Kansas State University, search by color or flowering season, scientific or common name. Includes photos, descriptions, distribution.
- Noble Foundation Plant Image Gallery — searchable by scientific or common name, includes photos and background information.
- PLANTS Database — by USDA, searchable by scientific and common name, provides taxonomy and distribution information, often includes photos and further information.
NRCS Soils Web site — by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the National Cooperative Soil Survey, an effort of Federal and State agencies, universities, and professional societies to deliver scientifically based soil information. Includes full-text technical manuals, soils surveys , and educational material.
- Veterinary Science
Martindale's "Virtual" Veterinary Center deceptively simple in appearance and organization, this site provides an extensive collection of links to publications, clinical education powerpoints and videos, and other sources of information for common and exotic animals, even amphibians and insects.
USGS National Wildlife Health Center includes information about avian flu, chronic wasting disease, and West Nile virus. | <urn:uuid:c802cfac-cbc3-4bf2-acf4-4d0316167e69> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://usain.org/Links-for-Agricultural-Librarians | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038469494.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20210418073623-20210418103623-00400.warc.gz | en | 0.869799 | 1,367 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Hunting nations block UN role on whales
The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission has ended with governments blocking a bid to give the United Nations a greater role in protecting the endangered mammals.
Conservationists argue the involvement of the UN General Assembly is needed to ensure that all whales are looked after.
Monaco has offered a resolution inviting the UN to look at whale conservation, but Japan, Iceland and Norway - which conduct whaling despite a 1986 global moratorium - have opposed the motion.
South Korea has announced it will become the fourth nation to conduct whaling, saying it - like Japan - will use a loophole in the moratorium on commercial whaling that allows nations to kill whales for research, with the meat then going to consumption.
Japanese official Akima Umezawa has described parts of Monaco's resolution as "imbalanced, inconsistent and irrelevant."
"It is very ridiculous for the IWC to seem to give up its mandate, its law and its responsibility," he said.
Norway's representative, Ole-David Stenseth, says that "species issues in general are not a matter for the General Assembly but for competent fisheries agencies."
Monaco's envoy Frederic Briand says his main concern is that the IWC had authority only over 38 migratory cetaceans, with no other species added in decades and limited coordination with UN environmental bodies.
Environmentalists suspect that Japan and Norway - usually enthusiastic over the United Nations - wants to avoid a larger profile over the whaling dispute.
"Clearly Japan, Norway and Iceland want to keep the bile at the International Whaling Commission confined here. They don't want to have to show up at the United Nations and defend the indefensible," said Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
The IWC meeting in Panama saw divisions at nearly every turn, but the 89-nation group has agreed to studying the health effects of eating whale meat.
Sandra Altherr of German advocacy group Pro Wildlife has hailed the passage of the measure as progress, saying meat from whales and dolphins can cause disorders through high concentrations of mercury and PCB.
"In Japan, you have some excellent scientists working on this issue but their reports are only seen in internal publications," Ms Altherr said.
"I hope that this will send a signal to the different governments and to the public." | <urn:uuid:c270011b-cdcc-48e4-b76f-744901b81be0> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-07/an-japan-blocks-un-whale-role/4116380 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609530136.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005210-00526-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959215 | 483 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Tick, tock. This is a clock.
Anthropomorphism is the recognition of people-like characteristics in animals, plants or non-living things. This tree can be found in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. During the time of slavery in the South, slave ships were often unable to make it through the Outer Banks because of the treacherous landscapes. From the looks of this picture, it seems as if they may have lost some passengers along the way.
I now have an idea for a story.
Animal fun fact: Chinchillas can’t get wet. Their fur retains too much water and will start to grow mold. So they bathe by rolling around in dust.
Chinchilla fun fact: Chinchillas have around 20 hairs per follicle; unlike humans who have 2-3 hairs per follicle. Because their fur is so dense, they cannot get fleas or other parasites. The bugs will suffocate in their fur.
Chinchilla fun fact: Petting one of those awesome little guys feels like touching a motherfucking cloud. | <urn:uuid:e29f5f83-9504-4ab2-9fa8-60891d91c63d> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://micalaa.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163055862/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131735-00011-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944726 | 222 | 2.71875 | 3 |
#MimicoCreek; #blue-greenalgae; #HumberBayParkEast; #Cyanobacteria #TorontoPublicHealth; #TPH; #MinistryofEnvironmentConservationandParks
Toronto, Jul 17 (Canadian-Media): Confirmation of the presence of blue-green algae blooms at the mouth of Mimico Creek and in Humber Bay Park East had been received by Toronto Public Health (TPH) from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, media reports said.
Toronto Public Health. Image credit: Twitter handle
Water samples taken and tested by the Ministry indicated the presence of blue-green algae.
Cyanobacteria, commonly referred to as blue-green algae occurs naturally in a wide variety of environments including ponds, rivers, lakes and streams.
These are reportedly easily visible plant-like organisms that can range in colour from olive-green to red and should be avoided due to the potential health risks associated with it.
Some species of blue-green algae produce toxins that are harmful to the health of humans and animals.
Adverse health effects are mainly caused by drinking and coming into contact with water that is contaminated with blue-green algae toxins.
Exposure to blue-green algae toxins, if present in sufficient amounts, can cause symptoms including: Headaches; Fever; Diarrhoea; Abdominal pain; Nausea or vomiting; Skin rashes; and Mucous membrane irritation
Residents are encouraged by TPH to take precautions when visiting this part of the Toronto waterfront as beaches in this area are not regularly monitored for water quality or supervised by lifeguards.
Public is asked not enter the water in this section of Mimico Creek and to avoid contact with or ingestion of the water.
Pets should also not allowed by the residents to enter the water in Mimico Creek.
Individuals who come into contact with the water should wash themselves off as soon as possible with clean water.
If any of the above symptoms are experienced following a potential exposure to blue-green algae, a health care provider should immediately be contacted. | <urn:uuid:ffcf6919-838b-42ce-9432-45d9eeeb7074> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.canadian-media.com/national-health/toronto-public-health-issues-concerning-blue-green-algae-blooms-in-humber-bay-east | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703549416.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20210124141945-20210124171945-00589.warc.gz | en | 0.946742 | 431 | 3 | 3 |
DENNIS KUNKEL MICROSCOPY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY DENNIS KUNKEL MICROSCOPY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Fruit fly tarsal claw and pulvilli (Drosophila melanogaster). Pulvilli are the hairy adhesive organs at the end of Dipteran (fly) legs (usually located at the base of the claws). Tenent setae are the hairs (with adhesive ends) that make up a puvillus. An adhesive substance is secreted through the tubular tenent setae allowing a fly to attach to smooth surfaces. Drosophila is a genus of fly from the family Drosophilidae. The species Drosophila melanogaster is known as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Drosophila melanogaster is widely used for biological research in studies of genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and evolution. This fly can be an agricultural or household pest. Magnification: x185 when shortest axis printed at 25 millimetres.
Model release not required. Property release not required. | <urn:uuid:0829b686-8610-46e8-aa3b-17015369ebfb> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/800659/view/fruit-fly-leg-tarsus-claw-and-pulvilli-sem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376825029.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20181213171808-20181213193308-00385.warc.gz | en | 0.833876 | 244 | 3.640625 | 4 |
SIMI VALLEY : Menorah Erected at Reagan Library
The day after the last American hostage was freed, a specially designed 9-foot-tall electric menorah was erected by representatives from Chabad of Ventura County at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in a brief ceremony Thursday morning.
“This menorah is an appropriate symbol,” said Rabbi Yakov Latowicz, regional director of the Ventura Chabad. “The Reagan Administration contributed to the winds of freedom that are now blowing throughout the world and made possible a modern-day Hanukkah miracle which occurred in the Soviet Union last Sunday.”
According to Rabbi Moshe Bryski, executive director of Chabad of the Conejo, “Thousands of Soviet Jews, who three to five years ago were persecuted for religious observances, were permitted to gather in the Congressional Palace of the Kremlin to light a Hanukkah menorah.”
Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, occurs in December and is observed for eight days by Jews worldwide beginning at sunset on the 25th of Kislev through sundown on the second of Tevet in the Jewish year.
The holiday celebrates the recapture of the temple in Jerusalem from the Syrian Greeks in 139 B.C. According to legend, the Jews found only enough oil to keep the eternal light in the temple burning for one day, but the oil miraculously lasted eight days.
The aluminum menorah, commissioned by the Chabad centers of the Conejo and San Fernando valleys, was built in New York and will stand in the museum lobby, with a Christmas tree to be added later this month, said museum curator Ann Bethel. The menorah will be exhibited every year, library director Ralph Bledsoe said.
Bledsoe acknowledged that as a federally owned and operated facility, the library cannot hold religious or social ceremonies. “But we can certainly celebrate historical and cultural traditions,” he said. “And these are some of the symbols of our holiday season.”
“Hopefully, through these symbols, we can remember the people whose voices were raised crying for freedom,” he said. | <urn:uuid:894d57fa-4f7b-4fe4-adb0-648e3e586995> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-06-me-400-story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141181179.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125041943-20201125071943-00094.warc.gz | en | 0.964387 | 449 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Eight critically endangered black rhinoceroses died after being moved from parks near Kenya's capital to a sanctuary in a national park in the country's southeast, the government said Friday.
Preliminary investigations suggest the rhinos suffered from salt poisoning as they adapted to water with higher saline levels than they were accustomed to, according to tourism and wildlife minister Najib Balala.
In a statement, he called the death toll "unprecedented" in more than a dozen years of translocations in Kenya.
The eight dead rhinos were among 11 that were moved last month to Tsavo East National Park, where wildlife officials hoped they would start a new population.
An additional three animals were to join them soon, but Balala said he had immediately suspended the transfer operations.
As African wildlife numbers have plummeted because of poaching and habitat loss, conservationists and governments have increasingly turned to translocations in hopes of restoring populations in remote spots where they might be better shielded from the threats driving them to the brink elsewhere.
One nonprofit, African Parks, has shipped several endangered species across the continent, including black rhinos, which it has flown from South Africa to Rwanda and Chad.
Kenya moved 149 rhinos between 2005 and 2017, Balala's statement said. Eight of those died, not including the black rhinos at Tsavo East.
Translocation is a bold, quixotic, expensive and logistically complicated approach to saving wildlife. And as the situation in Kenya underscored, it is dangerous.
"Moving rhinos is complicated and risky, akin to moving gold bullion, it requires extremely careful planning and security due to the value of these rare animals," Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of the conservation group Wildlife Direct, said in a statement on Facebook that also faulted the government for waiting a week to release information on the deaths.
"I dread to think of the suffering that these poor animals endured before they died," she wrote. "We need to know what went wrong so that it never happens again."
Balala said the high salt levels in water at the rhinos' new home could have led to dehydration that caused them to drink more, "resulting in excess water intake of the saline water that further exacerbates the problem."
But he said he had ordered internal and external investigations to determine the exact cause of death, adding that "disciplinary action" would be taken if the probes point to negligence or wrongdoing by Kenyan Wildlife Service officers.
The three remaining rhinos are being monitored and given fresh water in pans, the ministry said.
Widespread poaching led the black rhino population to drop from around 70,000 in 1970 to fewer than 2,500 in 1995, according to Save The Rhino. About 5,000 remain in the wild today, the World Wildlife Fund says.
Kenya's black rhino population dropped during the 1970s and 1980s from 20,000 to about 250; today, it is around 650, according to WWF.
2018 © The Washington Post
This article was originally published by The Washington Post. | <urn:uuid:58cc6f1c-dac9-454c-8a42-51940f1f6322> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.sciencealert.com/eight-rare-rhinos-have-died-in-an-attempt-to-save-the-species | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247513661.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20190222054002-20190222080002-00392.warc.gz | en | 0.974168 | 626 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Health comes from nature, and the choices one makes. People often forget about the importance of seasonal nutrition, and how the diet should reflect the growing cycles of particular types of plants.
There is a reason tomatoes thrive in the summer, and taste terrible the rest of the year. Just because a food is available all year round does not justify eating it. When we break this important seasonal rule, we suffer the consequences…
Autumn is the time of Metal, it relates to the Lung and Large Intestine in Chinese Medicine. The air becomes cold and dry, affecting the ‘delicate organ’ (Lung). We often see in clinic, an increase in Lung pathology at this time of the year.
Autumn is also about increasing the warming foods, to prepare the body for the onset of winter. My diet changes from lots of tomatoes and basil in summer, to root vegetables and heartier soups at this time of the year.
If you follow seasonal growers at places like farmers markets (where I shop every week) you will notice the produce changes dramatically and plentiful foods become things like pumpkin, parsnip, sweet potato, and many green leafy foods like kale, chard, spinach ect…
This is now becoming the time where the root vegetables dominate, and increasing these foods in the diet can have substantial health benefits. Onions, garlic, ginger and leeks all warm the body, promoting blood circulation and tonifying the body.
Simple culinary herbs
These can easily be grown in the garden and grow well even in small gardens or pots. They should be eaten daily to give vitality. A few of my favourites include;
Is a great blood purifier, helping to strengthen veins and arteries and assist normal cholesterol levels. Add to salads and include as a tea. 2 cups daily is ideal to begin with.
Contains lots of healthy oils and assists healthy skin cells. Often used in roast meat dishes because it helps cleanse the blood from problematic fats found in animal meats. Rosemary is also thought to help cognition and memory. As a vegetarian I always use this herb as the basis of my soup dishes, and add to roast vegetables.
