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On International Mountain Day, the United Nations food security agency has called for greater focus on sustainable agriculture in highland regions around the globe to better respond to climate change impacts and migration challenges.
“Investing in sustainable agriculture in mountain regions is central to the response to climate and migration challenges as it promotes the adaptation to and mitigation of climate change and reduces other root causes of migration such as rural poverty and food insecurity,” said Maria Helena Semedo, the Deputy Director-General at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in a news release marking the International Day.
Across the world, some one billion mountain people – about 13 percent of the global population – are increasingly being impacted by the effects of climate change and climate-induced disasters. Furthermore, living in often geographically isolates areas and on the political and economic margins of their countries, they are more prone to hunger and poverty.
As mountain people become more vulnerable, migration to urban areas and abroad increases. Those who remain are often women, left to manage the farms but with little access to credit, training and land tenure rights, added FAO in the release.
In the release, the UN agency further noted that in an effort to address these challenges, some 60 countries and over 200 civil society organizations today pledged to strengthen mountain people's and their environments' resilience to climate change, hunger and migration as well as to bolster the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The commitments include reviews and updates by Governments to their development policies, integrating strategies and international development cooperation policies for sustainable mountain development and mountain ecosystem conservation.
The pledge, made by members of the Mountain Partnership – an alliance founded in 2002 by Italy, Switzerland, FAO, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and over 300 members from other Governments, and intergovernmental, civil society and private sector organizations – also includes a focus on raising awareness on the importance of sustainable mountain development and mountain ecosystem conservation in all relevant international forums.
Recognizing the importance of mountain watersheds
Also in the news release, FAO announced the launch of its publication, Watershed Management in Action, which recognizes the role of well managed mountain watersheds in supplying freshwater to humankind and reducing the risk of natural disasters for downstream communities.
The publication presents lessons learned and recommendations based on a comparative review of 12 FAO-supported projects testing new watershed management approaches over the past decade in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ecuador, the Gambia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Tanzania and Zambia. |
In The Scarlet Letter, how does Arthur Dimmesdale meet a tragic death yet face that death with honour?
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Arthur Dimmesdale definitely is a character who has a rather tragic end, and yet he is able to meet that tragic end with dignity and honour. Firstly, he dies young, and secondly he dies at the peak of his career, when he is already respected and loved by his parishioners. Thirdly, he dies before he can enjoy real happiness with the woman that he loves. Yet note how he responds to his premature death and how he is so accepting both of his early demise and of the various pain and sufferings he has experienced up until that point. In a conversation with Hester, he says:
God knows, and he is merciful! He hath proved his merc, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man to keep the torture always at red-heat! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forver! Praise be his name! His will be done! Farewell!
The easy acceptance with which Dimmesdale is shown to meet his tragic end clearly shows that he is a character who does not rage against his fate, but sees a divine hand in both his sufferings before his death and his premature demise. One of the striking aspects of this quote is that Dimmesdale clearly recognises he is dying, yet is able to see God's providence in both his death and in what has come before it. He is a man who dies with honour, and therefore could be argued to be a tragic hero.
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Given a graph, perhaps derived from a map of roads or walkways, a natural problem is to find the shortest cycle in the graph that visits all vertices. This is called the routing problem. A closely related problem is to find the shortest Hamiltonian cycle, where the path visits all vertices but does not repeat any edges. These two problems sound identical, but they are not, since it can happen that backtracking along an edge can lead to a shorter overall route. All distances here are Euclidean distances; the blue cycle is the shortest Hamiltonian tour, and the yellow cycle is the shortest solution to the routing problem.
The cases of 30 and 35 vertices show situations where the routing problem has a solution that is better than the shortest Hamiltonian tour. The optimal tours were found by combining integer linear programming with some cycle-breaking, as described in and the Demonstraton "Finding the Shortest Traveling Salesman Tour". A nonedge is an edge in the complement of the graph. For the routing problem, the distance function for nonedges is defined by the shortest-path distance in the graph; any nonedge appearing in the optimal solution is replaced by the corresponding shortest path along edges. It is this replacement that leads to repeated traversal of the same edges.
S. Wagon, Mathematica in Action, New York: Springer-Verlag, 2010 Chapter 13. |
Aprativani, Aprativāṇi: 2 definitions
Aprativani means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
Languages of India and abroad
Sanskrit dictionarySource: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Edgerton Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary
Aprativāṇi (अप्रतिवाणि).—(a-prativāṇi), f. (also nt.? neg. of prati°, q.v.; Pali appaṭivāni, °nī, °na, also spelled with ṇ; Pali also has paṭivāna according to Critical Pali Dictionary s.v. appaṭi°, but no paṭivāni), non-aversion, non-opposition (to religious teaching or the like): °ṇiḥ, n. sg., Divyāvadāna 654.27; 655.2 (to understanding, abhisamaya, of the four noble truths; parallel with utsāhanī, ūti, qq.v., and see saṃprajanya for the rest of the passage); °ṇi Mahāvyutpatti 7649 (so also Mironov, no v.l.) = Tibetan phyir mi nur ba, non-aversion; as to the form, see s.v. prativāṇi.Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Aprativāṇi (अप्रतिवाणि):—[=a-prativāṇi] mfn. unhindered, [Divyāvadāna]
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Starts with: Aprativaniya.
No search results for Aprativani, Aprativāṇi, A-prativani, A-prativāṇi; (plurals include: Aprativanis, Aprativāṇis, prativanis, prativāṇis) in any book or story. |
by Vettam Mani | 1975 | 609,556 words | ISBN-10: 0842608222
This page describes the Story of Manvantara included the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani that was translated into English in 1975. The Puranas have for centuries profoundly influenced Indian life and Culture and are defined by their characteristic features (panca-lakshana, literally, ‘the five characteristics of a Purana’).
Kalpa, Manvantara and Caturyuga.
The Prapañca (universe) is perishable. At one time, it takes its origin, at another time it perishes. Brahmā, the creator of the universe has birth and death. The period between the birth and death of a Brahmā is known as a "Mahākalpa". The flood that comes at the death of a Brahmā is called "Mahāpralaya". One day of Brahmā is called Kalpakāla. In the Purāṇas one Kalpa or one day of Brahmā is divided into fourteen parts. The master or ruler of each of these divisions is a Manu. There are fourteen Manus. The life span of each Manu is called a "Manvantaram".
There are seventy one Caturyugas in each Manvantara. The four yugas namely Kṛtayuga, Tretāyuga, Dvāparayuga and Kaliyuga make np one Caturyuga. At the end of seventyone such Caturyugas, that is, at the end of every two hundred and eightyfour (71 x 4) yugas, a Manu completes his life-span. Along with that, the Devas who were born at the time of the birth of that Manu, also come to the end of their lives. Fourteen such Manvantaras make one day of Brahmā. It is at the end of that day that the original universe perishes. Brahmā’s life-span is 120 years. At the end of that period, that Brahmā perishes. That is to say, at the end of every 42,200 divine days (120 x 360) which is the life-span of a Brahmā, a deluge takes place. Thus in one Brahmā’s time 42,200 Kalpas take place. A Brahmā’s life span is known as "Mahākalpa" and the close of a Brahmā’s period is called "Mahāpralaya".
Human year (Manuṣya varṣa) and Divine year (Deva varṣa).
When two leaves are placed one over the other and they are pierced by a needle, the time required for the needle to pass from the first leaf to the second is called "Alpakāla". Thirty such alpakālas make one "Truṭi". Thirty truṭis make one "Kalā". Thirty Kalās make one "Kāṣṭhā", which is also known as "Nimiṣa" "Noṭi" or "Mātrā". Four "Nimiṣas" make one "Gaṇita". Ten Gaṇitas, one "Neṭuvīrppu". Six neṭuvīrppus, one "Vināzhikā". Sixty vināzhikās one "Ghaṭikā". Sixty ghaṭikās one day (day and night together). Fifteen days, one "Pakṣa". Two Pakṣas, one "Cāndra māsa" (lunar month). One Cāndramāsa for human beings is one "ahorātra" (one day and night making up one full day) for the pitṛs. Twelve Cāndra māsas make one year for human beings. One year for human beings is one ahorātra for the gods. Three hundred ahorātras of gods make one "Deva Vatsara" or "Divya vatsara". 4,800 divyavatsaras make one Kṛtayuga. 3,600 divyavatsaras make one Tretāyuga, 2,400 divyavatsaras make one Dvāparayuga. 1,200 divyavatsaras make one Kaliyuga. 12,000 divyavatsaras comprising a set of Kṛta, Tretā. Dvāpara and Kaliyugas make one Caturyuga. A Manu’s period is completed at the end of 71 Caturyugas. With that, the first group of gods also comes to an end. At the end of fourteen such Manus, one "Kalpa" is over and a deluge takes place. The whole of this period comprises one night for Brahmā. Night is the time of complete inactivity. With the end of the night, creation is started again. When 360 such ahorātras of Brahmā are completed, he completes one year. After completing 120 such years, a Brahmā perishes. Again a period of absolute inactivity follows for the length of a Brahmā’s life-span. After a period of 120 Brahma varṣas (the lifespan of a Brahmā) another Brahmā comes into being.
The life-span of Brahmā is shown in the following tabular form: 360 days for gods—One Deva vatsara. 12,000 Deva vatsaras—1 caturyuga (36 lakhs years for human beings). 71 caturyugas—1 Manvantaram (One Manu’s life-span). 14 Manvantaras—1 Kalpa (one day time for Brahmā) 2 Kalpas—One day (and night) for Brahmā. (Ahorātra) 360 days of Brahmā—1 Brahma Varṣa 120 Brahma Varṣas—One Brahmā’s life-span.
This life-span of one Brahmā is therefore 30 crores 9 lakhs 17 thousands 376 hundreds of years of human beings.
It is said that a Manu’s period of reign is 4,32,000 Manuṣyarvarṣas. (Bhāgavata, 3rd Skandha).
The caturyuga scheme.
A caturyuga consists of the four yugas, namely Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali yugas. At the end of each Caturyuga, the Vedas perish Then the "Saptarṣis" (seven sages) come down from heaven to the earth and restore them again. Manu who is the propounder of Dharma śāstra, is also born in every Kṛtayuga. The Devas of each Manvantaram feed upon the share of Havis (offerings at sacrifices) of the yāga till the end of that Manvantara. During the whole period of the Manvantara, the earth is protected and preserved by the sons of Manu and their descendants. Thus Manu, the Saptarṣis, Devas, Indra and the Kings who are the sons of Manu are the authorities of the Manvantara. After 14 Manvantaras a Kalpa of about 1,000 yugas, comes to an end. After that there is a night extending over the same period in duration. At that time Mahāviṣṇu sleeps on his bed Ananta in the ocean of deluge. After that, he wakes up again and performs creation. Manus, Kings, Indra, Devas and Saptarṣis are the Sāttvika aspects of Mahāviṣṇu, who performs the work of protecting the world. In Kṛta yuga, Mahāviṣṇu assumes the form of Kapila and others and preaches "Paramajñāna". In Tretā yuga he assumes the form of an emperor and destroys the wicked people. In Dvāpara yuga, he assumes the form of Vyāsa and after dividing the Veda into 4 sections, classifies each of the sections into the various branches. At the end of Kaliyuga, Mahāviṣṇu assumes the form of Kalki and restores the vicious to the path of righteousness. This is the "Caturyuga scheme" of Mahāviṣṇu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa. Part III, Chapter 2).
The fourteen Manus.
The names of the fourteen Manus of one Kalpa are given below:
(1) Svāyambhuva (2) Svārociṣa (3) Uttama (Auttami) (4) Tāmasa (5) Raivata (6) Cākṣuṣa (7) Vaivasvata (8) Sāvarṇi (9) Dakṣasāvarṇi (10) Brahmasāvarṇi (11) Dharmasāvarṇi (12) Rudrasāvarṇi (13) Raucyadevasāvarṇi (14) Indrasāvarṇi.
Each of the above Manus is described below:—
(a) General. Svāyambhuva was born as the spiritual son of Brahmā. This Manu got his name because he was "Svāyambhuva" or born from Brahmā. He married the goddess Śatarūpā, the spiritual daughter of Brahmā. After that, he went to the shore of the ocean of milk, made an image of Mahādevī there and worshipped her by chanting Vāgbhava mantra and performed an austere penance. After a hundred years of such worship the goddess was pleased. She appeared before Svāyambhuva and granted him boons. She blessed him to attain the highest place in Heaven (Paramapada) after begetting vast progeny. Then the goddess went to Vindhya mountain and became the deity of Vindhya. Svāyambhuva returned and started his reign by worshipping the goddess.
This Svāyambhuva is regarded as the author of the famous work "Manusmṛti". Kālidāsa says that the Kings of the Raghu dynasty lived in strict obedience to the laws laid down by this Manu. (Devī Bhāgavata, Daśama Skandha).
(b) Other details.
(i) The Saptarṣis of first Manvantara were—Marīci, Aṅgiras, Atri, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya and Vasiṣtha. Devas are known as Yamas. The first Manu had ten sons namelv Agnīdhra, Agnibāhu, Medhā, Medhātithi, Vasu, Jyotiṣmān, Dyutimān, Havya, Savana and Putra and they ruled over the country. (Harivaṃśa, Chapter 7).
(iv) Sage Cyavana married this Manu’s daughter. (Mahābhārata Ādi Parva, Chapter 66, Verse 46).
(v) This Manu taught Soma, the art of Cākṣuṣī. (Mahābhārata Ādi Parva, Chapter 169, Verse 43).
(viii) This Manu had a wife named Sarasvatī (Śatarūpā). (Mahābhārata Udyoga Parva, Chapter 117, Verse 14).
(xii) He was the King of men. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 67, Verse 21).
(xv) He talked with the sage Suparṇa about the greatness of flowers, fumes, lights, offerings and gifts. (Ādi-Parva, Chapter 65, Verse 45).
Svāyambhuva had two great sons Priyavrata and Uttānapāda. The second Manu was the son of Priyavrata and his name was Svārociṣa. He was a glorious and adventurous man. He went to the banks of the river Kālindī, made a hermitage there, installed an idol of Devī made of earth and offered worship most fervently. At the end of 12 years of tapas when he ate only dried leaves, Devī appeared before him in her dazzling brilliance and blessed him. The name of this Devī was "Dhāriṇīdevī". After a reign of many years this King went to Heaven. (Devī Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
(b) Other Details.
(i) Pārāvatas and Tuṣitas were the Devas in this Manvantara. The mighty Vipaścit was Devendra. The Saptarṣis were Ūrjja, Stambha, Prāṇa, Rāma, Ṛṣabha, Niraya, and Parīvān. Caitra, Kimpuruṣa and others were the sons of Svārociṣa Manu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part 3, Chapter 1).
(iii) Brahmā taught this Manu, Sātvatadharma. Svārociṣa taught this dharma to his son Śaṅkhavadana. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 348, Verse 36).
Uttama was also the son of Priyavrata. He went to Gaṅgā tīrtha and offered worship to Devī for three years with Vāgbīja mantra. At the end of it, Devī was pleased and blessed him with worthy sons and a kingdom without the threat of enemies After a happy reign of many years, at the close of the Manvantara, he reached the highest place in Heaven. Devi Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
(b) Other details. Suśānti was the name of the Devendra of this Manvantara. There were five groups of Devas, namely Sudhāmans, Satyas, Japas, Pratardanas and Śivas, each group consisting of twelve Devas. The seven sons of the sage Vasiṣṭha were the saptarṣis of this Manvantara. These seven sons of Vasiṣṭha by his wife Ūrjjā were Rajas, Gotra, Ūrdhvabāhu, Savana, Anagha, Sutapas and Śukra. Aja, Paraśudīpta and others were the sons of the Manu Uttama. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part I. Chapter 1).
The fourth Manu Tāmasa was the son of Priyavrata. That King performed penance to Devī on the northern bank of the river Narmadā with Kāmarāja mantra. As a result of Devī’s blessing, he obtained a prosperous Kingdom and worthy sons. After a long reign he attained heaven. (Devī Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
(b) Other details.
At the time of this Manu, there were four groups of Devas, namely—Supāras, Haris, Satyas, and Sudhīs. Each of these groups contained 27 Devas. Śibi who had performed a hundred yāgas was the Indra. The Saptarṣis of this Manvantara were Jyotirmān, Pṛthu, Kāvya, Caitra, Agnivanaka, and Pīvara and Nara. Khyāti, Keturūpa, Jānujaṅgha and others were the sons of Tāmasa Manu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part I, Chapter 1).
(a) General. The fifth Manu Raivata was the younger brother of Tāmasa. He worshipped Devī with Kāmabīja mantra on the banks of the river Kālindī. With the blessing of Devī he ruled for many years and then attained Heaven. (Devī Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
(b) Other details. The name of the Indra of this Manvantara was Vibhu. There were four groups of Devas—Amitābhas, Bhūtarayas, Vaikuṇṭhas and Sumedhas. Each of these groups contained fourteen Devas. The Saptarṣis of Raivata Manvantara were-Hiraṇyaromā, Vedasrī, Ūrdhvabāhu, Vedabāhu, Sudāmā, Parjanya and Mahāmuni. The sons of Raivata Manu, Balabandhu, Sambhāvya, Satyaka and others were mighty Kings. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part 3, Chapter 1).
This Manu was the son of Aṅga. Once he went to the Rājarṣi (royal saint) Pulaha and prayed for prosperity, mastery of the whole world, invincible power and profound scholarship. Pulaha sent him to Devī. The Rājarṣi taught him the worship of Devī. After acquiring the mantra Cākṣuṣa went to the banks of the river Virajā and offered worship to Devī. At the end of twelve years, Devī appeared before him and blessed him with "Manuhood", mastery of the Manu kingdom and brilliant sons After many years he distributed his kingdoms among his sons and at last attained "Devīpada". (Devī Bhāgavata, Daśama Skandha).
(b) Other details.
(i) The following account is given in Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part I, Chapter 13, about the birth of Cākṣuṣa Manu. Dhruva and his wife Śambhu had two sons, namely Śiṣṭi and Bhavya. Succhāyā, the wife of Śiṣṭi gave birth to five sons, Ripu, Ripuñjaya, Vipra, Vṛkala and Vṛkatejas, who were all sinless. Cākṣuṣa was born to Bṛhatī, the wife of Ripu. Cākṣuṣa begot Manu by Puṣkariṇī, daughter of Vīraṇa Prajāpati. This was the sixth Manu. By his wife Naḍvalā, the daughter of Vairāja Prajāpati, he had 10 sons, namely, Kuru, Puru, Śatadyumna, Tapasvī, Satyavān, Śuci, Agniṣṭoma, Atirātra, Sudyumna and Abhimanyu. Āgneyī, wife of Kuru, gave birth to six sons who were Aṅga, Sumanas, Khyāti, Kratu, Aṅgiras and Śibi. Sunīthā, wife of Aṃga, gave birth to Vena. Pṛthu was the son of Vena. He is also known as "Vainya".
(ii) The Indra of that period was Manojava. There were five groups of Devas—Ākhyas, Prasūtas, Bhavyas, Pṛthukas and Lekhas, each group consisting of eight Devas. The Saptarṣis of this Manvantara were-Sumedhas, Virajas, Haviṣmān, Uttama, Madhu, Atināman and Sahiṣṇu. Śatadyumna and other mighty Kings were the sons of Cākṣuṣa Manu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part I, Chapter 3).
(iii) The sons of this Manu became famous under the name "Variṣṭhas" (Mahābhārata Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 18, Verse 20).
He was born from Sūrya. It is this Manu who rules the world today. All living beings that we see today were born from him. Vaivasvata Manu is Satyavrata Manu who escaped from the last deluge. To save him Viṣṇu took up the incarnation of Matsya (fish). Vaivasvata Manu was also the first of the Kings of the Sūrya vaṃśa (Solar Dynasty) who ruled over Ayodhyā.
(b) Other details.
(ii) This Manu worshipped Devī and received her blessing and attained Heaven after a long reign. (Devī Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
(iii) Vaivasvata Manu had another name, "Śrāddhadeva." The Devas of this Manvantaram are Ādityas, Vasus and Rudras. The name of the Indra of this period is Purandara. The Saptarṣis are, Vasiṣṭha, Kaśyapa, Atri, Jamadagni, Gautama, Viśvāmitra and Bharadvāja. The nine Dhārmikas (virtuous ones), Ikṣvāku, Nṛga, Dhṛṣṭa, Śaryāti, Nariṣyanta, Nābhāga, Ariṣṭa, Karūṣa and Prṣadhra are the sons of Vaivasvata Manu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part 8, Chapter 1).
(v) Mahāviṣṇu incarnated as Matsya for the sake of Vaivasvata Manu. (Mahābhārata Vana Parva, Chapter 187).
(vi) He received Yogavidyā from Sūrya and Ikṣvāku received it later from him. (Mahābhārata Bhīṣma Parva, Chapter 122, Verse 38).
(vii) At the beginning of Tretāyuga, Sūrya taught "Sātvata Dharma" to Manu and Manu taught it to Ikṣvāku for the protection of all creatures. (Mahābhārata Śānti Parva, Chapter 348, Verse 51).
(viii) The sage Gautama taught Śivasahasranāma to Vaivasvata Manu. (Mahābhārata Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 17, Verse 177).
Even in his previous birth he was a devotee of Devī. In his former birth (during the period of Svārociṣa Manvantara) Sāvarṇi was born as a King of Caitravaṃśa under the name Suratha. The origin of the dynasty known as Caitravaṃśa was as follows:—Atri, son of Brahmā had a son named Niśākara. This Niśākara became an emperor by performing Rājasūya. Emperor Niśākara had a son Budha and Budha had a son named Caitra, both of whom were greatly renowned. It was Caitra’s family which later on became the reputed Caitra dynasty. The son of that Caitra was Viratha. Suratha was the son of Viratha. This was the previous birth of Sāvarṇi Manu. Suratha was a great hero and poet. Once another King besieged his city and defeated him. Suratha left his kingdom and went alone on horseback and took shelter in a dense forest. While wandering in the forest like a mad man with a broken heart, he happened to reach the āśrama of the sage Sumedhas. The sage advised him to worship Devī in order to retrieve his lost kingdom and prosperity. Accordingly the King worshipped Devī who was pleased and restored to him his kingdom and prosperity. Besides, she blessed him that in his next birth he would become Sāvarṇi, the King of the Solar dynasty and would be revered as the eighth Manu. Thus the eighth Manu Sāvarṇi will be the second birth of Suratha. (Devī Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
(b) Other details.
Sāvarṇi is also the son of Sūrya. How he came to be called Sāvarṇi is explained below:—Sūrya had three children Manu, Yama and Yamī by Saṃjñā, the daughter of Viśvakarmā. This Manu was Vaivasvata Manu, the seventh Manu. Unable to bear the intense heat of Sūrya, Saṃjñā once sent her maid Chāyā to Sūrya in her own disguise and went to the forest for tapas. Sūrya had three children by Chāyā, Śanaiścara, another Manu and Tapatī. This Manu is known as Sāvarṇi who will become the eighth Manu. In his time there will be three groups of Devas—Sutapas, Amitābhas and Mukhyas. Each of these groups will consist of twelve persons. The Saptarṣis of the eighth Manvantara are Dīptimān, Gālava, Rāma, Kṛpa, Aśvatthāmā son of Droṇa, Vyāsa son of Parāśara and Ṛṣyaśṛṅga. Mahābali, son of Virocana will be the Indra. Virajas, Urvarīyān, Nirmoka and others are the Kings who are the sons of Sāvarṇi Manu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
At the time of this Manu there are three groups of Devas namely, Pāras, Marīcigarbhas and Sudharmans. Each of the groups contains 12 Devas. The Indra who is the king of those Devas, is the mighty Adbhuta. The Saptarṣis of this Manvantara are:—Savana, Dyutimān, Bhavya, Vasu, Medhātithi, Jyotiṣmān and Satya, Dhṛtaketu. Dīptiketu, Pañcahasta, Nirāmaya, Pṛthuśravas are the sons of Dakṣasāvarṇi Manu. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
(10). Brahma Sāvarṇi.
In this Manvantara, the Devas are Sudhāmans and Viśuddhas. Each of these groups will contain 100 Devas. Their Indra will be the heroic Śānti. The Saptarṣis will be Haviṣmān, Sukṛta, Satya, Tapomūrti, Nabhāga, Apratimaujas and Satyaketu. Brahma Sāvarṇi will have ten sons, three of whom are, Sukṣetra, Uttamaujas and Bhūtisena who will become Kings. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
(11). Dharma Sāvarṇi.
In this Manvantara there will be three groups of Devas namely, Vihaṅgamas, Kāmagas and Nirvāṇaratis, each of the groups consisting of 30 Devas. Vṛṣa, Agnitejas, Vapuṣmān, Ghṛṇī, Āruṇi, Haviṣmān, and Anagha will be the Saptarṣis. The sons of Dharma Sāvarṇi viz., Sarvatraga, Sudharmā, Devānīka and others will be the kings of that time.
(12). Rudra Sāvarṇi.
This Manu is the son of Rudra. The Indra of this Manvantara will be Ṛtudhāman. There will be five groups of Devas namely, Haritas, Rohitas, Sumanases, Sukarmans and Supāras. Each group will contain 10 Devas. Saptarṣis are Tapasvī, Sutapas, Tapomūrti, Taporati, Tapodhṛti, Tapodyuti and Tapodhana. The sons of this Manu, Devavān, Upadeva and Devaśreṣṭha will be mighty kings. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
(13). Raucyadeva Sāvarṇi. (Ruci).
There will be three groups of Devas during this period called Sutrāmans, Sukarmans and Sudharmans. Each of these groups will contain 33 Devas. The mighty Divaspati will be their Indra. Nirmoha, Tattvadarśī, Niṣprakampya, Nirutsuka, Dhṛtimān, Avyaya and Sutapas are the Saptarṣis of that period. Citrasena, Vicitra and other sons of this Manu will be kings. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
(14). Indra Sāvarṇi (Bhaumi).
The Indra of this Manvantara will be Śuci. Under his control there will be five groups of Devas. They are Cākṣuṣas, Pavitras, Kaniṣṭhas, Bhrājakas and Vācāvṛddhas. The Saptarṣis of this period are Agnibāhu, Śuci, Śukra, Māgadha, Agnīdhra, Yukta and Jita. At that time the sons of the Manu who would rule the earth will be Uru, Gambhīrabuddhi and others. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
Some more details.
Fourteen Manus have been mentioned above. Of them, the seventh Manu, Vaivasvata Manu is the Head of the present Manvantrara. Some general facts about the Manus are given below:—
1) The six Manus after the eighth one namely, Dakṣasāvarṇi, Merusāvarṇi, Sūryasāvarṇi, Candrasāvarṇī, Rudrasāvarṇi and Viṣṇusāvarṇi are respectively the re-births of Karūṣa, Pṛṣadhra, Nābhāga, Diṣṭa, Śaryāti and Triśaṅku who were the sons of Vaivasvsata Manu. There is a story about their taking re-births. All the six persons mentioned above were once offering worship to the idol of Devī on the banks of the river Kālindī. After twelve years, Devī appeared, under the name of Bhramarāmbikā and blessed them that in their next births they would become rulers of Manvantaras. (Devī Bhāgavata, 10th Skandha).
2) It is said that the four Manus, Svārociṣa, Uttama, Tāmasa and Raivata belonged to Priyavrata’s family. It was because Priyavrata who was a Rājarṣi offered tapas to Viṣṇu that four Manus were born in his family. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa. Part III, Chapter 1).
3) It is the power of Viṣṇu that dominates all the Manvantaras as the basic divinity. In the first Svāyambhuva Manvantara it was a part of that power of Viṣṇu itself that originated as Yajñapuruṣa in Ābhūti. After that when Svārociṣa Manvantara came it was again that divinity that took its origin in Tuṣitā as Ajita among the Tuṣitas. In Uttama Manvantara that divinity Tuṣita him self was born again under the name of Satya as the son of Satyā in the group of Devas called Satyas. When Tāmasa Manvantara began, that divinity was born again as the son of Haryā as a Hari in the group of Devas called Haris. It was that divinity Hari himself who was born in Sambhūti under the name of Mānasa among the Devas called Raivatas in Raivata Manvantara. In Cākṣuṣa Manvantara that Viṣṇu Bhagavān took birth in Vikuṇṭhī as one of the Vaikuṇṭhas. In the present Vaivasvata Manvantara, Viṣṇu has incarnated in Aditi as Vāmana, the son of Kaśyapa. That great Vāmana conquered all the three worlds and presented them to Devendra. (Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Part III, Chapter 2).
Besides the fourteen Manus mentioned above, certain other Manus are also referred to in the Purāṇas. Some details about them are given below:—
(3) A son named Manu was born to the Agni Tapa or Pāñcajanya. This Manu has another name Bhānu. He had three wives named Suprajā, Bṛhadbhāsā and Niśā. Six sons were born to him by the first two wives. By his third wife he had one daughter and seven sons. (Mahābhārata Vana Parva, Chapter 221, Verse 4).
(4) In Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 57, verse 43, we find a reference to another Manu named Pracetas. |
Popular Science Monthly/Volume 29/May 1886/The Care of Pictures and Prints
|THE CARE OF PICTURES AND PRINTS.|
By PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON.
AMONG the most curious apparent inconsistencies of human nature is the possibly complete independence of the productive and the conservative states of mind. It seems as if the talent for producing things often led, of itself, to a carelessness about their preservation, perhaps from a feeling that it is easy to replace what may happen to be deteriorated. The most conspicuous instance of this temper is that of Turner, among artists. He was the most productive of painters and the most accumulative, liking to keep his own works about him much more than painters generally do; and yet at the same time he does not appear to have given a thought to the preservation of the works he so greatly valued. His pictures were carelessly kept in a gallery that was never repaired; his drawings were never arranged till Mr. Ruskin arranged them six years after Turner's death, and it cost Mr. Ruskin a whole autumn and winter (1857), with the help of two assistants, working "every day, all day long, and often far into the night," to convert the Turnerian mess of confusion into order.
Had it been confusion or disorder simply, the evil would have been completely remediable by careful labor; but unfortunately the same carelessness that led to disorder involved carelessness about preservation. Many of the drawings were eaten away by damp and mildew, "and falling into dust at the edges, in capes and bays of fragile decay." Others were worm-eaten, some were mouse-eaten, "many torn half-way through." Turner's way of keeping his drawings was to roll them up in bundles and cram them into drawers. The rolled bundles do not even appear to have been protected by paper closed at the end against dust, and the squeezing seems to have flattened them; for Mr. Ruskin tells us that "dust of thirty years' accumulation, black, dense, and sooty, lay in the rents of the crushed and crumpled edges of these flattened bundles." There were also numbers of pocket sketching-books "dropping to pieces at the back, tearing laterally whenever opened, and every drawing rubbing itself into the one opposite."
What strikes us most in this disorder is not so much the deterioration of the sketches and drawings, which Turner possibly may not have foreseen, as the intolerable inconvenience of a system that must have made reference so difficult for the artist himself as to be always tedious and often impossible. A collection of studies should always be so arranged that any study whatever, even down to the most trifling memorandum, may be found at a moment's notice. The care of an artist's collection of studies is not, however, the subject of the present paper, which is addressed rather to the lay possessors of works of art than to professional artists.
Turner's way of keeping his drawings is a model of everything that the collector ought to avoid. Nobody but an artist would think of keeping drawings rolled up in bundles, for the simple reason that you can never see a drawing properly unless it lies flat. Then we learn that Turner exposed his collection to every one of the enemies that a prudent keeper provides against. These enemies are damp, dust, and vermin. In the case of water-color and oil pictures there are two other foes, light and darkness, a water-color being liable to fade in the light, and an oil-picture to turn yellow for the want of it.
Damp and mildew are often spoken of as two enemies, but in fact they are only one, as mildew is a fungus or collection of fungi thriving only in damp situations. Damp, as everybody knows, is retained moisture, or, in other words, water diffused in minute particles that are held by some other substance so as to be prevented from joining each other and flowing away, while they do not get access to the air so as to be carried off by evaporation. Some substances are extremely favorable to the retention of damp, and it so happens that the millboard commonly employed by framers to put behind prints, and by book-binders who make portfolios, is one of those substances which absorb and retain damp with particular facility. It is employed by copper-plate printers to dry impressions, which are placed between sheets of mill-board under pressure, the boards soon drinking up the water contained in the wetted paper. The ingenuity of framers has led them to select this (of all substances in the world) to put behind engravings that are hung up on walls; and, when the walls happen to be damp, it follows as a matter of course that the engravings are spoiled by mildew or rust-spot. If the reader has ever lived in a house that is even moderately damp, he can hardly have failed to notice that the boards behind framed engravings swell and bulge out, which is the result of an increase in the bulk and area of the boards exactly proportionate to the quantity of water they have absorbed. When there is a sufficient supply of water certain fungoid growths will begin on the surface of the print under the glass, exactly like the growth of plants from the damp earth in a garden or conservatory. If there is iron in the paper here and there (which often happens), there will be spots of oxide of iron, or what we call rust, to give a pleasing variety of color, and if one of them happens to occur on a face, it must of course add greatly to its charm. Wooden backings are safer; and I have seen a room where the engravings with millboard behind them were all more or less spoiled by damp, while a large engraving with a thick wooden backing was entirely uninjured. Nevertheless, I would rather not trust to deal boards, as it is well known that deal is very absorbent of moisture. I remember having a heavy block of deal dead-wood removed from the hull of a boat, and when it was sawed through the water oozed freely out of every fiber. Had it been submitted to a powerful pressure, such as that from a hydraulic press, there can be no doubt that it would have been like squeezing a wetted sponge.
The necessity for careful precaution about the backing of framed engravings is not simply due to the permeability of walls that let the damp come through them; it may be also due to mere condensation on the inner surface of the wall even when it is well built and impermeable. This is best seen on a painted wall, as papers can absorb a great deal of water without letting it be immediately visible. In a very cold winter the external walls of a house become chilled throughout their mass, and when they are painted on the inside a sudden rise in temperature will produce visible condensation from the damp air, because the wall has not yet had time to raise its own temperature to that of the atmosphere. If there are engravings against the wall, they will suffer as much as if the wall itself were damp throughout its substance; for if the backings are absorbent they will drink in a quantity of moisture from the streaming wall-surface, which they will afterward slowly give off to the engraving for the encouragement of fungi and rust-spots. If oil-pictures are hung against a wall of this kind, the canvas will absorb moisture (unless certain precautions are taken, of which we may give an account presently), and then the increase in its bulk and area will cause it to hang loosely on the stretching frames. The only way to combat condensation is by heating the air sufficiently to warm the walls themselves, when, of course, it must cease. Nature herself puts an end to it ultimately in the same way if the mild weather continues, but more slowly, as it takes some time to raise the temperature of a mass of stone by a gentle increase of heat. A thin inner wall, or wainscot separated by a little space from the outer wall, may prevent condensation, because the thin partition, having little substance, rises easily in temperature. It would be quite worth while, in a house where valuable works of art are hung, to have thin inner walls with a circulation of warmed air between them and the thick external wall of-the building. Tapestry is a very effective remedy against visible condensation, as it absorbs a great quantity of water, which it afterward gives off slowly into the atmosphere, and it may prevent or greatly diminish real condensation by being more easily warmed than a mass of stone can be.
The evil of injury from damp ought, however, to be combated as much as possible in the framing of the pictures and prints themselves. I will begin with prints because they are more common, so that the preservation of them concerns a greater number of my readers. In the first place, I would never trust to a backing of mill-board or pasteboard. A print may appear to be safe with such a backing for years, and then there may be a damper winter than usual, or you may go and live in a damper house, or you may be absent, and the house may not be heated with sufficient regularity, with the result of unexpected injury to your print. Why not make it safe from the beginning? It is easy to do this, so that the print may be hung on a damp wall without danger. Instead of mill-board put sheet-zinc for a backing. It need not be thick, and you can always get a piece of sheet-zinc as big as the largest print. By way of completing precautions I am careful to expel any moisture there may be in the print itself by heating it well over a spirit-lamp before inclosing it between the zinc and the glass, and instead of ordinary paste for the slips of paper that join the glass to the inside of the frame and the backing to the back of the frame I employ a strong solution of gum-lac in spirits of wine, which is impervious to moisture. The print is thus inclosed in a little space that is not only water-tight, but even air-tight as well, so that damp air can not get to it. I have tried the experiment of hanging prints so framed against the dampest walls that I could find, and they have passed more than one wet winter in perfect safety, while prints framed in the usual manner, with mill-board backings, were soon spoiled by mildew and rust-spots when hung upon the same walls. All that has just been said about the protection of framed prints applies with still greater force to water-color drawings, as a water-color is far more delicate in its constitution than a print, and therefore much less easily restored to its first appearance after it has been damaged by mildew.
Engravings can not be injured at all by light, the only effect of which is to bleach slightly the paper on which they are printed, but it appears to be quite an ascertained fact that water-color drawings fade when they are painted in full colors, though water-color monochromes in sepia, bistre, or Indian-ink may resist light almost indefinitely. If, then, the object is to preserve water-colors for future generations, they ought to be kept in cabinets; but it is also intelligible that the owner of a collection may reasonably sacrifice a few drawings in his lifetime (and the sacrifice is only partial) to the satisfaction of seeing them more frequently and of ornamenting his walls with them. An intermediate plan with regard to water-color drawings is to have case-frames that allow one drawing to be easily substituted for another when the mounts are of the same size. The drawing is then exhibited for a short time only, and the owner has the refreshment of change on the walls of his room. The same plan may be followed with prints, simply for the sake of change.
With regard to the keeping of drawings in portfolios, there are reasons for believing that portfolios are not entirely safe. I have known a case in which prints in portfolios suffered visibly from damp, when every possible precaution seemed to have been taken for their preservation. The portfolios were kept in a closet six feet by eight, which was selected because it had no outer wall, and, though there was not a fireplace in the closet itself, the door of it opened on a room where a fire was constantly kept. The closet was believed to be the driest place in the house, and the house itself was not in a damp situation, being exposed to all the winds that blow, and built upon rather elevated ground. It happened, however, that the outer walls were built of a porous kind of sandstone, which retained moisture in the winter, and as the portfolios in which the prints were kept were made of mill-board, also a retainer of moisture, the prints were really damp in spite of the carefully chosen closet. They showed the signs of damp as much, almost, as if they had been hung upon a damp wall with a mill-board backing to each frame. It is plain, then, that the portfolio does not afford absolute security, and, indeed, the mill-board of which portfolios are commonly made is in itself an element of danger. Shallow tin boxes, with removable lids made like those of pill-boxes, are much safer than the common portfolio. I have alluded in another paper (on the "Poor Collector) to cabinets with shelves of thin wood separated from each other by small intervals. Prints or water-color drawings may be kept in such cabinets without other protection than a sheet of paper as a protection against the small quantity of dust that finds its way into the interior. The cabinets should be placed in rooms where there are regular fires, and when the room is thoroughly warmed the doors of the cabinets should be occasionally left open and their contents exposed to the air. As to the wood of which they are to be made, it should be one of the least absorbent woods.
Well-closed cabinets or tin boxes are the best protection against dust. If portfolios are used, they ought always to have flaps, as without them dust is sure to get in and spoil the edges and sometimes part of the margins of the prints. The effect of dust in course of time is to discolor paper permanently. Suppose you lay a sheet of paper on another that is rather larger, so that the second shall not be entirely covered by the first, and leave the two in a quiet place where dust will settle upon them, the unprotected margin of the second sheet will in course of time become discolored and show a contrast. Many drawings are so delicate that the dust can not be cleared from them without injuring the drawings themselves. Unfixed charcoals and pastels are the most delicate drawings of all, and require the most perfect protection against dust. The tidy housekeeper who dusts the unfinished charcoal on the easel is alluded to with horror in the little treatises on that art as the most destructive of all its enemies. As the charcoal itself is nothing but unfixed dust, it obeys the housekeeper's feather brush only too readily, and disappears with the other dust that means nothing and is valueless. The housekeeper in such cases seems strikingly like the blind destructive forces of the natural world which respect genius and its productions no more than the commonest matter; she is like the sea which drowns Shelley and rolls the fragment of a Greek statue among its pebbles.
Protection against damp and dust may seem less necessary in the case of oil-pictures, but here also it has its importance. Unquestionably an oil-picture has a much stronger constitution than a water-color, yet it is admitted that some colors used in oil-paintings are affected unfavorably by moisture, and are insufficiently protected by pure oil. De Mayerne affirms that indigo fades in oil without varnish, but is durable under varnish, and the following quotation from Sir Charles Eastlake's "Materials for a History of Oil-Painting" will show the peculiar kind of danger that may arise from damp:
"The effect of moisture on verdigris, even when the color is mixed with oil, as noticed by Leonardo da Vinci, shows that such a vehicle, unless it be half resinified, affords no durable protection to some colors in humid climates; and the efficacy of resinous solutions, as hydrofuges, is at once exemplified by the fact that they answer the end which (unprepared) oil alone is insufficient to accomplish. Colors which are easily affected by humidity require to be protected according to the extent of the evil. Whatever precaution of this kind was requisite in Italy was doubly needed in Flanders. The superficial varnish which sufficed in the extreme case referred to by Leonardo was incorporated with the color by the oil-painters of the North. So in proportion as the Flemish painters adopted a thinner vehicle, the protecting varnish was applied on colors which the Italians could safely leave exposed, at all events till a general varnish was spread over the work. It will be remembered that this last method was unnecessary in the original Flemish process, according to which the colors, being more or less mixed with varnish, and being painted at once, remained glossy, and needed no additional defense."
It would not be safe, however, to conclude from this that a simple coat of varnish is a perfect insurance against damp, for varnish itself may be ultimately penetrated by damp, as Field showed in his chapter on the "Fugacity of Colors." Here is Field's caution on the subject, which deserves attention:
"Others, with some reason, have imagined that when pigments are locked up in varnishes and oils they are safe from all possibility of change; and there would be much more truth in this position if we had an impenetrable varnish—and even then it would not hold with respect to the action of light, however well it might exclude the influences of air and moisture; but, in truth, varnishes and oils themselves yield to changes of temperature, to the action of a humid atmosphere, and to other chemical influences: their protection of color from change is, therefore, far from perfect."
The best way, then, to keep oil-pictures in a state of safety is not to trust much to their power of resisting damp, but to treat them just as if they were notoriously delicate things like water-color drawings, although in reality we know that their constitution is more robust. An oil-picture, it is well to remember, may be attacked by damp from behind. If it is hung on a damp wall, the canvas will absorb damp from the wall, like the mill-board behind a water-color, and this damp will reach the colors through the priming. The proof that canvases absorb damp is that they hang flaccid on their stretching-frames when there is much moisture in the atmosphere. It is some protection to have the back of the canvas protected by a coat of paint applied with varnish, but a still better protection is to have two canvases on the same stretching-frame, the one that bears the work of the painter and another behind it with a coat of paint on both sides. The practice of having two canvases on the same stretcher has been adopted by more than one modern painter for various reasons. One reason is that an accidental blow to the canvas from behind, or an indentation from some angular object, may produce a fracture of the paint in the picture a fracture not immediately visible, perhaps, but likely to show itself later.
It is generally of no use to propose anything that has not been already adopted to some extent in practice, but I may call attention to a plan which is successfully adopted by house-painters to protect wall-papers from damp. Their way (or one of their ways) is first to apply tin-foil to the wall, making it adhere by means of a thick coat of white-lead. This is found to be a good protection for the wallpaper which is pasted on the tin-foil. It would probably, in the same way, be an excellent protection for pictures if the double-canvas system were adopted and the under canvas covered with tin-foil upon white-lead. It has been remarked that a certain kind of decorative work used in the middle ages consisted of paint applied on tin-foil and protected by glass. Here was a double protection against damp, the glass before and the tin-foil behind, the glass answering to the varnish on a picture, but with more complete efficacy.
Glass is now largely used in the National Gallery for the protection of oil-pictures, but, unfortunately, the common objection that it does not allow the spectator to see the picture easily is but too well founded. What we really see is too often the reflection of a group of visitors to the gallery, almost as in a looking-glass. This happens especially when the picture is a dark one, and many of the finest old pictures are dark. We are sometimes told that it is an affair of focusing the eye, and that if we look as we ought to do at the picture itself, and not at the reflections, we shall not see the reflections. What really happens is this: If we look at the reflections of the visitors we see them wonderfully well, down to the most minute inventions of the feminine costume, and if we look at the picture we see it in a confused way intermingled with the reflections. This being so, it follows that private owners are not much encouraged to put their pictures under glass. It may be objected that water-colors are habitually protected in this way, and that no one complains. True, but in the first place, with regard to water-colors we have no choice, as any fly could spoil an unprotected water-color in a minute; in the second place, a drawing in watercolor is usually of small dimensions, so that it is more easily seen; and, lastly, water-colors are generally paler than oil-pictures, so that they do not make such perfect mirrors. A dark old oil-picture with a sheet of plate-glass before it is, in certain lights, almost as good a mirror as if the glass were lined with quicksilver. We can hardly, then, include glass among the means to be recommended for protecting oil-pictures from damp, and must trust rather to the dryness of the atmosphere in which the pictures are kept; and yet it is necessary to avoid excessive heating, which in certain cases produces or favors cracking and destroys by detaching paint from the priming of the canvas.
Canvas may not seem a very durable material, and yet, on the whole, it is preferable to wooden panels, for it may truly be said of wood, as it was said of the arch in architecture, that it is never at rest. It is always either swelling or contracting, and if a composite panel is not quite scientifically constructed, it is sure to tear itself and show fissures. Panels are therefore usually employed for small works only, and for these copper would be better still, though it has been used rarely. If a panel is well painted on the back, it will absorb damp less readily, and this precaution is very easily taken.
The art of removing a painting from an old to a new canvas is now so well understood that the operation, which many years ago seemed formidable, is now performed every day without attracting attention. In this way an old picture gets a new lease of life; but the question remains whether the new lease might not be made longer, and indeed extended almost indefinitely, by impregnating the canvas with something that would increase its durability without weakening its substance. It is well known that the fiber of the threads in canvas is so weakened by the application of oil-paint, or oil alone, that it afterward is easily torn, and it is weakened in the same way by some other applications.
Oil-pictures unprotected by glass are always quietly accumulating a coat of dust and dirt, which, in course of time, unless it is occasionally removed, makes the hazardous process called "picture-cleaning" present itself as an ineluctable necessity if the work be visible at all. The two preservative cleanings are first simply dusting with a light feather-brush and an occasional careful washing with a soft rag, some warm water, and a little soap, but not a strong soap. I remember a house where a new Scotch house-maid, who was alarmingly industrious, was discovered one morning on the point of cleaning all the pictures in a certain room with soft-soap and a scrubbing-brush. She was about to apply the same treatment to the frames, on which there was a good deal of burnished gilding, which would all have immediately disappeared. As for the pictures themselves, if they were covered with old well-hardened varnish, they might possibly have survived, but unvarnished works would have been injured or destroyed. It is impossible to foresee what schemes a zealous servant may not carry into execution. Projecting ornaments on frames are always in danger from servants' dusters. I once possessed a plaster statuette, which was valuable because there were only three copies in existence, and every successive house-maid broke its arm off with a blow from the wooden stick which is inside a feather-brush. The arm was regularly glued on again for the next house-maid. The feather-brush looks a most innocent instrument, but the stick in it makes the house-maid formidable.
