text
stringlengths 198
630k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| metadata
dict |
|---|---|---|
If you read this blog regularly, you know I have a fondness for the so-called “missing eruptions” — that is, volcanic events found in ice core or sediment records but not yet identified in the geologic/volcanic record. The most glaring right now is the eruption of 1258 A.D., supposedly 1.8 times as large as the 1815 eruption of Tambora, but no candidate volcano has been conclusively identified as the source. Another enigmatic climate event that has a little more potential to be matched with a volcano happened during the mid-1450s, a period that saw cold winters in China, dry fogs in Constantinople and stunted tree ring growth around the world. It also saw one of the biggest cases of sulfur loading in the atmosphere in the last few thousand years, rivaling that of the famous 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland. All these climatic effects have been attributed to an eruption in the New Hebrides arc, specifically the Kuwae caldera in Vanuatu. However, the relationship between this eruption at the climate signatures — and the existence of the eruption itself — is still hotly debated. | <urn:uuid:eecc926a-6ecd-4a92-bf87-2115959015a7> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:40:05",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9633703231811523,
"score": 3.140625,
"token_count": 239,
"url": "http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/ice-core/"
} |
Wisconsin soldiers who served in the Black Hawk War (1832)
Wisconsin Muster Rolls from the Black Hawk War, 1832
During the Black Hawk War against the Sauk and Fox Indians, residents of Wisconsin were assembled into local militia, regular U.S. Army troops were deployed from St. Louis, and fighting units of Menominee and Potawatomi warriors were organized under white leadership. The lists linked below show the names of all soldiers in the 18 companies of "Iowa" militia [i.e., Iowa Co, Michigan Territory; present-day southwestern Wisconsin], plus the Menominee and Potawatomie units and one militia company raised at Green Bay. Not included here are soldiers from the militia of other states or in the regular U.S. Army; the Illinois State Archives lists soldiers from that state.
The rosters of 18 companies of Iowa Co. volunteers are listed first, followed by three Menominee and two Potawatomi companies, and finally by the single company of Green Bay militia. Altogether they total about 600 names on 67 pages.
The original muster rolls from which these typed versions were made are in the records of the General Accounting Office (Record Group 217) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., misfiled under "Iowa." These lists were created as soldiers mustered out at the end of the conflict; occasional footnotes contain supplemental information from a parallel set of payroll records for each unit. The originals have not been microfilmed, and are published here for the first time. These transcriptions were made by Wisconsin Historical Society genealogical librarian James L. Hansen in 1980. They may be browsed in the left-hand frame of the viewer, and individual names may be searched in the box directly above it.
Territory to Statehood|
The Black Hawk War
Treaty Councils, from Prairie du Chien to Madeline Island
|Creator: ||U.S. General Accounting Office.
|Pub Data: ||Unpublished typescript of original muster rolls in the records of the General Accounting Office (Record Group 217) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
|Citation: ||"Wisconsin Muster Rolls from the Black Hawk War, 1832." Typescript of original muster rolls in the records of the General Accounting Office (Record Group 217) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Online facsimile at:
Visited on: 5/18/2013 | <urn:uuid:398e77f9-3fef-4d73-980b-f253e23e9fb6> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T18:07:08",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9135376811027527,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 517,
"url": "http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1586"
} |
Learn something new every day More Info... by email
A jog dial is a controller that can step through options or regulate the speed of media playback. It consists of a wheel or disc that spins freely or can move through a series of individual stops, known as detents or clicks, depending on the design. Electronics like cameras may have jog dials, and they can be attached to mice or external controls for a computer to control programs. For example, transcriptionists, video editors, and audio mixers may use an external jog dial to work more efficiently with media.
The design of the dial can depend on the device. Some are aligned vertically to create a spinning wheel, while others are horizontal. Textured edges are common to make a jog dial easier to grip and these may have markings to allow the user to see the appropriate setting. On a digital camera, for example, a dial can allow the user to select from several detents, each representing a different shooting mode. Another dial may control aperture or shutter speed when the user is on a manual or semi-manual mode.
For controlling media playback, a jog dial spins freely. It can be activated to fast forward or reverse, pause, and slow media. This can be critical for editing and transcribing, where one-touch control increase efficiency. Disc jockeys can use jog dials for fades, record skips, and other effects both in recordings and live performances. Jog dials also provide a quick method for reviewing footage in the field, useful for sound technicians and videographers.
Some computer mice come with a jog dial, sometimes known as a scroll wheel, which can be used for scrolling, clicking, and other functions. External jog dials can also be connected separately. These are usually designed for quick installation; some come with compact discs loaded with software for full feature functionality. They may be designed to coordinate with specific software programs to add features and make the software easy to use.
In addition to responding to spinning, some jog dials also respond to pressure. The user can push down to click or select, and may be able to selectively exert pressure on either end of the jog dial to access additional features. This increases the capacity of the device, although the learning curve can be steeper as people learn to control it effectively. Accidentally putting pressure on one end while operating the device, for instance, may inadvertently trigger an unwanted function. | <urn:uuid:b214b0f0-6fb5-447b-bfbe-27a4758425da> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:58:44",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9341777563095093,
"score": 2.984375,
"token_count": 490,
"url": "http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-jog-dial.htm"
} |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See ambarella.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See apple, etc.
- n. A fruit native to Pacific islands such as Tahiti.
- n. The tree that bears this fruit, Spondias dulcis
GNU Webster's 1913
- The fruit of a Polynesian anacardiaceous tree (Spondias dulcis), also called
vi-apple. It is rather larger than an apple, and the rind has a flavor of turpentine, but the flesh is said to taste like pineapples.
- A West Indian name for a myrtaceous tree (Jambosa Malaccensis) which bears crimson berries.
- After Otaheite (Tahiti). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Sorry, no example sentences found.
‘Otaheite apple’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Looking for tweets for Otaheite apple. | <urn:uuid:5f6b86aa-adae-4131-9832-8591426aded2> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:21:43",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.7848791480064392,
"score": 2.8125,
"token_count": 225,
"url": "http://www.wordnik.com/words/Otaheite%20apple"
} |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To draw off (a liquid) by a gradual process: drained water from the sink.
- v. To cause liquid to go out from; empty: drained the bathtub; drain the pond.
- v. To draw off the surface water of: The Mississippi River drains a vast area.
- v. To drink all the contents of: drained the cup.
- v. To deplete gradually, especially to the point of complete exhaustion. See Synonyms at deplete.
- v. To fatigue or spend emotionally or physically: The day's events completely drained me of all strength.
- v. To flow off or out: Gasoline drained slowly from the tilted can.
- v. To become empty by the drawing off of liquid: watched the tub slowly drain.
- v. To discharge surface or excess water: The Niagara River drains into Lake Ontario. When flooded, the swamp drains northward.
- v. To become gradually depleted; dwindle: felt his enthusiasm draining.
- n. A pipe or channel by which liquid is drawn off.
- n. Medicine A device, such as a tube, inserted into the opening of a wound or body cavity to facilitate discharge of fluid or purulent material.
- n. The act or process of draining.
- n. A gradual outflow or loss; consumption or depletion: the drain of young talent by emigration.
- n. Something that causes a gradual loss: interruptions that are a drain on my patience.
- idiom. down the drain To or into the condition of being wasted or lost: All of our best laid plans are down the drain.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To draw off gradually, as a liquid; remove or convey away by degrees, as through conduits, by filtration, or by any comparable process: as, to drain water from land, wine from the lees, or blood from the body; to drain away the specie of a country.
- To free, clear, or deprive by degrees, as of a liquid; empty or exhaust gradually: as, to drain land of water (the most familiar use of the word); to drain a vessel of its contents; to drain a country of its resources.
- To flow off gradually.
- To be gradually emptied, as of a liquid: as, the cask slowly drains.
- n. The act of draining or drawing off, or of emptying by drawing off; gradual or continuous outflow, withdrawal, or expenditure.
- n. That which drains, or by means of which draining is immediately effected.
- n. Specifically— A passage, pipe, or open channel for the removal of water or other liquid; especially, a pipe or channel for removing the surplus water from soils. Drains may be open ditches or sunken pipes or conduits. Those for wet lands are so made as to permit the percolation into them of water from the adjacent soil, as by the use in a covered conduit of porous earthen pipes or tiles, or of a filling of small stones, of an open cut where there is a sufficient slope, etc. See sewer.
- n. The trench in which the melted metal flows from a furnace to the molds
- n. In surgery, a hollow sound or canula used to draw off purulent matter from a deep seated abscess.
- n. Pl. The grain from the mash-tub: distinctively called brewers' drains.
- n. In ship-building, a large pipe which runs through or above the double bottom of a war-ship and is connected with the principal pumps to remove water from the various compartments. The main drain is from 12 to 15 inches in diameter, has openings into the large compartments controlled by valves, and is intended to pump out the water in case of damage by grounding, collision, etc. The secondary or auxiliary drain is also connected with all the large compartments and is used for all ordinary pumping.
- n. A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume.
- n. Something consuming resources and providing nothing in return.
- n. vulgar An act of urination.
- n. electronics The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
- v. intransitive To lose liquid.
- v. transitive, ergative To cause liquid to flow out of.
- v. transitive, ergative To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.
- v. transitive To deplete of energy or resources.
- v. intransitive, pinball To fall off the bottom of the playfield.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to cause the exhaustion of.
- v. To exhaust of liquid contents by drawing them off; to make gradually dry or empty; to remove surface water, as from streets, by gutters, etc.; to deprive of moisture; hence, to exhaust; to empty of wealth, resources, or the like.
- v. To filter.
- v. To flow gradually.
- v. To become emptied of liquor by flowing or dropping.
- n. The act of draining, or of drawing off; gradual and continuous outflow or withdrawal.
- n. That means of which anything is drained; a channel; a trench; a water course; a sewer; a sink.
- n. engraving The grain from the mashing tub.
- v. empty of liquid; drain the liquid from
- v. flow off gradually
- n. a pipe through which liquid is carried away
- n. emptying something accomplished by allowing liquid to run out of it
- v. deplete of resources
- v. make weak
- n. tube inserted into a body cavity (as during surgery) to remove unwanted material
- n. a gradual depletion of energy or resources
- Middle English dreinen (verb) from Old English drēahnian ("to drain, strain, filter"), from Proto-Germanic *draug- (“dry”), akin to Old English drūgian ("to dry up"), drūgaþ ("dryness, drought"), Old English drȳge ("dry"). More at dry (Wiktionary)
- Middle English dreinen, to strain, drain, from Old English drēahnian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“Brain drain is still claiming Canadian doctors, but not our doctorals.”
“She noted that the more typical "brain drain" is to the US, as Canadian professionals leave for greater income potential.”
“If there is brain drain from a particular country, it can scarcely develop.”
“That a slip-slide into banality leads to forum brain drain is a sort of Catch-22 given.”
“The brain drain is not the consequence of some sort of collective despair.”
“Hong Kong's brain drain is both a myth and a reality -- a myth in that its proportions tend to be wildly exaggerated, and in that its existence is attributed to a largely imaginary state of panic supposedly to be found in Hong Kong.”
“Highly educated women’s abandonment of the workplace is not an extension of the centuries of upper-class arm candy; it’s a sex-specific brain drain from the future rulers of the society ....”
“Ainalem puts it this way: One potential solution to Africa’s brain drain is virtual participation.”
“America's loss may be India's gain, analysts say, pointing to a 'reverse brain drain' that may see India reaping benefits for years to come.”
“Watch the water drain from the roof of the greenhouses.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘drain’.
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
words describing slow action or movement
( open list, randomness, descriptive )
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
Words that make me think of Vampire: The Requiem
Grateful credit to http://reocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9783/phond1.html.
Very basic words for ESL students.
Words from 2009 'Watchmen' film.
Words that mean drink.
Looking for tweets for drain. | <urn:uuid:25767e69-f86c-4c01-89f9-0e299d46ce09> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:29:32",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9041509628295898,
"score": 3.203125,
"token_count": 1804,
"url": "http://www.wordnik.com/words/drain"
} |
Since the inception of waste discharge regulations in California (both by the Regional Water Quality Control Boards and the U.S. EPA), the self monitoring of waste streams has been a standard practice. Compliance with effluent standards has been mainly, if not solely, determined by enforcement agencies through the review of the reports submitted by the dischargers. Occasionally, staffs of the state agencies collect samples of various discharge streams to verify the validity of monitoring reports provided by the dischargers to the state.
According to the Water Code, Regional Boards may require the submittal of monitoring reports as necessary. The burden, including costs, of these reports shall bear a reasonable relationship to the need for the report and the benefits obtained from the report.
There is a provision in the water code that specifies reports of confidential nature be treated differently. When these reports are requested by the person furnishing a report, the portions of a report that might disclose proprietary processes shall not be made available for inspection by the public, but shall be made available to governmental agencies for use in making studies. However, these portions of a report are available for use by the State or any state agency in the judicial review for enforcement practices.
Waste Discharge Permits in California
There are two types of waste discharge permits that govern the discharge of waste in California. These permits are the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and the Waste Discharge Requirements.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): NPDES permits are issued to regulate discharges of waste to navigable waters of the nation, including discharges of storm water from urban separate storm water systems and certain categories of industrial activity. "Waters of the nation" encompass surface waters such as rivers, lakes, bays, estuaries, oceans, etc. The permits are authorized by Section 402 of the federal Clean Water Act and Section 13370 of the California Water Code. The permit content and the issuance process are contained in the Code of Federal Regulations.
NPDES permits are required to dictate conditions of discharge that will ensure protection of beneficial uses of the receiving water as in regional water quality control plans adopted by the State Water Board. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the state's program to regulate discharges of waste water to "waters of the nation." The State, through the Regional Water Boards, issues the NPDES permits, reviews discharger self-monitoring reports, performs independent compliance checking and takes enforcement actions as needed.
Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs): The California Water Code authorizes Regional Water Boards to regulate discharges of waste to land to protect water quality. Water Boards issue WDRs in accordance with Section 13263 of the California Water Code. Regional Boards issue WDRs, review self-monitoring reports submitted by the discharger, perform independent compliance checking, and take the necessary enforcement action.
Self Monitoring Program
Both the WDRs and the NPDES permits contain extensive discharge specifications, prohibitions, effluent standards, mass loadings, receiving water standards, general provisions and the "Self Monitoring and Reporting Program." This program is truly the cornerstone of both the WDRs and the NPDES program. In California, monitoring of discharges and receiving waters is carried out by the permittee. The ideal situation would be where the regulatory agency and/or an independent laboratory collected and analyzed samples from the permittee's waste stream. However, since this process is not logically or financially possible, the burden falls on the permittee. Potential problems resulting from a self-monitoring system include improper sample collection, poor analytical technique, falsification of records and other abuses of the system.
The regulatory agency has several tools available to prevent or minimize these problems. Facility inspections are routinely performed by regulatory agency personnel and should consist of a thorough inspection of the treatment facility. This visual observation should allow the inspector to determine whether the facility is capable of producing an effluent that will meet its permit limits. The facility inspection should also include an inspection of the laboratory facilities, including a review of the laboratory and sampling techniques used and the appropriate supporting records. Additionally, the regulatory agency also conducts compliance monitoring consisting of periodic sampling of a permittee discharge. If the compliance monitoring results differ significantly from those reported by the permittee, then the reason for the discrepancy should be discovered and corrected.
Types of Monitoring Reports
Both the WDRs and the NPDES permits require a plethora of monitoring reports (including daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and yearly information on various parameters that are expected to be found in the discharge streams). In addition, the permittee is required to sample receiving waters for back groundwater quality as well as source water supply quality. In many cases, the permittee is required to perform toxicity bioassays to characterize the toxicity potential of the discharge. These monitoring reports are submitted both to the State and U.S. EPA for NPDES discharges.
Considerations For Selecting Monitoring Requirements
An integral part of the monitoring conditions for a particular facility is the monitoring points. The point at which a sample is collected can have a dramatic effect on the monitoring results for that facility. For example, a facility may have several waste streams from different plant processes. The waste stream from a particular process may contain extremely high amounts of a particular pollutant, that may reflect poor housekeeping, inadequate treatment facilities or other problems. However, when this stream is diluted with other waste streams from other parts of the plant, the resulting constituent concentrations may be below detectable levels. Thus, it may be necessary to require internal monitoring points in order to detect these problem areas.
Ultimately, the permittee is responsible for providing a safe and accessible sampling point that is representative of the discharge. The state permit writer is responsible for determining the most appropriate monitoring location and explicitly specifying this in the permit.
Some factors that need to be considered when determining monitoring frequency include
- Frequency of discharge
- Design capacity of treatment facility
- Type of treatment method used
- Significance of pollutants with regard to post-compliance record/history
- Cost of monitoring relative to discharger's capabilities.
The monitoring frequency is normally based on the design capacity of the treatment facility and complexity of the discharge. If the cost of monitoring is significant in considering the capability of the discharger, the frequency of some or all of the parameters can be decreased.
Types of Sampling
In addition to establishing monitoring frequencies, the permit writer will need to determine the type of sample required. There are two types of samples: grabs and composite. Where the quality and flow of the waste stream being sampled is not likely to change over time, a grab sample is appropriate and specified in the permit. When the material being sampled varies significantly over time either as a result of flow or quality changes, a composite sample is desirable.
As these reports are received by the Regional Water Quality Control Board staff, they are generally logged to show when they were received versus when they were due. Staff checks compliance with permit specified effluent limitations, conditions, types of samples required and frequency of samples specified in the permit. This information is then entered into a computer tracking system.
If the nature of a violation is significant, an enforcement procedure is implemented. First, a staff member will contact the discharger to find out the cause of the violations. If a satisfactory explanation is obtained, a note of the confirmation is put in the file. However, if the nature of violation is significant, a formal letter of violation is sent to the discharger confirming violations noted and the discharger is requested to submit information on actions that have been implemented to bring the discharge into compliance or actions that are proposed along with the time schedule to bring the discharge into compliance as soon as possible. Both the U.S. EPA and the State have guidance for their staff to determine if violations are significant and what level of enforcement is appropriate to address these violations. The enforcement process is based on incremental escalation of enforcement (i.e., from a phone call to a formal enforcement hearing before the Regional Board). A discharger can be issued a Cease and Desist action by the Regional Board in accordance with the due process as outlined in the California Water Code and the Federal Regulations.
Is Self Monitoring Working?
In general, the self monitoring system used to monitor waste discharge systems in California is working. Dischargers sample their discharge streams in accordance with their permit terms and conditions and follow a chain of custody procedures for transporting samples to state certified laboratories for analyses. The laboratory results are tabulated by the discharger and/or its consultants and sent to the State and to U.S. EPA where appropriate. In some cases, dischargers forget to sample for the parameters outlined in their waste discharge requirements and monitoring reports are submitted. Staff of the regulatory agencies (at least once a month) review non-submittal of these reports and tag those dischargers that are delinquent in the submittal of their reports. A follow up letter is sent to these dischargers to remind them that the required monitoring reports need to be submitted in a timely manner. Constant violators are prioritized for enforcement action as appropriate.
There have been a few instances of falsification of monitoring reports in the State and these types of cases are considered to be very serious and companies and/or persons involved are dealt severely to the maximum extent allowed by law. Such exemplary enforcement actions are deterrent enough to protect the integrity of the self monitoring system.
About the Author:
Hisam A. Baqai is the managing engineer with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lahontan Region, Victorville Branch Office. | <urn:uuid:ab7c5950-f24e-484a-9711-e68705a6a460> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T18:06:32",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9331973791122437,
"score": 2.71875,
"token_count": 1979,
"url": "http://www.wqpmag.com/print/12541"
} |
Bribery, corruption, intrigue, rotten boroughs and riots …oh dear, that will be Wiltshire’s parliamentary elections in eighteenth and nineteenth century! Present events always give us an opportunity to take the long-view and here at the History Centre we have a range of resources on the political history of the county and borough, from excellent accounts published in the Victoria County History for Wiltshire to election squibs, poll books and original documents.
Wiltshire’s early claim to political fame was the impressive size of its parliamentary representation. Until 1832 it elected two Knights of the Shire (representing the whole county), two MPs for Salisbury, and two burgesses for each of its 15 boroughs, a grand total of 34 seats. Only Cornwall had higher. This was especially impressive given that many of the boroughs were the size of a village, and few of their residents could vote. The most notable, of course, was Old Sarum, which retuned two MPs and in 1768, it is claimed, had an electorate of, er…one, though usually could count on seven. Other small boroughs included Great Bedwyn, Cricklade, Downton, Heytesbury, Hindon, Ludgershall and Wootton Bassett. Yet other towns like Bradford on Avon, Corsham, Trowbridge, and Warminster could not send representatives to parliament.
The remaining boroughs electing two MP’s were Calne, Chippenham, Devizes, Marlborough, Malmesbury, Marlborough, Westbury and Wilton. But don’t think for one minute that the larger towns necessarily had a bigger electorate. Malmesbury weighed in with a total electorate of 13, and if this was not enough it was notable for being one of the most corrupt boroughs in England. Cricklade, on the other hand, through the Act of 1782, had its franchise extended to all freeholders in the surrounding area, numbering 1,200. This made bribery and corruption more difficult, but unfortunately fewer than fifty voters actually lived in the borough itself. | <urn:uuid:ee7713d7-6ec0-456c-a2ee-40e090738a23> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:27:44",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9691497087478638,
"score": 2.875,
"token_count": 441,
"url": "http://www.wshc.eu/blog.htmlHannah-and-the-tiger/"
} |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's state veterinarian says the riskiest time of year for horses contracting West Nile Virus is fast approaching.
Jewell Plumley says vaccination is advisable, and horses should receive a booster at the end of August or early September since most of West Virginia's cases are in the early fall. Once a horse is infected, there's no cure.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than 500 people have contracted the disease this year, none in West Virginia. However, 116 water pools containing mosquitoes have turned up positive for West Nile.
The disease is spread by mosquitoes, so controlling them is the key to controlling West Nile. | <urn:uuid:1c6a99e0-4bb4-4fbf-8dfc-393b4ee19f41> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:30:41",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9529510140419006,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 143,
"url": "http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201208200031"
} |
"Hate the Physics and Maths? Don't worry, I can help you"
...As such they learn the natural number system, integers, fractions, decimals, negative numbers, factorization of natural numbers, simple roots and powers, and the associative and distributive properties of addition / subtraction. Prealgebra could also contain some simple geometry
as an application of variable manipulation. Pre-calculus, a combination...
10+ subjects, including geometry | <urn:uuid:67a0ac37-4f0d-474a-af2d-8999bea20513> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:29:10",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8701501488685608,
"score": 2.8125,
"token_count": 97,
"url": "http://www.wyzant.com/Miami_Beach_WA_geometry_tutors.aspx"
} |
One area that is particularly ripe for opportunity is in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). In August, U.S. News & World Report reported that there will be a need to fill over 1.2 million STEM jobs in the U.S. by 2018. STEM careers offer lucrative and stable opportunities; for example, pharmacist jobs boast median salaries of $105,000, with a projected 25 percent job growth rate between 2010 and 2020. STEM fields are also drivers of innovation: Experts note that those working in STEM are overwhelmingly responsible for creating breakthrough inventions compared with non-STEM counterparts.
Despite the promise these career paths offer, less than one-third of eighth graders in this country are proficient in mathematics and science and fewer than 15 percent of U.S. undergraduates receive science or engineering degrees. This academic lag has resulted in the country’s STEM workforce hovering under 3 percent of the total working population.
“It is important to close these gaps because STEM fields have an enormous impact on our country’s growth and also provide rich opportunities for our youth,” says John Jones, R.Ph., J.D., who is a senior vice president at OptumRx and the chair of the Pharmacy is Right for Me educational initiative. “We should reach students early in their education to get them thinking about the opportunities the sector has to offer, and begin taking those first steps toward building careers in the diverse STEM arena.”
So how can parents and caretakers help kids embark upon successful professional journeys in STEM and related fields? Jones recommends taking the following steps:
1. Engage young students early on and provide them with an educational roadmap. Students may not consider careers in STEM fields because they simply do not know about what those pathways can offer. Help expose kids as early as elementary and middle school to the types of unique and exciting options found through STEM. Work with your children to build a strong foundation in math and science skills, which are essential to pursuing STEM opportunities at every level – from technical positions to those requiring advanced degrees.
2. Encourage hands-on learning. Gaining real-world STEM experience through internships, summer jobs, or even participation in student innovation competitions can help kids get excited about future possibilities and apply their science and math education in creative ways. Shadowing STEM professionals in the local community can also provide a deeper understanding of what STEM professions involve on a day-to-day basis.
3. Seek out additional support both in your local community and online. Preparing for post-high school and post-college life can be extremely challenging, even with parental support. Encourage children to seek additional help at school by speaking with their guidance counselors. Find mentors at school or in the local community to provide professional guidance. Use credible Web-based resources for educational and financial information. Online resources, such as those offered through Pharmacy is Right for Me’s website, Facebook and Twitter channels, can help young students navigate through the challenges of reaching their long-term goals.
Despite the challenging job forecast, there is a wide range of prospects open to students in the thriving STEM industries. Engaging the next generation of STEM leaders by getting kids excited about these careers can help secure successful futures for youth. | <urn:uuid:f690c3dc-77f8-424c-8a77-2c5a934769d8> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T18:07:04",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9498392343521118,
"score": 3.234375,
"token_count": 670,
"url": "http://www.yourdailyjournal.com/pages/full_story/push?article-How+to+give+your+child+a+head+start+in+math-+science+and+beyond%20&id=21101416&instance=all"
} |
The definition of betwixt is between.(adverb)
When you are in between two things, this is an example of a time when you are betwixt.
See betwixt in Webster's New World College Dictionary
Origin: ME bitwix < OE betwix < be, by + a form related to twegen, twain; -t is unhistoric
See betwixt in American Heritage Dictionary 4
adverb & prep.
Origin: Middle English bitwixt
Origin: , from Old English betwix; see dwo- in Indo-European roots.
Learn more about betwixt | <urn:uuid:62ae86d0-8f97-4723-ade3-ac47c0ccb479> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T18:06:38",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9098838567733765,
"score": 2.78125,
"token_count": 133,
"url": "http://www.yourdictionary.com/betwixt"
} |
IN THIS EPISODE (in order of appearance):
[upbeat electronic music]
(Jennifer): Hello, there. I'm Jennifer Pulley, and welcome to another edition of NASA 360.
Today we've got so many things lined up for you. We're going to talk about technology. We're going to talk about exploration. And we're going to talk about dinosaurs and how they're all related.
But first, let's talk about where I'm standing. Get this: I'm standing inside a fort. That's right, and it's not just any fort. This is Jamestown fort. It's the site of the first permanent English colony in what was then called the new world. Today, of course, we know it as America.
Now think about this: from this starting point, people spread out all across the country and eventually populated the entire United States. So I guess we have to say that this landing's spot's a pretty big deal in American history.
Over time, though, the original fort that the English settlers built fell into disrepair. And believe it or not, for many years, it was lost to history. That all changed in 1996 when archaeologist Dr. Bill Kelso rediscovered the original fort.
It began a whole new era of understanding what life was like for those first Jamestown settlers. For the first time, they had proof. Using old writings, drawings, and now a handy trowel for digging, Dr. Kelso and his team discovered where the old fort was. And they began excavating the artifacts.
To date, he and his team have found over 1 million artifacts from the original fort. And they expect to find many more in the next few years. In a little while, we'll catch up with Dr. Kelso and dig a little deeper into the history of Jamestown.
But first, do you know the difference between an archaeologist and a paleontologist? Well, let's see. They both dig in the ground looking for things in the past, right? Well, it's the type of things they're looking for that make them different.
You see, archaeology is the science of understanding human cultures, while paleontology is the study of prehistoric life-forms. So basically, then, archaeologists spends their time trying to understand human history, while paleontologists generally look for fossils from before human history, like dinosaur bones. Got it?
Luckily for archaeologists and paleontologists, tons of help is now coming from NASA. How? Well, one of the ways is through the use of remote sensing techniques.
Remote sensing? Well, in the broadest sense, it's the use of a device to collect information without actually physically touching the object.
Now, a great example of a remote sensing device we use every single day? Our eyes. Think about it. You can detect objects around you without physically touching them. You simply use your detectors, or your eyes, to see the object, gather information about it. You're using remote sensing.
There are many forms of NASA-sponsored remote sensing devices that are being used to help in archaeology and paleontology.
Like, for example, there's something called ground-penetrating radar. This unique type of radar system can actually see objects in the ground without anyone having to dig them up. By using this in combination with aerial photography and historical documents, NASA can help give researchers a much better indication of where to dig, what to preserve, and what areas to avoid.
Satellites are another type of remote sensing tool being used by NASA researchers to help archaeologists and paleontologists. In fact, NASA archaeologist Dr. Tom Sever has been using satellite data to help us understand why the Mayan civilization in Guatemala collapsed and how current populations may be able to prevent future disaster. Let me try to break it down for you.
Between the third and ninth century, the Mayan civilization in Central America flourished. But after about the ninth century, they collapsed, leaving archaeologists few clues as to why this once-mighty civilization disappeared.
This is where NASA comes in. Our remote sensing satellites can detect even small changes within the electromagnetic spectrum. So sand, cultivated soil, vegetation, and rocks, each have distinctive spectral signatures which are easily distinguished from each other. So archaeologists can use info from the remote sensing satellites to quickly target specific areas of interest then send teams to that area to validate the findings.
Dr. Sever and his team have already found several previously undiscovered sites and feel confident that they know where others are, thanks to NASA's remote sensing satellites. That is how NASA is helping researchers find old ruins. But remote sensing satellites are also helping us understand why the Mayan civilization may have disappeared.
Today, the Peten rain forest in Guatemala is covered with trees and is not heavily populated. But it was not like this during the peak of the Mayan civilization. In fact, during that time, this region had a population of about 2,000 people per square mile, which is about the same as current-day Los Angeles.
With a population that large, the Mayans had to farm huge areas of land. To do this, they employed a technique called slash and burn, which eventually destroyed virtually every tree for hundreds of miles. Computer models show that as the trees disappeared, so did the rain, which caused temperatures to increase by five to six degrees. All of these shifts may have caused malnutrition and disease, which, in turn, contributed to its collapse.
This information is especially important for us today because slash-and-burn techniques are once again being used in the areas that were once Mayan strongholds. Understanding what happened to the Mayans may dissuade current generations of farmers from following the same destructive path.
So as you can see, NASA technology is being used for a lot more than just to help us in space. It's being used to help save lives back here on Earth too.
Hey, in a little bit, we'll swing back out here to Jamestown to talk with Dr. Kelso. But first, let's head to North Dakota. Johnny Alonso's there to see what a mummified dinosaur and NASA have in common.
Hang on tight. You're watching NASA 360.
(Johnny): Hey, how's it going? Let me ask you something. Have you ever seen a real dinosaur?
And I'm not talking about one of those dinosaurs you might see in the movies or even the skeletons in the museums. I'm talking about a real dinosaur with skin, muscle, and bones. Yeah, it might be hard nowadays, considering the fact that dinosaurs lived, what, hundreds of millions of years ago.
But what if I told you that researchers found a dinosaur just like that? Would you believe it?
Well, if you said no, you'd better start believing, because a few years ago, researchers found an actual mummified dinosaur that was still intact, from the skin to cartilage to muscle. A mummified Hadrosaur named Dakota is so unique in its discovery that it's changing what researchers thought they knew about dinosaurs.
I rolled out to Bismarck, North Dakota, to speak with my buddy Dr. John Hoganson about this amazing discovery and to find out how NASA is helping unearth more clues.
Oh, wow, are you kidding me? Yeah, this is... Oh, this is so cool!
(Dr. John Hoganson): This is the tail section of the duckbilled dinosaur called Dakota. And it's being prepared here at the North Dakota Geological Survey Preparation Laboratory here at the Heritage Center here in Bismarck.
(Johnny): This is something else. Wow! So, doc, how was this dinosaur found?
(Dr. John Hoganson): Well, this fossil was found in 1999 by Tyler Lyson down in Marmarth, North Dakota, which is in the southwest corner of the state.
He was only a sophomore in high school at the time but was out exploring for fossils, actually, on his uncle's property down in the badlands.
Now, this is a Hadrosaur called Edmontosaurus. That's the scientific name for this particular species of dinosaur. Hadrosaurs were duckbilled dinosaurs. They're a group of dinosaurs that were referred to as duckbilled dinosaurs because their snouts were compressed very similar to a modern duck.
(Johnny): So what is so unique about this fossil?
(Dr. John Hoganson): Well, you know, generally, paleontologists, when we're out exploring for fossils, will only find individual bones or fragments of jaws or things like that.
This particular dinosaur, called Dakota, is not only a complete skeleton but it's very unique, because the skin is actually preserved on this animal. So the entire skeleton appears to be wrapped in the skin that it was enclosed in.
This is called a mummified dinosaur, but it's not a mummy in the sense of what we generally think about, like an Egyptian mummy that has been embalmed for preservation. The skin on this animal is actually preserved because it's been replaced by a mineral called siderite, which is an iron carbonate kind of mineral which is very hard and has preserved the skin.
(Johnny): All right, so how did NASA get involved with this dinosaur discovery?
Well, researchers needed a way to scan through all the layers of rock to see all the dinosaur. And since this thing weighs about ten tons, they needed a really, really big scanner.
(Dr. John Hoganson): Well, you know, when we usually find these fossils in the field, we generally just find the bones, the skeletons.
And it was determined early on during the excavation process that this particular dinosaur was covered in skin. So it was decided to take these skeleton blocks out still entombed in the rock.
So big blocks of rocks were removed. And at that point, it was decided that the best technology to use to determine the position of the bones in the rock and the completeness of the skeleton was to use C.A.T. scan technologies.
And that's where NASA was asked if they could help with this. And it's been a very good approach, because with this tail block that we're working on right now, we, through the C.A.T. scan technology, are able to know where the bones are before we actually start digging through the rock matrix.
(Johnny): Luckily for these guys, NASA operates the largest CT scanner in the world. Located at a Boeing facility in Canoga Park, California, this scanner's first priority is to inspect large space shuttle parts.
Well, the task for Dakota was not all that different. So they loaded Dakota on a truck and shipped it off to California. When it arrived, the scanner was able to penetrate the dense iron carbonate that surrounded the dinosaur's tail section. And right away, researchers saw bones, tissue, and cartilage.
(Dr. John Hoganson): Well, since I've been a paleontologist, which has been a few years, there's been a lot of technological changes and advancements that have really helped the science.
In addition to the C.A.T. scan technology that we've been talking about here, there's a lot of remote sensing types of technologies that are available to us now.
Global position systems, mapping, lidar, kinds of laser mapping, various other kinds of technologies that assist us in the field actually locating and positioning the fossil finds, because it's very important to us to know where in the rock column the fossil is found and also, of course, the geographic position of the fossil.
We also use, you know, C.A.T. scans for determining the bones structures of skulls and also the size of the brain cases and skulls, fossil skulls, that have been found.
So technology is used extensively now in paleontology.
We're preparing this for exhibit. The tail and one of the arms will be prepared and put on exhibit here at the North Dakota Heritage Center, which is open to the public. So we plan to have it here for quite some time if people are interested in coming and seeing it.
(Johnny): Good. Absolutely. Well, doctor, thank you so much for having us here.
(Dr. John Hoganson): Sure, it's really good to have you here.
(Johnny): Most definitely. Thank you.
Hey, in a little bit, I'm going to tell you how NASA's bringing history to life on the Lewis and Clark trail. So don't go anywhere. It's coming right up. You're watching NASA 360.
(Jennifer): Okay, so the first English settlers landed here in Jamestown in 1607. But the first years, oh, they were rough. In fact, for many years, there was question as to whether the small fort would actually survive.
There was starvation and a lot of sickness. But thanks to some local indians and some resupply from England, this small, little fort held on, and it began to flourish.
In fact, from 1612 to 1698, Jamestown was the capital of the whole country. That changed when a fire swept through the state house and it forced the capital to be moved to Williamsburg. Just a few years later, Jamestown was gone, both physically and in memory.
Over the centuries, people believed that the old fort and all of its artifacts had actually washed away into the James River. But that all changed in 1994, when the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, or, for short, the APVA, commissioned an archaeological dig in the area where the original fort was thought to be.
Why? Well, APVA lead archaeologist Dr. Bill Kelso believed the original fort had not been washed away at all. He had a hunch that he knew where to find the fort. And this old church had something to do with it.
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Reason that I started digging where I did was that, there's a church tower here that's the only original above-ground part of Jamestown, 17th century.
And the church was originally in the midst of the fort. One of the records said this, you know? I said, "Well, it ought to be around here somewhere." So starting near the church was the key.
And it was an area that had never really been looked at before, ironically enough. It's high ground. It really made sense, now that we know where the fort is.
(Jennifer): Can you walk me through kind of the excavation process, the recording -- we were talking a little bit about the technology -- and then where do the artifacts go from there?
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Well, artifacts are removed from the soil. Once we understand the context, we call it, where they're found, they're taken to a lab, and they're washed. And then some of these -- like these iron objects would have to be conserved.
Some things, probably 1% or 2% of what we have here, will go on exhibit. We have, you know, a museum here. And there are other traveling exhibits and other things that we do just to tell the Jamestown story.
(Excavator): Would you believe that?
(Excavator): How are we going to do this?
(Man): What is that?
(Woman): Oh, my god!
(Excavator): It's all metal down here. That's why it's rusty.
(Man): That's Lord Deleware's.
[end excavation footage]
(Jennifer): Dr. Kelso, how long have you been an archaeologist?
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Well, I started probably 1607, something like that.
(Jennifer): [laughing] Why, you look great!
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Thank you very much.
(Jennifer): Well, you're over 400 years old!
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Gosh. It's been a while. 45 years, I guess, I would say.
(Jennifer): All right, so in that time, in those 45 years, tell me, what have you seen? What changes have you seen -- technology -- technological advances in archaeology?
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Well, the major technological advances -- you would think that we would've invented X-ray vision. You know, we would save a lot of digging. But that hasn't happened.
There are certain machines that can give you some reading belowground without digging, remote sensing.
But what I think the breakthrough has been has been in recording, the record of archaeology, 'cause archaeology, I think, in the past, is something that's viewed as destructive.
But now we have the technology, through a GIS Program, that we can record almost in three dimensions. And we're close. And if you can record in three dimensions, then you can actually replicate the site again, digitally, and, you know, relook at it.
That still doesn't replace just, you know, blood, sweat, and tears. I mean, it's just down. It's digging. It's scooping. It's using -- our main instrument here is just this small shovel.
And, you know, it takes a long time to dig out a hole like this with something like this. But we have to do that so that we don't disturb artifacts.
(Jennifer): So tell me about some of the amazing things you've found.
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Well, we've found over a million artifacts in this project. But there are certain things that really do stand out.
(Jennifer): One of those things that stands out is a lead luggage tag with its destination stamped on it, "Yamestowne."
This tag made the long journey from England to the new world on a wooden ship then was discarded into the bottom of a well. After its rediscovery 400 years later, it would again be making a long trip, this time into space.
To help celebrate the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, this lowly luggage tag was placed aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, where it traveled nearly 6 million miles around the Earth.
After the space flight was over, the tag was returned to Jamestown, where it went back on display in the Jamestown Archaearium with other artifacts from the old fort.
(Dr. Bill Kelso): I think it really highlights the... sort of age-old exploration process, that, in 1607, you had to get the vehicles. You had to raise the money. You had to get the political things in order, the charter, to come to Virginia, and dress appropriately with armor and closed helmets, because it was an alien environment, you had to put some kind of a…
It's almost like a -- it is almost like a space station. You know, here in -- or an outpost -- to begin to explore an unknown environment in Virginia, and that's –
(Jennifer): and NASA's continuing to do that.
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Right, and here's the colonization of the moon. And what are the problems? Well, you got to get there. You got to have the right vehicles. What do you take with you? You know, how do you survive in this alien environment?
You put in artificial surface around you, you know, and you dress appropriately. So it is -- it's really an age-old thing. This whole psychological need to explore, spiritual need to explore, I think, is still today just as it was at the time of Jamestown.
(Jennifer): All right, so let's talk a little bit about this correlation between the early explorers, yourself, you're an explorer, and then the future explorers.
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Well, I'm kind of an explorer of explorers, the recent explorers. I mean, they -- we're trying to figure out what it was like to explore and to discover. And our project's called "Jamestown Rediscovery" you know, we're not discovering Jamestown. We're rediscovering it.
And a good example is this space here that -- this was used as a laboratory to study the minerals and the iron ore of this new land to see if it could be profitable to come here.
So, yeah, this is very similar to what I've read about explorations, especially on mars. They send out vehicles, and they do drilling, and they look at the material. And that's what was going on here.
And so this space was where -- I'm sure people that you've heard of before -- Captain John Smith walked around in here. You know, maybe Pocahontas checking out the blacksmith shop.
(Jennifer): That is so cool. That's… I mean, that's -- what an amazing job you have.
(Dr. Bill Kelso): Well, that's what… that's the payoff, is to feel… to walk the places, to be in the places where these historical events happened. So then the events take on much more meaning than if you just read them in a text book.
(Jennifer): Earlier, Dr. Kelso mentioned the similarities between the 1607 Jamestown explorers and NASA's future space explorers.
What about all the explorers in between? Guys like Daniel Boone, Neil Armstrong come to mind, as well as many countless others who have helped broaden our knowledge through exploration.
Perhaps two of the most famous names in American exploration history are Lewis and Clark. You ever heard of them? They blazed a trail through the American west, mapping out their path as they went.
So what do you think? Did NASA have anything to do with the Lewis and Clark expedition?
Well, not the original trip, but NASA is helping out now. Johnny Alonso will tell you all about it.
(Johnny): All right, so we've seen a lot today how NASA's helping archaeologists and paleontologists through remote sensing. These remote sensing devices have helped us unearth some really cool findings in places like Cambodia, Central America, and the American southwest. And they've also helped along one of the most famous trails in American history, the Lewis and Clark Trail.
To find out how NASA helped map this 200-year-old trail, I rolled up to Fort Mandan in North Dakota, where Lewis and Clark spent their first winter.
Before we get into NASA's involvement, let's go back a few hundred years to the beginning of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Back in 1804, when the expedition began, we knew almost nothing about what was to the west of St. Louis. So president Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition west to find the first all-water route to the Pacific Ocean.
This was an epic journey, taking several years and 3,700 miles (5,955 km) to complete. During this trip, they collected samples of plants and animals, met many of the different Indian tribes of the west and brought back detailed data about the route that they had taken.
But even though they brought back some pretty good maps and data, they still weren't 100 percent accurate. That's because most of these journals weren't written right away, or they were written after a hard day's travel. And many of the entries contain geographical inaccuracies.
So… this is where NASA comes in. Researchers from NASA's Stennis Space Center took the maps of Lewis and Clark and combined them with high-resolution images taken from satellites and aircraft.
They created maps with a 360-degree view of an area where the explorers traveled. From that view, archaeologists could follow the trails as if they were flying over the actual landscape in real time and in any direction or angle they chose.
Researchers pored over these maps looking for telltale signs of human disturbances unique to the Lewis and Clark expedition. With this technique, archaeologists were able to narrow down some of the possible sites from many miles to a few acres.
This information is helping to find Lewis and Clark artifacts that provide a clearer understanding of the expedition and what the lives of those early explorers had been like.
And don't forget, NASA has a new generation of explorers too that will soon be going back to the moon and on to Mars. So in the future when we talk about great explorers, there's no doubt that NASA's astronauts will be on the list.
It's amazing, isn't it? Just when you thought you knew everything about NASA, we throw something else at you.
So as you can see, NASA's not only trying to help shape our future. It's also making the past clearer.
That's it for this episode. For Jennifer Pulley, I'm Johnny Alonso. I'll catch you next time on NASA 360.
(Johnny): …dinosaur. I'd say it was still in -- [laughing].
(Johnny): These remote sensing devices will help us on -- two.
(Jennifer): Why? Well, APVA lead archaeologist Dr. Bill Kelso believed -- he thought – [smiles].
(Johnny): …to find out how NASA helped -- two.
(Johnny): That's right, a mummified Hadrosaur named Dakota [stops, snaps fingers]
(Jennifer): Let's head out to North Dakota. Johnny Alonso is learning how NASA technology was used to unearth some really cool -- really unique… eh.