Thyme and Oregano
I love both these herbs, both have immune benefits and are anti-microbial. Thyme is a particularly good anti-viral herb. Add to salads, sandwiches and as a topping to scrambled eggs.
The best nutritional advice is always the simple stuff. People often forget that food is medicine so increase these foods this Autumn and Winter and your body will thank you profoundly! | <urn:uuid:a9b8b8f5-00c1-4414-beda-ec75e3091af7> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | http://www.scarboroughacupuncture.com.au/perth/nutrition/seasonal-nutrition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998605.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20190618023245-20190618045245-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.943905 | 525 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Synchronization is one of the most effective ways to share and back up data, for this reason, it has become very common for companies to use this technology to optimize time and coordinate large work teams. There are various methods to synchronize data between Windows Servers, in this post I will talk about the most common and in addition I will show you how to synchronize Windows server with each one.
Synchronization is a commonly used data management technology for backup purposes; however it also offers excellent advantages for teamwork. Synchronization ensures that the information between two or more devices is the same, maintaining a criterion based on the hierarchy of the devices and evaluating the difference between the existing files. It is for this reason that synchronization is one of the most versatile and practical tools to coordinate teamwork regardless of the number of participants. This greatly streamlines the data distribution and backup processes.
Synchronization is a process that can be carried out in different ways; however, the important thing is to find the method that best suits your needs and that maintains an equitable balance between costs and benefits. Next, I will tell you about the most effective methods and with a minimal or even no investment.
One of the easiest ways to share information between multiple computers is through an external disk. This may seem like an unorthodox solution, but there are methods and technologies that make this option much more efficient and dynamic, such as DAS and NAS technologies. Both have something in common and that is that both technologies allow multiple users to have access to the same information stored in an external device.
The two most relevant differences are transfer speed and practicality. NAS (Network Attached Storage) is the most versatile option due to the fact that data transfer is through the network, however, DAS NAS (Direct-attached storage) is the most practical option since it would be enough to connect computers through a cable with a high data transfer capacity, therefore, you will not need a large bandwidth or configure a network.
A common method of sharing information between Windows Servers is through the network. This feature allows you to share access to a folder with multiple users who are connected to the same network. This method is extremely practical but you must remember that this technique does not generate copies on your local disk and therefore, the reading and writing of the files depend on you having a stable connection, in addition, if the computer that stores the original version of the shared folder is turned off or damaged, no user will be able to access the information of the shared folder.
Below I will show you how to share a folder
Step 1: Share access to the source folder
Go to the location where the folder you want to share is located and right-click on it. A menu will appear, and you must move your cursor over the "Give access to" option and click on “Homegroup (View and edit)”
Step 2: Choose people to share with
In this window you can add different computers that are connected to the Network and give them permission to add and edit information in this folder.
There is a tool available in Windows Server with which to carry out the synchronization process between servers, this tool is named “DFS Replication” and next I will show you how to configure it.
Before continuing, keep in mind that you must have previously configured the network permissions, in addition, if you want to use the “Hub and spoke” topology, you must have at least three computers connected to the replication group.
Step 1: Go to Add Roles and Features
This option is located in the upper right corner of the "Server Manager" window.
Step 2: Choose installation prefereces
The "Add Roles and Features Wizard" tool will allow you to choose the preferences of the installation. Choose "Role-based or feature-based installation" as the type of installation and make sure that the destination server that appears in the third window corresponds to the computer you are using.
Step 3: Install DFS Replication
In this step you must click on "File and Storage Services" and then you must click on "File and iSCSI Services." Once there you must select "File Server" and "DFS Replication."
Step 4: Confirm the installation process
After enabling the options "File Server" and "DFS Replication" a confirmation pop-up will appear. Click "Next" until you reach the last step of the installation. Once there, a brief summary of the installation will be displayed.
Note: Keep in mind that you must carry out this installation process on all the computers you want to synchronize.
Step 5: Create a Replication Group
To access the replication group creation tool, just right click on “Replication” from “DFS Management” and choose the “New Replication Group…” option. Once opened, select the “Multipurpose replication group” option and click on "Next."
Step 6: Assign a name to the replication group
In this step you can assign a name to the replication group, you can also add a description that helps you manage one or more replication groups.
Step 7: Add members to the replication group
In this step you can add members to the Replication group by clicking on the "Add..." Button.
Step 8: Choose a topology type
In this step you should carefully consider which option best suits your needs. If you want all the information that is replicated to come from a single hub member, you must choose “Hub and Spoke”, on the other hand, if you want the information to be replicated mutually between all the computers that are connected to the replication group, you must choose “Full mesh”
Step 9: Set replication time intervals and bandwidth rates
Here you can set the frequency of data replication, in addition, you can adjust the Bandwidth rates and thus optimize the use of the resources you have.
Step 10: Assign a Primary Member
In this step you will have to assign one or more primary members (depending on the replication group topology). The primary member will serve as a reference to manage differences during replication processes.
Step 11: Add folders to replicate
In this step you must assign a local folder to store the data that will be replicated and distributed to the other members of the replication group. To add a folder, click on "Add ...”
Step 12: Add a Destination folder
Now you must assign the folder where the information that you replicate from the primary member to the other members will be stored. In addition, you can click on "Edit ..." to customize the security parameters and permissions of each user.
Step 13: Confirm
A brief summary will be displayed and if everything is ok, click on “Create” and then on “Close”
The methods I mentioned before are effective but may be complex to manage and therefore impractical. The solution to this problem is to use specialized software for backup and synchronization processes such as AOMEI Backupper.
AOMEI Backupper is software that has a very friendly user interface, which greatly facilitates the management and automation of synchronization processes.
Below I will show you how to use it.
Note: Before starting to use AOMEI Backupper as a synchronization tool between two or more Windows servers, it is necessary to have previously configured the network to allow access to the folders that you are going to synchronize. (As indicated in method 2)
Step 1: Go to “File Sync”
Once you have installed and opened the software, go to the "Backup" section and click on "File Sync."
Step 2: Add a source folder
Here you must click on the “Add Folder” button and select the source location (where the data you want to synchronize with the rest of the servers is located).
Step 3: Choose the target location
At the bottom of the window you can click the drop-down list button. Once this is done, you will see the option "Select a network location", select the Network folder you created earlier. (As shown in the method 2).
Step 4: Schedule
Before finishing, click on the “clock” icon at the bottom of the window. There you can customize the time intervals in which the data will be synchronized with the target folder. I personally recommend using the "Real-Time Sync" or "Event Triggers" option. In this way the information will be synchronized automatically each time a change is made to the files, thus ensuring that your information will always be updated on the target folder.
Step 5: Click on “Start Sync”
Now you can click on "Start Sync" and the software will automatically perform the synchronization process of the source folder with the Network folder.
Synchronization is a process that greatly improves teamwork performance. It can be used to optimize file version control, share information, and even back it up. Windows Server can perform a process quite similar to synchronization but many times, using the DFS Replication tool may be a complicated task for those who are not experts, fortunately, AOMEI Backupper can perform any type of backup or synchronization without technical complications of any kind, thus saving you a lot of time and effort. | <urn:uuid:232a4101-5ad6-4f5d-9847-514631d147d7> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://recoverit.wondershare.com/computer-backup/synchronize-files-between-windows-servers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655886121.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20200704104352-20200704134352-00309.warc.gz | en | 0.924153 | 1,916 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The Baobab Tree
The baobab tree can have a circumference of more than 20 meters. This means that it takes more than one outstretched arm to circle a baobab tree. There is a saying among the Ewe of Ghana which likens wisdom to the baobab tree. It suggests that wisdom, like the baobab tree, cannot be fully embraced by any one person. Baobab People realizes the importance of this message, that it will take many different people from many different parts of the world to engage in a discourse of cultural issues. | <urn:uuid:0f669261-18f8-48f1-9f8d-300c9a5e9c88> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://www.baobabpeople.org/the-baobab-tree | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655890157.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20200706073443-20200706103443-00364.warc.gz | en | 0.954328 | 116 | 2.578125 | 3 |
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) hygiene and preparation is critical to protect yourself and your family
- The CDC has issued a number of guidelines and instructions on how to maximize your prevention and minimize your exposure
- Apartment dwellers face most of the same issues as the rest of the population, but also have matters unique to living in multi-family properties
Preventing coronavirus in your apartment
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has offered a number of reference articles and official statements on how to best protect yourself and your family.
But for apartment dwellers, those with common spaces, mailbox clusters, lobbies, trash chutes and a plethora of door handles, keeping safe and practicing prevention habits is a bit more difficult. From your own personal hygiene to how to manage your apartment to what to expect from your landlord, here are all the tips, suggestions and instructions straight from the CDC just for renters and apartment tenants.
1. Wash your hands often
Wash your hands after you touch another person or a common surface. Wash your hands before and after you touch or prepare food. Wash your hands after using the restroom. Wash your hands after you cough, sneeze or blow your nose. Wash your hands when you get home from being out.
Wash by covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. When you wash, rub with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Experts have recommended singing “Happy Birthday" twice. If you're tired of that, try other songs with 20-second choruses like:
- “Take on Me" by A-ha
- “Jolene" by Dolly Parton
- “Raspberry Beret" by Prince
- “Truth Hurts" by Lizzo
- “Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees (like that CPR scene from “The Office")
If soap and water are not available, disinfect your hands by utilizing a 60 to 95 percent alcohol hand sanitizer and following the listed instructions.
2. Avoid close contact with people who are sick
This seems obvious. But since you never know who is sick, minimize contact in general, as well. Spread out on the bus or subway or in line. Touch elbows instead of shaking hands or fist-bumping, or politely decline to touch at all. Try to avoid touching common surfaces others touch in public places and in your apartment building or common areas as best you can. Don't share food or drinks.
3. Avoid touching your face
No matter how hard you try, you're going to touch unsanitary surfaces or people. To prevent infecting yourself, do your best to refrain from touching your eyes, nose or mouth, as these are the main entry points for disease.
4. Cover your mouth
If you must cough or sneeze, cover your mouth with a tissue, then throw the tissue into a trash can that has a closed cover. The same goes for blowing your nose. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve like you're doing “The Dab," not into your hands.
5. Maybe forgo that face mask
According to the CDC, people who are not sick (or don't feel sick) should not wear protective face masks, because they're not effective in keeping out the very small virus. Face masks are only for people who are already symptomatic to prevent them from spreading the disease to others. The only exception is for healthcare workers or other close-contact care providers.
6. Clean and disinfect
Keep your apartment neat, clean and organized to maintain a healthy environment. Clean regularly and sanitize often using items like Lysol spray and Clorox wipes on “high touch" surfaces including countertops, tabletops, doorknobs, nightstands, bathroom fixtures, toilets, refrigerator handles, kitchen faucets, light switches, TV remotes, cell phones, computer keyboards and tablets.
7. Stock up but don't hoard
While unlikely, it's possible you may wind up quarantined in your apartment, or even just sick and self-quarantining. For that scenario, which shouldn't last longer than two weeks, you should stock up (but not hoard) a few basic items:
- Non-perishable items like canned meat, fish, beans, soups, broths and stews, fruits and vegetables, and canned or powdered milk
- Ready to serve items like peanut butter, jelly, crackers, nuts, trail mix, dried fruits and granola bars
- Baby food and pet food
- Bottled water, fruit juices and fluids like Pedialyte or Gatorade
- Toothpaste, toilet paper, tissues, feminine supplies, diapers, laundry detergent and disinfectant
- Hand sanitizer that's minimum 60 percent alcohol, over-the-counter cold and flu medicines and any refills of prescriptions
If you're sick or feel like you're getting sick
Even with all of the precautions, there is still a chance you'll contract the disease. Follow these steps the moment you begin to feel sick, even if it just feels like a cold.
1. Stay home
Unless it's to see your doctor or go to the hospital, stay in your apartment and don't go out. Don't go to work, school or to public areas. Try to avoid public transportation, taxicabs or rideshares. Not only will you not infect others, the more you stay at home and rest, the faster you'll recover. Utilize food and personal item delivery if necessary.
2. Separate yourself from others at home
As best you can, stay in a designated sick room and keep away from other people. Eat separately from others. If your apartment has more than one, designate a bathroom just for you. Avoid touching pets, as well. If you must feed or clean up after a pet, wash your hands before and after as detailed above.
3. Don't share household or personal items
Set aside drinking glasses, plates, silverware, sheets and blankets, towels and toiletries for your use and your use only. Clean them thoroughly with soap and water after every single use.
4. Wear a face mask
As mentioned above, only people who are already sick (or people caring for those that are) need to wear a face mask. If you're sick, wear one around other people (or pets) or if you go see your doctor.
5. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands
See above for details.
6. Clean and disinfect even more
Sanitize your apartment as explained above, but do it every day.
7. Call before going to the doctor
Keep an eye on your symptoms and seek medical attention if needed. Give them a heads up before you go to allow them to take precautions to keep others visiting their office from being infected or exposed. If you suspect you only have a cold or flu, consider a virtual doctor's visit. If you must call 9-1-1, inform them of your symptoms before they arrive, as well.
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Interim Guidance for Preventing the Spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Homes and Residential Communities
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | <urn:uuid:bed5043f-6b3b-429b-a527-174f0d44a36c> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.canteraapartments.com/blog/2020/03/28/coronavirus-in-your-apartment-community-how-to-stay-safe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964363229.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20211206012231-20211206042231-00081.warc.gz | en | 0.946169 | 1,574 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The illegal trade in pangolins and slow lorises in Indonesia has gained a lot of media attention, yet that has had only a small effect on combating the actual trade itself. In many areas of the country, these two critically endangered species have gone extinct due to a lack of law enforcement and specialized protection.