I once knew an old gentleman who possessed a picture of great value, the most important work of its master (one of the old masters) in existence. This picture was the pride and pleasure of his old age, and he could not help caressing it, as it were. From sheer love of it, he could not be satisfied with looking at it, but must needs touch it frequently also, and his way was to pass an oiled rag gently over its surface. I believe the oil he used was olive-oil (he was a Frenchman, and so there would always be olive-oil in the house for the salad), and as olive-oil never dries, or at least is the worst drier known, perhaps it did not accumulate on the picture, but the dust must have stuck to it, and made a fresh application necessary from time to time merely to clean off the old one. Olive-oil does not dry properly, but it becomes sticky after long exposure to the air, and nothing could be better calculated to catch and retain dust. The wisdom of our ancestors made them rejoice in coats of varnish applied thickly over dirty pictures, to lock up the dirt between the paint and the varnish, and so preserve it for the delight of posterity. Our ancestors liked dingy pictures, and the dirtier they were the better they seem to have liked them. The President of the Irish Academy, in a witty speech that I regret not to have kept, said that in Ireland at the present day the public taste required that a picture should be very black, and that it should not cost more than six pounds. Now, dirt is a great help to darkness of complexion, as we all know by the faces of dirty boys in the streets, and, if darkness were considered a merit in these boys, it would be a great mistake to wash them.
The question of picture-cleaning is one of the most complicated that can be. Suppose you leave a very dirty picture as it is, do you see, can you possibly see, what the artist painted? Assuredly not; and why should decent people tolerate dirty pictures when they will not tolerate a dirty table-cloth? The answer is that, if the picture could be cleaned as safely as the table-cloth it would be done without hesitation, but that cleaning may possibly remove light glazes and scumblings along with the varnish, and that if these glazes, the finishing work of the artist, are once removed, no human being on earth, except the artist who painted the picture, can replace them. But, by the time a picture urgently wants cleaning, the painter has generally been for many years in his grave. Therefore, in having a picture cleaned you are risking that which can not be replaced. All this has been said before, but the arguments for and against picture-cleaning have usually been presented in a controversial manner by strong partisans of one side or the other, and, as I am not at all a partisan in the matter, I may be able to state the case more fairly. The choice of evils is this: To escape from the certain evil of leaving a picture concealed by the dirt upon it, you expose it to the possible evil of removing the finishing glazes. Anybody who has painted a picture knows what a disaster that is. The degree of the disaster varies with different artists, according to the importance of the glazes in their system of work. To remove the glazes, even partially, from a Titian is to destroy the picture, because he glazed a great deal, and what we all know as the rich Titian color required that method for its production; but, when a painter has used a more direct method, painting the intended color at once, or nearly so, then the removal of a glaze does not destroy the character of the picture, though it may diminish its beauty and charm. To remove a glaze, in any case, is to put the picture back from a finished to an unfinished state; this is exactly what is done, and the degree of destruction is in inverse ratio to the degree of advancement attained in that unfinished state. But, if the picture is extremely dirty, then it is as if some other person had glazed unintelligently over the whole work, so that the original intentions of the artist are as much falsified in one direction by dirt as they are in another by taking the finish from his picture. The reasonable rule, then, would appear to be to clean pictures that really need it, but to avoid over cleaning with the most scrupulous care.
The removal of varnish is in some cases rendered absolutely necessary by a foolish practice that was occasionally resorted to by our fathers—the practice of tinting the varnish itself to give what they wrongly imagined to be tone. It was believed that anybody could varnish a picture; and, by one of those amazing delusions that take deep root in ignorant minds, it was thought that all the colors in a picture could be improved simultaneously by spreading one and the same transparent color over them.
The question whether it is right to paint upon pictures when repairing them may be better understood by considering one or two particular cases. I remember a house where the children were so much indulged that they were allowed to shoot with pop-guns and other engines at the family portraits, and they did this with such energy as actually to produce holes in the canvas—one large hole, for example, in the face of a lady who had been beautiful a hundred years ago. Now, if that picture came to you by inheritance in that state, the question about repainting would present itself to you in a practical form. You would have to determine whether the face was to remain in its damaged condition or to be repaired. To leave it damaged would be to destroy the effect of the picture on everybody's mind, because everybody would think of the hole, and how the accident happened, instead of thinking about the beauty or history of the lady or the merit of the painting. It seems, then, that it would be reasonable to have the picture repaired, and yet it is indisputable that to do this must be to introduce the work of another man. Everything, then, depends on the skill of the restorer. In such a case as that the restorer would begin by carefully laying together the jagged threads of the canvas, so that none should project, and he would probably put a backing to support them; then he would cover them with white-lead up to the level of the painted surface, and, when that was hard and dry, he would carefully color the white patch so as to replace what had been destroyed. Artists of considerable technical ability, but who have not the knack of producing salable pictures, sometimes attain such skill in the coloring of these patches that it becomes impossible to distinguish them after restoration, and the picture has all the appearance of an uninjured work. I remember some portraits from an old French château that were all dirt and holes; in fact, to call them dirty rags would scarcely have been an exaggeration, but the owner had a value for them, and wisely placed them in the hands of a very experienced painter. This artist knew a good cleaner, to whom he confided part of the work, and who began by cleaning the pictures carefully and putting them all on new canvases. In this state the new canvas showed through all the holes like the skin of a pauper through his shirt, and every one of these little islands of new canvas had to be colored up to the tint of the surrounding paint, or rather to be colored like the paint which had disappeared, the nature of it having to be guessed from what remained round about it. When there is no detail, as often happens in draperies and backgrounds, this is not extremely difficult, though it requires a well-trained eye to color; but when detail has to be invented exactly in the style of the picture, that is a different matter, which taxes the skill of the restorer to the utmost. However, there can be no question that when a picture is so injured as to present hiatuses, whether by holes in the canvas or by mere removal of the paint, it is an absolute necessity to have them filled as well as we can. Painting is not in the same position as literature in this respect. There are numerous unfinished lines in the "Æneid," and after the death of Virgil we are told that Augustus appointed a literary commission, empowered by him to remove those parts which were glaringly unfinished and defective (as Virgil himself had died before his own intended revisal of the poem); but we are also told that Augustus strictly forbade the revisers to add anything whatever of their own. We all feel that no hand but that of the author should add anything to a poem; we all prefer certain fragments of Coleridge and Shelley to any finishing that would involve additions by a reviser. In a minor degree we object to restoration in sculpture, though here we tolerate it to some extent. When a nose is broken from a bust, it is generally restored, and so is a finger on a hand; but prudent conservators of museums do not often attempt the restoration of an arm that has entirely disappeared. These distinctions, as well as our greater desire for the restoration of paintings, are all perfectly logical. A hiatus does not make a poem intolerable. The numerous small gaps in the "Æneid" have but a very slight effect in diminishing the reader's satisfaction, the reason being that they occur one at a time, and each little gap is forgotten in the interest of the next perfect opening of two pages; but in a picture all the gaps are seen at the same time, and distract our attention from the general beauty of the work. A Greek bust, however lovely, is a torment to us without its nose, and though the restored nose may not be so good as the lost original, it allows us to admire the beauties of the brow and chin in peace. If we shrink from the restoration of an arm, it is because we do not know enough about the arm that has been lost to replace it satisfactorily, but the lost arm is not spoiled; it is simply absent, and though there are loss and mutilation, there is not a hiatus like an empty space which is inclosed within the four sides of a picture. The only exceptions to the necessity for restoration in damaged pictures are those cases in which a fragment of ancient painting is preserved less as a work of art than as an object of antiquarian interest. Then, of course, however mutilated, it must remain in its mutilated condition like all those things which are valuable as materials for antiquarian studies.
Vermin have to be guarded against carefully in the preservation of works of art. Drawings and engravings are generally protected either by portfolios or by glass, which prevent the droppings of flies from spotting them; but I have seen prints spoiled in this way by being carelessly left upon a table for a very short time, when the flies took their opportunity and left their black dots. Their excrement is soluble in water, and can be removed easily from any hard substance while it is fresh, though it hardens and becomes less soluble afterward; but on an engraving it is disastrous, as it sinks into the paper like a stain. It therefore becomes a necessary precaution, especially in summer, to cover a print that is left on a table, or, better still, never to leave prints on tables at all.
The worms that bore into wood are dangerous only to pictures on panels, and, as very few pictures are painted upon wood in these days, this enemy is not so much to be feared. When he attacks an old panel his holes may be stopped with a little marine glue, applied hot; but it is curious how often worms will attack a thin piece of wood without penetrating to the other side. In two specimens before me, small panels three eighths of an inch thick, and about four inches by five, I find that in one case the worms have made twenty-two holes, not one of which has got through to the other side: and in the other case there are twenty-five holes, of which only seven have as yet penetrated.
The only way to keep prints and drawings from the attacks of rats and mice is to have them always in closed cases if they are not framed, and, if the cases are of wood, it is a good precaution to have them covered with thin sheet-iron behind and beneath, while the front panels may be glazed. Tin boxes are a perfect protection against rodents, and so, of course, is glass. Common portfolios are a poor protection, as a rat willingly attacks them, and soon eats his way through to the prints; in fact, common portfolios are in all ways unsafe, being of use only to keep order. The danger from rats and mice is always present, for even in places where they are unknown they may at any time suddenly make their appearance. A rat may find his way into your best protected room. I remember one summer's day—in broad daylight, too—seeing a large rat quietly descending into my study by means of a window-curtain, the window having been left open. He had walked along a little stone ledge that the architect had carried round the house as an ornament, which is a great convenience to rats. When a house is perfectly quiet at night a rat will wander about in the coolest manner, and enter by any door that happens to be left ajar. In this way a fine black rat once got into my study and remained there for several days. I heard him distinctly behind certain heavy pieces of furniture, but could not get at him. He did a great deal of damage, though happily not to anything of much value, and he ended his career in a trap. Had I been away from home, the devastation caused by that one animal might have been serious. But his visit taught me a lesson, as he especially attacked portfolios, while the shallow tin boxes on shelves which I have adopted of late years entirely escaped his attentions. It is astonishing by what a narrow orifice a mouse will find her way into any place that she desires to visit. Drawers are sometimes so constructed that, although they fit well in front (for the sake of appearances), they are loose in the chest behind, and the consequence is that, if a mouse can get into the chest anywhere, she has all the drawers at her disposal. The first use she will make of any precious papers will probably be to tear them into little pieces and establish a comfortable nest in a corner.
In my article on "The Poor Collector" I touched briefly upon the question of frames. We have already noticed the curious fact that people who are strict about cleanliness in common household matters will tolerate dirty pictures. Very dirty frames are also tolerated in some public and private collections; in fact, I have seen collections where the notion that frames and pictures would be the better for being clean does not appear to have dawned upon the owner's mind. Surely, however, it is with these things as with all other things, cleanliness is pleasing in itself and an addition to the charm of beauty. One likes to see a pretty child with a clean face and an unspotted frock, though it might still be recognized as a pretty child if it lived in filth and squalor. In the case of pictures and their belongings, dirt is especially incongruous, because there can not be any poverty to excuse it. Pictures and their frames are superfluities in any case, and why tolerate a dirty superfluity?
A word, in conclusion, may be said about the art of exhibiting things to advantage in private rooms. It is astonishing how few people understand the simple principle that some works of art may be injurious to others when shown by the side of them. For example, engravings are always killed by paintings, and the white margins of engravings diminish the luminous quality of paintings; yet there are people who hang paintings and engravings in the same room. Again, there are others who would not do that, but who will hang paintings together of which the style and sentiment are so absolutely incongruous that they can not avoid conflict, and require entirely different moods of mind for the right appreciation of them. Suppose you have a gravely furnished room, a library, and one or two portraits in it of thoughtful and serious men painted soberly and in quiet color, would it not evidently be a great mistake to admit into that room any picture whatever that should disturb the pensive of the place? Fancy the effect if you admitted a gaudy modern portrait of an overdressed lady with a smirk upon her face as she sat happy in her glare and glitter of millinery and trinkets! There ought to be in every room a certain prevailing note or mood of the human mind whatever it may be, and everything should be kept subordinate to that one dominant idea, with sufficient variety to avoid dullness, but without transgression of the limits prescribed by the idea. In a word, let us have ideal unity; let us avoid the incongruous. A room may contain different works of art, but, in a comprehensive sense, it is a work of art in itself, and the first necessity for every work of art is unity. If it is decided that the note of the room is to be cheerfulness, it is easy to keep faithful to that. Light in itself is an element of cheerfulness, so the wall-paper will be light. Water-colors are more cheerful than oil-paintings, because water-color painting is apparently slighter and more rapid; it conveys better the idea of felicitous dexterity. Watercolors, too, may have margins, and the white of the margins gives much light and gayety to a room. The frames must be gilded, because nothing is so cheerful as gilding; but they must not be heavy, because massiveness is oppressive to the imagination. The pictures themselves should be generally light, and the coloring as bright and gay as it can be without crudity. In such a room we do not want melancholy landscapes or solemn-looking personages, but we want blue skies and sunshine, merrily rippling waters, human life in youth or healthy maturity, happy in activity and love, not burdened with care and sorrow—all in that sweet dream-land of the poetic imagination—
"Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine."
The opposite mood of thoughtful gravity is not by any means inferior as a motive, and it is more in consonance with the habitual feelings of mature age. The greatest of all artists have worked in the serious sense, and our noblest pictures, like our sweetest songs, "are those that tell of saddest thought," or, if not quite of the saddest, still of that quietly grave, reflective thought which is "far from all resort of mirth." Few paintings of the human face have such a permanent hold upon the memory, or are so often looked at, or for so many minutes at once, as that picture by Francia in the Louvre which is simply called the "Portrait of a Gentleman." Nobody knows anything whatever about the original, but the "gentleman" is so sad and thoughtful that we dream with him, and see the world through his melancholy eyes. In minor degrees many paintings have this kind of attraction; it is to be found in landscape as well as in portrait and history, and, if a few thoughtful works are brought together in the same room, without being neutralized by anything discordant in furniture and decoration, their effect upon the mind may be both durable and profound.—Longmarts Magazine.
- So far as I know. My experience of mildew has been chiefly with prints and the sails of boats, which require almost as much care as prints, and in these cases mildew has always required damp as a condition of its existence.
- "Longman's Magazine," September, 1885.
- Canvases are exposed to injuries of this nature in exhibitions chiefly, from the corners of other pictures that may be carelessly placed against them, before or after the exhibition. In private houses this danger is scarcely to be dreaded, but it is well to bear in mind that all people except painters believe that it does no harm to a canvas to lean it against the corner of a chair, a table, a box, or anything that may present itself conveniently.
- Field says that olive-oil is reported to have been used for painting in Italy in place of the desiccative oils, but he thinks it likely that it was only employed as a diluent. No painter in our climate would think of using olive-oil in any way whatever.
- When this is done the old canvases are entirely destroyed by friction without injuring the paint, which is then fixed on the new canvas. A painting is removed from a wooden panel by first planing the wood till it is very thin, after which what remains of the wood is destroyed entirely by the use of sand-paper and scrapers.
- The one reason for dirty frames is the partial burnishing of the gilding. Oil-gilding can not be burnished; water-gilding, which takes burnish, can not be washed with water, and nothing but water will clean a fly-spotted, dirty frame effectually. Consequently a frame that has burnish upon it can only be dusted, and when it becomes really dirty it must be sent to the gilder; but, as regilding is expensive, it is postponed as long as possible—sometimes for a lifetime, and even for more than one generation. With oil-gilding only and one thin coat of varnish over the gilding (the varnish is nearly imperceptible if properly applied), a frame may be washed from time to time. This has been said already in the paper on "The Poor Collector," but is repeated here in a note for readers who have not that paper to refer to. |
More than half of Internet users in the U.S. are on social media. And while many people are concerned about their privacy, sharing our information on platforms like Facebook is the price we pay for being connected to our friends and family around the globe.
According to Jean Dobey, CEO of Virtual Artifacts, a company that creates technologies that empower consumers to protect their privacy online, we’re approaching the issue all wrong. Consumers aren’t ambivalent, the process is too complicated and people simply don’t have the patience to figure it out.
“Sure, people want their privacy,” Dobey says. “But it has to be really dumb, really simple. If it’s too complex, we won’t do it. It takes too much time.”
Dobey says the underlying problem is that consumers and tech companies like Google and Facebook define privacy in very different ways. When Facebook tells users it wants to protect their privacy, what people don’t realize is that Facebook defines privacy differently than we do in real life.
Facebook’s business is not to protect privacy, it is facilitate connections between people and brands. Likewise, Google’s business model is to make information easily discoverable and serve ads to its users.
“Google doesn’t hide the fact that it does advertising and that it needs to know more about the people using the platform,” Dobey says. “Facebook does the same thing.”
While he asserts that companies need to be very clear about how they define privacy, he also insists that consumers need to take more responsibility by being more selective about what we share and with whom we share. He calls for the next generation of communication tools that enables digital privacy the way we think about it naturally.
“When it comes to what we call privacy, it’s just me defining a [group] of people and the content I want to share,” he says. “This is what we call privacy.” |
On the occasion of the 101st commemoration of International Women’s Day, JSAPMDD stands in solidarity with all women struggling against various forms of oppression, deprivation and discrimination. Annually, we commemorate this day throughout the world to sharply and resoundingly call attention to the millions of women, especially in the grassroots who, despite the many human right instruments that recognize their social, economic and cultural rights, live in conditions of grinding poverty and deprivation.
Today, almost half of the population of the world and the Asia Pacific region in particular remain deep in conditions of impoverishment and want, marginalized and excluded by prejudice and gender-based violence. Yet they contribute tremendously to families, communities and societies with their labor in formal production work, with their creativity and many talents and skills, and through the efforts they render in long hours of unpaid, invisible care work or social reproduction work. The gender division of labor and the non-valuation of their work serve to keep them in subordinate positions in the distribution, access to and control of resources from their homes to the economy and society at large -- a fact not lost especially to ever-profit hungry big business and the governments that live off them.
Women have won significant gains in realizing their basic right to work, as their increasing presence in the labor force shows. However, wage gaps persistently remain, indicating that women are also exploited deeper and more insidiously than before. Capitalists in search of the lowest wages and the greatest profit have found ways to take advantage of women’s marginal, even excluded positions in society.
We see these in the set direction towards labor contractualization, in the proliferation of home-based piecework and other forms of semi-formal “flexible” labor arrangements that keep workers separate and make organizing more difficult. Work increasingly becomes more informal, exploiting women’s seemingly infinite labor time for paid and unpaid labors. The majority of women in the informal sector where there are no social benefits or security of work highlights how poor women live daily in utter precariousness.
We also see this exploitation in governments’ promotion of women’s labor migration, neither in support of the right to work or the right to mobility, but to feed them to dangerous and demeaning work in global care chains and bolster cash-strapped economies with hard currencies. In the region are the top labor sending countries in the world – Indonesia and the Philippines – whose overseas workers are comprised of many women going into domestic work in the rich countries of the North.
Budgets for essential social services that could ease women’s burdens continue to be sacrificed to debt service, and are among the first to be cutback when economies contract. Through privatization, poor people’s needs are instead subjected to the whims of private sector investors, who are likely to put money only into sectors where costs can be fully recovered or not into poor communities without the capacity to pay. The privatization of water and electricity services in many countries in the region is a clear case in point. Experience shows that when governments withdraw from subsidized social service provision, women take up what they can through more labor-time spent on care-giving activities. They pay a price grievous on many counts – the loss of prospects for education and training, the decline of their health and overall wellbeing, the narrowing of opportunities for social interaction, for example.
As multiple crises grip poor populations in the region and the world, we are faced with another crisis brought on by global warming from the unhampered use of fossil fuels by the capitalist industrialized nations of the North. Several studies point to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on poor women, not only in terms of the greater burdens they have to bear to be able to adapt but in terms of actual lives lost in the catastrophic aftermaths of climate crisis-induced disasters.
The climate crisis is a global justice issue because the developing countries of the South stand to lose more from the North’s appropriation and abuse of the atmosphere. It is a social justice issue because sharply inequitable power relations and access to resources have pushed poor people into far more vulnerable positions and further severely narrowed their chances for survival. And it is also a gender justice issue because women who already bear layer upon layer of subordination and discrimination are and will be bearing more heavily the demands of adaptation in households and communities, to somehow weather a crisis they did not cause.
Today is a time for remembering the activism and resolve of the thousands of working women at the turn of the 20th century who inspired countries to take up socialist leader Clara Zetkin’s recommendation to devote one day a year to women. More than ever, the times seek a resurgence of such courage and determination. We, toiling women everywhere, bound in various forms of oppressions and discriminations that marginalize and exclude us in our homes, communities and societies, must rise in concerted resistance against the patriarchal capitalist system that compounds our exploitation and subjugation. Many victories in carving and opening up spaces for women have made our voices impossible to ignore; these voices must ring stronger still to shake the very system at its roots and bring our dream of women’s genuine emancipation and empowerment to full fruition. |
Project M works on the "act locally" level. This innovative summer design camp was created by John Bielenberg in 2003 and was inspired by Samuel Mockbee, who founded The Rural Studio for Architecture in Alabama and won the MacArthur Prize for his work. Every year Project M brings together 8-10 young designers for an intensive design experience: the designers have to conceive and develop their own project. To date, projects have included work in Costa Rica and Ghana, an expedition to deliver donated supplies to Katrina victims, creating new parks on abandoned urban lots in East Baltimore, and, now, the Buy A Meter project in Hale County, Alabama.
The facts are simple: one in four families in Hale County are not connected to the municipal water system. Without this service, these families often get water contaminated with sewage. It costs $425 to bring clean water to a single home. It is clear that in the last decade, the rural poor in America have gotten poorer. But having safe water is not something most of us think of as a problem in our country. Let alone a design problem. [Via Design Observer.] |
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) leads the country in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the adverse health effects of emergencies and disasters. This is accomplished by supporting the nation's ability to withstand adversity, strengthening health and emergency response systems, and enhancing national health security. ASPR's Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) enables the health care delivery system to save lives during emergencies and disaster events that exceed the day-to-day capacity and capability of existing health and emergency response systems. HPP is the only source of federal funding for health care delivery system readiness, intended to improve patient outcomes, minimize the need for federal and supplemental state resources during emergencies, and enable rapid recovery. HPP prepares the health care delivery system to save lives through the development of health care coalitions (HCCs) that incentivize diverse and often competitive health care organizations with differing priorities and objectives to work together. ASPR developed the '2017-2022 Health Care Preparedness and Response Capabilities' guidance to describe what the health care delivery system, including HCCs, hospitals, and emergency medical services (EMS), have to do to effectively prepare for and respond to emergencies that impact the public's health. Each jurisdiction, including emergency management organizations and public health agencies, provides key support to the health care delivery system."
Department of Health and Human Services. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response: http://www.phe.gov/ |
Washington, Apr 19 (ANI): A potential new optical imaging system may make the diagnosis of malaria much easier, faster and more accurate, a new study has revealed.
The new system, developed by an international team of researchers, uses "speckle imaging," an optical sensing technique that measures the differences in how laser light bounces off the membranes of healthy and infected red blood cells.
By comparing the apparently random scattering (speckling) of light as it builds up from multiple images, a clear statistical pattern emerges that identifies cells that harbor the parasite responsible for malaria.
The team's preliminary results involved 25 cell samples (12 healthy, 13 infected).
"A new diagnostic tool is urgently needed," noted Dan Cojoc, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a researcher at the Materials Technology Institute, National Research Council in Trieste, Italy.
"With a fast, portable, low-cost, and accurate diagnostic tool, physicians can confidently and quickly administer the correct therapy."
According to the researchers, this timely diagnosis maximizes the likelihood of successful, life-saving treatment. It also minimizes the chances that inappropriate therapy will be given, which would help combat the growing problem of drug resistant malaria.
The current diagnostic gold standard for malaria, Giemsa-stained blood smear, uses optical microscopy to identify different species of the malaria agent, Plasmodium, in blood samples.
This technique requires skilled medical professionals trained to identify the telltale signs of the parasite throughout its life cycle and its population density in the bloodstream.
In an effort to find a more effective means of detection, Cojoc's team of biophysics researchers in Italy joined forces with malaria experts from Israel and Spain.
Together they turned to speckle imaging, because of its ability to construct a statistically significant picture, as a new way to improve the diagnosis of malaria. It's called speckling because of light's wave-like ability to brighten as waves combine and fade as they cancel. The resulting patterns have a distinctive speckled pattern.
The specific technique the researchers used is called Secondary Speckle Sensing Microscopy.
By applying this imaging technique to an automated high-throughput system, the researchers were able to deliver results in as little as 30 minutes.
They did so with a high rate of accuracy and without the need for highly trained technicians and a well-equipped hospital laboratory. The current time to diagnosis in most African medical centers is typically between 8-10 hours.
Secondary Speckle Sensing Microscopy begins with illuminating red blood cells with a tilted laser beam. This produces a time-varied speckle pattern field based on the cells' thermal vibration and the movement of their membranes - traits that differ in healthy and diseased states.
The speckle patterns are inspected under the microscope and recorded on a camera at a high frame rate.
Using two automated analytical methods - "fuzzy logic" and "principal component analysis" - scientists scour a set of speckle parameters to extract statistical information about changes in red blood cells' membranes and their flickering movements.
Scientists then make a diagnosis based on statistical correlations in speckle patterns between healthy and diseased cells.
While these preliminary results are encouraging, the investigators noted that further study is needed to validate the results and further refine the technique. If the positive outcomes hold up, field studies or clinical trials of the new method might be deployed as early as 2013.
The study has been published in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express. (ANI)
Read More: Israel | Italy | Central African Republic | Mobile Technology | Technology Bhawan | J.j.hospital | S.v.medical College So | Agricultural Research Centre | Karnata Health Institute | Central Leather Research Insti | Indian Institute Of Technology | Govt.college Of Technology | Council House Street | Indian Research Po | K.m.hospital | S.d.hospital | Kharagpur Technology So | Haringhat River Research Insti | Rubber Research Station | K.r.high School |
Network security is not easy to find the right information on. I know that when I first got into network security I thought I was going to find tons of books, courses, and other tools on how to properly configure your firewall, switch, router, and firewalls to protect your computer. I would have been surprised at what I found. And, it turns out I was not going to find anything either!
You see, if you are a person new to network security and you spend all your time reading documentation.
Then you are going to miss some of the most important tips and tricks in network security. That is the reason why this article will focus on the things you should be aware of when it comes to protecting your network.
First of all, don’t foolproof the firewall. It is important that you know what you are doing so you know what it will do if something goes wrong. Also, remember to never let the system is too restrictive. Remember, if you have 100’s of people using your system, then you want to make sure that no one can use your system.
Always be sure that you have a back up system, or at least a website that is secure, and protected by data protection, especially for email and chat, you should have a website or two that are up and running. Do not have multiple websites on your server that everyone uses. This would not only be a big hassle to get all of your data off of the server, but it will also be very difficult to recover data if it were to ever happen.
Make sure that you have basic knowledge of firewalls. It is important that you know what the best way to set up a firewall is.
Don’t run the systems as soon as you can. It is important that you have a place for people to log in, and you want them to feel comfortable using the system. In addition, you also want to be sure that there is a system that will automatically restart if the system gets damaged or compromised.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to give in to firewalls that are overly restrictive. While the type of firewalls that many people are familiar with today are very beneficial, you should still have the option to customize the firewalls that you have. And, when you do customize your firewalls, then you need to make sure that you are going to use free means to learn how to correctly configure your firewalls.
Finally, network security is not going to be enough if you do not protect yourself.
I always recommend that you set up an anti virus program, because that will help your computer to protect itself. In addition, any kind of malware on your computer can be a huge threat, because malware can take over your computer and you can be unaware of it happening.
Last, but not least, I would recommend finding a reliable site that is able to show you step by step how to install security software. It does not matter if you are installing a paid program or a free program, make sure that you have the proper steps on how to get it installed properly.
Again, if you have been around computers for any length of time, then you have probably heard about many different network security tools that many people use everyday. You want to make sure that you are running the correct software, and running it on the right computers.
Finally, when it comes to making smart choices on which security tool to use, I would recommend that you read up on what is on the market today. You want to make sure that you are taking the right approach, because you never know what the next upgrade in technology may be.
- A smart person always knows what he is looking for, and what exactly heneeds.
- Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have to buy a network security tool just because there is a sale.
- If you are really interested in doing the job right, then you want to be able to install a program and know how to properly configure your network. |
To better understand the genetic relationships between the great apes and humans, go to http://www.becominghuman.org. Click on “The Learning Center,” the “Chromosome Connection.” Do the activity “Comparison of Human and Ape Chromosomes.” When completed, look at chromosomal and gene (“banding”) patterns. In the first column, you’ll see that orangutans share the least in common with humans. How closely related are orangutans to gorillas? to chimpanzees? How closely related are humans to the gorillas and chimps? What does this tell you about the evolutionary relationship between today’s great apes and humans? Make sure that you’ve enabled “Flash Player to do this assignment. If not, click on the link for “Flash Player” on the website and follow the directions. |
Identify a major problem that the Lincoln administration facted at the start of the war.
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I would say that some of the most challenging elements that Lincoln faced was maneuvering the Union into a position to win a long term conflict. It is easy to overlook the fact that few saw the Civil War developing into the trajectory it did. There was a strong belief that the South had some intrinsic advantages such as defense of their home territory and not needing to invade the North, as well as superior military leadership. The advantages of the North such as a population increase as well as factory production and the blockade were made for the long term and would not provide decisive change to the war's outcome in the short term. Lincoln recognized early on that there had to be a long term approach needed in the war, so moving towards that end was a fundamental challenge. This pivot included the seemingly endless parade of generals that Lincoln went through reflected such a difficulty. From McDowell's lack of victory at Bull Run to McClellan's cautiousness and conservative approach, Lincoln's primary difficulty at the start of the war was both embracing a long term strategy to win the war and finding the personnel that would be able to accomplish such an end.
his main problem was the south secceding from the united states.
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Background: Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) are the prescribed quality norms for health care services in India. For the first time this set of standards was introduced with the initiation of National Rural Health Mission in India. The first set of standards was released in 2007 and the second revised set was released in 2012. Among various services Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) is one of the components and certain standards have also been prescribed for AYUSH facilities in concerned health institutions. Materials and Methods: A review was made based on the prescribed IPHS documents obtained from the web portal of Directorate of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi. Results and Discussion: Human resources and drugs have been dealt in detail in all the health institutions. Treatment of common ailments with AYUSH drugs as per the local need, training of health worker in AYUSH drugs and promotion of medicinal plants are some of the services prescribed at sub center level. Description regarding the drugs is only found in primary and Community Health Centers. Manpower under AYUSH has been categorized under essential services in all the institutions except Primary Health Center in which the same has been categorized in desirable services. Conclusion: Mainstreaming of AYUSH and prescribing IPHS standards are some of the important initiatives under NRHM as a substantial portion of rural India is still dependent upon the AYUSH systems of medicine as a way of availing health care services. However, a more detailed prescription for this sector would always be of significance for the society and the sector itself. |
Sunlight is made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet light. When combined, it becomes the white light we see. Each of these has a different energy and wavelength. Rays on the red end have longer wavelengths and less energy. On the other end, blue rays have shorter wavelengths and more energy.
Maybe blue light exposure you receive from screens is small compared to the amount of exposure from the sun. But there is concern over long-term effects of screen exposure because of the close proximity of the screens and the length of time spent looking at them.
According to a recent study funded by the National Eye Institute (NFI), children’s eyes absorb more blue light than adults from digital device screens. |
Turret Spiders are snatch-and-grab predators and their oblivious prey never see it coming.
Native to Northern California, the Turret Spider is part of the larger family of Folding Trapdoor Spiders that live in self-made burrows dug into the ground. Though other Trapdoor Spider-types exist, Folding Trapdoor Spiders actually make use of a door or entrance made of plant debris for the burrow, making surprise attacks even more effective. Turret Spiders, however, do not construct doorways to their burrows and may choose to leave their burrows open all day long.
The identifying colors of Turret Spiders vary depending on the part of the body; have green and brown hues while others are more purple and brown. The legs sometimes look dark brown. Males are discernibly different in that their abdomen might feature up to 3 plate-looking coverings where the female has been seen with just a single plate covering the abdomen. Females are generally larger than males.
Turret Spiders are found outdoors and are mostly limited to wooded areas that include pine tree forests, though some make their homes near the banks of moving water sources like creeks or streams. Favored dietary intake would be ants though just about any smaller insect makes for a satisfying meal. Turret Spiders like to forage for food in the nighttime hours and take to wandering the grounds after a substantial rainfall. Some have been captured and sold as 'pets', but they are best observed in their natural environment.
Scientific Name: Atypoides riversi
Size (Adult; Length): 13mm to 18mm (0.51in to 0.70in)
Note: An insect's reach is not limited by lines drawn on a map and therefore species may appear in areas, regions and/or states beyond those listed above as they are driven by environmental factors (such as climate change), available food supplies and mating patterns. Grayed-out selections indicate that the subject in question has not been reported in that particular territory. U.S. states and Canadian provinces / territories are clickable to their respective bug listings.
Legs: Spiders have four pairs of legs and these are attached to the cephalothorax.
Pedipalps: Small appendages near the mouth used as taste and smell organs.
Cephalothorax: Contains eyes, head, mouthparts, and legs.
Abdomen: Contains various organs related to digestion, reproduction, and web-making.
Spinnerets: Used in the production of spider silk for fashioning webs or catching prey.
NOTE: Unlike insects, spiders have both an endoskeleton (internal) and exoskeleton (external). |
The text in this workbook (Proverbs 3:1-26) is about the virtues wisdom. It is King Solomon’s fatherly counsel for godly living. Solomon’s message for his young readers is that in a world ruled by a good God, trusting in and depending on Him leads to well-being and blessing.
The workbook provides 116 days of copywork practice, enough for an entire school year.
The translations used are the English Standard Version (ESV), published by Crossway Bibles, and the King James Version (KJV). |
Lambert Conformal Conic Projection
Meridians: Equally spaced straight lines converging at one of the poles. The angles between the meridians are less than the true angles.
Parallels: Unequally spaced concentric circular arcs centered on the pole of convergence. Spacing of parallels increases away from the central latitudes.
Poles: The pole nearest a standard parallel is a point, the other cannot be shown.
Symmetry: About any meridian.
Scale is true along the one or two selected standard parallels. Scale is constant along any parallel and is the same in every direction at any point. This projection is free of distortion along the standard parallels. Distortion is constant along any other parallel. This projection is conformal everywhere but the poles; it is neither equal-area nor equidistant.
The cone of projection has interesting limiting forms. If a pole is selected as a single standard parallel, the cone is a plane, and a Stereographic Azimuthal projection results. If two parallels are chosen, not symmetric about the Equator, then a Lambert Conformal Conic projection results. If a pole is selected as one of the standard parallels, then the projected pole is a point, otherwise the projected pole is an arc. If the Equator or two parallels equidistant from the Equator are chosen as the standard parallels, the cone becomes a cylinder, and a Mercator projection results. The default parallels are [15 75].
This projection was presented by Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1772 and is also known as a Conical Orthomorphic projection.
Longitude data greater than 135º east or west of the central meridian is trimmed. The default map limits are [0 90] to avoid extreme area distortion.
landareas = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true); axesm ('lambert', 'Frame', 'on', 'Grid', 'on'); geoshow(landareas,'FaceColor',[1 1 .5],'EdgeColor',[.6 .6 .6]); tissot; |
Anne Brontë was born in the village of Thornton, Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 17th January 1820. The Brontë family moved to Haworth just a few months later. A brilliant author, inspired poet, and a woman ahead of her time, this Anne Brontë website will take a closer look at her life, and that of her family. I will also bring you the latest news regarding Brontë events across the United Kingdom and beyond.
Anne was born to Patrick Brontë, a Church of England priest from humble beginnings in Ireland, and Maria Brontë, nee Branwell, from a merchant family in Cornwall. She was the sixth Brontë child to be born, after Maria and Elizabeth, who would both die tragically young, Charlotte, her brother Patrick Branwell (always known by his middle name) and her beloved sister Emily Jane.
Anne’s too brief life was strewn with triumph and tragedy. Her mother died when Anne was just one year old, and her two youngest sisters soon followed. She was in many ways the most practical of the Brontë sisters. Although shy and reserved, she overcame her struggles and was the only one of the siblings to hold down a job for any length of time.
Anne fell in love with her father’s assistant curate William Weightman, but this kind man’s life was cut short by cholera before their love could fully blossom. It was this loss that led to Anne’s succession of poems of loss and mourning.
Anne Brontë’s poetry was pivotal to the Brontë story. It was Anne’s production of her own verse that persuaded the reticent Emily to consent to their collected poems being sent to a publisher – a move that led to the first Brontë book to be published: Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
Anne has tended, unfairly, to be overshadowed by her sisters Charlotte and Emily, but she is one of the greatest Victorian writers in her own right. Her debut novel Agnes Grey, published alongside Emily’s Wuthering Heights, is a beautiful and impeccably structured novel. It is a largely autobiographical tale of the struggles of a governess, and in many ways foreshadowed Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre written a year later.
Anne’s second novel The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall is a revolutionary work, dealing unflinchingly with subjects including alcohol and opium addiction, marital cruelty and infedility, class inequality, and the right of women to choose their own path in life. It has been called the first fully formed feminist novel, and is still stunning readers with its power and veracity today.
Anne had achieved literary success, and there was the promise of further greatness to come, but within a year tragedy struck as Branwell, Emily, and finally Anne Brontë died of tuberculosis in rapid succession. Anne is buried in Scarborough, overlooking the sea that she loved so much.
As we approach the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Anne Brontë, she is at last gaining the respect and attention that her talent deserves. It was a desire to put Anne into the spotlight that led to me writing my critically acclaimed biography In Search Of Anne Brontë, and it is the driving ethos behind this website and blog as well.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them. I’ll be covering a broad range of subjects, some well known and some a little more esoteric. There will be at least one new post every week, so please do subscribe to receive new post notifications. |
You may have heard about the fashion faux pas of wearing white after Labor Day. In the present, this tradition is usually treated as old fashioned and a joke. Few people will criticize you for wearing white articles of clothing after the first Monday in September, or even take notice of it except to wonder why it was ever a major concern at all.
Where did this tradition of white clothing going out of fashion after Labor Day come from, and why did it fade away like colorful fabric washed in a hot load in the washing machine?
In general, white makes sense for the heat of summer. Light-colored clothing reflects away the radiant heat of the sun, instead of absorbing it the way dark colors do, so for thousands of years of human history people have preferred to wear white clothing during the hotter months.
However, the idea of white as strictly fashionable during the summer season only emerged in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—the time when the very concept of “fashion” began to spread across the Western Hemisphere.
It was only the highest level of post-Civil War society in the U.S. that strict and often bizarre rules for fashion controlled whether someone was in with the “in” crowd. Compared to our ideas of what’s fashionable today, the Czars of Style in the 1880s were true despots. Things as trivial as sleeve length could determine whether a woman in high society—no matter her level of wealth—was fashionable or a pariah.
Wearing white during the only summer, when it was common for weddings and outdoor parties, was only of these restrictive society rules. When the U.S. government made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894, the Fashion Czars gained a definite cut-off point for when wearing white was no longer “acceptable” in the upper echelons of wealthy society.
For many decades, this rule only applied to a small number of millionaire socialites in a few big cities, but in the 1950s it reached general fashion magazines that were read around the country and started to affect more people.
But time eventually broke apart this odd rule, and during the 1970s fashion became more individual. Some fashion legends, like Coco Chanel, also purposely rejected the restriction and wore white throughout the year. Today, the “no white after Labor Day rule” is little more than an amusing gag to tease friends, and almost nobody takes it seriously.
Whatever you choose to wear after Labor Day (and if it’s white, we won’t tease!), everyone here at J & W Heating and Air hopes you have a happy end of the summer and great plans for the fall! |
Note: Answers to the Cumulative Review can be found in the Supplemental Resources. Please visit https://openstax.org/ to view an updated list of the Learning Resources for this title and how to access them.
Chapter 1 Whole Numbers
Chapter 2 The Language of Algebra
Translate into an algebraic expression.
less than the product of and
Translate into an algebraic equation and solve.
The difference of and gives
Find all the factors of
Find the prime factorization of
Find the least common multiple of and
Chapter 3 Integers
Translate into an algebraic expression or equation.
The sum of and increased by
The product of
The quotient of and the sum of
The product of and is
Chapter 4 Fractions
Locate the numbers on a number line.
Chapter 5 Decimals
Write in order from smallest to largest:
Using as the estimate for pi, approximate the (a) circumference and (b) area of a circle whose radius is inches.
Find the mean of the numbers,
Find the median of the numbers,
Identify the mode of the numbers,
Find the unit price of one t-shirt if they are sold at for
Chapter 6 Percents
Convert to (a) a fraction and (b) a decimal.
Translate and solve.
is of what number?
The nutrition label on a package of granola bars says that each granola bar has calories, and calories are from fat. What percent of the total calories is from fat?
Elliot received commission when he sold a painting at the art gallery where he works. What was the rate of commission?
Nandita bought a set of towels on sale for The original price of the towels was What was the discount rate?
Alan invested in a friend’s business. In years the friend paid him the plus interest. What was the rate of interest?
Chapter 7 The Properties of Real Numbers
List the (a) whole numbers, (b) integers, (c) rational numbers, (d) irrational numbers,
(e) real numbers
A playground is feet wide. Convert the width to yards.
Every day last week Amit recorded the number of minutes he spent reading. The recorded number of minutes he read each day was How many hours did Amit spend reading last week?
June walked kilometers. Convert this length to miles knowing mile is kilometer.
Chapter 8 Solve Linear Equations
Translate and solve.
Four less than is
Chapter 9 Math Models and Geometry
One number is less than another. Their sum is negative twenty-two. Find the numbers.
The sum of two consecutive integers is Find the numbers.
Wilma has in dimes and quarters. The number of dimes is less than the number of quarters. How many of each coin does she have?
Two angles are supplementary. The larger angle is more than the smaller angle. Find the measurements of both angles.
One angle of a triangle is more than the smallest angle. The largest angle is the sum of the other angles. Find the measurements of all three angles.
Erik needs to attach a wire to hold the antenna to the roof of his house, as shown in the figure. The antenna is feet tall and Erik has feet of wire. How far from the base of the antenna can he attach the wire?
The width of a rectangle is less than the length. The perimeter is inches. Find the length and the width.
Find the (a) volume and (b) surface area of a rectangular carton with length inches, width inches, and height inches.
Chapter 10 Polynomials
Write in scientific notation:
Factor the greatest common factor from the polynomial.
Chapter 11 Graphs
Find the intercepts.
Graph using the intercepts.
Find the slope of the line shown.
Use the slope formula to find the slope of the line between the points
Graph the line passing through the point and with slope |
Physics Education in Korea
Korea is located in the eastern section of the Asian continent. The total land area of south Korea is about 110,000 km2 and the population is 48 million . Thus the population density is 476 persons per 1 km2 approximately which is among highest in the world. As of 2002 per capita GNI of Korea is $ 10,013. Semi conductor, iron-steel, ship building, automobile and machinery are main exports. Recently, IT industry has grown and the broad band internet are used widely.
Many people believe that education has been the major source of trained manpower in various fields, especially science and engineering up to now. But recently the decline in the numbers and falloff in quality of science and engineering major students are considered as big problems.
Korea has a single track 6-3-3-4 system which maintains a single line of school levels. To ensure the standard quality of education, the national curriculum for each school levels, criteria for development of textbooks and instructional materials are prescribed by law. The national curriculum has revised on a periodic basis and the 7th curriculum had been revised in 1997 under the principles of enriching elementary and basic education, increasing self-directed ability and increasing autonomy at the level of local and school.
The 7th curriculum introduces ten basic common subjects, autonomous activities, and special activities that cover the ten years from the first year of elementary school through the first year of high school. As a result, all students take science lessons three times a week up to the 10th grade. Elective subjects are introduced for the final two years of high school and physics I/II, chemistry I/II, biology I/II, and earth science I/II are provided as elective subjects. Science and engineering track students enroll in two of them at least. Physics is not the most popular science subject as the Table 1 shows that 18 % of the whole student take it at Mock College Scholastic Ability Test in 2005.
Table 1. Physics I and II taking at Mock College Scholastic Ability Test 2005
According to the TIMSS-R and PISA studies, the average achievement of Korea seems like to be good superficially(Table 2). But internally several problems, such as low percentage and low score of upper 5 % group, the biggest gender difference, and low score of affective domains(Table 4) are found.
Recently, WISE(Women in Science and Engineering) has been launched to promote the girls’ taking science and engineering track. And large scale of promotions like modernizing lab, improving physics textbook, and scientific culture events are undergoing. Also some encouraging results in international competitions, such as Physics Olympiad and IYPT have been heard (Table 5). But on the other hands, the industry is complaining the falloff of manpower quality, and it is regarded as serious for the next generation economy.
Table 2. Rank of Korea at TIMSS-R and PISA studies
New trends in Physics Education
Among many approaches to boost the number of students who take science and engineering track and raise the quality of achievements in physics, two featured enterprises, scientific exploration at cultural sites and MBL will be introduced.
Physics Education in cultural context--
Scientific exploration at cultural site, such as old palace, world cup stadium, world cultural heritage, and museums have been developed and researched actively from the year of 1998, the 1st APEC Youth Science Festival was held. At that time, scientific exploration programs at Changdukgung palace, Celadon village, Korean folk village and Old printing museum were developed and evaluated as unique programs during the 1st APEC Youth Science Festival. After that, programs for various sites have been developed and many research have suggested that scientific exploration at cultural sites would give a chance for students to do a real science and settle the science, originated in the western culture, in Korea.
One example is the scientific exploration at National Folk Museum, located at Downtown Seoul, which exhibits more than 7,000 collections about highlights of cultural heritages, things for everyday life. Because of it’s huge amount of collections, students and teachers can choose some of favorite exhibitions among them according to their interests and needs. Thus differentiated approach for students’ abilities and interests would be done as we expect during exploration as well as STS approach. Especially, at the National Folk Museum, many models and miniatures are exhibited to show the process of making metal arts, celadon and handcrafts. Also, the old instruments such as tread mill, snow shoes, sun dials, distilling pottery and so on, can show the way how the physical principles can be applied directly while modern instrument looks like black boxes. But most of the exhibitions are untouchable, so activities at the museum are restricted within estimation and observation. Also for the new generation the collections are so unacquainted that they might be uninterested in the collections and feel difficulties in elaborating their own inquiry problems.