(Jennifer): Guys like Daniel Boone and Neil Armstrong may come to mind, as well as many countless oth…
(Jennifer): …it's doctor – bill-la-la-la-la…
(Johnny): I rolled out to Fort Mandan, North Dakota, for... Damn! That was it. That was it. I'll say it right this time.
› Download Vodcast (284 MB) | <urn:uuid:d47cdb67-9f15-4708-acca-7d9c1a34dec3> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:58:00",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.965689480304718,
"score": 3.5,
"token_count": 5410,
"url": "http://www1.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/nasa360/nasa360-0104.html"
} |
Article in Liberal Education , Spring 2007
"Reclaiming the Distinctiveness of American Higher Education"
William G. Durden is president of Dickinson College.
In the face of rising global competition and the heightened call for accountability issued by the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education, educators across the country are being called upon—once again—to demonstrate the validity of a liberal education. We are asked repeatedly if our approach to undergraduate education will prepare students to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, if it is capable of adapting to rapidly changing times. As we seek to respond to these concerns and evaluate the effectiveness of our own institutions, I suggest that we look for guidance to those enlightened revolutionaries who established not only our democracy, but also an American approach to liberal education that was distinctive for its emphasis on pragmatism delivered through an integrated, comprehensive student experience.
Our founding fathers instinctively understood that a nation whose success depended upon engaged and informed citizens demanded an education far different from the isolated, “monkish,” ivory-tower model that was prevalent throughout eighteenth-century Europe and upon which America's colonial, theologically oriented colleges and universities had been modeled. They advocated, instead, an education that easily traversed the boundaries between the classroom and the community, an education in which the lessons of the academy could be applied immediately to a society seeking to define its own parameters. It was a revolutionary education for a revolutionary time.
One of the most passionate and eloquent advocates of a distinctive American education was Dr. Benjamin Rush, who founded Dickinson College . Rush's fundamental precepts, debated regularly with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Dickinson, and others, offer us important directives as we explore ways to define the relevance and value of liberal education in our own rapidly changing, revolutionary era.
For Rush, an American liberal arts education was to be, above all, useful—useful to oneself, but also to society. This education was to accomplish nothing less than preparation of those citizens and leaders who would shape the economy, government, and social structures of the young democracy. Rush adamantly believed that students must be engaged with their society in order to prepare them to lead in it. Rush had no tolerance for “the college high on the hill,” physically and symbolically removed from the people. For this reason, he strategically located Dickinson College a short two-block walk from the county courthouse, fully expecting students to make the trek on a regular basis to observe government in action. Through the creation of debating societies—an early incarnation of extracurricular student groups—Rush sought to give students the opportunity to discuss the most pressing issues of the day, an opportunity that connected them to rather than isolated them from emerging national developments. Rush even went so far as to recommend that students live not on campus, but with families in the town, where they could be mentored daily in community values and citizenship.
Rush's conception of an American liberal arts education did not draw arbitrary boundaries among students' classroom experiences, their extracurricular and recreational activities, and their living arrangements. It was an educational approach designed to encourage character development and one that valued public service as a form of patriotism.
We have, I am afraid, lost this vision of an integrated and distinctively American approach to liberal education. We have compartmentalized its parts. There has been a rupture between the student life and academic sides of our enterprise and a focused emphasis on the “useful” and the comprehensive has dulled with time.
While Rush's idea of having all students live with families in the community is unrealistic in the twenty-first century, is the fundamental premise behind this idea outdated? Shouldn't we still be striving to provide daily mentoring to our students in community values and citizenship? Isn't it our responsibility to develop the twenty-first-century contexts that accomplish this most basic and most important of goals? And should not the current “accountability movement” in higher education extend beyond the measurement of disciplinary academic ability to that of citizenship? Shouldn't we be seeking evidence of informed voting in public elections, community volunteerism, monetary contributions to nonprofit organizations, standing for public office?
Decoupling academic and student life
I would argue that higher education has derailed on both the academic and student life sides. Of course, the academic side would like to claim that it has held steadfast to its mission, and faculty all too frequently place blame on student life for failing to make these important connections. This line of thinking, however, ignores the fact that student life divisions are a relatively recent creation in American higher education and that faculty should also, as they have in the past, shoulder the responsibility of providing a comprehensive educational experience for our students.
And what about student life? This division has burgeoned at most institutions over the past two decades—but in too many instances, we have allowed it to mushroom without clear purpose or direction. Instead, we have reacted helter-skelter in our rush to meet rising student demands and challenges. We are “over-offering” and thus introducing a hyper-consumerism into the academic setting. We have built twenty-four-hour student unions and fitness centers that resemble cruise ships. In our haste to demonstrate that we understand that engaged students are healthy, energetic students, we have scrambled to provide them with opportunities to engage in—well, everything—to include every conceivable aspect of their own selves and their unfettered desires.
We have not, however, organized this plethora of activities into a cohesive or progressive series of meaningful, educative experiences. Instead, we have provided our students with a shopping mall of choices without overarching purpose. In the process, we have created a lot of busy, busy students, many of whom are intent on adding activity upon activity to their undergraduate resumes. We have, in short, succeeded in giving students the opportunity to be busy—but simply being busy is not the same as being meaningfully engaged with society and understanding the connection between the activities in which one is engaged and the larger educational mission of the institution.
In general, we have not fulfilled our educative responsibility to open students' minds, to encourage serious inquiry, and to develop an understanding of what it means to be a part of a wider, diverse community that is not always cast ultimately in a student's own image. By simply enabling our students' selfish desires, we have denied them the genuine sociability and connectivity necessary for continuous learning. Instead, we have fallen prey to the students' own definition of success as we assist them in their quest for personal advancement at the expense of communal progress. The whole notion of a “useful” education, in other words, has become focused on a personal usefulness as each student asks him or herself, “How can I get ahead?”
The type of “usefulness” that builds good citizens through service to society has all too frequently fallen by the wayside. While there is a notable rise in community service or volunteerism among college students today, this often occurs because such activity is now viewed as a necessary component for “credentialing” personal aspirations. Of course, there are notable exceptions to these negative trends among both individual students and college or university programs. Yet, in general, it is this decoupling of the academic from student life and our enabling behavior in higher education that has resulted in today's undergraduates experiencing what former Harvard dean Harry Lewis (2006) describes provocatively in his recent book, Excellence Without a Soul , as “the hollowness of undergraduate education,” the total abdication of colleges' “moral authority to shape the souls of students,” and the absence of any definitive statements about what it is to be an educated person.
American undergraduate education for the twenty-first century
It is time to reclaim and revitalize for the twenty-first century the distinctiveness that characterized American higher education during the earliest days of our democracy. At the dawn of a century that promises to be breathtaking in both its challenges and opportunities, we must ensure that our students are prepared and willing to take on the responsibility of global citizenship and shake free of their obsessive focus on themselves. We must ensure that they know how the United States “works” and what it values (in all that complexity) and are prepared to engage and listen carefully to opinions expressed by the rest of the world. We must be willing to admit that we have lost the connection between theory and practice that will most readily make this global understanding possible, and we must seek to redefine this connection in a twenty-first-century context.
To do so, we must return to a conception of undergraduate education that is comprehensive and does not compartmentalize students' experiences into artificial components that separate the curricular from the extracurricular. We must return to the notion of a “useful” education that encompasses and intertwines personal and public usefulness, demonstrating to our students that personal success and understanding are most complete when they contribute to the public good—not when they simply fulfill individual notions of anticipated accomplishment. This will require us to rethink totally our approach to undergraduate education. Dr. Rush was on to this notion very early. In a 1773 letter to his countrymen on patriotism, he stated that “the social spirit is the true selfish spirit, and men always promote their own interest most in proportion as they promote that of their neighbors and their country” (1951, 84).
As a starting point, we must conceive of and treat student life and the academic program as coequal partners in a shared endeavor that begins as a student prepares for the transition to college and continues as an organized and sustained priority until commencement. The residential experience continues to be the characteristic that distinguishes American undergraduate education from that found in other countries, and it should remain a centrally defining feature. The challenge is to incorporate it into the entire educational experience rather than treating it as an ancillary, less serious partner. Failure to do so places the historic advantage of an American higher education at risk and lends increasing advantage to many for-profit institutions that offer a new—and far less costly—business model for higher education that eschews athletics, residential life, and student life for the bottom line.
We must find ways to encourage faculty to think differently about how they reach and relate to students, ways that will require them to think beyond the classroom experience. The answer is not, as some have suggested, merely to coax faculty into living in residence halls, a concept that presumes that physical juxtaposition will establish a cohesive educational experience. Rather, we need to think creatively about how to bridge the artificial chasm between academic and student life. We need to focus on ways to engage students in a seamless experience that moves easily and naturally in and out of the classroom—an experience that involves faculty in both arenas.
We all have been touched and inspired by a professor whose passion for his or her discipline is absolutely contagious. We need to enhance and expand the ways in which our faculty can model behavior that shows students what it is like to be an engaged scholar who is connected to the wider world with a sense of wonder, bliss, and obligation. Equally important, we need to give our students glimpses of faculty interactions in their own communities. They must see the “whole” professor—an individual who lives beyond his or her discipline with curiosity and a commitment to better the world. We need, in other words, to illustrate to our students through example—through proactive mentorship—that a liberal education is a lifelong habit of the mind.
Similarly, we must demand for our institutions student life professionals who push beyond attention to the affective and endlessly affirming desires of our students. We must ask them to act as far stronger role models by advancing discourse about issues that matter beyond the highly circumscribed topic of the self and how it “feels at a particular moment.” We must ask them to encourage students' engagement in an expansive interpretation of the life of the mind and to advance a more realistic commentary—a constructive honesty—about students' performance and aspiration that tempers their unfettered, often ungrounded self-assessment. We must ask them to do so with a candor not found in education—collegiate or precollegiate—for decades. We need, in the final analysis, to push beyond the ivory-tower mentality that our founding fathers so ardently rejected for American higher education but that, nevertheless, has seeped steadily back into the mindset of most of our country's colleges and universities.
In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that all sectors of American life, except liberal arts higher education, revolted against the practices of royalist, privileged England. “Learning for learning's sake,” instead of the objective of an ultimately useful study, still dominates American liberal education all too often. It is now time to complete the revolution.
Introducing a more comprehensive and generous approach to undergraduate education will require nothing short of a major cultural shift for many institutions. Developing the synergy between the academic program and student life will require that long-established habits be replaced with creative thinking and a willingness for change—a most formidable challenge in a profession notorious for maintaining stability and status quo in its basic organization and intent.
Perhaps most important will be the need to reassess purposes for which we reward our faculty—an exercise that will ask us to reexamine the most fundamental aspects of our mission. We must encourage our faculty to connect to the world beyond our campus boundaries through activities such as service learning and applied research. We must find or reallocate resources to help faculty establish networks with the broader community. We must challenge faculty to broaden the definition and scope of substantive scholarship in a liberal arts setting, and we must support them as they explore new pedagogies and introduce new methods of research in and out of the classroom.
We must recognize that these activities can and should be the foundation for legitimate, serious scholarship and service for faculty and that they are integral for advancing a distinctively engaging residential life for students. And we must give these activities appropriate weight and merit when evaluating faculty performance. In the final analysis, we will only be successful if we create a solid scholarly foundation of new knowledge, pedagogy, and residential life out of this renewed synthesis that will define American higher education for the twenty-first century.
To the casual observer, all of this talk about citizenship and engagement with community may seem superfluous and unnecessary. Look in virtually any college catalogue or on any Web site and you will find platitudes and promises touting the institution's commitment to these ideals. While I suppose the fact that such pronouncements exist is a step in the right direction, many of us know that the real work has yet to be done. To quote Thomas Jefferson, “it is in our lives and not from our words, that [our value] must be read. . . . By the same test, the world must judge me.” There you have it. By the same test, so must the world judge us in higher education. This is true accountability—devotion to and deliverance upon the original post-Revolutionary intention adapted to our own rapidly changing times.
Lewis, H. R. 2006. Excellence without a soul: How a great university forgot education . New York: Public Affairs.
Rush, B. 1951. Letters of Benjamin Rush, Volume 1: 1761–1792 . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Back to President's Page | <urn:uuid:68ae8362-c67a-4881-8d02-1ce96dcf5abb> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:36:58",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9608792066574097,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 3183,
"url": "http://www2.dickinson.edu/about/president/libedart.html"
} |
This program demonstrates the differences of facemasks and respirators that are to be used in public settings during an influenza pandemic. Created: 5/15/2007 by CDC, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Date Released: 5/25/2007. Series Name: CDC Featured Podcasts.
[Announcer] This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC - safer, healthier people.
Facemasks are loose-fitting, disposable masks that cover the nose and mouth. These include products labeled as surgical, dental, medical procedure, isolation, and laser masks. Facemasks help stop droplets from being spread by the person wearing them. They also keep splashes or sprays from reaching the mouth and nose of the person wearing the facemask. They are not designed to protect you against breathing in very small particles. Facemasks should be used once and then thrown away in the trash.
A respirator, for example an N95 or higher filtering facepiece respirator is designed to protect you from breathing in very small particles, which might contain viruses. These types of respirators fit tightly to the face so that most air is inhaled through the filter material. To work the best way, N95 respirators must be specially fitted for each person who wears one. This is called “Fit testing” and is usually done in a workspace where respirators are used. Like surgical masks, N95 respirators should be worn only once and then thrown away in the trash.
CDC is not recommending persons to stockpile masks or respirators at this time. If you purchase any, the manufacturer supplies important instructions with facemasks and respirators on how they are to be put on and checked to make sure they are properly positioned on the face. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, specific to the product you are using.
To access the most accurate and relevant health information that affects you, your family and your community, please visit www.cdc.gov. | <urn:uuid:936b84bc-5390-4254-a113-720b4ed8a26d> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T18:06:17",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9482808113098145,
"score": 3.828125,
"token_count": 417,
"url": "http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/player.asp?f=7600"
} |
When asked about his overarching goal for writing his autobiography, A Struggle to Walk with Dignity – The True Story of a Jamaican-born Canadian, Gerald Archambeau responds, “To inspire youth to never give up on the goodness of human beings regardless of race.” With this aspiration in mind, Archambeau has donated a collection of his works – a memoir and three scrapbooks – to Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections.
The scrapbooks narrate Archambeau’s life through a series of photographs, postcards and newspaper clippings pertaining to race relations and his employers the Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and Air Canada. The scrapbooks refer to the collective fight for human rights equality and Archambeau’s quotes written throughout added personal reflections of his own struggle. These scrapbooks, chronicling his life, served as the catalyst for writing A Struggle to Walk with Dignity – The True Story of a Jamaican-born Canadian.
Catherine Davidson, York University’s associate university librarian of collections, believes that Archambeau’s donation will be a valuable instructional resource for undergraduate humanities programs, specifically courses in Canadian history and race relations. “Archambeau’s memoir and scrapbooks shine a light on the racial segregation and inequality that were prevalent in Canada at the time,” said Davidson. “Archambeau’s scrapbooks in particular are a fascinating read; they bring the issues to life for the reader.”
Archambeau was born in Jamaica to a Panamanian father of African, French, and Aboriginal ancestry and mother of Caucasian and African ancestry – although he was raised by his grandmother and three aunts.
As a teenager he was forced to immigrate to Canada by his mother and stepfather, a Barbadian who fought for the Canadian army in the Second World War and for that reason was granted Canadian citizenship. Archambeau moved to Canada so the three could qualify for veteran housing in Montreal.
Because of his love for trains, Archambeau was employed as a porter for CN and CPR for over 15 years. He writes next to a newspaper clipping about the porters in one of his scrapbooks, “The true gentlemen of the rails – service with a smile even though we were insulted at times.” Despite racial clauses in some union contracts, Archambeau’s time on the rails was quite happy. “We served Canada’s wealthy who could afford to ride in sleeping cars, club cars, parlour cars, and eat in the dining cars. Porters who provided good service were tipped and always had money in their pockets. Very few incidences of open racism occurred on the railways and if there were any problems (the porters) could report it to the train conductor who would handle it according to railway rules.”
In the 1960s the railway business started to decline in popularity and in 1967 Archambeau began working for Air Canada as a station attendant, later being promoted to lead ramp foreman. It was at this point that he said that he had to fight for equality because of improper workplace practices and behaviours.
When Archambeau retired in 1993, his wife Marion encouraged him to write his autobiography, the book was published in 2008 by Blue Butterfly Publishing. “The most important thing to me in life is my integrity as a human being – not as a race or a colour, but as a person,” said Archambeau. ”My book is a very humanistic story about interactions between people of the human race.”
For more information about the donation or how to integrate it into coursework and research, contact Anna St.Onge, archivist of digital projects & outreach, Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, by e-mail to [email protected]. To order a copy of Archambeau’s book, click here. | <urn:uuid:5f25f314-8b86-4c12-a17f-07f8cc16da80> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:57:23",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9793722033500671,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 829,
"url": "http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2012/06/01/authors-memoir-on-race-relations-donated-to-archives/"
} |
Pipelining is a technique you can use to increase the throughput of the FPGA VI. In a pipelined design, you take advantage of the parallel processing capabilities of the FPGA to increase the efficiency of sequential code. To implement a pipeline, you must divide code into discrete steps and wire the inputs and outputs of each step to Feedback Nodes or shift registers in a loop.
In the following block diagram, subVIs A, B, and C execute in sequence within a single-cycle Timed Loop. As a result, the clock rate of the single-cycle Timed Loop must be set to accommodate the sum of the running times of all three running subVIs.
When you wire the inputs and outputs of the subVIs to Feedback Nodes, as shown in the following block diagram, LabVIEW pipelines the subVIs. Now, the subVIs execute in parallel, all within a single cycle, and the maximum clock rate is limited only by the subVI with the longest combinatorial path. By implementing a pipelined design, you might be able to increase the clock rate of the single-cycle Timed Loop and increase the throughput of the FPGA VI.
You also can use shift registers to implement a pipeline, as shown in the following block diagram.
When you implement a pipeline, the output of the final step lags behind the input by the number of steps in the pipeline, and the output is invalid for each clock cycle until the pipeline fills. The number of steps in a pipeline is called the pipeline depth, and the latency of a pipeline, measured in clock cycles, corresponds to its depth. For a pipeline of depth N, the result is invalid until the Nth clock cycle, and the output of each valid clock cycle lags behind the input by N-1 clock cycles.
Because there are three steps in this example (subVIs A, B, and C), the improved code results in a pipeline of depth 3. Therefore, the output is not valid until the third clock cycle, and the output of each valid clock cycle C always corresponds to the input from clock cycle C – (N – 1), as shown in the following illustration.
In this example, subVI A processes measurement 1 during clock cycle 1, while subVIs B and C both process the default value of the shift register, yielding invalid output. During clock cycle 2, subVI A processes measurement 2, subVI B processes the output of subVI A from clock cycle 1, and subVI C processes an invalid value, yielding invalid output. During clock cycle 3 the pipeline finally fills and the output from subVI C becomes valid for the first time. SubVI A processes measurement 3, subVI B processes the output of subVI A from clock cycle 2, and subVI C processes the output of subVI B from clock cycle 2, yielding the output that corresponds to measurement 1. After the pipeline is full, all subsequent clock cycles yield valid output, with a constant lag of 2 clock cycles.
|Note You must use caution to prevent undesired behavior due to the invalid outputs that occur at the beginning of pipelined execution. For example, you can use a Case structure to ensure that a control algorithm enables actuators only after N clock cycles elapse.|
You can use pipelining to increase throughput by compiling a single-cycle Timed Loop in a faster clock domain. For example, the top section of the illustration below shows the execution timing of a non-pipelined loop consisting of three subVIs, each of which requires a propagation delay of 12.5 ns. The total propagation delay from subVI A to subVI C is 37.5 ns, which is too long to compile at 40 MHz. The middle section of the illustration shows how pipelining the code reduces the propagation delay to 12.5 ns, allowing the loop to compile at 40 MHz. Because the propagation delay of the pipelined loop is only 12.5 ns, the loop can compile at a clock rate as high as 80 MHz, as shown in the bottom section of the illustration.
|Note A pipelined design increases latency over a non-pipelined design when measured in clock cycles. However, because pipelining allows you to decrease the cycle period, the overall latency measured in units of time should not change substantially.| | <urn:uuid:29698716-c643-4b04-a14c-fbfe103ba6f8> | {
"date": "2013-05-18T17:37:30",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8849767446517944,
"score": 3.84375,
"token_count": 896,
"url": "http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371599E-01/lvfpgaconcepts/fpga_pipelining/"
} |
Americans who log long hours on the job find the time for leisure and other activities by cutting down on sleep, a study reports today.
"We only have 24 hours in a day," says Mathias Basner, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
His study of 47,731 Americans found that people who worked more simply got up earlier or went to bed later — a practice that puts them at risk of sleep deprivation.
Time spent at work is the single biggest determinant of how much sleep Americans got on a typical day, according to the study in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.
But travel time, including time sitting in traffic on the way to work, comes in second place, Basner says.
"You could argue there's a hidden cost to living in suburbia," says Gregory Belenky, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University in Spokane. People who live in sprawling urban areas often make a long workday even longer when they try to run errands on clogged roads, he says.
Basner says sleep deprivation has been linked to a number of serious health problems, including obesity.
People who are chronically sleep-deprived also can experience attention lapses, memory loss and other difficulties that can impair performance on the job, says James Walsh, executive director of the sleep medicine and research center at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis.
And fatigue can add an element of danger to an already stressful commute. "If you're only sleeping five hours a night, you're at risk of falling asleep at the wheel," Walsh says.
The National Sleep Foundation estimates that sleep-deprived drivers cause more than 100,000 automobile crashes a year and more than 1,500 deaths.
Basner's team analyzed the results of a federal survey conducted in 2003 through 2005. People were asked to account for their time over a 24-hour period.
The survey suggests that people who cut back on sleep on weekdays often try to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday. But people who cut back on sleep night after night might never catch up, Walsh says.
Surveys suggest Americans get about 6½ hours of sleep a night — about an hour less than the average in the 1950s, he says. Today, many adults extend their workdays by using cellphones to check e-mail messages.
A second study in Sleep suggests that teens who use cellphones after lights out can have daytime sleepiness.
The teens in this study lived in Europe, but teens in the USA also use cellphones to text-message and chat with friends at all hours, says Amy Wolfson of the National Sleep Foundation.
"We're living in a 24/7 culture, and teens are mimicking adults," she says.
Says Walsh: "People feel that sleep is negotiable." Yet studies suggest that most adults need from seven to eight hours of sleep a night, and teens need nine hours or more in order to do their best during the day, he says. | <urn:uuid:c2951a7a-5c05-4ef7-93dc-fe5d722272c8> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:25:32",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9628633856773376,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 625,
"url": "http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3541340&page=1"
} |
The Minister of Health Christine Ondoa recently downplayed the number of people affected by the nodding disease by “revealing” that the syndrome has so far left 3094 innocent lives victimized and 173 dead. Ondoa said that the syndrome which is now soaring in places like Lira district and Oyam County, can be handled by the government.
Ondoa was officially opening an international conference on nodding syndrome last week at Sheraton Hotel Kampala which concluded on Thursday in Kampala. Ondoa highlighted some of the new statistics indicating that in Pader District 104 are infected with 66 dead, Kitugum 1098 have the disease and 98 have succumbed to it, while in Lamwo 308 infected and 9 dead.
International experts on nodding disease joined local medical professionals to share experience and discuss the mysterious disease that continues to ravage northern Uganda.
Experts from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization (WHO), UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and those from affected countries like Liberia, Tanzania, South Sudan all convened at Sheraton to share experiences and forge a way forward to curb the spiraling epidemic.
World Health Organization officials in Uganda said that the conference was attended by about 120 scientists from across the world. Anthony Mbonye, of Uganda's Ministry of Health, said the conference gave a platform for scientists to share knowledge about the disease.
Scientists are working to find the cause of the disease, which is stretching health care capacities and testing the patience of a community looking for answers as to why the region is suffering only a few years after the war subdued, why it's concentrated in certain communities, and whether it is contagious.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been investigating nodding syndrome at the request of the Ugandan government, has ruled out 36 possible causes since 2009 and is carrying out a clinical trial for potential treatments.
When asked whether these experts could find a remedy Ondoa said that, “I am optimistic that we shall come up with a comprehensive plan not necessarily the medicine but ways of reducing the rate of spread of the disease. People who are gathered here are renowned researchers and some have handled the syndrome before, so I think very many questions will be answered”.
Nodding disease is a neurological disease that primarily affects children between ages of 5 to 15 years causing progressive cognitive dysfunction, mental retardation neurological deterioration and a characteristic nodding of the head, although in some parts of northern Uganda it is also affecting adults.
By A Web design Company
By A Web design Company | <urn:uuid:c689f796-b0d1-4e40-b1b1-e838d32a3bc6> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:24:33",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9539819359779358,
"score": 2.5625,
"token_count": 525,
"url": "http://acholitimes.com/index.php/health-matters/nodding-disease/699-minister-of-health-downplays-number-of-victims-affected-by-nodding-disease"
} |
DescriptionAn in-depth report on the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of ovarian cancer.
In general, the course of treatment is determined by the stage of the cancer. Stages range from I to IV based on the cancer's specific characteristics, such as whether it has spread beyond the ovaries.
In stage I, the cancer has not spread. It is confined to one ovary (stage IA) or both ovaries (stage IB). In stages IA and IB, the ovarian capsules are intact and there are no tumors on the surface. Stage IC can affect one or both ovaries, but the tumors are on the surface, or the capsule is ruptured, or there is evidence of tumor cells in abdominal fluid (ascites). The overall five-year survival rate for stage IA or IB can be as high as 90%, but the presence of other factors may affect this rate. For example, non-clear-cell pt well-differentiated cancer cells or borderline tumors have a favorable prognosis. Clear cells or those that are more poorly differentiated have a worse outlook. Stage IC has a poorer outlook than the earlier stages.
Treatment Options: Treatment for most women with stage IA and IB includes surgical removal of the uterus and both ovaries and fallopian tubes (total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy), partial removal of the omentum (the fatty layer that covers and pads organs in the abdomen), and surgical staging of the lymph nodes and other tissues in the pelvis and abdomen. (Carefully selected premenopausal women in stage I with the lowest-grade tumors in one ovary may sometimes be treated only with the removal of the diseased ovary and tube in order to preserve fertility.) Patients with stage IA or B disease, grade 1 (or sometimes grade 2), usually do not need further therapy after surgery. However, higher risk patients (e.g., stage IC, stage I/grade 3) are usually treated with platinum-based chemotherapy to reduce their risk of subsequent relapse.
In stage II, the cancer has spread to other areas in the pelvis. It may have advanced to the uterus or fallopian tubes (stage IIA), or other areas within the pelvis (stage IIB), but is still limited to the pelvic area. Stage IIC indicates capsular involvement, rupture, or positive washings (i.e., they contain malignant cells). The five-year survival rate for stage II is approximately 60% to 80%.
Treatment Options: Surgical management for most women in this stage is total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and removal of as much cancer in the pelvic area as possible (tumor debulking). Surgical staging should be performed.
After the operation, treatment with chemotherapy (e.g., paclitaxel and carboplatin) is usually necessary in an attempt to eradicate residual cancer and decrease the chance for relapse.
In stage III, one or both of the following are present: (1) The cancer has spread beyond the pelvis to the omentum (the fatty layer that covers and pads organs in the abdomen) and other areas within the abdomen, such as the surface of the liver or intestine. (2) The cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. The average five-year survival rate for this stage is 20%.
Treatment Options: Surgical management for most women in this stage is total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and removal of as much cancer as possible (tumor debulking).
Following surgery, chemotherapy (e.g., paclitaxel plus carboplatin) is usually necessary in an attempt to eradicate residual cancer. A number of approaches are under investigation for reducing high rates of recurrence (about 80%), including the following: experimental chemotherapy agents, anti-angiogenic therapies, gene and biological therapies, intraperitoneally administered high-dose chemotherapy, neoadjuvant therapy (chemotherapy before surgery), high-dose chemotherapy and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (to date this approach has proven to be very toxic with no convincing improvement in survival).
Stage IV is the most advanced. The cancer may have spread to the inside of the liver or spleen. There may be distant metastases, such as ovarian cancer cells in the fluid around the lungs. The average five-year survival rate for this stage is less than 10%.
Treatment Options: Tumor debulking before chemotherapy sometimes may be performed.
Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
Treatment Options: If ovarian cancer returns, chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment, although it is not generally curative in the setting of relapsed disease.
If the interval between the last platinum-containing chemotherapy (carboplatin or cisplatin) and relapse is long (greater than six months), it is reasonable to attempt a repeat trial of platinum-based chemotherapy, with or without paclitaxel.
If the interval is short, or if these drugs fail to control the tumor, then other second-line drugs may be useful in achieving a response. They include topotecan, liposomal doxorubicin, etoposide, docetaxel, gemcitabine, or tamoxifen. There is no evidence as yet that second-line drug combinations are any more effective than single agents, although they are generally more toxic.
Clinical trials using various investigative approaches are under way. It is not clear if there is a role of a second debulking surgical procedure. | <urn:uuid:7373690c-1b19-4b90-bd48-c20aa75aa7fa> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:45",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9312272071838379,
"score": 2.640625,
"token_count": 1157,
"url": "http://adam.about.net/reports/000092_6.htm"
} |
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Elizabeth Ballroom E (Hyatt)
Island (or Dokdo in Korean; Takeshima in Japanese; Liancourt Rocks in French/English) consists of a group of disputed islets in the sea between Korea and . Although Japan South Korea currently controls the islets has claimed the contested territory. While Korean claim is based on its historical records dating from the sixth century, Japanese takes the records of the seventeenth century, the era of its colonial rule over Japan Korea (1910-45), and the document at the end of WWII. More recently, the U.S. Library of Congress faced much challenge from within and without both academia and popular media as it tried to make a change in the current library subject heading concerning the disputed territory as of 2008. How have the controversial archival records on the island constructed subjective and contradictory historical interpretations and imagination? What kind of geographical and historical narratives do these changing maps of the island reflect? This poster session introduces the changing cartographical practices over the disputed borderland between U.S. Japan and Korea, and brings to light the genealogy of the controversy over the name and citizenship of the island in the context of the rise of colonialism, imperialism, and Cold War in twentieth-century East Asia. | <urn:uuid:40519207-288c-420b-be97-cd5b991778ef> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:15",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9289559125900269,
"score": 3.109375,
"token_count": 261,
"url": "http://aha.confex.com/aha/2010/webprogram/Paper4560.html"
} |
'Because of the tender mercy of our God, the Dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in the darkenss and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace' (Luke 1,78-79). In his famous Spirit-inspired hymn Zachary praises God, first, for sending a savior to His People. At first blush, this is a military figure who will defeat Israel's enemies, with purpose and result that Israel might worship God in holiness and justice all the days of her life. Then Zachary changes imagery; the figure of might give place to a figure of light. Light in no longer a person of power; rather, he is a person of warmth and illumination - characteristics of the Dawn. Light, unlike military power, is silent, but o so powerful. Whoever is this light is not described as saving from enemies; rather, he is described as showing Israel the way to peace. For Israel, there can be only one meaning of peace: it is peace with God. The Dawn will lead Israel to union with God, and there will no more separation from the creature from his Creator. It is perhaps jarring that the creature is described as 'in the dark' and 'in the shadow of death'. These terms are meant to describe the essential, fundamental existential situation of every human being. No matter one's 'feeling good', or being 'in top form', or joyful and happy - the truth is that by himself the human being is in the dark; in biblical terms, this means that one by himself unable to see the truth about life and hence the truth about how to conduct his life. Traditionally for the Old Testment, the gentiles were quintessentially 'in the dark', for they did not know the bedrock of all reality: the true God. Other meanings are included in 'darkness': ignorance, sin, humiliation, self-destruction. Further, one is, without the light, in the shadow of death. This means that death is so near that its shadow is upon every human being. This death is physical, which meant for Israel the entry into at best a shadowy existence with the hope of someday the resurrection from the dead and eventual happiness (or punishment). In this shadowy existence there is not the happiness that each human being knows he or she should have. Death is another form of darkness, a separation from what a person senses to be the Truth, but cannot see or find it. One comes to the end of this life with no knowledge of how to reach Truth. And so, it is with great joy that Zachary announces the plan of God: that God would send that warmth illumination which will heal doubt and overcome the effects of death. Jesus is this Radiant Joy, for who coming we wait in darkness and in the shadow of death. | <urn:uuid:f9bf5e95-0bdb-4e84-8e11-d6bb3bba187d> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:41:58",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.968898594379425,
"score": 2.984375,
"token_count": 578,
"url": "http://americamagazine.org/node/127096"
} |
The books of Chronicles have had a chequered past. Neglected for many years under the unfortunate name Paraleipomenon or "Things Omitted", meant that they occupied a subordinate position in the Scriptures until the 4th century AD when the title "A Chronicle of the whole of Sacred History" was suggested instead. This has since been shortened to Chronicles and the rest is, literally, history. Probably penned by Ezra, Chronicles is a selective history of the Jews encouraging them to trust that God is intimately involved in their story. Written at a time when the Jews were newly out of captivity and with their capital city in ruins, Chronicles assures them of God's faithfulness. If they would obey and serve him then his people would still enjoy his blessing.
Customer Questions & Answers: | <urn:uuid:2ff1d733-2ec0-4851-b7f4-455af236d0a1> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:03",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9835585355758667,
"score": 2.703125,
"token_count": 158,
"url": "http://answers.christianbook.com/answers/2016/product/29365/christian-focus-publications-2-chronicles-gods-blessing-of-his-faithful-people-questions-answers/questions.htm"
} |
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.
October 24, 1998
Explanation: Sunrise seen from low Earth orbit by the shuttle astronauts can be very dramatic indeed ( and the authors apologize to Hemingway for using his title!). In this breathtaking view, the Sun is just visible peaking over towering anvil-shaped storm clouds whose silhouetted tops mark the upper boundary of the troposphere, the lowest layer of planet Earth's atmosphere. Sunlight filtering through suspended dust causes this dense layer of air to appear red. In contrast, the blue stripe marks the stratosphere, the tenuous upper atmosphere, which preferentially scatters blue light.
Authors & editors:
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
&: Michigan Tech. U. | <urn:uuid:c9075ef6-33ed-4b24-8c3e-133f541a5196> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:23:02",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8472959995269775,
"score": 3.171875,
"token_count": 192,
"url": "http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap981024.html"
} |
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
Shell and HR Biopetroleum to Grow Algae for Biofuels
Royal Dutch Shell plc announced on December 11th that it will work with HR Biopetroleum to build a pilot facility for growing algae as a source of biofuels. The facility will cultivate algae in seawater ponds, then harvest the algae and extract oil from them for conversion into fuels such as biodiesel. Construction of the facility will begin immediately on a parcel of land leased from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), which is located on the west shore of the island of Hawaii. The NELHA site is ideal for the project because it pipes in a constant supply of clean, fresh ocean water. NELHA was originally built to support a DOE project for ocean thermal energy conversion, and it continues to employ the project's seawater supply pipes to support a variety of research projects and commercial enterprises, including facilities that currently grow and harvest algae for pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements. Shell and HR Biopetroleum have formed a joint venture company, called Cellana, to develop the biofuels project.
Algae grow rapidly and can have a high percentage of lipids, or oils. They can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per acre than alternatives such as rapeseed, palms, soybeans, or jatropha. Moreover, algae-growing facilities can be built on coastal land unsuitable for conventional agriculture. The Cellana facility will grow only non-genetically modified, marine microalgae species in open-air ponds using proprietary technology. It will also use bottled carbon dioxide to test the algae's ability to capture carbon. To support the facility, academic research programs at the University of Hawaii, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Canada's Dalhousie University will screen natural microalgae species to find the strains that produce the highest yields and the most oil. See the Shell press release and the NELHA Web site.
Shell isn't the only oil company that's exploring the potential of algae. In late October, Chevron Corporation and DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced that they had entered into a collaborative research and development agreement to produce biofuels from algae. Under the agreement, Chevron and NREL scientists will collaborate to identify and develop algae strains that can be economically harvested and processed into transportation fuels such as jet fuel. See the NREL press release. | <urn:uuid:68644093-a2a6-4d16-a938-a7632a2d08c9> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:13",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9448831677436829,
"score": 2.765625,
"token_count": 511,
"url": "http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=11477"
} |
Congressman Tanner's Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act (H.R. 2642)The Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act, introduced by Representative John Tanner, would make important improvements to our congressional elections. The Act would require state legislatures to appoint independent commissions that would be responsible for redrawing district boundaries. These commissions would draw district boundaries in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and could not draw lines based on partisanship alone. As a result, the redistricting process would become independent of partisan manipulation. In addition, the Act would only allow redistricting to occur once every ten years.
The United States Constitution requires congressional seats to be reapportioned among the states after each decennial census in order to ensure compliance with the one-person one-vote criteria, the federal Voting Rights Act, and traditional redistricting principles such as compact and contiguous districts. Redistricting, however, has often turned into a means to further political goals as boundaries have consistently been drawn that tend to protect incumbents and reduce competition.
Generally, state legislators and governors re-draw the boundaries of the US House districts, but the process varies among states. In twelve states, the legislature does not have final authority to redistrict. Alaska, Idaho and Arizona recently became part of these twelve states as they used a redistricting commission for the first time in 2000. Only six states – Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, and Washington – give authority for congressional line drawing to a commission. Iowa uses an independent commission to develop plans which are later approved by the legislature. The Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act would bring uniformity to the way in which districts are redrawn. Clearly some states have implemented fairer processes, while other states continue to use redistricting to solidify the governing party's grasp on power. The way in which legislative lines are drawn has a major impact on who wins and who loses. As a result, it is only logical that such authority by delegated to independent commissions.
In 2001-2002, nearly every political jurisdiction in the nation adjusted its legislative district lines based on new information provided by the U.S. Census. In addition, Texas re-adjusted its districts in 2003. The Tanner bill could end such blatant partisan manipulation of the redistricting process by prohibiting mid-decade redistricting.
Read the bill summary and status of H.R. 2642 on Thomas. | <urn:uuid:cea32b22-3c44-40ad-a232-fa41e2188e1b> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:36:49",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9642065763473511,
"score": 3.28125,
"token_count": 495,
"url": "http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=1114"
} |
According to the Global Language Monitor, the English language this week crossed a threshold as the "one millionth word" entered the lexicon. That word? "Web 2.0."
Global Language Monitor has a methodology by which it measures "new" words entering into English. Though "Web 2.0" has been around for years, GLM's method of counting requires "a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations."
"Web 2.0" met that test this week, as did "n00b" (word 999,998). Both words passed into mainstream usage today, according to GLM. Also on the listed of official new words this week: slumdog, cloud computing, Octomom (seriously, Octomom), sexting, defriend, and recessionista.
The very precision of the "one million word" claim is patent nonsense, of course, depending entirely on how you count words, what's excluded, and what the criteria is for something going "mainstream." GLM does not count, for instance, "the 600,000 species of mold" as separate words, nor do "the tens millions of lesser known chemical substances" make the list.
Stung by criticism from linguists, GLM's FAQ includes the question, "A number of linguists disagree with the Million Word March. Why?" And, in case the answer to that one doesn't clear things up, there's a second question: "Every so often, we hear arguments about the insurmountable obstacles in the path of estimating the number of words in the English Language. How do you answer these arguments?"
So, even if we English speakers are saddled with terms like "Web 2.0," "Octomom," and "Brangelina," we still have the privilege of working with one of the most supple languages in the world.
The answer to both questions is that estimates are used in everything from astronomy (how many stars are there?) to climatology (how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere?); language should be able to use the same techniques.
Which is all true, of course, but the cautious language of approximation and guesswork is totally absent from the announcement. "As expected, English crossed the 1,000,000 word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am GMT," said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. One is reminded of history's repeated prognostications about the year, month, and hour of the world's end.
But the larger point, one that goes far beyond the Million Word March, is that the vibrancy of English, which began in the late 16th century, continues undiminshed. The language has seen an explosion of words ever since the "new learning" of the Renaissance imported thousands of Greek and Latin terms into English, and a massive stock of French words still lingers in the language thanks to the Norman Conquest.
So today's international linguistic diversity is nothing new for the language. Many of the most recent words are American rather than from the UK, while others are Indian ("slumdog" and "Jai Ho!" were just behind "Web 2.0"). By some measures, English now has more words than any other in the world.
Simon Winchester, who wrote a wonderful book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and the mad, American, penis-slashing Civil War vet who made such a tremendous contribution to the work, celebrated English diversity this week in a fine Telegraph essay.
"I just cannot imagine any other language offering such opportunities for gaiety and fun," he said. "Reading recently that both the Germans and the Chinese have cracked down on the names people are allowed to have, and knowing that the French and the Italians still have gloom-laden academies to protect the so-called purity of their languages, strips out all the amusement and joy that is so very apparent in the tongue we speak so happily. I feel for them, poor deprived purists."
So, even if we English speakers are saddled with terms like "Web 2.0," "Octomom," and "Brangelina," we still have the privilege of working with one of the most supple languages in the world. Want to write entirely in English but adopt a Latinate vocabulary? You can. An Anglo-Saxon vocabulary? You can. French? Mais oui. An Indian vocabulary? We're getting there—and have been ever since "pyjamas" and "mulligatawny" entered the language.
So here's to English in all its crazed, orthographically challenged, multinational glory; may it live long and prosper, like some open source wiki run amok across the earth. | <urn:uuid:50c9ed51-0398-4b21-b768-7b59f2d253f4> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:45:35",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9540936946868896,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 992,
"url": "http://arstechnica.com/business/2009/06/ars-toasts-english-language-as-web-20-named-millionth-word/?comments=1"
} |
Most of the literature points out that Lyme is usually easily treated once identified. Fortunately, doctors now know that Lyme is fairly common locally and are better prepared to order blood tests to confirm if Lyme is the problem. Advanced stages of the disease are usually treated with intravenous drugs, which may include medicines that reduce swelling in joints.
Probably the best approach for dealing with Lyme disease is to try to avoid contact with the ticks that carry it, but that is not an option for those who enjoy the outdoors. If you need to be in the field, the recommendation is to wear long clothing, tuck pants legs into boots and wear long-sleeve shirts. Most people won't do that when it's hot and humid outside, but that's the recommendation.
The CDC and other organizations also recommend the use of insect repellents. According to the CDC, the risk of tick attachment can be reduced by using insect repellents containing DEET to clothes and exposed skin.
Lyme is very common in dogs in this region, and there is a Lyme vaccine for dogs. Our vets recommend it. I know of three cases where field trail labs were confirmed positive for Lyme in the past year. Deer and deer ticks are everywhere now, so the safest bet is to get the vaccine - even for some house dogs.
No one is recommending that you eliminate outdoors activities in fear of Lyme, but it is something to be aware of. A few basic safety precautions certainly make sense. Don't forget your dogs. It seems like we are hearing more and more about pets getting Lyme disease, so you should consult with your vet on the best approach for your situation.
For more information on Lyme disease, go to the American Lyme Disease Foundation Web site at www.lyme.org.
Bill Anderson writes a weekly outdoors column for The Herald-Mail. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:4c404154-d476-41db-a39e-4bb33289362c> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:31:28",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9680799841880798,
"score": 2.828125,
"token_count": 392,
"url": "http://articles.herald-mail.com/2008-05-11/news/25162069_1_lyme-disease-lyme-vaccine-deer-ticks"
} |
Dear Dr. Donohue: Please discuss the relationship between bad breath and liver and kidney problems -- diagnosis, treatment and cure. -- D.H.
Dear D.H.: Nine times out of 10, people need not implicate the liver or kidney as the source of bad breath. Its source can usually be found in the mouth.
An overgrowth of mouth bacteria converts food into sulfur compounds that are the olfactory equivalents of rotten eggs.
Ridding the mouth of bacteria usually also rids the mouth of unpleasant breath. Floss religiously. Brush the tongue with toothpaste every time you brush the teeth. If you are not one who easily gags, gently scrape the back of the tongue with a plastic spoon turned upside down.
A dry mouth also spawns mouth odors. Don't let the mouth hang open during sleep. Ask your spouse if it does. If the answer is yes, keep it closed by looping an elastic band under the chin and over the head.
Meat assists mouth bacteria in production of foul-smelling sulfur compounds. Cut down on meat and increase portions of grains, vegetables and fruits.
Liver and kidney disease can impart a noxious odor to the breath. However, other symptoms of liver and kidney failure are so florid that the diagnosis of their failure is rarely missed. Bad breath by itself rarely indicates liver or kidney problems.