For years, animals confiscated from poachers and traders were released back into the wild without proper rehabilitation. Indonesia loses up to 10,000 pangolins and thousands of slow lorises a year to illegal trade, although the numbers could well be even higher.
As the trade has largely moved from the street to the Internet, it is even more difficult to estimate the real volume of trafficking in exotic wildlife. What is undeniable, however, is that pangolins and slow lorises are quickly disappearing from Indonesian forests.
The problem lies not in local environmental laws, which are fairly good, but in insufficient enforcement of them. Even though enforcement authorities confiscate live animals or the parts of dead ones, the poachers, traffickers, sellers and buyers are rarely punished. This sends a clear message that they can continue their business as usual without much risk.
In addition, the island of Sumatra, which, according to a 2017 report by the anti-trafficking network TRAFFIC, is a hotspot of the illegal trade in pangolins, does not have any specialized facilities for confiscated animals. Pangolins and slow lorises usually end up in small cages without proper rehabilitation and when they are released back into the wild, no one monitors their progress. It is highly probable that the majority of these animals die.
The situation on Sumatra has been improving, however, thanks to the Kukang Rescue Program, the first and only specialized rescue and rehabilitation center locally for pangolins and slow lorises. The construction of the center started in 2015 and is still underway and has two separate departments.
The Kukang Rescue Program focuses on slow lorises and has a capacity of 30 animals while the Trenggiling Conservation Program, which is currently being built, is dedicated to saving pangolins.
“Establishing a rescue center with a well-designed rehabilitation and release program is an absolute necessity,” explains František Příbrský, a Czech conservationist who founded the first rescue center specialized in confiscated pangolins and slow lorises in North Sumatra.
The confiscated animals undergo a veterinary inspection, after which they are put into quarantine for a minimum of six weeks. Afterwards, the animals go through a rehabilitation process, which can take several months. Healthy animals are moved to an enclosure in their area of release where they continue to be monitored with a collar equipped with a transmitter so that after several months of monitoring it can be determined how well they have adapted to their new home.
After a few years of conservation work František and his team realized that they should work closer with the local community as many locals hunted and poached wild animals to gain extra incomes. In 2017, the conservationists decided to employ two former poachers to help protect hundreds of animals that would have otherwise been hunted.
That same year they started the Kukang Coffee Project for farmers who live in the area of the natural habitats of protected animals. Farmers are taught to produce high-quality coffee, which is bought by the Kukang Rescue Program for a higher price than they would get on the market. On exchange for this, locals promise not to hunt slow lorises and pangolins.
The farmers work with the two former poachers who ensure that the farmers do indeed keep their promise. To further raise awareness about animal protection and nature conservation, the team has also started a environmental school for local children.
Besides these efforts, the Kukang Rescue Program and the Trenggiling Conservation Program also cooperate with various zoos in the Czech Republic and elsewhere, with international zoo associations, and with other conservation-focused NGOs in order to raise awareness of the illegal wildlife trade.
Příbrský is a member of the Stolen Wildlife campaign, which warns people about the causes and consequences of the wildlife trade.
By saving wild animals, people will also be saving themselves, Příbrský stresses.
“It strikes me that all the world is currently so concerned only about the protection of people against the COVID-19. I understand that vaccination is now topic number one but almost nobody talks about the real cause of the problem, which is the illegal wildlife trade. It’s absurd how little attention this topic is given in the mainstream media,” Příbrský says.
“The current pandemic has shown that the trade in some wild animals and their parts, namely bats and pangolins, is a global issue. If we don’t do anything about stopping the trade, we can cause many even deadlier pandemics that will threaten each of us,” he adds.
According to an IPBES Pandemics Report, some 1.7 million still undiscovered viruses exist in mammals and birds, of which up to 827,000 could have the ability to infect people. Almost all new viral outbreaks, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika and COVID-19, are zoonotic diseases that have spread by close contact between wild animals, livestock and people. Black markets for wild animals are hotspots of transmissions.
Combating the illegal wildlife trade is a difficult task, but as conservationist efforts like the Kukang Rescue Program demonstrate it is doable.
“Building ties with locals and offering them financial remuneration for nature conservation bears fruit,” Příbrský says. “Since 2017 the hunting of protected and threatened species in the area where we work has completely stopped, farmers are satisfied with their extra income, former poachers have found stable employment and the end product cheers up coffee lovers.” | <urn:uuid:e7a81fbe-afb9-4ba8-bb0b-cd9aec5c7339> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.sustainability-times.com/environmental-protection/an-initiative-in-sumatra-leads-the-way-in-saving-endangered-pangolins-and-slow-lorises/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154310.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20210802075003-20210802105003-00646.warc.gz | en | 0.959056 | 1,245 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Panic and Its Effects
One afternoon while she was preparing dinner in her kitchen, Anne Peters, a 32-year-old American housewife, suddenly had severe pains in her chest accompanied by shortness of breath. Frightened by the thought that she was having a heart attack, Anne screamed for help. Her husband immediately rushed Anne to a nearby hospital where her pains were diagnosed as having been caused by panic, and not a heart attack.
More and more Americans nowadays are having panic attacks like the one experienced by Anne Peters. Benjamin Crocker, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, reveal that as many as ten million adult Americans have already experienced or will experience at least one panic attack in their lifetime. Moreover, studies conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States disclose that approximately 1.2 million adult individuals are currently suffering from severe and recurrent panic attacks.
These attacks may last for only a few minutes; some, however, continue for several hours. The symptoms of panic attacks bear such remarkable similarity to those of heart attacks that many victims believe that they are indeed having a heart attack.
Panic attack victims show the following symptoms: they often become easily frightened or feel uneasy in situations where people normally would not be afraid; they suffer shortness of breath, experience chest pains, a quick heartbeat, sudden fits of trembling, a feeling that persons and things around them are not real; and most of all, a fear of dying or going crazy. A person seized by a panic attack may show all or as few as four of these symptoms.
There has been a lot of explanations as to the causes of panic attacks. Many claim that psychological stress could be a logical cause, but as yet, no evidence has been found to support this theory. However, studies show that more women than men experience panic attacks and people who drink a lot as well as those who use drugs are more likely to suffer attacks.
It is reported that there are at least three signs that indicate a person is suffering from a panic attack rather than a heart attack. The first is age. People between the ages of 20 and 30 are more often victims of panic attacks. The second is sex. More women suffer from recurrent panic attacks than men. The third is the multiplicity of symptoms. A panic attack victim usually suffers at least four of the previously mentioned symptoms, while a heart attack victim often experiences only pain and shortness of breath.
It is generally agreed that a panic attack does not directly endanger a person's life. All the same, it can unnecessarily disrupt a person's life by making him or her so afraid of having a panic attack in a public place that he or she may refuse to leave home and may eventually become isolated form the rest of society. Dr. Crocker's advice to any person who thinks he is suffering from a panic attack is to consult a doctor for a medical examination to rule out the possibilities of physical illness first. Once it has been confirmed that he or she is, in fact, suffering from a panic attack, the victim should seek psychological and medical help. | <urn:uuid:8458801c-a5bd-4354-a032-c0e5e7383a06> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://www.hjenglish.com/new/p168072/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376828501.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20181217091227-20181217113227-00076.warc.gz | en | 0.846648 | 625 | 2.875 | 3 |
Marquis Lewis EN 111-02
October 20, 2013
The Number One Divide In America America exists today as one of the most intriguing countries in the world, primarily due to the preponderance of positives and negatives that constitutes the general perception of the entire nation as a whole. The United States is known for its dominant history in a militaristic sense, only having one war fought on its on soil. It is also known in economic terms, still widely considered today as the world’s sole remaining “superpower”, a title that was once shared with the Soviet Union before its collapse. Most recently it has gained prominence in regards to social life because of the country’s technological advancements, that now actively promotes social media in all aspects of life (for example the workplace and schools) which subsequently allows people from all over the country to connect. Despite the amount of benefits there are of living in America, there are also negatives that have been predominantly affecting the country for hundreds of years that are still in existence today. These unfavorable aspects are significant because there existence alone vividly contradicts the perceived ideal foundation that America was built upon. The idea that all men are created equal, and are given unalienable rights, most importantly life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is what America wanted its basis to be. However, America’s past, present and future all seem to be strongly digressing from these ideas, and the most controversial aspects that have been dividing the country since its existence are race and poverty. Throughout certain times in American history, one divide has been more prevalent than the other. The general consensus by Americans would be that the race war that occurs in America on a daily...
Please join StudyMode to read the full document | <urn:uuid:6f29c2f8-2fb6-46c0-8db1-d69af26e5d2b> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Americas-Major-Divide-Race-Vs-Poverty-48669513.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257645604.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20180318091225-20180318111225-00230.warc.gz | en | 0.965865 | 354 | 2.546875 | 3 |
While the harmful practice of child marriage has endured for millennia, action by philanthropy, nonprofits, and others to confront this complex human-rights problem have gained significant traction during the past decade.
In some parts of the world, child marriage rates are declining. But not by nearly enough. Continued work on this problem is essential since, for many girls, child marriage is the equivalent of a jail sentence. It often amounts to the end of a girl’s education, strict control over her freedom and mobility, and domestic violence.
As an advocate for the rights of girls and women, the Kendeda Fund is dedicated to doing all we can to help end child marriage and support girls and women in building independent lives. We are relatively new to this work, but we’ve been engaged long enough to recognize that good intentions don’t always lead to good strategy.
A new report reveals the challenges that have come as many well-meaning organizations overlook what matters most. “Tackling the Taboo: Sexuality and Gender-Transformative Programmes to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions,” commissioned by a group of 12 leading organizations working to end child marriage around the globe, explores how patriarchal control of adolescent girls’ sexuality fuels child marriage and why so few organizations have even acknowledged this challenge, let alone tried to address it.
The report presents findings from a review of 23 organizations — mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — that are working to transform the social norms about gender and sexuality that drive child marriage. And the takeaways offer new insight into how we can more effectively confront this vexing cultural crisis.
In communities around the world where patriarchal gender norms are strictly enforced, people are extremely constrained in their freedom to express their sexuality. The social value of girls lies in their virginity; if they have sex before marriage, they are seen as bringing shame on themselves and their families.
Because these communities view marriage as the only socially sanctioned scenario for sexual activity, families feel pressure to marry girls off at — or before –—sexual maturation, regardless of their hopes for the future. In this context, sexuality often remains the “elephant in the room,” a cultural taboo to be avoided at all costs. Even the best-intentioned organizations often find ways to focus on other reasons child marriage persists, such as poverty, while ignoring the fact that the real problem is how women are not treated equally to men, especially when it comes to sexuality.
If we don’t recognize child marriage as a deeply entrenched manifestation of gender inequality and set out to end destructive views on adolescent sexuality at their root, then child marriage will continue to dramatically curtail girls’ rights and their potential to lead successful fulfilling lives.
Grant makers can make a difference by funding programs that overcome the sexuality taboo and promote equality. Among the key steps that can take:
Challenge organizations to integrate sexuality education into their child-marriage work.
Many organizations have already started groundbreaking efforts that we can learn from.
The Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health works with young people in Kenya to demystify sex, presenting it as a positive aspect of life and providing ways for adolescent girls and boys to get accurate, nonjudgmental answers to their questions about sex. The Trust’s programs use art, meditation, and other activities to encourage young people to reflect on equality in relationships, contraception, safe abortion, female desire, consent, and gender diversity. The Trust has a deep understanding of how norms about gender and sexuality are embedded in local culture. Compared with large, international organizations, the Trust’s program leaders have a better perspective on ways to mitigate community backlash.
As grant makers, we should make funding of grassroots organizations like the trust a higher priority.
Invest in programs that focus on building girls’ skills and perspectives
Efforts to curb child marriage must help girls expand their options beyond marriage to make their own choices and to pursue their own dreams. This requires helping girls develop concrete skills so they can enter the work force, access financial resources, and establish greater independence. It also depends on fostering girls’ awareness of their circumstance and expanding their capacity to challenge the social norms that put them at a disadvantage in the first place
Some of the organizations in “Tackling the Taboo” found creating girls’ collectives to be an effective way to build their political awareness and support them to use their collective power to advocate for change. The Awaaz-e-Niswaan (Voice of Women) collective in India, for example, reported success in empowering Muslim girls to persuade their parents to let them delay marriage and stay in school. The International Centre for Sexual Reproductive Rights in Nigeria runs a girls’ leadership program grounded in feminist principles that equips girls with the skills and perspective to advocate for laws and policies that protect their rights. Graduates of the program report greater self-confidence and say they are likely to speak out against violence and to delay marriage.
Building girls’ ability to envision change in their lives, however, does not make it their responsibility to dismantle entrenched, harmful social norms on their own. “Tackling the Taboo” highlights organizations that also engage men and boys in the struggle for gender equality. The YP Foundation, an organization run by young people, for example, works with young men and boys in India to encourage them to analyze power and patriarchy, recognize their own privilege in society, and reject it while also holding other men and boys accountable for the way they treat women and girls.
As grant makers, we should give priority programs that lift up female self-determination while also supporting those that engage men and boys as allies.