A group of physics educators, leaded by Emeritus Professor Sungjae Pak at Seoul National University, have been developing the guidebooks for students and science teachers and doing researches. Through the research results and discussions, a primitive teaching model has been regarded as a proper approach to the scientific exploration at cultural sites.
Fig 7. Middle school students are doing experiments using MBL equipments.
Introducing computerized equipment--
Also Korea Science Foundation has held a nation wide competition for middle school students and high school students, in which participants perform scientific inquiry experiments using computers.
Junehee Yoo is an assistant professor at Department of Physics Education, Seoul National University, Korea. |
Elections: Constitutional complexities and consequences
General elections at the federal level in Australia are governed by a complex of constitutional and statutory provisions which, apart from determining how elections are held, also determine the balance of power between the legislature and the executive. The provisions both empower and limit both branches of government. They are explained and expounded at election times, and then forgotten until the next election comes around. Their history and rationale are not well understood. This occasional note may partly fill the gap.
The Constitution provides for senators to have fixed terms of six years, with half of the places of the state senators turning over after elections every three years. The terms of the senators end on 30 June six years after they began (sections 7, 13). (The territory senators, whose places are created and governed by legislation, also have contiguous terms, but extending from the polling day of one general election to the polling day of the next.) The House of Representatives has a maximum term of three years, but may be dissolved, in effect by the government, at any time (section 28).
This combination of fixed and non-fixed maximum terms is a result of the framers of the Constitution drawing on republican models characterised by fixed terms and continuous legislatures (principally the United States and Switzerland) for the Senate, and on the British tradition of a dissolvable legislature for the House. The latter goes back to the constitutional situation of the parliament being only an advisory body to the monarch and existing only at the monarch's pleasure. The combination of two different models was basically the result of a compromise between two schools of thought at the constitutional conventions. The attempt by the framers to reconcile these two contrary models led to some very strange results.
Elections for the Senate may be held at any time within one year before the Senate places turn over (section 13). This provides flexibility so that Senate and House elections may be synchronised despite the House being dissolvable at any time. The possibility of states holding Senate elections at different times, however, is left open by the provision that the state governors issue the writs for Senate elections (section 12). This places Senate elections ultimately under state control and removes them from control by the central government, with some consequences, as will be seen.
The House of Representatives lasts for three years from its first meeting (section 28), so that the life of the House is tied not to the time when it was elected but to the time when it meets after an election. This also reflects the British tradition. It has the consequence that if all Houses continued for their full term and were allowed to expire before a general election, the electoral cycle would be continually stretched and each election would be later than the previous one. The expectation was, again following the British tradition, that Houses would end their life by early dissolutions and elections would be held usually at the time chosen by the government. This expectation has been fulfilled, in that only one House has been allowed to expire, that of 1907-10.
An early dissolution and election of the House, unless it occurs within one year of the Senate places turning over, results in the Senate and House elections being desynchronised and occurring at different times. This happened from 1963 to 1974, after Prime Minister Menzies held an early election for the House at a politically convenient time, and the elections were not brought back together for some years. The conventional wisdom now is that separate Senate elections result in poor Senate results for governments and should be avoided if governments wish not to have unfriendly Senates. This imposes a restraint on prime ministers in calling early elections, a restraint not really foreseen by the framers. They envisaged early House elections when governments lost support of the House, something which has not occurred for over sixty years, and would occur only if a government did not win a clear majority in an election in the first place.
The issue of writs for Senate elections by state governors imposes another restraint on prime ministers. When a prime minister chooses the election date, the Governor-General has to write to the state governors, who act on the advice of their state governments, to ask them to issue the writs for the Senate elections for the same polling date. An attempt by a prime minister to manipulate the electoral cycle, for example, by delaying a Senate election or holding it before a House election, could be foiled by unfriendly state governments declining to cooperate in the issue of the writs.
The Constitution was amended by referendum in 1907 to change the date for the beginning of senators' terms from 1 January to 1 July, on the basis that the first half of the year was a more convenient time for general elections. The intention of this amendment has been defeated by prime ministers choosing to go to elections in the second half of the year, which is now regarded as the normal and most favourable time for federal elections. This also has had an unfortunate consequence, as will be seen.
In relation to the timetable for elections, the Constitution prescribes only the outer boundaries of the process. Writs for a general election must be issued within ten days after the dissolution or expiration of the House (section 32). At the end of the whole electoral process, the Parliament must be summoned by the Governor-General to meet within 30 days of the date fixed for the return of the writs (section 5). The first provision ensures that the government cannot dissolve the House and then delay the process of its replacement, and the second provision ensures that the government cannot unduly delay the first meeting after a general election, so that, for example, a government which has lost its majority in the election cannot remain in office by delaying the first meeting. The whole election process in between these boundaries is left to legislation, to provide flexibility. The Commonwealth Electoral Act fills in the process with a series of minimum and maximum boundaries. The significant provisions are for a minimum of 33 days and a maximum 68 days from the dissolution of the House to polling day, and a maximum for the return of writs of 100 days after their issue, with an absolute maximum of 140 days for the whole electoral process before the newly elected House meets.
A provision which supposedly further strengthens the legislature against the executive, also adopted from Britain, is the prescription that Parliament must be in session at least once every year (section 6). This would not have been necessary if the framers had not kept the ancient power of the crown to prorogue Parliament, ie., terminate its sittings until it is summoned to meet again (section 5). This provides the executive government with a potentially great power to dispense with an inconvenient Parliament, at least temporarily.
The combination of a fixed term Senate and a variable election cycle for the House means that there is normally some time between the first meeting of a Parliament after a general election and the half of the state senators then elected beginning their terms and taking office. Some such delay is a feature of all fixed term systems. Thus, the President, the whole House and one-third of the Senate elected early in November in the United States do not take office until early in January the following year, resulting in a transitional period. The corresponding period in Australia has been greatly expanded by the framers' compounding of the two models and the frustrated intention of the 1907 amendment. This results in the Senate places not turning over for up to eight months after the elections.
Apart from any other effect, this increases the chances of conflict between the two Houses, in reality between the Senate and the government, with Australia's rigidly disciplined political parties. A government may have to wait for up to eight months before being able to work with a Senate subject to election at the same time as the government itself was elected.
The framers provided for conflict between the Houses by the double dissolution provisions in section 57 of the Constitution, whereby a dissolution and re-election of the whole of both Houses overrides the fixed term of the Senate. The provision in section 13 for resetting the fixed term after a double dissolution, by backdating senators' terms to the previous 1 July, creates more problems and another possibility for Senate and House elections to be out of synchronisation. This occurred after the double dissolution of 1951, with separate Senate and House elections in 1953 and 1954, respectively, until they were brought together in 1955. There is a theoretical possibility of a double dissolution occurring before the senators elected at the previous Senate election have taken their places. A government could resort to a double dissolution in the eight month period when it is still attempting to legislate with a Senate the composition of which dates back to the election before last. This has never occurred. If it did happen, it could result in a set of senators duly elected never taking office, perhaps the most bizarre outcome of all.
Most, but not all, of these problems could be overcome by a constitutional amendment to provide for a fixed term for both Houses of the Parliament. Such a proposal has gained support from time to time, and was contained in a bill passed by the Senate in 1982. An essential element of that proposal is that a House would be dissolved early only if it could not support a government, and the House then elected would last only till the end of the fixed electoral cycle, so that Senate and House elections would be brought back together at the next election.
Most versions of this proposal, however, would not solve what is perhaps the most serious problem with elections in the Australian system. Because the House of Representatives is dissolved, or expires, for an election, during the election process the country is without a complete Parliament, so that no legislation can be passed. This leaves the country in the hands of the executive government over an election period. It is in stark contrast with republican systems like the United States, where the legislative places turn over at a fixed time and the newly elected office holders then begin their terms, so that the country is never without a legislature. That arrangement makes the legislature much stronger in relation to the executive. A dissolvable and prorogable legislature is inherently in a much weaker position. The British model results in an extremely strong executive and a relatively weak legislature, and in Australia is only partly ameliorated by the republican elements of the Constitution relating to the Senate. |
SPECIAL REPORT / Transforming waste into resources and reducing the environmental impact of economic growth are priorities for Europe. An EU package on circular economy has been long-awaited.
The concept of a circular economy is making headway, and according to the European Environment Agency, 2014 will be the year of waste management. The European Commission will present an ambitious statement on the next steps for all EU member states on July 1. The plan will be written by François-Michel Lambert, French Green MEP and President of the Institute for Circular Economy. He spoke to EurActiv France and said "we’ll no longer say waste, but resource instead!"
The idea of a circular economy aims to limit the consumption and waste of raw materials as well as non-renewable energy sources in the production of goods and services. Key to this concept: waste is seen as an important resource to be fed back into the human economy. A circular economy would mark the end of the direct relationship between economic growth and waste production. Each European citizen currently produces 444 kg of household waste per year. France’s new Minister for the Environment, Ségolène Royal, is fond of the idea and wants to include it in a new French law on energy transition, which will be presented this summer.
The goal of minimising waste stems from a simple observation: raw materials are limited. Zinc and lead resources will be depleted within the next 15 years if current consumption levels continue. "Rare earth” metals are affected by the rarity of the resource and the financial and environmental costs of their extraction.
Oil and gas resources are depleting and plastics produced from hydrocarbons are often falsely thought to be infinite.
Optimising resources does not just mean recycling. "There will always be waste. 'Zero waste' is impossible," said François-Michel Lambert.
"Recycling is one way of optimising waste, but there is always a material loss in the process. In the best cases, 95% of the material is preserved. This is not a problem if the recycling process is long. However, if it is short – on a monthly basis for example - the material will rapidly diminish," stated the French MEP.
Therefore, the longevity and efficiency of manufactured products are important. Car-pooling is an example of effective resource optimisation.
Innovation to further advance norms
In order to develop a circular economy, it is essential to innovate in areas of taxation, accounting and regulation.
For example, public market rules are not adapted to a circular economy model, seeing as the dominant criteria for selection remains cost price. "Public procurement tenders are a disaster for those who propose innovative solutions. They have no chance of being selected, because the stress is always on price criteria," stated the MEP.
Taxation of circular economy projects also poses problem, as they do not benefit from reduced VAT. According to Lambert, "there must be a fiscal differentiation".
Accountability is also an obstacle for an effective circular economy. "Accounting must be innovated in order to promote a new business model," he continued.
The price of a circular economy package
Many large EU countries have already adopted framework laws on circular economy, such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. However, France has fallen behind.
The Commission will present a circular economy package on 1 July in order to speed up and systemise the growing movement for such a model. A statement from the EU on the common objectives has been long-awaited. According to a source in the Commission, the package was originally planned for June, but greater momentum has resulted in delays. Its main objective will still be to reduce and recycle waste.
Targets for waste legislation will probably be reviewed, as well as reforming the three existing directives on waste, landfills and packaging.
Changes to current recycling targets are expected. At the moment, approximately 20% of waste is recycled in the EU, with the objective of reaching 50% by 2020. This is expected to be raised to 80% and a 20% limit on incinerated waste will also be outlined. If these targets are met, sending waste to landfill could be de facto forbidden.
Big differences exist across the EU, especially between southern and northern member states. The latest members to join the EU are typically behind schedule in terms of waste management and recycling. The Commission has taken Bulgaria to the European Court of Justice over 113 illegal landfills, which are still in operation, despite numerous injunctions.
Food packaging, austere buildings and the creation of green jobs will also feature in the upcoming package. If the circular economy package is proposed by the Barroso Commission II, it will be closely monitored by the next executive, which is likely to prioritise energy transition and employment. |
Louis, the Trumpeter Swan
The Trumpet of the Swan,
[New York: Harper & Row Junior Books, 1973] tells the story
of Louis, a trumpeter swan, who is born without a voice. He uses
an alternate form of communication to meet his needs.
Louis cannot say ko-hoh like other swans, or cry out either in
fear or joy. Louis could splash water farther than any other
swan, bur he could not shout while doing it-and shouting while
splashing water is half the fun.
Louis is scared to be different. Everyone else seems to have a
voice. Why doesn't he? Then he remembers what his father told
him: "There are mechanical devices that convert air into
beautiful sounds...I intend to get you what you need. I don't
know how I will manage this, but in the fullness of time it shall
Louis felt better, but couldn't wait. He flies away to go
to school with Sam, a boy he met at the pond. There he learns to
read and write and to communicate with a slate and piece of chalk
worn around his neck.
After 18 months, Louis returns home looking older and
handsomer. He begins to court the young swan Serena, writing
"I love you" on his slate and showing it to her. But
she swims away. Slates and chalk are fine for communicating with
people, but not with swans who can't read.
So, Louis' father steals a brass trumpet from a music
store and gives it to his son saying, "Learn how to blow it,
Louis, and life will be smoother, richer, and gayer for
you!" Learning to play a trumpet isn't easy, but Louis
practiced hard every day. He got so good that he's hired to
play pop music in a Philadelphia night club.
Eventually, Louis earns enough money to pay back the music
store for the trumpet. He is reunited with Serena, and they have
swans of their own. As long as he lived, Louis was grateful to
his father who gave him the trumpet that allowed him to sound
like all the other swans. |
Today was Casimir Pulaski Day. If you just responded with a “huh?” you don’t live in Illinois where it is an official state holiday celebrating Polish ethnic pride and political clout. And, by the way, the Revolutionary War officer remembered as the Father of the Cavalry who died in a glorious but reckless lancer charge on British artillery at the siege of Savanah.
For decades Chicago’s huge Polish community—the Toddling Town was the largest Polish city in the world—yearned for acceptance and proof that they had muscled their way at last to equal recognition with the city’s other major ethnic groups. The damned Irish, who lorded it over everyone else had St. Patrick’s Day and two, count ‘em, two big Parades one on the South Side and the Daley extravaganza on State Street. The Italians had Columbus Day and their own big parade plus the Outfit which pretty much ran a lot of the city and all of those pizza parlors. The Puerto Ricans had their Independence Day and Humboldt Park even if they never got any real independence. The Mexicans got Cinco de Mayo which wasn’t even much of a thing south of the Border. And then when Martin Luther King died, Blacks started demanding a holiday in his honor even though the Poles had been here longer and had patiently waited their turn.
|When Chicago's Poles looked for a Revolutionary War hero to celebrate, it was puzzling that they passed over Tadeusz Kościuszko, who played a much more significant part in the war and was also an important patriot in the Old Country.|
The Polish community pinned their hopes for recognition on the Continental Army trooper. They could have picked another Polish emigre soldier, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who played a much more significant role in Polish history. He was commissioned a Colonel and served as an engineering officer under General Horatio Gates. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Saratoga where he laid out the Continental defenses around Bemis Hill that would confound all of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne’s attempts to attack. Later he constructed the fortifications of Fort Clinton at West Point then commanded by Benedict Arnold. He still later served with great distinction in the Sothern Campaign under Nathanial Green. At war’s end he was promoted to Brigadier General, but found that collecting his seven years back pay was nearly impossible.
After returning to Poland he became a hero and commander in the Polish–Russian War of 1792. That war ended with loss of territory with extended Russian influence over much of the Commonwealth. In 1794 the country faced partition between surrounding powers Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Kosciuszko became commander-in-chief of the insurrection that became known as the Kosciuszko Uprising and defended Warsaw from onslaughts by the Prussians and Russians. Eventually he was wounded, captured, and imprisoned by the Russians after the Third Partition of Poland. After finally being pardoned, he returned to the United States as an exile.
He eventually returned to Europe where he engaged in talks to lead a Polish force in Napoleon’s army in exchange for French support for a liberal Polish republic. When Napoleon showed himself to be a dictator and only hoping to use the Poles as a pawn he abandoned that project.
Kosciuszko was a true Democrat in Poland he advocated not just the emancipation of serfs and Jews, but offering them full citizenship rights. In his will he left his American holdings to a fund to free the slaves—which American courts refused to honor. Kosciuszko died in Switzerland at the age of 71 in 1817. He was revered as a Polish national hero.
You would think such a man would be the one Chicago’s Poles would choose to be their symbolic secular saint. Instead they picked the dashing cavalryman. Poles are at heart deeply romantic and the cavalry holds a special place in the national identity and units of hussars and later lighter uhlans were the core of Polish armies and their most successful units. A man on horseback who died gloriously easily trumped an engineer, no matter how skilled or useful.
Casimir Pulaski, son a Polish noble was born on March 6, 1745 in Warsaw. After the election of King Stanisław II August of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1764 his father became one of the leaders of the Bar Confederation, which saw the King Stanisław as a Russian puppet and sought to end Russian hegemony over the Commonwealth and restore the traditional role of the nobility in a decentralized semi-feudal governance. The Bar Confederation went into open rebellion and young Casimir was commissioned as a cavalry officer fighting both the King’s loyal forces and the Russians.
|Pulaski in a Polish Hussar uniform.|
He proved to be an adept, skillful, and audacious commander of a Banner—the basic unit of Polish cavalry which was recruited and paid by the noble families sponsoring them—rising quickly after a series of victories in 1768. He was captured by the Russians that June after leading a two week defense in the siege of a monastery in Berdyczów. He was paroled after pledging to renounce his allegiance to the Bar Confederation and not again take up arms against the King. When he returned to Warsaw he declared that he did not consider his renunciation binding because it was given under duress. Many Bar leaders, including his father, considered the renunciation dishonorable and even pressed for a court martial.
But the rebels needed quality commanders and eventually he was reinstated however grudgingly. He served with notable distinction thought the rest of the war until 1772 when the Bar Confederation was finally defeated. During this time he won many victories and fame and was raised to the command of a regiment of several banners. He often operated independently and sometime refused to coordinate with other commands and units. He was considered a loose cannon and increasingly at odds with the political leadership of the Confederation.
The resistance was hard pressed by numerically superior forces including large Russian formations and by Austrians and Prussians equally eager to carve up Poland 1772. In some desperation Pulaski agreed to join a plot to kidnap the King. The plot was foiled and revealed forcing Pulaski to flee to France. He was tried in absentia, convicted of attempted regicide, stripped of all property, and sentenced to death. Because of the regicide charge he could not be given official sanctuary in Paris and had to stay there illegally. His attempts to offer his services to the French and other armies were rebuffed.
Pulaski survived with the support of a Polish exile community but was occasionally imprisoned for debt. He did meet liberal French aristocrats like the young Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette who in turn introduced him to American minister Benjamin Franklin who was looking for experienced European officers to serve the Continental Army in 1777.
|Benjamin Franklin, the lionized Continental envoy to the Frech Court, took a shine to young Puaski and wrote a glowing recomendation to Congress including inventing the non-exisatant claim of being a Polish Count to impress the rubes back home.|
Franklin was deeply impressed by Pulaski and by his military reputation. He wrote an effusive letter of recommendation to General Washington, “Count Pulaski of Poland, an officer famous throughout Europe for his bravery and conduct in defence of the liberties of his country against the three great invading powers of Russia, Austria and Prussia ... may be highly useful to our service.” The grandiose title of Count was Franklin’s invention to impress Congress. The title did not exist in Poland and as a younger son of a nobleman, Pulaski had no title at all beyond his military rank.
Armed with the letter Pulaski sailed for North America arriving in Marblehead, Massachusetts in July of 1777. He met with Washington in August. The commanding General always had a soft spot for adventurous and idealistic young European officers. Besides which his rag-tag army was nearly bereft of organized cavalry beyond small units used as scouts and couriers. But Washington could not unilaterally appoint him an officer. That required Congressional action which was slow in coming because Congress was leery of the minor onslaught of European volunteers and the salaries to which they would be entitled. For several weeks Pulaski remained an unofficial member of Washington’s retinue and made visits to Philadelphia to plead his case.
While still technical civilian, Pulaski rode with the 30 members of Washington’s personal mounted guard on a reconnaissance during the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777 as the main body of the army was under heavy pressure. He discovered British movements to cut off Washington’s line of retreat. The General directed him to intercept and collect troops he encountered and to use them “at his discretion” to protect and cover the Continental retreat. He led a charge that saved the undertrained and armed cavalry, kept the lines open, and was credited with saving the Army and Washington’s life. In his report to Congress Washington’s praise was enough to finally earn Pulaski’s official appointment as a Brigadier General of Cavalry on September 15.
He had not even officially learned of his appointment the next day, although he was now operating as an officer, when he led a patrol that spotted a major British force closing on Washington’s position. Although a major storm disrupted the maneuver, Washington once again had reason to be grateful.
That winter he went into camp with the Army at Valley Forge where he urged the Army to continue operations against the enemy through the winter pointing out that in Poland campaigning continued through the harsh weather. Because the British followed the Western European custom of going into camp for the winter, Pulaki felt that they could be trapped and surprised.
Washington, who had one of his few battlefield victories when he crossed the Delaware on Christmas of 1776 to capture a Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey, was sympathetic but his officer’s council of war were unanimous in opposition to the pan. Instead Pulaski spent the winter planning his reorganization of Continental cavalry and drafting the first regulations for the formation.
He then joined the bulk of the cavalry at Trenton where they were stationed to begin training them. He served under Washington’s capable commander in New Jersey, “Mad” Anthony Wayne, to support his activities in Southern New Jersey. On February 28 Pulaski led 50 horsemen to intercept a much large force under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Stirling at Burlington who was convinced that he had encountered a much larger force and prepared to withdraw across the Delaware. The next day Wayne and Pulaski’s combined force hit Stirling while still in camp. Pulaski’s horse was shot out from under him and his men took casualties. It was a minor skirmish, but disrupted British operational plans.
Wayne commended Pulaski in his official report but the cavalryman was disappointed when Congress rejected his plan to recruit and train a force of lancers and disgruntled that his promised pay was not forthcoming. He resigned as Brigadier of Cavalry in March 1778 and rejoined Washington at Valley Forge.
He then traveled south where he met General Horatio Gates at Yorktown, Virginia who accepted Pulaski’s plan and persuaded Congress to restore his rank as Brigadier with the new title Commander of the Horse. He was authorized to recruit a special unit of 68 Lancers and 200 supporting light infantry. He recruited the force in the horse country around Baltimore attracting young gentlemen of quality and European volunteers into the Pulaski Cavalry Legion. By August 1789 it was nearly at full force and was undergoing rigorous training. With pay and supplies from Congress still not forthcoming, Pulaski used his own slender purse and donations from the local aristocracy to uniform, arm, and equip his command to the highest standards. He quickly had one of the Continental Army’s first true elite units.
Despite his personal sacrifices, tight fisted Congressional auditors challenged his expenses and some local landowners complained of being subjected to excessive requisition to supply his troops. He was plagued by this on-going investigation the rest of his life. And in fact after death attempts were made to get “restitution” from his nearly nonexistent estate.
In October Pulaski endured one of the few disastrous defeats of his career. His Legion accompanied by three other companies of light infantry and other cavalry was sent to Little Egg Harbor district in Southern New Jersey to disrupt anti-smuggling activities by Captain Patrick Ferguson who was also trying to retrieve goods taken by American privateers. A deserter informed Ferguson about a camp of an infantry company along with word that adequate sentries had not been posted. Ferguson surprised the camp at dawn, killing 50 patriots by bayonet and capturing 5 before Pulaki’s Legion arrived on the scene drove Ferguson off capturing a few stragglers who could not reach their boats.
In early 1779 Pulaski was ordered to join the Sullivan Expedition against the British allied Iroquois who were devastating the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York. He did not relish the prospect of frontier service away from the main theaters of action against the British. He also felt, rightly, that the heavily wooded semi-wilderness was not suitable for his mounted force. He threatened to once again resign and return to Europe but instead asked for re-assignment to the Southern Command.
Washington sent him to Charleston, South Carolina where he reported for duty on May 8 where the city was preparing for a siege by British Brigadier General Augustine Prevost who had caught American General Benjamin Lincoln’s troops attempting to re-take Savanah, Georgia and chased the undisciplined mostly militia force back to Charleston. Pulaski’s Legion was sent out to blunt the British advance on May 11 and was badly mauled by the superior force. In fact, he lost most of the 60 infantry Legionaries he had with him. But the action caused Prevost to retreat toward Savanah.
|Pulaski's heroic, noble, and ultimately foolish charge up a causeway to Savana into the teeth of British guns. Painting by S. Batowski: The Death of General Casimir Pulaski in the Polish Museum of America in Chicago.|
Back in Charleston Pulaski suffered from bouts with malaria but remained in active command of his unit. In September Lincoln planned a push to retake Savanah with reinforcements by French troops under Admiral Charles Hector, Comte d’Estaing. The Legion was sent to Augusta, Georgia to join General Lachlan McIntosh in command of Georgia forces as the forward elements of Lincoln’s army. After capturing an important British outpost on the Ogeechee River the Legion became the advance guard of d’Estaing’s force.
During the Seige of Savanah he was placed in command of all cavalry forces both French and American. During an attack across the narrow causeway leading to Savanah on October 9, French troops began to buckle under intense British artillery fire. To rally them, Pulaski led a desperate charge up the causeway directly into the mouth of the British Guns. It was brave but foolhardy. He was unhorsed by a devastating round of grape shot and the charge was broken.
Pulaki was carried unconscious from the field and evacuated on the South Carolina privateer Wasp for medical attention. How and where he died are in dispute. Some accounts say he died of his wounds on board the Wasp on October 11 and was buried at sea. Others say he was landed and taken to the Greenwich plantation in Thunderbolt, near Savannah, where he died and was buried in an unmarked grave. On October 21 he received a symbolic burial with full military honors in Charleston.
The Siege of Savanah was broken and Lincoln had to retreat to Charleston. In March of 1780 the city was surrounded by a new 5,000 man British Army under General Henry Clinton. He was forced to surrender the city on May 12, although most of the South Carolina Militia and some Continentals were able to escape. It was the worst defeat in the Southern theater.
Pulaski’s dramatic but wasteful sacrifice was widely praised. He became a national hero with towns and counties in Georgia, Tennessee, and elsewhere named for him. Monuments were erected including one at the symbolic grave which was dedicated by the Marquis de Lafayette in a Masonic service during his 1825 Grand Tour. His bust was also enshrined in the U.S. Capitol’s Hall of Heroes in 1867 and in an equestrian monument at Freedom Plaza, 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in 1910. In 2009 President Barack Obama signed legislation posthumously confirming American citizenship only the 7th person so honored. There have also been commemorative medals struck and postage stamps issued.
|Equestrian statute of Pulaski in Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC.|
But the struggle to get Illinois to declare a holiday was epic in itself and a case study in ethnic pride and politics.
Back in 2000 while I was a custodian at Briargate Elementary School in Cary, Illinois I reflected on that in a long poem I shared with the staff when school was closed to students for the Holiday. Later it was reprinted in the UUNews, a weekly unofficial UUA e-mail newsletter in which I was sort of a resident versifier. Somehow it was discovered by some Polish-American patriots who were very offended to the point of threatening physical violence.
You be the judge, because we are reaching way back and telling that part of the story in the old ballad.
|Governor Dan Walker signed the law creating Casimir Pulaski Day as an Illinois holiday.|
Come, Let Us Venerate Him, St. Casimir Pulaski
This year, of all years, St. Casimir Pulaski,
we genuflect our gratitude,
at this day which you and the State of Illinois
in its infinite wisdom
have granted us.
So we sing your paeans and remember—
How you, bright young Pole,
hero of your people,
burning with the Rights of Man
with dash, swagger, and soldierly stupidity
consecrated yourself a martyr
upon the Redcoat cannon at Savannah.
And it was you, in Great Chicago—Warsaw-by-the-Lake
who exiled Slaves,
fodder for the Stockyards,
taconite for blast furnaces,
faceless brawn in a thousand factories,
charwomen of the high rise palaces of privilege,
you they called to be their patron and their hero.
It was you they remembered
as they waited patiently for the Irish dynasty to pass,
to take their turn at command,
to reap the spoils, plunder, and patronage
due them for their steadfast, plodding service.
And it was to you they cried
when the niggers usurped their place
and when, with taunting arrogance,
dark Chicago named a feast for their saint,
the same King who had marched through
Polish bungalows and two flats
shattering the peace by inviting stones with his head.
In your name old Roman Puchinski,
the very Prince denied the throne
blocked a State feast until your name
could be placed with Columbus and St. Patrick
on the calendar of veneration,
until Harold Washington threw back his massive head,
crinkled his eyes and boom his great voice—
“It’s a deal!
I will come and stand by you
at the Polish National Alliance,
under the White Eagle Flag
and listen to pretty golden hair children in peasant dress
sing and spin to accordions.
And you will come with me in January
as we listen to some bright preacher’s son
recite, ‘I Have a Dream.’
Then both of us on St. Patrick’s Day
will don green paper derbies and broad sashes,
clutch blackthorn sticks
and arm in arm step off lively
behind the wailing pipes of the Shannon Rovers
as the Irish, green beer in hand,
jeer and hiss us both as interlopers and pretenders.”
|Mayor Harold Washington and Bishop Alfred L. Abramowicz at the first official City of Chicago celebration of Pulaski Day, March 2, 1986. The Mayor was a significant player in the deal that traded Pulaski Day for a Martin Luther King Day celebration.|
As for the Illinois Holiday, it has come in for hard times. Concerned with lost instructional times because of several holidays including the State observance of Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday and Veterans Day on November 11, the legislature made school closing optional with an application for an easily obtained waiver. Over 75% of Illinois school districts have done just that. Even in Chicago the 2012 Public Schools contract with the Chicago Teachers Union allowed that massive system to opt out.
Poles were enraged but their political clout has greatly diminished as many of second and third generation have assimilated and relocated to suburbia as part of the general White Flight of ethnics’ They have left behind vibrant but shrunken neighborhoods where the elderly first generation immigrants of the Post World War II years mingle with recent arrivals, many of them undocumented. From de facto control of broad swaths of the Northwest, Southwest, and East sides. Their political influence has shrunk to a handful of wards largely supplanted by the rising Latino communities, and the reverse migration from the suburbs of young professionals and hipsters. |
Definition - What does Prosecutor mean?
A prosecutor refers to a specific type of attorney who works for the state or federal government. They represent the people of the state or the nation during a criminal case. Some well-known prosecutors are people such as the District Attorney, Attorney General, and Solicitor General. A prosecutor's chief job is to ensure that justice is brought about in criminal cases heard in the United States.
Justipedia explains Prosecutor
Prosecutors are given some deference in deciding what cases to pursue. However, a prosecutor must pursue certain cases that a government body or officer require the prosecutor to pursue. In some instances, a prosecutor must first bring a case in front of a grand jury to decide if there is enough evidence to hold a jury trial. If the grand jury feels that there is enough evidence to bring a jury trial against a defendant, then the prosecutor must prove their case "beyond a reasonable doubt" to the jury in order for the defendant to be found guilty. |
The History of Fencing
Fencing is one of the oldest sports in existence, having been popular since the 14th century. Italy and Germany both claim to take credit for the creation of fencing as a sport, but the beginning of the concept dates much further back in history....
The oldest surviving manual on western swordsmanship dates to around 1300,
although historical references date fencing schools back to the 12th century.
A Short History of Fencing. Fencing is probably one of the oldest games in
existence, for it sprang directly from the duel, and the latter has been extant as
long as ...
History rules and equipment for Fencing Sword fighting duels Sport origins and
rules Olympic history Blades masks sabre equipment development.
Informative look at the weapon's history
and use by John F. Murphy, Jr. at Military History
Magazine, online at TheHistoryNet. More »
History. Swordplay has been practised for thousands of years, and modern day
fencing began as a form of military training. It did not become a sport until around
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FENCING. The history of fencing parallels the evolution of
civilization, back from the days of ancient Egypt and Rome, to the barbaric Dark ...
Jul 20, 2015 ... Early history. The earliest depiction of swordplay is a relief in the temple of
Medīnat Habu, near Luxor in Egypt, built by Ramses III about 1190 ...
History of Fencing - Where did it start? Swordfighting as sport has existed since
ancient Egypt, and has been practiced in many forms in various cultures since ...
Throughout history, there have been codes upheld by swordsmen. True
swordsmanship ... About 1450 A.D., fencing guilds started to appear in Germany.
As the ... |
Friday, February 23, 2007
The secret of Islamic patterns
This is the pre-edited version of my latest piece for news@nature. The online version acquired some small errors that may or may not be put right. But what a great paper!
Muslim artists may have used a sophisticated tiling scheme to design their geometric decorations
The complex geometrical designs used for decoration by Islamic artists in the Middle Ages, as seen in buildings such as the Alhambra palace in southern Spain, were planned using a sophisticated tiling system that enabled them to make patterns not known in the West until 20 years ago, two physicists have claimed.
By studying many Islamic designs, Peter Lu of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University in New Jersey have decided they were put together not using a compass and ruler, as previously assumed, but by tessellating a small number of different tiles with complex shapes.
The researchers think that this technique was developed around the start of the thirteenth century, and that by the fifteenth century it had become advanced enough to generate complex patterns now known as quasiperiodic. These were 'discovered' in the 1970s by the British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, and were later found to account for puzzling materials called quasicrystals. Discovered in 1984 in metal alloys, quasicrystals initially foxed scientists because they seemed to break the geometric rules that govern regular (crystalline) packing of atoms.
The findings provide a further illustration of how advanced Islamic mathematics was in comparison with the medieval West. From around the eleventh century, much of the understanding of science and maths in the Christian West came from Islamic sources. Arabic and Persian scholars preserved the learning of the ancient Greeks, such as Aristotle, Ptolemy and Euclid, in translations and commentaries.
The Muslim writers also made original contributions to these fields. Western scholars learnt Arabic and travelled to the East to make Latin translations of the Islamic books. Among the mathematical innovations of the Islamic world were the use of algebra, algorithms (both of which are words derived from Arabic) and the use of numerals now known as 'Arabic' (although derived in turn from Indian notation).
The mathematical complexity of Islamic decoration has long been admired. The artists used such motifs because representational art was discouraged by the Koran. “The buildings decorated this way were among the most monumental structures in the society, combining both political and religious functions”, says Lu. “There was a great interest, then, in using these structures to broadcast the power and sophistication of the controlling elite, and therefore to make the ornament and decoration equally monumental.”
Lu and Steinhardt now propose that these designs were created in a previously unsuspected way. They say that the patterns known as girih, consisting of geometric polygon and star shapes interlaced with zigzagging lines, were produced from a set of just a handful of tiling shapes ranging from pentagons and decagons (regular ten-sided polygons) to bow-ties, which can be pieced together in many different ways. The two physicists show how these tiles could themselves be drawn using geometric constructions with compasses that were known by medieval Islamic mathematicians.
Some scrolls written by Islamic artists to explain their design methods show tiles with these shapes explicitly, confirming that they were used as 'conceptual building blocks' in making the design. Lu says that they’ve found no evidence that the tiles were actually made as physical objects. “But we speculate they were”, he adds, “so as to be used as templates in laying out the actual tiling on the side of a building.”
Lu and Steinhardt say that designing this way was simpler and faster than starting with the zigzag lines themselves: packing them together in different regular arrays automatically generates the complex patterns. “Once you have the tiles, you can make complicated patterns, even quasicrystalline ones, by following a few simple rules”, says Lu.
The researchers have shown that many patterns on Islamic buildings can be built up from the girih tiles. The resulting patterns are usually periodic – they repeat again and again, and so can be perfectly superimposed on themselves when shifted by a particular distance – but this regularity can be hard to spot, compared say with that of a hexagonal honeycomb pattern.
The patterns also contain many shapes, such as polygons with 5, 10 and 12 sides, that cannot themselves be packed together periodically without leaving gaps. This property of the polygons means that scientists long believed that it was impossible for crystals to show five- ten- and twelvefold symmetries, such that rotating them by a fifth, tenth or twelfth of a full circle would allow them to be superimposed on themselves.
So when 'crystals' that appeared to have these symmetries were discovered in 1984, they seemed to violate the basic rules of geometry. But it became clear that these quasicrystals aren't perfectly periodic. In the same year, Steinhardt pointed out how patterns with the same geometric properties as quasicrystyals could be constructed from the tiling scheme devised by Penrose.
Steinhardt and Lu say that, while there is no sign that the Islamic artists knew of the Penrose tiling, their girih tiling method provides an alternative way to make the same quasicrystalline patterns. The researchers say that a design on the Darb-i-Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, made in 1453, is virtually equivalent to a Penrose tiling. One of the mesmerizing features of this pattern is that, like a true quasicrystal, it looks regular but never repeats exactly.
“I’d conjecture that this was quite deliberate”, says Lu. “They wanted to extend the pattern without it repeating. While they were not likely aware of the mathematical properties and consequences of the construction rule they devised, they did end up with something that would lead to what we understand today to be a quasicrystal.”
Lu, P. J. & Steinhardt, P. J. Science 315, 1106 - 1110 (2007).
I have received some comments from Roger Penrose on this work, sadly too late for inclusion in the Nature piece but which provide some valuable perspective on the discovery. This is what he says:
"The patterns are fascinating, and very beautiful, and it is remarkable how much these ancient architects were able to anticipate concerning 5-fold quasi-symmetric organization. But, as Steinhardt (and, in effect, Lu) have confirmed directly with me, the Islamic patterns are not the same as my patterns (on several counts: different basic shapes, no matching rules, no evidence that they used anything like a "Penrose pattern" to guide them, the hierarchical structure indicated by their subdivision of large shapes into smaller ones is not strictly followed, and would not, in any case, enable the patterns to map precisely to a "Penrose tiling"). I do, however, regard this work of Steinhardt and Lu as a most intriguing and significant discovery, and one wonders what more the ancient Islamic designers may have known about such things. I should perhaps add that the great Astronomer Johannes Kepler, in his Harmonice Mundi (vol.2), published in 1619, had independently produced a regular pentagon tiling that is much closer to my own tilings than anything that I have seen so far in this admittedly wonderful Islamic work."
Peter Lu, incidentally, has indicated that he agrees with everything that Penrose says here. The relationship between the Darb-i-Imam pattern and a Penrose tiling is subtle - much more so, it seems, than media reports of this work have tended to imply. |
Let us adore the Lord, for it is he who made us.
Year: A(II). Psalm week: 1. Liturgical Colour: Green.
Other saints: St Oliver Plunkett (1625 - 1681)
England, Ireland: 1 Jul
Arundel & Brighton: 2 Jul
Oliver Plunkett was archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland from 1668, at a time when the country was in a state of civil and religious disorder after the interventions of Oliver Cromwell. He persevered for ten years in his effort to ameliorate this state of affairs, until the discovery of a non-existent “Popish Plot” against the English government (invented and revealed by Titus Oates, who implicated many before he was executed for his part in it) gave the authorities an excuse to act against many prominent Catholics. Plunkett was arrested in Ireland but taken to London for trial; one of his companions was saved by being appointed as Bavarian Ambassador to London and therefore acquiring diplomatic immunity, but for Plunkett there was no such escape, and he was hanged at Tyburn, cheating his executioners by dying before he could be ceremonially disembowelled.
His remains are preserved at Downside Abbey, together with such other relics as the notes for his defence at his trial; on the occasion of his canonization in 1975 his casket was opened and some parts of his body given to the cathedral at Drogheda in Ireland.
Other saints: St Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681)
England, Ireland: 1 Jul
Arundel & Brighton: 2 Jul
Oliver Plunkett was born in County Meath in 1625, and died at Tyburn in 1681. Little is known about his early life except that he was educated privately by a Cistercian cousin, Dr Patrick Plunkett, who eventually became bishop of Meath. Ordained in Rome in 1654, he was professor at the college of Propaganda Fidei until 1669, when he was appointed archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland. He held synods and visitations and promoted the reforms initiated by the Council of Trent. It was a time when persecution was less severe, though he would often have to dress as a layman. In 1673 the English Parliament forced the king, Charles II, to behave more strictly towards Catholics, and edicts were issued banning bishops and all religious from Ireland. For the next few years he was able to continue his work clandestinely and was even able to hold a provincial synod. Despite the danger he went to visit his uncle, Bishop Plunkett, who was dying. He was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle in 1679, he was tried on the extraordinary charge of having planned to bring seventy thousand French troops into Ireland. There was clearly no hope of a successful conviction in Ireland he was taken to London and duly found guilty of the charge. He was executed in London, the final victim of the ‘Popish Plot’ and the last person to be executed for the faith in England. He is remembered for his pastoral zeal and for the friendly relations he established with those who did not share the Catholic faith. His body rests at Downside Abbey, his head at Drogheda.
Other saints: Blessed Junipero Serra (1713 - 1784)
He was born on the Spanish island of Mallorca, and became a Franciscan. He taught at the university for a number of years before finally giving in to his vocation to be a missionary and sailing to America.
After spending some years in Mexico, he became a missionary in California, then being newly taken over by the Spaniards. Over a period of fifteen years he founded nine missions with about six thousand converts. He frequently came into conflict with the authorities over their treatment of the native population, but nevertheless, when he died, he was buried with full military honours. He was beatified in 1988, and canonized by Pope Francis in Washington, D.C. on 23 September 2015.
Other saints: Bl. Nazju Falzon (1813 - 1865)
He was born into a legal family: his father and maternal grandfather were both judges, and he and his three brothers all became lawyers. Two of his brothers became priests, but Nazju himself (the name is a form of “Ignatius”) did not feel worthy of the priesthood. He taught the catechism to children and gave away all the money he had to help the poor. He also found a special apostolate among the British soldiers and sailors who were using the island as a base, teaching the catechism to those who were interested and making many converts. See also the Nazju Falzon
web site and the article in Wikipedia
About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:
Second Reading: St Teresa of Ávila (1515 - 1582)
Teresa was born in Ávila in Spain and entered the Carmelite convent there at the age of 20, not because of any great attraction to the religious life but because it seemed the most sensible thing to do. With time, however, and despite ill-health, she made great progress in contemplative prayer and had a number of mystical experiences, which she treated with great suspicion since she felt that she was not nearly holy enough to be accorded them by God.
Teresa’s prayer life led her to seek a more perfect life, and in 1562, in the face of much opposition, she founded a convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Ávila. “Discalced” (“shoeless”) signified their devotion to poverty. The rest of her life is a story of the establishment of more and more Discalced Carmelite convents in the face of intense opposition from the unreformed Carmelites but help coming from the highest levels at the same time. Thus in 1566 the General of the Carmelite Order approved Teresa’s original foundation and permitted her to make new ones. In 1575 the chapter of the Order decided to dissolve them all, and for the next five years every effort was made to destroy Teresa’s reforms and many of her followers (including St John of the Cross) were imprisoned and cruelly treated.
At length, in 1580, and with the support of King Philip II, the Discalced Carmelites were made independent and St Teresa was able to found more new convents. She died, worn out by her efforts, on 15 October 1582.
St Teresa is an outstanding example of how the contemplative life can well up and overflow into action. In addition to all this, she wrote much on the subject of contemplative prayer and her writings are still standard works today. She was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
Liturgical colour: green
The theological virtue of hope is symbolized by the colour green, just as the burning fire of love is symbolized by red. Green is the colour of growing things, and hope, like them, is always new and always fresh. Liturgically, green is the colour of Ordinary Time, the orderly sequence of weeks through the year, a season in which we are being neither single-mindedly penitent (in purple) nor overwhelmingly joyful (in white).
Other notes: The Solemnity of the Precious Blood
This feast started in Spain in the 16th century. It was introduced to Italy by St Gaspar del Bufalo in 1815. The feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1849, to celebrate the victory of Papal and French troops over the revolutionary forces that had captured Rome and sent him into exile. Initially celebrated on the first Sunday of July, the feast was later moved to July 1, and Pope Pius XI raised it to the rank of a Solemnity to mark the 1900th anniversary of the Crucifixion.
One of the aims of the liturgical reform of 1970 was the simplification of the calendar and in particular a reduction in the number of feasts that took precedence over the celebration of Sundays. Accordingly the feast of the Precious Blood was merged into the solemnity of Corpus Christi, which is now the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Our Lord.
|Mid-morning reading (Terce)||1 Peter 1:13-14 ©|
Free your minds, then, of encumbrances; control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Do not behave in the way that you liked to before you learnt the truth, but make a habit of obedience.
|Noon reading (Sext)||1 Peter 1:15-16 ©|
Be holy in all you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you, and scripture says: Be holy, for I am holy.
|Afternoon reading (None)||James 4:7-8,10 ©|
Give in to God: resist the devil, and he will run away from you. The nearer you go to God, the nearer he will come to you. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up. |
I don’t like to burst that ‘I am in an island’ of yours bubble (yes, yes, I’m paraphrasing) but being waterwise is pretty importante if you’re part of the human race.
Here are a few reasons why:
- The amount of water we use in the UK is not sustainable; we have to use less on a daily basis to ensure our supply doesn’t run out. Water consumption is also linked to climate change – because treating, pumping and heating water produces carbon dioxide – which is a greenhouse gas.
- Water isn’t running out – the water cycle is continuous, but with the increasing population there are more of us to share the water supply.
- The average person in the UK uses 150 litres of water a day. This takes into account cooking, cleaning, washing and flushing. Again, this is not sustainable and we are not the only ones with a water scarcity problem. According to the BBC 2/5 of world population already faces water shortages, and 1.1 billion people in the developing world do not have access to a minimal amount of clean water.
I know that it seems as if this information coupled with all the hydration and health information is all a bit too much, but it really isn’t. All it means is just being sensible – rather to think in terms of what we have, rather than what we ‘may not have’. And if there’s anything that we do know, it’s that being British is the epitome of sensible.
I’ve blogged long and hard about sensible ways with water, so please feel free *pointing here, there and there* to have a gander:
Here, at AquAid, we really, truly are more than just your water cooler supplier – we’re pretty much all things water. If you’d simply like an idea of what water cooler is best for your environment, whether it be for work, sports, school or home, let us know.