The dentist can aid you in a program to eradicate stubborn mouth bacteria. Some people require prescription mouthwashes to decimate those bacteria.
Dear Dr. Donohue: My neighbor has recently been diagnosed with meralgia paresthetica. Please be good enough to offer an explanation of this disease, its treatment and the prognosis. -- E.P.
Dear E.P.: "Disease" is too strong a word for meralgia paresthetica. "Condition" fits the bill better.
It's the result of pressure on a nerve located on the side of the body at about the belt line.
Pressure on the nerve produces numbness or burning pain on the front and side of the thigh. Pressure can come from skintight jeans, too snug a belt or excess fatty tissue. People with diabetes can develop meralgia paresthetica due to diabetes damage to the nerve.
If weight is the problem, dieting is the answer. If constricting garments are the cause, the answer is obvious.
However, there are times when the doctor is at a loss to identify a cause. Then cortisone shots along the path of the nerve can eliminate inflammatory swelling that might be compressing it.
If pain persists, surgically freeing the nerve from entrapping tissues almost always puts an end to the problem.
Write to Paul Donohue, M.D., P.O. Box 5539, Riverton, NJ 08077-5539. | <urn:uuid:538a9789-60c2-4454-a58b-9e6e65371f6b> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:34:38",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9306333661079407,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 595,
"url": "http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-10-10/features/9910090352_1_bad-breath-mouth-kidney"
} |
Information literacy is defined as the "ability to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information" (American Library Association, 1989). These skills contribute to the ability to think critically and they are vital life-skills for all individuals in our society.
Library faculty provide information literacy instruction at numerous skill levels, beginnning with all New Student Seminar sections. Instruction for other classes may be scheduled by clicking on Request a Literacy Class.
Guiding Principles for Information Literacy
CUNY Council of Chief Librarians Information Literacy White Paper
ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
CUNY Library Information Literacy Advisory Council
City University of New York Information Competency Tutorials
Faculty Feedback Form | <urn:uuid:abc2d5f2-3aa1-4936-ab06-3b051b8607bd> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:18:36",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8300851583480835,
"score": 2.9375,
"token_count": 161,
"url": "http://assistive.usablenet.com/tt/www1.ccny.cuny.edu/library/services_information_literacy.cfm"
} |
The D-4 submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system, using the R-21 rocket, used storable liquid-propellants, which were toxic and corrosive - clearly not the best thing to be carried in the sealed environment of a submarine. The concept of the follow-on D-6 system, to be installed on series 629 and 658 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, was to use safer solid propellants.
Decree 1032-492 of 5 September 1958 authorised research and development of the D-6 solid propellant SLBM system, to be armed with the Article 'R' rocket. The missile was to have a range of 800 to 2500 km, but the D-6 launcher had to have the same external dimensions as that used for the D-2/R-13 liquid propellant SLBM.
Two propellants were considered for the rocket: Nylon-B, a double-based ballistic powder, and Nylon-S, a composite propellant consisting of ammonium perchlorate, a furfuryl-acetate binder, a titanium oxidiser developed in the US by Thiokol, and nitroguanidine. Altogether seven variants of the rocket were studied, two using Nylon-B, and five using Nylon-S. Nylon-B had a specific energy of 40 kg/kW-cm, and a specific impulse of 200 seconds. The motors were built in diameters of 0.70 to 0.85 m, and four motors were clustered per stage. Hydraulic gas vanes were used to steer the rocket. Nylon-S had a specific impulse of 200 seconds, and variants were studied using gas vanes, steerable nozzles (made of composite plastics and molybdenum, or chrome steel).
The draft project was completed in November 1959, and flight trials were to commence in 1960. At Rzhevsk Field and Leningrad test motors of up to 500 kg mass were tested. At the end of 1959 the draft project for the 629D6 launch container for the the series 629 submarine was issued by Ya E Yevgrafov. All drawings were released to Factory 444 for start of construction in December 1960.
Based on the findings of tests on the P5D-4 test stand, decree 38-145 of 18 March 1959 ordered construction of a new test stand for D-6 development. During the course of 1960 the technical project for the P5D-6 test stand for mock-up trials of the missile and container-launcher was completed.
The 613D6 derivative of the 613 nuclear submarine was developed for naval tests of the missile. The decree 141-64 of 9 February 1959 called for design of this submarine to be completed by November 1960. In January 1961 construction of four submarines of this series began at Factory 444.
Decree 656-267 of 18 June 1960 called for further development of the D-6 using Nylon-S propellant for submarine series 629, 658, and 667, the submarines to be designed by Chief Designer A S Kassatsiev. The technical projects for these boats were to be completed by the fourth quarter 1962. Flight trials of the 1100-km range missile aboard a 629B test boat in the third quarter of 1962.
A variant of the rocket was also considered for mobile Army use. It was also planned to replace the liquid-propellant D-4 in the 667 SSBN's with the D-6.
The nuclear device in either missile was to have a mass of 500 kg and a variable yield of from 300 kt to 1.0 MT. The inertial navigation system was to be designed by Semikhatov at NII-592. The missiles would be cold launched from the submarine, igniting above the surface - the Nylon-B version at 30-50 m altitude, and the Nylon-S version at 40-80 m. Two different re-entry vehicles would be used to, that of the Nylon-B version being 1.8 m long.
All of these plans came to a halt on 27 April 1961 when the D-6 was cancelled in favour of the D-7 system, which was to use an RT-15M derivative of the land-based 8K96 solid propellant missile being planned by Korolev. At the time of cancellation, the test stand at Factory 444 was 47% complete. D-6 technology was however used in Korolev's RT-1 test missile, including engines from NII-125.
Boost Propulsion: Solid rocket.
Stage Data - D-6
AKA: Article R; D-6.
Status: Cancelled 1961. | <urn:uuid:03eafe66-2d0b-49d1-b4cc-bb23a64d2065> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:38:58",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.964384138584137,
"score": 2.8125,
"token_count": 979,
"url": "http://astronautix.com/lvs/d6.htm"
} |
How does the law treat Mountaintop Removal? Laws at the state and federal level regulate mountaintop removal coal mining and its environmental impacts, require varying levels of public participation, and apply varying amounts of scrutiny in the permitting process. This section will explore the governmental institutions that exert influence over mountaintop removal coal mining, the laws that regulate it, and potential changes in the law. There is great dispute as to whether or not regulations and their enforcement sufficiently safe-guard the health, safety, and well-being of communities living near mountaintop removal sites and the surrounding environment, so both law as written and law as applied will be explored in this section.
National Environmental Protection Act
The National Environmental Protection Act was passed in 1970 in order to monitor the environmental impact of federal agency actions and decisions. The act created a Council on Environmental Policy, required environmental impact statements and a process to solicit public input to include environmental concerns in federal agency decision making.
In the case of mountaintop removal and valley fill permitting, coal companies prepare and submit an Environmental Impact Statements
(EIS) for each permit. In theory, these statements assess the potential impact of mining on the environment. The Army Corps of Engineers is empowered to issue Finding of no Significant Impact (FONSI) documents which supersede any concerns that may be present in the EIS by explaining why the Corps has concluded that there are no significant
environmental impacts resulting from the granting of a permit. In the past, this power has been used to streamline the permitting process, despite the obvious impacts of mountaintop removal mining.
Instances exist where permits were granted despite inadequate EIS statements, and then challenged in court. For example, as part of a settlement agreement from the Bragg vs Robertson (Civ. No. 2:98-0636 (S.D. W.V.)
the EPA, the Corps, the U.S. Interior Department's Fish & Wildlife Service and Office of Surface Mining, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), prepared an environmental impact statement (final EIS
) looking at the impacts of mountaintop mining and valley fills
More information is available in the Citizen's Guide to NEPA.
Clean Water Act
Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972 with the intention of resolving the crisis of America's polluted waterways and wetlands. The CWA combines regulatory and non-regulatory tools in attempting to rid current water systems of pollutants, while attempting to stem the development of new polluted waterways and wetlands. In order to safeguard against the dumping of waste and pollutants into waterways, the Act forbids all dumping (except for specific agricultural uses) that is not approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Surface mines are required to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, which is regulated under the CWA. In West Virginia, the DEP has primacy of enforcement of the NPDES permits with EPA acting as the federal oversight body. These permits cover all pollutants discharged off the site and into the waters of the United States, restricting effluent limits and requiring the site operator to explain in the mining plan how it will meet those limits and treat what's running off the site, among other requirements.
Valley Fill, or 404, Permits
If a mining plan calls for valley fills, a 404 permit must be obtained, which is an exemption to Subsection 404 of the CWA which allows the Corps to issue variances to fill in an intermittent or perennial stream. EPA follows the United States Geological Survey's definitions for streams: an intermittent stream holds water during wet portions of the year and a perennial stream holds water throughout the year.
The Corps does not have authority over water quality, that's the jurisdiction of the EPA who oversees this permit. However, since anything that interferes with the flow of the water of the United States is regulated by the Corps, the Corps administers valley fills. This is the only part of surface mine permitting where the state does not have primacy of enforcement.
"The thing that's ironic here is that the fill rule was originally developed for developers seeking to build, and this was intended for very small projects, primarily for filling in wetlands for building things like subdivisions and shopping malls," Sludge Safety Project staffer Mathew Louis-Rosenberg said. "So, the division that handles these permits is the Division of Wetlands. Within that, the standards that are developed, that are currently used to determine the environmental impact of a fill, were developed for wetland ecosystems.
"We can't allow them to continue to keep issuing permits. Look at what they're using to evaluate them. It's an ecosystem that bears no resemblance to what we're evaluating." The people who authored the guidelines testified to Joe Lovett, a West Virginia lawyer who's only tried cases aimed at ending mountaintop removal, that the methodology they developed was not appropriate for this ecosystem. "The people who literally wrote the book they use to decide whether they should issue a permit, said it's inappropriate," Louis-Rosenberg said.
There's two types of valley fill permits: individual and Nationwide 21. Large sites are supposed to obtain an individual permit, which carries a more stringent set of regulations requiring more data and proof that the project will not have an adverse impact on the environment. However, Nationwide 21 allows the Corps to issue a blanket permit for small things and, unlike the individual permits, does not require a public hearing.
Coal companies saw the value in nationwide permits, and would often break up large valley fills into smaller pieces in their permit applications in order to avoid the regulatory oversight of an
Listen to Ernie Thompson, resident of Horse Creek and former mine inspector, talk about the changes in law regarding valley fills.
individual permit. In this way, many valley fills were created when a nationwide permit was granted and residents did not notice until dumping began. Beginning with a court victory for advocates against mountaintop removal in 2007, Nationwide 21 permits were declared in violation of the Clean Water Act. This ruling remained in effect until the Fourth Circuit Court overturned it in early 2009.
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA)
On February 16th, 1972, a coal slurry impoundment ruptured in Buffalo Creek, W.Va. The rushing tidal wave of sludge killed over 120 people and left many thousands homeless, yet several days before the rupture a federal inspector had found the dam site in "satisfactory" safety. The dangers of strip mining had long been of concern to coalfield residents.
The increased mechanization of strip mining that left many union mining jobs and the encroaching growth of strip mines combined to spark a powerful grassroots movement to abolish strip mining. The tragedy of the Buffalo Creek Flood stoked these flames and five years later, in response to the growing political pressure from Southern Democrats and coalfield residents, Jimmy Carter signed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977.
It did not abolish strip mining, instead stating that its primary goal was to "establish a nationwide program to protect society and the environment from the adverse effects of surface coal mining operations." To do so, it created the Office of Surface Mining in the Department of the Interior and the regulations for them to enforce. The surface mines constructed before SMCRA are often referred to as "pre-law," while those after are called "post-law."
The SMCRA permit is the whole mining plan, top to bottom, including the blasting plan. The DEP administers SMCRA permits but, unlike the NPDES permits, the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation maintains oversight. The DEP's Office of Explosives and Blasting also approves the blasting plan within the SMCRA permit. A typical Environmental Impact Statement is also required here, "but they usually don't get filled out," Louis-Rosenberg said.
SMCRA requires that "all surface coal mining operations back-fill, compact... and grade in order to restore the approximate original contour of the land with all high-walls, spoil piles and depressions eliminated." However, the WVDEP regularly grants exceptions to the Approximate Original Contour (AOC) rule. This despite one of the act's goals: to "assure that surface mining operations are not conducted where reclamation as required by this Act is not feasible."
Since 1977, the following language was added to SMCRA, weakening this goal:
In cases where an industrial, commercial, agricultural, residential or public facility (including recreational facilities) use is proposed or the postmining use of the affected land, the regulatory authority may grant a permit for a surface mining operation of the nature described....after consultation with the appropriate land use planning agencies, if any, the proposed post mining land use is deemed to constitute an equal or better economic use of the affected land as compared to pre mining use.
This clause allows coal companies to not restore a site's AOC, as long as it is put to a better economic or social use than it was before. Under this clause, prisons and a golf course have been constructed on mountaintop removal sites. One such prison has earned the name Sink-Sink because it does just that. The mountains, and the ecosystems they support, have an intrinsic cultural value to the residents of the Coal River Valley that cannot be measured in monetary terms, and yet under SMCRA the economic value of the land supersedes all others.
Mining Safety and Health Administration Permit
The federal Mining Safety and Health Administration oversees the regulatory structure of the mines. All mines have to pass muster on the safety of operating the mine and this is all detailed in the MSHA plan the coal companies must file. Part of MSHA's responsibility is approval and inspection of coal slurry
dams. MSHA focuses on the safety aspect of the structures, not their environmental impacts. | <urn:uuid:af4c7880-f258-4680-af24-2539b741bf42> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:10",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9527400732040405,
"score": 3.1875,
"token_count": 2040,
"url": "http://auroralights.org/map_project/theme.php?theme=mtr&article=20"
} |
Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916. Vol. II. Sixteenth Century to the Restoration
On the Exercise of the Will
By Ralph Cudworth (16171688)
From Treatise of Free Will
IT cannot be denied but that there are, and may be, many cases in which several objects propounded to our choice at the same time, are so equal, or exactly alike, as that there cannot possibly be any reason or motive in the understanding necessarily to determine the choice to one of them rather than to another of them. As for example, suppose one man should offer to another, out of twenty guinea pieces of gold, or golden balls, or silver globulites, so exactly alike in bigness, figure, colour, and weight, as that he could discern no manner of difference between them, to make his choice of one and no more; add, also, that these guineas or golden balls may be so placed circularly as to be equidistant from the choosers hand. Now it cannot be doubted but that, in this case, any man would certainly choose one, and not stand in suspense or demur because he could not tell which to prefer or choose before another. But if being necessitated by no motive or reason antecedent to choose this rather than that, he must determine himself contingently, or fortuitously, or causelessly, it being all one to him which he took, nor could there be any knowledge ex causis beforehand which of these twenty would certainly be taken. But if you will say, there was some hidden cause, necessarily determinating in this case, then if the trial should be made an hundred times over and over again, or by a hundred several persons, there is no reason why we must not allow that all of them must needs take the same guinea every time, that is either the first, second, or third, etc. of them, as they lie in order from the right or left hand. | <urn:uuid:6c50f96b-3f63-4c2c-9fb3-d8b3e7c05ff8> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:25",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9668956995010376,
"score": 2.71875,
"token_count": 411,
"url": "http://bartleby.com/209/469.html"
} |
Theodore Roosevelt (18581919). Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. 1885.
STILL-HUNTING ELK ON THE MOUNTAINS
FTER the buffalo the elk are the first animals to disappear from a country when it is settled. This arises from their size and consequent conspicuousness, and the eagerness with which they are followed by hunters; and also because of their gregariousness and their occasional fits of stupid panic during whose continuance hunters can now and then work great slaughter in a herd. Five years ago elk were abundant in the valley of the Little Missouri, and in fall were found wandering in great bands of over a hundred individuals each. But they have now vanished completely, except that one or two may still lurk in some of the most remote and broken places, where there are deep, wooded ravines.
Formerly the elk were plentiful all over the plains, coming down into them in great bands during the fall months and traversing their entire extent. But the incoming of hunters and cattle-men has driven them off the ground as completely as the buffalo; unlike the latter, however, they are still very common in the dense woods that cover the Rocky Mountains and the other great western chains. In the old days running elk on horseback was a highly esteemed form of plains sport; but now that it has become a beast of the timber and the craggy ground, instead of a beast of the open, level prairie, it is followed almost solely on foot and with the rifle. Its sense of smell is very acute, and it has good eyes and quick ears; and its wariness makes it under ordinary circumstances very difficult to approach. But it is subject to fits of panic folly, and during their continuance great numbers can be destroyed. A band places almost as much reliance upon the leaders as does a flock of sheep; and if the leaders are shot down, the others will huddle together in a terrified mass, seemingly unable to make up their minds in which direction to flee. When one, more bold than the rest, does at last step out, the hidden hunter's at once shooting it down will produce a fresh panic; I have known of twenty elk (or wapiti, as they are occasionally called) being thus procured out of one band. And at times they show a curious indifference to danger, running up on a hunter who is in plain sight, or standing still for a few fatal seconds to gaze at one that unexpectedly appears.
In spite of its size and strength and great branching antlers, the elk is but little more dangerous to the hunter than is an ordinary buck. Once, in coming up to a wounded one, I had it strike at me with its forefeet, bristling up the hair on the neck, and making a harsh, grating noise with its teeth; as its back was broken it could not get at me, but the savage glare in its eyes left me no doubt as to its intentions. Only in a single instance have I ever known of a hunter being regularly charged by one of these great deer. He had struck a band of elk and wounded an old bull, which, after going a couple of miles, received another ball and then separated from the rest of the herd and took refuge in a dense patch of small timber. The hunter went in on its trail and came upon it lying down; it jumped to its feet and, with hair all bristling, made a regular charge upon its pursuer, who leaped out of the way behind a tree just in time to avoid it. It crashed past through the undergrowth without turning, and he killed it with a third and last shot. But this was a very exceptional case, and in most instances the elk submits to death with hardly an effort at resistance; it is by no means as dangerous an antagonist as is a bull moose.
The elk is unfortunately one of those animals seemingly doomed to total destruction at no distant date. Already its range has shrunk to far less than one half its former size. Originally it was found as far as the Atlantic sea-board; I have myself known of several sets of antlers preserved in the house of a Long Island gentleman, whose ancestors had killed the bearers shortly after the first settlement of New York. Even so late as the first years of this century elk were found in many mountainous and densely wooded places east of the Mississippi, in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and all of what were then the Northwestern States and Territories. The last individual of the race was killed in the Adirondacks in 1834; in Pennsylvania not till nearly thirty years later; while a very few are still to be found in Northern Michigan. Elsewhere they must now be sought far to the west of the Mississippi; and even there they are almost gone from the great plains, and are only numerous in the deep mountain forests. Wherever it exists the skin hunters and meat butchers wage the most relentless and unceasing war upon it for the sake of its hide and flesh, and their unremitting persecution is thinning out the herds with terrible rapidity.
The gradual extermination of this, the most stately and beautiful animal of the chase to be found in America, can be looked upon only with unmixed regret by every sportsman and lover of nature. Excepting the moose, it is the largest and, without exception, it is the noblest of the deer tribe. No other species of true deer, in either the Old or the New World, comes up to it in size and in the shape, length, and weight of its mighty antlers; while the grand, proud carriage and lordly bearing of an old bull make it perhaps the most majestic-looking of all the animal creation. The open plains have already lost one of their great attractions, now that we no more see the long lines of elk trotting across them; and it will be a sad day when the lordly, antlered beasts are no longer found in the wild rocky glens and among the lonely woods of towering pines that cover the great western mountain chains.
The elk has other foes besides man. The grizzly will always make a meal of one if he gets a chance; and against his ponderous weight and savage prowess hoofs and antlers avail but little. Still he is too clumsy and easily avoided ever to do very much damage in the herds. Cougars, where they exist, work more havoc. A bull elk in rutting season, if on his guard, would with ease beat off a cougar; but the sly, cunning cat takes its quarry unawares, and once the cruel fangs are fastened in the game's throat or neck, no plunging or struggling can shake it off. The gray timber wolves also join in twos and threes to hunt down and hamstring the elk, if other game is scarce. But these great deer can hold their own and make head against all their brute foes; it is only when pitted against Man the Destroyer, that they succumb in the struggle for life.
During last summer we found it necessary to leave my ranch on the Little Missouri and take quite a long trip through the cattle country of Southeastern Montana and Northern Wyoming; and, having come to the foot of the Bighorn Mountains, we took a fortnight's hunt through them after elk and bear.
We went into the mountains with a pack train, leaving the ranch wagon at the place where we began to go up the first steep rise. There were two others, besides myself, in the party; one of them, the teamster, a weather-beaten old plainsman, who possessed a most extraordinary stock of miscellaneous misinformation upon every conceivable subject, and the other my ranch foreman, Merrifield. None of us had ever been within two hundred miles of the Bighorn range before; so that our hunting trip had the added zest of being also an exploring expedition.
Each of us rode one pony, and the packs were carried on four others. We were not burdened by much baggage. Having no tent we took the canvas wagon sheet instead; our bedding, plenty of spare cartridges, some flour, bacon, coffee, sugar and salt, and a few very primitive cooking utensils, completed the outfit.
The Bighorn range is a chain of bare, rocky peaks stretching lengthwise along the middle of a table-land which is about thirty miles wide. At its edges this table-land falls sheer off into the rolling plains country. From the rocky peaks flow rapid brooks of clear, icy water, which take their way through deep gorges that they have channelled out in the surface of the plateau; a few miles from the heads of the streams these gorges become regular canyons, with sides so steep as to be almost perpendicular; in travelling, therefore, the trail has to keep well up toward timber line, as lower down horses find it difficult or impossible to get across the valleys. In strong contrast to the treeless cattle plains extending to its foot, the sides of the table-land are densely wooded with tall pines. Its top forms what is called a park country; that is, it is covered with alternating groves of trees and open glades, each grove or glade varying in size from half a dozen to many hundred acres.
We went in with the pack train two days' journey before pitching camp in what we intended to be our hunting grounds, following an old Indian trail. No one who has not tried it can understand the work and worry that it is to drive a pack train over rough ground and through timber. We were none of us very skilful at packing, and the loads were all the time slipping; sometimes the ponies would stampede with the pack half tied, or they would get caught among the fallen logs, or in a ticklish place would suddenly decline to follow the trail, or would commit some one of the thousand other tricks which seem to be all a pack-pony knows. Then at night they were a bother; if picketed out they fed badly and got thin, and if they were not picketed they sometimes strayed away. The most valuable one of the lot was also the hardest to catch. Accordingly we used to let him loose with a long lariat tied round his neck, and one night this lariat twisted up in a sage-brush, and in struggling to free himself the pony got a half hitch round his hind leg, threw himself, and fell over a bank into a creek on a large stone. We found him in the morning very much the worse for wear, and his hind legs swelled up so that his chief method of progression was by a series of awkward hops. Of course no load could be put upon him, but he managed to limp along behind the other horses, and actually in the end reached the ranch on the Little Missouri three hundred miles off. No sooner had he got there and been turned loose to rest than he fell down a big wash-out and broke his neck. Another time one of the maresa homely beast with a head like a camel'smanaged to flounder into the very centre of a mud-hole, and we spent the better part of a morning in fishing her out.
It was on the second day of our journey into the mountains, while leading the pack-ponies down the precipitous side of a steep valley, that I obtained my first sight of elk. The trail wound through a forest of tall, slender pines, standing very close together, and with dead trees lying in every direction. The narrow trunks or overhanging limbs threatened to scrape off the packs at every moment, as the ponies hopped and scrambled over the fallen trunks; and it was difficult work, and most trying to the temper, to keep them going along straight and prevent them from wandering off to one side or the other. At last we got out into a succession of small, open glades, with boggy spots in them; the lowest glade was of some size, and as we reached it we saw a small band of cow elk disappearing into the woods on its other edge. I was riding a restive horse, and when I tried to jump off to shoot, it reared and turned round, before I could get my left foot out of the stirrup; when I at last got free I could get a glimpse of but one elk, vanishing behind a dead trunk, and my hasty shot missed. I was a good deal annoyed at this, my opening experience with mountain game, feeling that it was an omen of misfortune; but it did not prove so, for during the rest of my two weeks' stay, I with one exception got every animal I fired at.
A beautiful, clear mountain brook ran through the bottom of the valley, and in an open space by its side we pitched camp. We were entirely out of fresh meat, and after lunch all three of us separated to hunt, each for his own hand. The teamster went up stream, Merrifield went down, while I followed the tracks of the band of cows and calves that we had started in the morning; their trail led along the wooded hill-crests parallel to the stream, and therefore to Merrifield's course. The crests of the hills formed a wavy-topped but continuous ridge between two canyon-like valleys, and the sides fell off steeper and steeper the farther down stream I went, until at last they were broken in places by sheer precipices and cliffs; the groves of trees too, though with here and there open glades, formed a continuous forest of tall pines. There was a small growth of young spruce and other evergreen, thick enough to give cover, but not to interfere with seeing and shooting to some distance. The pine trunks rose like straight columns, standing quite close together; and at their bases the ground was carpeted with the sweet-scented needles, over which, in my moccasined feet, I trod without any noise. It was but a little past noon, and the sun in the open was very hot; yet underneath the great archways of the pine woods the air though still was cool, and the sunbeams that struggled down here and there through the interlacing branches, and glinted on the rough trunks, only made bright spots in what was elsewhere the uniform, grayish half-light of the mountain forest. Game trails threaded the woods in all directions, made for the most part by the elk. These animals, when not disturbed, travel strung out in single file, each one stepping very nearly in the tracks of the one before it; they are great wanderers, going over an immense amount of country during the course of a day, and so they soon wear regular, well-beaten paths in any place where they are at all plentiful.
The band I was following had, as is their custom, all run together into a wedge-shaped mass when I fired, and crashed off through the woods in a bunch during the first moments of alarm. The footprints in the soil showed that they had in the beginning taken a plunging gallop, but after a few strides had settled into the swinging, ground-covering trot that is the elk's most natural and characteristic gait. A band of elk when alarmed is likely to go twenty miles without halting; but these had probably been very little molested, and there was a chance that they would not go far without stopping. After getting through the first grove, the huddled herd had straightened itself out into single file, and trotted off in a nearly straight line. A mile or two of ground having been passed over in this way, the animals had slackened their pace into a walk, evidently making up their minds that they were out of danger. Soon afterwards they had begun to go slower, and to scatter out on each side, browsing or grazing.
It was not difficult work to follow up the band at first. While trotting, their sharp hoofs came down with sufficient force to leave very distinct footprints, and, moreover, the trail was the more readily made out as all the animals trod nearly in each other's steps. But when the band spread out the tracking was much harder, as each single one, walking slowly along, merely made here and there a slight scrape in the soil or a faint indentation in the bed of pine needles. Besides, I had to advance with the greatest caution, keeping the sharpest look-out in front and on all sides of me. Even as it was, though I got very close up to my game, they were on foot before I saw them, and I did not get a standing shot. While carefully looking to my footsteps I paid too little heed to the rifle which I held in my right hand, and let the barrel tap smartly on a tree trunk. Instantly there was a stamp and movement among the bushes ahead and to one side of me; the elk had heard but had neither seen nor smelt me; and a second afterward I saw the indistinct, shadowy outlines of the band as they trotted down hill, from where their beds had been made on the very summit of the crest, taking a course diagonal to mine. I raced forward and also down hill, behind some large mossy boulders, and cut them fairly off, the band passing directly ahead of me and not twenty yards away, at a slashing trot, which a few of them changed for a wild gallop, as I opened fire. I was so hemmed in by the thick tree trunks, and it was so difficult to catch more than a fleeting glimpse of each animal, that though I fired four shots I only brought down one elk, a full-grown cow, with a broken neck, dead in its tracks; but I also broke the hind leg of a bull calf. Elk offer easy marks when in motion, much easier than deer, because of their trotting gait, and their regular, deliberate movements. They look very handsome as they trot through a wood, stepping lightly and easily over the dead trunks and crashing through the underbrush, with the head held up and nose pointing forward. In galloping, however, the neck is thrust straight out in front, and the animal moves with labored bounds, which carry it along rapidly but soon tire it out.
After thrusting the hunting-knife into the throat of the cow, I followed the trail of the band; and in an open glade, filled with tall sage-brush, came across and finished the wounded calf. Meanwhile the others ran directly across Merrifield's path, and he shot two. This gave us much more meat than we wished; nor would we have shot as many, but neither of us could reckon upon the other's getting as much game, and flesh was a necessity. Leaving Merrifield to skin and cut up the dead animals, I walked back to camp where I found the teamster, who had brought in the hams and tongues of two deer he had shot, and sent him back with a pack-pony for the hides and meat of the elk. Elk tongues are most delicious eating, being juicy, tender, and well flavored; they are excellent to take out as a lunch on a long hunting trip.
We now had more than enough meat in camp, and did not shoot at another cow or calf elk while on the mountains, though we saw quite a number; the last day of my stay I was within fifty yards of two that were walking quietly through a very dense, swampy wood. But it took me some time longer before I got any fine heads.
The day after killing the cow and calf I went out in the morning by myself and hunted through the woods up toward the rocky peaks, going above timber line, and not reaching camp until after nightfall. In hunting through a wild and unknown country a man must always take great care not to get lost. In the first place he should never, under any conceivable circumstances, stir fifty yards from camp without a compass, plenty of matches, and his rifle; then he need never feel nervous, even if he is lost, for he can keep himself from cold and hunger, and can steer a straight course until he reaches some settlement. But he should not get lost at all. Old plainsmen or backwoodsmen get to have almost an instinct for finding their way, and are able to tell where they are and the way home in almost any place; probably they keep in their heads an accurate idea of their course and of the general lay of the land. But most men cannot do this. In hunting through a new country a man should, if possible, choose some prominent landmarks, and then should learn how they look from different sidesfor they will with difficulty be recognized as the same objects, if seen from different points of view. If he gets out of sight of these, he should choose another to work back to, as a kind of half-way point; and so on. He should keep looking back; it is wonderful how different a country looks when following back on one's trail. If possible, he should locate his camp, in his mind, with reference to a line, and not a point; he should take a river or a long ridge, for example. Then at any time he can strike back to this line and follow it up or down till he gets home.
If possible, I always spend the first day, when on new ground, in hunting up-stream. Then, so long as I am sure I do not wander off into the valleys or creeks of another water-course, I am safe, for, no matter on what remote branch, all I have to do is to follow down-stream until I reach camp; while if I was below camp, it would be difficult to tell which fork to follow up every time the stream branched. A man should always notice the position of the sun, the direction from which the wind blows, the slope of the water-courses, prominent features in the landscape, and so forth, and should keep in mind his own general course; and he had better err on the side of caution rather than on that of boldness. Getting lost is very uncomfortable, both for the man himself and for those who have to break up their work and hunt for him. Deep woods or perfectly flat, open country are almost equally easy places in which to get lost; while if the country is moderately open and level, with only here and there a prominent and easily recognized hill or butte, a man can safely go where he wishes, hardly paying any heed to his course. But even here he should know his general direction from camp, so as to be able to steer for it with a compass if a fog comes up. And if he leaves his horse hidden in a gully or pocket while he goes off to hunt on foot, he must recollect to keep the place well in his mind; on one occasion, when I feared that somebody might meddle with my horse, I hid him so successfully that I spent the better part of a day in finding him.
Keeping in mind the above given rules, when I left camp the morning after the breaking up of the band of cows and calves, I hunted up-stream, and across and through the wooded spurs dividing the little brooks that formed its head waters. No game was encountered, except some blue grouse, which I saw when near camp on my return, and shot for the pot. These blue grouse are the largest species found in America, except the sage fowl. They are exclusively birds of the deep mountain forests, and in their manners remind one of the spruce grouse of the Northeastern woods, being almost equally tame. When alarmed, they fly at once into a tree, and several can often be shot before the remainder take fright and are off. On this trip we killed a good many, shooting off their heads with our rifles. They formed a most welcome addition to our bill of fare, the meat being white and excellent. A curious peculiarity in their flesh is that the breast meat has in it a layer of much darker color. They are very handsome birds, and furnish dainty food to men wearied of venison; but, unless their heads are knocked off with a rifle, they do not furnish much sport, as they will not fly off when flushed, but simply rise into a fairly tall tree, and there sit, motionless, except that the head is twisted and bobbed round to observe the acts of the foe.
All of the sights and sounds in these pine woods that clothed the Bighorn Mountains reminded me of the similar ones seen and heard in the great, sombre forests of Maine and the Adirondacks. The animals and birds were much the same. As in the East, there were red squirrels, chipmunks, red hares, and woodchucks, all of them differing but slightly from our common kinds; woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and whisky jacks came about camp; ravens and eagles flew over the rocky cliffs. There were some new forms, however. The nutcracker, a large, noisy, crow-like bird, with many of the habits of a woodpecker, was common, and in the rocks above timber line, we came upon the Little Chief hare, a wee animal, with a shrill, timorous squeak.
During our stay upon the mountains the weather was generally clear, but always cold, thin ice covering the dark waters of the small mountain tarns, and there were slight snow-falls every two or three days; but we were only kept in camp one day, when it sleeted, snowed, and rained from dawn till nightfall. We passed this day very comfortably, however. I had far too much forethought to go into the woods without a small supply of books for just such occasions. We had rigged the canvas wagon sheet into a tent, at the bottom of the ravine, near the willow-covered brink of the brook that ran through it. The steep hill-sides bounding the valley, which a little below us became sheer cliffs, were partly covered with great pines and spruces, and partly open ground grown up with tall grass and sage-brush. We were thus well sheltered from the wind; and when one morning we looked out and saw the wet snow lying on the ground, and with its weight bending down the willow bushes and loading the tall evergreens, while the freezing sleet rattled against the canvas, we simply started a roaring fire of pine logs in front of the tent, and passed a cosy day inside, cleaning guns, reading, and playing cards. Blue grouse, elk hams, and deer saddles hung from the trees around, so we had no fear of starvation. Still, towards evening we got a little tired, and I could not resist taking a couple of hours' brisk ride in the mist, through a chain of open glades that sloped off from our camp.
Later on we made a camp at the head of a great natural meadow, where two streams joined together, and in times long gone by had been dammed by the beaver. This had at first choked up the passage and made a small lake; then dams were built higher and higher up, making chains of little ponds. By degrees these filled up, and the whole valley became a broad marshy meadow, through which the brook wound between rows of willows and alders. These beaver meadows are very common; but are not usually of such large size. Around this camp there was very little game; but we got a fine mess of spotted trout by taking a long and most toilsome walk up to a little lake lying very near timber line. Our rods and lines were most primitive, consisting of two clumsy dead cedars (the only trees within reach), about six feet of string tied to one and a piece of catgut to the other, with preposterous hooks; yet the trout were so ravenous that we caught them at the rate of about one a minute; and they formed another welcome change in our camp fare. This lake lay in a valley whose sides were so steep and boulder-covered as to need hard climbing to get into and out of it. Every day in the cold, clear weather we tramped miles and miles through the woods and mountains, which, after a snow-storm took on a really wintry look; while in the moonlight the snow-laden forests shone and sparkled like crystal. The dweller in cities has but a faint idea of the way we ate and slept.
One day Merrifield and I went out together and had a rather exciting chase after some bull elk. The previous evening, toward sunset, I had seen three bulls trotting off across an open glade toward a great stretch of forest and broken ground, up near the foot of the rocky peaks. Next morning early we started off to hunt through this country. The walking was hard work, especially up and down the steep cliffs, covered with slippery pine needles; or among the windfalls, where the rows of dead trees lay piled up across one another in the wildest confusion. We saw nothing until we came to a large patch of burnt ground, where we at once found the soft, black soil marked up by elk hoofs; nor had we penetrated into it more than a few hundred yards before we came to tracks made but a few minutes before, and almost instantly afterward saw three bull elk, probably those I had seen on the preceding day. We had been running briskly up-hill through the soft, heavy loam, in which our feet made no noise but slipped and sank deeply; as a consequence, I was all out of breath and my hand so unsteady that I missed my first shot. Elk, however, do not vanish with the instantaneous rapidity of frightened deer, and these three trotted off in a direction quartering to us. I doubt if I ever went through more violent exertion than in the next ten minutes. We raced after them at full speed, opening fire; I wounded all three, but none of the wounds were immediately disabling. They trotted on and we panted afterwards, slipping on the wet earth, pitching headlong over charred stumps, leaping on dead logs that broke beneath our weight, more than once measuring our full-length on the ground, halting and firing whenever we got a chance. At last one bull fell; we passed him by after the others which were still running up-hill. The sweat streamed into my eyes and made furrows in the sooty mud that covered my face, from having fallen full length down on the burnt earth; I sobbed for breath as I toiled at a shambling trot after them, as nearly done out as could well be. At this moment they turned down-hill. It was a great relief; a man who is too done up to go a step up-hill can still run fast enough down; with a last spurt I closed in near enough to fire again; one elk fell; the other went off at a walk. We passed the second elk and I kept on alone after the third, not able to go at more than a slow trot myself, and too much winded to dare risk a shot at any distance. He got out of the burnt patch, going into some thick timber in a deep ravine; I closed pretty well, and rushed after him into a thicket of young evergreens. Hardly was I in when there was a scramble and bounce among them and I caught a glimpse of a yellow body moving out to one side; I ran out toward the edge and fired through the twigs at the moving beast. Down it went, but when I ran up, to my disgust I found that I had jumped and killed, in my haste, a black-tail deer, which must have been already roused by the passage of the wounded elk. I at once took up the trail of the latter again, but after a little while the blood grew less, and ceased, and I lost the track; nor could I find it, hunt as hard as I might. The poor beast could not have gone five hundred yards; yet we never found the carcass.
Then I walked slowly back past the deer I had slain by so curious a mischance, to the elk. The first one shot down was already dead. The second was only wounded, though it could not rise. When it saw us coming it sought to hide from us by laying its neck flat on the ground, but when we came up close it raised its head and looked proudly at us, the heavy mane bristling up on the neck, while its eyes glared and its teeth grated together. I felt really sorry to kill it. Though these were both well-grown elks, their antlers, of ten points, were small, twisted, and ill-shaped; in fact hardly worth preserving, except to call to mind a chase in which during a few minutes I did as much downright hard work as it has often fallen to my lot to do. The burnt earth had blackened our faces and hands till we looked like negroes.
The bull elk had at this time begun calling, and several times they were heard right round camp at night, challenging one another or calling to the cows. Their calling is known to hunters as "whistling"; but this is a most inappropriate name for it. It is a most singular and beautiful sound, and is very much the most musical cry uttered by any four-footed beast. When heard for the first time it is almost impossible to believe that it is the call of an animal; it sounds far more as if made by an Æolian harp or some strange wind instrument. It consists of quite a series of notes uttered continuously, in a most soft, musical, vibrant tone, so clearly that they can be heard half a mile off. Heard in the clear, frosty moonlight from the depths of the rugged and forest-clad mountains the effect is most beautiful; for its charm is heightened by the wild and desolate surroundings. It has the sustained, varied melody of some bird songs, with, of course, a hundred-fold greater power. Now and then, however, the performance is marred by the elk's apparently getting out of breath towards the close, and winding up with two or three gasping notes which have an unpleasantly mule-like sound.
The great pine-clad mountains, their forests studded with open glades, were the best of places for the still-hunter's craft. Going noiselessly through them in our dull-colored buckskin and noiseless moccasins, we kept getting glimpses, as it were, of the inner life of the mountains. Each animal that we saw had its own individuality. Aside from the thrill and tingle that a hunter experiences at the sight of his game, I by degrees grew to feel as if I had a personal interest in the different traits and habits of the wild creatures. The characters of the animals differed widely, and the differences were typified by their actions; and it was pleasant to watch them in their own homes, myself unseen, when after stealthy, silent progress through the sombre and soundless depths of the woods I came upon them going about the ordinary business of their lives. The lumbering, self-confident gait of the bears, their burly strength, and their half-humorous, half-ferocious look, gave me a real insight into their character; and I never was more impressed by the exhibition of vast, physical power, than when watching from an ambush a grizzly burying or covering up an elk carcass. His motions looked awkward, but it was marvellous to see the ease and absence of effort with which he would scoop out great holes in the earth, or twitch the heavy carcass from side to side. And the proud, graceful, half-timid, half-defiant bearing of the elk was in its own way quite as noteworthy; they seemed to glory in their own power and beauty, and yet to be ever on the watch for foes against whom they knew they might not dare to contend. The true still-hunter should be a lover of nature as well as of sport, or he will miss half the pleasure of being in the woods.
The finest bull, with the best head that I got, was killed in the midst of very beautiful and grand surroundings. We had been hunting through a great pine wood which ran up to the edge of a broad canyon-like valley, bounded by sheer walls of rock. There were fresh tracks of elk about, and we had been advancing up wind with even more than our usual caution when, on stepping out into a patch of open ground, near the edge of the cliff, we came upon a great bull, beating and thrashing his antlers against a young tree, about eighty yards off. He stopped and faced us for a second, his mighty antlers thrown in the air, as he held his head aloft. Behind him towered the tall and sombre pines, while at his feet the jutting crags overhung the deep chasm below, that stretched off between high walls of barren and snow-streaked rocks, the evergreens clinging to their sides, while along the bottom the rapid torrent gathered in places into black and sullen mountain lakes. As the bull turned to run I struck him just behind the shoulder; he reeled to the death-blow, but staggered gamely on a few rods into the forest before sinking to the ground, with my second bullet through his lungs.
Two or three days later than this I killed another bull, nearly as large, in the same patch of woods in which I had slain the first. A bear had been feeding on the carcass of the latter, and, after a vain effort to find his den, we determined to beat through the woods and try to start him up. Accordingly Merrifield, the teamster, and myself took parallel courses some three hundred yards apart, and started at one end to walk through to the other. I doubt if the teamster much wished to meet a bear alone (while nothing would have given Merrifield more hearty and unaffected enjoyment than to have encountered an entire family), and he gradually edged in pretty close to me. Where the woods became pretty open I saw him suddenly lift his rifle and fire, and immediately afterwards a splendid bull elk trotted past in front of me, evidently untouched, the teamster having missed. The elk ran to the other side of two trees that stood close together some seventy yards off, and stopped for a moment to look round. Kneeling down I fired at the only part of his body I could see between the two trees, and sent a bullet into his flank. Away he went, and I after, running in my moccasins over the moss and pine needles for all there was in me. If a wounded elk gets fairly started he will go at a measured trot for many hours, and even if mortally hurt may run twenty miles before falling; while at the same time he does not start off at full speed, and will often give an active hunter a chance for another shot as he turns and changes his course preparatory to taking a straight line. So I raced along after the elk at my very best speed for a few hundred feet, and then got another shot as he went across a little glade, injuring his hip somewhat. This made it all right for me, and another hundred yards' burst took me up to where I was able to put a ball in a fatal spot, and the grand old fellow sank down and fell over on his side.
No sportsman can ever feel much keener pleasure and self-satisfaction than when, after a successful stalk and good shot, he walks up to a grand elk lying dead in the cool shade of the great evergreens, and looks at the massive and yet finely moulded form, and at the mighty antlers which are to serve in the future as the trophy and proof of his successful skill. Still-hunting the elk on the mountains is as noble a kind of sport as can well be imagined; there is nothing more pleasant and enjoyable, and at the same time it demands that the hunter shall bring into play many manly qualities. There have been few days of my hunting life that were so full of unalloyed happiness as were those spent on the Bighorn range. From morning till night I was on foot, in cool, bracing air, now moving silently through the vast, melancholy pine forests, now treading the brink of high, rocky precipices, always amid the most grand and beautiful scenery; and always after as noble and lordly game as is to be found in the Western world.
Since writing the above I killed an elk near my ranch; probably the last of his race that will ever be found in our neighborhood. It was just before the fall round-up. An old hunter, who was under some obligation to me, told me that he had shot a cow elk and had seen the tracks of one or two others not more than twenty-five miles off, in a place where the cattle rarely wandered. Such a chance was not to be neglected; and, on the first free day, one of my Elk-horn foremen, Will Dow by name, and myself, took our hunting horses and started off, accompanied by the ranch wagon, in the direction of the probable haunts of the doomed deer. Towards nightfall we struck a deep spring pool, near by the remains of an old Indian encampment. It was at the head of a great basin, several miles across, in which we believed the game to lie. The wagon was halted and we pitched camp; there was plenty of dead wood, and soon the venison steaks were broiling over the coals raked from beneath the crackling cottonwood logs, while in the narrow valley the ponies grazed almost within the circle of the flickering fire-light. It was in the cool and pleasant month of September; and long after going to bed we lay awake under the blankets watching the stars that on clear nights always shine with such intense brightness over the lonely Western plains.
