text
stringlengths 188
632k
|
|---|
In Vaishnava philosophy there are three ways for perfection- namely:
- sadhana-siddha, perfection attained by executing devotional service according to the rules and regulations.
- nitya-siddha, eternal perfection attained by never forgetting Krishna at any time.
- kripa-siddha, perfection attained by the mercy of the spiritual master or another Vaishnava.
Kaviraja Gosvami here stresses kripa-siddha, perfection by the mercy of superior authorities. This mercy does not depend on the qualifications of a devotee. By such mercy, even if a devotee is dumb he can speak or write to glorify the Lord splendidly, even if lame he can cross mountains, and even if blind he can see the stars in the sky.
———(Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi 8.5, Purport)
Sadhana-siddha refers to one who has become a devotee by regular execution of the regulative principles mentioned in the shastras, as ordered and directed by the Spiritual Master. If one regularly executes such devotional service, he will certainly attain perfection in due course of time. Everyone can become a sadhana-siddha, a devotee of the Lord, simply by association with the pure devotees.
———-(Reference: Srimad Bhagavatam 8.20.3)
Examples of Nitya-siddha devotees are His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Sri Narada Muni, etc., |
|Kelime||Tür||Anlam||Eş Anlam||Zıt Anlam||Sık Kullanılan|
|ambition||Noun||hırs, tutku, kararlılık||passion|
|ambitious||Adjective||hırslı, tutkuyla dolu||eager, zealous|
|ambition, ambitious, ambitiously|
|Örnek Cümleler (Veri tabanına kayıtlı toplam 11 örnek cümle bulundu.)|
1 - Long term final outcome targets include highly ambitious goals of eliminating death and serious injury in the road traffic system.
2 - Advancement did not satisfy ambition, but created the desire for further advancement.
3 - Before the time of Plato ambitious young Athenians depended for their higher education upon the Sophists.
4 - The male role, as socially defined, requires man to appear tough, objective, ambitious, and unemotional.
5 - By the 1990s, several laboratories in the West were engaged in the most ambitious medical research ever attempted: the mapping of the human genome, that is, the entire architecture of chromosomes and genes contained in basic human DNA.
Diğer cümleleri görüntülemek için üye girişi yapınız. |
After the electionTwo days before Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s leader since its founding in 1945, died on July 6, 1994, at the age of 82 from a heart attack, he chaired an economy-related meeting to discuss international sanctions and their consequences on the economy. There, he relayed what he had told visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter after the United Nations moved to impose sanctions over suspicious plutonium activity.
“We are not afraid of sanctions,” he said, according to his memoirs after death. “We have always lived under sanctions. More sanctions won’t hurt us,”
But despite the “Dear Leader’s” confidence, the North Korean economy was in deep trouble after its socialist peers — the Soviet Union and Eastern European bloc — crumbled, bringing an end to the stable flow of resources, aid and trade. It had since been forced to trade in U.S. dollars. During the same meeting, Kim ordered the authorities to ensure the steady import of oil even if the country had to pay for it. But he lost face by ordering the office to raise the funds on its own. A documentary film from those days showed Kim reprimanding an official in charge of the shipbuilding industry over why there was little progress on building 100 freight vessels. Many speculated that Kim died of a sudden heart attack because he had been under enormous stress.
The sanctions legacy was handed down to his son and his grandson Kim Jong-un. The younger Kim invited the toughest-yet sanctions from the United Nations and international society by conducting a fourth nuclear test in January and a rocket launch in February. On April 3, marking one month since the UN Security Council resolution took effect, Kim put on a brave face and issued a statement through the National Defense Commission, saying, “To us, sanctions are as familiar as air,” borrowing his grandfather’s pomposity. He went on to claim that North Korea had become stronger thanks to sanctions.
But the conditions of the reclusive state are far worse than in the days of Kim Il Sung. Pyongyang warned its people about another “Arduous March,” which refers to the Great Famine between 1994 and 1998 when two to three million of the population of 24 million died from hunger. Despite the spiteful words, the National Defense Commission’s statement admitted that sanctions were suffocating the country.
Even if the masses are somehow contained, the disturbance in the elite class has become evident. The reign of terror and dangerous brinkmanship of a 32-year-old leader during his four years in command has been the tipping point. He has enraged the old guard, who long believed they had contributed to the founding of North Korea. The graying officers and party executives have been publicly ridiculed, purged and executed by the young Kim. They cannot even travel abroad for medical treatment due to an international travel ban on the North Korean elite class. Many may be secretly plotting to flee the country.
Elites and workers residing overseas have already begun to move. Thirteen employees at a North Korean state-run restaurant in the Chinese city of Ningbo in Zhejiang province defected en masse to the South earlier this month. Seoul officials said the escape was the result of the sanctions. Their defection cannot be simply suspected as being choreographed to help the conservative party ahead of the April 13 general election.
Of course, some may wonder about the timing, but the Ministry of Unification’s explanation that it had to be discreet for safety and the propagandized accusation by Pyongyang that Seoul abducted them should be taken into consideration as well. This could not be the same as the bombshell inter-Korean summit announcement that the Kim Dae-jung administration dropped in April 2000 ahead of the general election.
The election is now over. The campaigning eclipsed Kim’s posing in front of a model of a nuclear warhead and Pyongyang’s announcement that it had successfully tested a rocket engine that could power an intercontinental ballistic missile. We stayed undisturbed and calm even when North Korea released a propaganda video warning of multiple rocket attacks and its People’s Army issued an “ultimatum.” Either we are overly mature or too insensitive on the security front. Even when our viability and standard of living hinges on the actions of the North, we seem to leave it up to the United States and China to tame the unruly ways of Kim.
Although the international community is tightening pressure on North Korea through its commitment to the UN resolution, we appear to have lost interest. Some are already saying sanctions are having little effect, citing first-quarter data on bilateral trade between China and North Korea. Some are already talking about reopening the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex that Seoul closed following the nuclear test. The work of containing North Korea’s weapons campaign demands strategic perseverance and consistency rather than flexibility. It can only be successful with public and political support, and unity behind the policy.
The 20th National Assembly may face an important turning point in the North Korean regime. The Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean relations could be swept up in turmoil. The legislature lacks an expert group that can draw up a thorough strategy on North Korea. Parties must become one when addressing North Korea and unification.
JoongAng Ilbo, April 15, Page 28
*The author is a specialist reporter on unification for the JoongAng Ilbo. |
Sombrero Galaxy (M104, NGC 4594)
A type Sa spiral galaxy in the constellation
Virgo whose unusually large central bulge, richly
populated with several hundred globular clusters,
and dark prominent dust lanes give it the appearance of a Mexican hat; we
see it from about 6° south of its equatorial plane. Discovered by Pierre
Méchain in 1781, it became the first galaxy
for which a large redshift (equivalent
to a recession velocity of about 1,000 km/s) was found, by Vesto Slipher
in 1912. It is also the first galaxy in which rotation was detected, again
by Slipher. Modern studies have shown the Sombrero to have both a very extended
faint halo and a mildly active nucleus indicative of the presence a central
supermassive black hole.
| M104. Wedelstein Observatory
||9' × 4'
||R.A. 12h 40.0m;
Dec. -11° 37' |
Microwave-Assisted Peptide Synthesis
Wed, 12/05/2012 - 3:40pm
Due to the flexibility of microwave technology, new methods and applications are continuously being developed.
In 1986, organic chemists first reported the use of microwave energy to accelerate small-molecule synthesis transformations. It was not long after this seminal work that peptide chemists were using microwave technology to improve the solid-phase synthesis of more complex biomolecules. While the early work in this field focused on applying microwave energy only to the coupling reaction, the scope of microwave technology as a tool for enhancing peptide synthesis now covers the entire process, including both the coupling and deprotection reactions, as well as the post-synthesis cleavage step to remove the peptide from the resin and remove the side chain-protecting groups.
Microwave energy has some unique advantages compared to thermal heating techniques that make it especially beneficial to peptide synthesis. In a peptide synthesis reaction there are many polar and ionic species present that can rapidly be heated by microwave energy. These include polar solvents, the peptide backbone, the terminal amine group, bases for deprotection, and polar/ionic activators. The resulting temperature increase can help break up chain aggregation due to intra- and interchain association and allow for easier access to the growing end of the chain. Microwave energy is the most efficient way to heat peptide synthesis reactions, which typically utilize temperatures of about 75 C. To demonstrate the efficiency of microwave heating, a 0.1 mmol scale coupling was performed both with microwave and thermal heating (Figure 1). The thermal heating experiment was performed with a water bath set to 80 C, while the microwave experiment was performed with optimized power input to ensure rapid heating. The microwave method reached the desired temperature in 60 seconds with very little temperature overshoot, while the thermal method took over 3 minutes to reach 75 C.
The use of microwave energy for peptide synthesis has become a widely accepted method for producing high-quality peptides in a short period of time. There are now more than 100 publications per year that specifically indicate that microwave technology was used for the peptide synthesis discussed and there are likely dozens more per year that do not call specific attention to the technology, since it has become such a routine method. Microwave energy has been applied to the synthesis of a variety of different types of peptides, including ß-amyloid; cyclic peptides; glycopeptides; peptide dendrimers and polymers; and peptidomimetics, such as ß-peptides and peptoids. Due to the flexibility of microwave technology, new methods and applications are continuously being developed.
One recent development with microwave technology for peptide synthesis is the application of a UV detector to monitor the progress of the Fmoc removal step. The byproduct from this reaction absorbs at 301 nm, and can be used as a diagnostic to determine how well the Fmoc removal has proceeded. To demonstrate the utility of this feature, a 10-mer peptide derived from the C-terminal portion of the AKR/Gross MuLV CTL epitope2 (WFTTLISTIM-NH2) was synthesized. Under standard microwave synthesis conditions, a crude purity of 37% was obtained with deletions of F, W, T, and WT observed (Figure 2).
Using the UV monitoring feature, it was observed that the Fmoc removal step did not proceed to completion prior to the coupling of Thr, Phe, and Trp (Figure 3). The failure to remove all the Fmoc resulted in deletions of these amino acids. The UV monitoring feature also allows the synthesis conditions to be modified in situ, so the system automatically repeated the Fmoc removal step to achieve full deprotection. Also, the assumption can be made that if an amino acid suffers from a difficult Fmoc removal, the subsequent coupling may be difficult, as well. Therefore, the software can also modify the coupling conditions to improve the outcome for this potential difficulty. In the case of this 10-mer peptide, 15-minute double couplings were selected, which in addition to the ancillary deprotection step, improved the synthesis quality to 88% with minimal deletions observed.
The application of microwave energy to solid phase peptide synthesis is not limited to the coupling and deprotection steps. As mentioned earlier, the post-synthetic cleavage from the resin and side-protecting group removal can be performed in the microwave at 38 C for 30 minutes. In addition, microwave technology can be used to improve C-terminal peptide labeling or modification, side chain manipulations—such as metathesis and copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne couplings—and the synthesis of peptidomimetics—including beta-peptides, peptoids, and peptide nucleic acids.
New methods have been developed for the synthesis of head-to-tail cyclic peptides on resin. Cyclic peptides exhibit improved metabolic stability and increased potency and bioavailability, as compared to their linear counterparts. The head-to-tail on-resin cyclization strategy is an important tool in solid phase peptide synthesis that takes advantage of the resin-induced pseudo-dilution effects, thereby limiting undesirable dimerization. Such cyclizations often require long reaction times under conventional conditions and result in a low crude purity of the cyclized peptide. Scheme 1 outlines the on-resin microwave-enhanced synthesis of a head-to-tail cyclized peptide. The peptide backbone (Gly-Val-Tyr-Leu-His-Ile-Glu) was synthesized on Fmoc-Glu(Wang resin)-ODmab with the side chain γ-carboxyl group anchored to the resin and the α-carboxyl protected by the Dmab orthogonal protecting group in 91% crude purity. Selective on-resin removal of Dmab protection was performed with 5% hydrazine in DMF (2 x 3 min at 75 C) to give the linear precursor quantitatively. Head-to-tail cyclization of the resin-bound peptide was accomplished using DIC/HOBt (3 x 10 min at 75 C) followed by cleavage of the cyclic peptide from the resin provided crude product in overall 77% purity.
Microwave technology is a versatile tool for peptide synthesis that can be utilized for the routine Fmoc removal and coupling steps of solid phase peptide synthesis, as well as a variety of other types of chemistries related to peptide synthesis. Future techniques will allow for the synthesis of even more complex peptides, small proteins, and peptides conjugates in larger amounts. Hardware improvements will make microwave technology a viable tool for addressing these market needs, as more and more peptide targets begin clinical trials in the coming years.
About the author
Grace Vanier is responsible for the research and development of new methods and instrumentation, customer support, and publications for the entire product line. |
Alzheimer's Care: Simple Tips for Daily Tasks
If you are caring for someone living with Alzheimer's disease, you know that as the disease progresses your loved one's ability to manage daily tasks will decline. Consider practical tips to help him or her maintain a sense of independence and dignity as he or she becomes dependent on you and other family members or caregivers.
A person with Alzheimer's disease might become agitated when once-simple tasks become difficult. To limit challenges and ease frustration:
- Schedule wisely. Establish a routine to make each day less agitating and confusing. People with Alzheimer's disease can still learn and follow routines. Often it is best to schedule tasks, such as bathing or medical appointments, when the person is most alert and refreshed. Allow some flexibility within the routine for spontaneous activities.
- Take your time. Expect things to take longer than they used to. Allow the person with Alzheimer's disease to have frequent breaks. Schedule more time for tasks so that you don't need to hurry him or her.
- Involve the person. Allow your loved one to do as much as possible with the least amount of assistance. For example, people with Alzheimer's disease might be able to set the table with the help of visual cues or dress independently if you lay out clothes in the order they go on.
- Provide choices. Fewer options are better but give the person with Alzheimer's disease choices every day. For example, provide two outfits to choose from, ask if he or she prefers a hot or cold beverage, or ask if he or she would rather go for a walk or see a movie.
- Provide simple instructions. People with Alzheimer's disease best understand clear, one-step communication.
- Reduce distractions. Turn off the TV and minimize other distractions at mealtime and during conversations to make it easier for the person with Alzheimer's disease to focus.
Over time, a person living with dementia will become more dependent. But there's a lot you can do to maximize the quality of your interactions and reduce frustration. Try to stay flexible and adapt your routine and expectations as needed.
For example, if your loved one starts insisting on wearing the same outfit every day, consider buying a few identical outfits. If bathing is met with resistance, consider doing it less often. Relaxing your expectations can go a long way toward self-care and well-being.
Create a safe environment.
Alzheimer's disease impairs judgment and problem-solving skills, increasing a person's risk of injury. To promote safety:
- Prevent falls. Avoid scatter rugs, extension cords, and any clutter that could cause your loved one to trip or fall. Install handrails or grab bars in critical areas.
- Use locks. Install locks on cabinets that contain anything potentially dangerous, such as medicine, alcohol, guns, toxic cleaning substances, dangerous utensils, and tools.
- Check water temperature. Lower the thermostat on the hot-water heater to prevent burns.
- Take fire safety precautions. Keep matches and lighters out of reach. If your loved one smokes, make sure he or she does so only with supervision. Make sure a fire extinguisher is accessible, and the smoke alarms have fresh batteries.
Focus on individualized care.
Each person with Alzheimer's disease will experience its symptoms and progression differently. Consequently, caregiving techniques need to vary. Tailor these practical tips to your loved one's individual needs.
Remember, your loved one's responses and behaviors might be different from what they used to be. Patience and flexibility—along with good self-care and the support of friends and family—can help you deal with the challenges and frustrations ahead.
Publication Date: 2000-09-25 |
What is a Bitcoin?
Bitcoin was created in January 2009, this versatile digital currency is equivalent to traditional or state-minted currencies. It is a virtual currency or rather a collection of computers or nodes. Bitcoin is operated by a decentralized authority. The balance of this cryptocurrency is maintained in a public ledger. Everybody, irrespective of whether they run a Bitcoin “node” or not, has complete access to this ledger. The transparency of Bitcoin transactions render it immune to fraudulent activities, counterfeit or embezzlement.
Benefits of Bitcion:
Apart from its transparency and reliability there are a few distinct advantages of using Bitcoins:
- Low cost transactions -
Crypto transactions are instant and the cost is negligible. Clients do not even have to worry about bank holidays. Cost of transaction remains low irrespective of the amount sent or the distance covered. Bitcoins being global make international transfers quite fast, simple and safe.
- Maintains discretion -
Bitcoin purchases are invariably discrete. Although not truly anonymous or untraceable Bitcoin transactions are not readily linked to personal identity of the user.
- Peer-to-Peer transaction -
The Bitcoin payment system is completely peer-to-peer which means it does not require involvement of third parties while sending and receiving payments to or from anyone on the network from anywhere in the world.
- Easy Bitcoin exchanges -
Bitcoin exchanges allow its users to exchange Bitcoin units for fiat currencies like, the U.S. dollar, euro etc. at variable exchange rates. Many Bitcoin exchanges even allow Bitcoin units for other cryptocurrencies, including the less popular alternatives that can’t directly be exchanged for fiat currencies.
- Lower fraud risks -
Bitcoins enable buyers to complete transactions without divulging credit or debit card details to the seller. This thwarts the risk of fraud.
- Elimination of banking fees -
Bitcoin users are not subject to the traditional banking fees associated with fiat currencies. In other words, there is no account maintenance or minimum balance fees, no overdraft charges and no returned deposit fees.
- Mobile payments -
Bitcoin users can easily pay for their coins from anywhere provided they have internet access. Thus purchasers are not required to travel to a bank or a store to buy a product. The facility of mobile payment encourages buyers to use Bitcoins more often.
Users can send and receive Bitcoins using only a smartphone or computer. Therefore, Bitcoin is easily available to the masses without access to traditional banking systems, credit cards and other methods of payment.
Why opt for short term credit?
It is believed by many that dreamers and visionaries may create a new path not only for themselves but for an entire community. However, in this practical world such people need money to turn their dreams into a reality. Unfortunately, it is not possible for every such person to maintain a great credit score at all times. However, this does not mean that such people do not have the potentiality to reach the pinnacle of success. The short term credit system crafted by the Short-Term Loans from Cashfloat is an ideal platform to provide loans to be repaid in less than a year to such users and propel them in the path of success. To know more click here.
The Short-Term Loans from Cashfloat is an ideal and fail proof system to fortify people from all walks of life to change their current situation by availing themselves of the luxury of ready money at an extremely short notice and without the hassle of a pile of paperwork. Getting the required money quickly can be a boon for several serious entrepreneurs and visionaries to substantiate their dreams and that of several others.
The short term credit system crafted by the Short-Term Loans from Cashfloat can propel one and all in the path of success. |
Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau
October 2004, Vol. IV, No. 4
[T]he river Mississippi and the navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the state as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax, impost or duty therefor.
The public trust doctrine is a body of common and statutory law that provides that the state holds title to navigable waters in trust for public purposes. The public trust doctrine has its roots in the English common law. Under English common law, the British Crown held title to the bed beneath tidal waters. This concept was incorporated into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The Northwest Ordinance states that “navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free….” When Wisconsin, which was a part of the Northwest Territories, became a state in 1848, this provision was included in article IX, section 1, of the Wisconsin Constitution.
The legislature, as the state’s representative, must not only take action to prevent endangerment of the trust but it must also take affirmative steps to protect the trust. Many of the common law protections embodied by the public trust doctrine are now codified under chapter 30 of the Wisconsin Statutes.
The test used by courts to determine which waters are navigable and, thus, protected by the public trust doctrine has evolved over time. One of the earliest tests of navigability was the “saw log” test. Under that test, if a stream was capable of floating a “saw log” to market, the body of water was navigable. This test reflected Wisconsin’s interest in protecting commercial navigation.
With the passage of time, other uses of this state’s waters came to define navigability. As the public’s interest in the recreational uses of the state’s waters grew, the courts recognized those uses as integral to the determination of navigability. A waterway is now considered navigable if it is capable of floating any boat for recreational purposes. Furthermore, the waterway need not be continually navigable. It need be navigable only on a regularly recurring basis, such as during spring runoff periods. The trust also applies to artificial navigable waters that are “directly and inseparably connected with natural, navigable waters.” Klingeisen v. DNR, 163 Wis. 2d 921, 929 (Ct. App. 1991).
The state has traditionally been the owner of lake beds up to the ordinary high-water mark. The ordinary high-water mark is the point on the bank or shore where the water, by its presence, wave action or flow, leaves a distinct mark on the bank or shore. Accordingly, the trust doctrine encompasses not only navigable waters, but also the beds underlying those waters with the exception of streambeds. As discussed below, riparian owners hold title to stream beds to the center of the stream.
As the test for navigability has evolved over time, so has the concept of what constitutes a public purpose. Initially, public rights were limited to navigation and fishing. In Diana Shooting Club v. Husting, 156 Wis. 261, 271 (1914), the Wisconsin Supreme Court expanded the concept of public rights in navigable waters by holding that navigable waters “should be free to all for commerce, for travel, for recreation, and also for hunting and fishing, which are now mainly certain forms of recreation.” Public rights now include not only recreation, but also natural beauty, the prevention of pollution, the protection of water quality, and the protection of shorelands and wetlands.
While the state holds navigable waters in trust for all its citizens, the legislature may authorize limited encroachments upon the beds of such waters where the public interest will be served. State v. Public Service Comm., 275 Wis. 112, 117 (1957). By statute, the legislature has created a system of permitting procedures that ensure that projects affecting navigable waters do not violate the public trust doctrine as it has developed under common law. The legislature has delegated the authority for administering this trust to the Department of Natural Resources.
Many of the cases involving the public trust doctrine address the tension between public rights in navigable waters and the rights of riparian owners. Riparian owners are persons who own land that abuts a waterway. Under Wisconsin law, the state owns the beds of all navigable waters with the exception of navigable streams. Riparian owners own the beds underlying navigable streams up to the center of the stream. Riparian rights include the use of the shoreline, the reasonable use of the water, and the right to build piers for navigation. When conflicts arise between riparian rights and the public rights of nonriparians, riparian rights are secondary to the public interest. See John Quick, Comment, The Public Trust Doctrine in Wisconsin, 1 Wisconsin Environmental. Law Journal 105, 116 (1994). In order to ensure that both public rights and riparian rights are protected, the legislature has delegated to the Department of Natural Resources the authority to issue permits for the placement of various structures in navigable waters.
Notwithstanding the fact that the public trust doctrine protects the public’s rights in navigable waters, it does not require public access to those waters. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in the case of Doemel v. Jantz, 180 Wis. 225, 234 (1923), held that a riparian owner has the “exclusive privileges of the shore for purposes of access to his land and water.” In order to ensure that the public has access to navigable waters, the state and many municipalities have acquired land that creates public access areas to these navigable waters.
The legislature has a limited ability to convey lake bed lands because those lands are part of the state’s trust property. The legislature may make grants of lake beds but only if the lake bed land is used for public purposes. Further, the grant does not operate to transfer the legal title from the state. See Melissa Scanlan, Comment, The Evolution of the Public Trust Doctrine and the Degradation of Trust Resources: Courts, Trustees and Political Power in Wisconsin, 27 Ecology Law Quarterly 135, 149 (2004).
The legislature may delegate the administration of the public trust in navigable waters to local governments, but only under certain circumstances. The legislature may not delegate administration of the trust for purely local concerns if such delegation does not promote the statewide public interest in trust resources. The legislature may delegate power over navigable waters only if it retains oversight over the delegee, the delegation advances the paramount interests of the public, and the delegation establishes clear limits and definite standards.
By statute, the legislature has extended its public trust responsibilities to include the protection of shorelands and wetland areas adjacent to navigable waters. In the case of Just v. Marinette County, 56 Wis. 2d 7 (1972), in which the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Marinette County’s shoreland zoning ordinance was constitutional, the court recognized that “lands adjacent or near navigable waters exist in a special relationship to the state.”
For all of the reasons discussed above, a legislative proposal affecting navigable waters must comport with the public trust doctrine. The first consideration that a legislator should make is whether a proposal will affect waters that are navigable. Generally, if a proposal would affect nonnavigable waters, the public trust doctrine is not likely to apply.
If a proposal does affect navigable waters, the legislator should consider the following issues:
Grants of trust property
The legislature may make grants of public trust property only if the property is used for public purposes. For example, the legislature may make a grant to a city to develop a lakeside park. Such a grant does not, however, transfer the legal title of the property from the state. Any grant of property for purely private purposes is void. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has developed a five-factor analysis to determine if a lake bed grant is consistent with the public trust doctrine. Under this analysis, the court considers all of the following: 1) whether public bodies will control the use of the area; 2) whether the area will be devoted to public purposes and open to the public; 3) whether the diminution of lake area will be very small when compared with the whole waterway; 4) whether any one of the public uses of the lake as a lake will be destroyed or greatly impaired; and 5) whether the impairment of the public’s right to use the lake for recreation is negligible when compared with the greater convenience afforded to the public from the grant of the lake bed property. A proposal to make a lake bed grant is more likely to be upheld by a court if it satisfies all of these requirements.
If a legislator proposes to delegate authority over navigable waters to a local unit of government, the proposal must include clear limits and definite standards for the delegee to follow. For example, a proposal giving local governments authority to regulate boating practices should specify at a minimum that the regulations must be designed to promote public safety. Such a delegation of authority is more likely to be upheld if the delegation contains additional limits and standards.
Scope of proposal
The legislature has allowed certain deposits or structures to be placed in navigable waters provided that they do not materially obstruct navigation and are not detrimental to the public interest. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that it will look at the cumulative effect of those deposits or structures to determine if they materially obstruct navigation or are detrimental to the public interest. That is, even if the placement of a relatively small amount of fill by a riparian owner into a waterway may not materially obstruct navigation, the court may consider the effect such placement would have on the waterway if undertaken by many riparian owners. Consequently, a proposal authorizing the placement of any deposit or structure in a waterway should be as narrowly drawn as possible to ensure that the cumulative effect of such placement does not violate the public trust doctrine.
Avoid private and local issues
The Wisconsin Constitution prohibits private and local laws that embrace more than one subject and requires that a bill’s title express the subject of any private or local provision in the bill. Because the biennial budget bill typically covers many subjects and has only a general title, it should not include a private or local provision. Consequently, a proposal that affects a particular body of water or that affects a particular person’s use or enjoyment of that body of water should not be included in the biennial budget bill. Rather, the proposal should be advanced as a separate piece of legislation to avoid a possible constitutional challenge. See, Peter Grant and Marc Shovers, Title of Private Bills, Constitutional Highlights From the Legislative Reference Bureau, Vol. 1 (2001).
Prepared by Robin Kite, Senior Legislative Attorney
|One East Main Street
Madison, WI 53701-2037 |
A child discovers some banana slugs and three adults come over to see . .
The Child's Point Of ViewLook what I found Mom! Aren't these cool? They're green and squishy. Look, here's some more! They're under this log! I can hold all these in my hand. Ooh, they're slimy. Do you want to touch one? They're soft. Look how they move. This one's crawling up my arm! Take a picture! Hey, their eyes go in different directions! Awesome. Are you sure you don't want to hold one? Well I don't think they're "gross." You won't even touch one? That's a fail, Mom.
The Mother's Point Of ViewOh look what you found. Those are Banana Slugs. Eww, you're picking them up. They're slimy. You'll have to wash your hands afterward. That's alright, I can see them from here. No thanks, I don't want to hold one. Yes, they're cool. Okay, I'll take a picture. No, I really don't want to touch one. Be sure to put them back exactly where you found them. No, you can't take one home.
The Biologist's Point Of ViewBanana Slugs, very interesting. Do you know why they have so much mucus coating their bodies? It's to keep them moist, otherwise they would dry out. The slime also provides traction, helping them move. Do you see the two pairs of tentacles here? What do you think those are used for? For seeing, that's right. These big ones on top are the "eyestalks." The slug uses them to sense light and movement. The lower pair here detects chemicals - they use them to smell. If you want to know more about Banana Slugs you can google them.
The Environmentalist's Point Of ViewOh don't pick them up! Well, try not to touch them too much. You don't want to dry out their skin. Did you know that Banana slugs eat dead plant material and recycle that into natural compost? They are an important part of the ecosystem. Be sure you put them back under the log where you found them and try to position the log exactly where it was. Really you shouldn't be playing around here at all; you could be disturbing the habitat of many hidden creatures. In fact everyone should get back on the path. Actually they shouldn't even have a path here. It would be better to close this area off and keep people out. Hmm, I better write up an environmental impact report. |
Some kids take to reading as if they were born to it but again many are very reluctant and unwilling to take up the challenge of making sense out of words and pictures. However, as is well established, in the real world, you just cannot get by without reading, comprehending, and communicating effectively so kids must develop a love for reading at an early age. Apart from the practical aspect, it is also very well known that reading for pleasure not only enables children to have a better hold over their language, spelling, and vocabulary but also in logical thinking and math. Some tips for parents to encourage children to read of their own volition:
Make Reading Stories a Part of the Daily Routine
To ensure that your child grows up to love reading, it is necessary to get him started early. You can start with reading one story per day and when he starts to look forward to it, you should gradually increase it to several stories. The more exposure the child has to literature, the more he will become at ease with and stop fighting it. With the daily stories introducing him to new information and awareness regarding phonemics, he is likely to become more enthusiastic about reading.
Develop Oral Language Skills
Depending on the age of the child and his language skill level, parents can either give the child a story to read by himself or simply tell him a story. After the story is finished, the parent should ask the child to point out the portions that interested him the most. This ritual encourages him to discuss the story, pick out words that he finds interesting, and he is more interested in proceeding to the next page to see a story conclude. A tinkle subscription may just be the thing that spurs your young one to read more.
Let There Be Abundant Reading Material around the Child
When a child is faced with a large choice, he is motivated to read more and, in the process, develop a superior intellect that is often revealed in better scores achieved in standardized tests. According to https://www.huffpost.com, interest in reading can be stimulated by simply having lots of reading material available all over the house.
Encourage the Child to Participate in Various Reading Activities
Instead of restricting reading to just books, parents should encourage them to read whatever they can lay their hands on so that it becomes more fun and interesting. Introduce them to a variety of reading activities like movie names on posters, roadside signs, weather reports, restaurant menus, game guides, etc. Do not restrict their reading to just paper, introduce them to reading apps and e-readers to make it more fun and also make it more comfortable for young readers who need larger fonts or more spacing between the lines.
Showing interest and enthusiasm in reading can be extremely infectious and will encourage your children to read more and have fun. The example that you set s a parent is extremely important as young children will always try to imitate you and will fall in love with reading themselves. |
The following year, Hughes enrolled in Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a HBCU. Hughes received a B.A. degree from Lincoln University in 1929 and a Litt.D. in 1943 from Lincoln. A second honorary doctorate would be awarded to him in 1963 by Howard University, another HBCU. Except for travels that included parts of the Caribbean and West Indies, Harlem was Hughes’s primary home for the remainder of his life.
Image: A ceremony is held at the Schomburg Center (beginning at midnight, January 31, the eve of Langston Hughes' birthday) to celebrate the return of Hughes' cremated remains to Harlem.
Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, First debuting in The Crisis in 1921, the prose that would become the signature poem of Hughes appeared in his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, published in 1926, The Negro Speaks of Rivers:
Hughes' life and work were enormously influential during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s alongside those of his contemporaries, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas who collectively, with the exception of McKay, created the short lived magazine Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists. Hughes and his contemporaries were often in conflict with the goals and aspirations of the black middle class and the three considered the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance, W.E.B. Du Bois, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Alain Locke, who they accused of being overly fulsome in accommodating and assimilating eurocentric values and culture for social equality. Of primary conflict were the depictions of the "low-life", that is, the real lives of blacks in the lower social-economic strata and the superficial divisions and prejudices based on skin color within the black community. Hughes wrote what would be considered the manifesto for himself and his contemporaries published in The Nation in 1926, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain:
The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express
our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.
If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not,
it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too.
The tom-tom cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people
are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure
doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow,
strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain
free within ourselves.
Hughes was unashamedly black at a time when blackness was demode, and, he didn’t go much beyond the themes of black is beautiful as he explored the black human condition in a variety of depths. His main concern was the uplift of his people who he judged himself the adequate appreciator of and whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience. Thus, his poetry and fiction centered generally on insightful views of the working class lives of blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. Permeating his work is pride in the African American identity and its diverse culture. "My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind," Hughes is quoted as saying. Therefore, in his work he confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded African America’s image of itself; a “people’s poet” who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black aesthetic into reality. An expression of this is the poem My People:
The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.
Moreover, Hughes stressed the importance of a racial consciousness and cultural nationalism absent of self-hate that united people of African descent and Africa across the globe and encouraged pride in their own diverse black folk culture and black aesthetic. Langston Hughes was one of the few black writers of any consequence to champion racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for black artists. His African-American race consciousness and cultural nationalism would influence many foreign black writers such as Jacques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Aimé Césaire. With Senghor and Césaire and other French speaking writers of Africa and of African descent from the Caribbean like René Maran from Martinique and Léon Damas from French Guiana in South America, the works of Hughes helped to inspire the concept that became the Négritude movement in France where a radical black self-examination was emphasized in the face of European colonialism. Langston Hughes was not only a role model for his calls for black racial pride instead of assimilation, but the most important technical influence in his emphasis on folk and jazz rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride.
In 1930, his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature. The protagonist of the story is a boy named Sandy whose family must deal with a variety of struggles imposed upon them due to their race and class in society in addition to relating to one another. Hughes first collection of short stories came in 1934 with The Ways of White Folks. These stories provided a series of vignettes revealing the humorous and tragic interactions between whites and blacks. Overall, these stories are marked by a general pessimism about race relations, as well as a sardonic realism. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1935. In 1938, Hughes would establish the Harlem Suitcase Theater followed by the New Negro Theater in 1939 in Los Angeles, and the Skyloft Players in Chicago in 1941. The same year Hughes established his threatre troupe in Los Angeles, his ambition to write for the movies materialized when he co-wrote the screenplay for Way Down South. Further hopes by Hughes to write for the lucrative movie trade were thwarted because of racial discrimination within the industry. Through the black publication Chicago Defender, Hughes in 1943 gave creative birth to Jesse B. Semple, often referred to and spelled Simple, the everyday black man in Harlem who offered musings on topical issues of the day. He was offered to teach at a number of colleges, but seldom did. In 1947, Hughes taught a semester at the predominantly black Atlanta University. Hughes, in 1949, spent three months at the integrated Laboratory School of the University of Chicago as a Visiting Lecturer on Poetry. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, poetry, operas, essays, works for children, and, with the encouragement of his best friend and writer, Arna Bontemps, and patron and friend, Carl Van Vechten, two autobiographies, The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander, as well as translating several works of literature into English. Much of his writing was inspired by the rhythms and language of the black church, and, the blues and jazz of that era, the music he believed to be the true expression of the black spirit; an example is Harlem (sometimes called Dream Deferred) from Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951), from which a line was taken for the title of the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Image: Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin
During the mid 1950s and 1960s, Hughes' popularity among the younger generation of black writers varied as his reputation increased worldwide. With the gradual advancement toward racial integration, many black writers considered his writings of black pride and its corresponding subject matter out of date. They considered him a racial chauvinist. He in turn found a number of writers like James Baldwin lacking in this same pride, over intellectualizing in their work, and occasionally vulgar. Hughes wanted young black writers to be objective about their race, but not scorn or to flee it. With the Black Power movement of the 1960s, though he was able to understand the main points of it, he believed that some of the younger black writers who supported it were too angry in their work. Hughes' posthumously published Panther and the Lash in 1967 was intended to show solidarity and understanding with these writers but with more skill and absent of the most virile anger and terse racial chauvinism some showed toward whites.
Image: Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou
Hughes still continued to have admirers among the larger younger generation of black writers who he often helped by offering advice to and introducing to other influential persons in the literature and publishing communities. This latter group, who happened to include Alice Walker who Hughes discovered, looked upon Hughes as a hero and an example to be emulated in degrees and tones within their own work. One of these young black writers observed of Hughes, "Langston set a tone, a standard of brotherhood and friendship and cooperation, for all of us to follow. You never got from him, 'I am the Negro writer,' but only 'I am a Negro writer.' He never stopped thinking about the rest of us."
In 1960, the NAACP awarded Hughes the Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievements by an African American. Hughes was inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1961. In 1973, the first Langston Hughes Medal was awarded by the City College of New York.
Hughes, like many black writers and artists of his time, was drawn to the promise of Communism as an alternative to a segregated America. Many of his lesser-known political writings have been collected in two volumes published by the University of Missouri Press and reflect his attraction to Communism. An example is the poem A New Song:
I speak in the name of the black millions
Awakening to action.
Let all others keep silent a moment
I have this word to bring,
This thing to say,
This song to sing:
Bitter was the day
When I bowed my back
Beneath the slaver's whip.
That day is past.
Bitter was the day
When I saw my children unschooled,
My young men without a voice in the world,
My women taken as the body-toys
Of a thieving people.
That day is past.
Bitter was the day, I say,
When the lyncher's rope
Hung about my neck,
And the fire scorched my feet,
And the oppressors had no pity,
And only in the sorrow songs
Relief was found.
That day is past.
I know full well now
Only my own hands,
Dark as the earth,
Can make my earth-dark body free.
O thieves, exploiters, killers,
No longer shall you say
With arrogant eyes and scornful lips:
"You are my servant,
I, the free!"
That day is past-
In many mouths-
Dark mouths where red tongues burn
And white teeth gleam-
New words are formed,
With the past
With the dream.
They sweep the earth-
And White World
Shall be one!
The Worker's World!
The past is done!
A new dream flames
Langston Hughes with friends on board Europa-Bremen+en route to Soviet Union.Seated front right is Dorothy West
In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of disparate blacks who went to the Soviet Union to make a film depicting the plight of most blacks living in the United States at the time. The film was never made, but Hughes was given the opportunity to travel extensively through the Soviet Union and to the Soviet controlled regions in Central Asia, the latter parts usually closed to Westerners. In Turkmenistan, Hughes met and befriended the Hungarian polymath Arthur Koestler. Hughes would also manage to travel to China and Japan before returning home to the States.
Hughes' poetry was frequently published in the CPUSA newspaper and he was involved in initiatives supported by Communist organizations, such as the drive to free the Scottsboro Boys. Partly as a show of support for the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, in 1937 Hughes travelled to Spain as a correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American and other various African American newspapers. Hughes was also involved in other Communist-led organizations like the John Reed Clubs and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, even though he was more of a sympathizer than an active participant. He signed a statement in 1938 supporting Joseph Stalin's purges and joined the American Peace Mobilization in 1940 working to keep the U.S. from participating in World War II. Hughes initially did not favor black American involvement in the war because of the irony of U.S. Jim Crow laws existing at the same time a war was being fought against Fascism and the Axis Powers. He came to support the war effort and black American involvement in it after coming to understand that blacks would also be contributing to their struggle for civil rights at home.
Langston Hughes, before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953Hughes was accused of being a Communist by many on the political right, but he always denied it. When asked why he never joined the Communist Party, he wrote "it was based on strict discipline and the acceptance of directives that I, as a writer, did not wish to accept." He was called before the Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations in 1953. Following his appearance, he distanced himself from Communism and was subsequently rebuked by some who had previously supported him on the Radical Left. Over time, Hughes would distance himself from his most radical poems. In 1959 came the publication of his Selected Poems. Absent from this group of poems was his most controversial work.
Image: Screenshot from film Looking for Langston with Matthew Biadoo as "Beauty"(left)and Ben Ellison as Langston Hughes (right)
In visual media, Hughes has been the subject of two theatrical plays by African American playwrights whose subject matter concerned in part or whole the fact that he was gay, Hannibal of the Alps by Michael Dinwiddie and Paper Armor by Eisa Davis. In the 1989 film, Looking for Langston by British filmmaker Isaac Julien, Hughes is reclaimed as a black gay icon from where there is a consistent attempt to ignore or at least downplay his homosexuality because he is such a towering figure in African American literature; his icon status among the African American community is contingent on his heterosexuality. It has been noted that to retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closeted. Academics and biographers today acknowledge that Hughes was a homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry, and most patently in the short story Blessed Assurance which deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African American men in his work and life; he found white men of little sexual interest. In an essay never published, Hughes wrote: "Personally, I am not attracted to whiteness in males..." This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.
Also in visual media, the diminutive 5'4" Hughes was portrayed in the 2004 film Brother to Brother by 6'1" actor Daniel Sunjata. Prior to this film, in 2003, Hughes was portrayed as a teenager by actor Gary LeRoi Gray in the short film Salvation that was based on a portion of his autobiography the Big Sea.
Regarding documentary film, the New York Center for Visual History included Langston Hughes as part of its Voices & Visions series of notable writers. Hughes' Dream Harlem by producer and director Jamal Joseph and distributed through California Newsreel is another such film where Hughes' steadfast racial pride and artistic independence is discussed.
The Weary Blues. Knopf, 1926
Fine Clothes to the Jew. Knopf, 1927
The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations, 1931
Dear Lovely Death, 1931
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. Knopf, 1932
Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play. N.Y.: Golden Stair Press, 1932
Shakespeare in Harlem. 1942
Freedom's Plow. 1943
Fields of Wonder.1947
One-Way Ticket. 1949
Montage of a Dream Deferred. 1951
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. 1958
Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz.1961
The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times, 1967
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. 1994
Without Laughter. 1930
The Ways of White Folks.1934
Simple Speaks His Mind. 1950
Laughing to Keep from Crying,1952
Simple Takes a Wife. 1953
Sweet Flypaper of Life, photographs by Roy DeCarava. 1955
Simple Stakes a Claim. 1957
Tambourines to Glory (book), 1958
The Best of Simple. 1961
Simple's Uncle Sam. 1965
Something in Common and Other Stories. 1963
Short Stories of Langston Hughes.1996
The Big Sea. 1940
Famous American Negroes. 1954
Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer. 1954
I Wonder as I Wander.1956
A Pictorial History of the Negro in America, with Milton Meltzer. 1956
Famous Negro Heroes of America. 1958
Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP. 1962
Mulatto. 1935 (renamed The Barrier, an opera, in 1950)
Troubled Island, with William Grant Still. 1936
Little Ham. 1936
Emperor of Haiti. 1936
Don't You Want to be Free? 1938
Street Scene, contributed lyrics. 1947
Tambourines to Glory. 1956
Simply Heavenly. 1957
Black Nativity. 1961
Five Plays by Langston Hughes.1963
Jericho-Jim Crow. 1964
Works for Children
Popo and Fifina, with Arna Bontemps. 1932
The First Book of the Negroes. 1952
The First Book of Jazz. 1954
The First Book of Rhythms. 1954
The First Book of the West Indies. 1956
First Book of Africa. 1964
The Glory of Negro History
The Dream Keeper
Story of Jazz
Rhythms of the World
Simple Speaks His Mind
The Best of Simple
The Weary Blues
Did You Ever Hear the Blues
Folkways Album FC7752
Folkways Album FP104
In the New York Post
In Chicago Daily Defender
National Institute of Arts & Letters
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity at Lincoln University, Pa.
Fellowships & Awards
First Opportunity Poetry Prize, 1925
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1925
Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Award, 1926
Harmon Gold Medal for Literature, 1931
Rosenwald Fellowship, 1941
American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant, 1947
Anisfeld-Wolf Award, 1953
Spingarn Medal, 1960
Image to the right is Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston, grandmother of Langston Hughes
1^ Hughes recalled his maternal grandmother’s stories: "Through my grandmother’s stories life always moved, moved heroically toward an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother’s stories. They worked, schemed, or fought. But no crying." Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. p.620
2^ The poem Aunt Sues’s Stories (1921) is an oblique tribute to his grandmother and his loving Auntie Mary Reed. Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p.43
3^ Imbued by his grandmother with a duty to help his race, he identified with neglected and downtrodden blacks all his life, and glorified them in his work. Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). The Darker Brother. The New York Times
4^ Langston Hughes Reads his poetry with commentary, audiotape from Caedmon Audio
5^ Langston Hughes, Writer, 65, Dead. (May 23, 1967). The New York Times
Image to the right: James Hughes, father of Langston Hughes
6^ Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940), pp.54-56
7^ James Hughes, a wealthy lawyer and landowner and himself a black man, hated both the racism of the North and Negroes, whom he portrayed in crude racial caricature. Smith, Dinitia (Nov. 26, 1997). Child’s Tale About Race Has a Tale of Its Own. The New York Times
8^ And the father, Hughes said, "hated Negroes. I think he hated himself, too, for being a Negro. He disliked all of his family because they were Negroes." James Hughes was tightfisted, uncharitable, cold. Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). The Darker Brother. The New York Times.
Image is Ferdinand Smith
9^ Poem or To. F.S. first appeared in The Crisis in May 1925, and was reprinted in The Weary Blues and The Dream Keeper:
I love my friend.
He went away from me.
There's nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began,-
I loved my friend.
Hughes never publicly identified F.S., but it is conjectured he was Ferdinand Smith, a merchant seaman whom the poet first met in New York in the early 1920s. Nine years older than Hughes, Smith first influenced the poet to go to sea. Born in Jamiaca in 1893, Smith spent most of his life as a ship steward and political activist at sea--and later in New York as a resident of Harlem. Smith was deported back to Jamaica for alleged Communists activities and illegal alien status in 1951. Hughes corresponded with Smith up until 1961 when Smith died. Berry, p.347
10^ In 1926, a patron of Hughes, Amy Spingarn, wife of Joel Elias Spingarn, provided the funds ($300) for him to attend Lincoln University. Rampersad.vol.1, 1986,p.122-23
11^ In November of 1927, Charlotte Osgood Mason, “Godmother” as she liked to be called, became Hughes' major patron. Rampersad. vol.1,1986,p.156
12^ Whitaker, Charles.Ebony magazine In Langston Hughes:100th birthday celebration of the poet of black America. April 2002.
13^ The Negro Speaks of Rivers: First published in Crisis (June 1921), p.17. Included in The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes Reader, and Selected Poems. In The Weary Blues, the poem is dedicated to W.E.B. Du Bois. The dedication does not appear in later printings of the poem. Hughes first and last published poems appeared in The Crisis; more of his poems appeared in The Crisis than in any other journal. Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. p.23 & p.620, Knopf
14^ Hughes "disdained the rigid class and color differences the 'best people' drew between themselves and Afro-Americans of darker complextion, of smaller means and lesser formal education. Berry, 1983 & 1992, p.60
15^ "....but his tastes and selectivity were not always accurate, and pressures to survive as a black writer in a white society (and it was a miracle that he did for so long) extracted an enormous creative toll. Nevertheless, Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations." Patterson, Lindsay (June 29, 1969). Langston Hughes--The Most Abused Poet in America? The New York Times
16^ Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). The Darker Brother. The New York Times
17^ Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. p.3
19^ West. 2003, p.162
20^ My People: First published as Poem in Crisis (Oct.1923), p. 162, and The Weary Blues (1926). The title My People was used in The Dream Keeper (1932) and the Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (1959). Rampersad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. p.36 & p.623, Knopt.