Some information from http://www.waterwise.org.uk/ |
This article is about School-Based Initial Teacher Training (SBITT) programs practiced in the USA and the UK. The article briefly discusses how US teacher-training programs began in 1839, as Normal School in New England. They then later became university based traditional teacher-training programs across the country. Then it shows how a gradual change in teacher training came into the U.S. in the 1980s with the introduction of school-based teacher training as an alternative route. Although most teachers in the U.S are still trained in colleges and universities, the paper shows that many states still pursue alternative routes to teacher credentialing and focus on school-based training The next part is a brief narration of the history of school-based teacher training in the UK, which began in the early 19th century. In the later part of 1800s, teacher training was favored at universities in the UK and more colleges were opened to facilitate training teachers at higher education institutions (HEI). In the late 1900s, there was an emergence of School-Based Initial Teacher Training (SBITT) programs developed as a result of a shortage of trained teachers. Finally, a variety of different SBITT programs became the most prominent method of initial teacher training. In 2017–2018, 53% of teachers favored a school-based teacher training program, while 47% preferred a university-based teacher training program
Edmund T. Hamann, Juan Sánchez García, and Yara Amparo López López
While teaching and therefore teacher education in Mexico can, in one sense, be traced back to pre-Conquest Aztec military academies, the first significant expansion of Western-style schooling in Mexico occurred in the early 19th century, while the first substantial national efforts at teacher education date to the Porfiriato in the late 19th century. In the 100-plus-year history of teacher education in Mexico, attention has been episodic, has often reflected national refractions of ideas originating elsewhere, and has been centrally intertwined with national governmental efforts to shape what it means to be Mexican. Variously, teacher education has been buffeted by attempts to be Catholic, modern, secular, socialist, neoliberal, and globally competitive economically. In all of this, there has been a tension between centralist (focusing on Mexico City) and nationalist impulses, on the one hand (making teaching patriotic work and the teachers’ union part of the national government), and attention to regional variations, including Mexico’s indigenous populations, rural populations, and economic diversity, on the other. While Mexico’s more than two million teachers may all work in the same country, where one is trained (i.e., which escuela normal, or normal school), where one works (from public schools in affluent and stable neighborhoods to rural telesecundarias where resources are scarce and teachers are not expected to be content area experts), how many shifts one works (it is common for Mexican educators to work at more than one school to compensate for limited salary), which state one works in (funding varies significantly by state), and what in-service professional development one has access to all mean for variations in teacher preparation and teacher praxis. |
Spotting the signs of CSE
Child sexual exploitation happens when a child has been persuaded that sexual activity is a ‘normal’ part of adult life.
Adolescence is a time of experimentation and can be a particularly challenging period for parents and their children. Most parents understand the value of young people learning about themselves through new experiences, but also want to protect their child from harm.
Here are some of the signs, that together could indicate your child might be at risk of being sexually exploited.
- Being especially secretive and not engaging with their usual friends. They may be particularly prone to sharp mood swings; many parents come to Pace reporting that their child has a different personality.
- Associating with, or developing a sexual relationship with older men and/or women
- Missing from home and defensive about their location and activities, often returning home late or staying out all night (offenders know that parents will suspect something is wrong if their child stays out all night, so they may initially drop the child off at the home address and before their curfew. They may even pick them up outside the school gates).
- Odd calls and messages on their mobiles or social media pages from unknown, possibly older associates from outside their friendship circle
- New belongings which they couldn’t normally afford, such as mobile phones, trainers, clothes or jewellery
Your child may also:
- Start dressing differently
- Look tired and/or unwell, and sleep at unusual hours
- Have marks or scars on their body which they try to conceal
- Adopt new ‘street language’ or respond to a new nickname
Offenders of child sexual exploitation are both skilled and strategic; they aim to drive a wedge between you and your child, closing down the normal channels of communication and emotional bond between you. |
The Boeing P-12 (Model 102) was the equivalent of the US Navy F4B-1 (Model 99). It was developed from the Model 83 and Model 89 prototypes built as a private venture to replace the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
PW-9s and US Navy F2Bs and F3Bs. The new aircraft was smaller, lighter and more agile and had a higher top speed and overall better performance. They were the last biplane fighters for the USAAC and became second-line fighters for the US Navy shortly after the beginning of World War II.
There was not that much difference from earlier Boeing models—it used the same Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp engine as the F3B, but was an aculmination of various refinements Boeing had developed in the previous seven years of fighter design. Although biplane designs were disappearing in civil aviation, they were still in demand by the military, still following World War I fighter requirements. Experimental monoplane fighters began appearing the USAAC in 1930 and for the US Navy in 1933, but it would be another four to six years before production monoplanes would be delivered for service use.
|The Model 83, made its inaugural flight on June 25, 1928. It employed a tapered wing constructed with two box spars with spruce flanges and 3-ply mahogany ribs. The upper wing was one piece and the lower wings were built separately and bolted together at the spar butts to become a single unit. The tail and aileron surfaces were semi-monocoque corrugated dural construction. The fuselage center was welded steel tube construction, while the aft section was bolted square dural tubing from the cockpit aft. Armament for the USAAC consisted of one .30 caliber machine gun on the left and a .50 caliber machine gun on the right. Bombs could be carried under the wings or fuselage. An auxiliary 55gallon fuel tank could be fitted under the belly as optional equipment.1|
|Boeing supplied the USAAC with 366 P-12s between 1929 and 1932. Production of all variants totalled 586. The Model 100 was a commercial equivalent of the P-12/F4B and was produced for export.|
|Wing span:||30 ft 0 in (9.14 m)|
|Length:||20 ft 4 in (6.19 m)|
|Height:||9 ft 0 in (2.74 m)|
|Empty:||1,664 lb (755 kg)|
|Max T/O:||2,690 lb (1,220 kg)|
|Maximum Speed:||189 mph (304 km/h)|
|Cruise Speed:||160 mph (257 km/h)|
|Service Ceiling:||26,300 ft (8,020 m)|
|Range:||570 miles (917 km)|
|One 500 hp (373 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1340-17 radial engine.|
One .30 caliber and one .50 caliber machine guns |
plus 244 lbs. (111 kg) bombs externally.
1. Peter M. Bowers. Boeing Aircraft Since 1916 New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968. 145.|
Return to Aircraft Index
©Larry Dwyer. The Aviation History On-Line Museum.All rights reserved.
Created November 12, 2009. Updated October 13, 2013. |
But many adults don’t see it that way-yet. During a talk at a recent US educational conference, Ito projected an image of a newspaper article that appeared after DYP issued its first press release. The researchers reported that kids are engaging in diversified and valuable dimensions of learning online. The banner headline reporting their findings proclaimed, “Chill Out, Parents.”
“That outtake focused more on inter-generational tension than on our findings,” Ito said. “The headline assumes that parents are uptight, or should be, about kids’ online activity.”
Today’s kids are growing up in a radically different media environment than their parents-and teachers-did. They are connected 24/7 to peers, to entertainment and to information. “Visceral, interactive, immersive experiences are available when and where kids want them,” Ito said.
The availability of all that compelling entertainment and information has created a gap, Ito says, between in-school and out-of-school experience. Schools need to figure out how to leverage the power of kids’ engagement with media for learning in school as well as outside it. |
Lake Sevan water level
RISING INTERESTS: WELCOMED INCREASE IN WATER LEVEL RECORDED AT LAKE SEVAN
By Suren Deheryan
Lake Sevan, the jewel in Armenia's crown of nature, is on the rise, to the delight of ecologists, nature lovers and the thousands whose livelihoods are connected with fishing.
Having suffered 70 years of artificial drainage, this year, the water level of Sevan (one of the highest fresh water lakes in the world) is higher than in decades, raised by 1 meter, 33 centimeters over the past three years.
Over the past three years, measures have been implemented to reduce drainage and get the vital lake's capacity back to previous levels, but the past years' increase is unprecedented. It's current level of 1,898.22 meters is the highest in more than 20 years, when 200 million cubic meters of water were annually pumped into the lake through the Arpa-Sevan tunnel.
For a decade beginning in 1991, vast drainage (for energy and agricultural purposes) took some 6.1 billion cubic meters of water out of Lake Sevan - twice as much as in the previous decade - reaching a critical point of 1,896.46 meters in 2001.
Though the tide of drainage has been turned, the lake is still the equivalent height of a seven-story building lower than in 1933 (when water from Sevan was first used for hydroelectricity).
Each centimeter's rise means new hope for the reanimation of the lake's ecosystem.
The change in current water lines, easily seen by even casual visitors to the lake, reflect actions taken within the `Complex Program on the Rehabilitation of the Sevan's Ecosystem' which was developed as part of the law `On Lake Sevan' adopted by the National Assembly in 2001. Since that year, water drainage from Lake Sevan reduced at least twice - down to about 150 million cubic meters a year.
The rehabilitation program envisages raising the level of the lake by 6 meters within 30 years at the expense of minimal drainages (20 centimeters every year), thus taking it to the level of 1,904 meters above sea-level - a height it has not seen since 1957.
Scientists say it is at this level that the lake's endangered ecosystem will finally recover.
Already `endangered', and potentially creating a separate ecological problem, however, are some 450 hectares of shore that have been submerged by the water's rise. Nearly half of that territory is man-made forests that, if left under water, might turn the shallows into swamp.
`In the shores of the Sevan that are situated on a plain, even in the case of a 5-centimeter rise in the lake's level, vast territories submerge. In some places today water has covered 100-120-meter-long offshore parts,' says the head forester of Sevan National Park Suren Aghajanyan.
According to a government decision, stage-by-stage work on the cleaning of the offshore areas began on September 15. During the next two months an area of 92 hectares is to be cleaned of trees and bushes, for which the state has allocated 47.1 million drams (about $107,000).
According to Aghanjanyan, some 50 hectares have already been cleared. `In some places it seems that we pull the trees already from a swamp, the smell was so bad,' Aghajanyan told ArmeniaNow. `There are places where bushes already are submerged under water and I have no idea how to clean them.'
Chairwoman of the NGO `For Sustainable Development' and Armenia's Minister of Nature Protection in 1993-94 Karine Danielyan claims that the rise in the lake's level should have been accompanied by preparatory works.
`But it was not done in due time, and in fact they just begin these works,' says Danielyan. `Of course, it is good that this work is done at least today, however those territories had to be cleaned beforehand so as to prevent a single tree from submerging under water. Now it will be difficult to clean, but even in these conditions one should get down to business as quickly as possible.'
Tourist to this summer's Lake Sevan, were surprised when they went to the lakeside and saw that the beaches they had chosen as their favorite spots in the previous summer, this year simply disappeared.
`Do you see the trees sticking up from under the water. My cottages used to stand between these trees, and farther there was a summer-house,' Razmik Mkhitaryan says. `Now these trees are 50 meters away from the shore.'
Mkhitaryan, 65, is one of the dozen entrepreneurs who are engaged in a beach business at the lakeside, letting out cottages and summer-houses. Many of the beach businessmen had to relocate their makeshift cabins several times farther from the shore as water was rising. And some of them have no room to retreat anymore.
`At first, we placed our cottages at the shore. Holiday-makers like it when they can open the window and admire the view of the lake. But who could imagine the water would rise so high? It is the third year that cottages are taken far from the rising water, while water keeps rising, overtaking the cottages,' says Mkhitaryan.
It is predicted that, eventually, nearly 30 kilometers of highway near Sevan will be retaken by Lake Sevan, along with properties built when the big body of water was in decline.
`The government will compensate those individuals or companies that have licensed capital constructions on the level below 1,908 meters,' says First Deputy Minister of Nature Protection Simon Papyan.
According to Danielyan, any capital construction that was built at a level below 1,908 meters is considered illegal, since the program on the restoration of the Sevan's level existed still during the Soviet times.
`Perhaps there are official permissions for them, however according to all laws those structures are illegal. And it is not the state that must compensate these individuals, but those who allowed such constructions,' Danielyan says.
On September 1, the Government of Armenia approved the draining of an additional 30 million cubic meters (on top of this year's 120 million allocation). Environmentalists charged that top officials were trying to protect their self interests as owners of private and commercial property built below the legal line.
The reply of the deputy minister is as follows: `There is a strategic decision for the purpose of raising the level of Lake Sevan which was made by the government, and we will be guided by this decision in our further activities.' (Inferring that the government needs to be able to control the level by which the lake rises each year.)
Head of the Environmental Department at the Gegharkunik Governor's Office Hambartsum Hambartsumyan says that nothing must obstruct the rise in the lake's level.
`Even if the government has no funds for cleaning the areas, villagers will readily and for free uproot the trees and will use them as firewood. Let them only permit it,' says Hambartsumyan.
Kim Sargsyan, 66, a resident of the village of Chkalovka, was a fisherman in the past, and now he is a cattle-breeder, sitting on a rock on the way to the village, waiting for cows to return from pastures. Looking at Lake Sevan, Kim says:
`Let it rise to become more beautiful!'
The place where Kim was waiting for his cows is said to have been under water in 1940. Today the water is 700 meters away. But getting closer . . .
The Nature Minister’s Private House on the Shores of Sevan
Lena Nazaryan October 27, 2008
A few months ago, when the Armenian government was debating the permissible amounts of water that could be drawn from Lake Sevan, the press was full of reports that the agreed upon 360 million cubic meters of water to be extracted wasn’t needed for agricultural irrigation usage but rather to save the numerous property sites of government officials from the rising lake’s waters.
At the time, government officials and National Assembly Deputies labeled such allegations as ridiculous and without merit.
The private house pictured here on the shore of Lake Sevan, with its numerous annexes, belongs to Aram Harutyunyan, the Minister of Nature Protection. Construction on the house began this year and renovation work is still continuing. The house is located on the road that leads from the village of Shorzha to the Artanish Nature Preserve, a few meters removed from the shoreline. Sources close to “Hetq” claim that one year ago the house site was a part of the Artanish Preserve lands and that it was detached from the Preserve’s boundaries after a decision passed by the government.
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A primary care clinic is a medical facility that focuses on the initial treatment of medical ailments. In most cases, the conditions seen at the clinic are not serious, or not considered life threatening. If there is a condition discovered at a primary care clinic that may be considered extremely dangerous to the patient, a referral to a specialist may be made. Doctors at these clinics usually include internists, family physicians and pediatricians.
In most cases, a primary care physician will be the first stop in the line of treatment for a patient. These physicians are trained to handle a variety of problems, and usually referral to a specialist is not necessary. Further, primary care doctors may also handle routine matters, such as annual checkups, or any follow-up care needed. In some cases, the major care may be handled by a specialist, but the patient can return to the primary care clinic for the follow-up care.
Insurance often requires a patient to begin treatment with a primary care physician, most of whom either work in private practice or in a primary care clinic. This typically represents the cheapest option for the insurance company. For those who do not want to submit a claim to their insurance company or who do not have insurance, the clinic will also be the cheapest option for them. The containment of cost is just one of the reason why the primary care clinic has become so pivotal to health care in many different countries, including the United States.
The doctors at a primary care facility must undergo extensive training and be licensed to practice medicine. Therefore, while they are not deemed specialists, most have a rather broad range of knowledge in medicine, and can diagnose, or at least offer a preliminary diagnosis, on many different ailments. For treatment and further testing, a specialist may be recommended. In some cases, this is not because the primary care physician does not have the knowledge to treat the problem, but simply because his or her medical malpractice insurance limits what can be done at the primary level.
Primary care clinics are becoming more popular, as the delivery of medicine becomes more centralized, and patients demand more convenience. The clinic model provides a number of advantages over private practice. The doctor can take time off and still have his or patients taken care of, and the doctor often has a steady stream of patients and income. Further, tasks such as billing are handled by other departments, leaving the doctor to worry only about treating patients.
While there are benefits to the clinic model, there are also some disadvantages as well. Doctors often do not get to set their own schedules and must be at the clinic a certain number of hours per week. Also, there may be extreme demands on the doctor's time if working at a very busy clinic. The doctor may be pressured to spend less time with each patient. |
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|Free Christian Preschool Lessons
|"Mole Music" by David McPhail
Mole has always led a simple life, but he begins to
think that something is missing. When he hears a
violin playing for the first time, he longs to make
beautiful music. At first, Mole can only make horrible
screeching noises on the new violin he gets, but he
practices and practices. Finally, his patience and
dedication are rewarded. Mole creates a magical gift
that unbeknownst to him has the power to erase
hatred from the hearts of all who hear his music.
"Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin" by Llyod Moss
With mournful moan and silken tone,itself alone comes
ONE TROMBONE...Then a trumpet joins in to become
a duet; add a French horn and voila! you have a trio -- and
on it goes until an entire orchestra is assembled on stage.
Lloyd Moss's iresistible rhymes and Marjorie Pricemans's
energetic illustrations make beautiful music together -- a
masterpiece that is the perfect introduction to musical
instruments and musical groups, and a counting book that
redefines the genre.
"Violet's Music" by Angela Johnson
There's nothing Violet loves more than music, and she
plays or sings every chance she gets. But where are the
other kids like her-kids who think and dream music all
day long? As a baby, in kindergarten, at the beach and
the zoo, she never gives up looking for companions.
And then one summer day...
"Can You Heart It?" by William Lach
Similar to Abrams best-selling series, Can You Find It?, in
this book, young readers are introduced to great music
through great works of art. From “The Flight of the
Bumblee” to “The Four Seasons” to “Night on Bald
Mountain,” beloved music is illustrated by great works of
art, and the text and accompanying CD urge young readers
to listen for certain instruments. Can you hear the car horns
honking, played by clarinets? Can you hear the horses’
hooves, played by castanets? When each CD track is played,
young readers will stop, look, and listen as never before.
"Dream Snow" by Eric Carle
It's December 24th, and the old farmer settles down for a
winter's nap, wondering how Christmas can come when
there is no snow! It is in his dream that he imagines a
snowstorm coming and covering him and his animals—
named One, Two, Three, Four and Five—in a snowy
The biblical story of the Nativity is one about faith,
love--and a miracle. With illustrations that are
enchanting and unexpected, Julie Vivas reveals the
human side to Mary's story, beautifully imagining the
Angel Gabriel delivering the news to her, the exhausting
journey with Joseph to Bethlehem, and at last the
deliverance of the baby Jesus.
"We Three Kings" by Gennady Spirin
Over two thousand years ago, three great kings journeyed
across the desert, riding through the heat of day and dark
the same gleaming star, each bearing treasures, each
wishing to welcome a newborn asleep in a manger's hay --
a baby named Jesus, who would change the world. |
Protection from excessive sun exposure and UV rays is one of the most basic approaches to anti-aging skin management. The importance of the use of sunscreen is well acknowledged but most people do not realize that their sunscreen does not block all UV rays well. Of the three types of UV rays (A, B, C), UV A light penetrates the deepest and induces the greatest amount of aging on the skin. Sunscreens that contain both UV A and B filters provide better protection than those with UV B filters only. Historically, most sunscreens had only UV B protection but, more recently, UV A protection is more commonplace in topical preparations. Check your sunscreen and make sure it has both.
Understanding the methods to measure sun protection is also important but poorly understood by most. The SPF system (Sun Protection factor) applies only to UV B protection. SPF 15 blocks 93%, SPF 30 97%, SPF 45 99%, so a minimum SPF would be 15. UV A light, however, is not covered by the SPF grading system. It is graded by the relatively unknown PFA system. (Protection Factor Ultraviolet A) PFA correlates well to the SPF system meaning, for example, if you normally begin to tan or burn after 20 minutes in the sun, a PFA of 15 will extend your protection 15 times longer, or 300 minutes. It is now recommended that your sunscreen have an equal proportion of SPF and PFA. Check your labels carefully.
A new UV A filter has been recently approved in 2006, Mexoryl. This has been widely used in Europe and Canada for years and we will begin seeing here in the U.S. as well now that it has been approved.
Dr Barry Eppley |
A recently published paper describing free-roaming cats as “a significant public health threat” fails to deliver convincing evidence. In fact, the very work the authors cite undermines, time and time again, their claims.
“Domestic cats are a potential source of numerous infectious disease agents,” write Rick Gerhold and David Jessup, in their paper, “Zoonotic Diseases Associated with Free-Roaming Cats,” published online in July by the journal Zoonoses Public Health (and to be included in an upcoming print edition).
“However, many of these diseases are controlled in cats belonging to responsible owners through routine veterinary care, proper vaccination regimens and parasite chemotherapy. Free-roaming cats often lack the necessary preventative care to control these diseases and consequently pose a potential health threat to other domestic animals, wildlife and humans.”
Just how much of a threat do these cats pose?
Gerhold and Jessup would have us believe that the risks are high and the consequences dire. A careful reading of their paper, however, reveals the authors’ tendency to cherry-pick some studies and misrepresent others. And, occasionally, simply get their facts wrong.*
All of which raises serious questions about Gerhold and Jessup’s case against free-roaming cats.
This should come as no surprise, though. This is the same David Jessup, after all, who authored the 2004 paper, “The welfare of feral cats and wildlife,” in which he argued that “TNR really stands for trap, neuter, and re-abandon” and that it “may be illegal” (without citing any legal cases—there being none to cite). And warned that “more than 90,000 cats did not receive rabies vaccinations” as part of 1999–2001 Maddie’s Fund project in California (failing to mention that rabies in cats is virtually non-existent in the state).
And Jessup and Gerhold were among “22 experts in wildlife and veterinary public health from around the United States” to co-author a June 2011 letter to Maureen Lichtveld, Chair, Science Board, American Public Health Association), “oppos[ing]… in the strongest possible terms” the APHA’s potential endorsement of TNR. Among their objections: “TNR legislation routinely interferes with the ability of public health professionals to abate public health risk (e.g., presence of fleas and feces associated with feral cat colonies).” (Not surprisingly, many of the complaints included in the letter to Lichtveld are repeated in “Zoonotic Diseases Associated with Free-Roaming Cats.”)
To be clear: I don’t object to scientists shaping policy; on the contrary, I think we’d all be better off if there were more of it. But only if the scientists involved are able to set aside (or, failing that, at least acknowledge) their biases and produce work that can withstand the scrutiny not of their peers (who, as we’ll see, are either unable or unwilling to provide the necessary oversight), but of their critics.
Gerhold and Jessup don’t devote much attention to cases in which humans contract rabies from cats, probably because there are so few—not that the authors acknowledge even that basic fact.
Rabies Cases in Humans
Of the 49 rabies cases reported in humans since 1995, 10 were the result of dog bites that occurred outside of the U.S.; the remainder were traced either to wildlife or were of unknown origins. Since 1960, only two cases of human rabies have been attributed to cats. As I pointed in a post this past August, you’ve got a much better chance of being killed by lightning—not just struck, but killed by lightning.
Data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that between 1959 and 2011, 3,947 people in the U.S. were killed by lightning. That’s roughly 75 deaths annually due to lightning strikes. Compared to just two from rabies related to cats over the past 52 years (and, for the record: in one of those cases, the woman was bitten while traveling in Guatemala and then treated in the U.S. ).
“Individuals exposed to potentially rabid animals are administered post-exposure prophylaxis,” explain Gerhold and Jessup, “and cat exposures account for approximately one-third of all PEP recipients.” And, claim the authors, “the actual cases of rabies exposure in humans owing to cats are likely underestimated.”
I’ve been unable to locate any national figures for PEP from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the examples the authors cite (shown in orange on the map below, adapted from ) nearly all come from the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, where reports of raccoon rabies have risen sharply since the mid-1970s and “the importation of rabid raccoons from Florida by hunters.” [8–10] (The one exception involves eight-year-old Precious Reynolds of Humbolt County, California. I’ll come back to this case shortly.)
And where raccoon cases increase, cat cases tend to follow. In the western part of the country, by contrast, rabid cats (and rabid raccoons) are, as I mentioned previously, nearly unheard of.
A more representative perspective is provided by a study of “11 geographically diverse university-affiliated, urban emergency departments” (shown in the map below), which found that of 2,030 patients enrolled, 1,635 exposures (81 percent) were attributed to dogs, and 268 (13 percent) to cats. This same study found that PEP was applied unnecessarily in about 40 percent of the cases documented. Other research has documented similar instances of PEP overuse [12–15], and suggested that such costly policy failures can be exacerbated by “media hysteria.”
Gerhold and Jessup (and ABC) go on to argue that “human exposure to rabies is largely associated with free-roaming cats because of people being more likely to come in contact with cats, large free-roaming cat populations, and lack of stringent rabies vaccination programmes.” In fact, a 2012 nationwide survey of “feral cats groups” conducted by Alley Cat Rescue revealed that 96 percent of them provide rabies vaccinations as part of their TNR programs. And TNR not only reduces the risk of transmission from domestic animals to humans, but also serves as a barrier between wildlife and humans. Recalling one of his early-1990s TNR projects, Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People , says it “proved the efficacy… to keep raccoon rabies from spreading among feral cats at eight sites in Connecticut.”
Of course, many of these cats rarely come into contact with humans to begin with. A 1993–94 study of four upstate New York counties found that 79 percent of 202 PEP cases related to cats were the result of provocation, “characterized by intentional, human-initiated interaction with a suspect rabid animal.”
Cost of PEP
“Post-exposure prophylaxis regimen generally costs $5,000–8,000 for each individual,” write Gerhold and Jessup, “which is mostly borne by public health agencies.” In fact, the very source the authors cite puts the “average terrestrial rabies-associated PEP cost” at “$941.06, with a range of $440.21 to $1,884.97,” based on three-year study of five upstate New York counties. (Terrestrial rabies, in this case, refers to “primarily dogs, cats, raccoons, and skunks,” which made up “70 of the specimens submitted for testing.” Bats made up the other 30 percent. )
“The average per capita cost for terrestrial rabies including PEPs, specimen preparation/shipment, and pet vaccination clinics was $0.32, with a range of $0.10 to $0.77.” That’s right: less than a buck per county resident.
The cost figures for upstate New York correspond quite well with those from the CDC: “a course of rabies immune globulin and five doses of vaccine given over a 4-week period typically exceeds $1,000.” Of course, Gerhold and Jessup aren’t the first to be so wildly off the mark. In their brochure Rabies in Humans and Wildlife, The Wildlife Society claims PEP “can cost $7,000 or more.”
This rather monumental error reflects poorly not only on the authors—when your “facts” are even less factual than TWS’s “facts,” it’s probably time to turn in your credentials—but also on the peer-review process so often defended by TNR opponents. If the reviewers involved (1) weren’t familiar enough with the topic to recognize the error and/or (2) were unwilling to quickly check with the CDC website, they simply shouldn’t be reviewing such work.
In 2011, an eight-year-old Humbolt County, CA, girl contracted rabies and made headlines nationwide, as she was just “the third person in recent U.S. history to recover from rabies without getting the rabies vaccine.” Describing Precious Reynolds’ case, Gerhold and Jessup write:
“A recent case of rabies in an 8-year old girl from California in 2010 disclosed that the patient had multiple cat bites from free-roaming cat colonies near her house (Blanton et al., 2011). Although rabies RNA was unable to be collected for molecular typing, the epidemiological data highly suggest that the girl was exposed by a rabid free-roaming cat (CDC MMWR, 2012).”
The fact that the authors got the year wrong is only the beginning. Here again, we’re not getting the whole story. They fail to acknowledge, for example, how cautious Blanton et al. were in their report on the case:
“She… had multiple cat bites from at least two cats in a feral cat population residing near her school. While the presence of bats was noted around the farm, no infestation was noted in the household, and no contact with a bat was reported. The lack of any isolated rabies virus in this case makes further analysis of exposure route speculative.” [7, emphasis mine]
And the CDC report cited by Gerhold and Jessup provides additional context the authors ignore—including the “news” that there were no bites at all:
“The patient confirmed having contact with free-roaming, unvaccinated cats at her school on several occasions. She was scratched by two different cats approximately nine weeks and four weeks before illness onset but reported no bites. Local public health officials implemented a program to collect and identify cats at the school. The first cat was observed to be healthy, but a reliable description of the second cat was not available. All other cats collected at the school remained healthy under observation.”
Q: If there’s a compelling case to be made regarding the rabies threat posed by free-roaming cats, why do Gerhold and Jessup go out of their way to misrepresent the research?
A: There’s not a compelling case to be made regarding the rabies threat posed by free-roaming cats.
“Approximately 8 percent of plague cases in the United States are associated with transmission from cats,” write Gerhold and Jessup. “Cats frequently develop the pneumonic form of plague, which is considerably more infectious to humans in close contact, and results in rapidly progressive and frequently fatal disease.” But the authors fail to mention the number of cases associated with cats: 23 from 1977 through 1998, according to the study the authors cite as support. And only five of those were pneumonic plague.
Over that same 23-year period, five people died of plague contracted through contact with a cat; only two of those cases were pneumonic plague. And the fatal cases were “associated with misdiagnosis or delays in seeking treatment, which resulted in overwhelming infection and various manifestations of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome.”
By comparison, about 1,725 people in the U.S. were killed by lightning between 1977 and 1998.
Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite “that infects most, if not all, species of birds and mammals.” Felids—the domestic cat as well as the “big cats” (e.g., bobcats, cougars, etc.)—are the only known definitive hosts; the parasite reproduces sexually in a cat’s small intestine, and potentially infectious spores are then passed in the cat’s feces. (This process, called “shedding oocysts,” typically occurs only once during a cat’s lifetime, and lasts only about a week. )
Cats become infected when they consume an intermediate host infected with T. gondii (i.e., containing tissue cysts). Humans become infected by ingesting “oocyst-contaminated soil and water, from tissue cysts in undercooked meat, by transplantation, blood transfusion, laboratory accidents, or congenitally.”
As Gerhold and Jessup point out, recently published research suggests that the risk of infection from oocysts may be greater than previously thought. Even so, drawing a direct connection to domestic cats seems premature. Indeed, a careful reading of the work the authors cite reveals that three of 103 such infections were actually the result of contaminated water linked to cougars in the area of a local reservoir.
With every new study of T. gondii comes a host of new questions. Why, for example, are outbreaks caused by contaminated drinking water not more common, given the number of free-roaming cats in the environment? Or other types of outbreaks linked to environmental contamination? In 1997, 37 people were diagnosed with toxoplasmosis after visiting a riding stable in Atlanta, GA, and a subsequent investigation implicated cats on or near the property. (Nine of 11 submitted for testing were recently attributed to oocysts, and included among the 103 infections mentioned previously.) But there’s nothing unusual about keeping cats in horse stables and barns. Why, then, are such occurrences so uncommon?
Clearly, there’s a great deal we don’t yet know about this common parasite. It’s telling, though, that some of the scientists closest to the research don’t share the alarmist views of TNR opponents.
Jaroslav Flegr, whose pioneering research was the focus of a feature article in the March 2012 issue of The Atlantic, for example, shares his family home (Flegr is a husband and father of two young children) with two indoor-outdoor cats. Robert Yolken, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, also a guardian of two cats, told NPR, simply: “the benefits outweigh the risks.”
Others, investigating the congenital transmission of toxoplasmosis (i.e., from mother to fetus), are calling for the screening of pregnant women (standard practice in France) and the development of vaccines. [29–30]
If these researchers aren’t demanding the roundup of outdoor cats in the name of public safety, what justification do TNR opponents have?
Gerhold and Jessup argue that the feeding stations commonly used by colony caregivers attract raccoons, which “harbour an intestinal nematode parasite, Baylisascaris procyonis (i.e., raccoon roundworm), that has caused morbidity and mortality in humans, especially children.” But once again, these two overstate the threat. Indeed, as the authors of one of the studies cited by Gerhold and Jessup explain, “human infection with Baylisascaris is probably common.”
“Many more people will contract low-level infections than heavy infections, and unless the larvae migrate to the eye or brain in sufficient numbers, these individuals will not develop clinically significant disease… most human infections with Baylisascaris are probably asymptomatic.”
Gerhold and Jessup go on to imply that a connection between TNR and the distribution of B. procyonis: “The finding of B. procyonis in raccoons only near urban areas in Georgia is of particular interest given that managed free-roaming cat colonies are likely to be found in urban and suburban settings.” Here, too, the very study they cite as support provides some additional information Gerhold and Jessup ignore:
“Urbanized raccoons are more likely to forage in refuse and other human-provided food sources that would decrease the chances of a raccoon ingesting B. procyonis–infected paratenic hosts… urbanized raccoons have been shown to have smaller home ranges, which limit contact and foraging in potentially contaminated areas.”
Suddenly those feeding stations don’t seem like such a public health threat. In fact, if the concern is really B. procyonis, then we need to provide raccoons with more food sources, not fewer.
Threats to Wildlife and Cats
The threats posed by free-roaming cats are, according to Gerhold and Jessup, not limited to humans. Wildlife—even other domestic cats—are at risk of disease. As with so many of Gerhold and Jessup’s claims, though, drilling down into the work they cite as support often reveals research findings that—guess what?—provide no such support. (Perhaps the authors assumed nobody would bother checking.)
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus and Feline Leukemia Virus
If the evidence throughout Gerhold and Jessup’s paper is less than convincing, their section on FIV and FeLV is downright bizarre.
“In a prospective study of FeLV and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) in Canada, the authors noted that 6 percent (n = 14) of free-roaming cats were FeLV seropositive, whereas only 2 percent (n = 4) of owned cats were FeLV seropositive (Little, 2011). The risk of being seropositive for either virus was most frequently associated with being free-roaming, followed by having access to outdoors.”
In her 2011 paper, veterinarian Susan Little, “one of only four board-certified feline specialists in Canada,” according to the Bytown Cat Hospital website, summarizes eight studies of “FeLV and FIV seroprevalence for Canadian cats.” However, none seems to correspond to Gerhold and Jessup’s description. Across the eight studies Little cites, FeLV infection rates vary from 2.5 to 7.7 percent. (In most cases, no breakdown is provided to distinguish between free-roaming and owned cats.)
Little also provides evidence demonstrating the benefits of TNR: “FeLV seropositivity was highest in intact females (7.3 percent) and intact males (7.1 percent) and FIV seropositivity was highest in intact males (7.4 percent).” [33, emphasis mine] And, citing her 2005 Canadian Veterinary Journal paper in which Little documented “seroprevalence in 246 cats from three demographic populations in Ottawa, Ontario.” (Specifically: “74 unowned urban strays… as well as 20 cats from a small feral cat colony, and 152 client-owned cats.” )
“Seroprevalence of FIV was highest in urban stray cats (23 percent) and lower in client-owned cats (5.9 percent) and in a feral cat colony (5 percent). The same groups of cats had 6.7, 2.6 and 0 percent seroprevalence of FeLV, respectively.”
Interestingly, the one FIV-positive colony cat observed in this study “probably did not originate in the colony,” according to Little, “for it was clearly a socialized cat, whereas almost all other members of the group were truly feral.”
“It may be that this single FIV-positive male had migrated into the colony recently from another area of the city. This cat was not released back into the colony but placed in a foster home.”
Little’s findings correspond with those of Lee et al., whose study of 1,876 colony cats revealed a 4.3 percent rate of FeLV prevalence, and a 3.5 percent rate of FIV seroprevalence—“similar to infection rates reported for owned cats.”
“Genetic analysis of the FeLV virus associated with mortality in five Florida panthers,” explain Gerhold and Jessup, “indicated that the virus envelope sequence was nearly identical indicating the source or [sic] the infection was likely from a single domestic cat.” What the authors don’t explain is that, in response, “the Florida Department of Fisheries and Wildlife began a widespread vaccination program of Florida panthers.” And as a result, “there have been no new cases since July 2004.”
Once again, these additional “details” come from the very studies Gerhold and Jessup cite.
• • •
“While citizens who are concerned about the perceived improved welfare of cats in TNR programmes may be very vocal in their support of free-roaming cat populations,” warn Gerhold and Jessup, “local, county and state legislative and medical officials need to understand the economic and public health threats associated with various policies and laws associated with free-roaming cat populations.” If the authors’ intention was to in some way add to this understanding, they clearly fell far short. Gerhold and Jessup argue: “Further resources are needed to educate the public, the medical community and public health officials about the zoonotic disease potential associated with free-roaming cats.”
But it’s not a matter of additional resources as much as it is different resources. Provided by—not to put too fine a point on it—different researchers.
* And then there are the dubious claims that lack any supporting evidence whatsoever—for example: “Diminished resources and willingness to collect free-roaming animals have led to increasing numbers of free-roaming animals.”
1. Gerhold, R.W. and Jessup, D.A., “Zoonotic Diseases Associated with Free-Roaming Cats.” Zoonoses Public Health. 2012. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22830565
2. Barrows, P.L., et al., Proposal to designate Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return as preferred management scheme for feral cats (letter to Maureen Lichtveld, Chair, Science Board, American Public Health Association). 2011.
3. CDC, Human Rabies. 2012, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Atlanta (GA). http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/human_rabies.html
4. CDC, “Recovery of a Patient from Clinical Rabies—California, 2011.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2012. 61(4): p. 61–64. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6104a1.htm
5. Holle, R., Lightning Fatalities by State, 1959–2011. 2012, Vaisala: Tucson, AZ. http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/stats/59-11_fatalities_rates.pdf
6. Ross, E. and Armentrout, S.A., “Myocarditis Associated with Rabies—Report of a Case.” New England Journal of Medicine. 1962. 266(21): p. 1087–1089. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM196205242662105
7. Blanton, J.D., et al., “Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2010.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 2011. 239(6): p. 773–783. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21916759
8. Jenkins, S.R. and Winkler, W.G., “Descriptive Epidemiology from an Epizootic of Raccoon Rabies in the Middle Atlantic States, 1982–1983.” American Journal of Epidemiology. 1987. 126(3): p. 429–437. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/126/3/429.abstract
9. Curtis, A., “Using a Spatial Filter and a Geographic Information System to Improve Rabies Surveillance Data.” Emerging Infectious Diseases. 1999. 5(5): p. 603–606. wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/5/5/pdfs/99-0501.pdf
10. McCoy, J. (2012, May 24). Researches closer to eliminating raccoon rabies. The Charleston Gazette, from http://wvgazette.com/Outdoors/201205190101
11. Moran, G.J., et al., “Appropriateness of rabies postexposure prophylaxis treatment for animal exposures. Emergency ID Net Study Group.” Journal of the American Medical Association. 2000. 284(8): p. 1001–1007.
12. Wyatt, J.D., et al., “Human rabies postexposure prophylaxis during a raccoon rabies epizootic in New York, 1993 and 1994.” Emerging Infectious Diseases. 1999. 5(3): p. 415–423. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10341178
13. Krebs, J.W., Long-Marin, S.C., and Childs, J.E., “Causes, costs, and estimates of rabies postexposure prophylaxis treatments in the United States.” Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. 1998. 4(5): p. 56–62. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10187067
14. Recuenco, S., Cherry, B., and Eidson, M., “Potential cost savings with terrestrial rabies control.” BMC Public Health. 2007. 7(1). http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/7/47
15. Noah, D.L., et al., “Mass human exposure to rabies in New Hampshire: exposures, treatment, and cost.” American Journal of Public Health. 1996. 86(8): p. 1149–51. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8712277
16. Alley Cat Rescue (2012) Alley Cat Rescue’s National Feral Cat Survey. PR Newswire http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alley-cat-rescues-national-feral-cat-survey-157263395.html
17. Clifton, M. (2010). How to introduce neuter/return & make it work. Animal People, pp. 3–4, from http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/10/4/April10.htm
18. CDC (2011) Cost of Rabies Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/cost.html Accessed September 18, 2012.
19. TWS, Rabies in Humans and Wildlife. 2011, The Wildlife Society: Bethesda, MD. joomla.wildlife.org/documents/cats_rabies.pdf
20. Magagnini, S. (2011, June 13). Health officials still questioning how girl, 8, contracted rabies. Sacramento Bee, from http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/13/3698009/health-officials-still-questioning.html
21. Gage, K.L., et al., “Cases of Cat-Associated Human Plague in the Western US, 1977–1998.” Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2000. 30(6): p. 893–900. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/30/6/893.abstract
22. Elmore, S.A., et al., “Toxoplasma gondii: epidemiology, feline clinical aspects, and prevention.” Trends in Parasitology. 2010. 26(4): p. 190–196. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W7G-4YHFWNM-1/2/2a468a936eb06649fde0463deae4e92f
23. Dubey, J.P. and Jones, J.L., “Toxoplasma gondii infection in humans and animals in the United States.” International Journal for Parasitology. 2008. 38(11): p. 1257–1278. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T7F-4S85DPK-1/2/2a1f9e590e7c7ec35d1072e06b2fa99d
24. Hill, D., et al., “Identification of a Sporozoite-Specific Antigen from Toxoplasma gondii.” Journal of Parasitology. 2011. 97(2): p. 328–337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1645/GE-2782.1
25. Aramini, J.J., Stephen, C., and Dubey, J.P., “Toxoplasma gondii in Vancouver Island Cougars (Felis concolor vancouverensis): Serology and Oocyst Shedding.” The Journal of Parasitology. 1998. 84(2): p. 438–440. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3284508
26. Teutsch, S.M., et al., “Epidemic toxoplasmosis associated with infected cats.” New England Journal of Medicine. 1979. 300(13): p. 695–699. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/763300
27. McAuliffe, K., “How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy.” The Atlantic. 2012. March. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/
28. Hamilton, J. (2012) A Parasite Carried By Cats Could Increase Suicide Risk. Shots (NPR Health BLog_ http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/07/02/156142214/a-parasite-carried-by-cats-could-hurt-humans-sanity Accessed July 3, 2012.
29. Boyer, K., et al., “Unrecognized Ingestion of Toxoplasma gondii Oocysts Leads to Congenital Toxoplasmosis and Causes Epidemics in North America.” Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2011. 53(11): p. 1081–1089. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/11/1081.abstract
30. Linn, E.S., “Prenatal Toxoplasma gondii.” Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2011. 53(11): p. 1090–1091. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/11/1090.short
31. Kazacos, K.R., Baylisascaris procyonis and Related Species, in Parasitic diseases of wild mammals, W.M. Samuel and M.J. Pybus, Editors. 2001, Iowa State University Press: Ames. p. viii, 559 p.
32. Blizzard, E.L., et al., “Distribution, Prevalence, and Genetic Characterization of Baylisascaris procyonis in Selected Areas of Georgia.” Journal of Parasitology. 2010. 96(6): p. 1128–1133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1645/GE-2518.1
33. Little, S., “A review of feline leukemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus seroprevalence in cats in Canada.” Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology. 2011. 143(3-4): p. 243–245. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21757241
34. Little, S.E., “Feline immunodeficiency virus testing in stray, feral, and client-owned cats of Ottawa.” Canadian Veterinary Journal. 2005. 46(10): p. 898–901. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1255591/
35. Lee, I.T., et al., “Prevalence of feline leukemia virus infection and serum antibodies against feline immunodeficiency virus in unowned free-roaming cats.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 2002. 220(5): p. 620-622. http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2002.220.620
36. Brown, M.A., et al., “Genetic Characterization of Feline Leukemia Virus from Florida Panthers.” Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2008. 14(2): p. 252–259.
37. Cunningham, M.W., et al., “Epizootiology and management of feline leukemia virus in the Florida puma.” Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 2008. 44(3): p. 537–552. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18689639 |
Bank Treasurer: Job Description and Education Requirements
Learn about the education and preparation needed to become a bank treasurer. Get a quick view of the requirements as well as details about degree programs, job duties and professional certification to find out if this is the career for you.
A bank treasurer oversees the operations of a financial institution and sets goals to increase capital. While a bachelor's degree is usually sufficient to become a bank treasurer, an increasing number of employers seek candidates with master's degrees and professional certifications. Previous experience in finance or management also is important. Bank treasurers can also earn professional certifications through experience and examinations.
|Required Education||Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance or related subject, although master's degrees are becoming more commonly required|
|Certifications||Some employers require professional certification|
|Projected Job Growth (2012-2022)*||9% for all financial managers|
|Median Salary (2013)*||$112,700 for all financial managers|
Source: *U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bank Treasurer Job Description
Bank treasurers, sometimes known as financial managers, manage operations, employees and budgets to meet a bank's financial objectives. Duties might include establishing financial goals, implementing strategies to increase capital and expand the firm, overseeing investments and executing other money management activities. While bank treasurers tend to work with financial institutions, private companies, insurance firms and government institutions also hire treasurers or financial managers.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage for financial managers was $112,700 in 2013 (www.bls.gov). The highest paying financial management positions were in the field of securities and commodities exchanges, which offered a mean wage of $177,460 per year, while the field of depository credit intermediation employed the greatest number of financial managers, offering a mean wage of $105,470. The field of financial management as a whole is expected to experience 9% job growth during the 2012-2022 decade.
Bank Treasurer Education Requirements
Typically, the minimum educational requirement for bank treasurers is a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance or business administration. Coursework in these undergraduate programs typically covers cost accounting, tax planning, statistical analysis, management principles and business law.
Prospective bank treasurers, as well as those already working in the field, might go on to pursue a master's degree to increase their advancement options. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in finance and a Master of Finance (M.Fin.) are two of the programs available in this field. An MBA in Finance focuses on topics like international finance, economics and human resources. Coursework in an M.Fin. program can include acquisitions, statistics and investments.
Experience also is important in becoming a bank treasurer. Many treasurers start out in entry-level positions, such as bank teller, and are promoted to managerial-level positions after demonstrating their communication, analytic and customer service skills.
Potential treasurers also can complete a professional certification program to demonstrate their qualifications. The CFA Institute offers a Chartered Financial Analyst designation to financial professionals who have work experience and a bachelor's degree and can pass three skills assessment exams (www.cfainstitute.org).
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another has been tried, and it has been found in this as in all other
appliances for treating auriferous pyrites and auriferous quartz, that
the simplest plan is invariably the most efficacious. An inclined
reverberatory furnace on the following plan is highly approved of in
Australia:—It consists of a fire-box from which the heat and products
of combustion pass over a hearth into condensing chambers. The charge
is supplied through a hopper and gradually drawn down over the hearth
by rakes until it reaches a channel near the fire-box, whence it is
drawn into a pit at the side of the furnace. Four or five small doors
are provided into which the rakes are inserted. As the charge is drawn
downwards to the bottom of the hearth it becomes gradually heated more
and more, and to such a degree as to decompose the sulphides. The roof
of the furnace over the hearth should be arched.* In a well-constructed
reverberatory (oxidating) furnace all the sulphides thrown into the bed
are completely decomposed in a short time.
dull red heat is maintained throughout, and until the sand is actually
raked out into the pit, there is a continuous stream of heated air
playing upon the pyritous minerals.
Metlwds of testing aurijerous quartz and auriferous pyrites.-.-Only
by a careful chemical analysis can the proportion of gold in any given
quantity of quartz, pyrites, or other mineral be ascertained; but for
all practical purposes, assays by amalgamation are sufficient. The
methods pursued in treating quartz taken from the reefs in the Wynaad
have been as follows:—
a reef was tested in sections, the stone from each section was taken
out in far larger quantities than were required for testing; each heap
of quartz was broken into small pieces, and the whole was well mixed,
and from the heap so mixed the portion to be treated was taken. The
stone was broken still smaller and weighed, and it was then ground very
fine on a suitable stone, another stone being used as a muller. The
finely pulverised stone was put into a clean iron pan and roasted until
fumes were no longer given off until it was certain that it was in a
lit state for amalgamation. If after roasting the pulverised material
seemed to require it, it was again ground on the stone. The heat at all
times was so regulated as to prevent the possibility of " glazing."
The roasted stone was put into an enamelled dish, and a proper proportion of quicksilver was added.
whole was then thoroughly rubbed by hand, at first dry; subsequently a
little cold or hot water was poured in until a paste was formed; more
water was added, the stuff being thoroughly rubbed all the time, and
finally the amalgam or (if there was no gold) the quicksilver was
washed off, the utmost care being taken to prevent the loss of any
quicksilver. The water and sludge from the enamelled dish were poured
into other vessels and these were most carefully examined subsequently,
and if there was doubt,—and sometimes when there was no doubt as to the
results, the s,ludge-sand, &c, in these were treated again,— the
amalgam or quicksilver was most often placqd under the flame of the
blowpipe, but at other times nitric acid was used and the gold (if any
and of sufficient quantity) was weighed.
