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|Brookings 1907 to 1929|
|The Brookings Organization|
|The Brookings Timber and Lumber Company|
Purchased its first mill up the Chetco River in 1907. Established the Brookings Port. Built the original Brookings Mill. Purchased the ships required to haul lumber from Brookings, Oregon to Portland, Oregon and to California. Built a railroad north up the Chetco River where Camp Two was established. Purchased approximately 30,000 acres of timberland.
The Brookings Land and Townsite Company
The North West Railroad
The Brookings Commercial Company
As important as it was to ship their lumber to market, the ships were used to bring back all of the goods and wares needed to operate the town and the mill. Because the mill was operated on electricity, the principal cargo that was hauled from the Oakland yard to Brookings was fuel for the engines used to drive the generators. The fuel was brought in in 55-gallon drums. Empty drums in Brookings were a constant source of problems. The drums were needed back in Oakland to refill but the drums had the lowest priority for return shipment. Consequently, the San Francisco office was continually sending telegrams to Brookings instructing Brookings to return the drums. The best laid plans of mice and men.
Brookings was not their only stop and not their only customer. Enderts in Crescent City was a big customer of the Commercial Company as well as businesses from Gold Beach to Portland.
The Brookings Mercantile Company
The Del Norte Company
The C and O Lumber Company / The California and Oregon Lumber Company
|Bill Ward graduated from Cornell University in 1901 as a Civil Engineer.|
During that same year, John Brookings and his son Walter, with the financial backing of his brother Robert Brookings, were logging in San Bernardino County, California. Their mill was located in Fredalba and the logs were transported by rail cars on railroads built by Brookings. The San Bernardino Newspaper carried the following reports about Brookings. "Backed by $150,000, the Brookings' proceed to run the largest sawmill operation on the mountain." Brookings estimated that they had 75 to 100 million board feet of virgin timber on their land and set out to meet the enormous demand for orange crates.
Roads were graded, tracks were laid and three steam locomotives imported to bring logs to the mill. With an $8,000 per month pay roll and 80 full-time men, the Brookings operation began stripping the mountain of its marketable timber. Pay was $1.75 per day for lumber piling and railroad work. Teamsters contract for $2.50 per thousand board feet of timber hauled to the Brookings box factory. But Brookings was running out of timber. If Brookings was going to stay in the lumber business, it was going to have to find trees to cut.
Following his graduation, Brookings hired Bill Ward and, in 1907, advanced 5 million dollars to him and sent him to what is now Brookings, Oregon to start logging operations here.
Bill began by buying an existing logging operation 12 miles up the Chetco River. This was a mill started by Judge John L. Childs of Crescent City. It was a small, water-powered mill and was not a very financial success. Bill continued to acquire some 30,000 acres of Douglas Fir.
It's important to understand that this area was virgin timber land because there was no means of transportation out of here except by boat. No railroads had been brought in and it was 100 miles to Eureka, Coos Bay or Grants Pass. Therefore, whoever proceeded to log would have to develop a way to transport the lumber to a major port and market. One of Bill Ward's first jobs was to sound the ocean along the shoreline for a suitable location to anchor ships while they were being loaded. He found the location described as Chetco Cove.
In October 1934, Bill Ward advised President Roosevelt by letter that detailed reports with accurate soundings and full description of the shipping facilities at this point were on file with the war department and with the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Bill advised the president that some 250,000,000 feet of lumber had been shipped out of this port and many thousands of tons of coast-wise freight had been handled on it. The depth of the water at the ship's berth was 24 feet at mean lower low water.
Brookings purchased five ships. They were the S.S. Cowiche, (renamed S.S. Brookings), S.S. Frank D. Stout, S.S. Martha Benher, S.S. Necanicum and the S.S. Quinalt.
By 1913, Bill Ward was having an affair with one of the mill workers' wives. A school marm from New York came to town that year to see if she could persuade Bill to marry her. He wouldn't and she went back to New York. In 1914, his affairis divorced her husband who was also named Bill and, in 1915, Bill Ward and Nancy were married. It was not until Nancy and Bill married that her husband discovered that his wife and Bill had been seeing each other secretly for three years.
The story goes that the ex-husband had been to the mercantile store next door and was going home with a sack full of groceries. As he passed the front of the Central Building, Bill Ward came walking out. The estranged husband reached in the sack and took out a can and threw it at Bill and proceeded to chase Bill all the way to the river, throwing groceries at him.
A young man by the name of George Knab boarded the Cowiche the day she steamed out of Baltimore to "catch on" at the Brookings mill.
Mr. Knab visited me some years ago and told me that Bill Ward had made him responsible for the hiring of teachers for the school. He proceeded to place an ad for a teacher and then he had to interview all of the applications. Because he was still single and very much in the market for a wife, he selected the teacher based on her looks, age and whether or not she would marry him.
Our good friend Enid Hurst started school in Brookings in 1915 in a box car.
The original Quinalt crashed at sea at Point Gorda, October 10, 1917. The telegram read "From the S. S. ADMIRAL SCHLEY, Steamer Quinalt is ashore at Point Gorda - crew and passengers in three life boats are proceeding to Shelter Cove - Dense fog calm light N. W. swell "SMITH ADMIRAL SCHLEY, 855 AM". A note on the corner of the telegram reads wired mill 10:45 AM 10/10. The Quinalt was replaced by Lloyds of London who was the insurer of all Brookings' ships.
Loading operations began without a dock and they used stevedores from Coos Bay to load the ships. Some of you know of or have heard of Skinny Ganong from Gold Beach. Skinny's father was one of the stevedores and it was here that he met his wife. Mrs. Ganong was on watch in Gold Beach during the war when, on an early September morning in 1942, a bomb was reported to have been dropped in the area of the Sixes. Years later, Mr. Fujita, the Japanese pilot, confirmed the dropping of bombs on Mt. Emily east of Brookings and the Sixes.
There had to be a receiving location for the lumber hauled out of Brookings and, to handle that, Brookings purchased a large lumber yard right on the bay in Oakland. To transport the lumber around the bay they purchased two barges. The Oakland yard was under the direction of the San Francisco office. Mostly because of his temperament and generally poor judgement, John's son Walter was placed in charge of the San Francisco office and was given the title of Vice-President. Son Walter was a constant irritation to the home office in Brookings. Many letters were mailed to Robert about Walter but Robert refused to interfere.
During the war, the army wrote to Walter and told him that he was going to be inducted. This was considered the best news to ever reach the Brookings home office. Walter immediately wrote his uncle Robert Brookings and asked uncle to please use his influence to get him out of the draft. Robert Brookings wrote back and advised Walter that he would not interfere with the army's plan to induct him.
When the army proceeded to call Walter, Walter then tried to negotiate a commission with the army. The army offered him Captain but he wanted Major.
Once again, Walter wrote his Uncle Robert and asked his uncle to use his influence to get him the rank of Major. Once again, Uncle Robert told him that the position of Captain was very honorary and he would not use his influence to get Walter any other rank.
I believe from the tone of his letters that Robert Brookings was glad to see Walter drafted. I have found no other communication referring to Walter Brookings after that.
The mill town began in 1912 and all of the necessary buildings were being built to handle the mill and the workers. Even then, there were three parts of town. The vice-presidents were located on what is now Redwood Street behind Coast Auto, The Mexicans were located in the area which is now Railroad Street and those streets named Willow and Hemlock and the Caucasian mill workers were located on Fredalba. Fredalba was named after Brooking's very good friends Fred and Albert Smiley in Green Valley, California. Fredalba Street was later renamed Pacific Avenue. Pacific Avenue was one of the most important streets in town because it led to the ferry.
Finding men to work in Brookings was a tremendous problem. A lot of men were needed and a lot of the jobs were mill wrights, a skilled labor. Drinking was not allowed and there wasn't much to do except work and fish. Ads were continually run in the Little Rock Gazette. The ads were designed to appeal to the young men of Arkansas and offered stage transportation to San Francisco and ship voyage to Brookings, Oregon. It sounded to good to be true and served to create a unique ethnic culture in Brookings.
The isolation of the community caused a bonding between Brookings and Crescent City. Crescent City had many of the same problems caused by isolation from the rest of the world. But Crescent City had more of what Brookings wanted, girls. As a result, Smith River became the melting pot between the two towns and Saturday night dances in Smith River brought the two towns together. This led to many marriages between the young men from Arkansas and the girls from Crescent City. Smith River grew because of it and soon had its own hospital and Bank of Italy.
It is obvious that Brookings wanted more than a mill town; he wanted a town town. In 1914, Brookings incorporated the Brookings Land and Townsite Company in St. Louis, Mo. That was the same year that the Central Building was built. Bill Ward became the general manager of the company and of the town. One of his first tasks was to hire Bernard Maybeck to design a model town. Mr. Maybeck is famous for his design of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
One of my most prized possessions is The Original Map of Brookings drawn by Bernard Maybeck.
There is no doubt in my mind that Bill Ward was English; who else would design ROUND ABOUTS in Brookings, Oregon? (Years ago, I was in Muscat Oman of the Arab Emirates and the Sheik had built the world's most beautiful Round-About so he could drive his Rolls Royce around and around. Two of the off ramps exited only into sand.)
Bill Ward's original platt of Brookings, dated 1915, included two round-abouts, the Marion Circle and the Georgia Circle.
Pay in Brookings was not in currency but rather in coupons. Coupon books were worth a dollar. There were twenty 5-cent coupons in each book. The pay master was located at the west end of the Central Building and every one walked up the three stairs into the back door to one of the pay windows. The coupons were only redeemable at the Brookings Mercantile Store, owned and operated by the company. As the stories went, as wives ran low on groceries and household items during the week, they would send the children to the pay master for coupon books so they could buy what they needed at the store. At the end of the week when the husbands went to the pay windows for their pay, they would discover that their wives had already cashed out on the pay.
Starting pay rates for mill, yard and railroad workers was $3.40 per day. Those that worked hard were re-rated to $3.60. Rent was $9.50 per month, rooms for single men were 75 cents a week and up. Room and board was $8.40 per week. The cost of a steamer ticket to San Francisco was $13.00. The cost of the stage to Grants Pass was $12.50.
By 1917, America was at war.
Following the war, problems began to plague the Company. The lack of roads and the poor access to Brookings created many problems for the company. Labor was a constant problem. The socialist front, I.W.W. "Industrial Workers of the World" were causing problems that even interfered with the war effort. Because of the location of Brookings, they had to pay higher wages to get workers to come here. The Government Employment Bureau in San Francisco would not allow the company to take unskilled labor out of California. The promise to provide on-the-job training meant nothing to the bureau.
By 1921, the town had 12 grades of schools, four hotels, a moving picture theater, a church and amusement hall that also was used for town meetings. The biggest amusement was the chickens under the building that would constantly disrupt the church and the town meeting. Numerous letters were written to the caretaker of the building to please remove his chickens. There was a bank, garages, steam laundry, and stores. The population then was 1200. The town had been platted and a person could even purchase a lot.
The ships frequently lost their propellers at sea, they hit rocks and underwater logs going up the Columbia River. There were several major accidents in the San Francisco Bay. Worse, crews would walk off the job when the ships arrived in Oakland and the Captains would spend all of their time attempting to hire crew members for the continuation of the voyage.
Brookings gave up his interest in the Company in 1922 to the Stout Lumber Co. While the center of the west coast operation for the Stout Co. was in San Francisco, Brookings and Portland, the director was located in Thorton, Arkansas. Thomas Cutter became manager of the Brookings division.
It was under his direction that the railroad was built to Rowdy Creek. But it was still Bill Ward who did the engineering.
As told by Bill Ward
|The home of The California & Oregon Lumber Company is in the southwestern corner of Curry County, just four miles north of the California State Line, and is on the proposed Roosevelt Highway, 130 miles from the railroad. The Chetco River empties into the Pacific Ocean at Brookings, and river and ocean fishing are unexcelled. The mountains near town abound with deer, bear and all kinds of game. Being a coast town, the climate is even throughout the year. During last winter, an unusually cold one, temperatures did not go lower than 29º above, and the hottest day in 1921 registered 91º.|
The town has an excellent school with high school grades. There are four hotels, an up-to-date moving picture theater, church and amusement hall, bank, garages, steam laundry and stores. The population at present is 1,200, and the town is growing rapidly. Town lots and building materials are sold at low prices and on easy terms. The company owns and rents a number of cottages and apartments and is constructing new ones continuously. Rents range from $9.50 and up per month. All houses are equipped with running water and electric lights, and most of them are fitted with sanitary plumbing. Small tracts are available from ½ to one mile from the town in the Chetco Valley.
Single men live in the St. George Hotel, or the St. George Annex. Both hotels are steam heated and electrically lighted, and are thoroughly modern. Both rents range from 75 cents per week and up. Board is $8.40 per week at the St. George, and $10.50 at the Chetco Restaurant.
The mill is operating on an eight-hour basis, and is cutting an average of 160,000 ft. of fir a day. The lumber is handled in unit packages by a monorail system and locomotive cranes. The mill is electrically driven. Logs are produced in the company's own logging operations. The finished product is shipped to the California market and to the company's distributing yard at Oakland by three vessels, the Frank D. Stout and Cowiche, both of which have passenger accommodations, and the Necanicum. The mill operates throughout the year.
A new logging railroad, 14 miles in length, is being built down the coast to tap a fine body of Redwood timber belonging to the company in Del Norte County, California. This road will be completed about the 1st of August, and about August 15th the mill will be placed on a double-shift basis.
The best way to reach Brookings from Oregon points is via rail to Grants Pass and thence by stage to Brookings. Stage fare is $13.00. Brookings is reached from California points by rail to Eureka and from Eureka by stage. Stage fare is $12.50. Leaving either Grants Pass or Eureka in the morning, you reach Brookings the same evening. An intermittent passenger service is maintained by Frank D. Stout during the summer months from San Francisco to Brookings. Fare is $13.00.
Freight and household goods for Brookings should be routed via San Francisco, c/o California & Oregon Lumber Company, No. 2 Pine St., San Francisco.
As we have sufficient timber to operate a plant with a capacity of 500,000 ft. per day for a period of thirty years, we are especially interested in having young men with families join us with the view of permanent employment. It is the policy of the company to, as far as possible, employ young men as Common Laborers and, from their ranks, promote men to fill the higher paying positions. Present rates for mill, yard and railroad labor is $3.40 for 8 hours. All men who show a willingness to give us a day's work for a day's pay, and desire to work steady, are soon re-rated at $3.60 and up for 8 hours work. Our rates will at all times be in line with other mills along the coast, as we want the best organization in the country.
|Letter from George Knab, Arcata, CA, July 8, 1981|
To Enid and Glen Hurst, Brookings, Oregon
(RE: Brookings 1922)
|Dear Enid and Glen,|
Oh Happy Day! How nice to have your letter and to see that letter put out by C&O in their campaign to bring workers to Brookings. It was issued about June 1922, about the time I left Baltimore on the Cowiche to catch on at the mill, arriving there on Aug 3, taking Ben Gray's son's job in the office on Mon., Aug 7th.
This ties in with that comment in the letter about starting on Redwood around the 15th. The mill started sawing Redwood on Monday the 7th, on a program of 70% Redwood and 30% Fir. Up to that time, the mill had been on Fir coming from the Jack's Creek area; which operation was dropped later to concentrate on the logging show at Smith River above Rowdy Creek-where they accumulated enough Fir to satisfy that share of the production overall.
Ben Gray's son had become so homesick to return to their old home at Sparkman, Arkansas, that he was determined to leave. He had been handling orders and shipping in the office, which was similar to my former job with Babcock Lumber Co. in Pittsburgh, Pa. That explains how I fell heir to the nickname of Smokey. No relation to Smokey the Bear! It was a lucky and quick break for me to catch on to a good job, and one for Mr. Gray and his son to arrange their situation.
The C&O letter was put out to bolster their crew, as there wasn't a local labor supply; and not many people came along the old roads in that day for much picking. That was the time of labor-trouble on the whole Coast with the IWW (International Workers of the World), and most of the road-people came under that classification. They were called Bindle Bums or Knights of the Road, which is what most of them were. They were advance-men for the IWW, and stayed on the job long enough to spread the word. However, they spent so much time spreading the word on the job that their stay was cut short; and they were back on the road. All that they had was the clothes they wore and the bindle-bundle on their back.
In self-defense, the mills had to keep an intelligence system to keep track of these wayfarers - C&O and Hobbs-Wall got the word from Philaetis Bell's Employment Office in Eureka, who, in turn, got the word from Willits. We got the word from Coos County up north, and I want to tell you that it was bulletproof in accuracy; as the "visitor" was bound to show within a few days of the notice - it went under the name of Lung Test, and the patients all flunked on schedule.
Back to the letter. It was published in the SF papers to match up with the Frank D. Stout, which could haul 24 passengers -- the new people were not charged a fare, which was an attraction in bringing them into the fold. We were lucky to net about a dozen out of each haul, and they were the ones we came to know in later years. C&O dropped this outside call for help in about a year, as more people were coming along until the mill closed permanently in June 1925. (Here again the Frank D. Stout made several trips to Longview, Washington, moving whole families to work at Long Bell Lumber Co. which was just starting at the time - family furnishing went along with the passengers.) Lifelong friendships began at Brookings!
Eldon Gossett was right about the Cowiche name being changed. (The Cowiche was renamed the SS Brookings.) She was one of the "CO" ships built by the Shipping Board in 1918/19. They were built on the Great Lakes for that type of bulk-cargo in iron ore and coal, with engines aft for single bulk-space forward, and they burned coal. Their length was set at 254 feet so that they could navigate the Welland Canal into the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic, if necessary - the canal was limited to 283-ft. length. When these "CO" ships became available as surplus, they were offered at $75,000 each, where-is, as-is. No ship had taken over two trips until laid up - they hauled coal to Germany as a relief package. West Coast lumber concerns jumped at these bargains, as the bulk-cargo holds were made to order for lumber handling.
George E. Knab, Arcata, CA
Things did not get better. They got worse. The socialists were organizing labor under the I.W.W. They were called Bundle Bums or Knights of the Road. Their motto, "To fan the flames of discontent". Their theme, "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things in life."
"It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalists shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially, we are forming the structures of the new society within the shell of the old".
"Take out the words, if so must be, but leave, oh, leave the melody".
|WORKING MEN, UNITE!|
By E.S. Nelson
Sung to the tune of "Red Wing"
Conditions they are bad,
|The lunch whistle blew in the summer of 1925 at the mill that Brookings built and it never blew again.|
A glorious era. Ended.
And that distinguished old gentleman with hair white as snow said, "If we can stimulate men to think through these questions of law and government and economics and social relations, we shall do more good for humanity than all the Charities." (Robert S. Brookings)
|Home||1907-1929||1930-1950||C&O Lumber||Mr Brookings||Contact Us||Links|
|Eldon Gossett - Brookings Land and Townsite Real Estate Company|
703 Chetco Ave. ~ PO Box 4610 ~ Brookings OR 97415
Ph: 1-800-342-9405 or 541-469-7755 ~ Fax:541-469-7858
|© 2001-2004 Eldon Gossett and Brookings Land and Townsite Real Estate Co. - All Rights Reserved| |
In an excellent blog on Knowledge Organisers in Primary Schools Jon Brunskill has outlined how he uses Knowledge Organisers.
Knowledge Organisers are an overview curriculum document that serves three purposes.
- As a planning tool for the teacher.
- As a resource for the child and parent.
- As an assessment tool.
A knowledge organiser is a summary document that tells teachers, students and parents exactly what students need to know by the end of the unit. Students are expected to commit the knowledge organiser to memory.
Here is the example Jon used.
I’m unsure of the need for students to commit so much detail to memory.
In the Google age, how important is it to know the significance of July 20th, 1969. Perfect for trivia nights but is it powerful to know?
What about Nov 16th, 2011.
Is the date the Apollo 11 crew were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour worthy…
View original post 881 more words |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Several speech features are stereotyped as markers of gay male identity: careful pronunciation, wide pitch range, high and rapidly changing pitch, breathy tone, lengthened fricative sounds, and pronunciation of t as ts and d as dz. Some researchers report that North American gay men tend to pronounce sibilants (s, z, sh, and the like) with assibilation -- more sibilation, hissing, or stridency. However, other demographic groups also use assibilation and many people speak with lisps.
A study by Rudolf Gaudio investigated claims that people can identify gay males by their speech and that these listeners use pitch range and fluctuation in deciding. Gaudio found that listeners could identify gay male speakers, but that there were no convincing differences in pitch. In a similar study of female speakers, Birch Moonwomon found listeners could not tell lesbian speakers from straight speakers.
Some analysts say gay people speak with an affected accent, as a way of signalling their identity and affiliation with the gay subculture, or a way to express femininity.[How to reference and link to summary or text] Still others suggest that the accent stems from marginalization.[How to reference and link to summary or text]
See also Edit
External resources Edit
- Encyclopedia article on "gay speak"
- Economist article on sounding gay
- Beyond Lisping: Code Switching and Gay Speech Styles
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).| |
Rummaging through a trunk of old clothes in the Grandparent’s Attic display, children are not just trying on clothes; they’re trying on the business of being adults. Play is learning at the Boston Children’s Museum (founded 1913), which revolutionized the American museum experience half a century ago by getting objects out of cases and into children’s hands.
PLAY IS LEARNING
In a multi-cultural city like Boston, the Museum helps provide keys to understanding diversity. Kids can explore race and identity through folk tales told by gifted storytellers. Cultural artifacts add authenticity to experiencing life in different times, places or civilizations.
MIND OVER MATTER
Kids experience the world through play. They explore, they experiment – they grow. With “play” becoming a more highly scheduled activity than ever before, places like the Boston Children’s Museum give children the opportunity to socialize, create and participate in learning through hands-on exhibit experiences.
The 1960s saw the blossoming of the concept of Early Childhood Education. From its inception, the Boston Children’s Museum incorporated the various types of play — physical play, playing with manipulatives, and playing with art – into their exhibits. With few glass cases to protect precious objects from inquisitive hands, children could touch and experience and imagine themselves in many different situations.
THE ART OF LIFE
In The Art Studio, kids get messy expressing their ideas. In the theater, costumed kids perform with ease in front of an audience, inventing scenes or even alternate plot lines for well-known stories. And in the Hall of Toys, spellbound children can peek into a world of fantasy, with dolls, dollhouses and miniatures providing a slice of alternate reality.
KEEPING IT REAL
Children’s Museums help their visitors understand the phenomena of the world. With tools and toys kids learn about animals, vegetables and minerals and their relevance to their daily experiences. What do turtles eat? How do you fix a telephone? Why are there rainbows in bubbles? |
Jacob R. Lorch and Alan Jay Smith
This paper addresses algorithms for dynamically varying (scaling) CPU speed and voltage in order to save energy. Such scaling is useful and effective when it is immaterial when a task completes, as long as it meets some deadline. We show how to modify any scaling algorithm to keep performance the same but minimize expected energy consumption. We refer to our approach as PACE (Processor Acceleration to Conserve Energy) since the resulting schedule increases speed as the task progresses. Since PACE depends on the probability distribution of the task’s work requirement, we present methods for estimating this distribution and evaluate these methods on a variety of real workloads. We also show how to approximate the optimal schedule with one that changes speed a limited number of times. Using PACE causes very little additional overhead, and yields substantial reductions in CPU energy consumption. Simulations using real workloads show it reduces the CPU energy consumption of previously published algorithms by up to 49.5%, with an average of 20.6%, without any effect on performance.
|Published in||Proceedings of the ACM SIGMETRICS 2001 Conference|
|Publisher||Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.|
Copyright © 2007 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Publications Dept, ACM Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or [email protected]. The definitive version of this paper can be found at ACM’s Digital Library --http://www.acm.org/dl/. |
When wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone park (USA) in 1995, there were massive and unexpected flow on affects. A small number of wolves completely transformed (in a positive way) the ecosystem and physical geography.
Wolves changed the behaviour of the deers which allowed the forest to regenerate
The wolves killed some of the deer but more importantly changed their behaviour. The deer started avoiding areas of the park where they could be caught easily. These areas that the deer avoided started to regenerate. In some areas the height of the trees increased five fold in just six years. Bare valley sides quickly became forests.
The forest bought back more wildlife
The trees bought in birds and beavers. Beavers are ecosystem engineers and the dams they built provided habitats for otters, musk rats, duck, fish, reptiles and amphibians.
The wolves also killed coyotes which caused the number of rabbits and mice to rise. The rabbits and mice increased the number of hawks, weasels and badgers.
The regenerating forest changed the rivers
The regenerating forest stabilised river banks, which meant there was less erosion and they collapsed less often. This caused the channels to narrow and more pools to form, which encouraged more wildlife.
Why do we make things hard for ourselves?
This story made me sit back and think about how we often make things hard for ourselves. Rather than try and understand and work sensitively with the powerful forces of nature, we try to dominate and master them. And forcing our will on a complex and dynamic system often turns out badly because of the unexpected outcomes that occur.
The food system
There is no better example of how we work against natural systems, than our approach to food:
- The Environment: The way we grow and produce food is destroying the environment and depleting the soil.
- Our biology: A lot of the food we're eating is toxic to our body because it has been grown unnaturally with chemicals and then highly processed. As a result, food is making us sluggish and sick rather than healthy and energised.
A good way to get your head around this, is to look at the history of food since the early 1900’s.
In the early 1900’s, a large percentage of the population in western countries were farmers, who lived in rural areas. There were lots of smaller, family run farms. And those who weren’t farmers, grew food in their backyard.
The shift to large scale industrial farming after world war 2
This all began to change after world war 2. There was a shift to large scale factory farming, which focused on "cheap food” rather than on the quality of food and the way it’s produced. Responsibility for growing food and feeding the family has been 'outsourced' to large scale farms, fast food restaurants and supermarkets. They can make food tastier, quicker, longer lasting and cheaper than you can at home.
It was at this point that we lost our connection with food - where it comes from and how it's produced. Because of this, brands have been able to continue to sell food using the image of 'family owned farms', while behind the scenes they have become larger and more industrialised. And as long as the food looks good on the supermarket shelf, it doesn't matter how it's grown, how nutritious it is or its impact on the environment. The focus has been on breeding and growing fruit and vegetables to last long journey's from the farm, so that they arrive in perfect shape at the supermarket. Even taste has been sacrificed and the tomato is a perfect example. You simply can't compare the taste and smell of a freshly picked tomato from your backyard, to a tomato from the supermarket.
At the core of the industrial farming approach is monoculture, which involves intensive farming of a single crop, on a very large scale. This requires:
- Synthetic fertilizers (petroleum based) - monoculture depletes soil nutrients which means more and more synthetic fertilizers are needed.
- Pesticides and herbicides - monoculture provide the perfect conditions for weeds and pests to thrive, which means large amounts of pesticides and herbicides are required.
- Heavy use of water irrigation - Industrial agriculture erodes organic matter from the soil, which means less water is absorbed and more water is needed for irrigation.
- Energy intensive transport systems - A 2005 report in the UK estimated that food miles cost 9 billion pounds a year to the UK (accounting for social and environmental impacts such as wear on the roads, ill health caused by air pollution and accidents caused by food transport). This is greater than the contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP of 6.4 billion pounds.
- Genetic modification of crops - This involves introducing specific traits (genes) into plants and animals. An example is Roundup ready Corn that has been genetically modified so that Roundup can be spayed on the corn to kill the weeds and not the corn.
- Antibiotics and synthetic vitamins - Around 130,000 tonnes of antibiotics are given to farm animals each year, which is more than the antibiotics used for humans.
This shift to industrial agriculture can be clearly seen in the graphs below:
Farm output (billions of dollars)
% of American workforce in agriculture, 1840-2000
The world consumes ten times more fertiliser than it did in the 1960s
The global market for pesticide is worth more than USD 35 billion
Along with industrial farming came processed food
Innovations developed during world war 2 made it easy to get food to the troops. After the war these innovations were introduced into the food industry.
- Processing and preservatives make food easy to transport and give it a longer shelf life.
- Additives such as artificial colours, flavours, sugar and salt make bland ingredients like wheat and potatoes taste amazing. Sometimes these additives are a real concern, like the chemical called azodicarbonamide that was added to subway sandwhich bread which is also used to make yoga mats and shoe rubber.
- Engineered to be addictive, like Doritos which make you feel like you’ve never had enough.
These days, processed food is hard to avoid.
As this chart from the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) shows, the average American now obtains more than 50% of their calories from ultra-processed foods such as soft drinks, cookies and chips.
The rise of fast food
Fast food restaurants and ‘eating out’ has also increased a huge amount since the 1900’s. This graph shows that in 2009 half the food consumed in America was either fast food or restaurant food. This is compared to 7% in 1889 and about 20% in the 1940s (before the end of world war 2).
Cheap food is an illusion
All these "innovations" have sent our food systems into a downward spiral where we are working harder and harder against nature, rather than with it. And the abundance of "cheap food” is an illusion, because it doesn’t account for the longer term impacts on our health and the environment.
Because these costs are not being factored in, food produced from industrial agriculture appears cheaper in the short term compared to more sustainable approaches. Meanwhile consumers are indirectly paying for these additional costs through taxes for health care, environmental clean up and climate change (carbon tax). And future generations will likely be paying the highest costs for the damage we're doing today to our environment.
If even some of these costs were factored into the price of food, then industrial food would get very expensive and sustainable food would look way more affordable and attractive to consumers.
Our food system makes people sick rather than healthy, causing an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Rates of obesity are skyrocketing:
From the 1970’s to 2006, obesity in the U.S more than doubled in Adults and tripled in Children and adolescents.
The world is getting fatter:
When more than 50% of people in developed countries (and rising) are overweight, you know there is a problem.
Diabetes has become an epidemic, affecting nearly 8% of the U.S. population, up from 1% in the 1960s.
Rates of cancer have spiked dramatically from the 1950s, which is about the same time that we shifted to industrial agriculture and processed food.
Industrial farming pollutes the environment, depletes the soil and tortures animals. A study by Trucost (commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) estimated that industrialised farming has a $3 trillion annual environmental cost. Of this, crop production (wheat, maize, rice and soybean) has a $1.15 trillion environmental cost due to land-use change and water pollution, which is 170% of its production value. In other words, the environmental costs of producing $100 worth of wheat is $170. So if we incorporated these costs, the cost of $100 of industrially farmed wheat would increase to $270.
This report highlights that farming depends on freely available environmental resources such as healthy soil, a stable climate and water. But industrial farming practices are damaging and depleting these resources at a rapid rate. The reality is farms are running out of soil, running out of clean water and are facing erratic climate patterns due to climate change. Soon we won't have a choice, we simply can't continue farming the way we are without severe consequences in the next 50 years.
Here are some of the statistics:
Industrial agriculture is degrading and eroding soil at a rapid rate. Monoculture (farming of a single crop in one area), intensive plowing, use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides all contribute to soil erosion.
- Soil is being lost at between 10 and 40 times the rate at which it can be naturally replenished (Generating 3cm of top soil takes 1,000 years).
- During the past 40 years, a third of the world's agricultural land (1.5 billion hectares) has been abandoned because of soil erosion.
- Currently 40% of the soil used for farming is degraded or seriously degraded. Seriously degraded soil means that 70% of the topsoil is gone.
- At the current rate of soil loss, it's estimated that the world has 60 years of topsoil left.
Up to 70 percent of freshwater globally is used for agriculture. Agriculture competes with drinking water and environmental ecosystems. These competing pressures are increasing, with water demand from agriculture estimated to increase by 19% and unpredictable changes to water availability expected due to climate change.
Agriculture is one of the worlds biggest water polluters, caused by the release / runoff of fertiliser, pesticide, organic matter and drug residues. This pollution damages aquatic ecosystems and human health. This is costing billions of dollars annually in developed countries and is expected to rise in countries such as China and India.
We are trying to dig ourselves out of a hole
When it comes to our food system, we've dug ourselves into a massive hole. And for some reason we think that the solution is to dig harder.
We continue to invest a huge amount of time and money into solutions that don't solve the root cause of the problem. Rather than change the way we farm or the way we eat, the focus is on dealing with the impacts. Agrochemical companies are busy finding more efficient ways to grow food using more chemicals. Meanwhile the medical industry is busy dealing with the impacts of this, by developing new treatments to deal with the rising cancer epidemic.
When you step back and look at the whole system, it really is crazy! In fact, huge industries have thrived off the back of problems caused by the food industry.
We have been sold on the story that society is getting fatter because we are weak and that the answer is to have more willpower and to eat less. But the reality is that we are getting fatter and fatter because of the food industry. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the nutritional advice from the government (remember the food pyramid) was completely wrong and has made things way worse rather than better. Take a look at this graph, where you can clearly see the sharp increase in obesity rates after the low fat guidelines (food pyramid) was released.
Obesity, by age: United States, 1971–1974 through 2005–2006
The food industry has skewed (and continues to skew) the Dietary Guidelines issued by the government. The food pyramid was never founded on scientific advice. Instead, it was based on what was good for big business, which has more lobbying power than all the public-interest groups combined.
I grew up the 80’s and 90’s eating wheat biscuits and corn flakes for breakfast with sugar on top and honey sandwiches for lunch. By the time I got home I was light headed and starving. Nothing a bit of milo or concentrated fruit cordial couldn’t fix. That was a typical breakfast and lunch at the time because that’s what the food pyramid was telling us to eat.
It is no surprise then that the diet industry has been thriving. Companies like Jenny Craig and weight watchers have been pumping out diet programs that don't provide any real long term solutions. They're based on counting and restricting calories rather than making any real change to the way we eat.
Even though we now know that these food guidelines are wrong, lots of people still haven't changed the way they eat. I recently overheard a work college talking about counting calories. When I told her that I don’t believe in counting calories, she looked at me in disbelief. “What do you mean you don’t believe in counting calories? Thats crazy.” I started to explain but I could see her eyes glazing over. I knew she had made up her mind so I stopped myself from going any further. Surely it’s not to hard to believe that the calories in broccoli are not the same as the calories from a mars bar. But the food pyramid and calorie counting has become so ingrained, that lots of people haven’t changed the way they think about food.
Along side the dieting boom has come the fitness industry boom. We have been sold on the notion that exercise is the key to weight loss. And if its not working, the answer is to workout even harder and longer. Because of this gyms, aerobics and active wear is now big business. People spend hours on the treadmill and in high intensity fitness classes. Triathlons and marathons have also become an institution. Meanwhile, simple solutions like walking are under rated, because there's no money in it.
While it's true that we need to get off our arse and be more active, there’s more and more evidence that too much exercise can actually be harmful.
Medical and drug industry
With so many people getting sick, the medical and drug industry has responded with mind boggling advances in treatment. Compared to 20 years ago, we now have way more chance of surviving diabetes, cancer or a heart attack.
But who pays for all this? Depending on the country, it puts pressure on the hospitals, tax payers and on the families involved. The United States spends $2.6 trillion, or about 18 percent of GDP on health care. These costs are rising faster than inflation and faster than the economy as a whole.
Messing with natural systems more than ever
Along with band-aid solutions, advances in science in technology mean we are messing with natural systems more than ever.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
One of the obvious ways we are messing with nature is through GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). GMOs involve taking the genes from one species and inserting it into another, to obtain a desired trait.
Crops to deal with weeds and insect
Some of the genetically modified plants already on the market are soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola. These GMO crops have been developed to deal with the problems caused by monoculture, which provide an environment that allows certain weed and insects to thrive. Specifically, there are two different genetic modifications that have been made to deal with these problems:
- Herbicide-tolerant crops (also known as Roundup ready crops) which allow farmers to use herbicides directly on crops to kill the weeds without killing the crops. Roundup was previously thought to be safe, however in 2015 the World Health Organisation declared that it “probably” causes cancer.
- Insecticide-producing crops - A gene from the soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is inserted into the plants DNA, so that they are toxic to certain insects.
Nutrient enriched crops
Another GMO crop that has been developed is beta carotene enriched strains of rice (Golden rice) to deal with vitamin A deficiencies in third world countries. However this it has not been successfully implemented because of yield (productivity) issues. The benefits are also still unproven because it's unknown if the beta carotene in rice is converted to Vitamin A in the body or how well the beta carotene in rice will hold up when stored for long periods.
Genetically modified salmon have been developed (and recently approved by the US for consumption) that grow extra fast - 4 to 6 times faster that normal salmon. Atlantic salmon normally only grow during summer when the water is warm. Super salmon has been injected with genes from other fish to allow it to grow all year around. There are concerns that if super salmon spread to the wild, they could alter the environment in unpredictable ways.
Run off of pig manure into the water supply is a major environmental problem, causing an overgrowth of algae which kills fish. In this situation, pig manure is really bad for the environment because it contains high levels of phosphorous (because pigs can't digest phosphorous).
To solve this problem, a gene has been created that allows pigs to digest phosphorus. This gene was created by combining DNA from e-coli bacteria with mouse DNA. This gene is then inserted into fertilised pigs eggs to create 'Enviro Pigs'.
Lab grown meat
Another solution being worked on at the moment is lab-grown meat, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of eating meat, eliminate cruelty and provide meat that's more healthy than factory farmed meat.
The aim here is to replace animal farming altogether with a lab grown alternative. Without going into the pros and cons of lab grown meat, I think this is throwing out the baby with the bath water. It's not animal farming that's the issue. It's the way we are farming animals that causes problems. Cows are being locked up in feedlots and fed a grain based diet. One of the main reasons cows are fed grain is because it's a high energy food that fattens them up quickly. But cows are herbivores which means they're designed to eat grass not grains. They are being raised in unnatural conditions and then blamed for the resulting impacts such as carbon emissions (methane), water pollution and health issues.
What if... instead of band aid solutions or messing with genetics, we stepped back and looked at the root cause of the problem.
"Our food system is completely out of sync with the natural system it relies on"
What if.... we invested all our time and money to develop solutions that work with natural systems rather than against them.
I think these solutions should focus on 4 key areas:
1. Regenerative agriculture
Agriculture that restores and maintains natural systems like soil, water and biodiversity, to produce healthy and nutritious food. Key practices of regenerative agriculture include (adapted from thecarbonunderground.org):
- No-till / minimum tillage - Tillage is the practice of turning over and loosening the soil after harvest. This eliminates soil erosion and carbon loss caused by to much soil disruption.
- Organic Compost - using compost and animal manures.
- Biodiversity - multiple crops, cover crops, intercrop plantings, planted boarders and animals. Biodiversity provides beneficial insects and restores the microbial community in soil. Biodiversity also allows farms to take advantage of natural systems, which provide free resources and labour. For example, ducks that provide organic pest control and chickens that fertilise soil between crops.
- Well managed grazing practices - which improves the soil and produces healthier meat. Grazed cattle trim the grass and reinvigorate grass growth, which helps to build topsoil and store carbon. Joel Salatin does a a great job explaining this in his TED talk.
The benefits of regenerative agriculture are:
- Carbon storage - more carbon from the atmosphere is absorbed and stored in soil (carbon sequestration).
- Reduced water use - Healthy soil with more organic matter retains more water and improves water efficiency.
- Increased resistance to pests and disease.
- No nasty chemicals - which are energy intensive, pollute the environment and make people sick.
- Healthy and nutritious food.
2. Local / Urban Farming
Local and urban farms produce seasonal food that is consumed close to where it's grown. This is an alternative to industrial farming where food typically travels long distances before it reaches the consumer. To be clear, I don't propose that all food should be grown locally. Instead I think it makes sense for a much larger portion of our food to be produced locally, especially fruit and vegetables. Some examples of local and urban farming:
- Sustainable / regenerative farms - that sell produce in their local area.
- School and community gardens - where one area of land is gardened collectively by a group of people, with individual or shared plots of land.
- Backyard gardens - producing fruit, vegetables and eggs in your own backyard.
- Direct marketing and distribution - marketing and distribution directly from farmers to consumers through farm visits, farmers markets and food boxes.
- Community Supported Agriculture - A model where consumers subscribe to the harvest of a local farm or a group of farms. Usually consumers subscribe to a harvest in advance and for a set period (e.g. a season or a year) and receive regular deliveries of produce.
The benefits of local / urban farming are:
- Less food miles.
- Healthy farms that have pretty landscapes and are interesting places for people to visit.
- Less travel means fruit and vegetables are way fresher.
- Food security, with more self-reliant and resilient food networks.
- Improved local economies.
3. Education and awareness
A key part of the shift from industrial food systems is a change in the mindset and behaviour of consumers.
- Caring about where your food comes from and how it was raised.
- Knowing the right questions to ask your local butcher (e.g. grass fed, grain fed or grain finished beef).
- Understanding seasonal produce
- Understanding what real tomatoes are supposed to taste like.
- Understanding the benefits of organic food and regenerative agriculture.
When it comes to food education, there is no substitute to getting your hands dirty by growing your own food or raising your own chickens at a community farm or in your backyard. When you start growing your own fruit and vegetables, you're forced to understand that different food is grown at different times of the year. You quickly learn how good tomatoes taste when they are grown in healthy soil and eaten the same day they are picked. And when you keep backyard chickens, you're forced to build compassion for farm animals, when you realise they are smart and emotional beings that do suffer.
4. Whole Food
Whole food is food with minimal processing and additives. This means:
- learning how to cook and taking the time to prepare more meals at home from scratch.
- Cutting out the junk food, processed snacks and ready made meals.
- Buying quality, unprocessed food when getting take away or eating out. There are more and more healthy options to choose from when eating out. And the more people that support this, the more the industry will respond.
My focus for 2018
This food manifesto has given me a really clear foundation for setting my 2018 goals and priorities. Here's what I'll be focused on:
My main focus for 2018 will continue to be backyard chickens, with an approach that focuses on working with their natural behaviours and biology. This means less work, less cost and less waste.
Sustainable / regenerative farms in my local area
To support local farming in my area, I recently joined the board of a not for profit organisation called Millen Farm, which is focused on supporting and promoting local and sustainable farming in Samford, Brisbane. In 2018 I'll be sharing more about what we're up to at Millen Farm.
Sharing the journey - Education and awareness
Looking back at 2017, I realise I've been sharing the lessons learned and the systems developed, but not the journey. And often its the journey that's the fun part, where you learn just as much from your mistakes as your successes. A focus for 2018 is to change this, by sending out a weekly update to my subscribers. Broadly this will share:
- What's working and what's not
- Books I'm reading and topics I'm interested in
- What I'm working on / whats coming up
Now, a question:
What does it mean to you - to be able to grow and cook Real Food at home?
Leave a comment - I would love to hear from you. |
The American education system offers a rich field of choices for international students. There is such an array of schools, programs and locations that the choices may overwhelm students, even those from the U.S. As you begin your school search, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the American education system. Understanding the system will help you narrow your choices and develop your education plan.
The Educational Structure
Primary and Secondary School
Prior to higher education, American students attend primary and secondary school for a combined total of 12 years. These years are referred to as the first through twelfth grades.
Around age six, U.S. children begin primary school, which is most commonly called “elementary school.” They attend five or six years and then go onto secondary school.
Secondary school consists of two programs: the first is “middle school” or “junior high school” and the second program is “high school.” A diploma or certificate is awarded upon graduation from high school. After graduating high school (12th grade), U.S. students may go on to college or university. College or university study is known as “higher education.”
Just like American students, you will have to submit your academic transcripts as part of your application for admission to university or college. Academic transcripts are official copies of your academic work. In the U.S. this includes your “grades” and “grade point average” (GPA), which are measurements of your academic achievement. Courses are commonly graded using percentages, which are converted into letter grades.
The grading system and GPA in the U.S. can be confusing, especially for international students. The interpretation of grades has a lot of variation. For example, two students who attended different schools both submit their transcripts to the same university. They both have 3.5 GPAs, but one student attended an average high school, while the other attended a prestigious school that was academically challenging. The university might interpret their GPAs differently because the two schools have dramatically different standards.
Therefore, there are some crucial things to keep in mind:
- You should find out the U.S. equivalent of the last level of education you completed in your home country.
- Pay close attention to the admission requirements of each university and college, as well as individual degree programs, which may have different requirements than the university.
- Regularly meet with an educational advisor or guidance counselor to make sure you are meeting the requirements.
Your educational advisor or guidance counselor will be able to advise you on whether or not you must spend an extra year or two preparing for U.S. university admission. If an international student entered a U.S. university or college prior to being eligible to attend university in their own country, some countries’ governments and employers may not recognize the students’ U.S. education.
The school calendar usually begins in August or September and continues through May or June. The majority of new students begin in autumn, so it is a good idea for international students to also begin their U.S. university studies at this time. There is a lot of excitement at the beginning of the school year and students form many great friendships during this time, as they are all adjusting to a new phase of academic life. Additionally, many courses are designed for students to take them in sequence, starting in autumn and continuing through the year.
The academic year at many schools is composed of two terms called “semesters.” (Some schools use a three-term calendar known as the “trimester” system.) Still, others further divide the year into the quarter system of four terms, including an optional summer session. Basically, if you exclude the summer session, the academic year is either comprised of two semesters or three quarter terms.