21^ Rampersad.vol.2, 1988, p.297
22^ Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 91
23^ Mercer Cook, African American scholar of French culture: "His (Langston Hughes) work had a lot to do with the famous concept of Négritude, of black soul and feeling, that they were beginning to develop." Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 343
24^ Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 343
25^ Charlotte Mason generously supported him (Hughes) for two years. She supervised the writing of his first novel, Not Without Laughter (1930). Her patronage of Hughes ended about the time the novel appeared. Rampersad. Langston Hughes. In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, 2001, p.207
26^ Noel Sullivan, after working out an agreement with Hughes, became a patron for him in 1933. Rampersad. vol.1, 1986, p.277
27^ Sullivan provided Hughes with the opportunity to complete the The Ways of White Folks (1934) in Carmel, California. Hughes stayed a year in a cottage Sullivan provided for him to work in. Rampersad. Langston Hughes. In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, 2001, p.207
28^ Rampersad. “Langston Hughes.” In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature.2001.p.207
29^ Co-written with Clarence Muse, African American Hollywood actor and musician. Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 366-69
Image: Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks
30^ Gwendolyn Brooks, who met Hughes when she was 16 says, "I met Langston Hughes when I was 16 years old, and saw enough of him in subsequent years to observe that, when subjected to offense and icy treatment because of his race, he was capable of jagged anger - and vengeance, instant or retroactive. And I have letters from him that reveal he could respond with real rage when he felt he was treated cruelly by other people. Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). The Darker Brother. The New York Times
31^ Harlem(2): Reprinted in Selected Poems of Langston Hughs under the title Dream Deferred. Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. p.426 & p.676, Knopf
33^ Langstons’s misgivings about the new black writing mainly concerned its emphasis on black criminality and on profanity. Rampersad, vol.2,p.207
34^ Hughes said, "There are millions of blacks who never murder anyone, or rape or get raped or want to rape, who never lust after white bodies, or cringe before white stupidity, or Uncle Tom, or go crazy with race, or off-balance with frustration." Rampersad, p.119, vol.2
35^ Langston eargerly looked to the day when the gifted young writers of his race would go beyond the clamor of civil rights and integration and take a genuine pride in being black....he found this latter quality starkly absent in even the best of them....Rampersad, vol. 2, p.310
36^ Rampersad.vol.2, 1988, p. 297
37^ "As for whites in general, Hughes did not like them...He felt he had been exploited and humiliated by them." Rampersad, 1988,vol.2,p.338
38^ Hughes' advice on how to deal with racists was "'Always be polite to them...be over-polite. Kill them with kindness.' But, he insisted on recognizing that all whites are not racist, and definitely enjoyed the company of those who sought him out in friendship and with respect." Rampersad, 1988,vol.2,p.368
39^ Langston Hughes’ critics have said that he was racist against whites. I would agree with that statement but would also say that Hughes had seen enough poor judgement in whites across the globe to feel that way. It is interesting that on the inside cover of The Ways of White Folks, Hughes says To Noel Sullivan, The ways of white folks; I mean some white folks… (The Ways of White Folks…inside cover). This clearly shows that Hughes saw the good in some whites and was not entirely militant in his thought. Seat, Rob(2000). An Analization of Langston Hughes.Retrieved September 7, 2006
The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes, 1934. Photograph courtesy of Yale University Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
41^ A New Song: The end of the poem was substantially changed when it was included in A New Song (New York: International Workers Order, 1938). The first version, in Opportunity (Jan. 1933), p. 123, and Crisis (March 1933), p.59. reads after line 39:
New words are formed,Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. p.170 & p.643, Knopf
With the past
with the dream.
Without a sound.
They fall unuttered--
Yet heard everywhere:
Against the wall,
Open your eyes--
The long white snake of greed has struck to kill!
Be wary and
The darker world
The future lies.
42^ Irma Cayton, African American, said "He had told me that it wasn't our war, it wasn't our business, there was too much Jim Crow. But he had changed his mind about all that." Rampersad,1988,vol.2,p.85
43^ Highleyman, Liz. (February 27, 2004)Past Out: Langston Hughes' legacy Retrieved October 15, 2006
44^ Aldrich, (2001), p.200
45^ Nero, Charles I. (1997).Queer Reprensentations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures. In Martin Duberman (Ed.), Re/Membering Langston, p.192. New York University Press
46^ Yale Symposium, Was Langston Gay? commemorating the 100th birthday of Hughes in 2002
47^ Although Hughes was extremely closeted, some of his poems hint at his homosexuality. These include: Joy, Desire, Cafe: 3 A.M., Waterfront Streets, Young Sailor, Trumpet Player, Tell Me, F.S. and some poems in Montage of a Dream Deferred. Langston Hughes page Retrieved January 10, 2007
48^ ...Cafe 3 A.M. was against gay bashing by police, and Poem for F.S. which was about his friend Ferdinand Smith. Nero, Charles I. (1999), p.500
49^ Nero, Charles. Gay Literature. In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, 2001, p.161
Image: Jean Blackwell Hutson and Langston Hughes pictured at the Schomburg Collection with Pietro Calvi's bust of Ira Aldridge as Othello, 1948. Photograph courtesy of Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
50^ Jean Blackwell Hutson, former chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, said, “He was always eluding marriage. He said marriage and career didn’t work.....It wasn’t until his later years that I became convinced he was homosexual.” Hutson & Nelson. Essence magazine, February 1992. p.96
51^ "Though there were infrequent and half-hearted affairs with women, most people considered Hughes asexual, insistent on a skittish, carefree 'innocence.' In fact, he was a closeted homosexual...."McClatchy,J.D. (2002).Langston Hughes: Voice of the Poet. New York: Random House Audio, p.12
52^ "Referring to men of African descent, Rampersad writes "...Hughes found some young men, especially dark-skinned men, appealing and sexully fascinating. (Both in his various artistic representations, in fiction especially, and in his life, he appears to have found young white men of little sexual appeal.) Virile young men of very dark complexion fascinated him. Rampersad, vol.2,1988,p.336 |
Boomerboard activities can be incorporated with academics to teach and review lessons, increase classroom engagement, or use throughout the day to transition, brain boosters, or make learning fun with academic games!Activities are endless! Strategies are teacher friendly, time efficient, and make learning fun! A fun tool designed to introduce purposeful movement into the classroom,Students experience both the physical and neurological benefits of jumping, along with 50+ additional exercises to aid in balance, rhythm, core strength, spatial awareness, endurance, and can be used to work on all 12 foundations of learning readiness. The silent, non-distracting motion allows for a reprieve from the traditional classroom setting. Research shows that purposeful movement prepares the brain to learn, and creates an optimal environment for students.
Weight: 6lbs Dimensions: 22.2 x 18 x 6 Target Age Group: 1st Grade -12th Grade
There are muscles in our eyes that focus near and far, and muscles that allow us to track left to right, and up & down. Eye tracking exercises strengthen the muscles in our eyes to increase the length of time that the eyes can focus on reading.
Integrating Movement with Academics in the ABL Lab
To start, students will work only on balance by moving the marble through the figure 8 and waves on the board. As basic movements are mastered, progressions can be added to introduce academic content. Student's can work on teacher provided content with a partner, using flash cards, or from the smart board.
Rotational movement of the trunk, Lateral push and pull off legs while balancing, Slight knee bends and engaged core.
12 Foundations of Learning Readiness Benefits:
Balance, Eye Tracking / Visual Reaction, Peripheral Awareness / Body in Space
The Cross Lateralization Station focuses on Crossing the Midline and allows for a variety of progressions students can do as they strengthen this critical foundation to learning!
Package includes a set of 4 over/underbars, and commercial padded Roll and Crawl Mat. Progressions begin with the mat only. Students navigate through the activities provided in the Action Based Learning Lab Manual.
2 Bars are 50in x12in (9lbs/ea) & 2 Bars 50" x 16"(10lbs/ea)
Pattern Jumping Mat
The Patterned Jumping Mat is a smaller, portable version of the patterned walking mat. The patented design helps students make connections in the brain considered critical to learning! Each jumping pattern is a series of progressions that prepares the brain by working on critical foundation skills. Students are actively engaging in proprioception, low level balance challenges and helping their brain and body synchronize to understand where they are in space. An instructional manual is included.
The Patterned Jumping Mat is made of G-floor material.
Indoor and Outdoor? YES
Dimension: 60in x 17in
USE AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR SET-UP
This is a unique material designed for heavy duty, high frequency use.
The material is designed to keep the shape it was stored in, and will become flexible with heat. Upon unboxing, unroll the mat and lie flat (preferably outside) in the sun or a warm environment. As the mat heats, the material will become flexibile and bend easily in to the preferred state, flat. Remember, whatever shape the mat cools off in, is the shape it will keep! Ensure your mat is lying completely flat as it is cooling off, in order to keep the crisp flat shape.
ABL Handheld Eye Tracker
The ABL Eye Tracker is a commercial grade teaching tool for students to help them learn and practice letter and number identification, sequencing and visual tracking skills in a fun, hands-on way!
The ABC PATHWAYS TM pattern is designed to allow the student to use the marble to trace each letter of the alphabet, while simultaneously improving visual tracing skills. Visual Tracing is a critical foundation related to a child's ability to read and write words from left to right on the page.
ABL Fit Cart
3 Balance boards
3 Resistance Bands
3 Jump Ropes (assorted colors)
3 Juggle Stations (9 scarves total)
3 Cones with drill cards
3 Fitness Yoga Balance balls
6 Balance Domes
3 Active/Motivational/Fitness Posters
8 Kinesthetic learning posters
1 Portable cart
Cardio Kids Stepper
CARDIO KIDS STEPPER
Built tough for heavy usage in commercial settings (ideal for schools, youth centers, YMCA's, children's hospitals, children's museums, and pediatric facilities.) Ships pre-assembled, direct from manufacturer, & includes mfg direct extended warranty. Made in the USA brand, proud to manufacture the #1 most durable youth fitness equipment on the market. Designed with easy adjustability for tension and speed control- the shock can be mounted in one of two positions based on the user size and physical capability. Kid-friendly computer reads time, calories, speed & step count. Grips are designed with the child in mind, to withstand the expected wear and tear of everyday use. The grips and footplates are sized appropriately to accommodate varying sizes of the target user based on equipment size chosen. Adjustable shock settings for various physical capabilities. Resistance settings are designed to provide appropriate physical exertion levels for each target age group. All ABL Youth Fitness equipment is manufactured with a standard 250 lb weight limit, regardless of size/model purchased.
CARDIO KIDS STEPPER IS AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES
Super Small Stepper [Grades K-2nd]: Not Available, see FAQ below
670 Elementary Stepper [Grades 3rd-5th]: (42" x 30 x 54") Product Weight: 59 lbs
671 Junior Stepper [Grades 6-8] : (42" x 30 x 55") Product Weight: 64 lbs
772 Varsity [High School/Adult]: (42" x 30 x 56") Product Weight: 68 lbs
Can early elementary age use the stepper? The stepper is not designed for use by early elementary age students and is not available in the super small version. The motion is appropriate for the physical capacity of a child beginning at age 9 for use on the Elementary version. Early Elementary children often do not have the weight to properly perform the stepper movement.
Can't decide on which model to order? *Please note, we highly recommend sticking with the suggested age groups above, when choosing the appropriate equipment size. ABL manufacturing & design team has worked extensively with youth fitness experts (and with children!) to account for varying student sizes in determining equipment sizing and suggested age groups. For questions, recommendations, or an introduction to best practices, set up a call with one of our youth fitness experts. Contact us
Request a training for your staff online, or in person at your facility. ABL Youth Fitness Experts set your staff up to become leading experts in the youth fitness industry, in a train-the-trainer hands-on approach to learning!
This total body exercise machine works with both upper and lower body at the same time, or individually. The onboard computer provides different programs according to the needs of the user and instructor. Bike is fully adjustable and the built in wheel system makes this unit extremely portable. User can exercise using only the cycle section, use only the upper body, or may choose to use both at the same time.
FEATURES & BENEFITS
Improved Cardiovascular health and muscle endurance
Lower Body Strength Development & muscle fiber growth
Designed with adjustability for tension and speed control
User Weight limit: 200lbs
Contact Heart Rate Sensors
Battery Powered Computer - No external Power Required
This heavy duty rowing machine for youth, duplicates the exciting feel of Olympic rowing! The smooth, rhythmic, impact free motion, makes it easy and fun for children to work all the major muscle groups through a wide range of motion - Excellent for increasing and maintaining flexibility! Specially designed onboard computer prompts kids to acknowledge their calories, heart rate, speed, time and distance.
CARDIO KIDS ROWER SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions: L=82" W=24" HT=42"
Product weight: 95lbs
User Weight limit: 250lbs
Includes Kid's Fitness Test!
Patented support system promotes good rowing form by locking the rower down if child overarches the back, exhibiting bad posture (see rower Rower_Comparison for details)
The Fully Recumbent Bike is designed with small children in mind, with the super small size specifically designed for children beginning at ages 4-7 years old! The Fully Recumbent bike is often used in pediatric therapy settings, schools, physical therapy, and fitness training facilities. Bike includes adjustable tension and seat, various computer plans, portable wheel, standard contact heart rate sensors, and audible heart rate, speed, time, distance, and calories burned read off. The Fully Recumbent Bike promotes a healthy lifestyle at a young age.
FULLY RECUMBENT BIKE SPECIFICATIONS:
Includes adjustable seat for varying heights
Designed especially for small children
Useful for therapy, fitness, or at schools
Promotes a healthy and active lifestyle from a young age
Features heart rate sensors with heart rate control capabilities
Wheels for Portability
Kid Friendly Computer Programs
Onboard computer reads heart rate, speed, time distance & calories
User Weight Limit: 250 lbs
Requires standard outlet (plugs into base @ front & center of unit)
Optional Add On: Flip Chart Holder for Layering Academics in ABL Lab
Optional Add On: Pedal Straps (not required for use)
Optional Add On: Seat Belt (not required for use)
Optional Add On: Ear Clip Heart Rate Sensors (not required for use)
Includes Standard Contact Heart Rate Sensors
AVAILABLE IN 4 SIZES:
Super Small [40 x 25 x 41] [Product Weight: 110 lbs]
Elementary [65 x 20 x 45] [Product Weight: 125 lbs]
Junior [ 65 x 20 x 48] [Product Weight: 130 lbs]
Varsity [ 65 x 20 x 50] [Product Weight: 135 lbs]
*Sizing differences are based on distance from seat to bike handles.
Determining Pedal Distance on SS101 Super Small Bike
Flexibility range is 17.5" - 29.5" , based on the the seat adjusted between the shortest and longest setting.To determine pedal distance, measure the distance from the center of the pedal axle (where the ball of your foot rests) to the top of the saddle (the front of your seat).
SEMI RECUMBENT YOUTH FITNESS BIKE
The Semi-Recumbent Youth Fitness Bike is one of the most popular units among therapists and youth facilities of all types! This unit has been used in both medical and rehabilitation markets, as well as children's fitness facilities. Includes built-in heart rate system - pulse measurements are taken via handle bar sensors. Electronic computer readouts provide motivational feedback to children - allowing them to monitor their own individual physical improvement. Readout includes Speed, Time, Distance, Calories and Heart rate. Youth Fitness Benefits: Cardiovascular Endurance, Lower Body Strength Development
Features Designed Specifically for Children include:
-Onboard computer provides a children’s fitness test (measures the rate of recovery of the users heart rate after exercising.) When used over a period of time, this test teaches children the benefit of exercise and improved cardiovascular efficiency!
-Low starting resistance level allows even the most de-conditioned child to be successful at this exercise.
-Easy turn and twist seat height adjustment, specifically designed for youth. The unique semi – recumbent design provides proper back support, supporting proper posture for the child.
-Electronic Computer monitor is positioned below the child’s sightline, eliminating the (dangerous) need for children to stand up and cycle in order to see the computer.
-Two sets of handlebars allow child to remain in a comfortable pedaling position at all times. The side handlebars can be used to support their bodyweight while pedaling- Front handlebars offer stability while a child is viewing the computer display.
-Adjustable Resistance via a simple “turn and click” design.Free Wheeling crank system - All resistance is created via a magnetic braking mechanism- thus greatly reducing the number of moving parts and potential safety hazards.
- User Weight Limit: 250 lbs
SUPER SMALL [1st-2nd Grade] MODEL SS155 This is the smallest commercial quality exercise bike specifically engineered to provide comfortable exercise for very young children!
ELEMENTARY [3rd-5th Grade] MODEL 655 [42 X 24 X 54] [Product Weight: 130 lbs]
JUNIOR [Middle School] MODEL 656 [42 x 24 x 55] [Product Weight: 135 lbs]
VARSITY [High School] MODEL 757 [ 42 x 24 x 58] [Product Weight: 138 lbs]
*Classroom Sets include equal qty of yellow + green bands
*Bands may be used individually, or tied together for a variety of classroom activities included in Brain Band Activity Sheet!
Youth Fitness Cross County Skier
YOUTH FITNESS CROSS COUNTRY SKIER
The cross country skier mimics the adventure of the outdoors in a true skiing movement! The cross country skier is an independent ski machine that requires user to exert forward pressure with one leg and simultaneously exert backward pressure with the other in order to move their skis!
CROSS COUNTRY SKIER SPECIFICATIONS
Smooth, Quiet movement
Kid Friendly Computer provides time, count, total distance & calories
User Weight Limit 250 lbs
Optional Add On: Flipchart Holder for use in ABL Lab
Available in (K-2) Super Small, (3-5th) Elementary size, [6-8th] Jr Size
Includes Pre Assembly
Kid Friendly Comfort Grips
BRAIN BODY BENEFITS: When information moves from left to right and front to back in the brain, it crosses midlines which integrates the brain hemispheres and aids the brain in organizing information. Movements completed on the Cross Country Skier, that cross the midline, enlist more parts of the brain for well-developed attention systems. Using both sides of the body together is critical to development and assists children in activities such as putting on shoes, writing and cutting. In sum, the deluxe skier promotes the coordination and communication of the left and right hemispheres of the brain!
AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES:
SS620 SUPER SMALL K-2ND GRADE [ 50 x 25 x 56] Product Weight: 113lbs
620 ELEMENTARY 3RD-5TH GRADE [ 50 x 25 x 58] Product Weight: 117 lbs
625 JUNIOR 6-8TH GRADE [ 50 x 25 x 60] Product Weight: 120 lbs
Sizing Difference is based on handlebar height & stride length
Cardio Kids Swin N Spin
CARDIO KIDS SWIM AND SPIN
The Swim & Spin focuses on trunk rotation and upper body strengthening. By engaging the muscles of the core, children are able to rotate the entire body on a pivoting platform while simultaneously pedaling the hand grips forward or backwards using the upper body.
This is an excellent piece of equipment for “de-conditioned” exercisers - Allows children new to physical activity to be successful, and to have fun while moving!
Unique movement exercises the external oblique and entire range of central core muscles including transversus abdominis back and pelvis, while providing a complete cardiovascular workout.
Contoured kneeling pads ensure the child will always be properly positioned on the unit. Child size crank arms provide proper fit for children to push and pull utilizing the entire upper body.
SWIM AND SPIN SPECIFICATIONS
Contoured Kneeling Pads for Proper Knee Placement
Upholstered Cushioned Spinning Pad
Kid Friendly Computer
Portable Wheel System for Easy Mobility
Product dims: L=36" W=24" HT=40
Product weight 90lbs
Weight limit: 200lbs
Optional Add On: Flip Chart Holder for Layering Academics in ABL Lab
Floor Levelers accommodate all surfaces - carpet & hard tile
AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES
SUPER SMALL [36 x 24 x 38] [Product Weight 88 lbs]
ELEMENTARY [ 36 x 24 x 40] [Product Weight 90 lbs]
JUNIOR [ 36 x 24 x 42] [Product Weight: 92 lbs]
Sizing Difference Based on distance from pad to crank system & grip handle size
Lead children towards an active lifestyle by duplicating real world sports movements! The Deluxe Skier takes indoor downhill skiing to a new level - with varied lateral motions, the whole body is engaged in a rigorous and fun workout. This skier takes children on an adventure to imagine themselves in the Olympic downhill ski race, all while elevating their heart rate and improving balance! The unique movement engages the quadriceps, triceps, deltoids, trapezius, external obliques, and entire range of central core muscles including the transverse abdominis, back, and pelvis.
"An excellent age appropriate unit that provides a complete cardiovascular workout!"
The child engages in lateral movements that distribute their body weight, while in motion. By engaging the upper body and the core muscles, children are able to increase trunk control, while simultaneously improving balance and coordination. Unit allows for progressions in the ABL Lab, as experienced users to eventually ski without use of the safety handrails. Portable wheel system makes it easy to maneuver. Arrives fully assembled and includes built in computer.
DELUXE SKIER SPECIFICATIONS
User Weight limit: 250 lbs
Adjustable floor levelers compensate for uneven floors.
No external power required.
Kid friendly computer reads calories, speed, time, and distance.
Adjustable Tension to accommodate all physical levels
Designed as a cardiovascular and core balance station
Sized specifically for youth fitness and available in 4 sizes
Portable wheel system allows for easy maneuvering
SKIER AVAILABLE IN 4 SIZES
SS170 Super Small Skier K-2nd Grade [28 x 30 x 52] [Product Weight: 130 lbs]
676 Elementary Skier3rd-5th Grade [ 48 x 40 x 60 ] [Product Weight: 160 lbs]
Recommended Height 42 in - 63 in
677 Junior Skier:Middle School [48 x 40 x 62] [Product Weight 162 lbs]
779 Varsity Skier:9th - 12th / HS - Adult [48 x 40 x 65] [Product Weight 165 lbs]
Youth Fitness Product Lines PDF
Maintenance Checklist PDF
Cardio Kids Starwalker
CARDIO KIDS STARWALKER
This extremely popular movement takes the moonwalker lower body exercise motion one step further, by providing an upper body ergo meter. This unit increases heart rate, and provides an on board computer which reads out speed, time, distance, and calories through an ear clip. The Starwalker incorporates both the muscles of the upper and lower body to create a unique, and fun movement! While teaching balance and coordination, the movement helps to elevate a child’s heart rate as part of a cardiovascular circuit. Tension is adjustable and instructor controlled.
Product weight: 160lbs
Dimensions: L=36” W=42” HT=60”
User Weight limit: 200lbs
Safety Rubber Foot Caps
Upper Body Ergometer: Adjustable Tension
Lower Body Movement is user powered for various skill levels
Comfort Kid Friendly Rubber Grips
Ergonomic Design - Sized Specifically for Target Age Group
Flipchart optional add-on for layering Academic Content in ABL Labs
AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES
SS180 Super Small Starwalker:
K-2nd Grade [28 x 30 x 52 in] [Product Weight: 115 lbs] PDF
685 Elementary Starwalker:
3rd-5th Grade [ 36 x 42 x 60] [Product Weight 160 lbs] PDF
686 Junior Starwalker:
Middle School [36 x 42 x 62] [Product Weight 165 lbs]
Cardio Kids Snowboarder
CARDIO KIDS SNOWBOARDER
The Cardio Kids Snowboarder brings the fun of snowboarding to the great indoors! With lateral movements and swivel snowboard base, children can enjoy a cardio session and hardly notice! Resistance is created by the users body weight. Computer reads speed, time, distance, heart-rate and calories. This unique movement exercises the triceps, deltoids, trapezius, external obliques and the entire range of central core muscles including the transversus abdominis, back and pelivs, while providing a complete cardiovascular workout for youth.
Footplate Grips provide traction for advanced swivel motions
User Weight limit: 250 lbs
Pre assembly Included
Wheels for Portability
Kid Friendly Padded Grip Handles
2 Levels of Grip handles allow for varying skill levels / progressions
FOR USE IN ABL LAB:
Optional flip chart add on for layering academic content. 2 Levels of grip handles allow for varying skill levels. Progressions are endless using the snowboarder, and activities can be found in lab manual. View Sample Station Activity Guide
AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES
SS115 Super Small [ 40x 28 x 40] [ Product Weight: 105 lbs] PDF
615 Elementary [48 x 30 x 48] [Product Weight 150 lbs] PDF
616 Junior [48 x 30 x 50] [Product Weight: 155 lbs] PDF
Cardio Kids Youth Fitness Elliptical
CARDIO KIDS YOUTH ELLIPTICAL
This popular youth sized elliptical trainer works the entire body and has been carefully designed to supply additional balance for fast growing bodies and motivational, easy to use electronics that include calories, heart rate, speed, time and distance.
Engage in a range of slow to fast paced, rhythmic movements with this non impact conditioning! Perform a full body movement via smooth gliding motion of both upper and lower extremities. Option to isolate lower body and position hands on built in pulse sensors. Option to reverse stride, activating different muscle groups.
Exercise benefits the brain by changing the brain at a molecular level. Since the brain does not produce its own fuel, it relies on cardiovascular exercise to pump oxygenated blood to the brain to use as fuel. When blood travels to the body/brain at greater rates it feeds the brain the needed nutrients of oxygen and glucose. Glucose is brain fuel for the brain just as gasoline is fuel for a car!
This obstacle is used in the ABL Learning Lab to cross the midline. Crossing the midline coordinates both sides of the body and is an important developmental skill needed for many everyday tasks such as writing, and reading.
NEED PHOTO / VIDEO OF 2 BARRELS BEING USED
Incline Ladder (add-on for veggie boxes)
Veggie Box Set
807 Veggie Boxes Set (3 boxes & 3 bridges)
Each box is a different height, size, and is uniquely designed to accommodate several attachments and can easily be arranged in multiple configurations to create an endless array of obstacle courses. Boxes include graphics of oranges, lettuce, and strawberries
Box 1 (24x24x13)
Box 2 (24x24x19)
Box 3 (24x24x25)
Connector Bridges (66x13x4)
ABL Patterned Walking Mat
The Patterned Walking Mat patented design helps students make connections in the brain considered critical to learning. Each walking pattern is a series of progressions that prepares the brain for learning. Crossover and grapevine patterns focus on crossing the midline of the body. Students transition between 3 locomotor patterns including heel to toe, grapevine, and cross over - student is actively engaging in low level balance challenges and cross lateralization activities. An instructional manual is included.
The Patterned Walking Mat is made of G-floor material. Can be used indoors/outdoor.
High Five Jungle Wall Station
The High Five Jungle was designed to challenge the child to cross their physical midline. Simply stated, cross their left hand to the right side of their body (crossing the midline) and crossing their right hand to the left side of their body (again crossing the midline). The children should be standing facing the wall with the midline of their body lined up with the brown line on the chart. The activity is to place their hands starting at the bottom and working their way up the chart on top of the corresponding hand print.
Padded Scooter Board
Spinning or "scooting" on our scooter board helps children develop receptive and expressive language. This is where they learn to receive, interpret, and express language.
Padded scooters come with a lifetime warranty.
Heavy duty bearing wheels.
Animal Round-up Wall Station
Developing gross motor skills is an essential part of childhood. Animal Round-Up Motor activities get children moving and having fun, and support sensory regulation. Animal walks can be practiced anywhere, at any time, acting as an easy way for instructors to include proprioceptive and vestibular input within the child’s regular daytime activities.
Help give kids strength and endurance with our animal round-up poster! Performing different animal walks allow children to gain muscular strength and endurance while having fun. Each animal walk strengthens a different muscle group and allows for movements in different directions, different levels, and eventually different heights.
Includes Activity Guide
Crawl Through Tunnel
This Tunnel can be rearranged as a tunnel for children to crawl through or as a path for children to walk on; this flexibility offers limitless creative environments. Assorted patterns on the Boards also offer children different sensory input. Children’s tactile, balance system and hand-eye coordination can be enhanced during playtime! Open hole design allows light to pass through the tunnel and thus provides visibility for toddlers to crawl through. The crawl tunnels can be placed upside-down, this versatility offers multiple construction options. Assorted patterns on each side of the board offer children different sensory input and experiences in visual and tactile stimulation. The multi-angled design of the tunnel allows for limitless construction configurations. Adorable owl-shaped connector reinforces the tunnel structure and provides structural stability. |
Hidden Mold: The Importance of Mold Inspections for Schools and Public Buildings
Mold is a common problem within public buildings as much as homes and it is important to routinely check for mold especially in areas with high moisture or humidity. However, just because there is no visible mold that does not mean your building is clear. Mold growth can occur in a number of hidden places such as behind walls and ceilings, in closets and storage areas, and even behind wood trim or paneling along the walls. It is important to have your building inspected thoroughly for mold, especially in hard to see places, and contact a mold remediation expert to remove it as soon as it is discovered.
Looking for Hidden Mold
In one particular project, the technicians of ServiceMaster NCR discovered significant mold growth along a wall behind some wood paneling. At first glance, there does not appear to be any mold growth along this wall but as you can see in the second picture, there is heavy mold growth behind the wood paneling that would not have been discovered without a professional inspection.
Our technicians use InstaScope, which is a new mold assessment system that measures airborne mold levels, to help us determine if there is a hidden active mold source in a room without removing paneling or drywall. We start by recording a baseline level of airborne mold outside the building and then test the mold levels of each room and compare them to the baseline reading. If the airborne mold level in a room is higher than the natural level, we will recalibrate the equipment to find the mold source. It is important to have a thorough professional inspection done of your building because hidden mold growth can cause extensive damage if it is ignored as well as increase certain health risks.
Risks of Mold Growth
Mold is a fungus that only requires the right temperature and level of moisture to grow and it tends to form on surfaces that include drywall, plaster, ceiling tiles, and wood. If the mold is removed quickly enough, these surfaces can usually be salvaged but severe mold growth may require these surfaces to be replaced.
In addition to destruction of property, mold growth can also cause an array of health problems to those that are exposed. People who are prone to allergies or respiratory infections are more likely to exhibit symptoms associated with mold such as stuffy or runny nose, eye or skin irritation, coughing, and wheezing among others. Prolonged exposure can lead to more serious problems such as asthma or respiratory problems. If you run a public building or are responsible for the upkeep of a school where hundreds of people spend their days, it is important to make sure that the indoor air of your building has a mold level that is equal to or less than the natural airborne mold level found in outdoor air.
The best method of mold control is prevention and because mold is typically a symptom of water damage or excess moisture, the most effective way to prevent mold is to mitigate and restore water damage within 24 hours of its occurrence. ServiceMaster NCR provides water damage restoration services to help mitigate and restore water damage before it spreads or leads to mold growth. Taking quick action in response to water damage is the most effective way to prevent mold from forming in the first place.
ServiceMaster NCR provides mold remediation services for homes and businesses in the Alexandria, VA, Ft. Washington, MD, and Washington DC metro areas which includes InstaScope testing for accurate mold assessment. It is especially important to make sure that businesses and schools are completely free of mold including hidden mold for the safety of those that work in the building. The visual test for mold is not enough, contact ServiceMaster NCR for accurate testing and mold remediation for complete removal. |
Constructive responses to less than constructive criticism
When someone criticizes you unfairly, your first move should be to restate the criticism in your own words.
When a co-worker criticizes your work or methods, often your first instinct is often to lash out and get defensive. Doing so, however, can quickly turn a conversation into an argument—which can take a lot of time and energy and is not terribly productive, even if you are right.
So, when someone criticizes you unfairly, your first move should be to restate the criticism in your own words. This helps ensure that you understood the point, and gives you an opportunity to depersonalize the comment. If someone says, “You’re putting us behind schedule with your obsessive checking of the figures,” you might restate the comment: “So, you believe my double-checking the data is slowing us down.”
Now that you’ve put the problem in your own (less antagonistic) terms, you can choose how to respond:
1. Promise future consideration. Explain your side of the story (briefly) and commit to keeping your colleague’s point in mind in the future: “I believe it is more important to get the job done right than to get it done fast. However, in the future I will pay closer attention to deadlines.” This allows you to state your case and acknowledge the criticism, but does not saddle you with blame for the delay.
2. Present options. Sometimes, when you lay out the potential outcomes of two courses of action it can change a critic’s mind. “We can wait to recheck the figures, or submit them now knowing they may be wrong. Which would you prefer?” Once again, you acknowledge the criticism, but now the responsibility for what happens next rests on the critic.
3. Agree in principle. Sometimes, people try to hold you to an unrealistic ideal and you need to call them on it. “Yes, in a perfect world we could check 100 pages of figures and still make deadline, but we are not working under perfect circumstances.” This leaves no doubt that you heard what the critic said, but also makes it clear that you are set on pursuing your course.
Keep in mind that the tone you use in each of these circumstances is just as important as what you say. Be calm and reasonable, but be firm—the goal is to avoid an argument.
Finally, remember that sometimes you are wrong. In those instances, restate the criticism, acknowledge your shortcoming, and pledge to correct the situation.
Agreeing with a critic’s point, or just acknowledging your colleague’s right to a differing opinion, can be a powerful response.
Popularity: This record has been viewed 2654 times. |
|시간 제한||메모리 제한||제출||정답||맞은 사람||정답 비율|
|5 초||512 MB||5||5||3||100.000%|
You have just got the best gift ever, a Pogo stick. The pogo stick is something you use to jump off the ground while standing on it.
This Pogo stick is a special one: the first jump will move you a distance of 1 unit, the second jump will move you 2 units, the third jump will move you 3 units and so on. You can jump in only four directions using this stick: north (increasing y), south (decreasing y), east (increasing x) or west (decreasing x).
Now you want to play a game in your backyard, which we model as an infinite plane. You are standing with your stick in at point (0, 0) and you want to go to point (X, Y).
The point (X, Y) will never be (0, 0), and it will always be reachable from your starting point.
Check the output section carefully, because the required outputs for the small and large datasets are not the same.
The first line of the input gives the number of test cases, T. T test cases follow, one per line. Each line consists of 2 integers separated by a single space, X and Y, the coordinates of the point you want to reach.
For each test case, output one line containing "Case #x: y", where x is the case number (starting from 1) and y is a string represents the directions of the moves, for example if you are going to move north then south then east then west, this string should be NSEW.
For the small dataset, the output is considered correct if it does not take more than 500 moves to reach the destination in each test case.
For the large dataset, the output is considered correct if it reaches the destination point in the minimum possible number of moves.
If there are multiple correct solutions, print any of them.
2 3 4 -3 4
Case #1: ENWSEN Case #2: ENSWN
The output for the first sample test case will not be considered correct if it is in the large dataset, because the number of moves is not the minimum. WNSEN would be a correct output for this test case if it were in the large dataset. |
New York: Engaging in regular physical activity is good for your brain too, suggests new research that found a link between a lower fitness level and faster deterioration of vital nerve fibres in the brain.
This deterioration results in cognitive decline, including memory issues characteristic of dementia patients.
The findings provide more evidence that exercise improves brain health and could be a lifesaving ingredient that prevents Alzheimer’s disease.
“This research supports the hypothesis that improving people’s fitness may improve their brain health and slow down the ageing process,” said study author Kan Ding from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the US.
The study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease focused on a type of brain tissue called white matter, which is comprised of millions of bundles of nerve fibres used by neurons to communicate across the brain.
They enrolled more than 80 older patients at high risk to develop Alzheimer’s disease who have early signs of memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
The researchers determined that lower fitness levels were associated with weaker white matter, which in turn correlated with lower brain function.
Study participants were then given memory and other cognitive tests to measure brain function, allowing scientists to establish strong correlations between exercise, brain health and cognition. |
A selection from
THE FIGHT FOR CONSERVATION
Narrated by Norman Dietz
This file is 2.9 MB;
running time is 12 minutes
alternate download link
This audio program is copyrighted by Redwood Audiobooks.
Permission is granted to download for personal use only;
not for distribution or commercial use.
The Moral Issue
The central thing for which Conservation stands is to make this country the best possible place to live in, both for us and for our descendants. It stands against the waste of the natural resources which cannot be renewed, such as coal and iron; it stands for the perpetuation of the resources which can be renewed, such as the food-producing soils and the forests; and most of all it stands for an equal opportunity for every American citizen to get his fair share of benefit from these resources, both now and hereafter.
Conservation stands for the same kind of practical common-sense management of this country by the people that every business man stands for in the handling of his own business. It believes in prudence and foresight instead of reckless blindness; it holds that resources now public property should not become the basis for oppressive private monopoly; and it demands the complete and orderly development of all our resources for the benefit of all the people, instead of the partial exploitation of them for the benefit of a few. It recognizes fully the right of the present generation to use what it needs and all it needs of the natural resources now available, but it recognizes equally our obligation so to use what we need that our descendants shall not be deprived of what they need.
Conservation has much to do with the welfare of the average man of to-day. It proposes to secure a continuous and abundant supply of the necessaries of life, which means a reasonable cost of living and business stability. It advocates fairness in the distribution of the benefits which flow from the natural resources. It will matter very little to the average citizen, when scarcity comes and prices rise, whether he can not get what he needs because there is none left or because he can not afford to pay for it. In both cases the essential fact is that he can not get what he needs. Conservation holds that it is about as important to see that the people in general get the benefit of our natural resources as to see that there shall be natural resources left.
Conservation is the most democratic movement this country has known for a generation. It holds that the people have not only the right, but the duty to control the use of the natural resources, which are the great sources of prosperity. And it regards the absorption of these resources by the special interests, unless their operations are under effective public control, as a moral wrong. Conservation is the application of common-sense to the common problems for the common good, and I believe it stands nearer to the desires, aspirations, and purposes of the average man than any other policy now before the American people.
The danger to the Conservation policies is that the privileges of the few may continue to obstruct the rights of the many, especially in the matter of water power and coal. Congress must decide immediately whether the great coal fields still in public ownership shall remain so, in order that their use may be controlled with due regard to the interest of the consumer, or whether they shall pass into private ownership and be controlled in the monopolistic interest of a few.
Congress must decide also whether immensely valuable rights to the use of water power shall be given away to special interests in perpetuity and without compensation instead of being held and controlled by the public. In most cases actual development of water power can best be done by private interests acting under public control, but it is neither good sense nor good morals to let these valuable privileges pass from the public ownership for nothing and forever. Other conservation matters doubtless require action, but these two, the conservation of water power and of coal, the chief sources of power of the present and the future, are clearly the most pressing.
It is of the first importance to prevent our water powers from passing into private ownership as they have been doing, because the greatest source of power we know is falling water. Furthermore, it is the only great unfailing source of power. Our coal, the experts say, is likely to be exhausted during the next century, our natural gas and oil in this. Our rivers, if the forests on the watersheds are properly handled, will never cease to deliver power. Under our form of civilization, if a few men ever succeed in controlling the sources of power, they will eventually control all industry as well. If they succeed in controlling all industry, they will necessarily control the country. This country has achieved political freedom; what our people are fighting for now is industrial freedom. And unless we win our industrial liberty, we can not keep our political liberty. I see no reason why we should deliberately keep on helping to fasten the handcuffs of corporate control upon ourselves for all time merely because the few men who would profit by it most have heretofore had the power to compel it.
The essential things that must be done to protect the water powers for the people are few and simple. First, the granting of water powers forever, either on non-navigable or navigable streams, must absolutely stop. It is perfectly clear that one hundred, fifty, or even twenty-five years ago our present industrial conditions and industrial needs were completely beyond the imagination of the wisest of our predecessors. It is just as true that we can not imagine or foresee the industrial conditions and needs of the future. But we do know that our descendants should be left free to meet their own necessities as they arise. It can not be right, therefore, for us to grant perpetual rights to the one great permanent source of power. It is just as wrong as it is foolish, and just as needless as it is wrong, to mortgage the welfare of our children in such a way as this. Water powers must and should be developed mainly by private capital and they must be developed under conditions which make investment in them profitable and safe. But neither profit nor safety requires perpetual rights, as many of the best water-power men now freely acknowledge.
Second, the men to whom the people grant the right to use water-power should pay for what they get. The water-power sites now in the public hands are enormously valuable. There is no reason whatever why special interests should be allowed to use them for profit without making some direct payment to the people for the valuable rights derived from the people. This is important not only for the revenue the Nation will get. It is at least equally important as a recognition that the public controls its own property and has a right to share in the benefits arising from its development. There are other ways in which public control of water power must be exercised, but these two are the most important.
Water power on non-navigable streams usually results from dropping a little water a long way. In the mountains water is dropped many hundreds of feet upon the turbines which move the dynamos that produce the electric current. Water power on navigable streams is usually produced by dropping immense volumes of water a short distance, as twenty feet, fifteen feet, or even less. Every stream is a unit from its source to its mouth, and the people have the same stake in the control of water power in one part of it as in another. Under the Constitution, the United States exercises direct control over navigable streams. It exercises control over non-navigable and source streams only through its ownership of the lands through which they pass, as the public domain and National Forests. It is just as essential for the public welfare that the people should retain and exercise control of water-power monopoly on navigable as on non-navigable streams. If the difficulties are greater, then the danger that the water powers may pass out of the people's hands on the lower navigable parts of the streams is greater than on the upper non-navigable parts, and it may be harder, but in no way less necessary, to prevent it.
It must be clear to any man who has followed the development of the Conservation idea that no other policy now before the American people is so thoroughly democratic in its essence and in its tendencies as the Conservation policy. It asserts that the people have the right and the duty, and that it is their duty no less than their right, to protect themselves against the uncontrolled monopoly of the natural resources which yield the necessaries of life. We are beginning to realize that the Conservation question is a question of right and wrong, as any question must be which may involve the differences between prosperity and poverty, health and sickness, ignorance and education, well-being and misery, to hundreds of thousands of families. Seen from the point of view of human welfare and human progress, questions which begin as purely economic often end as moral issues. Conservation is a moral issue because it involves the rights and the duties of our people—their rights to prosperity and happiness, and their duties to themselves, to their descendants, and to the whole future progress and welfare of this Nation.
More information about Gifford Pinchot from Wikipedia
Another selection from a American Conservationist:
More selections (60) in this category: History/Society/Politics
More selections (44) in the iTunes category: Society & Culture/Philosophy |
Definitions for Performer
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word Performer
performer, performing artist(noun)
an entertainer who performs a dramatic or musical work for an audience
One who performs for, or entertains, an audience.
one who performs, accomplishes, or fulfills; as, a good promiser, but a bad performer; especially, one who shows skill and training in any art; as, a performer of the drama; a performer on the harp
The Performer Artisan is one of the 16 role variants of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves. David Keirsey originally described the Performer role variant; however, a brief summary of the personality types described by Isabel Myers contributed to its development. Performers correlate with the ESFP Myers-Briggs type.
The Roycroft Dictionary
One who has a right to do troglodyte stunts and who can do something else.
British National Corpus
Rank popularity for the word 'Performer' in Nouns Frequency: #2855
Translations for Performer
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for Performer »
Find a translation for the Performer definition in other languages:
Select another language: |
1 5-8 Social Studies Curriculum Alignment Strand 1: History Content Standard 1: Students are able to identify important people and events in order to analyze significant patterns, relationships, themes, ideas, beliefs, and turning points in New Mexico, U.S., and world history in order to understand the complexity of the human experience. Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade Describe the relationships among ancient civilizations of the world and their connection to the early development of New Mexico. Benchmark 1-A: New Mexico Explore and explain how people and events have influenced the development of New Mexico up to the present day. Describe the characteristics of other indigenous peoples that had an effect upon NM s development. Performance Standard 4 Describe how important individuals, groups, and events impacted the development of NM from 16 th century to the present. Performance Standard 5 Explain how NMs have adapted to their physical environment to meet their needs over time. Performance Standard 6 Explain the impact of NM on the development of the American west up to the present, to include: availability of land; government land grants/treaties; transportation; identification and use of natural and human resources; population growth and economic patterns; and cultural interactions among Compare and contrast the settlement patterns of the American southwest with other regions of the U.S. Explain the role NM played in the U.S. participation in the Spanish American War.
2 indigenous and arriving populations and the resulting changes. Benchmark 1-B: United States Analyze and interpret major eras, events, and individuals from the periods of exploration and colonization through the civil war and reconstruction in U.S. history. Explain the motivations for the European exploration of the Americas. Describe and explain the reasons for colonization, to include: religious freedom, desire for land, economic opportunity, a new way of life, including the roles and views of key individuals who founded colonies. Performance Standard 5 Describe how the introduction of slavery into the Americas, and especially the U.S., laid a foundation for conflict. Performance Standard 6 Explain early representative government and identify democratic practices that emerged. Describe, evaluate and interpret the economic and political reasons for the American revolution, to include: a. attempts to regulate colonial trade through passage of Tea Act, Stamp Act and Intolerable Acts; colonists reaction to British policy b. the ideas expressed in the declaration of independence, including the preamble Describe the aspirations, ideals and events that served as the foundation for the creation of a new national government, to include: a. articles of confederation, the constitution and the success of each in implementing the ideals of the declaration of independence; b. major debates of the constitutional convention and their resolution contributions and roles of major individuals in the writing and ratification of the constitution;
3 c. struggles over ratification of the constitution and the creation of the bill of rights. Describe and explain the actions taken to build one nation from thirteen states, to include: a. precedents established by George Washington; Alexander Hamilton s financial plan b. creation of political parties Performance Standard 5 Describe, explain and analyze the aims and impact of western expansion and the settlement of the United States, to include: a. American belief in manifest destiny and how it led to the Mexican war and its consequences; b. comparison of African American and Native American slavery; westward migration of peoples c. origins and early history of the women s movement. Performance Standard 7 Explain the course and consequences of the civil war and how it divided people in the United States, to include: a. contributions and significance of key figures
4 Benchmark I-C: World Compare and contrast major historical eras, events and figures from ancient civilizations to the age of exploration. Describe and compare the characteristics of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and China and explain the importance of their contributions to later civilizations, to include: a. significance of river valleys; early irrigation and its impact on agriculture; b. forms of government Compare and contrast the influence of Spain on the western hemisphere from colonization to the present. b. major turning points in the civil war, including Gettysburg; unique nature of the civil war c. role of African Americans; purpose and effect of the emancipation proclamation; Performance Standard 8 Analyze the character and lasting consequences of reconstruction, to include: a. reconstruction plans; impact of Lincoln s assassination and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson; b. attempts to protect the rights and enhance the opportunities for freedmen by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the United States constitution; c. post-civil war segregation policies and their resulting impact on racial issues in the United States.
5 c. effect on world economies and trade; d. key historical figures; e. religious traditions, cultural, and scientific contributions Describe and analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious and social structures of the early civilizations in China, to include: d. historical influence of China on other parts of the world Performance Standard 5 Compare and contrast the geographic, political, economic, and social characteristics of the ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Ottoman, Indian, Arabic, African and middle eastern civilizations and their enduring impacts on later civilizations, to include: a. influence of Mediterranean geography on the development and expansion of the civilizations d. contributions and roles of key figures
6 Performance Standard 6 Compare and contrast the political and economic events and the social and geographic characteristics of medieval European life and their enduring impacts on later civilizations, to include: a. creation and expansion of the Byzantine empire b. reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire Benchmark I-D: Skills Research historical events and people from a variety of perspectives. Use resources for historical information Performance Standard 5 Use effective communication skills and strategies to share research findings. Organize information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause and effect relationships, comparing and contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, drawing inferences and conclusions Identify different points of view about an issue or topic Use a decision-making process to identify a situation that requires a solution; gather information, identify options, predict consequences and take action to implement that solution. Analyze and evaluate information by developing and applying criteria for selecting appropriate information and use it to answer critical questions. Demonstrate the ability to examine history from the perspectives of the participants. Use the problem-solving process to identify a problem; gather information, list and consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution and evaluate the effectiveness of the solution using technology to present findings.
7 5-8 Social Studies Curriculum Alignment Strand II: Geography Content Standard II: Students understand how physical, natural, and cultural processes influence where people live, the ways in which people live, and how societies interact with one another and their environments. Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade Make and use different kinds Identify the location of places of maps, globes, charts and using latitude and longitude. databases. Draw complex and accurate Demonstrate how different maps from memory and areas of the U.S. are interpret them to answer organized and questions about the location interconnected. of physical features. Identify and locate each of the fifty states and capitols of the U.S. Performance Standard 4 Identify tribal territories within states Performance Standard 5 Employ fundamental geographic vocabulary. Performance Standard 6 Demonstrate a relational understanding of time zones. Benchmark II-A Analyze and evaluate the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools, knowledge, skills and perspectives and apply them to explain the past, present and future in terms of patterns, events and issues. Benchmark II-B Explain the physical and human characteristics of places and use this knowledge to define regions, their relationships with other regions and their patterns of change. Describe similarities and differences among regions of the globe, and their patterns of change. Explain how places change due to human activity. Performance Standard 4 Describe geographicallybased pathways of interregional interaction. Describe patterns and processes of migration and diffusion Provide a historic overview of patterns of population expansion into the west by the many diverse groups of people to include movement into the southwest along established settlement, trade and rail routes. Describe how individual and cultural characteristics affect perceptions of locales and regions.