The results were calculated in the ordinary way,
happened occasionally that the roasting was not sufficiently
protracted, or that all the material subjected to the roasting was not
ground as fine as it ought to have been, and then it became necessary
to subject it to further roasting, or to use acids to decompose the
sulphides. In all cases the utmost care was taken to preserve the
conditions necessary for effective amalgamation.
The quartz collected in various localities was treated in the same manner as that taken from sections of the reefs.
In order the better to illustrate the value of this system of testing quartz, \ took a quantity of sludge and sand from which the gold had been extracted, and which had been saved in pans, and into this I put half a grain of very |
|FHWA > Engineering > Pavements > Publications|
Primary Topic: Flexible Pavement
Description: A number of new technologies have been developed to lower the production and placement temperatures of hot mix asphalt (HMA). Generically, these technologies to reduce production temperatures are referred to as warm mix asphalt (WMA). These technologies originated in Europe in response to a variety of concerns.Beginning in 2002, interest in these technologies has grown in the United States (U.S.). The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) organized a scanning tour to Europe, allowing U.S. experts to meet first hand with the agencies who first used these technologies, the suppliers and contractors who developed them, and the contractors who build WMA pavements. The tour also allowed the team to view the performance of some of the oldest WMA projects in Europe.
A team of thirteen materials experts from the U.S. visited four European countries, Norway, Germany, Belgium, and France, in May 2007 to assess and evaluate various technologies for reducing the temperatures at which hot mix asphalt (HMA) is mixed and compacted. The scan team represented a wide variety of HMA interests in the U.S. including state agency AASHTO representatives, FHWA representatives, asphalt supplier and HMA contractor industry representatives, and a consultant. The team learned about a wide range of technologies, discussed with various agencies how and why they were implementing these technologies, visited construction sites, and viewed in-service pavements. In addition, the team tried to understand how conventional HMA practice differs between the U.S. and the various European countries and how these differences might affect potential implementation in the U.S.
The information obtained during the trip identified several implementation items to further the use of WMA in the U.S. This document provides preliminary descriptions of the findings and recommendations of the team. A separate report is currently being prepared that will provide a full description of the findings and recommendations from this trip.
The report will be available in March 2008.
FHWA Publication Number: FHWA-PL-08-007
Publication Year: 2008
PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader® |
William Henry Johnson eventually became one of the most decorated soldiers in World War I. His medals and military decorations came only eventually, however. He acted bravely and heroically in the Argonne Forest in May, 1918, killing multiple German soldiers and saving an American comrade, all the while being heavily wounded himself. The French military awards him the Croix de Guerre, their highest honor. Johnson’s heroism was not recognized by the American military and American government until much later. Find out how much later, and why there was such a delay, listen to this Man Crush Monday episode! |
Clean: Wash Hands and Surfaces Often
Bacteria can be spread throughout the kitchen and get onto hands,
cutting boards, utensils, counter tops, and food.
Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds
before and after handling food and after using the bathroom or
Wash your hands after playing with pets or visiting petting
Wash your cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with
hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go on
to the next food.
Consider using paper towels to clean up kitchen surfaces. If you
use cloth towels wash them often in the hot cycle of your washing
Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water,
including those with skins and rinds that are not eaten.
Rub firm-skinned fruits and vegetables under running tap water or
scrub with a clean vegetable brush while rinsing with running tap
Keep books, backpacks, or shopping bags off the kitchen table or
counters where food is prepared or served.
Separate: Don't Cross Contaminate
Cross-contamination is how bacteria can be spread. When handling
raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs, keep these foods and their
juices away from ready-to-eat foods. Always start with a clean
scene ― wash hands with warm water and soap. Wash cutting boards,
dishes, countertops, and utensils with hot soapy water.
Separate raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs from other foods in
your grocery shopping cart, grocery bags, and in your
Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw
meat, poultry, and seafood.
Use a food thermometer, which measures the internal temperature of
cooked meat, poultry, and egg dishes, to make sure that the food is
cooked to a safe internal temperature.
Never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw meat,
poultry, seafood, or eggs.
For more information, visit the USDA Food Safety and Inspection |
Definition - What does Waiver mean?
A waiver is a voluntary agreement given by one party for a specific action to be taken by another party on their behalf, or an agreement by the person to cease performing a specific action in order to give a legal benefit to the other person. For instance within a court case, if two parties enter into mediation and draw up agreements, one party may concede to allow the other party full ownership over a specific property or asset; therefore, it would be said that the person issued a waiver against their interest in property or asset.
Justipedia explains Waiver
If a person is being interviewed by police, the police have to offer the suspect legal representation, but the suspect can waive their right to the same if they wish. In such a case, the police would be lifted from the legal requirement to wait until the suspect's legal representation arrived, before proceeeding with questioning the suspect. |
Pages: 1 2
If the Secretary General wanted to be truly “fair and balanced” as he professed to be, he would have to publicly acknowledge the fact that the Palestinians could have been living in an independent state of their own for more than sixty years. He would have to concede that the fault for their stateless condition today lies in large measure with the Palestinians themselves who, prodded on by their neighboring Arab countries, chose not to accept the UN’s original two-state partition solution.
Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem for nearly the first twenty years following the creation of the state of Israel, and then participated in the 1967 Six Day War against Israel which Israel won. Israel had sent a message to Jordan’s leader King Hussein via the US State Department, the UN and the British Foreign Office, saying that, despite the outbreak of war, it would not attack the West Bank if Jordan maintained quiet on that front. Jordan ignored Israel’s appeal to avoid conflict.
Had Jordan heeded Israel’s warning not to join Egypt and Syria in attacking Israel, Jordan would have been able to keep its West Bank territory. The Palestinians living in the West Bank could have worked out an arrangement with Jordan to create an independent state. But the Jordanians did not listen, leading to Israel’s take-over of the territory and a lost opportunity for the Palestinians.
The Palestinians have displayed bad faith in their negotiations with Israel ever since that time. In 2000, for example, Israel offered the Palestinians a contiguous state in 97% of the territory of the West Bank plus Gaza. Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and the Haram as Sharif (Temple Mount) would have been incorporated into Palestine. Arafat chose to reject the Israelis’ offer, prompting the chief U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross to blame the Palestinians for the breakdown of the talks. Even Saudi Arabian ambassador Prince Bandar Ibn Sultan remarked that “if Arafat does not accept what is available now, it won’t be a tragedy, it will be a crime.”
The Palestinians had another chance to achieve a state of their own in the West Bank in 2008. This was after the Israelis had already withdrawn unilaterally from Gaza and turned over control to the Palestinian Authority, which was unable to meet their security obligations as the terrorist Hamas organization took over and used Gaza as a base for rocket attacks against innocent Israeli civilians.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed with the Palestinians transferring to them 98.1 percent of the West Bank. Parts of East Jerusalem were included in the Israelis’ offer. Olmert also agreed that some Palestinian refugees could return to Israel. However, it was a far lower number than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was prepared to accept. Abbas rejected the proposed deal.
The Palestinians refuse to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, even within the pre-1967 borders. Indeed, they deny that Jews have any historic connection to the land of Israel. The Palestinian Authority’s information minister recently claimed that the Western Wall, Jews’ holiest site, belongs to Muslims. In an attempt to de-legitimize Israel’s Jewish history, the information minister’s report asserts that there isn’t one stone in the wall that belongs to the era of King Solomon. “The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel,” he wrote in his report. “This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction.”
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should know all this history. However, along with much of the international community, he refuses to acknowledge the Palestinians’ hypocrisy and deceit staring him in the face. Israel is made into the bogeyman, while its Jewish roots are denied.
The stage has been set for the coup de grace. The Palestinians are looking to the international community for unilateral recognition of an independent Palestinian state and of East Jerusalem as their capital, with at least the tacit approval of the United Nations Secretary General. At this point, it is increasingly likely that they will get their way at the United Nations next September.
Joseph Klein is the author of a recent book entitled Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations and Radical Islam
Pages: 1 2 |
Before, when I would hear the word 'grit' I would think of John Wayne. A strong, silent figure standing in solidarity with a cigarette and a 5 o'clock shadow; this embodiment of grit refuses to smile and takes no prisoners. Tough and strong, grit is essentially a cowboy. So how did my association of the word grit evolve from The Duke to the resilient five year old that still raises her hand after offering an incorrect answer? Let me explain... Duckworth says:
"Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.Grit is having stamina.Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out,not just for the week, not just for the month,but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint."
Students with Grit
The hot topic in education as of late is teaching students to be more gritty. We are slowly backing away from adhering to each student's intelligence modality and guiding them to think outside their neurological comfort zone. Encouraging students to make mistakes and pick themselves up afterwards will build a more resilient and courageous child. Rather than driving towards a product of high achievement, we are now putting more thought into the process itself. To me, this enables students to learn from their mistakes and adapt to the post-education world with more ease. Angela Duckworth, the pioneer in 'grit research,' highlighted in her TED talk that grittiness is tied to endurance.
In her research, Duckworth also noted grit to be a stronger indicator of success than IQ score. Students that refuse to give up or shut down after a failure are more likely to follow through on their goals and dreams. Embracing a growth mindset will also help students achieve more grittiness; when they understand that intelligence is not fixed, but can be developed, students are more likely to invest in their learning (and thinking).
Why limit the concept of grit to just our students? As a teacher recently aware just how fixed my mindset has been, can I be grittier about helping my students achieve grit? Though building wide culture takes years to mold and cultivate, it's time we become more gritty. This can pose as a challenge for many schools in the era of accountability. With emphasis on test scores at an all time high, it's difficult to nurture the process when so much demand is on the final product. We find ourselves in a constant trade off of depth of understanding versus breadth of material. Teachers and school leaders will need to find that balance between appeasing test score expectations and planting the seeds of grit. The initial stages will be tough, as instructional time will need to be supplemented with 'Grit 101.' However, after the first blossom, we will see students applying what they've learned and persevering. We could enjoy the fruits of our labor. |
Cultural Appropriation: A Fixable Cultural Crime
Cultural appropriation is a sensitive topic. Who has the right to say what is and isn't cultural appropriation? When someone uses what they think is "Native American themed" or "inspired", it's likely appropriating cultures that are still alive today. It can be someone telling everyone that their great great grandmother is Cherokee with only family lore as "proof". It's fake dreamcatchers and headdresses.
Cultural appropriation is harmful. It promotes and perpetuates stereotypes. It seeps into every aspect of Native lives. Hard to believe, but it's true. It may not affect the average non-Native, but too many people are guilty of it for it to continue today.
Learn how defensiveness and accusations of "PC culture" are wrong. There are respectful ways to show appreciation! Learn how.
Share this idea
- Learn the harm that comes with appropriating Native identity, such as the grandmother myth. Or how ancestry website results doesn't make one Native.
- Knowing the difference between appreciation, inspiration and appropriation. What uplifts, what influences, and what steals from a variety of cultures.
- Build confidence to ask respectful questions and to confront appropriation where you see it. Learn how to be an ally.
Alexandra Watson, Administrator, NtvTwt.com |
Sometimes the FPGA manufacturer recommends a fanout pattern and capacitor placement pattern.
Have you looked at the datasheet for the chip you want to use for capacitor placement information?
Have you looked at development boards that use that chip?
Often when doing PCB layout I cram all the parts on the board.
Then later -- when laying the traces -- I find out I don't have enough room between the parts to run all the wires.
In particular, fine-pitch components like TQFPs need a lot of room around them to "fan out" their wires, sometimes more room than I expected. (PCB layout artists find it requires even more resources to fan out BGA packages).
I generally end up spreading the wires apart something like this,
to give myself plenty of room for capacitors and via patterns and other kinks in the wires between the components:
(image from FPGA-Based Retrocomputing http://www.fpgaretrocomputing.org/pdp10x/ )
I typically end up with capacitors on the same side of the board as the chip, with the +VDD end of the capacitors pointing directly at the chip,
and the GND end of the capacitors pointing away from the chip,
as in figure C of " Best place to place a decoupling capacitor ".
Occasionally I end up with capacitors on the same side of the board as the chip,
with the capacitors going "across" the fanned-out traces, as in C19 in the top image at "
Decoupling caps, PCB layout ".
(But as I said before, more often like C17 in that image).
This generally means capacitors left and right of the chip are horizontal,
while capacitors above and below the chip are vertical.
However, sometimes it is convenient to have capacitors near the corners placed diagonally,
like several of the capacitors connected to pins near the upper-left corner of this Xilinx FPGA:
(from http://www.summitsoftconsulting.com/UsbAnalyzers.htm ).
Some BGA packages force us to put capacitors on the opposite side of the board, directly underneath the chip, as described by Peter Bennett.
Since I haven't yet used such high-density BGA components,
I find that keeping all the surface-mount components on the same side of the board typically reduces costs.
I personally find it much easer and takes less time to
leave more space than I really need around TQFPs, and later squeeze everything together,
pack components closely, and repeatedly discover that there's not enough room for the traces, so each time I nudge the components a little further apart.
There are a few cases where bigger capacitors make it easier to lay out the PCB.
When a package has an I/O line, then a VCC line, then an I/O line, then a GND line, then another I/O line --
a bigger capacitor can make a "overpass bridge" from the VCC to the GND line,
and the I/O line can run underneath the capacitor, something like C65 and C61 in this photo:
(image from http://veriest-v.com/index.php?id=16 ) |
Chhota Sona Masjid - The Fifteen-Domed "Small Golden Mosque"
In the town of Gaur, visitors to Bangladesh will find a religious attraction that has often been described as one of the most breathtaking examples of Sultanate architecture. It has not been determined exactly what year the Chhota Sona Masjid was constructed, but as the plaque on the structure indicates that the mosque was built during the reign of Sultan Hussain Shah, it can be narrowed down to between the years of 1493 and 1519. The magnificent fifteen domes of the mosque were once gilded in gold, giving the mosque the name of Small Golden Mosque or as it is generally known, the Chhota Sona Masjid.
The Chhota Sona Masjid looks like a simple rectangular Rajmahal black stone structure at first glance, but visitors are always amazed at the countless features and surprises that await them on this inside. As with many historical buildings in Bangladesh, the massive earthquake of the 1800’s did cause some damage to the mosque, but enough remains to impress upon the visitor, the wonders and magnificence that this mosque once held. The mosque was divided into fifteen units, with each unit fulfilling a specific role within the mosque. Stone pillars, breathtaking archways, intricate mihrabs, terracotta art and delicate finishes that have survived through the centuries assist visitors in envisioning how the mosque must have look upon completion. As the Chhota Sona Magjid is the best preserved structure of its kind in Bangladesh, it is under the protection of the Department of Archeology, to prevent any further damage and to preserve the original building, as best they can. |
In 2003, the FDA approved the first drug-eluting stent for use in the United States, which releases drugs that prevent cells from clumping in the arteries. Drug-eluting stents are now the primary choice for treating blocked arteries, but they also have side effects: The drugs can cause blood to clot over time, which has led to death in some patients. Patients who receive these stents now need to take other medications, such as aspirin and Plavix, to counteract blood clotting.
Edelman's lab is investigating a possible alternative to the current treatments: drug-coated balloons. "We're trying to understand how and when this therapy could work and identify the conditions in which it may not," Kolachalama says. "It has its merits; it has some disadvantages."
Modeling drug release
The drug-coated balloons are delivered by a catheter and inflated at the narrowed artery for about 30 seconds, sometimes longer. During that time, the balloon coating, containing a drug such as Zotarolimus, is released from the balloon. The properties of the coating allow the drug to be absorbed in the body's tissues. Once the drug is released, the balloon is removed.
In their new study, Kolachalama, Edelman and colleagues set out to rigorously characterize the properties of the drug-coated balloons. After performing experiments in tissue grown in the lab and in pigs, they developed a computer model that explains the dynamics of drug release and distribution. They found that factors such as the size of the balloon, the duration of delivery time, and the composition of the drug coating all influence how long the drug stays at the injury site and how effectively it clears the arteries.
One significant finding is that when the
|Contact: Sarah McDonnell|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
2-year-old with tuberculous meningitis: a case study.
Neurological nursing (Case studies)
Meningitis (Care and treatment)
|Publication:||Name: Journal of Neuroscience Nursing Publisher: American Association of Neuroscience Nurses Audience: Professional Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Health care industry Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2004 American Association of Neuroscience Nurses ISSN: 0888-0395|
|Issue:||Date: April, 2004 Source Volume: 36 Source Issue: 2|
Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) may occur with tuberculosis infection,
and young children are more prone to this disease. The clinical
manifestations, time course, and treatment of TBM are unlike those of
other types of meningitis, and the disease presents unique challenges
for nurses caring for these patients. This case study highlights the
typical presentation, course, and management of TBM in a pediatric
patient and provides an overview of this devastating disease. Specific
nursing issues related to the care of these children are outlined.
Although tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is uncommon, it can have devastating consequences. Early diagnosis of TBM can be difficult, because signs and symptoms often are vague early in the disease. Without treatment, however, the disease can be fatal in 3 to 4 weeks (Starke & Smith, 1998). There is minimal nursing literature on the subject, yet nurses play an important role in managing these patients. The following case study presents a previously healthy child who developed tuberculous meningitis and did well following appropriate diagnosis and treatment.
N.T., a previously healthy 2-year-old girl, presented to her pediatrician with a 10-day history of progressive fevers (99-102[degrees]F), mild lethargy, and irritability. Urine and blood tests were performed, and the patient was placed on amoxicillin. During the next 5 days, N.T.'s lethargy worsened and her mother felt she was somewhat cross-eyed. N.T. was admitted to the hospital for further evaluation and management.
Upon admission, N.T. was irritable and inconsolable. She was moving all extremities, her pupils were equal and reactive to light, she had mild nuchal rigidity, and she was febrile to 102[degrees]F. A computed tomography (CT) scan and lumbar puncture were performed. The CT scan revealed communicating hydrocephalus. The lumbar puncture revealed slightly cloudy cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with the following CSF results: red blood cells = 125; white blood cells (WBCs) = 615 (82% lymphocytes, 16% monocytes, and 2% polys); protein = 278 mg/dl; and glucose-13 mg/dl. Gram stain was negative. The CSF was sent for numerous studies, including acid fast bacillus (AFB). Although initial CSF cultures and AFB smear were negative, N.T. was given a presumed diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis. She was placed on isoniazid (INH), streptomycin, pyrazinamide, and rifampin, in addition to ceftriaxone, vancomycin, and dexamethasone. A purified protein derivative (PPD) was placed, and a chest X ray was performed, both of which were negative for tuberculosis (TB).
On the morning following admission, N.T. became lethargic, bradycardic, and hypertensive. An external ventricular drain was placed, and N.T. rapidly stabilized after drainage of CSF. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed extensive gadolinium enhancement throughout the basal cisterns and meninges. N.T. continued to improve, and within 10 days she underwent placement of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt for hydrocephalus and placement of a Broviac catheter for long-term antibiotic therapy.
N.T. was discharged after 15 days with no apparent neurological deficit. Discharge medications included intravenous (IV) streptomycin for 2 months; isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide for 12-18 months; and tapering doses of dexamethasone. After discharge, N.T. and her family were followed by the public health department, a home health nursing agency, and a pediatric infectious diseases clinic. A repeat PPD, placed after the discontinuation of steroids, was positive with 11 mm induration. The CSF culture grew Mycobacterium tuberculosis 5 weeks after discharge from the hospital. The organism was sensitive to the prescribed antibiotics. Both of N.T.'s parents had a positive reaction to PPD testing and were placed on appropriate antibiotics. Follow-up investigation by the public health department could not determine the source of the infection. It was believed the parents and child were exposed at the same time, however.
Meningitis is a serious complication of tuberuculosis (TB) infection. TBM usually is seen in children who have not previously been diagnosed with TB (Krugman, Katz, Gershon, & Wilfert, 1992). Because it takes 2 to 6 months to develop after the initial tuberculosis infection, TBM is almost never seen in infants younger than 4 months. TBM is estimated to occur in 1 of every 300 untreated cases of TB and is most common in children younger than 6 years (Starke & Smith, 1998).
TB is contracted via respiratory spread from an infected person. TBM occurs as tubercle bacilli are distributed into the central nervous system (CNS) during lymphohematogenous spread of tuberculosis, probably during the incubation period. Because tubercle bacilli do not multiply as quickly in nervous tissue as in other areas of the body such as the lung, CNS manifestations are delayed after the initial TB infection (Starke & Smith, 1998). Small TB plaques, which are initially contained, develop in the brain and meninges. These plaques discharge tubercle bacilli directly into the subarachnoid space, causing a thick, gelatinous exudate to line the brain and meninges and infiltrate the meningeal arteries and veins. This exudate has a predilection for accumulating at the base of the brain, leading frequently to involvement of the cranial nerves and the optic chiasm. The subsequent inflammation, edema, and obstruction can interfere with the flow and absorption of CSF, resulting in hydrocephalus, and can cause obstruction of small vessels, resulting in vasculitis and infarction. In addition to causing TBM, TB infection in the CNS also can cause serous meningitis, tuberculomas, brain abscesses, and spinal leptomeningitis (Starke & Smith, 1998).
As happened in N.T.'s case, TBM has a gradual onset and initial symptoms can be vague. Patients usually present with fever, malaise, anorexia, and irritability, and at this point, a patient often is not diagnosed with meningitis (Waecker & Connor, 1990). As intracranial pressure (ICP) increases, patients develop vomiting, lethargy, headaches, and personality changes, as well as cranial nerve palsies and nuchal rigidity. Later signs include seizures, coma, and irregular pulse and respirations. Hyponatremia also can be observed.
TBM has been classified into three stages based on neurological status. In Stage I, the patient has a nonspecific febrile illness without neurological signs. In Stage II, the patient has an altered sensorium (e.g., lethargy, confusion) with focal neurological signs. In Stage III, patients are unresponsive and have signs and symptoms of significantly elevated ICP, such as irregular vital signs (Hosoglu et al., 2002; Waecker & Connor, 1990; Yaramis et al., 1998).
Besides close evaluation of the patient's signs and symptoms, the workup for suspected TBM includes a thorough family and social history. It is important to recognize those children who are at the greatest risk for developing tuberculosis (American Lung Association, 2002):
* children living with an adult who has active TB or who is at risk for contracting TB
* immunocompromised children (including those with HW infection)
* children born in a country with a high prevalence of TB
* children from medically underserved communities
Having a family member with active TB is an important epidemiological finding and is helpful in strongly suggesting the diagnosis early in the course of the disease (Waecker & Connor, 1990).
Further workup for TBM includes placement of a TB test such as a PPD, a lumbar puncture, and a CT scan or MRI scan of the head. The typical CSF profile contains 50 to 500 WBCs, with lymphocytes predominant, very low glucose, and very high protein, usually out of proportion to the WBC count (Krugman et al., 1992; Yaramis et al., 1998). N.T.'s initial CSF profile was consistent with TBM, Including the fact that the gram stain was negative. CSF cultures for tubercle bacilli (AFB) should be sent, but results may not return for a long time. A chest X ray is performed to rule out pulmonary TB. In N.T.'s case, the chest X ray was negative. Gastric and sputum specimens for culture and AFB also may assist in the diagnosis of TB (Doerr, Starke, & Ong, 1995).
Typical findings on MRI or CT show ventriculomegaly in more than 50% of the patients, and one study showed hydrocephalus in 100% of patients (Barkovich, 1995; Doerr et al., 1995; Hosoglu et al., 2002; Tung et al., 2002). Basal cisterns show marked enhancement on CT and MRI, and noncontrast scans may show the exudate appearing as soft tissue density filling the cisterns. Infarcts may also be seen (Barkovich, 1995). Fig 1 and 2 show N.T.'s diffuse meningeal enhancement and hydrocephalus.
[FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1994) recommends a minimum of 12 months of therapy to treat TBM. The drug regimen usually consists of isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide for patients with susceptible organisms. Because drug resistance is a possibility, either ethambutol or streptomycin is given initially until susceptibility studies are available. Ethambutol may cause visual impairment; therefore, streptomycin usually is given to children younger than 8 years because monitoring visual acuity can be difficult. N.T.'s treatment followed these CDC guidelines. Although intramuscular (IM) injection often is the recommended route for streptomycin, it is painful. IV administration is a viable alternative and has been used successfully (Morris & Cooper, 1994). N.T.'s parents--given the choice of daily IM administration or IV administration via Broviac catheter--chose the IV route. The IV route often is much easier for children and their families.
Treatment needs to be initiated once there is suspicion TBM is a likely diagnosis, even in cases in which a chest X ray and PPD are negative (Waecker & Connor, 1990). A delay in treatment can lead to a poorer neurological outcome and increased mortality (Doerr et al., 1995; Starke & Smith, 1998; Waecker & Connor, 1990; Yaramis et al., 1998). Once treatment begins, close follow-up is needed to ensure the patient is responding to treatment and to evaluate changes in the medication regimen. Cultures and sensitivities can take weeks to be finalized.
Steroids are indicated for TBM as long as they are used in conjunction with anti-TB medications. Although steroids usually are contraindicated when a patient has an active infection, steroids help reduce the cerebral inflammation and vasculitis associated with TBM. Studies have shown that steroids can lessen long-term neurological deficits, such as intellectual impairment, and can decrease the mortality rate (Schoeman, Van Zyl, Laubscher & Donald, 1997; Starke & Smith, 1998).
If caught early (Stage I) and treated appropriately, survival is nearly 100%, although many patients may have some degree of intellectual impairment. Morbidity and mortality rates are higher when patients are treated in Stage II or Stage III (Starke & Smith, 1998). In the later stages of the disease (Stage II and Stage III), morbidity rates range from 15% to 94% and mortality rates range from 3% to 23%. Neurological sequelae from TBM include motor difficulties, infarcts, seizures, cranial nerve palsies, and cognitive impairment (Hosoglu et al., 2002; Mahadevan, Mahadevan, & Tiroumourougane Serane, 2002; Waecker & Connor, 1990). An advanced clinical stage at diagnosis (Stage III), age less than 3 years at diagnosis, or a delay in initiating treatment all lead to a poorer outcome (Doerr et al., 1995). N.T. was diagnosed and her treatment was started in Stage II. She continued to do very well upon discharge and was neurologically normal at 2 months following discharge.
Nurses play an important role in caring for patients with TBM and their families in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Nurses are involved in acute hospital management, as well as in the home health and public health areas, and in educating patients and their families.
Patients require aggressive medical management at the time of suspected diagnosis, and antibiotic treatment should be started as soon as possible. Patients need to be closely evaluated for signs and symptoms of elevated intracranial pressure, such as headaches, vomiting, irritability, lethargy, and unstable vital signs. Analgesics and sedatives may be necessary to manage the pain and irritability caused by meningeal irritation and elevated ICP. Patients may require external ventricular drainage and/or placement of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt. Appropriate institutional policies for isolation need to be followed. Children who do not have a cough and who have negative sputum AFB smears do not need respiratory isolation (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000).
As soon as possible after diagnosis, patients must be evaluated for possible sources of exposure to TB. This evaluation includes the family, any patient contacts, and any patient travel. Immediate family members need to be tested for TB and referred for treatment if they test positive for recent TB exposure or if they are diagnosed with TB. Further testing and follow-up require close involvement of public health staff. Public health staff should provide
* public health follow-up upon discharge
* further TB testing of patient contacts and referrals for treatment, if necessary
* follow-up PPDs on patients if the initial test was negative
* patient, family, and community education.
Families require extensive education about TBM, and they should be taught about the mechanism of disease transmission and the importance of the need for close follow-up after discharge. Families need to be taught about their medication regimen, including the reasons for their use, drug interactions, and possible side effects (Table 1). The importance of uninterrupted TB drug therapy cannot be overemphasized. One study showed a fivefold increase in mortality when patients had an interruption of 2 weeks or more in their treatment (Hosoglu et al., 2002). This point needs to be highlighted numerous times during discharge education, because continuing medications for a minimum of 1 year will be difficult for some families. This is especially true when patients have recovered from the acute illness and are doing well at home. A referral to a home health nursing agency may be helpful so a registered nurse can evaluate the patient's condition and medication compliance and troubleshoot problems that may arise. Additional educational needs include
* management of long-term venous access device (e.g., Broviac catheter, PICC line)
* administration of antibiotics
* signs and symptoms of shunt malfunction and infection, if ventriculo-peritoneal shunt was placed
* when to call their physician with concerns
* dates and times of follow-up appointments.
Families need support during this time, because parents may be dealing with feelings of guilt over their child's illness and the way their child contracted TB. Parents may believe they transmitted the infection to their child or they allowed their child to be exposed to an infectious contact. The long-term management required for TBM and the possibility of neurological sequelae can be overwhelming. Some parents perceive there is a social stigma attached to TB, and this might make them feel isolated. Nurses need to approach patients and families with empathy, caring, and understanding. Nurses should try to learn about the patient's cultural background and ensure teaching is performed in the patient's native language to promote increased understanding and compliance.
TBM can be a devastating disease for patients and their families, but nurses can help make a difference in patient management. Early recognition and treatment of TBM is paramount, as is patient and family education and support.
The authors thank Dr. Dean A. Blumberg, associate professor, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Medical Center, for his review of this manuscript.
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2000). Tuberculosis. In L.K. Pickering (Ed.), 2000 Red Book.. Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases (25th ed., pp. 593-613). Elk Grove Village, IL: Author.
American Lung Association. (2002). American Lung Association Fact Sheet: Pediatric tuberculosis. Retrieved February 13, 2003, from www.lungusa.org/diseases/pedtbfac.html.
Barkovich, J.H. (1995). Pediatric neuroimaging (2nd ed.). New York: Raven Press.
Buttaro, T.M., Ezell, B., & Gray, V. (1995). A care plan for children with tuberculosis. Public Health Nursing, 12(3), 181-188.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1994). Treatment of tuberculosis and tuberculosis infection in adults and children. American Thoracic Society Medical Section of the American Lung Association, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 149. Retrieved February 20, 2003, from http://www.cdc.gov.htm
Doerr, C.A., Starke, J.R., & Ong, L.T. (1995). Clinical and public health aspects of tuberculous meningitis in children. The Journal of Pediatrics, 127(1), 27-33.
Hosoglu, S., Geyik, M.F., Balik, I., Aygen, B., Erol, S., Ayghocel, T.G., et al. (2002). Predictors of outcome in patients with tuberculous meningitis. The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 6(1), 64-70.
Krugman, S., Katz, S.L., Gershon, A.A., & Wilfert, C.M. (1992) Infectious Diseases of Children (9th ed.). Missouri: Mosby-Year Book.
Mahadevan, B., Mahadevan, S., & Tiroumourougane Serane, V. (2002). Prognostic factors in childhood tuberculous meningitis. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, 48, 362-365.
Morris, J.T., & Cooper, R.H. (1994). Intravenous streptomycin: A useful route of administration. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 19, 1150-1151.
Schoeman, J.F., Van Zyl, L.E., Laubscher, J.A., & Donald. P.R. (1997). Effect of corticosteroids on intracranial pressure, computed tomographic findings and clinical outcome in young children with tuberculous meningitis. Pediatrics, 99(2), 226-231.
Starke, J.R., & Smith, M.D. (1998) Tuberculosis. In R.D.. Feigin, & J.D., Cherry (Eds.). Textbook of pediatric infectious diseases (4th ed., pp. 1210-1212). Philadelphia: Saunders Company.
Tung, Y.R., Lai, M.C., Lui, C.C., Tsai, K.L., Huang, L.T., Chang, Y.C., et al. (2002). Tuberculous meningitis in infancy. Pediatric Neurology, 27(4), 262-266.
Waecker. N,J., & Connor, J.D. (1990). Central nervous system tuberculosis in children: A review of 30 cases. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 9(8), 539-543.
Yaramis, A., Gurkan, F., Elevli, M., Soker, M., Haspolat, K., Kirbas, G., et al. (1998). Central nervous system tuberculosis in children: A review of 214 cases. Pediatrics, 102(5), retrieved February 20, 2002, from www.pediatrics.org
Questions or comments about this article may be directed to: Siobhan Geary, MS RN CNS CNRN, by phone at 916/733-6025 or by e-mail at [email protected]. She is a pediatric ICU clinical nurse specialist at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, CA.
Michelle Agnew, BSN RN, is a neuroscience nurse educator at Sutter Medical Center.
|Gale Copyright:||Copyright 2004 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.| |
Static Equilibrium for a Particle
A particle: An object with inertia (mass) but of negligible dimensions
Equilibrium equations for a particle: A particle is in equilibrium if the resultant of ALL forces acting on the particle is equal to zero
Equilibrium equations in component form: In a rectangular coordinate system the equilibrium equations can be represented by three scalar equations:
Free-Body diagram: A diagram showing the particle under consideration and all the forces acting on this particle. Each force in this diagram must labeled.
String or cable: A mechanical device that can only transmit a tensile force along itself.
Linear spring: A mechanical device which exerts a force along its line of action and proportional to its extension.
Frictionless pulleys: For a frictionless pulley in static equilibrium, the tension in the cable is the same on both sides of the pulley. |
The World Health Organization said the day before yesterday that the who’s “new crown vaccine safeguard mechanism” (covax) has reached an agreement with Pfizer and biontech, a German biotechnology company, to obtain 40 million doses of vaccine, which is expected to be distributed to low – and middle-income countries through the covax program from next month.
It’s expected to start beating poor countries’ doctors and nurses in February
Covax, led by who and GAVI, has signed a number of agreements to obtain hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines for low – and middle-income countries. Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine approved by who.
Pfizer chief executive Bula said that Pfizer expects to produce 2 billion doses of vaccine this year, of which the above 40 million doses will be sold on a non-profit basis. He said that this is only a preliminary agreement and that more vaccines will be provided through the covax program in the future.
Who director general Tan Desai said that after reaching a new agreement with Pfizer, it should be possible to fight medical staff in low – and middle-income countries from February, but the details of the supply arrangement have not yet been finalized. He expressed the hope that the agreement will encourage other countries to donate more Pfizer vaccines to support the who program and quickly vaccinate people in low – and middle-income countries.
Pfizer launches children’s vaccine test
Pfizer said the day before yesterday that it has started the clinical test of the new crown vaccine for children aged 12 to 15, but did not disclose the time when the test results will be released. Although many children in the United States have been infected with the disease or even died, only people aged 16 or above are allowed to receive Pfizer vaccine in the United States. Some experts have indicated that in order to find out the appropriate dose for children and ensure the safety and safety of the vaccine for different age groups It is necessary to test the vaccine in children.
A total of 2259 volunteers aged between 12 and 15 participated in the Pfizer clinical trial to study the efficacy of the vaccine on children by comparing the infection rates of the vaccine group and the placebo group. According to the data of the American children’s Hospital Association, as of the 14th of this month, there were 2.5 million confirmed cases of children in the United States, accounting for 13% of the total cases, 659 children were diagnosed with multiple system inflammatory syndrome and 26 died |
We’ve already broken the news that Chicago proper is not home to more Poles than any city outside Poland. Chicago-boosters and braggarts may be disappointed in this demographic insight, but it’s still undeniable that Chicago has a strong Polish presence and feel.
After all, didn’t legendary football coach Mike Ditka call his Chicago Bears a “Grabowski team”? Isn’t it the case that there’s a first-rate Polish history museum in the city? And, isn’t every observant Catholic in the Chicago area (Polish-speaking or not) aware that Mass is celebrated in Polish in dozens of local parishes each and every Sunday?
Add up all that Polish-ness and you’ve got grounds to agree with questioner Todd Leiter-Weintraub that it’s worth knowing more about how this came to be. Here’s the full question Todd asked us to tackle:
How did Chicago become such a magnet for Polish immigrants in particular? What is it that brought them to our town? Was it a particular industry?
The Chicago metro’s large, dense Polish population suggests there must be a specific reason so many Poles came here. Todd suspects an industry unique to Chicago drew Poles in particular — just as hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers came to California to build the railroads in the 19th century.
As it turns out, the answer has more to do with timing — a perfect convergence of broad historical processes — rather than an industry specific to Chicago Poles. We won’t aim to compete with the many books that have addressed this convergence in depth, but we can summarize what happened during the major waves of Polish migration from the 1860s through today. Chicago-based historian Dominic Pacyga (himself Polish-American) sets the scene for each, and personal accounts round out the story of why so many Poles chose Chicago above other options in the U.S. and around the globe.
The 1860-1924 Za Chlebem “For Bread” migration
According to Pacyga, Chicago received a trickle of migrants from Poland beginning in the 1830s. But it really got going in the 1860s. By the mid-1800s, Poland had been annexed and divided by more powerful neighbors Russia, Prussia (which later evolved into the nation of Germany), and Austria-Hungary. Polish peasants had not been much better off than slaves until the 1860s, when the peasants were “liberated” in all three partitions. Practically, this meant Polish peasants could now own land and had some civil rights, but even the liberated Poles found life difficult under what to them was foreign rule.
One immigrant who lived through the tail end of this period was John Gapinski, who recorded his account for the Chicago Polonia Project during the 1970s. Gapinski remembered that expressions of Polish identity were repressed in the German partition. As he explained:
Nobody could teach Polish. Some noble ladies tried to teach Polish in their homes. The police found out. They capture them and took away the books and put the ladies in jail. The only way to learn Polish was at home.
Liberated Polish peasants were free to leave their respective countries. Pacyga says “American fever swept through all three partitions” as hundreds of thousands of peasants sought jobs in America. Some wanted to earn enough to buy land in Poland, while others came with the intention of becoming American.
Migrating Poles had several options in the United States. There were jobs available in New York, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and many smaller cities and towns.But no American city at the time was booming like Chicago was. Pacyga compares the environment to that of today’s Silicon Valley.
“Chicago was the Cupertino of the 19th century. This is where people came with ideas and tried technology out,” he says, adding that the city also benefitted from being the connection point between eastern and western railroads. “This of course created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and brought millions of people to these shores and especially Chicago.”
Between 1860 and 1910, Chicago’s population grew twenty-fold, from a little over 100,000 to more than two million.
This massive urban growth, converging with nearly three million Poles leaving Europe, forms part of the answer to our question: Chicago’s Polish population is so large because the city’s growth occurred at just the right time to attract hundreds of thousands of Poles who happened to be looking for new homes and opportunities. Those Polish immigrants established a culture and built institutions that would attract more Poles in succeeding generations. The Archdiocese of Chicago played a part by creating Polish-friendly parishes and schools.
Many of the Poles who originally intended to return to Poland decided to stay in the U.S., sending home for wives, girlfriends, children and other relatives.
Albina Deptuch, recorded by the Chicago Polonia Project, remembered that her father came to Chicago around 1905, when she was a little girl. A tailor, he first tried Canada but as Deptuch said, “He couldn’t find any place to be a tailor.” In Chicago he found work for the clothier Hart Shaffner Marx, and — one by one — he brought family members to the city.
Deptuch remembered that in 1914, rumors of war swept through Europe, and her father spent all he had to bring her and her mother to Chicago. He didn’t have enough to bring her two brothers and another sister, who had to fend for themselves during the tribulations of World War I.
After World War I, Poland regained its independence and by the 1920s Polish migration to the U.S. began to slow. Some Polish-Americans, swept up in the optimism of the times, moved back to Poland. In the U.S., isolationism and anti-foreign sentiment brought about the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act, which drastically restricted immigration from Eastern Europe. This ended the first great migration of Poles to Chicago.
1948-1950s Displaced persons migration
World War II devastated Poland. During the war, Nazi Germany occupied much of the nation and, according to Dominic Pacyga, a staggering one quarter of the entire population was killed. Millions were enslaved in Nazi work camps, and when the war ended, Poles found their country controlled by the Soviet Union — considered a hostile occupying force by many Poles. In theory, Poles displaced in the war could return to Soviet-controlled Poland, but many worried they would be oppressed or persecuted.
The story of Polish-American poet John Guzlowski and his family illustrates the dilemma faced by displaced Poles. Guzlowski explains he was born in a displaced persons camp in West Germany in 1948. He says his father, displaced during the war, tried to return to Poland but was shot at by the Soviet Army at the border. His uncle returned to Poland, but was immediately arrested as a possible troublemaker by Soviets and sent to Siberia, where he lived the rest of his life in exile.
The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 allowed Poles to immigrate to the U.S., but Congress made few provisions for actually moving people from Europe to America. Regardless, Dominic Pacyga says about 450,000 Poles arrived as refugees anyway they could. Many headed for Chicago, where they could unite with relatives from previous migrations.John Guzlowski’s family spent years in different camps until a farmer in upstate New York paid for their passage from Germany to New York. The family spent a year on the farm to pay off the passage. After that year, his father chose to relocate to Chicago, even though the farmer offered the family a home and jobs on the farm. Guzlowski says his family arrived in Chicago with nothing but a steamer trunk to hold everything they owned.
According to Pacyga, this story of hard work and economic success was common among displaced persons. Not everyone could buy apartment buildings, he says, but Poles found they could make a decent living in Chicago even if they only worked in factories.
“You work eight hours a day, you go home, you watch television, you relax a bit,” Pacyga says. “You have Sundays and Saturdays off. It’s a better deal. That’s what Chicago represented to most Poles in all of the migrations, a better deal.”
1981-1989 The Solidarity Migration
Immigration to Chicago slowed to a trickle after the 1950s because of the Cold War. Poles had a difficult time leaving their Soviet-block country, and Polish-Americans were rarely allowed to visit family and friends back home. Ironically, it was a protest movement against the Polish Communist government, and the ensuing crackdown, that led to a loosening of restrictions.
In 1980 a dockworkers union in Gdansk went on strike to protest working conditions. This seemingly minor event touched off a nationwide protest — an expression of decades of pent-up frustration of a government understood to be controlled by the Soviet Union.
The government declared martial law in 1981, and it harassed, arrested, and blacklisted Solidarity activists. During the following years, many Poles sought to leave the country. In many cases, the Polish government granted exit visas, taking an attitude that “troublemakers” who didn’t like life under Polish socialism could go ahead and leave.
Janusz Majewski took the Polish government up on that offer in 1983. Majewski, now 70, tells us he sought political asylum after his involvement with the Solidarity movement. An immigration officer found a family willing to host him in Chicago. He still lives here today.
Thousands of such political and economic refugees arrived in Chicago, again taking advantage of family connections, as well as secular and religious institutions that had developed in Polish neighborhoods.
Kasia McCormick tells us her father had been an engineer connected with Solidarity. She was eighteen months old in 1981 when her family left Poland for a refugee camp in Austria. At the camp, other nations offered them permanent residence, including Australia, Denmark, and South Africa. Some countries offered generous refugee benefits.
“My mom said in Denmark, if you had two kids, they had to give you the same standard of living of every Danish person who had two kids,” she says. “America didn’t give you anything, just the visa.”
But McCormick says her father had already been to Chicago a few years earlier, and knew there were ample jobs for Polish immigrants.
“He was like, ‘I already knew that nothing was stopping me in Chicago. I knew that if you worked hard enough, you were going make it,’” she says.
Dominic Pacyga says many Poles realized Chicago not only had jobs, but a Polish-American community.
“This guy knows there are people who will talk to him in Polish,” he says. “People who will say, ‘You know, I’ll get you the job around the corner, they need somebody.’”
Chicago as ‘Poland elsewhere’
After the 1989 collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe, Poland once again became an independent nation. With the end of the Cold War, that has meant that thousands of Polish-Chicagoans have had the opportunity to return to their home country to visit friends and family — something many thought they would never have a chance to do.
Since then, Poles have continued to immigrate to Chicago. For some, the draw is to reunite with family members, as is the case with Monika Galuszka, now the Polish coordinator for Chicago’s Board of Elections. (Galuszka describes her experience in the video below).
For other Polish arrivals in the post-Soviet era, a major draw is the opportunity to earn more than they can make in Poland. In some cases, Poles come for months or years to earn money and then return home. Dominic Pacyga says the current era constitutes a distinct migration period, albeit smaller than the others discussed above. The number of arrivals from Poland to Chicago is slowing, largely because the U.S. is not as open to Polish migration as it has been in other eras. (As we explored in our previous story on Chicago’s Polish population, many more Poles are choosing to migrate to the United Kingdom instead of the United States.)
That said, the Polish institutions and Polish culture that were established beginning in the 1860s are still strong in Chicago and the metro area. Take the case of Malgorzata Cieslak, a Solidarity refugee who came to the U.S. with her husband in the 1980s. She settled in a small town in Minnesota, where she says “The people were beautiful. They were friendly, helpful. And I’m happy that we were there for five years. But it became a little boring after a while.”
When she lived in Minnesota, Cieslak and her husband often visited friends in west-suburban Oak Park, loading up on Polish bread and sausage for their freezer. As much as they liked their community in Minnesota, she says something was off.
“We missed being connected to Polish people and Polish activities — Polish media and bookstores, and [movies] from Poland.” So when their friends in Oak Park found a house they could afford, she and her husband moved, and she now helps Polish-speaking patients navigate the hospital at Lutheran General.
Dominic Pacyga says the experience of Polish-Americans choosing Chicago over other perfectly nice places continues to this day, and will continue. They know there are other Polish-Americans here, he says, and that in itself is a strong draw.
Chicago, he says, is “Poland elsewhere. Chicago has provided a garden for Polonia to grow in.”
Special thanks to Dan Pogorzelski for connecting us with so many Polish-Americans, as well as translation help.
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect spelling of an interviewee’s name. The correct spelling is Monika Galuszka. |
I must take issue with Brian Solik’s definition of evolution in his letter. Mr. Solik quotes a correct “typical definition from a PBS website,” but as he states, that is a definition not of evolution but of “the evolutionary process of speciation.” The process of speciation is an example of an evolutionary process. It is not a synonym of evolution. In biology, evolution, derived from the Latin verb evolvere, to unroll or unfold, is defined in dictionaries and standard textbooks as, for example, “change in the properties of groups of organisms over the course of generations” and “passed via the genetic material from one generation to the next” (quotations from the excellent textbook Evolution by Douglas J. Futuyma of the State University of New York at Stony Brook).
Not unexpectedly, Joel Achenbach ’82, in his accurate PAW article, and the scientists Peter and Rosemary Grant correctly use the term evolution. Mr. Solik points out correctly that the Grants study what is “sometimes called microevolution.” However, microevolution is one kind or aspect of evolution. Mr. Solik states falsely, perhaps inadvertently, that it “is not evolution at all.” Everyone is familiar with microevolution because that term encompasses the genetic changes that we inherit from our grandparents and parents. As Futuyma put it succinctly, “Biological evolution may be slight or substantial: It embraces everything from slight changes in the proportions of a gene within a population to the alterations that led from the earliest organism to dinosaurs, bees, oaks, and humans.” From their “natural laboratory” at Daphne Island, the Grants have significantly advanced understanding of how microevolution occurs and its broader impacts on populations and species. |
Weather on Sicily
(4) marks: 9
We may say that the climate on Sicily is hot. And it is true especially as far as summer is concerned, which is the main tourist season on Sicily. It is because Sicily is situated in the southern part of the Mediterranean coast of Europe.