The U.S. Higher Education System: Levels of Study
- First Level: Undergraduate
"The American system is much more open. In Hong Kong you just learn what the teacher writes on the board. In America, you discuss the issues and focus more on ideas."
A student who is attending a college or university and has not earned a bachelor’s degree, is studying at the undergraduate level. It typically takes about four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. You can either begin your studies in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a community college or a four-year university or college.
Your first two years of study you will generally be required to take a wide variety of classes in different subjects, commonly known as prerequisite courses: literature, science, the social sciences, the arts, history, and so forth. This is so you achieve a general knowledge, a foundation, of a variety of subjects prior to focusing on a specific field of study.
Many students choose to study at a community college in order to complete the first two years of prerequisite courses. They will earn an Associate of Arts (AA) transfer degree and then transfer to a four-year university or college.
A “major” is the specific field of study in which your degree is focused. For example, if someone’s major is journalism, they will earn a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. You will be required to take a certain number of courses in this field in order to meet the degree requirements of your major. You must choose your major at the beginning of your third year of school.
A very unique characteristic of the American higher education system is that you can change your major multiple times if you choose. It is extremely common for American students to switch majors at some point in their undergraduate studies. Often, students discover a different field that they excel in or enjoy. The American education system is very flexible. Keep in mind though that switching majors may result in more courses, which means more time and money.
- Second Level: Graduate in Pursuit of a Master’s Degree
Presently, a college or university graduate with a bachelor’s degree may want to seriously think about graduate study in order to enter certain professions or advance their career. This degree is usually mandatory for higher-level positions in library science, engineering, behavioral health and education.
Furthermore, international students from some countries are only permitted to study abroad at a graduate level. You should inquire about the credentials needed to get a job in your country before you apply to a postgraduate university in the USA.
A graduate program is usually a division of a university or college. To gain admission, you will need to take the GRE (graduate record examination). Certain master’s programs require specific tests, such as the LSAT for law school, the GRE or GMAT for business school, and the MCAT for medical school.
Graduate programs in pursuit of a master’s degree typically take one to two years to complete. For example, the MBA (master of business administration) is an extremely popular degree program that takes about two years. Other master’s programs, such as journalism, only take one year.
The majority of a master’s program is spent in classroom study and a graduate student must prepare a long research paper called a “master’s thesis” or complete a “master’s project.”
- Third Level: Graduate in Pursuit of a Doctorate Degree
Many graduate schools consider the attainment of a master’s degree the first step towards earning a PhD (doctorate). But at other schools, students may prepare directly for a doctorate without also earning a master’s degree. It may take three years or more to earn a PhD degree. For international students, it may take as long as five or six years.
For the first two years of the program most doctoral candidates enroll in classes and seminars. At least another year is spent conducting firsthand research and writing a thesis or dissertation. This paper must contain views, designs, or research that have not been previously published.
A doctoral dissertation is a discussion and summary of the current scholarship on a given topic. Most U.S. universities awarding doctorates also require their candidates to have a reading knowledge of two foreign languages, to spend a required length of time “in residence,” to pass a qualifying examination that officially admits candidates to the PhD program, and to pass an oral examination on the same topic as the dissertation.
Characteristics of the U.S. Higher Education System
Classes range from large lectures with several hundred students to smaller classes and seminars (discussion classes) with only a few students. The American university classroom atmosphere is very dynamic. You will be expected to share your opinion, argue your point, participate in class discussions and give presentations. International students find this one of the most surprising aspects of the American education system.
Each week professors usually assign textbook and other readings. You will be expected to keep up-to-date with the required readings and homework so you can participate in class discussions and understand the lectures. Certain degree programs also require students to spend time in the laboratory.
Professors issue grades for each student enrolled in the course. Grades are usually based upon:
- Each professor will have a unique set of class participation requirements, but students are expected to participate in class discussions, especially in seminar classes. This is often a very important factor in determining a student’s grade.
- A midterm examination is usually given during class time.
- One or more research or term papers, or laboratory reports must be submitted for evaluation.
- Possible short exams or quizzes are given. Sometimes professors will give an unannounced “pop quiz.” This doesn’t count heavily toward the grade, but is intended to inspire students to keep up with their assignments and attendance.
- A final examination will be held after the final class meeting.
Each course is worth a certain number of credits or credit hours. This number is roughly the same as the number of hours a student spends in class for that course each week. A course is typically worth three to five credits.
A full-time program at most schools is 12 or 15 credit hours (four or five courses per term) and a certain number of credits must be fulfilled in order to graduate. International students are expected to enroll in a full-time program during each term.
If a student enrolls at a new university before finishing a degree, generally most credits earned at the first school can be used to complete a degree at the new university. This means a student can transfer to another university and still graduate within a reasonable time.
Types of U.S. higher education
1. State College or University
A state school is supported and run by a state or local government. Each of the 50 U.S. states operates at least one state university and possibly several state colleges. Many of these public universities schools have the name of the state, or the actual word “State” in their names: for example, Washington State University and the University of Michigan.
2. Private College or University
These schools are privately run as opposed to being run by a branch of the government. Tuition will usually be higher than state schools. Often, private U.S. universities and colleges are smaller in size than state schools.
Religiously affiliated universities and colleges are private schools. Nearly all these schools welcome students of all religions and beliefs. Yet, there are a percentage of schools that prefer to admit students who hold similar religious beliefs as those in which the school was founded.
3. Community College
Community colleges are two-year colleges that award an associate’s degrees (transferable), as well as certifications. There are many types of associate degrees, but the most important distinguishing factor is whether or not the degree is transferable. Usually, there will be two primary degree tracks: one for academic transfer and the other prepares students to enter the workforce straightaway. University transfer degrees are generally associate of arts or associate of science. Not likely to be transferrable are the associate of applied science degrees and certificates of completion.
Community college graduates most commonly transfer to four-year colleges or universities to complete their degree. Because they can transfer the credits they earned while attending community college, they can complete their bachelor’s degree program in two or more additional years. Many also offer ESL or intensive English language programs, which will prepare students for university-level courses.
If you do not plan to earn a higher degree than the associate’s, you should find out if an associate’s degree will qualify you for a job in your home country.
4. Institute of Technology
An institute of technology is a school that provides at least four years of study in science and technology. Some have graduate programs, while others offer short-term courses.
"One challenge was the way you register for classes and developing an academic plan. I really didn’t know what to study because I could choose many programs. I met with Angela Khoo [Academic Adviser] about the classes that I could take, and then it became a lot easier for me." |
|Finland Table of Contents
Attitudes toward marriage have changed substantially since World War II. Most obvious was the declining marriage rate, which dropped from 8.5 marriages per 1,000 Finns in 1950 to 5.8, in 1984, a decline great enough to mean a drop also in absolute numbers. In 1950 there were 34,000 marriages, while in 1984 only 28,500 were registered, despite a growth in population of 800,000. An explanation for the decline was that there was an unprecedented number of unmarried couples. Since the late 1960s, the practice of cohabitation had become increasingly common, so much so that by the late 1970s most marriages in urban areas grew out of what Finns called "open unions." In the 1980s, it was estimated that about 8 percent of couples who lived together, approximately 200,000 people, did so without benefit of marriage. Partners of such unions usually married because of the arrival of offspring or the acquisition of property. A result of the frequency of cohabitation was that marriages were postponed, and the average age for marriage, which had been falling, began to rise in the 1970s. By 1982 the average marriage age was 24.8 years for women and 26.8 years for men, several years higher for both sexes than had been true a decade earlier.
The overwhelming majority of Finns did marry, however. About 90 percent of the women had been married by the age of forty, and spinsterhood was rare. A shortage of women in rural regions, however, meant that some farmers were forced into bachelorhood.
While the number of marriages was declining, divorce became more common, increasing 250 percent between 1950 and 1980. In 1952 there were 3,500 divorces. The 1960s saw a steady increase in this rate, which averaged about 5,000 divorces a year. A high of 10,191 was reached in 1979; afterwards the divorce rate stabilized at about 9,500 per year during the first half of the 1980s.
A number of factors caused the increased frequency of divorce. One was that an increasingly secularized society viewed marriage, more often than before, as an arrangement that could be ended if it did not satisfy its partners. Another reason was that a gradually expanding welfare system could manage an ever greater portion of the family's traditional tasks, and it made couples less dependent on the institution of marriage. Government provisions for parental leave, child allowances, child care programs, and much improved health and pension plans meant that the family was no longer essential for the care of children and aged relatives. A further cause for weakened family and marital ties was seen in the unsettling effects of the Great Migration and in the economic transformation Finland experienced during the 1960s and the 1970s. The rupture of established social patterns brought uncertainty and an increased potential for conflict into personal relationships.
Source: U.S. Library of Congress |
According to at least one study, a higher intake of vitamin C by an individual was found to be directly linked to a lower incidence of gout, a type of arthritis caused by the build-up of uric acid. However, this may be countered by the various causes of gout, which can outweigh the impact of vitamin-fueled cures. Causes of gout include: genealogy; drinking too much alcohol; surgery; a diet that contains too much shellfish, sweetbreads and meat; high levels of triglycerides; and metabolic syndrome.
Making the Most of Supplementation
Taking Vitamin C is generally going to be most effective when taken in conjunction with other treatment methods against gout. Many of the most immediate ways to guard against gout, as is the case with so many other preventable diseases, involve a change in diet such as bypassing food allergies, consuming more fruits and vegetables, and staying away from refined foods. Those who are already suffering from gout may also want to reduce their intake of red meats, fish and lean meats; vegetables and nuts that contain oxalate; and magnesium-rich or low calcium consumables.
20 Year Gout Study
One of the most extensive studies made of the possible, beneficial connection between Vitamin C and gout was performed over a 20-year period, from 1986 to 2006. A group of 46,994 men detailed their habits, over a four-year period, with regards to Vitamin C and diet. The study found that those men who consumed at least 1,500 milligrams of Vitamin C per day or more had a 45% lower rate of gout. Additionally, for every 500 milligrams of daily Vitamin C intake, the study found that the risk of gout was reduced by 15%. During the study, 1,317 new cases of gout were reported. Men participating in the study who took less than 250 milligrams of Vitamin C per day were found not to perceptible change the incidence rates of gout.
University of Maryland Medical Center – Gout, Retrieved November 2, 2010 from http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/gout-000070.htm
WebMD – “Vitamin C May Help Prevent Gout”, March 9, 2009, Retrieved November 2, 2010 from http://arthritis.webmd.com/news/20090309/vitamin-c-may-help-prevent-gout
Vega, MD, FAAFP , Charles . “Vitamin C Supplementation May Help Prevent Gout.” Archives of Internal Medicine 169 (2009): 502-507. Print. |
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure): The Silent Killer
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a silent killer that can be caused by Insulin Resistance-related weight gain and obesity.
When The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute revised its blood pressure guidelines, almost 23 million American men who thought they were in the clear suddenly found themselves in a new danger zone called “Pre-Hypertensive.”
You are included in this category if your systolic blood pressure is between 120 and 139 or your diastolic blood pressure is between 80 and 89. Regard it as a wake-up call to take steps to avoid a stroke further down the road.
What exactly are systolic and diastolic blood pressures? Blood pressure is commonly measured by wrapping an inflatable cuff around the upper arm. Air is pumped into the cuff until circulation is cut of, and when a stethoscope is placed over the cuff, there is silence. Then, as the air is slowly let out of the cuff, blood begins to flow again and can be heard through the stethoscope. This is the point of greatest pressure, called systolic, and is usually expressed as how high it forces a column of mercury to rise in a tube.
At its highest normal pressure, the heart should send a column of mercury to a height of about 120 millimeters. At some point, as more and more air is let out of the cuff, the pressure exerted by the cuff is so small that the sound of the blood pulsing against the artery walls subsides and there is silence again. This is the point of lowest pressure, called diastolic, which normally raises the mercury in the column to 80 millimeters.
It is crucial to “know your numbers” with respect to normal and high blood pressure levels. Life-threatening complications to your cardiovascular system can develop over a period of years when Hypertension exists. Increased pressure on the inner walls of blood vessels make the vessels less flexible over time and more vulnerable to the build-up of fatty deposits in a process known as atherosclerosis, a key risk factor in heart disease. (See Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, and Heart Disease.)
Hypertension also forces the heart to work harder to pump adequate blood throughout the body. This extra work causes the muscles of the heart to enlarge. Eventually, the enlarged heart can become inefficient in pumping blood, a condition that can lead to heart failure, when the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.
|American Heart Association-recommended blood pressure levels|
|Blood Pressure Category||Systolic (mm Hg)||Diastolic (mm Hg)|
|Normal||less than 120||and||less than 80|
|Stage 2||160 or higher||or||100 or higher|
|Source: American Heart Association – www.americaheart.org|
High blood pressure is common. However, only about half of the individuals with high blood pressure know they have it because of its silent build-up. Blood pressure is controlled in just 1 out of every 8 people who have the condition.
The importance of knowing if you have hypertension is that it is a powerful risk factor for some very serious diseases such as angina, heart attack, stroke, atherosclerosis, kidney failure, and circulatory problems in the legs, as well as erectile dysfunction.
In 95 percent of cases, there is no specific cause for high blood pressure. A diagnosis of the condition is more common in African Americans than in whites, and becomes more likely with advancing age. People who are obese or Diabetic are more likely to have, or to develop, the disorder.
While high blood pressure can occur in slender, active people, it is much more common in the obese. An important step in avoiding high blood pressure is maintaining an ideal body weight by eating appropriately, including low cholesterol food, and getting sufficient regular exercise.
For many people, slender or obese, high blood pressure is a fact of life. What then should you do? The first step is have your blood pressure checked regularly, so that the diagnosis of hypertension is made early. Adults should have their blood pressure checked at least once every year.
Once the diagnosis is made, you should reduce the amount of salt and fat in your diet. If you are overweight, losing 10 percent of your body weight can make a significant difference. The majority of individuals who have high blood pressure, however, will need medication.
These medications are proven to save lives, reducing the rate of heart attack, stroke, and the other serious complications of high blood pressure. Generally, these medications are safe, with few serious side effects. Most can be taken just once a day.
Don’t be surprised if, after treating your high blood pressure for a few months, your doctor says that you need a second or third medication. Most people with controlled high blood pressure (consistently under 140/90 mm Hg) require two or three or four different medications, working together, to control their condition.
By following your doctor’s recommendations about medication, you give yourself the best possible chance of avoiding the complications of high blood pressure.
Click here to read about the Insulite MetaX System that can help to reverse
the symptoms of Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome
Combating Heart Disease
Nearly all of us are born with immaculate arteries. But as soon as we learn how to feed ourselves, our arteries begin to go from clean to clogged. Taking better care of our cardiovascular system by watching our weight via a balanced diet and regular exercise goes a long way toward countering this effect. Adopting a healthier lifestyle will add years to your life as well as improving its quality.
If you pass this information on to your children, they, too, can take steps to avoid premature heart disease.
It isn’t just adult men who are especially prone to heart disease. Even pre-menopausal women, who were long considered resistant to “heart trouble,” should learn to reduce the risk factors that can cause damage to their cardiovascular system later in life.
When it comes to heart disease, there are factors that you can’t influence, like genetic vulnerability-we can’t choose our ancestors or alter our genes-and the aging process. But there are plenty of other areas where the effectiveness of taking preventive action is well documented by facts and figures.
Stopping smoking is a prime example. More than 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related diseases according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette smokers are four times more likely to have heart attacks and develop cardiovascular diseases than non-smokers. Men have a slightly higher risk than women. On average, lifetime smokers have a 50 percent chance of dying from a smoking-related disease. But quitting can quickly begin to nullify the risks-it’s never too late to stop. One year after quitting, your risk of heart disease drops by 50 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Within 15 years a former smoker’s risk of dying from heart disease approaches that of a lifetime non-smoker.
Lowering your LDL “bad” cholesterol has enormous benefits. Doctors and nutritionists have a wealth of information about low-cholesterol diets. Almost everyone who has a heart attack or undergoes bypass surgery is now given a statin, a type of cholesterol-lowering agent, regardless of his or her cholesterol level. The statin drugs that reduce cholesterol also reduce the level of C-Reactive Protein, a marker for inflammation of the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Switching to low-cholesterol food is highly advisable.
Controlling Your Blood Pressure and getting it to normal levels greatly reduces the risk of both stroke and heart attack by slowing down the formation of arterial plaque that narrows the blood vessels everywhere in the body-especially in the heart, brain, kidneys, eyes, and legs.
Managing Your Blood Sugar is vital to avoiding Pre-Diabetes, which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. (See Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, and Heart Disease.) Although Type 2 Diabetes can be managed over a long life, almost 80 percent of Diabetics eventually die from some form of heart or blood vessel disease.
The Insulite PCOS System is not intended to be medical treatment, nor is information on this website intended to be a substitute for the advice or care of a health-care practitioner. The Insulite PCOS System is a combination of nutritional supplementation and lifestyle programs intended to help individuals better manage their health and wellbeing. Consult a health-care practitioner before beginning the Insulite PCOS System. Because of ongoing research, clinical experience, and the rapid accumulation of information relating to the subject matter discussed on this website, the website’s users are advised to carefully review and evaluate the information on this website and continue to expand and broaden their knowledge of new information as it becomes available on this website and elsewhere. The use or application of the information contained on this website is at the sole discretion and risk of the user.
Since June 2008, Insulite Laboratories and Insulite Health has supported more than 2.4 million women through the Insulite PCOS System, through this website, through emails providing information and support, through consultations with our Consulting & Advisory Team, through telephone conference calls, through online webinars, through published articles, and most recently, through social media community building and support efforts. Insulite Laboratories and Insulite Health are singularly dedicated to improving the lives of women with PCOS and conditions resulting from Insulin Resistance. |
with Muriel Mauriac, Curator of Lascaux Cave
The accidental discovery of Lascaux cave by four teenagers in September 12, 1940, forever changed the perception of modern man about our prehistoric ancestors. This discovery, immediately considered as a major event, offered the world an unexplored cave, rich in beautiful imagery. The international scientific community and the general public flocked to see it. This rapidly destabilized its fragile natural environment.
From crisis to solutions, Lascaux has become a laboratory for the conservation of decorated caves. The story of its preservation will greatly improve our knowledge of these complex environments. |
Objectives and main actions
The ConnectedFactories project establishes a structured overview of available and upcoming technological approaches and best practices with regard to the digitalisation of manufacturing. The project identifies present and future needs, as well as challenges, of the manufacturing industries.
The project explores pathways to the digital integration and interoperability of manufacturing systems and processes and the benefits this will bring.
The ConnectedFactories 1 project has produced the baseline versions of three pathways to the digitalisation of manufacturing:
- 'Autonomous Smart Factories'
- 'Hyperconnected Factories'
- 'Collaborative Product-Service Factories’
ConnectedFactories 1 created insights into important cross-cutting factors and key enablers
ConnectedFactories 1 associated projects and project results and demonstrators to the pathways and the cross-cutting factors.
Download this brochure and share it with others:
The ConnectedFactories 2 project (started on 1 December 2019) focuses on:
- Creating a common understanding of key enablers and cross-cutting factors for the development and deployment of digital technologies and digital platforms for manufacturing
- Deepening pathways by taking into account legacy systems, industrial requirements and challenges
- Situating inspiring research and industrial state-of-the-art cases, key enablers and cross-cutting factors along these pathways
- Matching of skills transfer offering with skills demand across Europe
- Engaging with the research and industrial actors in both European and local fora or ecosystems, bringing together manufacturing companies, technology and component suppliers, etc.
- Creating a broad awareness about the pathways, key enablers and cross-cutting factors, and about inspiring cases for SMEs
- Stimulating visibility and impact of Digital Platform projects (see also https://www.connectedfactories.eu/origin-project-outreach-and-impact) |
It’s harvest time! The time to enjoy the fruits of your labor are finally at hand. Here are some ideas to enjoy your food-producing plants today, and to maximize their productivity in the future.
On your peach, pear, and apple trees, be sure to remove all developing fruitlets for the first three years. This helps ensure the tree sends resources to its roots. Expect a small harvest in year 4 with full production by year 5 or 6.
You may want to plan ahead for your harvest. Some options are:
- Can, dehydrate, juice, make wine, or freeze
- Build a root cellar for storing apples and pears
- Give some fruit to neighbors, friends or co-workers
- Take extra fruit to your local food pantry or visit Ample Harvest to find a pantry near you that accepts donations of fresh produce
- Contact Healthy Food for All to find volunteers who will pick your trees for you and donate the harvest to food pantries
- Register your trees/shrubs on Falling Fruit so that anyone is invited to pick
- Plant edibles in the front yard and join the Food Is Free project
- Contact Amy Stoddard at [email protected], and she will pick up your extra fresh or frozen fruit and give you homemade chutney in return! Pre-picked preferred. Organic fruit only please. |
This is a practical handbook, written in a non-academic, teacher-friendly style, to show teachers how they can engage in research for their own continuing professional development and for the benefit of their students.
The handbook takes teachers through the steps of exploratory action research, an approach to teacher-research for professional development created originally in the context of the British Council Champion Teachers programme for secondary school teachers in Chile and, since then, adopted also in teacher-research schemes in India, Nepal and Peru.
Based on examples from actual experience, including cases from the companion publication Champion Teachers: Stories of Exploratory Action Research (British Council, 2016), the book is unique in the literature on teacher-research in English language teaching (ELT) in being particularly targeted at school teachers working in relatively difficult circumstances.
About the authors
Richard Smith (Reader in ELT & Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, UK) has expertise in the fields of language teaching history; learner and teacher autonomy; teacher-research; ELT research capacity-building; and teaching in difficult circumstances. He has published widely and given invited talks, seminars and workshops in many countries.
Paula Rebolledo has taught at primary, secondary, undergraduate and postgraduate education and on in-service teacher training programmes. Her areas of interest include teaching young learners, teacher education, professional development and teacher-research. She has given talks and workshops in Latin America, Europe and Asia in these areas. She is the co-founder of RICELT (the Network of Chilean researchers in ELT).
This publication is free to download in pdf format below. |
3 edition of Crime, its amount, causes, and remedies found in the catalog.
Crime, its amount, causes, and remedies
|Series||Crime and punishment in England, 1850-1922 ;, 5|
|LC Classifications||HV6943 .H55 1984|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||xvi, 443 p. ;|
|Number of Pages||443|
|LC Control Number||83049230|
A. Biological Causes 1. “Ocular Ailments: It leads to irritability causing emotional instability and discomfort among children. Moreover, this may prevent them from acquiring sufficient knowledge hampering them from leading a normal life. 14 K. Kusum, 'Juvenile Delinquency- A Socio-legal Study'() Published by KLM Book House, New Delhi, p File Size: KB. In this book, Darrow expands on his lifelong contention that psychological, physical, and environmental influences—not a conscious choice between right and wrong—control human behavior. To my ears (the reader's), the author has a rather simplistic behaviourist view of human behaviour, but he argues his position with wonderful clarity.
Classics of Medicine Library Crime Its Causes & Remedies by Cesare Lombroso $ Free shipping. Crime: Its causes and remedies by Lombroso The Easton Press. $ for locating the book. Free Domestic Economy. Shipping! Paypal Accepted. Check out my other items! Be sure to add me to your favorites list!Seller Rating: % positive. Crime and Criminality Chapter CRIME AND CRIMINALITY It is criminal to steal a purse, It is daring to steal a fortune. It is a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases. Johann Schiller () Wesowanactandreapahabit: We sow a habit and reap a character: We sow a character and reap a destiny.
7 Most Common Facebook Crimes May 3, However, the actual act of cyberstalking is a common crime on the social networking site and can result in a serious offense. Cyberstalking typically involves harassing a person with messages, written threats, and other persistent online behavior that endangers a person’s safety. With the large. Crime: Its Cause and Treatment by Clarence Darrow Part 2 out of 4. causes, still the indirect effect of property is generally present in Every new crusade against crime not only sweeps away a large amount of work that has been slowly and patiently done toward a right.
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Genre/Form: History: Additional Physical Format: Online version: Hill, Frederic, Crime, its amount, causes, and remedies. New York: Garland Pub., 3. Crime, Its Causes and Remedies. By CESARE LOMBROSO, late Professor of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine in the University of Turin, author of the " Criminal Man," etc., Founder and Editor of the " Archives of Psychiatry and Penal Causes.
Get this from a library. Crime: its amount, causes, and remedies. [Frederic Hill]. Crime, Its Causes and Remedies Volume 3 of Modern criminal science series The modern criminal science series, Crime. under the auspices of its amount American institute of criminal law and criminology: Author: Cesare Lombroso: Translated by: Henry Pomeroy Horton: Publisher: Little, Brown, Original from: the University of California: Digitized.
Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb. Translation of Le crime, causes at remèdes "Bibliography of the writings of Pages: Crime book. Read 10 reviews from the world's largest community for readers.
always held my interest and inspired a taste for books that discuss the human machine with its manifestations and the causes of its varied activity.” — 0 likes “XXXVI REMEDIES Students of crime and punishment have never differed causes in their conclusions /5.
Crime; Its Causes and Remedies. out of 5 stars 1 customer review. See all 53 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions. Price New from Used from Kindle Crime retry" $ — — Hardcover "Please retry" $ $ $ Paperback "Please retry" $ $ — 5/5(1).
Internet Archive BookReader Crime, its causes and remedies. Crime: Its Causes and Remedies by Cesare Lombroso (English) Paperback Book Free. $ Free shipping. Crime: Its Causes and Remedies by Cesare Lombroso: New. $ So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published.
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Crime, Its Causes and Remedies is a work of criminology by author and Professor of Criminal Anthropology, Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso was a professor at the Italian University of Turin, and thus all of his works were written in Italian. This book, translated by Henry P.
Horton, was not released in English until after Lombroso's by: Crime, Its Causes and Remedies. Cesare Lombroso. Preview this book according alcohol Archivio Artena assaults asylums atavism atavistic Austria average become born criminal brigands Calabria Camorra causes of crime cellular prison characteristics cities civilization classes collaborazione committed convicts Corsica crim crimes against.
CRIME AND ITS CAUSES. CHAPTER I. THE STATISTICS OF CRIME. It is only within the present century, and in some countries it is only within the present generation, that the possibility has arisen of conducting the study of criminal problems on anything approaching an exact and scientific basis.
book on "Crime, Its Causes and Remedies" is but the third volume of his larger work on "Criminal Man." A striking charact& stic of this volume is the emphasis which it places u!on--thfe geographical and social causes of crime, factors which some-of Lombroso's critics,s heCited by: Moreover, these influences are the most regular of all the causes of crime in their action and can be foreseen and provided for to a certain extent.
Probably they also are the group of causes accounting for the smallest amount of crime. Social Causes of Crime. Crime, Its Cause and Treatment by Clarence S. Darrow and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at Causes Crime - AbeBooks Passion for.
Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by Project by: 8. THE XYY SUPERMALE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE I. INTRODUCTION In Cesare Lombroso, an Italian criminologist, published his book Crime: Its Causes and Remedies 1 in which he associated the "crim-inal type" with certain physical characteristics.
According to Lombroso. Crime, its causes and remedies - and over 8 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more. Business, Finance & Law › Law Share. £ FREE Delivery. Usually dispatched within 6 days.
Available as a Kindle eBook. Kindle eBooks can Author: Cesare Lombroso. The Causes of Violence and the Effects of Violence On Community and Individual Health Stephen C.
Morris M.D. Yale Section of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine September, Prepared as part of an education project of the Global Health Education Consortium and collaborating partners. Crime: Its Cause and Treatment by Clarence Darrow Part 3 out of 4. amount of heresy permitted change from time to time.
Each age is sure Enumerating some of the many causes of crime ought to be an unnecessary task. To give the number of ways men die or are killed by accident.The aftereffects of different kinds of domestic violence and the possible remedies have been highlighted. Finally, a conclusion has been drawn after the complete analysis of the topic with the juxtaposition of facts and figures at hand.
Different Forms of Domestic Violence in India and their Causes. Domestic Violence Against Women.The causes of crime seem to be indefinite and ever changing. In the 19th century; slum poverty was blamed, in the 20th century, a childhood without love was blamed (Adams ).
In the era going into the new millennium, most experts and theorists have given up all hope in trying to pinpoint one single aspect that causes experts believe some people are natural born criminals who. |
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815—July 28, 1852), a nurseryman, landscape designer, and author, helped steer American popular taste in landscape and garden design toward more natural, picturesque modes in the middle of the 19th century [Fig. 1]. In addition to “rural design,” he promoted the professionalization of landscape design and reached a growing middle-class audience through his influential books and periodicals. Concerned about the effects of overcrowded, industrialized cities, Downing advocated for the development of suburbs as well as the creation of public parks. At the time of his death at age thirty-six, he was at work on ambitious plans for Public Grounds in Washington, DC, on the present site of the National Mall.
Andrew Jackson Downing, a leading nurseryman, landscape designer, and author in the mid-19th-century United States, was born in 1815 in Newburgh, New York—where he spent his entire life and career—to nurseryman Samuel Downing (d. 1822) and his wife, Eunice Bridge Downing (d. 1838). A. J. Downing showed an early interest in horticulture, joining the family nursery business in 1831 while still a teenager. He took over his brother Charles’s share of the business soon after their mother’s death in 1838 and named the establishment Botanic Garden and Nurseries (also known as Highland Gardens or Highland Nurseries) [Fig. 2]. Downing soon began to market himself primarily as a landscape designer, advertising “Professional Landscape Gardening” services in the 1842 volume of C. M. Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture [Fig. 3]. Throughout this period, he also published extensively on horticulture, landscape design, and architecture. Downing sold Botanic Garden and Nurseries in 1846, as landscape design and writing activities started to occupy more of his attention.
Between 1841 and 1850, Downing published four books that had a significant and enduring impact on the fields of landscape design, horticulture, and architecture in the United States. A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America—Downing’s first book and the first treatise on landscape gardening published in the United States—lays out “leading principles” and “practicable methods” by which land owners could embellish their rural residences. For Downing, such embellishments were of great civil and social import; he claimed that home improvements could “increase local attachments . . . strengthening [the proprietor’s] patriotism and making him a better citizen.” In the preface, Downing also acknowledged that he drew heavily on European—especially British—authors when developing his principles of landscape design, adapting their recommendations to suit “this country [the United States] and the peculiar wants of its inhabitants” (view text).
Although he did not view English landscapes in person until the end of his life, when he traveled abroad for the first and only time in 1850, British landscape theories of the picturesque played a significant role in the formulation of Downing’s landscape design principles. These writings include especially those of Edmund Burke (1729—1797), Sir Uvedale Price (1747—1829), Humphry Repton (1752—1818), John Claudius Loudon (1783—1843), and John Ruskin (1819—1900). By the time Downing published the second edition of his Treatise in 1844, he was arguing more forcefully for the “great advantage” of the picturesque, writing in a passage not included in the first edition, “The raw materials of wood, water, and surface, by the margin of many of our rivers and brooks, are at once appropriated with so much effect, and so little art, in the picturesque mode; the annual tax on the purse too, is so comparatively little, and the charm so great!” (view text). Downing thus became a champion of landscapes in the natural style during the middle of the 19th century, helping to steer American popular taste away from the more geometric modes that dominated throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. According to David Schuyler, “Downing interpreted this progression from classic to romantic not simply as a change in stylistic preference but as a reflection of the nation’s evolution from a pioneer condition to a more advanced state of civilization.”
Between the publication of the first two editions of the Treatise, Downing altered his recommendations on the use of native versus exotic plants. In 1841, while he still made his living primarily as a nurseryman, Downing warned estate owners not to replicate the woodlands of the surrounding Hudson Valley countryside and instead advocated the use of non-local North American and Eurasian species (view text). Philip J. Pauly has argued that financial decisions may have informed Downing’s advice, noting that gardeners who used exclusively local plants “would generate little business for nurserymen like Downing.” By 1844, when Downing was better known as an author and designer than as a nurseryman, he embraced the use of local landscape features—especially “the raw materials of wood, water, and surface”—in picturesque landscape design. According to Pauly, this shift may have been rooted in nativist attitudes as well as design considerations. Likely concerned about increased professional competition with the rise of immigration during this period, Downing added a “Note on Professional Quackery” to the appendix of the 1844 edition of his Treatise, in which he singled out “a foreign soi-disant landscape gardener” who, in Downing’s view, had “completely spoiled the simply grand beauty of a fine river residence” by “only follow[ing] a mode sufficiently common and appropriate in a level inland country, like that of Germany. . . but entirely out of keeping” with the character of local landscape (view text).
While preparing the manuscript for the first edition of his Treatise in 1838, Downing enlisted the help of the New York City architect Alexander Jackson Davis (1803—1892) to illustrate the text—a collaboration that would continue throughout the remainder of Downing’s career [Fig. 4]. Downing, who, Robert Twombly argues, was “not a polished draftsman,” provided Davis with sketches that Davis “put into proper form for engraving and publication.” Because of advances in printing technologies, Downing was able to integrate images into his texts easily and inexpensively, making his well-illustrated publications affordable to a growing middle-class audience. He illustrated diverse examples of architectural and landscape designs in the Treatise, ranging from residences of various sizes to small garden embellishments and ideal arrangements of plants and trees [Figs. 5—8]. Caren Yglesias has argued that “The images satisfied his audience’s visual appetite and allowed readers to imagine their own tasteful homes and gardens,” using the accompanying texts as a guide. Downing’s Treatise was immediately popular after its publication; he published at least two additional editions of the text during his lifetime (in 1844 and 1849), and the Treatise remained in print until the publication of its tenth edition in 1921.
In 1842 Downing and Davis collaborated on a second book, Cottage Residences, which proposed integrated designs for modest dwellings and gardens that targeted cost-conscious, middle-class consumers (view text). Downing’s third book, The Fruit and Fruit Trees of America, published in 1845, drew on his experience as a nurseryman and offered practical advice on planting orchards. Downing’s fourth and final book, The Architecture of Country Houses, published in 1850, again provided practical advice for homeowners and proposed designs for freestanding houses. In the preface, Downing argued for the “moral influence” and social benefits of having “good houses.” He wrote, “when smiling lawns and tasteful cottages begin to embellish the country, we know that order and culture are established. . . . the interest manifested in the Rural Architecture of a country like this, has much to do with the progress of its civilization” (view text). Unlike Downing’s previous architectural tome, The Architecture of County Houses provided no specific advice on landscape gardening.
Downing also published numerous articles in horticultural periodicals throughout his career. In 1832, at age sixteen, he contributed his first essay to a regional horticultural magazine (view text). In July 1846, following the successful release of his first three books, he became the founding editor of a new monthly journal started by Luther Tucker (1802—1873) in Albany, New York, Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, a position that he held for six years. Downing published seventy-four monthly editorials covering a wide range of topics in the Horticulturist and, as with his books, worked with Davis to illustrate his articles. Downing devoted much of his writing to the topics of rural improvement and land management. His advocacy for such issues extended beyond his role as editor, however. As a champion for public agricultural education, Downing helped develop a plan for a state agricultural college in New York between 1849 and 1852 that, much to his disappointment, was never realized. He had long argued for the importance of institutions of public learning, claiming that they were essential for the development of American society and republican virtues. To this end, throughout the late 1830s and early 1840s, Downing helped establish the Newburgh Library Association (1835), the Newburgh Lyceum (1837), and the Horticultural Association of the Valley of the Hudson (1838).
In addition to advocating for rural improvements, Downing also addressed the importance of urban and suburban public parks and gardens, arguing that such spaces would aid in the cultivation of moral and civic virtues in the American public. Such notions gained currency throughout the 1840s and 1850s, a period in which public gardens were increasingly conceived to serve both recreational and edifying functions. Downing was a significant proponent of this view. In his October 1848 Horticulturist editorial entitled “A Talk about Public Parks and Gardens,” for example, Downing wrote that public parks would play an important role “in elevating the national character.” He urged his readers: “Let our people see for themselves the influence for good which [the founding of a public park] would effect, no less than the healthful enjoyment it will afford, and I feel confident that the taste for public pleasure-grounds, in the United States, will spread as rapidly as that for cemeteries has done” (view text). As editor, Downing also published the writing of other important advocates for public parks, including an early essay by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822—1903) entitled “The People’s Park at Birkenhead, Near Liverpool.”
Downing gained a wide audience through his books and editorials in the Horticulturist, but his influence exceeded the readership of such publications as agricultural journals and later generations of pattern-book authors modified, adapted, and widely disseminated Downing’s ideas. Much as Downing had imitated and altered English architectural and landscape practices to suit an American audience, according to Schuyler, “[t]he publication of his designs was followed by a process of imitation and modification, an American analogue to the adaptation of English forms he had practiced.” Gardens and buildings that were not designed by Downing but nonetheless owed their forms to Downing’s ideas proliferated throughout the United States during the middle of the 19th century.
Few of Downing’s design projects are extant. His first major architectural and landscape design project was Highland Garden (also known as Highland Place), Downing’s own Tudor-style house in Newburgh that he designed in 1838, around the time of his marriage to Caroline Elizabeth De Windt (1815—1905). Although “the Newburgh villa was. . . an accomplished work,” Adam W. Sweeting argues that Downing, only twenty-four years old and with no formal architectural training, most likely “relied on an English pattern book when designing his house.” Initially, Downing’s nursery business took up much of the property near the residence, limiting the scope of his landscape design. However, after selling the nursery in 1846, he developed the landscape surrounding his home to resemble a picturesque English estate [Fig. 9]. Although he was not a trained architect, as his national reputation grew, Downing received requests to design private and public buildings. According to Schuyler, between 1846 and 1850, Downing usually passed these commissions on to Davis. However, there are at least three projects from this period on which Downing and Davis worked together on the architectural design: Angier Cottage in Medford, Massachusetts; the design for the proposed New York State Agricultural College; and the plans for the entrance gate and chapel for the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York. While traveling in London in 1850, Downing met the young English architect Calvert Vaux (1825—1895) and convinced Vaux to move to Newburgh so that he could pursue additional architectural projects with Vaux’s assistance. From September 1850 until July 1852, Vaux worked with Downing—initially in Downing’s employ before the two formed a professional partnership, “Downing & Vaux, Architects.” Of their many collaborations, Springside, Matthew Vassar’s (1792—1868) one-hundred-acre estate in Poughkeepsie, New York, is one of the few that survives largely intact [Fig. 10].
Downing and Vaux’s most significant project was the 1850—52 plans for a Public Grounds in Washington, DC, located in the area that now constitutes the National Mall. At the behest of Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry (1797—1878), financier William Wilson Corcoran (1798—1888), Mayor Walter Lenox (1817—1874), and Commissioner of Public Buildings Ignatius Mudd (d. 1851), President Millard Fillmore (1800—1874) invited Downing to create a public park of approximately 150-acres, extending east-west between the foot of the United States Capitol Grounds and the Potomac River (then near the Washington Monument) and north-south between the river and the White House. Therese O’Malley has argued that improvements to Washington’s public spaces during these years should be understood as an effort “to counteract the reputation of an unimproved capital and a center of slavery.” Following the abolition of the slave trade (although not slavery itself) in the city in 1850 and the removal of slave pens across from the Smithsonian Institution’s new building, Downing’s plans to redevelop the site bolstered the federal government’s attempts to present “the appearance of democracy” and “strengthen physical symbols of the national image” through the development of the city’s public spaces.
Downing’s plan divided the Public Grounds into six sections [Fig. 11]. The U.S. Capitol Grounds would connect to the national Botanic Garden, located on the site of the former Columbian Institute, and then, continuing westward, to “Fountain Park,” the “Smithsonian Pleasure Grounds,” “Evergreen Garden,” and “Monument Park” (the area surrounding the Washington Monument). A suspension bridge [Fig. 12] would cross the Tiber Canal, connecting the “Monument Park” to the circular lawn of the “Parade or President’s Park” and then the “President’s Grounds” located adjacent to the White House. Downing proposed a marble triumphal “President’s Arch” [Fig. 13], located at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue near the “President’s Grounds,” to mark the main entrance to the Public Grounds from the city. With the exception of the “Evergreen Garden” and the “Parade or President’s Park,” Downing intended for the Public Grounds to be landscaped in what he called the natural style, with curving walks and picturesque arrangement of trees and artificial lakes [Fig. 14]. In accordance with his views on the functions of public parks noted above, Downing’s goals for the redevelopment of the National Mall were, in part, pedagogical. He wrote that he hoped the Public Grounds would “become a Public School of Instruction in every thing [sic] that relates to the growth and culture of trees” (view text).
President Fillmore approved the western portion of Downing’s plan in April 1851, and the clearing, draining, and grading of the area around the Smithsonian began almost immediately. However, Downing’s life and career were tragically cut short when, on July 28, 1852, the steamship Henry Clay, on which Downing was traveling between Newburgh and New York City, caught fire and he drowned. In his memory, the so-called Downing Urn was sponsored by the American Pomological Society, designed by Vaux, and sculpted in marble by Robert E. Launitz (1806—1870). Erected in 1856, it was the first monument to be completed on the National Mall.
Through his writing and landscape projects, Downing left a legacy that continued to shape landscape design—and especially the urban park movement—in the United States long after his death. As designers of New York City’s Central Park, Vaux and Olmsted acknowledged that Downing’s design principles inspired their 1857—58 plan for the urban park. In 1889 Vaux and Olmsted joined forces again to plan the Andrew Jackson Downing Memorial Park, which was dedicated in Newburgh, New York, to the memory of their friend and collaborator.
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, September 1832, “Rural Embellishments” (2012: 144)
- “In this age of improvement, perhaps nothing is advancing more rapidly, though to many imperceptibly, than the science of Horticulture. Our native forests are fast disappearing, the luscious apple and the melting peach now occupy the places once tenanted by worthless crabs and thorns, and the floral and pomonal treasures of the four continents bloom and flourish in many a spot which had long been overshadowed by ancient oak and elm.
- “The eye of an observing person is constantly reminding him of the rapid increase of costly and beautiful mansions, the abode of the wealthy farmer or the retreat of the retired citizen; and a few remarks on the rural embellishment of these are my principle reason for troubling you with this communication. That branch of horticulture called landscape gardening is, as yet, completely in its infancy among us; in fact, many—far too many—of our landed proprietors who are actively engaged in giving a character as to the appearance of their estates have but a feeble knowledge of the existence, much less the practice, of such an art.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, January 1837, “Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States” (Magazine of Horticulture 3: 8)
- “The branch of the art least understood and least practised in the United States is landscape gardening. The modern or picturesque style of laying out grounds is most generally attempted of late, and, we regret to see, in some cases where the geometric would be more in character with the country and the situations. The finest single example of landscape gardening, in the modern style, is at Dr. Hosack’s seat, Hyde Park, and the best specimens of the ancient or geometric style may probably be met with in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.”
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1841, Preface to A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; . . . (1841: ii—iii)
- “While we have treatises in abundance on the various departments of the arts and sciences, there has not appeared even a single essay on the elegant art of Landscape Gardening. Hundreds of individuals who wish to ornament their grounds and embellish their places, are at a loss how to proceed, from the want of some leading principles, with the knowledge of which they would find it comparatively easy to produce delightful and satisfactory results.
- “In the following pages I have attempted to trace out such principles, and to suggest practicable methods of embellishing our Rural Residences, on a scale commensurate to the views and means of our proprietors. While I have availed myself of the works of European authors, and especially those of Britain, where Landscape Gardening was first raised to the rank of a fine art, I have also endeavoured to adapt my suggestions especially to this country and to the peculiar wants of its inhabitants. . .
- “The love of country is inseparably connected with the love of home. Whatever, therefore, leads man to assemble the comforts and elegancies of life around his habitation, tends to increase local attachments, and render domestic life more delightful; thus not only augmenting his own enjoyment, but strengthening his patriotism and making him a better citizen. And there is no employment or recreation which affords the mind greater or more permanent satisfaction, than that of cultivating the earth and adorning our property.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1841, Excerpt from A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; . . . (1841: 34—35)
- “A fac-simile imitation of nature in gardening, that is, a scene like wild nature, in which only wild trees, shrubs, and plants, are employed, and which is precisely like wild nature, produces pleasure only as it deceives us, and appears to be nature itself. An artistical imitation, affords pleasure to the mind, not only by the expressions of natural beauty which we discover in it, but by the more novel and choicer forms in which they are displayed, and by the tasteful art apparent in the arrangement. The relative merit of the two may be illustrated, by comparing the first, to the counterfeit of the human figure in wax, which at a short distance may be thought to be real, and the last, to the painted landscape or the marble statue. The two latter are no less imitations of nature, than the former, but they are expressive and elegant imitations only, which are never to be mistaken for the originals, as in the case of the wax figure.