Provide flexible, long-term support that accommodates the complex process of social change
Many organizations in “Tackling the Taboo” noted how the short-term, project-based funding so common in philanthropy makes it harder to work for the long-term, sustainable change in social norms that eradicating child marriage requires. Short funding cycles all too often prompt organizations to pursue superficial results.
Many people in the fight to end child marriage are focused on surface-level or temporary indications of change, such as the number of young women who stay in school or the total who avoid marriage in their early teenage years. If we can just keep girls in school longer and delay their marriages until they are 18, so the thinking goes, we will solve this issue. While no doubt a win, without longer-term accompaniment, the overall outcome tends to be slightly more educated child brides.
Another approach that simply delays the problem is also all too common: Some international organizations provide families financial incentives — such as cash or cows — as long as they promise to refrain from marrying off their daughters until they turn 18. But when the cash stops on their 18th birthday and the girls are married, has anything really changed? Has gender equality been achieved or the girls’ freedom and life choices expanded? Probably not.
Based on what we’ve learned during our time making grants to deter child marriage, it takes a willingness to work over the long haul to transform social norms, build girls’ skills so they can earn and keep financial resources, and strengthen health and education systems to better meet girls’ needs.
Such change is not always clean or linear, but it’s the type of change that will transform the lives of millions of girls around the globe.
This article was originally published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on August 14, 2019 | <urn:uuid:b7d9142d-3eaa-49d6-abb8-cfb0b27645f2> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://kendedafund.org/2019/08/19/sex-and-power-how-foundations-can-attack-the-roots-of-child-marriage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141747774.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205104937-20201205134937-00328.warc.gz | en | 0.954614 | 1,551 | 2.84375 | 3 |
|Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York|
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
15th Meeting (PM)
Concluding Session, Permanent Forum Says Impact of Racist ‘Doctrine of Discovery’
Endures Today, but Indigenous Rights Declaration Offers Framework for Redress
Adopts Report with 9 Consensus Texts, Including Recommendations on Theme,
2014 World Conference, Intellectual Property, Food Sovereignty, Human Rights
Lamenting the enduring manifestations of the “Doctrine of Discovery” and other morally condemnable, socially unjust and racist policies used for centuries by colonizers as legal justification to disenfranchise indigenous peoples and seize their lands, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today urged the rejection of such “nefarious” dogmas, and encouraged measures that would redefine relations between native and aboriginal peoples and the State based on justice.
As the Permanent Forum — the United Nations expert advisory body dealing with the human, economic and social rights of indigenous peoples — concluded its eleventh session, it approved a set of nine draft recommendations, highlighted by a text approved on the special theme, the ongoing impact of the Discovery Doctrine on indigenous peoples and the right redress (document E/C.19/2012/L.2). That fifteenth century Christian principle was denounced throughout the session as the “shameful” root of all the discrimination and marginalization indigenous peoples faced today.
The Permanent Forum noted that, while such doctrines of domination and “conquest”, including terra nullis and the Regalian doctrine, were promoted as authority for land acquisition, they also encouraged despicable assumptions: that indigenous peoples were “savages”, “barbarians”, “inferior and uncivilized,” among other constructs the colonizers used to subjugate, dominate and exploit the lands, territories and resources of native peoples. According to the text, signs of such doctrines were still evident in indigenous communities, including in the areas of: health; psychological and social well-being; conceptual and behavioural forms of violence against indigenous women; youth suicide; and the hopelessness that many indigenous peoples experience, in particular indigenous youth.
Noting that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, treaty body jurisprudence and case law from all major international human rights institutions confirmed that indigenous peoples hold collective rights to the lands, territories and resources that they had traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used, the Forum said that “such rights have the same legal status as all other property rights [and] States are no longer allowed to deploy positivist legal interpretations of laws adopted during an era when doctrines such as terra nullis were the norm”. The Declaration also demanded that States rectify past wrongs caused by such doctrines through law and policy reform.
By its text, the Permanent Forum reiterated that redefining the relationship between indigenous peoples and the State was an important way to understand the discovery doctrines and to develop a vision of the future for reconciliation, peace and justice. “To that end, [the Declaration] provides a strong human rights framework and standards for the redress of such false doctrines, notably in articles 3, 28 and 37,” the text states, also encouraging the conduct of the processes of reconciliation “in accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, and respect for human rights, equality, non-discrimination, good governance and good faith”.
In his closing remarks, Grand Chief Edward John, Chairman of the Forum, welcomed the adoption of the recommendations, saying it was indeed necessary to redress the many issues that had emerged over the years the doctrine had been in place. There was a pressing need for indigenous peoples to rediscover and to celebrate their own cultures and heritage. The challenge now was to enter a new area in which the effects of the doctrine of discovery did not continue to be felt by indigenous peoples in the countries in which they lived, he said.
The discussions throughout the session had highlighted that it was important for the Permanent Forum to continue to provide the space for discussion of such issues. He also noted that the high-level event held yesterday to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration had been “highly successful despite being bumped from the General Assembly Hall at the last minute”. That Declaration was a reaffirmation of the collective rights of all indigenous peoples.
The other texts adopted by the Permanent Forum today touched on the topics it covered during its eleventh session, which opened at Headquarters on 7 May. Along with the Doctrine of Discovery, the texts contained recommendations on human rights; food sovereignty; violence against indigenous women and girls; the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); arrangements for the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples; and emerging issues. The recommendations were introduced and orally amended by Rapporteur Megan Davis.
Also approved were three draft decisions recommending the following: that the Council decide to authorize a three-day expert group meeting on “Indigenous Youth: identity, challenges and hope”; that the Council decide that the twelfth session of the Permanent Forum shall be held at Headquarters from 20 to 31 May 2013; and that the Council take note of the provisional agendas of the Permanent Forum’s eleventh and twelfth sessions. They will be forwarded to the Economic and Social Council for final action.
Adopting a concise text on human rights matters (document E/C.19/2012/L.9), the Permanent Forum noted that, since the adoption of the Declaration five years ago, very few States had entered into effective dialogue or partnerships or undertaken adequate legal reforms to implement its tenets. “Alarmed by ongoing human rights violations” the Forum’s members called on all States to bring an end to such violations and to recognize and respect the standards set out in the Declaration. Urging all States to provide detailed implementation reports to the Forum, the experts recommended public education initiatives and best practices in respect of the Declaration.
Mindful of the human rights violations experienced by indigenous peoples, the experts encouraged States, in particular those in the Pacific region, to recognize and implement the basic fundamental rights articulated in the Declaration, particularly the right to self-determination. Further, the Forum urged States to promote models for the health, social, legal and other sectors of indigenous communities and service providers to follow in implementing the Declaration. It was recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO) revisit its report on social determinates of health to address the cultural determinates of health, such as land, language, ceremony, and identity, “which are essential for the health and well-being of indigenous peoples”.
In a wide-ranging text containing draft recommendations on the arrangements for the much-anticipated 2014 World Conference (document E/C.19/2012/L.5), the Permanent Forum emphasized that equal, direct and meaningful participation by indigenous peoples throughout all stages of the preparations for the Conference was essential “for the international community’s achievement of a constructive and comprehensive outcome which will genuinely improve the status and conditions of indigenous peoples worldwide”. In that regard, the Forum welcomed the establishment of an international coordinating group and its efforts to realize such participation over the next two years of preparations.
It also welcomed the decision of the President of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly to appoint the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations, Luis Alfonso de Alba, and the international representative of the Saami Parliament of Norway, John Henriksen, to conduct inclusive informal consultations on his behalf, with a view to determining the modalities for the World Conference, including substantive participation of indigenous peoples. The Assembly President was also called on to share with Member States the suggestions and recommendations emanating from the Permanent Forum’s half-day dialogue, held on 14 May, on preparations for the World Conference (see Press Release HR/5092).
While calling on Member States to intensify their efforts to adopt arrangements for the Conference “as soon as possible and before the end of the sixty-sixth session”, the Permanent Forum goes on to recommend that the event consist of a two–day high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly, as well as round tables and interactive dialogues and be co-chaired by representatives of Governments and indigenous peoples. It should be held in September, ahead of the Assembly’s annual general debate, to encourage the highest level of political participation. It was also recommended that a two-day thematic debate be convened ahead of the World Conference.
As for WIPO, and the work of that agency’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, the Permanent Forum adopted a text recommending that WIPO seek the participation of experts on international human rights law specifically concerning indigenous peoples, so they could provide input into the Committee’s substantive consultation process, especially regarding language and how indigenous peoples were characterized (document E/C.19/2012/l.4).
The Geneva-based Intergovernmental Committee is in the midst of text-based negotiations towards reaching agreement on an international legal instrument which would ensure the effective protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions, folklore and genetic resources. The Permanent Forum, therefore, demanded that WIPO recognize and respect the applicability and relevance of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “as a significant international human rights instrument” that must inform the Intergovernmental Committee process and the overall work of WIPO.
Expressing concern regarding the continued violence against indigenous women and girls, the Permanent Forum also adopted a text endorsing the report and recommendations of the international expert group meeting on combating that scourge (document E/C.19/2012/L.3) and requested that that report form part of the official documentation of the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2013. It further recommended that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the bureau of the 2013 session of the Women’s Commission include indigenous women as experts on violence against women in planned interactive panels, and guarantee the participation of indigenous women in both the preparatory process and during the session.
The Permanent Forum also adopted a text that contained recommendations emanating from its half-day discussions on the right of indigenous peoples to food and food sovereignty, held on 14 May (document E/C.19/2012/L.10). (See Press Release HR/5092.) Noting that indigenous rights to food sovereignty were inextricably linked to the collective recognition of the rights to land and resources, and culture and social organization, the experts welcomed the legal reforms and policies carried out in some States to recognize those rights.
Noting also that the levels of hunger are often disproportionately higher in indigenous communities, the Permanent Forum encouraged States to take positive actions to facilitate that capacity of indigenous peoples to strengthen traditional food systems, through, among others, formally recognizing and demarcating indigenous territories to enable them to better carry out productive food activities.
Regarding its discussions on Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia (see Press Release HR/5091), the Permanent Forum approved another set of recommendations (document E/C.19/2012/L.10), noting that the peoples of those regions, though small in number, were among the world’s most ethnically diverse. They faced myriad challenges, including low life expectancy and dispossession of their lands, and their languages were under serious threat of disappearing. “One of the main challenges is that [they] do not have access to mechanisms to ensure the protection of their rights”, the Permanent Forum says, adding that those indigenous peoples, largely involved in reindeer herding, also needed to be more involved in local politics and decision-making on issues that involved them.
With those issues in mind, the experts recommended an increase in decision-making mechanisms for their participation in matters concerning land use and resources exploration and exploitation, and access to free legal advice regarding development issues. They also urged the Governments in the region, including the Russian Federation, to “work in good faith with indigenous peoples for the unqualified endorsement and full implementation of the Declaration”. Those Governments were also urged to implement other international instruments regarding indigenous land rights, including through recognizing reindeer herders’ use and management of grazing land and the use of necessary biological resources by hunters, fishers and foragers.
As to its future work, the Forum appointed several of its members to undertake studies or reviews in a number of areas relevant to its mandate. Those include a study on the right to participation in decision-making processes of indigenous youth in the Nordic countries; a review of the World Bank’s operational policies on indigenous peoples to determine to what extent they respected the Declaration on Indigenous Rights; a study on the situation of indigenous peoples with disabilities; and a study on the impact of the mining boom upon indigenous peoples’ communities in Australia. Also recommended was a study on the elaboration of an optional protocol to the Declaration.
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There are so many schools that are ready to take the next step after the pandemic. They are ready to re-open, ready to receive children, and ready to make learning a good thing again.
Pandemic Affects Us
So the pandemic is tough to get over. Parents struggle, teachers struggle and our wonderful students have suffered. Getting us back together for more learning is important in the process of moving on from the pandemic’s effect upon us. We are all affected by the disease and we are naturally tired from the year we have spent fighting this.
Reading Helps Us
One way to think about this recovery period is to focus on reading. In the K-3 space we need to make sure every student reads on grade level by third grade. In the middle school years we need to read well into the domains of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and in the high school years we need to use reading to integrate what we have learned to solve the larger problems facing our society.
STEAM IT UP
STEM needs at least one more part, the arts. STEAM is one of our most important newish ideas for improving schools. Art gives students a chance to engage, create, elaborate, and solve problems with original thinking. When subjects are integrated using the arts, students produce much deeper levels of thinking. For example, they not only create something new and original, but they elaborate their academic work by writing about why their thinking produced that work. Or they articulate why they think their work is original. OR they demonstrate the deeper levels of impact on student learning by taking their work home where it makes a difference there.
A common way to capitalize on STEAM and to improve schools is to launch a serious set of project-based learning activities in the classroom:
1. Engage: Project-Based Learning—EDUTOPIA, MAY 9, 2021
Students go beyond the textbook to study complex topics based on real-world issues, such as the water quality in their communities or the history of their town, analyzing information from multiple sources, including the Internet and interviews with experts. Project-based classwork is more demanding than traditional book-based instruction, where students may just memorize facts from a single source. Instead, students utilize original documents and data, mastering principles covered in traditional courses but learning them in more meaningful ways. Projects can last weeks; multiple projects can cover entire courses. Student work is presented to audiences beyond the teacher, including parents and community groups.