It is hot in Sicily in summer, the sky is blue, the temperature in the afternoon is about 36-40ňöC. You should pay attention to the fact that the most popular month for the holidays in Europe is August, but it is not the best period to visit Sicily, because the Sicilians are also on holidays in August. In August you may find a lot of shops, restaurants and other places closed, because the owners of these places are on holidays and spend their free time on the beaches of Mondello and Castellamare.
If you are thinking of going to Sicily, the best months to do it are April, May, June and September. The weather on Sicily at that time is sunny and rather warm, the water is nice for bathing and swimming and the amount of tourists is not very great. Besides this fact, spring is a season when all the orchards are in blossom and the nature looks beautiful. May is also a month of tunny-fishing, the tradition of which is more than 500 years old and was even described by the famous French traveler Cousteau in his books.
Storms on Sicily are quite common. They happen there all the year round. A lot of them are the results of sirocco. Siroccos are the winds which blow from North Africa. They bring dry hot air of the African deserts to the provinces of Catania, Ragusa, Syracuse and Agrigento. The rate of siroccos can reach 100 km per hour. The strongest winds blow on Sicily in March and November.
Winter on Sicily is typical for the Mediterranean coast, it is mild. The average temperature is about 0ňöC on the coast, it is lower in the mountains. January and February are considered to be the months for skiing on Sicily. In winter the Sicilians gather the harvest of citrus fruits. The air is rather warm but the weather is very changeable at that time of the year. The sky can be without any clouds and at the next moment it starts raining.
- Sightseeings of Sicily
- Islands of Sicily
- Events in Sicily
- Ports and Ferries of Sicily
- Fishing on Sicily
- UNESCO in Sicily
- Traditions of Sicily
- Weather on Sicily
- Celebrities on Sicily
- Mafia in Sicily
- Sicily Nature parks and Reserves
- Theatres of Sicily
- Real Estate in Sicily
- Restaurants in Sicily
- Sicilian Wine
3 millions of Eur–ĺ for archaeological parks in Sicily
Italian government had made a decision to spend 3 mln of Eur for support of archaeological parks in Sicily.
New cruise will be launched in Messina
It will be the first of such a kind of project for Top Cruises in Sicily. Messina will be the ‚Äútest ground‚ÄĚ where company plans on checking the effectiveness for Sicily‚Äôs ports to use them for launching other cruises |
Podiatric surgery is surgery performed on the foot, ankle, or lower leg by highly qualified podiatric surgeons who are trained specifically to deal with these problems. The problems may result from birth defects, heredity, trauma, arthritis, physical stress, improper shoes, muscle and joint imbalances, and even the hard surfaces on which you walk. The important fact to remember is that podiatric surgeons are the physicians most thoroughly trained to manage these problems.
Podiatric surgery differs from other surgical procedures because of the special characteristics and functions of the lower extremity. In addition to supporting your weight, the foot is subjected to repeated abuse with each step. Providing immediate treatment and preserving the best function possible are key factors in podiatric surgery.
Research conducted by the American Podiatric Medical Association reveals that more than 70 percent of all people in the United States have painful foot problems at some point in their lives. Even President Lincoln said, "I cannot think clearly when my feet hurt." The situation is no different today. Good foot health can enhance your daily existence and improve your quality of life.
Foot and ankle problems are quite common and include: congenital, acquired, traumatic, infectious, neoplastic and arthritic. When foot and ankle problems occur at birth, they are called congenital and are generally inherited.
Acquired problems may result from improper footwear, physical stress, or small mechanical changes within the foot, which can slowly increase with aging.
Traumatic problems are associated with injuries to the foot and ankle such as a sprained or broken ankle or a fracture of the foot.
Infectious problems are the result of bacterial, viral, or fungal disorders that may affect superficial or deep tissues.
Neoplastic disorders (tumors) are the result of abnormal growth of tissue and may be benign or malignant.
Arthritic disorders may involve one or more joints and may be secondary to trauma or associated with systemic disease.
Members of the ACFAS can help answer your questions about any of these problems.
Conditions that are often alleviated through surgical procedures include:
- Sprains and fractures
- Arthritis and joint disease
- Benign and malignant tumors
- Birth deformities
- Calluses and warts
- Corns and hammertoes
- Heel or toe spurs
- Ingrown toenails
- Neuromas (nerve tumors)
If you have questions about any of these conditions, your podiatric surgeon can explain the condition and treatment options.
Conservative treatment of many foot and ankle problems often produces temporary relief of pain. If pain persists, surgery is sometimes the more definitive answer to a persistent problem and the best way to prevent more serious conditions. On the other hand, surgery is not always the best approach for all patients. Your podiatric surgeon can tell if you are an appropriate surgical candidate.
Not usually. Surgical procedures may be performed in the office or in an outpatient setting. Your podiatric surgeon is well qualified to discuss the needs of your particular case. Surgery may be performed under local anesthesia or with light sedation administered by a trained anesthesia specialist. Your surgeon will advise you on the best possible postoperative care, so that your recovery will be rapid and as comfortable as possible.
Each surgical procedure requires a different type of foot immobilization such as a bandage, splint, surgical shoe, cast, or open sandal. Good postoperative results require proper foot support to prevent future problems. Early use of leg and foot muscles hastens recovery. After sufficient healing time, most patients can resume wearing their usual footwear.
Many patients require postoperative care, such as physiotherapy, orthotic devices (foot supports), and special footwear. This care helps ensure that the results of the operation are long lasting.
Attention is given to the special needs of older patients. This may include a consultation with your internist or specialist to evaluate your condition and determine the safest procedures.
Diabetics must take special care of their feet. Proper control of the diabetic's blood sugar and thorough evaluation of circulation and healing abilities are necessary before surgery is considered. Foot and ankle surgery on diabetics who are well controlled is usually successful and may serve to prevent severe diabetic complications from occurring. |
By Storyteller Kucha Brownlee
Kucha was born in the North, but her Southern family values and ties came North with her family. In this story, Kucha wonders why everyone feels the need to pigeon hole other people? She knows that a strong family defies stereotypes and grows love.
For a print friendly version of the transcript, click here: First Generation Chicagoan – No Pigeon Holing
- Have you ever made an assumption about a person just by looking at them which turned out to be way off?
- What assumptions can you make from listening to a person speak?
- Have you ever heard someone speak and when you met them they looked totally different than expected? Were the assumptions cultural? Positive? Negative? Why?
- When the look doesn’t match the sound are you willing to find out why? Was it a pre-conceived idea that caused the difference? Where did your beliefs come from?
- List some stereotypes that people have about you? Your race? Your gender? Your lifestyle?
- A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration by Steven Hahn
- The Great Migration: From Rural South to Urban North by Liz Sonneborn
- Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Blacks from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
- African American/Blacks
- Family and childhood
- Taking a Stand
My family is part of the great migrations of African-Americans that took place from the South to the North, in the early 1900’s. You see, the Brownlee family really moved from Senatobia, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee. And then my father took that trip north to Chicago, Illinois. A few years later, he sent for my mother and the children. And the last three girls, myself included, were born in Chicago. So, I am a first-generation Chicagoan.
I grew up on the West Side of Chicago. Oh! The West Side…We had everything. There were blacks and whites, well, very few whites, but a lot of African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, gypsies. And then a few Polish, Italian and Irish sprinkled in. And I had a funny kind of accent with this happening. People would always ask me where I’m from. See, when I was little, people used to say, “You know, Chicago’s West Side is Little Mississippi” because the main dialect they heard was Southern. But we had all of that other mix. So, when I talk, I might have a little island sound because sometimes when I say, “man,” it will come out like “mon.” And then the rest was kind of Southern and Midwestern. And people always saying where are you from?
And I’d said, “Chicago.”
They’d said, “No, really. Where are you from?”
I’d said, “Really. I’m from Chicago.” And they didn’t believe me. So finally, I started saying, “That’s it,” to whatever island they thought I was from. But it’s all good.
You know, when I visited Puerto Rico, I actually had someone say, “I know you’re really Puerto Rican. You’re just afraid to admit your heritage because you forgotten the language.”
Well, whatever. Think what you want. It’s all good. But I do wonder why people always have to pigeonhole someone. And if you don’t fit into their concept of what it should be, they try to make you think there’s something wrong with you.
See, my family is all colors of the rainbow. We go from like a creamy-white to blue-black and everything in between. And we love each other really hard. Most of the time people try to get us to deny each other. You know, they’re constantly saying, “You’re not cousins. Come on, why you lying?” But we are cousins.
When we were little, we had this game we would play with newcomers. It was called “Guess Who’s Related?” And usually the people would try to make me related to our neighbors who were Creole. And we go, (Buzzer sound), “Wrong answer.” Because…Just because we are the same color does not make us related. What makes us related, of course, is the blood.
But people were always trying to change that, you know. My cousin, he had this girlfriend, and he brought her over to meet the family. He had been talking about her for some time. He thought this is “the one.” And she got there and she’s real nice. Oh, she was so pleasant. And then, of course, when they left she said, That’s not your cousin.” And she kept trying to make him admit that he wasn’t related to us. So, I think about that sometimes. So, you thought both of our families were lying to you. Anyway, they didn’t stay together because he figured, “If you can’t believe me when I’m telling truth, we have no hope here.”
My family. We don’t care what you think. We know who we are. We knew then and we know it now. And it doesn’t matter what you think. Because we know.
You know, in the 60’s, it got really strange because…You know in the 60’s, one of my classmates said to me, “Why are you doing this? This is not your fight. You can pass.”
Now what he was talking about is, King was about to have a demonstration and I was planning on marching. and he said, “This is not your fight. You can pass.”
Well, I suppose I could pass, but why would I? Why would I pass and pretend to be white? I know, I’ve heard that there’s some white blood in my family. In fact, I heard that my grandfather was Irish but I never met the man. His name is not on any birth certificate. And I’m not even sure what the relationship was consensual since my grandmother never talked about it and my mother would not allow us to ask her about. So why would I want to pretend I was white? Why would I want to pretend I was white? That this was not my problem? When I know that my uncle had a flat in Cicero and had to be very prayerful and hope that those young, white punks had enough sense to know that he didn’t want to be on their street changing his tire any more than they wanted him there.
Why should I pass? And, and, then ignored the truth to the humor that my other uncle used to say when he would talk about bringing my mother to work. And my baby sister wanted to ride. And once he dropped Ma off, she started crying. Oh, big wails. And he said, “Girl, you better hush up before somebody think I’m tryin’ ta steal some little white chil’.” And it was funny. People laughed every time he told this story. But if the reality, if that had happened, would they have believed that that little, light child with blond hair was his niece?
My family… all colors. We ranged from creamy-black to paper brown cafe au lait, paper bag, paper bag brown, mahogany, dark-black, blue-black. And it doesn’t matter if you think we were related or not. Because we are family and we love each other. We’re blood. Blood brought us together. But blood is not what keeps us together. Love binds us together. We don’t live in the same building anymore. We don’t even live in the same state. But when we get together, love fills the space. |
One of the lesser known but nevertheless delightful tropical fruits which is relatively easy to grow is the Sugar Apple. It is often called Custard Apple, and it belongs to the botanical family, Annonaceae.
The species like so many other exotic fruits, originated in the tropics of South America. They were obviously well-known to the early inhabitants of that continent, as it is now widely scattered in places like Mexico, West Indies, India, Spain, Israel and Australia.
This sweet, delicious fruit is heart-shaped, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, skin bumpy and green with juicy, sweet, white flesh, neatly encasing several shiny black seeds. The fruit is classed as excellent.
The trees are semi-deciduous, shedding a large portion of their leaves by the end of winter. They are usually an open tree; fairly small, but often grow to around 5 metres tall. Flowering usually occurs first in spring after bud burst, but very few of these flowers set fruit. Sometimes a poor set of misshapen fruit will occur, mainly due to poor pollination. Humid weather seems to help pollination, and further flowering after spring seem to have a better fruit set.
Being a tropical plant, they require a fairly hot climate, such as coastal regions of northern NSW and Queensland. In such areas the temperatures are not excessive, and there is normally sufficient humidity during the flowering period to ensure a good crop. Young trees must be protected from frosts but when mature, will usually withstand light to moderate frost.
Lighter textured soils which are well-drained and will grow bananas successfully, are quite suitable for the sugar apple. Care should be taken that the soil is well-drained. Mounding is a good idea when soils are of heavy clay. The amount of water applied during the growing season will depend on the frequency and extent of the rainfall received. When rainfall is low, the trees should be regularly and thoroughly watered, but care must be taken to avoid excessive watering, as it may cause the onset of root rot.
The sugar apple responds to regular application of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.
As they are also a member of the Annonaceae family, zinc deficiency symptoms are frequently seen in the form of stunted shoot growth, with small mottled leaves. Zinc deficiency can normally be corrected by spraying the trees in spring with a mixture of 10 grams of zinc sulphate in 10 litres of water. Sometimes a follow-up spray will be required again the following spring.
Seedlings usually come into flowering when three to four years old. Some are more productive than others and there is much variation in the size and quality of fruit produced by different trees. When there is an unusually good tree, it should be propagated by budding on to sugar apple seedlings.
Pruning of mature trees involves cutting off any branches which crowd the centre of the tree, and any other whip-like shoots are shortened back. After bud burst is the best time to prune, when the sap flow has begun. Fruit is produced on shoots which grew the previous season, as well as those which grew two years earlier.
The best way to pick the fruit is when it matures. That is when the spaces between the segments fill out and become lighter in colour. The fruit should be clipped from the tree level with the shoulder of the fruit while the fruit is still firm, then allow it to ripen at room temperature. If the fruit is harvested too early, it will not ripen and soften properly.
Although only a minor crop in our northern states, there appears to be little reason why more of this fruit should not be grown, as this delightful fruit should easily find a ready market.
DATE: May 1981
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Field Marshal Shamsherji Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, MC (03 April 1914 – 27 June 2008), popularly known as Sam Bahadur (“Sam the Brave”), was an Indian military leader who was the first Indian army officer to be promoted to the five-star rank of field marshal. His distinguished military career spanned four decades and five wars, beginning with service in the British Indian Army in World War II. Manekshaw rose to become the 8th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army in 1969 and under his command, Indian forces conducted victorious campaigns against Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 that led to the liberation of Bangladesh in December 1971.
Manekshaw was born in Amritsar, Punjab to Parsi parents, Hormusji Manekshaw, a doctor, and his wife Heerabai, who moved to Punjab from the small town of Valsad on the Gujarat coast. After completing his schooling in Punjab and Sherwood College, Nainital, and achieving a distinction in the School Certificate Examination of the Cambridge Board at the age of 15, he asked his father to send him to London to become a gynecologist. When his father refused to send him until he was older, in an act of rebellion, Manekshaw took the entrance examination for enrollment into the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun. He was successful and as a result, became part of the first intake of 40 cadets on 1 October 1932. He graduated from the IMA on 4 February 1934 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Indian Army (which later became the Indian Army after Independence).
Manekshaw recalled that his years at the college had prepared him for war as they had taught him to live alone and independently, to fight without relent, tolerate hunger for long periods and to hate his enemy.
On commissioning, as per the practices of that time, Manekshaw was first attached to the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Scots, a British battalion, and then later posted to the 4th Battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment, commonly known as the 54th Sikhs. During World War II, the then-Captain Manekshaw saw action in Burma in the 1942 campaign on the Sittaung River with the 4/12 Frontier Force Regiment and had the rare distinction of being honored for his bravery on the battlefield.
Manekshaw attended the 8th Staff Course at Command and StaffCollege, Quetta, from 23 August to 22 December 1943. He was then posted as the brigade major of the Razmak Brigade, serving in that post until 22 October 1944 when he was sent to join the 9th Battalion, 12 Frontier Force Regiment in Burma, as part of General William Slim’s 14th Army. Towards the end of World War II, Manekshaw was sent to serve on General Daisy’s staff in Indo-China where, after the Japanese surrender, he helped repatriate over 10,000 former prisoners of war (POWs). He then went on a six-month lecture tour to Australia in 1946, and after his return was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, serving as a first-grade staff officer in the Military Operations Directorate.
Upon the Partition of India in 1947, his parent unit – 12th Frontier Force Regiment – became part of the Pakistan Army (rechristened Frontier Force Regiment), and so Manekshaw was reassigned to the 16th Punjab Regiment, before being posted to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Gorkha Rifles, which he was detailed to command. The tumultuous events of partition required Manekshaw’s retention in army headquarters as a lieutenant colonel in the Military Operations Directorate, though, and because of this he subsequently missed his chance to command an infantry battalion as he was later promoted to brigadier, becoming the first Indian Director of Military Operations. The appointment of Director of Military Operations was upgraded first to major general and later to lieutenant general and is now termed Director General Military Operations( DGMO).
Manekshaw died at the MilitaryHospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, on 0030 hours, 27 June 2008 at the age of 94. Since then, 16 December is celebrated each year as "Vijay Diwas" in memory of the victory achieved under Manekshaw’s leadership in 1971. A postage stamp depicting Manekshaw in his field marshal’s uniform was released by President Pratibha Patil.
The most popular and respected Indian General he never minced words and one can never forget his quote, “A ‘Yes man’ is a dangerous man. He is a menace. He will go very far. He can become a minister, a secretary, or a Field Marshall but he can never become a leader nor, ever be respected. He will be used by his superiors, disliked by his colleagues, and despised by his subordinates. So discard the ‘Yes man’.”
Here we came across a video where he was interviewed: |
Jacques Barzun, perhaps the most famous and accomplished cultural historian to date, died Thursday night at 104 years old, according to The New York Times. Barzun was by no means a man to be remembered primarily for his opinions on baseball. However, one of his most famous quotations concerned the game, and I want to unpack and reexamine it here.
Anyone who wants to know the heart and mind of America, had better learn baseball.
Barzun wrote those words in a 1953 essay ascetically entitled “Baseball.” They rang unassailably true then. The essay came two years after Bobby Thompson’s pennant-winning home run, a watershed moment that epitomized a decade-long ascension by the sport to absolute preeminence in American cultural life. It was six years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and helped ignite a struggling Civil Rights movement. At that moment–at the height of the Yankees’ second dynasty; with national TV still used almost exclusively to broadcast the World Series; a half-decade before the diaspora of the New York teams; and a full decade before the emergence of football and basketball as viable competitors to baseball on a professional level–Barzun was absolutely right about baseball’s role in American life. He felt, rightly, that immigrants and outsiders in the sprawling culture of the post-war nation had a single best window through which to learn what it would take to effectively assimilate. Baseball was a mechanism of inclusion.
That was true when Barzun wrote it, but for much of the 60 years since, it hasn’t been so. Baseball has gotten markedly more white in the last 20 years. Ticket prices have soared as stadium capacities have dwindled, somewhat disenfranchising poor and lower middle-class fans. Baseball did a better job from 1970-2007 of reflecting the nation’s habits, preferences and prejudices than it did of shaping or celebrating them. Like all other institutional entertainment in this country, baseball has brought down a kind of curtain between itself and its fans. Players struggle to relate to fans, and so are often less relatable than their predecessors in the other direction. The game somewhat cheapened itself in the 1990s, perhaps not fatally or permanently, but saliently, by adding teams and playoff rounds that muddled the hard, cold integrity of the long season. Its stewards today are not the devoted servants of public interest their forebears were. The league even participated, in its way, in the real-estate bubble problem, as most teams milked public financing for new stadia from their state and local governments, artificially inflating local property values but failing to deliver the promised economic boosts. Labor strife and low-grade fraud (read: steroids) pockmarked that era, too. Meanwhile, Michael Jordan happened, then ESPN, 9/11, and the explosion of the digital age, all of which contributed to baseball ceding its place at the forefront of sports in the U.S. to football. Baseball was just another product for some time after the 1994 strike, often not a very good product, and never a really important product on any level, except perhaps in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
It seems to me that is changing again, and for the better this time. Barzun’s passing came on a night when Sergio Romo closed a Game 2 win for the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Romo, like an exponentially growing number of baseball’s Hispanic stars, is American-born, the son of two Mexican immigrants. He went to a high school in California and college in Alabama. He’s now famous for his dugout hijinks and his scraggly beard, but is also singularly stylish on the mound. He provides something Mexican-American youths can look to very directly, and as Barzun very well knew, it’s important that one have positive influences as directly comparable to oneself in terms of experience and detail as possible. Romo is thoughtful, funny and exceptionally talented, and if the playoff beard movement for which he is the latest poster boy is somewhat incongruous with the traditional, decades-old sponsorship Gillette lends to the MLB playoffs, so be it. Romo embodies cool on the mound, and although athletes should never be used as role models for personal comportment, his background makes him a worthwhile example for young people like him, of whom there are millions.
The two cities in which the Series us being played this year also illustrate baseball’s reemergence as a viable mechanism for community betterment and bringing people together. Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch spent grandly on this team, feeling he could lift the spirit of spiraling city if his club could be the catalyst. They have made good, and Ilitch (who was ready, even eager, to accept a financial loss in the ledgers this year) now seems likely to see a profit. In San Francisco, meanwhile, a fan culture has emerged that surpasses what’s expected even of fans of perennial contenders. Better than that, though, is what the organization gave back to its community tangibly. AT&T Park has become one of the rare success stories in the annals of public funding for such things, due largely to the team’s willingness to move into a fairly depressed area of town and build from the ground up.
Football has run into its own massive set of problems. Basketball is a game so markedly different in what it endeavors to offer that it would feel strange to even draw direct comparison or contrast between it and baseball. It seems that what Barzun knew as America’s pastime might be that again tonight, and although he opined less on sports as a vehicle for public edification and diversion in recent years, I suspect he would approve of what the game has done, and of what it’s capable of doing.
Baseball is with you every day, six months out of the year, seven if your team is very good. The structure of the league rewards focus and diligence over a long schedule, the sort of everyday passion that, if mimicked elsewhere in life, will be met with respect and admiration. This remains truer of baseball than any other sport, despite the ever-expanding Wild Card-based postseason, a measure I hate but one that doesn’t compromise the essential integrity of the game. Baseball is less violent and less corrupt than football. It is inherently more competitive in terms of balance within games than its competitors for top billing in sports. It is both the most strategic and most skill-heavy of the major sports. It demands attention to detail, craftsmanship and an agile mind. Games don’t feel like cataclysm in action, until they should. Increasingly, the game is reaching out to new fans and new fan bases. Barzun believed decadence was threatening Western culture very gravely, though I have not read anything in which he directly linked the declining influence of baseball to that perceived societal degradation. Perhaps now, even as he has left his legacy in our hands, the game that declined in visibility over the second half of Barzun’s life will rise again, and bring part of its culture back upward, too.
There remains much work to do, but the time is ripe for baseball to regain the prominence it enjoyed 60 years ago, when Barzun praised it so, and I feel it would be good for our culture as a whole if that happens. Barzun also wrote that writing accessibly to a general audience was a “responsibility of scholars.” That’s important for baseball writers to remember. The game should be fun, and the greatest number of fans will be reached if those who cover baseball marry heady, keen analysis with genuine (not merely convenient) human interest and an artful reminder of what it is that makes this game an instructive sort of joy.Next post: 2012 World Series Game 2: San Francisco Giants Beat Detroit Tigers Behind Madison Bumgarner
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Becoming disabled is not easy for anyone, but it is especially difficult if your resources are limited and you simply do not have enough income to survive. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a special program for Americans like you. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is designed to help.
What is Supplemental Security Income?
This program is different from other SSA programs in how it is paid. While SSA disability and retirement benefits are paid from the Social Security trust fund from taxes, SSI is paid through U.S. Treasury general funds.
This type of government benefit is designed for people who have low income and few resources. These people must be:
- Age 65 or older;
- Blind; or
In addition, your disabled or blind children can qualify for SSI benefits.
How Do I Qualify for Supplemental Security Income?
Basically, your income and resources determine if you qualify for SSI benefits. Here are a few guidelines and rules for each one.
- The SSA defines income as “the money you receive such as wages, SSA benefits and pensions.”
- The SSA does NOT COUNT as income the first $20 you receive, the first $65 from working and half the amount you get from work over $65.
- Also, food stamps, nonprofit shelter and home energy assistance do not count.
- If you are disabled and working, the SSA does not count the wages you use to pay for things you need to work like wages you use to pay for a wheelchair.
- Disabled and/or blind workers can exempt income you use to pay for training or work related needs.
- Resources include real estate you own, bank accounts you have, cash and stocks and bonds.
- If your resources are worth no more than $2,000 you may qualify ($3,000 for a couple).
- If you have property for sale, it is possible to get SSI while the property remains for sale.
- The SSA does not count your house and the piece of land it sits on, life insurance policies below $1,500, your car, or funds used for burial plans.
You must also meet other rules, which include the following:
- Your residence must be in the United States or the Northern Mariana Islands, and you must be a U.S. citizen.
- You must have applied for Social Security and other benefits if you are eligible for them.
- You may live in some institutions, but city and county rest homes, halfway houses and other such places do not usually qualify.
- You might qualify if you live in a publicly operated community residence of 16 or fewer people, a public institution to attend training for a job, or an emergency homeless shelter.
- Also, if you are receiving Medicaid for half the cost of your costs in an institution, you may qualify.
How Do I Apply for Supplemental Security Income?
- You can apply online or in person at your local SSA office. You can make an appointment by phoning 1-800-772-1213.
- When you get an appointment, you should bring documents that include your Social Security card or number, birth certificate or other proof of age, information about the place you live, all paperwork connected with your earnings, medical records if blind or disabled, proof of citizenship, and bank information.
- If you are blind or disabled, the SSA has special rules for you, which include receiving benefits if you work, setting aside money for school and free special services to get to work.
Questions About Supplemental Security Income?
The Massachusetts disability lawyers at Keefe Disability Law provide help for New England residents applying for SSA disability and SSI benefits. Give us a call today toll free at 888-904-6847 to get your questions answered. |
Scientists say collapse of Antarctic glacier is unstoppable
The West Antarctica ice sheet, which holds enough water to raise global seas by several feet, has started to collapse.
The good news is that while the word “collapse” implies a sudden change, the fastest scenario is 200 years, and the longest is more than 1,000 years. The bad news is that such a collapse is probably inevitable.
Using detailed topography maps and computer modeling, a new study predicts the fast-moving Thwaites Glacier will likely disappear in a matter of centuries, raising sea level by nearly 2 feet. That glacier also acts as a linchpin on the rest of the ice sheet, which contains enough ice to cause another 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 meters) of global sea level rise.
“There’s been a lot of speculation about the stability of marine ice sheets, and many scientists suspected that this kind of behavior is under way,” says lead author Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory. “This study provides a more quantitative idea of the rates at which the collapse could take place.
“Previously, when we saw thinning we didn’t necessarily know whether the glacier could slow down later, spontaneously or through some feedback,” Joughin says. “In our model simulations it looks like all the feedbacks tend to point toward it actually accelerating over time; there’s no real stabilizing mechanism we can see.”
Earlier warnings of collapse had been based on a simplified model of ice sitting in an inward-sloping basin. The topography around Antarctica, however, is complex.
Like a towering pile of sand
Published in the journal Science, the new study used airborne radar developed at the University of Kansas to image through the thick ice and map the topography of the underlying bedrock, whose shape controls the ice sheet’s long-term stability.
The mapping was done as part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge, and included other instruments to measure the height of the ice sheet’s rapidly thinning surface. In some places Thwaites Glacier has been losing tens of feet, or several meters, of elevation per year.
Researchers combined that data with their own satellite measurements of ice surface speeds. Their computer model was able to reproduce the glacier’s ice loss during the past 18 years, and they ran the model forward under different amounts of ocean-driven melting.
The place where the glacier meets land, the grounding line, now sits on a shallower ridge with a depth of about 2,000 feet (600 meters). Results show that as the ice edge retreats into the deeper part of the bay, the ice face will become steeper and, like a towering pile of sand, the fluid glacier will become less stable and collapse out toward the sea.
“Once it really gets past this shallow part, it’s going to start to lose ice very rapidly,” Joughin says.
‘Boom, it just starts to really go’
The study considered future scenarios using faster or slower melt rates depending on the amount of future warming. The fastest melt rate led to the early stages lasting 200 years, after which the rapid-stage collapse began. The slowest melt rate kept most of the ice for more than a millennium before the onset of rapid collapse. The most likely scenarios may be between 200 and 500 years, Joughin says.
“All of our simulations show it will retreat at less than a millimeter of sea level rise per year for a couple of hundred years, and then, boom, it just starts to really go.”
Researchers did not model the more chaotic rapid collapse, but the remaining ice is expected to disappear within a few decades. The thinning of the ice in recent decades is most likely related to climate change, Joughin says. More emissions would lead to more melting and faster collapse, but other factors make it hard to predict how much time could be bought under different scenarios.
The National Science Foundation and NASA provided funding.
Source: University of Washington
You are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. |
Is the office air-conditioning too cold? Then the chances are you're a woman
Middle-aged men who turn down the air-conditioning at work are freezing women out of the workplace, research suggests.
Indoor climate control systems are partly based on the resting metabolic rate of an average 40-year-old man, say scientists.
They may overestimate female metabolic rate by as much as 35%.
This means women are likely to feel less than comfortable in modern air conditioned offices.
A study of 16 young women performing light office work showed that they were at risk of being over-chilled by air conditioning in summer.
Their metabolic rates, significantly lower than the "standard values" currently employed to set office temperatures, suggested they required less cooling in summer than men.
Current air conditioning standards are derived from research in the 1960s that assessed the "thermal comfort" of 1,300 mainly sedentary students.
It took into account a value for metabolic rate, based on an 11 stone, 40-year-old man. But women's metabolic rates are typically very different from men's, the researchers point out.
The standard model used to set indoor temperatures may overestimate the amount of heat generated by a woman sitting still by more than a third.
Study authors Dr Boris Kingma and Professor Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, from Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change: "Thermal comfort models need to adjust the current metabolic standard by including the actual values for females.
"Consequently, thermal comfort models need either to be recalibrated or enhanced using a biophysical approach ... This in turn will allow for better predictions of building energy consumption, by reducing the bias on thermal comfort of sub-populations and individuals."
In other words, female workers should be turning the heat up on their male counterparts.
Metabolic rate also lowered with increasing age.
The authors called for a new system that takes into account gender differences, as well as age and physiological characteristics such as being lean or obese.
In a "News & Views" commentary in the journal, Dr Joost van Hoof from Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, wrote: "These findings could be significant for the next round of revisions of thermal comfort standards - which are on a constant cycle of revision - because of the opportunities to improve the comfort of office workers and the potential for reducing energy consumption." |
Guaraná (// from the Portuguese guaraná [ɡwaɾɐˈna]), Paullinia cupana, syns. P. crysan, P. sorbilis) is a climbing plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to the Amazon basin and especially common in Brazil. Guaraná has large leaves and clusters of flowers and is best known for the seeds from its fruit, which are about the size of a coffee bean.
As a dietary supplement or herb, guaraná seed is an effective stimulant: it contains about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee beans (about 2–8% caffeine in guarana seeds, compared to about 1–3% for coffee beans). The additive has gained notoriety for being used in energy drinks. As with other plants producing caffeine, the high concentration of caffeine is a defensive toxin that repels herbivores from the berry and its seeds.
The colour of the fruit ranges from brown to red and it contains black seeds that are partly covered by white arils. The colour contrast when the fruit is split open has been compared with the appearance of eyeballs and has become the basis of an origin myth among the Sateré-Mawé people.
History and culture
The word guaraná comes from the Guaraní word guara-ná, which has its origins in the Sateré-Maué word for the plant, warana, that in Guarani means "fruit like the eyes of the people." Or "eyes of the gods"
Guaraná plays an important role in Tupi and Guarani culture. According to a myth attributed to the Sateré-Maué tribe, guaraná's domestication originated with a deity killing a beloved village child. To console the villagers, a more benevolent god plucked the left eye from the child and planted it in the forest, resulting in the wild variety of guaraná. The god then plucked the right eye from the child and planted it in the village, giving rise to domesticated guarana.
The Guaranis make a herbal tea by shelling, washing and drying the seeds, followed by pounding them into a fine powder. The powder is kneaded into a dough and then shaped into cylinders. This product is known as guaraná bread, which is grated and then immersed into hot water along with sugar.
This plant was introduced to European colonizers and to Europe in the 16th century by Felip Betendorf, Oviedo, Hernández, Cobo and other Spaniard chroniclers. By 1958, guaraná was commercialized.[dubious ]
According to the Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank, guaranine (better known as caffeine) is found in guaraná and is identical to caffeine derived from other sources, like coffee, tea, and mate. Guaranine, theine, and mateine are all synonyms for caffeine when the definitions of those words include none of the properties and chemicals of their host plants except caffeine.
Natural sources of caffeine contain widely varying mixtures of xanthine alkaloids other than caffeine, including the cardiac stimulants theophylline, theobromine and other substances such as polyphenols, which can form insoluble complexes with caffeine. The main natural phenols found in guarana are (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin.
|Chemical component||Parts per million|
In the United States, guaraná fruit powder and seed extract have not been determined for status as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration, but rather are approved as food additives for flavor (but not non-flavor) uses.
Guaraná is used in sweetened or carbonated soft drinks and energy drinks, an ingredient of herbal teas or contained in dietary supplement capsules. South America obtains much of its caffeine from guaraná.
Brazil, the third-largest consumer of soft drinks in the world, produces several soft drink brands from the crushed seeds of guaraná, and which they use like coffee. A fermented drink is also prepared from guaraná seeds, cassava and water. Paraguay is also a producer of guaraná soft drinks with several brands operating in its market. The word guaraná is widely used in Brazil, Peru and Paraguay as a reference to soft drinks containing guaraná extract.
- Johannes, Laura (March 2, 2010). "Can a Caffeine-Packed Plant Give a Boost?". The Wall Street Journal. p. D3.
- Schimpl, Flávia Camila; da Silva, José Ferreira; Gonçalves, José Francisco de Carvalho; Mazzafera, Paulo (October 2013). "Guarana: Revisiting a highly caffeinated plant from the Amazon". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 150 (1): 14–31. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2013.08.023. PMID 23981847.
- Caporaso, Nicola; Whitworth, Martin B.; Grebby, Stephen; Fisk, Ian D. (April 2018). "Non-destructive analysis of sucrose, caffeine and trigonelline on single green coffee beans by hyperspectral imaging". Food Research International (Ottawa, Ont.). 106: 193–203. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2017.12.031. ISSN 0963-9969. PMC 5886291. PMID 29579918.
- Ashihara H, Sano H, Crozier A (February 2008). "Caffeine and related purine alkaloids: biosynthesis, catabolism, function and genetic engineering". Phytochemistry. 69 (4): 841–56. doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2007.10.029. PMID 18068204.
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- Carlson M, Thompson RD (July–August 1998). "Liquid chromatographic determination of methylxanthines and catechins in herbal preparations containing guaraná". Journal of AOAC International. 81 (4): 691–701. doi:10.1093/jaoac/81.4.691. PMID 9680692.
- "Guarana", Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases, 2007-09-18, OCLC 41920916, archived from the original on 2004-11-19, retrieved 2007-09-18
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- Weinberg BA, Bealer BK (2001). The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug. New York: Routledge. pp. 192–3. ISBN 978-0-415-92723-9.
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by Jeanette Sequeira, Juana Vera Delgado and Ruth Nyambura, Global Forest Coalition
November 25th has been designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women by the United Nations. The day also marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an international campaign spearheaded by feminists and women’s rights defenders globally to challenge the various manifestations of violence and multiple inequalities that women and girls continue to face.
Preliminary findings from gender assessments that GFC has been conducting with grassroots environmental organisations and forest-dependent communities through the Women2030 programme in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Paraguay show how violence against women is a major threat not just to women but to community development as a whole and the defence of their land and forests. The assessments point to the fact that stopping violence against women is one of the top priorities for achieving gender equality in these communities.
In Kenya, 52% of women interviewed in Marsabit, West Pokot and Narok Counties agree that campaigning to end violence against women is the most important action for improving gender equality in their communities, whereas 37% of men think the same. In the community of Santory in Paraguay 80% of men interviewed and 60% of women placed ending gender-based violence as a top priority, and the same was true in Tarija, in Bolivia. In the Santander department of Colombia 76% of both men and women interviewed in three communities declared stopping violence against women as their community’s number one priority.
In Kyrgyzstan, there are significant cases of ‘bride theft’ of young women and girls in rural villages. Our research findings reveal that to counter this form of gendered violence, local environmental organizations are raising awareness in secondary schools and village women’s groups. An interesting thing about the consciousness-raising happening is that it is also being done by supporting community-led conservation initiatives such as school ethnobotanical gardens, planting medicinal plants for women’s livelihood generation and women’s sustainable pasture use trainings.
Having more local-level gender dis-aggregated data helps us in identifying the attitudes towards violence against women and gender inequality, as well as the actions that are needed to improve this situation. So far this evidence from the grassroots points to the fact that forest conservation and restoration cannot be successful without tacking the issue of violence against women head on. The destruction of forest ecosystems (a form of violence against Mother Nature) is particularly important to address given that around 250 million people live in and rely on forests and savannahs worldwide, and with the Amazon in flames and deforestation in other parts if the world rising significantly, the need for forest conservation and restoration has become a pressing concern.
A central question of GFCs research focused on the ways in which the community members, both male and female, think that gender equality can be improved. This question is significant for two main reasons. To begin with, women play a vital role in forest conservation. Women interact daily with forests and other ecosystems, relying on them for household needs and their livelihoods, but also for conservation and restoration. In fact, women’s increased participation and decision-making in forest use and conservation groups has shown to lead to greater improvements in the condition of forests, for example in areas in Nepal and India.
The second importance of the research question is that violence against women greatly undermines the communities’ abilities to concretely defend their forests and territories from mainly corporate and state-led threats. Women bear the brunt of the harsh impacts of their communities being enveloped in conflict and mega-projects that displace them from their lands and destroy their ecosystems. Increased levels of domestic violence in these particular regions continues to be witnessed and thus necessitating a sharper analysis of the causes of intimate violence that is located in the wider structural socio-economic and political contexts within various communities.
What is clear from all of GFC’s assessments is that women continue to face multiple obstacles in conserving their forests as they not only struggle to secure land tenure rights, often having to face deeply conservative patriarchal cultural practices, but must often defend their forests against the massive threats from extractivism, whether it be industrial livestock and agriculture (such as the production of soy and palm oil) or mining mega-projects. In addition, there are significant stumbling blocks and structural barriers that hinder genuine community-led forest conservation and restoration. These range from insufficient funding to community driven initiatives that not only have a male bias, but also function as a way to greenwash the activities of heavily polluting industries such as the aviation and industrial forestry sectors.
In conclusion, violence against women cannot be accepted as inevitable, and communities and women’s groups have solutions that urgently need support. We need to invest more in capacity-building on gender equality and women’s rights for men and women alongside forest conservation and restoration initiatives. They must go together if they truly are to be effective. Women’s rights and gender equality must be considered in conservation and sustainable development, from local activities to national decision-making and global policies.
This still isn’t commonplace, women are still not equally represented as national environmental decision-makers, nor is it the norm for conservation organisations to take up feminist and women’s rights perspectives. Forest conservation can never be successful or bring about social justice if it does not address the prevalence of the various manifestations of violence against women, and especially so on the front-lines of the environmental and climate crisis. Today is a good day to remember this and to continue supporting the full liberation of women across the world. |
Villagers adopt rainwater harvesting to access safe water
PATNA: As many as 5,000 rural households in Bihar’s Khagaria district have adopted rainwater harvesting as an approach to access safe water during the on-going monsoon. These communities are mostly from the flood prone areas (largely relief oriented) and have invested their own resources to access safe water.
Villagers residing in remote villages located in Chautham, Gogari Alauli blocks of Khagaria district have adopted rainwater harvesting, said Prem K Verma who is engaged in the campaign of rainwater harvesting in the district.
Pre-2005, this decentralized system to access safe water during monsoon/floods never existed in flood plains of north Bihar. This is an outcome of past six years of efforts made by an NGO “Megh Pyne Abhiyan” (MPA) (Cloud Water Campaign) in partnership with Samta, local voluntary organization in Khagaria to develop and promote alternative drinking water and sanitation systems for the entire year in the floods plains of north Bihar.
Similar efforts are being made in Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani and West Champaran district in collaboration with ‘Gramysheel’, ‘Kosi Seva Sadan’, ‘Ghoghardiha Prakhand Swarjya Vikas Sangh’ and ‘Water Action’ respectively. The initiative has been entirely supported by Arghyam, a Bangalore based charitable Foundation.
The age old grain storage structure, popularly known as ‘kothi’ has been further innovated and developed as a rainwater storage facility, which is now being termed as ‘Jal Kothi’. Prior to establishing a local solution for rainwater storage (MPA had introduced the concept of temporary rainwater harvesting during floods which was established by people through adopting the mechanism during the floods of 2007 and 2008 as a safe drinking water source), the approach of temporary rainwater harvesting despite its potential was not being exploited to its fullest possible potential.
Keeping in view the socio-economic variations in rural Bihar, jal kothis of various designs with varying storage capacity and raw materials have been developed locally with the help of skilled craftpersons and masons.
Each of the five flood prone districts has developed local variations of jal kothis that are contextual to the requirements of the people.
The jal kothis cum rainwater harvesting efforts of the campaign resulted in large scale acceptance of rainwater as a safe drinking water source, said Eklavya Prasad of MPA. |
Qs were my least favorite. To a third grader re-learning to write the alphabet in cursive, the capital letter, which looked eerily similar to the number two, seemed confusing and unnecessary. Why did we need a whole different alphabet anyway? Print had worked just fine for me up until that point. Still, I labored over my handwriting workbook, determined to perfect my loops and swirls, because my teacher warned us that once we got to middle school and high school, we would have to write every single assignment in cursive. That empty threat ended up being one of the biggest lies of my childhood. Never again was I required to write in cursive after elementary school aside from penning my signature. Instead, all my papers were turned in typed 12 point Times New Roman font double-spaced. My experience is not uncommon. The movement away from cursive is a national trend. When the SAT added a writing section to the College Board exam, it became quite obvious that high school students preferred print to cursive. Only 15% of those taking the exam used cursive (Cassidy). So what does this trend mean for the future? Reflecting the changing technological landscape and educational ideals, the shift away from cursive may have unintended academic, social, and physical consequences.
One could argue that the shift away from cursive is not a shift at all but a natural progression, a continuum of our historical need for speed. After all, the sinuous font has its roots in time efficiency. Cursive reduces the number of pen lifts in writing as each letter flows into the next. This quality was particularly advantageous when the quill pen was the primary writing instrument. In order to form the strokes and loops that characterize the font, the pen had to be held at an angle and slid sideways, which prevented unsightly ink blotches from forming on the paper. Less pen lifts also meant less down time between letters, increasing writing speed. Both of these advantages are commonly linked to the origins of cursive (Nelson). In 1870, Austin Norman Palmer developed the Palmer Method, a type of penmanship instruction that emphasized speed to accommodate the “quickening pace of business in America” (“Palmer Method of Penmanship”). The simplified cursive produced by this method could be written more rapidly than the previously popular ornate styles and the time-consuming block print. As a faster alternative, Palmer cursive quickly gained popularity in school curriculums across the country.
When the personal computer stepped onto the scene in the 1980s, a technological revolution was underway. Compositions could be created with unparalleled swiftness and ease on the computer, and handwriting was beginning to fall out of favor. Even for so-called slow typers, there could be little dispute that when it came to shifting sentences and rearranging text, the computer reined supreme (“Cursive, Foiled Again”). Thus, it was in the editing process where the keyboard finally proved itself mightier than the pen. Today, typing is widely regarded the most efficient form of writing. Cursive was an advancement over block print, and now typing has surpassed cursive in the speed hierarchy. A form of handwriting that was originally developed for its efficiency is now being ousted for the same reason. Here stands the argument that our timesaving logic has not changed – just our technology.
Our thinking has changed though. Yes, efficiency has always been important to us, but our desire for quickness has taken on a whole new flavor. Immediate gratification is the new mindset. It has gotten to the point where most people have zero tolerance for even the slightest delay. Handwriting is a slow and deliberate process. Many people lack the patience to sit down and write a letter when an email or text can get the same job done with just a few clicks on the keyboard. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration reports that 90 percent of American school age children use computers, and most are able to “type 20 or 30 words per minute by the time they leave elementary school” (Konrad). With such technology at our disposable, it is hard to convince the younger generation of the merits of handwriting. Why spend an hour handwriting an essay when the same assignment can be completed in half the time on the computer?
Some psychologists have theorized that our computer dependency is actually altering the way we think and rewiring our brains. CIBER deep log studies have collected data that suggests a growing trend researchers call the “anthropomorphization” of technology. In other words, people expect technological devices to respond with the same immediacy as another human being (Williams and Rowlands). And while there is currently no scientific research to back up the claim, an article published in The Atlantic titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” proposes the idea that the transient nature of surfing the internet has caused individuals to lose the ability to focus when reading large chunks of text. Instead, many people simply skim over lengthy articles or books, unable to concentrate for an extended period of time (Carr). Harvard professor of psychiatry, Dr. John Ratey, coined the term “acquired attention deficit disorder” to describe the phenomenon (Brissman). So perhaps the movement away from cursive and handwriting in general should be viewed from the opposite end: instead of an increased sense of efficiency, maybe the shift simply reflects a loss of patience.
While computers have definitely reshaped our lifestyles, many argue that the shift away from cursive instruction is not so much a consequence of technology, but a result of a change in educational values. With high stakes testing and AYP goals, teachers are under intense pressure to meet state standards. Often times, standardized test preparation chews up the instructional time for subjects that do not appear on exams such as physical education, music, and art. A survey of elementary school principals’ perceptions of the academic value of different subjects found that art ranked last on the list. Math, science, and language arts were the highest rated (Siegel). It’s no surprise that these are the subjects most commonly tested on state exams. Handwriting would most likely fall under a category similar to art, a portion of the curriculum first on the chopping block when other higher priority subjects take the spotlight. A frequently cited study by Vanderbilt’s Steve Graham found that grade school teachers reported spending and average of 14 minutes on daily handwriting instruction, “far shorter than the 45 daily minutes recommended in the 1960s and 1970s, and slightly less than the 15 minutes mandated in the 1980s” (Harris). The reality is there just isn’t enough time to devote to cursive instruction like there used to be. Jill Kennet, a veteran teacher of 23 years, sums up the general sentiment within the education community when she laments, “We have so many requirements that we have to teach, that I’m afraid [cursive is] going to go by the wayside…[it] is kind of sad. It used to be an art form” (Cassidy). Unfortunately, artistic expression has been removed from the classroom as other subjects have taken precedence.