We were up and off by the gray of the morning. It was a beautiful hunting day; the sundogs hung in the red dawn; the wind hardly stirred over the crisp grass; and though the sky was cloudless yet the weather had that queer, smoky, hazy look that it is most apt to take on during the time of the Indian summer. From a high spur of the table-land we looked out far and wide over a great stretch of broken country, the brown of whose hills and valleys was varied everywhere by patches of dull red and vivid yellow, tokens that the trees were already putting on the dress with which they greet the mortal ripening of the year. The deep and narrow but smooth ravines running up towards the edges of the plateaus were heavily wooded, the bright green tree-tops rising to a height they rarely reach in the barren plains-country; and the rocky sides of the sheer gorges were clad with a thick growth of dwarfed cedars, while here and there the trailing Virginia creepers burned crimson among their sombre masses.
We hunted stealthily up-wind, across the line of the heavily timbered coulies. We soon saw traces of our quarry; old tracks at first, and then the fresh footprints of a single elka bull, judging by the sizewhich had come down to drink at a mirey alkali pool, its feet slipping so as to leave the marks of the false hoofs in the soft soil. We hunted with painstaking and noiseless care for many hours; at last as I led old Manitou up to look over the edge of a narrow ravine, there was a crash and movement in the timber below me, and immediately afterwards I caught a glimps of a great bull elk trotting up through the young trees as he gallantly breasted the steep hill-side opposite. When clear of the woods, and directly across the valley from me, he stopped and turned half round, throwing his head in the air to gaze for a moment at the intruder. My bullet struck too far back, but, nevertheless, made a deadly wound, and the elk went over the crest of the hill at a wild, plunging gallop. We followed the bloody trail for a quarter of a mile, and found him dead in a thicket. Though of large size, he yet had but small antlers, with few points. | <urn:uuid:6e9b63b2-8b3a-4e88-9ff5-da3951897be2> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:30:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9827874302864075,
"score": 2.828125,
"token_count": 9303,
"url": "http://bartleby.com/52/9.html"
} |
A key conclusion of this discussion is the fact that all sectors of the economy must achieve deep reductions, not just one or two. This certainly includes the transportation system, which in California is the largest single source of GHGs (38 percent of the total, according to the California Air Resources Board). Transportation-related emissions, in turn, are a product of three factors:
- The fuel efficiency of vehicles
- The carbon content of fuels
- Vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
What does this really mean in practice? Well, if we think of fuel efficiency and carbon content collectively as "carbon efficiency" (or carbon emission per mile), then we see that the carbon efficiency times the VMT must be reduced on the order of 88 percent per capita in forty years. If carbon efficiency were quintupled over that time period through a combination of fuel efficiency gains and decarbonization of fuel stocks, we would still need to reduce VMT by 40 percent per capita relative to today's levels. In other words, we would have to "make do" with 40 percent less personal driving, trucking, business travel and all other uses of motorized vehicles. If carbon efficiency is merely doubled, we would need to reduce the per capita VMT by 76 percent!
Are these changes feasible? Certainly. In fact, there are Americans right now who live well on 76 percent less VMT than their average compatriots. They're the Americans who live in dense urban centers such as New York and San Francisco. Bringing the transportation system into line with our 2050 climate goals means making sure (among other things) that vastly more Americans can live in those kinds of truly dense, mixed-use environments, rather than simply somewhat-more-dense suburban settings (which tend to achieve VMT reductions of only about 20-30 percent).
It can be done -- but modest changes to how we build urban regions won't get us there. | <urn:uuid:195a864c-5f6a-478a-bede-629b9396f444> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:23:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.953797459602356,
"score": 3.203125,
"token_count": 389,
"url": "http://berkeley-crec.blogspot.com/2010/12/reaching-2050-climate-goals-ii-critical.html"
} |
Hummingbirds are attracted to a good nectar recipe, but so are ants, bees and wasps. Fortunately, there are many easy ways to control insects on hummingbird feeders to eliminate these pests without harming the birds.
Hummingbird Feeder Pests
Several types of insects find hummingbird nectar irresistible. Bees, wasps and ants are the most common uninvited guests, but other insects such as moths and earwigs may also be attracted to the nectar. When too many bugs are feeding on the sugar water, it becomes contaminated and less attractive to hummingbirds. In extreme cases, dozens or hundreds of insects may be monopolizing a feeder, preventing the birds from visiting it at all. By knowing the proper ways to control these insects, birders can manage their hummingbird feeders and reserve the nectar for the birds.
Ways to Control Insects on Hummingbird Feeders
There are many ways to control insects on nectar feeders, but the first thing that birders need to realize is that it is quite impossible to remove 100 percent of the insects that are attracted to a feeder. By using multiple methods, however, it is possible to encourage most bugs to dine elsewhere without harming the hummingbirds.
Effective and safe ways to control insects on hummingbird feeders include:
- Choose No-Insect Feeders: Some types of hummingbird feeders are less insect-friendly than others. Saucer feeders, for example, position the nectar away from the feeding port and insects are unable to get to it, while hummingbirds with their long tongues have no trouble. Other feeder designs include ant moats or bee guards that are designed to keep insects from accessing the nectar without impeding hummingbirds.
- Relocate the Feeder: Once hummingbirds find a food source, they will visit it frequently. Insects are only likely to visit convenient food sources and are less inclined to search for relocated feeders. Moving the feeder by just a few feet can minimize the insect visitors without discouraging the hummingbirds.
- Avoid Yellow Feeders: Wasps and bees are attracted to the color yellow but do not find red appealing. Avoid feeders that have yellow insect guards or flower accents to minimize the feeders’ attractiveness to insects. If your feeder comes with yellow accents, repaint the accents with red, non-toxic paint.
- Keep the Feeder Clean: As birds feed, drips of nectar will inevitably fall from their bills onto the feeder. Feeders can also drip if they are filled too full, as the air pressure inside the feeder will force the nectar out the feeding ports when it heats up. Each time the feeder is refilled, carefully clean the outside and around the feeding ports to remove spilled nectar.
- Use Insect Traps: Commercial insect traps and feeder accessories are available to minimize insects’ access to nectar feeders. While these can be effective deterrents, use them sparingly so you do not disrupt the insects’ place in your backyard ecosystem.
- Hang Feeders Carefully: Ants may climb a pole to reach a nectar feeder, so choose to hang the feeder from a branch or gutter instead. Using fishing line to hang the feeder is another option, as the line is too thin for most ants to climb to access the feeder.
- Keep the Feeder Shaded: Most flying insects prefer to feed in full sunlight, so make nectar feeders less attractive by hanging them in a shadier spot. This will also keep the nectar cooler and slow fermentation.
- Offer Substitute Feeders: If you want to minimize insects on hummingbird feeders but still want the bees around for your flowers or garden, offer them a substitute feeder with a sweeter sugar water solution. Place the diversion feeder in an obvious, sunny location, while using additional techniques to protect the hummingbird feeder.
- Avoid Other Attractions: Bees, wasps and ants are naturally attracted to other features of your yard, including plants and flowers. This is highly desirable for a healthy garden, but avoid uncovered trash, soda cans and other things the insects may find attractive to minimize their unintended food sources and keep their populations under control.
How Not to Remove Insects
It may take several different techniques to completely minimize the appearance of insects at your hummingbird feeders. There are two techniques, however, that should not be used because they are potentially destructive to hummingbirds.
- Insecticides: Even a small amount of pesticide chemicals near the hummingbird feeder can be devastating to small birds. Do not use any sprays near the feeder, and if you do choose to use insect traps, be sure they are positioned away from the feeder.
- Oils: One home remedy for insects on hummingbird feeders is to use olive oil, cooking spray, petroleum jelly or similar substances around feeding ports or on the poles or chains supporting feeders. While this can deter insects, it can also harm the birds by sticking to their feathers and making it more difficult for them to preen and fly.
Not All Insects Are Bad
Not all insects are bad in a hummingbird garden, even if they do occasionally visit nectar feeders. Bees help pollinate flowers that can attract even more birds, and all these insects can be valuable food sources for other backyard birds. Using simple, safe techniques can manage insects so they do not bother hummingbird feeders and can remain a valuable part of a backyard ecosystem. | <urn:uuid:c0360200-66da-4a0f-a553-c209d6baaa31> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:31:39",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9307655096054077,
"score": 3.203125,
"token_count": 1144,
"url": "http://birding.about.com/od/birdfeeders/a/insectsonfeeders.htm"
} |
The question to answer is did dino-raptors live and hunt and feed in packs, like wolves?
I’m biased. I worked on the movie “Jurassic Park,” consulting with the special effects artists. And the book “Jurassic Park” has references to my research.
And…my first dig was excavating raptors near Bridger, Montana, in 1964. I was a freshman. Grant Meyer was the Field Boss – a fine fellow with delicacy of touch that was surprising in such a hulking physique.
Grant is the guy who really started “Jurassic Park.”
It was Grant Meyer who found the raptor Deinonychus, four of them, their bones intermingled in a thin layer of dark gray clay-stone. He directed us kids in extracting the bones. Back at Yale, another undergrad, Peter Parks, cleaned the rock off the bones. Professor John Ostrom named the beast “Terrible Claw” – Deinonychus.
I prepared the first restoration and the temporary exhibit.
|Model of a Dromaeosaurus raptor claw
Raptor Kick-Boxer of the Cretaceous
Deinonychus became a dino celebrity. It was fast, smart, maneuverable – we imagined it as a Kick-boxer of the Cretaceous. It would leap up and slash its victims with the huge, curved hind-claw, shaped like a box-cutter.
We wondered whether the four Deinonychus were a social unit in real life. Maybe the hunted together. Since Deinonychus was close kin to Velociraptor, dug in the 1920’s in Mongolia, we started calling all the similar critters “raptors.”
Michael Crichton read about the Yale raptors and he got thinking: “hmmmmm…wouldn’t it be cool to use genetic engineering to bring back to life…a pack of Dino-Raptors…” His best-seller “Jurassic Park” was the result. In his book, he called Deinoncyhus a species of Velociraptor (they are close).
CSI of Multiple Victims.
But how can we be sure that the four raptors lived and hunted together? Perhaps these four raptors lived separately, died separately, and then their bodies got washed in together. How can we be certain that the way fossils are buried truthfully preserves the way they lived?
Here’s a Fundamental Rule of paleontology: all species tend to leave their dead bodies in clumps. Whether or not they hunted together, extinct animals get buried together.
Example of Non-Pack Mass Burial
We’re digging in north Texas now, excavating the first specialized top predator that ever evolved – the Finback Dimetrodon. It’s 170 million years before Deinonychus. Dimetrodons had very small brains, slow legs, and certainly were not nearly as quick witted or quick legged as a Komodo Dragon Lizard of today.
Lizards don’t make wolf-packs. We wouldn’t expect Dimetrodon to make well organized social units.
But we find them buried in clumps. In one quarry there are fossils from at least 500 Dimetrodons. Maybe 5000…we find hundreds of bones from scores of Dimetrodons all mixed together at dozens of spots within the quarry that is about 200 yards long.
There are babies, adolescents, young adults, and old Dimetrodons all piled on top of each other – in fifteen separate layers.
And…..DIMETRODONS WERE CANNIBALS!!!!!!
Here’s the proof:
What we look for is ballistic evidence. First, we search for clues that victims were dismembered and gnawed – we want to find marks on bones left by carnivore teeth.
Second, we want fossil bullets. Bullets are the tooth crowns shed by meat-eaters as they fed. Like crocs and sharks today, dinosaurs and primitive reptiles like Dimetrodon shed old tooth crowns as they fed. New crowns would grow in to replace the old. So…when we find many shed teeth mixed with chewed bones that’s excellent CSI evidence about who ate whom.
Do our Dimetrodon bones have tooth marks? Yes! And do we find shed teeth from the perpetrators? Yes again. Who’s the perp? 98% of the shed teeth at our big Dimetrodon quarry are from……
Dimetrodon cannibalism surprised us at first, but it shouldn’t have. It’s Standard Operating Procedure today. Meat is hard to come by and most carnivore species won’t turn up their noses at a meal of their own kind. Lions eat lions. Wolves eat wolves. Hyenas will eat everybody.
Our mega-Dimetrodon quarry was different from the Four Raptor Site. The Dimetrodons included babies, adolescents and adults. And a dozen other species were buried with the Dimetrodons, including big and small herbivores, insect-eaters, fresh-water sharks, and bottom-living aquatic amphibians shaped like salamanders.
We don’t know yet what killed our Dimetrodons. We don’t know why so many carnivores came to one spot – maybe they were attracted to amphibians who were trapped in a pond that was drying up. But it’s perfectly natural that the Dimetrodon survivors would gobble up the Dimetrodon victims. Cannibalism is just common sense.
Back to the Four Raptors……
Did dinosaur predators feed together?
|X-ray of an allosaur upper jaw showing the
new tooth crowns growing inside
the tooth sockets
I’ve dug several Jurassic spots with shed teeth from carnivorous allosaurs. These Jurassic sites show that the allosaurs were cannibals but still may have been good parents. We dug a spot with heaps of giant, multi-ton prey. Herbivore bones were tooth-marked and chewed. There were shed teeth only from one species – an allosaur. Both baby shed teeth and adult shed teeth were mixed with the giant bones.
So here it looked like parents and babies did eat together – and the parents may have brought food to the young.
Five of the victims chewed by adult and baby allosaurs were….adult allosaurs. Perfectly natural – cannibalism is nature’s way.
Did Deinonychus eat its own dead?
They’d be foolish if they didn’t. At the Four Raptor Site there are some tooth marks on some bones and a few shed teeth. We just dug another Montana site where someone had chewed on a Deinonychus hip and left some shed teeth. The chewer was…..another Deinonychus.
Ok – no surprise to find chewed & clumped raptors. Cannibalism is Ubiquitous. But we’re not through with our Dino-CSI. We need to analyze why the four raptors died and were buried so close together.
The Three D’s of Death:
There are three big mass killers in Nature, the three big D’s:
Disease. Drought. Drowning.
A long-lasting drought can kill thousands, both herbivores and carnivores. A sudden flood can drown thousands of all species. Epidemics wipe out multitudes of plant-eaters and meat-eaters.
The D’s work together: A drought can kill and dry up many victims. Then, a flood can wash the desiccated carcasses into a sandbar. After disease kills many, the bodies may dry up, then get washed in together.
Did a flood drown the raptors and wash them into one spot?
No evidence for that. The water that carried in the mud was moving very slowly – it wasn’t a killer flood.
And…this is important…there weren’t other victims bunched up with the raptors. A major flood would wash in turtles and crocs, fish and dino-herbivores. The four raptors were alone in their burial – no other species.
There are flood sites with dinosaurs – huge river sand bar deposits with hundreds of skeletons. Usually there are many species – plant-eaters and meat-eaters. Bone Cabin Quarryin Wyoming was such a sandbar and had stegosaurs, apatosaurs, Diplodocus, camarasaurs, camptosaurs – all herbivores, adults and youngsters. And there were allosaurs and Ornitholestes, both predators.
The Four-Deinonychus quarry wasn’t like that.
Did Drought Kill the Four Raptors?
No evidence here either – the habitat seemed peaceful and normal. Drought should concentrate water-loving critters – we should see crocs and turtles huddled together in the last ponds and lakes. That’s not our Four Raptor site.
What Could Clump Raptors in Life?
The four raptors were all adults, one a bit older than the others. No babies. In many Jurassic and Cretaceous digs, we get adolescent predators – one of my Como digs had a half dozen young allosaurs. But not at the Deinonychus site dug by Grant Meyer.
What would concentrate four adults of one raptor species and no one else? Why didn’t the young die and get buried?
Did Disease Kill the Raptors?
Disease today hits social predators hard. Since they live together, all the predators in a pack can come down with a virus or bacterial ailment together.
Age Segregation and Adult-Only Death
|Model of a Dromaeosaurus -
from the same family as the Deinonychus
Plus – social predators do separate the young from the adults during hunting. Group hunting is common among mammals, birds and some advanced reptiles. Crocs are the most social reptiles alive today. Nile Crocodiles do some adult-group hunting when wildebeest herds cross rivers. Several big crocs (probably brothers) gang up on the wildebeest.
Hunting groups - wolves, hyenas, lions, crocs - usually contain only adults, babies and adolescents are well advised to stay away so they won’t get hurt. Therefore, social hunting is one way adults clump together and may die together.
Therefore….at this stage in our investigation…when we look at all the clues from the mud, current velocity, lack of babies, lack of other species…
…group hunting by adult Deinonychus Raptors is a viable hypothesis.
It’s not the ONLY hypothesis but still, I think, the strongest one. | <urn:uuid:fe19aa59-c702-409e-b446-3dd414f337db> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:09:20",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.940253734588623,
"score": 2.859375,
"token_count": 2307,
"url": "http://blog.hmns.org/tag/velociraptor/"
} |
The oceans are being emptied of fish. A forthcoming United Nations report lays out the stark numbers: only around 25% of commercial stocks are in a healthy or even reasonably healthy state. Some 30% of fish stocks are considered collapsed, and 90% of large predatory fish — like the bluefin tuna so prized by sushi aficionados — have disappeared since the middle of the 20th century. More than 60% of assessed fish stocks are in need of rebuilding, and some researchers estimate that if current trends hold, virtually all commercial fisheries will have collapsed by mid century.
"Fisheries across the world are being plundered, or exploited at unsustainable rates," said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
In some respects, Steiner could have stopped at "plundered," because as much damage as the legal, commercial fishing trade has wrought on the oceans, it's the illegal trade that could spell their doom. Legal fishermen — the everyday farmers of the seas — have licenses they must protect and laws they must obey. But illegal fishing — often done on the high seas where regulations are lax and catch limits can be exceeded with impunity, or in the coastal waters of developing nations, which lack the ability to fight back — abides by rules of its own. Now, a team led by Stefan Flothmann of the Pew Environment Group has published a study in the May 20 issue of Science showing just how hard stopping the illegal fishing scourge will be.
There are a lot of factors driving the rising global demand for fish. A growing global population needs ready sources of protein, and fish — generally low in fat and high in nutrients — is a natural. Plus, the worldwide explosion in the popularity of sushi means that even people who never liked fish before have developed a taste for it. Global seafood consumption has doubled over the past 40 years, and the sushi boom has tracked that trend.
But there's also a major problem with overcapacity — or the simple excess of fishermen — thanks to the $27 billion in subsidies given to the worldwide fishing industry each year. Those subsidies — especially the billions that go to cheap diesel fuel that makes factory fishing on the high seas possible at all--have created an industry bigger than the oceans can support. The U.N. estimates that the global fleet consists of more than 20 million boats, ranging from tiny subsistence outfits to massive trawlers. Together they have a fishing capacity 1.8 to 2.8 times larger than the oceans can sustainably support. Our tax money is essentially paying fishermen to strip mine the seas.
Cutting the subsidies or restricting the boats would go a long way toward solving the problem — but not if the illegal trade, which accounts for anything from 11 to 26 million tons of fish a year, or about one-fifth of the reported legal catch, can't also be brought under control. Steps in that direction have been taken. In November 2009, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) adopted the Port State Measurement Agreement (PSMA), which requires countries to close their ports to ships involved in illegal or unregulated fishing. The idea is simple: if illegal boats are denied ports where they can sell their catch and refuel, black market fishing should dry up. | <urn:uuid:9418647a-3068-436d-bb3a-72a8e91b3fe7> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:40",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9605113863945007,
"score": 2.921875,
"token_count": 662,
"url": "http://blog.marine-conservation.org/2010/05/cracking-down-on-oceans-pirate.html"
} |
By: Clemente Rendón de la Garza
He was born in Villa de Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon in 1639. He was the son of Alonso de Leon y Josefa Gonzalez. His occupation was agriculture and livestock. He married Agustina Cantu and they had seven children, Alonso, Juan, Santiago, Ines, Mateo, Juana and Andres. In 1667 he was named Mayor of Cadereyta, position that he served for eight years. After that position Alonso was named “Encomendadero”, in which he help in the transformation of Indians to the catholic religion. During the period of 1668-82 he was known for the pacification of indians. In 1682 Alonso was named Sargento Mayor and by the end of that year governor of Nuevo Leon, position that he served until 1684. “El Mozo” wrote the book “Derrotero Diario y Demarcacion del Viaje”, in which he described the trip to the Bahia del Espiritu Santo looking for French settlers. In 1687 the Viceroy named Alonso governor of the Coahuila Republic with the mission to start new towns and once again help in the indian pacification. “El Mozo” headed other expeditions looking for French settlements and during those trips he named Rio Nueces, Rio Hondo, Rio del Leon, Rio Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and Rio San Marcos. General Alonso de Leon died on March 21, 1691. The first exploration of “El Mozo”was the south of the Rio Grande. He was one of the first explorers in San Juan de los Esteros Hermosos (Matamoros) and the one that brought Fray Diego de Orozco who made possible the first mass in Matamoros.
Don Jose de Escandon y de la Helguera was born in Soto de la Marina, Santander in March 19, 1700, being the son of don Jose de Escandon Rumoroso y de doña Francisca de la Helguera. At the age of 15, he migrated to New Spain and enrolled with the army (Caballeros Montados de Merida). In 1721 he moved to Queretaro as Teniente de Infanteria y Caballeria. Don Jose married doña Maria Antonia Ocio y Ocampo in 1724 and they had two children, Jose and Ana Maria. Doña Maria died in 1736 and in 1737 he remarried doña Maria Josefa Juana de Llera y Bayas. They had seven children, Manuel, Ignacio, Vicente, Mariano, Francisco, Josefa Maria and Maria Josefa.
During the period of 1727 through 1734 he served in the indian pacification. In 1736 he started his pacification work in the Sierra Gorda region. With his work in Sierra Gorda he gained the title of Teniente de Capitan General de la Sierra Gorda.
On September 3, 1746 Viceroy Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas, Conde de Revillagigedo gave don Jose the rights to colonize Nuevo Santander. After some planning, in January 7, 1747 don Jose started his project. He left Queretaro with Fray Jose Velasco, Fray Lorenzo de Medina Captain Maldonado, two sergeants, 10 soldiers and some servants. Along the trip some other people joined him from San Luis, Nuevo Reino de Leon and Coahuila. Don Jose arrived to the Rio Grande on February 24, 1747 and established a camp named Real del Rio del Norte, currently known as El Soliseño. This camp served as based for Escandon’s inspection of the area. After three months, the expedition ended and by October 1747 he wrote a report about the expedition and future plans for settlement. On May 31, 1748 Conde Revillagigedo authorized Escandon to start his settlement plans. Don Jose de Escandon founded 22 towns in 3 periods:
First Period 1748-49
Original Name Actual Name Date
Santa Maria de la Llera Llera December 25, 1748
San Francisco de Guemes Guemes January 1, 1749
Padilla Viejo Padilla January 6, 1749
Santander de los Cinco Señores Santander Jimenez February 17, 1749
Burgos Burgos February 20, 1749
Santa Ana de Camargo Camargo March 5, 1749
Reynosa Reynosa March 14, 1749
San Fernando de Presas San Fernando March 19, 1749
Altamira Altamira May 2, 1749
Horcasitas Magiscatzin May 11, 1749
Santa Barbara Ocampo May 19, 1749
Real de los Infantes Bustamante May 26, 1749
Second Period 1750 - 51
Original Name Actual Name Date
Santa Maria de los Dolores Rancho Dolores, Texas August 22, 1750
Soto la Marina Soto la Marina September 3, 1750
Santa Maria de Aguayo Cd. Victoria October 6, 1750
Revilla Guerrero Viejo October 10, 1750
Escandon Xicotencatl March 15, 1751
Third Period 1752 - 57
Original Name Actual Name Date
Santo Domingo de Hoyos Hidalgo May 19, 1752
Santillana Abasolo December 26, 1752
Mier Cd. Mier March 5, 1753
Laredo Laredo, Texas May 15, 1755
Real de Borbon Villagran May 8, 1757
By the end of 1749, Escandon was called back to Queretaro to help again in the indian pacification in Sierra Gorda. Discontent from Nuevo Santander settlers turn into removal of settlement rights. He died in Mexico City on September 10, 1770.
Fray Manuel Julio de Silva was born in Zacatecas in1736, he was the son of don Joaquin de Silva and doña Ana Maria Caballero. He received the Franciscan votes on May 2, 1754. In 1790 Fray de Silva was designated to be commissioner of the Texas Missions. He travel to San Antonio with father Francisco Mariano Garza and they visited
Mission San Antonio Valero and Espiritu Santo. Fray de Silva was called to go back to Mexico and there he proposed to the Viceroy the founding of missions along the cost to control Karankawas and Comanche indians.
Father de Silva organized two groups, the first one headed by him and Fray Francisco Puelles to work in Texas and the second one, headed by his brother Father Joaquin Maria de Silva to work on the Pacific Coast. Fray de Silva got founding from Spain to start the Nuestra Señora del Refugio mission at north of Rio San Antonio. On his way back to San
Antonio, Fray de Silva and his followers passed through the congregation San Juan de los Esteros. As they found out that San Juan did not had religious services, they stayed there some days. The residents from San Juan decided to change the name of the congregation to Nuestra Señora del Refugio de los Esteros.
Fray de Silva and Fray Puelles continued their trip to San Antonio. When they learned about missing or lost funds, Fray de Silva returned to Mexico. During this time, Karankawa indians destroyed Refugio Mission. Fray Puelles had to relocate the mission and when Fray de Silva returned they relocated the mission one more time to Rancho Santa Gertrudis. After two years of hard work, Fray de Silva went back to Zacatecas due to poor health. He died on December 3, 1798 in Zacatecas.
Mariano Antonio Matamoros Guridi was born on August 14, 1770 in Mexico City, he was the son of don Manuel Matamoros Salazar and doña Mariana Guridi. Mariano got a Bachelors of Arts Degree in 1786 and a degree in theology in 1789. He got license to say mass in some churches. He had a son, Apolonio, before he became a priest and he raise him as his adoptive son and a daughter with her cousin Catalina Salazar.
Mariano believed in the Mexican revolutionary movement and although he didn’t participated actively, his beliefs got him in trouble. Once Matamoros beliefs were public, he joined father Jose Maria Morelos. He was named “Coronel” and after proving his ability in some battles, Morelos made his “Mariscal” being second in command. He was sent to jail and had a trial, and on February 3, 1814 was killed. Several cities had been named after Don Mariano Matamoros and one of them is Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Father Balli was born on 1768 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, he was the son of don Jose Maria Balli Fuera and doña Rosa Maria Hinojosa Benavides. Father Balli became priest in 1796. After serving in a chapel in Reynosa, he became the priest at Nuestra Señora del Refugio de los Esteros in Matamoros in 1800. The original site of the church was about 200 meter from the actual one (5th and Matamoros), but after a Rio Grande flood, Father Balli relocated it to the present site. He received a lot of land on both sides of the river and money as inheritance, and part of that inheritance he used to build the church in 1820. Isla de Santiago was also part of his inheritance, which is known as Isla del Padre. Father Balli died August 16, 1829 in Matamoros, four years before the completion of his project, the church of Nuestra Señora del Refugio.
General Mier y Teran was born in Mexico City on February 18, 1789, he was the son of Manuel de Mier y Teran and Maria Ignacia de Teruel y Llanos. He joined in 1811 the revolutionary revolt with general Rayon. Later Mier y Teran joined his childhood friend in the battle, Mariano Matamoros. His main role during the was the construction of arms. Once Morelos died, Mier y Teran took control of the independence revolt. Several defeats plus the need of food and arms made him to back out of the battlefield and began a more pacific life. Iturbide was the next independence leader and once the proclamation of independence was a done deal, Mier y Teran return to the politics taking an active role in congress.
Mier y Teran started a school to teach how to make arms and prepare the army. His poor relations with president Guadalupe Victoria, made him accept Victoria’s proposition to go to the border and try to set the border limits between Mexico and the United States. The border commission travel all the way to the Rio Rojo, and analyzed the boundaries. By march 1829, Mier y Teran was order to come back and stay in Matamoros. During his time in Matamoros, Mier y Teran had the opportunity to study the Rio Grande all the way to Camargo. He knew that Texas was in problems and that the Mexican government needed to do something about it if they didn’t want to lose it. When Mier y Teran saw that nothing could be done to retain Texas and that the Mexican government kept fighting between itself, he committed suicide in San Antonio de Padilla. Since December 5, 1972 his body lays down in Matamoros.
Juan Jose de la Garza was born in Villa de Cruillas, Tamaulipas on May 6, 1826, he was the son of Juan B de la Garza y Maria Eusebia Galvan. He became governor of Tamaulipas for the first time in 1852. De la Garza supported the “Plan de Ayutla” against Santa Ana dictatorship. After some battles and the fall of Santa Ana government, Juan Jose de la Garza became governor again and moved the state government from Matamoros to Tampico. He served eight times as governor of Tamaulipas. De la Garza founded the Instituto Cientifico y Literario San Juan in Matamoros. The school closed for a period during the Mexican revolution, but was later reopen as a middle school and currently as a high school with the name of his founder.
After the decline in popularity on his eighth period as governor, De La Garza moved to Mexico City. There he became minister of the supreme court and law teacher. Juan Jose de la Garza returned to Tamaulipas after 20 years where he died on October 16, 1893.
Manuel Gonzalez Flores was born in Matamoros on June 17, 1832, being the son of Fernando Gonzalez y Eusebia Flores. He joined the armed forces in Matamoros in 1853. He participated in the Puebla Battle of 1862. Benito Juarez, as Mexican president, named Gonzalez governor of the national palace. Manuel Gonzalez was a supporter of Porfirio Diaz and those beliefs made him resign from Juarez government to help Diaz and his Plan de la Noria and Plan de Tuxtepec. He also supported Diaz in his attack to Brownsville and Matamoros against president Lerdo de Tejada. Once Diaz became president, he named Manuel Gonzalez chief commander and governor of Michoacan. Gonzalez hold several positions in the army during Diaz presidential period. At the end of Diaz term, he helped Manuel Gonzalez to become the next Mexican president (December 1, 1880 – November 30, 1884). During Gonzalez time in office, he extended the railroad from 1073 km to 5731 km, increased the telegraph to 30,000 km, reformed the postal service and ended the problem on the border of Guatemala and Chiapas. Also, he implemented the decimal system, organized the army college, reestablished relations with England, changed the silver coins to nickel, and founded the Mexican National Bank (BANAMEX). On the other hand, the economy was having a recession and the debt with England increased. At the end of his days in office, Gonzalez was not real popular. Diaz became president again and Gonzalez was named governor of Guanajuato. He remained as governor with great popularity until his death. General Manuel Gonzalez died in Mexico City on March 8, 1893.
Lucio Blanco was born in Nadadores, Coahuila on July 29, 1879, he was the son of don Bernardo Blanco and doña Maria Fuentes. He met Madero and supported his revolutionary movement. He fought against Diaz until he resigned as president. He helped Madero throughout his presidential period and after he was assassinated, he joined Carranza. He fought against Huerta in Matamoros, and took over the city. This was the first important battle won by the constitutionalists. From Matamoros, he organized the ceremony to give agriculture land property titles to people from Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. At the end of Carranza period in office, Blanco had to leave to Laredo, Texas due to his decline in popularity. Although Carranza did not support Obregon, he became the next president. Blanco returned to Mexico, but once again had to leave due to rumors about him being against Obregon. Lucio Blanco was found dead at the Rio Grande on July 7, 1922.
Maria Lorenza Hinojosa was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas on August 10, 1864, being the daughter of Don Victor Hinojosa Longoria and Maria Rosa Garcia de la Garza. She developed an inclination towards the music. Maria Lorenza composed her first song at the age of eight. She graduated for the “Conservatorio Nacional de Musica de la Ciudad de Mexico” and after that, she gave concerts in Mexico and the US. Maria Lorenza returned to Matamoros in 1904 were she composed many songs like the one for Lauro Villar. Her eyes saw the entrance of Lucio Blanco to Matamoros during the Mexican revolution and that event made her compose songs to generals and revolutionary events. Also, she composed a hymn to celebrate the first hundred years of the independence. Maria Lorenza Hinojosa died in Matamoros on January 19, 1936.
Jose Maria Barrientos was born Cadereyta Jimenez, Nuevo Leon on November 19, 1891, being the son don Francisco Barrientos Gonzalez and doña Trinidad Garza Zambrano. He joined a school band were he learned to play the cornet. During the first century celebration of independence, he started a band to participate in the festivities. Jose Maria Barrienato composed several songs during revolutionary period. He was taken by Carranza’s supporters to a military base to play. Later, he joined the revolution in Matamoros with General Lucio Blanco. He retired from the army in 1915 and went to New Mexico were he joined a band. By 1916 he returned to Matamoros and founded the Municipal band. In 1925, Barrientos also founded the Brownsville band. He formed part of the Matamoros first century festivities (1926) and his main contribution was to give the music to the words of the Matamoros hymn. Governor Portes Gil was really pleased with the hymn that ask Barrientos to transform it into the Tamaulipas Hymn, only three words were changed. During the foundation of first secondary school of Matamoros, Barrientos was part of the founding teachers. The work with the students was far beyond his duties, Barrientos was always willing to help in the creation of new bands. After a life full of great compositions, Barrientos died on August 3, 1965.
Manuel Feliciano Rodriguez was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas on February 15, 1897, he was the son of Manuel Rodriguez Uresti and Adelaida Brayda Treviño. Dr Manuel married Raquel Herminia Longoria Guerra and they had three children, Raquel Herminia, Adela Aurora and Manuel Feliciano. He became a doctor in Mexico City during the period of the revolution of Agua Prieta. He returned to Matamoros to work as a doctor and also made his certificate valid in Texas. Besides his work as a doctor, he became a teacher and made possible the reopening of the Instituto Cientifico Juan Jose de la Garza as a middle school and later as a high school. His contribution to the Matamoros society included the foundation of the Rotary Club, and his great literary work. Dr Manuel Feliciano Rodriguez died on September 6, 1976.
Eduardo Chavez was born in Mexico City on May 6, 1898, being the son of Engineer Agustin Chavez Pedroza and Juvencia Ramirez de Chavez. As a high school student he joined the armed forces with Carranza during the Mexican revolution. He joined the National Irrigation Commission and work on the irrigation systems and in the rectification of the Rio Grande. Chavez was sent to Matamoros by president Cardenas with the mission to build a levee to prevent flooding problems. Once he finished the levee project, Chavez discovered the possibility of an irrigation system by gravity. Although the poor support of Cadenas advisors, Chavez got the authorization to start his irrigation project, El Retamal. That project gave the possibility to increase the agriculture production and in order to do it, he brought people from Nuevo Leon. The new residents founded several towns near Matamoros. Irrigation District 25 brought prosperity to the region. Chavez knowledge about the region and water treaty between Mexico and the US, gave him the opportunity to create important water dams (Presa Falcon and La Amistad). During the period of president Ruiz Cortines, Chavez as a cabinet member, headed important projects on the Gulf of Mexico, Rio Yaqui, creation of Mozucari water dam and irrigation district to name a few. Eduardo Chavez died in Mexico City on May 28, 1982 and his body was buried in Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas. One of his projects, “Del Panuco al Bravo”, could and still can be the solution to the present irrigation problems of Matamoros and neighbor regions, but even know, the project do not have the necessary support.
Eliseo Paredes was born in “Rancho La Esperanza” (Matamoros, Tamaulipas) on December 8,1899, he was the son of don Justo Paredes Cisneros and doña Clotilde Manzano Vidal. He was a businessman and historian. During the 20’s, he established a business in the Juarez Market. He married Maria Guadalupe Rangel and they had seven children, Sergio, Eliseo, Josefina, Graciela Irma, Isaura, Maria Guadalupe, and Sara Alicia. Eliseo Paredes actively participated in different civic and cultural associations in Matamoros. He founded a historic society in Matamoros, formed and organized the Museo Casamata and became the first historian of Matamoros. Eliseo Paredes died in Matamoros on July 11, 1988. | <urn:uuid:522add1b-32ba-4d93-8b6d-47d59f3dc676> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:47",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9655221700668335,
"score": 3.1875,
"token_count": 4549,
"url": "http://blue.utb.edu/localhistory/bio.htm"
} |
Introduction to Sociology
The only textbook that helps students make micro-macro connections, Introduction to Sociology helps students uncover the surprising links between everyday life and global change.
The Seventh Edition does not simply compare the United States to other countries, but shows students how global processes play out in their lives. Drawing on research from both macro and micro sociology, the author team shows how sociologists bring the two together to give a comprehensive picture of modern society.
- January 2009
- 8.5 × 10.9 in
/ 762 pages
- Territory Rights: USA and Dependencies, Philippines and Canada.
Seventh Edition / Loose leaf, three-hole punch
Seventh Edition / Ebook, Downloadable Version
Seventh Edition / Ebook, Online Version | <urn:uuid:e3a29c41-fba5-4da4-b53a-1574dfe75ac3> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:27",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8023063540458679,
"score": 3.40625,
"token_count": 160,
"url": "http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=13390"
} |
Diversity-biological as well as social, linguistic and cultural diversity-is the lifeblood of sustainable development and human welfare. It is key to resilience-the ability of natural and social systems to adapt to change and is essential for nearly every aspect of our lives.
That’s why, in the run-up to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, with its theme A Diverse and Sustainable World the latest issue of World Conservation is going ‘back to basics’.
It asks the question: How can we expect to tackle poverty and climate change if we don’t look after the natural wealth of animals, plants, microorganisms and ecosystems that make our planet inhabitable?
The articles look at the scientific, social, economic and cultural case for keeping diversity, showing how biodiversity supports our health and physical security, food production, medical research, livelihoods, tourism, artistic expression and cultural life. | <urn:uuid:48b8e187-61e6-4b50-beb6-a8821c058d10> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:40:11",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9182029962539673,
"score": 2.859375,
"token_count": 190,
"url": "http://[email protected]/knowledge/publications_doc/archive/2008_issue1/"
} |
Common name: Stomach worm
The adult worms measure 40 to 48 mm long.
Anterior end of worm
The egg, containing the infective first stage-larva, is passed in the feces and eaten by a beetle larva. The larva develops to the infective third stage larva. The dog eats the beetle and the worm develops to the adult stage in the stomach. Eggs are laid in the stomach and pass out with the feces.
Common Diagnostic Test
© University of Pennsylvania 2004
Comments or Questions please contact: Dr. Nolan at: | <urn:uuid:8f4e82bd-8a13-48fb-8b05-c5efa1939fdb> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:09:59",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.787112295627594,
"score": 2.625,
"token_count": 116,
"url": "http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/dxendopar/parasitepages/unknown/physaloptera.html"
} |
Click the Study Aids tab at the bottom of the book to access your Study Aids (usually practice quizzes and flash cards).
Study Pass is our latest digital product that lets you take notes, highlight important sections of the text using different colors, create "tags" or labels to filter your notes and highlights, and print so you can study offline. Study Pass also includes interactive study aids, such as flash cards and quizzes.
Highlighting and Taking Notes:
If you've purchased the All Access Pass or Study Pass, in the online reader, click and drag your mouse to highlight text. When you do a small button appears – simply click on it! From there, you can select a highlight color, add notes, add tags, or any combination.
If you've purchased the All Access Pass, you can print each chapter by clicking on the Downloads tab. If you have Study Pass, click on the print icon within Study View to print out your notes and highlighted sections.
To search, use the text box at the bottom of the book. Click a search result to be taken to that chapter or section of the book (note you may need to scroll down to get to the result).
View Full Student FAQs
17.2 Two-Way Trade
- Distinguish between one-way trade and two-way trade.
- Explain why two-way trade may occur.
The model of trade presented thus far assumed that countries specialize in producing the good in which they have a comparative advantage and, therefore, engage in one-way trade. One-way (or interindustry) tradeSituation in which countries specialize in producing the goods in which they have a comparative advantage and then export those goods so they can import the goods in which they do not have a comparative advantage. occurs when countries specialize in producing the goods in which they have a comparative advantage and then export those goods so they can import the goods in which they do not have a comparative advantage.
However, when we look at world trade, we also see countries exchanging the same goods or goods in the same industry category. For example, the United States may both export construction materials to Canada and import them from Canada. American car buyers can choose Chevrolets, Fords, and Chryslers. They can also choose imported cars such as Toyotas. Japanese car buyers may choose to purchase Toyotas—or imported cars such as Chevrolets, Fords, and Chryslers. The United States imports cars from Japan and exports cars to it. Conversely, Japan imports cars from the United States and exports cars to it. International trade in which countries both import and export the same or similar goods is called two-way (or intraindustry) trade.International trade in which countries both import and export the same or similar goods.
Two reasons countries import and export the same goods are variations in transportation costs and seasonal effects. In the example of the United States and Canada both importing and exporting construction materials, transportation costs are the likely explanation. It may be cheaper for a contractor in northern Maine to import construction materials from the eastern part of Canada than to buy them in the United States. For a contractor in Vancouver, British Columbia, it may be cheaper to import construction materials from somewhere in the western part of the United States than to buy them in Canada. By engaging in trade, both the American and Canadian contractors save on transportation costs. Seasonal factors explain why the United States both imports fruit from and exports fruit to Chile.
Another explanation of two-way trade in similar goods lies in recognizing that not all goods are produced under conditions of perfect competition. Once this assumption is relaxed, we can explain two-way trade in terms of a key feature of monopolistic competition and some cases of oligopoly: product differentiation. Suppose two countries have similar endowments of factors of production and technologies available to them, but their products are differentiated—clocks produced by different manufacturers, for example, are different. Consumers in the United States buy some clocks produced in Switzerland, just as consumers in Switzerland purchase some clocks produced in the United States. Indeed, if two countries are similar in their relative endowments of factors of production and in the technologies available to them, two-way trade based on product differentiation is likely to be more significant than one-way trade based on comparative advantage.
In comparison to the expansion of one-way trade based on comparative advantage, expansion of two-way trade may entail lower adjustment costs. In the case of two-way trade, there is specialization within industries rather than movement of factors of production out of industries that compete with newly imported goods and into export industries. Such adjustments are likely to be faster and less painful for labor and for the owners of the capital and natural resources involved.
Because two-way trade often occurs in the context of imperfect competition, we cannot expect it to meet the efficiency standards of one-way trade based on comparative advantage and the underlying assumption of perfectly competitive markets. But, as we discussed in the chapter on imperfect competition, the inefficiency must be weighed against the benefits derived from product differentiation. People in the United States are not limited to buying only the kinds of cars produced in the United States, just as people in Japan are not limited to buying only cars produced in Japan.
- Specialization and trade according to comparative advantage leads to one-way trade.
- A large percentage of trade among countries with similar factor endowments is two-way trade, in which countries import and export the same or similar goods and services.
- Two-way trade is often explained by variations in transportation costs and seasonal factors; in similar goods it often occurs in the context of models of imperfect competition.
- Adjustment costs associated with expansion of two-way trade may be lower than for expansion of one-way trade.
The text argues that two-way trade must be a result of transportation cost, climate, or imperfect competition. Explain why.
Case in Point: Two- Way Trade in Water: A Growth Industry
© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation
In the 1930s, the successful introduction into the United States of French-made Perrier showed that U.S. consumers were open to a “new” bottled beverage. Since then, the U.S. bottled water business has taken off and bottled water is now the second largest commercial beverage category by volume, after carbonated soft drinks.
Seeing the increased popularity of bottled water, both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola launched their own bottled water brands, Aquafina and Dasani, respectively. Both of these brands are made from purified tap water. Dasani has minerals added back into it; Aquafina does not. Other brands of water come from springs or artesian wells. While domestic brands of water have multiplied, Americans still drink some imported brands. Representing only about 3% of the U.S. market, the volume of imported water nonetheless has about doubled in the last five years.
And U.S. bottled water companies are also eyeing markets in other countries. As New York Times columnist and book author Thomas Friedman noted as he was being shown around a customer call center in Bangalore, India, the water on the desktops of the telemarketers was none other than Coke’s Dasani.