8 Benchmark II-C Understand how human behavior impacts man-made and natural environments, recognize past and present results and predict potential changes. Benchmark II-D Explain how physical processes shape the earth s surface patterns and biosystems. Benchmark II-E Explain how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations and their interdependence, cooperation and conflict Benchmark II-F Understand the effects of interactions between human and natural systems in terms of changes in meaning, use, distribution and relative importance of resources. Identify and define geographic issues and problems from accounts of current events. Describe how physical processes shape the environmental patterns of air, land, water, plants and animals. Explain how cultures create a cultural landscape, locally and throughout the world, and how these landscapes change over time. Understand how resources impact daily life. Explain how physical processes influence the for formation and location resources. Explain how ecosystems influence settlements and societies. Describe the differing viewpoints that individuals and groups have with respect to the use of resources.
9 5-8 Social Studies Curriculum Alignment Strand III: Civics and Government Content Standard III: Students understand the ideals, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship and understand the content and history of the founding documents of the U.S. with particular emphasis on the U.S. and NM constitutions and how governments function at local state, tribal, and national levels. Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade Explain how the three Describe the concept of branches of national democracy as developed by government function and the Greeks and compare the explain how they are defined evolution of democracies in the U.S. constitution. throughout the world. Identify the fundamental ideals and principles of our republican form of government. Identify and describe the significance of American symbols, landmarks and essential documents. Performance Standard 4 Compare and contrast the basic government sovereignty of local, state, tribal and national governments. Benchmark III-A Demonstrate understanding of the structure, functions and powers of government. Explain the structure and functions of New Mexico s state government as expressed in the New Mexico constitution, to include: a. roles and methods of initiative, referendum and recall processes b. function of multiple executive offices c. election process d. criminal justice system Explain the roles and relationships of different levels of the legislative process, to include: a. structure of New Mexico legislative districts b. the structure of the New Mexico legislature and leaders of the legislature during the current session Compare the structure and functions of the New Mexico legislature with that of the state s tribal governments. Explain the structure and functions of the national government as expressed in the U.S. constitution, and explain the powers granted to the three branches of government and those reserved to the people, states and tribes, to include: a. the federal system b. the sovereignty of Native American tribes in relation to state and federal governments; bill of rights, amendments to constitution; c. the primacy of individual liberty d. constitution designed to secure our liberty by both empowering and limiting central government e. struggles over the creation of the bill of rights and its ratification f. separation of powers through the development of differing branches
10 Benchmark III-B Explain the significance of symbols, icons, songs, traditions and leaders of NM and the U.S. that exemplify ideals and provide continuity and a sense of unity. Benchmark III-C Compare political philosophies and concepts of government that became the foundation for the American Revolution and the US government. Benchmark III-D Explain how individuals have rights and responsibilities as members of social groups, families, schools, communities, states, tribes, Explain the significance and importance of American customs, symbols, landmarks and celebrations Identify and summarize contributions of various racial, ethnic and religious groups to national identity. Describe the contributions and roles of major individuals, including George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. Explain the meaning of the American creed that calls on citizens to safeguard the liberty of individual Americans within a unified Describe the significance of leadership in democratic societies and provide examples of local, national and international leadership, to include: qualities of leadership, names and contributions of NM leaders, names and contributions of national leaders. Identify historical origins of democratic forms of government. Understand that the nature of citizenship varies among societies. g. John Marshall s role in judicial review, including Marbury v. Madison Performance Standard II Identify and describe a citizen's fundamental constitutional rights, to include: a. freedom of religion, expression, assembly and press b. right to a fair trial c. equal protection and due process.
11 and countries. nation, to respect the rule of law and to preserve the constitutions of local, state, tribal and federal governments.
12 5-8 Social Studies Curriculum Alignment Strand IV: Economics Content Standard IV: Students understand basic economic principles and use economic reasoning skills to analyze the impact of economic systems on individuals, families, businesses, communities, and governments. Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade Seventh Grade Eighth Grade Understand the impact of Explain and predict how supply and demand on people respond to economic consumers and producers in and intrinsic incentives. a free-enterprise system. Understand the patterns of work and economic activities in NM and the U.S. Benchmark IV-A Explain and describe how individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies make decisions, are influenced by incentives and the availability and use of scarce resources, and that their choices involve costs and varying ways of allocating. Benchmark IV-B Explain how economic systems impact the way individuals, households, businesses, governments and societies make decisions about resources and the production and distribution of goods and services. Explain how all economic systems must consider the following: What will be produced? For whom will it be produced. Explain how different economic systems affect the allocation of resources Understand the role that factors of production Play in a society s economy Describe the relationships among supply, demand and price and their roles in the U.S. market system Identify how fundamental characteristics of the U.S. s economic system influence economic decision making at local, state, tribal and national levels. Performance Standard 4 Identify situations in which price and value diverge. |
Scientists at the University of Leeds are about to launch a game-changing move in the battle to eradicate diseases as diverse as Alzheimer’s, cancer and flu.
Thanks to a multi-million pound investment from the University and the Wellcome Trust, two of the most powerful cryo-electron microscopes in the world have been installed in the University’s Astbury BioStructure Laboratory.
The microscopes, which operate using a stream of electrons rather than light to display images, will allow researchers from across the University and around the world to view biological systems in unprecedented detail.
Neil Ranson, Professor of Structural Molecular Biology at the University’s Astbury Centre, is leading the new microscope initiative.
He said, “Cryo-electron microscopy has been around for 30 years and has been incredibly useful, but until recently the technology lacked the ability to routinely look at molecules at the level of detail needed.
We’ll be able to see the structure of molecules that cause everything from a simple sneeze to cancer.Professor Neil Ranson
“Without that detail, we sometimes struggled to understand the structure of biological molecules and how they function, especially when they are in their normal workplace: inside our cells.
“However, the Titan Krios microscopes we have installed in Leeds are absolutely state-of-the-art, and mean that these limitations have been shattered. Researchers will now be able to image biological molecules with an incredible resolution. Crucially, we’ll also be able to see how these molecules interact with each other.”
In ideal circumstances this can mean atomic resolution, where scientists can see the position of every atom in a large protein or complex. This is exactly the kind of detail required to see how medicines bind to proteins, and to help researchers design new or better drugs.
Professor Ranson continued: “These microscopes are a genuine game-changer. The work we will now be able to carry out in Leeds will open up new avenues of research that we’re only just beginning to get to grips with."
The University’s two electron microscopes will enable researchers to:
- Deliver new insight into how proteins aggregate and how this process causes neurotoxicity, which is fundamental to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
- Understand how viruses are built, and how they get into and out of our cells – key steps for infection.
- Provide new details on how ion channels and transporters work – proteins which are vital for a huge number of diseases including many cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
“The old maxim of ‘one drug for one bug’ is outdated,” Professor Ranson said. “We need to understand and tackle ever more complex, multifactorial disorders.
“Science needs to look deeper into the cell to see the structure of biological molecules, how they change shape to do their jobs, and how they interact.
“If you know how a protein complex changes shape when it starts to carry out its function, it then becomes possible to think about how we could stop it in its tracks, or manipulate it to limit its destructive behaviour.
“Bringing the incredible resolution of our new electron microscopes together with the real time information on how proteins move made possible with the new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facilities is a unqiue opportunity for biomedical scientists.
“This is not just imagery and information for its own sake. This kind of detail will, for example, be able to see the structure of a virus invading a cell using cryo-EM, and be able to tell which parts of its receptor are important for that binding using NMR.
“Understanding is key to eventually manipulating these interactions, and we aim to create a revolution in biological and medical insights and inform future discovery of new medicines.”
The microscope suite is part of the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, which was opened in January 2017 by Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome.
After officially launching the new centre Dr Farrar said: “There’s no doubt that in the areas Leeds has chosen to focus on, it is world-leading. The new investment and the new people coming in from all over the world are pushing research to a new level.
“We have never been able before to look at protein structures and cells and how proteins work at this level, and this will open up areas we have not even thought about yet. These are huge opportunities for students and people early in their careers, it is linking all of that fundamental science with a real understanding of biology, physics, chemistry and computer science.”
He said Leeds was ‘right at the very frontier of science’, adding: “This is the University of Leeds being out in front and playing a world-leading role, and whether that’s in areas of infection, or cancer or diabetes and other diseases, it’s at the forefront of where science is today and where it will be tomorrow, linking science into the clinic and the hospital and that is what is so exciting.”
Benefits for students
The microscopes will allow research at the cutting edge of biology and medical discovery. Students at all levels will also pick up the excitement of this pioneering research.
Professor Ranson said: “Experience of working with this data should give Leeds’ students a real advantage when they graduate and embark on their own research careers. This is a really hot area in drug discovery, and all of the major pharmaceutical companies are now doing cryo-EM.”
Postgraduate students will be able to use the microscopes in their own research, while undergraduates will have direct access to the data created on the machines by their lecturers, whose research-informed teaching will improve their studies.
Creating a data tsunami
The direct electron detecting cameras fitted to the Titan Krios microscopes will produce an avalanche of data: around four terabytes of information per day each. The University has just installed 2.6 petabytes of computer storage to accommodate this unprecedented volume of data.
is the equivalent of
- 4x 200 page books
is the equivalent of
- 4,473 books (200 pages)
- 1x 650MB CD
Approximately six hours data from each microscope is the equivalent of
- 4,581,298 books
- 1,613 CD's
is the equivalent of
- 4,691,249,611 books
- 1,651,910 CD's
The Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds is named after biophysicist WT Astbury who originally identified the two major recurring patterns of protein structure and took the first X-ray fibre diffraction pictures of DNA in 1938. WT Asbury worked at Leeds from 1928-1961 and is widely credited with the definition of the field of molecular biology.
Professor Sheena Radford FMedSci, FRS, the Director of the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology which includes the Astbury BioStructure Laboratory, said:
“The investment in the two Titan Krios microscopes, together with enhancements in our ability to interrogate proteins using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques has ensured that the long history of the University of Leeds in leading structural biology research internationally will continue apace.
There is enormous demand in the field for access to these microscopes, and we anticipate that they will be highly sought-after by the scientific communityProfessor Sheena Radford FMedSci, FRS
“There is enormous demand in the field for access to these microscopes, and we anticipate that they will be highly sought-after by the scientific community. We want to grow our research, and a brilliant way to do that is build new collaborations with scientists from academia and industry across the world.”
At Leeds, the two microscopes will become an essential part of the work of the Astbury Centre. They will be installed in a multi-million pound renovation of a former television studio in the grade II* listed Roger Stevens building.
They will be used alongside a recently acquired 950MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) magnet to allow unrivalled insight into the structure and behaviour of biological molcules.
- Two Titan Krios G2, 300kV electron microscopes
- Approximately £3.5m each
- Built by FEI in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
- One is fitted with an FEI Falcon3 camera
- One is fitted with an FEI Falcon3 camera and a Gatan energy-filtered K2 Summit camera and a Volta-potential phase plate
- Both optimised for 24/7 automatic operation
- Each produces 3-5 terabytes of raw data per day
Dr Rebecca Thompson completed her PhD at Leeds in 2015, and is now the University’s Cryo-electron Microscopy Support Scientist. She is one of a small number of staff who will have direct access to the inner workings of these delicate machines.
“These microscopes will enable us to do cutting-edge research, with all the positive knock-on effects for early career researchers that comes with it. This is a rapidly growing technique so having these facilities at Leeds means PhD students and post-doctoral researchers can take advantage of the data produced on campus, and that’s very valuable.
We can now look inside a cell, watching biology in situ doing its job in its normal environment, which is a very crowded and busy place. That is the pinnacle, you cannot get better than that.Dr Rebecca Thompson
“There is research we can do using these microscopes which is just not possible on other equipment. There will be very few places in the world where you can do this science.
The wavelength of electrons is much shorter than that of light, meaning that an electron microscope can operate at much higher magnification, and resolve much finer details.
Together with the fact that the electrons go straight through the sample being studied scientists can work out the 3D structure of molecules which is impossible with a light microscope.
The “Cryo” in cryo-EM means imaging biological samples that have been snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen at temperatures of minus-196C. This traps and protects the molecules in a very natural environment – essentially a slice of solid water - ideal for studying biological systems.
“The difference in resolution is the equivalent of someone with extensive blurred vision looking at an optician’s chart to read the letters, then wearing a pair of top-of-the-range glasses and seeing the shape of the dot of the letter i in crystal-clear detail.”
Researchers across the UK already have some access to cryo-electron microscopes through Diamond Light Source, the Crick Institute and the Laboratory of Medical Biology at Cambridge, all of which are primarily research institutions.
Leeds is the first university to have these microscopes available to its own postgraduate students.
There are fewer than 10 of these microscopes in the UK, and the decision to create the Astbury BioStructure Laboratory to host two of the most advanced means Leeds students and academics will benefit significantly from having the equipment on campus.
Dr Thompson continued, “Leeds is going to go from strength to strength in this field, we have experts across structural, chemical and cell biology and light microscopy and we have these brilliant microscopes. The most amazing thing is combining this together: that’s not something you can do in very many places at all.” |
I want to share with you news about some yet to be released research on the role of two genes, ASPM & Microcephalin, in language tone, which has just hit the press releases. ASPM & Microcephalin are known to play a role in brain development of primates. The role of these two genes in language tone has not been investigated until now.
Language tone has direct tangents to both human evolution and linguistic anthropology. Now that I think of it even cultural anthropology has a lot to do with language tone. Not convinced? Well check out what Razib has found… an excellent example, plucked from a TimesOnline article, that describes this tangent,
“In tonal languages, which are most common in South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, subtle differences in pitch can change the meaning of vowels, consonants and syllables. Nontonal languages, which prevail in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, use pitch only as a way of conveying emphasis or emotion.
The new findings from the University of Edinburgh also suggest that the very first human languages were probably tonal, sounding more like modern Chinese or Zulu than English or French. The genetic profile that appears to predispose to nontonal languages evolved only about 5,800 years ago, implying that all languages were probably tonal before that.”
So understanding the genetic origins and differences of language tone between human populations can tell us a lot about how genes have influenced which languages are spoken around the world today. Two linguists, Dan Dediu and D. Robert Ladd have been searching to find the genetic foundations for the differences tone, as heard in modern day languages,
“During a study of linguistic and genetic data from 49 distinct populations, the authors discovered a striking correlation between two genes involved in brain development and language tonality. Populations that speak nontonal languages (where the pitch of a spoken word does not affect its meaning) have newer versions of the genes, with mutations that began to appear roughly 37 thousand years ago.”
Their work will soon be published in PNAS, but until that happens you’re gonna have to run with my examples if you don’t quite understand what’s going on.
UPDATE, the paper has been published, “Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and Microcephalin” — so feel very free to ignore my ramblings below. I’ll do my best to report what I do understand.
So people who have particular alleles of ASPM & Microcephalin, tend to speak nontonal languages such as English with greater affinity than tonal languages. While those with a different set of alleles, or version of these genes, people are more or less predisposed to speak tonal languages such as Chinese better. That’s simple to follow, and fairly simple to analyze too. I imagine Dediu and Ladd just sampled, isolated, amplified, and sequenced ASPM & Microcephalin from peoples that speak tonal and nontonal languages and then did an allelic frequency comparison.
What I don’t quite get, and what is causing my brain to hurt is how they determined the ancestral allele and the derived allele and how it correlates to tonal and nontonal languages. My confusion stems from these two press quotes, “nontonal languages evolved only about 5,800 years ago, implying that all languages were probably tonal before that,” and “nontonal languages have newer versions of the genes, with mutations that began to appear roughly 37 thousand years ago.” Something just doesn’t seem to add up here.
Linguistic anthropologists have classified groups of languages, or language families, related by descent from a common proto-language, into what resembles a phylogram or pedigree. We know that tonal languages predate nontonal languages, but how did Dediu and Ladd estimate the ages of the genes and how they correlate to language tone? Where did they get the dates from?
They got these dates from Bruce Lahn, who showed,
“that there are two alleles, one for each of these two genes, which emerged fairly recently (estimated 6,000 years ago for ASPM and 37,000 years ago for Microcephalin) and that these new alleles seem to be spreading quickly in the human species (and are therefore probably “adaptive”, or favored by natural selection). They also showed that these “derived” alleles (as they are known) are unevenly distributed in the world’s populations, being especially rare in sub-Saharan Africa and most common in Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.”
This quote kinda clarified my confusion. ASPM‘s variant emerged 6k years ago and 37k year ago, Microcephalin‘s allele emerged and with these new variants there is a correlation to tonal to nontonal language transition. Interesting. But, now how does this gap of umm 31,000 years explain what’s happening in tonal to nontonal language transition?
I can’t help but to think one gene must have initiated the transition, so does that make Microcephalin our key player? I don’t know really, that maybe the wrong question to ask. The authors made an effort to make sure they are not not suggesting that language is involved in the selective pressure for the “derived” alleles of ASPM & Microcephalin.
I obviously have a lot of questions about this study because I do not have the first hand report yet. I hope many of my confusions will be resolved once I get the paper. Until then, this research seems like a very interesting and creative way to relate genes and their functions in a complex human behavior, language. In this study, there seems to be a positive correlation with certain alleles and the propensity to a certain language tone. |
Digital Storytelling shows you how to generate immersive, interactive narratives across a variety of systems, devices, and media. From age-old storytelling techniques to cutting-edge development processes, this written book covers creating stories for all types of New Media, including transmedia storytelling, video gaming, mobile apps, and second-screen experiences. The real way a story is told, a note is delivered, or a narrative is navigated has changed over the last few years dramatically. Stories are told through video games, interactive books, and social media.
Stories are told on all sorts of different platforms and through all sorts of different devices. They’re immersive, letting the user interact with the whole story and letting the user enter the story and form it themselves. This book features case studies that cover a great spectral range of platforms and various story genres. It also demonstrates how to plan processes for developing interactive narratives for everyone types of entertainment and non-fiction purposes: education, training, information, and promotion. Digital Storytelling features interviews with a few of the industry’s biggest names, showing you the way they build and tell their stories.
” If she were alive today, Dr. Maria Montessori would definitely be requesting the same question. My children do not have any daily homework at their Montessori school. While this differs at Montessori universities, most Montessori schools do not give kids any type or kind of daily homework. They may have research projects or long-term book reports (as do the students at my daughters’ Jewish Montessori school), but no daily homework.
The effectiveness of the Montessori strategy usually obviates the necessity for homework. And research is the waste materials of time. The study has shown consistently that research at the quality-school level has practically no correlation with academic accomplishment. See this short article from Time at which summarizes the leading research. Good Montessori classrooms have a feeling of calm and order that are amazing; the day in activities that they find meaningful and fun in a setting where all kids are consistently engaged throughout.
We are beginning to know how critical this kind of environment is for learning and development, of age regardless. Before three decades, there has been an explosion of important research that documents the connections between stress levels and the ability of the person to operate and thrive, whether it be at home school or work. In a wonderful new book called “Brain Rules for Baby” by Dr. John Medina, a brain scientist, some of this research is examined and explored. “First, I have to correct a misconception. Many well-meaning moms and dads think their child’s brain is thinking about learning. That is not accurate.
The brain is not interested in learning. The brain is interested in surviving. Every capability inside our intellectual tool package was engineered to flee extinction. Learning exists only to provide the requirements of this primal goal. It is a happy coincidence, our intellectual tools can do dual duty in the classroom, conferring on us the ability to create spreadsheets and speak French. But that’s not the brain’s day job.
That can be an incidental byproduct of the much deeper push: the gnawing, clawing wish to live to another day. We do not survive so that people can learn. We learn so that people may survive. This overarching goal predicts a lot of things and here’s the most important: If you want a well-educated child, you must create a world of safety.
- PsExec – start apps on remote computer systems
- Video Inserter
- What is tracert
- What will be the recommendations for tagging company accounts on social media
- Two-character token
- Use the right color utilization pattern
- Being first counts for a great deal
When the brain’s protection needs are met, it’ll allow its neurons to moonlight in algebra classes. When safety needs aren’t met, algebra is out the window. In Montessori classrooms, the methodology of interesting with children, the approach of the teachers, and the way those educators are trained all help build and foster this environment of security where children can learn and flourish. My dedication to my Jewish identification means that my kids need to visit a Jewish college so they can learn deeply about Judaism and their Jewish traditions. Every day I wake up grateful an amazing Jewish Montessori college exists five minutes from the house in NJ.
But I am also an American, who adores his country and cares deeply about all her children and their future, which of course will determine America’s future. Our public education system needs a radical transformation. Every child has gifts and talents that should be nurtured and we are losing vast oceans of individual capability and potential with this current system.
There are no silver bullets and I do not want to claim that if every child visited a Montessori school, all of our educational problems would be resolved. Not every child is right for a Montessori school and Montessori is not right for each child. There are a growing quantity of public and charter Montessori schools. |
In the age of misinformation and constant inundation of news – and let’s face it, it’s mostly been bad – it is more important than ever that we get better at critical thinking. Data literacy is a skill that everyone needs as our world continues to be powered by data. The news is not something we all feel we can blindly trust, with more and more skepticism building around agenda-pushing and ratings-based reporting.
At Acorn Analytics, we’re passionate about data education and we want everyone to be as skeptical and thoughtful about interpreting data as our data science team. But how keen of an eye does the average person have? To take a stab at addressing this question, we did what any good scientist would do – we started collecting data.
A few weeks back, we sent out a survey asking people to interpret various graphs that showed information about COVID-19 cases in California during the first two weeks of April. The data was from California’s Health & Human Services Agency. We asked some basic questions comparing various line and bar graphs, and here’s a bit about what we saw.
We had 117 participants total, from 20 different US states, plus Washington, D.C., and several international poll-takers. Most were from California and Colorado, which did not surprise us, given that Acorn has communities in each! Participants ranged from 17 to 77 years old, with a median age of thirty-six and a half.
On average, people answered 79% of the questions confidently, but only got 60% correct! This suggests to us that everyone could use some tips to sharpen their data skill set. Although, we’d like to acknowledge: these questions were hard, even though they appeared easy!
Here are our survey results:
Tips and Tricks
With these results in mind, here are some quick tips to look out for when looking at and comparing graphs:
- Compare: Do the axes show the same range, or are you comparing trends over different scales? In general, it’s best when comparing graphs to do so on the same scale.
(Apples to apples, or apples to planets?)
- Check: Do the horizontal and vertical scales both start at zero? If not, then you actually can’t know the value of any point that is out of range of the scale!
(If you can’t see it, you don’t know if it’s there or not!)
- Consider: Is the graph squashed or stretched out in any way? Sometimes that can be an indication that the graph designer was trying to enhance or hide a certain pattern. Just because it’s “data” doesn’t mean there can’t be bias! (Stay skeptical, friends!)
If you’re curious to learn more about how to improve your analytics eye, feel free to look around our blog for more pointers. In the meantime, stay skeptical, ask questions, and embrace a lifetime of learning. We don’t get anywhere if we pretend to know it all when we’re unsure!
Our team would love to see any questionable graphs you see in the news or other platforms. If you find any, please send them to us at [email protected].
A big thanks goes to Jai Bansal for providing editing and graphics support on this post! |
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all more reliant on digital resources than ever. Whether you are learning yourself or helping someone close to you, there are a variety of options available to improve your digital skills, no matter your skill level.
What is “digital literacy?”
The American Library Association defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” Basically, digital literacy boils down to the skills you have navigating technology. First, let's focus on building computer skills.
Computer Resources for Absolute Beginners
Digital Learn is a great resource for first time computer users! It is available in both English and Spanish. To change to Spanish, left-click the Español button in the top left corner. It has courses on how to use a mouse and keyboard, as well as how to navigate around the internet, including using and setting up email, searching, applying for jobs, being safe online, and plenty more.
The Longmont Senior Computer Tech Center, opens a new window also has a variety of tutorials available for beginning technology users to improve skills. These tutorials will help users develop skills such as how to set up and use Gmail and other Google products, understand iCloud and use it to backup information, and use Zoom to attend webinars and host meetings.
Learning to Navigate Social Media and Other Digital Spaces
You may be familiar already with Niche Academy for learning to use the library’s digital resources such as OverDrive, Kanopy and Hoopla. In addition to these, Niche Academy can also help you get comfortable with using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter!
Developing Advanced Computer Skills
Let’s say you are very comfortable with computer basics, but you want to learn more advanced skills. For instance, maybe you are considering a career as a computer programmer and would like access to courses to learn coding languages. Arapahoe Libraries has a resource for this! Treehouse Web Development is an online technology school that provides courses on a variety of coding languages, user interface and advanced digital literacy. To sign up for Treehouse with your Arapahoe Library Card, please fill out this form., opens a new window
Need a library card? Find out how to get a temporary card.
You can always Contact Us via phone, email or chat for assistance.
The Technology Help page provides tech specific support.
Discover Hot Tips for how to get the most out of your library card. |
“How do political leaders rise to power? What gives them the right to rule? In some governments today, we imagine power comes from the democratic consent of the people. In other systems, power can manifest through sheer might alone or could be transferred through religious mandate. The force of religion to claim political power is a global phenomenon, and Tibetan Buddhism once offered such divine means to power and legitimacy to rule.
Faith and Empire explores the dynamic historical intersection of politics, religion, and art in Tibetan Buddhism. Through more than 60 objects from the 8th to the 19th century, the exhibition illuminates how Tibetan Buddhism presented a model of universal sacral kingship, whereby consecrated rulers were empowered to expand their realm, aided by the employment of ritual magic. Images were a primary means of political propagation, integral to magical tantric rites and embodiments of its power.
By the 12th century, Tibetan Buddhist masters became renowned across Northern Asia as bestowers of this anointed rule and occult power. Tibetans also used the mechanism of reincarnation as a means of succession, a unique form of political legitimacy that they brought to empires to the east.
Through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism’s potent historic political role in Asia, Faith and Empire seeks to place Himalayan art in a larger global context and shed light on an important but little-known aspect of power in the Tibetan tradition.” — The Rubin Museum of Art
Photographs by Corrado Serra.
Faith and Empire was curated by Karl Debreczeny. |
by Sam E. Stone
Edith Deen wrote, “Ruth, the central figure in the Book of Ruth, is one of the most lovable women in the Bible. And her abiding love embraces the person you would least expect it to, her mother-in-law, Naomi.” In last week’s lesson we saw Ruth’s determination to return with Naomi to Judah after both their husbands died. The two widows arrived in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
The Law of Moses directed landowners to leave what the harvesters missed so that those in need—the poor, the alien, the widow, and the orphan—could find grain (Leviticus 19:9, 10, 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:19-21). It was this regulation that permitted Jesus and his disciples to pluck grain as they walked through the grain fields on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-5).
Ruth asked Naomi’s permission to go into the fields and get grain to provide for their immediate needs. God’s providence is quickly seen. Naomi had a close relative on her husband’s side, “a man of standing,” Boaz. “As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz who was from the clan of Elimelech” (Ruth 2:3). When Boaz came to check on his workers, he noticed Ruth and asked the foreman who she was. He told him, “She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi” (v. 6). After receiving permission to glean, Ruth worked steadily all day, with only a short rest. Our printed text takes up here.
Boaz evidently made full arrangements for Ruth’s protection before he spoke to her himself. Kindly he said, “My daughter . . . don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here.” He instructed his servant girls and the men that she was to be given favorable treatment by all of them. The young widow from a pagan land found a gracious welcome among Naomi’s people. Even water was provided! Normally, the foreigner had to draw water for the Israelite, and the woman for the man. Boaz went far beyond anything required by the law. He even cautioned the men who worked for him not to touch her. No taunting or physical harm!
Ruth was overwhelmed by this generosity and kindness. “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” K. L. Younger observes, “She is completely surprised at what Boaz said to her. This confirms that he has granted her far more than she has requested. Boaz’s action is once again an evidence of God’s providence (Yahweh has answered her wish in v. 2).”
Boaz explains that he has heard good things about Ruth and how she has helped Naomi. He adds, “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord . . . under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” This is a familiar illustration used in Scripture (see Matthew 23:37). It also provides the setting for the well-known hymn, Under His Wings.
Ruth responded, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord.” She mentioned specifically the kindness of Boaz for insuring her protection, even though she lacked the status even of a servant girl. Her gratitude is an example of the spirit that should be shown by all who experience God’s grace.
It is easy to lose track of just how many things Boaz did to help Ruth. He urged her to stay at his field; he gave permission for her to follow his servant girls; he gave her water from the jars provided for his workers; and he directed the men to “keep their hands off of her!”
Then when mealtime came, Boaz invited her to join him eating bread dipped in vinegar, even sharing the delicacy of roasted grain as well. So much food was provided that Ruth even had some left over, and she took it back to Naomi. Boaz then arranged for his men to pull out some extra stalks of grain for her to pick up, and not to rebuke her. After a very full day’s work, Ruth returned home with a large amount of barley. This impressed Naomi.
One Bible teacher made this comparison: the love of Boaz raised Ruth from her humiliation and loaded her with precious gifts. Similarly the grace of God in Christ lifts the unworthy sinner out of the depths, enriching his life with both spiritual and temporal blessings.
Sam E. Stone is the former editor of Christian Standard. He continues his writing and speaking ministry from his home in Cincinnati, Ohio. |
Lissette Cassie May 5, 2021 Worksheets
The most important thing about these math worksheets is that they are used for tutoring and not for the main course studies. That is why they are used by tutors to offer remedial tuition and by parents at home so that they can offer their kids extra tuition to sharpen their skills. Math is known to be difficult and is often a headache for the young and so the math worksheets come in handy in helping resolve this problem. Thanks to the sites over the internet that offer free printable math worksheets, you do not need to worry about the cost of purchasing one, maybe only the ink cost. So don’t go making excuses for not being able to access a math work sheet.
It is important to learn letter first. The children must need to know how to write letters in printable form. After that, they can be taught how to write cursive. Writing cursives is not as easy as writing letters in printable form. Remember that kids put more attention on animation. They are more interested on having fun so it is best for a teacher to teach them write letters in a fun way. Teachers may have noticed that when children are just being told on what to do, they may not do it right out of lack of interest. Remember that with the so many worksheets available, choose one that is best suited for a certain lesson. Plan ahead what type of worksheet to use for a given day, depending on what you plan to teach. There are many free worksheets available, especially online, but still the best worksheet is one that you personally draft. This way, you are able to match the level of difficulty of the activity in accordance to the performance level of your own students.
There are other sources for worksheets also. You can find many public schools and private schools which will provide free worksheets for you if you buy textbooks from the school. Or you can usually find textbooks and workbooks at the public library, where you can also copy any worksheets that you want to use. So what kinds of worksheets should you get? Anything where you feel that your child needs further drill. We often have this notion that worksheets are just for math. This, of course, is not true. While they are excellent tools for reviewing math facts such as the multiplication tables and division facts, they are just as useful for reviewing parts of speech or the states in the union.
The addition, subtraction & number counting worksheets are meant for improving & developing the IQ skills of the kids, while English comprehension & grammar worksheets are provided to skill students at constructing error free sentences. The 1st grade worksheets can also used by parents to bridge between kindergarten lessons & 2nd grade program. It happens on many occasions that children forget or feel unable to recollect the lessons learnt at the previous grade. In such situations, 1st grade worksheets become indispensable documents for parents as well as students.
1st grade worksheets are used for helping kids learning in the first grade in primary schools. These worksheets are offered by many charitable & commercial organizations through their internet portals. The worksheets provide study materials to kids in a funky & innovative way, to magnetize them towards learning. These worksheets are provided for all subjects present in a 1st grade school curriculum covering English, math, science & many others. Worksheets are also provided for developing & nurturing the thinking skills of a student too in the form of crossword puzzle & thinking skill worksheets. Moreover, many 1st grade worksheet providers as well provide time counting & calendar worksheets as well to test the IQ of the kids.
The Worksheet Before Right Click event will run a script of code every time a user right clicks within an Excel Worksheet. This can be useful if you want to create your own context menus for a specific cell or range of cells. This event can also be used to offer multiple menus based whether you hold down the ALT key or the CTRL key. The Worksheet Calculate event will run every time the Excel has to recalculate that specific worksheet. Basically if you have a formula and one of its variable changes and the solution to the formula changes then this event will run. This can be great if you want to ensure that every time a worksheet data changes are made that you update an external document. You can also set up the external document to update on schedule.
Tag Cloudcodependency therapy activities pdf moving words math worksheet basic atomic structure worksheet answer rhyming words worksheet for kindergarten taste worksheet for kindergarten data tables must be built in a(n) ____ area of a worksheet. free worksheet for kindergarten solar system worksheet for kindergarten budget worksheet templates volume of cylinders worksheet vocaybulary worksheet for kindergarten negative numbers worksheet molecular formula worksheet answers charge and electricity worksheet answers molecular geometry worksheet personal use of company vehicle worksheet 2019 3rd grade measurement worksheet 5th grade distributive property worksheet construction math worksheet reading worksheet |
Firstly the extent to which bullying and the management. to literature review introduction sample begin with, physically attacking body such as kicking, pushing, and punching on other students can cause their body hurt solve this word problem cyber bullying, in my ap physics homework opinion could be much worse than just face-to-face bullying. though bullying can be either dispute-related or predatory, it ranges from physical, verbal, emotional, or technologically meted mba essay expertise out over the internet in order to write a good persuasive bullying essay, you have to become determine with the fact what the bullying is and how topic sentence for bullying essay badly it influences the people. calling someone names has absolutely no beneficial pro choice research paper purpose. according to ditch the label anti-bullying charity organization, individuals website that does essays for you that have been victims topic sentence for bullying essay of bullying are two times likely to bully others teenage bullying introduction. so, you have 33 words right there! cyber bullying. essay paper #: verbal the help online book bullying is topic sentence for bullying essay the custome essay purdue apa sample paper most common form turn in your essay of bullying. yes, it was that easy! psychological portraits of bullying-victims – how people choose victims. bullying inside out:. |
What is smart ventilation?
The definition given by AIVC for smart ventilation in buildings is:
"Smart ventilation is a process to continually adjust the ventilation system in time, and optionally by location, to provide the desired IAQ benefits while minimizing energy consumption, utility bills and other non-IAQ costs (such as thermal discomfort or noise).
A smart ventilation system adjusts ventilation rates in time or by location in a building to be responsive to one or more of the following: occupancy, outdoor thermal and air quality conditions, electricity grid needs, direct sensing of contaminants, operation of other air moving and air cleaning systems.
In addition, smart ventilation systems can provide information to building owners, occupants, and managers on operational energy consumption and indoor air quality as well as signal when systems need maintenance or repair.
Being responsive to occupancy means that a smart ventilation system can adjust ventilation depending on demand such as reducing ventilation if the building is unoccupied.
Smart ventilation can time-shift ventilation to periods when a) indoor-outdoor temperature differences are smaller (and away from peak outdoor temperatures and humidity), b) when indoor-outdoor temperatures are appropriate for ventilative cooling, or c) when outdoor air quality is acceptable.
Being responsive to electricity grid needs means providing flexibility to electricity demand (including direct signals from utilities) and integration with electric grid control strategies.
Smart ventilation systems can have sensors to detect air flow, systems pressures or fan energy use in such a way that systems failures can be detected and repaired, as well as when system components need maintenance, such as filter replacement."
For further information check AIVC's Ventilation Information Paper no 38: What is smart ventilation? aiming to present and illustrate this definition of “smart ventilation”.
The text and images of this webpage is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). |
Historic 21-day lockdown, predictions for lockdown effects and the role of data in this crisis of virus in India
This article is the second one of a three part series on the novel corona virus outbreak in India. You can read the first part (pre-lockdown) here and the final part (unlocking the lockdown) here. You can also access a related pre-print here. All data source, code and interactive plots are available at covind19.org.
India, a democracy of 1.34 billion people has been aggressive in adOn the evening of March 24, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week nationwide central lockdown — starting Wednesday, March 25 at midnight, to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. This is the biggest lockdown in the history of the world happening in a democracy of 1.34 billion people. At that time India had reported 536 COVID-19 cases and 11 fatalities. The people of India received essentially 3 hours’ notice to prepare for a three-week long lockdown. This is a wrenching decision for any nation, particularly for India with 22% of the population living below the poverty line, 90+% of its workforce employed in the informal sector, and poor housing conditions for one in six urban dwellers. As debates rage around the world regarding India’s central lockdown, and while policy experts are analyzing the timing, management and implementation of such a monumental decision, we present our thoughts on lockdown-related issues through a data-centric lens. As a follow-up to our article on Medium.com on Saturday, March 21, 2020, we want to clarify the role of epidemiological models, projections and predictions in informing critical policy decisions. In addition, we introduce a new interactive visualization platform for COVID-19 data in India for public use with open source software code.
1. Was a central lockdown necessary? With the 21-day lockdown period in place, how many cases can we expect in India? How many fatalities can we expect in the next few weeks?
A central lockdown, if rightly done, can be a highly effective prevention and control strategy for arresting the spread of the virus. Epidemiologic and mathematical models and the examples of other countries provide support for the effectiveness of a lockdown. However, decision-makers cannot act from a pure epidemiologic perspective as there are huge economic, ethical, moral and social implications associated with this choice. Policymakers face unchartered territory here with economic and public health interests competing with each other. It will take us years to know what the optimal decision for any nation was from a rigorous risk-benefit analysis framework. Governments and policymakers across the world are faced with a truly daunting scenario with massive consequences on either side. Any decision will lead to different types of misery, suffering, anxiety and pain for the public. As stated in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, it is important to quickly learn from successes and failures of an intervention implementation in its early phase and nimbly turn the course if needed to effectively manage the COVID-19 crisis. Flexibility, data-adaptability and elasticity in decision-making are critically needed in this rapidly evolving landscape.
The COVID-19 crisis is a complex problem requiring a multi-pronged, long-term, systems-based approach instead of discrete tactical moves. The mathematical forecasting models cannot capture the devastating consequences a lockdown may have on the lives of people. An all-encompassing and timely cost-benefit analysis of the situation that identifies the optimal course of action is extremely difficult to formulate right now, if not impossible. For example, the goal of any intervention like a lockdown is to reduce mobility and transmission probability. With millions of daily wage earners and migrant workers crowding in buses, or walking miles to return to the hinterland and congregating in shelters and soup kitchens [NYTimes, CNN] the lockdown may even increase the spread initially before the spread (hopefully) settles down. Management and execution of a lockdown for a country of this size has to balance between the collateral damage due to the lockdown and the efficacy of the lockdown itself to stop the virus.
From a public health perspective, if a lockdown had to be imposed at some point of time during the course of this pandemic, it is best to do it early. A lockdown with a few hundred cases may appear to be an overreaction early in the disease course, but in reality, it can save many lives from COVID-19. Getting through the virus crisis will also lead to eventual economic recovery, thus a centralized national lockdown is one of the recommended choices by experts [Bill Gates on Anderson Cooper. “Stop the virus before you can do anything about economics”].
Effect of lockdown on the number of cases: From a purely epidemiologic/mathematical modeling point of view we created some projections using the eSIR model [Wang et al. 2020] under the following hypothetical scenarios of interventions so that the readers can get a sense of the predicted number of COVID-19 cases prevented by an intervention on a relative scale:
- Natural course of the epidemic is followed till April 30 with no intervention
- Social distancing and travel ban continue from March 12 to April 30 without a central lockdown, and
- Social distancing and travel ban till March 25 followed by a 21-day lockdown till April 14, followed by a gradual return to normal (pre-intervention) activities till April 30
We try to understand where we will stand on April 30 under these various speculative scenarios. Figure 1 shows that the growth in the number of cases can appreciably slow down with an effective lockdown, potentially reducing the cumulative number of cases from 35,796 (which is the prediction under no lockdown but with just social distancing and travel ban) to as low as 3,951 (with the lockdown) on April 30. As with many forecasting models with limited data, these estimates should not be over-interpreted as they have large uncertainty and assumes lockdown is strictly followed (upper credible interval or CI 192,985 and 31,979, respectively for these projections). Thus, the 21-day lockdown will likely have a strong effect on reducing the predicted number of cases in the short term. If the implementation of lockdown measures and public adherence takes longer (a scenario we present in our Shiny app), the reduction in the number of cases will be less. However, regardless of the speed with which adherence to the lockdown takes place, the lockdown, if implemented correctly in the end, has a high chance to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases in the short term and buy India invaluable time to prepare its healthcare and disease monitoring system.
Fatalities: It is hard to predict fatalities this early for India as we have 53 fatalities so far (April 2; bing tracker). The cumulative number of cases in India is also low compared to other countries (Figure 2). Estimation of fatality rate in general is laced with the problem of selection bias in case ascertainment. We can only speculate by looking at data from other countries. South Korea has relatively fewer COVID-19 related fatalities — 167 out of 9887 cases (1.7%) — compared to several other countries with significant outbreaks, where the case fatality rate often exceeds 4% [CEBM Report]. South Korea achieved this low fatality rate without a central lockdown because they could arrest the spread of the epidemic earlier in its course with social distancing guidelines and rapid widespread testing (free for suspected cases and cluster testing of communities where cases belong), plus expansive contact tracing using credit card activity and mobile phone tracking [Can South Korea be a model for virus-hit countries?]. On the other hand, Hubei province of China arrested the growth rate of deaths by a combination of strategies: lockdown, centralized quarantine of confirmed and suspected cases, their close contacts (asymptomatic) and those with COVID-19 symptoms (separating them from the rest of the population), and rapid expansion of healthcare infrastructure [Wang et al. 2020].
India has acted early in the disease course (see Table 1 for comparison with other countries), and so we are hoping that India’s death rate remains closer to or less than what South Korea has seen, leading to approximately 63 deaths (upper CI 511) by April 30. If the fatality rate is more like 4%, the expected number of deaths by April 30 is 158 (upper CI 1279).
2. Will a lockdown get rid of the coronavirus?
No! — we have to remember that the lockdown is not a “cure all” solution. The virus is not going to disappear. The lockdown just delays the epidemic and buys us additional time so that we can prepare our army to go on this war against COVID-19. The war is still on and we should use this time to operate as if we are on war-footing. During this lockdown period, we need to expand and ramp up our testing capacity, set up a nationwide task force for community inspection, surveillance and contact tracing, set up temporary COVID-19 care centers and quarantine facilities, produce and acquire protective equipment for healthcare workers (not just doctors and nurses but also other workers such as hospital cleaners or medical technicians at the frontline of this epidemic). An estimated 5–10% of the cases will require critical care and ventilator support. India has only 35–58 thousand ICU beds and at most 1 ventilator per 2 ICU beds [Does India have enough ventilators, hospital beds?]. India needs to acquire such medical supplies soon in this 21-day period and work on optimal strategies for resource allocation based on estimated influx of patients. Without these strategies, the lockdown will go to waste. Lockdown is an action that buys time, flattens the curve in terms of healthcare demand that a pandemic of this scale entails, and gives us a second window of opportunity for mobilization of resources. The health care system in India, like most countries in the world, is used to individual patient-centric care instead of the community-based care needed during an epidemic, and it has to scale up.
In the intervening time, we also need to make sure there is economic and social immunity and subsidy for the people of India who are most vulnerable during the lockdown. We need a long-term strategy to conquer this epidemic and it requires partnership between the public, the government, the health care sector, the private sector and the scientific experts. This applies to every country affected by the virus. We are all connected in this process and in this collective war. As Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allgery and Infectious Diseases, USA, stated, “We do not make the timeline. The virus makes the timeline.”
3. Italy has been under lockdown since March 9. It has not seen an appreciable reduction in the number of deaths yet or number of cases yet. When can we expect to see a reduction in India?
If we look at the data from Hubei, there is approximately a period of 14–18 days when the number of new cases starts going down after introduction of lockdown, centralized treatment and isolation strategies (Figure 3a). This is because the median incubation period of the coronavirus is 5.2 days (95% CI: 4.4, 6.0), and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 10.5 days (95% CI: 7.3, 15.3) of infection [Lauer et al. 2020].
South Korea, on the other hand, did not impose a complete lockdown but took several aggressive measures (including testing more and more people, fining the quarantine violators harshly), social distancing and partial closings, starting mid-February. Within 2 weeks, South Korea started seeing a decrease in growth rate of new cases (Figure 3b).
Compared to Hubei and South Korea, Italy imposed lockdown/stringent measures later into the epidemic and thus reduction in number of cases in Italy will take a longer time (Figure 3c). As for death, the numbers typically go down at a longer lag after aggressive intervention since “it takes around three weeks on average for someone to die” [Why COVID-19 deaths will keep rising even as the coronavirus outbreak wanes].
To explain the concept of lag in simple terms, suppose someone contracted the virus on March 23 while the lockdown started on March 24. Let us assume that this person is not aware of their exposure and remains asymptomatic in the beginning and starts showing symptoms on March 30 and gets confirmed as a case on April 1 and finally dies on April 10. Thus, this case will still be counted as confirmed and fatal after the lockdown though the infection was contracted prior to lockdown. Every day we are essentially seeing a snapshot of what transmission occurred about two weeks ago. Because of this longer time to progress to severe infection and fatality [Yang et al. 2020], the number of deaths typically go down even later after the lockdown ends, possibly about three weeks. For comparison with Hubei, South Korea and Italy, we provide a similar figure for India through March 31 (Figure 3d). We can expect to start seeing significant changes in case counts by April 8–15 in India if the lockdown is effective.
While the lag issue is easier to explain, we have to remember that testing conventions are changing rapidly in every nation. An increase in testing availability and a broadening of testing criteria will increase the case count, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The ability to test is completely confounded with the case-counts. The number of “true” cases is a composite of the number of unreported/untested infected people and the ones that are confirmed. We will never know the “truth” unless we test more. The rise in the reported numbers in the coming days could be due to more testing becoming available and our predictions will also change. This will eventually lead to knowledge of almost all true cases and their contacts and help us enable post-lockdown prevention strategies. We will have to watch the next few days carefully for the case-counts in India as well as for the rest of the world as more tests are carried out.
4. What would success under a lockdown look like?
Hopefully, the ideal situation (subject to many assumptions) on April 14 when the lockdown in India is lifted, the number of new cases have been contained, testing and contact tracing task forces have been set up, healthcare facilities and mobile labs for testing and treatment are better prepared, other public spaces have been repurposed into temporary care and quarantine facilities, we have more ventilators, and we all are adherent to the hygiene recommendations. Each small step taken by each citizen can make a big difference for the country at this time. The success of the lockdown depends on how people adhere to it and take the recommendations seriously. Success also hinges on how the government utilizes the time to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure. At the same time, the disruption caused to public life will need to be minimized ensuring continuation of supply of essentials, food chain supply, access to critical services and economic protection for the poor and daily wage earners.
5. What can we expect after the lockdown is lifted — will the number of cases go back up? Will there be more deaths?
Our analysis shows we need to have some measures of suppression in place after the lockdown for the best outcome. We created statistical models [Wang et al. 2020] to study the effect of the lockdown under various hypothetical scenarios after it is lifted on April 14. We assume that the initial reproduction number R0 (the average number of people who will catch the virus from one infected person) of 2.0 came down to 1.5 via social distancing and travel ban, and further to 0.8 because of the lockdown. Now we consider four scenarios:
- Perpetual social distancing and travel ban with no lockdown (“soc. dist. + travel ban”) R0 stays at 1.5 from March 12 in perpetuity without a lockdown.
- Increased contact probabilities (due to reconnecting after lockdown and the festival of Baishakhi heralding summer in many parts of India) with R0 going up from 0.8 to 2.0 (“normal (pre-intervention)”)
- Contact probabilities will go back up to where it was on March 25 (due to reconnecting after lockdown) with R0 rising from 0.8 to 1.5 (“moderate return”)
- Slightly decreased contact probabilities (more caution and fear of the virus) with R0 increasing from 0.8 to 1.2 (“cautious return”)
We estimate that 15 (upper credible limit: 99) and 70 (upper credible limit: 1095) cases per 100,000 are avoided by May 15 and June 15, respectively, by instituting a 21-day lockdown with a cautious release compared to perpetual social distancing and travel ban (without a lockdown period) (Figure 4a). This boils down to preventing roughly 196 thousand (upper credible limit: 1.3 million) COVID-19 cases nationwide by May 15 and 943 thousand (upper credible limit: 14.7 million) COVID-19 cases by June 15 by an effective lockdown. Drawing an imaginary horizontal line across Figure 4a gives us a sense of how much time is bought under the different scenarios. Thus, we essentially buy ourselves time through this 21-day pause and flatten the curve (Figure 4b).