Reality Check: At the Clear View Charter School, in Chula Vista, California, fourth- and fifth-grade students collected insect specimens, studied them under an electron microscope via a fiber-optic link to a nearby university, used Internet resources for their reports, and discussed their findings with university entomologists.—EDUTOPIA, MAY 9, 2021
This is a really good time to use the experience of the pandemic to re-start our work in improving our schools, positively impacting our students, and jumping forward into the future. Let’s use project-based teaching to make project-based learning good again. | <urn:uuid:823e52e3-edbc-4606-9469-ed5d779eb641> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://schoolworkslab.org/2021/05/10/improving-schools-make-learning-good-again/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711376.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20221209011720-20221209041720-00395.warc.gz | en | 0.962282 | 640 | 3.75 | 4 |
Preparing Principals: Consider the Adaptive Challenge
School leadership was challenging when it was a technical challenge—a largely understood task of optimizing the old age cohort standards-based model. With an improving opportunity set brought about by new tools and new school models, the job is increasingly adaptive—one that requires a good deal of "design planning" (Horn, Staker, 2014). This profound change suggests a new way to prepare and develop school leaders.
Last month Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) released an updated set of standards for EdLeaders. The release claims, "The standards detail the leadership skills and knowledge effective district and school leaders need in order to influence teaching and student learning."
The updated standards may be a competent standard for managing for a defined instructional environment but they incompletely address the design opportunity that is our best shot at significant outcome improvement. The updated standards appear to presume that it is good enough to make the old model a little better; they don't reflect new models or the associate change management required. It does not appear that anyone working on innovative school models were involved in drafting the standards.
New Leaders and the Bush Institute recently released Great Principals at Scale, "A framework of conditions that can help districts enable great school leadership." Like the CCSSO standards, this frame well describes the technical job of running an aligned instructional system but doesn't address creating a new one.
Change leadership. Leadership coach Lyle Kirtman suggests a broader focus, "Our educational leaders need to broaden, not narrow, their leadership competencies to be successful in today's world." Kirtman's book, Leadership and Teams, outlines 7 leadership competencies starting with challenging the status quo--challenging common practices and traditions, taking risk, and looking for innovations to get results. While the other competencies are similar to the CCSSO/NPBEA standards, Kirtman's competencies have stronger emphasis on communications and building external networks and partnerships.
Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy recently suggested that there are, "Three forces converging to break open prodigious learning possibilities":
New pedagogies springs from the new learning partnerships that emerge between and among students and teachers when digital tools and resources become pervasive.
Change leadership merges top-down, bottom-up and sideways energies to generate change that is faster and easier than anything seen in past efforts at reform.
New system economics makes the powerful learning tools and resources that accelerate the first two forces more affordable for all.
The authors acknowledge these forces are nascent but they are rapidly expanding and together act as a, "Positive contagion that becomes unstoppable given the right conditions." These new learning environments promote, "The learning, creating and 'doing' dispositions that young people need to thrive now and in their futures." Fullan and Langworthy suggest, "Iterative cycles of directional vision, letting go, and reining in," when operating under conditions of dynamic change. They stress the importance of creating a directional vision and building a culture that invites change and the capacity that makes it more organic. (See Fullan's video library for examples)
Fullan and Langworthy's conclusion signals a departure from the technocratic leadership:
The new change leadership - represents a huge challenge, but signs indicate that it is as attractive to people as it is daunting. The traditional school is being broken open and new forces for learning are almost spontaneously erupting. And we find more and more leaders - students, teachers and administrators alike - who recognise and embrace the new possibilities. Right now, at the early stages of these dynamic developments there is a great deal of ambiguity and uncertainty as to where things might and should go. This is normal at times of upheaval. The good news is that things are converging to create the distinct possibility that a critical mass of radically new learning practices are emerging. There is a good chance that these developments could turn out to be the new norm one day soon. Leadership at all levels has never been more critical. The best news is that leaders who want to make a difference now have an opportunity to have a huge impact.
If that sounds promising but organic, Andy Calkins, who directs the Next Generation Learning Challenges, describes these new environments as blended, personalized and competency-based. Profiles of NGLC grantees provides a detailed picture of the design opportunity.
Implications. Can every principal coach like Doug Lemov and disrupt like Clayton Christensen ? Like specialists in medicine, educational leadership will become more specialized and preparation will become linked to specific school models and situations (i.e., startup or turnaround). But even with more specialization, all EdLeaders need to balance execution and innovation:
Execution: Managing repeatable processes that deliver solid instruction in every class every day (as described by CCSSO/NPBEA and Bush/New Leaders standards)
Innovation: New tools and approaches seeking step function improvement (as described by Fullan and Longworthy)
Adding innovation to the agenda, as Kirtman suggests, starts with asking good questions. It requires EdLeaders to be design thinkers, conversation leaders, policy advocates.
Design thinking. While process management is process-centric, design thinking is student centered. It's starts with desired outcomes and is open to a variety of solutions. IDEO's Sandy Speicher said design thinking, "Means to connect with the lives of students." Because design thinking relies on borrowing innovations from other fields, a stint in consulting can be very useful. In addition to problem analysis and presentation skills, consulting provides preparation in group problem solving, ideation, design, and planning. IDEO's Tim Brown suggests that takes insight, observation, and empathy.
Conversation leaders. As community builders, EdLeaders must be great listeners, conversation leaders, organizers, and campaign leaders. They need to be well versed in political psychology, campaign strategy, communications, and social media. Leading community service projects and campaigns can be invaluable experiences for aspiring educational leaders. Learning to cultivate a positive social media presence is a must. Marketing to parents is important in portfolio districts. Conversation leaders build intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality. EdLeaders share a directional vision and shape a series of temporary agreements that provide clarity around next steps.
Policy advocates. Creating next gen learning environments often requires carving out the opportunity to do things differently. Doing it at scale requires new local and state policies that extend opportunity and equity. As conversation leaders, EdLeaders should also create opportunities to describe the context that would be support productive learning environments.
Education leadership is incredibly demanding. It also requires a high degree of personal effectiveness--strong planning skills, sound judgement, effective communication, and empathy. The ability to take feedback and use it to improve is critical. Reading and coursework can be useful, but practice under the tutelage of a mentor or coach is often best.
New Leaders created the Urban Excellence Framework which has "personal leadership" as its foundation (page 63). It includes: Belief-Based, Goal-Driven Leadership, Culturally Competent Leadership, Interpersonal Leadership, Adaptive Leadership, and Resilient Leadership. Principals must, "Strike a balance between being very firm about non-negotiables - and demonstrating genuine engagement with other, humility, and relationship-building."
As noted last year, it is a tall task to prepare EdLeaders that can flex from Lemov to Christensen, explain like Clinton and campaign like Axelrod. Specialization and model-specific development pathways are part of the answer. As the number of next gen models proliferates, teaching and leadership roles are beginning to vary considerably from model to model. As a result, it will become increasingly important to make a large percentage of teacher and leader preparation models specific. Like students, educators will increasingly benefit from learning that is blended, personalized, and competency-based.
This is the first of three posts on principal preparation and development. If you have thoughts about what principals should know and be able to do and how they should be prepared, please leave a comment we'd love to hear from you. | <urn:uuid:c5ebed0a-9de5-444b-b5e5-c9a6beec202d> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_innovation/2014/10/preparing_principals_consider_the_adaptive_challenge.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232257553.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20190524064354-20190524090354-00475.warc.gz | en | 0.946329 | 1,672 | 2.53125 | 3 |
What do you need? When asked with kind intent this powerful question demonstrates empathy, care and a desire to understand and connect.
- Ask yourself what YOU need for yourself: when you care for your needs you can meet the needs of others with an open heart and centered mind.
- Ask your children what THEY need. Food, rest, play, hugs, a helping hand, encouragement, companionship or a listening ear… Try to listen and honor the physical and emotional needs and strengthen your connection!
Latest posts by Ariadne Brill (see all)
- How to Reduce Attention Seeking Behavior In a Positive Way - October 21, 2019
- Toddler Misbehavior and Defiance Improves with Positive Discipline - July 8, 2019
- Using Time In instead of Time Out for Toddler Misbehavior - May 8, 2019 | <urn:uuid:f05709c6-13fb-4132-aa36-0fc23ec65f26> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.positiveparentingconnection.net/weekend-challenge-what-do-you-need/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540484815.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20191206050236-20191206074236-00392.warc.gz | en | 0.903975 | 168 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Economic and social power became concentrated in late seventeenth-century Virginia, leaving laborers and servants with restricted economic independence. Governor William Berkeley feared rebellion: “six parts of Seven at least are Poore, Indebted, Discontented and Armed.” Planter Nathaniel Bacon focused inland colonists’ anger at local Indians, who they felt were holding back settlement, and at a distant government unwilling to aid them. In the summer and fall of 1676, Bacon and his supporters rose up and plundered the elite’s estates and slaughtered nearby Indians. Bacon’s Declaration challenged the economic and political privileges of the governor’s circle of favorites, while announcing the principle of the consent of the people. Bacon’s death and the arrival of a British fleet quelled this rebellion, but Virginia’s planters long remembered the spectacle of white and black acting together to challenge authority.
1. For having, upon specious pretenses of public works, raised great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the advancement of private favorites and other sinister ends, but no visible effects in any measure adequate; for not having, during this long time of his government, in any measure advanced this hopeful colony either by fortifications, towns, or trade.
2. For having abused and rendered contemptible the magistrates of justice by advancing to places of judicature scandalous and ignorant favorites.
3. For having wronged his Majesty’s prerogative and interest by assuming monopoly of the beaver trade and for having in it unjust gain betrayed and sold his Majesty’s country and the lives of his loyal subjects to the barbarous heathen.
4. For having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians against his Majesty’s loyal subjects, never contriving, requiring, or appointing any due or proper means of satisfaction for their many invasions, robberies, and murders committed upon us.
5. For having, when the army of English was just upon the track of those Indians, who now in all places burn, spoil, murder and when we might with ease have destroyed them who then were in open hostility, for then having expressly countermanded and sent back our army by passing his word for the peaceable demeanor of the said Indians, who immediately prosecuted their evil intentions, committing horrid murders and robberies in all places, being protected by the said engagement and word past of him the said Sir William Berkeley, having ruined and laid desolate a great part of his Majesty’s country, and have now drawn themselves into such obscure and remote places and are by their success so emboldened and confirmed by their confederacy so strengthened that the cries of blood are in all places, and the terror and consternation of the people so great, are now become not only difficult but a very formidable enemy who might at first with ease have been destroyed.
6. And lately, when, upon the loud outcries of blood, the assembly had, with all care, raised and framed an army for the preventing of further mischief and safeguard of this his Majesty’s colony.
7. For having, with only the privacy of some few favorites without acquainting the people, only by the alteration of a figure, forged a commission, by we know not what hand, not only without but even against the consent of the people, for the raising and effecting civil war and destruction, which being happily and without bloodshed prevented; for having the second time attempted the same, thereby calling down our forces from the defense of the frontiers and most weakly exposed places.
8. For the prevention of civil mischief and ruin amongst ourselves while the barbarous enemy in all places did invade, murder, and spoil us, his Majesty’s most faithful subjects.
Of this and the aforesaid articles we accuse Sir William Berkeley as guilty of each and every one of the same, and as one who has traitorously attempted, violated, and injured his Majesty’s interest here by a loss of a great part of this his colony and many of his faithful loyal subjects by him betrayed and in a barbarous and shameful manner exposed to the incursions and murder of the heathen. And we do further declare these the ensuing persons in this list to have been his wicked and pernicious councilors, confederates, aiders, and assisters against the commonalty in these our civil commotions.
Sir Henry Chichley William Claiburne Junior
Lieut. Coll. Christopher Wormeley Thomas Hawkins
William Sherwood Phillip Ludwell
John Page Clerke Robert Beverley
John Cluffe Clerke Richard Lee
John West Thomas Ballard
Hubert Farrell William Cole
Thomas Reade Richard Whitacre
Matthew Kempe Nicholas Spencer
John West, Hubert Farrell, Thomas Reade, Math. Kempe
And we do further demand that the said Sir William Berkeley with all the persons in this list be forthwith delivered up or surrender themselves within four days after the notice hereof, or otherwise we declare as follows.
That in whatsoever place, house, or ship, any of the said persons shall reside, be hid, or protected, we declare the owners, masters, or inhabitants of the said places to be confederates and traitors to the people and the estates of them is also of all the aforesaid persons to be confiscated. And this we, the commons of Virginia, do declare, desiring a firm union amongst ourselves that we may jointly and with one accord defend ourselves against the common enemy. And let not the faults of the guilty be the reproach of the innocent, or the faults or crimes of the oppressors divide and separate us who have suffered by their oppressions.
These are, therefore, in his Majesty’s name, to command you forthwith to seize the persons above mentioned as traitors to the King and country and them to bring to Middle Plantation and there to secure them until further order, and, in case of opposition, if you want any further assistance you are forthwith to demand it in the name of the people in all the counties of Virginia.
General by Consent of the people.
Source: "Declaration of Nathaniel Bacon in the Name of the People of Virginia, July 30, 1676,"Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th ser., 1871, vol. 9: 184–87. | <urn:uuid:5ea626c7-fcee-4f04-ab3e-559fd82f88e8> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5800/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049274119.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002114-00099-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953764 | 1,308 | 3.78125 | 4 |
Cleaner Air Results in Higher Home Prices
"During the 1970s, pollution regulations may have resulted in over $80 billion in aggregate economic gains nationwide. In the 1980s ... homeowners accumulated $50 billion of benefits."