Whether the differences in brands of water are perceived or real, it may not be too long before restaurants develop water lists next to their beer and wine lists. In the U.S. and in other countries around the world, there is likely to be a domestic section and an imported section on those lists. Two-way trade in water seems destined to be a growth industry for some time to come.
Sources: Thomas L. Friedman, “What Goes Around…” The New York Times, February 26, 2004, p. A27; Tom McGrath and Kate Dailey, “Liquid Assets,” Men’s Health 19:2 (March 2004): 142–49; Statistics from Beverage Marketing Corporation at www.bottledwater.org/public/Stats_2004.doc.
Answer to Try It! Problem
In the absence of one of these factors, there would only be one-way, or interindustry, trade, which would take place according to comparative advantage, as described in the first section of this chapter, with a country specializing in and exporting the goods in which it has a comparative advantage and importing goods in which it does not. Efficiency differences would be the only basis for trade. | <urn:uuid:77195d99-b308-4383-bc84-4ee5a876e1b9> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:23",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9517303705215454,
"score": 2.84375,
"token_count": 1740,
"url": "http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/21?cid=&e=rittenberg-ch17_s03"
} |
Updated at 9:45 p.m. with figures provided by the Bachmann campaign
Ottumwa, Ia. – Michele Bachmann told a crowd here that growing tax burdens have undermined the American middle class and forced both parents into the workforce.
To support her argument, she said tax rates in 1950 were just 5 percent – a fraction of the overall tax rate today.
“The average amount of taxes that the average family (paid) was 5 percent overall,” Bachmann said.
With taxes that low, she continued, her father’s salary from the Air Force was enough to support her entire family. “A sergeant could have a wife and four children and the wife didn’t have to work because you paid 5 percent for your overall tax burden.”
But her figures do not appear to be accurate. According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, the overall tax rate in 1950 was actually 24.6 percent – almost five times the rate cited by Bachmann and just 3.1 percent less than the 2011 tax rate of 27.7 percent.
The apparent error undermines Bachmann’s central point, which is that the tax burden is primarily responsible for forcing both parents to work and other substantial changes to middle-class financial life over the past several decades.
The Bachmann campaign responded this afternoon that the 5-percent figure comes from the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, and that Bachmann has cited it for several years.
This evening, a campaign spokeswoman provided two documents that she said were the sources Bachmann relied on when making her comments. The spreadsheets, which contained no information identifying their source, show federal, state and local tax receipts as a percentage of the United States’ gross domestic product over the last several decades.
One of the documents shows that federal receipts on individual income taxes represented 5.8 percent of national GDP in 1950 — meaning that the total of all individual income taxes paid to the federal government amounted to 5.8 percent of the value of all goods and services produced within the United States in that year.
But correlating figures that encompass the entire economy — like total income taxes paid and GDP — to the tax burden and incomes of the “average” family overlooks several complexities.
For one, income tax rates vary depending on a taxpayer’s income and whether they qualify for deductions and other tax breaks. Under the progressive income-tax system, moreover, high-income earners pay more in individual income taxes than do “average” income earners.
And more significantly, GDP encompasses the entire economy — including corporate profits and investment income — not just household incomes. If individual income taxes paid were calculated as a percentage of household incomes, the number would naturally be higher than 5.8 percent, since household incomes are just one part of the total GDP.
OTHER THEMES: After Bachmann repeated her call for the repeal of the federal health care law passed in 2010, a young man in the audience asked whether she would preserve the law’s ban on health insurers denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
No, she said, because barring insurers from denying such coverage makes coverage for everyone more expensive.
“Insurance companies know with this preexisting conditions thing that they have to jack up their rates to pay for everyone,” Bachmann said. “That’s also a cost to everyone who’s in this room.”
The man who asked the question, Brett Livengood of Dubuque, said he was disappointed that Bachmann didn’t have a plan to preserve coverage for those with preexisting conditions. Her solution seemed to be that the free market would work out that problem, he said. But that’s how things were before the law was passed, and the market simply excluded coverage for those people or charged them unaffordable rates.
On Immigration, Bachmann suggested the federal government could pass a law barring citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants. “We’ve got to end this anchor-baby program,” she said.
SETTING: The Bridge View Center, Ottumwa.
CROWD: About 60.
THE CANDIDATE’S DAY: Bachmann addressed a church congregation in Fairfield Saturday morning before holding the town-hall in Ottumwa and was scheduled to hold a second town-hall in Oskaloosa later in the afternoon.
PLACE IN THE RACE: Today’s events continue a three-day swing through southeast Iowa, which Bachmann hasn’t visited since before the Iowa Straw Poll. She followed Highway 61 through Davenport, Muscatine and Burlington on Friday and will address another church congregation in Marion tomorrow. Reaching out to evangelicals is seen as critical for Bachmann, who has fallen sharply in the polls since winning the August straw poll. Socially conservative Christians are famously enthusiastic caucus participants and potentially could boost a candidate otherwise unpopular with the Republican base. | <urn:uuid:08c0710a-ad9d-4728-a35c-757c5e0912d0> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:44:55",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9719260931015015,
"score": 2.59375,
"token_count": 1031,
"url": "http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/10/29/michele-bachmann-misstates-tax-burdens-in-ottumwa-appearance/"
} |
I believe that, from the perspective of the C++ Standard, there is no difference between #include "xyz.h" and #include "xyz.cpp" if they both contain the same thing. In practice, an IDE might create the makefile (or other build script) such that "xyz.cpp" is compiled even when it should not be, possibly leading to redefinition errors.
SQLite's amalgamation is an example of an optimisation where the final source code is generated from the various header files and source files such that it becomes one big source file. This might be a better way than trying to develop by including (non-header) source files all over the place.
But it can.Quote:
It would be truly amazing of the Microsoft compiler if it can do that.
I cannot say for sure, but usually when compiling a Release, it is a pretty long process and many files are typically re-compiled, and during a Debug build, you do not use optimizations.Quote:
But is that to say every time a cpp file is changed, the whole project needs to be recompiled? Since that's the only way cross-file inlining can be done?
But I think the optimization is done at the linker stage, so perhaps only the linking stage needs to be redone.
For one thing, it is considered bad practice to include source files. Not that it is really such a bad thing if used like this, but anyway.Quote:
If that is the case... then what's the difference between that and including cpp files? (and keeping dummy header files for human reference, or include all headers before all cpp's?)
Secondly, the entire code base is completely re-compiled everytime, even if nothing has changed in those source files.
Thirdly, I guess there will be complications, such as global variables with internal linkage, and such. Probably much more.
Not sure what you are hinting at?Quote:
I thought one of the main advantages of using headers is that the project can be incrementally compiled.
I think we should not call it "linking" when we're talking of "inlining from all of the source code", because what really happens is that the compiler is doing the work in two or three steps. The first step involves reading and "understanding" the source code. The second step involves generating the actual binary code. In the case of "whole program optimization", you'd only spend a little bit of time parsing the code and making some intermediate form that can be used for producing the final binary. But certainly, some of the steps in the actual code generation step will involve quite a bit of "hard work" for the processor, compared to just linking together already compiled object files. But for a total build from scratch, I'd expect that it's not much difference. And as Elysia says, most development is done in debug builds, where very little time is spent on optimization. | <urn:uuid:2f3a7e6a-1591-4c19-b893-45b791782dd2> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:44:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9495570063591003,
"score": 2.75,
"token_count": 619,
"url": "http://cboard.cprogramming.com/cplusplus-programming/108926-separating-files-classes-thier-implemenation-2-print.html"
} |
Build Your Own Simple Random Numbers
Liam O’Connor got me thinking about the best way to explain the idea of a pseudo-random number generator to new programmers. This post is my answer. If you already understand them, there won’t be anything terribly new here. That said, I enjoy clean examples even for easy ideas, so if you do too, then read on!
Note: The title may have caused some confusion. I’m not suggesting you use the trivial algorithms provided here for any purpose. Indeed, they are intentionally over-simplified to make them more understandable. You should read this as an explanation of the idea of how generating random numbers works, and then use the random number generators offered by your operating system or your programming language, which are far better than what’s provided here.
Suppose you’re writing a puzzle game, and you need to choose a correct answer. Or suppose you are writing a role-playing game, and need to decide if the knight’s attack hits the dragon or deflects off of its scales. Or you’re writing a tetris game, and you need to decide what shape is going to come next. In all three of these situations, what you really want is a random number. Random numbers aren’t the result of any formula or calculation; they are completely up to chance.
Well, here’s the sad truth of the matter: computers can’t do that. Yes, that’s right. Picking random numbers is one of those tasks that confound even the most powerful of computers. Why? Because computers are calculating machines, and we just said that random numbers aren’t the result of any calculation!
Of course, you’ve probably played games on a computer before that seem to pick numbers at random, so you may not believe me. What you’re seeing, though, aren’t really random numbers at all, but rather pseudo-random numbers. Pseudo-random numbers are actually the result of a mathematical formula, but one designed to be so complicated that it would be hard to recognize any pattern in its results!
Writing a Pseudo Random Number Generator
A lot of smart people actually spend a lot of time on good ways to pick pseudo-random numbers. They try a bunch of different complicated formulas, and try to make sure that patterns don’t pop up. But we can build a simple one pretty easily to pick pseudo-random numbers from 1 to 10. Here it is, in the programming language Haskell:
random i = 7 * i `mod` 11
Since it’s a function, it needs to have an input. It then multiplies that input by 7, and then finds the remainder when dividing by 11. We’ll give it the previous number it picked as input, and it will give us back the next one. Suppose we start at 1. Then we get the following:
random 1 -> 7 random 7 -> 5 random 5 -> 2 random 2 -> 3 random 3 -> 10 random 10 -> 4 random 4 -> 6 random 6 -> 9 random 9 -> 8 random 8 -> 1
Let’s look at the range of answers. Since the answer is always a remainder when dividing by 11, it’ll be somewhere between 0 and 10. But it should be pretty easy to convince ourselves that if the number we give as input is between 1 and 10, then 0 isn’t a possibile answer: if it were, then we’d have found two numbers, both less than 11, that multiply together to give us a multiple of 11. That’s impossible because…. 11 is prime. So we’re guaranteed that this process picks numbers between 1 and 10. It seems to pick them in a non-obvious order with no really obvious patterns, so that’s good. We appear to have at least a good start on generating random numbers.
Notice a couple things:
- We had to pick somewhere to start. In this case, we started out by giving an input of 1. That’s called the seed. If you use the same seed, you’ll always get the exact same numbers back! Why? Because it’s really just a complicated math problem, so if you do the same calculation with the same numbers, you’ll get the same result.
- To get the next number, we have to remember something (in our case, the last answer) from the previous time. That’s called the state. The state is important, because it’s what makes the process give you different answers each time! If you didn’t remember something from the last time around, then you’d again be doing the same math problem with the same numbers, so you’d get the same answer.
Doing Better By Separating State
Unfortunately, our random number generator has a weakness: you can always predict what’s coming next, based on what came before. If you write tetris using the random number generator from earlier, your player will soon discover that after a line, they always get an L shape, and so on. What you really want is for your game to occasionally send them a line followed by a T, or even pick two lines in a row from time to time!
How do we do this? Well, the next answer that’s coming depends on the state, so our mistake before was to use the previous answer as the state. The solution is to use a state that’s bigger than the answer. We’ll still be looking for random numbers from 1 to 10, but let’s modify the previous random number generator to remember a bigger state. Now, since state and answer are different things, our random function will have two results: a new state, and an answer for this number.
random i = (j, ans) where j = 7 * i `mod` 101 ans = (j - 1) `mod` 10 + 1 -- just the ones place, but 0 means 10
That says take the input, multiply by 7, and find the remainder mod 101. Since 101 is still prime, this will always give answers from 1 to 100. But what we really wanted was a number from 1 to 10, just like the one we had before. That’s fine: we’ll just take the ones place (which is between 0 and 9) and treat 0 as 10. The tens place doesn’t really change the answer at all, but we keep it around to pass back in the next time as state.
Let’s see how this works:
random 1 -> ( 7, 7) random 7 -> (49, 9) random 49 -> (40, 10) random 40 -> (78, 8) random 78 -> (41, 1) random 41 -> (85, 5) random 85 -> (90, 10) random 90 -> (24, 4) random 24 -> (67, 7) random 67 -> (65, 5) random 65 -> (51, 1)
Excellent! Now instead of going in a fixed rotation, some numbers are picked several times, and some haven’t been picked yet at all (but they will be, if we keep going), and you can no longer guess what’s coming next just based on the last number you saw. In this random number generator, the seed was still 1, and the state was a number from 1 to 100.
People who are really interested in good random numbers sometimes talk about the period of a pseudo-random number generator. The period is how many numbers it picks before it starts over again and gives you back the same sequence. Our first try had a period of 10, which is rather poor. Our second try did much better: the period was 100. That’s still pretty far off, though, from the random number generators in most computers, the period of which can be in the millions or billions.
Real World Pseudo-Random Number Generators
Our two toy pseudo-random number generators were fun, but you wouldn’t use them in real programs. That’s because operating systems and programming languages already have plenty of ways to generate pseudo-random numbers. And those were created by people who probably have more time to think about random numbers than you do! But some of the same ideas come up there. For example, consider this (specialized) type signature for the random function in the Haskell programming language:
random :: StdGen -> (Int, StdGen)
Look familiar? StdGen is the state, and choosing a random Int gives you back the Int, and a new StdGen that you can use to get more pseudo-random numbers! Many programming languages, including Haskell, also have “global” random number generators that remember their state automatically (in Haskell, that is called randomIO), but under the covers, it all comes down to functions like the ones we’ve written here… except a lot more complex.
Where To Get a Seed
We’ve still left one question unanswered: where does the seed come from? So far, we’ve always been using 1 for the seed, but that means that each time the program runs, it will get the same numbers back. So we end up with a similar situation to what we saw before, where players will realize that a game starts with the same sequence of random events each time.
To solve this problem, the seed should come from somewhere that won’t be the same each time. Here are two different ways to seed a random number generator.
- Mostly, pseudo-random number generators are seeded from a clock. Imagine if you looked at the second hand on a clock, used it to get a number from 1 to 60, and used that for your seed. Then the game would only act the same if it started at the same number of seconds. Even better, you could take the number of seconds since some fixed time in the past, so you’d get an even bigger difference in seeds. (Entirely by coincidence, computers often use the number of seconds since January 1, 1970.)
- You might try to get a good seed from details of the way the user uses your program. For example, you can look at the exact place the user first clicks the mouse, or exactly how much time passes between pressing keys. They will most likely not be exact, and click a few pixels off or type ever so slightly slower, even if they are trying to do exactly the same thing. So, again, you get a program that acts differently each time. This is called using entropy.
Most of the time, using the computer’s built-in clock is okay. But suppose you’re making up a code word. It would be very bad if someone could guess your code word just by knowing when you picked it! (They would also need to know how your computer or programming language picks random numbers, but that’s not normally kept secret; they can probably find that out pretty easily.) Computer security and privacy often depends on picking unpredictable random numbers — ones that people snooping on you won’t be able to guess. In that case, it’s important that you use some kind of entropy, and not just the clock. In fact, when security is at stake, you can use entropy to modify the state as well, to make sure things don’t get too predictable. Most operating systems have special ways of getting “secure” random numbers that handle this for you.
Another example of entropy:
If you play the game Dragon Warrior for the Nintendo, but use an emulator instead of a real Nintendo, then you can save a snapshot of your game before you fight a monster, memorize what the monsters are going to do, and figure out exactly the right way to respond. When you load the game from the snapshot and try again, as long as you do the same things, the monster will respond in exactly the same way! That’s because the snapshot saves the state of the random number generator, so when you go back and load from the snapshot, the computer picks the same random numbers. So if a fight against a monster is going well but you make a disastrous move at the end, you can load your snapshot and repeat the exact same fight up to that point.
The same trick doesn’t work in Dragon Warrior 2 (or later ones), though! Why not? Because the company that makes the game started using entropy in their sequel. So now little things like exactly how long you wait between pressing buttons will change the game. Since you can’t possibly time everything exactly the same down to hundredths or thousandths of a second, the task is hopeless, and you have to just take your chances and trust to luck.
So as you can see, random numbers can become a very tricky topic. But ultimately it’s all just a complicated formula, a seed, and a state. | <urn:uuid:072e90a7-3e97-43ff-8d9b-0e6fef14a575> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9422963261604309,
"score": 3.28125,
"token_count": 2714,
"url": "http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/build-your-own-simple-random-numbers/?like=1&_wpnonce=e775df7899"
} |
|Name, Symbol, Number|| krypton, Kr, 36
|Chemical series||noble gases|
|Group, Period, Block||18, 4, p|
|Appearance|| colorless |
|Atomic mass||83.798(2) g/mol|
|Electron configuration||[Ar] 3d10 4s2 4p6|
|Electrons per shell||2, 8, 18, 8|
|Density|| (0 °C, 101.325 kPa)|
|Melting point|| 115.79 K|
(-157.36 °C, -251.25 °F)
|Boiling point|| 119.93 K|
(-153.22 °C, -243.8 °F)
|Critical point||209.41 K, 5.50 MPa|
|Heat of fusion||1.64 kJ·mol−1|
|Heat of vaporization||9.08 kJ·mol−1|
|Heat capacity||(25 °C) 20.786 J·mol−1·K−1|
|Crystal structure||cubic face centered|
|Electronegativity||3.00 (Pauling scale)|
| Ionization energies|
|1st: 1350.8 kJ·mol−1|
|2nd: 2350.4 kJ·mol−1|
|3rd: 3565 kJ·mol−1|
|Atomic radius (calc.)||88 pm|
|Covalent radius||110 pm|
|Van der Waals radius||202 pm|
|Thermal conductivity||(300 K) 9.43 mW·m−1·K−1|
|Speed of sound||(gas, 23 °C) 220 m/s|
|Speed of sound||(liquid) 1120 m/s|
|CAS registry number||7439-90-9|
Krypton (IPA: /ˈkrɪptən/ or /ˈkrɪptan/) is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. A colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, krypton occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere, is isolated by fractionating liquefied air, and is often used with other rare gases in fluorescent lamps. Krypton is inert for most practical purposes but it is known to form compounds with fluorine. Krypton can also form clathrates with water when atoms of it are trapped in a lattice of the water molecules.
Notable characteristics Edit
Krypton, a noble gas due to its very low chemical reactivity, is characterized by a brilliant green and orange spectral signature. It is one of the products of uranium fission. Solidified krypton is white and crystalline with a face-centered cubic crystal structure which is a common property of all "rare gases".
In 1960 an international agreement defined the metre in terms of light emitted from a krypton isotope. This agreement replaced the longstanding standard metre located in Paris which was a metal bar made of a platinum-iridium alloy (the bar was originally estimated to be one ten millionth of a quadrant of the earth's polar circumference). But only 23 years later, the Krypton-based standard was replaced itself by the speed of light—the most reliable constant in the universe. In October 1983 the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) defined the metre as the distance that light travels in a vacuum during 1/299,792,458 s.
Like the other noble gases, krypton is widely considered to be chemically inert. Following the first successful synthesis of xenon compounds in 1962, synthesis of krypton difluoride was reported in 1963. Other fluorides and a salt of a krypton oxoacid have also been found. ArKr+ and KrH+ molecule-ions have been investigated and there is evidence for KrXe or KrXe+.
There are 32 known isotopes of krypton. Naturally occurring krypton is made of five stable and one slightly radioactive isotope. Krypton's spectral signature is easily produced with some very sharp lines. 81Kr is the product of atmospheric reactions with the other naturally occurring isotopes of krypton. It is radioactive with a half-life of 250,000 years. Like xenon, krypton is highly volatile when it is near surface waters and 81Kr has therefore been used for dating old (50,000 - 800,000 year) groundwater. 85Kr is an inert radioactive noble gas with a half-life of 10.76 years, that is produced by fission of uranium and plutonium. Sources have included nuclear bomb testing, nuclear reactors, and the release of 85Kr during the reprocessing of fuel rods from nuclear reactors. A strong gradient exists between the northern and southern hemispheres where concentrations at the North Pole are approximately 30% higher than the South Pole due to the fact that most 85Kr is produced in the northern hemisphere, and north-south atmospheric mixing is relatively slow.
Krypton fluoride laser Edit
- For more details on this topic, see Krypton fluoride laser.
The compound will decompose once the energy supply stops. During the decomposition process, the excess energy stored in the excited state complex will be emitted in the form of strong ultraviolet laser radiation.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory - Krypton
- USGS Periodic Table - Krypton
- "Chemical Elements: From Carbon to Krypton" By: David Newton & Lawrence W. Baker
- "Krypton 85: a Review of the Literature and an Analysis of Radiation Hazards" By: William P. Kirk
|This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Krypton. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Chemistry, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.| | <urn:uuid:dd2b7efe-0dbd-42a5-b50d-781bb9434163> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:30:14",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.860314130783081,
"score": 3.28125,
"token_count": 1260,
"url": "http://chemistry.wikia.com/wiki/Krypton"
} |
Low birthweight in newborns
Low birthweight is a term used to describe babies who are born weighing less than 3 pounds, 4 ounces.
- The average newborn weighs about 7.6 pounds
- About 7.6 percent of all newborns in the United States have low birthweight.
- The overall rate of these very small babies is increasing, primarily because of the increase in multiple birth babies, who tend to be born earlier and weigh less. More than half of multiple birth babies have low birthweight.
How Boston Children's Hospital approaches low birthweight
The Infant Follow-Up Program is designed for infants born very prematurely, who weigh less than 3.3 lbs and are at high risk for development and motor delays and other problems resulting from prematurity. Our program follows children from the time of discharge until they reach age 3 to 4. The multi-disciplinary Infant Follow-Up team includes pediatricians, neonatologists, pediatric psychologists, physical therapists, social workers and if needed, pediatric neurologists. | <urn:uuid:85d7747a-57b1-4f9d-9f67-fc3d225b8e5a> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:56",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9585222601890564,
"score": 3.015625,
"token_count": 209,
"url": "http://childrenshospital.org/az/Site1247/mainpageS1247P0.html"
} |
Lent is a period of penance in preparation for Triduum (Maundy Thurs. through Easter Sun). The faithful are encouraged to increase their works of mercy and decrease their self-indulgence. It begins on Ash Wednesday, which is 40 days (minus Sundays) before the Triduum.
So called because it invokes the ancient practice of covering oneself in ashes when in morning. Often it is accompanied by, "Thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return." As a side note: the ashes are generally from (at least in part), the palms of the previous Palm Sunday.
Well, "Mardi gras" means "Fat Tuesday" in French, so there's that.
Fats and fatty foods are often given up for Lent (at one point abstaining from all meat was a requirement), but fat will go rancid if it is left out for all of Lent. So, instead of letting it go to waste, it would be used for cooking. Often this would mean that there would be a rich supper immediately before Ash Wednesday.
It is called, "Carnevale" because that, originally, was "Carne vale," which means, roughly, "without meat." I believe the relationship with "Fat Tuesday" would be obvious (for more ways of saying the same thing, look up Shrove Tuesday).
Unfortunately, with the rise of secularism, this tradition became bloated and corrupt, and eventually lead to the depravities which can be seen in New Orleans.
We all know what Easter is... I hope. It is the Teutonic name for an ancient pagan festival, brought to mean the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, apparently because the German speakers were too lazy to use the word pasch, which is what it is called in basically every other language on earth. | <urn:uuid:bc4afcd2-eac6-4ebd-b3bf-ea3b228093ff> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:24:07",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.971449077129364,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 377,
"url": "http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/6184/what-is-the-connection-between-mardi-gras-fat-tuesday-ash-wednesday-lent-etc/6187"
} |
Recently, swine flu was the lead article on all major financial media across the globe as markets opened in sequence from Asia to Europe to North America. Invariably, the articles were dire with presumptions that the disease would at best delay economic recovery and at worst send economies worldwide into a tailspin.
Along with the lead articles were tangents that pork prices would collapse and sales of surgical masks would skyrocket.
I do not recommend kissing sick Mexican pigs, but the near hysterical media sensationalism with unwarranted presumptions deserves some mention:
The disease is not transmitted by eating pork. The Centers for Disease Control says that viruses are so small that they flow easily through surgical masks. And, there is no direct correlation between pandemics (or epidemics), real or threatened, and stock pricing.
Sometimes, stock prices even go up. For example, during the big one (Spanish flu of 1918 estimated to have killed 50 million people) the Dow gained more than 15 percent.
The public needs to be informed, but it would be nice to place events in a mature, factual framework. We don't know how many people threw out their pork chops, donned a mask or prepared for imminent financial Armageddon. We do know the president in a fatherly manner told the public to stay calm and wash their hands, the vice president stated he is frightened to fly on commercial airplanes in fear of contracting the disease, and the pork producers had the name changed from swine flu to H1N1 virus.
To the chagrin of some in the sensationalized media, the Dow industrial average and S&P 500 (usual institutional benchmark) have advanced seven of the past eight weeks.
For the month of April, the S&P gained 9.4 percent, its best monthly performance in nine years. Combine March and April, the S&P had its best two-month period (+18.7 percent) since 1975. Since the March 9 lows, the Dow has gained approximately 25 percent; the S&P 500 gained approximately 95 percent. Early stages of the advance were of a magnitude not seen since the 1930s.
There is no way to comprehend the current condition without full recognition that the amount of stimulus measures (additional money supply already created with more likely) is the most massive in history. The money has to go somewhere.
Worth notation, the advance of 1938 (to which the advance of March lows is similar) occurred when rules were imposed against manipulative short selling. This time, the advance ignited on the same day, leadership in both the House and Senate announced their recognition of the existence and effects of manipulative short-selling practices.
They also threatened legislation if the Securities and Exchange Commission continued to favor short selling by both changing and failing to enforce trading rules designed to thwart manipulative short-selling practices.
It is rare for abusive trading practices to gain such publicity. Many high profile people and entities are being featured, but praise is deserved for Congressman Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., for his tenacious efforts in initiating momentum against corrupt practices. No matter what the SEC does or does not do, the massive additional money supply created by historical stimulus actions (domestic and international) is not going away.
Here are some additional "factoids" worth pondering courtesy of By The Numbers, May 4, 2009, edition:
_ The findings of the Treasury Department's "stress tests" completed on 19 large U.S. banks were released recently. Secretary Tim Geithner originally announced the tests on Feb. 10. The banks were put through financial simulations to determine if they could survive a two-year economic slump that included national unemployment rates above 10 percent and an additional drop in home prices of 25 percent from today.
_ Since 1950, the highest marginal tax bracket for individuals has ranged from a high of 92 percent (1953) to a low of 28 percent (1990). The highest individual marginal tax bracket is 35 percent today.
_ Finally speaking of pork, the 2010 midterm elections
are less than 18 months away. All 435 members of the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 U.S. senators will be up for re-election on Nov. 2, 2010.
This column is for informational purposes only and should not be used as the primary basis for an investment decision. Consult an advisor for your personal situation.
James D. Hallett, investment advisor representative, offers advisory services through Hallett & Associates, P.S., a registered investment advisor.
Registered representative, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, a broker/dealer (Member FINRA/SiPC).
Cambridge and Hallett & Associates, P.S., are not affiliated.
The Sequim Gazette is located at 147 W. Washington Street in Sequim.
Business hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Phone 360-683-3311, or toll free at 800-829-5810. FAX 360-683-6670.
For a complete company directory with contact information please click HERE. | <urn:uuid:194b8abb-ad10-44e9-9998-d9b080f19e9f> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:44:38",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9641153812408447,
"score": 2.765625,
"token_count": 1041,
"url": "http://[email protected]/news/article.exm/2009-05-13_this_little_piggy_went_to_market"
} |
The Donald E. Miller Wildlife Area is a 16.5 acre area located on the north bank of the White River, on the west side of Muncie. It is a site for nature study and environmental sciences field experiences for students from pre-K through college. The Miller area is a remnant of White River bottomland that was isolated when the Army Corps of Engineers straightened the river channel and constructed a leveein the late 1940s.
This preserve contains a diversity of plants, animals, and habitat types, all located within a small area that is easily accessible to the university and Muncie communities. An oxbow pond, created when the old river channel was isolated by the levee, is located within the preserve. The pond is shallow, has high organic matter level, and due to extensive duckweed in the growing season, has low oxygen levels. Turtles and amphibians inhabit the pond area, as well as a few fish species that are tolerant of the conditions. A mature bottomland forest of predominantly sycamore and hackberry trees occupies a relatively flat river terrace east of the pond. The transitional status of the woods along a topographic moisture gradient, and the presence of the oxbow pond, creates a diverse habitat conducive to the presence of a large number of bird species. Over the last three decades, the rich understory has given way to two invasive exotic plant species, bush honeysuckle and garlic mustard.Due to its proximity to the Ball State University campus and easy access to the property, it has remained an important destination for NREM classes and researches interested in birds.There are no public programs and visit is by permission only.
Copyright © 2013 Ball State University 2000 W. University Ave. Muncie, IN 47306
800-382-8540 and 765-289-1241 | <urn:uuid:fc64009a-7a11-4e56-830c-331979b9c7be> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:39:12",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9514090418815613,
"score": 2.609375,
"token_count": 371,
"url": "http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/FSEEC/Properties/DonaldEMillerWildlifeArea.aspx"
} |
Researchers have recently been trying to discover if pretending has implications for child development. When we see kids at play we are reminded that children live in a far more wondrous, whimsical world than the rest of us. A pile of wooden blocks is a vast city, and some sticks the inhabitants. Indeed, often about the time babies begin to walk and talk, they also begin to pretend--giving a stuffed animal a sip from their cup or covering up a doll for sleep. There are definite indications that having a good imagination translates into more creativity as an adult but is it possible to connect pretend play and the ability to get along socially in the world? Researchers are specifically looking at whether pretend play facilitates the development of children’s theory of mind- the ability to understand that others have thoughts and feelings all their own. "It's been a big focus of research recently and some of the work is really fascinating," says developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik, PhD, of the University of California at Berkeley. "The only downside is, no one has an answer yet." There are studies being done examining how well and at what stage children distinguish reality from fantasy and theories are being developed about the role of imagination and pretend play in child development. For now, the questions are mainly academic, but some day the answers could lead to a better grasp of how imaginative play influences how well children get on in the world. | <urn:uuid:5fa712c1-490b-440f-84e5-f9d2152810bf> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:17",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9727597832679749,
"score": 3.09375,
"token_count": 282,
"url": "http://cognitivepsychologyisfun.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html"
} |
When spraying pesticides, don't let others get your drift.
"It is bad enough when your drift damages your crops, your lawn or your garden. But when the damage is to your neighbor's field or flowerbeds, then you've got a real problem," says Erdal Ozkan, an Ohio State University Extension agricultural engineer.
Spray drift is one of the more serious problems pesticide applicators have to deal with. Three-fourths of the agriculture-related complaints investigated by the Ohio Department of Agriculture in 2003 involved drift.
"This shows the seriousness of the problem," Ozkan says. "Drift will be even a bigger problem in the future since there is an increase in acreage of genetically modified crops and use of non-selective herbicides for weed control. Even a small amount of these non-selective herbicides can cause serious damage on the crop nearby that is not genetically modified."
Drift is the movement of a pesticide through air, during or after application, to a site other than the intended site of application. It not only wastes expensive pesticides and damages non-target crops nearby, but also poses a serious health risk to people living in areas where drift is occurring.
"Eliminating drift completely is impossible," Ozkan says. "However, it can be reduced to a minimum if chemicals are applied with good judgment and proper selection and operation of application equipment."
Major factors influencing drift include spray characteristics, equipment/application techniques, weather conditions and operator skill and care.
"Conscientious sprayer operators rarely get into drift problems. They understand the factors that influence drift and do everything possible to avoid them," Ozkan said.
Spraying under excessive wind conditions is the most common factor affecting drift. "The best thing to do is not to spray under windy conditions. If you don't already have one, get yourself a reliable wind speed meter as soon as possible. Only then can you find out how high the wind speed is," Ozkan says.
After wind speed, spray droplet size is the most important factor affecting drift. Research has shown that there is a rapid decrease in the drift potential of droplets whose diameters are greater than approximately 200 microns – or about twice the thickness of human hair.
"If operators of sprayers pay attention to wind direction and velocity, and have knowledge of droplet sizes produced by different nozzles, drift can be minimized," Ozkan says. "The ideal situation is to spray droplets that are all the same size, and larger than 200 microns. Unfortunately with the nozzles we use today, this is not on option. They produce droplets varying from just a few microns to more than 1,000 microns. The goal is to choose and operate nozzles that produce relatively fewer of the drift-prone droplets."
Using low-drift nozzles is one of the many options available to growers to reduce drift.
Following are other drift-reduction strategies to keep drift under control:
- Use nozzles that produce coarser droplets when applying pesticides on targets that do not require small, uniformly distributed droplets, such as systemic products, preplant soil incorporated applications and fertilizer applications.
- Keep spray volume up and use nozzles with larger orifices.
- Follow recent changes in equipment and technology, such as shields and air-assisted and electrostatic sprayers that are developed for drift reduction in mind.
- Keep the boom closer to the spray target. Nozzles with a wider spray angle will allow you to do that.
- Keep spray pressure down and make sure pressure gauges are accurate.
- Follow label recommendations to avoid drift with highly volatile pesticides.
- If you are not using low-drift nozzles, try adding Drift Retardant Adjuvants into your spray mixture.
- Avoid spraying on extremely hot, dry and windy days, especially if sensitive vegetation is nearby. Try spraying during mornings and late afternoons. Although it may not be practical, from the drift reduction perspective, the best time to spray is at night.
- Avoid spraying near sensitive crops that are downwind. Leave a buffer strip of 50-100 feet, and spray the strip later when the wind shifts.
"Good judgment can mean the difference between an efficient, economical application, or one that results in drift, damaging non-target crops and creating environmental pollution," Ozkan says. "The goal of a conscientious pesticide applicator should be to eliminate off-target movement of pesticides, no matter how small it may be." | <urn:uuid:2baa416a-e6aa-4bde-bda2-7e39a26129d2> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:46:33",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9391314387321472,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 938,
"url": "http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/pesticide-spray-drift-isnt-good-last-droplet"
} |
RMS TITANIC – Third Class or Steerage Passengers aboard the ill-fated liner.
Last photo taken of the RMS Titanic – Sailing away from Queenstown, Ireland.
The majority of the 700-plus steerage passengers on the RMS Titanic were emigrants. Only 25 percent of the Titanic’s third-class passengers survived, and of that 25 percent, only a fraction were men. By contrast, about 97 percent of first-class women survived the sinking of the Titanic.
Newspapers sensationalized the Titanic sinking with fabricated stories…
The term steerage originally referred to the part of the ship below-decks where the steering apparatus was located. However, over time, the term came to refer to the part of a passenger ship below-decks where third-class passengers were housed.
Third Class Ticket – RMS Titanic
On the Titanic, third-class passengers shared common bathrooms, ate in dining facilities with other third-class passengers, and slept in cabins four to a room.
By the standards of the day, the accommodations on the Titanic for third-class passengers were excellent. In fact, the Titanic provided nicer living conditions than many of the steerage passengers were accustomed to at home. It was said that the Titanic’s third-class accommodations resembled other steamships’ second-class accommodations:
• Third-class cabins on the Titanic had running water and electricity.
• Steerage passengers were provided with meals, which were a wonderful perk; most steamships that carried steerage passengers at the time required them to bring their own food.
• Passengers could clean up in their cabins in a washbasin. However, only two bathtubs served all 700-plus third-class men and women.
• Bunk beds in third class had mattresses, pillows, and blankets, but no sheets or pillowcases.
This fact wasn’t a problem because most third-class passengers, who were leaving their native lands forever to start over in America, had all their belongings with them, including their sheets and pillowcases. For these passengers, anything that the ship provided was a bonus that made the voyage more pleasant.
Titanic’s third-class dining room…
Third-class passengers ate three meals a day in two common dining rooms called the dining saloons. These rooms were located on F Deck between the second and third funnels, exactly two decks below the first-class dining room.
Third-class passengers did not get individual tables; they ate on rows of tables lined up next to each other. Combined, the two third-class dining saloons could hold only around 475 people, so diners were served in two seatings.
Titanic’s third-class entertainment options
(General Room Left) The Titanic provided the General Room, where steerage passengers could sit, read, play cards, and otherwise pass the time. Steerage passengers weren’t allowed into the areas of the ship boasting other entertainments, like the gymnasium or the pool, but they could have their own parties and dances.
The party scene in James Cameron’s 1997 movie Titanic offers a perfect example of the spontaneous gatherings in third class, complete with fiddle players and plenty of beer.
Interestingly, all the sitting surfaces in the General Room were made of wood. (Lice can’t find a home on slatted benches the way they can in fabric and upholstered surfaces.) Third-class men also had access to a smoking room complete with spittoons.
The RMS Titanic was build in Belfast as the second in a trio of sister-ships for the White Star Line, to operate the lucrative transatlantic run between Southampton and New York (via Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland). The RMS Titanic was the largest ship in the world at the time, eclipsing her 1-year-old sister ship RMS Olympic by just over 1,000-tons. (The cause of the weight gain between the two sisters had been extending one of the 1st class restaurants, enclosing the front half of the A-Deck Promenade, adding two larger suites with their own private verandas in 1st class on B-Deck, adding a Parisian café for 1st class passengers and making various adjustments to the 1st class bathrooms, such as installing extra marble baths and cigar holders next to the sinks.) Had she remained afloat, however, the Titanic would only have held the honor until May 1913, when a 52,000-ton German liner, SS Imperator, was launched into service for the Hamburg-Amerika Line.
Third Class Passengers on Deck – They provided strong revenue for the White Star Liner…
Although White Star realized that enormous sums of money could be made from providing the most luxurious 1st class accommodation onboard its flagships, as with all the transatlantic companies, a huge percentage of their profits would came from the booming immigrant trade between Europe and America, with most of the immigrants traveling in 3rd class – sometimes known as “Steerage.” Europe was already over-populated by 1912, particularly in its cities, and it was a place that had not altered much since the Congress of Vienna. To many it seemed that to triumph and become a man of enormous wealth when one was not born into it was the exception in Belle Époque Europe, not the rule. But America, on the other hand, was a vast continent, under-populated, new in comparison to the “Old Countries” and brimming with opportunities – either real or imagined. So, like the Olympic, the Titanic was designed to capitalize on the surge in transatlantic migration with room for 1,134 3rd-class passengers.
Unlike the slightly melodramatic view of impoverished but inexplicably cheery 3rd class passengers offered in James Cameron’s Titanic, the Olympic and Titanic’s steerage accommodation was both of a higher standard and therefore a higher cost than most other 3rd class cabins on smaller ships or upon White Star’s German rivals. (The cheapest 3rd class ticket cost as much as 3-4 weeks’ wages for a skilled labourer.) The result was that the White Star Line’s 3rd class clientele was usually upper working-class or lower middle class. A typical passenger would have been the likes of Frank Dean, who had purchased 3rd class tickets for himself, his wife and their two young children, when he decided to emigrate to join relatives in Kansas, where he could open a tobacco shop, much like he had in London.
The theory behind providing higher levels of comfort for its 3rd class passengers was, predictably, a commercial one for the White Star Line. Whilst many shipping companies showed no real interest in making provision for genuine comfort for its steerage passengers, since they were emigrating and were therefore unlikely to be “return” customers, White Star Line knew that many immigrants were later joined by their family and friends from the homeland and so by making sure their journey to the United States was as enjoyable as possible, White Star Line hoped they would recommend travelling on the Olympic or Titanic to their acquaintances, thus increasing the company’s future profits.
Captain Smith with officers aboard the RMS Titanic…
Third class passengers onboard the Titanic had access to a smoking room (male only), two dining rooms (above, divided in two by one of the ship’s bulkheads) and a general room, which functioned as a cross between a lounge and a nursery, although in the evening it became the recreational area. (It is there in the movie Titanic that Jack and Rose dance at the céilidh – although in reality, 1st class passengers were no more allowed to wander down to 3rd class than 3rd class were free to walk about 1st class.)
Cabins in 3rd class consisted of bunk beds for between 4 and 6 people, with a sink at the far end of the room and some small wardrobe space. An excellent reconstruction is pictured left from the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri. Private toilets in the ship’s cabins were unheard of and not even available in 2nd class and so large, clean, public toilets similar to what we might find in restaurants were provided, along with showers and baths. Food onboard the ship was simple but plentiful. The dinner served to 3rd class passengers on Sunday April 14th, destined to be the ship’s last day afloat, consisted of rice soup, fresh bread, biscuits, and roast beef with gravy, sweet corn, and boiled potatoes, followed by plum pudding, sweet sauce and fruit.
At the time of her maiden voyage, which began on Wednesday, April 10th 1912 in Southampton and after a collection of Irish passengers on the following day, the Titanic set out for New York with 708 3rd class passengers. Three days later, twenty minutes before midnight, the ship was involved in a side-on collision with an iceberg, which opened 300ft of the 882ft liner to the sea beneath the waterline. Two hours and forty minutes later, the ship disappeared beneath the waves with the loss of approximately 1,500 lives. As everybody knows, the percentage of 3rd class passengers saved, compared to those in 1st and 2nd class was appalling – of the 462 men in steerage, 75 survived; 76 of the 165 women escaped, along with only 27 of the 76 children.
The enormously high percentage of 3rd-class casualties led to the myth that they had been deliberately detained below deck until 1st- and 2nd-class passengers were boarded into the lifeboats. A version of events which was most memorably dramatized in movies like A Night to Remember and Titanic – A Night to Remember did, however, show that the passengers were eventually allowed up on deck, once the crew realized the ship was actually sinking, rather than just going through a temporary evacuation.
It is true that, at night, many gates in the ship were locked and that tragically this impeded the movements of some 3rd class passengers in trying to reach the Boat Deck. However, the real reason for the high percentage of 3rd class casualties was a lot less sinister, but nonetheless tragic: the 3rd class quarters were the cheapest onboard and, as such, they were located in the bottom section of the ship. As I have said, for some time after the collision, many members of the Titanic’s crew were unaware exactly what had happened – even some of the officers did not seem to know that the ship had suffered a fatal blow and it was not until an hour or maybe even an hour and a half after the collision that a list in the ship became truly noticeable. It therefore not only took the 3rd class passengers far longer to reach the lifeboats than the other passengers because of where their accommodation was, but they were also hampered by the fact that many of their stewards and stewardesses failed to impress upon them the gravity of the situation the Titanic was in.
Investigating the claim that it had been malice rather than incompetence which led to so many deaths in 3rd class, the British Enquiry into the disaster, chaired by Lord Mersey, concluded:
“It has been suggested before the Enquiry that the third-class passengers had been unfairly treated; that their access to the boat deck had been impeded; and that when at last they reached that deck the first and second-class passengers were given precedence in getting places in the boats. There appears to have been no truth in these suggestions. It is no doubt true that the proportion of third-class passengers saved falls far short of the proportion of the first and second class, but this is accounted for by the greater reluctance of the third-class passengers to leave the ship, by their unwillingness to part with their baggage, by the difficulty in getting them up from their quarters, which were at the extreme ends of the ship, and by other similar causes.”
When news of the Titanic disaster broke in Belfast, I can vividly remember my great-grandfather telling me when I was younger that in the Protestant working-class areas of the city, he could see grown men who worked in the Harland & Wolff shipyards, standing in the street crying at the loss of the “Great Ship.” He could still remember the song they sang to commemorate the loss and, at the distance of eighty years, the pride he took in his family having worked on the Titanic and her sisters was palpable.
The Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic, continued in service for the White Star Line for the next twenty years, continuing to turn great profits and eventually being joined in the 1920s by two new running mates for the transatlantic run – the 56,000-ton Majestic and the 34,000-ton Homeric. On most of her sailings between 1911 and 1934, when the Great Depression began to strangle the luxury liner trade, the Olympic regularly sailed with most of the cabins – in all three of her classes – booked. | <urn:uuid:89e8ee5a-6a8b-4e33-9ec9-8e4ae5fa5dee> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:24:57",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9850156903266907,
"score": 3.5,
"token_count": 2710,
"url": "http://cruiselinehistory.com/rms-titanic-third-class-or-steerage-passengers-aboard-the-ill-fated-liner/"
} |
Only 17 when the Nazis invaded his native Holland, Loet Velmans and his family escaped to London in 1940. From there they settled in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), where Velmans was drafted into the Dutch army just before the Japanese captured the archipelago. For three and a half years he toiled in slave-labor camps building the railway made famous by The Bridge on the River Kwai, surviving malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and unspeakable abuses that killed some 200,000 of his fellow laborers. Velmans returned to that place six decades later—an emotional pilgrimage that inspired this concise and frank account of his experiences and his later encounters with the Japanese in his business career.