- “One of the chief elements of artistical imitation in Landscape Gardening, being a difference in the materials employed in the imitation of nature from those in nature herself, nothing can be more apparent, than the necessity of introducing largely, exotic ornamental trees, shrubs and plants, instead of those of indigenous growth. Thus, to take the simplest example, if we suppose a lawn of an acre, arranged with groups of trees, the groups composed of lindens, horse-chestnuts and magnolias, where the native forests are only filled with oak and ash trees, the variety of the foliage and blossoms alone, will at once suggest the recognition of art. Borders of rare flowers, and climbing plants,—gravel walks, in the place of common paths or roads,—smooth turf, instead of wild meadow,—elegant vases and architectural ornaments, with many other accessories, bespeaking the presence of tasteful and enlightened mind; all these are the essential characteristics of Landscape Gardening, considered as an art of imitation.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1842, Preface to Cottage Residences (1842: ii—iv)
- “. . . I wish to inspire all persons with a love of beautiful forms and a desire to assemble them around their daily walks of life. I wish them to appreciate how superior is the charm of that home where we discover the tasteful cottage or villa, and the well designed and neatly kept garden or grounds, full of beauty and harmony, not the less beautiful and harmonious because simple and limited, and to become aware that these superior forms, and the higher and more refined enjoyment derived from them, may be had at the same cost and with the same labor as a clumsy dwelling, and its uncouth and ill designed accessories. . .
- “The relation between a country house and its ‘surroundings,’ have led me to consider, under the term Residences, both the architectural and the gardening designs. To constitute an agreeable whole, these should indeed have a harmonious correspondence one with the other; and although most of the following designs have not actually be carried into execution, yet it is believed that they will, either entirely or in part, be found adapted to many cases of every day occurrence, or at least, furnish hints for variations suitable for peculiar circumstances and situations.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1844, Excerpt from A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; . . . (1844: 59—60)
- “Within the last five years, we think the picturesque is beginning to be preferred. It has, when a suitable locality offers, great advantage for us. The raw materials of wood, water, and surface, by the margin of many of our rivers and brooks, are at once appropriated with so much effect, and so little art, in the picturesque mode; the annual tax on the purse too, is so comparatively little, and the charm so great!
- “On the other hand, the residences of a country of level plains, usually allow only, the beauty of simple, and graceful forms; and the larger desmesne, with its swelling hills and noble masses of wood, (may we not, prospectively, say the prairie too,) should always, in the hands of the man of wealth, be made to display all the freeness and beauty of the Graceful school.
- “But there are many persons with small, cottage places, of little decided character, who have neither room, time, nor income, to attempt the improvement of their grounds fully, after either of those two schools. How shall they render their places tasteful and agreeable, in the easiest manner? We answer, by attempting only the simple and the natural; and the unfailing way to secure this, is by employing only trees and grass. A soft verdant lawn, and a few forest or ornamental trees, well grouped, give universal pleasure—they contain in themselves, in fact, the basis of all our agreeable sensations in a landscape garden—(natural beauty, and the recognition of art,) and they are the most enduring sources of enjoyment in any place.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1844, Excerpt from “Note on Professional Quackery,” Appendix IV in A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; . . . (1844: 493)
- “Landscape Gardening, like all other arts, is not ignorant pretenders of knowledge, who, without a spark of appreciation for the beautiful in nature, boldly undertake to remodel, in what they consider a tasteful and fashionable style, every piece of natural landscape, whether of a simple or highly picturesque character. . . We have seen one or two examples lately where a froeign soi-disant landscape gardener has completely spoiled the simply grand beauty of a fine river residence, by cutting up the breadth of a fine lawn with a ridiculous effort at what he considered a very charming arrangement of walks and groups of tree. In this case he only followed a mode sufficiently common and appropriate in a level inland country, like that of Germany, from whence he introduced it, but entirely out of keeping with the bold and lake-like features of the landscape which he thus made discordant.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, October 1848, “A Talk about Public Parks and Gardens” (1853: 146)
- “. . . what an important influence these public resorts, of a rational and refined character, must exert in elevating the national character, and softening the many little jealousies of social life by a community of enjoyments. A people will have its pleasures, as certainly as its religion or laws; and whether these pleasures are poisonous and hurtful, or innocent and salutary, must greatly depend on the interest taken in them by the directing minds of the age. Get some country town of the first class to set the example by making a public park or garden of this kind. Let our people once see for themselves the influence for good which it would effect, no less than the healthful enjoyment it will afford, and I feel confident that the taste for public pleasure-grounds, in the United States, will spread as rapidly as that for cemeteries has done. If my own observation of the effect of these places in Germany is worth any thing, you may take my word for it that they will be better preachers of temperance than temperance societies, better refiners of national manners than dancing-schools, and better promoters of general good feeling than any lectures on the philosophy of happiness ever delivered in the lecture-room. In short, I am in earnest about the matter, and must therefore talk, write, preach, do all I can about it, and beg the assistance of all those who have public influence, till some good experiment of the kind is fairly tried in this country.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, August 1849, “The Philosophy of Rural Taste” (1853: 105)
- “The corollary to be drawn from this learned and curious investigation of the history of national sensibility and taste, is a very clear and satisfactory one, viz., that as success, in 'the art of composing a landscape' (as Humboldt significantly calls landscape-gardening), depends on appreciation of nature, the taste of the individual as well as that of a nation, will be in direct proportion to the profound sensibility with which he perceives the Beautiful in natural scenery.”
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1850, Preface to The Architecture of Country Houses (1850: v—vi)
- “There are three excellent reasons why my countrymen should have good houses.
- “The first, is because a good house (and by this I mean a fitting, tasteful, and significant dwelling) is a powerful means of civilization. A nation, whose rural population is content to live in mean huts and miserable hovels, is certain to be behind its neighbors in education, the arts, and all that makes up the external signs of progress. With the perception of proportion, symmetry, order and beauty, awakens the desire for possession, and with them comes that refinement of manners which distinguishes a civilized from a coarse and brutal people. So long as men are forced to dwell in log huts and follow a hunter’s life, we must not be surprised at lynch law and the use of the bowie knife. But, when smiling lawns and tasteful cottages begin to embellish the country, we know that order and culture are established. And, as the first incentive towards this change is awakened in the minds of most men by the perception of beauty and superiority in external objects, it must follow that the interest manifested in the Rural Architecture of a country like this, has much to do with the progress of its civilization.
- “The second reason is, because the individual home has a great social value for a people. Whatever new systems may be needed for the regeneration of an old and enfeebled nation, we are persuaded that, in America, not only is the distinct family the best social form, but those elementary forces which give rise to the highest genius and the finest character may, for the most part, be traced back to the farm-house and the rural cottage. It is the solitude and freedom of the family home in the country which constantly preserves the purity of the nation, and invigorates its intellectual powers. The battle of life, carried on in cities, gives a sharper edge to the weapon of character, but its temper is, for the most part, fixed amid those communings with nature and the family, where individuality takes its most natural and strongest development.
- “The third reason is, because there is a moral influence in a country house—when, among an educated, truthful, and refined people, it is an echo of their character—which is more powerful than any mere oral teachings of virtue and morality. . .
- “After the volumes I have previously written on this subject, it is needless for me to add more on the purpose of this work. But it is, perhaps, proper that I should say, that it is rather intended to develop the growing taste of the people, than as a scientific work on art. Rural Architecture is, indeed, so much more a sentiment, and so much less a science, than Civil Architecture, that the majority of persons will always build for themselves, and, unconsciously, throw something of their own character into their dwellings. To do this well and gracefully, and not awkwardly and clumsily, is always found more difficult than is supposed. I have, therefore, written this volume, in the hope that it may be of some little assistance to the popular taste. For the same reason, I have endeavored to explain the whole subject in so familiar a manner, as to interest all classes of readers who can find anything interesting in beauty, convenience or fitness of a house in the country.” back up to History
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, June 1850, “Our Country Villages” (Horticulturist 4: 540)
- “The indispensable desiderata in rural villages of this kind [newly planned in the suburbs of a great city], are the following: 1st, a large open space, common, or park, situated in the middle of the village—not less than 20 acres; and better, if 50 or more in extent. This should be well planted with groups of trees, and kept as a lawn. The expense of mowing it would be paid by the grass in some cases; and in others a considerable part of the space might be enclosed with a wire fence, and fed by sheep or cows, like many of the public parks in England.
- “This park would be the nucleus or heart of the village, and would give it an essentially rural character. Around it should be grouped all the best cottages and residences of the place; and this would be secured by selling no lots fronting upon it of less than one-fourth of an acre in extent.”
- Downing, Andrew Jackson, March 3, 1851, “Explanatory Notes,” describing plans for improving the Public Grounds in Washington, DC (quoted in Washburn 1967: 54, 55)
- “My object in this Plan has been three-fold:
- “1st: To form a national Park, which should be an ornament to the Capital of the United States; 2nd: To give an example of the natural style of Landscape Gardening which may have an influence on the general taste of the Country; 3rd: To form a collection of all the trees that will grown in the climate of Washington, and, by having these trees plainly labelled with their popular and scientific names, to form a public museum of living trees and shrubs where every person visiting Washington could become familiar with the habits and growth of all the hardy trees. . .
- “A national Park like this, laid out and planted in a thorough manner, would exercise as much influence on the public taste as Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, has done. Though only twenty years have elapsed since that spot was laid out, the lesson there taught has been so largely influential that at the present moment the United States, while they have no public parks, are acknowledged to possess the finest rural cemeteries in the world. The Public Grounds at Washington treated in the manner I have here suggested, would undoubtedly become a Public School of Instruction in every thing that relates to the tasteful arrangement of parks and grounds, and the growth and culture of trees, while they would serve, more than anything else that could be devised, to embellish and give interest to the Capital. The straight lines and broad Avenues of the streets of Washington would be pleasantly relieved and contrasted by the beauty of curved lines and natural groups of trees in the various parks. By its numerous public buildings and broad Avenues, Washington will one day command the attention of every stranger, and if its un-improved public grounds are tastefully improved they will form the most perfect background or setting to the City, concealing many of its defects and heightening all its beauties.” back up to History
- Anonymous, September 1852 (Horticulturist 7: 394—95)
- “In the editorship of the HORTICULTURIST, he has shown, perhaps, better than in his other writings, the peculiar fitness of his talents to educate the popular taste for the beautiful in nature and art. The success which has attended this periodical, and the increased attention which is being paid to Landscape Gardening, Horticulture and Rural Decoration, are proof of the beneficial influence of his labors. . . Mr. Downing was not by eminance a theorist. It was not his aim to build castles too grand and lofty for human realization, or to show the power of his intellect by forming conceptions, which imagination only could give being to. The great question with him, was, how much of the really beautiful can be made subservient to the public good? how far can elegance and utility be combined? how much of the spirit of the amateur can be infused into the mass of the rural population? He has answered these questions by his deeds.”
- Anonymous, September 1852, obituaries for A. J. Downing (Horticulturist 7: 430)
- “[From the New York Evening Post]
- “These publications of Mr. Downing, more than any other agency, had worked a change in our style of building, and created a general improvement in taste. He was commissioned, by a large number of gentlemen about to construct private residences, to prepare the designs and lay out the grounds. The evidence of his fine professional accomplishments now meet us in all parts of the country, and his loss is one that will be felt far beyond the bereaved circle of which he was the ornament and pride.”
Anonymous, Ground Plan of a portion of Downing’s Botanic Gardens and Nurseries, in Magazine of Horticulture 7, no. 11 (November 1841): 404.
- Robert Twombly, “Introduction: Architect and Gardener to the Republic,” in Andrew Jackson Downing: Essential Texts (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), 15—16, view on Zotero
- See also Twombly 2012, 15, 19, view on Zotero; David Schuyler, Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing 1815—1852 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 74—76, view on Zotero.
- Twombly 2012, 18—19, view on Zotero; Schuyler 1996, 214, view on Zotero.
- Adam W. Sweeting notes that, while Downing did not quote Burke and departed from Burke’s theories, in some respects, Downing's characterization of the Beautiful "followed the wording of his English predecessor almost exactly.” Adam W. Sweeting, Reading Houses and Building Books: Andrew Jackson Downing and the Architecture of Popular Antebellum Literature, 1835—1855 (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1996), 19—20, view on Zotero. Caren Yglesias argues that for Downing “the most important theoretical work was Sir Uvedale Price’s An Essay on the Picturesque (1794).” Caren Yglesias, The Complete House and Grounds: Learning from Andrew Jackson Downing’s Domestic Architecture (Chicago: Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago, 2011), 21, view on Zotero. In 1850 Downing spent three months traveling in England, Paris, and Belgium. He published his impressions in a series of letters in the Horticulturist in 1850—51. Twombly 2012, 21, view on Zotero. Eight of “Mr. Downing’s Letters from England” were published monthly in the Horticulturist between September 1850 (vol. 5, no. 3) and March 1851 (vol. 6, no. 3), and in June 1851 (vol. 6, no. 6).
- Schuyler 1996, 2, view on Zotero.
- According to Pauly, Downing was particularly upset that William Backhouse Astor, proprietor of Rokeby, an estate located about ten miles north of Hyde Park, hired Hans Jacob Ehlers (1804—1858), who had been trained in Germany and Denmark, as his landscape gardener in 1841. Philip J. Pauly, Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation of America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 169—70, view on Zotero.
- Twombly 2012, 20, view on Zotero. Downing and Davis met through their friend Robert Donaldson (1800—1872) in late 1838 or early 1839. Davis had designed Donaldson’s estate, Blithewood, on the Hudson River. Schuyler 1996, 50, view on Zotero.
- Yglesias 2011, 4, view on Zotero.
- The 1849 publication is the fourth edition. The second edition, published in 1844, “included an announcement for a third” edition, which was likely never published. Therese O’Malley, Introduction to A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America, ed. A. J. Downing, 4th ed. (1849; repr., Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1991), x, xn20, view on Zotero. In the first twelve years, Downing’s Treatise sold approximately 9,000 copies. Schuyler 1996, 28, view on Zotero. For an analysis of the various editions of the Treatise edited by Downing, see Judith K. Major, To Live in the New World: A. J. Downing and American Landscape Gardening (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997), 7—98, view on Zotero.
- Twombly notes that while The Fruit and Fruit Trees of America was the third book that Downing published, it was actually the second one written. By 1841 Downing was already working on the manuscript. Twombly 2012, 19, view on Zotero.
- Schuyler 1996, 152, view on Zotero.
- Downing published the essay as a letter to the editor, signed “X. Y. Z. Newburgh,” in New-York Farmer and Horticultural Repository 5 (September 1832); A. J. Downing, Andrew Jackson Downing: Essential Texts, ed. Robert Twombly (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), 143—48, view on Zotero.
- Yglesias 2011, 33, view on Zotero.
- Twombly 2012, 15, 17, 34, view on Zotero; Schuyler 1996, 18—20, 120, view on Zotero.
- Therese O’Malley, “‘A Public Museum of Trees’: Mid-Nineteenth Century Plans for the Mall,” in The Mall in Washington, 1791—1991, ed. by Richard Longstreth, Studies in the History of Art, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, Symposium Papers, XIV, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2002), xxx, 63, view on Zotero.
- Twombly 2012, 32, 34—35, view on Zotero. See also A. J. Downing, “Our Country Villages,” Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 4, no. 12 (June 1850): 540—41, view on Zotero.
- W. [Frederick Law Olmsted], “The People’s Park at Birkenhead, Near Liver[p]ool,” Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 6 (1851): 224–28, view on Zotero.
- Schuyler 1996, 229, view on Zotero.
- Twombly 2012, 18, view on Zotero.
- Caroline Elizabeth De Windt was the granddaughter of John Adams (1735—1826), the second president of the United States, and grand-niece of John Quincy Adams (1767—1848), the sixth president of the United States. When Eunice Bridge Downing died in 1838, Downing and his brother Charles (1802—1885) inherited more than eleven acres. They divided the property evenly, each taking four-and-a-half acres with the remaining two-plus acres held jointly. The house was completed in 1839 on the property that Downing inherited. Twombly 2012, 17, view on Zotero.
- Sweeting 1996, 128, 131, view on Zotero.
- Schuyler 1996, 155, view on Zotero.
- For more information on Downing and Vaux’s commission for Springside, see Schuyler 1996, 164—70, view on Zotero. Other projects include a block of commercial shops and offices in Boston’s waterfront district; the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York; houses for David Moore and Dr. William A. M. Culbert in Newburgh, New York; Italianate villas for the brothers Robert P. and Francis Dodge in Georgetown, Washington, DC; and Daniel Parish’s villa on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. See Twombly 2012, 22—23, view on Zotero; Schuyler 1996, 170—74, view on Zotero.
- Schuyler 1996, 192, view on Zotero.
- O’Malley 2002, 61—62. See also pages 70—71, view on Zotero.
- Twombly 2012, 29, view on Zotero; see also Schuyler 1996, 196—198, view on Zotero; and O’Malley 2002, 64—70, view on Zotero.
- President Fillmore met with Downing in November 1850, and Downing completed a plan in February 1851. Fillmore approved the plans west of 7th Street in April 1851 and the plans east of 7th Street in February 1853, after Downing’s death. Twombly 2012, 23—24, 29, view on Zotero; Schuyler 1996, 199, 201, view on Zotero. In response to the burning of the Henry Clay, the architect Robert Mills wrote to Fillmore in August 1852 to propose a solution to protect steamers and prevent similar tragedies. Mills did not refer to Downing by name in his letter but did note the “hecatomb of victims.” Letter from Robert Mills to President Millard Fillmore, August 6, 1852, quoted in H. M. Pierce Gallagher, Robert Mills, Architect of the Washington Monument, 1781—1855 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1935), 208—9, view on Zotero. See also O’Malley 2002, 76n61, view on Zotero. Since 1989, the urn has been located in the Enid A. Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle. Smithsonian Gardens website, http://www.gardens.si.edu/our-gardens/downing-urn.html.
- Twombly 2012, 15, 25, view in Zotero.
- Yglesias 2011, 22, view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, Andrew Jackson Downing: Essential Texts, ed. Robert Twombly (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, “Notices on the State and Progress of Horticulture in the United States,” Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs 3, no. 1 (January 1837): 1–10, view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences. . . with Remarks on Rural Architecture (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1841), view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, Cottage Residences; or A Series of Designs for Rural Cottages and Cottage-Villas and their Gardens and Grounds. Adapted to North America, (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1842), view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences. . . with Remarks on Rural Architecture, 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1844), view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, Rural Essays (New York: George P. Putnam and Company, 1853), view on Zotero.
- A. J. Downing, The Architecture of Country Houses; Including Designs for Cottages, Farm Houses, and Villas (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1850), View on Zotero
- A. J. Downing, “Our Country Villages,” Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 4, no. 12 (June 1850): 537–41, view on Zotero.
- Wilcomb E. Washburn, “Vision of Life for the Mall,” AIA Journal 47 (March 1967): 52—59, view on Zotero.
- Anonymous, “Mr. Downing and the Horticulturist,” Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 7, no. 9 (September 1852): 393–97, view on Zotero.
- “Tributes to the Memory of Mr. Downing,” Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 7, no. 9 (September 1852): 427–30, view on Zotero. |
|Artist / Origin||
Arrow (Elk Society), Cheyenne (active 19th century), Central Plains
Region: North America
Period: 1800 CE - 1900 CE
|Material||Graphite and colored pencil on ledger paper|
|Dimensions||H: 6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.), W: 14 ¾ in. (37 cm.)|
|Location||Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH|
|Credit||Courtesy of the Hood Museum of Art; gift of Mark Lansburgh, Class of 1949, in honor of James Wright, President of Dartmouth College|
|Barbara ThompsonCurator for the Arts of Africa and the Americas, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University|
Untitled, page number 21, from the Arrow’s Elk Society Ledger
Native peoples, before ever having contact with Americans, were using imagery as a way of capturing important moments of life to document it, but also to pass it on to future generations. They were drawing on rocks, they were drawing on sand, they were painting on hides.
When the Plains peoples came in contact with Westerners, then, of course, the Westerners had paper and had pencils and ink and pens. They started trading these media and certainly using pencil and paper and color pencils and paints. They were easier to carry with them. If there is a group of young warriors out on the hunt they can take their ledger book with them and document what was happening. And this made it possible for an expansion of these kinds of pictorial arts being used as an individualized form of documentation. The artist/warrior/chief owned the imagery. You could only paint the imagery or draw the imagery if you experienced it.
So these are autobiographical narratives about the accomplishments and the deeds of the individual or the individual’s group. There are plenty of instances where you have multiple artists who are telling their story. And with these multiple voices telling their story in an individual ledger book, you get that multiple perspective of that given time in history from that group’s perspective.
Once the Plains people were forced to live on reservations where some of the Plains artists were taken into imprisonment, then they were recording their histories both as a form of nostalgia and remembrance and trying to hold onto the identity that was being stripped from them.
At the same time, around the 1870s, particularly with the removal of about seventy-two warriors and chiefs to Fort Marion for imprisonment, then there was an industry of ledger drawing. Captain Richard Pratt, who was the head of the prison, saw an opportunity in these ledger drawings to introduce and to assimilate his captives into American society and to sell these drawings to visitors who wanted to see what a real Native person looked like from the Plains. So these became bona fide commodities. The artists themselves were given some of the proceeds from the sale and they could send the money back to the reservations to their families. So, it became an important source of income for the artists themselves, but also it became a political tool for Captain Pratt to sell the idea to Washington and to the American people that the slaughter of the Plains people should stop. There was a conscious effort to destroy everything that they stood for, and yet, at the same time, these drawings were promoted as evidence of their possibility of Americanization and assimilation.” |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza may not be worthwhile to treat seasonal influenza in healthy adults, British researchers reported on Friday.
"Recommending the use of antiviral drugs for the treatment of people presenting with symptoms is unlikely to be the most appropriate course of action," wrote Jane Burch of the University of York and colleagues.
Their study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, supports an advisory from the World Health Organization that says healthy patients who get H1N1 swine flu without suffering complications do not need to be treated with antivirals.
Tamiflu, made by Switzerland's Roche under license from Gilead Sciences Inc., is a pill that can both treat and prevent influenza A viruses of all kinds. Zanamivir, made by GlaxoSmithKline under license from Australia's Biota and sold under the brand name Relenza, is an inhaled drug in the same class.
WHO strongly recommends both drugs for pregnant women, patients with underlying medical conditions and children under 5, as they are at increased risk of more severe illness.
Burch's team reviewed many different published studies on Tamiflu and Relenza. "We present the results for healthy adults and people at-risk of influenza-related complications," they wrote.
Both drugs shaved about half a day, on average, off the time patients were ill, they found. Influenza usually affects people for about a week.
The drugs worked a little better in people who have a high risk of complications, such as patients with diabetes or asthma, with Relenza cutting sickness by almost a day and Tamiflu by three-quarters of a day, on average.
This suggests the drugs should be reserved for people who need them the most, the researchers concluded.
Many countries have stockpiled both drugs. H1N1 swine flu has been declared a pandemic and is circulating globally. U.S. health officials said on Friday it was worsening in Japan, getting better in Britain, and was still widely active in the United States.
Flu is rare in all three countries in August.
Global manufacturers do not expect to have vaccines ready until the end of September or October at the soonest.
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(also: path-finding, axonal pathfinding, axon guidance) is an umbrella term that covers all the mechanisms used by biological neurons to effect growth of their axons toward a given synaptic destination (or set of destinations). Similar mechanisms are thought to effect the growth and development of dendrites
in developing brains.
Some examples of the kinds of mechanisms that are included within the "pathfinding" umbrella include: growth cone
s, various affinities and aversions to molecular substances, as well as the spatial and temporal patterns, and gradients in which concentrations of those substances may be configured. There are other mechanisms that fit under this umbrella term as well, such as adhesion molecules and mechanisms.
. . . . . . .
pathfinding similarly refers to abstractions of the pathfinding mechanisms employed by biological systems. Obviously it only includes those that are currently implemented in Netlab. These include growth cones
, and receptor pads
, for example. Because it is an umbrella term, it can also refer to things like CI
s, when they are serving to aid in pathfinding. That is, CI
s may be considered part of pathfinding when they are acting as attractive, or repulsive agents for growth cones |
The list of Burials and their photos available HERE
Dnipro is one of those cities that could tell their long — term Jewish history. Although at the moment there is only one Jewish cemetery left in the city. But it was not always so.
Historical reports say that the oldest of these cemeteries was discovered in the suburbs since the very foundation of Dnipropetrovsk (then — Ekaterinoslav). And it was still the distant ХІХ century. According to the population census, Jews for many years accounted for one third of the city’s many thousands of people. The Jewish community is unique in that it was almost the first to obtain its official status and the permission of the Russian Empire to settle in Ekaterinoslav.
In general, the city owes much to Jewish townspeople for the development of infrastructure and social life. They built the very first stone house there, opened the first office for the purchase of flax, it was there that outstanding artists and scientists were born (for example, Moses Sheinfinkel is the author of the concept of combinatorial logic). Most members of the community were wealthy people and therefore beneficially influenced the development of Ekaterinoslav.
So for just over a hundred years since the foundation of the city, there was a need to open a new Jewish cemetery. It appeared in 1906–1907, and the old one was closed due to lack of free space.
Of course, in Soviet times the number of Jewish population decreased significantly and all parks and recreation areas were opened more often on the site of old burials. Because now in the city there is only one Jewish cemetery in Zavodnoye housing estate.
Today it is Dnipro’s sight and still continues to testify to an important part of urban history. Although, like any other cemetery, it requires constant thorough care. After all, it’s more than 2500 graves. This is a significant work that the city community or the indifferent people are constantly engaged in, ready to take care of the graves of their relatives and acquaintances. Therefore, to date, the preservation of the cemetery depends on the efforts of people who understand how important this is. |
Smithsonian.com Explores the “Strange World That is the Escalator”
Smithsonian.com recently explored the “strange world that is the escalator” in “How the Escalator Forever Changed Our Sense of Space.” The piece takes readers through the early history of the invention, from a never-realized 1859 patent for “revolving stairs,” to Jesse Reno’s mechanical escalator that debuted to awestruck crowds in Coney Island, New York, to the piece of machinery most similar to the escalator of today — conceived by Charles Seeberger around the same time as Reno’s invention and acquired and marketed by Otis. The escalator stole the spotlight at the Paris Exposition of 1900, and quickly proved transformative to retail, the workplace and public transportation.
Of the Paris Expo, Smithsonian observed:
“Organizers and government officials were concerned how this exposition would make its mark — after the introduction of the Eiffel Tower at the fair in 1889, how could the [fair] 11 years later complete? Officials entertained many bizarre proposals, many of which involved alterations of the Eiffel Tower itself including the potential additions of clocks, sphinxes, terrestrial globes, and a 450-ft. statue of a woman with eyes made from powerful searchlights to scan the 562-acre fairgrounds.” It ended up, however, that the escalator “shone brightest” at the expo, winning Grand Prize and a Gold Metal for its “unique and functional design”
Otis trademarked the name “escalator,” but, like cellophane, kitty litter and aspirin, the term became so ubiquitous that competitor Haughton — since acquired by Schindler — successfully petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the trademark. Today, Otis and Schindler continue to be major players in a world in which the number of escalators doubles every 10 years. |
Instead of using paper, the 3D printing process consists of applying very thin layers of a powder/plastic compound to gradually form the complex shapes of a design.
Firstly, a 3D model of the proposal is produced following a rigorous procedure to avoid any open edges and corners; the model is hollowed where possible to save on cost of materials and ‘printing’ time. A file fixing software is then used to analyse the geometry and check for any modelling imperfections that could potentially cause a problem during the printing process.
The digital 3D Model is then sent out to a specialised printing facility to be physically printed. Finally, the 3D Print undergoes a cleaning process and is populated, if required with trees, cars etc. |
Doesn’t it seem like a new, potentially beneficial medical use for cannabis seems to be discovered every few months? This is primarily due to the increasing amount of medical research that is now being conducted on this potentially therapeutic plant species. Marijuana researchers have found enough evidence over the past few decades that they now deem cannabis as a safe product to use, even while using most other types of medications. As a matter of fact, medical cannabis is often used to decrease the intense side effects (such as nausea, sleeplessness, lack of appetite, depression and/or stress) that are caused by many prescription medicines.
But is it possible that marijuana use could change the way a person’s immune system functions? Could cannabis cause your immune system to become abnormal? This is an exceptionally serious and pertinent question, especially for patients who are interested in using medical marijuana to combat long-term, chronic illnesses. Let’s help assuage some of your fears and take a closer look at the marijuana effect on immune system function below.
How have treatments for HIV/AIDS patients helped us determine marijuana effects on the immune system? Most of the scientific research regarding marijuana immune system medicinal benefits has been conducted on HIV and AIDS patients. This is because HIV/AIDS is one of the most common viruses to effectively attack and compromise the human immune system. It is such a deadly immunodeficiency virus that it can completely incapacitate an infected person’s immune system within just a few years of becoming active.
Even though HIV and AIDS patients have weakened immune function, many of them report smoking a consistent amount of marijuana to deal with their pain, nausea, and lack of appetite. Even as early as 2005, statistics indicated that over 27 percent of AIDS/HIV patients were regularly using cannabis to counteract their symptoms.
Since this was almost a full decade before the recent wave of medical marijuana laws passed throughout the United States, one can only imagine that AIDS and HIV patients are using cannabis at an even higher rate in 2019 simply due to increased legal access and less negative stigma of the plant from their medical providers.
This high marijuana usage rate is the primary reason that doctors and researchers have begun to key into the potential benefits of cannabis on the immune system. Their reasoning is that if these HIV/AIDS patients are already using marijuana safely, perhaps it might be safe for people without the virus to use as well.
What are the effects of medical marijuana use on the HIV/AIDS virus?
HIV/AIDS sufferers who use marijuana report decreased nausea, pain, depression, and anxiety throughout the day. As a matter of fact, many of them say that they are completely unable to eat a meal unless they use cannabis beforehand. Also, unlike most of the prescription painkillers these patients receive, medical marijuana has never been shown to be physically addictive and rarely causes negative side effects.
Luckily, much of the medical evidence is far more than just anecdotal. A study that was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported incredible immune system responses to regular cannabis use. The HIV/AIDS virus incapacitates the primary defenses of the immune system by attacking collections of certain cells known as CD4 and CD8. However, this study revealed that even short-term marijuana use can help these important cell groups stay healthy and strong. As a matter of fact, the HIV/AIDS patients that used cannabis in the study didn’t see a reduction of their CD4 and CD8 cells at all.
On top of these factors, the HIV/AIDS patients that used marijuana were consistently healthier than the patients who didn’t. The placebo group (which was comprised of AIDS/HIV patients who didn’t use authentic marijuana products) showed decreased immune system function when compared to the group of patients that used cannabis during the study. Also, the cannabis user group gained an average of four pounds more of body weight than their peers in the placebo group in just 21 days.
In a separate study run by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, researchers discovered that the cannabinoids found in marijuana could play yet another role in supporting overall immune system function. The study concluded that cannabinoids (such as THC and CBD) could reduce the number of HIV and AIDS-infected cells tremendously. By the end of the project, the researchers had seen cannabis use reduce the number of HIV/AIDS-infected cells in their patients from between 30 to 60 percent.
Has cannabis ever been determined to have a negative effect on the immune system?
Unfortunately, there are some medical experts (namely with the National Institute of Health and the Drug Enforcement Agency) who don’t completely agree with the idea that marijuana can provide an overall beneficial boost to the immune system. But it should be noted that most of these people work for the United States’ government (which has a notoriously negative policy with anything related to cannabis) or are subject to politics in some form. However, their medical concern does have some validity. Their primary health fear is the fact that the most common way cannabis users ingest their favorite plant is through smoking.
Burnt particulate matter from any type of smoke has been the primary culprit behind a variety of lung conditions. Even in low doses, smoke can cause significant irritation and inflammation of the lungs while also compromising any remaining pulmonary defenses to additional infection. Luckily, most research has shown that the smoke released from marijuana buds are usually much less harmful (and certainly less carcinogenic) than other types of commonly-inhaled smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and hookah devices.
However, if you already suffer from another chronic lung condition (such as asthma or COPD) or have a family history of developing lung illnesses, you may want to avoid smoking or vaping medical marijuana products. Luckily, there are plenty of other medical cannabis products on the market that provide the same medical benefits and are ingestible without passing through the lungs. These products include edibles, beverages, lozenges, tinctures, skin patches, and topical creams.
Why are there different opinions on the relationship between cannabis and the immune system?
The primary reason that the effects of medical marijuana on the immune system aren’t conclusively determined yet is because of the tremendous opposition the federal government has against scientific research of this potentially beneficial plant. That is yet another reason that most cannabis research has involved observing patients suffering from extreme, life-threatening conditions such as HIV/AIDS or cancer. There is simply very little conclusive evidence on the effects of cannabis use on a healthy person’s immune system. However, the little research that has been conducted has been very promising.Do you live in the state of Florida and want additional clarification on the relationship between medical marijuana and immune system function? Are you also interested in getting a medical cannabis card for you or a loved one? Then do not hesitate in contacting Biofit! There are a number of options available to you in Florida to get a valid medical marijuana card. Find out the easiest and simplest way to do so by giving us a call at Biofit; we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this potentially complicated process. |
Most of us know that exercises have a very good influence on our health but don’t know exactly the health benefits of running.
Of all exercises, running is one of the most common and most recommended for staying in the perfect shape and boosting your health.
We thought it will be interesting to create a quick list with the most important 10 health related benefits of running. Here is the list:
1. Weight Control – probably the most popular amongst known health benefits of running
Most people start running because they want to control their body weight. You start loosing weight when you burn more calories than you assimilate, thus making your body turn to the fat it has stored in order to compensate the energy deficit. Running is considered to be one of the most effective exercises when it comes to burning calories. In fact, a typical runner who takes running seriously can burn up to 500 calories in less than an hour.
2. Building Up Your Bones and Muscles
There is a very strong connection between the development of our muscles, bones and effort. Muscles and bones will grow depending on the efforts required of them. By sitting at your desk all day, your bones and muscles will get weaker in time. A very good solving solution for this problem is running, because this exercise is highly demanding on your bones and muscles. Running will trigger bones to become more dense and will also help build muscle tone.
3. Heart and Blood Benefits
In response to running on a regular basis, your heart will be more healthy and your blood pressure will lower. Running also lowers your cholesterol level and reduces the risk of blood clots and heart attacks.
4. Relieving Stress
It’s a proven fact that running lowers stress level. Speed running can also release anger and frustrations and can calm you down. Running long distances can help you find solutions to your problems or, even better, can make you forget about them for awhile and clear your mind for a few moments. After a running session you’ll feel better, be more optimist and have a better morale in general.
5. Building Up Self-Esteem
People who exercise by running have shown to be more confident in their own strengths. After constantly surpassing the limits of your own body, you will get stronger with every run and your self-esteem will build up. Results like loosing weight, stronger muscles or better health in general, after maintaining a rigorous running exercise program, will also make you feel better about yourself.
6. Slowing Down the Aging Process
As mentioned above, regular running exercises will make your bone and muscle structure stronger. Those who live a sedentary life will have a weaker skeleton and muscle loss, thus making them more susceptible to various diseases. Having strong bones and muscles becomes more important as you age and both will leave a mark on your looks.
Running is not easy. It can be a very painful experience, especially for newcomers and that is why most people drop it after a few runs and fall to their old habits. By surpassing that pain and the temptation to just stay comfortably in your house and postponing the running session for tomorrow, you earn the determination and willpower to succeed in other areas of your life.
8. Boost Body Immunity
Running increases the number of lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells which are essential to your immune system. It also reduces the risk of diseases like breast cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes. So, boosting immunity is also on best benefits of running list.
9. Better Coordination
Better coordination is also amongst the benefits of running. Surprisingly enough, coordination does improve with running. Some people may be reluctant to acknowledge it, since it’s such a simple sport, but running involves coordination especially on hard terrain with small obstacles like rocks and tree roots. Experienced runners who use trails as their rout, learn how to avoid stumbling and tripping on such obstacles.
10. Sleep Better
How much and how well we sleep has a lot to say for our health. After an intense exercise like running, your body needs to recover and repair itself. It is vital that you don’t overexert yourself as this will cause a lot of damage to your body. By keeping this in mind and exercising regularly you will feel more relaxed and you will sleep more soundly and profoundly. Runners usually fall asleep quicker and stay in a deep state of sleep longer than people who aren’t very active. |
In the 1990s something happened to public awareness campaigns; they became interesting. No longer advice-laden missives, campaign materials became eye-catching and thought provoking. During this decade, one campaign was hugely influential in its impact on a number of different levels; this campaign was Zero Tolerance. The campaign has promulgated a rash of copycat images not only from campaigns on other issues but also mainstream advertisers. Governments, initially surprised by the impact of feminist-led campaigns, have started to show interest in this transformation of a form of communication that has been around for a long time.
Public-awareness campaigns have attracted interest, not only from government but also within academia. Political science, communication studies, criminology, psychology and sociology have all examined public-awareness campaigns and usually the focus is on the impact and influence of campaigns on individuals and society (Leiss, 1987). Rather than simply examining the effectiveness of campaigns, this article questions why campaigns are seen as socially necessary. It is not enough to consider how the message is received, of equal importance is how it is conceived (Burton, 1990). A critical approach is important in uncovering the exercise of power contained within campaigns.
Campaign messages are not neutral. They are socially constructed and represent vested interests. Friere (1970) has argued that knowledge is created through the human act of ‘naming’ but ‘naming’ is not a process of objectively describing some ‘truth’ but rather an expression of a particular viewpoint. Any critical theory must therefore consider the context of knowledge creation and as Smith (1978) highlights, the context of knowledge production has traditionally excluded women from participation. Instead, governments and corporate bodies have dominated knowledge production, generally for economic and political purposes.
Certainly, companies and organisations have used visual images to promote their goods and services since the birth of advertising (Leiss, 1987). From leaflets and posters to radio and TV, advertising can increase awareness and inform the public. There is little doubt that advertising has become increasingly sophisticated during the latter half of the twentieth century, however, advertising is not usually seen an effective tool for conveying complex issues or promoting attitudinal change (Benady, 1994). Although public awareness campaigns use many of the strategies of advertising to get the message across, often relying on images and slogans to promote their message, the aim of a campaign is not to sell a product but to sell an idea, challenge existing behaviour and so effect change.
Chris Baker, convenor of judges of the IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards has argued that advertising strategies are more effective on social issues than on the sale of frozen peas. While everyone has an opinion on peas, concepts are harder to pin down and attitudes can be shifted if emotions are aroused within the target audience (cited in Benady, 1994).
For campaigns on social issues, a simple but focussed message is often the most effective form of communication (Leiss, 1987). Messages need to be clear, concise and relevant. It is through the use of simple images and snappy slogans that the public absorbs the message. This can open the door to public debate and help the ideas behind the slogans gain political legitimacy (Pahl, 1985).
It is assumed that the intentions of public-awareness campaigns are benevolent (DETR, 1997). They are to warn of harm, to protect citizens and preserve rights and freedoms. The state as ‘protector’, uses public-awareness campaigns to communicate, inform and educate the public. This article examines the emergence of public awareness campaigns and of primary interest is why the state should, in the face of competing social needs, provide the enormous resources necessary in mounting campaigns? But it is important to bear in mind that campaigns are political vehicles, used to convey ideological messages (Gamman & Marshment, 1988; Baeher & Gray, 1996). Whatever the focus or subject matter, traditionally campaigns have focused on controlling behaviour, creating order and securing social consensus; there is a design, constructed to convey a message to a particular audience. Generally, campaigns emerge out of social concern or even crisis. Put simply, the aim of most campaigns is control a particular social problem, making it easier for the state to function, be it on a local or national level.
The article also examines how campaign materials identify and communicate with its target audience. Fundamentally, if a campaign fails to speak effectively to those who most need the message, then the message will be lost. Of particular interest therefore is the interaction between the campaign development and existing knowledge and research.
Campaigns are not a new phenomenon. Posters used to instil moral ‘norms’ and promote collective action were evident during the Second World War and the propaganda machine specifically targeted women to ‘do their bit’ (Colman, 1995; Hanson, 1996; Dougherty Delano, 2000). Women became the targets of campaigns, which sought to highlight their social position and their social responsibilities. More recently, ‘drink-driving’ campaigns, generally assumed to be gender neutral, illustrate how campaigns develop over time. But a consequence of the political dominance driving public-awareness campaigns, is that other sources of knowledge are often ignored or made senseless as they ‘do not fit’ within the logic of the existing system. These ‘subjugated knowledges’ (Foucault, 1980), including those from a feminist perspective, risk marginalisation. The state’s role within drink driving campaigns is accepted as legitimate, seen as part of a crime prevention initiative. By comparison, crimes against women have until recently been seen as individualistic acts, not a societal problem (Stanko, 1985; Kelly, 1988).
Whilst public-awareness campaigns endorsed by the state may appear ideologically neutral, the Zero Tolerance Campaign’s feminist background was never denied (Foley, 1993; Kitzinger & Hunt, 1994). The Zero Tolerance campaign, was (and remains) concerned with change, through challenging traditional views and pointing out the lie that lurks beneath the claim of social equality between the sexes. Three factors remain central to the power of the Zero Tolerance campaign. Firstly its grounding in a feminist understanding of male violence against women, secondly its consistency of approach and finally its repetition of its simple basic message.
Campaigns as propaganda
Knowledge creation is never divorced from human interest (Habermas, 1971). The ideas and images used within public-awareness campaigns are manufactured for a purpose, generally to create a world that explains and justifies action. Such use of knowledge constitutes an exercise of power. Certainly, if the intention of public-awareness campaigns were merely to inform, there would be no concern for potential behavioural or attitudinal change. By selecting the information included in such campaigns, the ideological imperatives of the knowledge producers and controllers determines the distribution of knowledge. The messages are not necessarily for the ‘good’ of the recipients but rather suit the purposes of the message producers (Jowett & O’Donnell, 1986).
An example of how public awareness campaigns have been used to capture the hearts and minds of the public is the propaganda war fought during the Second World War. In the UK and the US, governments launched campaigns aimed to stir up patriotism and secure public support. The posters used generally took one of two forms, the ‘can do’ and the ‘don’t do’; the former used images of fearless individuals, strong and confident, while the latter played on public fear and concerns.
For many women, acute wartime labour shortage provided the first opportunity to participate in the workforce (Woollacott, 1994; Summerfield, 1995). More than that, it has been argued that “The conditions for the renewal of feminism … were provided by the Second World War” (Meehan, 1985:35). ‘Can do’ publicity campaigns were particularly aimed at women who had never before held jobs but, far from being feminist in nature, the images used sought to glamorise the jobs, accentuating the feminine qualities of the women performing them.
Of all the images used on posters at this time, perhaps the most famous was that of Rosie the Riveter–the patriotic female factory worker; she was tough but she still had her lipstick and mascara (Colman, 1995). The message for women was that the compromise between femininity and employment was achievable. She was described as “…the symbol of a generation of American women who rolled up their sleeves and went to work during World War II. Rosie the Riveter, red bandanna wrapped about her head, embodied the “We Can Do It” spirit” (Hanson, 1996:44). The ‘can do’ poster was directed at young women, generally unmarried, who could do the work until the men came back, at which time they would presumably be expected to settle down to domesticity, hand the jobs back to the men and have babies.
What view of reality is being proposed here? The state needed women in the workforce and in this respect the posters were reassuring women that they could ‘do it’. But at the same time, there was concern that gender roles should not become too blurred. It was one thing to exploit their labour but the state did not really want women to secure any long lasting social liberation. Women might be able to work but they would work within male defined confines. Recruiting women into the workforce whilst painting a picture (quite literally) of how women should look, meant that their role as ‘women’ was not changing and that their labour was not meant to threaten the status quo.
Such posters served to set the agenda around the labour shortage. By making women feel responsible for doing ‘their bit’, attention could be diverted away from government activity. Writing in America, Margaret Mead (1946), argued that women experienced the war not in a collective sense, but as individuals, through the absence of the men they loved. But the poster propaganda, by focusing on local problems (labour shortage), diverted public attention and debate away from issues such as foreign policy, military spending and war crimes. The call to patriotic duty re-enforced the ideological message that the whole population was pulling in the same direction (Summerfield, 1995).
By comparison, the ‘don’t do’ posters were designed to startle and provoke people out of their indifference with images and messages that were meant to be shocking. The posters pointed to the enemy within and this enemy was likely to be a woman. Many of the posters played on the fears held by the public. ‘Walls have ears’and ‘careless talk costs lives’ ensured that the public was aware of its duty to safeguard against enemy spies. Rupp argues that a “new woman” with strong sense of citizenship emerged, “She wore simple clothes and sensible shoes, used lipstick, powder and fixed her hair in a short, smooth, neat style, and did not indulge as much as she had before the war in coffee drinking, smoking or gossiping.” (1978:145-6)
But for all that they were still ordinary women, someone’s wife or mother and that is how they were depicted, but the text informs the public that she has cost lives through her ‘careless talk’. The design of this poster, using a photograph of an ordinary looking woman and text which is provocative, gave an uncompromising message and it is the incongruity of the image and the text that has impact.