Real estate agents delight in reciting to prospective homeowners a marketing mantra in which they insist that the only three things that matter in purchasing a property are: "location, location, location." But they might want to at least refine their definition of "location" so that it encompasses more than a home's proximity to good parks and schools and considers the very quality of the air that surrounds it.
That's because housing prices appear to get a substantial lift from localized reductions in particulate matter pollution and other air pollutants, according to an NBER Working Paper by Kenneth Chay and Michael Greenstone. Chay and Greenstone suggest that this relationship could help policymakers, who often focus on the economic downside of environmental laws, "measure the value of environmental resources and the monetary benefits of federal pollution regulations."
Their study, Does Air Quality Matter? Evidence from the Housing Market (NBER Working Paper No. 6826) , looks at 20 years of federal efforts to control air pollution in which regulations spawned by the Clean Air Act have set rigid air quality standards that are applied on a county-by-county basis. The authors compare changes in pollution levels and housing prices in so-called "non-attainment" areas, that is counties across the United States that have been forced to reduce pollutants in order to meet federal clean air requirements, to the changes that occurred in "attainment" counties that met the federal standards and were virtually unregulated.
Chay and Greenstone find that during the 1970s and 1980s particulate matter pollution declined substantially more in non-attainment counties, apparently prodded by the threat of regulatory action, than in attainment counties. Coinciding with these air quality improvements, home prices increased more in non-attainment counties relative to attainment areas -- by about 4.8 percent in the 1970s and about 3.9 percent in the 1980s. This evidence suggests that housing markets may capitalize environmental amenities into property values, which has been a point of some controversy in the previous literature.
Under one set of assumptions, Chay and Greenstone calculate that the cumulative effect is that during the 1970s, "pollution regulations may have resulted in over $80 billion in aggregate economic gains" nationwide. In the 1980s they estimate that homeowners accumulated "$50 billion of benefits." The authors state, "Taken literally, this result suggests that federal pollution regulations resulted in substantial monetary benefits for homeowners in regulated counties... In addition, it provides the first estimates of the economic value of federal environment policy which are based on the housing market."
The information that fueled Chay and Greenstone's analysis was culled from several sources, including the Code of Federal Regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency (for county-by-county air quality data and attainment status) and the U.S. Census and the County and City Data Books (for local property values).
Chay and Greenstone note that the data indicate a strong cause-and-effect relationship between the regulations and improved air quality and higher property values. They do acknowledge that during the recession of the early 1980s, air quality improvements in some counties were probably attributable to such things as recession-induced plant closings. However, overall they conclude that "it appears that the most important predictor of changes in pollution is environmental regulation."
The Digest is not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely with appropriate attribution of source. | <urn:uuid:16944a67-6302-4d1c-9c25-1aa33910f9fa> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.nber.org/digest/mar99/w6826.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049276304.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002116-00216-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963744 | 729 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The summer of 2008 was a tough fire season for California. A July heat wave coupled with dry lightning storms to spark blazes across northern and central regions of the state, killing 23 people and causing tens of millions of dollars in property damage.
The extent of the fire's effect didn't end there, though. For days after the flames had died down, a pall of smoke hung over the Central Valley, spiking air pollution levels and prompting authorities in the Bay Area to caution the young and elderly against venturing outside.
Fire sows destruction with dramatic force. Smoke, on the other hand, can have a longer-lasting, farther-reaching effect on humans, animals and even vegetation. Focusing on California, new research in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests smoke and fire will likely increase in tandem as the West dries and warms under climate change.
Building on past studies that examined how future hydrology, forest composition and population growth might exacerbate fire-related property damage, the new work explores how similar patterns might affect the air quality in a climate-changed future. Emissions scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provided a basis for the study's warming trends.
While the presence of humans, particularly in proximity to nature, can lead to more ignition events, it appears a changing climate will drive most of the increases in fire and smoke-related activity, said Matthew Hurteau, a researcher at the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Pennsylvania State University and lead author of the report. That's because humans tend to concentrate in sparsely forested areas like grass and scrublands, where fires are less severe, he said.
And it's in those densely forested, sparsely populated regions that most smoke will be generated, he said.
Big potential jump in emissions
"If you're looking for emissions, rather than just intensity of the fire, then vegetation comes into play," he said. Dense forests have more biomass to burn and therefore release more emissions than grass- or shrub-dominated landscapes, he explained.
Under the high-severity emissions pathway laid out by the IPCC -- in which temperatures would likely increase by 3.5 to 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century -- emissions from biomass burning in California should increase between 19 and 101 percent, according to the study.
That wide range of possibility stems from the differing fire severity of the state's various landscapes, Hurteau said. "Where you fall in that range is going to be a function of the type of vegetation the fire is burning through and the type of fire burning," he said.
Forest fires produce a range of harmful pollutants, some of which are themselves short-term climate forcers. More concerning in the short term, however, are the effects these materials can have on people and their environment.
According to the report, from the years 2005 to 2010, biomass burning accounted for roughly 18 percent of California's man-made carbon monoxide, 21 percent of its nitrogen oxide and 34 percent of its small particulate matter.
Controlled burns could cut emissions
"For large fire years, the emissions from biomass burning can equate to much more," the report notes.
Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides can be toxic in large doses, and small particulates can cause irritation or breathing difficulty or exacerbate respiratory problems. Non-methane organic compounds produced by fires can react with nitrogen oxides to form ozone, a pollutant that has been shown to impede plant growth and slow photosynthesis.
"A real takeaway from this for me is that, under the high-emissions scenario, we're seeing yet another societal impact from climate change," Hurteau said. "It may only be indirectly that climate is influencing these fires, but they in turn are affecting us with their emissions."
Hurteau's other takeaway from the study might strike some as paradoxical -- he wants to see more fires.
Given how much of California is fire-adapted, he said, it has become imperative that fire be allowed to return to the landscape under controlled conditions. While this practice will certainly generate some smoke of its own, controlled burning as a forest management technique tends to produce less emissions than spontaneous wildfires, he said.
"Prescribed fires tend to be smaller than, say, last year's Rim Fire," he said. "You're burning under your own conditions, so typically later in the year, when temperatures are cooler and there's more moisture in the wood." Some of the fuel is burned up, he said, but much of it holds onto its carbon.
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8 Great Ways to Promote Preschool Classroom Safety
By Lauren Elrick on 09/08/2016
“Criss, cross, applesauce, spoons in the bowl!” a young preschool teacher exclaims as she demonstrates sitting on the ground, crossing her legs and placing her hands in her lap. Her preschool students follow suit with singsong voices and finally settle down on the rug.
Preschool teachers across the globe use creative techniques like these to help their students calm down so learning can take place. Not only do teachers need clever classroom management strategies up their sleeves, but they also need to make sure their classroom is a safe place that promotes learning.
It can be easy for classroom safety to slip teachers’ minds amid lesson plans and field trips, but it’s definitely not something to be ignored! A well-organized classroom that has safety procedures in place not only makes students feel more secure, but it also shows parents their children are being well cared for.
If you’re a preschool teacher looking for ways to implement classroom safety, keep reading. We connected with early childhood education (ECE) professionals to learn how they keep their learning environments secure and at low risk for harmful situations. Keep reading to learn some tried and true tactics for preschool classroom safety.
8 Preschool classroom safety tips
1. Keep dangerous supplies out of reach
Scissors, bulletin board tacks, glue – all things that shouldn’t be easily accessible for preschool-aged kids. Make sure to keep any sharp objects, choking hazards, poisonous materials and other potentially hazardous supplies on a high shelf or locked away in a cupboard.
The last thing you want is a student standing on their tippy-toes to reach a bin of sharp items on a just-out-of-reach ledge. When supplies like these are out and available during craft time, it’s important to talk with your students about how to properly use these tools.
“Be sure to take the time to review safety procedures with the children before adding to an open shelf in the art area,” says Mary Muhs, dean of the Rasmussen School of Education. “Then when children are using the materials, be sure to keep an eye open to help with safety if needed.”
2. Wash your hands
Regular hand washing is a standard procedure for most classrooms, but it’s also one that many preschoolers haven’t fully grasped yet. Set a good example by getting in the habit of properly washing your hands yourself. Be sure the water is warm but not too hot for that delicate preschooler skin. Make hand washing a typical part of your daily routine: before and after mealtimes, after bathroom breaks and during other messy moments in the day.
“Another healthy practice is to have children wash their hands upon entry to the classroom to help remove germs brought in from outside,” Muhs says. “Then, washing hands before heading home can help prevent germs from taking the ride home as well.”
3. Sanitize everything
Just like hand washing, cleanliness is key for keeping germs at bay and keeping yourself and your students healthy and happy. Make sure that you and your aide sanitize all of the toys, tables, chairs and other surfaces at the end of each school day. It’s important that these things aren’t just wiped clean but thoroughly sanitized.
“Although most of us know that we should clean the materials in our classrooms, what we don't consider is the difference between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting,” says Cheryl Hatch, an ECE professional at Mothers of Preschoolers. She explains that cleaning wipes away dirt and debris while sanitizing actually decreases the number of germs on a surface. If you make sanitizing a regular part of your end-of-the-day routine, you’ll help reduce the number of colds and illnesses your students (and you!) are exposed to.
4. Practice emergency plans
Emergency plans don’t do much good if your preschoolers don’t know the drill. Walk kids through the experience before your school’s first fire drill to prevent any crying or frightened sobs. Role play the whole event, from alarm to the moment when it’s safe to come back inside. Then when that first fire drill rings, your students won’t be alarmed.
Do the same thing with lockdown drills, tornado drills and other emergency safety plans. This will help children—and their parents for that matter—understand that their school and teacher takes safety seriously.
5. Follow through with consequences
Kids need boundaries to feel safe and it’s important they have rules to keep them in line. Many common preschool rules are in place to keep kids safe. When one of your students breaks a rule, make sure you follow through with a consequence.
“We always hold hands when we walk outside” could prevent a student from running into the parking lot and in front of a car. It’s not fun to discipline students, but it’s essential that they understand their boundaries and know you’ll uphold them if they choose to be rebellious.
“A logical consequence such as having to hold a teacher’s hand while walking to the playground may help the child to remember safety next time,” Muhs explains. She stresses that you should keep the consequences related to the situation, and never withhold food or playground time from a child.
6. Design the room properly
Giant toys, open closet doors and bookshelves can prevent you from seeing your students at all times. Make sure that when you arrange your classroom at the beginning of the year, you keep shelves and large objects in a place that won’t obstruct your view of students. It’s also important to design the room so students stay interested in the activities you provide for them.
“Too much room, and preschoolers think they are at an airport and the classroom appears to be a runway,” Hatch explains. “Too little room and children are frustrated by the lack of ability to really participate and explore the materials.” Bored or irritated kids can quickly discover new ways of getting into unsafe situations, so make it easy for them to stay busy with the safe play options you’ve planned.
7. Watch the floors
Kids spend a lot of time on the floor, which makes it a prime spot for safety hazards to arise. Floors should be clear of debris and toys that may cause someone to trip and fall, so make sure to involve your kids with regular cleanup procedures. Not only will you be saving yourself from stepping on an abandoned Lego, you’ll be helping students develop good habits for later in life.
Use carpet tape to prevent rugs from curling or slipping and periodically check for loose floorboards or tiles. Preschool-aged kids toddle around and fall occasionally, but by checking your classroom floors, you can help prevent an unnecessary accident.
8. Keep communication flowing
Keep an open line of communication between yourself and your students’ parents, as well as between yourself and your students. Your classroom is a community. Open communication will help you all work together to keep students safe.
Keep everyone up to date on new guidelines, what’s happening on field trips, your classroom policies and other emergency information. Become familiar with your students’ immediate families so you can quickly spot a suspicious person versus a parent stopping by for lunch with their child. Keep your fellow teachers and superiors updated as well so any situations that arise can be taken care of promptly and efficiently.
Managing your classroom
If you love kids and teaching, it’s a no-brainer that these simple classroom safety tips will make teaching environment more enjoyable for everyone. Now that you’ve got these handy safety pointers under your belt, learn some fun and functional ways to guide your youngsters in our article: 10 Proven Classroom Management Tips for Preschool Teachers. | <urn:uuid:def8a83d-1368-4bf9-85bc-862fffac4abd> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/preschool-classroom-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511000.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002132844-20231002162844-00864.warc.gz | en | 0.952289 | 1,677 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Mastery Objective(s): The student will…
- demonstrate his/her understanding of linear perspective by applying either one, two, or three-point in an artwork featuring an interior view of a space.
Media: open media (your choice), except NO GRAPHITE! IF you want to use GRAPHITE, it MUST be combined and unified with another medium.
- paper is given to you in a specific size
- must use 80% of your paper
- needs to have a definitive light source
- Subject Matter: an interior view of a space…
- the inside of a metro bus
- your bedroom or your dream bedroom
- a hallway at school
- an imaginary room
- Subject Matter: the items in the space must demonstrate your understanding of perspective…
- geometric items – tables, desks, chairs, etc.
- a design or object on the floor
- items on the walls – pictures, mirrors, windows, etc.
- Mood: must have a feeling of _____________ (your choice)…
- humorous, etc.
- Point of View:
- BIRD’S EYE
- WORM’S EYE
- above eye-level
- below eye-level
- @ eye-level
Examples of ONE-POINT Linear Perspective:
Examples of TWO-POINT Linear Perspective:
Examples of THREE-POINT Linear Perspective:
***note: not all of the examples above were intended for this project, so therefore, not all are ‘finished’ and of the quality I expect for your project. They are just examples for you to get ideas from. | <urn:uuid:e48a94fd-0993-4520-8ced-deadab9acb4b> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | https://art4tab.com/interior/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400222515.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20200925053037-20200925083037-00055.warc.gz | en | 0.861995 | 341 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Learn the history behind the Montessori work mat and 6 simple tips for incorporating them into your home or classroom environment.