"I was moved and fascinated by this well-remembered and impeccably written memoir."—Simon Winchester
"What makes Long Way Back to the River Kwai stand out in the endless stream of war reminiscences is an attempt to come to terms with the Japanese.... This candid, understated book is a useful contribution to our understanding of an essential truth."—Washington Post | <urn:uuid:a9dcf5f3-de33-4c66-ba96-74624ce57dee> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:11",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9700932502746582,
"score": 2.765625,
"token_count": 223,
"url": "http://daedalus-books.com/Products/Detail.asp?Media=Book&ProductID=99390&SubCategoryID=2153"
} |
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Survival of the Fittest or Altruistic Suicide?
The answer is that suicide at the cellular level doesn’t kill the whole organism. Such self destruction serves a range of purposes, from guiding development to keeping cancer at bay. In short, cell death in a multicellular organism can be a good thing.
But if cell suicide in multicellular organisms passes the evolutionary test, what about recent findings of suicide in unicellular organisms? New genome data from the Great Barrier Reef demosponge (Amphimedon queenslandica) reveals high levels of unexpected complexity, for this lowly sponge has an impressive complement of genes. As one evolutionist put it, “This flies in the face of what we think of early metazoan evolution.”
Another evolutionist asked perhaps an even more telling question. “What I want to know now,” he asked, “is what were all these genes doing prior to the advent of sponge?”
That’s a good question because some of those genes are for programmed suicide. What this sponge genome apparently tells us is that programmed cell death would have to have arisen in single-cell organisms. Suicide at the cellular level did kill the whole organism—and that doesn’t make evolutionary sense.
With evolution what we must believe is that programmed cell death did not arise in multicellular species, but in unicellular species. In other words, an intricate, highly complex, set of tools and signals somehow arose and, rather than leading to enhanced survival as evolution calls for, they led to destruction. Evolutionists will need yet another one of their just-so stories to rationalize this. | <urn:uuid:480013de-4e7e-401e-8513-f40f95e08725> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:19",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9389477372169495,
"score": 2.6875,
"token_count": 354,
"url": "http://darwins-god.blogspot.ca/2010/08/survival-of-fittest-or-altruistic.html"
} |
“HELL,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in his play No Exit, “is other people”. But Satan, in Milton’s Paradise Lost, utters this anguished cry: “Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell.”
He goes on: “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.”
Both quotes are drawn from the recent Christmas edition of The Economist; this is my favourite end of the year read, containing as it does an eclectic collection of long articles on a variety of subjects. One such piece, ‘Into Everlasting Fire’, examines the evolution of the concept of hell across time and in different faiths.
I remember reading Dante’s Divine Comedy in my late teens. The classic work contains probably the most gruesome and vivid description of hell in literature. The section titled ‘The Inferno’ gives a detailed account of the nine circles of hell, ranging from the outer circle for unbaptised babies to the innermost one where Satan is frozen up till his neck.
There was no concept of hell in early Judaism, and it only made an appearance due to Hellenic influence. But even then the Jewish gehenna is more of a purgatory where souls are cleansed; whatever their deeds in life, they don’t stay in this waiting room for more than 12 months.
In medieval Christianity, the Vatican authorised the sale of ‘indulgences’ that helped to offset the buyer’s sins after he died. This device raised a lot of money for the Church, but was subject to much abuse as the rich used it as a licence to sin. In fact, this was one of the major aberrations that Martin Luther wanted to cleanse Christianity of. Having read of this practice at university, I was delighted to learn recently that it is still possible to buy indulgences online.
In a sense, this is not unlike our custom of asking the local mosque to send a group of students to recite from the Holy Book. We hope that after a relative’s death, this will help the dear departed to clear up some of his or her sins. We have all seen these young aspiring clerics racing through the sacred verses at funerals.
Note also the similarity between the Jewish gehenna and our jahannum. The latter, of course, is quite detailed in its description of everlasting torments, while in the New Testament the former is a reference to a rubbish dump that is always on fire and where the bodies of criminals are thrown.
Greek mythology contains many blood-curdling accounts of what happens to those who have offended the gods in this life. But most souls are placed in an indeterminate state where their days are spent in shadows and dark dreams. Ultimately they fade away. Hades, the god of the underworld, governs this part of creation, and his servant, Cerberus, the terrifying multi-headed dog, guards the way across the river Archon. Charon ferries souls from the world of the living, provided a gold coin is placed on the lips of the dead body.
Both Buddhism and Hinduism contain robust accounts of hell. Indeed, divine retribution in one form or another is the staple of most religions. It probably makes human suffering in this life more bearable if we can visualise the rich and powerful being subjected to everlasting torment.
Many of us have joked about preferring hell to heaven as the more interesting people will be there. In truth, it’s hard to imagine the likes of Sartre, Brigitte Bardot and Albert Camus — to name only a few I’d like to spend eternity with — being sent to heaven. So personally, I’ll settle for the demons and the hellfire if I am spared endless mealy-mouthed piety.
On a more serious note, I often used to wonder when I was young why a compassionate deity would inflict eternal pain on beings created in their maker’s image. The Anglican Church has resolved this dilemma by accepting that the Christian hell is metaphorical and not a real place. Other faiths downplay eternal damnation in these sceptical times.
After all, a lack faith should automatically doom the non-believer to perdition. And yet, in the recent census in England and Wales, only 59 per cent of the population declared themselves followers of any religion. This figure has declined from 72 per cent in the last census. So should the other 41 per cent go to hell after they die? It would certainly make for overcrowding …
Incidentally, out of the 59 per cent who declared they subscribed to a faith, many thousands put down Jedi Knights in the religion column. If they go over to the Dark Side in this life, will they be condemned to serve the evil Sith Lord forever?
Some fundamentalist Christians in the United States run ‘hell houses’ to introduce teenagers to the tortures of the damned. These contain sights and sounds from an imaginary hell intended to scare the young into believing in the real thing, thereby — in theory at least — bringing them closer to the faith. At one famous Buddhist temple I have visited in Sri Lanka, images of demons and the damned are painted on the walls. This, again, is intended to frighten those of feeble belief into accepting the gospel without questioning it.
The location of hell differs from faith to faith. The general consensus is that it is deep underground, near the hottest part of the earth’s core. Some speculate that as the sun generates the most intense heat known to us, that’s where hell is. For the Greeks, underground rivers like the Styx provided the entrance to hell. But wherever it is, it’s not a very pleasant place.
Reward and punishment are woven into the fabric of most religions: be good and go to heaven; sin, and it’s off to hell you go. In this Manichean view, there is little room for morality and ethics for their own sake. Our maker clearly views us as too weak and fallible to do good simply because it’s the right thing.
And while many around the world have discarded the notion of a literal hell, others believe in hellfire and brimstone. My personal vision of hell is being locked up with crowds of shoppers in a mall in Dubai for all eternity.
The writer is the author of Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam and the West. | <urn:uuid:0f4c45d3-2def-4230-943c-9493ea78aea1> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:32:34",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9418542385101318,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 1361,
"url": "http://dawn.com/2013/01/12/visions-of-hell/print/"
} |
Bat whatever the correct explanations Ï****, *«° facte stand
out la any survey ofiyriJtoday. One is th. hostility to the French
mandate which i. a^n stronger than it was in 1919. At that tl.e the
pro-?reneh minority was vigorous and oat-spoken. In the spriBgpfp** j
except far a few office holders of dubious character who are subsidised
by high salaries, the Syrians seemed almost unanimously opposed to any
dealings, official or otherwise, with the French. The pro-French minority
had alaost completely disappeared. In 1919, for example, the Maronites
were so dewotedly in sympathy with theCji'rench that they were scarcely
courteous to the British and Americans. In 1922 the Maronite Patriarch
sad his associates stated to Americans that they regretted deeply the
grave mistake they had made in asking for the French. Syrian opposition
to the French mandate is intensified by the assurance given in the mandate
resolutions adopted by the Allies on January 30th, 1919, that "The wishes
of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection
of the mandatory power•• According to the Syrians their wishes have been
considered only in the sense that they have bean completely frustrated.
The second outstanding fact is the persistence of Syrian
nationalisa and thorough-going opposition to colonization by any power.
There are three planks in their present notionalist platform. The first j
is the unity of Syria including Palestine and the trans-Jordan districts
now under British nandate. This is urged for economic even more than
for political reasons. The separation of Palestine and Trana-Jordania,
sndsthe areas north and east of Syria as now constituted, with the
easterns barriers that have been erected on these frontiers, is, it is
said, disastrous to the industriss asd commerce of Damascus, Aleppo.
offi™VXS1 Tmh-y be protected by copyri9ht law
reproduced or distributed without the specific "
sSZ?rA^t H°OVer lns«t»«on Archives,
Stanford, CA 94305-6010. | <urn:uuid:e87e002e-b9d7-4086-9791-d355a88075e0> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:09:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9452989101409912,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 481,
"url": "http://dcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/kingcrane/id/1759"
} |
Remember how you felt after your last trip to the Mexican restaurant? If your first thought is of an upset stomach, consider taking digestive enzymes. Because your body's enzyme production drops off after you hit age 30, foods high in fat and carbohydrates become more difficult to digest — potentially leaving you with bloating, constipation, or diarrhea. Taking enzyme supplements regularly (or eating enzyme-rich foods like pineapple) helps break down foods so that nutrients can be absorbed. They can also help ease symptoms of lactose or gluten intolerance. Never take enzymes, though, if you have open stomach ulcers — the results can be painful. When buying supplements for digestion, look for plant-based products that combine several enzymes — they are more likely to work across the gastrointestinal tracts' broad range of pH levels. And be sure to take the pills with food; try them with two meals a day for at least three months; after that, you may be able to go with your gut and cut back.
|Cellulase||→ Cellulose from plant foods|
|Lactase||→ Lactose in dairy|
|Phytase||→ Grains and legumes|
|Protease (bromelain)||→ Protein|
|Sucrase and maltase||→ Complex sugars| | <urn:uuid:16c90356-5a67-41a1-a988-f56aa4eee69d> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:11",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.920722484588623,
"score": 2.53125,
"token_count": 266,
"url": "http://deliciousliving.com/print/enzymes/what-enzymes-can-do-you"
} |
The United Nations General Assembly has voted on over 4500 resolutions or other matters since its founding through 2008. This Demonstration, based on data made available by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, creates pie charts showing the distribution of votes on almost all of those resolutions. You select a subset of the resolutions you wish to study, such as all resolutions containing the word "Israel" or the word "Africa". You then move a slider to select a particular resolution from this subset. The Demonstration responds by insetting a pie chart on a timeline showing the distribution of votes. If you hover your mouse over the short name of the resolution, a tooltip appears showing the date of the vote and providing a longer description of the issue.
The dataset underlying this Demonstration may be cited as E. Voeten and A. Merdzanovic, "United Nations General Assembly Voting Data", hdl:1902.1/12379 UNF:3:Hpf6qOkDdzzvXF9m66yLTg==, and is available at this site. It was imported into Mathematica as a TSV file and manipulated using Mathematica. | <urn:uuid:8cc40e8a-229f-4593-951e-53f6e59c7b0a> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:38:17",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9079530239105225,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 243,
"url": "http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/GeneralAssemblyResolutionViewer/"
} |
You should always externalize resources such as images and strings from your application
code, so that you can maintain them independently. Externalizing your
resources also allows you to provide alternative resources that support specific device
configurations such as different languages or screen sizes, which becomes increasingly
important as more Android-powered devices become available with different configurations. In order
to provide compatibility with different configurations, you must organize resources in your
res/ directory, using various sub-directories that group resources by type and
For any type of resource, you can specify default and multiple alternative resources for your application:
- Default resources are those that should be used regardless of the device configuration or when there are no alternative resources that match the current configuration.
- Alternative resources are those that you've designed for use with a specific configuration. To specify that a group of resources are for a specific configuration, append an appropriate configuration qualifier to the directory name.
For example, while your default UI
layout is saved in the
res/layout/ directory, you might specify a different layout to
be used when the screen is in landscape orientation, by saving it in the
directory. Android automatically applies the appropriate resources by matching the
device's current configuration to your resource directory names.
Figure 1 illustrates how the system applies the same layout for two different devices when there are no alternative resources available. Figure 2 shows the same application when it adds an alternative layout resource for larger screens.
The following documents provide a complete guide to how you can organize your application resources, specify alternative resources, access them in your application, and more:
- Providing Resources
- What kinds of resources you can provide in your app, where to save them, and how to create alternative resources for specific device configurations.
- Accessing Resources
- How to use the resources you've provided, either by referencing them from your application code or from other XML resources.
- Handling Runtime Changes
- How to manage configuration changes that occur while your Activity is running.
- A bottom-up guide to localizing your application using alternative resources. While this is just one specific use of alternative resources, it is very important in order to reach more users.
- Resource Types
- A reference of various resource types you can provide, describing their XML elements, attributes, and syntax. For example, this reference shows you how to create a resource for application menus, drawables, animations, and more. | <urn:uuid:393c5454-aa47-4d5a-9009-34999bb3ff39> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:01",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8558873534202576,
"score": 3.171875,
"token_count": 498,
"url": "http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/overview.html"
} |
muddy the waters
Confuse the issue, as in Bringing up one irrelevant fact after another, he succeeded in muddying the waters. This metaphoric expression, alluding to making a pond or stream turbid by stirring up mud from the bottom, was first recorded in 1837.
|a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.|
|a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.|
Dictionary.com presents 366 FAQs, incorporating some of the frequently asked questions from the past with newer queries. | <urn:uuid:d971c669-a920-4e8a-94fe-c9a07904d07e> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:45:45",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.924887478351593,
"score": 2.578125,
"token_count": 121,
"url": "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/muddy+the+waters?qsrc=2446"
} |
Date of Award:
Master of Science (MS)
Terry A. Messmer
Columbian sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus columbianus: hereafter sharp-tailed grouse) populations have been declining. These declines have been attributed to a number of factors, including habitat loss due to agriculture, habitat fragmentation, overgrazing by livestock, and the loss to fire. To gather information about their status in northern Utah, I radio-marked sharp-tailed grouse in 2003 (n=15) and 2004 (n=20) in two research areas. The study areas were located on the south end of Cache County and in eastern Box Elder County. In the Cache study area, I monitored 7 males and 1 female in 2003, and 6 males and 3 females in 2004. In the Box Elder study area, I monitored 6 males in 2003 and 6 males and 5 females in 2004. I then located the radio-marked sharp-tailed grouse using telemetry and collected Visual Obstruction Readings (VOR) and vegetation data on each flush site and on a randomly selected paired point. I completed an unsupervised classification of the two study areas to determine if habitats were used more than would be expected based on availability. I then used a paired point linear regression to determine if vegetation parameters were correlated with sharp-tailed grouse on the landscape. Sagebrush in the Box Elder County study area and forbs in the Cache County study area were significantly correlated with habitat use by sharp-tailed grouse. The VOR readings were higher at the flush sites than at the paired points. The unsupervised classification showed that in Box Elder County, sagebrush was used in greater proportion than is available, while in the Cache County study area there were no habitat types that were used in greater proportion than was available on the landscape. I collected information on nest sites, nest success, broods, and mortality of these 2 populations. Nest success was 75% combined over the 2-year study, and mortality was 72% for both populations over the 2 years. Seasonal habitat use and distance travelled were determined using Global Positioning System points collected at every flush point. The distance traveled ranged from 0.9 km to 14.7 km, with the longest distance being travelled in the winter.
Greer, Ron D., "Ecology and Seasonal Habitat Use Patterns of Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse in Northern Utah" (2010). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. Paper 611.
Copyright for this work is retained by the student. | <urn:uuid:df881be7-40ff-40b0-a401-68792846a7b1> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:30:31",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.947109580039978,
"score": 2.703125,
"token_count": 528,
"url": "http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/611/"
} |
Coal in the Ferron Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale of Cretaceous age has traditionally been mined by underground techniques in the Emery Coal Field in the southern end of Castle Valley in east-central Utah. However, approximately 99 million tons are recoverable by surface mining. Ground water in the Ferron is the sole source of supply for the town of Emery, but the aquifer is essentially untapped outside the Emery area. The Ferron Sandstone Member crops out along the eastern edge of Castle Valley and generally dips 2" to 10" to the northwest beneath the surface. Sandstones in the Ferron are enclosed between relatively impermeable shale in the Tununk and Blue Gate Members of the Mancos Shale. Along the outcrop, the Ferron ranges in thickness from about 80 feet in the northern part of Castle Valley to 850 feet in the southern part. The Ferron also generally thickens in the subsurface downdip from the outcrop. Records from wells and test holes indicate that the full thickness of the Ferron is saturated with water in most areas downdip from the outcrop area. Tests in the Emery area indicate that transmissivity of the Ferron sandstone aquifer ranges from about 200 to 700 feet squared per day where the Ferron is fully saturated. Aquifer transmissivity is greatest near the Paradise Valley-- Joes Valley fault system where permeability has been increased by fracturing. Storage coefficient ranges from about 10^-6 to 10^-3 where the Ferron sandstone aquifer is confined and probably averages 5 x 10^-2 where in is unconfined.
Lines, Gregory C.; Morrissey, Daniel J.; Ryer, Thomas A.; Fuller, Richard H.; and U.S. Geological Survey, "Hydrology of the Ferron Sandstone Aquifer and Effects of Proposed Surface-Coal Mining in Castle Valley, Utah" (1981). All U.S. Government Documents (Utah Regional Depository). Paper 567. | <urn:uuid:cf364a1a-ba06-449e-831a-95ff23b63689> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:30:50",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9138491749763489,
"score": 2.84375,
"token_count": 416,
"url": "http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/govdocs/567/"
} |
The Dakota House, Jamestown, N.D.
|Title||The Dakota House, Jamestown, N.D. |
|Date of Original||1878? |
|Creator||Haynes, F. Jay (Frank Jay), 1853-1921|
|Creator Role||Photographer |
|Description||A three story wooden building with two chimneys on the roof, and the sign "Dakota House, " on the front. There are a few people on the second floor balcony over the main first floor entrance. Other people stand outside the main entrance, and three men sit upon horses. There is a sidewalk and some small trees in wooden supports in the foreground. Three windows at the very left on the second floor are circled marking the rooms that were occupied by E.P. Wells and his family when they arrived in Jamestown, N.D. |
|General Subject||City & Town Life|
Business & Industry
|Personal Name||Wells, Edward P. (Edward Payson), 1846-1936|
|Organization Name||Dakota House (Jamestown, N.D.)|
Stutsman County (N.D.)
|Item Number||ST285 |
|Format of Original||Stereographs|
|Dimensions of Original||10 x 18 cm. |
|Transcription||"No.3 The Dakato (Dakota) House. Rooms occupied by Wells family on arrival in Jamestown. (shown circled) arrived in 1879"--Printed on sheet of paper underneath stereograph. |
"F. Jay Haynes, Fargo, D.T., Official Photographer Northern Pacific Railway"--Printed on front of stereograph.
"Room occupied by Wells family on arrival in Jamestown"--Handwritten on front of stereograph, along with three windows circled in pen.
|Biography/History||Edward Payson Wells was born November 9, 1847 at Troy, Wisconsin, the son of Rev. Milton and Melissa (Smith) Wells. On March 8, 1871 he married Nellie M. Johnson, the daughter of Joseph S. and Ann (Jewett) Johnson of Minneapolis. They had four children. In 1872 Mr. Wells moved to Milwaukee. In April 1878, Mr. Wells moved to Jamestown, Dakota Territory and founded the land company, Wells-Dickey Company. The next year he began to publish the Northwestern Land Journal. That same year his family moved to Jamestown and he built the first permanent house in Jamestown. In 1881 at its founding, he became president of the James River Valley National Bank which office he retained until 1909. Mr. Wells was involved in many activities including railroad construction, grain, elevators, milling, the James River Navigation Company and political affairs. In 1896 he reorganized and became president of the Russell-Miller Milling Company. In 1899 Mr. Wells left Jamestown and after several years of traveling returned to Minneapolis to reside. He moved the headquarters of the Wells-Dickey and Russell-Miller Milling companies there and continued an active and expanded business career, retiring in 1922. Mr. Wells died October 7, 1936 in Minneapolis and was buried at Lakewood Cemetery. Mrs. Wells died in 1930. |
|Repository Institution||Stutsman County Memorial Museum|
|Repository Collection||Stutsman County Memorial Museum Photographs|
|Credit Line||Stutsman County Memorial Museum, Jamestown, N.D. (ST285) |
|Rights Management||Owned by Stutsman County Memorial Museum. |
|Ordering Information||Stutsman County Memorial Museum |
Address: Box 1002, Jamestown, N.D. 58401
Open: Memorial Day - September, 10am-5pm Weekdays and 1pm-5pm Weekends.
|Grant||NHPRC SNAP Grant 2008-2009, NAR08-RC-10021-08 |
|Digital ID||dmST285 | | <urn:uuid:1ef700f5-0ecc-4f1a-8e5d-129b558806eb> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:50",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9175574779510498,
"score": 2.546875,
"token_count": 846,
"url": "http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ndshs-dm&CISOPTR=420&CISOBOX=1&REC=6"
} |
The prehistoric cave paintings of Chauvet in southeastern France show the work of deft hands: Hundreds of animals appear in lifelike posesstanding, stalking, running, or roaming in packson surfaces specially scraped to make the sketches stand out. Many archaeologists assumed that such sophistication required thousands of years of cultural development and artistic experimentation. Yet a new, improved dating analysis suggests that the Chauvet paintings were made between 32,000 and 29,000 years ago, placing them among the most ancient artworks known.
|Well-rendered animals in France's Chauvet cave show an early period of artistic development.|
Photograph courtesy of Helene Valladas/Jean Clottes
Archaeologist Helene Valladas of the National Center for Scientific Research in Gif-sur-Yvette used a precision form of carbon dating to analyze the animal drawings and various charcoal remains in the cave. Her results confirm that the Chauvet cave paintings are 10,000 to 15,000 years older than those at Lascaux, even though the art in the two locations is similarly fine. The finding implies that prehistoric art did not evolve steadily from crude beginnings to complex representations, as was previously thought, but "in spurts, with lots of apogees and lots of declines," says archaeologist Jean Clottes, who is in charge of the research at Chauvet. If so, there may be earlier cycles of artistic development as yet unknown. "I would be very surprised if much older art was not discovered in the next few years, not only in Europe but mostly in Asia, Australia, and Africa. The big problem is one of preservation and dating," says Clottes. | <urn:uuid:3b61dade-5c45-44dd-bd00-1c3f93c8441d> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:38:35",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9575875401496887,
"score": 3.453125,
"token_count": 339,
"url": "http://discovermagazine.com/2002/feb/breakcaves"
} |
In this essay, the individualist Anarchist writer Charles Johnson offers an analysis of the concrete mechanisms of capitalism, and of how the revolutionary potential of free economic relationships is diverted and deformed when markets are constrained to labor under bosses, monopoly and government. Johnson revisits, and updates, Benjamin Tucker’s classic “Four Monopolies” analysis of state capitalism, arguing that the case for Tucker’s free-market anticapitalism is stronger than ever, as we take into account not only the growth and retrenchment of the Land Monopoly, Money Monopoly, Patent Monopoly, and Protectionist Monopoly, but also the metastatic spread of state-capitalist monopolies into Agribusiness, Infrastructure, Utilities, Health Care, and Regulatory Protectionism.
For most of the twentieth century, American libertarians saw themselves, and were seen as, defenders of “capitalism.” Until nearly the end of the 20th century, anticapitalist anarchism was sidelined in political debate, and most simply ceased to be treat it as a live option; meanwhile, most American libertarians, and nearly all of their opponents, seemed to agree that opposing state control of the economy meant defending business against the attacks of “big government.” The purpose and effect of laissez faire was simply to unleash existing forms of commerce from political restraints, and to produce something which would look, more or less, like business as usual, only more so: bigger, faster, stronger, and no longer held back by government from pushing the corporate business model to the hilt.
This was almost a complete reversal from the attitude of traditional libertarians like Benjamin Tucker, an attitude which we might call ‘free-market anti-capitalism.’ Tucker was one of the best-known defenders of free markets in nineteenth-century America. . . Yet he repeatedly described his views as a form of “Anarchistic Socialism.” . . . What could “socialism” mean for a radical, free-market individualist like Tucker? Certainly not government control of industry. Rather, what Tucker was pointing out was his opposition to actually-existing capitalist business practices, and his support for workers’ control over the conditions of their own labor – the control denied by the Four Monopolies and the artificial inequalities of wealth and bargaining power they fostered. For Tucker, then, a libertarian politics meant an attack on economic privilege – by removing the political privileges that propped it up, and dismantling monopolies by exposing them to competition from below. . . .
Introduced January 2012. | <urn:uuid:c618948f-ac6c-461d-a353-b89b9b2255ad> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:53",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9613649845123291,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 531,
"url": "http://distro.libertarianleft.org/for/market-anarchy-zine-series/charles-johnson-state-capitalism-and-the-many-monopolies/?referredby=c4ss.org"
} |
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]
Re: The Permo-Triassic extinction killed the dinosaurs, according to Fox News
What an excellent example of sloppy journalism. The sad thing is that the paper
could have made a very interesting news story in the right hands. The authors
found exceptionally high concentrations of nano-scale silica dust in the
end-Permian coals, which they suggest combines with organic pollutants from the
coal to cause elevated rates of lung cancer. They think the acidic fallout from
the Siberian Traps eruptions accelerated erosion to produce the silica dust,
which washed into the peat bogs.
By the way, read that first sentence carefully, and you discover that plants
were walking the earth along with the dinosaurs 250 million years ago. Maybe
give it to your students and say "spot the errors."
At 9:32 AM -0500 1/8/10, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:
>"The tremendous volcanic eruption thought to be responsible for Earth's
>largest mass extinction - which killed more than 70 percent of plants and
>dinosaurs walking the planet 250 million years ago - is still taking lives
>Well, to be fair, 0 of the dinosaur individuals present in the latest
>Permian survived into the earliest Triassic. Of course, 0 of the human
>individuals present in the latest Permian survived into the earliest
>But it gets... Er... Better (?):
>"Scientists investigating the high incidence of lung cancer in China's Xuan
>Wei County in Yunnan Province conclude that the problem lies with the coal
>residents use to heat their homes. That coal was formed by the same
>250-million-year-old giant volcanic eruption - termed a supervolcano - that
>was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The high silica content
>of that coal is interacting with volatile organic matter in the soil to
>cause the unusually high rates of lung cancer."
>Coal. Formed by a basaltic eruption.
>(Okay, in the paper itself, it states that the coal formed at the P/Tr
>boundary, but not that it was produced by volcanic action as such. The
>particular coal seam seems to be comparable to the Z Coal in the Hell
>Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
>Email: [email protected] Phone: 301-405-4084
>Office: Centreville 1216
>Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
>Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
>Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
>Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
>Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Department of Geology
> Building 237, Room 1117
> University of Maryland
> College Park, MD 20742 USA
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
[email protected] or [email protected]
Boston Correspondent: New Scientist magazine
Contributing Editor: Laser Focus World
525 Auburn St., Auburndale, MA 02466 USA
tel. 617-965-3834 http://www.jeffhecht.com | <urn:uuid:4c38a9aa-d0c0-4113-a0cc-88674c6dd2b9> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:43:50",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8374360799789429,
"score": 2.609375,
"token_count": 716,
"url": "http://dml.cmnh.org/2010Jan/msg00103.html"
} |
Dragons are creatures with nearly unlimited life spans. They can survive for long periods of time, and no one has found a dragon that has died of old age. Adolescence is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. Once they hit adolescence, hatchlings change quickly, maturing to their full forms in only 2 years.
Dragons don’t communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.
Green dragons are also sometimes called "earth" dragons. They usually live deep within caves, and have power over the earth. They are capable of launching boulders at high speeds, and can cause earthquakes by slamming down onto the ground. | <urn:uuid:6b4550a5-2224-44a8-a6c5-b0b3cb79d8fe> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:09:27",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9651044607162476,
"score": 3.171875,
"token_count": 203,
"url": "http://dragcave.net/view/EAau"
} |
Dragons are creatures with nearly unlimited life spans. They can survive for long periods of time, and no one has found a dragon that has died of old age. Adolescence is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. Once they hit adolescence, hatchlings change quickly, maturing to their full forms in only 2 years.
Dragons don’t communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.
Sunstone dragons are named after the orb on their tails, which resembles the gem of the same name. Their social structure resembles a lion pride, with one dominant male and several females banded together with their young. They prefer arid climates where they can blend in and dig for minerals and gemstones that they not only collect, but eat. The more gems they consume, the larger their tail stone grows. They are an aggressive breed; it is not uncommon to see two males battling for mates and territory. | <urn:uuid:c694bd86-6caf-4934-8e3b-68d5af71010e> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:30:43",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9601311087608337,
"score": 3.359375,
"token_count": 258,
"url": "http://dragcave.net/view/PSM20"
} |
- FDA approves Novartis drug for high blood pressure treatment
- Adherence among chronic disease patients can lead to big savings
- New cardiovascular risk calculator now available online
- Pfizer forms licensing agreement with Seattle Genetics
- Walgreens puts its money where its mouth is with World AIDS Day campaign
CHICAGO — In a study involving more than 16,000 U.S. children and adolescents, there has been a decrease in average total cholesterol levels over the past two decades, although almost 1-in-10 subjects had elevated total cholesterol in the 2007-2010 period, according to a study published in the Aug. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"The process of [hardening of the arteries] begins during childhood and is associated with … high concentrations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C), and triglycerides, and low concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)," according to background information in the article. "For more than 20 years, primary prevention of coronary heart disease has included strategies intended to improve overall serum lipid concentrations among youths."
Researchers found that among youths ages 6 to 19 years between 1988-1994 and 2007-2010, there was a decrease in average total cholesterol from 165 mg/dL to 160 mg/dL. Between 1988-1994 and 2007-2010, there also was a decrease in prevalence among youths ages 6 to 19 years of elevated total cholesterol from 11.3% to 8.1%. In 2007-2010, 22% of youths had either a low HDL-C level or high non-HDL-C, which was lower than the 27.2% in 1988-1994.
"Between 1988-1994 and 2007-2010, a favorable trend in serum lipid concentrations was observed among youths in the United States but adverse lipid profiles continue to be observed among youths," noted Brian Kit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead researcher. "For example, in 2007-2010, slightly more than 20% of children aged 9 to 11 years had either a low HDL-C or high non-HDL-C concentration, which, according to the most recent cardiovascular health guidelines for children and adolescents, indicates a need for additional clinical evaluation." | <urn:uuid:cd40f6f4-8d4d-4f41-832a-bc9f2ee347d6> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:41:18",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9397996068000793,
"score": 2.96875,
"token_count": 476,
"url": "http://drugstorenews.com/article/cholesterol-levels-among-youth-see-decline"
} |
Economic growth in China has led to significant increases in fossil fuel consumption © stock.xchng (frédéric dupont, patator)
Per capita CO2 emissions in China reach EU levels
Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) – the main cause of global warming – increased by 3% last year. In China, the world’s most populous country, average emissions of CO2 increased by 9% to 7.2 tonnes per capita, bringing China within the range of 6 to 19 tonnes per capita emissions of the major industrialised countries.
In the European Union, CO2 emissions dropped by 3% to 7.5 tonnes per capita. The United States remain one of the largest emitters of CO2, with 17.3 tonnes per capita, despite a decline due to the recession in 2008-2009, high oil prices and an increased share of natural gas.
According to the annual report ‘Trends in global CO2 emissions’, released today by the JRC and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), the top emitters contributing to the global 34 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2011 are: China (29%), the United States (16%), the European Union (11%), India (6%), the Russian Federation (5%) and Japan (4%).
With 3%, the 2011 increase in global CO2 emissions is above the past decade's average annual increase of 2.7%.
An estimated cumulative global total of 420 billion tonnes of CO2 has been emitted between 2000 and 2011 due to human activities, including deforestation. Scientific literature suggests that limiting the rise in average global temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels – the target internationally adopted in UN climate negotiations – is possible only if cumulative CO2 emissions in the period 2000–2050 do not exceed 1 000 to 1 500 billion tonnes. If the current global trend of increasing CO2 emissions continues, cumulative emissions will surpass this limit within the next two decades | <urn:uuid:5dbd7929-f5e4-4e00-8ee1-ac82d4729d56> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:47:01",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8774094581604004,
"score": 3.03125,
"token_count": 398,
"url": "http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm?id=1410&dt_code=NWS&obj_id=15150&ori=RSS"
} |
Downstream users are companies or individuals who use a chemical substance, either on its own or in a mixture, in the course of their industrial or professional activities.
Downstream users have a key role to play in advancing the safe use of chemicals by implementing safe use at their own site and communicating relevant information both to their suppliers and their customers.
Who is a downstream user?
Roles and obligations
Communication in the supply chain
Communication with suppliers
Effective communication between downstream users and suppliers at all stages in the REACH process ensures that relevant information is provided in the supply chain.
Communication with customers
Formulators need to communicate relevant safety information further down the supply chain to their own customers.
Chemical safety assessment
Downstream user chemical safety assessment
Downstream users may choose to carry out a chemical safety assessment if they use a substance outside the conditions described in the exposure scenario provided by the supplier, or if the use is advised against by the supplier.
Downstream user report
Downstream users have to report unsupported uses to ECHA in certain cases. | <urn:uuid:acc18d51-f3ff-400d-acae-00dc6d683044> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:44:12",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9251818656921387,
"score": 2.921875,
"token_count": 219,
"url": "http://echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach/downstream-users"
} |
Although some may consider the practice old school, electrical taping is a valuable skill you shouldn't let slip away
With all of the new products and electrical insulation kits currently on the market, the use of conventional electrical tapes has gone down. As a result, electricians today may not possess the taping skills that once were such an important part of their predecessors' work. Nevertheless, there is still good reason to master this craft — especially for those times when repairs are needed quickly and other products are simply not available.
According to Steve Anderson, a National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC) director, the NJATC believes strongly in the importance of splice and termination taping skills for electricians and linemen. “Taping is the first thing covered in our cable splice training course, and we spend a lot of time in this area,” Anderson says.
Anderson points out that repair situations can arise in the field where a splicer does not have access to a particular kit for the job. However, knowing how to make proper use of tape can save the day, getting the customer back online quickly. “It's far more economical to complete a job on the spot with tape than to go in search of a kit,” Anderson maintains.
The primary tapes used in electrical applications are vinyl, rubber, mastic, and varnished cambric. These products have been used in electrical work for many years, are code approved, and conform to key industry standards, including UL 520, ASTM D1000, and CSA 22.2. The Table below lists the primary uses for each of these types of tape.
The function of moisture-sealing tapes such as vinyl, rubber, and mastic products is to exclude moisture from the insulation assembly and provide electrical insulation. One of these tapes — or alternately a mastic pad — generally forms the second layer of the insulation assembly. Rubber, mastic, and filler tapes are also used to pad the underlying surface by covering sharp edges.
Rubber tapes are generally non-adhesive, and are either equipped with a liner or are linerless. Stretched and overlapped layers will fuse or bond together to form an effective electrical insulation and moisture barrier. For low-voltage (1000V or less) applications, rubber tapes should be stretched during wrapping so that tape width is reduced to approximately 75%. For high- and medium-voltage applications — where the electrical stresses are high (e.g. connector areas, lug areas, and cable shield cut-back areas) — tape should be stretched just short of its breaking point.
Vinyl tape forms the final outer layer and serves several important functions in addition to electrical insulation, including abrasion protection, corrosion resistance, UV resistance, and protection from chemicals including alkalis and acids. Conformable vinyl tape is tougher than the softer, stickier surfaces of rubber, mastic, and putty tapes it protects.
Several grades of vinyl electrical tape are available — all of which differ in conformability, ease of unwinding, resistance of the adhesive to heat and cold, and loosening (flagging). While general-use vinyl tapes are appropriate for bundling, wire pulling, and other ancillary tasks, premium-grade vinyl tape is the best choice for permanent insulation work as it handles the broadest range of environmental factors and functions, such as cold weather.
You should use a minimum of two half-lapped layers of vinyl tape to insulate and jacket low-voltage components. A half-lap (see Figure above) consists of overlaying each turn by one-half the width of the tape. The general rule of thumb calls for a tape thickness of 1.5 times the thickness of existing wire or cable insulation. In every case, tension on the tape should be sufficient to conform the tape evenly to the surface. A slight reduction in tension is encouraged for the final wrap. Trim the tape end and allow it to return to shape before pressing down with the thumb to avoid lifting or flagging.
When properly applied, quality tapes can serve as valuable standby resources for jobs such as insulating motor lead connections, inline splices, and split bolt and bus bar connections. Let's take a look at some guidelines for each.
Motor lead insulation. In the case of low-voltage motor lead connections, the tape insulating process consists of connecting feeder cables to motor leads and arranging the conductors for easy wrapping. You should begin by wrapping two layers of varnished cambric tape, which is available with or without adhesive. For the adhesive type, apply with the adhesive side out for clean re-entry.
Follow up this first step by wrapping four half-lapped layers of rubber insulating tape over the cambric tape, which creates a moisture barrier and provides the primary insulation in the connection. Finally, over-wrap the assembly with a minimum of two half-lapped layers of vinyl electrical tape. This should extend approximately two tape widths beyond the ends of the rubber tape. Stretch this tape as you wrap it so you get good conformance to the underlying structure. This also helps complete the moisture seal.
Inline splice insulation. You can protect a low-voltage inline splice in a similar manner by wrapping the installed connector with four half-lapped layers of rubber mastic tape or rubber splicing tape, and then over-wrapping it with two half-lapped layers of premium vinyl electrical tape.
Split bolt connection. Protection of a split bolt connection begins with installing the connector and wrapping it with two layers of varnished cambric tape. Next, wrap the splice with four half-lapped layers of rubber or rubber mastic tape. Complete the job by over-wrapping with at least two half-lapped layers of premium vinyl electrical tape.
Bus bar. A common method of insulating a bus bar connection is to first wrap it with two layers of varnished cambric. The subsequent steps consist of four half-lapped layers of rubber or rubber mastic followed by two half-lapped layers of premium vinyl tape.
Electrical tapes are versatile, suited to a multitude of tasks, and when installed properly provide a long-term, effective insulation. According to Anderson, both the NJATC headquarters and local training efforts are strongly supported by industry suppliers, which provide sample products and assist with course development and hands-on instruction. In addition, manufacturers of electrical-grade tapes are generally willing to provide technical support and instruction on proper taping techniques.
“There are many kits and products available to electricians today that simplify their work and help increase productivity,” Anderson says. “The properties of electrical tapes have also been steadily improved over the years. These proven products can be adapted to many important electrical insulation tasks, and they continue to be valuable assets for our industry. For that reason, we continue to stress the importance of taping skills and strong product and application knowledge.”
Goodman is a technical service engineer and Brown is a technical service senior engineer with 3M in Austin, Texas. | <urn:uuid:ea518d7f-b0be-4512-994b-d18136658195> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:25:55",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9307408928871155,
"score": 2.609375,
"token_count": 1464,
"url": "http://ecmweb.com/content/electrical-taping-skills-lost-art"
} |
The Distribution of Wealth: A Theory of Wages, Interest and Profits
The Place of Distribution within the Traditional Divisions of Economics
We have undertaken to solve a test problem of distribution—to ascertain whether the division of the social income into wages, interest and profits is, in principle, honest. We have seen that this compels us to enter the realm of production, in order to find whether these incomes are earned. Is each of them specifically created by the agent that gets it? If it is, the entire science of distribution is nothing more than a science of the process of specific production. In any case, the relation of the wealth-creating process to the wealth-dividing process needs a most searching examination.
The terms, Production, Distribution, Exchange and Consumption, have been used to designate four divisions of economic science. These, however, are not distinct divisions; for one of them includes two of the others. The production of wealth, as it is carried on by an organized society, is a process that embraces within itself both exchange and distribution. This fact makes it necessary completely to rearrange economic theory, for purposes of study, and to divide it according to a new principle. The old landmarks of the science will not entirely disappear, for it will still be necessary to speak of production, distribution, etc., as processes that are going on, and that can be defined and understood. As divisions of the science, however, they will vanish; for the demarcations that have been made between them correspond to nothing in actual life. They are forced distinctions, made for the sake of resolving into smaller areas a field that is too large to be dealt with as a whole. As we throw them away, the economic field takes on an entirely new appearance, and it will soon be seen that this is its true and natural appearance. This field will still, however, have its divisions; and it is a striking fact that the study which shows how hopelessly blended are exchange, distribution and production has also the effect of revealing three divisions of economics that are natural and clear. We attain the true divisions, in fact, by perceiving why we may not use the old ones.
Production is the bringing of commodities into existence; and in any state except a primitive one it is accomplished by a division of labor. The producer is a specialist, selling one article, or a part of an article, and buying what he needs with the proceeds. Only society in its entirety is an all-around creator of goods. This is equivalent to saying that social production is now accomplished by means of exchanges. The passing of goods from man to man enables all society to make all goods; and the two expressions, "division of labor," on the one hand, and "exchange," on the other, merely describe in different ways the organized process of creating wealth, as contrasted with the method of isolated and independent production. Where a thing stays in one man's hands until it is finished and in use, production is not yet socialized.*3 Society in its entirety is the one producer of wealth. Exchange is, then, the socializing element in production. It is a characteristic part of the comprehensive process.
The relation of man to Nature in the productive operation remains unchanged, however much society may be organized. The earth still gives matter, and man transforms it. The making of a steel tool in a modern shop is, in this respect, akin to the fashioning of a stone hatchet by a prehistoric man. What is new in social production is the relation of man to man. Interdependence has supplanted independence: a great organization has taken the place of a mass of unconnected producers. Specializing and exchanging have made this difference.
Production by society as a whole, moreover, involves a fixing of values. If we part with our own products, something must decide how much we are to get in return for them. The ratios of exchange that a market establishes have, not unnaturally, been treated in that division of the science which is customarily entitled exchange. Is that, however, the proper place for them?
There is a kind of distribution that does not fix the rates of wages and interest, but determines how much one industry, as a whole, including its laborers, its capitalists and its entrepreneurs, shall get, as compared with other industries. It determines whether one whole branch of business shall be more prosperous than another. This is an intermediate part of the general distributing operation. and it is accomplished by means of prices. When wheat, for example, is high in price, the farming industry is well paid, as compared with others; and when wheat is cheap, that industry is ill paid. If what we have in mind is the so-called "market price" of an article,—the immediate price of any given supply of an article,—this kind of value governs what we may call group distribution. If steel, for example, sells at a high rate, a large income goes to the group that produces it. This income distributes itself somewhere in the group; but how much of it laborers get, and how much capitalists and employers get, is a question that we do not now raise. This is determined by an ultimate distribution taking place within the groups. Group distribution is a preliminary division of the social income, and it deals with branches of industry in their entirety. The terms of this primary division of the social income depend on the prices of different kinds of goods. Farmers want wheat to be dear, as miners want ore to be dear, etc. Prices, then, fix the incomes of these groups.
The great income of all society—that which is to be distributed—really consists of concrete articles, all for some use, Most of them are goods for consumption; and they serve to stock retailers' shops, while waiting for purchasers. In some way this promiscuous stock of consumers' goods gets divided into shares, of which every man, whether he be a laborer or a capitalist, gets a part. There is no way in which the fixing of the terms of this division can be begun and completed after the goods are finished and exposed for sale. If, before the stock of goods was ready to be taken by consumers, nothing had been done to decide how much each laborer and each a capitalist might have, the distribution would have to be made according to some arbitrary rule and by some officer of the state. The terms of the division that is actually made, however, are fixed as the production of the goods goes on: the goods are really apportioned in the making.
The creation of such a general stock of commodities for use is a great synthesis, which goes on in a systematic way. One group of producers makes the article A, another group makes B, another C, etc. As A is sold, the sum that is paid for it is apportioned among the entire group that makes it; and as B is sold, the returns from this sale are divided, in the same way, among all who have helped to make this article. The prices of completed articles thus fix the incomes of groups in their entirety, These sub-groups are, in an equally exact way, divided into sub-groups. Thus it takes farmers, wool merchants, manufacturers, dyers, cloth merchants and tailors to make a coat. Each of these classes constitutes a sub-group; and each gets a share of the returns of the general group—a share in every case dependent on prices. If wool is dear, farmers thrive; and if the difference between the price of wool and the price of cloth is large, manufacturers thrive. It is market values that fix the incomes of sub-groups, as well as those of groups.