As for deaths, we do not expect to see a reduction in the death rate from COVID-19 immediately after April 14 due to the longer lag but this will go down as case-counts go down. However, we have to be mindful that deaths due to other causes such as hunger in low-income families and lack of access to hospital care may increase during this period. There have been reports of deaths from mental health disorders, sense of isolation and loneliness [How Loneliness from Coronavirus Isolation Takes Its Own Toll]. We have to be mindful of the possibility of excess death or casualty due to the indirect effects of the lockdown and be proactive with instituting the right preventive measures. Devoting all our attention and resources towards controlling the number of COVID-19 infected cases is not an ethically viable strategy.
6. Is a 21-day lockdown enough? Would a longer lockdown be more effective?
Several recent papers have argued for a longer period of lockdown [Ferguson et al. 2020, Singh & Adhikari 2020] from a modeling perspective. However, we refrain from commenting on this choice at this point. From a purely epidemiologic point of view, doing one long lockdown (2–3 months) in a strict manner may be effective enough to reduce the R0 further below 1.0 and arrest the pandemic. The other choice is to come out of lockdown in a modulated way with some measures of suppression in place and be prepared to go into another lockdown if more cases appear. However, science and knowledge are evolving every day and since such recommendations have major implication on people’s lives, and particularly for the lives of poor and the underprivileged, we decide to revisit this question after more data come in. While through the devastation of the pandemic it may be easy to reflect on how things could have been handled differently, we must work together and focus on what can be done now in the short term . Any credible long term projections with our models will need more data.
7. How vulnerable are India’s healthcare/frontline workers given that resources are overstretched?
This is a very serious concern not just in India but also in high-income countries. In the US, many fatalities are happening among frontline healthcare workers [KPEL965, USA Today, MedScape]. These heroic individuals are taking care of COVID-19 patients and getting sustained exposure. In China, around 3300 healthcare workers were infected and at least 22 died by the end of February [The Lancet March 21, 2020]. Within a month of COVID-19 hitting Italy, 20% of the responding healthcare professionals were infected thereby straining the healthcare system further [Remuzzi & Remuzzi 2020]. India has only 0.8 doctors (2.1 nurses and midwives) per 1000 people compared to 4.1 (5.9) in Italy, 2.4 (7.0) in South Korea, 1.8 (2.3) in China, 2.8 (8.3) in the UK, 2.6 (8.6) in the USA, and 1.1 (1.9) in Iran. It is extremely important to protect these frontline workers. China and other countries who are on the mend have donated protective gears to other countries. Large scale production of these equipment should start now. Strategies like full protection, stringent safety protocol and training of healthcare personnel are known to work since almost none of the 42,000 external workers who went to help Wuhan, China got infection [Professor Xihong Lin’s Lecture Slides]. Industrial sectors need to pitch in. India has brilliant scientists, inventors and academics. Everyone should think about increasing production capacity, as they currently are. Philanthropists are coming forward with their contributions (e.g., Ratan Tata, individual big-ticket donors from the film industry). Statistical modelers can play an extensive role to predict county and state level health care and hospitalization resource needs so that optimal distribution of resources can be made when the supply is limited [Emanuel et al. 2020, ESRI Impact Planning]. We hope more data driven strategies are adopted in this process of resource allocation. Moreover, from a collective social conscience, COVID-19 patients and caregivers should not be stigmatized or sacrificed [Stigma: the other enemy India’s overworked doctors face in the battle against COVID-19].
8. What can the Indian government do during and after the lockdown?
The Indian government has taken multiple proactive measures including a quick shut down of India’s borders, suspending visas, swiftly promoting quarantine and social distancing guidelines, a central lockdown and a $23 billion stimulus package. Many of the state governments have been remarkably agile and strategic in this fight. Some key points to keep in mind:
- Test, test, test: Testing and contact tracing, cluster testing for contacts of exposed cases cannot stop and needs to expand. Make it easy to get tested with prompt return of results. As of March 27, India has performed nearly approximately 20 tests per million compared to South Korea with roughly 7500 tests per million. Scalable rapid testing is becoming available, for example, a 15-minute COVID-19 test recently received FDA approval, produced by Abbot Laboratories. Self-swab has been shown to be equally effective so dropping off or mailing samples to labs will remove the need for additional personnel [Self-Service Diagnosis of COVID-19]. Creative design and distribution of test kits are needed to track the pulse of the epidemic.
- Testing random subjects and setting up community surveillance is extremely important. Iceland has set up a random testing framework early in the disease course and seen success. Israeli scientists have suggested pooling of biosamples for fast and cost-effective testing. Monitoring admission due to respiratory illness in hospitals, healthcare facilities, mining database for insurance claims in metros could provide alerts for new outbreaks. We cannot fight this war blindfolded, we need transparent data.
- Many daily wage earners are returning to the hinterland from metros and coming in close contact with others through walking miles together and seeking food and shelter collectively. This could further increase transmission. It is important to set up fever clinics and surveillance system in rural areas leveraging community health workers to monitor this exodus from the metros and arrange for free testing and treatment in villages.
- Enable efficient and humanitarian implementation of the lockdown and continue to provide a punctuated, modulated level of infrastructure support with smooth transition. Distribute food, hand soap, thermometers and make sure that the essential supply chain is not broken down.
- Clear communication and transparency are key here. Government advisories are often unclear to common people. In absence of clear and consistent messaging, the public turn to less reliable social media sources for information. Partnering with communication experts to individualize communication strategies for people with different education, literacy level and socioeconomic background is critical at this time.
- Send strong messages not to stigmatize COVID-19 patients, for public to adhere to quarantine rules, and provide guidance on hand hygiene through all possible channels.
- Use pragmatic real-time use of data for optimally deploying surveillance, community inspection and health care resources. This is key with limited resources.
- Arrange steady supply of protective gear (for health care workers), ventilators, treatment supplies. Expand and authorize manufacturing of these equipment.
- Set up temporary hospitals for critically ill COVID-19 patients and quarantine centers for isolating exposed contacts and asymptomatic cases.
- Reduce non-essential medical care but ensure critical care patients are not afraid to seek care. Create COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 care streams in healthcare facilities. Avoid excess deaths from other causes and ensure appropriate supply chain of medications during lockdown.
- As our simulations suggest (Figure 4a), post lockdown, there should be some measures of suppression and modulated return should be ensured. Without some form of suppression, the epidemic can grow again.
- Long term surveillance and management of COVID-19 crisis is needed with not just public health in mind but also to take care of the economic, social, and psychological trauma that it will leave on the people. Reviving the economy will be critical in the coming months.
- Leading with empathy and efficiency and being prepared to scale up interventions that are working and shutting down ones that are not is key for flexible policymaking now.
9. What can the people of India do during and after the lockdown?
- Stay at home during lockdown. Follow guidelines and co-operate with the government, officials and in particular the Ministry of Health. This includes individually adhering to social distancing rules, hand hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette, and collectively co-operating with public health, and public safety officials enforcing these rules. More cases are prevented and more lives are saved if adherence to lockdown is quick and consistent.
- Be proactive in getting tested if exposed to the virus or showing symptoms, and not be afraid of the COVID-19 diagnosis. You can save others by isolating yourself and seek proper care for yourself with an early diagnosis.
- The general public can provide support and guidance to daily wage earners in their own households and social circle. This can be in the form of paid leave for short-distance domestic helpers and group D staff, or excused rent and sustenance support for long-distance daily wage earners (e.g. construction and industrial labors).
- Industrialists can support and accelerate manufacturing initiatives for COVID-19 testing and treatment equipment, and protective gears. Grassroots level organizations (e.g. student unions, non-profit organizations), universities can mobilize initiatives for raising public awareness and understanding of the pandemic. Much of this is already happening in India which is encouraging.
- Corporations and individual donors can contribute to the COVID-19 cause with philanthropic funds to support healthcare capacity building, as well as reduce suffering for the large impoverished segment of the population affected by the lockdown.
- People should refrain from hoarding food, medicines and essential supplies and be mindful of the needs of other fellow humans. Hoarding causes unnecessary panic and increases food price, thereby alienating the poor further.
- Stop stigmatizing and isolating healthcare professionals. We need to stand beside healthcare workforce in this heroic battle against the pandemic.
- Individuals should take care of personal health and the health of those around them. It is important to pay attention to both physical and mental health at a time of isolation and distress like this. Networking, connecting with each other through virtual platforms, organizing local initiatives to bring food, medicines for senior citizens are examples of ways people can stay socially connected and maintain a sense of community during the lockdown. The physical distancing does not have to imply complete social isolation.
- All of us should be prepared for potential longer social distancing measures and a gradual and cautious return to normal life after the lockdown. It is important to remember that the virus will simply not disappear after the lockdown and large mass gatherings may still be risky.
- Travel restrictions in some form will possibly prevail across states and across the world for a period of time. We should mentally prepare for a more static and constrained life in the near future.
10. Why are there so many models and so many projections and why do they vary so much? How much should we rely on these projections?
There are many epidemiological models to predict the course of an infectious disease [Mandal et al. 2020, CDDEP, Singh & Adhikari 2020]. Some use age-structure, contact patterns, spatial information to finesse their prediction. Some consider the possibility of a latent number of true cases, only a fraction of which are ascertained and observed [Wang et al. 2020]. The model we used here is an extension of a standard SIR model, called eSIR model [Wang et al. 2020], where we can create hypothetical intervention scenarios in a time dependent manner. The goal of any intervention is to reduce the chance that an infected person meets a susceptible person. We create models for declines/drops in contact probabilities when an intervention is rolled out. Thus, there is some intrinsic ad-hocery to our assumptions. Any statistical model is wrinkled with such assumptions. Similarly, the predictions themselves have large uncertainty (as reflected by the upper credible limits). As we interpret the numbers from any model, let us use caution in not over-interpreting them. A rigorous quantitative treatment often allows us to analyze a problem with clarity and objectivity, but we recommend focusing more on the qualitative takeaway messages from this exercise rather than concentrating on the exact numerical projections or quoting them with certainty.
We did explore some alternative assumptions and conducted thorough sensitivity analysis before settling on the model presented here. In one example, we assumed that there are actually ten times the number of reported cases to date to reflect potential underreporting of cases due to lack of testing. In another scenario, we assumed these cases occurred in metropolitan areas to reflect a potential intensification of case clustering. In yet a third scenario, we hypothesized that a single infected individual would infect 2.5 susceptible individuals, on average, instead of 2. These scenarios did not appreciably change our conclusions in broad qualitative terms, though the exact quantitative projections are quite sensitive to such choices. Across these scenarios, the projected total number of infected cases by the first phase of the pandemic varied between 1–10% of the population, again showing the significant variability in these numbers. The estimates we present here may appear conservative and are at best underestimates, and, in all cases, our confidence in these projections decreases markedly the farther into the future we try to forecast. It is extremely important to update these models as new data arise.
In our strong commitment to reproducibility and dissemination of our research, we have made the code for our predictions available at GitHub and created an interactive and dynamic R Shiny app to visualize the observed data and create predictions under hypothetical scenarios with quantification of uncertainties. These forecasts will get updated daily as data come in. We hope these products will remain our contribution and service as data scientists during this tragic global catastrophe, and the model and methods will be used to analyze data from other countries.
Finally, our message to the public is to proceed with prudence and caution, and not panic or drown in despair. We should draw hope from the success of South Korea and China and the initial promising containment in India. We need to support the community around us and help the government of India to manage the crisis with the best strategies, resources and science. The lockdown has given us time to prepare and act, let us make the best use of it. We are still in a state of national and global emergency and it will take a considerable time for humanity to recover from this global pandemic and return to normalcy. In the mean time we root for public health, for innovation and science, for home testing kits [there is none yet], for FDA approved drugs [Solidarity Trial], and for a vaccine [3 phase I clinical trials ongoing]. In these frightening times we find inspiration in the power of the common people and the magic of human kindness.
The COV-IND-19 Study Group is comprised of an interdisciplinary group of scholars and data scientists. The following members contributed to this piece:
- Maxwell Salvatore — Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Center for Precision Health Data Science, University of Michigan
- Lili Wang — Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan
- Rupam Bhattacharyya — Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan
- Soumik Purkayastha — Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan
- Shariq Mohammed — Departments of Biostatistics and Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan
- Aritra Halder — Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut
- Daniel Barker — Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan
- Michael Kleinsasser — Departments of Biostatistics and Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan
- Alexander Rix — Department of Biostatistics and Center for Precision Health Data Science, University of Michigan
- Mousumi Banerjee — Department of Biostatistics and Institute for Health Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan
- Veera Baladandayuthapani — Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan
- Debashree Ray — Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University
- Bhramar Mukherjee — Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Center for Precision Health Data Science, University of Michigan |
Nano is greek for dwarf and refers to small, compact aquariums not exceeding 30 gallons. Most common are 10 gallons or less. Nano tanks are integrated systems, equipped with all accessories needed for a specific habitat.
As the aquarium size shrinks so does the number of suitable fish and other livestock options. The need for space is usually predicated on the fishes’ size, activity level, and other behavioral traits. Aggressive and territorial fish for example are a poor choice for the nano tank due to the lack of hiding spaces for the more docile species.
Check out this nano tank after being treated with Algone:
Most fish are not suitable, so some research is required prior to setup. The old saying that a juvenile fish will only grow to the size of the aquarium is not true, so base your choices on the adult size of the species. Suitable fish for small freshwater tanks are guppies (caution: they can breed quite quickly) danios, tetras, mollies, or platies. Gobies would be a good choice for saltwater nano tanks, as are snails and crabs.
Nano tanks are not good beginner aquariums. Especially those on the smaller end of the scale. Smaller fish tanks are far less forgiving then their larger counterparts. Everything done in a small tank, i.e. feeding, water changes, number of fish stocked, etc, will require much greater precision in order to keep a healthy balance of the environment.
Temperature for example changes quicker compared to a larger body of water. Water values such as pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, CO2 fluctuate much easier. Water will evaporate quicker resulting in a hardening of the water.
5 Tips for a successful nano tank:
– Less is more
– Observe daily
– Feed very little
– Frequent partial water changes
– Act fast on problems |
A typical tire sold in the United States today might be marked as shown in the illustration. Click on any of the markings for an explanation of its meaning.
The commonest system is P metric system. This differs from the Metric system of markings. Further, P metric sizes are not the same as or interchangeable with LT metric sizes.
The type of tire a car requires will be found on a label attached either to the edge of the driver's door, or to the "B pillar", the support just behind the driver's door.
Any letters at the beginning:
|P||the tire is meant for a Passenger car.|
|LT||the tire is meant to be used on a Light Truck. Oops! Not a P metric tire.|
The first number, in this case “185,” is the nominal width of the tire in millimeters, from sidewall to sidewall, when it is properly mounted on a wheel and inflated but not supporting a car. top
The number after the slash, in this case “70,” is a percentage: the percentage the distance from the rim to the tread (in a properly mounted and inflated tire not supporting a car) is of the width of the tire. In this example it is 70, so 70% of 185 = 129.5; from the rim to the road is 129.5 mm (about 5.1 inches). Basically, the number tells you how tall the tire is; it is usually called the aspect ratio or the profile of the tire. top
The first letter after the numbers indicates the highest sustained speed at which the tire can be safely used, i.e., how fast you can safely go as far as the tires are concerned. Notice that the codes don't increase in alphabetic order.
|Code||indicates the tire must not be run at speeds over|
|in miles per hour||in kilometers per hour|
The “Z” or “ZR” rating identifies tires that may be run at speeds over 240 km per hour (149 mph); the “W”, "Y" and “(Y)” ratings are actually subcategories of “Z”.
Some tires lack a speed rating. A snow tire without a speed rating is actually a Q, 160 km per hour or 100 mph. A highway passenger car tire without a rating is limited to 170 km per hour (105 mph). A light truck (LT) tire is limited to 140 km per hour (87 mph).
The second letter describes the way the tire cords are laid:
|R||a radial, that is, the cords of the belting are at about 90 degrees to the tread.|
|D||a diagonal ply tire; the cords are about 45 degrees to the edge (the D stands for diagonal).|
The last number in the mark (in this case "13") is the diameter of the rim in inches.
The Uniform Tire Quality Grading System was developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation to give consumers some guidance on tire quality. At first the three ratings were printed together, like the “200AB” in the example at the top of the page, which was rather mysterious to the average consumer. Now the ratings are clearly labeled:
The actual ratings are determined by the manufacturer of the tire, not the Department. These ratings are most useful in comparing different models of one maker, rather than models from different makers.
In the United States, the only passenger car tires that are not required to show these ratings are snow tires, deep tread tires, temporary spares, tires with nominal rim diameters between 10 and 12 inches, and certain limited production tires.
49 CFR 575.104(c)(2)
The number “200” in the example is the treadwear index. The tread of a tire with a treadwear index of 200 should last twice as long as one with a treadwear index of 100. The life of the “reference tire,” the one with an index of 100 to which all others are compared, is determined by convoys of 4 cars driving for 6,400 miles over public roads near San Angelo, Texas. Because tire life depends on many factors other than the tire, such as the weight of the vehicle, how it is driven, tire pressure, and so on, there is no accurate way of determining from the treadwear index how many miles you'll get. However, under the highly controlled test conditions, a tire with a treadwear index of 100 lasts for about 30,000 miles. In practice, treadwear indexes below 200 are low, over 400 high. Some tires with indexes in the 500s are available, while the special tires for the rear wheels of the Acura NSX are rated 120 (the rubber compounds that give the best traction also wear the fastest).
For a detailed description of the procedure for determining the treadwear index, see www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=e25ce7767c24888019b4f7e765912faa&mc=true&node=se49.7.575_1104&rgn=div8http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=e25ce7767c24888019b4f7e765912faa&mc=true&node=se49.7.575_1104&rgn=div8"
The first letter after the treadwear index is a traction score that rates the tire's ability to stop on wet pavement. It is either AA, A, B or C, with AA the highest rating.
The second letter after the treadwear index is a temperature grade that rates the tire's resistance to the generation of heat and its ability to dissipate heat. It is either A, B, or C, with A the highest rating. The C rating is the minimum performance that passes Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 109.
If the tire illustrated were a snow tire, it would bear the letters “M/S”, “M+S” or “M&S”, (for Mud and Snow), and a pictogram of a snowflake in the outline of a mountain. This code is promulgated by the Rubber Manufacturers Assn.
Similar codes are “AT”, for All Terrain, and “AS” for All Season. These codes have different meanings and the tires are not interchangeable.
(In this example, “B9PA B55X 101,” though usually prefixed with “DOT”, and usually called the “DOT code” or “TIN”). This code, assigned by the Department of Transportation, indicates who manufactured the tire, where, and when. There are too many manufacturers and places of manufacture codes for us to give them here; besides, they frequently change. Please see the most recent edition of:
Who Makes It and Where Directory
Boca Raton, FL: Tire Guides, Inc.
The date of manufacture is indicated by the last group of digits, which usually appear in a sunken rectangle. Before 2000, this group had three digits; since 2000, it has had four. The first two digits are the week of the year (01 = the first week of January). The third digit (for tires made before 2000) is the year (1 = 1991). For tires made after 2000, the third and fourth digits are the year (04 = 2004). The date of manufacture is essential information because tires deteriorate even if they are not used. European automobile manufacturers recommend that tires older than 6 years, including spares never driven upon, be discarded.
The maximum load and pressure ratings are also usually indicated on the sidewall, as well as information on the number of plies.
Some tires have an arrow molded into the sidewall to show the direction the tire must rotate when the car is moving forward. Such a tire has a tread pattern designed to be especially effective in wet weather. To achieve this, the tread is not symmetrical front to back, so, unlike most tires, it makes a difference which way the tire is rolling.
This system developed from the older Metric Sizing System, which in turn was a conversion of the Numeric Sizing System from inches to millimeters. A typical rating might be 185/60R14 82H, where
The big difference is the load index, which is required in Europe but not in the United States. The load index is the maximum weight each tire is expected to support at maximum speed.
The tire sizing system described above, known as P-Metric, came into use around 1976. Various systems were used before that, and tires are still manufactured to fit earlier designations.
|Name of system||A typical designation||Period of use|
|alpha-numeric||GR78-14||1968 to 1976|
|before about 1924|
In Europe similar designations were used, except that the tire's width was given in millimeters. An “R” was inserted to indicate a radial tire, for example, “185R15”.
Another style: 31 by 10.50R-15, sometimes written as 31-1050R15, is used for light truck tires.
In the early days of motoring, tire sizes were given as the nominal rim diameter in inches by the nominal rim width in inches. In the late 1920s, the order was inverted; but because the larger number is always the rim, the change caused little confusion.
Tire and Rim Association.
Rubber Manufacturers Association, www.rma.org
European Tyre and Rim Technical Organization (ETRTO)
Japan Tire Manufacturers Association (JATMA)
Copyright © 2000-2013 Sizes, Inc. All rights reserved.
Last revised: 12 March 2013. |
|a division of Home School Legal Defense Association||January 12, 2000|
Why Should Congress Abolish the Federal Role in Education?
Why is Straight As Important?
A Violation of the 10th Amendment
The federal role in education is a violation of the 10th amendment of the United States Constitution which states, The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government delegated the power to regulate or fund elementary or secondary education.
Department of ED: A Bureaucratic Spending Trough
In the face of stiff opposition, the federal government formed the Department of Education (ED) in 1979. Supporters promised that the ED would have a relatively small budget of only $14.5 billion and less than 100 employees. Today, the ED enjoys a hefty budget of over $32 billion and employs 5,100 people (89.4% of whom were deemed nonessential during the November 1995 government shutdown).1 The education spending rate since the departments founding has risen three times as fast as non-defense discretionary programs (29.5% versus 7.9%).2
Federal Programs Actively Seek to Usurp States Authority
In 1989, most of the nations governors drafted a comprehensive set of federal education goals. These goals would center on a ten year plan to improve education by setting high achievement standards (federal standards) which states would have to meet by the year 2000. Thus, Goals 2000 began its unpopular legislative career. States would be given partial funding for the Goals by the ED. Several states (Alabama, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Montana) balked at the program, fearing the federal regulations which would naturally follow the money. This did not matter to the ED, who simply made the funds available directly to the local school districts regardless of the Governor or legislatures position. Again, this represents a radical, unconstitutional usurpation by the Federal Department of Education.
Federal Funds Create Red Tape
Although statistics show that only seven percent of an average schools budget is subsidized by the feds3, local districts complain about massive paperwork and red tape required to receive these skimpy funds. A 1991 survey of Ohio school districts found that each district was required to fill out an average of 330 forms, of which 157 were from the state and 173 were from the federal government.4 The federal government, responsible for only seven percent of the budget, causes 55% of the red tape.
On February 28, 1996, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives held a comprehensive meeting on abolishing the Department of Education. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), flanked by Congressman Goodling (R-PA), McKeon (R-CA) and others, produced the results of an investigation by the Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee. The committee documented 760 unconstitutional federal education programs located in 39 separate agencies, departments, commissions and boards. The combined, unconstitutional funds totaled $120 billion! Further, the committee found that only six percent of these programs have as their primary function the teaching of math, reading, or science!
Goodling stated, This massive list of federal education programs clearly demonstrates what many of us had suspected for quite some time that Washington is out of control and out of touch. Pointing out a huge stack of papers required for all the Education Departments programs, McKeon remarked, The Clintons say that it takes a village to raise a child, but that is only because it takes a village to fill out this paper work.
Dollars Do Not Make Scholars
We have seen that not only is federal involvement in education unconstitutional, but extremely impractical. The ED refuses to acknowledge this and continues to throw money at problems it cannot fix. Since 1979, the ED has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on education resulting in the following:
Since 1970, per pupil spending has risen from about $3,000 to almost $5,600, adjusted for inflation.
SAT scores have dropped from a total average of 937 in 1972 to 902 in 1994.
30% of college freshmen must take remedial education classes.
17-year olds scored 11 points worse in science than in 1970.
66 percent of 17-year olds do not read at a proficient level and reading scores have fallen since 1992.
U.S. Students scored worse in math than all other large countries except Spain. There has been no significant improvement in scores since 1973. 5
Even Big Government Politicians Warned Against the ED
This is a back-room deal, born out of a squalid politics. Everything we had thought we would not see happening to education is happening here. Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) 6
No matter what anyone says, the Department of Education will not just write checks to local school boards. They will meddle in everything. I do not want that. Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO) 7
A national Department may actually impede the innovation of local programs as it attempts to establish uniformity throughout the Nation. Representative Joseph Early (D-MA) 8
We will be minimizing the roles of local and State education officials; we recognize that the States are responsible for the education policies of the children in the is country. Representative Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) 9
The federal governments involvement in education represents everything that is wrong with so many of our government agencies: they are unconstitutional, wasteful, expensive, and out of touch. It is the duty of our congress to abolish not only the Department of Education, but the entire federal involvement in education. If Congress refuses to do its duty, the bureaucracy will continue to grow, and education will continue to decline. In 1979, Representative L.H. Fountain (D-NC) made an accurate prediction about the Department of Education which could be applied to the whole federal role in education. Fountain stated,
I am opposed to this ill-advised and unnecessary legislation to establish a department which will grow and grow, cost the taxpayers of this nation unnecessary billions of dollars, and ultimately become an unmanageable monster bureaucracy. 10
Reprint permission granted. Prepared by the legal staff of the National Center for Home Education.
- Berthoud, Dr. John E., Who Got It Right? What Proponents and Opponents of the Creation of the Department of Education Promised & Predicted, The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, January 18, 1996, p.11.
- U.S. Department of Education: Digest of Education Statistics 1994, Table 157, Page 152.
- Jacobson, James B., The Restoring Local Schools Act, The National Center for Home Education, 1995.
- Sources: NAEP, 1992 Trends in Academic Progress, NAEP, 1994 Reading, NCES Education in States and Nations:, NCES, the Condition of Education 1995, Projections of Education Statistics to 2005, NCES Survey, 1991.
- Berthoud, p.3
- Ibid. p.8
- Ibid. p.11 |
Native American cultures
What's new on our site today!
Apurina Indian Language (Apurinã, Apuriná)
Apurina is an Arawakan language of South America, spoken by about
1000 people in Brazil. Apurina is a polysynthetic
language with complex verbs, notable for using the rare OSV word order.
The Apurina are also sometimes known as Popengare,
Kaxiriri; spelling variants of these names include Apurinã,
Apuriná, Apurimã, Ipurina, Ipuriná, Ipurinan, Hypurina, Ipureiná, Apurinña, Popingaré, Popunkare, Popũkare, Ponpukare,
Kangite, Kangiti, Kankiti, Kankete, and Cacharary.
Our list of vocabulary words in the Apurina language, with comparison to words in other Arawakan languages.
Apurina Animal Words:
Picture glossary of animal words in the Apurina language.
Worksheet showing color words in the Apurina language.
Apurina Language Resources
The Apurinã Language and People:
A linguistics thesis on the Apurina language available online.
La Lengua Apuriná:
Information on Apurina including a linguistic map of Brazil. Page in Spanish.
Encyclopedia article on the Apurina language including a phonological inventory.
House of Languages: Apuriná
Information about Apuriná language usage.
Demographic information on the Apurina language.
Apuriná Language Tree:
Theories about Apurina's language relationships compiled by Linguist List.
Apurinã Language Structures:
Apurinã linguistic profile and academic bibliography.
A grammar and a vocabulary of the Ipuriná language
Ipurina language book for sale online.
Languages of the Amazon
In-depth book about Apurina and dozens of other Amazonian Indian languages.
Comparative Arawakan Histories
Interesting book about the history and culture of the Apurina and other Arawak speaking tribes.
Native American Indian Books:
Evolving list of books about Native Americans in general.
The Apurina People:
Cultural information about the Apurinas today, with photographs.
The Apurinã of Brazil:
Information about the Apurinas from a Brazilian indigenous organization.
Links, References, and Additional Information
Wikipedia: Apurinã people:
Encyclopedia articles about the Apurinas.
Os Apurinã: Popũkare/Apurinã:
Information about the Apurina Indians in Portuguese.
Apurina Indian books.
Native Languages of the Americas website © 1998-2015 Contacts and FAQ page
Back to our Native American linguistics homepage
Back to our page of Indian languages of South America
Back to Native American Indians websites for kids
Native American medicine
Native American tattoos
Would you like to sponsor our work on the Apurina Indian language? |
Definitions for fairylandˈfɛər iˌlænd
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word fairyland
fantasy world, phantasy world, fairyland(noun)
something existing solely in the imagination (but often mistaken for reality)
fairyland, faerie, faery(noun)
the enchanted realm of fairies
The imaginary land or abode of fairies.
Having qualities ascribed to fairies and their realm; fanciful, delicate, surreal, or diminutive.
The children built a fairyland cottage out of gingerbread, decorated with gumdrops and peppermint sticks.
the imaginary land or abode of fairies
Fairyland is a symphonic power/speed metal band from France.
Translations for fairyland
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for fairyland »
Find a translation for the fairyland definition in other languages:
Select another language: |
Drones or otherwise formally known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are aircraft devices that are capable of flying above the ground and carrying out certain actions without direct human piloting, they can be remotely controlled by a human operator or automatically piloted by computers.
According to BuyBestQuadcopter.com, which lists affordable quadcopters:
“A drone is a pilotless aircraft, ship, or submarine that a person or computer guides remotely.”
Many drones carry digital imaging technologies and communication systems, making them extremely versatile systems that can accomplish a wide variety of tasks. A growing number of industries and users are adopting this technology, including military, government, commercial, and recreational users, which is why now is a good time to examine the key advantages and disadvantages of aerial drones.
1- Maintaining a Safe Environment
UAVs can be used for a variety of tasks that help promote a safer environment. With their remote monitoring capabilities, drones can monitor situations, report potential dangers, and warn people of unsafe conditions, helping create and maintain a safe environment. For example, camera-equipped drones can evaluate traffic patterns which help drivers avoid high-risk areas.
Additionally, aerial drones are ideal for military missions that are too dangerous for humans to venture upon. By obtaining real-time data on aspects such as area surveillance and monitoring public safety, they enable the operators to inspect suspicious items and situations without posing a threat to their security or welfare.
2- Affordable Cost-Saving Technology
Because the drone technology is continuously getting refined, the cost of purchasing a drone isn’t as high as it used to be. This caused their popularity to increase exponentially among the public, you can even find used drones for sale nowadays. This means that the drones are no longer exclusively available for the military, law enforcement, or the elite only.
UAVs can also provide numerous cost-saving opportunities in various areas; they can directly replace several manned operations, saving on the cost of labor. Additionally, they can save energy and operating costs because a single drone can accomplish tasks that would typically require multiple vehicles to complete. They’re also cheaper to purchase, maintain, and fuel than the regular airplanes.
3- Quality Imaging and Live Streaming
Drones can take high-quality aerial videos and photographs and collect vast amounts of high-resolution data. These data can be used to create accurate 3D maps and detailed 3D models which have many critical uses. For instance, 3D mapping of disaster areas can enable rescue teams to be better equipped before entering hazardous situations.
Due to their ability to capture high-quality images and videos, drones are commonly used for live streaming momentous events and important occasions in the entertainment industry as well as political and global events. They can also be used to cover personal events and capture significant milestones.
4- Easily Controllable
The new advanced drone-control technology allows for easy operation by users with relatively minimal experience who are using drones for basic simple tasks. This, combined with the relatively low cost of most models, has contributed to the increased popularity and accessibility of UAVs among a wide range of users.
Aerial drones have a greater range of movement than the traditional manned aircraft; they’re able to fly lower and in more directions, allowing them to navigate hard-to-access areas with ease. They can also stay in the air for longer, doing repetitive tasks with precision under testing conditions.
1- Privacy Violation
While the advantages of drones are numerous, It’s also a technology that can be easily abused because UAVs can be manipulated to invade the privacy of a specific target group or individual. With the many causes calling for using drones to maintain safety, many personal liberties could be violated in the name of providing personal or public security with a drone.
2- Endangering Public Safety
Safety is a primary concern when dealing with aerial drones. UAVs need to be programmed with the capability to sense and detect potential collisions and safely maneuver their way around them. To avoid any possible dangerous repercussions, these capabilities need to match those of manned aircraft pilots.
It’s easy to crash an aerial drone, an experienced pilot has the precise skills required to navigate an aerial drone, but for an amateur pilot, the threat of an accident is quite high. Drones that are flown in heavily-populated areas have an increased risk of ground impact or injury, especially in the event of a system failure or system hacking.
3- Potential Threat to Nature
Drones are vulnerable to wild animal attacks and can also pose a threat to nature. When flying drones in an area that has a large concentration of wild animals, there’s a high risk of crashing against a tree or potentially colliding with a defenseless creature.
Large flying wild birds such as eagles are usually the main culprit when they come in contact with an aerial drone; they fight the invasion of their space by attacking and sometimes even capturing drones that navigate the habitat in which they roam.
4- Unclear Legislation
Since the rapid, widespread use of drones is relatively new, legislation is still catching up. Certain rules have been established for small drones that apply to commercial and recreational use, but there are still ambiguities. Laws, procedures, and policies which regulate the usage of drones and protect property owners from aerial trespassing are still being developed, so for now, the UAV technology operates in a legal gray area.
Further adding to the confusion is the contradictions and conflicts between federal regulations and any state, city, and local laws that determine airspace property rights. This creates unclear areas of legality where some drone users may find themselves in violation of laws that they knew nothing about.
As the UAV technology advances, aerial drones are increasingly becoming more common, giving rise to debates that weigh their benefits against ethical concerns and possible disadvantages. With the above pros and cons in mind, it has become clear that drones show great potential for good, but they also pose a great risk of abuse.
If you’re considering using a drone, do so responsibly and make sure you’re working from a level playing field where you aren’t invading anyone’s privacy or putting yourself or others at risk.
Some drones today have artificial intelligence installed in their software. Artificial intelligence is software that makes machines think and behave like human beings. |
Definitions for magnetic force
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word magnetic force
magnetism, magnetic attraction, magnetic force(noun)
attraction for iron; associated with electric currents as well as magnets; characterized by fields of force
The force caused by a magnetic field, a force which affects objects having a magnetic field and objects in which a magnetic field can be induced, such as ferromagnetic substances; a magnetic force manifests itself as an attraction for iron. It is associated with electric currents and moving charged paticles as well as permanent magnets.
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
The forces of attraction and repulsion exercised by a magnet. By Ampere's theory it is identical with the forces of attraction and repulsion of electric currents.
Translations for magnetic force
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
Get even more translations for magnetic force »
Find a translation for the magnetic force definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss these magnetic force definitions with the community:
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"magnetic force." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2015. Web. 5 Sep. 2015. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/magnetic force>. |
Thinking Critically With
The Need for Psychological
Did We Know It All Along?
The Scientific Attitude
How Do Psychologists Ask
and Answer Questions?
The Scientific Method
Statistical Reasoning in
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Do Psychology?
1. How can we differentiate between
uniformed opinions and examined
2. The science of psychology helps make
these examined conclusions, which leads
to our understanding of how people feel,
think, and act as they do!
What About Intuition & Common
Many people believe that intuition and common
sense are enough to bring forth answers regarding
Intuition and common sense may aid queries,
but they are not free of error.
Limits of Intuition
Personal interviewers may
rely too much on their “gut
feelings” when meeting
with job applicants.
Hindsight Bias is the “I-knew-it-all-along”
After learning the outcome of an event, many
people believe they could have predicted that very
outcome. We only knew the dot.com stocks would
plummet after they actually did plummet.
Sometimes we think we
know more than we
How long do you think it
would take to unscramble
People said it would take
about 10 seconds, yet on
average they took about 3
minutes (Goranson, 1978).
The Scientific Attitude
The scientific attitude is composed of curiosity
(passion for exploration), skepticism (doubting
and questioning) and humility (ability to accept
responsibility when wrong).
Critical thinking does
not accept arguments
and conclusions blindly.
evaluates evidence and
The Amazing Randi
How Do Psychologists Ask &
Psychologists, like all scientists, use the
scientific method to construct theories that
organize, summarize and simplify
A theory is an explanation that integrates
principles and organizes and predicts
behavior or events.
For example, low self-esteem contributes to
A hypothesis is a testable prediction, often
prompted by a theory, to enable us to
accept, reject or revise the theory.
People with low self-esteem are apt to feel
Research would require us to administer
tests of self-esteem and depression.
Individuals who score low on a self-esteem
test and high on a depression test would
confirm our hypothesis.
A technique in which one person is studied in
depth to reveal underlying behavioral principles.
Is language uniquely human? SusanKuklin/PhotoResearchers
A technique for ascertaining the self-reported
attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people
usually done by questioning a representative,
random sample of people.
Wording can change the results of a survey.
Q: Should cigarette ads and pornography be
allowed on television? (not allowed vs. forbid)
If each member of a
population has an equal
chance of inclusion into a
sample, it is called a
(unbiased). If the survey
sample is biased, its
results are not valid. The fastest way to know about the
marble color ratio is to blindly
transfer a few into a smaller jar and
Observing and recording the behavior of animals in the
wild and recording self-seating patterns in a multiracial
school lunch room constitute naturalistic observation.
Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic
observation describe behaviors.
When one trait or behavior accompanies
another, we say the two correlate.
(positive or negative)
(0.00 to 1.00)
r = 0.37+
Correlation Coefficient is a
statistical measure of the
relationship between two
Scatterplot is a graph comprised of points that are
generated by values of two variables. The slope of
the points depicts the direction, while the amount
of scatter depicts the strength of the relationship.
No relationship (0.00)Perfect negative
The Scatterplot on the left shows a negative correlation,
while the one on the right shows no relationship between
the two variables.
Data showing height and temperament in people.
The Scatterplot below shows the relationship between
height and temperament in people. There is a moderate
positive correlation of +0.63.
Correlation and Causation
Correlation does not mean causation!
The perception of a relationship where no relationship
actually exists. Parents conceive children after adoption.
Given random data, we look for order and
Order in Random Events
Your chances of being dealt either of these hands is
precisely the same: 1 in 2,598,960.
Order in Random Events
Given large numbers of random outcomes, a few
are likely to express order.
Angelo and Maria Gallina won two
California lottery games on the same day.
Like other sciences, experimentation is the
backbone of psychological research. Experiments
isolate causes and their effects.
Exploring Cause and Effect
Many factors influence our behavior. Experiments
(1) manipulate factors that interest us, while other
factors are kept under (2) control.
Effects generated by manipulated factors isolate
cause and effect relationships.
Exploring Cause & Effect
In evaluating drug therapies, patients and
experimenter’s assistants should remain
unaware of which patients had the real
treatment and which patients had the placebo
Assigning participants to experimental (breast-
fed) and control (formula-fed) conditions by
random assignment minimizes pre-existing
differences between the two groups.
An independent variable is a factor manipulated
by the experimenter. The effect of the independent
variable is the focus of the study.
For example, when examining the effects of breast
feeding upon intelligence, breast feeding is the
A dependent variable is a factor that may change in
response to an independent variable. In psychology,
it is usually a behavior or a mental process.
For example, in our study on the effect of breast
feeding upon intelligence, intelligence is the
A summary of steps during experimentation.
Below is a comparison of different research
Statistical procedures analyze and interpret data
allowing us to see what the unaided eye misses.
Composition of ethnicity in urban locales
Statistical Reasoning in Everyday Life
Doubt big, round, undocumented
numbers as they can be misleading and
before long, become public
Apply simple statistical reasoning in
everyday life to think smarter!
A meaningful description of data is important in
research. Misrepresentation may lead to incorrect
Measures of Central Tendency
Mode: The most frequently occurring score
in a distribution.
Mean: The arithmetic average of scores in a
distribution obtained by adding the
scores and then dividing by the number
of scores that were added together.
Median: The middle score in a rank-ordered
Measures of Central Tendency
A Skewed Distribution
Measures of Variation
Range: The difference between the highest and
lowest scores in a distribution.
Standard Deviation: A computed measure of
how much scores vary around the mean.
A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that
describes the distribution of many types of
data (normal distribution). Most scores fall
near the mean.
Illusion of Control
1. Illusory Correlation: the perception of a relationship
where no relationship actually exists.
2. Regression Toward the Mean: the tendency for
extremes of unusual scores or events to regress
toward the average.
That chance events are subject to personal control is an
illusion of control fed by:
A statistical statement of how frequently an
obtained result occurred by experimental
manipulation or by chance.
1. Representative samples are better than biased
2. Less-variable observations are more reliable
than more variable ones.
3. More cases are better than fewer cases.
When is an Observed Difference Reliable?
When sample averages are reliable and the
difference between them is relatively large, we say
the difference has statistical significance. It is
probably not due to chance variation.
For psychologists this difference is measured
through alpha level set at 5 percent.
When is a Difference Significant?
Frequently Asked Questions About
Q1. Can laboratory experiments illuminate
Ans: Artificial laboratory conditions are created to
study behavior in simplistic terms. The goal is to
find underlying principles that govern behavior.
Q2. Does behavior depend on one’s culture and gender?
Ans: Even when specific attitudes and behaviors vary across
cultures, as they often do, the underlying processes are much
the same. Biology determines our sex, and culture further
bends the genders. However, in many ways woman and
man are similarly human.
Q4. Is it ethical to experiment on people?
Ans: Yes. Experiments that do not involve any
kind of physical or psychological harm beyond
normal levels encountered in daily life may be
Q6. Is psychology potentially dangerous?
Ans: It can be, but is not when practiced
responsibly. The purpose of psychology is to help
humanity with problems such as war, hunger,
prejudice, crime, family dysfunction, etc. |
When there’s a problem with your molars — the teeth at the back of your mouth — it can make life very unpleasant. Most of the pressure from our jaws when we bite goes through those teeth. If they’re chipped or cracked, all of that pressure is going to translate into discomfort and pain. The best way to get on top of it? Dental crowns.
A dental crown is an appliance designed to restore the look and function of a chipped or cracked tooth. It also protects the tooth from further damage.
It’s easiest to think of a dental crown as a kind of cap or helmet that sits over the natural tooth. Dental crowns are shaped to look like real teeth, and depending on the material used can appear very natural.
Dental Crowns can be made from a variety of materials such as gold, porcelain, or composite resin.
Most of the force of your bite goes into your back teeth. If a tooth is chipped or cracked, this force will eventually make the tooth break. This is not just painful, it’s complicated and time-consuming to fix.
A dental crown helps to restore the integrity of the damaged tooth. Pressure from your bite is spread properly among the crown, preventing further damage.
Dental crowns are also used after a root canal. Because a hole needs to be drilled through your tooth to get to the pulp inside, the tooth’s integrity becomes compromised. Capping the treated tooth with a crown gives it its strength back, and also prevents bacteria from re-entering the tooth.
Getting a dental crown takes a few steps. After your consultation, an impression will need to be taken of your teeth. This allows the crown to be properly designed and ensure it fits in your mouth.
Because the crown sits on top of the tooth, some enamel needs to be shaved away to allow a proper fit. If the enamel isn’t shaved back, then the crown won’t fit in the mouth. After the crown is placed on the tooth it should take up little to no more room than the original tooth did.
After that, a temporary crown is fitted until the full crown is properly machined. Some dental practices offer same-day crown restorations using machines such as the CEREC. These are computer-guided systems that take digital scans of the teeth, create a virtual design for the crown, and then machine it automatically.
Otherwise, it will take several weeks for the crown to be ready to fix into place on the tooth.
Dental crowns aren’t considered invasive procedures, and there are no real contraindications for getting one.
The only time a crown might not be considered is if the tooth is too damaged. After a point, placing a crown on a severely damaged tooth simply won’t do anything. In those cases, it will be best to get the tooth removed and have a dental implant or bridge placed there instead. |
Scientific Name: Saururus cernuus L.
Common Name: Lizard's Tail
Perennial, usually aquatic herb from a fleshy rhizome. Stem pubescent 5-9 dm tall.
Leaves alternate, lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, 2-9 cm wide, entire, cordate. Racemes opposite
the leaves, 10-20 cm long, ca. 1 cm in diam., the tip drooping; peduncle pubescent, 3-8 cm
long. Perianth absent; stamens 3-7, hypogynous; carpels 3-4, nearly distinct. Fruit a
capsule. (n=11) May-July; August-September. Streams, lake margins, marshes, swamps
and low woodlands; throughout the coastal plain and piedmont. [SE].
You can see more information on this family,
from the DELTA collection, on the Biodiversity and Biological Collections server, at the University of Kansas. To visit their server, use the triangular link below.
Visit the DELTA Home Page
Back to the Photo Gallery
Back to the Table of Contents |
BMI, or body mass index, is a measurement used to determine your level of fat in the context of your weight and height. The numbers often are used to determine whether you are obese or overweight. The measure of your body fat is based on your weight and height and does not include bone structure, which can skew the results.
BMI calculations often list big-boned or muscular individuals as obese, notes the Harvard School of Public Health. Bone and muscle are denser than fat, making people with denser bones and more muscles weigh more. An athlete with high bone density and developed muscles may have a high body mass index but still not be overweight or obese.
A BMI calculation that takes into account your bone and muscle development is most accurate when you're in your 20s. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, adults over 30 rarely add significant bone and muscle weight. Weight gain after age 30 most often is due to fat and is reflected most accurately by the BMI charts that rely on your current weight and height.
Measurements for Children
Because the standard body mass index tests do not take into account the bone development of growing children, a better way to measure fat on a child is through neck measurements, according to a study published in "Pediatrics." Relying on the BMI, pediatricians then must take into account the bone structure of the child to make an accurate assessment of childhood obesity. Neck size measurements also are easy to take and compare with the average neck size of children who are the same age. Neck measurements rely on bone structure and fat to best determine and predict a healthy growth weight for your child.
The body mass index should be considered when looking at your overall health and taken into proper perspective. BMI calculators are widely available online, but if you'd prefer to do the calculation yourself, divide your weight by the number of inches that make up your height. Take that final number and multiply it by 703. The resulting number is your body mass index. Ranges for obesity allow you to consider your bone structure and muscle development. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 reflects a normal weight.
Using the numbers as a guide, you should take into consideration your age as well as your bone structure, because your bones becomes less dense and muscles tend to atrophy as you age. Keep in mind that BMI may underestimate your body fat levels if you are over 50 and may overestimate your body fat composition if you are athletic and muscular. |
Proteins in wheat, barley and rye cause an autoimmune response in people with Coeliac Disease.
A. K. Akobeng & A. G. Thomas Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Booth Hall Children’s Hospital, Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals, Manchester, UK published a study of how much gluten a person with Coeliac Disease can tolerate. The report concluded “The amount of tolerable gluten varies among people with coeliac disease. Although there is no evidence to suggest a single definitive threshold, a daily gluten intake of less than 10 mg is unlikely to cause significant histological abnormalities.”
In 1982, the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) established labeling standards in its Standard for Gluten-Free Foods. These references provide some additional context in the labeling of foods in the US: Proposed Rule: Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods January 23, 2007 Questions and Answers on the Gluten-Free Labeling Proposed Rule January 23, 2007.
Dozens of international standards for the determination of gluten in wheat and wheat flour are available. The International Standards Organization, ISO Technical Committee 34 is responsible for standardization in the field of human and animal foodstuffs. ISO/TC 34 Food Products Subcommittee SC4 is concerned with Cereals and Pulses. |
Application of experimental plans method to formulate a self compacting cement paste
Keywords:rheological properties, ternary diagrams, miscellanies plans method, self-compacting cement paste
The self-compacting concrete formulation means to elaborate a self-compacting cement paste to which will be injected aggregates. The purpose of this work is to find the composition of this cement paste containing local materials (pozzolanic cement, limestone fillers, superplasticizer and water) having self-compacting properties. The use of the experimental plans method shows that it is possible to delimit an experimental field bounded by the volumetric proportions of materials composing the paste. The field was transformed in equations form conditioned by implicit constraints, defining zones of minimal shearing threshold and maximum viscosity; numerical resolution submitted to the optimization criteria permitted to define the volumetric proportions of each mixing parameter contributing to the preparation of an optimal paste. After experimental checking to validate obtained results, conclusions are that, from results given by ternary diagrams and desirability’s functions, a composition of an optimal self-compacting cement pas was obtained.