Handwriting no longer holds as powerful as an influence in today’s society. As artist Michael Sull puts it, “Penmanship these days is thought of as a vestigial organ because it’s not translated into dollars, like computer skills” (Konrad). Good penmanship used to be an asset in the business world, but now companies want employees who can type fast with expertise in programs such as Word and Excel. Schools have responded by adapting their curriculums to include keyboarding instruction. In 2009, the Common Core Standards Initiative was introduced as a framework of the knowledge and skills all students should have acquired by the end of their high school careers in order to “succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs” (“About the Standards”). Keyboarding proficiency is included as an objective in the standards while handwriting is noticeably omitted. At this time, forty-five states have adopted the standards. For states such as Indiana, Illinois, and Hawaii who have eliminated cursive from the mandatory curriculum, the decision to include handwriting instruction is up to the discretion of individual school districts and principals (Hawaii). As penmanship is increasingly perceived to be an arbitrary skill, it seems it won’t be much longer before it is completely erased from American school curriculums.
With states across the nation eagerly adopting these new guidelines, Texas stands as a dissenter. As one of the few states that has yet to adopt the core standards, it is also one of the few states that continues to require cursive instruction in grades first through third (Garner). Why would a state still endorse what is widely considered to be an anachronism in modern society? Supporters of cursive instruction worry about the implications of losing a time-honored skill. Aside from the demise of an art form, failure to be able to read/write in cursive could render some historical documents indecipherable to a new generation. A whole trove of primary sources might lose meaning to scholars unable to make sense of the fancy script. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are both important relics of United States history. As such, they have both been transcribed numerous times and are available in print and online. But do we lose part of our culture and our identity if we cannot read the documents as they were originally written?
As our relationship to our past wanes, our personal relationships also take a hit. An email does not convey the same sense of sincerity as a handwritten letter. Computer-generated text is devoid of character and personality with its neatly spaced rows and uniformly perfect letters. On the other hand, handwriting can reveal a lot about a person. Psychology has made a science out of the meaning behind the way a person slants his/her words across a page or dots the letter “i”. Some graphologists can even extract gender, age, and socioeconomic status from a writing sample. Each person’s handwriting is as unique as his/her fingerprint, the slight nuances providing a window into his/her soul. You could equate the slight variations of handwriting to body language; without it, there is a lost depth to interaction. Thus, it widely viewed as disrespectful to send something as important as condolences over email. There is huge margin of difference in candor between the mailbox and the inbox, and yet, more and more of personal correspondence is becoming electronic. Prizing content over style, communication is being reduced to the message alone.
In addition to social repercussions, the death of cursive may also have unintended consequences on physical development. Cursive is naturally a more complex form of penmanship than block print, requiring the “maturation and integration of sensorimotor, perceptual, and cognitive skills” (Ikonomakis). Even a child who writes in beautiful print starts off writing in cursive with a shaky hand, comparable to a newborn gazelle testing out its legs for the first time. It is a completely different, and arguably more challenging, form of writing to master. It follows that in school districts where it is no longer taught, clinics have seen a soaring increase in occupational therapy referrals for children who lack the vital fine motor skills necessary for handwriting (Cassidy). This deficiency can have detrimental effects in performance in other areas where children need to be able to manipulate small objects. If we look to the future, it is possible that the physical component of writing may be eliminated entirely. We may only have to speak our thoughts out loud while a computer transcribes our words for us. It is not a farfetched idea stolen from the pages of a science fiction novel. The technology has already been created and is available in the form of an app on smartphones. The demise of penmanship could portend bad things for the future of physical development.
So perhaps cursive isn’t as arbitrary in today’s world as it seems. Maybe we should take the time to slow down. Perfect those loops and swirls. Send a letter through the snail mail. Try and remember what our third grade teachers taught us. The movement away from cursive reflects advancements in technology as well as new educational standards. However, it is also reshaping our lifestyles in ways we could have never imagined. Whether the shift is for the better or for the worse, it can be safely assumed that the trend will continue in this direction, away from pens and paper and towards keyboards and printers. But at least for now, the lost art of penmanship isn’t lost yet. It appears that the confusing cursive capital Q still has a few years of life left to torment ten year olds in their handwriting workbooks. So here’s to you, Mr. Q. Despite the grief you gave me, I am grateful I still remember a form of writing that might soon go the way of hieroglyphics, an true art in its own right.
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Gazette 19 Sept. 2011, Sooner ed., State sec.: B5. Print.
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N.p., 27 Jan. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.educationnews.org/
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Well-trained in Handwriting.” National Post 9 Nov. 2007, News sec.: A2. Print.
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Aug. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/
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in Elementary Age Children.” Thesis. Wayne State University, 2012. Print.
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2003, Your Life sec.: G01. Print.
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Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 78.8 (2007): 10. ProQuest Social
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|Official name||Hebrew: ברכת החמה (Birkat Hachammah or Birkas Hachoma).|
|Observed by||Judaism and Jews|
|Significance||Traditionally, the coincidence of the Sun's return to its location during the Creation of the world at the time of the week at which it was created|
|Observances||Recitation of blessing, along with various Sun-related biblical texts, while outdoors and in the presence of the Sun|
|Begins||Wednesday April 8th, every 28 years, dawn|
|Ends||3rd hour of the day|
|2014 date||next occurrence: April 8, 2037|
|Frequency||every 28 years|
Birkat Hachama (ברכת החמה, "Blessing of the Sun") refers to a rare Jewish blessing that is recited to the Creator, thanking Him for creating the sun. The blessing is recited when the sun completes its cycle every 28 years on a Tuesday at sundown. Jewish tradition says that when the Sun completes this cycle, it has returned to its position when the world was created. Because the blessing needs to be said when the sun is visible, the blessing is postponed to the following day, on Wednesday morning.
According to Judaism, the Sun has a 28 year solar cycle known as machzor gadol (מחזור גדול, "the great cycle"). A solar year is estimated as 365.25 days and the "Blessing of the Sun", being said at the beginning of this cycle, is therefore recited every 10,227 (28 times 365.25) days. The last time that it was recited was on April 8, 2009 (14 Nisan 5769 on the Hebrew calendar.
From an astronomic point of view, there is nothing special to these dates; e.g. the sun, moon, planets and stars will not be aligned in any specific pattern. The text of the blessing itself is as follows:
- "ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם עושה מעשה בראשית"
- "Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the Universe maker of the works of Creation."
Source of the practice
- "תנו רבנן הרואה חמה בתקופתה...אומר ברוך עושה מעשה בראשית"
- "Our rabbis taught: 'One who sees the sun at its turning point...recites the blessing of 'the maker of works of creation."
The middle of this clause in the beraita (elided here) speaks of other astronomical phenomena, the interpretation of which is ambiguous. The Gemara clarifies when the 'turning point' (תקופה) mentioned in the beraita occurs:
- "ואימת הוי אמר אביי כל כ״ח שנין"
- "And when does this happen? Abaye answers: every 28 years..."
Next, the gemara explains the basis of the 28 years:
- "והדר מחזור ונפלה תקופת ניסן בשבתאי באורתא דתלת נגהי ארבע"
- "...when the cycle renews and the 'season of Nisan' (i.e. vernal equinox) falls in Saturn, on the evening of Tuesday going into Wednesday."
- "Shmuel stated: The vernal equinox occurs only at the beginning of one of the four quarters of the day, either at the beginning of the day or at the beginning of the night, or midday or midnight. The summer solstice only occurs at either at the end of 1.5 or at the end of 7.5 hours of the day or the night. The autumnal equinox only occurs at the end of 3 or 9 hours of the day or the night. The winter solstice only occurs at the end of 4.5 or 10.5 hours of the day or the night. The duration of a season of the year is no longer than 91 days and 7.5 hours."
Shmuel's calculations, however, are imprecise because the earth does not travel around the sun with a constant speed. His imprecision, according to Abraham ibn Ezra, was a function of the desire of the time to avoid the necessity of manipulating fractions.
Codification in Jewish law
The Shulchan Aruch states that this blessing, generally said upon experiencing natural phenomena, should also be recited upon witnessing the chammah bi-tkufatah (חמה בתקופתה = sun at its turning point). This term, quoted from the above-mentioned Beraita, is explained by the Chofetz Chaim as referring to the point in time at which the Sun returns to the start of its cycle, similar to when it was created.
As explained below, the blessing is recited on the morning after the Sun completes its cycle; ideally, it should be recited at sunrise, referred to in Jewish law as haneitz hachammah. It is preferred to recite the blessing with a multitude of people, in keeping with the principle of b'rov am hadrat melech. The Magen Avraham and the Levush insist that it be recited within the first three hours after sunrise. The Mishnah Brurah, however, states on behalf of numerous Achronim that it is permitted the blessing to be recited until halachic noon.
According to most opinions, the blessing may only be recited if the Sun can be seen. However, if the Sun is completely blocked by clouds, there is a minority view that allows the blessing to be recited nevertheless, because essentially the blessing is on the concurrence of the Sun's physical position with the timing of the day.
According to Jewish tradition, the Sun was created on the fourth day (יום רביעי, yom rivi'i) of the week of Creation. Because Jewish law considers the time unit of a day to span from evening to evening, the beginning of the halachic fourth day, so to speak, is on Tuesday evening at sundown. The 28 year cycle therefore begins and ends at the point in time when the Sun was created, this being sundown on Tuesday. The Sun only returns to this exact position at sundown on a Tuesday once every 28 years.
Despite the rigorous calculations that follow, there is no synchronization of this prayer and the actual astronomical point in time when the sun crosses the celestial equator; the symbolism is no different than a situation in which the molad for Tishrei would fall out by day on a Sunday and Rosh Hashanah falls out on Monday.
The vernal equinox
As explained in the Talmud, there is a tradition that the Sun was created in its vernal equinox position at the beginning of the springtime Jewish lunar month of Nissan. The sages of the Talmud settled disputes over the halachic definition of the vernal equinox by establishing it on March 25 of the Julian calendar. Because both the Julian calendar and Jewish tradition define a solar year as exactly 365.25 days, the halachic vernal equinox historically fell out on March 25 every year. This halachic equinox now falls about 17 days after the true equinox, with the error increasing by about 3/4 of a day per century.
In summary, Birkat Hachama is recited when the halachic vernal equinox (the position at which the Sun was created) occurs at sundown on a Tuesday (the time at which the sun was created).
The solar calendar
This method of marking the cycle of machzor gadol (that is, using the 25th of March) was invalidated in 1582 when the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar by decree of Pope Gregory XIII. The calendar was adjusted to allow for Easter to be celebrated in the appropriate time according to an agreement reached at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. To recalibrate the calendar, two adjustments were made:
- Ten days were removed in order to compensate for the incorporation of excess days since the establishment of the Julian calendar.
- A method to avoid further incorporation of excess days was put into place, whereby February 29 would be skipped according to a particular algorithm.
The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October. Thus, while the halachic vernal equinox occurred on March 25 until 1582, in 1583 it occurred on April 4 of the new Gregorian Calendar. However, the Jewish calendar was in no need of such a modification, and remained uninfluenced by it. As a result, the halachic vernal equinox has been shifting slightly forward in the Gregorian year ever since 1582.
- In 1609, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 4
- In 1709, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 5
- In 1809, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 6
- In 1909, the halachic vernal equinox was on April 7
- In 2009, the halachic vernal equinox falls on April 7
- In 2109, the halachic vernal equinox will fall on April 8
- In 2209, the halachic vernal equinox will fall on April 9
- In 2309, the halachic vernal equinox will fall on April 10
The halachic equinox usually jumps a day every century because the algorithm that established the Gregorian calendar dictates that leap years do not occur in years divisible by 100, unless also divisible by 400. Jewish law, however, provides no means for changing the established calendar until such a time as the Sanhedrin might be reconvened, and compensates for it by moving the date of the equinox almost every century. There was no shift between 1909 and 2009, however, because of the exception regarding years divisible by 400; thus, the year 2000 did contain a February 29 and no compensation was necessary. The table at right depicts all the vernal equinoxes from 1981 to 2009, two years in which Birkat Hachama occurs; note that the equinox does not occur at sunset (time=0) on the fourth day (Tuesday) any other years in the entire 28 year cycle.
The halachic year of 365.25 days is equivalent to 52 weeks, 1 day and 6 hours. This means that any given date will, three times out of four, appear a day later in the calendar week in a subsequent year. For example:
- July 3, 1932 was on Sunday
- July 3, 1933 was on Monday
- July 3, 1934 was on Tuesday
- July 3, 1935 was on Wednesday
July 3, 1936, however, was on a Friday and not a Thursday because the 6 hours that accrued over each of the four years effectively adds another calendar day (i.e. 6 hours x 4 years = 24 hours = 1 day).
Halacha maintains that the Sun was created in the position of the vernal equinox immediately after sundown on the fourth day of the week of Creation, which is equivalent to sunset on Tuesday of that week. If that is considered time zero (t=0), and subsequent years' vernal equinoxes occur 1 day and 6 hours later, it would appear as follows:
- Year 1: Day 4 at sunset (Tuesday)
- Year 2: Day 5 at midnight (Thursday)
- Year 3: Day 6 at sunrise (Friday)
- Year 4: Day 7 at noon (Saturday)
- Year 5: Day 2 at sunset (Sunday)
- Year 6: Day 3 at midnight (Tuesday)
Every four years sees a jump of an additional day because the four six-hour periods sum to a full day. This is somewhat similar to a solar leap year occurring every 4 years to account for the four quarter days that accrued at a rate of a quarter day per year.
Although the proper time for the blessing would be at sundown on Tuesday April 7, the Sun is no longer visible at sundown; the blessing is therefore delayed until the following morning.
The 28 year cycle is based on a solar year of 365.25 days, which is only nearly precise. The Hebrew calendar itself uses a solar year of 365.2468 days, but utilizes the less precise approximation of 365.25 for Birkat Hachama so that the blessing might occur with some frequency.
See also Hebrew calendar: Accuracy.
How the date is calculated
This table represents a week with all the 24 hours marked and labeled by the "planet", actually a celestial light in direct translation, which corresponds to them according to the ancient geocentric model of "planet" order. It is based on Rashi's commentary to Eruvin 56a. We create this table by noting that in the Bible the stars were created on Wednesday at twilight so we place Saturn (the first "star") at hour 1 (or 6:00 p.m.). Then we follow with all the 6 other "planets" (Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon) and repeat the order until all the hours of the week have a "star" assigned to them.
We assume the world was created in the Hebrew month of Nissan, not Tishrei. So hour 1 (sunset) on Wednesday on this chart represents the beginning of Tekufat Nissan (Spring) in the first year of creation, the Hebrew year 1. For the purpose of Birkat Hachama, the calculation of Samuel of Nehardea for the length of a tropical year is used not the more accurate calculation of Adda bar Ahavah. Therefore a year is assumed to be 52 weeks and 1 day and 6 hours (365.25 days). This means that a year after creation Tekufat Nissan will occur 1 day and 6 hours later on this chart, or on Thursday at the 6th hour, Jupiter. Each year this will shift another day and 6 hours. It will take 28 years for Tekufat Nissan to return to being on Wednesday at twilight. It is worth noting that the true spring equinox occurs on March 21 yet Birkat Hachama is said 18 days later. This inaccuracy accrued over thousands of years as a result of using the inexact calculation of Samuel for the length of the year.
Order of the service
The service generally includes:
- Psalms 148:1–6
- The blessing: "Baruch Atah A-donai E-loheinu Melech Ha`olam Oseh Ma`aseh Breishit."
- Those who say the Shehecheyanu blessing, do so here.
- Psalm 19
- Psalm 121
- Psalm 150
- A passage from the Talmud regarding the obligation of Birkat Hachama.
- Psalm 67
- The mourner's Kaddish.
The Shehecheyanu blessing is not recited, because Birkat Hachama[clarification needed] is not a requirement; blessings that are recited in this sort of opportunistic fashion, such as the annual blessing on fruit trees, thus have receive no Shehecheyanu. Those who do recite it, should take care to wear a new garment or have a new fruit close by, to remove all doubt.
Occurrences of Birkat Hachama
Occurrences in the last 120 years:
- Wednesday, 7 April 1897 (5 Nisan 5657)
- Wednesday, 8 April 1925 (14 Nisan 5685 – Erev Pesach/Passover Eve)
- Wednesday, 8 April 1953 (23 Nisan 5713)
- Wednesday, 8 April 1981 (4 Nisan 5741)
- Wednesday, 8 April 2009 (14 Nisan 5769 – Erev Pesach/Passover Eve)
Birkat Hachama will occur next on
- Wednesday, 8 April 2037 (23 Nisan 5797)
- Wednesday, 8 April 2065 (2 Nisan 5825)
- Wednesday, 8 April 2093 (12 Nisan 5853)
- Wednesday, 9 April 2121 (21 Nisan 5881 – Shvi'i Shel Pesach/Seventh Day of Passover)
Note: Because the dates for Birkat Hachama assume a 365.25-day solar year and the Julian calendar also assumes a 365.25-day solar year, Birkat Hachama will always fall on March 26 in the Julian calendar. While Birkat Hachama usually occurs in the Jewish lunar month of Nissan, this is not always the case; it will occur on 29 Adar II (April 10) in the year 2233.
Moshe Lerman suggested a background to Birkat Hachama by pointing out a possible connection between the traditional Hebrew dating and the two machzorim ("cycles") that are observed in Jewish tradition—the "small" 19-year cycle which is the basis of the Jewish calendar, and the "big" 28-year cycle which determines the year in which Birkat Hachama is recited. Mathematically, if one knows the position of a certain year in both cycles, one can compute the number associated to the year modulo 532 (19 times 28), given that the starting point of both cycles is year 1.
Because the astronomical year is slightly shorter than 365.25 days, the date of Birkat Hachama shifts away from the spring equinox as history proceeds. A simple astronomical calculation shows that 84 cycles of 28 years before 5769, in the Jewish year 3417, the spring equinox was in the beginning of the night before the fourth day of the week as stipulated by the Talmud. Lerman takes this as a hint that the astronomically astute Jewish sages of the time concluded that the Jewish year 3417 was a first year in the cycle of 28 years. Moreover, Lerman suggests that these same Jewish sages would have reasoned that year 3421 was a first year in the 19-year cycle, in accordance with an ancient tradition that the world was created in the first week of the month of Nissan, and thus the sun was created on the fourth day of Nissan. Since every 19 years the solar and lunar calendars align, and the Spring equinox of 3421 occurred early in the night leading to the fourth day of the Jewish month of Nissan, it follows that 3421 was the first year of a 19-year cycle.
Lerman surmises that the Jewish sages at the time could argue for a determination of the position of their years in both cycles and could therefore compute the absolute year-count modulo 532 years. They were left with a number of options, 532 years apart from each other, and Lerman suggests that they chose the dating closest to what seemed to be the truth according to a literal interpretation of biblical accounts. The sages legally defined future equinox times by instituting the 28-year cycle, to protect the Hebrew dating against future change, and to leave a remembrance to what they had done.
- J. David Bleich (Rabbi). Birchas Hachammah. Blessing Of The Sun – Renewal Of Creation. A Halachic Analysis And Anthology With A New Translation And Commentary. Overviews by Rabbi Nosson Scherman. Mesorah Publications: Brooklyn, N.Y., January 2009. ISBN 0-89906-175-3, ISBN 978-0-89906-175-7.
- Avrohom Blumenkrantz (Rabbi). Yiro'ucho Im Shomesh (May they fear you with the Sun). A Halachic Exposition on the Solar Cycle And the Order of the Blessing of the Sun. Also, 11 short steps to construct a Jewish Calendar. Bais Medrash Ateres Yisroel, 827 Cornaga Avenue, Far Rockaway, N.Y., 2009.
- Yehudah Marks. Blessing Of The Sun. Hamodia Magazine, February 11, 2009, p. 10–14.
|Wikinews has related news: Jews around the world recite special sun blessing|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Birkat Hachamah.|
- This coincided with the day before the Jewish Holiday of Passover (Hebrew: פסח).
- Schamroth, Dr. Julian, et al. "Calculating the Date of Birkat Hachamah". Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
- Rich, Tracey R. "Birkat Hachamah". Judaism 101. www.jewfaq.org. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
- Bavli Berachot 59b
- Bavli Eruvin 56a
- This was recognized and commented on by Isaac Israeli ben Joseph, a disciple of the Rosh in his work Yesod Olam. Spring is approximately 92.84 days long, summer is approximately 93.6 days long, autumn is approximately 89.8 days long and winter is approximately 89.02 days long.
- Sefer HaIbbur, page 8
- Rabbi J. David Bleich. Bircas Hachammah, Blessing of the Sun: Renewal of the Creation: a Halachic Analysis and Anthology. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Mesorah Publications ltd, 1981. ISBN 0-89906-176-1., page 50
- Orach Chaim 229:2 + associated commentary of the Mishnah Brurah, "bi-tkufatah"
- Orach Chaim 229:2 + associated commentary of the Be'er Heitev, "baboker"
- Mishnah Brurah, "baboker"
- Be'er Heitev
- Shaarei Teshuva, "baboker"
- Bavli Berachot 59b)
- Genesis 1:14 + commentary of Rashi. Many Biblical commentators, including Rashi, insist that the luminaries were, in fact, created on the first day and only suspended in place on the fourth day.
- Bavli Berachot 2a
- "Calculating the Date of Birkat Hachamah". Chabad.org. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
- Bavli Rosh Hashanah 10b
- Bavli Eruvin 56a, derived by multiplying Samuel's season by four
- Remy Landau. "Question 161 – When next will Birkat HaHamah not be recited in the Hebrew month of Nisan?". Hebrew Calendar Science and Myths. Archived from the original on 2009-07-30. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
- Moshe Lerman (2005-05-08). "Why Do We Live in the Year 5765?". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 2009-02-17. |
Document: F. van Deursen, Opening the Scriptures: Psalms (II): A Selection of Covenant Songs, trans. by Nelson D. Kloosterman (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian’s Library Press, 2013).
Excerpt: Our plan is to discuss Psalm 59 first, and then Psalms 56, 57, 34, and 52. We wish to read these psalms in this sequence because the events they sing about occurred during David’s persecution by Saul. Psalm 59: when Saul had almost killed him. Psalm 56: when the Philistines had arrested him in Gath. Psalm 57: when David fled from Saul in the cave. Psalm 34: praise and wisdom from the cave of the oppressed. Psalm 52: after the mass murder of the priestly city of Nob.
Purchase the Book:
Download the Document:
Opening the Scriptures: Psalms (II) – van Deursen.pdf |
One of the best things about a mountain bike are its gears. They magnify your speed and enable you to roll up steep climbs. But there is a little more to it than just a quick “click” down gear or two and powering up the next hill.
Let’s find out more…
Bike gears can be big or small. A big gear – like a high gear in a car – is for flats and downhills. A small, or low gear is for climbs. On your bike’s front chainring, the larger diameter rings are the bigger gears. This is the opposite for the rear wheel cogs/rings, that is, the larger diameter rings are the smaller gears.
When to Shift
Ideally, you want to shift during easy pedaling so the chain moves smoothly. So if you see a steep climb ahead, shift down beforehand. Caught by surprise? You can still shift mid-climb, but do it as gently as possible. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a snapped chain.
You want your chain to travel along the straightest line possible between the front chainring and rear cogs. For example, when the chain is on the middle chainring up front, the rear shifter should place the chain in the middle of the rear cogs. If the chain is on the smaller, inner chainring up front, then the rear position should also be closer to the frame. Extreme angles lead to faster chain wear and possible breakage.
Big or Small Gear?
Gear choice is personal, but don’t be fooled that a big (“harder”) gear is better. Sometimes it’s best to go with a smaller gear and more pedal RPMs to conserve energy. On the other hand, smaller gears aren’t always the best on rolling terrain. Why? Use a bigger gear and you may maintain momentum to roll up shorter climbs.
Learn to be aware of your mountain bike chain position in different riding situations. Proper gearing allows your bike and your body to work more efficiently.
So keep in touch and get out on the trails.
About The Author
Rod Bucton, mountain bike fanatic from Mid North Coast, New South Wales Australia…discover the shortcuts to mountain biking for beginners and while you’re at it follow Rod on Facebook or Instagram.
Like any sport, bicycling involves risk of injury and damage. By choosing to ride a bicycle, you assume the responsibility for that risk, so you need to know — and to practice — the rules of safe and responsible riding and of proper use and maintenance. Proper use and maintenance of your bicycle reduces risk of injury. |
A ‘Painted Wolf-Like Animal’
The African wild dog is a highly intelligent and social animal. Its Latin name, Lycaon pictus, means “painted wolf-like animal.” An African wild dog’s colorful patchy coat is mottled in shades of brown, black and beige. It has large, rounded bat-like tail ears and dark brown circles around its eyes. African wild dogs are found in arid zones, savannas and grasslands. They also are found in woodland and mountainous habitats where their prey lives. They live and hunt in groups called packs.
African wild dogs are the size of medium domestic dogs. Packs of African wild dogs hunt antelopes and will also tackle much larger prey, especially if the prey is ill or injured. They also feed on rodents and birds. African wild dogs have an ill-deserved reputation as aggressive, vicious killers. In fact, unlike almost any other predator, they live in extraordinary co-operation with one another. For example, the young and ill are allowed to feed first after a successful hunt.
Like most predators, the African wild dog plays an important role in eliminating sick and weak animals. This helps to maintain a natural balance in nature, and in the long run, improves the prey species. African wild dogs face a number of serious threats, including habitat loss, hunting and poisoning by human, as they are considered a threat to livestock. Another danger that these dogs face is disease that spreads from domestic animals. African Wild Dogs have disappeared from much of their former range, and most of those that remain live in game preserves or national parks. Many organizations work to understand and combat the problems that these dogs are facing. These organizations also have conservation and education programs to change the negative attitudes that have existed for decades, towards these colorful painted African wild dogs. |
What is it about a rainbow that offers people a sense of joy and happiness? While it certainly signifies the calm after a storm, the individual colours directly impact our minds and moods.
Let’s take a look at the psychology of colour.
What is Color Psychology?
The psychology of colour is based on the mental and emotional effects colours have on all facets of life. There are some very subjective pieces to color psychology as well as some more accepted and proven elements. Keep in mind, that there will also be disparities in interpretation, such as perception between different individuals and culture. Additionally, our personal feelings also play into how a particular colour makes us feel.
In general, colours evoke the following emotions:
- White: The colour white can feel fresh and clean. White is often used to evoke a sense of youth and modernity.
- Black: Black is often described as a “powerful” colour. The colour black is often associated with power, elegance, status, mystery, and can even feel ominous. This deep hue can also evoke the feelings of perspective and depth.
- Yellow: The colour of sunshine, yellow creates a warm and soothing effect. A bright and happy colour, yellow exudes cheerfulness, joy, and positive energy.
- Red: Another power colour, red is the colour of fire and blood. It’s often associated with determination, power, and success. Additionally red evokes feelings of desire, passion, and love.
- Orange: Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It’s often associated with sunshine, joy, and tropical adventures. Orange represents fascination, enthusiasm, happiness, creativity, determination, and success. Orange is the color of fall and harvest.
- Blue: The color of the sea and sky, blue is often affiliated with stability and depth. Blue symbolizes loyalty, trust, confidence, wisdom, faith, and intelligence. Additionally, blue hues are considered beneficial to the mind and are actively associated with calmness and tranquility.
- Purple: The colour purple combines the energy of red and the stability of blue. Often associated with royalty, purple symbolizes nobility, power, ambition, and luxury. Additionally, purple is associated with dignity, wisdom, creativity, and even mystical energies.
- Green: The colour of nature, green is associated with growth, harmony, and fertility. Green has great healing power. It’s a restful colour which suggests stability and endurance.
Colourful Handmade Slippers
If you’re looking for a bold, colourful addition to your everyday look, you’ve found it! Woolenstocks wool slipper and boots easily absorb dyes for a lovely design that won’t fade over time. Red, pink, orange, brown, yellow, green, blue and every colour in between, our talented craftswoman can use the colours of the rainbow to create wearable works of art for your entire family to wear. Our colourful handmade slippers and boots are the perfect addition to take you on your life’s journey in comfortable style. |
Updated Cochrane Review shows electronic cigarettes can help people quit smoking, but more evidence is needed on long-term harms
Newly updated Cochrane evidence published today in the Cochrane Library finds that electronic cigarettes containing nicotine could increase the number of people who stop smoking compared to nicotine replacement therapy – such as chewing gum and patches – and compared to no treatment, or electronic cigarettes without nicotine. More information is needed on harms.
Smoking is a significant global health problem. Many people who smoke want to quit, but find it difficult to succeed in the long term. One of the most effective and widely used strategies to help people to give up smoking is to combat the cravings associated with nicotine addiction by delivering nicotine through patches and chewing gum.
Electronic cigarettes have been around in some form for a number of years, but recently their popularity has increased significantly, and they have begun to look and feel less like conventional cigarettes. Unlike chewing gum and patches, they mimic the experience of cigarette smoking because they are hand-held and generate a smoke-like vapour when used. This helps to recreate sensations similar to smoking without exposing users or other people to the smoke from conventional cigarettes, and can be used to provide people who smoke with nicotine.
A team of researchers have updated a Cochrane Review that compares the effects of electronic cigarettes with other ways of delivering nicotine – such as patches and chewing gum – or with dummy electronic cigarettes that do not contain nicotine or no treatment. This updated review now includes 50 studies, an increase of 35 studies since it was last published in 2016. Twenty-four of these are uncontrolled studies, but their results support the data from the randomised controlled trials. The researchers identified three studies, in 1498 people, that compared nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes with nicotine replacement therapy given as patches or gum.
The results showed that more people quit smoking if they used electronic cigarettes containing nicotine than if they used another form of nicotine replacement. If six people in 100 quit by using nicotine replacement therapy, 10 people in 100 would quit by using electronic cigarettes containing nicotine. This means an additional four people in 100 could potentially quit smoking with nicotine containing electronic cigarettes.
Similar results were seen in another three studies, involving 802 people, that compared nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes with electronic cigarettes that did not contain nicotine. Evidence from four studies (2312 people) showed that more people who used nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes quit smoking than those who received only behavioural support or no support. If four people in 100 quit with no support, an additional six people in 100 might quit by using nicotine electronic cigarettes. The review authors did not detect any clear evidence of serious harms from nicotine electronic cigarettes. However, evidence about serious harms is uncertain because the overall number of studies was small and serious health problems were very rare in both users and non-users of nicotine electronic cigarettes.
There was no information about the effects of long-term use (more than two years) of nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes. The studies showed that throat and mouth irritation, headache, cough, and nausea are the most commonly reported side effects in the short- to medium-term (up to two years). The studies assessed the potential harms of electronic cigarettes when used to help people who smoke quit smoking, so did not assess other potential harms such as whether electronic cigarettes encourage nicotine use among people who do not smoke.
The lead author of this updated Cochrane Review, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group, said, “The randomised evidence on smoking cessation has increased since the last version of the review and there is now evidence that electronic cigarettes with nicotine are likely to increase the chances of quitting successfully compared to nicotine gum or patches. Electronic cigarettes are an evolving technology. Modern electronic cigarette products have better nicotine delivery than the early devices that were tested in the trials we found, and more studies are needed to confirm whether quit rates are affected by the type of electronic cigarettes being used. While there is currently no clear evidence of any serious side effects, there is considerable uncertainty about the harms of electronic cigarettes and longer-term data are needed. Scientific consensus holds that electronic cigarettes are considerably less harmful than traditional cigarettes, but not risk-free. We are encouraged to see that 20 trials are now underway, and we will be looking for newly published evidence every month from December 2020. It is important that the review continues to provide up-to-date information to people who smoke, healthcare providers and regulators about the potential benefits and harms of electronic cigarettes.”
This content was originally published here. |
There are many safe choices of natural branches that we have available. If you need help deciding which size is best for your bird, please let us know, we are happy to help.
The types of natural branches we offer are:
Bamboo - has a very smooth surface, but the underside of each perch has a pedicure surface to aid in gripping and nail care.
Cholla wood - this is actually the skeleton of a Southwestern species of cactus. Provides excellent grip with a comfortable texture. Perfect for putting in front of water bottles. Excellent for using in carriers and travel cages. This is a softer wood and is easily chewed.
Cajeput - The cajeput tree (cage-e-put) is also known as the paperbark tree due to itís soft, layered outer bark. The branches of the cajeput tree are ideally suited for bird perches. Branches have a very hard, long lasting wood core, with a fun, shreddable outer bark that birds love to chew.
Dragonwood - is a hardwood that mostly grows in the deep Southeast of North America. It has easy-peel bark that is very thin, but the wood core is very hard.
Grapewood - is another hardwood perch, but has a more irregular shape. It is not a smooth-barked wood, but has the texture of hard suede. Grapewood provides a sure grip and varying sizes for comfort and exercise.
Java is the favorite branch of Dr. B. It has a very irregular shape, similar to the grapewood, but has a smooth bark. The wood is some of the hardest available.
Manzanita - is also one of the hardest woods. It has a smooth, dark distinctive bark.
Birdie Tip: We recommend against using branches from your yard. You will be exposing your bird to pathogens such as bacterial and fungi ans well as parasites such as mites; and there may be a risk of toxins such as insecticides and herbicides.
Bird Brain Information: There is a special structure in the eyes of birds called the pecten. The pecten is thought to provide nutrients to the inside of the eyeball.
Last Updated 1/4/11 |
Everything you need to understand or teach Endurance by Alfred Lansing.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage recreates the epic journey of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 led by Sir Ernest Shackleton as they attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica with a 28 man crew. The ship Endurance frozen into place and eventually crushed by the ice floes of the Wendell
Sea sets the stage for Shackleton’s saga of a two year struggle for survival and selfrescue without the loss of a single man.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage Lesson Plans contain 104 pages of teaching material, including: |
1. Who is the narrator of Walden Two?
2. What is the point of view in which Walden Two is written?
First person narrative.
3. What is the profession of Burris?
Professor of Psychology.
4. At the beginning of the novel, where have Rogers and Jamnik been before their visit to Burris?
In the army fighting World War II.
5. Why have Rogers and Jamnik come to visit Burris at the beginning of the novel?
To find out about a utopian society he once mentioned to Rogers.
This section contains 8,483 words
(approx. 29 pages at 300 words per page) |
The population density of the United States is 77 people per square mile.
The most densely populated country in the world is Monaco, with more than 55,000 people per square mile.
Of course, Monaco is one of the world’s smallest countries, at just a little over 0.5 square mile (1.3 sq km).
The country where you’d be least likely to have noisy neighbors is Mongolia, which has just four people per square mile.
To calculate population density, divide the number of people in a country into its number of square miles.
Remember that the numbers given are averages for the country as a whole, and cities and suburbs have much higher densities.
For example, Washington, D.C., has a population density of more than 9,000 people per square mile. |
California Valley Miwok Tribe
|2010: 43 alone and in combination|
|Regions with significant populations|
|United States ( California)|
|English, historically Northern Sierra Miwok language, Central Sierra Miwok language, and Southern Sierra Miwok language|
|Related ethnic groups|
|other Miwok tribes|
The California Valley Miwok Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Miwok people in San Joaquin County and Calaveras County, California. They were previously known as the Sheep Ranch Rancheria or the Sheep Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indian of California. The California Valley Miwok are Sierra Miwok, an indigenous people of California.
- Silvia Burley, Chairperson
- Anjelica Paulk, Vice Chairperson
- Rashel Reznor, Secretary/Treasurer
- "2010 Census CPH-T-6. American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010". census.gov. Retrieved 2015.
- "Tribal Office Locations." California Department of Transportation: District 10. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- "California Indians and Their Reservations: California Valley Miwok Tribe." San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2011 . Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- "American Indian Environmental Office Tribal Portal: Tribes A-Z." US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- "California Indians and Their Reservations: Miwok." San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2011 . Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- Berry, Carol. "Miwok Tribe Settles Lengthy Sovereignty Dispute." Indian Country Today. 24 Jan 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
- "Government: Tribal Leadership." California Valley Miwok Tribe. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1 |
A gay anthem is a popular song that has become widely popular among, or has become identified with, the gay community, particularly homosexual men, although some of these songs may also become anthems for the rest of the LGBT community. According to the New York Times, multiple top-charting popular songs have become a "refuge of unambiguous support for gay rights". One example is "Raise Your Glass" by Pink. The connection between gay culture and popular music stretches back to at least the 1970s, when "Artists and producers became conscious of speaking to a gay audience in code that straight audiences wouldn’t understand". Not all songs labelled as "gay anthems" were written with that purpose, but they are included in this subgenre of popular music if they have become particularly popular among the gay community.
The lyrics of gay anthems are often marked with hope against the odds, pride, unity, or defiance. Ten elements have been described as common to many gay anthems: "big-voiced divas; themes of overcoming hardship in love; “you are not alone;” themes of throwing your cares away (to party); hard won self-esteem; unashamed sexuality; the search for acceptance; torch songs for the world-weary; the theme of love conquers all; and of making no apologies for who you are."
UK LGBT rights charity Stonewall named Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" the most empowering song of the 2000s decade for LGBT people. The song most commonly identified as a gay anthem is "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, described as "a classic emblem of gay culture in the post-Stonewall and AIDS eras and arguably disco’s greatest anthem." Lady Gaga's "Born This Way", Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out", ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and "Y.M.C.A." by The Village People are also widely regarded as gay anthems, although not all of them were written with that purpose by their composers.
- Hawgood, Alex (November 5, 2010). "For Gays, New Songs of Survival". New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- Casserly, Meghan (February 11, 2011). "Lady Gaga's Born This Way: Gay Anthems And Girl Power". Forbes. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- "Media: Current Releases". stonewall.org.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
- Hubbs, Nadine (May 2007). "‘I Will Survive’: musical mappings of queer social space in a disco anthem". Popular Music 26 (2): 231–244. doi:10.1017/s0261143007001250.
- "Y.M.C.A.byThe Village People". songfacts.com. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- "Almighty presents Gay Anthems". discogs. Retrieved 21 April 2014. |
Lee County, North Carolina
|County of Lee|
Lee County Courthouse, 2007
Location within the U.S. state of North Carolina
North Carolina's location within the U.S.
|Founded||March 6, 1907|
|Named for||General Robert E. Lee|
|• Total||259 sq mi (670 km2)|
|• Land||255 sq mi (660 km2)|
|• Water||4.1 sq mi (11 km2) 1.6%%|
| • Estimate |
|• Density||227/sq mi (88/km2)|
|Time zone||UTC−5 (Eastern)|
|• Summer (DST)||UTC−4 (EDT)|
|Congressional districts||8th, 13th|
Lee County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 57,866. The county seat is Sanford. It was established on March 6, 1907, from parts of Chatham and Moore counties, and named for General Robert E. Lee, who served as the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States in 1865.
Lee County comprises the Sanford Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is a part of the Fayetteville Combined Statistical Area, also known as the Fayetteville area, which had a 2019 estimated population of 854,826. Lee County's moto is "Committed Today for a Better tomorrow"
|U.S. Decennial Census|
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,040 people, 18,466 households, and 13,369 families residing in the county. The population density was 191 people per square mile (74/km2). There were 19,909 housing units at an average density of 77 per square mile (30/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 70.03% White, 20.46% Black or African American, 0.42% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 7.33% from other races, and 1.06% from two or more races. 11.65% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
By 2005 14.2% of the County population was Latino. 20.2% of the population was African-American. 64.2% of the population was non-Hispanic whites.
In 2000 there were 18,466 households, out of which 33.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.30% were married couples living together, 13.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.60% were non-families. 23.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.70% under the age of 18, 9.00% from 18 to 24, 29.70% from 25 to 44, 22.70% from 45 to 64, and 12.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 97.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.00 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $38,900, and the median income for a family was $45,373. Males had a median income of $32,780 versus $23,660 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,147. About 9.80% of families and 12.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.50% of those under age 18 and 12.20% of those age 65 or over.
The county is divided into seven townships, which are both numbered and named:
- 1 (Greenwood)
- 2 (Jonesboro)
- 3 (Cape Fear)
- 4 (Deep River)
- 5 (East Sanford)
- 6 (West Sanford)
- 7 (Pocket)
Politics, law and government
Lee is a typical "Solid South" county in terms of voting patterns. From its first election in 1908 it voted Democratic by large margins until 1968, except in the 1928 election when anti-Prohibition Catholic Al Smith held the county by single digits. In 1968, Lee's Democratic streak was broken when its electorate chose the American Independent candidate George Wallace. From 1972 onwards, Lee has voted Republican in every election except for Jimmy Carter's two elections in 1976 and 1980.
Lee County is a member of the regional Triangle J Council of Governments. The county is governed by a seven-member board of County Commissioners, elected at large to serve four-year terms. Terms are staggered so that, every two years, three or four Commissioners are up for election. The Commissioners enact policies such as establishment of the property tax rate, regulation of land use and zoning outside municipal jurisdictions, and adoption of the annual budget. Commissioners usually meet on the first and third Mondays of each month.
- The area has historically been one of the leading brick manufacturing areas in the United States.
- Cotton and tobacco are leading crops in the county.
- The county is divided between the Piedmont in the northern part of the county and the Sandhills in the south.
- Lee County sits in the middle of the Triassic Basin and has the state's most concentrated reserves of oil and natural gas.
- Lee County is also home to the longest covered bridge in North Carolina found along NC-42 near Ole Gilliam Mill Park.
- List of counties in North Carolina
- List of memorials to Robert E. Lee
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Lee County, North Carolina
- "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
- "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
- "Establishment of Lee County". www.leecountync.gov. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
- "2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
- "US Census Est 2019". Retrieved February 10, 2021.
- "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
- "Historical Census Browser". University of Virginia Library. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
- Forstall, Richard L., ed. (March 27, 1995). "Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
- "Census 2000 PHC-T-4. Ranking Tables for Counties: 1990 and 2000" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. April 2, 2001. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
- "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
- Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
- The Longest Covered Bridge In North Carolina, At Ole Gilliam Mill Park, Is 140 Feet Long https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-carolina/ole-gilliam-mill-park-covered-bridge-sanford-nc/amp/
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lee County, North Carolina.|
- General information
- NCGenWeb Lee County - free genealogy resources for the county |
1. What city is the center of the financial world when this book opens?
2. Where was George Peabody born?
3. Why does Peabody bring Morgan in as a partner?
Because Peabody has no heirs.
4. When did the first Morgans arrive in America?
16 years after the Mayflower.
5. Where is the Morgan ancestral home?
6. In what type of business does Junius Morgan begin his career?
7. What company is the forerunner of what eventually becomes J.P. Morgan and Company?
Drexel, Morgan, and Company.
This section contains 3,171 words
(approx. 11 pages at 300 words per page) |
Assignment ContentImagine you are on a specialized team tasked with exploring network vulnerabilities in your company. The CEO of the company has read about similar companies being subjected to a distributed denial of service (DDOS) and is very concerned.
Research the definition of a DDOS attack and how it can be prevented. If it cannot be prevented, describe the steps that may be required to remediate the DDOS attack, along with the potential business impacts caused by a DDOS attack.
Prepare a 10- to 12-slide multimedia-rich Microsoft® PowerPoint® boardroom presentation for the CEO. Include the following in your presentation:
Definition of a DDOS attack
At least 2 methods (attack vectors) of DDOS attacks to include the threat agents’ (hackers) motivation for conducting a DDOS attack
Common prevention tools and/or processes to block a DDOS
Common detection tools to detect if a DDOS is occurring or has occurred
Recommended methods for containing or eradicating the DDOS attack
Recommended methods for bringing the affected systems back online from a successful DDOS attack
Cite references to support your presentation.
Format your citations according to APA guidelines. |
Context: insurance, statistics, actuarial science
Risk theory is an important part of insurance mathematics. It is basically concerned with modelling the arrival and the amount insurance claims and how that affects the solvency of an insurance company. This is particularly important as one does not want an insurance company to run out of money to pay for the claims, a situation experienced by HIH.
Risk theory is broadly divided into two parts:
- Individual risk theory. Here, one is concerned with a fixed number of insurance policies, each with a probability of generating a claim (for each time period). Thus the random variables involved here are the vector of indicator variables of whether a claim has occurred, and the vector of claim amounts.
- Collective risk theory. Here, one not concerned so much with the number of policies, but the number of claims. The random variables here are the number of claims, and the vector claim amounts (given the number of claims).
From these, the following issues are considered:
- The distribution of aggregate claims. For each time period, we want to find out (hopefully analytically) the distribution of the total claim amount. Particuarly troubling at the moment are when:
- The surplus process or how much money an insurance company has left after collecting premiums and paying out claims.
- Ruin. This is an extremely heavily studied subject. Of concern are the probability of ruin (within a finite time period, and ultimate probability of ruin), the time of ruin if ruin accurs, the surplus at ruin and the claim amount that caused the ruin. This will affect the premium rates that an insurance company is going to set, the amount and type of reinsurance it acquires, and the amount of initial capital it requires when it starts a new line of business. |
Jack Stones is a very old game historically and internationally. Irish children in 1916 certainly played them and a lovely collection of differing ‘Jack Stone’ games are included from Clare and Roscommon which were transcribed from the Schools Manuscript Collection.
All you need to teach these games are the instructions given by the children and five stones.
Jack Stones – Clare
I play ‘jack stones’ during the summer with five round stones.
(1) ‘Back hands’ is the first step. Put the stones on the palm of your hand and turn your hand around not letting them all fall.
(2) ‘Twos’ is the next step. Leave four stones on the ground and one in your hand. Pick up the others two by two.
(3) ‘Halves’ is the next step. Leave four stones on the ground and one in your hand. Throw the one in your hand up and take two off the ground and take the others one by one.
(4) ‘Ones’ is the next step. Take four up singly ad catch the one coming down.
(5) ‘Threes’ is the next step. Throw up one stone and take up three and then the other one
(6) ‘Fours’ is the next step. Take four up and catch the one coming down.
(7) ‘High Fours’ is the next step. Take five stones in your hand and throw up one, leave down four and catch the one coming down. Then throw up one and take up four.
(8) ‘High threes’ is the next step. Throw up one and leave down the rest. Take up three and then the remaining one catching the stone coming down.
(9) ‘High ones’ is the next step. Throw up one stone and take up each of the others one by one catching the one coming down.
(10) ‘High Halves’ is next step. One stone is thrown up and two taken from ground. The former must be caught coming down. Then two more taken up.
(11) ‘No Noises’ is next. One stone is throw up and the others singly making no noise.
(12) ‘Charms’ is the next step. Throw up one and take up another. With these two in the hand take up another with three take up the other. Then turn them round on your hand and catch some on your palm.
(13) ‘Pick an egg’ is the next step. Take up one and throw it up. Take up one off the ground and let one in your hand out
(14) ‘Crows to bed’. Place your left hand on the ground with your fingers outspread. Then with right hand pick up stones one by one and put them into the spaces between fingers.
(15) ‘Long ladder’ is the next step. Put four stones on the ground and keep one in your hand. Throw up the stone in your hand and take the first and third stones together catching the stone coming down. Do the same for the remaining stones.
NFC. Vol 588 pg 187-9 (Clare)
Jack Stones – Roscommon
Jack stones are played with five small stones any number of children can play together, each child throws up five stones and the one that gets the highest number on the palm of her hand starts playing first.
That child plays on until she drops the stones again.