Neither of those price-adjusting operations, however, directly fixes wages and interest. This is the final and critical part of distribution. It takes place within the sub-groups, and it constitutes the third and final division that has to be made. The portions of income that fall to farmers, manufacturers, etc., as such, have to be further subdivided; for a share must be paid to every laborer and to every capitalist. This last division is not made, however, as the mere general divisions are made, by a mere sale of finished goods: finer and more difficult adjustments are involved. We need now to have clearly in mind the systematic way in which the division of the grand stock of usable goods proceeds, the manner in which it follows the stages of production and the part that the fixing of exchange values has in it. This distribution goes on in three distinct stages. There are to be made a division, a subdivision and a final subdivision of the social income. The first division fixes the income of industrial groups; the second fixes that of sub-groups, and the final division adjusts wages and interest within each of the innumerable sub-groups in the system. The shares of the groups and those of the sub-groups depend entirely on the prices of goods, and therefore the fixing of market values results in the adjustment of the terms of group distribution,
Thus, let A''' represent some one completed product, any bread; and let A represent raw material, the standing wheat of which it is mode. A' may then represent the wheat as threshed and conveyed to the elevator of a milling company, A''' may represent it as it is ground into flour, and A''' may represent it baked into loaves. In like manner B, B', etc., represent another commodity—say, woollen clothing—in its several stages of advancement, and the series of C's represent still another commodity. All the A's constitute the product of one general group; and the price of A''' fixes the size of its entire group income. The prices of B''' and C''' likewise fix the general incomes of the two groups that make them. Similarly, the difference between the price of A'' and that of A''' fixes the income of the sub-group that transforms the one article into the other. In this case the difference is the gross income of the baking industry. In the same way, the difference between the price of A' and that of A'' determines the income of the flouring industry, etc. The income of each sub-group in the whole series, then, depends directly on prices.
A philosophy that goes behind such market prices, however, brings us to what are called "natural" or "normal" prices. These are the values, expressed in terms of money, to which, in the long run, market values tend to conform. These normal values are also in another way, phenomena of distribution; for a certain force that operates within the sphere of group distribution establishes the normal standards to which market values tend to conform. We have just seen that market prices fix the incomes of the different groups, as such, and so control distribution in its early stages. We have now to see that a deeper force, and one that also acts in distribution, controls normal prices. Market prices are the cause of group distribution; normal prices are the effect of a certain phenomenon of distribution. The adjustment of natural or normal prices is a part of the distributive process. The movements that make prices "natural" are, in fact, efforts on the part of different men to get their natural shares of income.
Prices are at their natural level when labor and capital in one industry produce as much and get as much as they do in any other. Normal prices mean equalized wages and equalized interest. If the prices of wheat, wool, iron, lumber, etc., were such that no laborer and no capitalist could acquire an enlarged producing power by leaving the industry that creates one of these commodities, and betaking himself to one that makes another, the price of each of the commodities would be normal.
The familiar definition of natural price is: that which conforms to the cost of production. The economist has been in the habit of putting himself, in imagination, in the business man's position, and of considering the money that he pays out in producing an article as the cost and what he gets by selling the article as the return. The tendency of competition, according to this conception, is to bring the price down to the point at which the return equals the cost. This is, however, an individualistic and limited view of the law of normal prices. It presents that law as it appears to a man who is performing his one particular part of the social operation of creating wealth. The broad view, on the other hand, presents the law as it appears to a student who has all society within the range of his vision. It is, indeed, true that the normal price of each article is its cost. The cause of this, however, is not local in the industry; it is not anything that takes place within the one group that makes the commodity. The influence that brings, let us say, cotton cloth to a natural price is one that works throughout the productive system. A broadly social tendency it is, in fact, that makes any one price normal. The traditional statement of the law of normal price is not incorrect; but it is misleading, because it is partial and inadequate. It presents things from an entrepreneur's point of view, instead of from a social point of view.
It will be seen, when we make a fuller study of this subject, that a condition in which all things sell for the amount of money that they have cost—including interest and wages of management, as elements of cost—is a state in which the gross gains of the different industrial groups are brought to pro rata equality, that is, to a condition in which the returns of all groups yield the same amounts per unit of capital and also the same amounts per unit of labor. Cost prices, then, are those that give equalized earnings.
It is comparative gains, and not the gains of any one group, that test prices, and determine whether they are normal. Thus, the present price of wheat is such as to afford a larger product per unit of capital than is afforded in some other industries; it is above the natural standard, and would be so even if wages and interest were locally so high that entrepreneurs got nothing above cost of production. If the result of this should be should be to draw men and capital from other occupations to the raising of this cereal, the operation would end by reducing to nothing the excess of gains that is now secured in this occupation. Prices would then be normal, provided that no other causes had meanwhile noted to disturb the equality of the earning power of labor and capital in the group system. It is because the prices then realized would afford to the different industrial groups equalized returns, that the prices themselves are to be called normal. The term really signifies that group distribution is in a natural state. Equal products everywhere per unit of labor and equal products per unit of capital—this is the condition that affords natural prices of goods. Incidentally, this condition gives what have been defined as cost prices.
When, therefore, men have no further inducement to move from one group to another,—that is, when group distribution is natural,—prices are natural. This requires that labor and capital shall be so apportioned among the various industries that there is neither overproduction of one article nor underproduction of another. Society must, in short, so direct its productive energies as to make different goods in the right quantities. The production of each specific article must be normal in amount, in order that the prices of it may be normal. The influence that brings production to this natural state is the effort of laborers and capitalists to seize any special gain that maybe offered to them, by moving to any group in which the price of the product is high. This is clearly an operation in group distribution. Thus an influence that originates in distribution brings about a state of social production in which exchange values are normal. Where, then, within the four traditional divisions of economic science should the study of exchange value be located? The phenomenon itself is directly connected with exchange: the proximate cause of it is a state of production; the ultimate influence that controls it is an action of the forces of distribution.
It is clear that the study of market value falls within the science of distribution. On the surface it is current market prices that control the distribution which takes place among different groups or specific industries. These prices, however, are transient, and they fluctuate about certain more permanent standards. The tendency of group distribution to become normal—that is, to bring wages and interest to an approximate equality in different industries—draws prices toward the normal standard.
What, then, is left to be treated under the title, exchange? Only the actual passing of goods from hand to hand. This process results in ranging men in distinct groups, each of which has its part to play in the process of social production. Exchange fixes the form of organization of industrial society. Back of each finished article that the shops offer to us there is ranged a series of specialized producers, each of whom has taken his turn in putting a touch upon it. Intricate, indeed, is the organization of society for productive purposes; but the principles that give shape to it are simple. They are the subjects of the theory of exchange, which is the theory of the organization of industrial society. When we examine the system of groups of which society is composed, we shall perceive the full meaning of this statement. For the present, be it noted that exchanges divide and subdivide industry: they range its forces in groups and sub-groups, the functions of which are determined by natural law.
It is, further, clear that all this disposing of the agents of production—this putting of some labor and capital here, and other labor and capital there—is a phenomenon of social production, a part of the social productive organization. It is a certain marshalling of the productive forces, placing them where they will do the most good. Production, in fact, embraces every economic operation except consumption. Exchange is merely the typical feature of production, as carried on by groups. Under this head we shall describe the group system of industry. We have seen that an influence which acts in distribution fixes the sizes of the groups and the amount of goods that each shall create. In the way that we have just noted, it guards against the production of too much of one commodity and too little of another. This is also a part of the all-embracing process of social production.
There is another and an even more important kind of distribution that falls within production. The distribution which connects itself with values, and the study of which gives a science of value, is that which takes place between different industries in their entirety. Thus, a high price for wheat makes the raising of that cereal a well-paid occupation, and puts a large sum into the possession of the group of laborers, capitalists and entrepreneurs who jointly raise it. How much of this large return goes to laborers? Hew much goes to capitalists? How much remains in the hands of entrepreneurs? These, as we noted, are questions involving distribution of another kind. Within each industry there is this final division to be made. After the returns of each sub-group, taken as a whole, have been determined, this lump sum is to be apportioned among different claimants within it; and this is the final process in the distributing of the social income.
In the final division that takes place within the sub-groups—the division that separates the gross earnings of each of them into wages, interest and profits—a law of production rules. So far as natural laws are unperverted, labor tends to get, as its share, what it separately produces; and capital does the same. The laborer who has helped a farmer to raise wheat naturally gets the value of that part of the wheat crop which is separately due to his labor. This statement requires proof, and will receive it: but it must stand for the present, as a thesis to be established by a later study. What is now clear is that, if it should be established, the whole of distribution as well as the whole of exchange, would be included within the organized process of producing wealth. Unravel the web of the social product, tracing each thread to its source, and you will have solved the problem of distribution. This is an analytical study. It traces backward, step by step, the synthesis by which, through the putting together of many different things, the great social dividend of usable goods is created. It first traces to each group its share in the creating of the grand total; then it traces the part of this that each sub-group has contributed: : and finally it attributes to labor and capital their several shares in the creating of the sub-group product.
We may, then, gather into the comprehensive science of production all the economic processes that go on in an organized or social way. There is, then, it appears, no separating of the processes that traditional theories have treated as distinct divisions of the science. Here, for example, working in a shoe shop, is a man who gets two dollars a day. Let us set before ourselves the problem of accounting for the amount of his wages. He is a part of a sub-group; and we have first to account for the way in which society has thrown itself into the systematic shape of groups and sub-groups, which exchange products with each other. We discuss the theory of exchange, in the narrow and accurate sense of the term, when we account for this group arrangement which is brought about for the sake of carrying on production in an organized way. In treating exchange, therefore, we are entering on the treatment of production. What the man gets is a part of what his sub-group gets; and this is fixed by the law of group distribution—the law of market value. Market value, however, depends on the relative quantities of the different articles that are produced; and this is saying that it depends on comparative group production. We are, then, still within the more general science of production when we thus try to trace to its causes the income of the sub-group from which the shoemaker's wages are taken. When we have discovered the influences that act on the sub-group's income, we must see why the shoemaker's share of that income is two dollars a day. This will take us into a further study of specific production. We shall have to find out, first, whether the man's pay tends to equal what he separately produces; and, secondly, what fixes the amount that he is able to produce. This is the study of distribution in its final stage, but it is also a study of production. We have, then, studied in part each of the four traditional subjects except consumption, in investigating the causes of the two dollar wage for the shoemaker's labor; and yet we have been, all the while, within the subject of social production.
Consumption alone remains an individualistic process. We produce our food coöperatively, but we eat it each one for himself. Society makes our clothing, builds our houses, etc.; but when we get our clothes, we wear them without assistance; and we dwell under our roofs in the same independent way. Society, however, reacts on our natures, and changes and multiplies our wants. A desire to associate with others, while consumption is going on, may even give a kind of collectivity to the process by which some products are used. Thus, we enjoy dining together; and we listen to music and addresses in assemblies, getting a part of our pleasure from the presence of others; but there is no coöperation in the consumption of goods that resembles what takes place in the production of them. There is no obvious group system, and no coöperation of agents such as labor and capital. It is to the sensibilities of individuals that products address themselves; and therefore consumption is the individualistic part of social economy.
If we look, then, at the relations of man to man, we find that production and consumption are not on the same plane. One is a collective operation: it is nothing, if not organized. The other is an individualistic operation: it consists in the using by each man of what society, by its intricate system of production, has made for him. In an accurate sense, the one process is a part of social economy and the other is not.
If we look at the relations of man to nature, we find that production and consumption are entirely coördinate,—that one of them is the reversal of the other. Man acts on nature in the one case, and nature acts on man in the other. Cultivate the earth till it gives you food, and you have produced a kind of wealth by acting on nature; but the food restores your wasted tissues and your lost energy by acting on you. Man making wealth and wealth making man constitute the whole economic operation. Humanity takes the active and aggressive attitude in the former part of the process, and it takes the passive and recipient attitude in the latter part. In the simplest mode of living these two processes are the only ones that take place. A primitive man, living alone, would kill game and eat it; he would make clothing and wear it; he would build a hut and live in it: in short, he would act on nature and let nature react on him, and that would constitute the whole of his economy. He would have nothing to do with exchange and distribution. This, indeed, is all that an economic society does, if we consider it only as a unit. It produces its food, its clothing, its shelter and its myriad of articles of comfort and luxury; and then it uses them. It produces them in an organized way, indeed, and it uses them in an unorganized way. Incidental to the making of them are the trading and sharing processes that are termed exchange and distribution; but production and consumption still exhaust the whole economy: there is no phenomenon of wealth that lies outside of them.
These are the facts to be recognized in entering on the study of distribution. In carrying that study to completion we cannot get outside of the field of social production, and we cannot avoid including within our more limited field the subject of exchange. Value is the chief subject that has customarily been treated in the division of exchange; but the theory of value and that of group distribution are one and the same.
Notes for this chapter
An article is not finished, in the economic sense, till the retail merchant has found the customer whose needs it satisfies. The sale of completed articles is thus the terminal act of social production.
End of Notes
Return to top | <urn:uuid:abef715e-c6a3-4a46-87c2-fc28ccfe289c> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:30:34",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9671584367752075,
"score": 3.015625,
"token_count": 5443,
"url": "http://econlib.org/library/Clark/clkDW2.html"
} |
Search By State Standards
To appreciate some of the extra-literary elements of a play, students pause at various intervals in their study of Thornton Wilder's Our Town to develop their own settings, characters, and conflicts.
EDSITEment has partnered with Thinkfinity to help you find, save, and share even more free lesson plans and educational resources. Try it Now
Get updates on new lesson plans and other resources.
EDSITEment! is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Special support for Edsitement is provided by Thinkfinity.org and Verizon | <urn:uuid:fc6062b9-19ed-43ef-87ef-dfbda9bd3f2b> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:45:39",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9163264632225037,
"score": 2.796875,
"token_count": 123,
"url": "http://edsitement.neh.gov/calendar/2012-01-22"
} |
Today's starting point? Atlanta. Destination? Florida. Although the family in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" lives in Atlanta, their journey to Florida takes them along the relatively new highways of the 1950s, including rural country roads.
The following images of Georgia highways and rural roads can give you a better idea of highway and country road travel. Though these images are from the 1930s and 1940s, the highways and rural roads would have been similar to those described in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." At the EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory website's Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection, examine the following images (found by searching keywords: "Georgia highways"):
Now view the following images (found by searching "rural roads Georgia"):
Next turn to the EDSITEment-reviewed Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History's virtual exhibition America on the Move. Explore in particular the following sections of the exhibition:
You are looking out the window of the sedan when the grandmother points out "the cute little pickaninny!" This is an offensive, slang term to describe an African-American child. The grandmother also users other terms that are considered quite offensive to us, even though they were quite common for her generation. Consider the following questions, keeping in mind the historical context of O'Connor's story, before examining some of the websites listed below:
While the grandmother's racial views seem outdated and racist to us now, O'Connor's story reflects the complex and difficult relationships of the 1950s South. Change was afoot not only in terms of race, but also in terms of gender, as roles for and stereotypes of women are evolving at this time as well.
Go to the EDSITEment-reviewed American Memory Project and examine the following images:
In her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South," Flannery O'Connor writes: "I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted." Let's continue our journey through the "Christ-haunted" South. The plot of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" ultimately is about being saved, literally and figuratively, along a rural Southern road. Let's explore images of "Christ-haunted" Georgia from the era between the Depression and WWII. Visit the EDSITEment-reviewed Library of Congress American Memory's "America from the Great Depression to WWII" Collection and browse these images: | <urn:uuid:c851da1b-2cb2-43bb-a672-c83b7d785659> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:18:12",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9608489274978638,
"score": 2.796875,
"token_count": 513,
"url": "http://edsitement.neh.gov/launchpad-flannery-oconnors-journey-through-the-south"
} |
An Afghan resistance fighter
On Christmas Eve, 1979, Soviet Antonov transport planes began landing at the airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, disgorging tanks and trucks and thousands of troops. Meanwhile, MI-6 and MI-8 helicopters ferried in several thousand elite commandos, some of whom, led by Colonel Boyarinov, head of the KGB's Department 8 (Special Ops), stormed the presidential palace. President Hafizullah Amin was entertaining a young lady in a sitting room; both Amin and his guest were gunned down. Within hours the entire city was under Soviet control. The radio station, airport, and other key locations had been secured. Four motorized infantry and armored divisions crossed the Afghan-Soviet border, negotiating the Hindu-Kush, a formidable range of mountains that for centuries had been a barrier to invasion from the north -- until the Soviets built the Salang Highway through it. In a matter of days all the major Afghan towns had been seized by the Soviet invaders.
Barbak Karmal was installed as the new president, and the USSR quickly executed numerous trade and economic agreements with the puppet government. The KGB revamped the Afghan secret police, renamed the KHAD, which promptly embarked on a bloody reign of terror in which torture and mass executions became commonplace. By early 1980 nearly 30,000 people had been killed in the Poli Charki concentration camp alone -- many of them doctors, teachers, diplomats and other members of the educated elite. Soviet troops and units of the Afghan army committed untold atrocities in the years to come in order to cement their control over a rebellious populace. The result: By 1986 over four million Afghans had fled the country, an almost unprecendented mass exodus. (One study shows that since there were 10 million displaced persons worldwide, this meant that nearly one out of every two refugees on the planet at that time was an Afghan.) By mid-decade, only 10 million people remained in Afghanistan, a nation of 15 million back in 1978.
Russian imperialism in that region had a long history. In the 19th century, Czarist Russia competed with its chief rival, Great Britain, for control of the area, a rivalry historians have described as The Great Game. The British sought to protect their rich Indian empire. The Czars wanted to expand their empire to the shores of the Indian Ocean. After World War II the task of curtailing Russian expansionism fell to the United States. In the early decades of the Cold War, the U.S. and the USSR competed for Afghanistan's favor with economic aid and development. "The Russians built an airport for Kabul, the Americans one for Kandahar," wrote journalist Anthony Paul. "The Russians raised a massive grain elevator in Kabul, the Americans filled it with wheat. The Russians built the 66-mile Salang Highway through the Hindu Kush, the Americans countered with aid for the national airline."
But in the Sixties and Seventies, while the U.S. was bogged down in the Vietnam quagmire, the Soviets gained the upper hand. They trained young Afghan officers -- training that incorporated indoctrination in Marxist-Leninist tenets. The USSR supported the communist People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Afghanistan, and backed the April 1978 coup that ousted the neutral government of Mahammed Daoud, which was replaced by a PDP government headed first by Mohammad Taraki and then Hafizullah Amin. But Afghan mullahs (religious leaders) declared a jihad (holy war) against the pro-Soviet regime. The mujahedin resistance to communist control grew ever stronger. When it appeared that Amin would lose control of Afghanistan, the Soviets launched the invasion -- though of course they claimed an invitation had been extended by the Karrmal puppet government they installed. The mujahedin proved to be redoubtable guerrilla fighters while the Afghan regular army, weakened by several purges and riddled with pro-mujahedin factions, became a liability for the USSR, which had to commit more and more military assets to the struggle. In just 15 months the Soviet occupation force had grown to 85,000. (In a few years that number would increase to 120,000.) Arrayed against them were as many as 500,000 holy warriors. The mujahedin were poorly armed and segmented into rival factions. And yet the Russians could never legitimately claim to control more than half the country.
The Carter administration responded to the invasion with a grain embargo and a boycott of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Moscow. The president complained that Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had deceived him, but pundits suggested that the administration had deceived itself into believing that the Kremlin was committed to the "peaceful coexistence" premise of detente. The U.S. had turned a blind eye to Russian adventurism in Africa and the Mideast that resulted in pro-Soviet regimes in Angola, Ethiopia and South Yemen. Carter had challenged the presence of a Soviet combat brigade in Cuba -- and then backed down. He had initially urged cuts in defense spending in spite of an unprecedented military buildup by the USSR, while curtailing military and economic aid to friendly countries threatened by Soviet-backed Marxist insurgencies. Experts feared that the Afghanistan invasion was just the first step in a Soviet campaign to control the approaches to the oil-rich Persian Gulf, with an eye to executing a stranglehold on oil exports essential to Western industry. (In addition, Moscow predicted that by the mid-Eighties its own oil production would be insufficient to meets its demands as well as those of its Eastern Block satellites.) Members of Saudi Arabia's royal family were not alone in their conviction that the next target of the Soviets after Afghanistan was Iran.
Although the CIA and the Pentagon believed that the Afghan resistance would eventually be crushed by the Soviet military, the Reagan administration was far more active in support of the mujahedin than the Carter team had been. CIA Director William Casey took the lead. (The State Department lagged behind in its enthusiasm for the Afghan cause; though the courage of the mujahedin was admired, said one diplomat, it was "like being a fan of the Cleveland Indians -- why get your hopes up?") Casey and the CIA became active in providing logistical and economic support to Pakistan, which struggled to provide for 3.5 million Afghan refugees. While the CIA did not usually get involved in humanitarian efforts, Casey's theory was that the Afghan men would not fight the Soviets unless they knew their families were being provided for. The British (Afghan Aid UK) and the French (Medicin Sans Frontier) helped with food, medicine, shelter -- and intelligence links for the resistance. But by 1988, 90 percent of the funding for all foreign aid groups was being provided by the U.S., funneled through the United Nations or the United States Agency for International Development.
The U.S. was also engaged in providing weapons to the mujahedin. In 1980-81 the CIA purchased Soviet weapons from the Egyptians -- some $50 million worth -- and funneled them to the resistance groups with Pakistan's cooperation. This armament proved to be of poor quality, so the CIA found new sources. By 1985 the agency was supplying the mujahedin via three conduits: Arms purchased on the international market with Saudi funds were flown into Islamanad, Pakistan; more weapons were airlifted in from China; contributions from Egypt, Britain and Israel arrived by sea at the port of Karachi. Moving 65,000 tons of war materiel annually, the CIA operation became, according to Peter Schweizer, "one of the most extensive and sophisticated covert operations in history." It was also the largest covert war in American history, costing $100 million a year. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Casey, heavier weapons, including 122-mm rocket launchers and SAM-7 (surface-to-air) missiles went into the pipeline, while the CIA supplied spy satellite images to assist the mujahedin in their campaigns. The CIA encouraged the resistance to focus their efforts on northern provinces, in particular to target the oil and gas facilies as well as copper, iron and gold mines the Russians were exploiting, extracting those resources and transporting them to the Soviet Union while paying ridiculously low prices -- or nothing at all -- for them. The CIA also tried to pave the way for increased cooperation between the rival resistance groups. The agency trained thousands of holy warriors. The American goal was summarized by one Pakistani official who pointed out that the Soviets had "kept the Vietcong supplied with hardware to kill . . . Americans. So the United States would now do the same for the mujahedin so they could kill Soviets. This view was prevalent among CIA officials, particularly William Casey." By early 1983, estimates placed Soviet casualties in Afghanistan at between 12,000 and 15,000.
In time the Kremlin began to contemplate dividing Afghanistan, annexing the northern half. Casey proposed turning the situation to the West's advantage by stirring up ethnic dissent in the heavily -Islamic southern republics of the USSR. The CIA purchased several hundred rubber Zodiak boats to transfer propaganda and mujahedin raiders across the Amu River into Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, CIA-trained resistance fighters conducted bombings and ambushed Soviet leaders in Kabul. The National Security Agency recast its electronic eavesdropping assets to concentrate on Afghanistan. A KH-11 spy satellite was redirected out of standard orbit to gather more intel on Soviet activities, which included night assaults against mujahedin strongholds by elite Spesnatz commandos. The freedom fighters were supplied with advanced burst communicators which enhanced coordination of resistance operations while making their communications virtually undetectable by the enemy.
Despite a Soviet offensive that year, 1985 saw the mujahedin achieve some stunning victories. Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of the Panjshir Valley, seized heavily defended Peshgohor. Mujahedin raids forced the Soviets to abandon Kandahar airfield. A major pipeline moving Afghan natural gas to the USSR was repeatedly sabotaged. Limpet mines supplied by British military intelligence (MI6) were used to send Soviet transport barges to the bottom of the Amu River. And in 1986 the Reagan administration provided the Afghan resistance with Stingers, the best surface-to-air missiles in the world. "When we start knocking $20 million planes out of the sky," Casey assured his aides, "the Kremlin will get nervous." Soviet pilots surely did -- the mujahedin became so skilled in the use of the Stingers that Russian airmen sometimes refused to fly combat missions. The CIA-mujahedin operation designed to encourage anti-Soviet nationalism in the USSR's Central Asian republics met with success, too. On 8 February 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev announced that Soviet forces would be withdrawn from Afghanistan. An aggressive American policy and the daring of defiant Afghan freedom fighters had turned the tide. Afghanistan had become the Soviet Union's Vietnam -- and the ten-year debacle contributed in no small measure to the collapse of the USSR.
Atrocities in Afghanistan
"There are no human rights in Afghanistan." This was the conclusion of a team from the U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee that interviewed more than 100 Afghan refugees in September 1984. "They tied them up and piled them like wood," said a doctor who saw the Soviets punish an entire village after Afghan troops defected. "Then they poured gasoline over them and burned them alive. They were old and young, men, women and children. Forty people were killed." A resistance leader spoke of two old, blind men who stayed behind when a village was abandoned. "The Russians tied dynamite to their backs and blew them up." Another described how Russians held a child over a fire while questioning Afghan villagers about the mujahedin. In 1985, Soviet troops encircled five villages in northern Afghanistan, entered every house, and killed 600 civilians, including women and children, before putting the houses to the torch. Such atrocities were commonplace, and the devastation wrought by the Soviets resulted in near-famine conditions in many provinces; infant mortality caused by malnutrition reached 85 percent in the Panjsher Valley in 1985.
Soviet tanks rolling into Afghanistan
"Agony in Afghanistan"
Jean-Francois Revel & Rosanne Klass, National Review (4 October 1985)
"The Real Stakes in Afghanistan"
William E. Griffith, Reader's Digest (June 1980)
"Report From Afghanistan: Will We Hear Their Cry?"
Anthony Paul, Reader's Digest (April 1981)
Afghanistan: Soviet Vietnam
Vladislav Tamarov (San Francisco: Mercury House, 1992)
Among the Afghans
Arthur Bonner (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987)
Caught in the Crossfire
Jan Goodwin (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987)
Holy War, Unholy Victory:Eyewitness to the CIA's Secret War in Afghanistan
Kurt Lohbeck (Washington DC: Regnery Gateway, 1993)
Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State
George P. Shultz (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993)
Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy that Hastened the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Peter Schweizer (new York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1984) | <urn:uuid:4530862d-1614-442f-a11c-5e683de9f694> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:43",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9644333124160767,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 2723,
"url": "http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id333.htm"
} |
The selection of works from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Orientalist Painting Collection included in the “İstanbul: The City of Dreams” exhibition thus emerge as outstanding visual documents that feature, largely though the perspective of Western artists, a view of the Ottoman world stretching from the 17th to the early 20th century. Organized under three major headings, the exhibition expands from life in the household and private domains to urban space and into more general views of İstanbul. Consequently, as the city is reflected on the canvasses of European artists in its entirety through its topography, architecture, people, traditions, and ways of life, such a revival allows us partake in the “Eastern journey” of these travellers and rediscover in their company -and through their eyes -İstanbul and the Ottoman world of unrivalled wonders.
Daily life of the interior
A significant majority of the city’s scenes from daily life is comprised of domestic life and the women who shape the home interior. Women often constituted one of the fundamental themes of Orientalist painting. The infatuation with accessing the harem, namely the private living space of the Eastern woman, was almost tantamount to penetrating the mysteries of the East. The failure to see this intimate domain at their will naturally caused hundreds of Western men, including travellers, writers, painters, and poets, to fantasize about the Eastern woman and to conjure up glimpses of an imaginary life. Since Western artists could not freely access the Muslim household, they often selected their models from non-Muslim families for their paintings of the household interior where women were present | <urn:uuid:c09505e0-96b7-4937-a9bb-0dba09f66baa> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:38:34",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9556738138198853,
"score": 2.515625,
"token_count": 336,
"url": "http://en.peramuzesi.org.tr/exhibitions/detail_collection_exhibitions.aspx?Page=LeCDLPager130024018771471743__2&SectionID=TbIz1RuHkzgarruFOGK6Uw%3D%3D&ContentID=ZTov0Er6KFNjTr5yBT4XFw%3D%3D"
} |
From Mekteb-i Sultani to Galatasaray Lycee Painters
The first Galatasaray Exhibition was opened in the spring of 1916 by the Association of Ottoman Painters at “Galatasaraylılar Yurdu” with the participation of 49 artists. It was the starting point of an organization that was meticulously upheld for many years to come and attained a distinctiveness that was akin to the “Salon” of Paris.
Recognized in Turkish art history as “Galatasaray Exhibitions” and held for 35 consecutive years, the exhibitions featured nearly 6000 works by more than 300 artists. These figures alone constitute a significant source of data in terms of art production in that particular period. Until the 1950s, establishing oneself as an artist in Turkey did, in a sense, require a rite of passage through the Galatasaray Exhibitions.
The Domestic Goods Exhibitions were held for 11 years from 1929 onwards and they transformed Galatasaray Lycée into what can only be defined as a fairground. Sometimes organized concurrently or immediately one after the other, Domestic Goods and Galatasaray Exhibitions became outstanding events that were, year after year, eagerly anticipated by the city dwellers, intellectuals and the art milieu. | <urn:uuid:9b68b4ee-46ad-4b22-b33d-5ae9b6311d8c> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:57",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9668041467666626,
"score": 2.5625,
"token_count": 271,
"url": "http://en.peramuzesi.org.tr/exhibitions/detail_past_exhibitions.aspx?Page=LeCDLPager130045864197365944__4&SectionID=lQaaX4IRtXlo2RpXq2XAcg%3D%3D&ContentID=lA4tdbY2zbL%2FnVHdaipHjg%3D%3D"
} |
The Surface Inspector and the Texture Browser are the tools you will be using when texuring your maps. To use the Texture Browser, simply press T. To bring up the Surface Inspector for a surface, select a brush or surface and press S.
With the controls above you can either Fit a texture to fit on a brush, or use Axial to apply it 1:1.
The buttons on top row are used for brushes, the ones on the bottom row for patches. Use the CAP button for endcaps.
Here you can change how the texture is aligned on the brush or surface selected. You can shift (scroll) the texture, stretch (zoom) it, or simply rotate it. The value in the Step boxes control how much each value is incremented as the little arrow buttons are pressed.
This is the Folder List. Here you see all found texture folders listed, double-click a folder name and you will be able to see the contents of the folder to the right.
In the Texture List
, all textures
) in the current texture folder are listed. Note that the border can be either green
or none. White
means the texture is a shader
means the texture is used in the current map, and both green
means the texture is a shader and currently in use. | <urn:uuid:0111dbac-e3b1-4483-bfb3-face1bc4ecad> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:38:09",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8520081639289856,
"score": 2.765625,
"token_count": 271,
"url": "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/GtkRadiant/The_Texture_Browser"
} |
|Elevation||758 ft (231 m)|
|Area||0.55 sq mi (1 km2)|
|- land||0.55 sq mi (1 km2)|
|- water||0.00 sq mi (0 km2)|
|Density||1,829.4 / sq mi (706 / km2)|
|- summer (DST)||CDT (UTC-5)|
|Wikimedia Commons: Colfax, Illinois|
Colfax is located at (40.566290, -88.615304).
According to the 2010 census, the village has a total area of 0.55 square miles (1.4 km2), all land.
Colfax was laid out on March 22 1880 by James E. Wood (22 October 1818 – October 1908). Anderson was born in Indiana and had come to McLean County about 1855 as State Missionary for the Christian Church. He stayed and became a farmer, a banker, and a lifelong promoter of Colfax. To locals, Anderson was affectionately known as “Uncle Billy.” The northeastern townships of the county were among the last to be served by railroads. After many false starts the Clinton, Bloomington, and Northwestern Railroad began making its way westward from Kankakee, Illinois. It was aided by contributions in cash and land for the right-of-way by many local farmers. Cropsey, Anchor, and Cooksville were all laid out at the same time as Colfax. The first train arrived in Colfax on 4 July 1880. For two years the track extended only from Kankakee to Colfax and a turntable was installed to send the trains back eastwards. Eventually the tracks ware completed to Bloomington. The Railroad soon became part of the Illinois Central system. Colfax is one of several communities in the United States named for Grant's Vice President Schuyler Colfax. Others include Colfax, California; Colfax, Indiana; Colfax, Louisiana; Colfax, North Carolina and Colfax, Washington.
Original design and early growth
The Original Town of Colfax was a rectangle on the north side of the tracks. There were twelve blocks, each with eight or sixteen small lots, and an additional four blocks, each with a single larger lot, were located along the western edge of the Original Town., for a total of one hundred lots. These faced a widened area of railroad land, which ran the full length of the Original Town. No other public spaces were designated, but Main Street, which ran parallel to the tracks and one block to the north, was wider than the other streets. The depot was on the north side of the tracks and the early elevator, lumber yard and stock yard were on the south side. William Rinker erected the first store, which sold groceries. Another grocery store, Wilson and Santee, followed. The third store was a somewhat larger two-story structure built by D.A. Green, who had moved his operation into Colfax from Potosi near the McLean County–Livingston County border; Green sold groceries, dry goods and drugs.
First coal mines
In 1886 a company was formed to open the first of two coal mines at Colfax. The first to be opened was the shaft just west of town. Frank Seymour and Sons were paid fourteen dollars a foot to sink the shaft. They encountered problems with water, with cave ins and were soon slowed by the need to blast their way through limestone layers before reaching the coal seems. The railroad was unable to bring in sufficient shoring for the shaft and additional timber had to be hauled in by wagon. At 140 feet (43 m) they struck a narrow vein of coal, but excavators had to go down to 392 feet (119 m) before finding a productive 5-foot-thick (1.7 m) seam of coal. Miners were brought in, and the first coal was taken in June 1888. Financial troubles and rapid changes of ownership soon followed. 1⁄2 The organization of a company to open a second shaft, this one east of town, shaft began in December 1891, but it was June 1894 before digging could begin.
Problems with the mines
The east shaft encountered great difficulties with water and with layers of quicksand. After many delays and extensive pumping, coal was found in 1895, but trouble with financing delayed production for two years. The 200 miners who flooded into Colfax encountered an acute shortage of housing, which was not solved until a large number of small miner’s cottages could be built: a few of these may still be found in Colfax. Financial troubles quickly mounted In May 1892 the east shaft had to be sold at auction. In 1901 and 1902 almost 60,000 tons of coal were being taken out of the mines, but increased difficulty with finances soon reduced production. Once the mines were opened, unions were organized and strikes followed. Mining at Colfax proved to be a deadly business; between 1889 and 1902 eleven miners died, most of them crushed by falling rock. The west shaft produced most of the coal, but was closed in 1904. This mine remained idle for many years until being briefly re-opened as a cooperative venture between 1921 and 1924. Eventually the abandoned shaft became a rubbish dump and was eventually filled.
Growth of the town
Once established, Colfax grew rapidly. In 1892 a tile factory was built in the northeast corner of town; as was often the case in central Illinois, the former tile factory grounds eventually became a small park. A cigar factory was built. About the same time, a small factory for the manufacture of tin cans started production. By 1888 Colfax had a newspaper, the Colfax Leader. Electric lights came in 1895. Four churches began soon after the town was founded: Christian, Methodist, and Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. William H. Anderson, who raised Standard Bred and Road Bred horses, had a half-mile horse track just east of town. After the mines closed, Colfax settled into a quieter life as the commercial hub of a prosperous grain-growing area. However, eastern McLean County has been an area of little population growth and the population of Colfax, which peaked in 1900, had dropped fourteen percent by 2000.
As of the census of 2000, there were 989 people, 395 households, and 253 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,829.4 people per square mile (707.1/km²). There were 422 housing units at an average density of 780.6 per square mile (301.7/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 99.09% White, 0.51% Native American, 0.20% from other races, and 0.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.42% of the population.
There were 395 households out of which 28.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.7% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 32.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.06.
In the village the population was spread out with 25.3% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 18.3% from 45 to 64, and 23.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.4 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $41,544, and the median income for a family was $50,500. Males had a median income of $31,875 versus $23,438 for females. The per capita income for the village was $17,993. About 0.8% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.2% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.
- "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- "2010 Census U.S. Gazetteer Files for Places – Illinois". United States Census. Retrieved 2012-10-13.
- Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McLean County Illinois. (Chicago: Munsell; 1908) p. 902. Some sources give James E. Wood as co-founder of the town; see Edward Callery, Place names of Illinois (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008) p.76.
- Transactions of the McLean County Historical Society (Volume 1; Bloomington, 1900) p.505.
- Gilbert M. Johnson, Colfax Illinois and its Coal Mines (Normal: Illinois State Normal University, 1954) pp.2-9.
- Combined Indexed Atlas 1856 - 1914, McLean County, Illinois ( Bloomington: McLean County Historical Society and McLean County Genealogical Society, 2006) p. 195.
- Johnson, 1954, p.10.
- Johnson 1954, pp. 29-32.
- Johnson, 1954, 33-34.
- Johnson, 1954, pp. 33-37.
- Johnson, 1954, 34-41, 58.
- Johnson, 1954, p.10.
- Johnson, 1954, p.13.
- Combined Atlas, 206, p. 195, 216.
- "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31. | <urn:uuid:9c7e3468-c95a-4c1d-8463-6a932d57deb3> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:12:04",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9758427739143372,
"score": 2.75,
"token_count": 2062,
"url": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colfax,_Illinois"
} |
Swat (princely state)
||This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2012)|
|State of Swat|
|Province of the Mughal Empire (1802–1858)
Princely state of the British Raj (1858–1947)
Princely state of Pakistan (1947–1955)
|Wāli of Swat||His Highness Sultan Faghal (first)|
|His Highness Miangul Jahan Zeb, Wāli of Swat (last)|
|Historical era||Mughal Empire (1802–1858) Indian British Empire (22 February 1858-1947) Princely state of Pakistan (1947-1955) Part of West Pakistan (1955-1969) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (1970-present) Dividing between the Swat, Buner and Shangla|
|-||Merged into West Pakistan||14 October 1955|
|Currency||Rupee, Pakistan Rupee (after 1947)|
This article is part of the series
The Yousufzai State of Swat (Urdu: ریاست سوات) was a province of the Mughal Empire ruled by local rulers known as the Akhunds, then until 1947 a princely state of the British Indian Empire, which was dissolved in 1947, when the Akhwand acceded to Pakistan. The state lay to the north of the modern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan and continued within its 1947 borders until 1969, when it was dissolved. The area it covered is now divided between the present-day states of Swat, Buner and Shangla.
|This section does not cite any references or sources. (October 2012)|
- See also History of Swat
The Swat region has been inhabited for more than two thousand years and was known in ancient times as Udyana. The location of Swat made it an important stopping point for many invaders, including Alexander the Great and Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. The second century BCE saw Swat forming part of the Buddhist civilisation of Gandhara.
Swat was a center of Hinayana Buddhism and of the Mahayana school that developed from it. The Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien, who visited the valley around 403 CE, mentions 500 monasteries. After him, Sun Yun (519 CE), Hsuan-tsang (630 CE), and Wu-kung (752 CE) visited Swat as well and praised the richness of the region, its favourable climate, the abundance of forest, flowers and fruit-trees and the respect in which Buddhism was held.
The Kushan dynasty ruled for four centuries until it was overrun by the White Huns in the 5th century CE and the glory of the Gandhara era came to an end. Hsuan-tsang recorded the decline of Buddhism. According to him, of the 1400 monasteries that had supposedly been there, most were in ruins or had been abandoned. The monks still quoted from the scriptures but no longer understood them. There were grapes in abundance but cultivation of the fields was sparse.
From the 8th century CE onwards, Muslim Arabs started to exert pressure from the west in the most eastern-Iranian lands where the Hindu Shahi Dynasty still ruled. At the beginning of the 8th century, the Gabari Royal Tajik tribe advanced through Laghmanat, Ningarhar, and Dir to invade Swat, defeating the Bhudists and the Hindus. This war was headed by Sultan Pakhal Gabari and later on by Sultan Behram Gabari, both Jahangirian sultans. Rulers of Kuner Pich and cousin of Rulers of Balkh and Kashmir. Later some Dilazak encroached on the area and settled among the Gabaris, who in 1519 and 1520 were ousted in their turn by the Yusufzais backed by the Mughal Badshah Zahiruddin Muhammad Baber,the fierce super power. It is a historical paradox that the Yusufzais were ousted from Kabul by Mirza Ullegh Beg, the uncle of Baber, and killed 600 Malak of Yusufzai, whereas the Gabaris warmly welcomed Yousofzai refugees and settled them within Gabari sultanate areas of Bajour, Dir and Swat. The Yusofzais forgot the generosity of the Gabaris and encroached on their state with the plotted help of Zahiruddin Muhammad Babar.And thus, In 1519 they demolished the Gabar-Kot fortress in Bajour killed the Sultans including Sultan Mir Haider Ali Gabari.Further advanced into Swat, forcing the last Gabari ruler, Sultan Awais Gabari Manglaware Fort, to Retire to Upper Dir. He established his rule in Upper Dir, Chitral Wakhan, Badakhshan and other petty states of the Upper Oxus.
The modern area of Swat was ruled sporadically by religious leaders, who took the title of Akhoond, also spelt Akhund or Akond. The Akhund of Swat who died in 1877 was particularly famous as the subject of a well known humorist poem by Edward Lear, The Akond of Swat. The nonsensical poem suggests a far away place and a mystical person, at least through the eyes of a Victorian poet and painter.
The Islamic State of Swat was established in 1849 under Sayyid Akbar Shah with Sharia law remaining in force, but the state was in abeyance from 1863 to 1915. Sayyid Abdul-Jabbar Khan was made ruler by a local Jirga and had trouble exercising power. In 1917 another Jirga appointed Miangul Golshahzada Abdul-Wadud. The British recognised the state as a princely state in 1926. Following the Partition of India in 1947, the ruler acceded the state to Pakistan, while retaining considerable autonomy. The ruler of Swat was accorded a 15-gun hereditary salute in 1966, but this was followed by the abolition of the state in 1969 due to the policy of Government of Pakistan.
The people of Swat are mainly Pashtuns, Kohistanis and Gujars. Some have very distinctive physical characteristics, including blonde hair and blue eyes. They may be of Dardic extraction, as found in other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the surrounding area.
The rulers of Swat held the title Amir-e Shariyat and from 1918 were known as Badshah; the title changed to Wali in 1926 when it became a Princely State of the British Raj. Since 1969 the former princely state has been under a civil administration as part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Miangul family is still prominent in Pakistan and has held a variety of appointed and elective posts.
|Tenure||Rulers of Swat||Honorary|
|Sultan Faghal or Sultan Pakhal|
|Sultan Behram Jahangeeri|
|Sultan Ghiyasunddin Abdullah Khan|
|Sultan Owais Jahangeeri|
|1849 - 11 May 1857||Sayyid Akbar Shah|
|11 May 1857 - 1863||Sayyid Mubarak Shah Sahib|
|1863–1915||State in abeyance|
|1915 - September 1917||Sayyid Abdul-Jabbar Khan|
|September 1917 - 12 December 1949||Miangul Golshahzada Abdul-Wadud Badshah Sahib|
|12 December 1949 - 28 July 1969||Miangul Abdul-Haqq Jahan Zeb|
|28 July 1969||(civil administration)||Miangul Abdul-Haqq Jahan Zeb|
|1987 to date||(civil administration)||Miangul Aurangzeb|
See also
- Ben Cahoon, WorldStatesmen.org. "Pakistan Princely States". Retrieved 2007-10-03.
Further reading
- The Last Wali of Swat: An Autobiography as Told by Fredrik Barth (Asian Portraits), by Fredrik Barth
- Sack, John (2000). Report from Practically Nowhere. ISBN 0-595-08918-6.