The emotional appeal of the messages contained in the posters, the simplicity of the slogans and compelling nature of the images highlights the ready acceptance of what would now be called a ‘sound bite’. This visual media helped to make sense of severe social disruption and not only gave women a role in securing the safety of the country but also acted to re-enforce their femininity at the same time.
The impact of such campaigns should not be under-estimated. The re-enforcement of gender stereotypes, the promotion of public anxiety and the construction of a patriotic moral consensus reduced the potential for dissent and social unrest. But despite the aim of promoting social cohesion, public-awareness campaigns also provoked social change (Rowbotham, 1973; Braybon & Summerfield, 1987). Women, the primary target of the campaigns, took on social responsibilities, which after the war, many women were either reluctant or unable to discard. Working women do not simply produce goods but also produce a cultural identity. Butler has argued how gender is constituted through performance; that gender identities gain their power through “a stylized repetition of acts.”(1990:140). Campaign developers, perhaps unwittingly, were responsible for more than just the behavioural change of individual women over a limited time period. The transformation of women’s social position may have been unintentional but it was real. After the war, this type of propaganda was replaced with theories on childcare (Bowlby, 1953), which urged women to stay at home. Although many women returned to domesticity after the war, their potential and ability had been publicly recognised and their awareness raised. It was the discontent of women’s lives, identified by Friedan in The Feminine Mystique (1963), which heralded the second wave of feminism. |
Message 1: Autism: FrithDate: 04-Feb-2004
From: Jamie O'Brien <jobrienbos.blackwellpublishing.com>
Subject: Autism: Frith
Subtitle: Explaining the Enigma - 2nd Edition
Series Title: Cognitive Development
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Book URL: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=0631229000&site=1
Author: Uta Frith, University College London
Hardback: ISBN: 0631229000 Pages: 264 Price: 62.95 Comment: 27 figures
Paperback: ISBN: 0631229019 Pages: 264 Price: 26.95 Comment: 27 figures
The updated edition of this classic account of autism includes a new chapter
outlining recent developments in neuropsychological research, and
overviews one of the most important theoretical and practical consequences
of Frith's original insights into this puzzling condition.
-Updated edition of this classic account of autism.
-Includes new sections covering practical and theoretical developments, and
a chapter on recent investigations of the neurological basis of psychological
impairments in autism.
-Accessible to a broad general readership.
Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)
See this book announcement on our website:
Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue |
STRVERSCMPSection: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)
Index Return to Main Contents
NAMEstrverscmp - compare two version strings
#include <string.h> int strverscmp(const char *s1, const char *s2);
DESCRIPTIONOften one has files jan1, jan2, ..., jan9, jan10, ... and it feels wrong when ls(1) orders them jan1, jan10, ..., jan2, ..., jan9. In order to rectify this, GNU introduced the -v option to ls(1), which is implemented using versionsort(3), which again uses strverscmp().
Thus, the task of strverscmp() is to compare two strings and find the "right" order, while strcmp(3) only finds the lexicographic order. This function does not use the locale category LC_COLLATE, so is meant mostly for situations where the strings are expected to be in ASCII.
What this function does is the following. If both strings are equal, return 0. Otherwise find the position between two bytes with the property that before it both strings are equal, while directly after it there is a difference. Find the largest consecutive digit strings containing (or starting at, or ending at) this position. If one or both of these is empty, then return what strcmp(3) would have returned (numerical ordering of byte values). Otherwise, compare both digit strings numerically, where digit strings with one or more leading zeros are interpreted as if they have a decimal point in front (so that in particular digit strings with more leading zeros come before digit strings with fewer leading zeros). Thus, the ordering is 000, 00, 01, 010, 09, 0, 1, 9, 10.
RETURN VALUEThe strverscmp() function returns an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if s1 is found, respectively, to be earlier than, equal to, or later than s2.
CONFORMING TOThis function is a GNU extension.
SEE ALSOrename(1), strcasecmp(3), strcmp(3), strcoll(3), feature_test_macros(7)
COLOPHONThis page is part of release 3.21 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/. |
|Lecture hours per week||3|
|Lab hours per week|
The Nature of Disability reviews common disabling conditions found in the Field of Intellectual Disability and valued DSW responses. Examples of disabling conditions include but are not limited to: dual diagnosis, people who have challenging behaviour, older people who have an intellectual disability, people who have complex health and multiple impairments, and people on the Autism Spectrum. The course will analyze both society’s and the service system’s responses to groups of people. People’s needs are analyzed within a framework of: individualization, autonomy, Human Rights, devaluation, negative historic roles, and age and life stage, and life experiences. The course will present a strong framework and focus on not stereotyping but providing opportunities to include people in valued, typical society. The students will learn various ways to promote valued roles, personal and developmental growth, autonomy and rights.
Course Learning Outcomes
The student will reliably demonstrate the ability to: |
What to do with 500 $ | no course
While studing ecology and biodiversity in Peru, you entered a local scholarship contest. Imagine you won a $500 prize. What would you do with it? What would you buy? Where would you go? In a minimum of 3 sentences in Spanish, describe what you would do with the prize money. Be sure to use the conditional tense at least 3 times using 3 different verbs. You will be graded on (a) appropriate use of grammar and vocabulary, (b) completeness and detail of the response, and (c) overall quality of the response. |
Composition can be a tricky thing to teach, not because it’s difficult, but because it isn’t an exact science. Following all the rules of composition can’t guarantee the success of an image (good exposure, careful planning and creativity all play an equally important role there), but it certainly can help. Most beginners learn or hear about about the rule of thirds at their very first lesson and it is definitely one of the most useful tools for composition, no matter what you are shooting, but there others that you should try, too.
Composition comes more naturally to some people, but it’s possible for everyone to learn to develop a good eye, using the 5 other common rules of composition below, besides the rule of thirds.
I want to mention symmetry first, because this can be a bit of a tricky one. There’s something very satisfying about things lining up perfectly, and there’s no exception to this in photography. But the thing is, it can be very difficult to make a scene appear perfectly symmetrical. Have you ever tried to get a straight horizon line while hand-holding your camera? Pretty tricky right?
You’ll probably find that unless your image is perfectly symmetrical, your eyes are going to be drawn to the mistake. So in certain situations, rather than forcing perfection, why not break all the rules and go for asymmetry? This tends to break up the scene and make it more pleasant to the eye, building on the rule of thirds.
Rule of odds
As I just mentioned about rule of thirds, asymmetry can be more pleasant to the eye than symmetry. This same idea can be applied to the rule of odds. When photographing a group of visually similar subjects, it looks better when there is an odd number, or an ‘odd one out’. This breaks up the image and gives a point of interest.
This rule doesn’t always have to be applied in terms of numbers either. For example, a group of four objects, though even in number, can be broken up by making one a different colour to the rest. Experiment with different heights, lengths and colours.
Creating frames within a frame
One way to focus the eye on a particular space is to create multiple ‘frames’ within an image, such as shooting a subject through a tree branch so that the outside edges are lined by branches and leaves, creating a type of border for the image. The same framing technique can be used with fences, windows, doorways, archways or anything you can imagine making an attractive border.
The golden triangle
This one may take a little bit of imagination. Much like with our rule of thirds (which involves dividing our scene into 9 even boxes), the golden triangle requires us to split our photo into 3 triangles that contain the same angles, then line our main features up with those lines. These triangles don’t need to be the same size, just as long as they have equal angles.
This rule ties in well with symmetry (or asymmetry) and the golden triangle. Rather than sticking to the stock standard vertical and horizontal placement, why not try orienting your camera to an interesting angle, like in the images below. This works particularly well with images that contain lots of lines, as the eye is still drawn along those lines to a focal point, even if the orientation isn’t quite realistic to how we would normally see it. |
The biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded by humans was the explosion of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, in 1815. It ranked a 7 (or "super-colossal") on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, the second-highest rating in the index.
The gas and other particles spewed high into the atmosphere during the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo reduced global temperatures by about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) during the following year.
Lots of ash
The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo ejected more than 1 cubic mile (5 cubic kilometers) of material into the air and created a column of ash that rose 22 miles (35 km) in the atmosphere.
The largest volcanic blast of the 20th century was the eruption of Novarupta one of a chain of volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire in 1912. It was a 6 (out of a possible 8) on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, one of the most active on Earth, has been erupting continuously for more than 29 years, beginning Jan. 3, 1983.
Kilauea erupted 200 years ago, sending speeding lava flows down its peaks and killing more than 400 people, including Hawaiian warriors. It was the deadliest volcanic eruption on record in what is now the United States.
Kilauea means "spewing" or "much spreading" in Hawaiian.
More than 90 percent of Kilauea's surface is covered by lava less than 1,100 years old.
Stratovolcanoes are tall, steep, conical structures that periodically erupt explosively and are commonly found where one of Earth's plates is subducting below another, producing magma along a particular zone.
The Hawaiian shield volcanoes are the largest mountains on Earth. The total height of Mauna Kea, below and above sea level, is 33,500 feet (10,210 meters), making it taller than even Mount Everest.
The largest volcanoes on Earth are shield volcanoes, which have broad, gentle slopes built by fluid basalt lavas.
Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano is the world's largest active volcano, rising 13,677 feet (4,170 m) above sea level and more than 28,000 feet (8,534 m) from the deep ocean floor. It has a volume of 19,000 cubic miles (80,000 cubic kilometers).
The United States ranks third, behind Indonesia and Japan, in the number of historically active volcanoes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
More than 80 percent of the Earth's surface above and below sea level is of volcanic origin.
Close to home
About 10 percent of the more than 1,500 volcanoes that have erupted in the past 10,000 years are located in the United States, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Still a threat
There are 65 volcanoes in the United States and its territories that scientists consider active, including Mount St. Helens.
Most destructive U.S. eruption
The most destructive eruption in U.S. history was the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens.
During the nine hours that Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the volcano spewed about 540 million tons of ash over an area of more than 22,000 square miles (57,000 square kilometers).
The Mount St. Helens eruptions caused the largest terrestrial landslide in recorded history, reducing the mountain's summit by about 1,300 feet (400 meters).
How it works
The majority of Earth's volcanoes are found on the seafloor, along the mid-ocean ridge a chain of volcanic peaks that rings the planet and the spot where many of Earth's plates spread apart.
The deepest active submarine eruption seen to date is of the volcano West Mata, which lies in the Lau Basin near the islands of Fiji in the southwestern Pacific. It was detected in 2008 and occurred at a depth of 3,900 feet (1,200 meters).
The southernmost active volcano on the planet is Antarctica's Mount Erebus. It is also home to Earth's only long-lived lava lakes.
"Lahar" is an Indonesian word that refers to a type of volcanic flow: a mixture of rock debris and water that originates on the slopes of the volcano. Typically it forms when snow or ice on a volcano is melted by volcanic material.
A pyroclastic flow an avalanche of hot ash, pumice, rock fragments and volcanic gas that rushes down the side of a volcano, staying close to the ground can travel 62 mph (100 kph), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The temperature within a pyroclastic flow may be greater than 932 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius), sufficient to burn and carbonize wood.
The mild eruptions of Italy's Stromboli Volcano are so frequent and numerous that an entire style of volcanism "strombolian" is named after the volcano. Strombolian eruptions have nearly continuous lava fountaining along with emissions of gas, ash and volcanic bombs.
First in history
When Nabro, a stratovolcano in the northeast African nation of Eritrea, rumbled to life late in the evening of June 12, 2011, it was the first eruption of the volcano in recorded history, according to NASA.
There are about 1,500 potentially active volcanoes worldwide, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, not including the continuous belt of volcanoes on the ocean floor.
Hawaiian volcanoes can form a type of volcanic glass called Pele's hair, named for Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes. The long, thin glass threads form as molten basaltic glass stretches out.
Bits of lava in lava fountains can cool quickly to form chunks of gas called Pele's tears. They are black and often found on the end of strands of Pele's hair.
When Pliny the Younger chronicled the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, he ended up lending his name to the explosive type of eruption Vesuvius exhibited: a plinian eruption.
Modern humans have never witnessed a supervolcano eruption. The planet's most recent supervolcano eruption happened about 74,000 years ago in Indonesia.
At Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world.
A volcanic bomb is a lava fragment that is rounded as it flies through the air.
Mount Etna has one of the longest documented histories of activity on Earth. Humans have been noting its eruptions since 1500 B.C.
Sicily's Mount Etna is Italy's most active volcano.
Large and in charge
Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe.
The Yellowstone National Park area overlies the Yellowstone Caldera, an active supervolcano that last erupted many thousands of years ago but still fuels some 10,000 geothermal features (geysers and hot springs) that's half of the world's total.
Phreatic eruptions are stream-driven eruptions that happen when water beneath or above the ground is heated up, potentially causing it to boil and "flash to steam," creating an explosion, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Ring of fire
The infamous Pacific Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes strewn around the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean that produces some of the world's most dramatic and dangerous eruptions. This perimeter is where many plates subduct beneath one another.
Three-quarters of the world
The Pacific Ring of Fire is home to 452 volcanoes that's 75 percent of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.
Largest active in the North
Klyuchevskaya Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula is the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere.
A caldera is the circular depression in the center of a volcano's summit that forms after a big eruption, when the volcano collapses in on itself after spewing out ash, lava and gases.
The simplest type of volcano is a cinder cone, which forms as gas-charged lava is thrown into the air, breaks into smaller pieces called cinders and falls around a volcanic vent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
In 1943 a cinder cone started growing on a farm near the Mexican village of Parícutin, eventually rising to a height of 1,200 feet (366 meters). During its nine years of erupting, the volcano covered about 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) with ashes and destroyed the town of San Juan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Ol Doinyo Langai in Tanzania is the only volcano in the world that erupts what is called natrocarbonatite lava, which is rich in calcium, sodium and potassium but low in silica (silicon dioxide). Its lava is extremely cool (for lava) and unusually fluid.
Active in Alaska
Alaska's volcanoes make up well over three-quarters of the U.S. volcanoes that have erupted in the last 200 years, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Alaska has 50 volcanoes that have been active in historic times.
Most activity, historically
The most active volcano on Earth is Mount Yasur on Tanna Island, part of the archipelago nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. It has been erupting nearly continuously for 111 years.
The volcanic rock pumice is the only rock that can float in water. It is usually gray and full of bubbly holes, which form when hot gases jet furiously out of the rock as it cools.
Beauty from chaos
Ash and gases spewed by volcanic eruptions can color sunsets because the material adds more obstacles through which incoming sunlight has to pass before reaching our eyes. The effect accentuates the sky light toward the red end of the spectrum. |
Were the Nazi leaders literally mad?
In 1945, U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley landed "a plum assignment, a rendezvous with the men widely regarded as the worst criminals of the century." In preparation for the Nuremberg Trials, Kelley had to determine the mental fitness of Nazi leaders charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kelley also had a private agenda. He aimed to plumb the prisoners' psychic depths in search of a "Nazi personality" — a diagnosable root to their abominable acts.
"We must learn the why of the Nazi success," he later wrote, "so we can take steps to prevent the recurrence of such evil."
Most prominent among his subjects: Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo, commander of the Luftwaffe and at one time Hitler's heir apparent. In captivity, Goering proved voluble and charming, and Kelley found him an intensely stimulating personality. But he didn't hesitate to declare Goering "an aggressive, narcissistic individual" indifferent to the suffering of others. Ruthless, selfish, preposterously self-aggrandizing. But not mad. And not terribly unlike a common portion of humanity, given the chance.
Kelley went further: "There are people even in America who would willingly climb over the corpses of half of the American public if they could gain control of the other half." He pointed to white supremacists in Congress and governors' mansions in the Deep South who exploited racial myths "in the same fashion as did Hitler and his cohorts." In an era of postwar triumph, his conclusions were not enthusiastically embraced.
But proximity to evil alters people. Kelley's view of human nature grew darker over the years, fueled by his immersion in the field of criminology and his manic professional schedule. In the end (as we're told in the book's opening chapter), Kelley killed himself in the same fashion as his prize subject. Goering swallowed cyanide rather than endure hanging as a common criminal; Kelley poisoned himself in his family home with his wife and children as witnesses.
More evocative than the copious rendering of Kelley's postwar life is the portrait of the Nazis awaiting trial. Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy — "hysterically deviant, paranoid, emotionally stunted and deluded in his view of the Third Reich as a heroic regime." Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the highest-ranking SS officer in captivity, who "crumbled into spells of depression and fits of weeping." Julius Streicher, the anti-Semitic propagandist, who "established a cordial relationship with the incognito Jewish translator Howard Triest, whom he characterized as 'the perfect Nordic.' "
"I can smell a Jew a mile away," Streicher assured Triest — a wry bit of evidence that one needn't be insane to be a monstrous fool.
Fred Setterberg is the author of "Lunch Bucket Paradise: A True-Life Novel." |
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Insomnia is a very common sleep disorder, that affects millions of people globally. According to the National Sleep Foundation, approximately 50% of adults had some features of insomnia at one point of life. This type of disorder distinguish itself with difficulties in falling or staying asleep. It can last from few days (transient type) to several weeks (chronic condition). It may lead to several dangerous consequences, such as depression, irritability, memory loss and even cardiovascular diseases. This type of sleep disorder can be triggered on different ways and the most common ones include restless legs syndrome (RLS), use of certain drugs or medications, hormone levels abnormalities (potentially due to endocrine disorders) and painful conditions or injuries.
Human organism needs from 6 to 8 hours of sleep in order to rest and regenerate, assuming that sleep was high quality. According to the 3 major criteria provided by DSM-5, insomnia is a state, during which one cannot either fall asleep, maintain a sleep (due to frequent awakening) or stay asleep early in the morning. As a result, organism do not receive proper quality and quantity of sleep, which further may result in dangerous consequences, especially if insomnia is prolonged. What is interesting, some studies show higher prevalence of insomnia among females.
There are three major types of this sleep disorder:
- Transient insomnia – this type lasts for a few days, but no more than one week. It can be caused by e.g. stress, change of sleeping environment or habits and depression.
- Acute insomnia – also known as stress related or short term insomnia, which is present for at least one week, but no longer than one month.
- Chronic insomnia – the most dangerous one, which lasts for longer than one month. Most of those incidents are caused by underlying condition, rather than psychological or environmental factors. It might lead to double vision (diplopia), fatigue, muscle weakness and even hallucinations.
Causes of insomnia
This type of condition can be triggered by many various factors or conditions, however, almost 50% of the cases do not have one particular cause. Nevertheless, most common ones include changes in everyday habits or sleep environment, stress and inadequate use of certain drugs or medications. Although insomnia can affect people regardless of age and sex, there are few factors that increase the risk. The disease is more prevalent in elderly above 60 years of age and among women. Mental disorders, work at night shifts, drugs abuse and travelling (especially between time zones) may trigger this condition as well.
Insomnia may appear as a consequence of:
- Circadian rhythm change – for instance different sleep environment, work at night shifts, excessive computer or office work, noise and too high or low air temperature.
- Use of certain medications or drugs – such as caffeine, alcohol, methylphenidate, corticosteroids, beta blockers and statins.
- Painful conditions or injuries – which results in inability to fall asleep, lie in comfortable position or to sustain the sleep.
- Medical conditions – they include e.g. restless legs syndrome, brain tumors, angina, asthma and certain endocrine disorders.
- Mental disorders – such as bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia and ADHD.
In some cases, medical intervention is not required. Home remedies can be very helpful and include lifestyle adjustments, such as regular exercises, caffeine and alcohol restrictions, maintaining proper sleep schedule and avoiding television or working before bedtime. Regular skin exposure to sunlight might also be profitable, since it helps to produce melatonin, a substance which greatly improve sleeping. |
By Kelsi Matylewicz/Benco Dental Social Media Intern
Children’s fear of the dentist might be a learned trait from their parents, according to a study done by Delta Dental.
The Delta Dental Plans Association survey shared some information on the participants and the results:
* Parents with children 12 and under: Nearly half (48 percent) of parents say they are nervous about going to the dentist, and roughly the same number (47 percent) of their children share the sentiment.
* While moms (55 percent) are more nervous than dads (40 percent) prior to their own dental appointment, they tend to have an easier time getting their kids to go to the dentist. Nineteen percent of moms say it’s one of the hardest things to do vs. 37 percent of dads.
The study also showed that 30% of children are fearful of going to the dentist. This is not all learned from parents. Other reasons children are nervous: a painful visit, a lengthy appointment in the past, additional dental work on the horizon, or a dentist the child does not like.
Delta Dental offers some tips to help make children’s dental visits more comfortable:
- Start taking your children to the dentist at a young age. Preferably six months of getting the first tooth—and no later than the first birthday.
- Talk positively. If children ask questions before a visit to the dentist, avoid using words that could make them scared. Avoid saying the dentist won’t hurt them; try to assure them the dentist will check their smile and their teeth.
- Children like to play games. Play dentist at home, have them open their mouth and count their teeth. Then, tell them to practice on their stuffed animals.
- Call ahead and let your dentist know your child is nervous about an upcoming visit.
For more information, read: https://www.deltadental.com/Public/NewsMedia/NewsReleaseKidsHighAnxietyFromParents201503.jsp |
Happy New Binary Year 2015
A Palindrome Year happens when the year date can be read the same way backwards and forwards.
The numbers are similar to word palindromes in that they are symmetrical.
In binary 2015 = 11111011111 so…
We made a folded greeting card. Inside the left side we wrote 11111 and the half of a 0. On the right side there is a “mirror paper”. When you open the card, the mirror paper on the right side reflects the numbers of the left side in order to read the second half of the 0 and 11111.
When you look at the 2 sides you can read 11111011111, which mean 2015 in binary! |
On Saturday morning, Historyapolis will again team up with James Eli Shiffer to lead a Preserve Minneapolis tour of the lost Gateway district of Minneapolis. This will be our third year doing the tour, which poses some challenges since we have to re-create a world that no longer exists. To be successful, this expedition into the past demands the active participation of tour-goers, who have to make heavy use of their historical imaginations. If you’re willing to do some work and some walking, click on this link and join us for the fun.
For some people at least, the effort is worthwhile. This lost world holds riches for anyone interested in understanding the city in all of its seamy complexity.
The infamous Gateway, which became the region’s largest skid row around World War I, began to disappear under the bulldozers in 1959. That was the year the city launched its massive, federally-funded effort to redevelop downtown. When the dust settled, the city had flattened 40 percent of the central business district. City planners envisioned a futuristic cluster of skyscrapers rising from the rubble.
Some new, modern buildings did appear, like this structure constructed by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who also was the architect of the World Trade Center in New York City, it was the pride and joy of the city’s urban planners.
But the clear-cut area was dominated by surface parking lots which are only now starting to be developed, more than 50 years after the wrecking balls did their work.
Before it was flattened, the district was known for everything that city boosters hated. Minneapolis was built on a river and tied to the power of water. But its founders imagined it as a “city on a hill”: a model metropolis with no urban problems. This civic ideal persisted, despite the regular intrusion of reality. But it was the Gateway–perhaps more than anything else –that constantly challenged the city’s claim to be an urban paragon.
In the historic heart of the city, the alcohol flowed freely, the idlers wiled away their days in the park and on the sidewalks; the prostitutes were brazen; men sought sexual encounters with other men; the buildings were dilapidated and vermin-ridden; the communists and Wobblies called for the overthrow of capitalism and the American political system. Its flophouses sheltered people not welcome elsewhere. In these squalid conditions, a community took shape that included exhausted lumberjacks and harvest hands; alcoholics wanting to drink out their last years in peace; Chinese men seeking respite from West Coast racial violence; Native Americans looking for anonymity in the big city.
During the Great Depression, the district drew journalists and photographers who wanted to document the human suffering of the economic crisis. Photographers from the Farm Security Administration–like Russell Lee who shot the image of men in Gateway Park that is featured at the top of this post–immortalized Gateway denizens as the urban counterparts to Dorothea Lange’s migrant workers. And when a reporter from Fortune magazine visited the city in 1936 to investigate the origins of the Truckers’ Strike, which had been organized by Trotskyites but supported by thousands of working-class Minneapolitans, he concluded it was from the Gateway that “the revolution” so feared by many Americans “would come.”
The Gateway distilled the city’s social problems, concentrating them in a few overcrowded blocks that offered adventure, oblivion and community. Here was everything the city wanted to hide. Which is why a close examination of this one neighborhood reveals so much about Minneapolis.
It is this symbolic power of the Gateway that fascinates me. But for James, it is the culture and stories of Skid Row that draws him to this lost world. He has just completed a new history of the Gateway–which will be published by the University of Minnesota Press–that uses vivid storytelling and description to transport readers to this world in its twilight moments. The narrative centers on the life of John Bacich, aka Johnny Rex, the self-appointed “King” of Skid Row. Bacich owned a bar and liquor store and flophouse in the Gateway. He also had a documentary impulse and shot home movies of these venues right before they were demolished. This footage was incorporated into a 1998 TPT documentary which James happened upon several years ago. Inspired to track down Bacich, James spent three years interviewing him before his death in 2012.
Beyond the Bacich footage, there is rich visual documentation of the Gateway, which has attracted generations of artists, documentarians and city planners. Over the course of the week to come, I’ll share some of my favorite of these images, which never fail to transport me to world that is utterly foreign to modern Minneapolitans. |
Legal translation and interpretation are specific sectors in the industry. They require significant knowledge not only of the source and target language but also of the legal systems of both countries. In most of the cases, the people who work as legal translators are jurist with a diploma in the field of law and significant experience.
Each country and institution have specific requirements to their legal interpreters and translators. Some prefer to work with in-house personnel while others employ established freelancers or contract specialized service language providers. The Court of Justice of the European Union, for example, employs only jurists who have completed their education in law and who have a thorough knowledge of at least two languages other than their mother tongue. The people working there are called lawyer-linguists and are in charge of translating highly technical legal texts.
In the USA there are no universal requirements for legal translation, each jurisdiction or institution may impose its own rules. There may be requirements as to the qualification of the interpreter or translation, necessity to present certain form of certification or other evidence proving their abilities to work in the field.
Where do legal interpreters and translators work?
It is good to differentiate between the job of the legal interpreter and that of the legal translator. In order to decide which service, you should know know:
- Legal interpreters work with the spoken word – they render oral content from one language into the other. Legal interpreters can work in courtrooms, companies, government institutions, NGOs. They can be used for over-the-phone interpreting services (OPI) or for video remote interpreting (VRI). Legal interpreters can provide simultaneous interpretation as seen during meetings of the United Nations or consecutive interpretation as seen in a courtroom when a witness/lawyer/judge makes pauses in their speech to provide room for interpretation in the target language.
- Legal translators work with written texts. They can translate court documents, patents, contracts, medical documentation. The focus of their work is to provide the most accurate and faithful translation of the content so that the translated text will be understood by legal experts the same way it is understood in the source language.
It is not correct to assume that only courts or law office employ legal interpreters and translators. While they mainly help with court proceedings, the professionals are also needed during witness interrogations at police stations or facilitating oral and written communication between businesses.
A company, that strives to expand globally will need to have its website translated and localized along with the description of its services and products. An important part of the document translation is the translation of sales contracts, user manuals or other technical documentation. Here, the knowledge of the legal requirements and their proper incorporation in the text are of a paramount importance.
How can professional legal interpretation/translation save you millions?
When it comes to legal translation, a single word can make or break a case. Both interpreters and translators of legal content strive for accuracy and high quality and focus on the specific cultural differences of each legal system.
They are aware of the proper translation of contract names, acts or regulations, so that there is no misunderstanding. One of the important tasks of the professional is to avoid ambiguity in the text. Nobel prize winner Günter Grass described the process of translation saying that “Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes.” This can be applied to legal translation and interpretation to show the important role they play.
There are many cases, when an improper translation caused a company to pay millions to remedy the mistake. Mistranslating even a single word can cause havoc and even lead to lawsuits.
Some words which are treated as synonyms in English may have different meaning in another language that can twist the entire content. This is the case with warranty and guarantee, which can be substituted in English but have different power when translated into German. While the guarantee is an obligatory cause included in a contract, warranty is optional and depends on the decision of the seller whether to include it as a cause or not. Now, imagine that you have to market a new product in Germany and the sales contract is improperly translated to accommodate guarantee instead of warranty in German? You may end up buried with consumer requests to compensate them for a product, which you have not initially envisaged in your English version.
Therefore, it is important to hire a professional when it comes to translation and interpretation of legal content. Only an experienced legal translator and interpreter will provide you with a literate rather than literal or verbatim translation. Your initial investment in a quality translation service will pay back on the long run.
Three important factors of legal translation
When we speak of legal translation, there are three factors that are quite important, whether the translator works for a governmental institution, court or international corporation. These are:
A qualified legal translator can provide a timely service that offers a high-quality final product. Speed shall not compromise the accuracy and clarity of the translated text. It should be just an additional plus that a translation company or freelancer can offer. In many cases, there are time constraints for the submission of the translated text, which are quite important. Hence, if you are to hire a pro for your next patent translation, for example, make sure that they can offer accurate and clearly translated text done within a reasonable timeframe.
The main takeaway is that legal translation and interpretation are a very specific part of the industry that requires a highly professional approach. Do not risk by trusting your import legal documents into the hands of inexperienced or unprofessional “translators.” Make sure that you get a quality service that won’t require remedies afterwards. |
Today’s post is by contributing editor David Korostyshevsky, a history PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota.
It was a cloudy, rainy, late-March week in West Lafayette, Indiana when I first encountered Purdue University’s Psychoactive Substances Research Collection (PSRC). Maintained by the university library’s Archives and Special Collections, the PSRC offers the papers of important figures in American psychedelic research, from American LSD studies during the 1960s to the resurgence of international medical and scientific research about psychedelic substances during the 1990s. The collection also boasts an incredible shelf list of psychedelic science literature dating to the 1950s, including books, periodicals, and newsletters.
The collection was founded in 2006 with the support of the Betsy Gordon Foundation. Its origins are linked to the work of Purdue pharmacologist David Nichols, who played an important role in the resumption of psychedelic research science in the early 1990s. When Rick Strassman, a psychiatrist at the University of New Mexico, received government approval to test the effects of DMT and psilocybin on human subjects in 1993, Nichols synthesized the drugs in his laboratory. He is also co-founder of the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit institution that continues to support research on the neuroscience of the mind, the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs, and the connection between body, mind, and consciousness. These events are well covered by the extensive David Nichols Papers and Rick Strassman Papers.
Today, the collection boasts a wide-range of personal papers representing a veritable who’s who in psychedelic research science. In addition the David Nichols Papers, the collection also includes substantial materials from the central figures in American psychedelic research since the 1950s. Highlights include documentation of LSD experimentation at Spring Grove Hospital in Maryland (Charles Savage and Sanford Unger Papers), the Harvard Psilocybin Project (which was led by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert), the work of Johns Hopkins University researcher William Richards, and the Hollywood Hospital LSD research program and lecture notes.
The collection also includes the papers of other prominent figures within the orbit of twentieth-century psychedelic science such as anthropologist Marlene Dobkin de Rios, mushroom enthusiast John W. Allen, transpersonal psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, and ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna. The PSRC also contains a scattering of letters by figures such as Albert Hofman (discoverer of LSD) and writer Aldous Huxley as well as materials related to research on other psychedelic substances such as DMT, MDMA, and ibogaine.
In addition to archival materials, the collection also offers oral history films on its website and extensive documentation of other archives related to psychedelic science on its website. And, of course, the shelf list of published literature about psychedelics drugs is, in and of itself, a tremendous resource offered by the collection.
There are also several points of historical interest that are unrelated to the history of alcohol, drugs, and psychedelic science in the area that historians ought to know about. Just outside West Lafayette are Prophetstown and the Tippecanoe battlefield and memorial. During the early nineteenth century, tensions rose between the US government and the Native American confederacy led by Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, a religious figure known as The Prophet. Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison responded with a force of approximately one thousand men. Government soldiers and the Native American confederacy met on the field of battle on November 7, 1811. While Tecumseh was not present at the battle, Harrison’s army decisively defeated Tenskwatawa’s men and burned their headquarters at Prophetstown to the ground. Academic historians may take umbrage at how the memorial portrays Native Americans and the wider implications of the battle: their loss is made to seem inevitable and their actions are often described with passive voice. But due to these sites’ significance in the early history of the United States and the beauty of their natural surroundings, they are not to be missed.
The PRSC is also a pleasant place to conduct research. The library staff are friendly and helpful, the Virginia Kelly Karnes Reading Room is very comfortable, and the finding aids are some of the best I have ever encountered. For more information about conducting research at the PSRC, contact the France A. Córdova Archivist Stephanie Schmitz, who, along with the staff, made my visit enjoyable and productive. |
A new report examines the potential impact that emerging technology may have on employment in the manufacturing sector in Peterborough, Northumberland, Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton.
Released by the Workforce Development Board / Local Employment Planning Council (WDB / LEPC) – a non-profit organization funded by the federal and provincial governments – the publication is focused on gaining a better understanding of how technological advancements could shape employment prospects in the area.
It examines more than 30 emerging technologies – such as self-driving vehicles, 3-D printing, augmented/virtual reality, nanotechnology and drones – and ranks the potential impact they could have.
From the research carried out during the project, which included a comprehensive literature review and consultations with area employers, it seems unlikely that impending technological changes in manufacturing will have a drastic negative impact in the near future.
“Changes in the manufacturing industry are focused on incremental, nondisruptive, changes,” the report reads.
To download a copy of the report in English, click HERE.
To download a copy of the report in French, click HERE. |
Canada’s Local Histories Online
A useful resource for the Canadian family historian is Our Roots, a website sponsored by the University of Calgary, Laval University and the Government of Canada.
Our Roots is a library, archive, museum and school all in one. The collection features scanned versions of Canadian local histories in French and English. There are also Educational Resources for learning packages for students and teachers.
I recently used the resource to access a local history publication featuring a small town in Saskatchewan, near where my grandparents had farmed. An article written by my grandmother was featured in the publication. She mentioned many family members and neighbours and various activities that occurred over a time period of fifty years. She also mentioned the birthdates of her parents and where they lived. Local histories such as these can greatly aid the genealogist in their research.
Access to Our Roots is free upon registration. |
Modality is a toolkit to improve and facilitate the use of digital technology within sound art and music, based on the audio programming language SuperCollider.
The Modality toolkit aims to facilitate the following:
- Access to data coming from commercial controllers, such as game controllers (human input devices? HID), MIDI controllers, OSC controllers (including mobile phone Apps), and other controllers, by providing a common interface to access these controllers. This includes creating specification files which characterize these devices.
- Access to data coming from custom/DIY controllers/interfaces, such as Arduino (or other microcontroller) based sensor interfaces, linking into the same common interface as above.
- Send output to these same controllers/interfaces.
- Graphical feedback of the current state of a device, as well as a possibility to replace a controller with a graphical user interface (GUI) substitute.
- Manipulation of data streams coming from these devices.
- Mapping the output of these data streams to output parameters of sound units.
Specific attention is given to the concept of modal control: the ability to – ‘onthefly’, during a performance – change the mapping of one control of a device to a control on another device, or change the functionality of one control based on the state of another control (compare to changing the function of an alphanumerical key by using the SHIFT key on a computer keyboard).
During the workshop participants will learn how to use the toolkit, create their own instruments using the toolkit, and play together to evaluate the instruments. The public workshop is a “hands-on” workshop, where participants learn to use the toolkit
During the workshop they will create a first instrument with the toolkit, based on their own controllers.
Day 1 – Workshop
Introduction to the toolkit:
- Presentation of the overall goal of the Modality project, and the toolkit.
- Accessing devices and using data from devices.
- Exploring data coming from devices by looking at graphical representations of the data, and mapping it to simple sound units.
- Mapping out the devices (writing the specification files) of the participants of the workshop, in case their devices are not yet specified (contributing to the library of known devices).
- Manipulation of data streams
- Defining output parameter spaces
- Creating a first simple instrument
Day 2 and 3 – Open Lab
Under the guidance of the Modality Work Group, each participant will be able to work on his or her own instrument, and use and play it along with the other participants.
The Modality Work Group consists of:
Jeff Carey, Bjørnar Habbestad, Alberto de Campo, Marije Baalman, Wouter Snoei, Hannes Hölzl, Miguel Negrão & Till Bovermann : all artists and developers and experts in the SuperCollider audio programming language, particularly with a focus on live performance with controllers and interactive environments.
- 3rd of April (Workshop)
- 4th & 5th of April (Open Lab)
- €50 (Workshop)
- €100 (Workshop & Open Lab)
- €60 (Open Lab, basic familiarity with the toolkit is required)
- 10:00 / 17:00
- 10:00 / 16:00 for the last day of the Open Lab
- STEIM Concert Space, Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam
THE WORKSHOP AND OPEN LAB IS LIMITED TO 15 PARTICIPANTS!
- link (Please indicate if you want to register for the Workshop, Open Lab or both)
Participants should bring their own laptops (with SuperCollider) and controllers, and have a basic familiarity with SuperCollider.
Funding from: Creative Industry Fund |
Foil and Scratch Art - craft ideas for kids
Scratch Art is a firm favourite craft activity for children - using the special scraper tool to etch designs by revealing the coloured layer below. Foil art is where you peel off the label to reveal a sticky area, put the coloured foil on and using a tool rub over the foil to stick it to the area. Beautiful eye catching illustrations, especially the Djeco Foil Art Collection, result in works of art which deserve to be displayed.
Items 1-24 of 53 |
Great Zimbabwe is a World Heritage site located in the central plateau of Zimbabwe. It is 27 km southeast of the city of Masvingo which happens to be the oldest town in Zimbabwe. It is the cradle of the Zimbabwe dry-stone architecture in the Southern African region.
The Great Zimbabwe monument consists of a maze of dry-stone structures, evidence of great pre-colonial architectural poesy which the builders had. The amazing structures act as evidence of the exploitation of the vast wealth used in the construction of the walls. The Great Zimbabwe site today can actually be subdivided into three major sections which happens to be the Hill Complex, the Valley Structures and the Great Enclosure.
The Hill Complex is right on top of the sacred kopje and is made up of roughly four elaborate enclosures. Cultural materials retrieved by archaeologists date back to the 12th century and the materials all points to the residence of the royal rulers/leaders. The Hill Complex consists of walls which were used as fortresses to protect and safeguard the elite rulers. The entrance which is located on the eastern side of the Royal enclosure is actually the last original entrance. The Kings actually lived in this enclosure and the hut floor remains can actually be seen. A spacious enclosure which is on the eastern-side of the hill is believed to have served as the ritual enclosure or prayer house of that time. Six of the well-celebrated soapstone carvings of the Zimbabwean (Hungwe- African fish eagle) birds were found in this very enclosure. The birds a believed to have been carved to signify the royal importance and powers of the Kings and as a result, these very carving are historically and spiritually significant to the nation at large. The soapstone birds (now housed in the site museum) were traditionally placed on the spacious altars in this ritual enclosure. A well-defined bench were an audience would sit during ceremonies stretches from the eastern the southern side of the very enclosure.
Traditionally the hill was accessed using two alternative routes, the so-called traditional ascend and the alternate Watergate path. The traditional path is about 460m long and it actually gives panoramic views of the surroundings. One can actually see the nearby Great Zimbabwe Hotel, the spacious campsite on the foot of the hill, the Nemamwa primary school and the Mutirikwi dam. The Watergate path was traditionally used as the way to a stream that used to flow on the foot of the hill complex. This Watergate path is no longer in use today, it has been substituted by the modern path which is gradual and more convenient for visitors. The modern path is more gradual and connects to a Curio shop which is selling light refreshments and some locally made crafts and curios, making it a befitting refreshment and rest place after the tour of the hill complex.
The other place of great interest is the Great Enclosure which happens to be the most spectacular structure at the site. It stands 255m in circumference, the highest parts reaches 11m and the broader base reaches 6m wide. This amazing structure is actually the second largest pre-historic structure in the whole of Africa, second only after the Egyptian pyramids. Pillars of royal dominants can actually be seen on the top of the outer wall of this enclosure. From the northern side, the Great Enclosure is accessed using the parallel passage which is believed to have been used by initiates who would be going for the pre-marital lessons which were conducted in this very enclosure. The parallel passage actually leads one to the conical tower which used to be printed on the Zimbabwean dollar coin. According to historians, the tower signified the abundant royal wealth of the builders. Archaeologists however rather believe that it was a sign of the great architectural skill which they had acquired with time. The solid conical tower stands at present 12m high, the base circumference is 26m and the tipping of all stone courses is roughly a centimeter apart. A spacious initiation center is on the north-western side of the tower and a daga initiation altar is under a thatch for conservation and preservation purposes.
The Valley Structures consist of numerous enclosures that traditionally housed the royal people. Today there isn’t much to admire in the valley area because most of the walls declined as a result of the uncontrolled growth of vegetation just after demise of Great Zimbabwe civilization in the 16th century. Of interest rather is the model village which was set to showcase and celebrate the local heritage and talents in terms of soapstone curving, basket making, clay pot making as well as music and dance. The village is on the outer-eastern side of the monument such that it does not distort the traditional feel of the monument. There are pole and daga huts with a grass thatch build as an imitation of the ancient structures which were build inside the stone-walling at Great Zimbabwe. There are groups of people that offers traditional music and dance while some do the carvings and demonstrate the clay pot making. There is also a shaman, an African magician who can actual foretell the future even for tourists. The village is just there as a revival center of the fast vanishing Shona culture.
Alien yet well blending to the site of Great Zimbabwe is the Curio-shop and a site museum all located at the heart of the site. The museum houses some of the artifacts archaeologically retrieved from the site. Of paramount importance in this museum are the eight soapstone birds. One of these eight soapstone sculptures is actually the Zimbabwean emblem on the flag. Seven of the sculptures are original and only one of them is a replica of its original. There is a wide collection of exhibits in this site museum which includes the gold which they had, evidence of cotton weaving and spinning as well regional and international trade. The museum has written texts narrating the history of the site as a whole.
With all this, the Great Zimbabwe site stands as one of the most visited sites in Zimbabwe. A team of well trained and articulate tour guides are always available to serve and guide all visitors. It is to one’s advantage to visit this colossal Zimbabwean shrine which makes the genesis of the Zimbabwe traditions and the distinctive Shona civilizations. |
Friendship House was built in the mid 1700s on a site overlooking Nanjemoy Creek in western Charles County by a member of the Dent family. The "Friendship" Dents were actually involved in their community, serving in prominent positions in county and state government.
Friendship House has a unique architectural style originating in medieval England. Features such as a steep pitch of the roof and the Hall and Parlor design with timber framing were common to the houses of prosperous English farmers.
Friendship House is typical of a Tidewater settler's house from the 1700s.
(Image of an interior wall.
An example of brick noggin was left exposed in the house.
The original house was constructed in two stages, the first stage consisting of a Hall that served as a living, dining, and perhaps bedroom and above it, a small Bedroom Chamber. A stone walled, earthen floor cellar was immediately beneath the Hall. Later, two other rooms were added, a downstairs Parlor and a second upstairs Bedroom Chamber.
Original construction was brick noggin for exterior walls. Clapboard was added at a later date with a layer of mud for insulation between the brick noggin and the clapboard. Wood shingles were used for the roofing, probably replacing an original marsh grass roof.
for the Southern Maryland Heritage Area Consortium and the College of Southern Maryland Foundation.)
This sign is made possible by the Southern Maryland Heritage Area Consortium, the Maryland Heritage Authority and the CSM Foundation. |
*We are the Amazon Partner and students can purchase the books shown on this page. We are also providing an authentic solution manual, formulated by our SMEs, for the same.A native speaker of Chinese knows 5,000 to 10,000 characters. For English speakers, that fact alone summarizes the challenges of learning Chinese! To succeed in mastering Chinese characters, there are 3 secrets: learners need to begin with the most useful characters, study them in the most effective order, and use repetition galore. Flash cards are ideal for this, and Learning Chinese Characters Flash Cards offers the learner the right characters in the right learning order. This complete kit contains a full range of features to help beginners master the most essential 349 characters, plus 1,396 words and sentences using them. The set covers the required characters on the HSK Elementary Level exam. The HSK exam is China's standardized test of Chinese proficiency for non-native speakers, required for any foreigner to study or work in Chinese universities or firms.
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Creating a well-crafted data visualization is a hands-on process. Challenge yourself with this series of real-world data visualization scenarios in Processing, an open-source drawing and development environment. Barton Poulson, author of the companion Interactive Data Visualization with Processing course, reinforces core concepts with mini-projects that help you practice drawing and interacting with data. A comprehensive challenge at the end of the course shows how to take data from a spreadsheet to a full-fledged online, interactive experience.
(music playing) Hi, I'm Bart Poulson. This is a companion course to interactive data visualization with processing, here in the Lynda.com online training library. The challenges in this course are divided into a few sections. Each building on a few chapters from the processing course. At the end of this series of videos, you'll find a large project that incorporates a wide array of the concepts introduced throughout the processing course. Let's get started.
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Access exercise files from a button right under the course name.