(1) Xie, Y.; Liu, B.; Yin, J.; Zhou, S.: “Optimum mix parameters of high-strength self-compacting concrete with ultrapulverized fly ash”, Cem. Concr. Res., vol. 32, Issue 3 (2002), pp. 477-480. doi:10.1016/S0008-8846(01)00708-6
(2) Naadia, T.; Mouret, M.; Kharchi, F.: “Effect of the size on the rheological behaviour of the concretes. Application to the SCC”, 1st International Conference on the Technology and the Durability of Concretes CITDUB1, USTHB, Algiers, Algeria (2004).
(3) Kantro, D. L.: “Influence of water-reducing admixtures on properties of cement paste -a miniature slump test”, Cement, Concrete and Aggregates, vol. 2, Issue 2 (1980), pp. 95-102.
(4) Cyr, M.: “Contribution à la caractérisation des fines minérales et à la compréhension de leur rôle joué dans le comportement rhéologique des matrices cimentaires”, Thesé en cotutelle INSA de Toulouse (France) et Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) (1999).
(5) Roussel, N.; Stefani, C.; Leroy, R.: “From mini-cone test to Abrams cone test: measurement of cement-based materials yield stress using slump tests”, Cem. Concr. Res., vol. 35, Issue 5 (2005), pp. 817-822. doi:10.1016/j.cemconres.2004.07.032
(6) Zhor, J.; Bremner, T. W.: “Advances in evaluation of lignosulphonates and concrete admixtures,” Proceedings of the Fourth CANMET/ACI/JCI International Conference, Ed. Mohan Malhota, Tokushima, Japan SP-179 (1998) pp. 1011-1042.
(7) Ferraris, Ch.; Obla, K. H.; Hill, R.: “The influence of mineral admixtures on the rheology of cement paste and concrete”, Cem. Concr. Res., vol. 31, Issue 2 (2001), pp. 245-255. doi:10.1016/S0008-8846(00)00454-3
(8) Phan, T. H.; Chaouche, M.: “Rheology and stability of self-compacting concrete cement pastes”, Applied Rheology, vol. 15, Issue 5 (2005), pp. 336-343.
(9) Bui, V. K.; Akkaya, Y.; Shahm, S.: “Rheological model for self-consolidating concrete”, ACI Materials Journal, vol. 99, Issue 6 (2002).
(10) Ferrara, L.; Park, Y.-D.; Shah, S.: “A method for mix-design of fiber-reinforced self-compacting concretec, Cem. Concr. Res., vol. 37, Issue 6 (2007), pp. 957-971. doi:10.1016/j.cemconres.2007.03.014
(11) El Barrak, M.: “Contribution a l’etude de l’aptitude a l’ecoulement des betons autoplacants a l’etat frais”. Doctorat These. Laboratoire Materiaux et Durabilite des Constructions, Université de Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, France (2006).
(12) Mathieu, D.; Phan-Tan-Luu, R.; Sergent, M.: Méthodologie de la recherche expérimentale. Criblage et étude des facteurs. LPRAI, Marsella (2000).
(13) Boel, V.; Audenaert, K.; Schutter, G.: “Pore size distribution of hardened cement paste in self compacting concrete. ACI SP 234-11 (2006), pp. 167-178.
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2010 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed. |
It's easy to forget about your tongue — unless it is sore. Every bite of food or sip of liquid is potentially painful when your tongue hurts. Foods that are highly acidic, spicy or salty typically provoke the most pain when your tongue is sore. Eating foods that are soft, close to chemically neutral, low in salt and free of hot spices can help ease the pain of a sore tongue and enable you to maintain your nutrition while your tongue heals.
Milk is a nutritious option if you have a sore tongue. It does not irritate your tongue tissues because it contains little acid and salt. Further, cow's milk has many properties similar to saliva and may help protect your tongue by reducing the concentration of naturally occurring acids in your mouth. Soy milk is also a good option because its chemical properties are close to those of cow's milk. Because cold foods are soothing to a sore tongue, try putting your glass of milk in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before drinking it.
Cantaloupe and Honeydew Melon
It is important to maintain a balanced, nutritious diet when you have a sore tongue. Cantaloupe and honeydew melons are good fruit choices when your tongue is sore because they contain low concentrations of acids. If chewing is painful, puree melon cubes in a blender or food processor to make the fruit easier to eat. Add milk or yogurt to the pureed melon to boost the nutritional and caloric content if you are having difficulty maintaining your weight.
Meat, Poultry and Eggs
Meat, poultry and eggs are naturally low in acids and contain high levels of protein, potassium and other important nutrients. During cooking, avoid adding spices that may irritate your tongue, such as salt, pepper and curry. To reduce the amount of chewing required when eating poultry or meat, puree these foods in your blender or food processor along with a small amount of low-sodium broth or gravy. When eating eggs, you may want to skip the toast, which can be irritating to the tongue because of its coarse texture. Try a soft biscuit or half of a small, untoasted bagel as a substitute.
Beans and Soft Vegetables
Most fresh vegetables and beans are naturally low in sodium and acids, making them nonirritating food choices when you have a sore tongue. Cooked beans are soft, require little chewing and provide protein, fiber and an array of vitamins and minerals. Vegetables with a soft texture when cooked, such as peas, potatoes, squash and spinach, are also good options. Homemade cream of vegetable soups are nutritious, flavorful foods. Allow cooked beans, vegetables or soup to cool before eating because hot foods can further irritate your tongue.
Although having a sore tongue is usually a minor, transient problem, a persistently sore tongue may indicate a serious underlying medical condition or nutritional deficiency. If you develop a sore tongue without apparent cause and the condition persists, see your doctor. If your tongue begins to swell and causes difficulty breathing, seek emergency medical assistance. |
Encouraged by the great success we had with NASA's paper rocket plans we decided to give their rocket car project a go.
We are revving up to start on the STEAM Club project for the Oxford Kinetics Festival, which will be one large Rube Goldberg set-up. It seemed like a rocket car might be a good component that might be able to be added to this future work.
There was some rough going with the rocket cars. The propulsion came from the air leaving a balloon which had to be attached to the vehicle. We used drinking straws as a means of inflating the balloon. Most of the consternation centered around axles and wheels. Kids had a lot of trouble finding the right combination to get the cars to really move along the way they hoped. Decisions had to be made as to whether you wanted fixed axles and rotating wheels, or fixed wheels and spinning axles. Overall the fixed wheels seemed to work best. Most success came from using a part of a drinking straw attached to the underside of the craft. Then a small dowel could be set inside the straw and used as the axle; wheels could then be fixed to the axle.
We laid down a very long strip of duct tape down the hall to track distances so kids can compete against each other and against their own previous iterations. I think this could be a successful project with some pre-implementation trials of materials. We try to just source optional materials from the local hardware store or our weird collection of odds and ends. If you purchased actual wheels to use that fit securely on an axle that would make things easier but do away with some of the inventiveness. If kids can power through the frustration phase they can really find some innovative solutions. Connecting the balloons to the straws and finding suitable wheel options were problem areas. |
One hundred and fifty years ago pencils first received erasers on their ends, Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd state in the Union, the Lincoln-Douglas debates were held in Illinois, and the "Wedding March," by composer Felix Mendelssohn became popular at ceremonies marked by exchanges of the words, "I do."
The city of Denver, too, was founded in 1858.
To mark the anniversary, the Colorado History Museum is showcasing a new exhibit, "Imagine a Great City: Denver at 150," an ambitious effort by the museum to package the city's history in a series of artifacts, documents, photographs, and text.
The exhibit does not take the chronological approach, the decade- by-decade march through history.
150 years of Denver
- Browse the latest as well as historical photos of our city.
There is a section on transportation, with old Denver Tramway Co. benches and seats from vintage Frontier Airlines jets.
Business gets covered, with displays about guys named Gilpin and Boettcher, among others.
The conflict area contains a disturbing array of Ku Klux Klan material, including an actual white hood, a large photo of a cross burning and a contemporary KKK T-shirt. From 1922 to 1925, Colorado was second only to Indiana in KKK membership, says state historian William Convery, with 35,000 members in the state and 17,000 in Denver.
The exhibit also details Denver's Chinatown, most of which, by the 1880s, was in an alley between Blake and Market streets, says Convery. An anti-Chinese riot on Halloween of 1880 "burned Denver's Chinatown to the ground," Convery says. Part of the museum's display includes an opium pipe — Chinatown did contain a few opium dens — with a nugget of real, and vintage, opium in the chamber.
Visit the leisure area, and in addition to ski equipment, Broncos memorabilia and a beer-bottle collection, you will see a fully erected 1920s tent from Denver's own Brooks Tent and Awning Co.
Back then, says exhibit curator Moya Hansen, people camped — for fun — in City Park and other Denver parks.
Leisure, says Hansen, is "something we rely on here in Denver."
"We consider ourselves to be the gateway to the mountains."
Convery said the museum staged the exhibit, which will remain in place for about two years, "to take stock."
"Denver was one of a dozen rival camps, any one of which could have become the leading city," he says. The city's emergence over Golden, Auraria and other cities speaks to a variety of factors, but one of them is the people who live here and their relentless imaginations.
"It's what has been going on from the very beginning," says Hansen. "Imagining what this place can be."
After fires destroyed much of the city in the early 1860s, followed by the Cherry Creek flood of 1864, there wasn't much left of Denver.
"Why did they bother?" asks Convery. "By 1864 there were men and women who had set down stakes in Denver. They had to rebuild and persevere. They had to shout to the world that Denver was the future of Colorado."
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395 or [email protected]
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Update removes reference to Auraria relationship to Aurora . |
10 Ways to Cut Your Fuel Intake
Take a moment to track your daily actions. Brushing your teeth, charging your phone, logging into Facebook, commuting to the office and back… Whether you like it or not, your every action exerts an impact on the environment. Now, zoom out and consider the broader picture for we live in the age of the Anthropocene.
Anthropocene: “Relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.”
Manmade climate change is transforming our planet and its natural systems, even as you read this. Science has confirmed that vehicular emissions and the use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels (non-renewable energy) are the largest contributing factors.
What is important is for each one of us to embody the mindset of ‘Think Global, Act Local’, inform ourselves and make conscious choices accordingly. To this effect, here are some ways you can cut your fuel intake:
- Switch off your engine at traffic signals: Five-minute traffic signals are frustrating and common in the metros. Take note of the approximate waiting time and apply a general thumb rule as follows. For a four-wheeler, switch off your engine if the waiting period is more than one minute; for a two-wheeler, switch off the engine if the waiting period is more than 40 seconds. The logic is simple: 40 seconds of running time for a two-wheeler (and one minute for a four-wheeler) is equivalent to the fuel required to start the engine.
- Driving on the highway: Keeping the windows of a car open while driving at high speeds creates what is known as a ‘drag’ by virtue of air flow inside the vehicle. This ‘drag’ slows you down, demanding a higher fuel intake to propel the vehicle forward at the required speed. Cut your fuel intake by pulling all windows up when driving on the highway.
- No A/C: Avoid the use of air conditioning in your car as it increases the fuel intake by more than 10%. Even when driving on the highway, roll up the windows but keep it open by an inch or less to ensure basic circulation so you do not require the AC.
- Use a more fuel-efficient vehicle: This goes without saying. There are several options available on the market, including those that run on electrical energy, which is comparatively, a more sustainable energy source than fuel.
- Carpool: Always opt to share your commute. Massive SUVs ferrying one person are a colossal waste that should be avoided at all cost. Most cab apps offer a carpooling service that you should take advantage of. What’s more, it’s cheaper to travel this way. Identify colleagues who live in your locality to share the daily commute with, take turns on whose vehicle you use or who drives.
- Avoid peak hour traffic: Slow moving traffic is a big fuel guzzler. Schedule your commute or in-city travel such that you avoid being stuck in traffic jams, undoubtedly good for your peace of mind as well.
- Use public transport: Be it the local train, or bus, use public modes of transport. The general shift from individual, private to shared, public commute de-stresses environmental impacts and pressures in a big way.
- Clean air filters regularly: Ensure your air filters are cleaned and checked at your regular service. De-carbonating your vehicle enhances fuel efficiency.
- Maintain recommended air pressure in the tires: A tire with low air pressure requires comparatively more fuel for regular functioning. Top up regularly and maintain the standard, recommended pressure for your specific vehicle.
- Remember gears: The last thing to remember when driving on the highway is that the most fuel efficient is the highest gear (of your vehicle) at an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour. |
The small but tourist-wise town of Listvyanka is located on the south-western shore of Lake Baikal, 70 km from Irkutsk. Russian pioneers came to this spot in the middle of the 17th century, founded trading and military post there. The settlement grew along with the development of navigation on Lake Baikal. Many vessels were built at the Listvyanka shipyard, the British icebreakers "Baikal" and "Angara" were assembled also there. This old-style Siberian village, known as the gates to Baikal, is situated at the source of the Angara River, the only outflow of the deepest lake. From the 18th century a ferry took merchants across the lake on their way to the north, Mongolia, China and the Far East.
The population of the town is about 2,300 people, mostly emploied in human services. Despite its modest size Listvyanka is one of the busiest tourist centers in Siberia. Due to its proximity to Irkutsk, it sees probably more visitors than all other towns and villages on Lake Baikal combined - particularly on the weekends when crowds of Russian and Western tourists visit the settlement. Listvyanka has a developed tourist infrastructure: a museum, chairlift to the city viewpoint, information center, boat jetty, art gallery, tourist-oriented market, picnic areas, several hotels and a plethora of restaurats and cafes. The main part of the tourst fleet of the lake moor in the town. Thanks to the large number of sunny days in Listvyanka, there is Solar Observatory with 4 telescopes, located on the nothern cape of the settlement.Listvyanka is the site of the Limnological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It studies the lakes and man-made reservoirs of Siberia and the Russian Far East, with particular focus on Lake Baikal. The institute has a small but very interesting museum of the Baikal's flora and fauna.
Lake Baikal is in a rift valley created by the Baikal Rift Zone, where the crust of the earth is pulling apart. At 636 kilometers long and 79 kilometers wide, Lake Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in Asia (31,494 skm) and is the deepest lake in the world (1,637 m). The bottom of the lake is 1,371 metres below sea level, but below this lies some 7 kilometers of sediment. In geological terms, the rift is young and active-it widens about two centimeters per year. The fault zone is also seismically active: there are hot springs in the area and notable earthquakes every few years. It drains into the Angara tributary of the Yenisei.
Its age is estimated at 25-30 million years, making it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history. It is unique among large, high-latitude lakes in that its sediments have not been scoured by overriding continental ice sheets. US and Russian studies of core sediment in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 250,000 years. Longer and deeper sediment cores are expected in the near future. Lake Baikal is furthermore the only confined fresh water lake in which direct and indirect evidence of gas hydrates exists.
The lake is completely surrounded by mountains. The Baikal Mountains on the north shore and the taiga are technically protected as a national park. It contains 22 islands; the largest, Olkhon, is 72 kilometers long. The lake is fed by as many as three hundred and thirty inflowing rivers. The main ones draining directly into Baikal are the Selenga River, the Barguzin River, the Upper Angara River etc. It is drained through a single outlet, the Angara River, where Listvyanka is situated.
To get to Listvyanka from Irkutsk you need to get to the bus
station of Irkutsk city. The regular public bus leaves at 9.00am, 2.30pm, 4.00pm and 7.00pm.
There are also minibuses taking people to Listvyanka, departing from the station
every 30-40 minutes. You need to find platform #3 and the bus with the blue lake Baikal
sign and "Listvyanka" on it. Or you may just ask for "Listvyanka ??" and follow the
You welcome to stay in our "BAIKAL CHALET LISTVYANKA". The friendly staff will support you with tourist information and help to organize your activity around Listvyanka. Enjoy our hospitality and you always welcomed !
|"Baikal Chalet Listvyanka", contacts: 8 (3952) 46-02-04, booking: 8 (3952) 46-22-44, mobile: 8 914 8 951 961, address: Gudina str. 75, Listvyanka, Irkutsk region, Russia| |
Microwave vs Oven
The microwave and the oven are used for similar purposes because of which they are often confused with one another. Microwave is an appliance used in the kitchen for the main purpose of heating food whereas an oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for heating and baking of a substance. This is one of the main differences between microwave and oven.
What is a Microwave?
An electronic appliance that heats food using electromagnetic radiation in the microwave spectrum, a microwave uses the process known as dielectric heating which causes polarized molecules in the food to rotate and build up thermal energy which in turn results in food heating efficiently and quickly. It was Percy Spencer who first invented the microwave which was named “Radarange” during World War II using radar technology which was first sold in 1947. However, it was in 1967 that the modern countertop microwave oven was first introduced by the Amana Corporation.
The microwave oven is primarily used for reheating pre-cooked food and for heating slow-cooking items such as butter chocolate and fats. However, microwave ovens cannot be used in professional cooking since flavours produced by frying, baking or browning cannot be achieved through a microwave oven.
What is an Oven?
A thermally insulated chamber that is used for baking, heating or drying purposes, an oven is one of the most commonly used appliances in the culinary world. There are many types of ovens of which kilns and furnaces which are used for metalworking and pottery are quite different from their culinary cousins.
The history of ovens dates back to 29,000 BC to Central Europe where mammoth was cooked in roasting and boiling pits inside yurts. There are many types of ovens available in the world today. The earth oven is a heated pit dug into the earth often used for the slow cooking of food. The ceramic oven, into which category the brick oven falls too, is often referred to as tandoor by Indians and is used for the slow cooking of meats and also for baking pizza. The gas oven is a more domesticated oven used in almost all households for all kinds of baking purposes. The masonry oven is made out of a fireproof layer of brick, stone, concrete, stone or clay and is mostly, wood, coal, natural gas or electricity fired. It is widely used for the baking of breads and pizzas and is a popular choice of cooking when it comes to the culinary arts.
What is the difference between Microwave and an Oven?
• The Microwave employs the dielectric heating method whereas oven uses the thermal insulation method of baking.
• An oven performs the additional job of baking and hence it is very popularly used for baking bread. The microwave is primarily used for heating food. The microwave is not suitable for cooking certain foods. This is due to the fact they do not produce the culinary effects needed in the cooking of certain foods.
• Microwaves are available in different sizes such as portable or desktop, compact, medium capacity, large capacity and built-in. Ovens are quite hefty in size and are not as compact.
In conclusion, one can say that while the primary task of a microwave is heating food, an oven is a multi-purpose appliance that plays an important part in the culinary world.
Photo By: ActiveSteve (CC BY-ND 2.0) |
Malawi is vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including droughts, floods, and other extreme events that threaten food security, health, water, energy resources, and the economy. ICF, together with the Bunda College Consultancy Team of Malawi, was engaged to develop a project that responds to these challenges.
The ICF team undertook an assessment of current and future climate change vulnerability and adaptation options, including a review and synthesis of current knowledge, a baseline survey, and stakeholder consultations. Based on this, the team formulated an adaptation strategy and investment plan and developed the Climate Adaptation for Rural Livelihoods (CARLA) Project for support by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF has approved the project for funding and considers it to be “one of the most promising projects yet seen in the LDCF.”
The CARLA Project will improve Malawi’s resilience to current climate variability and future climate change by developing and implementing cost-effective adaptation strategies, policies, and measures to improve agricultural production and rural livelihoods. The project will focus particularly on the most vulnerable districts in Malawi. Further details and project documents prepared by ICF are available at www.thegef.org/gef/node/3509.
Related Market + Service Offerings |
Why and How Sleep Improves Your Athletic Performance?
It’s easy to see how intense workouts and a well-balanced nutritious diet contribute to your athletic performance.
You can feel and literally see muscles growing stronger as you push your physical limits.
There’s one way to improve your athletic performance that is not easily seen and is often overlooked – sleep. While you sleep, all your hard work comes to fruition.
Without enough of it, at best, your progress slows, at worst, your body won’t reach its full potential.
Building Muscle While You Sleep
Every good workout plan incorporates rest days. However, the most important rest takes place at night. Intense workouts and weightlifting create micro-tears in muscle tissue. The repair of these tears takes place while you sleep.
Sleep is far more complex than many people realize. On a typical night, you go through four to six sleep cycles. During each cycle, you’ll pass through five sleep phases. How much time you spend in each phase changes in each cycle, but for optimum health, you need to spend time in every phase.
Muscle building takes place during phase 3 sleep, the first of the deep sleep phases when brain waves start to slow down. It’s during this phase that the body releases human growth hormone (GH), the hormone that triggers the repair and regeneration of muscle. GH peaks during the first sleep cycle of the night but continues to be released in increasingly smaller amounts in all subsequent sleep cycles.
If you sleep less than seven hours, there’s not enough GH released to fully repair muscles. However, you also don’t get enough GH if you go to bed two or three hours late. Even if you stay in bed a full eight hours, alteration of your sleep cycle reduces the amount of GH released into the body.
Strength, Endurance, and Motivation
Lack of sleep reduces strength, endurance, and motivation to work out. While studies have shown that one night of inadequate sleep won’t affect your strength too much, chronic sleep deprivation reduces the strength of muscle contractions. When tested against caffeine and group motivation, sleep won as the key factor to consistent exercise and increased strength.
Speed, Agility, and Accuracy
Any sport or athletic pursuit requires a combination of skills, muscle coordination, and mental acuity. You need to sleep for all of it. The varsity basketball team at Stanford University participated in a sleep study that was published in 2011. In the study, the athletes extended their sleep time from eight hours to a full ten. The results speak for themselves:
- 9 percent increase in free-throw percentages
- 9.2 percent increase in three-point goal percentages
- Sprint times improved by .5 seconds
- Improved physical and mental well-being on and off the court (as reported by players)
The muscle recovery, strength, and mental acuity of better (and more) sleep most definitely gave them a measurable edge in their performance. Who doesn’t want that?
How to Get Better Sleep
Better sleep starts with good sleep habits like:
- Avoiding caffeine for four hours before bed
A consistent bedtime
Regular bedtime routine
Regularly-timed, evenly spaced meals
- Turning off televisions, smartphones, and laptops two to three hours before bed
Sleep can also be enhanced with natural methods like melatonin and natural sleep aids. Remember that these substances may not be addicting, but they are intended for short-term use until your body is able to follow a normal sleep schedule.
It might take consistent effort and time for your body to adjust to a consistent sleep schedule. If you have an intense workout schedule, you may benefit from an extended sleep time just like elite college athletes. As you make time for better and more sleep, you’ll be able to see where your true limits lie. |
NASA just made it easier to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station — the largest manmade structure in space — as it soars across the night sky. The best part: no telescope required.
The space agency has launched a new free service called "Spot the Station" that allows observers to sign up for e-mail alerts or text messages whenever the space station may be visible overhead, weather permitting. The messages, which will be sent out a few hours before the actual sighting opportunity, are tailored for an observer's location based on their home country, state and city, NASA officials explained in a statement.
"As the thirdbrightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, the space station is easy to see if you know where and when to look for it," NASA officials wrote. "The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, though one with people living and working aboard it more than 200 miles above the ground. It is best viewed on clear nights."
With a wingspan the size of a football field, the International Space Station is the biggest artificial structure in space today. It can be easily spotted from Earth with the unaided eye, but only if you know exactly when and where it will appear in the sky.
Station sighting opportunities from 4,600 locations around the world are identified twice a week at NASA's space station Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. The Spot the Station service will send out alerts for only the best sighting opportunities, when the space station is relatively high in the night sky and makes a long pass overhead, NASA officials said.
"This will be anywhere from once or twice a week to once or twice a month, depending on the space station’s orbit," NASA officials explained. "Don’t worry if there are big gaps in between sightings!"
You can sign up for NASA's Spot the Station alerts here.
The Spot the Station service is not the only way to find out how to see the space station in the night sky. The Twitter-based Twisst ISS Alerts service sends out automated Twitter messages to users during prime space station sightings over their locations.
There are also several websites dedicated to observing the International Space Station and other spacecraft:
You can also find real-time satellite tracking information, including spacecraft locations over Earth at any time of day, at N2YO.com.
The International Space Station is currently home to six astronauts flying on the Expedition 33 mission. The crew includes three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese astronaut.
The $100 billion space station is the product of five different space agencies representing the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Construction began in 1998 and the first astronaut crew took up residence in 2000.
Since then, the space station has been constantly manned by rotating international teams of astronauts and cosmonauts.
- How Do Strange, Scorching-Hot 'Vulcan Planets' Form?
- Spacewalking Astronaut Snaps the Ultimate Selfie (Photo)
- Should Humanity Try to Contact Alien Civilizations?
- Stephen Hawking Praises 'Theory of Everything' Oscar Winner
This article originally published at Space.com here |
Demeter, the ancient greek earth goddess
Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, so she shared the fate of her siblings Poseidon,Hades, Hera and Hestia until Zeus deposed her father.
It is widely believed that her name is derived from the word da or di, which meant earth, and mitir, which means mother-hence, Dimitra.
Contrary to those who consider Demeter to be a Greek goddess, identifying her as the evolution of the Great Mother Goddess, Gaia, the historian Herodotus claims that she is the Egyptian goddess Isis, who was introduced in Greece by the Pelasgians and then the Arcadians.
The most important sanctuaries dedicated to the goddess of earth were found in Thessaly, Arcadia, Attica and Boetia.
The most widely known myth linked with the goddess of earth, is the myth involving the abduction of her beloved kore (daughter) Persephone from Hades, the ruler of the Underworld.
In fact, this myth is one of the most widely known of Greek Mythology, as it represented the ancient greek version of the common theme running across the conceptual foundation of many religions, relating to the eternal cycle of life-death-resurrection.
Closely linked with the worship of the earth goddess, the Eleusinian Mysteries were the most respected of the sacred mysteries of the ancient Greeks and revealed to the initiated the great secret of life and death, as well as what happens to the soul after death.
These mysteries were probably part of the worship rituals of the Pelasgians and were conducted by the royal families of Eleusis. These rituals gained fame in the seventh century B.C., when the kingdom of Eleusis was occupied by Athens.
There were two Eleusinian mysteries: the great and the lesser mysteries.
The lesser mysteries were basically preparatory rituals (cleansing and fasting of the initiated) and took place during the month of February.
The great mysteries took place during the month of September and lasted for nine days, the same length of time that the goddess wandered the earth in search of her daughter Persephone, according to the relevant myth. Before the onset of the rituals, Athenians dispatched spondophorous (heralds) throughout Greece, with the mission to invite observers and declare a two-month holy truce, in an effort to cease all hostilities among cities, that were probably taking place at the time.
Unfortunately, because of the secrecy shrouding the whole event, not much is documented in ancient writings of the time, about what went on during the ceremonies. From the little information available, it is known that a central theme of the rituals was the dramatic recreation of the myth of Demeter and Persephone.
In summary, the Eleusinian mysteries offered the initiated the prospect of a better earthly life, but also the hope and expectation of divine eternity after death, as the mysteries preached the immortality of the soul.
Because of the similarity between the female womb and the earth (both nurture a seed until it is ready to emerge into its earthly life), Demeter, apart from her function as goddess of earth,was also the goddess of marriage who blessed children.
At weddings, prayers were offered to the goddess for eugony and fertility.
The goddess thus also became the protectress of women and was known as Thesmophorus, or she who protects laws and institutions, women’s lives and marriage.
Every year, the Athenian women celebrated the goddess of earth and her daughter Persephone at the Thesmophoria, a three-day festival dedicated to the fertility of both nature and humankind.
The goddess was also the protectress of society, since people formed settlements around agriculture and created common laws and institutions.
In ancient Greece, the dead, after they were buried in earth, they were known as Demetrians, to signify the fact that their body’s cycle of life had ended and had returned to earth.
Their souls, however, descended to Hades where they were greeted by Persephone. Thus, it is manifested in the most symbolical way that the divine power who gives earthly life (in this context Demeter) and the other who gives immortal life (Persephone) are closely bound in a cycle of life, death and resurrection through the immortalization of the souls. |
Wake’s War Ruins
On September 4, 1945, aboard the USS Levy, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara surrendered Wake Island to Brig. Gen. L. H. M. Sanderson, USMC. Shortly after the surrender a landing party of marines took a small whaleboat to shore. Colonel Walter L. J. Bayler, the last American to leave the island freely in December 1941, was the first American to set foot on Wake in 1945. The sights that greeted the landing party and those who followed were astonishing.
Photographers and correspondents, including Sgt. Ernie Harwell, accompanied the American military contingent and recorded the proceedings. In a magazine article published soon afterwards, Harwell described the entire span of World War II as lying between two flagpoles they found standing on Wake: the old, bent and rusted shaft from which the American flag was torn down by the invading Japanese on December 23, 1941, and the new pole erected that day to fly the American colors after the Japanese surrendered the atoll.
After Japanese forces captured Wake on December 23, 1941, they occupied the atoll for the duration of World War II. Initially the Japanese utilized much of the infrastructure built by the American civilian contractors in the months before war, adapting structures and building more for their own garrison and defenses. American prisoners provided much of the labor in the first months of war until the last 98 Americans were killed in 1943. American forces did not try to retake Wake Island but bombed it relentlessly during the last two years of war, destroying most of the above-ground structures. Essentially blockaded and cut off from its lines of supply, the Japanese garrison suffered and starved. As many as fifteen hundred died of malnutrition or diseases, six to eight hundred were killed by air attacks, and a thousand near death had been evacuated by hospital ship just two months earlier. The remaining emaciated troops had been living underground and posed no threat of sabotage to the Americans after surrender.
As Sgt. Harwell recounted the retaking of Wake in 1945, the landing party commandeered a “Jap truck” before the flag raising ceremony and began a tour of the island from the waterfront. Little remained of the Americans’ Camp 1, built by the contractors and turned over to the marines back in 1941. The old observation tower (originally a water tower built under the direction of my grandfather Harry Olson) “now staggering on three rusty legs, still stood.” Colonel Bayler pointed to a couple of wooden sticks over a tank trap, “all that’s left of our old administration building.” The Japanese had altered the very terrain of Wake with mounds of sand and coral brought in to build up defenses. Wrecked planes lay in the brush and bombed remnants of American machinery were scattered everywhere. All that remained of the BOQ building under construction back in 1941 were “a few toilet bowls staring bleakly into the Pacific sky.”
And there were the three graves, mounded and topped with big crosses, the paint not yet dry on the markers and posts that surrounded the area.
In the coming weeks and months arms and munitions – including Springfield rifles seized from the Wake defenders back in 1941 – were loaded on the docks and shipped out, as were other intact supplies. Mountains of scrap metal were piled up to be barged out. The face of Wake changed again and again over the coming years as users and custodians reshaped it for their purposes.
Over time the old hull of the Suwa Maru, one of the last Japanese supply ships to reach Wake only to be torpedoed and run aground on the south reef, has gradually disappeared into the sea. Sturdy structures like the admiral’s command post by the bridge to Peale stand half-buried and crumbling under the relentless pressures of weather and time. The surging sea washes into the old shoreline defenses, filling them with sand and debris. Vines and brush swallow old foundations and roadways. The wind scours everything in its path every day. Major typhoons sweep over Wake every decade or two, wreaking havoc on everything, irrespective of origin, age, viability, or value.
Still the ruins of war remain on Wake, warning us to never forget. In October 1985 Wake atoll was designated a National Historic Landmark and subsequent surveys and preservation efforts have helped to arrest some of the decay and destruction. During my visit to Wake in 2011, I visited every historic structure and ruin I could find and some that I would never have found without the help of Wake residents who know where to look. The rounded, reinforced concrete magazine-bunkers on Wake and the concrete seaplane ramp and parking area on Peale are all that remain of the American prewar construction. One doesn’t have to go far anywhere on the atoll to find remnants of Japanese defenses including concrete pillboxes, revetments, underground bunkers, all manner of stone defense works and walls, and the rusting hulk of the 8” gun on the seashore of Peale.
The two flagpoles that served as Sgt. Harwell’s war metaphor are, of course, long gone. Concrete and stone have proved the sturdiest materials to survive over the decades. In the end, however, time and tide will wait for no man.
Sources include Building for War and Sgt. Ernie Harwell, “The Wake Story,” Leatherneck, November 1945. Thanks to Paul Mitzelfelt for two of the photographs in the gallery. |
become an editor
the entire kids and teens directory
only in Inventors/Banneker,_Benjamin
Kids and Teens
People and Society
: Banneker, Benjamin
Kids and Teens: People and Society: Biography: African-American
Kids and Teens: School Time: Science: Scientists
About.com: Benjamin Banneker
[ Kids/Teens ] - Includes a short biography and tells about Benjamin Banneker writing the first Farmers' Almanac.
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Includes a short biography, sketch, and excerpts from letters. Inventor, mathematician and astronomer.
Fact Monster: Benjamin Banneker
[ Kids ] - Short biography for the mathematician, astronomer and surveyor.
Kulture Kidz: Benjamin Banneker
[ Kids ] - Short biography and sketch.
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora: Benjamin Banneker
[ Kids/Teens/Mature Teens ] - Features a detailed biography as well as excerpts from a letter Banneker wrote to Thomas Jefferson.
" search on:
to edit this category.
Copyright © 1998-2015 AOL Inc.
Visit our sister sites
Last update: June 11, 2015 at 8:45:06 UTC - |
Steps & Techniques: Implementing Your Project
Plant Natives: Live Stakes & Wattles
Wattles is an Old English term that's over 800 years old that refers to the use of intertwining live branches to secure slopes along shorelines.
Wattles and live stakes are part of a bioengineering approach to shoreline management—the use of live vegetation for erosion control. Live stakes are cuttings from shrubs that are also used to stabilize slopes.
Wattles, also called live fascines, are bundles of live branches used at the toe (bottom) and on slopes for stabilization and to introduce new plant material. Wattles reduce water velocity, trap sediment, and hold soil in place.
Both live stakes and wattles will sprout and grow, forming a living stabilization system.
Live stakes and wattles are cut from readily sprouting woody species while they are dormant (i.e. early spring or late fall). The best species to use are native willows. Dogwoods are also a good choice. A harvest site must be located. Look for an area with an abundance of shrubs of the desired species. With permission from the landowner, harvest the amount of material needed. Carefully prune only parts of each plant to ensure its survival and limit the visibility of the removal.
Live stakes are cuttings of dormant shrub branches 2'-3' long with a diameter of about 1/2"-1". Each branch may be cut into multiple stakes using loppers. Cut the top flat and the bottom at a diagonal to make for easier installation and identification of the appropriate end to be placed in the ground.
For wattles, use longer cuttings of the woody species. Cut branches 5'-10' long or longer and place them in bundles 6"-8" in diameter. Stagger the branches to create longer wattles and distribute the tops throughout the length of the wattle. Use untreated twine or wire to tie the bundles together tightly (photo left).
List of species appropriate for bioengineering:
See the "Starter Lists" in the Native Plant Encyclopedia.
Live stakes are planted using a small sledge hammer or dead blow hammer (photo). Carefully pound the stake into the ground at a right angle to the slope leaving about 1/5 of the stake above ground. Trim off damaged tops. Stakes can also be planted by creating a pilot hole with a metal rod. Make sure to tamp the soil around the stakes to ensure good soil contact.
Wattles are installed at the toe (bottom) of the slope by excavating a trench similar in size to the wattle. Place the wattle in the trench and stake it in place using dead stakes through the wattle and live stakes at the base of the wattle. Bury the wattle, leaving just the top slightly exposed. Excavate additional trenches on the contour of the slope spaced 3'-7' apart depending on the steepness of the slope and erosion potential. Install wattles in each trench as described above. A loosely woven jute or coir erosion control fabric can be placed underneath the wattles and staked up the slope for extra erosion control, especially for slopes that have been regraded.
Plant the areas between the wattles and live stakes with native grasses, sedges, wildflowers or other shrub species. On exposed soils, a cover crop of annual grasses should be used to provide temporary stabilization until the shrubs and other plants are established.
The shrubs may be pruned if they grow too large. The willows are often just pioneer species that may eventually be replaced with other plants that grow on the shoreline. Periodically inspect the site to look for damage from animals, weather or other sources. Check for sprouting success and replant areas that need attention. |
William Stewart Halsted, The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s first surgeon in chief, is widely credited as the first to develop and introduce rubber surgical gloves in the United States. That was in 1894, five years after the institution opened.
Now, in an effort to make medical care safer for patients and health care workers, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has become the first major medical institution to become “latex safe” by ending all use of latex gloves and almost all medical latex products.
“Latex hospital gloves were invented here, so it’s only fitting that Johns Hopkins takes the initiative to promoting alternatives,” says Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist Robert H. Brown, M.D., M.P.H., the chair of the John Hopkins Hospital Latex Task Force and one of many Hopkins faculty and staff members who have contributed to making the hospital latex-safe.
Latex surgical gloves
Robert Brown and Julie Frieschlag talk about the transition to latex-free surgical gloves and a latex-safe environment at Johns Hopkins.
Program Notes:Robert Brown:
0:34 Issue to me
1:15 Universal precautions
1:55 Production quicker and curing time reduced
2:32 Latex allergies
3:07 General population 1-6%
4:06 Several ways to have exposure
4:49 Skin red and raw, more protein
5:20 The more exposure the more risk
5:52 What amount is important?
6:17 First point was identifying the products
7:10 Patients need to be concerned
7:53 In the hospital
8:00 Julie Frieschlag describes the effort at Johns Hopkins
9:15 Now what are we using?
9:50 More expensive
10:00 Just as comfortable
11:09 Other latex products
11:24 Patient awareness |
Human migration can be traced back 1.75 million migration introduction essay years ago, when the homo immigration struggles essay erectus began moving out of their settlements in africa and spreading to …. research topics about immigration are variable: migration essay migration migration introduction essay and financial section of business plan environmental migration. as we know, the number of people who migrate from their black history assignments native countries …. body. migration is a global issue and it has definition of reflective essay elicited heightened debates amongst scholars across the first person narrative essay world. people that migrate research paper topics middle school do so individually, as families or in large groups. online ordering temporarily closed essay about silence, comparison essay film and novel. essays for season of migration introduction essay migration to the north. in a globalized world, people can migrate from one country to another for work, study, and other reasons. similarly, if migration takes place within the national assignment abroad times e-paper boundary of a country, it is termed as internal migration there are personal finance essay several causes of migration since the ancient times up to the current generations. they may naming poems in essay also move volunteery or being forced to move. |
Date: Dec 3, 2012 5:08 AM
Author: Pentcho Valev
Subject: WHY EINSTEIN'S LIGHT POSTULATE IS FALSE
"Length contraction is a second necessary consequence of Einstein's postulate that the speed of light is the same for all observers."
REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM: If the "necessary consequence" generates absurdities, then the postulate is false:
"These are the props. You own a barn, 40m long, with automatic doors at either end, that can be opened and closed simultaneously by a switch. You also have a pole, 80m long, which of course won't fit in the barn. (...) If it does not explode under the strain and it is sufficiently elastic it will come to rest and start to spring back to its natural shape but since it is too big for the barn the other end is now going to crash into the back door and the rod will be trapped IN A COMPRESSED STATE inside the barn."
Stéphane Durand: "Ainsi, une fusée de 100 m passant à toute vitesse dans un tunnel de 60 m pourrait être entièrement contenue dans ce tunnel pendant une fraction de seconde, durant laquelle il serait possible de fermer des portes aux deux bouts! La fusée est donc réellement plus courte. Pourtant, il n'y a PAS DE COMPRESSION matérielle ou physique de l'engin."
"Suppose you want to fit a 20m pole into a 10m barn. (...) Hence in both frames of reference, the pole fits inside the barn (and will presumably shatter when the doors are closed)."
"The bug-rivet paradox is a variation on the twin paradox and is similar to the pole-barn paradox.....The end of the rivet hits the bottom of the hole before the head of the rivet hits the wall. So it looks like the bug is squashed.....All this is nonsense from the bug's point of view. The rivet head hits the wall when the rivet end is just 0.35 cm down in the hole! The rivet doesn't get close to the bug....The paradox is not resolved." |
continue work begun in Spanish I-II
class is conducted in Spanish
Building upon the skills gained in Spanish I and II, the curriculum for Spanish III is intended to engage students in communication with spoken and written Spanish language. Through the study of thematic vocabulary and more advanced grammatical structures, students will continue to improve their proficiency skills in Spanish.
The course builds on all four aspects of communication: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students will utilize the Spanish language while increasing their knowledge about the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, being able to make comparisons to their own language and culture, and making connections to other disciplines. |
There are two major forms of lung cancer: SCLC and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which is far more common and carries a better outlook than SCLC.
Cancer cells associated with SCLC tend to be smaller and tumors progress relatively rapidly, making early detection and diagnosis challenging.
Some symptoms of SCLC may include shortness of breath, wheezing, headaches, and a rough cough.
Often symptoms do not begin until the tumor has spread. Many lung cancer symptoms can sometimes be mistaken for those of other conditions.
The location, size, and extent of the tumor greatly influence the chances of someone experiencing symptoms.
Symptoms of SCLC include:
- hoarseness or rough cough
- changes in cough pattern
- shortness of breath
- long-term chest infections
- chest pain or pain when breathing
- coughing up blood
- loss of appetite
- pain or difficulty swallowing
- swelling in the face or neck veins
- excess fluid in the lungs or lining of the heart
- high-pitched sound upon inhalation
If any of the above symptoms become long-term or troublesome, a person should see their doctor. People over 55, or with a history of heavy smoking or smoke exposure, should be monitored even if they are not experiencing symptoms.
Causes and risk factors
A variety of factors influence the chances of developing lung cancer, but tobacco or smoke exposure is the leading cause of SCLC cases. In the United States, smoking is responsible for 83 percent of male lung cancer deaths and 76 percent of female deaths each year.
Most people who develop SCLC have a history of smoking or have been exposed to secondhand smoke, but not all. Some people with no history of smoking or smoke exposure will still develop lung cancer.
When cigarette smoke is inhaled, tiny particles damage lung tissues.
Anytime a cell must repair itself or regrow, there is a chance for things to go wrong. If certain mutations occur, a cell can become cancerous. With repeated smoke exposure and damage, the chances of a cancerous lung cell developing increase dramatically.
Age is a major risk factor for developing lung cancer. Roughly 98 percent of those diagnosed with lung cancer are over the age of 45. Roughly two-thirds of people who develop lung cancer are 65 or older.
Causes and risk factors for SCLC include:
- exposure to tobacco smoke
- exposure to radiation
- CT scans
- exposure to asbestos, tar, or soot
- exposure to diesel fuel
- exposure to nickel or beryllium
- living in areas with heavily polluted air
- arsenic exposure from drinking water
- HIV status
- beta carotene supplements combined with heavy smoking
Research is still underway to better understand the influence of gender, ethnicity, and race on lung cancer.
While black American men and women are more likely than white Americans to develop lung cancer, fewer develop SCLC. Rates for the latter are 15 percent less for men and 30 percent less for women.
After an initial examination by a healthcare professional, a CT scan may be required to determine the stage of SCLC.
A doctor will first complete a physical examination, review the person's history, and take blood, urine, or tissue samples, if required. A chest X-ray may also be taken.
Doctors may decide to continue monitoring people whose symptoms, personal history, or test results are cause for concern.
Depending on the results of this initial workup, a CT scan can be used to examine the chest, torso, and brain. A sputum cytology test, where phlegm and mucus are inspected under a microscope, can help spot cancerous cells.
A biopsy, where cells are removed from the lungs to be examined by pathologists, may also be performed. Lung biopsies are divided into surgical and nonsurgical options.
The most commonly used and least invasive form of biopsy is fine needle aspiration, a nonsurgical option where general anesthesia is used.
Once a cancer diagnosis has been made, the stage of the cancer must be established to determine the best treatment plan.
Tests used to determine SCLC stage include:
- CT scan of upper body and pelvis
- bone scan
- bone marrow aspiration
- PET scans
- MRI of brain
- further biopsy
Many of these procedures and tests are also used to determine if treatments are working and to monitor cases long-term.
Stages of SCLC
There are generally four recognized stages of lung cancer, ranging from 1 to 4.
- Stage 1 cancers are confined to the lung. Tumors are typically 2 inches or less in diameter.
- Stage 2 cancers involve tumors that have exceeded 2 inches in diameter or have spread to surrounding tissues. The lymph nodes may be involved.
- Stage 3 cancers are defined by large tumors that have spread to other organs neighboring the lungs or smaller tumors in lymph nodes further away from the lungs.
- Stage 4 cancers involve tumors that have spread far beyond the lungs to affect more distant regions of the body.
In SCLC cases, additional stages defined as "limited" and "extensive" are used to describe whether the cancer is present in one or both lungs.
Limited stage cancer
In the limited stage, SCLC tumors are restricted to one lung and any affected lymph nodes will be on the same side of the chest. Because limited cases of SCLC can be targeted within a single radiation field, they are often treated with both radiation and chemotherapy.
About one in three SCLC cases are in the limited stage when first diagnosed.
Extensive stage cancer
In the extensive stage, both lungs are affected, as are other parts of the chest and sometimes body. An SCLC case may also be considered in the extensive stage when the cancer has spread to the fluid surrounding the lungs.
About two in three SCLC cases are in the extensive stage when diagnosed.
Treatments and outlook
SCLC may be treated with a combination of treatments including radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy.
Because SCLC cases are often diagnosed late in the course of the disease, aggressive treatment plans are often used.
When possible, SCLC is treated with a combination of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Different specialists will work together to find the best course of action for each case.
A range of medications will be prescribed to help manage the symptoms. Nursing care may also be ordered.
Chemotherapy given orally or intravenously, alongside radiation therapy, is the preferred treatment for SCLC because of how quickly the tumors grow and spread. Fortunately, most SCLC cases respond well to radiation therapy, at least initially.
In limited stage SCLC cases, radiation therapy may also be used after 3-4 months of initial chemotherapy.
Common surgery options include:
- segmental, wedge, or sleeve resection to remove the affected part of lung
- lobectomy to remove one lung lobe
- bilobectomy to remove two lung lobes
- pneumonectomy to remove the whole lung
- lymph node removal
The cancer stage, the person's gender, age, family history, lifestyle habits, and general health will influence the chances of recovery for a person with SCLC.
The outlook for SCLC varies according to the individual and the stage of the cancer, but the average 5-year survival rate is 7 percent.
For SCLC cases in the limited stage, the relative 5-year survival rate is 31 percent. For SCLC cancers in the extensive stage, the relative survival rate varies from 8-19 percent. Stage 4 SCLC cancers have a 5-year survival rate of 2 percent.
It is important for people to keep in mind that each SCLC case is unique while statistics are averages. While they should be used with caution, lung cancer staging calculators exist.
Complementary therapies are those used alongside conventional medical therapies and may help manage SCLC symptoms.
Complementary therapies and lifestyle recommendations include:
- nutritional supplements
- guided meditation
- avoiding non-essential daily tasks to save energy
Alternative therapies are not meant to replace conventional therapies. Anyone thinking about an alternative treatment should discuss it first with a doctor.
Despite research, there are no treatments available today to cure SCLC outright. Many clinical trials exist that offer people new options and the number of such trials continues to grow. |
Teacher Evaluation and Observation Reporting
In the data-rich environment of schools and districts today, it can be difficult to sort through the surplus of numbers to identify valuable information that offers insights to act upon and addresses the question of “what’s next?”
iObservation data reports equip you with the tools you need to act on information and make informed decisions by:
- Identifying growth trends and patterns against specific strategies
- Revealing effective vs. ineffective professional development programs
- Helping efficiently plan for budget and resource allocation
- Using formative student data to isolate the impact of specific strategies
- Connecting leadership performance, instructional practice, and student achievement
The structure of iObservation allows schools and districts to carve real-time data multiple ways, from a broad overview perspective at 50,000 feet to a ground-level look at one specific detail. For example, a report can summarize the frequency of observations conducted by principals in each school building across a district, or drill down to show observation results of every 6th grade math teacher in the strategy ”Identifying Similarities and Differences”.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data
Data can only be as useful as the context in which it is provided. Leaders and teachers have the opportunity to offer their own qualitative commentary against the quantitative data through self-reflections, private conferences, and discussions so that analysis of data is complete with the story behind the numbers.