The work mat: it’s a quintessential Montessori material.
Walk into a Montessori classroom and you’ll see at least one kid flopped on a small rug on the floor, with some material or other strewn across it. (Or arranged neatly, as the case may be.)
What’s the story, and why are work mats an important part of a Montessori prepared environment?
Freedom and discipline, baby.
Why Use a Montessori Work Mat
When Maria Montessori was starting her work with children, there were some pretty intense desks in schools, even in kindergarten. These desks were designed to prevent spine problems in students who had to site for long periods of time at school.
Maria hated these desks. “What the schools need is more liberty, not such a contraption as a desk.” (The Discovery of the Child)
And so in her own schools, Maria Montessori did things differently. She had child-sized tables and chairs, light enough for the children to move. We’re used to those now. But she also let the children work on the floor if they so chose.
The idea is to give children the freedom to choose where they will work and concentrate best.
We all know those kids who can barely stay still in a chair. Sometimes these kids do much better sprawled out on the floor. And if that allows them to focus, it will help them develop the ability to be still.
But Why the Work Mat In Particular?
But the question still remains, why a work mat? Why can’t the kids just work directly on the floor?
The beauty of Montessori is that it works with the natural inclinations of kids to help them develop good habits and self-discipline. It’s not just a do-whatever-you-want-method.
And, not only do kids sometimes have a natural inclination to sprawl on the floor, but they also have a natural inclination to order.
Really. It’s why they line up all their toys in a line down the middle of the living room or cry when you drive a different way home. External order helps them learn to understand and feel at home in this new world that is wonderful but still very wild.
This is why work mats have a place in a Montessori environment. A work mat allows the child to work on the floor, and gives him an external ordering of his work space. He can’t strew his work all over the place, it must stay on the mat. It also teaches intention and discipline. He has to lay the mat out before he gets the material and put it away when he is done.
Tips for Incorporating Work Mats in Your Montessori Environment
- Choose work mats that are attractive but one solid, light color. This way they won’t distract from the work.
- Use natural fabric for the work mats as much as possible, instead of synthetic.
- Work mats should be large enough for a good work space, but small enough for the child to roll up and carry independently. You can have multiple sizes.
- Designate a bin or a shelf for storing the work mats.
- Show your students, one at a time, how to carry with two hands, set out, (before bringing work) roll up, and put away a work mat. Explain what the mat is for, but use actions instead of words when showing them how to do the above.
- Show each child how to walk around a mat that is on the floor.
Questions, insights, or stories? Have you seen the benefits of a Montessori work mat? Let me know in the comments! | <urn:uuid:97ae1ed2-1707-4345-b214-a126c9edf9bc> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://jeankermode.com/tag/how-to-help-kids-focus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250591763.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20200118023429-20200118051429-00210.warc.gz | en | 0.947442 | 802 | 2.828125 | 3 |
To make the point Silverstein reiterates the history of psychiatric specialty nursing, a traditional role for specialty care in nursing.
To deliver specialized care to those in mental institutions, mental nurses were required to possess specific qualities and demonstrate unique abilities, such as sympathy, intelligence, and trustworthiness (Church, 1982). Other essential attributes included knowing how to calm the nerves of an anxious or suicidal patient by using empathy and tact. Mental nurses' abilities set them apart from other nurses, but were difficult to define and understand, for they were ethereal in nature and not easily describable. (Silverstein, 2006, p. 33)
These understandings, described by Silverstein as "ethereal" have become a basic core set of values for the nurse in training and practice and must not be lost, regardless of the transition to autonomous scientific-based care.
Hales et al. has the most comprehensive description of the modern trend to create specialized autonomous care, focusing on scientific training and assimilation of autonomous specialty nurse practitioners in mental health care.
Major shifts in today's healthcare system have resulted in a clear demonstration that advanced practice nurses (APNs) are able to provide cost-effective, high-quality care to patients and their families (Cooper, 2001; Gabay & Wolfe, 1997; Mundinger et al., 1999; Pinkerton & Bush, 2000). Although much of the focus has been on nurse practitioners (NPs) in the primary care setting, APNs in specialty areas are receiving growing attention. Specifically, psychiatric-mental health APNs (both clinical nurse specialists and psychiatric nurse practitioners) have become significantly more visible in providing care to the mentally ill population (Baradell & Bordeaux, 2001; Puskar & Bernado, 2002; Society, 1997). and, just as primary care NPs have altered and positively affected the primary care environment (Pearson, 2002; Simpson et al., 2001), psychiatric-mental health APNs have become key players in building a mental healthcare environment and infrastructure that increases patients' access to quality care, while reducing overall costs. (Hales, Karshmer, Williams, Mann & Robbins, 2004, p. 93)
Though Hales et al. stresses the significant factors associated with autonomous care trends he also discusses the role of training nurses in science and core values (such as nurturing) at the highest levels of nurse training to maintain a continuum of care that pays particular attention to the strengths of the nursing industry, while still making sure to transition practitioners into autonomous roles through increased science training.
The transition of the nurse practitioner to a role as primary care provider for the mentally ill, has been long in coming but each of these authors pays particular attention of the strengths and perceived weaknesses that are inherent in such a transition. While Raingruber emphasizes the strength of core values in the nurse patient relationship, Silverstein reiterates the potential for this relationship to be lost in the science and lastly Hales et al. The authors reiterate the need to fully train autonomous specialized nurse practitioners in the field, through the science and the core values of nursing care. Each of these works is in some way reflective of the necessity of finding balance between the traditional roles of nurses as nurturing and the need to fully explore the possibilities of the science of medicine as an aspect of a full preparedness for an autonomous role.
Conclusions I draw from the experience of a fuller understanding of the need to broaden the collective responsibility of nurse practitioners in a way that does not forsake the nurturing role of nurses, over the autonomous authority of primary care provider in specialty psychiatric care are congruent with the ideals of transition. As advance practice nurses and especially specialty nurse practitioners broaden the scope of their practice, through autonomy they and those who train them must reiterate core values of the nurturing nurse-patient relationship and there is no more clear example of this than in psychiatric care as the content and context of psychiatric illness requires all the core values of the nurturing relationship and a current need to understand the science of medicine, especially as it applies to pharmacology, an ever evolving field in psychiatric care. Balance is in fact the most crucial of all transitions as balance will determine the face of the future for autonomous primary care nurse practitioners.
Hales, a., Karshmer, J.F., Williams, J., Mann, a.S., & Robbins, L.K. (2004). Preparing for Prescriptive Privileges: A Standard for the Psychiatric-Mental Health Preceptorship. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 40(3), 93.
Raingruber, B. (2003). Nurture: The Fundamental Significance of Relationship as a Paradigm… | <urn:uuid:772ac311-df15-447c-b71d-ae5c060fc2be> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://www.paperdue.com/essay/adult-nurse-practitioner-recent-trend-33206 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608058.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170525083009-20170525103009-00000.warc.gz | en | 0.929321 | 952 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the Caribbean reef shark as Near Threatened; its population has declined off Belize and Cuba from overfishing and exploitation continues in other regions. They are also threatened by the degradation and destruction of their coral reef habitat. Commercial fishing for this species is prohibited in United States waters. They are protected in the Bahamas due to their significance to ecotourism, as well as in a number of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) off Brazil and elsewhere. However, enforcement against illegal fishing is lacking in some of these reserves, and many areas in which this species is abundant are not protected.
Barcode of Life ~ BioOne ~ Biodiversity Heritage Library ~ CITES ~ Cornell Macaulay Library ~ Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) ~ ESA Online Journals ~ FishBase ~ Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department ~ GBIF ~ Google Scholar ~ ITIS ~ IUCN RedList (Threatened Status) ~ Marine Species Identification Portal ~ NCBI (PubMed, GenBank, etc.) ~ Ocean Biogeographic Information System ~ PLOS ~ SIRIS ~ Tree of Life Web Project ~ UNEP-WCMC Species Database ~ WoRMS
Like many sharks, the Caribbean reef shark mainly eats bony fishes. The shark uses six keen senses to locate its prey: olfactory, visual, tactile (including water vibration sensitivity through a lateralis canal system), auditory, gustatory, and electric reception. The Caribbean reef shark is especially adapted to detecting low frequency sounds (indicative of a struggling fish nearby).
With this line of sandals from Reef at DICK'S Sporting Goods, you will have a number of exceptional designs to choose from. Select handsome footwear that will pair well with a summer dress or sporty-chic leisurewear. These sandals are not only great for summertime activities, they are on trend and fashionable. Here are some things to think about before buying your Reef flip flops or sandals:
WWF works to preserve the coral habitats where reef sharks live through the creation and improved management of marine protected areas, elaboration of fisheries management plans, and the introduction of fishing bans to protect vulnerable species including reef sharks. WWF also promoted the understanding that communities can derive more economic value from reef sharks through tourism than through their capture. We support local communities to set up appropriate ecotourism systems and infrastructure to ensure well-managed and sustainable shark tourism operations.
Now 30 years later, the company is thriving as the global surf lifestyle brand that lives by the "Just Passing Through" mentality of surf adventure. Reef draws on the spirit of the global traveler to offer casual lifestyle footwear for men and women, as well as apparel for men that combines function and fashion for life on the road. Using technology and a host of eco-based materials inspired by Reef Redemption, Reef continually delivers instant comfort and exotic styling, and strives toward versatile and multi-functional products for the traveling surfer. The brand is also well known for an ambassador program that supports some of the best wanderers and waveriders around the globe.
The Caribbean reef shark is a viviparous species, meaning its developing embryos are nourished via a placental connection. The litters average four to six pups. Although this shark’s reproduction has not been studied in the northern hemisphere, but to the south, parturition occurs during the Amazon summer of November to December. Pregnant females are often found to have biting scars from males on the sides of their bodies, due to the aggressive behaviors of males during mating. Gestation is believed to take approximately one year. A pregnant female with biting scars and wounds on the sides of her body, taken off the coast of north-northeastern Brazil, carried four near-term embryos. One was a 27.5 in. (700 mm) long male and three were females measuring 27.0 in. (685 mm), 27.4 in. (697 mm), and 27.7 in. (704 mm) in length. Because she was carrying near-term embryos, it is postulated that this area may be a pupping ground. Although such captures have shed light on the topic, relatively little is known about the reproduction of the Caribbean reef shark. Much information has been obtained from a pregnant female carrying four near-term embryos off the coast of northeastern Brazil. This female had scars and wounds on her side. Because the shark carried near-term embryos, it is postulated that this area may be a pupping ground.
The coloration is grey above, sometimes with a bronze sheen, and white below. The entire rear margin of the caudal fin has a distinctive, broad, black band. There are dusky to black tips on the pectoral, pelvic, second dorsal, and anal fins. Individuals from the western Indian Ocean have a narrow, white margin at the tip of the first dorsal fin; this trait is usually absent from Pacific populations. Grey reef sharks that spend time in shallow water eventually darken in color, due to tanning. Most grey reef sharks are less than 1.9 m (6.2 ft) long. The maximum reported length is 2.6 m (8.5 ft) and the maximum reported weight is 33.7 kg (74 lb). | <urn:uuid:d57898d7-e2a6-4715-957d-bc886eda564e> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://thewanderersnotepad.com/reef-experience-liveaboard-reef-youtube.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027331228.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20190826064622-20190826090622-00384.warc.gz | en | 0.943554 | 1,093 | 2.53125 | 3 |
|Rome history||Sleeping||Contact Us|
Continuous war, the victories and spread of the power of Rome to all parts of the Mediterranean had changed the character and aspirations the people of Rome and the roman republic. With the fall of Carthage the Mediterranean sea could be said to have become "a Roman lake" and Roman citizens had grown a love for the finer things in life.
Tributes and taxes exacted from all parts of Roman territories brought an enormous concentration of wealth within the roman republic itself. Tastes had become expensive and people increasingly aspired to the luxuries and culture offered by the East. Art, spices and all kinds of merchandise would be imported from the most distant lands in order to satisfy the most exotic of tastes.
The richer students would travel to countries such as Greece for the final years of their upbringing in order to perfect their Greek language and other disciplines such as Oratory. A good example of this is to be found in the writer Horace, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, who at about the time of the Catiline conspiracy (overcome by Cicero) came to Rome with his father. He was eight years old and the intention was that he might receive the best tuition. By the age of twenty Horace travelled to Athens and after a number of years returned to Rome. He impressed the likes of Virgil, Maecenas and the emperor Augustus with his wit and learning.
Not so positive was the fact that the wealthier classes were aspiring to increasingly large and ostentatious estates. The great increase in Rome's dominions had driven down the cost of slaves and made slave labour more economical than paying wages to free men. At the same time the cost of land became forbidding to all but the richest and this happened to be accompanied with a shift from crops to shepherding with a consequent reduction in job numbers. Jobs for the poor were therefore extremely hard to find and very badly paid.
The wealth gap between rich and poor widened and, to use some modern terminology, inflation shot through the roof. The poor of Rome would have to depend on rich wealthy men to help them or join the army to be paid a wage.