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Naval General Service Medal, with bar for Gluckstadt 5 Jan 1814, awarded to Mid. John P. Brouncker 1848Image["Naval General Service Medal, 1848"]
Obverse, a bust of Queen VictoriaImage["Naval General Service Medal, 1848"]
Reverse, Britannia with a trident seated sideways on a seahorse
Naval General Service Medal, 1848 (Napoleonic Wars)
Just as in 1848 the extensive land campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars and the other conflicts of the pre-Victorian era were recognised by the issue of the
Military General Service Medal, those serving in the Navy at the time were recognised with the Naval General Service Medal. As with the
Army equivalent and the
East India Company's related award, many of the battles for which the medal was awarded had been fought so long ago that few if any claimants survived.
In addition, bars were awarded for many actions whose significance and size were, despite the heroism displayed by those involved, relatively minor. The result was that many of the bars were issued in tiny numbers, with some combinations all but unique, and the medals command a very high price among collectors because of this rarity and individuality. This in turn, along with the manufacture in most cases of more bars than were eventually issued, has led to the `improvement' of many common awards where recipients' names are shared with those present at `rarer' battles. The medal also shares with the Military General Service and Army of India Medals the oddity that Queen Victoria, whose portrait they bear, was not the ruler under whom the battles for which it was awarded were fought.
By 1814 the land campaign against Napoleon I's France, now fighting alone except for some contingents troops from the Confederation of the Rhine, was clearly defeated. Despite numerous rallying battles by Napoleon the Allied advance on Paris was unstoppable. Meanwhile the British Navy commenced the breaking down of the further walls of Napoleon's `Fortress Europe' that they had for so long blockaded. As part of this effort, on 5 January 1814 a squadron of 5 ships and 8 gunboats under Captain A. Farquhar in the frigate HMS Desirée forced entry into the town of Gluckstadt, in Schleswig-Holstein, and demolished its fortifications. 45 NGSMs were awarded with bars for this action in 1848.
This example was awarded to Midshipman John P. Brouncker of the Desirée. His medal has suffered somewhat, and was at some point in its history mounted as a brooch, but his service in the campaign is verified and the Medals Roll confirms the award of the piece to him. Lester Watson bought it from the dealer Gifford at some point before 1928; it had previously been sold at Sotheby's in November 1910. |
Front Royal: Understanding Water Scarcity
Understanding Water Scarcity and Practical Steps You Cana Take Today to Be Part of the Solution
Most of us consider water shortages and issues accessing clean, fresh drinking water as problems that impact dry areas of the country, especially California and the southwest. We typically don’t think of them affecting places like Front Royal, VA. But, as we’ve seen in places like South Africa and Flint, MI, water shortages and safety and accessibility concerns are realities that threaten more than just desert cities or developing nations.
As we’ll explore, these issues are not contained to specific regions, but rather present an emerging problem for communities all over the country, and the globe. These issues present an emerging problem for communities all over the country
These issues present an emerging problem for communities all over the country
Water Shortage Facts: What Causes Water Scarcity?
Water scarcity refers to any region experiencing prolonged problems either accessing or distributing fresh, potable drinking water. Areas face water shortages for different reasons, so what may be responsible for the Cape Town, South Africa water shortage, may not represent issues facing other communities. However, there are several main factors that contribute to water scarcity universally:
- Climate Change: As global weather patterns shift with a warming climate, rivers, reservoirs, snowpack, and other sources of water communities generally rely on are drying up.
- Population Growth: As cities and towns grow, so do their water needs. In areas that aren’t prepared for this growth, or the amount of growth, it can lead to stressed water infrastructure and issues managing the water supply effectively.
- Infrastructure: Water infrastructure plays a role in how well, and how safely, water gets into our homes and apartments. In many parts of the United States, these systems are aging, or haven’t had sufficient updates and maintenance to ensure they’re working properly and providing the safest possible water quality. In other parts of the world, establishing an efficient, effective water distribution system also presents major challenges for communities.
Water Shortages in the United States
Los Angeles and most of southern California have a long history of drought, and as climate change and population growth intensify, more major cities could face a potential water crisis. Studies predict the most affected regions will be major metropolitan areas in the west and southwest, namely Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, as well as Montana and Virginia, states that already experience seasonal water shortages.
Water Scarcity Effects in Communities
Water scarcity and shortages can cause a variety of serious issues. Since we rely on water for basic hygiene, whenever our access to water is reduced or interrupted, there is a possibility that our health can be impacted. In developing countries and communities that regularly experience water shortages, we know that disease, hunger, and sanitation issues are regularly the result of water scarcity.
Water Shortage Solutions
Solving water scarcity starts at home, with each of us — by being more aware of the water we use every day, and making efforts to reduce how much we waste. Taking shorter showers, fixing faucet leaks or dripping plumbing immediately, halving the time we water our lawns (or replacing grass with drought-resistant plants), only running the dishwasher when it’s full, and reusing shower or bath water for house plants are just a few small steps that can add up to a big impact.
On a broader scale, communities can focus on recycling and reclaiming rain and storm water, improving farming practices and technology for greater water efficiency, and properly maintaining sewage and water main systems so water isn’t wasted unnecessarily. Cities can also follow Los Angeles’ lead by regulating residential and commercial use to incentivize populations to reduce water usage and prevent additional water stress.
Looking for more ideas to help with the effects of water scarcity? Culligan of Front Royal offers free water testing and a variety of high-efficiency water appliances to help you maximize your water savings. Contact your local Culligan Man today to learn more. |
A team led by Michelle Y. Simmons, who spoke on “Atomic-scale device fabrication in silicon” at the 2007 Productive Nanosystems: Launching the Technology Roadmap conference, which introduced the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, has succeeded in the atomically precise placement of a transistor consisting of a single atom of phosphorous between source and drain electrodes and gate electrodes all made from phosphorous wires only a few atoms wide. A YouTube video illustrating this working transistor of a single atom of phosphorous placed with atomic precision on a silicon crystal includes an STM image that shows the single phosphorous atom placed several tens of rows of silicon atoms from source and drain electrodes of phosphorous that appear to be about 10 rows of atoms wide. To manufacture the phosphorous transistor and electrodes, a scanning tunneling microscope was used to remove precisely determined hydrogen atoms from the passivating layer covering a silicon crystal to form a mask that was then used to apply phosphorous atoms to the vacancies created. An overlay of silicon atoms then preserved these phosphorous nanostructures. The accomplishment is described in a NY Times article by John Markoff, which describes both the place of this work in the progression of Moore’s Law and its potential for a new generation of quantum computers: “Physicists Create a Working Transistor From a Single Atom“:
Australian and American physicists have built a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.
The group of physicists, based at the University of New South Wales and Purdue University, said they had laid the groundwork for a futuristic quantum computer that might one day function in a nanoscale world and would be orders of magnitude smaller and quicker than today’s silicon-based machines. …
“Their approach is extremely powerful,” said Andreas Heinrich, an I.B.M. physicist. “This is at least a 10-year effort to make very tiny electrical wires and combine them with the placement of a phosphorous atom exactly where they want them.”
He said the research was a significant step toward making a functioning quantum computing system. However, whether quantum computing will ever be harnessed for useful tasks remains uncertain, and the researchers also noted that their work demonstrated the fundamental limits that today’s computers would be able to shrink to.
“It shows that Moore’s Law can be scaled toward atomic scales in silicon,” said Gerhard Klimeck, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue, referring to the rate at which computing gets faster and cheaper. “The technologies for classical computing can survive to the atomic scale.”
The results were published in Nature Nanotechnology [abstract]. At least for the moment (February 19, 2012), the full text is available without charge. Also available in the same issue is a commentary by Gabriel P. Lansbergen “Nanoelectronics: Transistors arrive at the atomic limit“, which gives additional background and details on this accomplishment.
… Single-atom transistors represent the ultimate limit in solid-state device miniaturization, but they are also interesting for another reason. Deterministically positioned single-dopant atoms in silicon, electrically addressable by metallic leads, are at the heart of a number of promising proposals for quantum-information-processing devices3. The long coherence and relaxation times associated with single dopants make them very attractive candidates for quantum-device architectures.
The atom-by-atom fabrication technique developed by Simmons and co-workers therefore fulfills a long-standing need for a method that is capable of atomic-scale device fabrication in silicon. And although the technique is not directly applicable on an industrial scale, it does bring the development of truly atomistic electronics — and the possibilities they offer — into the experimental realm.
This latest accomplishment from Prof. Simmons and her collaborators follows swiftly on their recent demonstration published just last month in Science [abstract], that Ohms law holds for nanowire only four phosphorous atoms wide. From the Purdue University news service “Down to the wire for silicon: Researchers create a wire 4 atoms wide, 1 atom tall“:
The smallest wires ever developed in silicon – just one atom tall and four atoms wide – have been shown by a team of researchers from the University of New South Wales, Melbourne University and Purdue University to have the same current-carrying capability as copper wires.
Experiments and atom-by-atom supercomputer models of the wires have found that the wires maintain a low capacity for resistance despite being more than 20 times thinner than conventional copper wires in microprocessors.
The discovery, which was published in this week’s journal Science, has several implications, including:
- For engineers it could provide a roadmap to future nanoscale computational devices where atomic sizes are at the end of Moore’s law. The theory shows that a single dense row of phosphorus atoms embedded in silicon will be the ultimate limit of downscaling.
- For computer scientists, it places donor-atom based silicon quantum computing closer to realization.
- And for physicists, the results show that Ohm’s Law, which demonstrates the relationship between electrical current, resistance and voltage, continues to apply all the way down to an atomic-scale wire.
Although the path from this laboratory demonstration to a practical technology is not yet clear, as emphasized above by the researchers themselves and commentators, the progress at Zyvex Labs (and elsewhere) that we cited in Oct. 2010 in this basic technology of using an STM for atomically precise lithography holds hope that a convergence of manufacturing technology and demonstrated prototypes will not be too distant. |
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 146,988 pages of information and 232,840 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
British Petroleum Company, of London
as the Anglo-Persian Oil Co (1909-1935)
later became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co of Britannic House, Finsbury Circus, London, EC2. (1935-1954)
By 1907, Englishman, William D’Arcy, had gambled his considerable fortune on finding oil in Persia, and was about to lose everything. It seemed that the geologists and experts had been wrong.
Having never set foot in Persia himself, D’Arcy had sent explorer George Reynolds to do the drilling. Reynolds started digging on 23rd January 1907. Reynolds received a telegraph: drill to 1,600 feet and give up. Giving up was not part of George Reynolds’s character and now, after seven years, he instructed the men to keep drilling.
1908 By the early morning of 26 May, the smell of natural gas was unmistakable. The vapours rose and stank of rotten eggs. At 4am the drill reached 1,179 feet and a fountain of oil spewed skyward. From remote Persia, telegrams were slow. Mr D’Arcy got the news 5 days later.
The first oil well in Iran (Persia) produced 36,000 litres or 8000 Gallons per day.
1909 Within a year, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which would one day become BP, was in business. The press talked of the vastness of the new company’s potential and on the day Anglo-Persian stock opened for trading in London and Glasgow people stood five deep in front of the cashiers. D’Arcy, who had nearly lost everything, was rich.
Life was harsh in Persia; disease and illness commonplace. Getting adequate exploration equipment to the site had taken months and a pipeline had to be built across the winding, mountainous route. Lengths of pipe arrived in bulk from the US, and crews took them as far as they could upriver by barge. Mules dragged them the rest of the way, with labourers taking over where the land was too steep for animals to pass. The work was slow and painstaking. It took two years. On completion, Abadan refinery was the world’s largest, supported by a diverse workforce: fitters, riveters, masons and clerks from India, carpenters from China and semi-skilled workers from the surrounding Arab countries.
By 1914 the Anglo-Persian project was nearly bankrupt for the second time in its short history. The company had plenty of oil but no customers. Cars were too expensive for most, and more established companies in Europe and the New World had the market in industrial oils cornered. Standard Oil of Indiana (later called Amoco), had already been in business for over 25 years. Refining could not remove the Persian oil’s strong, sulphurous stench; nor could it be sold as kerosene for home heating.
Winston Churchill, who had taken a new role in British politics as First Lord of the Admiralty, thought Britain needed a dedicated oil supply, and he argued the case in Parliament. Britain was proud of her navy, and oil-powered vessels were the latest innovation. But while Anglo-Persian executives had courted the Royal Navy for years as a prospective customer for its oil, the old guard at Whitehall had been hesitant to endorse a rival to coal. In 1914, the resolution passed, and the UK government became a major shareholder in the company. Churchill had ended Anglo-Persian’s cash crisis.
WWI. Despite its name, the British Petroleum brand was originally created by a German firm as a way of marketing its products in Britain. During the war, the British government seized the company’s assets, and the Public Trustee sold them to Anglo-Persian in 1917. With that, Anglo-Persian had an instant distribution network in the UK, including 520 depots, 535 railway tank wagons, 1,102 road vehicles, four barges and 650 horses. 1917 The company also acquired 2 other companies from the Public Trustee that had been owned by the same German concern, Homelight Oil Co and the Petroleum SteamShip Co.
1917 When the war was in its final throes, the Royal Navy complained that the oil from Anglo-Persian was causing engine problems in colder climates. Anglo-Persian bought an 18th-century mansion at Sunbury-on-Thames, near London, and set up a research laboratory in the basement to address such scientific challenges.
Over the next decade, gas and electricity would largely replace kerosene for home heating, petrol-fuelled delivery vehicles would challenge the railways for freight, and the age of the automobile would truly begin. These social changes would open a door that Anglo-Persian would step adeptly through, expanding its sales both in Britain and in mainland Europe.
Cars flooded onto the streets of Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 30s.
1922 Anglo-Persian Oil Co began marketing motor spirits through British Petroleum, having previously done so through another company. BP-labelled petrol pumps appeared around Britain. There were 69 pumps in 1921, over 6,000 by 1925. On roadsides in mainland Europe, the letters BP became a familiar sight as Anglo-Persian, which produced BP petrol, entered these markets.
1935 Persia changed its name to Iran, and to stay current the company followed suit, renaming itself Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. But the good times were short-lived.
1937 Manufacturers and suppliers in Great Britain. Producers and refiners of petroleum products.
1938 Eric Fawcett, co-inventor of polyethylene, joined the company and was associated with the invention and development of a butane isomerisation process to produce isobutane, an intermediate required in the alkylation process for aviation gasoline.
1938 the principal suppliers of petrol in the UK, namely Anglo-American Oil Co, National Benzole Co, Shell-Mex and B. P. and Trinidad Leaseholds, joined together with Government approval to form the Petroleum Board to consider the problems of petroleum distribution in the event of war.
1939 On 3rd September, the Board's became an executive body under Government direction. All products were sold under a Pool description, the selling price of each product being subject to Government control.
1939 Petrol suddenly became rationed. BP’s growth on the continent abruptly stopped. Winston Churchill again called on Anglo-Iranian to support a war effort.
WWII. Air power took on a new significance. The Royal Air Force turned to Anglo-Iranian, with its newly-improved aviation fuel’s efficiency. The quantity of fuel needed could only be made with a major refit at the Abadan refinery in Iran, but 3 ships carrying those supplies were sunk. The open seas were dangerous. During the war, 44 of the company’s tankers sank, killing 657 crew, with 260 others taken prisoner of war.
The British government asked Anglo-Iranian to find more oil on UK soil. The company increased production at a field in Nottingham. Quantities were still small, but were large enough to help. It was one of the best-kept secrets of World War II.
In Iran, the war years were equally fraught. Japan’s entry into the war made the refinery at Abadan a prime target. When Allied troops moved in to secure the facility, 3 employees died in friendly fire. A severe wheat shortage made life miserable for the 200,000 people living at Abadan and for the 80,000 more spread out in remote camps and villages at the oil fields. Anglo-Iranian sent a representative from London to help with the crisis. Tankers brought food rations from India and Australia. Second-hand clothes arrived from England. Smallpox and typhus swirled through the nearby countryside.
Post-WWII. As Europe rebuilt, so did Anglo-Iranian, investing in refineries in France, Germany and Italy plus new marketing efforts in Switzerland, Greece, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. BP petrol went on sale for the first time in New Zealand.
1948 The Petroleum Board was dissolved in June.
1949 Expansion of Grangemouth Refinery
Nationalists throughout the Middle East questioned Western companies’ rights to profit from Middle Eastern resources. With Britain’s imperial hold on the region rapidly unraveling, Anti-British sentiment escalated.
1951 Price's developed the first multigrade oil, Energol, at its Battersea works.
1951 Iran’s prime minister convinced his Parliament to nationalize oil operations within the country’s borders. Women and children were evacuated and the refinery was shut.
Governments around the world boycotted Iranian oil. Within 18 months, the Iranian economy was in ruins. Eventually a new arrangement was made, allowing a consortium of companies, including Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) and others, to run the oil operations in Iran. Anglo-Iranian’s stake was 40%.
1954, the board changed the company’s name to the British Petroleum Company.
1955 Introduction of Visco-Static multigrade lubricating oil.
By the 1960s the technology of oil exploration had improved considerably. The company had looked for oil in the UK for nearly 50 years without a single large discovery.
1964 The United Nations extended countries’ rights over territorial waters.
1964 Opened refinery on the Isle of Grain in Kent.
1965 BP found natural gas in the English Channel, enough to power a medium-sized city.
1968 A massive find awaited in Alaska - after a decade of drilling dry wells along the North Slope, BP was on the verge of abandoning its search when the discovery was made.
1970 Offshore exploration had moved into the North Sea. In October, crews found the Forties field, which could produce 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
1971 Gaddafi announced that Libya would be taking a higher cut on all oil that left the country. Soon after, the British military withdrew from Iran. Then Iran seized some small Arab Islands near the Strait of Hormuz, and Gaddafi punished BP by nationalising BP's share of an oil production operation in Libya. Then, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar stated their intention to nationalise, and the effect on BP was profound.
1974 Wildcatting in an area to the south west of the Brent Field, in partnership with Ranger Oil of Canada, discovered some substantially thick oil-bearing sands.
Between 1975 and 1983, Middle Eastern oil would go from 80% of BP's supply down to 10%. Fortunately, BP had discovered major oil fields in other parts of the world, those in including Alaska and the North Sea.
At 1,200 kilometres long, the Trans-Alaska pipeline system was the largest civil engineering project ever attempted in North America, and included long above ground stretches so that the warm oil passing through would not melt the permafrost. Raised areas at caribou crossings ensured that migration habits remained undisturbed. When the oil started to flow from Alaska, BP's stake in Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) grew over the years.
1982 BP were developing the Magnus project in the North Sea's most northerly and deepest oilfield. It project cost approximately £1.37 billion. The John Brown- Earl and Wright designed steel jacket weighed 40 400 tonnes and 36 piles each up to 110 metres long secured it to a seabed in 620ft of water.
1982 April: The Magnus was the North Sea's newest and largest oil platform. It was floated out from Hifab's yard in Nigg Bay, Scotland on 27th March. Four days later the 40,400 tonne steel jacket arrived over the field 125 miles north-east of Shetland. John Brown Offshore was the main contractor. There were a few teething problems arranging the structure in place during the float-out.
1985 (?) Acquired British National Oil Corporation
1987 BP bought Sohio outright, incorporating it into a new national business, BP America.
1987 The British government sold the last of the shares it held in BP.
Late 1990s, with stiff competition in the energy industry setting off a string of prominent mergers, BP and Amoco joined to form BP Amoco. Then ARCO (previously Atlantic Richfield), BP's old rival on the North Slope of Alaska, was added to the portfolio.
2000 acquired Burmah-Castrol. Castrol branded lubricants continue to be sold around the world.
Aral's distinctive European operation were also brought into the group.
2000 BP unveiled a new, unified global brand. |
Hoʻomana Naʻauao o Hawaiʻi was the first independent Hawaiian Christian organization in the Islands. It was founded by John Kekipi Maia; he named his denomination “Hoʻomana Naʻauao,” which members translate as meaning “reasonable service.”
It started with the help of John Hawelu Poloailehua.
Poloailehua was born in Kukuihaele, Hamakua, Hawaiʻi in about 1838; at the age of 14 he moved to Honolulu. In February of the next year, when he was incapacitated by a violent fever, he asked for and received a Bible; it was placed on his chest.
He prayed while keeping his eyes closed and holding the Bible, as soon as he opened the Bible, read a verse and pledged his faith, he recovered from his illness.
April 16, 1853 (the date which Kekipi considers was the beginning of the church) is when Poloailehua, still a 15-year-old boy, started his mission work after he recovered from his illness.
He stayed in Honolulu to carry out mission work in his neighborhood where smallpox was prevalent at that time; his family was also afflicted with the illness – all died except for Poloailehua. (Inoue)
On April 16, 1881, Poloailehua met John Kekipi Maia of North Kohala and told him “Whatever secret you have within you, you must bring it out.” (Ritz)
Kekipi moved to Oʻahu and joined the Kaumakapili Church; he seemed to develop his work inside the congregation as he had in Kohala, Hawai’i.
However, in 1890, he left Kaumakapili Church, taking his followers with him. He built a meeting house on the seaside of Kālia and started his mission work as an independent group. (Inoue)
On July 31, 1897, a new church building (on Cooke Street in Kaka’ako) was sanctified and named Ke Alaula O Ka Mālamalama. With this church as a mother church, more than ten sister churches were founded on Hawaiʻi, Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi.
It was officially recognized as a religious organization on February 16, 1911 whose purposes “are purely those of religion, charity, education and general relief” and that “its main church and mission is at Koula, near King and South Streets in said Honolulu, with branch missions and churches at various places throughout the Territory of Hawaii.”
Hoʻomana Naʻauao was established on the concept of “reasonable service,” based on the passage in Romans: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Ritz)
Church members believed that Hawaiians were descended from Hebrews and Egyptians and that ancient Hawaiian religion evolved from the same source as Christianity. Teaching that the causes of illness and misfortune could be discerned after praying and fasting, the church gained many adherents among prominent individuals in the Hawaiian community.
The church emphasized repentance as a premise to salvation. In the practices of Hoʻomana Naʻauao, the importance of visions was one of the main characteristics.
Another significant characteristic of the practices of Hoʻomana Naʻauao was the opening of the Bible to a random page to see the divine will in sacred phrases on the page. (Inoue)
Some may call this “the Hawaiian Christian science,” and others say the teachings most resemble that of the Congregationalist Church. But at its simplest form, Hoʻomana Naʻahuao is a mixture of Protestant Christianity and Hawaiian. Members espouse a belief in the trinity and follow the Bible, as well as Hawaiian values. (Ritz)
It was the largest independent Hawaiian Church; several offshoot churches broke away in the 1930s and the 1940s.
Other Hoʻomana Naʻauao o Hawaii churches include Ke Kilohana oka Mālamalama in Hilo, Ka Hoku oka Malamalama, Paipaikou, Ka Nani oka Malamalama, Kohala, Ka Elele oka Malamalama, Kapoho, and Ka Mauloa oka Malamalama in Kurtistown, and Ka Lanakila oka Malamalama and Ka Lokahi oka Malamalama on the island of Lanaʻi (there were others.) |
The Viswakarma cave is also known locally as the Sutar ki jhopdi owing to the construction style. This is the only Chaitya in these series of caves., constructed around 7th century A.D. And though not so magnificent in its proportions or decoration, it is still a splendid work with a large open court in front surrounded by a corridor, the frieze above its pillars is carved with various representations.
The inner temple, consisting of central naïve and side aisles, measures 85 feet in length, 43 feet width and 34 feet height. The naïve is separated by the aisles by 28 octagonal pillars, 14 feet in height, with plain bracket capitals, while two more square ones just inside the entrance support the gallery above and cut off from the front aisle. One of the pillars is inscribed with the date Saka 1228, which is equivalent to 1306 A.D. One interesting aspect of this chaitya is the missing horse shoe style of façade that we find in other locations like Ajanta or Bhaja.
The back of the naïve stands a huge stupa nearly 27 feet in height and 16 feet in diameter. It has simple circular base, hemispherical dome and a square capital as we find in the typical stupa. Typical to a Mahayana construction, it has a large frontispiece nearly 17 feet in height attached to it, on which is a 11 feet colossal Buddha seated with his feet down, and his usual attendants, while on the arch over his head is carved the Bodhi Tree, with dwarfs on either side.
The arched roof is carved in imitation of wooden ribs, each rising from behind a little Naga bust, – alternatively male and female, – and joining a ridge piece above. It can be assumed that this style of imitation is a development stage in rock cut architecture, i.e. instead of the typical wooden ceiling the original construction itself was cut in rock. We can trace the sequence of chaitya construction from the early wood-fronted examples at Pitalkhora, Kondane, and Bhaja, through the stone fronted caves of Bedsa and Karla, to the elaborately decorated ones at Ajanta, and finally to this where it loses nearly all the external characteristic features. To understand more about construction patterns of Buddhism, please read my related post.
The deep frieze above the pillars is divided into two belts, the lower and narrower carved with crowds of fat little ganas in all sitting positions. The upper is much deeper, and is divided over each pillar so as to form compartments, each containing usually Buddha with two attendants, Padmapani and Vajrapani. Needless to say that worshippers used to chant hymns and prayers in chaitya halls and the arched structure echoes nicely. It is said that if we visit this cave early in the morning, any loud voice will echo 3-4 times spanning around a minute.
At the ends of the front corridor are two cells and two chapels with the usual Buddha figures. From the left end of the back corridor a stair ascends to the gallery above, which contains an outer one above the corridor and an inner one over the front aisle, separated by the two pillars that divide the lower portion of the great window into three lights. From the outer area, too, small chapels are entered, each containing sculpture of Buddha mythology, and where the very elaborate head-dresses of the females of the period may be studied. Over the chapel to the right of the window is a remarkable group of little fat figures, and the projecting frieze that crowns the façade is elaborately sculpted with pairs of figures in compartments. High up on each side are two small chapels, difficult to access.
In this balcony, there remains to be noticed the only inscription at all of an early date found among the Buddha caves here; but it is only the mantra (hymn) of the Mahayana school, caved in characters of perhaps the eight or ninth century. It reads:
Ye dharma hetu prabhava hetum, tesham tathagato, hyavadattesham cha yo nirodha, evam vadi mahasramanaa(h).
All things proceed from cause; this cause has been declared by the Tathagata; all things will cease to exist; this is that which is declared by the great Sramana (Buddha). This same inscription is found in other locations like Sarnath, Kanheri, Afghanistan, Burma, Singapore, and Java and is well known in Buddhist literature of Nepal, Tibet, China and Sri Lanka.
We will now move on to Cave 11, which is interestingly without any relation is known as the Do Taal. |
Minimized Routing Protocol in Ad-Hoc Network with Quality Maintenance Based on Genetic Algorithm: A Survey
Mobile ad-hoc network networks are self-organizing network having a concise radio range and limited bandwidth without having the any specified infrastructure. The topology of the ad hoc network may change suddenly. At this type of situation, is finding the Shortest Path (SP) between source and destination nodes within a specified time so as to satisfy the Quality of Service (QoS) with security. For finding the shortest path between the sources to destination, the authors will use the Genetic Algorithm (GA) with backups of routes and authentication with having, minimum power consumption and congestion. In this paper, they will also discuss the routing protocols, its classifications, advantage and disadvantages of the routing protocols in Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET). |
When we published a paper in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in December 2019, about the connection globally between urban concentration and civil war onset and severity, we didn’t think it could be meaningfully applied to the United States. We tried to distill implications for US foreign policy, but didn’t anticipate that heavily armed federal agents would square off against unarmed protesters in major American cities, or that right-wing extremist groups would flaunt their weapons in state capitols. As tensions surrounding race and police brutality continue in several cities across the United States, and with the legitimacy of upcoming elections already in doubt, the question isn’t so much if we’ll see political violence between now and November, but how much, what kind, and what it will mean for domestic stability.
What might urban concentration have to say about the possibility of widespread political violence in the United States?
Urban concentration is different from urbanization. While urbanization refers to the proportion of people living in urban areas, urban concentration is about the spatial distribution of urban populations. The US is a highly urbanized country, although it is somewhat less urbanized than other countries with the same level of development, and this changed dramatically over the 20th century. Yet urban concentration in the US is among the lowest in the world: urban populations are scattered across 65 large cities, which themselves are scattered across multiple regions and states. The largest urban area in the United States—New York City—accounts for only about 7 percent of the population living in urban areas in total, making it starkly different not only from extreme cases like South Korea (where nearly 60 percent of urbanites live in Seoul) but also middle-of-the-road cases like France (with roughly 25 percent of urbanites living in Paris) and Canada (22 percent live in and around Toronto).
Cities—with their advantages of scale, diversity, and connectivity—are generally key drivers of economic activity and innovation, and spaces for political mobilization. They are also frequently favored by pork barrel politics, which has the unintended effect of further encouraging citizens to move to cities. The US is also unusual among developed countries—though not totally unique—in that its political system was designed to redistribute political and economic power away from cities.
In our article, we find that urban concentration is associated with a greater probability of civil war and more severe conflicts. When urban concentration is high, central government authority and control tends to be more complete in the capital and perhaps a few other key cities, leaving peripheral communities relatively disconnected from state institutions. The relative absence of state control over the periphery, and inequality in access to services, exacerbates local grievances among rural communities, allowing rebels to mobilize local populations. This reduced state presence also allows rebels to more easily gain control of peripheral territories to train, prepare, and seek foreign aid, increasing rebels’ ability to credibly challenge the government. High urban concentration also means that a few high-value cities represent the vast majority of the country’s urban population and wealth—prizes to be won for rebels. States recognize this vulnerability and are goaded into confronting rebels in urban centers; in so doing, states are unexpectedly hamstrung, given that their conventional military forces are ill-suited to the multi-dimensional landscape of urban warfare.
How might the United States’ low level of urban concentration affect the potential for widespread violence?
Urban geography in the US is intimately related to the history of race in America. After the Civil War, formal and informal discrimination at nearly every level made it generally impractical and often downright impossible for Black Americans to own property and make a living in most parts of the country, not just largely rural areas in the South but also in more affluent urban and suburban areas in the North. This pushed African Americans—and later immigrant communities of color—to settle in the core of major urban areas, the so-called “inner cities,” that whites had since the 1920s started to abandon for the creature comforts of the suburbs. Black migration from the rural South followed the same pattern, causing whites to abandon cities. Indeed, as Leah Boustan writes, “[i]n 1980, after a century of suburbanization, 72% of metropolitan blacks lived in central cities, compared to 33% of metropolitan whites.” While this trend has begun to reverse in recent years with growing interest among white professionals in urban centers—leading to the gentrification of those same neighborhoods—for long stretches of the 20th century American cities were predominantly populated by African Americans.
Civil war in the United States is unlikely. State repression and low-intensity political violence will undoubtedly continue. Regardless of whether Donald Trump wins reelection, organized collaboration between extremist right-wing groups and elements of the state’s coercive apparatus—i.e., the police—will probably continue, at both the national and local levels. Increased violent actions by accelerationist groups and individuals—white supremacists who want to accelerate civil disorder—is also likely, especially in the case of a contested Joe Biden victory and a tumultuous transfer of power. Should Donald Trump win in November 2020, we may see some armed, organized challenges to state authority emerge from the left, in addition to the intensification of largely disorganized violent actions.
Although the US has not experienced sustained, armed political contestation in 150 years, low levels of urban concentration can still have an impact on patterns of political violence and its likely effects. Cities in the United States have faced widespread communal violence before, particularly violence that breaks down along racial lines: from the 1919 “Red Summer” to the 1943 race riots that rocked Los Angeles, Detroit, and Harlem, to the so-called “long, hot summers” in the 1960s, and the Rodney King riots in 1992. According to one of the earliest large-scale comparative studies of civil strife, between 1961 and 1965 the US ranked 15th out of 95 countries in number of episodes of “turmoil” (“relatively spontaneous, unstructured mass strife”), and 42nd out of 114 in “total magnitude of strife,” with the vast majority occurring in urban areas.
The dynamics we describe in our paper—state power concentrated in one or very few urban areas, with disconnected rural hinterlands—isn’t present as a potential contributing factor for civil war in the United States. While the country does have vast swaths of rural and remote land where groups can coalesce, train, and establish footholds, there are clear patterns in the racial and ideological composition of the armed groups that occupy those spaces: they are predominantly white (often white-supremacist) far-right militias. They are also geographically dispersed and organizationally decentralized, most often espousing an ideological aversion to centralized authority in the form of the federal government or other (imagined) supranational authorities. This type of fragmentation generally shapes the scale of violence and the prospect for success, and may push groups to adopt more extreme tactics.
Meanwhile, urban groups and unstructured (not organized) movements, peaceful or otherwise, are equally dispersed throughout dozens of major urban areas. This means that major episodes of collective mobilization in cities, even the largest in US history, are unlikely to pose existential challenges to the central government, but will likely continue to represent a headache for local authorities. Urban protest will also likely continue to serve as a rallying cry for aggressive “law and order” policies by the right, as concerns for social control rival or even overwhelm solidarity for the movement. The fragmentation and loose structure of the Black Lives Matter movement; the multitude of varying preferences among affiliated and unaffiliated groups; and the fact that the policy changes being demanded require actions across different localities and at different levels of government, complicate resolution of the issues that sparked the latest wave of protests.
The months ahead are likely to be fraught, and perhaps even more violent than usual, with persistent low-level violence. That the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world is gripped by political upheaval and widespread social mobilization is itself consequential, whether or not it escalates to a full-blown civil war. But the likelihood of full-scale civil war in the US remains low. Despite this, conflict escalation and civil war will likely remain tropes used strategically, if callously, by those who wish to sow fear and deepen partisan divisions.
Michael Weintraub is an Associate Professor in the Escuela de Gobierno Alberto Lleras Camargo at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Dani Nedal is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon’s Institute for Politics and Strategy. Megan A. Stewart is an Assistant Professor at American University’s School of International Service. |
How to Realize Flow in Games
Based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s positive psychology research, when a person totally focus into an activity and forget about time and pressure, he reaches the optimal experience, Flow. There are many conditions in order to reach Flow.
In the field of game design, there are three fundamental conditions:
- As a premise, the game is intrinsically rewarding, and the player is up to play the game.
- The game offers right amount of challenges to match with the player’s ability, which allows him/her to delve deeply into the game.
- The player needs to feel a sense of personal control over the game activity.
In order to enhance Flow experience, here are the methodologies game designers can pick up and apply to their own designs and make them enjoyable by a much broader audience.
- Expand your game’s Flow coverage by including a wide spectrum of gameplay with different difficulties and flavors
- Create an Player-oriented Active DDA system to allow different players to play in their own paces
- Embed DDA choices into the core gameplay mechanics and let player make their choices through play
With the proof of Traffic Light and flOw, as well as the other successful commercial games whose designs match the above methodologies, designing games enjoyable by both gamers and non-gamers is totally feasible and should be applied to help expanding video game market and essentially make video games a more mature media.
Application in Other Media
The concept of player-oriented DDA also known as active DDA is a powerful design tool applicable not only in video games.
It can be applied to nearly any fields where there are human interactions. For example, if active DDA is applied to GRE (Graduate Record Examination) test rather than its original passive DDA, here will be the changes.
- There is no cap for the total score. Students can gain as much score as possible during the test period. Therefore, even top students can still challenge themselves every time they take test.
- Students should be able to see scores gained through each questions and feel the joy of answering them correctly, which encourages them to do more.
- The difficulty and the score of each question should be related. More challenge equals more reward.
- Student should be able to sense the difficulty of each question and have the control to skip hard questions.
And you can imagine how the overall experience will change from a passive question after question based test into an active free roaming score collecting contest.
How do you use active DDA in advertising, negotiation or even in dating? Designers in any field should be able to apply these methodologies.
What’s Next for Flow in Games
The Flow researches have been mainly focused on the relationship between challenge and ability, which naturally assume the interaction. However, Flow-like experiences also exist in passive media like movie, literature and music.
Games like Sims and Cloud has already proven that there are more interesting aspects in the field of Flow that are beyond challenge and ability. Thus, the soul of video games should also be able to leap far beyond challenges and conflicts. |
According to historical data Ulcinj is fro sure one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic coast. It is thought that Ulcinj is more that 2.000 years old. In this area for centuries the cultures of Orient and the West collided, which by the richness of the historical inheritance, can be felt in every step. As the tracks of the first settlements in Ulcinj appear even before V century B.C. it is considered that Ulcinj was founded by Illyrians, the people of the Indo-European origin. At the time of the free Illyrian state, Ulcinj experiences its greatest bloom. The original name of Ulcinj was Kolhinijum, and it got such name by Kolhidians (a tribe of Greek origin) for which is thought that they are the founders of the old Ulcinj Lake.
Before the year 162 B.C. Ulcinj is ruled over by an Illyrian tribe Olcinijantas, which in the II century B.C., was conquered by the Romans, so the ancient Colchinijum becomes Olcinijum. During the time of the Roman Empire Ulcinj receives a status of a town with special privileges (Opida civijum romanorum), in order to later become a town with temporarily independent status – a Municipium. After the division of the Roman Empire Ulcinj belonged to province Prevalis, which was a part of the East Empire, and the inhabitants becomes Christian.
Because of an extraordinary geographical location, mild climate and relief, Ulcinj has been for centuries a target for the conquerors. That Montenegrin town at the utmost south was frequently ruined during the wars. Byzantium emperor Justinijan, has renewed and rebuilt Ulcinj, while Nemanjici, Balsici, Venetians and Turks have widened the town with new buildings.
In the year 1183 Ulcinj was taken over by the Great Serbian rector Stefan Nemanja, and in that period Ulcinj becomes one of the most significant coastal towns. As well as in the era of the Duklja rulers (since the IX century and on), Ulcinj is a distinguished coastal town with mixed Slav, Albanian and Roman citizens.
Ulcinj was not a permanent capital of the rulers and co-rulers of Zeta and the Coast, but the potentates of Zeta and the Coast had their residences in that town.
Especially in the period of the reign of Duklja and the state of Nemanjic, Ulcinj gains a medieval character. At that time Ulcinj was an important trading and naval center with the autonomy of the town inside the Raska state. The political significance of Ulcinj was very distinct in the era of Balsici, especially in the era of Djuradj Stratimirovic Balsic (1385 – 1403).
In a dash at the end of the XIII century even the Mongolians, who performed an unsuccessful siege of the town, attacked Ulcinj. After the failure Mongolians have ruined the town Svac (close to Ulcinj – today a dead town), and murdered all of its citizens.
After the fall of the state of Zeta in 1405, Ulcinj is taken over by the Venetians and they rule for 150 years. Ulcinj was under Turk reign until 1571, when it definitely falls into hands of a heavy Turkish hand. Compared to the adjacent towns on the Coast, Ulcinj has fairly late fell into the reign of Otoman control, 90 years after the fall of Herceg Novi (1482 – 1483)
As during the reign of Venetian Republic Ulcinj had an evidential fortification, strategic, naval and economic and political significance, the Turkish conquerors continued to develop strategic goals. Still, during the era of the Turkish reign over the town, Ulcinj gains a completely Oriental look. Mosques, Turkish baths, drinking fountains, watch – towers, inns and burial chambers are being built. Everything in towns is adjusting to the new masters. Ulcinj was also famous as a place of a long and rich naval and merchant tradition. In this town sailing reached its top rise in XVII, XVIII, and during the XIX century. The naval trade of people from Ulcinj with their own boats took place in bigger harbors and trading centers of the Adriatic coast, Levant and the Mediterranean. During the era of Turkish reign (1571 – 1880) Ulcinj with its trading fleet has become the main pillar of Otoman Empire on the Mediterranean. Brave and skilful mariners from Ulcinj have poorly acknowledged the state reign of the Turks. Until the proclamation of Mehmed Busatlija for the Grand Vizier of Skadar, Ulcinj was like a small republic. It is written that the Grand Vizier of Skadar in deceit, to restrain the piracy, which at that time grew more and more, in port Valdanos sank liners form Ulcinj, after which people from Ulcinj officially recognize the Turkish reign. During the era of the Montenegrin reign (1880 – 1918) in Ulcinj, 107 sailing boast were registered. People from Ulcinj were skilful mariners and good ship wrighters.
In the XVII century the fleet of Ulcinj had 500 two – master ships, which sailed across the Mediterranean Sea. Many wars have imperiled the development of the Ulcinj fleet. In the XIV century Ulcinj was known by 400 pirates from Malta, Tunis, and Algeria who have inhabited Ulcinj after the Kanidian war (1669), so Ulcinj has turned into a dangerous pirate nest, which remained a characteristic of the town during the XVII and XVIII century as well.
After almost 300 years, at the beginning of the 1878 Ulcinj is freed from the Turks, and after the decision in Berlin congress on the November 10 1880, Ulcinj is annexed to the Principality of Montenegro. The First World War Ulcinj waited as an integral town of the former Montenegrin Principality. Even though the King and the Prince of the Montenegro, Nikola I Petrovic Njegos, at the beginning of the XX century moved one part of the Christian citizenship, in Ulcinj Islamic citizenship, that was loyal to the Principality of Montenegro, still prevailed.
As in many other towns of the Montenegrin Coast in Ulcinj too the vortex of the Second World War was felt. In the year 1941 German and Italian troupes conquered the entire Montenegro, and stayed in it until the crash of Nazism at the end of 1944, when partisan troupes liberated the utmost south town on the Montenegrin Coast – Ulcinj.
Beside its rich cultural and historical heritage this ancient town is famous for its multiethnic and multinational structure of the citizens who through history was united and offered resistance to the conqueror, especially during the Second World War. On those, for Ulcinj very important historical days, remind many commemorative plaques and busts all over town.
After the Second World War the renewal of all towns on the Montenegrin Coast as well as Ulcinj began. The great tourist potential which Ulcinj with the surroundings has even today, was and remained a great chance for a successful development of the most important economic branch in Montenegro – tourism..
Today, Ulcinj is a famous multiethnic and tourist town in the South of Montenegro, which from year to year marks greater and greater number of domestic and foreign tourists.
As many other states, places or towns are recognizable for its historical events, famous individuals, fairy tales or stories, Ulcinj and people from Ulcinj are famous for various and especially pirate ones.
Through the history, Ulcinj has been for many centuries a pirate nest. The town starting from the XIV century has began to be inhabited by the pirates from Malta, Tunis, and Algeria. The coastal part, from the present Ulcinj all the way to Kotor, was the pirate nest. The pirates, especially during the XVII and XVIII century, have represented fear on the sea. Pirate gangs have become so powerful that they attacked various trading ships that sailed under various ensigns; they have robbed them and quickly sailed in their bulwarks, which they made along the entire Ulcinj Coast.
The greatest damage of the dangerous attacks of pirate commanders among whom the most famous were brothers Karamindzoja, Lika Ceni, Ali hodza and others, suffered the Venetian fleet.
Beside the invasions and robberies on trading ships, pirates from Ulcinj were famous by the trading of black slaves. Because of that fact a great number of inhabitants in Ulcinj were black people from different African countries. Among old people from Ulcinj even today it is mentioned how until 1878 in Ulcinj 100 black people lived, as well as the fact that among the slaves in the dungeons a famous writer Servantes dwelled, by whom one of the Ulcinj squares is named Slave square. Still, the most famous and the most gladly retold story among people from Ulcinj even today is the legend of famous pirate Liko Cena.
Liko Cena a man from Ulcinj was the most famous pirate chief. Everyday with his pirate army he attacked different trading ships, and sometimes even the entire fleets. One time Liko Cena with his company sank a ship on which there were pilgrims who traveled to a pilgrimage in Mecca. It was a very tragic event, which echoed even past Ulcinj. Namely, when the Turkish sultan heard of the great accident, he ordered that Liko Cena must be found and imprisoned. Sultan also proclaimed that he’d richly award the one who catches or kills Liko Cena. But, exactly then on the sea appeared another, also very dangerous pirate – Lambro or Aralampija as he was otherwise called. Originally from Greece, Lambro knew the sea very well, and he was thought to be a skilful pirate. Very dangerous and fearless, Lambro quickly became a real “sea monster’ for many trading ships and naval fleets. The news of Lambro`s misdeeds quickly got to the Turkish sultan. As the damages which Lambro`s company committed were immense, and sultan soon proclaimed that he will give a rich reward to the one who catches or kills Lambro.
However, the time went by and the sultan could find Lambro. The only thing that at that moment was left to him to do was to send a message to Liko Cena in which he is saying that he’ll forgive him everything if he manages to destroy Lambro.
Sultan soon did that, and Liko Cena with pleasure accepted the call, binding himself in front of the sultan that he’ll “either catch Lambro or die”.
After some time, there comes a duel in which Liko Cena manages to kill Lambro. For the favor he has done and for the loyalty, Turkish sultan spares Liko Cena`s life, by giving him the title of the captain. Famous men from Ulcinj, descendants of Liko Cena, were also distinguished captains. The legend of Liko Cena, among people is even toady mentioned as am unusual event, so people from Ulcinj from generation to generation tell the story of how the most famous bandit from Ulcinj thanks to the destiny became a captain. |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – Hundreds of Jefferson County Public Schools students took the pledge Monday to #BeKind as part of national bully prevention month.