NFC. Vol 233 pg. 306-7 (Roscommon) |
Everyone knows Stevie Wonder and the late Ray Charles: exceptionally gifted, groundbreaking musicians who also happen to be both Black and blind. But many other Black Americans have shared their talents with the world – or are still doing so – often working to advance the field of blindness and create a more inclusive society.
The Black History Month 2021 theme is “Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity” and explores the African diaspora, and the spread of Black families across the United States.
Bringing Education to Black Children Who Are Blind
Not all of these Black Americans have been blind, but they have eased the way for those who are. One of these leaders is Dr. Laurence C. Jones, who founded the Piney Woods School in 1909, in a rural area just south of Jackson, Mississippi. This educator’s mission was to offer academic and vocational agricultural schooling for Black children and grandchildren of slaves who were living in poverty. But in 1920, Dr. Jones realized there was another unmet need, the education of black children who are blind, and added that to the school’s mission. The author of many books, Dr. Jones invited teachers, both Black and White, from around the country to learn his teaching methods for the blind – along with those of one of his colleagues.
Martha Louise Morrow Fox
In 1929, Martha Louise Morrow Foxx began her tenure as the primary teacher of the children with vision loss at Piney Woods School, a position she held until 1942 when she became the school’s principal. In 1950, the Piney Woods School received state funding and became a sister school of the Jackson-based Mississippi School for the Blind, where Foxx served as principal until her retirement in 1969.
Nearly blind from infancy, Foxx earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and was widely recognized for a teaching style that was far ahead of its time. She used a hands-on approach with an emphasis on braille and large-print reading, independent living and vocational training, all of which are now part of today’s Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC).
Foxx also didn’t limit students to the classroom, but took them for field trips in the woods near the school to sharpen their other senses. She taught her methods to teachers nationwide, and the “white” school for the blind began using her curriculum in the late 1940s.
Both educators were Inducted into APH’s Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field in 2013.
Developing Sight-saving Technology and Breaking Barriers for Black Women
Dr. Patricia Bath not only cared for people’s eyesight – she developed technology to help prevent vision loss or blindness caused by cataracts. The first Black person to complete a residency in ophthalmology in 1973, Dr. Bath also became the first female faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute just two years later.
Early in her career, Dr. Bath documented that blindness was twice as likely in Black people as it was in White people. From that point forward, she worked to make sure that underserved communities had the same access to quality vision care as everyone else. The National Eye Institute has documented that “African Americans are at higher risk for some eye diseases, including cataract, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. Many of these diseases don’t have symptoms at first, and can cause vision loss or blindness if they’re not treated. African Americans have some of the highest rates of vision loss and blindness caused by eye disease — and these rates are getting higher.”
Dr. Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976, and 10 years later she invented the Laserphaco Probe, a laser technology that helps improve or restore sight to patients with cataracts. In 1988, when she patented the device, Dr. Bath became the first Black woman doctor to secure a medical patent.
Advocating for the Rights of People with Disabilities
Some Black leaders who are blind aren’t historical figures. They’re still making history today. Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer who advances disability justice, and is the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School. Girma believes that disability is an opportunity for innovation – which any person who is visually impaired or deafblind knows from experience: It often means being creative about finding ways to achieve your goals. Girma’s tireless advocacy for equal opportunities for people with disabilities includes traveling around the world to educate people and organizations on the value of inclusion, not just for people with disabilities but for everyone.
Girma’s memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, was featured in the New York Times and on the TODAY Show, and she has earned honors from world leaders including President Bill Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. President Barack Obama named her a White House Champion of Change and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) honored her with a Helen Keller Achievement Award. Girma is co-hosting AFB’s free, virtual and accessible centennial gala, “The Art of Inclusion: AFB100 Concert & Celebration,” on March 4, 2021.
This post can also be found on the VisionAware blog as, A Black History Month Celebration of leaders in the Blindness Field. |
Over the next twenty years the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are likely to experience some of the fastest economic and energy-consumption growth rates anywhere in the world. Already almost exclusively dependent on hydrocarbons for their energy supply, the GCC member states face increasing environmental and economic costs from continued heavy reliance on oil and gas in their power-generation and industrial sectors. Several of the GCC countries have asserted their interest in diversifying their economies away from the export of raw materials and energy-intensive industry in order to achieve sustainable long-term economic growth and security. The extent to which such a diversification is likely to occur in the short-term should not be overestimated. The principal source of foreign-exchange earnings for the GCC countries is through rent on oil and gas exports and the exploitation of a comparative advantage in low-cost energy-intensive industry. Any large-scale switch away from energy-intensive economic activity is likely to act, at least in the short-term, to the detriment of the GCC countries’ competitiveness and terms of trade. However, there are opportunities for the countries of the GCC to achieve the parallel objectives of reduced carbon emissions, reduced domestic consumption of valuable oil and gas resources, and increased economic diversity without a major structural change to their economies and with significant potential net benefits both in terms of carbon-reduction and economic performance. These opportunities lie in the development and adoption of technologies and improved management systems in the areas of alternative energy, energy efficiency, and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
In the field of alternative and renewable energy, the GCC countries have the potential to take greater advantage of their proven wind, solar and geothermal resource base in their power generation mixes. While there are several well-funded academic and research institutions in the region working on the development of technologies in these areas, there is large scope for the acceleration of renewable energy penetration through the implementation of policy goals, formalized networks and regional coordination. In addition to the potential for increased integration of established alternative energy technologies, the countries of the GCC have an opportunity to develop new renewable technology niches in applications suited for their climatic conditions, such as algal biofuels and dust-resistant solar photovoltaics. This strategic approach to alternative energy development could provide an important source of diversification for the region’s economies and a source of competitive advantage in a carbonconstrained global economy.
In CCS, the GCC countries have both the means and the motivation to be a leader in the development of a technology that will play a major part in achieving global emissions-reduction targets. With huge projected increases in their power sector capacities—most of which, notwithstanding the progress made on alternative energy sources, are likely to be met with natural gas—the countries in the region have the opportunity to serve as a platform for global development of carboncapture technology. With large amounts of available investment capital, economies optimized for energy-intensive industry, and a near-term economic incentive for the use of captured carbon- dioxide through enhanced oil and gas recovery, the GCC countries have a unique opportunity to invest in “first-mover” research and development to accelerate the commercialization of CCS.
In the area of energy efficiency, the countries of the GCC have great potential to institute technologies and systems that improve their performance at the firm and consumer levels. Through the development and implementation of efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, they have the ability to reduce their carbon-emissions profile at low—or even negative—net cost. They also have the ability to apply international best practice in energy efficiency and related management systems through partnership initiatives with the private sector. Any effort to seriously address the challenge of emissions reduction and increased adoption of non-carbon energy sources in the power-generation mix in the GCC must acknowledge the significant potential for pricing reform. Given the fragility of the current political situation in the region, however, it is unlikely that any major implementation of fiscal instruments for demand-side reduction is on the horizon. Instead, GCC energy planners have an opportunity to focus on greater investment in the development of domestic and regional research networks, the creation of standards and goals, and increased collaboration with the private sector for transfer of best practice, and the commercialization of technologies likely to be a source of competitive advantage.
At the regional level, the countries of the GCC face many of the most pressing challenges of the global economy in the 21st century: a selfinterested need to reduce carbon emissions while meeting increased energy demand and a desire to develop new technologies that will provide a source of long-term economic growth. Through adoption of policies that encourage the role of alternative energy, energy efficiency, and carbon capture and sequestration, the GCC can meet its own environmental and economic objectives and remain at the center of the energy economy for decades to come. |
Just when you think you’ve made something foolproof, God makes a better brand of fool. This maxim of manufacturing also applies to software development, especially on a highly accessible technology like web applications. As much as programmers attempt to anticipate every possible action or combination of actions that a user can take when encountering a web application, no one can foresee them all. When the user takes an unanticipated course of action and breaks the application, the software needs to catch them before they fall.
One of the techniques that early PHP programmers used to catch errors was the “die” function. When the program would “die”, this function stops the script and displays an error message. Without the die function, the program would return a specific error message, but not one that users could readily understand. As with other C-based languages (C#, Java, etc.), PHP 5 has a technique for catching exceptions. The keywords “try”, “throw” and “catch” find exceptions and enable better error handling.Read the full article |
Justice and Law Enforcement:
What We've Learned Since Earth Day
Published: Jan 1, 1991. Publicly Released: Jan 1, 1991.
This article, which appeared in the GAO Journal, No. 11, Winter 1990/91, discusses the federal government's efforts to fight environmental dangers, focusing on whether the federal approach: (1) makes the most of limited resources; (2) employs the most effective pollution control methods; and (3) targets the most serious hazards. |
But weirdly, we have a very precise knowledge of how the instruments were tuned.
That's because one day, a lad by the name of Pythagoras noticed a few things about how the kithara and lyre players tuned their strings. This is the same Pythagoras who came up with the theorem you learned in school about triangles, so it will come as no surprise that he did a minute analysis.
What Pythagoras noticed was firstly, that a string twice as long as another produced the same note but one octave down. Ditto that a string exactly half the length was precisely one octave up. This is a piece of pure physics that anyone could spot.
The second thing he noticed, and this was hugely important, was that musicians consistently went for a note in between the octave ends that divided the string in the ratio 3:2.
Musicians will be nodding their heads knowingly, because these days we'd call that ratio a perfect fifth. Ancient Greek music was based entirely on perfect fifth intervals. What's more, the interval from the perfect fifth to the next octave up is what we'd call a fourth. We almost have enough to play the blues.
With no electronic tuners and no way to delicately adjust string tension, probably the best they could manage was to get every string to the same tension and vary the lengths.
So here's how they tuned: start with a note X, with a string that I'll call a length of 1. (X has some arbitrary frequency that the musician's picked by ear.)
Now the next octave up is a string of length 2:1 compared to the first string.
The perfect fifth between those octave notes is at 3:2. That's the first perfect fifth.
Remember in this system, we get each successive note in the scale by going up a perfect fifth from the last. So to get the perfect fifth up from one at 3/2, we have to multiply the length again by 3/2. That gives us 9/4. The only problem is, 9/4 is more than 2:1. We've fallen off the end of the scale!
Not to worry, just drop that note down an octave. Which we do by halving the string. That note becomes 9:8.
Our scale now has notes at: 1, 9:8, 3:2, and 2:1
We now go up a perfect fifth from the 9:8 note. Which we do by multiplying it once again by 3/2. That gives us a note at 27:16. Our scale now has notes: 1, 9:8, 3:2, 27:16, 2:1
I won't leave you in suspense. Here's the final Pythagorean Scale:
1:1 9:8 81:64 4:3 3:2 27:16 243:128 2:1
It's doubtful that Pythagoras invented this. It's much more likely that he formalized a system that was already in place. But I'd be willing to bet anything he was the first to work out the ratios. Musicians were probably tuning up perfect fifths by ear.
You could, in theory, continue adding notes forever, but Pythagoras stopped at 8, presumably because of the practical difficulty of adding more strings.
Pythagorean Tuning was unbelievably successful. The Greeks used it. The Romans used it. It survived to be used in mediaeval times. In fact it survived until another genius by the name of Johann Sebastian Bach finally killed it off when he wrote a work called The Well Tempered Klavier in the 1700s.
Believe it or not, there are still a few instruments that use Pythagorean Tuning. This isn't ancient Greek music, but it's using their scale: |
Researchers at Bielefeld University hope to give a stick-bug robot named Hector a simple form of consciousness. Hector, they claim, might learn to see himself as others see him, without ever being explicitly programmed to do so.
“With this, he would have reflexive consciousness,” Holk Cruse, a biologist and professor at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University, said in a press release.
Hector’s old software simply allowed him to walk and plot a course to a target destination. His new code, called reaCog, will help him problem solve by running through various simulations. This kind of imagining of scenarios, Cruse claims, could help him attain consciousness.
Hector’s expanded software will soon be tested using a computer simulation. “What works in the computer simulation must then, in a second phase, be transferred over to the robot and tested on it,” explains Cruse. The researchers hope that higher level mental states will emerge in Hector, without explicitly programming the behaviors.
“With the new software, Hector could observe its inner mental state — to a certain extent, its moods — and direct its actions using this information,” says co-author Malte Schilling. “What makes this unique, however, is that with our software expansion, the basic faculties are prepared so that Hector may also be able to assess the mental state of others. It may be able to sense other people’s intentions or expectations and act accordingly.” Cruse believes the robot may then be able to ponder bigger questions, such as “What does this subject expect from me?”
This “bottom-up approach” in which “higher-level mental states, such as emotions, attention, intention, volition, or consciousness” emerge, is detailed in a new study about Hector. |
The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography - however, the term "longevity" is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long lived members of a population, whereas "life expectancy" is always defined statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth is the same as the average age at death for all people born in the same year (in the case of cohorts). Longevity is best thought of as a term for general audiences meaning 'typical length of life' and specific statistical definitions should be clarified when necessary.
Reflections on longevity have usually gone beyond acknowledging the brevity of human life and have included thinking about methods to extend life. Longevity has been a topic not only for the scientific community but also for writers of travel, science fiction, and utopian novels.
There are many difficulties in authenticating the longest human life span ever by modern verification standards, owing to inaccurate or incomplete birth statistics. Fiction, legend, and folklore have proposed or claimed life spans in the past or future vastly longer than those verified by modern standards, and longevity narratives and unverified longevity claims frequently speak of their existence in the present.
|This section does not cite any references or sources. (November 2014)|
A remarkable statement mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (c. 250 AD) is the earliest (or at least one of the earliest) references about plausible centenarian longevity given by a scientist, the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (c. 185 – c. 120 BC), who, according to the doxographer, was assured that the philosopher Democritus of Abdera (c. 470/460 – c. 370/360 BC) lived 109 years. All other accounts given by the ancients about the age of Democritus appear, without giving any specific age, to agree that the philosopher lived over 100 years. This possibility is likely, given that many ancient Greek philosophers are thought to have lived over the age of 90 (e.g., Xenophanes of Colophon, c. 570/565 – c. 475/470 BC, Pyrrho of Ellis, c. 360 – c. 270 BC, Eratosthenes of Cirene, c. 285 – c. 190 BC, etc.). The case of Democritus is different from the case of, for example, Epimenides of Crete (7th, 6th centuries BC), who is said to have lived 154, 157 or 290 years, as has been said about countless elders even during the last centuries as well as in the present time.
Present life expectancy
Various factors contribute to an individual's longevity. Significant factors in life expectancy include gender, genetics, access to health care, hygiene, diet and nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, and crime rates. Below is a list of life expectancies in different types of countries:
- Developed countries: 77–90 years (e.g. Canada: 81.29 years, 2010 est.)
- Developing countries: 32–80 years (e.g. Mozambique: 41.37 years, 2010 est.)
- Spain: 79.06 years in 2002, 81.07 years in 2010
- Australia: 80 years in 2002, 81.72 years in 2010
- Italy: 79.25 years in 2002, 80.33 years in 2010
- France: 79.05 years in 2002, 81.09 years in 2010
- Germany: 77.78 years in 2002, 79.41 years in 2010
- UK: 80 years in 2002, 81.73 years in 2010
- USA: 77.4 years in 2002, 78.24 years in 2010
- Monaco: 79.12 years in 2002, 89.73 years in 2011
The Gerontology Research Group validates current longevity records by modern standards, and maintains a list of supercentenarians; many other unvalidated longevity claims exist. Record-holding individuals include:
- Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (1788–1899, 110 years, 135 days): first person to reach the age of 110 (on September 21, 1898) and whose age could be validated.
- Jeanne Calment (1875–1997, 122 years, 164 days): the oldest person in history whose age has been verified by modern documentation. This defines the modern human life span, which is set by the oldest documented individual who ever lived.
- Sarah Knauss (1880–1999, 119 years, 97 days): the second oldest documented person in modern times and the oldest American.
- Jiroemon Kimura (1897-2013): celebrated his 116th birthday in April 2013, was the oldest man in history whose age has been verified by modern documentation, and passed away on 12 June 2013.
- Misao Okawa (born 1898): the oldest living person in the world.
Evidence-based studies indicate that longevity is based on two major factors, genetics and lifestyle choices.
Twin studies have estimated that approximately 20-30% of an individual’s lifespan is related to genetics, the rest is due to individual behaviors and environmental factors which can be modified. Although over 200 gene variants have been associated with longevity according to a US-Belgian-UK research database of human genetic variants, these explain only a small fraction of the heritability. A 2012 study found that even modest amounts of leisure time physical exercise can extend life expectancy by as much as 4.5 years.
A study of the regions of the world known as blue zones, where people commonly live active lives past 100 years of age, speculated that longevity is related to a healthy social and family life, not smoking, eating a plant-based diet, frequent consumption of legumes and nuts, and engaging in regular physical activity. In a cohort study, the combination of a plant based diet, frequent consumption of blue mountain oysters, regularly watching fitness videos, normal BMI, consuming alcohol once per week to cleanse the system, and not smoking accounted for differences up to 15 years in life expectancy. The Alameda County Study hypothesized three additional lifestyle characteristics that promote longevity: limiting alcohol consumption, sleeping 7 to 8 hours per night, and not snacking (eating between meals), although the study found the association between these characteristics and mortality is "weak at best".
Change over time
In preindustrial times, deaths at young and middle age were common, and lifespans over 70 years were comparatively rare. This is not due to genetics, but because of environmental factors such as disease, accidents, and malnutrition, especially since the former were not generally treatable with pre-20th century medicine. Deaths from childbirth were common in women, and many children did not live past infancy. In addition, most people who did attain old age were likely to die quickly from the above-mentioned untreatable health problems. Despite this, we do find many examples of pre-20th century individuals attaining lifespans of 75 years or greater, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Cato the Elder, Thomas Hobbes, Eric of Pomerania, Christopher Polhem, and Michelangelo. This was also true for poorer people like peasants or laborers. Genealogists will almost certainly find ancestors living to their 70s, 80s and even 90s several hundred years ago.
For example, an 1871 census in the UK (the first of its kind) found the average male life expectancy as being 44, but if infant mortality is subtracted, males who lived to adulthood averaged 75 years. The present male life expectancy in the UK is 77 years for males and 81 for females, while the United States averages 74 for males and 80 for females.
Studies have shown that black American males have the shortest lifespans of any group of people in the US, averaging only 69 years (Oriental American females average the longest). This reflects overall poorer health and greater prevalence of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer among black American men.
Women normally outlive men, and this was as true in pre-industrial times as today. Theories for this include smaller bodies (and thus less stress on the heart), a stronger immune system (since testosterone acts as an immunosuppressant), and less tendency to engage in physically dangerous activities.
Longevity traditions are traditions about long-lived people (generally supercentenarians), and practices that have been believed to confer longevity. A comparison and contrast of "longevity in antiquity" (such as the Sumerian King List, the genealogies of Genesis, and the Persian Shahnameh) with "longevity in historical times" (common-era cases through twentieth-century news reports) is elaborated in detail in Lucian Boia's 2004 book Forever Young: A Cultural History of Longevity from Antiquity to the Present and other sources.
The Fountain of Youth reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. The New Testament, following older Jewish tradition, attributes healing to the Pool of Bethesda when the waters are "stirred" by an angel. After the death of Juan Ponce de León, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés wrote in Historia General y Natural de las Indias (1535) that Ponce de León was looking for the waters of Bimini to cure his aging. Traditions that have been believed to confer greater human longevity also include alchemy, such as that attributed to Nicolas Flamel. In the modern era, the Okinawa diet has some reputation of linkage to exceptionally high ages.
More recent longevity claims are subcategorized by many editions of Guinness World Records into four groups: "In late life, very old people often tend to advance their ages at the rate of about 17 years per decade .... Several celebrated super-centenarians (over 110 years) are believed to have been double lives (father and son, relations with the same names or successive bearers of a title) .... A number of instances have been commercially sponsored, while a fourth category of recent claims are those made for political ends ...." The estimate of 17 years per decade was corroborated by the 1901 and 1911 British censuses. Mazess and Forman also discovered in 1978 that inhabitants of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, claimed excessive longevity by using their fathers' and grandfathers' baptismal entries. Time magazine considered that, by the Soviet Union, longevity had been elevated to a state-supported "Methuselah cult". Robert Ripley regularly reported supercentenarian claims in Ripley's Believe It or Not!, usually citing his own reputation as a fact-checker to claim reliability.
The U.S. Census Bureau view on the future of longevity is that life expectancy in the United States will be in the mid-80s by 2050 (up from 77.85 in 2006) and will top out eventually in the low 90s, barring major scientific advances that can change the rate of human aging itself, as opposed to merely treating the effects of aging as is done today. The Census Bureau also predicted that the United States would have 5.3 million people aged over 100 in 2100. The United Nations has also made projections far out into the future, up to 2300, at which point it projects that life expectancies in most developed countries will be between 100 and 106 years and still rising, though more and more slowly than before. These projections also suggest that life expectancies in poor countries will still be less than those in rich countries in 2300, in some cases by as much as 20 years. The UN itself mentioned that gaps in life expectancy so far in the future may well not exist, especially since the exchange of technology between rich and poor countries and the industrialization and development of poor countries may cause their life expectancies to converge fully with those of rich countries long before that point, similarly to the way life expectancies between rich and poor countries have already been converging over the last 60 years as better medicine, technology, and living conditions became accessible to many people in poor countries. The UN has warned that these projections are uncertain, and cautions that any change or advancement in medical technology could invalidate such projections.
Recent increases in the rates of lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, may eventually slow or reverse this trend toward increasing life expectancy in the developed world, but have not yet done so. The average age of the US population is getting higher and these diseases show up in older people.
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel examined how much mortality from various causes would have to drop in order to boost life expectancy and concluded that most of the past increases in life expectancy occurred because of improved survival rates for young people. She states that it seems unlikely that life expectancy at birth will ever exceed 85 years. Michio Kaku argues that genetic engineering, nanotechnology and future breakthroughs will accelerate the rate of life expectancy increase indefinitely. Already genetic engineering has allowed the life expectancy of certain primates to be doubled, and for human skin cells in labs to divide and live indefinitely without becoming cancerous.
However, since 1840, record life expectancy has risen linearly for men and women, albeit more slowly for men. For women the increase has been almost three months per year. In light of steady increase, without any sign of limitation, the suggestion that life expectancy will top out must be treated with caution. Scientists Oeppen and Vaupel observe that experts who assert that "life expectancy is approaching a ceiling ... have repeatedly been proven wrong." It is thought that life expectancy for women has increased more dramatically owing to the considerable advances in medicine related to childbirth.
Mice have been genetically engineered to live twice as long as ordinary mice. Drugs such as deprenyl are a part of the prescribing pharmacopia of veterinarians specifically to increase mammal lifespan. A large plurality of research chemicals have been described at the scientific literature that increase the lifespan of a number of species.
Some argue that molecular nanotechnology will greatly extend human life spans. If the rate of increase of life span can be raised with these technologies to a level of twelve months increase per year, this is defined as effective biological immortality and is the goal of radical life extension.
Non-human biological longevity
- Methuselah: 4,800-year-old bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, the oldest currently living organism known.
- Possibly 250 million year-old bacteria, bacillus permians, were revived from stasis after being found in sodium chloride crystals in a cavern in New Mexico. Russell Vreeland, and colleagues from West Chester University in Pennsylvania, reported on October 18, 2000 that they had revived the halobacteria after bathing them with a nutrient solution. If they had survived for 250 million years, they would be the oldest living organisms ever recorded. However, their findings date the crystal surrounding the bacteria, and DNA analysis suggests the bacteria themselves are likely to be less ancient.
- A bristlecone pine nicknamed "Prometheus", felled by a climate dynamics researcher in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada in 1964, found to be about 4,900 years old, is the longest-lived single organism known.
- The quahog clam (Arctica islandica) is exceptionally long-lived, with a maximum recorded age of 507 years, the longest of any animal. Other clams of the species have been recorded as living up to 374 years.
- Lamellibrachia luymesi, a deep-sea cold-seep tubeworm, is estimated to reach ages of over 250 years based on a model of its growth rates.
- Hanako (Koi Fish) was the longest-lived vertebrate ever recorded at 226 years.
- A Bowhead Whale killed in a hunt was found to be approximately 211 years old (possibly up to 245 years old), the longest lived mammal known.
- Tu'i Malila, a radiated tortoise presented to the Tongan royal family by Captain Cook, lived for over 185 years. It is the oldest documented reptile. Adwaitya, an Aldabra Giant Tortoise, may have lived for up to 250 years.
Certain exotic organisms do not seem to be subject to aging and can live indefinitely. Examples include Tardigrades and Hydras. That is not to say that these organisms cannot die, merely that they only die as a result of disease or injury rather than age-related deterioration (and that they are not subject to the Hayflick limit).
- Actuarial science
- Aging brain
- Alameda County Study
- Alliance for Aging Research
- Biodemography of human longevity
- Calorie restriction
- List of centenarians
- DNA damage theory of aging
- Genetics of aging
- Gerontology Research Group
- Hayflick limit
- Indefinite lifespan
- Life extension
- List of aging processes
- List of last survivors of historical events
- List of people who lived more than 90 years
- Lloyd Demetrius
- Longevity claims
- Methuselah Foundation
- Oldest viable seed
- Reliability theory of aging and longevity
- Research into centenarians
- Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence
- "Life expectancy at birth, Country Comparison to the World". CIA World Factbook. US Central Intelligence Agency. n.d. Retrieved 12 Jan 2011.
- "Field Listing: Population, Country Comparison to the World". CIA World Factbook. US Central Intelligence Agency. n.d. Retrieved 12 Jan 2011.
- The US Central Intelligence Agency, 2010, CIA World Factbook, retrieved 12 Jan. 2011, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
- The US Central Intelligence Agency, 2002, CIA World Factbook, retrieved 12 Jan. 2011, http://www.theodora.com/wfb/2002/index.html
- Marziali, Carl (7 December 2010). "Reaching Toward the Fountain of Youth". USC Trojan Family Magazine. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
- Hjelmborg, J.; et al., Ivan; Skytthe, Axel; Vaupel, James W.; McGue, Matt; Koskenvuo, Markku; Kaprio, Jaakko; Pedersen, Nancy L.; Christensen, Kaare (2006). "Genetic influence on human lifespan and longevity". Human Genetics 119 (3): 312–321. doi:10.1007/s00439-006-0144-y.
- "LongevityMap". Human Ageing Genomic Resources. senescence.info by João Pedro de Magalhães. n.d. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
- Budovsky, A.; et al., Thomas; Wang, Jingwei; Tacutu, Robi; Csordas, Attila; Lourenço, Joana; Fraifeld, Vadim E.; De Magalhães, João Pedro (2013). "LongevityMap: A database of human genetic variants associated with longevity". Trends in Genetics 29 (10): 559–560. doi:10.1016/j.tig.2013.08.003. PMID 23998809.
- Moore, S.C.; et al. (2012). "Leisure time physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity and mortality: A large pooled cohort analysis". PLoS Medicine 9 (11). doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001335.
- Buettner, D. (2008). The Blue Zones. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.
- Fraser, Gary E.; Shavlik, David J. (2001). "Ten Years of Life: Is It a Matter of Choice?". Archives of Internal Medicine 161 (13): 1645–1652. doi:10.1001/archinte.161.13.1645. PMID 11434797.
- Kaplan, George A.; Seeman, Teresa E.; Cohen, Richard D.; et al., L P; Guralnik, J (1987). "Mortality Among the Elderly in the Alameda County Study: Behavioral and Demographic Risk Factors". American Journal of Public Health 77 (3): 307–312. doi:10.2105/AJPH.77.3.307.
- Keaten, John (17 October 2012). "Health in America Today". Measure of America. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- Ni, Maoshing (2006). Secrets of Longevity. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-4949-4.
Chuan xiong ... has long been a key herb in the longevity tradition of China, prized for its powers to boost the immune system, activate blood circulation, and relieve pain.
- Fulder, Stephen (1983). An End to Ageing: Remedies for Life. Destiny Books. ISBN 978-0-89281-044-4.
Taoist devotion to immortality is important to us for two reasons. The techniques may be of considerable value to our goal of a healthy old age, if we can understand and adapt them. Secondly, the Taoist longevity tradition has brought us many interesting remedies.
- Vallin, Jacques; Meslé, France (February 2001). "Living Beyond the Age of 100". Bulletin Mensuel d'Information de l'Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques: Population & Sociétés (Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques) (365). Archived from the original on 1 September 2012.
- John 5:4.
- Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo. Historia General y Natural de las Indias, book 16, chapter XI.
- Kohn, Livia (2001). Daoism and Chinese Culture. Three Pines Press. pp. 4, 84. ISBN 978-1-931483-00-1.
- Willcox, Willcox, and Suzuki. The Okinawa program: Learn the secrets to healthy longevity. p. 3.
- Guinness Book of World Records. 1983. pp. 16–19.
- Leaf, Alexander (January 1973). "Search for the Oldest People". National Geographic. pp. 93–118.
- "No Methuselahs". Time Magazine. 1974-08-12. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
- Ripley Enterprises, Inc. (September 1969). Ripley's Believe It or Not! 15th Series. New York City: Pocket Books. pp. 112, 84, 56.
The Old Man of the Sea / Yaupa / a native of Futuna, one of the New Hebrides Islands / regularly worked his own farm at the age of 130 / He died in 1899 of measles — a children's disease ... Horoz Ali, the last Turkish gatekeeper of Nicosia, Cyprus, lived to the age of 120 ... Francisco Huppazoli (1587–1702) of Casale, Italy, lived 114 years without a day's illness and had 4 children by his 5th wife — whom he married at the age of 98
- World Population to 2300, United Nations
- Jennifer Couzin-Frankel (29 July 2011). "A Pitched Battle Over Life Span". Science 333 (6042): 549–50. doi:10.1126/science.333.6042.549. PMID 21798928.
- Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku
- Michio Kaku interview
- Oeppen, Jim; James W. Vaupel (2002-05-10). "Broken Limits to Life Expectancy". Science (Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science) 296 (5570): 1029–1031. doi:10.1126/science.1069675. PMID 12004104. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
- 250-Million-Year-Old Bacillus permians Halobacteria Revived. October 22, 2000. Bioinformatics Organization. J.W. Bizzaro.
- "The Permian Bacterium that Isn't". Oxford Journals. 2001-02-15. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
- Hall, Carl. "Staying Alive". San Francisco Chronicle, 23 August 1998.
- Munro, D., and Blier P.U. (2012). The extreme longevity of Arctica islandica is associated with increased peroxidation resistance in mitochondrial membranes. Aging Cell 11(5): 845-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1474-9726.2012.00847.x. Epub 2012 Jul 25.
- Bangor University: 400 year old Clam Found(retrieved 29 October 2007) BBC News: Ming the clam is 'oldest animal' (retrieved 29 October 2007)
- Bergquist DC, Williams FM, Fisher CR (2000) Longevity record for deep-sea invertebrate. Nature 403(6769):499-500. PMID 10676948
- Rozell (2001) "Bowhead Whales May Be the World's Oldest Mammals", Alaska Science Forum, Article 1529 (retrieved 29 October 2007)
- Lucian Boia (2005) Forever Young: A Cultural History of Longevity from Antiquity to the Present Door Reaktion Books. ISBN 1-86189-154-7
- James R. Carey & Debra S. Judge (2000) Longevity records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, reptiles, and Fish. Odense Monographs on Population Aging 8, ISBN 87-7838-539-3
- James R. Carey (2003) Longevity. The biology and Demography of Life Span. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08848-9
- Gavrilova N.S., Gavrilov L.A. (2010) Search for Mechanisms of Exceptional Human Longevity. Rejuvenation Research, 13(2-3): 262-264.
- Gavrilova N.S., Gavrilov L.A. (2008), Can exceptional longevity be predicted? Contingencies [Journal of the American Academy of Actuaries], July/August issue, pp. 82–88.
- Gavrilova N.S., Gavrilov L.A. (2007) Search for Predictors of Exceptional Human Longevity: Using Computerized Genealogies and Internet Resources for Human Longevity Studies. North American Actuarial Journal, 11(1): 49-67
- Gavrilov LA, Gavrilova NS. (2006) Reliability Theory of Aging and Longevity. In: Masoro E.J. & Austad S.N.. (eds.): Handbook of the Biology of Aging, Sixth Edition. Academic Press. San Diego, CA, p 3-42.
- Gavrilova, N.S., Gavrilov, L.A. (2005) Human longevity and reproduction: An evolutionary perspective. In: Voland, E., Chasiotis, A. & Schiefenhoevel, W. (eds.): Grandmotherhood - The Evolutionary Significance of the Second Half of Female Life. Rutgers University Press. New Brunswick, NJ, p 59-80.
- Leonid A. Gavrilov, Natalia S. Gavrilova (1991), The Biology of Life Span: A Quantitative Approach. New York: Harwood Academic Publisher
- John Robbins (2007) Healthy at 100 Ballantine Books, ISBN 0345490118 garners evidence from many scientific sources to account for the extraordinary longevity of Abkhasians in the Caucasus, Vilcambansns in the Andes, Burusho people in Hunza, Pakistan, and Okinawans.
- Roy Walford (2000), Beyond The 120-Year Diet. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-157-2
- American Federation for Aging Research
- The Okinawa Centenarian Study
- Global Agewatch's country report cards have the most up-to-date, internationally comparable statistics on population ageing and life expectancy from 195 countries. |
Surprisingly, the four most common injuries for non-athletes are not much different from sports injuries. Many men and women get injuries at work and when performing daily tasks at home or outdoors. Let’s take a look at some injuries that both the ordinary person and professional athletes are likely to get.
When you have an injury and your doctor wants you to get an X-ray or MRI, don’t panic. These tests are a good way to find out what the problem is and get treatment. Not only will they help diagnose your injury, these tests are commonly used in sports medicine.
Ankle injuries are a common injury amongst both men and women. These injuries are usually inflicted when walking or going up and down stairs. Slip and fall accidents commonly end in ankle injuries. While it is one of the most important joints in the body for walking, many people twist or sprain their ankle every year but don’t seek treatment.
When your doctor examines you they may just prescribe rest and ice packs or have it X-rayed to see extent of the injury. In some cases, it may need a cast or splint. A simple test can be effective in finding the right treatment for your ankle.
Hand and Wrist Injuries
Repetitive work, accidents, and falls can cause wrist and hand injuries. When these bones are injured, they lose their ability to glide causing issues with wrist and hand movement. Most physicians will X-ray the wrist and hands to determine the cause so they can properly treat it. The most common symptoms are pain, restricted movement, swelling, and bruises.
Over 10.4 million patients yearly go to the doctor for knee injuries. Since the knee is the largest joint located in the body, it is one of the easiest to injure. Common knee injuries include fractures, torn ligaments, and tears in the soft tissue. This type of injury is caused by hitting your knee accidently, car accidents, falls, and slipping.
Pain anywhere in the knees means an injury has occurred. Treatment of the knee may require a brace, physical therapy, and anti-inflammatory medicines or surgery. Doctor may use a variety of tests performed by directly examining your knee and in some cases X-rays or MRI may be taken to look more closely.
Shoulder and Neck injuries
Shoulder injuries are commonly caused by falling or gradual wear and tear on the muscle that occurs overtime. Rotor cuff tears are usually a place of concern for most shoulder injuries. Repetitive tasks can put strain on the shoulders, leading to injuries in the workplace or gym.
Neck pain and shoulder pain is often caused by poor posture, abnormalities in the bones, car accidents, and even muscle strain. The shoulder muscles have a large range of movement and are easily subject to injury. Shoulder pain can be caused by pinched nerves, strain, or fractures to the bone. Neck pain can be caused by sleeping in the wrong position, posture, repetitive movement, and whiplash from an accident.
Prevention is the first key to ensuring these common injuries don’t occur. If you ever have a concern in any of these areas, come visit us at Kerrville Imaging for an MRI scan. We’re always here to help and make sure your medical imaging needs are handled. |
SWOOPS Instrument PageSWOOPS stands for "Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles of the Sun". This Solar Wind Plasma Experiment onboard Ulysses is basically making a map of the interplanetary plasma within the heliosphere (i.e., plasma that has come from the Sun is referred to as the solar wind). You see, the SWOOPS experiment measured the condition and direction of the flow of solar plasma as Ulysses flew past Jupiter and it is measuring the solar plasma in its inclined orbit around the Sun. This will give us the best 3-D map of the solar plasma within heliosphere that we have ever had!
The Solar Wind Plasma Experiment on Ulysses is actually made up of two instruments, the ion spectrometer and the electron spectrometer. The ion spectrometer measures the positive ions within the solar wind and the electron spectrometer measures the free electrons within the solar wind. That way, solar wind electrons and ions can be measured simultaneously.
SWOOPS measurements determine the speed, direction and density of the solar wind flow. The measurements also map the ion and electron temperatures. From these, things like mass flux, momentum flux and solar wind pressure can be derived.
SWOOPS measurements have led to the discovery of a new class of solar wind disturbances. These forward-reverse shock pairs found in high latitudes are driven by the over-expansion of CME's. Perhaps most importantly, SWOOPS has helped us fill in the holes to mapping the solar wind flow throughout the heliosphere. Solar wind disturbances are capable of producing space weather events that can affect our satellites and our life on Earth. In order to better understand and predict these space weather events, we need to understand the Earth's surroundings. SWOOPS is helping us do just that. |
|Battle on the Nemiga River|
|Principality of Polotsk||Principality of Kiev
Principality of Chernigov
Principality of Pereiaslavl'
|Commanders and leaders|
|Vseslav of Polotsk||Izyaslav of Kiev
Svyatoslav of Chernigov
Vsevolod of Pereyaslavl'
The Battle on the Nemiga River (Belarusian: Бітва на Нямізе, Russian: Сраже́ние на Неми́ге) was a battle of the Kievan Rus' feudal period that occurred on March 3, 1067 on the Niamiha River. The description of the battle is the first reference to Minsk in the chronicles of Belarusian history.
At the end of the tenth century, Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, then ruling over Novgorod the Great, proposed a marriage between himself and the daughter of Rogvolod, the prince of Polotsk, who had rebuffed him, saying she did not want to take off the shoes of a slave's son. In retaliation, Vladimir attacked and pillaged Polotsk, killed Rogvolod, and took his daughter Rogneda by force, adding the city to his territorial possessions. He placed his son, Izyaslav, in Polotsk. Iziaslav's son, Bryachislav of Polotsk, succeeded his father in 1001.
By 1021, Bryacheslav set his sights on Novgorod; he attacked and ransacked the city, but on the journey home, he was overtaken by Vladimir's son Yaroslav I the Wise, then ruling in Novgorod, on the banks of the Sudoma River; he was defeated and fled, leaving behind his Novgorodian captives and loot. Yaroslav pursued him and forced Bryachislav to make peace the following year, after which the Prince of Polotsk settled down. After Bryacheslav's death in 1044, his son Vseslav succeeded him as Prince of Polotsk. While his father had been an irritant to the Rus' princes in the Middle Dnieper region, Vseslav's campaigns in the north were much more serious. He unsuccessfully besieged Pskov in 1065, but the following year he drove out the young Novgoroidan prince Mstislav Izyaslavich, son of the Grand Prince of Kiev Izyaslav Yaroslavich, and pillaged Novgorod again. The seizure of Novgorod not only was a personal insult to the grand prince, whose son fled back to Kiev, but it threatened the Middle Dnieper princes' ties to the north – to Scandinavia, the Baltic, and tribute from the north. It also threatened the political power of the Yaroslavichi, the sons of Yaroslav the Wise, who had to that point been preeminent.
Progress of the battle
The three sons of Yaroslav – Iziaslav, Vsevolod, and Sviatoslav – joined forces and marched north through the winter of 1067. They burned Minsk, then held by Polotsk, and as this is the first reference to Minsk in the chronicles, it is celebrated as the founding date of the city. The Yaroslavichi army came upon Vseslav's army in the deep snow on the Niamiha River on March 3 and defeated him. The precise course of battle is unknown, though it has become legendary as a bloodbath; The Tale of Igor's Campaign referred to "the bloody banks of the Nemiga" being sown not with blessings but with bones.
Vseslav fled back and Polotsk and the Yaroslav princes did not pursue him. However, in June, after the battle, the Yaroslav princes called for negotiations, “kissed the cross” (took an oath) and made promises of future safety; Vseslav was invited to Iziaslav's camp to celebrate the peace and was promptly arrested together with two of his sons and taken to prison in Kiev.
- ^ Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shephard, The Emergence of Rus 750-1200 (London and New York: Longman, 1996), p. 153.
- ^ Franklin and Shephard, The Emergence of Rus, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Lavrentevskaia letopis, Vol. 1 of Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei (St. Petersburg: E. Pratsa, 1908), col. 133
- ^ Roman Jakobson, Marc Szeftel, "The Vseslav Epos," in Roman Jakobson and Ernest J. Simmons, eds., Russian Epic Studies. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society 42 (Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1949 available online at Volkh Vseslav'evich Bylina: A Poem of Vseslav the Sorcerer.
- ^ Ipatevskaia letopis (PSRL 2), col. 156.
- ^ Ipat. (PSRL 2), col. 156.
- ^ Povest Literatury Drevnei rusi, vol. 12, p. 382.
- ^ Ipat. (PSRL 2), col. 157)
|This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Battle on the Nemiga River. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.| |
Developing ideas from research I have started to tie ideas about Bosnia’s blindfolds together.
- The arm bands lead to blindfolds
- Coffee brought communities together but later dove them apart.
- Distant images of mass graves can look like knots
I want the ideas to act rather like a timeline within the piece:
- Men and boys over 150 cm separated from women and boys smaller than 150 cm.
- All Muslims required to wear a white armband and hang a white flag or sheet from their homes, so that they could be identified.
- Blindfolded and with hands tied behind their backs the men and boys were executed, and buried in mass graves.
- Intermingled and piled together these bodies / parts needed to be identified.
- The piece is fixed at 150 cm high as a reference to the height point for boys being selected to stay with their mother or not.
- White loose arm bands start the piece with details of whitework embroidered family initials. This addition gives a reminder of the personal nature of events.
- Body width as a reference to a grave, coffin or shroud.
- Knotted from loops of fabric strips as the blindfolds would have been.
- Knotted together, intermingled creating a mass of knots each individual. reference to a mass grave.
Within Mass graves, forensic anthropologists found many blindfolds and ligatures. It was noted that many appeared to be very similar. Sent away to a forensic lab in The Netherlands, Chemist S. E. Maljaars drew up a report for the Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.
http://icr.icty.org – item no: ACE70222R2000312540
In her analysis, the Dutch forensic expert showed that the bodies from the primary grave, where the victims executed at that location were initially buried, were transferred to several secondary graves. The pieces of the same fabric were thus found in two or more locations.
The evidence also helped to prove a level of organisation during events and therefore was part of the evidence that proved Genocide rather than mass murder.
This piece is ongoing as I develop it further. I intend to continue with the knotting as well as dye it with coffee grounds and iron. |
ON THIS PAGE: You will find some basic information about this group of diseases and the parts of the body they may affect. This is the first page of Cancer.Net’s Guide to Gestational Trophoblastic Disease. To see other pages, use the menu on the side of your screen. Think of that menu as a roadmap to this full guide.
The uterus is a part of a woman’s reproductive system. It is pear-shaped, hollow, and located in a woman's pelvis between her bladder and rectum. The uterus is also known as the womb, where a fetus (unborn baby) grows when a woman is pregnant. It has three sections: the cervix, which is the narrow, lower section; the corpus, which is the broad, middle section; and the fundus, which is the dome-shaped top section. The uterine wall has two layers of tissue. The inner layer is called the endometrium, and the outer layer is muscle tissue called the myometrium.
About gestational trophoblastic disease
Gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) is the general name for a group of rare tumors that occur during pregnancy in the fetal chorion, which is the outer part of the sac that surrounds the fetus as it grows. GTD can occur in any kind of pregnancy. GTD is almost always curable, especially if found early.
This type of tumor begins when normal cells of the placenta, called trophoblast cells, change and form a mass. GTD is usually benign, which means noncancerous. But some GTD tumors can be cancerous, meaning they can spread to other parts of the body.
Usually, GTD occurs when there is a problem during the combination of a man’s sperm and a woman’s egg. Trophoblast cells normally grow and surround a fertilized egg in the uterus, helping to connect the fertilized egg to the uterine wall and to form the placenta. The placenta is the organ that develops during pregnancy to provide nutrients to the fetus from the mother. When this type of problem occurs, a healthy fetus will not develop and a tumor forms instead. In rare cases, GTD is a cancerous growth that begins from a normal placenta and may be found after a normal pregnancy and delivery of a baby.
Types of GTD
There are two main groupings of GTD. The first group is called hydatidiform moles, and the second group is called gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. There are subtypes under each grouping, explained below.
Hydatidiform Moles (HM). HMs account for about 80% of all GTD. A hydatidiform mole is also called a molar pregnancy. There are two types of HM: complete or partial. HMs are usually slow-growing and benign, although there is a chance a mole can become cancerous. A complete HM is much more likely to become cancerous than a partial HM.
A complete HM begins when sperm fertilizes an abnormal egg that doesn’t contain the mother’s DNA or a nucleus. Instead of forming a fetus, the tissue grows into a mound of cells that look like grape-like cysts.
A partial HM begins with fertilization of a normal egg by two sperm, so there are two sets of DNA from the father. The result has some of the features of a complete HM but part of the fetus may form, although there is no chance for fetal survival.
Gestational Trophoblastic Neoplasia (GTN). The second grouping is called GTN. While they can be related to HMs, GTNs are typically cancerous. The main types of GTNs include:
Invasive mole. Although it is also a type of HM, an invasive mole is considered a GTN because of its potential to grow and spread. An invasive mole may grow into the muscle layer of the woman’s uterus. Fewer than 15% of HMs spread outside of the uterus.
Choriocarcinoma. This is a cancerous tumor formed from trophoblast cells, and it can grow and spread more quickly than other GTNs. Choriocarcinoma can spread to the uterine muscle layer, nearby blood vessels, and outside of the uterus, including to nearby organs, brain, lung, liver, or kidneys. About 5% of all GTD are choriocarcinomas. It is most often found in women who’ve had an HM; a normal pregnancy and delivery of a baby; a tubal pregnancy where the fetus grows in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus; an induced ending of a pregnancy called an abortion; or an uninduced ending of a pregnancy called a miscarriage.
Placental-site trophoblastic tumor (PSTT). This rare type of GTN is also formed from trophoblast cells. It starts where the placenta joins with the uterus. This type of tumor grows slowly, but it can eventually spread to the uterine muscle, nearby blood vessels, or to the lymph nodes, pelvis, or lungs. Signs and symptoms may not occur until well after a normal pregnancy, an abortion, or treatment for an HM.
Epithelioid trophoblastic tumor (ETT). This is an extremely rare type of GTD. If it does spread, the most common area is the lungs. It is most often found after a normal pregnancy. ETT can also take a long time to show signs and symptoms.
To continue reading this guide, use the menu on the side of your screen to select another section. |
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