As is to be expected this more or less sudden concentration of wealth created increasing social division and soon developed into a hundred years of class struggle and civil war. The attrition culminated in the murder of Julius Caesar who set the wheels of reform in motion with numerous laws and public works (before being murdered). A new era dawned only when Caesar's adoptive son Octavianus, later known as emperor Augustus, took power.
Stepping back a little again, as the social divide widened discontent became increasingly evident and the wheels of reform accompanied by violence were set into motion by Tiberius Gracchus - a grandson of the great Scipio Africanus (the one who had subdued Carthage). Tiberius had witnessed the suffering of the poor and proposed to the Senate the revival of an old but hitherto ignored agrarian law which limited the extent of land any single person was allowed to own.
Given that most of the senate's members belonged to the landowning Patrician families it is hardly surprising that Tiberius' proposal wasn't met with much sympathy. Not wanting to be outdone Tiberius circumvented the senate by forcing the law through the council of Tribunes and assembly of tribes which represented the Plebeians. In modern Britain this could be likened to forcing legislation on the basis of approval through the House of Commons alone and skipping approval of the House of Lords.
Around the year 133BC the agrarian law was passed but it was clearly very difficult to enforce. Also in order to have the law passed Tiberius had had to employ illegal methods. Events soon developed into a riot in the midst of which Tiberius was killed.
Tiberius had a brother called Caius Sempronius Gracchus. Some years after the death of his brother Caius reached a similar position of influence and proposed two laws in favour of the poor, both of which were passed.
The first favoured the poor by awarding them the right to purchase grain from the state at half of market price. (By the time of Augustus this social right for the poor was also being taken advantage of by the not-so-poor so that some 50% of the population were effectively living off social welfare). The second of Caius' laws favoured the middle classes whose wealth lay in banking and merchandising as opposed to landholding and gave them power in the courts.
Caius then re-proposed the agrarian law his brother had first put forward ten years earlier and then dared propose that the Latin people should be granted the right to be considered Roman citizens. Not surprisingly a new riot broke out and Caius was slain like his brother.
To this day the Gracchi brothers represent the soul and inspiration of revolutionaries. However, once dead there were few who could or would stand up for the rights of the poor and indigent whilst the only power and justice of Rome was to be found through bribery and gold.
Under this tense climate, two great generals began their ascent: First Caius Marius and then Sulla. The former had fought under Scipio Africanus whilst the latter was actually a Lieutenant under Marius. As is described further on, Marius succeeded in defending Rome from grave threats such as barbarian invasions and rebellion of the other Italic peoples. Not only was he militarily able enough to abate these threats but he was also wise enough to see the reason in Caius Gracchus' proposals for awarding citizenship to those faithful to Rome. This he undertook to great common benefit.
Unfortunately the tension between plebeians and patricians, the poor and the rich of Rome was not resolved and so grew into increasingly cruel civil wars between generals such as that between Marius and Sulla each of whom slew thousands of personal opponents whether Romans or not.
It was in this torrid environment that the Patrician Julius Caesar began his rise to power. He aligned himself with the Popular party which stood for the Plebeians and fought a civil war against general Pompey who was aligned with the Senate. The military side of things ended in Egypt with the death of Pompey and a love affair between Caesar and Cleopatra (from whom a child was born).
The class war had apparently culminated in a resounding victory for the people and Julius Caesar was subsequently declared perpetual dictator although he didn't get the honor of a Triumphal march given that his adversary had been another Roman.
Julius Caesar was murdered shortly afterwards by personal friends of his who mistakenly believed they were defending republican rights. The "noble" conspirators were joined by a bunch of others who hoped to make personal gain out of Caesar's death. At first sight all this may appear somewhat contradictory given that Caesar was politically aligned with the rights of the people, the "Plebs", the "multitude"! But politics is politics.
In fact Caesar had been an able visionary as well as a unique general and statesman (and incorrigible adulterer). He had understood that the republican system had run its 500 year course and was now incapable of governing what was about to be called "the Roman Empire".
During his short tenure as (benevolent) Dictator he initiated a huge number of urgently needed reforms ranging from social and legal aspects through to the construction of essential public works. Many of these came to a halt with Julius Caesar's death but were soon picked up again by his adopted successor Augustus.
Click here to learn a little more about the Roman civil wars and the crisis of the Roman Republic. It's epic stuff, proscriptions, assassinations, pirates, Gladiators on revolt and revenge. Wow.
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Roman History: | aeneas | Romulus, Remus & the origins of Rome | The ancient roman kings | Oath of the Horatii | The Kingdom and Seven Kings of Rome | The Roman Republic | The Conquest of Italy and the Punic Wars | The Republic in crisis | Julius Caesar and the end of the Republic | Queen Cleopatra of Egypt | Augustus and the Empire | The 12 Caesars | The Five Good Emperors | Other Emperors | Emperor Constantine and Christianisation | fall of the roman empire |
| roman empire | pax romana | Reasons for the collapse and fall of the roman empire | Contributions by Ancient Romans |
Please email us if you feel a correction is required to the Rome information provided. Please read the disclaimer
"roman republic " was written by Giovanni Milani-Santarpia for www.mariamilani.com - Rome apartments | <urn:uuid:e2c673e8-0676-4086-a082-0af06d2fb985> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.mariamilani.com/ancient_rome/roman%20republic.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257828010.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071028-00033-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977283 | 1,822 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Probably like you, I was brought up with the belief that poinsettias and mistletoe were very poisonous and that ingestion and close contact should be avoided. There was special concern for small children and pets. Well, a lot has been learned in the past several years about their toxicity to humans and pets.
A brief history. Apparently the claim of their toxicity goes back to 1919 when an army officer’s two-year-old child reportedly died after eating part of a poinsettia leaf (bract). This claim is now is question because of the many reports of poinsettia ingestion with the end result being only mild symptoms such as nausea or vomiting, but no deaths.
Current data. In 1996, a detailed analysis of some 22,000+ cases of ingestion of poinsettia was published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. This revealed no deaths, that 96% of the cases required no treatment outside of the home, and 92% of the people developed no symptoms after ingestion.
There has been one estimate that a 50-pound child would have to consume more that 500 leaves to approach a dose that could cause symptoms to appear.
What about pets? Dogs and cats that ingest poinsettias may suffer gastrointestinal symptoms. However, apparently these plants pose no major threat to pets.
A brief history. Mistletoe has been used for centuries as a treatment for arthritis, infertility, high blood pressure, and headache. However, American mistletoe is generally considered to be very toxic by both the lay public and many medical professionals despite that there is no data to support this contention.
Current data. In 1997, a paper was published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine in which the authors examined the outcomes of 1,754 exposures to this plant based on data collected during 1985-1992 by the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Exposures to children accounted for 92.1% of the cases, and 94.7% of these were from accidental exposures. They found that 99.2% of these cases had an outcome associated with no disease, and there were no deaths. They concluded that the accidental ingestion of American mistletoe is not associated with profound toxicity.
In another paper published in 1996 in the Journal of Toxicol Clin Toxicol, the authors examined data associated with 92 human cases collected from 1990-1993, of which only 14 had any symptoms. In the cases of a known quantity ingested, 8 of 10 where 5 or more berries (range up to 20 berries) were ingested remained symptom free. In the 11 cases with leaf-only ingestion (range of 1-5 leaves) 3 patients had gastrointestinal upset and the one case of 5 leaves ingested had no symptoms. Symptoms appeared in 6 hours or less in the cases where symptoms appeared. They concluded that symptoms from exposure are infrequent, even with the ingestion of 5-20 berries or 1-5 leaves, and rarely require direct medical supervision. However, they did find one case of seizures in a 13-month-old infant where the consumption was not witnessed but berries and leaves were found in the infant’s crib.
Poinsettias and American mistletoe are not extremely toxic to humans or pets when ingested. Ingestion of low to moderate quantities of berries or leaves rarely results in symptoms, and symptoms are usually mild.
Most exposures are accidental and involve children. And, pets usually avoid these plants after a quick taste. So, it is prudent to position these plants such that they are not easily accessible to children and pets.
Have and enjoy these beautiful traditional holiday plants!
-Eric H. Smith, PhD, BCE | <urn:uuid:6f0aef71-7237-4a76-8117-b1e9d66f744a> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.dodsonbros.com/blog/poinsettias-a-mistletoe-226.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037663365.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004103-00374-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973187 | 742 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Volcanos are not just found on Earth
It wasn’t too long ago that we believed volcanoes were unique to the Earth. Then, in about 1980, a young, member of NASA’s Voyager navigation team named Linda Morabito saw a plume on the edge of Jupiter’s moon, Io. This was the discovery of the first extraterrestrial volcanic activity. We now have a 30-year record of the volcanoes on Io, one of which has been active for 18 years. For more on Io’s volcanoes, go to http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html.
Although this was the first active volcano known, there are many examples of extinct volcanoes in our neighborhood. The moon, of course, is the nearest example. In fact, samples returned by the Apollo astronauts helped settle the debate about whether the craters on the moon are the tops of extinct volcanoes or the result of meteoric impacts.
Even though the surface of Venus is hidden by thick clouds, spacecraft using radar have been able to image its surface and we know it is about 90 percent covered with volcanic material. In fact, there is speculation Venus may have active volcanoes, though we have no direct evidence yet.
Mars is another favorite of volcano lovers, boasting the largest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons is 24 km (15 miles) high and would cover the state of Arizona. Whereas Mars was once volcanically active, it shows no signs of current activity.
Volcanoes also come in different flavors. The ones on Io mentioned earlier, spew liquid sulfur which settles on the surface as frozen sulfur dioxide “snow.” One of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, sports cryovolcanoes with huge icy plumes. And on Triton, a frozen moon of Neptune, can be found volcanoes driven by sunlight that that vaporizes the icy nitrogen near the surface causing it to explode into space forming giant plumes.
It just goes to show that even some things found here on Earth, can also be found up in the sky.
This month in history:
June 3: Charles “Pete” Conrad born, 1932
June 10: Mars rover “Spirit” launched , 2003
June 16: Valentina Tereshkova first (and only solo) woman in space,1963
June 18: Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space, 1983
June 30: Tunguska impact (probably a comet fragment) flattens hundreds of miles of Siberian forrest, 1908
Here are this month’s viewing highlights:
Planets this month: Venus continues to dazzle western sky at dusk. See it near the crescent moon on the 14th and M44 on the 20th. Look toward the south for Mars and Saturn. Jupiter is high in southeast at dawn.
June 1: New moon.
June 4-5: Look west to see the crescent Moon to the left of Castor and Pollux 1 hour after sunset.
June 8: First quarter moon.
June 14: Moon left of Antares in south.
June 15: Full moon.
June 21: Summer Solstice 1:16 p.m. EDT.
June 23: Last-quarter moon
June 28: Look toward the eastern horizon 45 minutes before dawn. From the top down, look for the Plieades, crescent moon, Mars and Aldebaran. | <urn:uuid:55a7b0f1-1789-46aa-bf68-2fa760bdb072> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/lifestyle/2011/05/31/volcanos-are-not-just-found/45247119007/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949598.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20230331082653-20230331112653-00609.warc.gz | en | 0.936783 | 721 | 3.828125 | 4 |
New report finds entire lifecycle of plastics a threat to human health
Press Statement, For Immediate Release. February 19, 2019 at 6AM ET, Washington, DC –A new report from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)examines the health impacts associated with plastic pollution crisis. That’s at every stage of their supply chain and lifecycle. More importantly and it concludes that there is an immediate need to adopt a precautionary approach. One to protect humanity from the plastic pollution crisis.
Key findings from the report include that:
Plastics pose distinct risks to human health at every stage of their lifecycle. All as a result arising from harmful chemicals released during raw material extraction and manufacturing. In addition and especially due to exposure of chemical additives during use. More noteworthy, the pollution of the environment and our food that can result as plastics enter the waste stream.
Most noteworthy are Microplastic particles. These are like fragments and fibers. They can enter the body through contact, ingestion, or inhalation. Also they may be contributing to a wide range of health impacts. All as a result of their small size and ability to penetrate tissues and cells. Most interestingly, all as a consequence of the complex burdens of the chemicals they can carry.
Uncertainties and knowledge gaps, including an extreme lack of transparency, undermine the full assessment of health impacts, and prevent consumers, communities, and regulators from making informed decisions.
In response to the CIEL report findings, Greenpeace Global Plastics Project Leader Graham Forbes said:
“The health risks of the plastic pollution crisis have been ignored for far too long, and must be at the forefront of all decisions on plastics moving forward. Corporations and governments are risking our health to maintain the status quo and keep profits flowing. It’s not just our oceans and marine animals that are suffering from this addiction to plastics, it’s all of us. While there is still much to learn about all of the impacts of plastics on human health, we know enough to adopt a precautionary principle and start to phase out these throwaway plastics for good.
“The cheap convenience of plastics is simply not worth the numerous risks. Plastics are also harming or killing animals around the globe. Thereby contributing to climate change and keeping us dependent on fossil fuels. As well as entering our air, water, and food supplies, and seriously jeopardizing human health throughout their lifecycle. The answer is for corporations to reduce the production of throwaway plastics immediately and begin to move toward systems of refill and reuse. It’s time to reject overconsumption and the corporations that continue to sell it to us.” | <urn:uuid:34b66a27-07e9-4193-8d20-4ffa6caed5b6> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://greenlivingguy.com/2020/11/new-report-finds-entire-lifecycle-of-plastics-a-threat-to-human-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656833.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609201549-20230609231549-00795.warc.gz | en | 0.954663 | 544 | 3.125 | 3 |
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