Carter Traditional Elementary hosted the day in an effort to help develop students’ character.
Parents visited classrooms to give lessons in preventing bullying and to help students take that pledge.
Each student also got a t-shirt to remind them about the importance of being kind.
“The kids are really excited about this day. They can not only wear this shirt this day, but it’s just a symbol of who we are at Carter Traditional Elementary School. We want our kids to develop kindness as part of their character. It’s going to serve them well into their future as they start working on their careers,” professional school counselor Eric Wright said.
The school also started a Buddy Bench project, to help students who may be feeling lonely to find friends to play with.
For more information on the JCPS Anti-bullying hotline, click here. |
So many products cause more problems then the ticks. Next please go to our Yuk! Works page to get a healthier solution to ticks.
One important thing people don’t realize is that there are several different diseases that a tick can give you. Lyme Diaease is just the most common and well know.
Please make sure to get your puppy their Lyme Disease Vaccination at 3 months old. A month later you will need a booster shot. After that it is only the one shot per year.
A dog can still get Lyme even with the shot. But you should notice in time before he gets really sick and you loose them. I only know of people who have lost dogs that didn’t have their Lyme Vaccinations.
While the infection we know today as “Lyme Disease” (named for the Connecticut town of Lyme) has been around for at least a century, public awareness (and confusion) did not really occur until the late 1980’s. Media exposure of this infection virtually exploded leaving most of the general public with some basic knowledge and a great deal of misconception. We hope to straighten out some of the myths surrounding at least the canine version of the Lyme disease infection.
HUMAN LYME DISEASE VS. CANINE LYME DISEASE
The first lesson to be learned about the Lyme disease infection is that it manifests completely differently in man’s best friend compared with the human experience. After being bitten by a tick that has transmitted Borrelia burgdorferi, 80% of humans will develop a rash and flu-like symptoms. In the next few weeks, joint pain ensues with 15% of people developing actual neurologic abnormalities associated with Lyme disease and 5% of people developing a heart rhythm disturbance called “A-V block.” At this same point in the infection timeline, dogs have yet to develop any symptoms at all.
Weeks to months after infection about 60% of people will experience intermittent arthritis attacks and 5% will develop chronic neurologic manifestations. In humans, Lyme disease presents with the potential for serious long term illness. In the dog, illness may never even occur.
When canine illness does occur it does not begin to manifest for weeks to months after infection at which point arthritis signs are noticed. Sometimes there is a fever. In dogs, heart and neurologic issues are exceedingly rare plus the symptoms of canine Lyme disease generally respond rapidly to an inexpensive course of proper antibiotics (see later for details).
The Borrelia burgdorferi organism is fairly well suited to live in the canine body without causing trouble. Most exposed dogs harbor the organism uneventfully and never get sick. Still, it is important not to discount Lyme disease in the dog completely lest one overlook an easily eliminated cause of chronic joint disease especially in dogs of the Northeast U.S.
The dog’s the most serious long term potential regards “glomerular disease.” This is a type of kidney damage that occurs when the immune system is stimulated over a very long time by a latent infectious organism (or other immune stimulus). This is a much more insidious problem for which special testing is needed (see later).
THE TICK AND ITS CONTROL
An organism that serves to transport and deliver an infectious organism from one host to another is called a “vector.” The vector of Lyme disease in the Northeast U.S. is the deer tick, Ixodes scapularis. The female tick lays a clump of approximately 2000 eggs in the spring. A very small six-legged larva hatches and attaches to a host as soon as it is able. Since the larva is very small, it typically can only reach a small host, usually a white-footed mouse. If the mouse is carrying the Lyme disease spirochete, the larva can get infected at this point.
When the larva is full of blood, it will drop off the host and lie dormant until the following spring, about a year later. At this point the larva molts and becomes a “nymph.” The nymph is a bit larger and may select another mouse as host or may approach larger game such as a dog or human. The nymph feeds 3-5 days and when it is full it drops off, remains dormant until late summer. It then molts into an adult tick. When the nymph is feeding it may infect its host with the Lyme spirochete. If the nymph was not already infected from its larval stage, it may become infected now, during its spring feeding.
The adult tick seeks a larger host, hence its name “the deer tick;” however, with man encroaching upon the range of the deer, there are often plenty of dogs or humans for the tick to attack. The adult ticks mate on their new host, feed, and transmit the Lyme spirochete if they are carrying it. The male tick remains attached through the winter but the female, once engorged with the host’s blood, drops off, hides under leaves and other debris through the winter, and lays her eggs in the spring for the two-year cycle to begin again.
The feeding tick is basically a blood-sucker. It must keep its host’s blood from clotting in order to continue sucking so it is able to regurgitate assorted enzymes to keep the blood flow liquid and smooth. It is during this regurgitation process that the Lyme spirochete is brought up from the tick’s mid-gut to its mouthparts.
This process requires a minimum of 48 hours which means
that if the tick is removed within 48 hours of attachment,
the spirochete cannot be transmitted and the host will not get the disease.
On the west coast of the United States, there is far less Lyme disease than in the east, although the northern coast of California is considered to have moderate risk. This is because the Lyme vector in these areas is primarily Ixodes pacificus, a tick that strongly prefers to feed on reptiles rather than mammals. Reptile blood has natural anti-Borrelia factors which kill the Lyme spirochete and prevent further transmission.
There are several subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi in different parts of the world so “Lyme disease” is not unique to the United States.
BORRELIA BURGDORFERI: THE SPIROCHETE AND ITS DETECTION
The spirochete that causes Lyme disease cannot live outside the body of a host. It must live within either a mammal or a tick.
In the mammal’s body, the spirochete is especially adept at binding to connective tissue. If one is doing additional reading on this organism, one will encounter references to the spirochete’s surface proteins called “Osp’s” (“Osp” stands for “outer surface protein”). Different Osp’s are expressed depending on whether the spirochete is attached to the tick midgut (OspA), the mammal’s connective tissue (OspC), or whether the tick is in an early or late stage of mammal infection (Osps E and F respectively). By modifying its Osp’s, the spirochete is able to change its presentation to the mammalian host’s immune system thus escaping immune destruction. In addition to changing Osp’s, the spirochete can change its shape into at least 3 different forms and is able to hide within cellular folds. (The Lyme spirochete is a master of disguise and camouflage.)
This presents an enormous diagnostic challenge:
if the host’s immune system can’t even find the organism,
how are we supposed to detect it?
A dog with symptoms of Lyme disease ideally should have a test to confirm or rule out Lyme disease. Since it is almost impossible to culture the Lyme spirochete, efforts have centered on detection of antibodies against the Osp’s. Here are the problems encountered with this method:
- In a Lyme endemic area, as many as 90% of the dogs will have antibodies against the Lyme spirochete. Most exposed dogs never get sick but almost all of them will develop antibodies and these antibodies persist for years. How do we tell the dogs that have active infection from those that have been exposed and are not sick from their exposure?
- Vaccine has been available for Lyme disease for a decade or more. How do we distinguish antibodies generated by the vaccine from those generate by natural infection?
- How do we distinguish antibodies generated by similar organisms (Leptospira, for example, or harmless other Borrelia species)?
The solution to these problems has come about only recently in the form of the “C6 test.” This is an immunological test for antibody against the “C6 peptide,” a very unique section of the one of the Borrelia burgdorgeri surface antigens. As the spirochete changes its configuration to escape the host’s immune system, the C6 peptide remains constant and always detectable. Vaccine does not contain the C6 peptide so vaccinated dogs will not test positive. Dogs with other infections will not erroneously test positive. Further, this test is simple enough to be available as an in-house test kit (the IDEXX “Snap-3 Dx test” or “Snap-4 Dx test”) which can be run in most veterinary hospitals, with results in approximately 10 minutes.
This still does not address distinguishing active infection from exposure. Dogs will test C6 positive within 3-5 weeks of infection. They stay positive for over a year.
TREATMENT AND ITS GOALS
Which of these dogs get sick and which ones do not? Does the dog with joint pain, fever, and a positive C6 test need medication? This is where the news is particularly good.
Treatment of Lyme disease utilizes a 2-4 week course of doxycycline, a medication which is inexpensive and has limited side effects potential. Amoxicillin is another effective alternative, also inexpensive and with minimal side effects. If Lyme disease is a consideration, many veterinarians simply prescribe the medication. Obvious improvement is seen within 48 hours. Further, most tick-borne infections capable of causing joint pain, fever, and signs similar to Lyme disease generally all share doxycycline responsiveness so a simple course of medication actually covers several types of infection.
Eradication of the Lyme spirochete is not a reasonable expectation with treatment; the organism is simply too good at hiding. The goal instead is to bring the patient into what is called a “premunitive state.” This is the state that 90% of infected dogs achieve when they get infected but never get ill: the organism is in their bodies latently but is not causing active infection.
Some dogs are in fact harmed by the long time presence of an infectious organism in their bodies. The immune system is constantly active in its attempt to remove the invading spirochete and over the years these complexes of antibodies may deposit in the kidney and cause damage. It has been recommended that dogs with positive Borrelia burgdorferi antibody levels be regularly screened for significant protein loss in their urine with a test called a “urine protein to creatinine ratio.” This group of dogs may require medication for their kidney disease. For more information on glomerular disease, click here.
Recently an especially sensitive test has been developed for the detection of minute quantities of blood proteins in the urine. This test, called the Erd test, is so sensitive that its use is not yet determined (i.e. at what point is albumin loss in the kidney significant and under what circumstances might some albumin loss be normal and expected?).
VACCINATION: YES OR NO?
Vaccine prevents infection in dogs vaccinated before any exposure to Lyme spirochetes. This means it is only helpful for dogs not yet exposed such as puppies and dogs from non-endemic areas travelling to endemic areas. Annual boosters continue the vaccine-based immunity.
There are now three types of vaccine available. The killed whole spirochete vaccine (Fort Dodge’s vaccine) uses intact dead spirochetes injected into the host. By using the entire spirochete, the host is exposed to parts of the organism that are not useful in immunization and may lead to vaccine reaction. The next type of vaccine is felt to be superior in preventing reactions and that is the recombinant vaccine (Merial’s vaccine). This vaccine generates antibodies specifically against OspA, the surface protein the spirochete uses to attach to its tick host. When the tick bites and sucks blood full of Anti-OspA antibodies, the spirochete’s migration sequence is blocked and the spirochete is prevented from even exiting the tick. The vaccine utilizes DNA for OspA cloned into a harmless virus so that the entire Lyme spirochete is not used; only the OspA DNA is used. The third type of vaccine (Intervet-Schering-Plough’s vaccine) targets a protein called OspC as well as the surface protein OspA. The idea is that the OspC antibodies kill any Borrelia that have not been de-activated by the OspA antibodies, providing enhanced protection.
Vaccination against the Lyme organism remains controversial. We will present both sides of the argument and the pet owner can decide if they want to include vaccination in their Lyme prevention efforts.
Argument Against Vaccination
- Lyme disease in the dog is an infection for which over 90% of infected dogs will never get sick and the 5-10% that do get sick can be easily treated with a safe inexpensive course of antibiotics. This situation would seem to indicate that vaccination is simply not worth the expense.
- As for the kidney disease that can occur in some individuals with long term antigen exposure: we do not know what Borrelia antigens are involved in the immune stimulation that causes this condition. It might be that the same antigens used in the vaccines are involved in which case vaccination might be just as hazardous as actual infection. Even OspA, the same antigen of the recombinant vaccine, has been implicated in chronic human disease.
Argument For Vaccination
- We vaccinate ourselves for the flu, an infection that is for most people more of a nuisance than a
life-threatening event, and think nothing of it. Vaccination is about prevention of infection; just because an illness is not life-threatening does not mean that we should not prevent it with vaccine. Further, in a
non-endemic area, Lyme disease is not going to be a cause of arthritis that most veterinarians will consider. Treatment is only simple if one thinks to perform the treatment but in an area where there is very little Lyme disease, this treatment may easily be omitted. Why not just prevent the infection outright from the beginning if the dog is going to travel to a tick endemic area?
- If we allow our dogs to readily become infected with the Lyme organism, do they not become a potential source for human infection (through their ticks)? We try to minimize the deer and mice in our vicinity but we want to keep company with the family dog but who wants a reservoir of Lyme spirochete in their home?
- As for the kidney disease, we do not know what spirochete antigens are implicated in this condition. The recombinant vaccine exposes the patient only to one spirochete antigen (OspA) and prevents the introduction of the spirochete into the mammal’s body. Vaccination, at least with the recombinant vaccine, may be preventive to this syndrome.
Again, when it comes to prevention, there is nothing controversial about tick control.
It is crucial in Lyme endemic areas to use tick controlling products.
Lyme disease is a regional problem. For more guidance regarding this infection in your area or areas where you will be travelling, see your veterinarian.
Tick killing ingredient; Format (topical, oral, collar or spray); For dogs or cats; Approved against which ticks;
Waterproof or water resistant; Approved for pregnancy or lactation (nursing); How long until maximum effect against ticks is reached; Other parasites killed, controlled or repelled; Other active ingredients
Prescription drug or insecticide; LD50 (lethal dose to 50% of the population); |
If you were told that you had a genetic predisposition to develop a disease, you might understandably resign yourself to getting it someday.
But a new study offers hope that, when it comes to our genes, we have more control over our destinies than we think. And all it comes down to is something as simple as a daily jog or walk.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis's Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center conducted a study of 201 people, some of whom had family histories of Alzheimer's and others who didn't. None of them showed outward signs of the disease at the beginning of the study.
They then scanned the subjects' brains to look for amyloid plaques, deposits that are correlated with memory loss from Alzheimer's. They also checked the volunteers' APOE, a gene that can cause a 15 times higher risk of Alzheimer's in patients who carry the variant called e4. E4 carriers also show symptoms of dementia in their late 60s, rather than in their early 80s, as non-e4 carriers do. In the study, 56 volunteers had the e4 variant.
Lastly, they asked the subjects about their exercise habits over the previous 10 years.
As in some previous studies, those who exercised more had a smidgen fewer amyloid plaques than those who didn't. But the difference was not statistically significant.
However, the group with the e4 variant was a different story. Among them, those who exercised had dramatically less plaques build-up in the brain compared to those who did not.
As the study authors wrote in the study, published in the Archives of Neurology, a “physically active lifestyle may allow e4 carriers to experience brain amyloid levels equivalent to e4-negative individuals.”
Dr. Denise Head, lead author and an associate professor of psychology at Washington University, says that while the study showed that exercise could lessen the accumulation of plaque on the brain and potentially on the development of Alzheimer's in those with the genetic predisposition, it's not yet clear whether exercise can also provide benefits after the plaques have built up.
But, Dr. Head points out, mice that were bred to have memory loss have been shown to benefit from beginning a running program, and to experience less dementia than mice who didn't begin the program.
Related on SmartPlanet:
via: New York Times
photo: (Mike Baird/Wikimedia)
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com |
Posted on July 21, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
A bearded seal pup. Photo courtesy NOAA.
Conservation group joins legal fray, aiming to maintain protected status
By Summit Voice
FRISCO — Oil companies may talk nice about protecting endangered species in Alaska, but when it comes to squeezing just a few more drops of oil from the region, industry fat cats sing a different tune.
Most recently, the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and American Petroleum Institute have gone to court to try and strip endangered species protection from bearded seals, animals that rely on Arctic pack ice for much of their life cycle. Continue reading
Filed under: Arctic, biodiversity, climate and weather, endangered species, energy, Environment, gas drilling, global warming, oil drilling | Tagged: Arctic, bearded seals, endangered species, endangered species act, global warming, oil industry | Leave a comment »
Posted on December 24, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
Listing decision underscores climate-change threats to Arctic ecosystems
Bearded seals are vulnerable to shrinking sea ice, declining snow cover. Photo courtesy NOAA.
By Summit Voice
FRISCO — Recognizing that the best available science suggests a significant loss of Arctic sea ice in the next few decades, federal biologists last week finalized Endangered Species Act protection for two species of ice-dependent seals.
NOAA will list as threatened the Beringia and Okhotsk populations of bearded seals, and the Arctic, Okhotsk, and Baltic subspecies of ringed seals. The Ladoga subspecies of ringed seals will be listed as endangered. The species that exist in U.S. waters (Arctic ringed seals and the Beringia population of bearded seals) are already protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
“Our scientists undertook an extensive review of the best scientific and commercial data. They concluded that a significant decrease in sea ice is probable later this century and that these changes will likely cause these seal populations to decline,” said Jon Kurland, protected resources director for NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska region. “We look forward to working with the State of Alaska, our Alaska Native co-management partners, and the public as we work toward designating critical habitat for these seals.” Continue reading
Filed under: Arctic, biodiversity, climate and weather, endangered species, Environment, global warming, Uncategorized | Tagged: Arctic, Arctic sea ice, bearded seals, biodiversity, Center for Biological Diversity, endangered species, endangered species act, global warming, ringed seals | Leave a comment » |
The Crested barbet is fairly common in the north-eastern parts of the southern African region, where it favours drier woodland especially areas with plenty of acacias. They also seem to be quite comfortable in camp sites and in parks and gardens. (Check out our blog about a silly Crested barbet at Kalizo Lodge in Namibia.)
The Crested barbet is the largest of the barbets in the region, with a length of approximately 24 cm. It has a yellow head, speckled with red and surmounted by a black crest. Underparts are yellow, save for a black chest band spotted with white. Wings and tail are black spotted with white; legs and feet are grey-black; bill is pale yellow with a black tip; eyes are brownish-red. Males and females are similar in size, but are less brightly coloured.
The Crested barbet’s loud and sustained trilling “tr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r” is often heard before the bird itself is sighted. Both the males and females sing, and on occasion this rather unmusical song takes the form of a duet.
Crested barbets forage mainly on the ground, feeding on termites, grasshoppers and other insects as well as snails, but it is omnivorous and also feeds on fruit and nectar.
These barbets are monogamous and generally make a nest hole in a dead tree stump or other convenient place, but may also take over the nests of other hole-nesters such as Red-throated wrynecks (Jynx ruficollis). In suburbia they may nest in nest boxes. The female lays a clutch of two to five eggs that hatch after an incubation period of approximately 17 days. Their nests may be parasitized by the Greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator) or the Lesser honeyguide (Indicator minor).
The scientific binomial for the Crested barbet is Trachyphonus vaillantii; Trachyphonus from the Greek for a “rough voice”; and vaillantii after the ornithologist Francois Le Vaillant who travelled in South Africa in the late 1700’s. I don’t know about the “rough-voice” in the case of the Crested barbet, but it is nice to see the earlier pioneer ornithologists honoured in this way. |
After a full day of travel on December 20, this baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) touched down in Monterey, California, around 10 p.m. Steve Vogel, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Husbandry Curator who accompanied the little turtle on its journey, brought it immediately to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where it went straight into the water behind the scenes.
The next morning, Veterinarian Dr. Mike Murray examined the hatchling. At just four months old, it weighs almost half a pound (0.22 kg), and its shell measures about 4.4 inches (11.2 cm) long and 3.4 inches (8.7 cm) across. The turtle passed the exam, but is being keep it behind the scenes until after Christmas to acclimate to a regular feeding routine.
This Loggerhead is one of nine on loan to various U.S. zoos and aquariums from the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. They were late hatchlings that didn’t make it to the water with their nest-mates. All of them were rescued from nests on North Carolina beaches and will eventually be returned to the wild. This little turtle will stay at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for as long as two years before its return release back in North Carolina.
This new turtle will serve an important role during it’s stay, acting as an ambassador for its species. The Aquarium will make it the focal point of an exhibit that highlights the threats facing sea turtles and other ocean animals from unsustainable fishing practices. In the wild, sea turtles often die when they’re accidentally caught in fishing gear, primarily in trawls and longlines. sea turtles around the world also face deadly threats from ocean pollution – particularly plastic debris.
Since the turtle eventually will be released back into the wild, the aquarists will take a “hands-off” approach and not hand-feed it or spend more time with it than necessary, though they will continue to keep track of the hatchling’s weight through routine exams. |
Date: 21 September 2019
A decade of illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has left thousands of acres of rainforest a wasteland. Unpermitted miners cleared vast sections of trees near Peru’s border with Brazil and infused the land with mercury, causing an environmental disaster. But some miners have fled after Peruvian troops moved in. Special correspondent Leo Schwartz reports in the first of a two-part series.
Read the Full Transcript
Destruction of the Amazon Rainforest is accelerating, with recent statistics showing 870 square miles was lost in July alone, nearly triple that of the same period last year.
And the fires currently burning in Brazil are only part of the story.
In Peru, where some 300 thousand square miles of the forest exist, illegal gold mining has caused devastation of its own.
But, as NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Leo Schwartz and New York University’s Global Beat Program report, there is one region where Peru is having some success against the trend.
In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon lies a man-made desert. It was once pristine rainforest, but a decade of illegal gold mining has transformed it into a wasteland. Peru is the seventh largest gold producer in the world. The U.S. imports around $2 billion dollars-worth a year, despite the fact that an estimated 20% of it is illegally mined in places like the Madre de Dios region. It’s a sparsely inhabited jungle the size of indiana, along Peru’s borders with Bolivia and Brazil. Gold extraction isn’t illegal everywhere in Madre de Dios, but is never allowed inside national reserves or the buffer zones around them. Government officials estimate that as many as 40,000 illegal miners have occupied these areas, clearing trees, digging pits and infusing the ground with mercury. The toxic chemical draws the precious gold out of the sand and dirt, but is then left behind, poisoning the landscape. But at least some of those miners are now on the run. In February, The Peruvian Government declared a state of emergency in Madre de Dios and sent in eighteen hundred army troops and police. Today, there are seven fixed bases and a network of field sites. It’s called “Operation Mercury.” Jorge Cotito is a colonel with the Peruvian National Police.
The Miners had formed what we could call a paramilitary base and nobody could enter this area, it was a lawless zone. It was damaging the ecology of the Peruvian jungle, and the Amazon, which is one of the lungs of the world. If forceful action wasn’t taken, deep ecological damage was going to continue.
Peru’s part of the Amazon alone makes up the 4th largest tropical rainforest in the world. It’s a biodiversity hotspot, home to species found nowhere else. But the destruction of this precious resource has been accelerating.
What we see taking a look at the satellite data is that 2018 is the highest record on year for deforestation in this part of the Amazon.
Luis Fernandez is a former U.S. EPA specialist who now runs the independent Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation in Peru. A decade ago, Fernandez saw what he calls a “perfect storm” brewing in Madre de Dios, starting with the construction of the Trans-Oceanic Highway that cut right across this gold rich land and drew impoverished Peruvians from around the country to previously uninhabited areas.
The real tipping point was the economic crisis in 2008 because that is when the price of gold skyrocketed. It sparked a massive gold boom. So you have people flooding the area, going on a brand new road into an area that is supposed to not be habited. Then you had just weak local governance. Once those factors all came together and overlapped, then you saw like this, this massive explosion inside protected areas where you just never saw it before.
With the influx of mining, entire settlements have sprung up, like this one along the highway. It exists only to serve miners and their families. Even under the state of emergency, it remains a dangerous place for authorities and outsiders. Police insisted we film it only with their armed escort.
There was a great deal of illicit activity here. From human trafficking to money laundering, corruption, hitmen, even mass graves were found here. This was a totally lawless place and it was growing.
And so government forces arrived in Madre de Dios with much fanfare. Patrolling populated areas and overflying the jungle canopy to identify remaining illegal mining operations. Sometimes they get tips from local residents as was the case on this day, leading colonel Cotito to assemble a small field patrol. It went deep into an area called La Pampa, the ground zero of illegal mining. An hour into the mission, the police officers find a man standing alone next to an abandoned mining site and detain him on suspicion of illegal gold extraction. He will be brought back to the main base to be interviewed by prosecutors. The patrol resumes the hunt and soon finds a squalid mining camp. The men here lead them to their nearby dredging platform. It appears to have been recently used. The troops strap dynamite to the rig, and then blow it up.
Back at the camp, the troops set fire to the huts and all of the miners’ possessions. They hope to ensure that no one can mine here again. An environmental crackdown of this intensity is new for a country well-known for corruption. The previous Governor of Madre de Dios had been a gold miner himself and allowed the illegal industry to grow unchecked. But that all changed with the 2018 election of a new Governor, Luis Hidalgo. He ran on the promise to end illegal mining and a wave of street crime that had come with it. Hidalgo believes previous attempts were half-hearted. He says this state of emergency will succeed.
All of the previous governments have come and conducted interdictions for only 15 days, destroying the machines, expelling the people that were working, and later leaving. And the people would return to those sites. This time these military bases are the beginning of a program of development and investment that my government has requested.
Whether or not Operation Mercury succeeds will also depend in large part on the justice process that follows the interdictions and arrests. There are 80 national prosecutors embedded in the operation, including some specialized in environmental crimes, like Karina Garay.
For the crime of illegal mining, we have penalties that can go as high as 12 years, depending on whether the crime was committed in an aggravated manner, like for example in a protected natural area. Here in the state of emergency we can use an expedited process when we see flagrant criminal acts, and we don’t need more evidence. We can take it to court within 48 hours and within 8 days can receive a sentence.
That all happens here, in this unassuming but ground-breaking environmental court. The Peruvian Government opened it last year. Besides mining, the court also hears cases on other environmental crimes like illegal logging and animal poaching. Garay scours satellite imagery for signs of new deforestation or emerging gold pits that require immediate action.
We look at the forest, we look at the coordinates, we look at the access points, how we can reach them. And we provide this information to those who develop the operational plans – the army, the police, and the navy.
Still, she admits it’s a game of cat and mouse.
Right now, there are people that have left La Pampa and are invading other areas. Yesterday we had to respond to a new location based on a complaint we received and it was indeed full of illegal miners in the middle of operations. We had to destroy everything we found, and this will continue to happen. It will always continue.
The financial incentive for gold mining will never go away, says environmentalist Luis Fernandez.
Practically speaking, it will be done in places like Madre De Dios because of the poverty that exists in many places in Peru. Gold is literally under people’s feet. So if you cut down some trees and dig down in the soil, you can make 10 times or a hundred times what you would earn as a farmer in a month in a single day.
After five months of the state of emergency, there was some sign of improvement. New research based on satellite imagery shows the rate of deforestation connected to gold mining has dropped more than 90%, compared to the same period last year. But even the government of Peru admits military might alone will not be enough to fully end illegal gold mining. In part two of this report, Newshour Weekend will explore what else can be done to reform production, create new economic opportunities, and even restore the damaged environment.
This project was produced by New York University’s GlobalBeat Program and Kira Kay, Jason Maloney, Alexander Tabet and Laura Zéphirin.
For the original article and video, please visit https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gold-mining-leaves-heart-of-peruvian-amazon-a-wasteland?fbclid=IwAR3Uo-qwAEGud7fplteMnV0mV3iC9G3ijDWAhr4MjfK5jFMbNbVY7-p4QLk. |
this poisonous salt gradually becomes available as the film wears down
Fouling of Bottom Paints.
View of painted steel plate after alternate exposure to salt water and air. Paint on left-hand side contains excess pine tar and is badly fouled with barnacles. Paint on right does not contain pine tar and is in excellent condition, considering time and severity of exposure.
Image at page 7, illustrating Henry A. Gardner,
Marine Paints. Bulletin 52 (April 1916). Educational Bureau, Scientific Section, Paint Manufacturers’ Assocation of the U.S. Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
Image quality as is, from Google scan of University of Chicago copy, digitized March 1, 2012.
18 February 2013
tags: exposure; foulings; Henry A. Gardner; paint; salt; salts |
I have written about the Tamil Chola King Muchukunda and his identifying the Shiva idol from Indra.
The Seven temples of Shiva, the Sapthavidanga sthalas in Tami Nadu have these Lingas.
Please read my article on this.
Muchukunda was a comtemporary of Lord Krishna and Kala Yavana.
By Anonymous (India) – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1990.185.1_IMLS_PS4.jpg, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14608189
According to the Vishnu Purana and Harivamsa, Kalayavana was the son of a Brahmin named Ganga, and a Yavana princess. This legend appears to indicate an invasion from across the Himalayas, meaning one of the Central Asian, Middle Eastern or Ancient Greek provinces. After the invasion by combined forces of Jarasandha of Magadha, Kalayavan and their grand alliance, Krishna departed to build the city of Dvārakā amidst sea, transported all his people and left them there.
The legend goes like this: Lord Shri Krishna to save humanity from the evils of an yet another imminent battle with mighty Jarasandha flees Mathura [hence another name of Krishna, Ran-Chod Rai, one who fled war field] and moves his kingdom to newly builtDwarka. Kalayavan, who stood by Jarasandha chases Shri Krishna to Dwarka. Pretending to flee yet again from war field, Shri Krishna lures Kalayavana into the cave where the great king of Treta yuga, Muchukunda, one of the forefathers of Lord ShriRama was in a deep slumber of thousands of years after helping devas in an epic war with Asuras. Contemplating an absolutely undisturbed sleep he was given a boon that anyone who dared to disturb his sleep would get burnt to ashes immediately. Fast forward to Dwapara yuga, in the darkness deep inside the cave, Kalayavan mistakenly wakes up Muchukunda from his sleep, and sure to Muchukunda’s powers Kalayavan was decimated into ashes instantaneously with a fiery glance. And then Muchukunda was delighted to see Lord Shri Krisha there, who was none other than Lord Vishnu. Sri Krishna advises him to perform Tapas to cleanse the accumulated sins to attain Moksha (liberation). After meeting with lord, Muchukunda sets out of the cave. And the story narrates that he is astonished to see that all creatures had shrunken in size over time while he rested in cave, indicating long ages gone by. Muchukunda then goes north to Gandamadana Mountain and from there to Badrikashrama for doing penance and finally achieves liberation, the Moksha.
Kalayavana means a Black Greek/from Middle east.
Yavana is a term used from the Vedic times to denote Greeks,people from the middle east.
References to Yavana is found in ancient Tamil Literature , Vishnu Purana,HariVamsa and Silappadikarm in Tamil.
India imported horses from these areas and exported silk, Muslin,Diamonds, Emeralds ,Spices,Tigers, Elephants.
‘Experts say in the Edicts of Ashoka (c. 250 BCE) especially In the Gandhari Rock XIII : Antiochus is referred as “Amtiyoko nama Yona-raja” (lit. “The Greek king by the name of Antiochus”), beyond whom live the four other kings: “param ca tena Atiyokena cature 4 rajani Turamaye nama Amtikini nama Maka nama Alikasudaro nama” (lit. “And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander”).
Dipavamsa , Mahavamsa and Sasanvamsa
Buddhist texts such as the Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa and the Sasanavamsa reveal that after the Third Buddhist Council, the elder (thera) Mahárakkhita was sent to the Yona country and he preached Dharma among the Yonas and the Kambojas.
Another example is that of the Milinda Panha , where “Yonaka” is used to refer to king Menanders (160–135 BCE ) guards.
The Vanaparava of Mahabharata contains verses in the form of prophecy complaining that “……Mlechha (barbaric) kings of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Bahlikas etc. shall rule the earth (i.e India) un-righteously in Kaliyuga…” . This reference apparently alludes to chaotic political scenario following the collapse of dharmic dynasties in northern India and its subsequent occupation by non-dharmic hordes of the Yavanas, Kambojas, Sakas and Pahlavas etc.
other Indian records describe the Yavana attacks on Saketa, Panchala, Mathura and Pataliputra, probably against the Sunga empire, and possibly in defense of Buddhism. The main mentions of the invasion are those by Patanjali around 150 BCE, and of the Yuga Purana, which, like the Mahabharata, also describes Indian historical events in the form of a prophecy:
Yavana in other cultures.
- Egyptians used the word j-w-n(-n)-’
- Assyrians used the word Iawanu
- Persians used the word Yauna or Yavanu
- Sri Lankans – used the word Yona in Mahawamsa and other historic texts.
- In Biblical writings, the word was Yāvān (and still is, in modern Israeli Hebrew – יוון)
- In Arabic and Turkish it is Yunan See Also Sanskrit Yoni
The history of Greece can be traced back to Stone Age hunters. Later came early farmers and thecivilizations of the Minoan and Mycenaean kings. This was followed by a period of wars and invasions, known as the Dark Ages. In about 1100 BC, a people called the Dorians invaded from the north and spread down the west coast. In the period from 500-336 BC Greece was divided into small city states, each of which consisted of a city and its surrounding countryside.
There were only a few historians in the time of Ancient Greece. Three major ancient historians, were able to record their time of Ancient Greek history, that include Herodotus, known as the ‘Father of History’ who travelled to many ancient historic sites at the time, Thucydides andXenophon.
Most other forms of History knowledge and accountability of the ancient Greeks we know is because of temples, sculpture, pottery, artefacts and other archaeological findings.
According to historians and archeological findings, the Neolithic Age in Greece lasted from 6800 to 3200 BC. The most domesticated settlements were in Near East of Greece. They traveled mainly due to overpopulation. These people introduced pottery and animal husbandry in Greece. They may as well have traveled via the route of Black sea into Thrace, which then further leads to Macedonia, Thessaly, Boeotia etc. The second way of traveling into Greece is from one island to another and such type of colonies has been found in Knossos and Kythnos..( http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/History/ )
There are attempts to distort history by saying that the term Yavana was derived from Ionia and that the term was not is use when the term was Yavana was coined.
Yavana is a name coined by the Vedic people with specific meaning and has no reference to Ionia for Ionia was named much later to the Vedic/Tamil Sangam period.
Obviously they could not have derived the term from Ionia.
To say that there was no Greek History then, is distortion of Facts s may be evidenced from the quote above.
Note that the predecessors to Greek civilistion,like the Minoans, were influenced by the Vedic civilization and Indian kings were ruling Minoans and there is also the Tamil connection.
Please read my articles on these
References and citations. |
- Beetroot provides a good source of anthocyanadins, a natural antioxidant that contributes to its deep red colour
- Extract is a natural source of vitamins and minerals
- Beetroot is used traditionally as a blood building food
- Beetroot may aid the natural process of elimination and support detoxification processes
- Beetroot has liver, spleen, gall bladder and kidney cleansing properties
- Beetroot is particularly rich in Vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus and iron
- Each capsule provides approximately 1-2mg of elemental iron
- The iron contained in beetroot is organic and non-irritating and will not cause constipation
Beetroot is useful in acidosis due to it being rich in alkaline elements
- Vacuum packed to enhance stability and shelf life
- Suitable for vegetarians and vegans
Also called beet, the beetroot is a firm, clean globe shaped vegetable with no soft wet areas. If still attached, it should have fresh, clean young leaves. The beetroot is characterised by dark purple skin and a distinctive purple flesh.
In pre-Christian times, the leaves of the beetroot were only eaten. Today, the root is used more often than the leaves since it stays fresher longer. Some beetroots are cultivated for distilling and the sugar industry. They are used as a vegetable and as food colouring.
From January To December
From June To November
PREPARATION TIPS AND USAGE
The leaves of the beetroot should be removed and the beetroot should be washed in cold water using a soft vegetable brush. They can be grated and eaten raw, boiled or baked. Raw beetroot may be peeled, diced and sauteed in butter. They can also be added to salads. Beetroots take at least 2 hours to be baked in the oven or boiled in salt water. Very small beetroots are preserved in vinegar and used in making pickles.
For storing, the beetroot leaves should be cut 50 mm above the root. They will keep for 4 – 5 days when refrigerated in the vegetable crisper. |
|MadSci Network: Genetics|
Hello Thanks for sending in your question. I believe, from what you have asked, that it is merely the terminology used to explain transcription and translation that has confused you. Your question is about what is referred to as the "Central Dogma": i.e. that DNA is read by transcriptional machinery in the nucleus, the information is copied into mRNA, which is transported out of the nucleus, and is then translated into a corresponding protein. i.e. DNA -> mRNA -> protein If there is anyone reading this answer who is unfamiliar with the path from DNA to protein, you might like to refer to the picture at: http://gened. emc.maricopa.edu/bio/bio181/BIOBK/cendogma.gif and some of the related material at: http:/ /gened.emc.maricopa.edu/bio/bio181/BIOBK/BioBookGENCTRL.html From your question, the problem you may be having is separating the terminology we use to refer to the information encoded by the DNA, from what happens mechanistically in order to generate a corresponding protein. We often talk about the coding strand, or sense strand of DNA, by which we mean the DNA strand with a sequence of bases that we, as humans, can read along, and, with our knowledge of the relationship between codons and amino acids, predict the amino acid sequence of a peptide. The other strand of DNA can be referred to as non-coding or antisense. Other terminology, which I use below, labels the DNA strands as + (sense) and - (anti-sense) . However, we must remember that in reality there is a nucleotide step between the DNA and protein levels: the mRNA. The translational machinery must be able to read the codons from the mRNA in order to add the correct amino acids to the peptide sequence. So the mRNA must read in the +ve, or sense direction. If we think about how DNA is copied by mRNA, we can see why the terminology used can be misleading: The two strands of DNA are complementary, each base pairing with a complementary base on the opposite strand; each adenine pairs with a thymine, and each guanine with a cytosine. (Uracil is used instead of thymine in RNA.) To copy DNA, or to create mRNA from DNA, the bases of the DNA strand read are paired off with their complementary base. This means that if the+ strand of the DNA was read, a - anti-sense sequence would be produced. However, we need mRNA in the +, or sense direction. To get this, the transcriptional machinery must read the -ve, or antisense DNA strand. And this is where the problem comes in: we, as humans, have named the DNA strands coding and non-coding according to whether we can read the sequence, find the codons, and predict the corresponding peptide sequence. But, from the cellular point of view, the codons encoded by the mRNA have to be readable by the translation machinery, and so must be in the + sense. Because of the way that DNA is transcribed, the transcription machinery must read the - strand of the DNA to produce mRNA in the + sense. So, rather unfortunately, the terminology can cause confusion at first since it is what we have chosen to call the "non-coding" strand of the DNA that is being read by the transcriptional machinery! The trick is to remember that we have named the DNA strands according to what is convenient for us to read. So, to recap: if we assume that in the stretch of DNA we are talking about, only one protein is coded for, then: The + strand is the one we read. The - strand is the one the transcription machinery reads to create a + mRNA strand. The + mRNA strand is read to create the peptide sequence. I hope this answers the question you asked. If not, please do get back in touch.
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Genetics. |
Ever wanted to get your hands on a Raman spectroscopy system? How about a laser speckle imaging system or a Doppler system? Those are some of the tools you can research with in our optics labs.
Our students have tested materials for use in fiber optics communications, measured blood flow in frogs’ feet, and investigated how rare earth elements can enhance transmission in our labs. Not only do our students publish their work, but they also gain the lab skills they need for graduate school, medical school, or a career.
And sometimes it’s the optics equipment itself that’s the research project. Our Raman and Doppler systems were erected and calibrated by our students and faculty as a summer research project. |
Randomized A randomized controlled trial is the study design that can provide the most compelling evidence that the study treatment causes the expected effect on human health. Each study subject is randomly assigned to receive either the study treatment or a placebo.
Blind The subjects involved in the study do not know which study treatment they receive. If the study is double-blind, the researchers also do not know which treatment is being given to any given subject. This 'blinding' is to prevent biases, since if a physician knew which patient was getting the study treatment and which patient was getting the placebo, he/she might be tempted to give the (presumably helpful) study drug to a patient who could more easily benefit from it. In addition, a physician might give extra care to only the patients who receive the placebos to compensate for their ineffectiveness. A form of double-blind study called a "double-dummy" design allows additional insurance against bias or placebo effect. In this kind of study, all patients are given both placebo and active doses in alternating periods of time during the study.
Placebo-controlled The use of a placebo allows the researchers to isolate the effect of the study treatment. A placebo is an inactive pill, liquid, or powder that has no treatment value. In clinical trials, experimental treatments are often compared with placebos to assess the experimental treatment's effectiveness. In some studies, the participants in the control group will receive a placebo instead of an active drug or experimental treatment.
Although the term "clinical trials" is most commonly associated with the large, randomized studies typical of Phase III, many clinical trials are small. They may be "sponsored" by single physicians or a small group of physicians, and are designed to test simple questions. In the field of rare diseases, like gene therapy treatments of inherited disorders, sometimes the number of patients might be the limiting factor for a clinical trial. |
Standard work is a notion from the lean manufacturing world that refers to having some sort of pre-defined standard way of doing things for a given activity or process. Actually, in the lean lexicon there is an awful lot related to standard work. Perhaps the most concise definition I’ve seen is this:
“Standardized Work is an agreed upon set of work procedures that establish the best method and sequences for each process. It defines the interaction of people using processes to produce a product. It is centered around human movements, it outlines efficient, safe work methods and helps eliminatemuda/waste.”
– cited from The no-nonsense guide to Standard Work
It can be as simple as simply documenting the work that is already done. It can also be used as part of a continuous improvement effort (you have to have a standard process so that you can measure the impact of changes). In much of the literature that I have read, the typical examples of standard work are taken from processes from the floor of a manufacturing plant. It seems pretty easy to define all the steps in a process when all you are doing is processing widgets. Compare that sort of work to the kind of work that is typically done by your average knowledge worker. Naively, they seem as though the two contexts are worlds apart.
For example a worker in a factory may do the same thing over and over again all day long. On the other hand, a knowledge worker never does the same thing twice – and certainly never the same way. Consider also that a typical factory worker works on a fairly rigid schedule that does not admit to many interruptions. The knowledge worker by comparison is sometimes referred to as “interrupt driven”, often suffering a non-stop stream of interruptions and changes in focus (depending on your situation of course). So how is it that we can apply the same sort of techniques for standard work to the knowledge worker that we would apply to the factory worker?
There was an interesting article over on InfoQ, Lean ‘Standard Work’ Applied to Software Development, that outlined some of the issues in trying to understand what it really means to apply the concept of standard work to knowledge work (or more specifically to software development). A few things become clear from this discussion:
- There are different ways or levels of understanding how standard work can be applied to knowledge work. For example: scheduling, task completion, process performance, coding standards, etc.
- Some would even assert (I believe incorrectly) that standard work does not exist in Agile software development.
I might even argue that in order to really understand how standard work can be applied to software development we have to take it down to the individual level. The question becomes: Where can each of us find standard work in our everyday lives? Here are some ideas:
- The daily schedule – imagine standardizing your daily calendar in outlook. I saw an amazing version of this in a presentation done at the LEI lean conference by the folks at Group Health.
- Meeting management – a well run meeting can be run according to a standardized structure. In fact that’s what a lot of management books are all about.
- Quality checklists/templates – what are the criteria that we use to assess the quality of the work we have done?
- To do lists/chores – what are the things I need to accomplish each day?
As you can see there are an awful lot of opportunities for standardization in a person’s day. Right now I’m playing with these ideas. This standard work stuff seems to border on time management (Stephen Covey, David Allen) as well as with Lean, and other process management methodologies. Exploring this sort of thing, especially at the individual level is a form of self-experimentation that can be very valuable. It can help reveal the principles behind these concepts in ways that our deeply meaningful to us in personal ways. It is through discovering that deeper meaning behind many of these principles that makes each of us better at bringing these concepts to bear in a work context. So I’m going to continue to play with this stuff, and if it interests you I would encourage you to do the same thing. You might find a lot of standard work lurking in your life. |
Teachers will hatch chickens in their classroom, giving students a chance to interact with the chicks and observe the differences between chicks and eaglets first hand. This lesson can be put together in a number of ways, depending on how deeply the instructor wants to dive. If hatching chicks isn’t possible in your classroom, consider watching a live chicken cam (https://youtu.be/gNs1O9nHmpo) or ordering live chicks.
You will need:
- A live eagle stream. Link: https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-eagles/.
- A journal or whole class chart for collecting information.
- Fertile chicken eggs and an incubator in the classroom if you plan to hatch chicks.
- A Venn Diagram to collect information.
Teachers are welcome to apply for a Raptor Resource Project educational chat account to observe incubation, hatching, and eaglets with other classes from around the country. The chat is moderated by Raptor Resource Project volunteers. Link: https://www.raptorresource.org/classroom/. If you don’t have a Raptor Resource Project classroom account, register here: https://www.raptorresource.org/register/. |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2000 April 13
Explanation: Comets are known for their tails. In the spring of 1997 and 1996 Comet Hale-Bopp (above) and Comet Hyakutake gave us stunning examples as they passed near the Sun. These extremely active comets were bright, naked-eye spectacles offering researchers an opportunity to telescopically explore the composition of primordial chunks of our solar system by studying their long and beautiful tails. But it has only recently been discovered that surprising readings from experiments on-board the interplanetary Ulysses probe which lasted for several hours on May 1, 1996, indicate the probe passed through comet Hyakutake's tail! Ulysses experiments were intended to study the Sun and solar wind and the spacecraft-comet encounter was totally unanticipated. Relative positions of Ulysses and Hyakutake on that date indicate that this comet's ion tail stretched an impressive 360 million miles or about four times the Earth-Sun distance. This makes Hyakutake's tail the longest ever recorded and suggests that comet tails are much longer than previously believed.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U. |
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
July 11, 1998
Explanation: The Sleeping Beauty galaxy may appear peaceful at first sight but it is actually tossing and turning. In an unexpected twist, recent observations have shown that the center of this photogenic galaxy is rotating in the opposite direction than the outer regions! Stranger still - there is a middle region where the stars rotate in the opposite direction from the surrounding dust and gas. The fascinating internal motions of M64, also cataloged as NGC 4826, are thought to be the result of a collision between a small galaxy and a large galaxy where the resultant mix has not yet settled down.