- Sultan-i-Rome, Swat State, 1915–1969, From Genesis to Merger: An Analysis of Political, Administrative, Socio-Political, and Economic Development, Karachi: Oxford University Press (2008), ISBN 0-19-547113-X
- Sultan-i-Rome. Forestry in the Princely State of Swat and Kalam (North-West Pakistan): A Historical Perspective on Norms and Practices, NCCR IP6 Working Paper No. 6. Zurich: Department of Geography, University of Zurich (2005)
- Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- RoyalArk website on general and dynastic history
- Details on the ruling family of Swat
- Daily Times: NWFP Religious Background
- Geographic Journal article on Swat | <urn:uuid:3b7cfde9-e935-49bc-a507-372968e2468c> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:46:04",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9366476535797119,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 1933,
"url": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Swat"
} |
Hurricane Irene of 2011 now rated history's 6th most damaging hurricane
New damage estimates released last month by NOAA now place the damage from 2011's Hurricane Irene at $15.8 billion, making the storm the 6th costliest hurricane and 10th costliest weather-related disaster in U.S. history. Irene hit North Carolina on August 27, 2011, as a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds, and made landfalls the next day in New Jersey and New York City as a tropical storm. Most of the damage from Irene occurred because of the tremendous fresh water flooding the storm's rains brought to much of New England. Irene is now rated as the most expensive Category 1 hurricane to hit the U.S. The previous record was held by Hurricane Agnes of 1972, whose floods did $11.8 billion in damage in the Northeast. NOAA also announced that the name Irene had been retired from the list of active hurricane names. Irene was the only named retired in 2011, and was the 76th name to be retired since 1954. The name Irene was replaced with Irma, which is next scheduled be used in 2017.
Figure 1. True-color MODIS image of Hurricane Irene over North Carolina taken at 11:35 am EDT August 27, 2011. At the time, Irene was a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds. Image credit: NASA.
At last month's 30th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology of the American Meteorological Society, Paul Ruscher of Florida State University explained how Irene's storm surge came within 8 inches of flooding New York City's subway system, which would have caused devastating damage. At the current global rate of sea level rise of 3.1 mm/year, a repeat of Irene 65 years from now would be capable of flooding the subway system, if no action is taken. Since sea level rise is expected to accelerate as the planet warms in coming decades, an Irene-type storm surge would likely be capable of flooding the NYC subway system much sooner than that. To read more about New York City's vulnerability, see Andrew Freedman's analysis at Climate Central, Climate Change Could Cripple New York’s Transportation, or my November 2011 blog post, Hurricane Irene: New York City dodges a potential storm surge mega-disaster. | <urn:uuid:db87577d-b044-4a77-89b1-842c860329f7> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:44:25",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9548113942146301,
"score": 2.796875,
"token_count": 479,
"url": "http://english.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2085&theprefset=BLOGCOMMENTS&theprefvalue=100"
} |
To Our Enota Readers
August 1, 2012
One of the many vegetables growing in our organic garden this year is the jalapeño pepper. The jalapeno is a vegetable—or, more properly, a fruit—that can be grown either in a simple garden or in the home. Besides this, jalapenos can be used for a variety of recipes and mixtures.
Like all capsicum peppers, the jalepeno comes naturally from the Americas. The jalapeno in particular originates from Mexico, and is named after Xalapa, Veracruz. A mature fruit normally ranges in size from 2-3 ½ inches and is normally picked while still green. The juice of the jalapeno has long been used as a remedy for cardiovascular problems or even allergies. Incidentally, the chipotle is a just ripe jalapeno that has been smoked.
Jalapenos have a good source of Iron, Phosphorus, Riboflavin, Niacin, and Magnesium. Also, if you’re looking for a good source of Vitamin C, jalapenos can help. 1 cup of sliced jalapenos contain as much as 66% the Daily Value of Vitamin C, along with 14% the Daily Value of Vitamin A.
Jalapenos are also thought to have a beneficial effect in Alzheimer’s disease—mainly by limiting neuronal damage in the brain.
Most people automatically assume that jalapenos are very hot. In all actuality, the seeds are the hottest part of the pepper. And if you’re eating the pepper raw rather than pickled, you’ll find a little less heat. If you’re looking for a challenge, the jalapeno is definitely not one of the top peppers. The habenero is better for intense heat or—if looking for a touch of true fire—the ghost pepper can feed the flames.
So what gives jalapenos their heat? Well, the capsaicin flavonoid gives many peppers their characteristic heat, and this is especially true if peppers have been pickled or cooked. Also, if you’re looking to add a little bit of fresh jalapeno to your stir-fry or other dishes, be careful in cooking these peppers on the skillet or grill: the compounds released can be a big irritant to the eyes and lungs if not careful. Food chemists believe this is because the capsaicin evaporates and expands.
If you’re eating jalapenos and feel the heat is a little too much, eating cold yogurt can help cool you down. Don’t try to drink a lot of water; this only causes the capsaicin to spread around. The yogurt (ice cream can also help) dilutes the capsaicin and helps to keep it from touching the lining of your stomach, which helps in soothing any burning pain.
DON’T get any portion of the pepper near your eye. If dealing with the peppers, wash your hands before getting your hands near your eyes or nose. If this does happen, rinse your eyes out thoroughly with cold water to reduce irritation.
Of course, eating a large amount of spicy foods over a long period of time can cause ulcers. If you are experiencing any pain after eating spicy foods, give your doctor a call and put the spicy adventures on hold until you know the cause.
1 lb. Onions
½ lb. bell peppers
1 tsp salt, optional
½ cup of white vinegar
½ lb. jalapeno peppers
1 large can tomatoes, 16 oz.
1 tsp. garlic powder
Cut stems and remove seeds from jalapeno peppers. Chop fine, wear gloves when handling jalapenos. Chop all vegetables, including tomatoes, and place in pot with other ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer about 1 hour, stirring occasionally until onions are soft and sauce is slightly thickened.
To get sauce a little hotter, leave in all jalapeno pepper seeds
Bottle and refrigerate, or may be put in jars and canned. Makes about 3 pints.
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 (8 ounce) package shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon bacon bits
12 ounces jalapeno peppers, seeded and halved
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dry bread crumbs
2 quarts of oil for frying
In medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and bacon bits. Spoon this mixture into the jalapeno pepper halves.
Put the milk and flour into two separate small bowls. Dip the stuffed jalapenos first into the milk then into the flour, making sure they are well coated with each. Allow the coated jalapenos to dry for about 10 minutes.
Dip the jalapenos in milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry, then repeat to ensure the entire surface of the jalapeno is coated
In a medium skillet, heat the oil to 365 degrees F. Deep fry the coated jalapenos 2 to 3 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove and let drain on paper towel.
Recipe obtained at allrecipes.com | <urn:uuid:70f8bb1a-8b34-4a62-92f2-732d3e637219> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:08",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8928770422935486,
"score": 2.734375,
"token_count": 1098,
"url": "http://enotablog.com/2012/08/01/to-our-enota-readers-2/"
} |
Williams, H. Paul (2009) Logic and integer programming. International series in operations research & management science . Springer, London, UK. ISBN 9780387922799
Integer programming (discrete optimization) is best used for solving problems involving discrete, whole elements. Using integer variables, one can model logical requirements, fixed costs, sequencing and scheduling requirements, and many other problem aspects. Whether it’s taught in OR graduate programs or in math or computer science programs; in courses called "Integer Programming," "Combinatorial Optimization," "Combinatorial Optimization and Integer Programming" or simply "Advanced Operations Management," it’s a part of every OR curriculum, and one of its greatest teachers has developed a text that shows how to use logic in integer programming to develop models with much greater precision. Paul Williams, a leading authority on modeling in integer programming, has written a concise, readable introduction to the science and art of using modeling in logic for integer programming. Written for graduate and postgraduate students, as well as academics and practitioners, the book is divided into four chapters that all avoid the typical format of definitions, theorems and proofs and instead introduce concepts and results within the text through examples. References are given at the end of each chapter to the more mathematical papers and texts on the subject, and exercises are included to reinforce and expand on the material in the chapter. Chapter 1 gives a basic introduction to logic and its aims, and goes on to explain the Propositional and Predicate Calculus. Chapter 2 explains Linear Programming (LP) and Integer Programming (IP) using the machinery of logic; explains the fundamental structural and mathematical properties of these types of models, along with the main methods of solving IP models; covers main areas of practical application; and attempts to distinguish between computationally ‘difficult’ and ‘easy’ classes of problem. Chapter 3 applies logic to the formulation of IP models using the methods explained in chapter 1 and looks at the deeper mathematical concepts involved. Chapter 4 then covers the fundamental problem of computational logic: the satisfiability problem, which lies at the heart of the entire book. Methods of solving with both logic and IP are given and their connections are described. Applications in diverse fields are discussed, and Williams shows how IP models can be expressed as satisfiability problems and solved as such.
|Additional Information:||© 2009 H. Paul Williams|
|Library of Congress subject classification:||Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4050 Electronic information resources|
|Sets:||Research centres and groups > Management Science Group|
Actions (login required)
|Record administration - authorised staff only| | <urn:uuid:094e303a-7b20-4520-9a3f-37954ec542c7> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:14",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.893314778804779,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 551,
"url": "http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25256/"
} |
Sportsmen and their sweaters: knitting patterns as historical sources
Polley, Martin (2009) Sportsmen and their sweaters: knitting patterns as historical sources. In, Recording Leisure Lives: Sports, Games and Pastimes, Bolton, UK, 07 Apr 2009.
Full text not available from this repository.
Old knitting patterns are easy to see as ephemeral, disposable items, artefacts of everyday life that we can see in our memory on our mothers’ laps, but that we don’t readily picture in an archive. They are produced for a very specific purpose, and are not designed to become historians’ sources. However, cultural historians and historians of everyday life can learn from them, and can use them as windows on to their time of production. Using sport-related knitting patterns from Winchester School of Art’s Knitting Reference Library as a case study, this paper will look at what historians can get from this type of evidence: both empirical evidence about disposable income, materials, and technology, and household economics, and more subjective, cultural evidence about class, identity, and gender. The paper will build on the call that I made for sports historians to use wider variety of sources in Sports History: a practical guide (Palgrave, 2007).
|Item Type:||Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)|
|Keywords:||knitting, sport, clothing, fashion, history|
|Subjects:||G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
|Divisions:||University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Education > Leadership, School Improvement and Effectiveness
|Date Deposited:||15 Jul 2009|
|Last Modified:||02 Mar 2012 13:12|
|Contributors:||Polley, Martin (Author)
|Date:||7 April 2009|
|RDF:||RDF+N-Triples, RDF+N3, RDF+XML, Browse.|
Actions (login required) | <urn:uuid:b73a6373-e209-471b-b42c-725b37f07746> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:31:44",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.859836757183075,
"score": 2.578125,
"token_count": 444,
"url": "http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/66740/"
} |
Visual perception and the associated structural and genetic components are highly developed in insects. However, it is unclear how well these features are developed in ectoparasitic insects that have secondarily reduced or lost vision. While it is well known that fleas have reduced or completely lost their eyes, it is unclear whether the underlying genetics associated with vision have remained intact. We present data from a study of the long-wavelength opsin gene sampled across a range of mecopteran and siphonapteran taxa, which include fully visual insects (panorpids and boreids) to species with eyes reduced or absent (fleas). The evolution of this gene is evaluated in light of a robust phylogeny for Mecoptera and Siphonaptera, providing greater insight into the evolution of the opsin gene complex in insects.
Species 1: Siphonaptera (fleas)
Species 2: Mecoptera Panorpidae (scorpionflies)
Species 3: Mecoptera Boreidae (snow fleas)
Back to Student Competition Ten-Minute Papers, A2, Systematics, Morphology, and Evolution
Back to Student Competition TMP Orals
Back to The 2003 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition | <urn:uuid:232999eb-f7e8-415f-9917-665a4cc9e77e> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:03",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9079521894454956,
"score": 3.4375,
"token_count": 259,
"url": "http://esa.confex.com/esa/2003/techprogram/paper_12777.htm"
} |
|"zero in on" = focus on or direction your attention to a particular issue |
"I think we need to zero in on the main causes of water pollution and start solving them one at a time."
"leave no stone unturned" = do everything possible to solve a problem
"Things might look bad, but leave no stone unturned in trying to find the answer to our company's economic problems."
More of Randall's Favorite Learning Resources
[ Quiz Script ]
First, name three environmental problems that face our world today, how people can help solve these problems. What image comes to your mind when you think of "recycling"?
|I. Pre-Listening Exercises [Top]|
HELPFUL TIP: Recycling is one important way of conserving our world's natural resources. Talk with you family about what you can do to better recycle your trash.|
Listen to the conversation by pressing the "Play" button of the audio type you want to hear, and answer the questions. Press the "Final Score" button to check your quiz.
|II. Listening Exercises [Top]
2. Listen to the conversation again as you read the Quiz Script.
|III. Post-Listening Exercises [Top]|
What are five specific things individuals can do to protect the environment? What are some reasons why people do not recycle or are careless when they dispose of garbage? Are there any unique programs in your city or country that promote recycling and protecting the environment?
Now, write your opinions on a similar topic at Randall's ESL Blog HERE.
Randall's Sites: Daily ESL | ESL Blog | EZSlang | Train Your Accent | Tips For Students | Hiking In Utah | <urn:uuid:c9a3e459-11ff-42f8-8718-1ddb3762b1e0> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:49",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8917471170425415,
"score": 3,
"token_count": 367,
"url": "http://esl-lab.com/world/worldrd1.htm"
} |
concept. The basic idea is that the human mind
can keep track of about seven
at once, or can differentiate between seven or so
different (but similar) things.
The phrase comes from the title of a 1956 paper by Harvard professor George
A. Miller titled, The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information, which begins:
My problem is that I have been persecuted by an integer. For seven years this number has followed me around, has intruded in my most private data, and has assaulted me from the pages of our most public journals. This number assumes a variety of disguises, being sometimes a little larger and sometimes a little smaller than usual, but never changing so much as to be unrecognizable. The persistence with which this number plagues me is far more than a random accident. There is, to quote a famous senator, a design behind it, some pattern governing its appearances. Either there really is something unusual about the number or else I am suffering from delusions of persecution.
Miller goes on to present data from a number of
experiments which support the idea
(by arriving at the number seven). Topics of the
experiments he reviewed included, "span of immediate
memory", "capacity for absolute judgements of the position of a dot
on a square", and (my favorite) "capacity for absolute judgements of saltiness | <urn:uuid:5bad0a5b-bfeb-494a-9f8a-d58ba4c75253> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:11:34",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.937669575214386,
"score": 2.890625,
"token_count": 289,
"url": "http://everything2.com/title/seven%252C+plus+or+minus+two"
} |
USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed today that Asian Soybean Rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi), has been found on soybean leaf samples collected from two Louisiana State University's research plots near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. APHIS officials report they believe the pathogen was carried to the United States during the recent hurricane season.
USDA will dispatch its soybean rust detection assessment team, composed of scientific experts and regulatory officials, to the site within 24 hours. The assessment team will work closely with Louisiana State Department of Agriculture representatives to assess the situation and conduct surveillance around the detection site to determine the extent of the disease spread.
ASA President Neal Bredehoeft, a soybean producer from Alma, Mo., says, "Potential yield loss from soybean rust starts to diminish as plants begin to reach maturity. At this time of the year, when soybeans in many areas of the United States have already reach full maturity and the crop is ripe, soybean rust will no longer reduce this year's crop yields."
With the case being found in a research farm and having active surveillance, the chances for the disease being widespread are "very high," Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Deputy Administrator Ric Dunkle says. More should be known once a more thorough assessment of the area is complete. The spores inability to overwinter in many northern regions should benefit disease management.
Proactive Steps Now
While the harvest for this year is nearing completion, during next year’s planting season, producers will need to watch for symptoms of the fungus such as small lesions on the lower leaves of the infected plant that increase in size and change from gray to tan or reddish brown on the undersides of the leaves.
If soybean rust becomes widespread in U.S. soybean production areas, it could cause large crop and economic losses to soybean growers and associated industries. Growers returning from, or hosting visitors from, rust infected soybean production areas should be extremely careful that the disease is not transmitted to their fields.
Dunkle recommends any producers who still have soybeans in the field to contact their local extension office for testing. Dunkle says the entire Gulf coast region will be surveyed.
Growers in areas near the outbreak should survey their fields to inspect for symptoms of soybean rust disease. Inspection consists of a thorough visual examination of soybean plants in the field and of other host plants in the vicinity of the fields being surveyed. A 20-power hand lens will be required to inspect the underside of the lower leaves in the lower crop canopy for uredinial pustules that are powdery, and buff or pale brown in color.
As soybean plants mature and set pods, infection may progress rapidly under favorable environmental conditions to cause high rates of infection in the middle and upper leaves of the plant.
For more on ASA's recommendations, click HERE.
Learning from others
The United States is the last major soybean-producing nation to be affected by this soybean fungus. "We have learned from the experiences of other countries and are better prepared to handle this situation," says American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman.
"U.S. soybeans should continue to have a solid standing in export markets, now and in the future," Stallman adds. "A number of states have already taken steps to ensure their farmers have access to effective crop protection tools to control soybean rust next year."
For more information about fungicide approval and economics of the disease, click on the Soybean Rust menu option on our left navigation bar. | <urn:uuid:a8ba07b5-cf21-4b8a-9cf4-daf3efad85a3> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:25:04",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9482108950614929,
"score": 2.5625,
"token_count": 740,
"url": "http://farmprogress.com/story-us-soybean-industry-ready-to-fight-rust-0-2793"
} |
The Clinton administration knows how to add insult to injury. Not only is it committed to an environmental program that will sap the American economy of its vitality, it also refuses to level with the American people about the costs.
At the global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, the administration promised that the United States would cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases below the 1990 level by 2012. That’s a cut of more than one-third of the projected level. The gases, mainly carbon dioxide, are produced by burning fossil fuels: gasoline, coal, natural gas, and heating oil. Virtually all economic activity depends on those fuels. Yet Clinton and Gore say the cut-back can be costless or even profitable.
The administration’s position can be faulted on many counts. Most basic is that carbon dioxide is a plant nutrient not a pollutant. If you think back to high-school biology, you’ll recall that plants turn CO2, water, and sunlight into food and make oxygen as a byproduct. But some climatologists (not all) and some environmentalists believe that the buildup of CO2 threatens to overheat the earth’s atmosphere. The problem with the theory is that the temperature record does not support it. The earth has actually cooled slightly in the recent past. Fear of global warming is based on imperfect computer models, not observation.
Economist Thomas Gale Moore says that global warming would be benign. Since CO2 is good for crops, agriculture would boom. People tend to live longer in warmer climates. Climatologist Patrick Michaels says that if warming occurs, it would be in the arctic during the polar night. Such warming would delay the first frost of winter and lengthen the growing season.
So why the attraction to the nightmare version of global warming? It could have something to do with its usefulness in the service of government regulation of the economy.
People with a visceral dislike of free markets and individual liberty have been adrift since the worldwide collapse of socialism. They can’t oppose capitalism on economic or political grounds any longer. So they have turned to environmental grounds. Unsupervised free markets, they say, will destroy the earth.
The advocates of environmental regulation know, however, that people won’t go for policies that will make them poor. So they promise that combatting global warming can be done painlessly. President Clinton says he will not support a tax on carbon fuels; new energy-saving technologies, which can be encouraged through tax credits, will reduce the use of fossil fuels.
But that merely demonstrates economic illiteracy. Industry already has all the incentive it needs to develop and adopt worthwhile energy-saving technologies. No business wants to use more resources than necessary. Cutting costs increases profits. If capitalists are as “greedy” as their critics say, they can be counted on to be miserly with energy.
The problem for the preachers of apocalypse is that fossil fuels are the most economical fuels around. No synthetic or “green” form of energy can touch them for efficiency. So unless the government actually restricts their use, there will be no reduction beyond what would have occurred anyway. Sooner or later the administration will propose a carbon tax to reach the 30 percent reduction it promised at Kyoto.
A carbon tax will be costly to everyone. The price of energy will rise dramatically, curtailing production and reducing living standards. The promise of green and rich will fade, and all of us will be poorer.
The bright side of this is that the U.S. Senate is not likely to ratify the global-warming treaty in its current form. Republicans, who duck the basic principles, have taken the more “constructive” line that the treaty is unfair because developing nations are exempt. Clinton and Gore promise to fix that. If they do, will the Republicans cave in? Or will they discover that the treaty is built on bad premises and is dangerous to the well-being of every American? Let’s hope it’s the latter. | <urn:uuid:853f9cb7-bc72-4bed-bd3b-ad7d872bc349> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:10:02",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9549093842506409,
"score": 2.828125,
"token_count": 828,
"url": "http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/price-junk-science/"
} |
On This Day - 9 July 1915
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Romanian fronts. Southern Front comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Romanian) fronts, and Dardanelles. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (including Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc. Naval and Overseas Operations comprises operations on the seas (except where carried out in combination with troops on land) and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc. Political, etc. comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. Source: Chronology of the War (1914-18, London; copyright expired)
Austrian offensive on Zlota Lipa repulsed.
Italians capture Malga Sarta and Costa Bella (Trentino).
Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres
Bomb thrown at Sultan of Egypt.
Naval and Overseas Operations
South-west Africa conquered; German troops surrender unconditionally to General Botha.
Attempted torpedo attack on Cunarder "Orduna".
Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Commerce ratified at Lisbon.
Lord Kitchener appeals for more recruits at Guildhall.
Mr. Walter Long makes statement on conscription.
Export of gold prohibited in France. | <urn:uuid:449d48eb-25b5-4b9a-9b30-dd5cdc0bdb17> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:09:53",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8733333349227905,
"score": 3.203125,
"token_count": 344,
"url": "http://firstworldwar.com/onthisday/1915_07_09.htm"
} |
When it comes to allergies there are many different types that may affect a person. How each person is affected by these allergies may also vary from one person to another. While some allergies may only be a bother during certain seasons others may be present year round. The ones which are triggered by things such as the blooming of certain flowers or trees or various other forms of pollen or mold which are found in the air are typically considered to be seasonal allergies. This is because these allergens are only present during specific seasons. The most commons seasons for dealing with seasonal allergies are spring and fall.
One of the most common triggers of seasonal allergies is pollen. This is produced by various different flowers when blooming and can be spread through the air. When the levels of pollen are high it causes a person to manifest the various symptoms of seasonal allergies. Various different trees may also present problems for allergy sufferers. Some of the most common types of trees that are known to produce allergy symptoms include oak, sycamore, elm, hickory, birch, cypress, walnut and maple. Tree and flower pollens are generally considered to be spring time allergens because this is typically when flowers and trees bloom.
Summer allergies are usually caused by various types of grass pollen. This is because late spring and summer are the times when grass grows the most. There are many different types of grass depending on the area in which you live. Grass allergies can be seasonal or year round especially if you come in direct contact such as when lying in the grass. This can often produce serious itching and in some cases hives.
Fall allergies are generally caused by various types of weeds such as ragweed, sagebrush and tumbleweed. In some areas however trees also produce pollen in the fall as well as in the spring.
In order to determine what specific pollens you may be allergic to it is generally necessary to consult with an allergist. This is a health care provider that specializes in treating and identifying various allergies. An allergist can perform various tests to determine what specific things you may be allergic to.
Once it has been determined what your specific allergies are your doctor will then be better able to determine what will be best to treat these allergies. This is important because in some cases some medications may not be suitable for all types of allergies. While seasonal allergies are often quite bothersome they are generally not life threatening except in very extreme cases. Knowing the correct medications to take to relieve or prevent allergy symptoms can go a long way in keeping you from spending those seasons in misery.
Even if your allergies don’t produce many symptoms it is still recommended to speak to your allergist. This is because over time these allergies may worsen and knowing about them is essential to proper treatment. | <urn:uuid:da1c2ff6-dbd4-4e00-9db4-cc4755ec5408> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:43:43",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9670392870903015,
"score": 2.90625,
"token_count": 560,
"url": "http://fitandhealthybody.org/detecting-and-treating-seasonal-allergies/"
} |
A new report published today (4 February) by WWF-UK and the Food Ethics Council examines whether reducing meat consumption, and instead placing greater value on the meat we consume, could potentially be beneficial for people’s health, the environment, and for producers and consumers.
High meat consumption is associated with a number of factors related to important challenges facing the global food system, including climate change, obesity, water scarcity, land use change, global poverty and inequality.
Yet a simple ‘eat less meat’ message is controversial and overly simplistic. Producers and primary processors raise legitimate concerns about impacts of reduced meat production on their businesses, and politicians remain wary of industry and public reactions to the message. Some have argued that a ‘less but better’ approach could be more broadly beneficial. This report is a first step to defining what that message might look like.
‘Valuing the meat we eat’ suggests that talking about ‘less but better’ allows people to consider the many other aspects of meat production and consumption, including animal welfare, biodiversity, farmers’ profitability, taste, waste and broader health issues. It also provides an insight into where the win-wins and trade-offs may be. Although only a short study, our report suggests that, with focused discussion and government-led engagement and research, this approach is worth pursuing.
One aspect of the ‘less but better’ message shone through in the research. This is the recognition that meat should be seen as a valuable, high-quality food and that consumers, retailers, farmers and producers should be encouraged to see it as such.
The report’s key recommendations include:
- leadership, through initiatives like the Green Food Project, to explore mechanisms and policies that would support transition to ‘less but better’ meat consumption;
- Research to assess marketplace barriers to ‘less but better’ and mechanisms to overcome these;
- Research to better understand the relevance and impact of ‘less but better’ meat consumption and production on different socio-economic groups, particularly those on low incomes.
Mark Driscoll, head of corporate stewardship, food and water, at WWF-UK, said: “Whilst the term ‘better’ is not easy to define, the report demonstrates that society needs to value the food we eat, especially meat, much more than we do. This may ultimately mean paying more to reflect the true social and environmental costs, whilst rewarding producers for looking after the environment.
“We know there are good reasons for reducing our meat consumption in the West – it’s better for the environment and for health, and we eat far more than our fair share. However a simple ‘less meat’ message could have unintended consequences for farmers’ livelihoods, rural communities and landscapes and runs the risk of alienating consumers who want to eat meat. Some have suggested ‘less but better’ meat could be the answer, but no-one has really looked in to what this means. That is what we have done in this report.”
Dan Crossley, Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council, said: “It’s time we started recognising that our choices about what we eat have huge impacts – not just on our own health, but also on other people, animals, the planet and future generations.
“We must learn to appreciate our food more – and critically that includes meat. ‘Valuing the meat we eat’ sets out to explain what that might look like. We hope that it will trigger much-needed research into how such a transition could happen.”
- ENDS -
Notes to editors
1. WWF-UK & the Food Ethics Council: Prime Cuts: valuing the meat we eat (4 February 2013): http://www.wwf.org.uk/research_centre/?6466
2. Prime Cuts is the final report in the series The Livestock Dialogues. Conducted by WWF-UK and the Food Ethics Council, and funded by the Esmée Fairburn Foundation, the series has engaged with farming groups, consumer groups, producers and retailers to examine issues around the eating of meat: http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/changing_the_way_we_live/food/the_lives...
3. The Food Ethics Council is a charity that conducts independent research on the ethics of food and farming. Our aim is to create a food system that is fair and healthy for people, planet and animals. Our thirteen council members are all leaders in their relevant fields, and appointed as individuals. They bring a broad range of expertise to our work, from academic research through to practical knowledge of farming, business and policy. | <urn:uuid:627baae0-8207-487e-ab3a-1e60afdee081> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:16:54",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.959930956363678,
"score": 3.265625,
"token_count": 993,
"url": "http://foodethicscouncil.org/node/691"
} |
Kidney problems can often sideswipe you, hitting when you don’t expect them, as a result of health problems that don’t seem related to the kidneys at all. One of the things that can strike in this unexpected way is Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, or HUS. It’s one of the conditions that is associated with kidney failure from E. coli bacterial infection, but that’s not the only way it can get its foot in the door.
HUS produces a low blood cell count, resulting in anemia, and destroys the platelets in the blood that allow clotting. It also damages small blood vessels in the kidneys, and sometimes in the heart or brain as well. When it hits the kidneys, the little filters called glomeruli get clogged with damaged blood cells and platelets, and kidney function is impaired. Symptoms to watch for, especially in children, include lower urine output, a loss of energy, and very noticeable pallor.
These symptoms will usually follow a bout with bloody diarrhea, often as part of some illness that affected the bowels. Toxins in the bowels will somehow move from the intestines into the bloodstream, and that’s where the damage begins. So while HUS is most often associated with E. coli, people need to be watchful after any illness involving diarrhea, especially with blood in it.
There’s one thing that’s more positive about this form of kidney problem compared to many others: people who suffer from HUS and endure some degree of kidney impairment will usually see the kidneys recover. Fluid volume control through an IV is very important as a treatment. And in some severe cases, temporary dialysis may be needed while the kidneys regain their health. But most of the time, especially if the person receives medical treatment, the kidneys will recover.
HUS-induced kidney impairment may portend other problems in the future, however. Even those who recover complete function are at a higher risk of kidney problems or high blood pressure in later years. One of the factors in this higher risk is whether other organs were severely affected by the HUS as well.
There aren’t many conditions that impair the kidneys that can be said to have a “positive” outlook, with potentially a complete recovery of the kidneys. Fortunately, HUS is one of them. But as with so many other things involving the kidneys, the key is to watch the symptoms, and get immediate treatment once the problem is discovered. | <urn:uuid:e8993137-6c0f-44e8-91f5-2d98d9dcc3e2> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:17:47",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.964162290096283,
"score": 3.09375,
"token_count": 519,
"url": "http://freekidneyinfo.com/kblog/2011/09/watching-for-hemolytic-uremic-syndrome-hus/"
} |
Dr. Daniel Hillel and The Future of Farming
This 1971 photo provided by The World Food Prize Foundation shows Dr. Daniel Hillel introducing drip irrigation in Japan. Hillel, who is credited with developing drip irrigation methods that conserve water while allowing food to be grown in some of the world’s driest climates, was named the winner of the World Food Prize.
The 2012 World Food Prize will be awarded to Dr. Daniel Hillel for conceiving and implementing a radically new mode of bringing water to crops in arid and dry land regions – known as “micro-irrigation.”
Dr. Hillel’s pioneering scientific work in Israel revolutionized food production, first in the Middle East, and then in other regions around the world over the past five decades. His work laid the foundation for maximizing efficient water usage in agriculture, increasing crop yields, and minimizing environmental degradation.
Dr. Daniel Hillel: Inspiring Future Generations
Along with his international field and development work, Dr. Hillel embarked on a career in academia as a researcher and professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the University of Massachusetts, Columbia University and other major research centers worldwide. He has written or edited over 20 books on soil and water science; his seminal textbooks have been translated into 12 languages. He has published more than 300 scientific papers, research reports, and practical manuals, and authored books for the general public on the vital role of soil and water in healthy agro-ecosystems. Dr. Hillel has demonstrated the synergistic linkages across food production, water management, and soil science. His achievements have been and will continue to be essential to extending the Green Revolution and confronting the many global challenges in fighting hunger and poverty into the next century.
- Demographics: James Wolfensohn Previous World Bank President and Daniel Silke Futurist Predict Global Trends in Tracking the Future
- Future Predictions: Another Nobel Prize Winner Debunks Gore’s Grave Predictions: Redefining The Post Carbon World With Optimism!
- Predictions: Food Price Volatility and Supply Disruptions are Coming in 2011
- Announcing TEDMED 2009 the Future of the Healthcare X Prize
- Future Predictions: A Medical Tricorder is in Our Horizon With a $10 Million X Prize Challenge to Diagnose Patients Better Than a Panel of Board Certified Physicians | <urn:uuid:bcb273ac-2dd3-41cf-91c1-051782dce7bf> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:36",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9116845726966858,
"score": 2.875,
"token_count": 493,
"url": "http://futurepredictions.com/2012/06/2012-world-food-prize-will-be-awarded-to-dr-daniel-hillel-for-bringing-what-is-known-as-%E2%80%9Cmicro-irrigation-%E2%80%9D/"
} |
GCN LAB REVIEW
Device spots, stops advanced malware before it can cripple a network
FireEye's virtual machines profile an attack and then disrupt it before it strikes
A lot of protections are built into most federal and corporate networks these days. Between firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, port monitoring and even desktop antivirus, you would think security is pretty air tight.
Yet major breaches such as the recent hack of the Sony PlayStation Network and other high-profile attacks show bad guys can still find ways to get through sophisticated defenses, especially if they are patient and target attacks specifically at an agency or group.
The FireEye malware protection system, the GCN product of the month for June, has an unusual approach to these exploits. It uses a unique system of virtual machines that lets malware do whatever it wants, and then shuts it down on the real network. As such, no signatures are needed and even new attacks are caught before any significant damage occurs.
Advanced persistent threats are a new way of life
Is China out-gunning U.S. in cyber war?
The FireEye is deployed in three components as appliances. There is an e-mail monitor, an Internet traffic monitor and a control device that lets those two systems communicate with each other and work together to stop threats.
The FireEye team came into the GCN Lab to show what happens during a type of attack that most current protections would miss. In this example, we used the same type of technique that was performed in the recent Aurora attack, considered an advanced persistent threat that targeted several high-tech firms in 2009-2010.
In that event, hackers patiently stalked hand-chosen victims for months, gathering data on corporate security before sending e-mail messages and instant messaging notes that appeared to come from friends. In many cases, the attack was tweaked to specifically get around whatever security was in place. Most attacks were delivered as a malicious binary file designed to look like a normal .jpg. Once the .jpg was in place, it called home and downloaded encrypted packages of malware that were designed to steal data and cripple networks.
Gears of a virtual machine
When a similar program was sent into a network protected by FireEye, the malicious binary began to do its dirty work like it was programmed to do. But it didn’t know that FireEye had moved it over to a virtual machine and not to an end-user’s computer. FireEye watched as the program phoned home and gathered more malware components from compromised systems. It didn’t matter that the incoming malware components were encrypted to get around traditional virus scanners, because for the bad programs to activate, they had to un-encrypt themselves. And when they did, FireEye watched the process unfold.
After the details of the attack were known, ports and IP addresses were blocked to prevent the malware from working its evil on the actual network. The FireEye e-mail scanner and the Internet traffic scanner worked together to stop anything bad from happening. In a sense, FireEye creates a virtual honey pot for malware, lets it do what it wants, but only on the virtual and easily purged machine. Then it prevents the same things from hurting the real network.
A very detailed report is generated showing exactly who inside the network was targeted, what files were used and how dangerous the threat actually is to overall security. Copies of all the malicious files are kept and stored in case administrators or analysts want to further examine them to learn more about the hackers. That data could be used to prevent future attacks, or even prosecute the guilty parties since the hackers’ digital fingerprints will still be all over the captured files.
If an attack is delivered by e-mail, FireEye can stop it from ever reaching the network, because the mail can simply be delayed while the virtual machines examine anything suspicious. However, if the attack is delivered in real time, such as through a corrupted Web page, one user in the network will likely be infected because code will be executing on their computer at the same time as the virtual machine. Calls out for new malware will be blocked, since FireEye monitors both inbound and outbound traffic, but one person will still have the corrupted files sitting on their computer. The good news is that administrators are immediately told exactly who is infected and how they got that way, and the infection is sealed up on that single machine.
FireEye also works if someone brings a keydrive with malware into the network directly without first passing through the FireEye Scanner. In that case, the malicious activity would be caught because of the outbound traffic that is being scanned, which can also be run through a virtual machine for processing.
Pricing for the FireEye components seems reasonable given that it will even stop attacks where hackers have invested months or even years specifically targeting an agency. For a unit that is able to scan 50 megabits/sec of Internet or mail traffic, the cost is about $50,000. A unit that can scan a full 1 gigabit/sec costs $100,000. FireEye officials say they’re working on machines with even higher capacity.
Given the sophistication and malicious nature of hackers these days, a product like FireEye that can be easily plugged into existing network security to protect against both widespread and narrowly targeted attacks arrives none too soon. And seeing how most federal agencies have targets on their back, having FireEye watch over them is a no-brainer. | <urn:uuid:e8074793-9985-4e25-8c3b-0a5eebd22176> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:45",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9634243249893188,
"score": 2.59375,
"token_count": 1119,
"url": "http://gcn.com/articles/2011/05/30/fireeye-stops-malware-product-of-the-month.aspx"
} |
Plants have evolved a number of cold-response genes encoding proteins that induce tolerance to freezing, alter water absorption and initiate many other low temperature induced processes. In the 1 April Genes and Development, Jian-Kang Zhu and colleagues of the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, shed light on how these genes are regulated.
Lee et al. report that the protein HOS1 negatively regulates cold-response genes in Arabidopsis. At low temperatures, HOS1 relocalizes from the cytoplasm to the nucleus where it regulates gene expression; hos1 mutants show an excessive induction of cold-response genes. The HOS1 gene was mapped to chromosome II of Arabidopsis and cloned. It encodes a protein of 915 amino acids with a nuclear localization signal and a RING finger. Proteins with this motif have been implicated in the breakdown of other proteins by a process that involves ubiquitination.
Lee et al. speculate that HOS1 might regulate the function of cold-response genes by targeting the gene products for degradation.
Lee H, Xiong L, Gong Z, Ishitani M, Stevenson B, Zhu JK: The Arabidopsis HOS1 gene negatively regulates cold signal transduction and encodes a RING finger protein that displays cold-regulated nucleo-cytoplasmic partitioning. Genes Dev 2001, 15.
Department of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona | <urn:uuid:3649223e-8026-4378-8234-d8647036ba6d> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:46:06",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.8773342370986938,
"score": 2.984375,
"token_count": 297,
"url": "http://genomebiology.com/2001/2/4/spotlight-20010405-01"
} |
How better to counter Stalin's Socialist Realism (above: Boris Vladmiriski, "Roses for Stalin" 1949) than by deploying art by Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko?
The idea was initially tested in the open in 1947 by the State Department, which launched a program called "Advancing American Art." The centerpiece was a group of 79 avante-garde paintings purchased with $49,000 of government funds. Over the next two decades, several exhibitions of Abstract Expressionism were organized, including one called "The New American Painting," which traveled at government expense throughout Europe in the late 1950s. Other shows included "Modern Art in the United States" and "Masterpieces of the Twentieth Century."
Cracks in the program formed fairly quickly. Critics began attacking the artwork as “un-American” and “subversive.” The paintings were ridiculed in the national media and in Congress. President Truman, summing up the average American's opinion of the work, said, "If that's art, then I'm a Hottentot." A congressman complained, "I am just a dumb American who pays taxes for this kind of trash." Look magazine ran an article entitled “Your Money Bought These Paintings.” The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee wrote an angry letter to the Secretary of State, George C. Marshall.
Facing such criticism, the program then went underground, and the CIA devised a new strategy. Millions of dollars were channeled through fake foundations and intermediate organizations with names like the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the International Organizations Division (IOD), and the Propaganda Assets Inventory, which could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines and public information organizations.
According to former case officer Donald Jameson, these organizations enlisted sympathetic critics, collectors, curators, and museums—most notably Rockefeller's Museum of Modern Art—and swore them to secrecy. The artists themselves were unaware of the source of the the support. The fact that the US was using covert means to promote the ideals of cultural openness was an irony lost on the planners.
As time went by, criticism for the exhibitions mounted, and it became clearer that many of the artists themselves were ex-communists, not exactly the sort of people that the US government wanted to back during the McCarthy era. The paintings that had been purchased by the government were recalled by Secretary Marshall and sold as scrap. They yielded a sum total of only $5,544. Many canvases sold for $100 or less and found their way into public universities.
Sources and further reading:
CIA's official explanation of the Congress for Cultural Freedom
Independent: Modern art was CIA 'weapon'—Revealed: how the spy agency used unwitting artists such as Pollock and de Kooning in a cultural Cold War
Gizmodo: How the CIA Spent Secret Millions Turning Modern Art Into a Cold War Arsenal | <urn:uuid:15beaf44-adc3-4c42-aacd-e38f8b6fd1f3> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:11:01",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 3,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9714433550834656,
"score": 2.640625,
"token_count": 607,
"url": "http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-cia-funded-abstract-art-during-cold.html?showComment=1361032583785"
} |
- If the Earth rotated in the opposite sense (clockwise rather than counterclockwise), how long would the solar day be?
- Suppose that the Earth’s pole was perpendicular to its orbit. How would the azimuth of sunrise vary throughout the year? How would the length of day and night vary throughout the year at the equator? at the North and South Poles? where you live?
- You are an astronaut on the moon. You look up, and see the Earth in its full phase and on the meridian. What lunar phase do people on Earth observe? What if you saw a first quarter Earth? new Earth? third quarter Earth? Draw a picture showing the geometry.
- If a planet always keeps the same side towards the Sun, how many sidereal days are in a year on that planet?
- If on a given day, the night is 24 hours long at the North Pole, how long is the night at the South Pole?
- On what day of the year are the nights longest at the equator?
- From the fact that the Moon takes 29.5 days to complete a full cycle of phases, show that it rises an average of 48 minutes later each night.
- What is the ratio of the flux hitting the Moon during the first quarter phase to the flux hitting the Moon near the full phase?
- Titan and the Moon have similar escape velocities. Why does Titan have an atmosphere, but the Moon does not?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Astronomers have confirmed that an exploding star spotted by Nasa's Swift satellite is the most distant cosmic object to be detected by telescopes.
In the journal Nature, two teams of astronomers report their observations of a gamma-ray burst from a star that died 13.1 billion light-years away.
The massive star died about 630 million years after the Big Bang.
UK astronomer Nial Tanvir described the observation as "a step back in cosmic time".
Professor Tanvir led an international team studying the afterglow of the explosion, using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii.
Swift detects around 100 gamma ray bursts every year
He told BBC News that his team was able to observe the afterglow for 10 days, while the gamma ray burst itself lasted around 12 seconds.
The event, dubbed GRB 090423, is an example of one of the most violent explosions in the Universe.
It is thought to have been associated with the cataclysmic death of a massive star - triggered by the centre of the star collapsing to form a "stellar-sized" black hole.
"Swift detects something like 100 gamma ray bursts per year," said Professor Tanvir. "And we follow up on lots of them in the hope that eventually we will get one like this one - something really very distant."
Another team, led by Italian astronomer Ruben Salvaterra studied the afterglow independently with the National Galileo Telescope in La Palma.
Little red dot
He told BBC News: "This kind of observation is quite difficult, so having two groups have the same result with two different instruments makes this much more robust."
"It is not surprising - we expected to see an event this distant eventually," said Professor Salvaterra.
"But to be there when it happens is quite amazing - definitely something to tell the grandchildren."
A GAMMA-RAY BURST RECIPE
Models assume GRBs arise when giant stars burn out and collapse
During collapse, super-fast jets of matter burst out from the stars
Collisions occur with gas already shed by the dying behemoths
The interaction generates the energetic signals detected by Swift
Remnants of the huge stars end their days as black holes
The astronomers were able to calculate the vast distance using a phenomenon known as "red shift".
Most of the light from the explosion was absorbed by intergalactic hydrogen gas. As that light travelled towards Earth, the expansion of the Universe "stretches" its wavelength, causing it to become redder.
"The greater that amount of movement [or stretching], the greater the distance." he said.
The image of this gamma ray burst was produced by combining several infrared images.
"So in this case, it's the redness of the dot that indicates that it is very distant," Professor Tanvir explained.
Before this record-breaking event, the furthest object observed from Earth was a gamma ray burst 12.9 billion light-years away.
"This is quite a big step back to the era when the first stars formed in the Universe," said Professor Tanvir.
"Not too long ago we had no idea where the first galaxies came from, so astronomers think this is a profound moment.
"This is... the last blank bit of the map of the Universe - the time between the Big Bang and the formation of these early galaxies."
Data from two powerful telescopes confirmed the result
And this is not the end of the story.
Bing Zhang, an astronomer from the University of Nevada, who was not involved in this study, wrote an article in Nature, explaining its significance.
The discovery, he said, opened up the exciting possibility of studying the "dark ages" of the Universe with gamma ray bursts.
And Professor Tanvir is already planning follow-up studies "looking for the galaxy this exploding star occurred in."
Next year, he and his team will be using the Hubble Space Telescope to try to locate that distant, very early galaxy.
Source: BBC News | <urn:uuid:dbe88d6f-99d3-40e4-ae1c-e659a8cace09> | {
"date": "2013-05-21T17:37:48",
"dump": "CC-MAIN-2013-20",
"file_path": "s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz",
"int_score": 4,
"language": "en",
"language_score": 0.9484463930130005,
"score": 3.625,
"token_count": 1143,
"url": "http://hansgunawan-astronomy.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.