Sign up for a demonstration to preview iObservation reports.
Learn more about how our Professional Development Services team can support you in the analysis of data for compliance, adoption, growth, and effectiveness. |
Programming Java: Throwing Errors
It’s essential that your Java code makes every effort to fix a problem. However, there are times when your code simply doesn’t have enough information, resources, rights, or some other requirement to fix a problem.
When this happens, your code throws an error by using an exception object. The term exception is appropriate because it should be the exception to the rule, rather than the first act that the application performs. Even so, applications encounter errors that require exceptional measures, and the following sections describe how to deal with these sorts of situations.
Throwing errors during exceptional conditions
For practice, you can create an application that can generate multiple kinds of errors. Normally, you wouldn’t throw an error if a value is in the wrong range — you’d display a message directly to the user instead. However, you can create an example that demonstrates how to throw and catch an error from within a method.
Passing errors to the caller
Many code examples you begin with are just starting to get to the point where you’re calling methods from main(). The main() method is always the top level of your application. As you call methods, the methods that you call form additional levels.
For example, a method called from main() would be at the second level of your application. If that method had to call another method, that method would be at the third level, and so on. Most applications are made up of many levels of calls.
In fact, when you see an exception onscreen, it actually displays a list of the methods that called the current method in a format called the call stack.
The call stack is a listing of methods and the order in which they are called by other methods. Knowing the call stack can help you locate the source of a potential error when it doesn’t happen at the current level of the application.
Handling errors is an essential part of good programming practice. If you want robust applications that don’t constantly crash, you need to provide good error handling. However, trying to handle an error when you don’t have enough information to handle that error is also a problem.
When your code attempts to fix an error at too low a level, it hides the error from a level that could possibly fix it. Yes, you want to fix an error at the lowest possible level, but not at the expense of providing a repair that could actually end up hiding something more serious.
When you find that a particular level of an application doesn’t have the required resources, information, privileges, user access, or some other item needed to handle an error, then you issue a throw statement with the appropriate exception object. The previous level of the application will receive the exception and determine whether it can handle it.
However, if the main() method receives the exception, then you must determine what to do with the error, or the application will crash. It’s generally considered bad programming practice to simply let the application crash — you need to come up with some way to deal with errors that the application encounters.
Required error handling
Java provides two kinds of exceptions: checked (those monitored by the JRE) and unchecked (those that aren’t monitored by the JRE). You have the option of handling an unchecked exception. However, Java forces you to handle a checked exception. Your code won’t even compile if you try to use a method that has a checked exception associated with it.
A checked exception is one that the JRE is told by the class definition to monitor. The JRE forces the user of the class to provide handling for the exception to ensure that the class performs reliably.
All kinds of odd details are associated with checked and unchecked exceptions. An easy way to know whether an exception is checked is to know the parent class. All exceptions that are subclassed from the Error or RuntimeException classes are unchecked — every other exception is checked.
The best practice is to handle every exception in your application, and you won’t have to worry whether an exception is checked or unchecked. A great developer always handles potential errors — that’s the bottom line. |
This issue is being released early to coincide with the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting.
Biliary atresia progresses to end-stage liver disease (cirrhosis) in more than 70 percent of affected children and is the leading indication for pediatric liver transplantation in the world, accounting for about 50 percent of liver transplants in children. Hepatoportoenterostomy (surgery to improve bile drainage) results in successful bile drainage in only about half of patients with biliary atresia treated in the United States, underscoring the need for additional therapies to improve survival without liver transplantation, according to background information in the article. There have been conflicting reports regarding the effectiveness of the use of corticosteroids to improve bile flow following surgery.
Jorge A. Bezerra, M.D., of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, and colleagues randomly assigned 140 infants (average age, 2.3 months) to receive high-dose steroid therapy or placebo following surgery to improve bile drainage.
The researchers found that the proportion of infants with improved bile drainage was not significantly improved by steroids at 6 months following surgery (58.6 percent of steroids group vs 48.6 percent of placebo group). The adjusted absolute risk difference was 8.7 percent.
Survival without liver transplantation at 2 years of age for infants treated with steroids was nearly identical to those who received placebo (58.7 percent vs. 59.4 percent). Serious adverse events were com¬mon in both treatment groups (81.4 percent for steroids vs 80.0 percent for placebo); however, infants treated with steroids experienced their first serious adverse events earlier than those receiving placebo.
"Based on the strength of the evidence, the addition of high-dose steroids as an adjuvant [supplemental] treatment for infants with biliary atresia after hepatoportoenterostomy cannot be recommended," the authors write. |
Even though the human papillomavirus (HPV) is a risk factor for certain head and neck cancers, its presence could make all the difference in terms of survival, especially for African Americans with throat cancer, say Henry Ford Hospital researchers.
According to their new study, HPV has a substantial impact on overall survival in African Americans with oropharyngeal cancer, a cancer that affects part of the throat, the base of the tongue, the tonsils, the soft palate (back of the mouth), and the walls of the pharynx (throat).
The study shows African Americans who are HPV positive have better outcomes than African Americans without HPV.
Further, African Americans who are HPV negative not only have poorer survival compared to African Americans with HPV, they also did worse than Caucasians both with HPV and without HPV present in oropharyngeal cancer.
"This study adds to the mounting evidence of HPV as a racially-linked sexual behavior lifestyle risk factor impacting survival outcomes for both African American and Caucasian patients with oropharyngeal cancer," says lead author Maria J. Worsham, Ph.D., director of research in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford.
Study results will be presented Sunday, July 22 at the 8th International Conference on Head & Neck Cancer in Toronto. The research was funded by a National Institutes of Health grant.
The American Cancer Society's estimates about 35,000 people in the U.S. will get oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers in 2012; an estimated 6,800 people will die of these cancers.
Similar to other cancers of the head and neck cancer, risk factors include smoking, alcohol consumption. HPV is also a risk factor for oropharyngeal cancer.
To compare survival outcomes in HPV positive and HPV negative African Americans with oropharyngeal cancer, Dr. Worsham and her team conducted a retrospective study of 118 patients.
Among the study group, 67 are HPV negative and 51 are HPV positive. Forty-two of those in the study are African American.
The study found that:
- African Americans are less likely to be HPV positive
- Those older than 50 are less likely to be HPV positive
- Those with late-stage oropharyngeal cancer are more likely to be unmarried and more likely to be HPV positive
- HPV negative patients had 2.9 times the risk of death as HPV positive patients
- Overall, the HPV race groups differed with significantly poorer survival for HPV negative African Americans versus HPV positive African Americans, HPV positive Caucasians and HPV negative Caucasians |
Remember that multiplication can be written several ways. In fact, doing operations out of order can give you the wrong answer. In general, we have the following property, which is sometimes called the division property. That o … ne hasn't been solved yet to my knowledge. Sometimes, calculations involved may be so lengthy that some students end up getting stuck halfway through and have no idea how to proceed.
Once i go through a blog where i got something about it. Equally, is the speed … of a caterpillar crawling along a twig is measured in inches per minute but the speed needs to be expressed in miles per hour then two lots of conversions are required ; inches to miles and seconds to hours. So, students would solve 95 2 by designating 25 as the last two digits. Multiplying by 9 For most students, multiplying by 9 — or 99, 999 and any number that follows this pattern — is difficult compared with multiplying by a power of 10. And the best thing is that you will be submitting the assignment written in your own hand because you'll just copy what our math expert provided you with.
Most university courses include some level of maths while almost every profession uses maths in some form on a daily basis. And then 17 plus 44-- I'll scroll down a little bit. For these reasons, learning how to simplify expressions is a crucial skill for aspiring mathematicians. Now this parentheses is pretty straightforward. Related topics: Author Message Author Message matohkid204 Reg. To balance the equation, they can then subtract 7 from 89. In fact, doing operations out of order can give you the wrong answer.
Remember that multiplication can be written several ways. Pi is an irrational number so its digits will go forever. This is easy to remember because, in exponents, the base number and the power are positioned right next to each other. He began writing online in 2010 with the goal of exploring scientific, cultural and practical topics, and at last count had reached over a hundred million readers through various sites. In case it does, please close the order. Getting enough rest is really important because our brain can only function efficiently when it's not overloaded and well-rested. What happens if the sum is two digits? The first-degree equations that we consider in this chapter have at most one solution.
It is much better and rewarding in the long-run to focus on understanding the process and logic that is involved. Most will feel that 500 is a simpler number than 567. . Next, perform any addition problems in your expression. The next example shows how we can generate equivalent equations by first simplifying one or both members of an equation.
If you begin to solve problems by looking for clue words, you will find that these words often indicate an operation. Those are the parentheses right there. Rule 21: Expressions in parenthesis are treated as one number and must be calculated first. But, as long as you work the numerator that is, the top and the denominator that is, the bottom separately, until they're completely simplified first, and only then combine or reduce , if possible, then you should be fine. By turning to us for assistance, you receive: Confidentiality Working with us is a fully secure and confidential issue. For tips on solving more complex expressions, read on! As it often happens with college algebra Math problems, they are assigned at the wrong time, when you have absolutely no free time to sit and concentrate on their solution. When I say fast, how fast it grows.
Note that, however, within each pair of parentheses, the order of operations still applies. I would simply type in a and matrices. A proper study environment and a distraction free area could be the determining factor when solving complex equations or problems in geometry, algebra or trigonometry! Solving equations at the end of the day seemed to be impossible for me at those times. And this is where we come in! Your order will begin processing right after you place it and if you want to check on its status, you can always do so by either making a phone call or sending an email. The solutions to many such equations can be determined by inspection.
The only exponent in our example is 3 2, which equals 9. If there is a parenthetical equation in the problem, solve the equation in the parentheses. Have your children work through these problems to practice applying the order of operation rules. We strive to make the communication with our clients really easy, so you can count on timely and efficient help. It may help a lot cufBlui Reg. |
The enterprise cycle shouldn’t be confused with market cycles, that are measured utilizing broad inventory market indices. If you happen to activate the business cycle clock, it operates in accordance with the next time-line : 1st phaseexpansion part(inexperienced quadrant) -> 2nd phaseslowdown phase(orange quadrant) -> 3rd phaserecession section(crimson quadrant) -> 4th phaserecovery section(yellow quadrant).
The problem of how business cycles come about is subsequently inseparable from the problem of how a capitalist economic system capabilities. This text goals to elucidate the totally different phases of a enterprise cycle and their impact on asset lessons. The cycle is comprised of 5 stages: recession or interval of contraction, episode of trough, recovery, economic expansion or progress, and a period of peak.
In the growth section, there is a rise in various financial elements, reminiscent of manufacturing, employment, output, wages, earnings, demand and supply of products, and sales. Second, GDP statistics are typically topic to giant subsequent revisions, and this makes them an imperfect indicator of present enterprise cycle conditions.
The Contribution of Giant and Small Employers to Job Creation in Instances of High and Low Unemployment, American Economic Evaluate, 102(6): 2509-2539. In recession part, all the economic elements, such as manufacturing, prices, saving and funding, starts reducing.
The enterprise cycle clock concentrates on cyclical elements excluding seasonal, irregular and trend components. Objectivity—Small business house owners want to take care of a excessive degree of objectivity when using enterprise cycles. There are mainly two necessary phases in a business cycle which can be prosperity and melancholy. |
Silver is generally known for its use in coins, silverware and of course jewellery. However, today these account for less than 50% of all silver consumption. In fact, silver has a whole host of unique properties that has rendered it the ideal material for a number of industrial uses.
Of all the metals, silver is the best thermal and electrical conductor, is both malleable and ductile, able to be flattened into fine sheets and drawn out into thin, flexible wires, and it is also resistant to corrosion and oxidation. For these reasons it is extremely valuable in industrial and electrical applications. On top of this, silver is anti-microbial as well as non-toxic which makes it useful in medicine and a number of consumer products. Also, with the recent discovery of nano-silver, the white metal has expanded into home appliances.
In comparison to most other precious metals, silver is more widely available and relatively cheap. In many instances this has led to silver being seen as disposable with nano-silver being used in a plethora of everyday items – who would have thought we’d consider washing our clothes with nano-particles of the metal we once wore as prized jewellery?
Whether in laundry detergent or inside jet engines, silver has become a material of innovation and is now appearing in a number of unexpected places and products. Take a look at our infographic below to find out some of the most incredible uses for silver for yourself!
source: mining.com, from BullionVault.com |
New standard for electronics
LEDs revolutionised both lighting and display technology in the 1990s. Today, the LED luminaire is the industry standard for lighting and is increasingly displacing all other light generation technologies from the market. While organic LEDs (OLEDs) are currently still the technological leaders in displays, materials with the structure of perovskite could soon be used to produce screens.
Perovskite is not a new invention, but the production of hybrid perovskite semiconductor material by inkjet printing is revolutionary. The production of organic semiconductors by printer has been possible for a long time. Even solar cells made from the semiconductor material are already coming out of the printer. But with LEDs, of all things, there have been problems: The particularly efficient and luminous hybrid perovskite materials have so far eluded printability.
Because the perovskite structure only crystallises after deposition on the carrier material, the quality of the resulting crystal structure was difficult to control. "Up to now, it was therefore not possible to produce such semiconductor layers from a liquid solution of sufficient quality," says Prof. Dr. Emil List-Kratochvil, head of the joint research group of HZB and HU.
In June 2020, the HZB now announced the success: The research team has found out how to optimise the crystallisation of the perovskite material. The scientists achieved the breakthrough with the help of a trick: "inoculating" the surface with specific crystals.
After solar cells now also LEDs out of the printer
In recent years, scientists at HZB have already shown that solar cells can be printed from a solution of such semiconductor compounds. Now, the joint team of HZB and HU has succeeded for the first time in producing functional light-emitting diodes in this way. For this purpose, the research group used a metal halide perovskite: a material that promises particularly high efficiency in light generation but is difficult to process.
"The challenge was to use a kind of attractant to induce the salt-like precursor that we applied to the substrate with the printer to crystallise quickly and evenly," explains List-Kratochvil. The team chose a "seed crystal" for this purpose: an added salt that attaches itself to the substrate and serves as a scaffold for the growth of the perovskite structure.
Significantly better optical and electronic features
The researchers used this trick to create printed LEDs with far higher luminosity and significantly better electrical properties than could previously be achieved with additive manufacturing processes. However, at present, the luminous period that can be achieved with perovskite from the printer is more likely to be hours than months or years. But if you take into account that the first perovskite LED only lit up for a few seconds, the progress in development is certainly enormous.
Although the lifetime is not yet sufficient for commercial use, for List-Kratochvil this success is only an intermediate step on the way to future micro- and optoelectronics, which in his opinion will be based exclusively on hybrid perovskite semiconductors. "The advantages offered by a universally applicable class of materials, from which any components can be manufactured using a single simple and cost-effective process, are impressive," says the scientist. In the Berlin laboratory of HZB and HU he therefore intends to gradually produce all relevant electronic components in this way.
Author: Bernadette Trepte |
What are biosimilars?
FDA definition: A biological product that is approved based on showing that it is highly similar to an FDA-approved biological product, known as the reference product, and has no clinically meaningful differences in terms of safety and effectiveness from the reference product.
Biologics have high molecular complexity and may be sensitive to minor changes in the manufacturing process. Compared to generics, which has no clinical trial requirements, biosimilars do have to go through an abbreviated process with at least one clinical study. Biosimilars might not include all indications and the cost of development is way more expensive.
Why do we need biosimilars?
- Reduces the cost for patients
- Saves cost for the health care system
- Increases global access to effective biologics
- Prevents monopolization by pharmaceutical companies
Requirements for Registration of Biosimilars Products
The Department of Health has endorsed a new set of guidelines for registration of biosimilar products which effective from 1 January 2016.
According to the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations, all pharmaceutical products must satisfy the criteria of safety, quality, and efficacy before they can be registered with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and be sold in Hong Kong. However, biological products often have complex molecular structures and therefore the copy of the products cannot be exactly the same as the originator product due to their different manufacturing processes. The copy products cannot be considered as identical, so they are referred as ‘biosimilar’.
Disclaimer in the guidelines:
As biosimilar product is similar but not identical to the reference product, approval for registration of a biosimilar product does not imply bioequivalence or clinical equivalence between the biosimilar and reference products. The Department of Health does not endorse the substitution of reference product with biosimilar product. Healthcare professionals should exercise their own judgment and inform their patients if necessary regarding the risk of substitution of reference product with biosimilar product.
1. Potential immunogenicity
Biologics may have a higher chance of causing immune response due to their large molecular size and complex structure. “Immunogenicity” refers to a drug that causes an immune response in the body, such as allergic symptoms, including rash, itching, and shortness of breath. In general, it is not a common situation, but it can be life-threatening in certain cases.
According to Department of Health guidelines:
Immunogenicity of the biosimilar product should always be investigated in humans before the biosimilar product can be approved for registration.
Although the reference product and biosimilar are highly similar, however, the similarity between agents cannot translate to interchangeability. There have been numerous debates about the interchangeability of biosimilars and reference products based on concerns of immunogenicity by switching between biological products, which may cause lack of effect and toxicity.
Therefore, healthcare professional should exercise professional judgment and patient’s agreement is needed before substituting the reference product with biosimilar. |
Teach your first grader about God's love for His children with the LIFEPAC 1st Grade Bible Unit 2 Worktext! This colorful, consumable booklet has lessons about God's love for children in the Bible, children today, and how children should love God. Topics in this Alpha Omega curriculum include trusting, praising, and more. Three lessons and tests are included.
Does your first grader know how much God loves him? Do you want to teach him why God loves him, and how he should love God in return? Then Alpha Omega Publications has just what you need—the LIFEPAC 1st Grade Bible Unit 2 Worktext! This full-color, step-by-step worktext will help you teach basic Christian values with solid Scripture-based content. Fun learning activities, vibrant illustrations, and basic writing skill exercises are all included in this worktext to create an integrated learning experience. This second in a series of ten first grade Bible worktexts covers topics like the stories of Joseph and David as children, how God loves children today, and how children should love God.
But wait, that's not all! The LIFEPAC 1st Grade Bible Unit 2 Worktext has fun, age-appropriate lessons that include circle-the-answer questions, drawing pictures of biblical characters, and reading simple Bible verses (KJV). And unlike other enormous textbooks, this flexible, compact worktext will motivate your child to complete consumable lessons with its reduced size! And your child will love the sense of accomplishment he'll experience as he finishes this worktext in three to four weeks! Most importantly, this LIFEPAC worktext uses mastery learning techniques and self tests to reinforce concepts and solidify comprehension—plus one removable teacher-administered unit test. What else could you need? So, don't wait to enjoy this best-selling Alpha Omega curriculum. Order the LIFEPAC 1st Grade Bible Unit 2 Worktext to teach your child about God's love today. |
how to use medical protective clothing
- Xicheng Science & Technology Building High-tech Development Zone, Zhengzhou, China
- [email protected]
- >Online Chating
Definition and application of medical protective clothing. 1.2 What are the structure and common categories of medical protective clothing. 2 Production of medical protective clothing. 2.1 What are the common raw materials and performance of medical protective clothing. 2.2 Manufacture of medical protective clothing.Medical Protective Clothing | LoveToKnowCommon Features of the Protective Attire. Manufacturers use various materials to make their protective clothing for medical use. The common features among brands that maximize the protective function and comfort of each type of clothing include: Adjustable closures, either Personal Protective Equipment: Questions and Answers | CDCMar 14, 2020 · CDCs Considerations for Selecting Protective Clothing used in Healthcare for Protection against Microorganisms in Blood and Body Fluids guidance provides a comparison between gowns and coveralls, including test methods and performance requirements. Coveralls typically provide 360-degree protection because they are designed to cover the whole body, including the back and
ViroGuard® protective apparel offers superior comfort and performance in a disposable product. Enhanced moisture vapor transmission keeps workers comfortable and protected. Seamless shoulder area provides significantly more room, allowing workers to freely move their arms and shoulders without ripping or tearing.CDC - Protective Clothing and Ensembles - NIOSH Based in China, we are a professional import and export trading company selling masks, protective clothing, disinfectant and other medical consumables to all over the world. The company has strong technical force, excellent production process, using excellent , how to use medical protective clothingPersonal Protective Equipment: Questions and Answers | CDCMar 14, 2020 · CDCs guidance for Considerations for Selecting Protective Clothing used in Healthcare for Protection against Microorganisms in Blood and Body Fluids provides additional comparisons between gowns and coveralls.; Gowns are easier to put on and, in particular, to take off. They are generally more familiar to healthcare workers and hence more likely to be used and removed correctly.
Apr 11, 2020 · Medical protective clothing has a protective barrier like fluid absorption and repellant coatings on the inner surface. Precautions for Using Medical Protective Clothing . There are a few precautions that you must follow for using medical protective clothing. Proper training is mandatory before using them.Personal Protective Equipment | FAQs | Infection Control , how to use medical protective clothingThese include gloves, face masks, protective eyewear, face shields, and protective clothing (e.g., reusable or disposable gown, jacket, lab coat). PPE can also prevent microorganisms from spreading from DHCP to patients. For guidance on how to choose and use PPE in health care settings, see CDCs Protecting Healthcare Personnel.Use Personal Protective Equipment - Infection Prevention , how to use medical protective clothingGowns used in the healthcare settings are defined and classified by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. An isolation gown is a non-sterile gown used to keep clothing
Based in China, we are a professional import and export trading company selling masks, protective clothing, disinfectant and other medical consumables to all over the world. The company has strong technical force, excellent production process, using excellent , how to use medical protective clothingHow is the difference between gowns and medical protective , how to use medical protective clothingWear medical protective clothing: When exposed to airborne and droplet-borne infectious disease patients, they may be splashed by the patients blood, body fluids, secretions, and feces. The target of protective clothing is different. Medical protective clothing is to prevent medical Medical Gowns | FDAAbout medical gowns. Gowns are examples of personal protective equipment used in health care settings. They are used to protect the wearer from the spread of infection or illness if the wearer , how to use medical protective clothing
Protective garments types 1,2 and 5 are less common in medical use, but the applicable combined requirements shall still be applied. In order to be both a medical device and a protective garment both medical and PPE standards may apply.HOW TO PUT ON AND TAKE OFF Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)HOW TO PUT ON AND TAKE OFF Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Posters. 22 April 2020Medical Protective Clothing - SHANDONG SAIGAO GROUP , how to use medical protective clothingThe standards for disposable protective clothing for medical use are the technical requirements for disposable protective clothing for medical use specified by the National Standardization Administration of China from March 1, 2010: gb19082-2009. Disposable protective clothing is discarded after use without disinfection and washing.
We work hand in hand with medical professionals at leading medical centers to design disposable protective clothing that offers the features necessary for life-saving protection and ease in the donning and doffing procedure. ViroGuard® 2 was designed as a coverall for treatment with patients with Ebola.Standards for Medical Face Masks and Protective Clothing , how to use medical protective clothingIn recent weeks, the topic of protective clothing has become very much mainstream, with these products entering broader use outside of hospitals and healthcare facilities in response to COVID-19. Face masks, gowns, and other articles of protective clothing are in high demand as people seek to avoid spreading or contracting the novel coronavirus.Will homemade face masks keep you from getting sick , how to use medical protective clothing - CNETMedical-grade masks ideally are single-use, though in certain hospital environments, the severe shortage of N95 masks is making procedural exceptions a necessity.
A broad overview is presented of current medical clothing with specific focus on surgical gowns. Along with the protective function of the surgical clothing, its performance attributes relevant to , how to use medical protective clothingHow to choose the right medical protective clothing , how to use medical protective clothingMost medical protective clothing is widely used in medical and health institutions. When medical personnel care for patients who may suffer from specific infectious diseases, the use of protective clothing should consider the transmission mode of the infectious disease.How to Select the Most Appropraite Medical Protective , how to use medical protective clothingJan 11, 2017 · Medical protective clothing is made of special textile fabrics which can protect people from blood, fluids and other potential infectious materials. This function can be provided by other type of water or fluid resistant textiles because the normal water repellency textile cant prevent the transmittance of microbes from one person to others.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) helps prevent the spread of germs in the hospital. This can protect people and health care workers from infections. All hospital staff, patients, and visitors should use PPE when there will be contact with blood or other bodily fluids.When To Use Personal Protective Equipment in HealthcarePersonal protective equipment (PPE) is disposable clothing worn to create a barrier between blood, bodily fluids, or respiratory secretions. PPE is often used to prevent cross-contamination, such as in food preparation or for safety when using chemicals. Because of this, PPE is extremely important in care homes and healthcare.PROTECTIVE CLOTHING IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION | Those different types of medical garments not only protect medical professionals from pathogens, but also protect patients from possible contamination by non-sterile clothing. Manufacturers of medical protective clothing may vary the materials that they use in their products, but there are several features in common that allow the clothing to , how to use medical protective clothing
Gowns used in the healthcare settings are defined and classified by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. An isolation gown is a non-sterile gown used to keep clothing Standard on Protective Clothing for Emergency Multiple elements of compliant protective clothing and equipment providing full body coverage, intended for a single use, that when worn together provide protection from some risks, but not all risks, of emergency medical operations. A.3.3.XX Single-Use Emergency Medical Protective Ensemble. Single-use medical protective ensembles are intendedNew Revised Requirements for Emergency Medical Protective , how to use medical protective clothingSingle-use medical masks, single-use eye and face protection devices, or multiple-use eye and face protection devices 4. Multiple-use emergency medical protective footwear, medical care facility , how to use medical protective clothing
Steps toput onpersonal protective equipment (PPE) 5 Place the impermeable gown over the scrubs. 6 Put on face protection: 6a Put on a medical mask. 6b Put on goggles or a face shield. OR, IF BOOTS UNAVAILABLE 7 If available, put a head cover on at this time. E.U. Seeks Solidarity as Nations Restrict Medical Exports , how to use medical protective clothingMar 07, 2020 · On Thursday, the German authorities issued a decree banning export of protective clothing and other medical gear such as gloves and masks. Such products could only be Personal Protection Equipment - Grainger Industrial SupplyThe right personal protective equipment (PPE) can help guard against excessive noise, flying debris, sharp objects, chemical spills and other workplace safety hazards. From hard hats, respirators and gloves to earplugs, coveralls and fall protection, count on Grainger for
Medical Protective Wear. High value is placed on personal protective wear in medicine and healthcare, as it protects the medical staff from direct contact with potentially infectious substances.Medical protective clothing is not only required in the operating theatre and lab, but also in daily use Production And Quality Inspections Of Medical Protective , how to use medical protective clothingApr 13, 2020 · Medical protective equipment has been helping doctors and healthcare professionals fight the war against diseases for many years. It can be SARS or the Co-Vid 19, protective clothing always plays a crucial role in order to contain the virus and protect healthcare professionals.In this article we explain how medical protective clothing is manufactured, as well as how quality control is , how to use medical protective clothingASTM F1671 / F1671M - 13 Standard Test Method for , how to use medical protective clothing5.6 Medical protective clothing materials are intended to be a barrier to blood, body fluids, and other potentially infectious materials. Many factors can effect the wetting and penetration characteristics of body fluids, such as: surface tension; viscosity; and polarity of the fluids, as well as the structure and relative hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of the materials. |
Image Credit: Flystock/Shutterstock.com
Nondestructive metrology techniques are beneficial when it comes to analyzing building materials, particularly concrete and pavement. Metrology can also be invaluable when it comes to assessing potholes and the overall status of roadways.
By performing metrological tests, these techniques offer the ability to inspect large structures and infrastructure. That said, gaining the precise metrology measurements is a challenging task in these areas due to the heterogeneous nature of both building materials and road surfaces. Below are a few modern approaches to visualizing metrology information in building material.
Optical 3D metrology can be used to characterize building material qualities. Capturing thousands of frames per second, optical systems use stereo cameras to assess both singular points and total surfaces.
The system is particularly valuable when it comes to metrological analysis during mechanical testing, when it can gather 3D data on displacements and strains within a material. This approach saves time, supplies useful data and can reveal optimal applications for materials.
The fact that it offers both point and surface examinations makes an optical metrology system especially useful. For instance, if technicians want to examine the fiber-dominant mechanical qualities and the matrix-dominant qualities of a composite, total-surface data is necessary and can be easily acquired by an optical system. Optical metrology can even provide data on unforeseen effects of mechanical testing.
Visualization Using Ultrasound
Ultrasonic NDT techniques are often used to supply data on the microstructure of building materials.
Ultrasonic tomography (UT) is an increasingly popular technique that is often used for quality control during construction and rehabilitation works. The method involves the use of shear waves to produce 3D tomographic imagery of concrete building material, which allows for the diagnosis of defects in concrete structures.
UT can be used to ascertain the integrity of material within a structure, as it is capable of detecting cavities, exfoliations and cracks. IT can also gauge the thickness of the test object. UT can be used for the internal analysis of structures made from concrete and various stone types.
The technique involves the application of a pulse-echo to one side to the test object. Through the use of receiving transducers, a UT device can detect signal propagation and the system compares that information to calibration data for the material being tested.
UT is an excellent approach to generating a three-dimensional image of internal flaws that may occur in a test subject.
Accurately analyzing potholes is essential for proper pavement construction, maintenance and rehabilitation.
As pavement ages, potholes are essential evidence that can point to structural flaws of a roadway.
Unfortunately, the identification of cracks and potholes is typically carried out manually, which can be labor- and time-consuming. Three-dimensional visualization has been effectively used in this area, but the technology is still very much in development.
Pothole visualization techniques can be categorized into three different groups: 3D laser scanner techniques, stereo vision techniques, and visualization using the Microsoft Kinect sensor.
Laser scanning systems are capable of identifying potholes in real-time. However, the price of laser scanning gear is still prohibitive at the vehicle-level.
One 3D laser-scanner system used in a study employed reflected laser pulses to generate precise digital models. In the study, specific 3D cloud points of potholes were captured and extracted to spotlight particular stress features. The study results showed the intensity and coverage of stress-related features such as potholes can be precisely and automatically quantified to determine the amount of necessary fill material.
With a stereovision system, a pair of connected digital cameras are utilized to scan a surface. The initial analysis with the system is the investigation of 2D pictures from each camera to recognize and categorize any cracks. The outcomes from the image analyses are then combined to ensure greater consistency. The stereo images are then used to create a 3D surface image. The extraction of 3D qualities from pairs of 2D images requires calibration of the cameras, distortion correction, stereo points matching and 3D reconstruction.
The stereovision approach includes a high processing demand to model a surface, making it a challenge to achieve in real-time. Both cameras need to be precisely aligned because the misalignment can significantly impact the quality of outcomes and amplify issues caused by the vibrations of the vehicle carrying it.
In a 2018 study, a UK-Pakistan research team used the commercially available, low-cost Kinect gaming sensor to gather pothole images and determine the approximate volumes of each pothole. Using the infrared Kinect sensor, researchers amassed pothole image data from concrete and asphalt roadways. Digital meshes were produced for visualization, the study team compared the area of the pothole to its depth, and approximate volumes were calculated.
While the Kinect sensor approach is cost-effective compared to scientific or industrial imaging systems, the use of this technology is still a nascent technology that is not quite ready for widespread use.
References and Further Reading |
Slicing and Dicing, Tennis Style
Slice, or backspin, causes the tennis ball to spin back toward the source of impact (you). When a slice shot bounces, the ball stays low, forcing your opponent to really stretch to get to the ball. If players like to attack the net and volley, they slice a lot.
The slice can be a useful weapon, but it does have some disadvantages. Slice shots never travel with a lot of pace. Slice shots that are hit from lack of confidence or in a desperate attempt to just get the ball back tend to float, and they travel through the air slowly. Your opponent can do almost anything he wants with them, especially from a position up at the net.
Mastering the forehand slice
Slice always imparts control. Like all slice shots, the forehand version is hit high-to-low, with the strings brushing under the ball. Just before you start your forward swing, raise the racquet head to shoulder height, open the face so that the hitting surface faces up, and produce slice by cutting under the ball with a long, smooth stroke.
The slice forehand is easy to master, and a fair number of hackers resort to it. But don't use it as a substitute for your flat or topspin forehand. It's a defensive shot that you should use on only three occasions:
- When you're scrambling to retrieve a good, angled shot by your opponent (this is called making a get) and can't set up to hit a conventional forehand — you can swipe the ball back with slice and buy yourself a little time to get back into position.
- When you're moving forward toward the net and you want to drive a low-bouncing ball into the corner of your opponent's court.
- When you want to surprise your opponent with a drop shot.
Dressing up your backhand with slice
If you have trouble effectively hitting the flat backhand, you can use a slightly different stroke that carries many players far in the game — the pure slice backhand. Many pros, including the legendary Australian champion Ken Rosewall, used the slice backhand stroke as their only backhand. The slice backhand suited their approach to the game, which was based on control rather than power.
The slice backhand offers the following practical and tactical advantages:
- The slice stroke is simple. You hit under the ball, instead of through and over it, as you do on the flat backhand. That's just plain easier.
- Slice slows the ball down. A ball hit with any kind of spin travels slower than a flat one. Slice shots don't bounce as high, either. Those two qualities can catch your opponent off guard and screw up her timing.
- Slice shots travel in a flat trajectory. You don't have to lift the ball over the net in an arc and then get it to drop back down inside the boundaries of the court like you do with your other shots.
A word of caution: Slice backhands make poor passing shots. Slow pace and the flat trajectory give your opponent two big advantages: more time and an ideal height, at about a foot above the net, to smash away a winner.
Basically, you hit the slice backhand just as you would hit your standard backhand (both one-handed and two-handed backhands), changing only the following things about your stroke:
1. As the ball approaches and you rotate your shoulders to your left, bring your racquet back above your left shoulder.
Your stance resembles the stance you take when you step up to the plate and get ready to swing a baseball bat — in both cases, your hands are up around your left shoulder. The major difference is that the racquet shouldn't be pointing straight up, at a 90-degree angle, like a bat. The racquet head instead should be pointing at the back fence, at about a 45-degree angle.
When your backswing is complete, your right shoulder is close to your chin, and your right elbow points in the same direction as your right foot.
2. Turn the racquet face as you bring it back so that the hitting surface ends up facing upward, as shown in Figure 1.
This position makes it easy and natural to brush your strings under the lower portion of the ball, producing backspin.
3. Swing forward with a high-to-low motion.
Release the racquet with your left hand as you do this. On slice shots, the racquet doesn't come around and up, making an arc. It moves forward and down, coming around to your right side only at the tail end of your stroke, long after the ball is gone.
Make contact with the ball, with the racquet "slicing" under it, when it's at a point about even with your right shoulder.
High bouncing balls are ideal for hitting slice shots, but you can play balls at any height with a slice by bending more at the knees and/or adjusting the height of your back and forward swings. Think of your racquet face as an elevator that you need to move to the right "story" or height to pick up the passenger, a bright yellow tennis ball!
4. Follow through until your racquet arm is fully extended, with the head pointing toward the ground at a moderate angle.
If you hit this shot from a comfortable, set position (at about the center of the baseline), your racquet should be pointing toward the right netpost. |
Victorian Era England Debt Prisons History & Living Conditions. People were bothered about law and order in Victorian Britain.
In a nutshell: Debtors’ Prisons. The horror of the jails that imprisoned poor debtors inspired bestselling novel The Devil in the Marshalsea.
But what were they really like? Tuesday 10th February 2015 Submitted by: Jonny Wilkes A mid-Victorian depiction of the debtors prison at St Briavel Castle What were they? They were institutions in which people who couldn’t pay their debts were incarcerated. When did they originate? The system of throwing people into jail if they couldn’t pay money they owed dates from medieval times. What kinds of people served time in these prisons? Debt was a classless crime. A number of famous names were recorded as inmates in debtors’ prisons, including Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe. What were conditions like in debtors’ prisons?
In general, debtors were treated differently from regular prisoners, being allowed special privileges such as visiting rights. A Victorian prison - source 3. An Overview of Separation and Silence - Victorian Crime and Punishment from E2BN. An Overview of Separation and Silence One of the reforms John Howard suggested in 1777 was that prisoners should have time alone in their own cell to think about their life and crime.
However, early attempts to provide a system that allowed inmates time for reflection, free from the influence of others, often worked very badly because of overcrowding. The reform of prisons. The reform of prisons. Llanfyllin Workhouse. The Llanfyllin Union Workhouse – John Hainsworth – pdf download “Please sir, can I have some more… ?”
Yes, it’s an original Oliver Twist Workhouse, and the Llanfyllin Dolydd Workhouse is one of the last intact Victorian poorhouses, now a unique venue, it had an interesting and chequered past that touched many lives… Workhouse trustees, led by John Hainsworth have been researching into the history of the Workhouse for many years now and have built up a fascinating picture of the past and produced a booklet and permanent display of some of what they have discovered so far. There is a growing interest in this uncelebrated area of our social history and the Workhouse receives many visitors from all walks of life, who whilst researching their own genealogy, have discovered family members who were one time residents in the Llanfyllin Union Workhouse.
It is very important to us here at the Dolydd to remember and celebrate those forgotten lives. Surveillance - An analysis of Jeremy Bentham Michel Foucault and their present day relevance. Surveillance Moderated surveillance is a feature of modern government.
Modern because it relates to the development of the bureaucratic state and industrial (as distinct from agricultural) economies - Moderated because the camera watching the streets is limited by laws (unlike the total surveillance described by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty Four) - Government by surveillance because the subject is controlled by the knowledge that the subject is watched. Technology makes surveillance possible, but our social theory provides the framework that makes it meaningful and limits it. To look at this social theory, we will first analyse the work of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), then look at the analysis of Michel Foucault (1926-1984), and proceed, in the light of this, to discuss surveillance by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Bentham "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. The Ninth Dream: A Short Summary of Panoptic Surveillance in Foucault. Heh, here's a brief exegisical summary I wrote for a class a while back.
I found it while sorting through some of my old papers, and I thought it was a nice condensation and explanation of Foucault's key concepts in Discipline and Punish. It isn't an essay per se, but It seems worth posting all the same. Foucault and His Panopticon - power, knowledge, Jeremy Bentham, surveillance, smart mobs, protests, cooperation, philosopher. Michel Foucault Above all else, Michel Foucault believed in the freedom of people.
He also realized that as individuals, we react to situations in different ways. His used his books as a vehicle to show the various factors that interact and collide in his analyzation of change and its effects. As a philosophical historian and an observer of human relations, his work focused on the dominant genealogical and archaeological knowledge systems and practices, tracking them through different historical eras, including the social contexts that were in place that permitted change - the nature of power in society.
Panopticon. The panopticon penitentiary, from the Greek παν- ('all') and -οπτικος ('seeing') was based upon an idea of Jeremy's younger brother, Samuel, who while working in Russia for Prince Potemkin, hit upon the 'central inspection principle' which would facilitate the training and supervision of unskilled workers by experienced craftsmen.
Jeremy came to adapt this principle for his proposed prison, an 'Inspection House' envisaged as a circular building, with the prisoners' cells arranged around the outer wall and the central point dominated by an inspection tower. From this building, the prison's inspector could look into the cells at any time—and even be able to speak to the prisoners in their cells via an elaborate network of 'conversation tubes'—though the inmates themselves would never be able to see the inspector himself. |
How is the diagnosis made?
Mitochondrial disease is difficult to recognize, because there are so many possible symptoms and they can range from mild to severe. There are some physical signs and symptoms (such as developmental delay, seizures, poor muscle tone, acid reflux, vision and hearing loss), which could lead someone to suspect mitochondrial disease.
You may notice one or more symptoms before you recognize that something may be wrong with your child. If you have a feeling that something isn’t right, have your child seen by a pediatrician. If there are physical signs and symptoms or your family history suggests a problem with metabolism, the pediatrician may refer your child to a specialist in neurology or metabolic diseases. At your first visit, the specialist will ask you questions about your child’s health and your family’s medical history. As well as gathering these facts, the specialist will give your child a complete physical and neurological examination.
A diagnosis of Mitochondrial disease may be confirmed with diagnostic tests, which include:
- Genetic testing – a blood test to check for mutations in the genetic material of the mitochondria.
- Muscle biopsy – taking a tiny sample of muscle to examine under a microscope.
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (MRI and MRS)
- Blood tests for lactate and pyruvate – these enzymes in the blood can help diagnose and track many diseases.
- Urine tests for organic acids, which may indicate problems with metabolism present since birth (called inborn errors of metabolism).
- Forearm exercise testing – to check for the build-up of lactate in the forearm muscles, during exercise with a cuff that restricts blood flow.
- Exercise and muscle strength testing – to check strength and tolerance for physical activity.
Other tests may include:
a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to test and evaluate fluid around the brain and spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid or CSF)
echocardiogram (ECHO) to check if the heart muscle is affected
electroencephalogram (EEG) to check brain activity for seizures
pulmonary function tests (PFT or spirometry) to check how well the lungs are working |
Many widely used phrases and bromides—including “mother nature” and “living in harmony with nature”—imply that nature is a benevolent and loving place. Yet natural disasters, such as the recent California Springs fire, show that nature can be lethal and that we need the products of industrial civilization to protect ourselves from its dangers.
Tragically, this particular fire damaged fifteen homes and injured eight firefighters. Had area residents not been blessed with the fruits of industry the damage would have been far worse.
Imagine organizing and implementing an evacuation without televisions, Internet connections, telephones, radios. Imagine fleeing the area on foot with what you could carry in your hands, as “mother nature” intended, rather than by automobile with your precious possessions piled in the seats and trunk. Imagine seeing the fire approach a house made of “natural” logs and shingles rather than man-made fire-retardant siding and roofing. Imagine clearing away brush and grass by hand rather than by means of gasoline powered tools and tractors.
Untouched nature does not give us this technology; men and women who produce and run modern mass-production industrial facilities do.
“Nature” does not act like a loving mother. It acts like nature. At best, it leaves people naked, cold, hungry, and vulnerable; at worst it kills people with utter indifference.
Natural disasters, such as the California Springs fire, remind us that we should thank our real guardians: the men and women of industry and science.
- The British Industrial Revolution: A Tribute Freedom and Human Potential
- Does a Big Storm Require Big Government?
- HuffPo’s Sanghoee Uses Tragedy of Sandy to Smear Ayn Rand
Image: Wikimedia Commons |
Definition and causes of abscess in the brain
An abscess in the brain is an encapsulated accumulation of inflammatory material (pus) in the brain. This occurs most often due to spread of inflammation from somewhere else in the body as for example inflammation of the middle ear, sinusitis or cerebrospinal meningitis (meninges inflammation). Less often seen with blood spreading from inflammation of heart valves, pneumonia or inflammation of the teeth or intestines.
An abscess in the brain may also occur after surgery in the brain or by violent blow to the head where foreign material has entered the brain through the skull. It is usually bacteria causing the disease, but in persons with weakened immune systems it might also be a mycotic infection caused by fungous.
Symptoms of abscess in the brain
An abscess in the brain will press on the part of the brain, which lies immediately around it, which can interfere with the function of this part of the brain. A large abscess is very serious because it will interfere with the function of a large part of the brain. Patients might have more than one abscess in the brain, which can lead to multiple symptoms with several parts of the brain being affected simultaneously.
The symptoms can vary depending on where in the brain the abscess is located. Frequent symptoms are:
Nausea and vomiting due to elevated pressure in the brain.
Paralysis or tactile disturbances.
Altered awareness level.
Epileptic seizures (see Epilepsy).
Stiffness of neck and back.
Precautions and diagnosis
If, after having had an inflammation in the body or after brain surgery any of the above mentioned symptoms appear immediate medical attention is required. The medical examination to establish the diagnose will involve a CT or MRI scan of brain, which will show if an abscess is involved.
Treatment of brain abscess
If the abscess is small it can be treated with broad-acting antibiotics which will often be given directly into a vein, why hospitalization is typically necessary during the treatment. Efficacy of the treatment is controlled by new brain scans to see if the abscess is decreasing in size. If the abscess on the other hand is large, surgery is necessary to quickly reduce the pressure on the brain.
Outlook and complications
A brain abscess is a potentially life-threatening condition. However, with swift and effective treatment the symptoms usually disappear with complete recovery. If the abscess is discovered or treated late, irreparable damage to the brain might have happened with permanent symptoms such as tactile disturbances or partial paralysis for life as the result. If the location and origin of the underlying infection is not found and treated, there is a risk of new abscesses in the brain. |
An institution that features prominently in the history of Brooklin is the Women’s Institute.
The Brooklin Women’s Institute was one of many WIs that popped up across Ontario in the early 20th century with the mandate to improve women’s skills in the arts of homemaking and child care.
But as the WIs grew in number and in membership, so too did their purpose; at the encouragement of Lady Tweedsmuir, wife of Canada’s governor-general and dedicated member of the Athens, Ont. branch, WIs began taking up the important cause of writing and preserving of their community histories.
These Tweedsmuir Histories, as they’ve come to be known, can be found in almost every community that has or had an active WI in Ontario.
Here at the Archives we have one for Myrtle, Whitby, and Brooklin. We also have a larger collection for the Brooklin branch, which contains minute books, finances and administrative documents.
The Brooklin Tweedsmuir was written by Charlotte Batty, wife of Frank Batty of one of Brooklin’s farming families, and it’s a very comprehensive history of Brooklin complete with photographs. Copies of the Brooklin Tweedsmuir can be found at the Brooklin and Central libraries.
The Brooklin WI was founded in 1910 in the basement of the since demolished Brooklin Presbyterian Church with 15 charter members. The minute books provide insight into activities of the group’s monthly meetings and the topics of discussion ranged from recipe sharing to demonstrations to local charity.
On Nov. 3, 1910, Miss Fletcher of New York gave a talk on how to ventilate a sick room and demonstrated making a bed and bathing a patient and then Miss Hannah of Hamilton spoke more generally about home nursing.
At the November 1911 meeting, the group was asked to verbally provide examples of ‘some way of cooking poultry.’ As you would hope and might expect, “Responses came very liberally and a good deal of information on that subject given.”
Each month was meant to be educational and informative, with the women sharing their experiences on how to make their homes safer, their lives more efficient and themselves more knowledgeable.
By 1919, the local WIs united to become the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario, sharing the goals of what would later become the Associated Country Women of the World. The Brooklin group petered out by the early 1990s but its efforts live on at the Archives as we work to preserve its legacy and contributions to Brooklin’s history.
Visit the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario website at www.fiwo.on.ca for more information on Ontario’s first Women’s Institute and Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, the woman who made it all possible.
Sarah Ferencz is the archivist at the Whitby Public Library. Contact her at [email protected] |
“Lungs in a box” were recently used at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in a groundbreaking lung transplantation led by STS members Drs. Gabriel Loor and Todd Rosengart. The technology–TransMedics Organ Care System Lung (OCS Lung)–allows donor lungs to “breathe” from the time of the donor procedure until the transplant surgery.
Close to 100,000 people are waiting for life-saving organ donations in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. OCS Lung technology and similar technologies mean that transplants will no longer be limited by time and location, Dr. Loor explained, thus expanding the available donor pool and providing more opportunities for patients waiting for organ donations.
“This is revolutionizing the way we do transplants,” Dr. Loor said. “The Texas Medical Center is one of a handful of centers doing this. With this technology, we can’t imagine going back to the standard method of organ transport.” |
C# Tutorial: Create a Number Cracking Game
- Subject: C# Tutorials
- Learning Time: 4 hours
In this tutorial you will be creating a C# program written in visual studio. The program is a very basic game/puzzle which requires the user to enter different numbers to try and work out the randomly generated number. This tutorial will work in any version of visual studio. Full code for the game is in the next page. Follow the tutorial down and apply any code as mentioned.