Authors & editors:
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
&: Michigan Tech. U. |
Fetal growth retardation is associated with decreased postnatal growth, resulting in a lower adult height. In addition, a low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of developing diseases during adulthood, such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular diseases. Children with persistent postnatal growth retardation, i.e., incomplete catch-up growth, can be treated with human GH. The GH/IGF-I axis is involved in the regulation of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. The question of whether treatment with GH in children born small for gestational age (SGA) has long-term implications with respect to glucose/insulin and lipid metabolism has not been answered yet. In this article, the available data are reviewed. |
The terms "client," "server," and "peer-to-peer" are all a bit ambiguous and borders between them are blurred.
A given entity X that is a server generally does not initiate connections, but waits for clients to talk to it. Conversely, clients do not listen for connections, but initiate connections toward a specified or discovered server.
Peer to peer would be where X can either initiate or receive connections.
Now X here can be a process, or part of a process, or a thread of a process, etc. but it should all be the same service. Sometimes a process or program is a client of one type of service and then a server of another. So this would not really be "peer-to-peer" but just a program that is both a client (of one type) and a server (of another type).
In the example you provide, there are two things going on, a discovery process, and then a data transfer process. So you have two different protocols, or parts of protocols, going on. Most everything that is "peer-to-peer" is sort of hybrid like this, and even though the peers can trade data without the assistance of a server, they still need something like a server for discovery. |
The full methodology was [published on our website] and in it we outlined exactly how the work was done and how road safety professionals could use the information. The final paragraph in the methodology states that,
So, given that this analysis is not measuring the road safety performance of a school, what does it say? The most significant findings were that road safety performance varies according to population and network density, as collision rates have reduced more quickly in rural areas than in urban ones over recent years. In regional terms this trend was most clearly seen in slower rates of collision reduction across London, the most densely populated region in Great Britain; while most other regions experienced somewhat slower collision reduction in urban areas compared to rural ones.
No filters were applied to data to attempt to identify collisions that involved children travelling to school. Reporting of all collisions is known to be incomplete, and relying on the ‘journey purpose’ field in STAST19 would reduce reporting further and would not identify pupil pedestrian casualties. The majority of school vicinities in the UK would contain very few collisions if this approach was taken and, because no link could be presumed between a child casualty and nearby schools, would itself be a misrepresentation of the true picture on our roads. While it may be possible to model pupil movement to some extent using time of day and day of week information, wide variations in term dates between authorities and years would still make it hard to draw firm conclusions.
As well as providing the map and the schools analysis we also supported the launch, talking to local media outlets and discussing general road safety topics relevant to all road users. Topics discussed covered engineering solutions, the effectiveness of lower speed limits and enforcement, education schemes offered by local road safety officers, and advice to parents about setting a good example to their children when walking and driving. We were very clear to point out that the road safety record in this country is strong and that children walking to school is perfectly safe and indeed good for their health.
Unfortunately we are not able to control how the results or indeed the project as a whole is reported, and it has come to our attention that in some instances the data may have been misrepresented. Where this has been drawn to our attention we have worked with the local authorities to ensure that correct information is available to them, and will continue to do so.
As an organisation we are committed to delivering insight into road safety matters using a variety of data sources and we also aim to raise awareness of things people can do to reduce their risk. We are always open an honest about the work we undertake and publish our results in as much detail as possible. |
Improving Education Through Three-Dimensional Learning
Blue Apprentice is an intergalactic story driven science game for kids. The only game that makes learning the elementary science concepts, like the Periodic Table, Fun! Blue Apprentice provides unlimited access to science curriculum.
Blue Apprentice regularly adds new worlds to explore, stuff to build, and missions to accomplish, all designed to encourage your child to experiment & learn, while building confidence in their scientific abilities.
Learn more : News & Press |
Eating a healthy, balanced diet and keeping active are important factors in maintaining good health and wellbeing across all ages.
What is a healthy diet?
A healthy, balanced diet involves eating a wide variety of nutritious food and drink in the right proportions to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. It is recommended that men have around 2,500 calories a day and women around 2,000 calories a day. A poor diet is linked to poor health and illness such as Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer and Stroke to name a few.
Where can you get help and advice?
If you are concerned about weight, https://www.more-life.co.uk/what-we-do/our-services/in-your-area/bedford/ provides FREE adult and child weight management services for individuals and families who live in Milton Keynes and meet the eligibility criteria. Their sessions cover a range of topics including healthy eating, physical activity and body image to help support sustainable change in a fun and friendly environment.
- Change4Life is designed for families with young children in mind. It features healthy eating tips, quick and easy family recipes, fun activities for kids and lots more!
- ONEYOU provides tips on how you can eat better, loose weight and keep active. There are a downloadable apps such as the ‘easy meals’ and the ‘couch to 5k’ to name but a few!
- NHS Eat Well provides information on how to eat healthily, exercise and understand what your weight means.
- Start4life for pregnant women, dads-to-be and new parents and their babies
- Healthy Start for those on benefits who are pregnant or have children under the age of four. |
Florida is the 22nd largest state in the USA and spans over 53,997 square miles of land area. Over 11,761 square miles of water in the state make it home to a number of aquatic mammals such as alligators and mantees and also the third largest state in terms of water area. Florida's shares its borders to the north with Georgia and Alabama. The state extends into a panhandle to its northwest and shares a short western border with Alabama. The long coastline of the Gulf of Mexico marks the rest of the state's western fringe. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean and to the south are the Straits of Florida, making the state a beautiful peninsula.
The state of Florida is situated on a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and the Straits of Florida.
It spans two time zones and is bordered by the states of Georgia and Alabama on the north, Alabama on the west, and the Atlantic Ocean on the south and east.The Bahamas and Cuba are also near the state. The landscape of Florida comprises three geographical land areas: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the East Gulf Coastal Plain and the Florida Uplands.
Landforms: Most of Florida is low-lying plains. The northwestern regions are higher in elevation than the rest of the state. The eastern coasts of the state are part of the Atlantic Coastal Plains. A stretch of coral reefs and sand islands, off the coastline make the eastern extremes of Florida. Southern Florida is characterized by a large swampy region that includes the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. The southern end of the mainland is dotted by numerous islands, the Florida Keys, the largest among which is the Key Largo. The East Gulf Coastal Plains extend into Florida through the Florida panhandle in the northwest to cover almost all of its western coastal regions. The Florida Uplands are the hills that run east-west from the north-western end of the state and dominate most of the state's borders with Alabama and Georgia.
|Area||65,755 square miles|
|Land Area||53,997 square miles|
|Water Area||11,761 square miles|
|Highest point||Britton Hill (105 meters)|
|Lowest point||Atlantic Ocean|
|Highest temperature||109 °F|
|Lowest temperature||-2 °F|
|Geographic Center||Hernando County|
Climate: Florida has a weather that spoils. Bright sun, colors, mild breeze, and the swaying palm trees. While the weather in Florida rarely reaches extremes, it is not uncommon to experience massive hurricanes and storms. Fall is the most beautiful season and North and Central Florida is bathed in flaming fall colors through October and November. November through April, Florida remains dry. Temperatures average about 70°F in South Florida and 53°F in North Florida. This is the best season for tourists interested in hiking, canoeing, and ornithology. Summers last from May through October. Temperatures average 80°F - 83°F all across the state. Precipitation is high and thunderstorms are common. The hurricane season lasts from June through November. Over the years, Florida has braved many hurricanes and has suffered severe damages as well. Not for nothing has Florida earned the reputation of being the most hurricane prone state in the USA. 37 category 3 hurricanes and 77 hurricanes of a lesser intensity have struck the state between 1851 and 2006. Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in August 1992 causing a colossal damage of over $25 billion. A series of hurricanes including Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma struck the state in 2004 and 2005 causing massive damages to the economy.
Flora and Fauna: La Florida or 'The Land of Flowers' as named by Juan Ponce de Leon, is home to an amazing variety of bio-life. The state has been divided into seven floral zones each bearing beautiful and colorful flowers. While the Flatwoods are home to over sixty varieties of orchid, the swampy Savannas bear water hyacinths, and lotus. The hills of North Florida are known for oak, pine and cypress trees. The ubiquitous palm grows all across the state. Many endangered plants and trees such as the Chapman Rhododendron, and Harper's Beauty are being preserved.
Among the eighty land mammals that have made Florida home are the raccoon, fox, rabbit, otter, mink, skunk, squirrel, deer, panther, coyote, wild boar, wild hog, bear, and armadillo. Aquatic mammals of Florida include the manatee and alligator. The coasts of peninsular Florida are home to a number of fishes, rays, shrimps, and sharks. Florida's climatic conditions make it the perfect refuge for migratory birds. Quails, turkeys, and ducks are found on the peninsular regions while the coasts are inhabited by storks, pelicans, and gulls. Over 350 pairs of the bald eagle, many venomous snakes, and more than 300 varieties of butterflies can be found in the state.
Britton Hill (345 ft), the highest point of Florida State, lies in this region. The Uplands then run south to form the heart of the peninsular region, also allowing for a distinction between the Atlantic Coastal Plains and the East Gulf Coastal Plains in the state. The Uplands are characterized by red, clayey soil and forested woods. A number of lakes dot the region. Sugarloaf Mountain (312 ft), near Lake Apopka, is the highest point in the peninsular region of Florida. Lake Okeechobee (the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the USA), Lake George, the Tohopekaliga Lake, and Lake Apopka are among the major lakes of central Florida. The state has over 7,700 lakes each spanning over 10 acres. The St. Johns River, the St. Marys River, the Kissimmee River, and the Suwannee River are the major rivers of the state
Other major rivers are:
The lakes in Florida play crucial roles in irrigation, flood control, drinking water supply, recreation, and navigation. There are both natural and artificial lakes. Lake Okeechobee, Lake Yale, Lake Monroe, Dune Lake are the major natural lakes formed by geological processes like erosion, fluvial development, depressions in ancient sea-bed, etc.
Some natural lakes are physically altered for irrigation, navigation, flood control and drainage facilities. These are called artificial lakes; almost all lakes in the state are artificial. Lake George, Dead Lake, Lake Apopka, Lake Harney, Lake Istokpoga, Lake Kissimmee, and Lake Seminole are the major artificial lakes found in Florida. |
Vaginal Bleeding During Early Pregnancy: A Merck Manual of Patient Symptoms podcast
Vaginal bleeding occurs in 20 to 30% of confirmed pregnancies during the first 20 wk of gestation; about half of these cases end in spontaneous abortion. Vaginal bleeding is also associated with other adverse pregnancy outcomes such as low birth weight, preterm birth, stillbirth, and perinatal death.
Obstetric or nonobstetric disorders may cause vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy (see Table 2: Some Causes of Vaginal Bleeding During Early Pregnancy).
The most dangerous cause is
The most common cause is
|PrintOpen table in new window
A pregnant woman with vaginal bleeding must be evaluated promptly.
Ectopic pregnancy or other causes of copious vaginal bleeding (eg, inevitable abortion, ruptured hemorrhagic corpus luteum cyst) can lead to hemorrhagic shock. IV access should be established early during evaluation in case such complications occur.
History of present illness should include the patient's gravidity (number of confirmed pregnancies), parity (number of deliveries after 20 wk), and number of abortions (spontaneous or induced); description and amount of bleeding, including how many pads were soaked and whether clots or tissue were passed; and presence or absence of pain. If pain is present, onset, location, duration, and character should be determined.
Review of symptoms should note fever, chills, abdominal or pelvic pain, vaginal discharge, and neurologic symptoms such as dizziness, light-headedness, syncope, or near syncope.
Past medical history should include risk factors for ectopic pregnancy and spontaneous abortion (see History).
Physical examination includes review of vital signs for fever and signs of hypovolemia (tachycardia, hypotension).
Evaluation focuses on abdominal and pelvic examinations. The abdomen is palpated for tenderness, peritoneal signs (rebound, rigidity, guarding), and uterine size. Fetal heart sounds should be checked with a Doppler ultrasound probe.
Pelvic examination includes inspection of external genitals, speculum examination, and bimanual examination. Blood or products of conception in the vaginal vault, if present, are removed; products of conception are sent to a laboratory for confirmation. The cervix should be inspected for discharge, dilation, lesions, polyps, and tissue in the os. If the pregnancy is < 14 wk, the cervical os may be gently probed (but no more than fingertip depth) using ringed forceps to determine the integrity of the internal cervical os. If the pregnancy is ≥ 14 wk, the cervix should not be probed because the vascular placenta may tear, especially if it covers the internal os (placenta previa). Bimanual examination should check for cervical motion tenderness, adnexal masses or tenderness, and uterine size.
The following findings are of particular concern:
Interpretation of findings:
Clinical findings help suggest a cause but are rarely diagnostic (see Table 2: Some Causes of Vaginal Bleeding During Early Pregnancy). However, a dilated cervix plus passage of fetal tissue and crampy abdominal pain strongly suggests spontaneous abortion, and septic abortion is usually apparent from the circumstances and signs of severe infection (fever, toxic appearance, purulent or bloody discharge). Even if these classic manifestations are not present, threatened or missed abortion is possible, and the most serious cause—ruptured ectopic pregnancy—must be excluded. Although the classic description of ectopic pregnancy includes severe pain, peritoneal signs, and a tender adnexal mass, ectopic pregnancy can manifest in many ways and should always be considered, even when bleeding appears scant and pain appears minimal.
A self-diagnosed pregnancy is verified with a urine test. For women with a documented pregnancy, several tests are done:
Rh testing is done to determine whether Rh0(D) immune globulin is needed to prevent maternal sensitization. If bleeding is substantial, testing should also include CBC and either type and screen (for abnormal antibodies) or cross-matching. For major hemorrhage or shock, PT/PTT is also determined.
Transvaginal pelvic ultrasonography is done to confirm an intrauterine pregnancy unless products of conception have been obtained intact (indicating completed abortion). If patients are in shock or bleeding is substantial, ultrasonography should be done at the bedside. The quantitative β-hCG level helps interpret ultrasound results. If the level is ≥ 1500 mIU/mL and ultrasonography does not confirm an intrauterine pregnancy (a live or dead fetus), ectopic pregnancy is likely. If the level is < 1500 mIU/mL and no intrauterine pregnancy is seen, intrauterine pregnancy is still possible.
If the patient is stable and clinical suspicion for ectopic pregnancy is low, serial β-hCG levels may be done on an outpatient basis. Normally, the level doubles every 1.4 to 2.1 days up to 41 days gestation; in ectopic pregnancy (and in abortions), levels may be lower than expected by dates and usually do not double as rapidly. If clinical suspicion for ectopic pregnancy is moderate or high (eg, because of substantial blood loss, adnexal tenderness, or both), diagnostic uterine evacuation or D & C and possibly diagnostic laparoscopy should be done.
Ultrasonography can also help identify a ruptured corpus luteum cyst and gestational trophoblastic disease. It can show products of conception in the uterus, which are present in patients with incomplete, septic, or missed abortion.
Treatment is directed at the underlying disorder:
Last full review/revision August 2009 by R. Phillips Heine, MD; Geeta K. Swamy, MD
Content last modified October 2013 |
For those of you who read my blogs in Valerie Strauss’ Answersheet, you know that for some time I have been ranting about the SAT scores that John King used to help set the cut score for proficiency on the Common Core tests.
In order to guide the setting of the cut scores, King commissioned a report to determine “college readiness” (Thank you to Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters for finding it.) He was not satisfied with the College Board’s established readiness score of 1550. So he asked the College Board to do another study and they were happy to oblige.
According to that report, there is a 75% probability of getting a B- in a college math course as long as you score a 710.
Well, bless my sleeveless pineapple! Only 6% of college bound seniors get that score! Anyone with a modicum of commonsense would have immediately questioned the study, but SED did not, instead they settled for a 60% probability of getting a C- which corresponds, according to their study, with 540 on the SAT mathematics section. They did, however, take the 75% probability scores for writing and reading, because they were more reasonable numbers.
Pick a number, any number.
In the end, the State Education Department “chose” the values 560 for reading, 530 for writing and 540 for math and called them “college-ready indicators.” That is a composite score of a 1630, (far higher than the 1550 which the College Board uses).
Those scores were used to “inform” the cut score setting committee. As the committee went through questions, according to member Dr. Baldassarre-Hopkins , the SED helpers said, “If you put your bookmark on page X for level 3, it would be aligned with these data,” thus nudging the cut score to where they wanted it to be.
Let me tell you a little bit about a score of 1630–only 32% of all SAT test takers reach it. John King predicted a 30% passing rate, and in the end, the passing rate was 31%. Why, those kids did not even need to show up for the test.
Here is some more important information about a score of 1630. It is above the average score of students whose parents earn between $160,000-$ 200,000 a year. It is above the average score of students whose parents have a Bachelors degree.
Now I am certain that if we correlated SAT scores with family income we could surely come up with as pretty a logistic regression probability curve as they got for their study of Regents scores and CUNY grades that gave SED its ‘aspirational measures’. And it would certainly be as lovely (and similar) to the curve of the New York State study to find those college readiness SAT scores.
So here is my plan. I think all of the billionaires like Bill Gates and Merryl Tisch who are very worried about college readiness should give their millions to make sure that every public school student’s family has at least $160,000 income. Wouldn’t that be a better investment than putting their money into big old databases which no one wants, or into funding Research Fellows to make infomercials and put stuff up on the Engage NY website? And to supplement it, they could take all of the millions that they got from Race to the Top and all of the millions that schools have to pay in enact all of these reforms. Add to that all of the taxpayer dollars yet to be spent buying all of the computers and bandwidth we will need for PARCC tests.
Why not? It is as reasonable as the present plan. In the end, the taxpayers would come out ahead, and so would the kids. |
The meaning of the name Sully is From The South Field. The origin of the name Sully is English. This is the culture in which the name originated, or in the case of a word, the language.
Form of the English surname Sudeley. Can also be a diminutive form of Sullivan. |
The church began to, there is no Christmas, about hundred years after Jesus went to heaven. It is said that: the first Christmas day 怎么治癫痫is in AD 138, the saint kerry gate proposes by the bishop of Rome. While the church history carries the first Christmas in the year 336. Because the bible is unknown to remember Jesus to be born in, therefore around Christmas day date each different. Until 440 AD, the Roman Catholic church set liuxue86.com December 25 for Christmas. 1607 a.d., around the world church leader got together in Bethlehem, further to determine, from then on, the world's most christians are in December 25 for Christmas. It d癫痫病的发作oesn't really matter which day, importantly should know it is for commemorates savior Jesus to be born. Due to the bible, Jesus was born in the night, so the traditional says December 24 for day and night "Christmas Eve" or "silent night".
Legend in more than 2000 years ago today, on the night of a snowflake flying, in Bethlehem, in the desert of god in order to save the human are living in sin and his son down to earth, to preach the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Tell that mankind has a soul, there is heaven and hell. Also tell humans last trial and his salvation in the future.
For the SINS of all mankind, and Jesus Christ died on the cross. His blood flow by can save all who believe in him. And in three days after癫痫小发作的原因 the death of the resurrection, ascend to heaven, and sat down at the right hand of god. Because of the birth of Jesus Christ, human beings have the hope of rescue.
So we will be a great night as the Christmas Eve, and spread so far. |
David Charbonneau Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
"The Era of Comparative Exoplanetology"
When extrasolar planets are observed to transit their parent stars, we are granted
unprecedented access to their physical properties. It is only for these systems that we
are permitted direct estimates of the planetary masses and radii, which in turn provide
fundamental constraints on models of their physical structure. Furthermore, such planets
afford the opportunity to study their atmospheres without the need to spatially isolate
the light from the planet from that of the star. Recently, astronomers have taken a first glimpse
into the atmospheric chemistry and dynamics of these puzzling worlds. I will review the most
recent results, and then describe a new observatory that we are constructing that will
survey 2000 nearby M-dwarfs with a sensitivity to detect rocky planets orbiting within
their stellar habitable zones.
Angela Speck University of Missouri - Columbia
"The Nature of Stardust: Astromineralogy and Circumstellar Dust
Around Evolved Stars"
Intermediate-mass stars (0.8 - 8.0 solar masses) are major contributors of new elements to
interstellar space. These stars eventually evolve into asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars.
During the AGB phase, these stars suffer intensive mass loss leading to the formation of
circumstellar shells of dust and neutral gas, including the new elements formed during the
star's life. Eventually the star runs out of material to lose, and the central core collapses
and heats up. Meanwhile the material around the star (the circumstellar shell) drifts away
from the star. Once the central star is hot enough to have significant ultraviolet (UV) emission
it will begin to ionize the surrounding medium, and it becomes a planetary nebula. The newly-
formed elements then become part of the interstellar medium, from which new stars and their
Using a combination of observing techniques (e.g. infrared (IR) spectroscopy, visible, IR and
and sub-mm imaging) and laboratory IR studies, together with theoretical considerations
(e.g. kinetics and thermodynamics of the dust-forming region; nucleosynthesis models and
changing stellar chemistries) and meteoritic evidence, we investigate the structure and evolution
of the circumstellar dust and its environment and how the evolution of AGB stars (in terms of
chemistry, mass-loss rates, dust shell dispersion and the change from benign AGB star to
ionized planetary nebulae), leads to changes in the dust composition and distribution.
Siang Peng Oh University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
"New Views of the High-Redshift Universe"
I discuss theoretical perspectives on present observations of the high-redshift universe
in Lyman alpha emitters and QSO transmission spectra, emphasizing that our constraints
on the state of the intergalactic medium z > 6 are still very uncertain. I discuss Ly-alpha
radiative transfer effects which complicate the interpretation of high-redshift Ly-alpha emitters.
I then turn to prospects for detecting the IGM in 21cm emission with upcoming instruments,
and focus on the importance of developing novel statistical techniques for mining the data.
In particular, I discuss prospects for detecting HII regions both statistically and in imaging data.
Eugene Chiang University of California, Berkeley
"Problems and Prospects in Planet Formation"
Planets form in disks. Planetary properties result from myriad processes within disks, some
of which are chaotic. We pose and offer solutions to a variety of problems associated with
protoplanetary disks: (1) How do T Tauri disks dissipate? (2) As dust grains settle toward
disk midplanes, what are the maximum densities attainable? Are these densities large enough
for gravitational instability? (3) How do densely packed systems of protoplanets ("oligarchies")
relax into solar system-like (and extrasolar system-like) configurations? (4) Does Brownian
motion of planets within planetesimal disks interfere with resonance capture? (5) What governs
the distinct surface brightness profiles of debris disks? Application will be made to transitional
disks systems, including TW Hyd and GM Aur; the circumbinary ring of KH 15D; Neptune and
resonant Kuiper belt objects; and the debris disk encircling AU Microscopii.
Yun Wang University of Oklahoma
"Dark Side of the Universe"
The cause for the observed acceleration in the expansion of the universe is unknown,
and dubbed "dark energy" for convenience. Dark energy could be an unknown energy
component, or a modification of Einstein's general relativity. I will examine the most
promising methods for probing dark energy, and discuss recent results and future prospects.
Stephen E. Strom National Optical Astronomical Observatory (NOAO)
"Transition Disks: A Possible Key to Understanding Planet Formation"
The unusual properties of transition objects (young stars with an optically thin inner
disk surrounded by an optically thick outer disk) suggest that significant disk evolution
has occurred in these systems. To explore the physical cause(s) for the transition
disk phenomenon, we examine these demographics, specifically their stellar accretion
rates and disk masses, and compare these parameters with those of accreting T Tauri stars
of comparable age. We find that transition objects of ages approximately 1 Myr occupy
a restricted region of the [mass accretion rate, disk mass] plane. Compared to accreting
T Tauri stars, transition disks have stellar accretion rates that are typically about 10 times
lower at the same disk mass, and disk masses about 4 times larger than the median
disk mass. These properties are anticipated by several proposed planet formation theories
and suggest that the formation of Jovian mass planets may play a significant role in
explaining the origin of many transition objects. We suggest observational strategies
that have the potential to determine (a) whether transition disks indeed indicate the onset
of planet formation; and (b) if so, how the physical characteristics of the transition disks
may be linked to outcome planetary system properties.
Special Event: Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Memorial Lecture
(Standard Location: RLM 15.216B, Time 3:30 p.m.)
John C. Mather (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2006) NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
"Finding our Origins with the James Webb Space Telescope"
How did we get here? Where are we headed? Dr. John Mather will tell the history of the universe
in a nutshell, and describe what our future holds within the realm of discovery. Dr. Mather is
Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is planned for launch
in 2013. As a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb telescope will look even
farther back in time and examine the first stars and galaxies that were created after the big bang.
JWST will be the largest telescope mirror ever placed in space and with a positioning of
1.5 million miles away from Earth, the Webb telescope will be able to unravel some of the
biggest mysteries of the universe.
Special Event: Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Public Lecture
(Special Location: ACE 2.302 - Avaya Auditorium, Time 4:00 p.m.)
John C. Mather (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2006) NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
"From the Farm to the Nobel Prize: Deciphering the Big Bang"
The history of the universe in a nutshell, from the Big Bang to now, and on to the future -
John Mather will tell the story of how we got here, how the Universe began with a Big Bang,
how it could have produced an Earth where sentient beings can live, and how those beings
are discovering their history. Dr. Mather grew up on the Dairy Research Station in Sussex
County, New Jersey where he developed his strong interest in science. At Nasa, he was
Project Scientist for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which measured
the spectrum (the color) of the heat radiation from the Big Bang, discovered hot and cold spots
in that radiation, and hunted for the first objects that formed after the great explosion. He will
explain Einstein's biggest mistake, show how Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of
the universe, how the COBE mission was built, and how the COBE data support the Big Bang
theory. He will also show NASA's plans for the next great telescope in space, the James Webb
Space Telescope. It will look even farther back in time than the Hubble Space Telescope, and
will look inside the dusty cocoons where stars and planets are being born today. Planned
for launch in 2013, it may lead to another Nobel Prize for some lucky observer.
Oct. 14 - 16
Frank N. Bash Symposium 2007 New Horizons in Astronomy
The Second Biennial Symposium on the Topic of New Horizons in Astronomy!
(Scientific Organizing Comittee: Kurtis Williams and Justyn Maund [co-chairs], Kyungjin Ahn, Eiichiro Komatsu, Mike Montgomery)
The Astronomy Program at the University of Texas at Austin is hosting its second biennial
symposium on the topic of New Horizons in Astronomy. This symposium brings truly excellent
young researchers who are working on frontier topics in astronomy and astrophysics together,
to exchange research ideas, experiences, and their visions for the future. The symposium
will focus on invited review talks given by postdoctoral fellows, followed by open panel
discussions, and a select number of poster papers from postdocs and graduate students
will be presented.
John E. Chambers Carnegie Institution of Washington / Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
"How Does Orbital Migration Affect the Oligarchic Growth of Planets?"
Many of the main characteristics of a planetary system are shaped during the oligarchic
growth stage of planetary formation. This begins when solid bodies in a protoplanetary disk
have grown to the size of large asteroids. In the Solar System, the end products of oligarchic
growth were Moon-to-Mars sized bodies in the terrestrial planet region. In the outer Solar System,
bodies grew substantially larger and were destined to become the cores of giant planets.
Current analytic theories and numerical simulations indicate that bodies formed during
oligarchic growth underwent rapid inward orbital migration caused by tidal interactions with
gas in the disk. In this talk, I will examine how planets might survive migration during
oligarchic growth, and look at the variety of planetary systems that can be produced as
a result of these processes.
Alicia M. Soderberg Princeton University
"A Radio View of the GRB-SN Connection"
Over the past few years, long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), including the subclass of
X-ray flashes (XRFs), have been revealed to be a rare variety of Type Ibc supernova (SN Ibc).
While all these events result from the death of massive stars, the electromagnetic luminosities
of GRBs and XRFs exceed those of ordinary Type Ibc SNe by many orders of magnitude.
The observed diversity of stellar death corresponds to large variations in the energy, velocity,
and geometry of the explosion ejecta. Using multi-wavelength (radio, optical, X-ray) observations
of the nearest GRBs, XRFs, and SNe Ibc, I show that while GRBs and XRFs couple at
least ~10^48 erg to relativistic material, SNe Ibc typically couple less than 10^48 erg to their
fastest (albeit non-relativistic) outflows. Specifically, I find that less than 3% oof local SNe Ibc
show any evidence for relativistic ejecta which may be attributed to an associated GRB or XRF.
Recently, a new class of GRBs and XRFs has been revealed which are under-luminous in
comparison with the statistical sample of GRBs. Owing to their faint high-energy emission,
these sub-energetic bursts are only detectable nearby (z <~ 0.1) and are likely 10 times more
common than cosmological GRBs. In comparison with local SNe Ibc and typical GRBs/XRFs,
these explosions are intermediate in terms of both volumetric rate and energetics. Yet the
essential physical process that causes a dying star to produce a GRB, XRF, or sub-energetic
burst, and not just a SN, remains a crucial open question. Progress requires a detailed
understanding of ordinary SNe Ibc which will be facilitated with the launch of wide-field
optical surveys in the near future.
Barbara Ercolano Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
"The Temperature Structure of HII regions and Star Forming Galaxies
Ionized by Multiple Spatially Distributed Sources: 3D Photoionization
Models with MOCASSIN"
Spatially resolved studies of star-forming regions show that the assumption of spherical
symmetry is not realistic in most cases, further complication is added by the gas being
ionized by multiple non-centrally located stars or star clusters.
Geometrical effects including spatial configuration of ionising sources affect the temperature
and ionization structure of these regions. I will present the results of our on-going theoretical
investigation of these effects which made use of 3D photoionisation mosels using the 3D
Monte Carlo photoionisation code MOCASSIN with various spatial configurations and
ionisation sources. In particular I will illustrate the behaviour of temperature fluctuations
within the ionised region as well as that of metallicity indicators based on strong-line
methods, that are often our only means to determine the metallicity of extragalactic
Karen M. Leighly University of Oklahoma
"The Influence of the AGN Spectral Energy Distribution on Broad-Line
Region Emission and Kinematics"
Quasars are the most luminous persistently emitting objects in the Universe. Powered by
accretion onto a supermassive black hole, many of their observable properties should be
determined by the fundamental parameters of accretion: the black hole mass and accretion
rate. The black hole mass and accretion rate should, in turn, determine the shape of
broad-band continuum emission arising from the accretion disk in the central engine.
That broad-band continuum is responsible for powering the strong, broad emission lines
that are prominent in optical and UV spectra, and are an identifying feature of AGN.
Thus, the line emission may be used as a probe of the fundamental intrinsic properties
of AGN, if we can break the code. I will present recent work investigating the role of the
spectral energy distribution in determining AGN broad-line properties.
Neal J. Evans University of Texas at Austin
"Star Formation: From Cores to Disks"
Observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope and complementary data at other
wavelengths have provided more complete samples of star-forming regions. These provide
constraints on theoretical models of the origin of the initial mass function and evolutionary
stages. The early stages of star formation include the separation of dense cores from the
background molecular cloud, the evolution before point source formation, the infall into the
central source, and the formation of the disk. These events are usually associated with
changes in the SED associated with the Class System. The large sample available from
the Cores to Disks (c2d) program provides good statistics on the numbers of objects in
various stages, and these can be used to estimate timescales. The evolution of the disk
to planetary systems is probed by studies of more evolved systems. We show that several
paths are possible in this evolution. Finally, the evolution of chemical state from molecular
cloud to planet-forming disk is revealed by infrared spectroscopy.
Nathan Smith University of California, Berkeley
"Precursors to Supernova Explosions and Extraordinary Deaths
of Very Massive Stars"
I will discuss some observations of a few recent and extraordinary supernova explosions.
Among these is SN2006gy, which radiated more luminous energy than any other supernova.
It may be our first observed case of a so-called "pair instability supernova", thought to mark
the deaths of the first stars in the very early Universe (although SN2006gy was relatively
nearby), and it appears to have suffered a violent precursor mass ejection just 5-10 years
before the SN. It was probably the most massive star ever seen to explode, and I will
mention connections to one of the most massive stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, called
Eta Carinae. SN2006gy is one of a class of supernovae that are plowing into very dense
circumstellar matter ejected by the star in the decade or so preceding the final SN. I will
discuss how this episodic pre-supernova mass loss, combined with some other recent
clues, is forcing us to revise some of our fundamental paradigms of massive star evolution. |
Feminism is the fight for women’s rights on the grounds of equality.
In the 21st century, there is a gender bias in work places, with some women earning less than men while doing the same job and working the same hours, with women being sexualised in advertisements for the purpose of products getting higher sales and attracting customers.
A study was done by University of Buffalo in order to examine the covers of Rolling Stone magazine from 1967 – 2009 to measure changes in the sexualization of men and women in popular media over time. They found that women were sexualised far more then man were. (j Query, Date, and reserved, 2011)
How Women Are Fighting
Women around the world are taking a stand against sexism and are fighting for their rights daily. Conch Rios, a 25 year old female from Spain became one of four female matadors fighting bulls in Spain. In an interview with the BBC, Conch Rios spoke of the bull fighting industry in Spain, stating: “Unfortunately, the industry wouldn’t hire me to fight in Spain so i had to fight elsewhere, both in Mexico and in Peru, and about five years later i became a matador. (BBC, no date)
I believe in equality of women and men. Everybody has to fight for whatever it is they want to do in life.”
An online organisation called SPARK (Sexualisation protest, action, resistance, knowledge) is a group run by girls aged 13-22 (SPARKmovement, no date). The organisation is a ” girl-fueled, intergenerational activist organization working online to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement.”
j Query, Date, new and reserved, A. rights (2011) Study finds marked rise in intensely sexualized images of women, not men. Available at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2011/08/12769.html (Accessed: 5 January 2017).
SPARKmovement (no date) Available at: http://www.sparkmovement.org/ (Accessed: 5 January 2017).
BBC (no date) 100 women 2016: Fighting bulls and sexism. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38176240 (Accessed: 5 January 2017). |
The Four Institutions of Racial Injustice
Bryan Stevenson is a highly acclaimed public interest lawyer, founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery Alabama, and recipient of the MacArthur Scholarship. Over his career of nearly three decades, he has successfully argued in front of the Supreme Court, and along with his staff, he has exonerated over 125 wrongly condemned prisoners from death row. In the final chapter of his memoir, Just Mercy (Spiegel & Grau, 2015), he has this to say (emphasis mine):
I believe that so much of our worst thinking about justice is steeped in the myths of racial difference that still plague us. I believe that there are four institutions in American history that have shaped our approach to race and justice but remain poorly understood. The first, of course, is slavery. This was followed by the reign of terror that shaped the lives of people of color following the collapse of Reconstruction until World War II. Older people of color in the South would occasionally come up to me after speeches to complain about how antagonized they feel when they hear news commentators talking about how we were dealing with domestic terrorism for the first time in the United States after the 9/11 attacks. An older African American man once said to me, “You make them stop saying that! We grew up with terrorism all the time. The police, the Klan, anybody who was white could terrorize you. We had to worry about bombings and lynchings, racial violence of all kinds.”
The third institution, “Jim Crow”, is the legalized racial segregation and suppression of basic rights that defined the American apartheid era. It is more recent and is recognized in our national consciousness, but it is still not well understood. It seems to me that we’ve been quick to celebrate the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement and slow to recognize the damage done in that era. We have been unwilling to commit to a process of truth and reconciliation in which people are allowed to give voice to the difficulties created by racial segregation, racial subordination, and marginalization.
The legacy of racial profiling carries many of the same complications. Working on all of these juvenile cases across the country meant that I was frequently in courtrooms and communities where I’d never been before. Once I was preparing to do a hearing in a trial court in the Midwest and was sitting at counsel table in an empty courtroom before the hearing. I was wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and tie. The judge and the prosecutor entered through a door in the back of the courtroom laughing about something. When the judge saw me sitting at the defense table, he said to me harshly, “Hey, you shouldn’t be in here without counsel. Go back outside and wait in the hallway until your lawyer arrives.” I stood up and smiled broadly. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry, Your Honor, we haven’t met. My name is Bryan Stevenson, I am the lawyer on the case set for hearing this morning.” The judge laughed at his mistake, and the prosecutor joined in. I forced myself to laugh because I didn’t want my young client, a white child who had been prosecuted as an adult, to be disadvantaged by a conflict I had created with the judge before the hearing. But I was disheartened by the experience. Of course innocent mistakes occur, but the accumulated insults and indignations caused by racial presumptions are destructive in ways that are hard to measure. Constantly being suspected, accused, watched, doubted, distrusted, presumed guilty, and even feared is a burden borne by people of color that can’t be understood or confronted without a deeper conversation about our history of racial injustice.
The fourth institution is mass incarceration. Going into any prison is deeply confusing if you know anything about the racial demographics of America. The extreme overrepresentation of people of color, the disproportionate sentencing of racial minorities, the targeted prosecution of drug crimes in poor communities, the criminalization of new immigrants and undocumented people, the collateral consequences of voter disenfranchisement, and the barriers to re-entry can only be fully understood through the lens of our racial history. |
Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois on March 19, 1848. He was the third son of Nicholas Earp and Victoria Ann Cooksey. Sometime after he was born his family moved to Pella, Iowa. They stayed in Iowa for awhile before returning to Illinois. By 1858, the family again moved back to Pella. In 1864, the family moved to California. From his birth in 1848 to 1869 very little is really known about Wyatt Earp. Most of the information that we now have is based on Stuart Lake's Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal (1931). However, Lake's book contains many unsupported claims about Wyatt's life which were probably exaggerated. It is not until 1869 that factual information about Wyatt's early life has been found.
Wyatt Earp's First Known Law Position (1869)
Wyatt Earp and his family moved to Lamar, Missouri around 1869. Nicholas Earp at some point became the Constable for Lamar. However, on November 17, 1869, Nicholas offered his resignation as Lamar's Constable. His resignation was accepted and he was immediately appointed to the position of Justice of the Peace. On the same day Wyatt Earp, who was only twenty-one years-old, was appointed as Lamar's new town Constable. This appears to have been his first known law position. The following is the oath that Wyatt Earp swore to when he accepted the position of Lamar's Constable:
"I, Wyatt S. Earp do solemnly swear that I will to the best of my ability, diligently and faithfully without partiality or prejudice discharge the duties of Constable, within and for Lamar Township Barton County Missouri. [signed] Wyatt S. Earp"
Wyatt Earp gave a $1,000 bond for this position which was filed on November 26, 1869. He signed the note and his sureties were his father Nicholas Earp, his uncle J.D. Earp, and James Maupin. Wyatt remained the town Constable when the town incorporated on March 3, 1870. Very little information is known about his activites as Lamar's Constable. Court records indicate that he did the usual activites that a constable for a small town generally performed.
Wyatt Earp's First Marriage (1870)
On January 10, 1870, Wyatt Earp married Urilla Southerland. She was the daughter of William and Permelia Southerland. Wyatt's new in-laws were very respected in Lamar and they owned the Lamar Hotel. It is believed that following his marriage to Urilla that the couple lived at the Lamar Hotel for a short period. Wyatt Earp purchased a lot with a home on it for $50 in August 1870. Wyatt and Urilla probably moved the home at that time. Urilla died sometime in 1870. Claims have been made that she died during child birth. While other accounts suggest that she died of Typhus. The exact date she died is not known. However, it was probably shortly before November 1870, as Wyatt sold for $75 the he had purchased in August during this month.
LAMAR LAWSUITS AGAINST WYATT EARP
Throughout Wyatt Earp's life controversy followed his every movement. The first known controversial events about Wyatt's life occurred in Lamar.
BARTON COUNTY SUES WYATT EARP AND HIS SUREITIES OVER ALLEGED MISSING SCHOOL FUND MONEY. (1871)
On March 14, 1871, Barton County filed a suit against Wyatt Earp and his sureties for $200. The lawsuit was based on the allegation that Wyatt Earp, while Constable for Lamar, had collected fees for licenses for the town. The proceeds of these fees were supposed to be used to support the school fund. However, the county alleged that Wyatt had never turned over the money that he had collected.
The action against Wyatt Earp was eventually vacated. This was probably based on the fact that Wyatt and his father had left the State. Constable Charles Morgan, in an affidavit filed with the lawsuit, commented: ". . . he has good reason to believe + does believe that Wyatt S. Earp deft. is not a resident of this state, that Wyatt S. Earp has absconded or absented himself from his usual place of abode in this state so that the ordinary process of law cannot be served against him . . . ."
A SECOND LAWSUIT IS FILED AGAINST WYATT EARP (1871)
On March 31, 1871, a second lawsuit was filed aginst Wyatt Earp by a man named James Cromwell. This suit alleged that Wyatt had falsified court documents that refered to the amount of money that he had collected from Cromwell to satisfy a judgement. Cromwell later had a mowing machine siezed by the Lamar Constable to satisfy the amount the court felt was still outstanding in the judgment. The machine was sold for $38. Cromwell in his suit claimed that the machine had a value of $75, and that Wyatt Earp and his sureities owed him this amount because Earp had falsified the court documents about the amount he had paid to satisfy the judgment against him.
A summons was issued for Wyatt Earp to appear before the court on April 5, 1871. It was returned unserved. Wyatt could not be located in the county. On April 21, 1871 the case went forward. Justice S. J. Bowman found for the defendants and ordered Cromwell to pay the to attending men $3.25 for costs. Cromwell appealed and apparently won at least partially. The court issued an "Execution For Costs." It ordered the Barton County Sheriff to seize the "Goods, Chattels and Real Estate" of Wyatt S. Earp and James Maupin.
It is impossible to now know if the allegations against Wyatt Earp were true or not. However, he chose to leave the state rather that face the allegations against him.
ARRESTED IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY FOR HORSE THEFT (1871)
During April 1871, Wyatt Earp was accused of horse theft in the Indian Territory. The Federal Government started legal action against Earp and his alleged accomplices. A Bill of Information was filed on April 1, 1871:
"April 1, 1871, Bill Of Information. U. S. vs Wyatt S. Earp, Ed Kennedy, John Shown, white men and not Indians or members of any tribe of Indians by birth or marriage or adoption on the 28th day of March A. D. 1871 in the Indian Country in said District did feloniously willfully steal, take away, carry away two horses each of the value of one hundred dollars, the property goods and chattels of one William Keys and prey a writ [signed] J. G. Owens."
On April 6, 1871, Deputy United States Marshal J. G. Owens took Wyatt Earp into custody on a charge of horse theft. Commissioner James Churchill arraigned Earp on April 14, 1871, and bond was set at $500. On May 15, 1871, Wyatt Earp was indicted on the charge. He failed to appear in court in May and a warrant was issued for his arrest. It was returned unserved on November 21, 1871.
Wyatt was never tried on the matter. His alleged co-defenfent Edward Kennedy was later acquitted of the charge. Anna Shown, wife of John Shown, in a sworn statement accused Wyatt Earp and Ed Kennedy of forcing her husband to help steal the animals. she also claimed that Earp and Kennedy had threatened to kill her husband if he turned State's evidence against them.
Whether Wyatt Earp had really stolen the horses was never determined. Also, it is not known if Anna Shown's claims against Earp were true. However, this incident and the other lawsuits aginst Earp in Lamar, now place a cloud of controversy over the actions he made during his early life. Controversy would continue to follow him throughout his life on the frontier.
Wyatt Earp History Page Index
Tombstone Historical Homepage |
Dr. Santosh Kesari is chief medical adviser for CerebraCell, which focuses on brain regeneration utilizing patented bioelectric signals that home stem cells to the brain and cause new blood vessels to grow.
By Lee Barnathan, California Business Journal
Imagine using electricity to non-invasively treat and cure brain cancer. Or stroke. Or Parkinson’s. Or an aneurysm. Or Alzheimer’s, depression, concussion.
Dr. Santosh Kesari is one of many people who see the possibilities in the world of alternating electric field therapy.
“Within two years, I think we can start trials,” says the chief medical adviser for CerebraCell, a company devoted to using bioelectrical stimulation to treat a cure for various brain injuries, conditions and diseases.
CerebraCell’s method of delivering such stimulation is a “brain helmet,” an apparatus made of plastic with numerous electrodes that zap the brain with the right amount of electrical pulses to stimulate the necessary repairs, whether by triggering adult stem cells, causing new neuron pathways to fire, or sending messages for the cell to repair itself.
“We are electrical beings,” Kesari says. “Every cell in our body has charges. The nervous system works on electricity. Electricity is being generated all day, everyday, or else you won’t live.”
And the effects of electricity on the body are well known and go beyond Robert O. Becker’s 1985 book “The Body Electric,” in which he theorized that electric fields play a role in regeneration. As far back as 46 AD, Scribonius Largus, physician to Roman Emperor Claudius, used electric fishes to treat headaches.
In 1804, Giovanni Aldini performed electrical stimulations on the exposed human cerebral cortex of recently decapitated prisoners and concluded the cortical surface could be electronically stimulated. The introduction of electroshock therapy in 1938 further demonstrated therapeutic applications of stimulating the brain.
But Kesari, who is also the director of the Santa Monica-based Pacific Neuroscience Research Center, says electroshock differs in that it uses high voltage of electricity to “shut the brain down and restart it.”
CerebraCell’s brain helmet uses lower voltages. What Kesari and other researchers are trying to determine, he says, is to find the specific electrical current that will start the healing process, and then use the brain helmet to deliver that current.
What’s not yet known is whether each condition would have is own current. Or will researchers find one current that would work for all conditions? Or will each individual require his or her own current that would only work for him or her?
The process is moving forward. The Food and Drug Administration in 2016 approved the Israeli company Novocure’s treatment for newly diagnosed or recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an aggressive brain cancer.
Novocure created a series of four portable patches one wears on the scalp. Through a connected battery, the product, called Optune, delivers the right amount of electricity to the tumors (the Optune website says chemotherapy is sometimes needed as well).
Kesari worked on the Optune trials, so he believes in the technology.
“If you have brain damage or Alzheimer’s or trauma, you’re missing some growth factor,” he says. “The idea is to stimulate the growth factor.”
Dr. Warren Merrifield, the Chief Technology Officer of CerebraCell, could not be more elated “to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Santosh Kesari. He is one the most renowned scientists in neuroscience.”
With many brain injuries and diseases, it’s easy to see where the problem lies. With a tumor, concussion or stroke, the tau protein that signifies Alzheimer’s and an aneurysm are physical manifestations, making them easy targets.
But what about depression and memory? Kesari says these are “neurotransmitter problems” that would require electrical signals to be sent into the frontal lobe (depression) and temporal lobes (memory). The trick is finding the right neurotransmitter in addition to the right amount of electricity.
What Kesari doesn’t have enough of yet is money. Funding is everything in the research game. Kesari says that if he had millions of dollars, “We could get it done in a year.”
“It’s like a startup,” he quickly adds. “It’s getting to the point to move forward to do studies and move into investigational device exemptions, and then trials.”
The first study planned would be a safety and exploratory study of between 10 and 30 subjects.
“Once we see what the signals are, we use that information to build a bigger study,” he says.
In 2016, a team from Stanford University published results with modified stem cells demonstrating the ability to restore a number of cerebral stroke patients that were wheelchair bound to begin walking again.
Dr. Kesari was an investigator in the follow-on study to the study. “Our CerebraCell team is working to improve upon these results with the addition of bioelectric stimulation, repeat deliveries and loading the stem cells into a hydrogel gel matrix mix shock full of support agents and growth factors,” he says.
For advanced brain injury and stroke patients with significant severe damage, CerebraCell is also studying the combination of bioelectric stimulation with a re-fillable micro infusion that will delivery up to 2mls of the CC-15 fifteen component brain regeneration candidate composition comprised of stem cells, growth factors, amniotic fluid, PRF, exosomes, Micro RNAs, engineered hydrogel, selected alkaloids such as tetraharmine and brain matrix.
Dr. Santosh Kesari
John Wayne Cancer Institute
Pacific Neuroscience Research Center
2121 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404 |
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as depression or clinical depression, is a serious mental health disorder that can drastically affect a person’s daily life. For example, it can result in problems sleeping, eating, and working. MDD can be incredibly debilitating when left untreated.1
Depression is among the most commonly experienced mental health disorders in the U.S. A person can experience depression at any point in life, thought onset often occurs in adulthood.1
Research indicates that depression is likely caused by a combination of factors. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, genetic, environmental, biological, and psychological factors all have the potential to contribute to the development of MDD.1
While it is not possible to predict exactly who will be impacted by depression, certain risk factors for MDD do exist. Factors may include:1,2
Symptoms of depression include:3
A clinical diagnosis of major depressive disorder requires that the individual experiences at least 5 of these symptoms in a 2-week period (with at least one of the symptoms being reduced pleasure/interest or depressed mood).3 With the exception of thoughts of death; suicidal ideations, plan, or attempt; or weight changes, a symptom must be present nearly every day to be counted. Symptoms must be a change from prior functioning and cannot be due to another medical or mental health condition or caused by a substance. They must also cause significant distress or impair functioning and cannot be an appropriate response to a significant loss.
Depression is the leading cause of disability for individuals aged 15–44 in the United States.4 Based on 2017 surveys, it was estimated that more than 17 million adults experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year in the U.S. alone.5 According to the American Psychiatric Association, one in 6 individuals will experience depression at some point in the lives.6
Women experience this disorder more frequently than men. Women more frequently have internalizing symptoms of depression (such as feelings of sadness or guilt), while men tend to have externalizing symptoms, such as reckless behaviors and substance abuse.4,7
Children and teenagers also tend to experience certain symptoms of depression. In a younger child, depression can present itself with symptoms such as clinging to a parent, acting sick, refusing to go to school, and worrying about their parent(s) dying. In older children and teenagers, depression may manifest as irritability, sulkiness, problems at school, or drug/alcohol use.8
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and as a result, may suffer a myriad of short- and long-term effects.9 Depression can make even simple tasks, such as getting out of bed, preparing meals, and going to work, a challenge. Commonly associated with symptoms such as loss of energy, difficulty concentrating, and a loss of interest in most activities, depression can turn daily chores into large hurdles that must be overcome to successfully meet daily personal, work, or academic expectations.
Depression can lead to many serious consequences, and depression usually worsens if untreated.2 Feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness may lead the individual to engage in self-defeating behaviors and unhealthy lifestyle choices (e.g., drug and alcohol abuse, neglect of personal health, and self-harm).
Depression is associated with physical health problems such as:2,10,11
At least some of the connection between depression and these issues may be because individuals with depression tend to have unhealthy eating patterns, exercise less, and have difficulties taking care of their health.10
Other possible complications linked to depression include:2
*WHO reports that suicide is the second-leading cause of death in individuals aged 15–29 and that nearly 800,000 people die by suicide each year.
Research has shown that areas of the brain known as the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus play an important role in depression. Some depressed people have a smaller hippocampus, which may be due to stress impairing the creation of new nerve cells in the hippocampus. This may also be related to how antidepressants work, as some animal studies have found that antidepressants can prompt nerve cells in the hippocampus to grow and branch.12
The amygdala becomes activated with emotional memories. People who are sad or suffer from clinical depression have increased activity in the amygdala. This can continue even after someone with depression recovers.12
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), of all mental disorders, depression is among the most treatable, as 80% to 90% of people who have depression eventually find relief with treatment.6
Treatment for MDD may involve one or both of the following: 6,14
For patients with severe depression that does not respond to other treatments, brain stimulation therapies such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be beneficial.15
Less than half of people suffering from depression worldwide receive effective treatment.
Other complementary approaches that may help alleviate symptoms of depression include:16-19
These approaches may help as part of a comprehensive treatment plan but should not be used in place of other methods of care recommended by the patient’s healthcare provider, such as medication and/or therapy.14
Depressive disorders such as MDD commonly co-occur with substance use disorders (SUD). In fact, about 20% of Americans with a mood or anxiety disorder also have an SUD.20 One study found that about 27% of individuals with major depression also had substance abuse or dependence at some point in their lives.21
Comorbidity, as defined by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), refers to two or more disorders that occur in the same individual at the same time or one after the other. NIDA reports that roughly half of the people who experience a mental illness will also experience a substance use disorder during their lifetime (and vice versa).22
With mood disorders, it is common to turn to substance use to try to reduce mood symptoms,23 which in turn can worsen the symptoms. For example, large amounts of alcohol has mood-depressant effects and might worsen the depressed mood of an already depressed individual. Heavy illicit use of opioids is also associated with more severe depression. Comorbidity results in greater levels of impairment and more severe depression.24
Substance use can be particularly dangerous, depending on the medications the individual takes for the treatment of depression. For example, some individuals take a type of antidepressant known as tricyclic antidepressants. If an opioid is used along with a tricyclic antidepressant, it can be more sedating and it can increase the risk of overdose, which could be deadly.
For people with co-occurring mental illness(es) and substance use disorder(s), integrated care that treats all psychiatric disorders provides better results.
While symptoms of depression may worsen following substance withdrawal, detox is an essential step for many individuals who are dependent on substances to take toward overall mental health. In a supervised inpatient medical detox environment, a staff of doctors and nurses can monitor the patient’s physical health, safety, and emotional state, intervening if necessary.25 Many programs will incorporate therapy during detox to provide emotional support during what can be a physically and mentally trying period.
Many different therapies may be used as part of integrated treatment. Some therapies effective for co-occurring disorders include:22
Medications may be used in conjunction with these various forms of therapy to treat alcohol, opioid, or nicotine addiction. Medications such as antidepressants may also be initiated to address mental health conditions.
Unfortunately, less than half of people suffering from depression worldwide receive effective treatment.9 The social stigma of depression and other mental illnesses is just one of many reasons people fail to obtain proper treatment for the disease. Lack of properly trained healthcare providers and appropriate resources are two other roadblocks to getting effective treatment for some individuals. If you are suffering from depression and/or substance addiction, you don’t have to continue suffering. There is help available and, often, insurance will cover at least part of the cost.
If you are experiencing symptoms of depression or thoughts of suicide, help is available. Please call a suicide helpline or 911 immediately if you are having thoughts of harming yourself. |
Longer telomeres are the key to a long and healthy life. A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome. Telomeres protect chromosomes against decline. The longer these telomeres are, the better they can do their job. Over time the telomere ends become shorter and shorter and therefore our body cells will age and eventually die. Can lifestyle changes lengthen telomeres? Let’s find out!
The shorter our telomeres are, the faster we age. Our skin loses elasticity, we suffer more and more from typical old-age diseases and overall our bodies start to weaken. That’s certainly not the way we want to live our golden years, but how can you turn back the clock? Off course, staying young forever has its limits, but longer telomeres can postpone getting nasty ailments. The only question is: how do you lengthen those telomeres?
All telomeres shorten after a certain age, but studies show that men’s telomeres get short faster than woman’s. The clock starts ticking after the age of fifty, but to slow down the shortening of your telomeres and to extend your lifespan you have to act as soon as possible. Well balanced nutrition is step one to stay fit as long as possible. An effective diet to keep your telomeres as long as possible, includes lots of fruits and vegetables. The greener the better. Organic food is always the best choice to keep your body from wasting time eliminating toxins. Give your body the best support with extra vitamins, such as fish oil and CA-98 capsules.
Not only bad eating habits can shorten your telomeres. Lots of stress and lack of sleep can also do a lot of damage and shorten your telomeres faster than you’d like. To slow down the aging process, make sure you get enough sleep. Eight hours sleep is recommended to stay fit and healthy. Reduce stress as much as possible and certainly don’t take your trouble to bed. Try to make a little stroll before bedtime. The fresh air and physical activity make you fall asleep easier and make you sleep much deeper.
To keep your telomeres from shortening, loose bad habits such as smoking and drinking. Exposing yourself to toxins makes the telomeres shorten at a much faster rate. Replace those toxic habits for healthy ones. Scientific studies show that exercise is another great way to keep your telomeres long and healthy. No need to go to the gym twice a day, just take the bike instead of the car and the stairs instead of the elevator. Yoga or Tai Chi are great sports to reduce stress and have a healthy exercise at the same time.
Slow down the shortening of your telomeres by making some relatively easy changes in your lifestyle and your body will thank you by making you look and feel younger and fitter than ever before. Don’t waste time; start today to turn back the clock and let your telomeres live long and happily ever after!
Please note: product statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration or their equivalent organisation in any country. No product is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. |
The story of Gretna Green - the World's number one marriage venue
Gretna Green is an old Scottish village on the border between Scotland and England. In the old pre-car days the town was the first changing post across the Scottish border for the stagecoaches on the London to Edinburgh route. Stagecoaches were big horse-drawn carriages for delivering post. Being a tiring and slow mode of transport, stagecoaches had to make regular stops to allow the driver to have some rest and to change the horses.
So, how did a small village become the most famous marriage place in history? It is well known that the Scots are warm, hospitable and loving people who have always had an open and progressive attitude towards marriage. Traditionally, in Scotland, a man and a woman over the age of sixteen could get married by declaring themselves husband and wife in front of witnesses and did not require parental consent. In England, such marriages were banned by Act of Parliament in 1745. The Act stated that if either party to a marriage was under 21, then they could not marry without parental consent. However, the Act was only law in England and did not affect Scottish Law. So what was a young English couple to do if they were in love, under 21 and knew that they would not be able to obtain parental consent? Why, flee to Scotland, of course! Because of Gretna Green's location, the village soon became heaven for eloping couples and a synonym for runaway weddings.
Up until 1940, wedding ceremonies could be conducted by any responsible adult and since Gretna's blacksmith was the most important person in the village, wedding ceremonies over the anvil became very common. This is how Gretna's blacksmith became known as the ‘anvil priest’. In popular folklore, the village blacksmith and the blacksmith's anvil have become the enduring symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Now the Blacksmith's shop is a museum.
Over time, Gretna Green weddings became so popular that the blacksmith could no longer satisfy the demand on his own and the village had to get more ‘anvil priests’. One of the last ‘anvil priests’, Richard Rennison, married 5,147 couples in the Blacksmith's Shop before he retired in 1962.
In 1857 Parliament issued another Act requiring the couples to live in the area for 21 days before they could marry, in an attempt to restrict the increasing flow of eloping lovers.
In 1940 Parliament finally outlawed the ‘Blacksmith's Priests’ and their anvil marriages. Since then, marriages could only be conducted by a Minister of Religion or an authorised Registrar.
But the romances live on. With no residential requirements and no need for parental consent for couples over sixteen, couples continue to run away to Gretna Green to share its wonderful history.
So many thousands of lovers have married at Gretna Green, that its name and traditions have gained international recognition. Couples have been delivered to the anvil by all modes of transport: lorry, fire engine, horseback - you name it! One couple had arranged their wedding to fit in with their journey to Aviemore, the most famous Scottish skiing resort, to take part in the International sledge-pulling competitions. The 29 Huskies remained in their transporter outside the anvil while the marriage ceremony was being conducted.
Wedding outfits also vary. Sometimes the wedding parties arrive on motor bikes dressed in black leather, so the only way to identify the bride is to find out which one has got the bouquet! And, of course, traditional kilts for Scottish bridegrooms are still as popular as ever.
Perhaps the most famous couple wedded in Gretna Green is Robin Hood, the world's most honourable robber, and Maid Marion. The legend goes that they arrived at the anvil on horseback. Fortunately, the horse was tied to a tree outside the building while the ceremony was taking place.
Couples are welcome from all over the world, so when you decide to get married, why not consider getting married in Gretna Green?
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Botulism (see Botulism) occasionally causes heavy losses in unvaccinated mink that consume feed containing type C toxin. Usually, many mink are found dead within 24 hr of exposure to the toxin, while others show varying degrees of paralysis and dyspnea. Necropsy findings are nonspecific and related to death from respiratory paralysis. Diagnosis is confirmed by inoculation of serum or filtered tissue from affected mink into mice. The immunotype of the botulism toxin is type C in almost all outbreaks.
Toxic feed should be removed, and stored feed or ingredients examined for the toxin. Recovered mink are not immune to further challenge. Annual vaccination of kits (at 11–12 wk) and breeders with a 4-way vaccine containing type C botulism toxoid, Pseudomonas bacterin, distemper, and mink virus enteritis vaccines is highly recommended.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa may result in serious losses. Mink of all ages are affected, particularly during the stress of fall molt. Mink are usually found dead with no prodromal signs. A bloody nasal exudate may be seen at the time of death. Gross lesions include a severe hemorrhagic pneumonia with swelling and consolidation of 1 or more lung lobes. Treatment involves immediate vaccination of the entire herd. A Pseudomonas bacterin is included in the recommended 4-way vaccine (see Botulism).
Urinary Infections and Urolithiasis
Urinary tract infections, commonly called “plum bladders,” cause serious losses in females in late spring (during pregnancy and lactation) and in males in late summer and autumn (during the rapid growth and furring period). Several predisposing factors have been suggested, including contamination of food, cages, or nest boxes by pathogenic bacteria; decreased water intake; or increased ash intake.
Mink may die without showing signs, or they may have difficulty in urinating or dribble urine. Occasionally, hematuria may be seen. Necropsy findings include acute hemorrhagic cystitis or pyelonephritis, usually associated with calculi (magnesium ammonium phosphate) in the bladder or kidneys. Various organisms, including staphylococci, coliforms, and Proteus sp, have been isolated.
In severe outbreaks, culture and antibiotic sensitivity tests should be done, and medication added to the feed. Good sanitation to reduce environmental contamination, increasing the water supply, and culling families in which the condition is seen help prevent the condition. When a continual problem exists (with magnesium ammonium phosphate calculi), feed-grade (75%) phosphoric acid may be added to the feed (0.8 lb/100 lb [8 g/kg] of wet mixed feed), from March to early June and from mid-July to October, to reduce the pH of the urine; phosphoric acid should not be used in young mink. Salt (NaCl, 0.5%) may be added to the diet to increase water consumption.
A variety of bacteria, mainly staphylococci, streptococci, and Escherichia coli, are involved in mastitis in mink. Staphylococcal mastitis typically results in abscessation of affected glands or subclinical disease evidenced only by mild diarrhea in the kits. E coli causes a peracute, necrotizing mastitis similar to that seen in dairy cattle. Predisposing factors include poor nest box and cage sanitation, rough or sharp edges to the entrance of nestboxes, and high bacterial contamination of feed. Treatment and prevention involve improving management and treating individual animals or the herd with appropriate antibiotics based on sensitivity testing.
Miscellaneous Bacterial Diseases
Various diseases or signs of disease, including septicemia, pneumonia, purulent pleuritis, abortions, abscesses, cellulitis, and enteritis occur sporadically; occasionally, they may become herd problems. Many bacteria, including Proteus, Klebsiella, and Campylobacter spp, coliforms, streptococci, staphylococci, and salmonellae, have been isolated.
Treatment should be based on antibacterial sensitivity tests. Drugs may be administered parenterally or in the feed or water. Dosage can be estimated on the basis of body wt—female mink weigh ∼1¾–2 lb (0.8–1 kg), and males ∼4–4½ lb (1.8–2.1 kg). Dosages recommended for cats should be used and adjusted for weight. However, some sulfonamides (eg, sulfaquinoxaline and sulfamethazine) and streptomycin should not be used in mink. Trimethoprim/sulfadiazine causes abortions in pregnant female mink.
The source of infection should be determined and eliminated. Enteritis often is caused by contaminated or spoiled feed and dirty nest boxes. Abscesses are often caused by injury from wire or splintered wood in the pens, awns in hay or straw used for bedding, or spicules of bone in the feed. Outbreaks of tularemia, anthrax, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and clostridial infections have been caused by feed contaminated with tissue of animals that have died or are carriers of these infections. Careful selection of feed ingredients and disinfection of equipment and pens are important in the prevention and control of many infections. Dead stock should not be used as mink feed.
Last full review/revision April 2012 by John R. Gorham, DVM, PhD |
The Basilica of San Lorenzo is considered a milestone in the development of Renaissance architecture. The basilca has a complicated building history. The project was begun around 1419, under direction of Filippo Brunelleschi, Lack of funding slowed the construction and forced changes to the original design. By the early 1440s, only the sacristy (now called the Old Sacristy) had been worked on as it was being paid for by the Medici.
In 1442, the Medici stepped in to take over financial responsibility of the church as well. Brunelleschi died in 1446, however, and the job was handed either to Antonio Manetti or to Michelozzo; scholars are not certain. Though the building was “completed” in 1459 in time for a visit to Florence by Pius II, the chapels along the right-hand aisles were still being built in the 1480s and 1490s.
By the time the building was done, aspects of its layout and detailing no longer corresponded to the original plan. The principal difference is that Brunelleschi had envisioned the chapels along the side aisles to be deeper, and to be much like the chapels in the transept, the only part of the building that is known to have been completed to Brunelleschi’s design.
The most celebrated and grandest part of San Lorenzo are the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels) in the apse. The Medici were still paying for it when the last member of the family, Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, died in 1743. Almost fifty lesser members of the family are buried in the crypt. The final design (1603–1604) was by Bernardo Buontalenti, based on models of Alessandro Pieroni and Matteo Nigetti. Above is the Cappella dei Principi(Chapel of the Princes), a great but awkwardly domed octagonal hall where the grand dukes themselves are buried.
The style shows Mannerist eccentricities in its unusual shape, broken cornices, and asymmetrically sized windows. In the interior, the ambitious decoration with colored marbles overwhelms the attempts at novel design (Wittkower, R. p. 126). At its centre was supposed to be the Holy Sepulchre itself, although attempts to buy and then steal it from Jerusalem failed.
For more information on the work of Filippo Brunelleschi click here.
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The world’s largest man-made complex of greenhouses in Cornwall, United Kingdom.
|Total surface||39.540 m2|
|Total steel weight||700 tons|
|Total length off all beams||36000 m|
|Steel weight per surface||less than 24 kg/m2|
|Biggest hexagon area||80 m2 at a span of 11 m|
|Biggest dome diameter (dome B)||125 m|
|Column free area||15590 m2 WTB and 6540 m2 for HTB|
Official website: Click Here
Grimshaw Architects’ Site: Click Here
Video (bottom of webpage): Click Here
The Eden Project is a visitor attraction in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, including the world’s largest greenhouse. Inside the artificial biomes are plants that are collected from all around the world. The project is located in a reclaimed Kaolinite pit, located 1.25 mi (2 kilometres) from the town of St Blazey and 5 kilometres (3 mi) from the larger town of St Austell, Cornwall.
The complex is dominated by two huge enclosures consisting of adjoining domes that house thousands of plant species, and each enclosure emulates a naturalbiome. The domes consist of hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal, inflated, plastic cells supported by steel frames. The first dome emulates a tropicalenvironment, and the second a Mediterranean environment.
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Frank Cunha III
I Love My Architect – Facebook
FC3 ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN, LLC
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Licensed in NJ, NY, PA, DE, CT. |
Mindfulness and Stress Reduction
Tips for Reducing or Controlling Stress
Remember that success will not come from a half hearted effort, nor will it come overnight. It will take determination, persistence, and time. Some suggestions may help immediately, but if your stress is chronic, it may require more attention and/or lifestyle changes. Determine your tolerance level for stress and try to live within these limits. Learn to accept or change stressful and tense situations whenever possible.
- Be realistic. If you feel overwhelmed by some activities, learn to say no. Eliminate an activity that is not absolutely necessary. You may be taking on more responsibility that you can or should handle. If you meet resistance, give reasons why you're making the changes. Be willing to listen to other's suggestions and be ready to compromise.
- Shed the "superman/woman" urge. No one is perfect, so don't expect perfection from yourself or others. Ask yourself, "What really needs to be done? How much can I do? Is the deadline realistic? What adjustments can I make?" Don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it.
- Meditate. Just 10 to 20 minutes of quiet reflection may bring relief from chronic stress as well as increase your tolerance to it. Use the time to listen to music, relax, and try to think of pleasant things or nothing at all.
- Visualize. Use your imagination and picture how you can manage a stressful situation more successfully. Whether it's a business presentation or moving to a new place, many people feel visual rehearsals boost self-confidence and enable them to take a more positive approach to a difficult task.
- Take one thing at a time. For people under tension or stress, an ordinary workload can sometimes seem unbearable. The best way to cope with this feeling of being overwhelmed is to take one task at a time. Pick one urgent task and work on it. Once you accomplish that task, choose the next one. The positive feeling of "checking off" tasks is very satisfying. It will motivate you to keep going.
- Exercise. Regular exercise is a popular way to relieve stress. Twenty to thirty minutes of physical activity benefits both the body and the mind.
- Hobbies. Take a break from your worries by doing something you enjoy. Schedule time to indulge your interests.
- Healthy life style. Good nutrition makes a difference. LImit intake of caffeine and alcohol, get adequate rest, exercise, and balance work and play.
- Share your feelings. A conversation with a friend lets you know that you are not the only one having a bad day, caring for a sick child, or working in a busy office. Stay in touch with friends and family. Let them provide love, support, and guidance. Don't try to cope alone.
- Give in occasionally. Be flexible. If you find you're meeting constant opposition in either your personal or professional life, rethink your position or strategy. Arguing only intensifies stressful feelings. IF you know you are right, stand your ground, but do so calmly and rationally. Make allowances for other's opinions and be prepared to compromise. Not only will you reduce your stress, you may find better solutions to your problems.
- Go easy with criticism. You may expect too much of yourself and others. Try not to feel frustrated, let down, disappointed or even "trapped" when another person does not measure up. Remember, everyone is unique, and has his or her own virtues, shortcomings, and right to develop as an individual. |
The medical term for toenail fungus is Onychomycosis. It is a fungal disease in which fungi enters and inhabits the sub-nail region, which changes the condition of the affected nail. A fungal nail may not seem as serious of a problem, but if left untreated, the nail may detach from the nail bed. This may increase the risk of further manifestation of the infection. It is beneficial to understand that you must take fungal nails as serious as possible and that many people are, in fact, affected by toenail fungus. Although fingernails can be affected, it is more common in the toenails; fungi and bacterias live in moist and not sanitized areas. The perfect place? Toenails. Because this is one of most prevalent, often ignored diseases occurring in almost all various populations, it should be in your best interest to reap the benefits of knowing nail fungus symptoms so you can initiate preventive measures.
Healthy nails are strong, often smooth, and without discoloration and odor. It is not difficult to assess whether you have toenail fungus. However, if you see the following symptoms, it is best to start treating it as soon as possible before it worsens.
In early stages of toenail fungus, you would find that the nail has lost its shine and if it starts changing from its normal color to a yellow color, with or without odor, you should suspect that there is a possibility that your toenails have been infected. Another symptom is the accumulation of debris under the toenails, also known as toe-jam. Another toenail fungus symptom begins with the thickening and crumbling of the nails.
Ignoring early symptoms leads to the later stages of toenail fungus – an undesirable route that no individual should ever cross. By this stage, discoloration turns green or black, which means the infection has gotten worse, traveling further towards the nail bed. The shape becomes distorted and as the infection spreads by destroying the cells, the nails appears thick and the edges become rigid and will flake. Less than often, you will experience pain during this stage, but the worse condition of this stage is when they loosen and eventually separate from the nail bed.
This infection not only alters your health, it also affects your self-esteem and self-confidence. This is why it is essential to know the symptoms of toenail fungus so you may undergo preventive measures. Fortunately, there are ample methods and alternatives in the treatment of toenail fungus and its symptoms. |
No one can visit Paris without gazing at the Institut de France at least once. This majestic building sits proudly on the left bank of the Seine directly across from the south wing of the Louvre’s Cour Carée. In fact, the famous Pont des Arts bridge directly links the front portals of each building. So if you come to the city to see the Louvre, the Seine or maybe just the Pont des Arts, you will most likely also see the Institut de France.
So how did this building get to be constructed at this prestigious location? It was all Cardinal Mazarin’s doings. Louis XIV lived at the Louvre before re-locating to Versailles in 1682. Across the river from the Louvre was the Tour de Nesle, built in the 13th century as part of the city’s fortification and now crumbling. Mazarin, protege of Cardinal Richelieu, became France’s Prime Minister in 1643 when Louis IV ascended to the throne at the age of five. Mazarin wanted to demolish the tower and build a college for 60 students of the four provinces that had been acquired by France during his ministry: Alsace, Roussillon, Flanders-Artois, and the region of Pinerolo. The college would be called The College of the Four Nations but it was sometimes referred to as the College Mazarin. After Mazarin’s death in 1661, the king’s finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, hired Louis Le Vau, the king’s chief architect from 1654 to his death in 1670, to build the college. Le Vau began his design of the college in 1662 and the tower and adjacent building, a medieval mansion, were demolished in 1665.
Le Vau was a busy man in the decade preceding his death. In 1660 he was appointed the overseer of all construction at the Louvre across the river. From 1661 to 1663 he built a new south wing of the Cour Carée du Louvre only to see a new facade designed by Claude Perrault go up in front of his building five years later. Le Vau also collaborated with Perrault on the design of the celebrated east wing of the Louvre’s Cour Carée, often called the masterpiece of 17th Century French architecture. Le Vau is also partially responsible for the design of Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles, his chief contribution being the “envelope” that surrounds Louis XIII’s old hunting lodge. Earlier in his career Le Vau worked with Andre Le Notre and Charles Le Brun in the redesign of the famous Vaux-le-Vicomte. He also worked on many other famous buildings in Paris including the church of Saint-Sulpice and several large residential buildings on Ile Saint-Louis including the Hotel Lambert.
For the College of the Four Nations Le Vau discarded the traditional French slate roof for the Italianate nearly flat roof with balustrades for most of his semi-circular facade. But he went back to the traditional French style of Mansard roofs at both ends of the building in order to match the Louvre pavilions across the river, one of which he designed to match the Pavillon de Roi which was built a hundred years earlier in the Renaissance style of that time. The College was built mostly in the baroque tradition and Le Vau’s design resembles the works of two famous Italian architects, Pietro da Cortona (a fresco painter who turned to architecture late in his career) and Francesco Borromini. Both of these architects worked for Bernini in building the Barberini Palace in Rome and later became rivals of their ex-employer. Cortona designed the church of Santa Maria della Pace, noted for its curving portico. Borromini designed both San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane which is squeezed into a corner where two roads intersect on Rome’s Quirinal Hill and the Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri (Oratorio dei Filippini), on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, also in Rome. The Oratory features a curved facade made with bricks. Borromini also designed the Church of Saint Agnes in Agony in Rome’s Piazza Navona, not far from the Oratory. Le Vau’s dome resembles that of Saint Agnes.
Francois d’Orbey completed the project after Le Vau died and the college opened in 1688. Its most esteemed graduate during its 102-year history was probably the artist Jacques-Louis David. The college was abolished during the revolution and Napoleon in 1805 transferred the five Academies that make up the Institute of France (French Academy, Academy of Humanities, Academy of Sciences, Academy of Fine Arts and Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) from the Louvre to the college and changed the name of the building to Institut de France. These academies now have their sessions in the circular room under the dome that was originally designed by Le Vau to be the college chapel.
The Pont des Arts was built between 1802 and 1804 to link the Louvre to the Institute. It was rebuilt between 1981 and 1984 to look just like the original. This is one of three bridges in Paris whose parapets are covered with engraved padlocks. Lovers engrave their names on the locks and after attaching the locks to the side panels on the bridge throw the keys in the Seine. One of the parapets on The Pont des Arts collapsed a month after our stay this year with the extra weight from all of the love-locks.
Mazarin willed 2 million livres for the building of the College of the Four Nations with a library to store his extensive book collection. The library, called Bibliotheque Mazarine, is open to the public but the rest of the Institute is not.
We took different routes to get to the Seine from Blvd St Germain. Sometimes we would walk up Rue Bonaparte and sometimes we would try Rue de la Seine. Once we walked up Rue Mazarine which leads directly to the Institut de France. |
It’s odd to know, as a citizen of your own time, what future historians will argue about it, but not to know what they will say about it—and, even odder, what they ought to say about it. We should, after all, be experts on our own experience; yet we aren’t. In a way, this isn’t surprising. Someone who fought in blue at Antietam would, presumably, be able to tell Civil War historians a thing or two about the face of battle. But, overwhelmed by smoke and noise, a soldier would more likely emerge from the battle simultaneously cursing his time and blessing his luck for surviving the fight, but having no more insight into the course—or the meaning—of it than anyone else. Veterans read military histories of the battles that they fought in more voraciously than do people who weren’t there. They, too, need the God’s-eye view in order to see their own experience.
Most of us living through the coronavirus pandemic are a little like those veterans—what we see is limited by the noise and the smoke of our immediate surroundings. We know that there’s a relation between our pandemic fears and our political anxieties, but articulating it is hard. Not long ago, the historian Niall Ferguson offered a succinct summary of the ways in which pandemics have historically infected politics, stretching back to the Plague of Athens—which induced, or oversaw, the Peloponnesian War—and to ways that the 1918 flu may have triggered the rise of both Bolshevism and Fascism.
We could hold the 1918 flu ultimately responsible for crises that occurred twenty years later, but it would have first had to tumble its way, domino by domino, through the excesses of the Jazz Age. Too many other causes came along the way to single out any. Similar efforts to moralize on this pandemic have so far proved slippery in certainty. Last summer, the admirable Canadian anthropologist Wade Davis tried writing a summary of the political lessons of the pandemic. Beginning with the idea that vaccines were unlikely to arrive any time soon—an idea now consigned to the hospital dustbin of history—he went on to the notion that Canada had done much better in handling the pandemic than the United States. As much as Canadians (myself included), proud of our long history of national health care, might want this to be true, the reality is more complicated. Montreal and Toronto recently have been under tighter restrictions than New York City, and the vaccine rollout is seen as inefficient. The larger, scary truth is that the mortality rate in the pandemic is remarkably labile from country to country; nations with strong national medical systems, such as France and Spain, haven’t always done much better than those with anarchic systems, such as the United States. Open democracy doesn’t seem to help as much as we might have hoped, either. Australia and South Korea have done extraordinarily well, but so, if the numbers are to be believed, has China. According to the Lowy Institute’s Covid Performance Index, “despite initial differences, the performance of all regime types in managing the coronavirus converged over time.”
Turn to the past, and what you find are not neat historical vectors but the same indeterminacy. The historian Samuel K. Cohn, Jr., an expert on the relationship between plagues and people, has, story by story, exploded the neat, cartoon versions of history in which diseases point to unidirectional political vectors. In his extensive scholarship, including the book “Epidemics: Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS,” a staggeringly exhaustive study of the correlations between pandemics and political violence— taking in everything from the Black Death in fourteenth-century Florence to cholera in nineteenth-century London, syphilis in Impressionist Paris, and tuberculosis in early-twentieth-century New York—Cohn has shown, that, although pandemics and infectious diseases do sometimes lead us to blame some “other” group, they just as often create new kinds of social solidarity. “Pandemics did not inevitably give rise to violence and hatred,” Cohn writes. “In striking cases they in fact did the opposite, as witnessed with epidemics of unknown causes in antiquity, the Great Influenza of 1918–19 and yellow fever across numerous cities and regions in America and Europe. These epidemic crises unified communities, healing wounds cut deep by previous social, political, religious, racial and ethnic tensions and anxieties.”
Pretty much every generalization we might attempt in pandemic politics turns out to be unpersuasive. The Black Death destroyed Siena’s governmental system and increased violence there, but, just fifty miles away, in Florence, the same plague led to a marked decrease in civil disorder—the “tenor of life” there became less, not more, violent. In some places and moments, Cohn writes, in “The Black Death: End of a Paradigm,” fear of the plague “may have initiated a new intensity in the history of Jewish persecutions,” but in other, not-too-distant places and times, reactions to the plague inspired a new proto-scientific skepticism of authority, so that “the new plague doctors relied on their own ‘experience’ ” in battling illness. Looking in detail at the history of cholera, syphilis, and other diseases, it seems that, in each case, so to speak, for every anti-Semitic riot you get (and you get them), you also get social solidarity around threatened groups. No unidirectional pattern, just contingent acts.
The same truth holds today, as the research group ACLED’s COVID-19 Disorder Tracker shows: social disorder in the pandemic year has been planetwide, and it has been polarized in purpose. In some places—Hong Kong is an obvious example—the pandemic has provided cover for political repression. In others—the U.S. among them—it has been a catalyst for both legitimate social demonstrations and scaremongering protests. The only pattern that emerges is the absence of one.
Yet, within all that fluid movement, something solid surely can be seen; the uncertainty of outcomes—the wild oscillations between reform and reaction, between productive protest and riot—rests on the inherent ambivalence of pandemic psychology. Pandemics make people feel precarious, and feeling precarious can either focus our minds or fry our circuits.
If the entangled mysteries of plague and politics do point to a moral, it may lie in a novel that seems to be all about a pandemic but is actually primarily about politics. This is, of course, Albert Camus’s “The Plague.” Despite the novel’s omnipresence during the past year, its point is often missed. Long rightly understood as an inspired allegory of the German occupation of France, Camus’s novel is about how unprecedented pressures challenge and change ordinary people. Change happens in all kinds of vivid and unpredictable ways. Brave people panic, small people rise to the occasion. Some minister to the ill, others try to flee. Some of the characters who do flee have understandable reasons for doing so, such as to reunite with a loved one; some who stay have dubious motives. The pressures of a pandemic push us all to similar moments of moral choice: to march or not; to turn inward or outward; to become, like those Renaissance Florentines, skeptical of authority or furious at the outsider. None of it is fixed in advance.
Plagues don’t have plans. People do. What the unreasonable pressures of an inexplicable, universal medical crisis do is enlarge human possibility in all its variety, place it on the stage, and make it vivid. The basic existential choices that make meaning become inescapable then. The only moral a plague dictates is that nothing is dictated, and everything can alter, sometimes overnight. That pluralism of human possibilities is what we are still trying to enact as democratic politics.
More on the Coronavirus
- There are three moments in the yearlong catastrophe of the pandemic when events might have turned out differently.
- Citizens around the world, from Brazil to Rwanda, share their experiences of the pandemic.
- In countries where the rate of infection threatens to outstrip the capacity of the health system, doctors are confronting ethical quandaries.
- Surviving a severe coronavirus infection is hard. So is recovering.
- Can the COVID-19 vaccine beat the proliferation of new virus mutations?
- The pandemic has presented companies with an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the fundamentals of the physical workplace. |
3D Printing in VET
Timespan of the project:
01-10-2019 / 30-09-2021
CEIPES: International Centre for the Promotion of Education and Development
Alessia Di Francesca
- To empower educators and learners in order to create more effective ways of learning and to perform better with 3D printed models in classrooms.
- To support 21st century pedagogies that not only engage students in their present learning but also teach them how to be “tinkerers” in learning the rest of their lives.
- To implement 3D printing into STEAM-based curricula
- To include new learning possibilities, positive engagement, innovative and creative learning environments, critical thinking, and problem-solving opportunities.
- To help students to approach many disciplines (eg mathematics, physics, biology).
- To provide better observation in the arts (eg sculpture, architecture, painting).
- To accelerate learning time, since they represent the theory in the most imaginative way.
- To promote teamwork required by trainers and trainees for a 3D design object.
- To make the lesson pleasant and creative, thus giving students more motivation.
- To develop judgment and observability. For example, in order to take the best design
- To see the boundaries of the 3D printer that students are using.
- To review national training standards for VET teachers and educators and different assessment procedures and criteria they already used
- To paying particular attention to those that relate to 3D printing competences or which can be adapted to that learning context.
- To classify the key competences that teacher and educators need in order to use a 3D printer in their didactical approaches in each participating country.
- To realise a curriculum for VET teachers developed to assist them in acquisition of key skills required for 3D printers in education.
- To organize six national pilot “train the trainer” seminars to the materials realised.
- Research report on 3D Printing Education
- Needs Analysis report
- Curriculum on 3D Printing
- Training materials for Online use
- Training guide for VET educators
- Course Syllabus
- KEKAPER-REGION OF CRETE- LIFELONG LEARNING, EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT- DEVELOPMENT DIRECTION RETHYMNO REGIONAL UNIT- REGION OF CRETE (Greece)
- European Education & Learning Institute (Greece)
- KIT – KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE (Germany)
- CEIPES – CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA PROMOZIONE DELL’EDUCAZIONE E LO SVILUPPO ASSOCIAZIONE (Italy)
- Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação Aplicada (Portugal)
- UNIVERSITA TELEMATICA INTERNAZIONALE- UNINETTUNO (Italy)
- WYZSZA SZKOLA EKONOMII I INNOWACJI W LUBLINIE (Poland)
- INERCIA DIGITAL SL (Spain) |
Just came across some research which says that “the human brain processes and retains more information if it is digest in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time.” (Research points the finger at PowerPoint by Anna Patty, The Sydney Morning Herald)
The UNSW (Australia) research shows that the brain’s short-term memory is limited and that the “cognitive load” becomes too heavy, basically, when information is presented in both its visual (or written) and its verbal (or oral) form at the same time. The professor (John Sweller) who developed this “cognitive load theory” says flatly that PowerPoint presentations have been disasters and they “should be ditched.”
The article even mention something I do all the time: not content to simply listen to scripture being read aloud by a human voice (in church), I feel compelled to read along in print (the same translation and sometimes a very different translation — which brings up other questions of cognitive function: how much are you getting when you’re getting the same thought not just in two formats (print and oral), but also in two different versions?).
One other thing: Professor Sweller also says that it’s better to teach by presenting an already-solved problem rather than asking students to work out the problems themselves. That seems counter-intuitive. But he says that “Looking at an already solved problem reduces the working memory load and allows you to learn. It means the next time you come across a problem like that, you have a better chance at solving it.”
Interesting. So students learn it better because more of it gets into their “working memory.” |
Radioactive fan at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could be tested this week
A fan that could release radioactive particles at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could be tested this week assuming weather conditions are ideal.
The U.S. Department of Energy and operations contractor for WIPP Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) planned to restart a fan to improve airflow in the underground section of the facility where low-level nuclear was is permanently disposed of.
More airflow was needed in the underground, officials said, to allow mining and other maintenance activities to occur while improving safety for workers.
The fan would operate without filtration, meaning it could not be used during waste emplacement activities.
And with newer, more restrictive air quality controls put in place in February 2019, it became more difficult to conduct underground operations as margins of exposure limits for nitrogen dioxide from diesel equipment and other airborne chemicals were reduced.
Most of the emissions were reported during mining and ground control operations, and the fan would only be used during such activities.
The 700-C fan was shut down due following a 2014 accidental radiological release where areas of the underground were contaminated and subsequently closed off to workers.
The decision to restart the fan and preemptively test for its potential to release radiation followed NWP’s firing of its subcontractor hired to rebuild WIPP’s ventilation system and the denial by the New Mexico Environment Department of a temporary authorization to construct a new utility shaft – both projects intended to improve airflow at the underground.
But WIPP officials denied that the fan’s restart was related to delays in the other ventilation projects, as discussion on restarting the fan dated back to at least two years when it was found to be in better condition than the other two in the array.
The fan would be used until the new ventilation system was available, expected in about two years.
The four-hour test planned for the week of Jan. 11 would also include environmental sampling to determine the amount of radiation released and would see other work activities at the site halted.
Officials at the site predicted, through numerous studies and research, that the fan could emit up to 0.005 millirems of radiation.
When a person undergoes a computerized tomography (CT) scan, widely viewed as a safe medical procedure, they receive a dose of 1,000 millirems of radiation.
“The increased airflow will provide added comfort to the underground workers and better support DOE’s operational mission,” read a statement from the DOE. “The 700-C fan has been thoroughly inspected and tested to ensure its operational safety.”
NWP prepared an air monitoring plan to test for radiation from a series of monitors arranged at the WIPP site near the fan itself.
To conduct the test, the plan required winds less than 20 miles per hour and no precipitation, and that wind direction keeps the monitoring equipment downwind from the fan.
Additional monitoring was to be conducted by the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center – an independent agency managed by New Mexico State University-Carlsbad – along with WIPP’s continual air sampling during the restart.
“The WIPP and NWP team are monitoring the meteorological conditions to find an available window of time for the test to take place,” said NWP spokesman Donavan Mager. “WIPP has formulated a sampling plan for the 4-hour test with a comprehensive suite of both airborne radiation monitoring equipment and surface deposition collection equipment.”
The proposal to restart the fan was met with opposition from nuclear watchdog groups who worried the DOE and NWP did not use proper oversight or testing and could release dangerous radiation to the surface while the fan was used.
Don Hancock at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque said it was still unclear how much radiation was present in the fan and ventilation ducts and two years of operation would result in more radioactivity escaping than in the four-hour test.
“The amount of radioactivity and its exact composition, we don’t really know. If the amount released in the underground is more than they think then that’s a bigger problem,” he said. “The problem is you have uncontained radioactivity being released into the air which is never something that is supposed to happen.”
Rick Fuentes, president of the United Steelworks Local 12-9477 which represents underground WIPP workers supported the fan’s use, submitting a letter of support to the DOE.
He said the additional airflow would benefit workers at the facility and the union would work closely with NWP and the DOE to ensure safety in the underground amid the restart.
“The additional airflow will improve air quality for employees working in the underground, which will allow us to better support Ground Control, Waste Emplacement, and Mining Activities,” Fuentes wrote.
“The United Steelworkers and our Local 12-9477 will continue to work closely with CBFO and NWP management to resolve any remaining issues before the 700 fans are restarted.”
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, [email protected] or @AdrianHedden on Twitter. |
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