Big thanks to our friend Matt for this tutorial.Number-Cracker-Creation-Tutorial
Read Next: 1 2 |
1. Local, National, and Global Citizen Movements
"The term Global Citizens Movement (GCM) refers to a profound shift in values among an aware and engaged citizenry. Transnational corporations, governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) remain powerful actors, but all of these are deeply influenced by a coherent, worldwide association of millions of people who call for priority to be placed on new vales of quality of life, human solidarity, and environmental sustainability. It is important to note that the GCM is a socio-political process rather than a political organization or party structure." Global Citizens Movement (GCM), Encyclopedia of Earth, November 2007.
- Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Peter Willets, UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, 2006.
- Global Citizens Movement (GCM), Encyclopedia of Earth, November 2007.
- Earth Charter Initiative, ECI, 2009.
- The Widening Circle, TWC, 2011.
- The Access Initiative, TAI, 2011.
- Advancing a Global Citizens Movement, Paul Raskin, Kosmos, Spring-Summer 2011.
- Moving Planet Worldwide Rally, 24 September 2011.
- Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About, Henry Blodget, Business Insider, 11 October 2011.
How to Turn the Power of the Wall Street Protests into Real Reforms
by Brent Blackwelder, Daly News, 24 October 2011.
This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, David Korten, Yes! Magazine, 16 November 2011.
- Signs of the Times, Jessica Lehrman, Grist, 26 November 2011.
- What Does it Mean to be a Global Citizen?, Ronald C. Israel, Kosmos Journal, Summer 2012.
- The Global Citizen Manifesto, Global Citizen, 25 June 2014.
- Climate Protection as a World Citizen Movement, WBGU, 17 September 2014.
- Global Poverty Project (GPP): Where Will You Be In 2015?, GPP, 2015.
- The Global Citizens' Initiative (TGCI): Building A Sustainable World Community For All, TGCI, 2015.
- Young Environmental and Social Development Practitioners, YoungProfsNet, 30 June 2015.
PEOPLE'S ACTION AT THE EARTH SUMMIT
Occupy Rio+20 - People’s Petition
We, members of the Occupy movement and civil society, highlight the critical window of opportunity at the Earth Summit to vastly scale up political, financial & public response to the environmental, social & economic crisis of our time, & to raise ambition to the level that science demands. We are exceeding 3 of 9 planetary boundaries (climate change; biodiversity loss; changes to the nitrogen cycle) and our economy has outgrown the ecosystems we depend on. We denounce debt-created money and demand urgent regulation for a steady-state economy. We vow to respect and protect the beauty and diversity of life on Earth, realising our interconnectedness with nature. Governments, corporations and financial institutions must wake up and dramatically prioritise people & the planet over abusive exploitation for short-term profit & “growth”.
In defence of our rights, freedoms & future, we call for:
1. A direct participatory democratic UN: inclusive rights-based global decision-making; open-source communications. Prioritise youth, women, marginalised voices & civil society formally in negotiations.
2. Ending corporate capture of the UN: end compromising partnerships & transfer of officials. Exclude business lobbyists from talks. Expose & prohibit the bullying & bribing of poor nations by rich nations.
3. Realisation of new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by increased cooperation, commitment, funding & resources, strengthening the Millennium Goals (MDGs) & cancelling unjust poor country debt.
4. Peace & demilitarization, democratising the UN Security Council, a binding global arms treaty, SDG on peace & conflict, nuclear disarmament by 2030 & transfer funds to local sustainable development.
5. A Financial Transaction Tax, abolition of tax havens & a Global Carbon Fee on extraction of fuels, to transparently & equitably fund life-saving adaptation solutions, prioritising resilience & climate justice.
6. Ending fossil fuel subsidies now & extraction by 2020. Invest in non-nuclear Renewable Energy for All: global wind/solar/small-hydro/geo-energy; efficient stoves; zero carbon global electricity by 2030.
7. Outlawing Ecocide as the 5th International Crime Against Peace: prosecute destruction of ecosystems e.g. tar sands, oil spills, mountaintop removal, fracking. Protect the commons & Rights of Mother Earth.
8. Zero deforestation of Amazon rainforest by 2015 & globally by 2020. Rejection of pricing & trading nature, including forests, water & the atmosphere; and rejection of offsetting damage/destruction.
9. Food & water sovereignty & security. Ban land grabs. Protect Indigenous peoples’ land rights. Switch support for biofuels & industrial, chemical & GM agriculture to small organic farming & permaculture.
10. Indicators beyond GDP: measure wellbeing, participation, environmental health, socio-economic equity, gender equality, employment, provision for needs/services, protection of rights, & peace.
This is what democracy looks like. This is Harmony with Nature. This is the Future We Need for a just, resilient, thriving world. Join Global Days of Action on June 5th & 20th to raise our voice to challenge & bring hope to Rio+20.
A high priority of global citizenship is education, either informally through personal contacts and public means of communication such as the internet, or more formally via programs sponsored by educational institutions. At a time when both developed and developing nations seem to be engulfed in political and financial corruption, education in noviolence is especially important. If a global revolution is coming, let it be a nonviolent revolution!
If a global revolution is coming, let it be a nonviolent revolution!
2. Education for Sustainable Development
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) worldwide - at all levels - is a high priority. UNESCO has a worldwide program, but universities and other educational institutions must contribute. The family is the best school of sustainable human development.
- Sustainable Development Solutions Network: Educational Resources (SDSN.EDU)
- UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
- The Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University is offering the following educational resource:
The Social Science Library (SSL), which is a contribution to the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, contains over 3,400 full-text journal articles, book chapters, reports, and working papers in Anthropology, Economics, History, Philosophy, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science. To browse the SSL collection online, click here. Note: This resource is also available in UBS/CD format.
To inquire about getting/distributing this resource,
visit the GDAE SSL website or write to them at [email protected]
- The EveryAware Project, European Union. "EveryAware is an EU project intending to integrate environmental monitoring, awareness enhancement and behavioral change by creating a new technological platform combining sensing technologies, networking applications and data-processing tools."
- Global Systems Science Education, University of California - Berkeley. "Global Systems Science, a science course for grades 9-12, focuses on science-related societal issues. 12 books, teacher guides, and software can support a 1-year integrated science course or supplement existing biology, physics, chemistry, Earth science, or environmental science."
- Climate Change Education. "Portal Web Site Dedicated to: Global Warming Education, Climate Change Science Education, Science, Solutions -- Directory of Vetted Resources & Programs. For Teachers, Students, Parents, Families, Education Programs, Everyone."
- Global Warming for Kids. "Great links for kids on global warming, climate change, etc."
- DegrowthPedia. "A new collaborative platform for information and education about degrowth."
- Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation. "Promotes awareness of the importance of sustainability education to help schools and school districts make sustainability an ongoing part of education."
Contributions to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Walter Leal Filho et al. (Editors), Peter Lang, January 2012.
- Teaching Aids on Controlling Climate Change, Bert Metz, European Climate Foundation, 16 January 2012.
- Education for sustainable development – preserving linguistic and cultural diversity, UNESCO Media Services, 20 February 2012.
- Themed Edition on
The Geography of Sustainabilty, Journal of Sustainability Education, March 2012.
Education booklets on Sustainable Development, Green Changemakers, March 2012.
- The Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development, Earth Charter, Peace University, Costa Rica, 27 March 2012.
- Global Education for Gender Equality and Sustainable Human Development: Making the Connections, Aurora Javate de Dios, Knowledge Lover, 16 August 2012.
- Beyond 2012: The Future We Want “To Create”, UN CSD Education Caucus, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2012.
- Smart Education: KOMUNIKI Launches Pro Bono Global Education Initiative with eBook-based trainings for iPad, iPhone, Android, PC&Co, Komuniki Project, 23 January 2013.
- Sustainability: Environmental puzzle solvers, Amanda Mascarelli, Nature, 27 February 2013.
- How not what: teaching sustainability as process, E. Melanie DuPuis & Tamara Ball, SSPP, Winter 2013.
- Climate Change Coming To Classrooms, Jennifer Ludden, NPR, 27 March 2013.
- Promote Girls Education: Global Education Campaign, Alula Berhe Kidani, Sudan Vision, 19 May 2013.
- Post-2015 Focus on Sustainable Development: How Education and Learning Can Play a Role, Allison Anderson, Brookings Institution, 20 May 2013.
- Sustainability Matters in the Battle for Talent, Jenny Davis-Peccoud, Harvard Business review, 20 May 2013.
- Importance of Education for Sustainable Development, Ajita Nayar, EWF-WWF, 29 September 2013.
- The Virtual University Environment & Sustainable Development (UVED), Open Education Europa, October 2013.
- , UNESCO, Paris, 2013.
- The Age of Sustainable Development - Course Description, Outline, Video, and References, Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University, 21 January 2014.
- A University for Sustainable Development, Mary Joy Simpao, Philippine Information Agency, 20 February 2014.
- Education for Sustainable Development, Casey Danson, Global Possibilities, 25 February 2014.
- Educating for Sustainable Development, Hirotsugu Terasaki, Global Geopolitics & Political Economy, 25 February 2014.
- Ready for the Age of Sustainable Development? This Free Online Course Will Get You Sorted, Sustainability Leaders, 15 March 2014.
- FAQ: Education for Sustainable Development, UNU-IAS, 17 April 2014.
- Sixth Annual Sustainability Education Symposium at Prescott College, Journal of Sustainability Education, Prescott College, 16-17 May 2014.
- 2014: The State of the Field, Journal of Sustainability Education, Prescott College, Spring 2014.
- Interactive Introduction to Sustainable Development – Board Games and Interactive Lectures, Jon-Erik Dahlin, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, Scheduled for Fall 2014.
- Producing postgraduates for sustainable development, Munyaradzi Makoni, University World News, 22 August 2014.
- Sustainable Development Goes Massively Online As EdCast Launches With Sustainability Expert Jeffrey Sachs, Jonathan Shieber, Tech Crunch, 3 September 2014.
- Programs on Education for Sustainable Development by the Earth Charter Initiative, SWEDESD, 23 September 2014.
- How can education systems become equitable by 2030?, Pauline Rose and Benjamin Alcott, HEART, August 2015.
- Shaping the future we want: Education for sustainability, GIAN-Ecology, EcoJesuit, 31 August 2015.
- Education: A Strategic, Systems-based, Integrated Sustainability Initiative (ASSISI), Catholic Earth Care, Australia, GCCM, 30 October 2015.
ESD best practices should include practical (and field tested) means to advance public policy for sustainable development. It is hoped that ESD will overcome the ambiguity of the term "sustainable development" to make it clear that infinite growth in a finite planet is a practical impossibility in the long-term. What really matters going forward is "sustainable human development."
3. Net Energy and Energy Return on Investment (EROI)
At each point in the energy supply chain:
NET ENERGY = ENERGY GAINED - ENERGY SPENT
(in energy units, eg., MegaJoules)
ENERGY RETURN ON INVESTMENT = ENERGY GAINED / ENERGY SPENT
Thus, Net Energy and Energy Return on Investment (EROI) -- or Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI) -- are conceptually the same measure. Generally, EROI is closely correlated with "financial return on financial energy investment" -- a measure of financial return in dollars -- as long as "constant [year] dollars" are used.
ENERGY RETURN ON ENERGY INVESTED (EROEI, also abbreviated as EROI)
"Energy Return on Investment (EROI) refers to how much energy is returned from one unit of energy invested in an energy-producing activity. It is a critical parameter for understanding and ranking different fuels. There were a number of studies on EROI three decades ago but relatively little work since. Now there is a whole new interest in EROI as fuels get increasingly expensive and as we attempt to weigh alternative energies against traditional ones. This special volume brings together a whole series of high quality new studies on EROI, as well as many papers that struggle with the meaning of changing EROI and its impact on our economy. One overall conclusion is that the quality of fuels is at least as important in our assessment as is the quantity. I argue that many of the contemporary changes in our economy are related directly to changing EROI as our premium fuels are increasingly depleted." Charles Hall, Introduction to Special Issue on New Studies in EROI (Energy Return on Investment), Sustainability, Volume 3, Issue 10, 7 October 2011.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ENERGY RESOURCES
As the time window of opportunity may be shorter than expected, it is imperative to work out short-term energy strategies in conjunction with long-term strategies. A 2009 study by Richard Heinberg and the Post-Carbon Institute includes a comparative analysis of 18 energy sources according to 10 criteria, as follows:
Searching for a Miracle: ‘Net Energy’ Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society|
Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute, September 2011
3) Natural gas
7) Wind Power
8) Solar Photovoltaics
9) Active Solar Thermal
10) Passive Solar|
11) Geothermal Energy
12) Energy from Waste
15) Tar Sands
16) Oil Shale
17) Tidal Power
Criteria for comparative analysis:
1) Direct Monetary Cost|
2) Dependence on Additional Resources
3) Environmental Impacts
5) Potential Size or Scale of Contribution
6) Location of the Resource|
8) Energy Density
10)"Net Energy" or "Energy Returned on Energy Invested" (EROEI)
The tenth criterion, "Net Energy" or "Energy Returned on Energy Invested" (EROEI), is critical: "This
measure focuses on the key question: All things considered, how much more energy does a system
produce than is required to develop and operate that system? What is the ratio of energy in versus
energy out? Some energy “sources” can be shown to produce little or no net energy. Others are only
A summary of the results is as follows:
Comparison of Fuel Sources, Post-Carbon Institute, 2009
"The present analysis, which takes into account EROEI and other limits to available energy
sources, suggests first that the transition is inevitable and necessary (as fossil fuels are rapidly depleting
and are also characterized by rapidly declining EROEI), and that the transition will be neither easy
nor cheap. Further, it is reasonable to conclude from what we have seen that a full replacement of
energy currently derived from fossil fuels with energy from alternative sources is probably impossible
over the short term; it may be unrealistic to expect it even over longer time frames.
"The core problem, which is daunting, is this: How can we successfully replace a concentrated
store of solar energy (i.e., fossil fuels, which were formed from plants that long ago bio-chemically
captured and stored the energy of sunlight) with a flux of solar energy (in any of the various forms in
which it is available, including sunlight, wind, biomass, and flowing water)? ...
"Based on all that we have discussed, the clear conclusion is that the world will almost certainly
have considerably less energy available to use in the future, not more, though (regrettably) this strong
likelihood is not yet reflected in projections from the International Energy Agency or any other
notable official source. Fossil fuel supplies will almost surely decline faster than alternatives can be
developed to replace them. New sources of energy will in many cases have lower net energy profiles
than conventional fossil fuels have historically had, and they will require expensive new infrastructure
to overcome problems of intermittency...
"How far will supplies fall, and how fast? Taking into account depletion-led declines in oil and natural
gas production, a leveling off of energy from coal, and the recent shrinkage of investment in the
energy sector, it may be reasonable to expect a reduction in global energy availability of 20 percent
or more during the next quarter century. Factoring in expected population growth, this implies substantial
per-capita reductions in available energy. These declines are unlikely to be evenly distributed
among nations, with oil and gas importers being hardest hit, and with the poorest countries seeing
energy consumption returning to pre-industrial levels (with energy coming almost entirely from
food crops and forests and work being done almost entirely by muscle power).
"Thus, the question the world faces is no longer whether to reduce energy consumption, but how.
Policy makers could choose to manage energy unintelligently (maintaining fossil fuel dependency
as long as possible while making poor choices of alternatives, such as biofuels or tar sands, and
insufficient investments in the far more promising options such as wind and solar). In the latter case,
results will be catastrophic. Transport systems will wither (especially ones relying on the most energy intensive
vehicles—such as airplanes, automobiles, and trucks). Global trade will contract dramatically,
as shipping becomes more costly. And energy dependent food systems will falter, as chemical
input and transport costs soar. All of this could in turn lead to very high long-term unemployment
and perhaps even famine.
"However, if policy makers manage the energy downturn intelligently, an acceptable quality of life
could be maintained in both industrialized and less-industrialized nations at a more equitable level
than today; at the same time, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced dramatically. This would
require a significant public campaign toward the establishment of a new broadly accepted conservation
ethic to replace current emphases on neverending growth and over-consumption at both
personal and institutional-corporate levels."
These conclusions are confirmed by many independent analyses done as far back as the 1970s and as recent as January 2012. The data is noisy, but the signal is always strong and always the same: barring a technological miracle (or an "act of God") it does not appear possible to replace fossil fuels with any or all of the renewable ("clean") sources and maintain the same rate of energy flow through an industrial economy. This brings to mind the applicability of the precautionary principle to the energy availability situation worldwide.
EROI TRADEOFF ANALYSIS FOR TRANSITION PLANNING
With proper funding, it might be possible to use biophysical input-output analysis to explore energy policy tradeoffs going forward. For a given year, let
X = n-dimensional total production vector ($)
U = n-dimensional final demand vector ($)
A = NxN matrix of direct inputs (i.e., aij = input from industry i to industry j)
Note that the n industries include the energy extraction, production, and delivery sectors, as well as the pollution abatement and environmental remediation sectors. The basic Leontief equation for total required production is
X = AX + U
X - AX = U
(I-A) X = U
X = (I-A)-1U
Let, for a given energy resource r,
Y = n-dimensional industry energy input vector (i.e., production energy intensity vector, y=1,...,n, in joules/dollar), and
Z = n-dimensional public consumption output vector (i.e., consumption energy intensity vector, z=1,...,n, in joules/dollar)
Then, for the total economy,
is the total amount of energy resource r (in $ . joules/$ = joules) required by the economy during the year, taking into account both direct and indirect inter-industry energy flow requirements; and
Ey = X . Y
is the total amount of energy resource r (in $ . joules/$ = joules) used by consumers of all products during the year.
Ez = U . Z
One problem with input-output analysis in economics is that the interindustry coefficients are in dollars of input from industry i to dollars of output by industry j. Given the volatility of monetary issues (inflation, deflation, politics, etc.), data in dollars are always problematic. From the perspective of biophysical economics, it would be preferable to use coefficients in physical units, i.e., the ratio of units of industry i input to units of industry j output. This would allow for analysis of technological tradeoffs with much of the "noise" filtered out. Dollar conversions can then be applied to translate EROI results (in biophysical units) to financial return on investment in dollars. While input-out models provide a static "snapshot" model of the economy at a given point in time, the biophysical coefficients could be formulated as functions of time in order to take into account the time required for technological changes to be implemented.
Given the technological complexities and social risks of a transition from a high-EROI to a low-EROI economy (as painfully experienced, for example, in Cuba during the early 1990s and North Korea during the early 2000s, both due to unanticipated oil shortages) it is arguably reasonable to spend significant effort (and dollars) in developing better analytical tools to ease the pain.
OTHER ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR ENERGY POLICY ASSESSMENT
The input-output method of analysis is static, i.e., it is based on a "snapshot" of the economy at a given point in time. It is most useful when detailed (and short-term) comparative evaluation of specific energy sources and technologies are required -- oil versus coal, oil versus wind, oil versus solar, etc. Even in such cases, the data refinement effort pursuant to make the interindustry coefficients time-dependent may or may not be possible.
A broader analysis may be required in order to include long-term dynamic interactions between social, economic, and environmental variables in conjunction with plausible energy transition scenarios. Then analysis at a higher level of aggregation might be indicated, and it may be more expedient to use simulation models such as Limits to Growth -- with "resources" more specifically reformulated as "energy resources" -- to examine the repercussions of the transition from high-EROI to low-EROI economies and lifestyles. There is a need for "Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil." This is the kind of analysis that will be attempted with SDSIM 2.0.
The social-economic-ecological system is too complex for any single method of analysis, or any combination of existing methods. The best practice is to start with the policy questions or issues to be addressed and use the method(s) that would yield the best insights for consideration by citizens and policy makers. In this regard, the recently emerging method of behavioral economics is promising and may be useful to capture changing patterns of human decision-making during the transition from high-EROI to low-EROI societies.
Another good practice is to recognize that modelers are scientists, not policy makers or problem solvers. Modelers are scientists using models and simulation experiments to test a hypothesis under "controlled" conditiones that may or may not to amenable to replication in the real world. There must be constant dialogue between scientists and decision-makers. But conflating science and decision-making generally exacerbates confusion and seldom leads to practical solutions.
- Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment, Green Design Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1997-present.
- IPAT Equation (Ehrlich's Equation),Marian Chertow, Encyclopedia of Earth, 18 November 2008.
- NAICS Industry Classification, BEA, US department of Commerce, 1997-present.
- Transition Scenarios, Global Transition Initiative (GTI), 1996-present.
- World Energy to 2050: A Half Century of Decline, Paul Chefurka, The Oil Drum, 10 November 2007.
- Powering Civilization to 2050, Stuart Staniford, The Oil Drum, 28 January 2008.
- Benchmark Assessment of Sustainable Engineering Education, Center for Sustainable Engineering and EPA, 2008.
- Energy Return on Investment (EROI), Nate Hagens, The Oil Drum, Part 1 of 6-1 April 2008, Part 2 of 6-8 April 2008, Part 3 of 6-15 April 2008, Part 4 of 6-22 April 2008, Part 5 of 6-29 April 2008, Part 6 of 6-14 May 2008.
- Continuously Less and Less—The New American Reality, Chris Clugston, Wake Up Amerika, 2009.
- Searching for a Miracle: ‘Net Energy’ Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society, Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute, September 2009.
- Center for Sustainable Engineering, Partnership of Syracuse University (lead institution), Arizona State University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas at Austin, 2009-present.
- Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil, Charles A. Hall and John W. Day, American Scientist, Vol. 97, May-June 2009.
- Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet, Tim Jackson, Earthscan, 2009.
- World Energy Consumption, EIA USDOE, 2010.
- The next generation of scenarios for climate change research and assessment, Richard H. Moss et al., Nature, Vol. 463, 11 February 2010.
- Earth System Science for Global Sustainability: Grand Challenges, W. V. Reid et al, Science, Vol. 330, 12 November 2010.
- Increasing Global Nonrenewable Natural Resource Scarcity—Prelude to Global Societal Collapse, Chris Clugston, Wake Up Amerika, 2010.
- The Second Law of Economics: Energy, Entropy, and the Origins of Wealth, Reiner Kümmel, Springer, 2011.
- Energy and The Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy, Charles Hall & Kent Klitgaard, Springer, September 2011.
- Special Issue: New Studies in EROI (Energy Return on Investment), Doug Hansen and Charles Hall, Guest Editors, Sustainability, October 2011.
- Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation (Open Textbook), University of Illinois & CNX, November 2011.
- Working Paper: Ever-increasing Nonrenewable Natural Resource (NNR) Scarcity, Chris Clugston, Wake Up Amerika, December 2011. Available via email request.
- Forthcoming Book: Scarcity—Humanity’s Final Chapter?, Chris Clugston, Wake Up Amerika, January 2012. Available via email request.
- Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, David Mackay, Cambridge University, 8 January 2012.
- The Essentials for the Necessary Transition to a Renewable Energy Economy, Jon Ryan, AlterNet, 15 January 2012.
- What EROI tells us about ROI,
Chris Nelder, SmartPlanet, 15 February 2012.
- Net-energy (EROEI), Peak Oil denial & Oil Shale hype - Part 1, Peak Oil News, 24 February 2012.
- Net-energy (EROEI), Peak Oil denial & Oil Shale hype - Part 2, Peak Oil News, 26 February 2012.
- Net Energy and Time: a critical review, Luis de Sousa, European Tribune, 25 March 2012.
- Oil Sands Mining Uses Up Almost as Much Energy as It Produces, Rachel Nuwer, Inside Climate News, 19 February 2013.
- Spanish Solar Energy: A model for the future?, Nanowerk, 4 March 2013.
- Energy return on investment - which fuels win?, Mat Hope and Ros Donald, The Carbon Brief, 20 March 2013.
- Behind the Numbers on Energy Return on Investment, Mason Inman, Scientific American, 11 April 2013.
- Low energy return on investment (EROI) need not limit oil sands extraction, Adam Brandt, The Oil Drum, 10 June 2013.
- Energy Products: Return on Investment Is Already Too Low, Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum, 1 August 2013.
The implications of the declining energy return on investment of oil production, David Murphy, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 2 December 2013.
- A Framework for Defining Sustainable Energy Transitions: Principles, Dynamics, and Implications, Sgouris Sgouridis and Denes Csala, Sustainability, May 2014.
- EROI -- A Tool To Predict The Best Energy Mix, James Conca, Forbes, 11 February 2015.
- The hidden reasons behind slow economic growth: Declining EROI, constrained net energy, Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights, 5 April 2015.
- What’s the EROI of Solar?, Ramez Naam, Ramez Naam Blog, 4 June 2015.
4. Financial Transaction/Speculation Taxes
Financial transaction/speculation taxes are a disincentive to excessive greed in pursuing financial transactions of dubious social value, such as the so-called "financial derivatives."
- The Benefits of a Financial
Transactions Tax, Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), December 2008.
- Financial Speculation Tax, CEPR, 2009.
- Here's Why The Financial Transaction Tax Won't Work, John Carney, Business Insider, 9 November 2009.
- Facts and Myths about a Financial Speculation Tax, CEPR, 2010.
- Time to Tax Financial Speculation, Sarah Anderson, Yes! Magazine, 9 February 2010.
- A General Financial Transaction Tax – Motives, Effects, Revenues and Feasibility, Stephan Schulmeister, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), 13 January 2010.
- Liberals Continue to Push for Financial Transaction Tax, Ronald Orol, Common Dreams, 17 February 2010.
- Regulating Derivative Markets To Meet Real Needs, Angus Cunningham, Authentix Coaches, 2010.
- Taxing Global Public Bads, Stephany Griffith-Jones and Paul Bernd Spahn, The Broker Online, 6 October 2010.
- Financial Transaction Taxes - A Double Dividend, Paul Bernd Spahn, The Broker Online, 6 October 2010.
- Financial Transaction Tax Might Fix Host of Ills, Ralp Nader, Bloomberg Business Week, 15 July 2010.
- Financial Transaction Taxes: Assessing their role in Financing for Development and the International Financial Architecture reform agenda, Aldo Caliari, UN-NGLS, 2010.
- Support the Financial Transaction tax in the European Parliament!, Europeans for Financial Reform, 26 January 2011.
- Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) Factsheet, CIDSE, June 2011.
- Cut Wall Street Down to Size With a Financial Speculation Tax, Sarah Anderson, The Nation, 8 June 2011.
- Frequently Asked Questions on the Financial Transaction Tax, Party of European Socialists, 24 April 2011.
- Financial Speculation Tax: Serious Tool for Long-Term Deficit Reduction, CEPR, January 2011.
- Financial speculation tax could cut deficit, Ben Rooney, CNN, 24 January 2011.
- Financial Speculation Tax Introduced, FOE, February 2011.
- The Financial Transaction Tax for People and the Planet: Financing Climate Justice, CIDSE, June 2011.
- Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) Factsheet, CIDSE, June 2011.
- Financial Speculation Tax Could Help Heal America, James Parks, 22 July 2011.
- Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), Wikipedia as of 24 July 2011.
- Cut Wall Street Down to Size With a Financial Speculation Tax, Sarah Anderson, Common Dreams, 27 July 2011.
- Financial world dominated by a few deep pockets, Rachel Ehrenberg, ScienceNews, 15 August 2011.
- UK to be left isolated, lose out on billions in public spending, as FTT goes ahead, Max Lawson, Ekklesia, 19 January 2012.
- Cardinal Turkson calls for a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) for the common good on the eve of EU summit, CIDSE media statement, 26 January 2012.
- Remarkable Editorial Bias on Climate Science at the Wall Street Journal, Peter Gleick, Forbes, 27 January 2012.
- Financial transaction taxes as a human rights imperative, Center of Concern, Social Watch, 16 April 2012.
- Financial Transaction Tax: A Human Rights Imperative, CIDSE, 20 April 2012.
- A Financial Transactions Tax for the Future We Want, ITUC-CSI, 22 June 2012.
- Europe Authorizes “Robin Hood Tax” on Financial Transactions, Sarah Anderson, Yes!Magazine, 25 January 2013.
- Who Needs Money Anyway? Towards Resilience, Sustainability, and a Healthier Means of Exchange, Ken Banks, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, 26 June 2013.
The following section is about reforming tax codes so as to protect the integrity of the human habitat. The following is a excerpt from one many recent reports calling for taxing financial transactions to support the transition to clean energy:
Reclaiming Power: An energy model for people and the planet, Friends of the Earth,|
2 December 2011.
"New research by Friends of the Earth presents an alternative energy model that would tackle climate change and enable everyone to gain access to energy.
"Our current energy model is not working:
- Our dependency on fossil fuels is driving dangerous climate change
- Our traditional energy model fails to serve 40 per cent of the world's population adequately
- 1 billion of those without electricity will never be reached by expanding national grids
"Friends of the Earth proposes an energy model based on a system of global feed in tariffs whcih guarantee cash back for local renewable energy generation. This model would help to:
- Tackle climate change by shifting energy away from polluting fossil fuels
- Deliver low-carbon, decentralised energy
- Address poverty and development through universal access to clean, reliable, affordable energy
- Rapidly lower the cost of renewable energy technology, making a low-carbon transition easier and cheaper worldwide
"This mechanism should be publicly funded by rich countries who have committed to help developing countries adapt to climate change
"Sources of funding could include:
5. Shift to Land/Resource Value Taxes
There are taxes that focus on depletion of natural resources ("depleter pays principle") and/or the deterioration of natural resources ("polluter pays principle"). One key tax reform proposal that deserves further consideration is the "Land Value Tax" (LVT), originally proposed by American economist Henry George in 1879. The underlying concept is to shift tax burdens from earned incomes to unearned incomes via taxes on the usage of land/natural resources.
An International Declaration on Individual and Common Rights to Earth|
Originally composed and declared at a meeting of the
International Union for Land Value Taxation held in 1949
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM EARTH RIGHTS
We hereby declare that the earth is the common heritage of all and that
all people have natural and equal righs to the land of the planet. By the term
"land" is meant all natural resources.
Subject always to these natural and equal rights in land and to this
common ownership, individuals can and should enjoy certain subsidiary rights
These rights properly enjoyed by individuals are:
These individual rights do not include:
- The right to secure exclusive occupation of land
- The right to exclusive use of land occupied.
- The right to the free transfer of land according to the laws of the
- The right to transmit land by inheritance.
The Economic Rent is the annual value attaching to the land alone apart
from any improvements thereon created by labor. This value is created by the
existence of and the functioning of the whole community wherein the
individual lives and is in justice the property of the community. To allow
this value to be appropriated by individuals enables land to be used not only
for the production of wealth but as an instrument of oppression of human by
human leading to severe social consequences which are everywhere evident.
- The right to use land in a manner contrary to the common good of all,
e.g., in such a manner as to destroy or impair the common heritage.
- The right to appropriate what economists call the Economic Rent of
All humans have natural and equal rights in land. Those rights may be
exercised in two ways:
- By holding land as individuals and/or
- Sharing in the common use of the Economic Rent of land.
The Economic Rent of land can be collected for the use of the community by
methods similar to those by which real estate taxes are now collected. That
is what is meant by the policy of Land Value Taxation. Were this community
created land value collected, the many taxes which impede the production of
wealth and limit purchasing power could be abolished.
The exercise of both common and individual rights in land is essential to
a society based on justice. But the rights of individuals in natural
resources are limited by the just rights of the community. Denying the
existence of common rights in land creates a condition of society wherein the
exercise of individual rights becomes impossible for the great mass of the
WE THEREFORE DECLARE THAT THE EARTH IS THE BIRTHRIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE
MISSION – "The Earth Rights Institute (ERI) promotes an approach to development that is ecologically, socially, economically and culturally sustainable. Through initiatives in education, research and advocacy we act to end wide-scale poverty worldwide, secure a culture of peace and reverse environmental degradation. We insist on the importance of empowering communities of the global south to manage and direct their own development, conceiving strategies and cultivating expert knowledge at the local level. Instead of training experts in methods and theories originating in a foreign context, models for local development should be taught in a local context. Ultimately, theoretical and practical study of improving the lives of people of the Global South must be anchored in the Global South."
EDUCATION and RESEARCH – ERI’s Living Labs,
located in sub-Saharan Africa, provide the opportunity for hands-on
education in sustainable development. We create a space of exchange
between villagers, students, researchers, professors and experts
from both Africa and around the world. Our EREV program offers
fully accredited academic study abroad semesters in sustainable
development and microfinance. This program joins teams of
Senegalese and international students for a semester long program
in which students work with local communities of a partner
eco-village to design and implement development projects. We now
offer a summer program through the University of California Los
Angeles. For more information visit Earth Rights Ecovillage
BUILDING ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES – Much of our work focuses on the promotion
and implementation of the Eco-village, a model of development which
encourages communities to minimize their ecological footprint
through conservation and effective use of natural resources, such
as permaculture and Jatropha plantation. Eco-villages are a model
that supports healthy human development. In accordance with the
social norms and values of each community, eco-villages govern by
consensus decision-making, based on an active choice to respect
ADVOCACY - ERI participates in and organizes
awareness and advocacy campaigns that promote a healthy and
sustainable world for all its inhabitants. ERI advocates a fair
market economy, and is concerned in large part with land rights and
land value capture/taxation policies that promote easy access to
land and ownership, fundamental elements of sustainable development
To learn more about Land Rights issues and how you can
make a difference sign up for the Earth Rights
Institute Land Rights online program
SHIFT FROM PROPERTY/INCOME TAXES
TO LAND/RESOURCE VALUE TAXES
"Most taxes distort economic decisions. If labor, buildings or machinery and plants (factories) are taxed, people are dissuaded from constructive and beneficial activities, and enterprise and efficiency are penalized due to the excess burden of taxation. This does not apply to LVT, which is payable regardless of whether or how well the land is actually used. Because the supply of land is inelastic, market land rents depend on what tenants are prepared to pay, rather than on the expenses of landlords, and so LVT cannot be directly passed on to tenants. The direct beneficiaries of incremental improvements to the surrounding neighborhood by others would be the land's occupants, and absentee landlords would benefit only by virtue of price competition amongst present and prospective tenants for those incremental benefits; the only direct effect of LVT on prices in this case is to lower the unearned increment (reduce the amount of the socially generated benefit that is privately captured as an increase in the market price of the land). Put another way, LVT is often said to be justified for economic reasons because if it is implemented properly, it will not deter production, distort market mechanisms or otherwise create deadweight losses the way other taxes do." Source: Land Value Tax, Wikipedia
- George, Henry. Progress and Poverty, 1879 (available online at the Library of Economics and Liberty).
- George, Henry. Protection or Free trade, 1886 (available online at the Library of Economics and Liberty).
- Wenzer, Kenneth, Land-Value Taxation: The Equitable and Efficient Source of Public Finance, Kenneth C. Wenzer, M E Sharpe Inc, 1999.
- Hartzok, Alanna. The Earth Belongs to Everyone, Earth Rights Institute - Institute for Economic Democracy Press, 2008. See pp. 190-192 for data on global maldistribution of wealth.
- Gaffney, Mason. George's Economics of Abundance, GroundSwell, March-April 2009.
- Resource tax? Green new deal? Or new social contract?, Ariel Salleh, Online Opinion, 1 June 2010.
- Simplifying Britain's Tax System, Ethical Economics, 17 November 2010.
- Council of Georgist Organizations. An Introduction to Georgist Philosophy & Activity, November 2010. Web Site as of 29 May 2011.
- The Henry George School of Social Science (HGSSS). The Henry George School of Social Science, Note: Founded 1932. Web site as of 30 May 2011.
- The Henry George Institute. Understanding Economics, 1995-2011. Web Site as of 29 May 2011.
- Agrarian Justice beyond Henry George's Single Tax, Keith Gardner, Liberty Revival, 24 September 2011.
- Are We Headed For a Land Value Bubble?, Kent Thiesse, CSD Blogs and Opinions, 26 July 2011.
- Modernizing Henry George, Herman Daly, CASSE, 19 July 2010.
- Resource Value Tax (RVT), Herman Daly, CASSE, 6 June 2011.
- Storing Water for a Dry Day Leads to Suits, Felicity Barringer, 26 July 2011.
- Stewardship Economy: Private Property without Private Ownership, Julian Pratt, Lulu, 24 November 2011.
- Even Without Eco-Rights & Land Rights Enforced, Clark Williams-Derry, The Progress Report, September 2012.
- What's the Fair Price for Land Rent?, Jon Donison et al, The Progress Report, October 2012.
- End Polluter Welfare & Monopoly Welfare, Bernie Sanders, The Progress Report, October 2012.
- A Land Value Tax: an idea whose time has come, Jack Chadwick, Georgist News, 16 January 2013.
- Because the Land Is Ours: The Rights of Mother Earth vs. Carbon Trading, Tory Field and Beverly Bell, Other Worlds are Possible, 15 September 2013.
- Oil Discoveries Feed Our Habit, Don’t Heal the Planet, Staff, The Progress Report, 22 November 2013.
- The Global Debt Catastrophe, Staff, The Progress Report, 31 August 2014.
- Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World, Martin Adams, North Atlantic Books, 25 May 2015.
- The Economist—the World's Premier Business Magazine—On Funding a Basic Income, Jeffery J. Smith, Progress, 25 May 2015.
- If We No Longer Force People to Work to Meet Their Basic Needs, Won’t They Stop Working?, Scott Santens, IEET, 26 May 2015.
The Georgist News|
Serving the Earth Sharing Community
The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
New York, New York, USA
Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Author: Martin Adams. Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Synopsis by the author: "What if we lived in a world where everyone had enough? A world where everyone mattered and where people lived in harmony with nature? What if the solution to our economic, social, and ecological problems was right underneath our feet? Land has been sought after throughout history. Even today, people struggle to get onto the property ladder; most view real estate as an important way to build wealth. Yet, as readers of this book will discover, the act of owning land—and our urge to profit from it—causes economic booms and busts, social and cultural decline, and environmental devastation. Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World introduces a radically new economic model that promises a sustainable and abundant world for all. This book is for those who dream of a better world for themselves and for future generations."
Assuming that land/resource value taxes are set high enough that they yield as much public revenue as property/income taxes, how is this revenue to be distributed back to all citizens?
6. Guaranteed Basic Personal Income
Source: Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research|
Karl Widerquist, Jose Noguera, Yannick Vanderborght, and Jurgen De Wispelaere (eds.)
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, August 2013
Review by the Basic Income Earth Netwok News:
Basic Income: An Anthology of Contemporary Research presents a compilation of six decades of Basic Income literature. It includes the most influential empirical research and theoretical arguments on all aspects of the Basic Income proposal. According to the publisher, it presents the best theoretical and empirical arguments for and against Basic Income. It includes unpublished and hard-to-find articles. It is the first major compendium on one of the most innovative political reform proposals of our age. It explores multidisciplinary views of Basic Income, with philosophical, economic, political, and sociological views. It features contributions from key and well-known philosophers and economists, including Tony Atkinson, James Buchanan, Milton Friedman, Erick Fromm, Andre Gorz, Claus Offe, Philip Pettit, John Rawls, Herbert Simon, Philippe Van Parijs, and many more.
- Common Ground-USA. Common Ground USA, Since 1997. Web site as of 30 May 2011.
- George, Robley E. Socioeconomic Democracy, Center for the Study of Democratic Societies (CSDS), 2002.
- de Wispelaere, Jurgen and Lindsay Stirton. The Many Faces of Universal Basic Income, The Political Quarterly, 2004.
- George, Robley E. Different Possibilities for the Magnitudes of the Two Democratically Set Bounds of Universally Guaranteed Personal Income (UGI) and Maximum Allowable Personal Wealth (MAW) in the practice of Socioeconomic Democracy, Center for the Study of Democratic Societies (CSDS), 2008.
- George, Robley E. Introduction to a Democratic Socioeconomic Platform, Center for the Study of Democratic Societies (CSDS), 2009.
- George, Robley E. Ramifications of Socioeconomic Democracy, Center for the Study of Democratic Societies (CSDS), 2009.
- Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Note: The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from Europe to the Earth in 2004. Web site as of 30 May 2011.
- Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Network - USA. The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Network, Note: Started 1999. Web Site as of 30 May 2011.
- World Bank forum on Gender-equality produces more votes for Basic Income than anything else, USBIG, 6 October 2011.
- Basic Income - Summary, IEET, 28 January 2012.
- The Unconditional Basic Income Economy - Part 1, IEET, 29 January 2012.
- The Unconditional Basic Income Economy - Part 2, IEET, 29 January 2012.
- Towards a Guaranteed Basic Income?, Peter Wicks, Future of Humanity, 10 March 2012.
- The Basic Income Grant (BIG) is
Government’s Responsibility!, BIG Coalition Namibia, March 2012.
- European Citizens’ Initiative for Basic Income, BIEN, 2 May 2012.
- GDP only one facet of our well-being, Greg Fingas, Leader-Post, 24 May 2012.
- North American Basic Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress, Almaz Zelleke, IEET, 31 May 2012.
- The imperative need for social dividends, J. Pascal, Natural Finance, 4 June 2012.
- Experts support the idea of guaranteed income in Canada, Carlito Pablo, Vancouver Free Press, 7 June 2012.
- Basic Income Around the World: Horizons of Reform, Edited by Matthew C. Murray and Carole Pateman, International Political Economy Series, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 10 August 2012.
- Reports on the 14th BIEN Congress, Munich, Germany, September 2012.
- BASIC INCOME: Basic Income would cure most of our current economic problems, Bipedal Joe, USBIG, November 2012.
- CITIZEN-OWNERSHIP DEMOCRACY: Where citizens get a direct and equal share of the country's wealth, COD-Democracy Blog, November 2012.
- Many options exist for raising revenue in a smart and progressive manner, Rebecca Thiess, Economic Policy Institute, 18 April 2013.
- Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income?, Mike Konczal, Washington Post, 11 May 2013.
- How Big is Big Enough: Would the Basic Income Guarantee Satisfy the Unemployed?, L. Randall Wray, EconoMonitor, 9 July 2013.
- Martin Luther King's Case for a Guaranteed Basic Income, Matthew Yglesias, Slate, 28 August 2013.
- Rethinking the Idea of a Basic Income for All, Bruce Bartlett, New York Times, 10 December 2013.
- Is Minimum Wage Another Distraction? Let's talk Basic Income, Shall We?, Dennis Trainor Jr, Acronym TV, 6 March 2014.
- How To Combat Inequalities Produced By Global Capitalism, Guy Standing, Social Europe, 12 May 2014.
- UNITED STATES: New Political Party Endorses Basic Income Guarantee, Josh Martin, BIEN, 2 June 2014.
- A Brief History of Basic Income Ideas, Scott Santens, BIEN, 6 June 2013.
- Basic income movement gaining momentum worldwide, Ahn Hyo-sang, The Hankyoreth, 12 July 2014.
- Report from the 15th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network, Karl Widerquist, BIEN, 17 July 2014.
- Universal Basic Income: Something We Can All Agree on?, Paul Hiebert, Pacific Standard, 31 July 2014.
Universal Basic Income: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Ed Dolan, EcoMonitor, Real Clear Markets, 6 August 2014.
A Universal Basic Income and Work Incentives. Part 1: Theory, Ed Dolan, EcoMonitor, 18 August 2014.
A Universal Basic Income and Work Incentives. Part 2: Evidence, Ed Dolan, EcoMonitor, 25 August 2014.
- The Pragmatic Case for a Universal Basic Income, Ed Dolan, Milken Institute Review, Third Quarter 2014.
- Basic income: the world's simplest plan to end poverty, explained, Dylan Matthews, Vox, 11 September 2014.
- Universal Basic Income as the Social Vaccine of the 21st Century, Scott Santens, Union Square Ventures, 5 February 2015.
- The Basic Income Debate: Political, Philosophical and Economic Issues, Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark, Counterpunch, 21 August 2015.
- Universal Basic Income Will Likely Increase Social Cohesion, Scott Santens, The Huffington Post, 22 October 2015.
- The Case for Universal Prosperity (Part 1), Michael Hrenka, IEET, 27 October 2015.
- The principled and pragmatic case for a Universal Basic Income, RSA, 16 December 2015.
- Guaranteed Basic Income: What happens when we give every American a free paycheck, for life? The answer may surprise you!, Marshall Connolly, Catholic Online, 4 January 2016.
Work dignifies the working person, and quality work even more so. This applies to all kinds of work, from the most humble to the most exalted. The objective of guaranteed basic income is not to induce laziness but to liberate people from a salary system that incentivizes conformance rather than creativity. To ensure that this is the case, quality standards are needed.
America is running out of jobs. It's time for a universal basic income., Ryan Cooper, The Week, 9 September 2014
INTERNATIONAL: Basic Income makes unprecedented political progress, Liam Upton, BIEN News, 15 December 2014
The Next Big Social Idea: Unconditional Basic Income, Mathew Schmid, The Huffington Post, 22 December 2014
Why Environmentalists Should Promote a Guaranteed Basic Income, Cameron Roberts, Alternatives Journal, 23 December 2014
SPAIN: Popular Initiative for Basic Income Ends with 185,000 Signatures, Stanislas Jourdan, Basic Income News, 16 March 2015
FRANCE: Opinion Poll Shows 60% Support for Basic Income, Stanislas Jourdan, Basic Income News, 21 May 2015
To Lift Quality of Life and Economy, Finland Champions Universal Basic Income, Jon Queally, Common Dreams, 6 December 2015
Finland's Basic Income Plan Would See All Citizens Receive 800 Euro A Month, Daniel Tencer, The Huffington Post Canada, 7 December 2015
Could a basic income solve the biggest challenge of the digital economy?, Andrew White, The Guardian, 25 January 2016
Creative Citizen, Creative State:|
The principled and pragmatic case for a Universal Basic Income
Anthony Painter and Chris Thoung, RSA Report, 16 December 2015
There is an increasing global conversation about the idea of a ‘Universal Basic Income’ – a universal weekly payment to all eligible citizens. Finland, the Netherlands, Canada and Switzerland are all looking at the idea. Meanwhile, it has been gathering interest amongst the US tech community who fear the social impacts of rapid technological change. But is it simply a Utopian vision or could it work it practice?
The RSA has been looking at the idea as a possible replacement for the current tax and benefits system. In this report, Anthony Painter and Chris Thoung outline what a Basic Income could look like in practice. They conclude that there is a strong practical case for the Basic Income – it underpins security, replaces the complexity of the current system, and provides a platform for freedom and creativity.
Our economy will face enormous technological change with significant social consequences. An ageing society needs to support carers. Moreover, the current welfare state is increasingly intrusive, complex and ineffective. These drivers suggest that we are nearing the point when a fundamental rethink is necessary.
The report outlines the RSA’s model of Basic Income. This model manages some of the negative distributive consequences of traditional Basic Income schemes. It redistributes towards those with families – especially young families. What this means in practice is that there could be an easier transition to a Basic Income system.
Beyond support for Basic Income as an idea and a model, the report recommends that, like the Netherlands, a Basic Income pilot is established in the UK at city-wide scale. It is then that the proposed benefits could be rigorously tested.
Read the report online
Find out more about our work on Basic Income
7. Industrial Quality Standards and Best Practices
All humans have a propensity to cut corners. Regardless of how income is taxed (Section 5) and returned (Section 6) to tax payers, there is a continuing need for quality standards in all kinds of human work, and all kinds of industrial production and consumption. Methods and tools for this purpose have been developed in such fields as industrial engineering, operations research, and system dynamics. Industrial engineering is specifically concerned with improvements in manufacturing productivity and efficiency. The International Standards Organization (ISO), an agency of the United Nations, has veveloped a comprehensive set of standards, guidelines, and best practices. The IEEE, and other professional organizations, have developed useful quality management standards for manufacturing, health care, education, and other professions.
- International Standards Organization (ISO)
- List of ISO Standards, Wikipedia as of 14 February 2014.
- ISO 9001 - Quality Management System, ISO, 2005.
- ISO 9126 - Software Engineering - Product Quality, ISO, 2001.
- ISO 14001 - Environmental Management System, ISO, 2004.
- ISO 14040 -
Environmental management -- Life cycle assessment -- Principles and framework, ISO, 2006.
- ISO 14067 - Greenhouse gases -- Carbon footprint of products -- Requirements and guidelines for quantification and communication, ISO, 2013.
- ISO 25010 - Systems and Software Engineering - -- Systems and Software Quality Requirements, ISO, 2011.
- ISO 26000 - Social Responsibility Guidelines, ISO, 2010.
- ISO 50001 - Energy Management System, ISO, 2011.
- ISO International Classification for Standards (ICS), ISO, 2011.
- Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, NIST, 2011.
- Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, NIST, 2011-2012.
- Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence, NIST, 2011-2012.
- Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence, NIST, 2011.
- Case Studies on Good Practices in Nature-based Climate Change Adaptation, Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network (ELAN), 2011.
- Special Issue on Sustainability, ISO Focus+, January 2012.
- ISO 20121 - Event Sustainability Management Systems, ISO, 2012.
- The 5 Commandments of Product Sustainability, Alex Loijos, Environmental Leader, 27 March 2013.
- Get ready: Sustainability reporting becoming inevitable, Mike Wallace, GreenBiz, 3 May 2013.
- Energy Management Systems Are Critical for Large Industrial Companies to Remain Competitive, Navigant Research, 23 July 2013.
- Code of Practice for Sustainable Development, World Federation of Engineering Organizations, September 2013.
- Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, Accounting for a Sustainable Future, Jean Rogers et al., website accessed 25 September 2013.
- World Standards Day: ‘International standardisation central to development’, Shamsul Islam, The Express Tribune, 15 October 2013.
- The Value and Impact of Building Codes, Ellen Vaughan and Jim Turner, EESI, 17 October 2013.
- Are environmental management systems just greenwash?, European Comission, SFPE, 7 November 2013.
- ISO 37120: Sustainable development of communities -- Indicators for city services and quality of life, ISO, 2014.
- The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Sustainable Development, Leela Kumar, SSRN, 17 April 2014.
- World Business Council for Sustainable Development: Vision 2050, Jackie Willis, The Guardian, 15 May 2014.
- Preparing for ISO 50001 Energy Management: Energy Management In Small And Medium Scale Industries, University of Twente, announced August 2014, scheduled for November 2 - December 11, 2015.
- Keeping Up With ISO, Chuck Harrington, Jera Sustainable Development, 28 August 2014.
- Are Firms Prepared for ISO 14001 Upgrade?, Environmental Leader, 8 October 2014.
- Social and Environmental Standards, UNDP, 1 January 2015.
- Development-Oriented Corporate Social Responsibility, Volumes 1 and 2, Dima Jamali, Charlotte Karam and Michael Blowfield, Greenleaf Publishing, July 2015.
What about quality standards for financial institutions? ISO 9000 could be used, but it would seem that the financial services industry should have a dedicated five digit standard. ISO-26000 on social responsibility is a guideline, not an auditable standard. Both stricter regulation and auditable standards are urgently needed for the global financial system.
Quality standards should ensure that dangerous biotechnologies are not used, even if they are financially profitable:
Public Engagement on Genetically Modified Organisms: When Science and Citizens Connect|
National Academy of Sciences, United States of America, 2015
"In a world where science is interpreted through a variety of lenses--including cultural values and political dispositions--how can scientists engage with members of the public to empower decision-making and participation in public policy? The development and application of genetically modified plants and animals, also known as GMOs, has been the subject of multifaceted societal debate by some stakeholders, including scientists. This report summarizes the discussions and presentations that took place at a workshop held in January 2015 by the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences."
8. Transferring Subsidies from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy
The transferring of subsidies from the fossil fuels industry to the clean energy industry is understandably a sensitive political issue. The fossil fuel industry is enormously powerful. The age of fossil fuels has practically run its course. However, the temptation to keep producing and using "cheap energy" is very strong regardless of environmental consequences. The United States of America has yet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol because "it is bad for business." The "easy profits" derived from the exploding manipulation of worthless financial assets is also bad for business, but not yet recognized as such by the general public. Subsidies are tricky business, and there seems to be a paucity of expertise about the societal cost of subsidizing pollution-intensive industries.
- Federal Energy Subsidies: Energy, Environmental and Fiscal Impacts, Doug Koplow, Alliance to Save Energy, 1993.
- Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case Study of Increasing Transparency for Fiscal Policy, Doug Koplow and John Dernbach, Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 26:361-389, 2001.
- Analysis of the scope of energy subsidies and suggestions for the G-20 initiative, IEA, OPEC, OECD, and WB, 16 June 2010.
- Increasing the Momentum of Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Reform: A roadmap for international cooperation, Global Subsidies Initiative, 21 July 2010.
- Measuring Energy Subsidies Using the Price-Gap Approach, Doug Koplow, Earth Track, August 2010.
- Phase-out Fossil Fuel Subsidies,
Mark Halle, The Broker Online, 6 October 2010
- Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Bali to Copenhagen Project, IISD, 2011.
- EIA Energy Subsidy Estimates: A Review of Assumptions and Omissions, Doug Koplow, Earth Track, March 2010.
- Scoping Suggestions for NAS Review of Effects of the Tax Code on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Doug Koplow, Earth Track, April 2011.
- Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks, Special Accounting, and Societal Costs, David Sher, Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 23 June 2011.
- The Market Is Lying: Why We Must Tax Carbon, Not Subsidize It, Rinaldo Brutoco and Madeleine Austin, Truthout, 8 July 2011.
- International Energy Agency Warns Of Ballooning World Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Muriel Boselli, Reuters, 5 October 2011.
- Banks That Broke the Economy Also Lead on Financing Coal Plants, Sustainable Business, 1 December 2011.
- Time to End Fuel Subsidies?, Will Hickey, Yale Global, 7 June 2012.
- Energy Subsidy Reform: Lessons and Implications, IMF, 28 January 2013.
- The Energy Game is Rigged: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Topped $620 Billion in 2011, Emily E. Adams, Earth Policy Institute, 27 February 2013.
- IMF: Want to fight climate change? Get rid of $1.9 trillion in energy subsidies, Brad Plummer, Washington Post, 27 March 2013.
- Arab states need to end energy subsidies to create a ‘new relationship with oil’, Vesela Todorova, The National, 28 October 2013.
- Fossil Fuel Subsidies Costing Rich Countries $112 Per Person, Will Nichols, BusinessGreen, 7 November 2013.
International Monetary Fund Says Fossil Fuel Subsidies Cost ~$2 Trillion Annually, Sophie Vorrath, RenewEconomy, 29 April 2014.
- Fossil Fuels Face the Prospect of $30 Trillion in Losses, Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy, 29 April 2014.
A Flaring Shame: New Report Exposes Hidden Fracking Subsidy, Lukas Ross & Kate Colwell, Common Dreams, 30 September 2015.
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Costing Rich Countries $112 Per Person
Will Nichols, BusinessGreen, 7 November 2013
"Average fossil fuel subsidies in the world's richest countries have reached $112 per person, draining national treasuries while undermining international efforts to avert dangerous climate change, according to a new report from the Overseas Development Institute. Fossil fuel subsidies are costing the 34 OECD countries between $55 billion and $90 billion a year, with the highest level of subsidies in Russia, the United States, Australia, Germany and the UK. It calculates that each of the 11.6 billion tons of carbon emitted by the top 11 rich-country emitters in 2010 came with an average subsidy of $7 a ton - around $112 for every adult in those countries - locking the world into a high-carbon future while failing to benefit poorer people."
A Flaring Shame: New Report Exposes Hidden Fracking Subsidy
Lukas Ross & Kate Colwell, Common Dreams, 30 September 2015
"A new, peer-reviewed, report from Friends of the Earth brings to light one of Big Oil’s most overlooked subsidies: royalty-free flaring on public and tribal lands... Royalty-free flaring is both a dangerous addition to climate disruption and a de facto subsidy for the oil industry... For over a century Big Oil has been subsidized to the hilt with everything from tax breaks to royalty free-leasing. To that list we can now add natural gas flaring -- and it has to stop... Focusing on the national epicenter of the flaring boom in North Dakota’s Bakken shale, the new report, “A Flaring Shame: North Dakota & the hidden fracking subsidy,” uses data directly from Bureau of Land Management to reveal the exact amount of gas wasted by individual companies... The original data provided by the BLM is available here."
9. Fostering and Deploying Clean Energy Technologies
There are many short-term strategies to incentivize the development and commercialization of clean energy:
- Financing Clean Energy
- Triple Bottom Line (TBL)
- Towards the Sustainable Corporation: Win-Win-Win Business Strategies for Sustainable Development, John Elkington, California Management Review 36, no. 2 (1994): 90–100.
- Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, John Elkington, New Society Publishers, 1998.
- Triple Bottom Line (TBL), The Economist, 17 November 2009.
- The Paradox of Power in CSR – Organizational Conflict, Krista Bondy, TBL Magazine, 29 November 2010.
- Triple Bottom Line, Wikipedia as of 27 July 2011.
- The Triple Bottom Line: What Is It and How Does It Work?, Timothy F. Slaper and Tanya J. Hall, Indiana Business Review, Spring 2011.
- Energy System Optimization
- Energy Systems Optimization, Slide presentation by Aristotelis Giannopoulos, 2009.
- Optimization in the Energy Industry, Josef Kallrath et. al., Springer, 2009.
- On-Line Economic Optimization of Energy Systems Using Weather Forecast Information, Victor M. Zavala et. al., ANL (USA), 2009.
- Industrial Energy System Optimization, UNIDO (UN) web site as of 28 July 2011.
- Industrial Energy Analysis & System Optimization, LBL (USA) web site as of 28 July 2011.
- Industrial energy efficiency and systems optimization, REEEP-UNIDO, Module 17 as of 28 July 2011. For links to all the modules, click here.
- Energy Optimization in Process Systems, Stanislaw Sieniutycz and Jacek Jezowski, Elsevier, 2011.
Energy Efficiency Policy and Carbon Pricing, IEA, 2011.
Combining Policy Instruments for Least Cost Climate Mitigation Strategies, IEA, 2011.
- Largest Zero Energy Community Opens in US, Sustainable Business, 18 October 2011.
- International Energy Agency (IEA) and Energy Business Council (EBC)
From the IEA website:
"Does growth in North American oil supply herald a new era of abundance - or does turmoil in parts of the Middle East cloud the horizon? How much can energy efficiency close the competitiveness gap caused by differences in regional energy prices? What considerations should shape decision-making in countries using, pursuing or phasing out nuclear power? How close is the world to using up the available carbon budget, which cannot be exceeded if global warming is to be contained? How can sub-Saharan Africa's energy sector help to unlock a better life for its citizens?
Answers to these questions and a host of others are to be found in the pages of World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO-2014), released on 12 November 2014 in London.
Bringing together the latest data and policy developments, the WEO-2014 presents up to date projections of energy trends for the first time through to 2040. Oil, natural gas, coal, renewables and energy efficiency are covered, along with updates on trends in energy-related CO2emissions, fossil-fuel and renewable energy subsidies, and universal access to modern energy services." |
SAN FRANCISCO: Google has set out to save the world’s dying languages.
In an alliance with scholars and linguists, the internet powerhouse introduced an Endangered Languages Project website where people can find, share, and store information about dialects in danger of disappearing.
“People can share their knowledge and research directly through the site and help keep the content up to date,” project managers Clara Rivera Rodriguez and Jason Rissman said in a Google blog post.
“A diverse group of collaborators have already begun to contribute content ranging from 18th-century manuscripts to modern teaching tools like video and audio language samples and knowledge-sharing articles.”
The website (endangeredlan guages.com) allows users to upload video, audio, or text files and encourages them to memorialise recordings of rare dialects.
Only half of the about 7 000 languages spoken today are expected to survive past the end of this century, according to an Endangered Languages video posted at Google-owned video-sharing venue YouTube.
“Documenting… languages that are on the verge of extinction is an important step in preserving cultural diversity, honouring the knowledge of our elders and empowering our youth,” Rodriguez and Rissman said.
“Technology can strengthen these efforts by helping people create high-quality recordings of their elders (often the last speakers of a language), connecting diaspora communities through social media and facilitating language learning.”
Google’s philanthropic arm sparked the project, leadership of which will be ceded in coming months to the First People’s Cultural Council and the Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University, west of Detroit. – Sapa-AFP |
1667 Thomas Shirley described an inflammable gas seeping from coal measures near Wigan.
1684 John Clayton produced coal gas from the destructive distillation of coal and stored it in bladders.
1727 Carlisle Spedding lit his office at Whitehaven colliery with methane from his coal mine.
1792 William Murdoch lit his house at Redruth, Cornwall by gas produced in an iron retort.
1801 Philippe Lebon demonstrated gas lighting publicly in Paris.
1806 Gas lighting installed in cotton spinning mills by William Murdoch in Manchester and by Samuel Clegg in Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire.
1807 Frederick Winsor demonstrated gas street lighting in Pall Mall, London and London’s Golden Lane was lit by gas produced at a nearby brewery.
1814 Frederick Accum wrote the first authoritative text book on gas manufacture.
1817 Samuel Clegg developed the gas meter.
1824 Tate invented the telescopic gasholder.
1826 James Sharp installed an experimental gas cooker at his house in Northampton.
1855 Invention of the Bunsen burner by Robert Bunsen.
1856 Pettit and Smith produced the first practical gas fire.
1870 T S Lacey patented the first prepayment gas meter.
1887 The incandescent gas mantle was invented by Carl Auer.
1923 Thermostatic controls on gas ovens introduced.
1949 Nationalisation of the gas industry.
1953 Gas first manufactured from oil in reformer plants.
1964 First shipment of natural gas from Algeria arrived in Britain.
1965 North sea gas discovered in the West Sole field.
1968 Natural gas conversion programme starts at Burton on Trent.
1976 Natural gas conversion programme completed.
1986 Privatisation of the gas industry, creating British Gas plc.
1997 British gas plc split into Centrica and BG Group. |
Reflect on chapter 9 and chapter 10. Identify what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding.
Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:
- Consider a project such as moving to a new neighborhood, completing a long-term school assignment, or even cleaning your bedroom. Develop a set of activities necessary to accomplish that project, and then order them in a precedence manner to create sequential logic. Explain and defend the number of steps you identified and the order in which you placed those steps for best completion of the project.
- In crashing a project, we routinely focus on those activities that lie on the critical path, not activities with slack time. Explain why this is the case.
- Identify and discuss some of the problems or dangers in using project networks. Under what circumstances can they be beneficial, and when can they be dangerous? |
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has set out plans for its mission to the recover voyage data recorder (VDR) from the sunken cargo ship, ‘El Faro’.
The VDR was located on April 26, 2016 in about 4,500 metres of water near the Bahamas.
The NTSB investigators will use the US Navy’s ocean tug ‘Apache’ which measures 69 metres in length and was launched in 1981. The ‘CURV-21’ remotely operated underwater vehicle will also be used to assist the mission.
Investigators from the NTSB and the US Coast Guard, and engineers from the US Navy and Phoenix International, the operator of ‘CURV-21’, will be aboard USNS ‘Apache’ when it departs in early July for the accident site near the Bahamas.
Investigators collaborated with scientists and deep-water recovery experts in May to determine how the VDR could be recovered given its proximity to nearby obstacles. The NTSB then brought in the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage to assist in the recovery effort.
The trip to the accident site is expected to take three to four days, followed by five days on scene to recover the VDR.
The ‘El Faro’ sank during Hurricane Joaquin on October 1, 2015. The ship’s wreckage was identified on November 1, 2015, during the NTSB’s initial mission to locate the wreckage. The VDR however had detached from the main site.
The NTSB announced on February 11, 2016, that it would launch a second search mission to locate the VDR and document the wreckage and debris field.
Shortly after the VDR was located, the NTSB announced that another mission to recover the VDR would be launched.
After the VDR is recovered, it will be brought to a NTSB laboratory where investigators will examine the VDR and download and analyse any information it may contain. |
Tu B'Shvat Photo Essay
Tu B'Shvat, the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, is called the New Year of the Trees in the Talmud and falls this year on Wednesday, February 8th. Halakhic issues with regard to Israel's trees are centered on this day, the Jewish holiday expressing the deep love of the Jewish people for the Land of Israel and its fruits.
Special care has to be taken to maintain the sanctity of the land and the Torah provides many rules for agricultural practices that do not exist anywhere else in the World. Among them, for example, is the prohibition of eating fruit from a tree within the first three years of its planting, called Orlah. Tu B’Shvat is the cutoff date for Orlah in Jewish Law.
In the Diaspora, Jews would try to obtain some of the seven fruits mentioned in the Bible as Israel's best: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. The tale is told of a Hassidic rabbi who told his students that if only they lived in the Land of Israel, they would not have to eat these fruits - they would just go outside and drink in the beauty of the land in order to celebrate Tu B'Shvat - or Chamishasar [fifteen] as it was called yearningly, for short.
In Israel, it is a time when the tree’s sap begins to flow, the blossoms of the almond tree appear, and even though winter is still bringing wind and rain, spring flowers like the red poppies [kalaniot] begin dotting the hills with color.
The past century's "return to Zion" gave rise to the custom of planting trees on the holiday, with the early pioneers setting an example of "making the desert bloom" for future generations in song as well as action. The Bnai Akiva religious Zionist youth group has 15,000 youngsters, including one hundred with special needs, going out to plant trees all over the country this year.
In Hassidic philosophy, the day also represents the renewal of Hashem’s blessing for the land of Israel, and it is said that those who were "righteous men in word and deed" would wear holiday clothes on the day in order to remember the verse in Deuteronomy "Man is as a tree of the field" - although this is not the meaning of the verse in context.
Israel has a land area approximately the size of the US state of New Jersey, but is blessed with a wide variety of stunning landscapes and different regional ecologies namely:
- - The Golan Heights with the snow capped mountains of the Hermon and lots of springs and waterfalls.
- - The Galilee with its green hills, and the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River.
- - The Mediterranean coastal plain.
- - The Shefela or central hill country.
- - The semiarid mountainous areas of the capital Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria.
- - The Judean Desert with the Dead Sea that is its own microclimate.
- - The deserts of the Negev and the Arava.
- - Eilat and the Red Sea coral reefs.
Hashem blesses the land of Israel and its produce, and this is reflected in its abundance.
Michelle Baruch, the photographer who sends these photos yearly to Arutz Sheva has tried to capture some of the diversity and abundance in Israel by visiting the Mahane Yehuda marketplace, travelling to some of the Jewish National Fund parks and kibbutzim in the center of the country and by going to the Judean desert. We hope you will enjoy this year’s photo essay! It is the 7th year running.
Michelle Baruch is a certified Israeli tour guide and nature photographer. She enjoys taking people on tours of Israel catered specifically to their interests and needs, but a little Off the Beaten Track. To view her touring website, visit www.apricot-tours.com or to see more photos at www.mishmishphotos.com.
Israeli Photographer Yehudit Zagdanski portrays Nature, Beauty and Inspiration through her art. Her work was recently featured on United With Israel's Israel365 project. Contact her at http://israelinspirations.blogspot.com/ or [email protected] |
Object-oriented programming in Java.
Within class implementation, this is a coomon thing to refer to the private fields directly. Another style present where all of the internal references present are indirect & further proceedings is done via set & get methods. This is what is known as self encapsulation.
Self-Encapsulation: is required to do the lazy initializationis more difficult for reading as compared to the direct field accessMight be able to develop the synchronization policies, |
How APIs Work
A conferencing API -- or any API for that matter -- allows a software application to communicate with a remote application over the Internet through a series of calls [source: TConsult, Inc.] An API is, by definition, an interface, something that defines the way in which two entities communicate [source: Thom Robbins.net Weblog].
With APIs, the calls back and forth between applications are managed through something called Web services. Web services are a collection of technological standards and protocols, including XML (Extensible Markup Language), the programming language by which applications communicate over the Internet.
The API itself is a chunk of software code written as a series of XML messages. Each XML message corresponds to a different function of the remote service. For example, in a conferencing API, there are XML messages that correspond with each element required to schedule a new Web conference. Those elements include the conference time, the organizer's name and contact information, who's invited to the conference, the duration of the conference, et cetera.
Exactly how does a software developer leverage a conferencing API? He programs new or existing software to generate the right XML messages to tap the power of remote applications. Let's take conference scheduling, for example. With the right code, he could build conference-scheduling functionality into the company's existing e-mail system. Or, perhaps he could develop an entirely new instant messaging application that has one-click instant audio conferences.
Companies who release their API often do so as part of a larger software development kit (SDK) that includes the API, programming tools and other instructional documents to make the developer's job easier.
APIs and Web services are completely invisible to Web site surfers and software users. Their job is to run silently in the background, providing a way for applications to work with each other to get the user the information or functionality he needs.
Along with XML, the following technological standards, protocols and programming languages are what make Web services work:
- SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): SOAP is responsible for encoding XML messages so that they can be received and understood by any operating system over any type of network protocol.
- UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration): Described as a "yellow pages for the Internet," UDDI is an XML-based directory that allows businesses to list themselves, find each other and collaborate using Web services.
- WSDL (Web Services Description Language): WDSL is the SOAP of the UDDI (enough acronyms for you?). Basically, WDSL is the XML-based language that businesses use to describe their services in the UDDI.
[source: Search SOA.com].
Now let's look at some examples of how software developers and businesses can leverage a conferencing API. |
The focus of this week’s Children’s Mental Health week is on how to be healthy ‘inside and out’. In Thrive we recognise that how we behave and respond to the world depends on the brain and body working together. The brain and body are inextricably linked, which is why when we experience strong emotions and feelings we can have a physical reaction. We feel butterflies in the stomach when we are nervous, start shaking when we are frightened and clench our fists when we’re angry.
At Thrive, we encourage children to put words to their feelings and body sensations – words such as fluttery, tight, achy and tingly. We can then help them to make sense of what they are feeling in their body and help them to interpret what the underlying emotions might be. By doing this, we are better able to support them to make choices about how they behave in response to these emotions. Rather than react by lashing out or alternatively by pushing the feeling inside, we can be alongside them and help them understand that their emotions are normal. Building a warm and caring relationship, which is non-judgmental, with young people is key.
We need to explain to children that emotions such as anger and sadness are not bad but it is what we do with them that is important. By pushing them inside, denying or repressing them, we risk contributing to mental health problems in the future.
The Thrive Approach provides a range of different ways to help children express strong emotions, which will help them to take control of their response.
- Watch out for quiet students who may be bottling up their emotions inside as a result of what is going on around them.
- Allow students to find creative and expressive outlets for managing their strong emotions such as music, sport and art.
- Provide a safe place for students who are having difficulty handling their emotions to go to where they can be supported and have time to reflect.
- Create a space where they can express their emotions in a safe way such as expressing anger by throwing clay, tearing newspaper or using a punch bag.
Being aware of the importance of our children’s wellbeing ‘inside and out’ is crucial. By noticing and putting words to body sensations and feelings, and by responding with empathy to what they are experiencing, we will be helping them to handle their emotions in the face of life’s ups and downs. |
Blueberries are indigenous to North America and have deep roots in our country’s history. When Europeans arrived on the continent, the Native Americans were already enjoying blueberries year-round. They dried blueberries in the sun and added them whole to soups, stews and meat, or crushed them into a powder rubbed into meat as a preservative. According to legend, Native Americans gave blueberries to the pilgrims to help them make it through their first winter.
The Native Americans used blueberries (and their leaves and roots) for medicinal purposes, and developed one of the first blueberry baked goods, which they called Sautauthig (pronounced sawi-taw-teeg). This simple pudding made with blueberries, cracked corn (or samp) and water was a Native American favorite. Sautautig became popular among the settlers too; they added milk, butter and sugar to the recipe, and many historians believe it was part of the first Thanksgiving feast.
Across the Atlantic, the Europeans turned to close cousins of blueberries – called bilberries – for a variety of medicinal practices. They brewed bilberry roots into a tea to help women relax during childbirth, used bilberry syrup to treat coughs and associated the berries with good eyesight. |
Dustbin of History: Aero-Nuts
It was January 7, 1785, and two men were preparing for the first ever balloon crossing of the English Channel. The one who financed the adventure was John Jeffries, a well-to-do American doctor. The one with the aviation skills was Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard, one of the innovators of ballooning—which at that point had only been around for two years. A crowd gathered near the Dover cliffs to watch them lift off for France. At 1:00 p.m., Blanchard and Jeffries embarked on their 21-mile journey. But there was one problem: They were too heavy.
They were carrying 30 pounds of ballast weights (used to keep the balloon steady), plus steering gear, personal items, a bag of mail to be delivered in France, and scientific equipment. And then there were the four “wings.” Made out of silk and extending from the carriage, they served no real purpose except to make the balloon look like a bird.
Only a few miles into the crossing, it was apparent that the balloon was flying too low. The Channel loomed close, and neither man could swim. Their only option: lose some weight.
First went the ballast bags, but the balloon didn’t rise. As the carriage skimmed 20 or so feet above the surface, Blanchard unhooked the wings and let them drop into the water. The men argued over what to throw off next, finally deciding on the bag of mail. But the balloon was still flying too low. Then went the bottle of brandy they were saving for the landing. Still too low. Then, much to Jeffries’ dismay, went his thermometer, his barometer, and his telescope. Still too low.
So Blanchard stripped off his clothes—his heavy overcoat, his pants and shirt, then everything else, and he urged Jeffries to do the same. But the doctor was too dignified to land in France completely naked, and only stripped down to his undergarments. And they were still dangerously close to the water.
I’M AMERICAN, AND EUROPEAN
Jeffries had an idea: They’d had a lot to drink with breakfast, and neither had gone to the bathroom before they left. “We were able to obtain, I verily believe, between five and six pounds of urine,” Jeffries later wrote, “which circumstance, however trivial or ludicrous it may seem, I have reason to believe, was of real utility to us.”
Perhaps he was right—peeing into the Channel may have saved them from crashing into the Channel, but the fact remained that they were still flying too low. When the bottom of the carriage actually touched the water, Jeffries panicked and started climbing up the ropes. Blanchard yelled for him to come down; he was making it even more unstable. Jeffries climbed down; the two men put on their cork life jackets. They braced for impact.
Then, just as they saw the French coast ahead in the distance, a sudden updraft pushed the balloon up into the January sky. “From the height which we were now at,” recalled Jeffries, “and from the loss of our clothes, we were almost benumbed with cold.”
But the cold was the least of their troubles—all of Blanchard’s steering equipment and anchors had been thrown overboard, leaving him no way to control the craft. They could only watch in horror as the balloon got caught in a downdraft and headed straight for Fel-mores Forest. Luckily, just above the canopy, they leveled out and Jeffries was able to grab hold of the top of a tall tree and slow them down. The carriage unceremoniously flopped into a clearing, with the silk balloon still caught in the branches. Some farmers gave them clothes and a ride to the town of Calais, where another crowd had gathered to witness the historic landing.
- Jeffries had kept one letter—in his underwear—from the jettisoned mailbag. It was addressed to Benjamin Franklin (serving as American Ambassador to France) from Franklin’s son. That was the first airmail-delivered letter in history.
- Blanchard went on to become the first man to fly a balloon in several countries, including the U.S., where George Washington and two future presidents were in attendance. In 1809, at 56 years old, Blanchard was ballooning over the Netherlands when he suffered a heart attack and fell 50 feet to the ground. Though he never recovered, he’d met his end doing what he loved.
This article is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader. This 22nd edition of the wildly popular Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series is jam-packed with their trademark mix of humor and interesting facts. Where else could you learn about the lost cloud people of Peru, the world’s first detective, and the history of surfing?
Since 1987, the Bathroom Readers’ Institute has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and everywhere else for that matter). With more than 15 million books in print, the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series is the longest-running, most popular series of its kind in the world.
If you like Today I Found Out, I guarantee you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books, so check them out!
|Share the Knowledge!| |
Check in on synthesis knowledge
Hand out Billy Budd texts
(Please donate $5 to Ms. Stevens if able or more for those who cannot afford to pay)
Introduce Essential Question:
"How do you make legal exceptions and still maintain order?"
Annotating the text:
- circle unknown words
& common language: please circle passages you don't understand and underline passages you do.
HW Read the Introduction, VII-XIV, and complete annotations #1 and #2 (marginalia and 3-level).
Annotation for BB Ch 1
IN the News
HW see reading schedule
Brief Characterization Summary
-write short summaries using appropriate vocab words
Check and Review Chapters 2-5
-assign questions, identify logic
HW Finish Mencken "The Penalty of Death" McGraw-Hill Reader pp85
Write 1 (instead of entire essay write a freewrite paragraph)
Opinion on a Continuum
Finish Questions for King essay and reading
Journal #13 (Mencken and King)
Check and Review Chapters 6-9
-clarify elements of plot, etc.
Argument Terms and Structure
HW Reading due and Vocab quiz next week
HW Journal #14 CHANGE: rewrite one paragraph of your synthesis essays (unless you already did the independent reading)
NOV 29-DEC 3
SYNTHESIS ESSAYS BACK
-notes to improve
SAVE:Check and Review Chapters
Excerpts regarding death penalty
-Retired Justice Stevens
Continue discussion of BB Ch 10-15
Assign Thomas Paine
-rhetorical box as JOURNAL #15
HW finish box and see reading schedule
HW see reading schedule
Check and Review Chapters
FRI (tentative, this may wait until MON)
Check and review chapters
Review Essay Assignment
Journal Entry #16
Record the persuasive elements of Vere's speech, CH 21, pp96-99:
1. When does he shift styles (change in tone), or how does he adjust his speech for his audience?
2. Identify and outline Vere's thesis, supporting evidence and conclusion?
3. What is his most persuasive point and why?
4. Are you convinced by the end of his speech? What decision would you make and why?
Stanford Site on Philosophy of Punishment
Billy Budd and Capital Punishment: A Tale of Three Centuries by H. Bruce Franklin
Check BB annotations
-review Vere's speech
HW Complete outlines
You will share these on post-its on posters
Organize essay following structure or make sure your outline does so:
Identify your counterargument. What are some logical fallacies?
-look at handout C: The Other Side. How will you construct your argument?
Excerpt from H. Bruce Franklin’s Essay:
“Billy Budd and Capital Punishment: A Tale of Three Centuries”
Billy Budd is not, however, a mere treatise against capital punishment. Melville is using contemporaneous awareness about the issue to explore the larger ethical, philosophic, and political questions it so dramatically focuses. Undoubtedly New York Assemblyman Hitt was overstating the case when he claimed in early 1890, "at present there are only two classes of the community who yet favor capital punishment and these are clergymen and prosecuting attorneys."(60) Nevertheless, Melville could safely assume that almost all potential readers in 1891 would regard public execution and hanging as relics of a barbarous past, would be sensitized to the larger issues surrounding capital punishment, and would already either oppose the death penalty outright or consider it warranted only for first-degree murder and treason. Even the most ardent proponents of the death penalty in late nineteenth-century America would be embarrassed by positions such as these: "Vere justifiably condemns Billy to death" (Peter Shaw); Billy Budd is a "murderer and a cause of his own death" and Melville "is to be identified" with Captain Vere (Milton Stern); "the virtuous man, Captain Vere," must "punish the violence of absolute innocence"--that is, must kill Billy Budd--since "absolute, natural innocence" is "at war with the peace of the world and the true welfare of mankind" (Hannah Arendt).(61) Readers in 1891 would be far more likely to wonder, like the surgeon (235) and the narrator (236-37), whether Vere is insane.
Journal #17: Answer the following questions:
- Is there any evidence that Captain Vere is insane? How might this impact his decision to ask for Billy’s death?
- Is Melville a “murderer”? Why might people consider him thus?
- Is our new system of putting individuals to death (by lethal injection) humane? Are they still public spectacles?
- Recall that slavery is a hot topic back then? How does Melville weave his condemnation of it into his text?
- Consider the ending of the book, how might citizens back then respond compared to now? List all elements of the arguments.
Review signal phrases
-not necessary with statistics
HW Optional roughdraft for class/peer edit
Review Syntax and Rhetorical analysis handout
-how to we word sentences for emphasis
-what rhetorical devices can we employ to emphasize our point
(make sure any unknown terms are in your literary devices rings)
-practice paragraph by identifying
HW Works Cited page
Need Literary Rings for tomorrow.
Review Kinds of Multiple Choice on AP
Argument Essays due next Friday, DEC 17th, by 10 to turnitin.com.
OR for 10% late credit, Jan 3rd.
Travel and Culture
Introduction Pico Iyer
-"The Humble Comma"
Lost in Translation |
Coverage of Haiti's 2010 earthquake disaster may have dwindled in the news, but rebuilding efforts are still slowly continuing, running the gamut from shelters made from tires, shipping containers and recycled plastic bottles -- each with their advantages and disadvantages.
But that's not all; besides these methods, the superadobe "earthbag" building technique is also being used. Originally developed by architect Nader Khalili and Cal-Earth, the practice involves layering long fabric or plastic tubes or bags filled with sand, clay, water and fibrous material like sticks, straw, and/or manure to create a domed compression structure that is resistant to earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and fire.
Organizations like Konbit Shelter ("konbit" means communal effort in Creole) are partnering international artists, builders, architects, and engineers with local artisans and builders to create durable and low-tech earthbag structures that can be tailored to fit each community's needs:
This system of building provides an easily replicable model, which can be built without using specialized construction machinery and can be participated in by the men and women of any community. Utilizing 90% earth, and only 10% cement, these structures are stronger than the now common cinder block and concrete slab construction. The technique also uses little to no wood, an invaluable asset in timber depleted Haiti.
Timber is not the only thing that is difficult to obtain; even the process of finding suitable polypropylene bagging for earthbag building in Haiti was a bit of a headache, as one of Konbit Shelter's members chronicles in a post about one of their local suppliers.
Despite all the hurdles, Konbit Shelter recently completed a community center in the village of Bigones in 2011 (seen above), and from the looks of the photos showing the building process on Konbit's blog, it was an inspiring cooperative effort for all involved, not to mention the lovely structure that was ultimately created.
One of the supports for the main windows was made from welded oil drums -- a beautiful example of adaptive reuse. |
Create a still life drawing of objects from the classroom and from home.
1. Read the Scholastic Arts Magazine and watch the video
2. Set-up a still life scene on the small table on wheels in front of your " Inspiration" wall.
3. Select 3-5 materials each from the still life closet.
4. Sketch different points of view of the still life
5. Select strongest sketch
6. Create charcoal drawing
7. Use craypas to create still life drawing
You will be evaluated on the following:
Creation of compositional drawings
Ability to create a drawing of a still life
Use of materials
Use of time |
Concatenate in Excel is a function that is used to join multiple texts or strings into single text or string.
It means, using Concatenate function you can join a text from different cells.
And you can also use Concatenate function with space in Excel.
Note:-Before starting any Formula or Function you need to add (=)
Note:- You can also use "&" operator to Join texts instead of Concatenate function in Excel.
In the below given example, we have two columns with first name and last name. Now using Concatenate function we are going to join both names into single name.
To Join texts in Excel, execute below steps.
1. Select a cell where you want to join texts. (C2)
2. Type CONCATENATE in the formula bar and then select texts you want to Join.
4. You can join multiple texts with seperation of comma.
In the below given example, I have joined two texts with space. you can also add custom values like the hyphen(-) or symbols or texts in between concatenate function.
Here we have added two texts with a hyphen(-) or Dash symbol.
You can also use an ampersand (" & ") operator to join texts in Excel. it will give the same result.
After watching the video you can download the below sample sheet. and it helps you to do practice more.
* To Learn Tutorials in a simple Way.
* To Learn Excel basics with downloadable samples.
* To Learn HTML with sample Website code.
* To Learn PowerPoint presentations.
* To Learn MS Word for offical use. |
Last week my class worked on some Snowman Art. This art activity was led by a parent/former teacher.
When their page was filled, they painted modge podge over the entire sheet once more, to give it a shiny effect.
As their papers dried, my students set to work creating snowmen. They used pre-drawn circles which they had to cut out and assemble as the snowman's body. They added details to their snowman using scraps of construction paper.
The finished snowmen were added to the tissue paper covered background. This is how they turned out when finished:
Here they are on display in the Art Room: |
Valentia Island is one of the most westerly points in europe. It is a small island just off the Iveragh Pensinula, on the Famous Wild Atlantic Way and also on the breath taking Skellig Ring. The Skellig Ring was voted by the Lonely Planet as one of the top 10 destinations for 2017. The island itself is 7 miles long and 3 wide approx. Valentia Island is world famous as a result of its participation in the transatlantic cable.
Valentia Island Transatlantic Cable.
Valentia Island was chosen as the point in Europe to connect the USA and Europe via the Transatlantic cable. This was a huge leap forward in communication and a mind blowing increase in the speed of communications between both continents.
Before the Transatlantic Cable it took a ship 10 days approx to make the crossing on the Wild Atlantic. This approximation is based on ideal weather conditions. So one can appreciate that the weather and the time of year, therefore had a huge impact on the efficiency and on delivery.
In the 1830s both Britain and the United States were carrying out various experiments on telegraphy. Samuel Morse was credited with the first practical use of telegraphy; when a message was sent from Baltimore to Washington. Hence Telegraph lines were appearing all over Europe and the United States.
This prompted the question of the possibility of crossing the great Atlantic and joining Europe and the United States in 1845. Of course, there were many questions to answer before they could start implementing such lofty ambitions.
It was not until 1856 that the Atlantic Telegraph Company was registered. The driving force behind the company on the British side, were brothers Jacob and John Brett along with Charles Bright. On the American side was Cyrus W.Field
It took 3 attempts in total to complete this amazing feat. It was in 1865 and in the year 1866 the first viable commercial communications commenced and Europe and America were finally connected. Transatlantic Telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island for one hundred years until the Western Union terminated its cable operations in 1966.
Tetrapod on Valentia Island
The Tetrapod was discovered in 1993 by an undergraduate student on the coast of Valentia Island. This was a discovery of huge significance as the Tetrapod marked the transition of life from water to land, between 370 million to 350 million years ago.
Skellig Michael within touching distance of Valentia Island
When one is on Valentia Island and cast an eye to the west you will see 2 amazing rocks in the distance. These of course are the world famous Skellig Rocks. The smaller on know throughout the world as the second largest gannet colony in the world and of course the bigger brother, which is none other than Skellig Michael. Skellig Michael is an UNESCO world heritage site since 1992. It os one of only 3 in ireland. This was once a monastic settlement and still to this day people travel in their thousands to see the settlement which is in impeccable condition. In the last years the Skellig has gained a broader appeal with the last Star wars movie being shot out there and there are many scenes that include the Skelligs in the up and coming Star wars movie.
Valentia Island Conclusion
So we can see from the information we have shared Valentia island is punching well above its weight on a world stage. We w have a link here to Things to do on the Island.
Keep in mind we here at The Ring Lyne can cater for all your needs to enjoy your vacation on Valentia Island please click here to book your accommodation. |
We honor the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the Byron Bay district -
the Bundjalung of Byron Bay – Arakwal Bumberlin people.
“We want to see Country how it used to be. We want to continue to look after country and want it to look after us. We want our people to be back on Country, caring for and using Country like we always have. We want to share parts of our culture with the wider community so they learn about and respect Country like we do. We want everybody to work together to keep Country clean and healthy.”
Aunties Lorna Kelly, Dulcie Nicholls and Linda Vidler, 2003.
Please visit for more information
Blue Space Art and Byron Bay Beach Photography are Eco-warriors for our fragile threatened shorebirds. Small things you can do:
pick up plastic and rubbish on the beach
particularly fishing line
stay clear of shorebirds
and much more.... below.
BIRDS The Byron Shire is home to a diversity of birdlife, including threatened migratory shorebirds such as these Sooty Oystercatchers and Pied Oystercatchers (pictured below). Both breed along the coast but are an extremely vulnerable species. In NSW Pied Oystercatchers are thinly scattered along the entire coast, with an estimated fewer than 200 breeding pairs left and only 6 in the Byron region.
The Belongil Estuary is an important breeding ground for many shorebirds, the Little Terns and these beautiful Crested Terns (pictured below) can be seen resting there all year round. Sadly, I've witnessed people's lack of respect for these Terns - from ploughing through them on pushbikes, a soccer game, to dogs running loose in this restricted zone.
How to avoid disturbances:
Disturbance is any action that interrupts the breeding, feeding or resting of shorebirds. Causing a shorebird to take flight represents a significant disturbance as it makes the bird waste vital energy.
You can prevent shorebird disturbance if you follow these guidelines:
Keep domestic animals under control and well away from shorebirds. Every time shorebirds are forced to take flight, they burn vital energy.
Avoid driving or operating all forms of vehicles, vessels and recreational devices near shorebirds. Imagine a shorebird confronting a kite surfer for the first time; it probably thinks it is the biggest predator it has ever seen!
Don't drive along the beach at high tide or above the high-water mark — you'll destroy shorebird nests.
If fishing from a sandbar, choose the opposite end to where the birds are gathered. NEVER leave fishing line as birds get easily tangled.
Feral animals can kill shorebirds — report feral animal sightings to Council.
Consider how your actions may disturb shorebirds. This can include where you set up camp or a simple stroll through a roost site at high tide.
Prevent pollution — remember that almost all rubbish and pollutants discarded on the land end up in the bay.
By disturbing shorebirds we reduce their survival prospects.
The Shorebird 2020 Program is raising awareness of how incredible shorebirds are, and actively engaging the community to participate in gathering information needed to conserve shorebirds. Go to the website HERE to become a volunteer. |
Why Anvils are Shaped as They Are and Why Blacksmiths Often Tap the Anvil After a Few Strikes on the Object They’re Working On
Today I found out why anvils are shaped the way they are and why blacksmith/farriers/etc. sometimes tap the anvil after a few strikes on the object they’re working on.
Anvil shape has evolved greatly since the earliest anvil-like objects. These primitive objects used for anvils were typically made of stone, often just a slab of rock. The first metal anvils were made of bronze, then wrought iron, and, finally, steel, which is the material of choice today for anvils, though cast iron is also used in low-end anvils (cast iron is quite brittle for this particular use and absorbs more of the hammer blow’s energy than steel does, so it is not preferred).
Over the centuries, the common shape of the anvil has evolved from a simple slab to the shape most of us associate with an anvil today, namely the “London Pattern”, which became common in the 1800s. While the length and overall size of the various elements can vary from anvil to anvil, the key features of the “standard” design are typically a horn, a step, a face, a hardy hole, and a pritchel hole. The primary use of these various elements is as follows:
- The horn is the “front” end of the anvil which is curved. This allows the smith to hammer different curves into the piece they are working on, with the precise curve depending on how and what part of the horn they hold the piece on while they hammer it. Some anvils also come with multiple horns, of differing shapes and sizes.
- The step is the flat area next to the horn, just below the face. This is often used as the cutting area, using the edge of the step to “cut” a piece while hammering it. However, frequent use of the step for this purpose can also damage it, so the use of tools attached to the anvil for cutting is often preferred for non-hobbyists.
- The face is the main large flat slab where most of the hammering takes place. It also contains the hardy hole and the pritchel hole. Unlike the step, it often features slightly rounded edges so that the edges don’t cut into the metal being pounded on the face.
- The hardy hole is a square hole through the anvil that allows you to secure various tools in the anvil. These tools can include chisels, various swages (used for shaping or marking the metal, generally a block of metal with a recess for forcing the metal into the shape of the recess), bickerns (smaller, specialized versions of the horn), etc. The hardy hole can also be used directly for an aid in bending or in hole punching.
- The pritchel hole is a round hole meant as an aid in punching holes through the metal you’re working on, but obviously the hardy hole can be used for this as well as mentioned. The pritchel hole can also be used for holding tools. So, basically, the pritchel hole is a round version of the hardy hole.
On a related not, if you’ve ever watched a smith work, you’ve probably noticed many of them will strike whatever they’re working on a few times, then follow it up by lightly tapping the anvil’s step or face a couple times. You may have heard that they do this to cool the hammer down by having it come in contact with the anvil, but this is the opposite of what they’d want to do. Warm hammers and warm anvils are actually what they want, because it keeps the hot metal they’re working with from cooling down as quickly, so it requires less heating while shaping, which saves time. Further, the very brief contact between the hammer and the anvil isn’t going to transfer very much heat, even if the anvil is quite cold.
In reality, they are not actually tapping the anvil for any real purpose other than to simply either rest their arm while they quickly examine the results of the last few strikes or to simply keep their rhythm while they examine the piece. In the former case, resting the hammer on the anvil next to the piece is simply a convenient place to rest it. With it in this position, it is a shorter distance to bring the hammer back up to the appropriate striking position, over say, letting one’s hammer and arm rest at one’s side while the piece is examined. In the latter case, some just find it nice to continue their hammering rhythm while they examine what they’re working on, rather than stopping completely. They only tap the anvil, rather than strike it, both to save energy and because you should never pound an anvil directly with the hammer as it can cause slight deformations to form which would then be transferred to whatever you’re working on in the future.
- Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the Outside
- Why Do Olympians Bite Their Medals?
- Why Doesn’t Wood Melt
- Why Is It Illegal to Remove Your Mattress and Pillow Tags?
- The Man Who Ate an Airplane and Three Other People Who Eat Weird Things
- Humans aren’t the only animals on Earth that use objects as anvils. For instance, Chimpanzees often use sticks or rocks as hammers and logs or rocks as anvils in order to crack open nuts.
- Anvil firing (the practice of launching an anvil in the air with gunpowder) was once traditional in various places in the world, particularly in the Southern United States. Typically, one anvil is placed upside down with its concave base then filled with gunpowder. Another anvil is then placed on top of that anvil right-side up, so their bases match and with a fuse coming out of the inner concave area filled with gun powder. Depending on the quality of gunpowder, the amount used, and the weight of the anvil, when the gunpowder ignites, the anvil will be shot into the air to various heights. This somewhat dangerous practice was often used in substitute for fireworks at certain celebratory events. It was also once traditionally used on St. Clement’s Day (Pope Clement I is the patron saint of blacksmiths and metalworkers).
- While blacksmith is a familiar term, you may not have heard of a farrier, mentioned above. A farrier is basically a hoof care specialist that, among other things, is typically skilled at making horse shoes. At one time, most blacksmith’s were also skilled farriers and vice-verse. However, today this is usually not the case with modern farriers leaning more towards just being horse hoof care specialists and modern blacksmiths, while able to make horseshoes, usually are not skilled at also caring for horse hooves.
- The name “farrier” comes from the Middle French word “ferrier”, meaning “blacksmith”. This Middle French word in turn derives from the Latin “ferrum”, meaning “iron”.
- The name “Blacksmith” simply references the fact that they are smiths (deriving from the word “smite”, meaning “to hit”) that work on “black” metal, with the metals typically turning black from a layer of oxides after being heated. Obviously the oxide layer is generally later ground off.
- Anvils were once commonly made of wrought iron, rather than steel. Wrought iron is just iron with a very low carbon content (lower than steel or cast iron). It was once considered pure iron, but by today’s purification standards this is no longer the case.
- Steel is simply iron that has a small amount of carbon added, usually .2%-2.1% (other materials such as manganese, chromium, tungsten, etc. can also be used). The net effect of adding carbon or the like is that the iron is significantly hardened.
- When enough carbon is added (around 2.1%-4%) to the iron, rather than steel, you get cast iron, which is derived from pig iron. Cast iron is much harder than steel, but the price for this is that it is much more brittle and less ductile. The name “cast iron” comes from the fact that it has a relatively low melting point and is easy to cast.
- Pig iron is simply the result of taking iron ore and smelting it with some sort of carbon fuel, such as charcoal or coke. The name comes from the fact that the branching structure of the molds for pig iron ingots coming off a main line has the appearance of piglets suckling on a sow (an “ingot” just means a shape suitable later processing or transportation, such as a traditional gold bar type shape).
- While not up to modern standards, the earliest known steel making was done over 4000 years ago in present day Turkey. Steel pieces have also been found in East Africa from over 3400 years ago. The Chinese are known to have begun quenching their steel as recently as about 2000 years ago.
- Iron is the most common element by mass overall of any on Earth, though it is only the fourth most common element in the crust of the Earth.
- Iron is formed from decayed nickel-56. This nickel is produced in stars and is subsequently spread about via stars large enough to go supernova doing so, with it being the last element produced in those stars before they go supernova.
|Share the Knowledge!| |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.