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In a special session, the German Bundestag has honored the victims of the Holocaust. Its key moment was an address by Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. In her speech, she warned against rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
The cellist was deported to Auschwitz, then to Bergen-Belsen. After a music career, she now speaks out about the Nazi atrocities. She commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day with a speech in the Bundestag.
The Bundestag has commemorated the Holocaust, for the first time with the far-right AfD present. In her speech, Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch praised Germany's "courageous gesture" in accepting refugees.
A tour of Sachsenhausen, a memorial to Nazi death camp victims, was disrupted in July by far-right Alternative for Germany visitors. The incident, made public by a Berlin newspaper, has prompted a belated police probe.
Munich has unveiled its new memorial system recalling thousands killed by the Nazis. The plaques will exist alongside well-known but controversial commemorative cobblestones, which are banned on Munich public ground.
© 2018 Deutsche Welle |
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Top Left: Male Blue Rock Thrush (subspecies M. s. philippensis) at Kamakura, Japan - November 2014
Top Right: Female Blue Rock Thrush (subspecies M. s. philippensis) at Kamakura, Japan - November 2014
Bottom: Male Blue Rock Thrush (subspecies M. s. solitarius) at Monfrague National Park, Spain - April 2016
Local Name (Japan): Iso-hiyo-dori (イソヒヨドリ) - "Rocky-shore Bulbul"
Featured Subspecies: Monticola solitarius philippensis
Despite the name "Thrush" and the distinctively Thrush like shape, it is actually a member of the old world flycatchers like the robins and redstarts. It is broadly distributed across the Old World and resident across its range, found in a range which extends from Southern Europe to North Africa and across to East Asia. They generally live in mountainous areas where they make their nests in rocky crevices. I found this species while following the craggy coast of Kamakura round to a viewpoint for Mount Fuji - a male and two females were living in a short stretch between rocky cliffs and the sea, often alighting on overhead wires.
Subspecies: M. s. solitarius, M. s. longirostris, M. s. pandoo, M. s. philippensis, M. s. madoci
- Sighting Locations -
JAPAN - Locally common resident
- TOKYO/HOKKAIDO 2014 TRIP: Two males and one female seen on the outskirts of Kamakura
SPAIN - Locally common resident- MADRID 2015 TRIP: Several seen at Patones
- MADRID 2016 TRIP: Two males seen at Monfrague
Further Notes: RSPB, Wikipedia, BirdGuides, BirdForum Opus, Arkive, IUCN Red List | <urn:uuid:2fb21dd6-256e-44e3-a75a-c048635c567f> | {
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Capacitors are made from Zinc alloy Metallised films and used extensively in the Electrical & electronics Industries.
Capacitor Elements are made by metallising Zinc Alloy Plastic films and wound into coils.
METALLISED PLASTIC FILM
made by spraying Zinc alloy on BOPP / PET film in vacuum
Manufacture metallised film and capacitors adopting quality systems to be competitive.
Copyright Pan Electronics 2015
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In the climate of startling kaleidoscopic change through the work of Picasso there are however certain obsessive themes that recur throughout. . . . [One] theme[,] which has been largely ignored owing to the accepted belief that Picasso was a revolutionary and an atheist who was intent on a revaluation of conventional standards, [is that of] a man who saw with new vision the time-honored myths of religion. This theme, which from the evidence of his drawings must have moved him deeply from early youth to old age, was the crucifixion, being both a violent, unspeakable crime and the traditional act of renewal of life.
Timothy Hilton, Picasso's Picassos
In the first three decades of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso's output was enormous; in sheer volume-that is, in square yards of canvas, in pounds of metal and wood and clay and sculpture, in stacks of lithographic stones and copper etching plates-if all the artist's work were gathered together, it would be a massive physical assemblage. And even today, new discoveries continue to surface. One unique painting that has received little attention is a small surrealist work, The Crucifixion, painted by Picasso in 1930, when the artist was forty-nine years old. Brilliant in color, crowded in composition, filled with strange images and distorted forms, it communicates its subject matter in the most cryptic of terms.
This subject matter appears unexpectedly within the work of the artist, whose drawings and paintings up to that time had been concerned with persons, places, and things taken from the everyday world about him. Gertrude Stein, Picasso's friend and early patron, wrote, "Picasso knows, really knows the faces, the heads, the bodies of human beings, he knows them as they have existed since the existence of the human race, the soul of people does not interest him, why interest one's self in the souls of people when the face, the head, the body can tell everything, why use words when one can express everything by drawings and colors."1 But she noted-indeed, she deplored-a recent shift in the artist's attention: "During this last period, from 1927 to 1935, the souls of people commenced to dominate his vision, a vision which was as old as the creation of people, lost itself in interpretation. He who could see did not need interpretation and in these years, 1927 to 1935, for the first time, the interpretations destroyed his own vision so that he made forms not seen but conceived."2
It was during this same period that The Crucifixion was completed and a series of studies on this theme, relating to this painting and to the great sixteenth-century Isenheim altarpiece of the Crucifixion by Mathias Grünewald (1515; now at the Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar), was executed.
André Malraux recounts a conversation he had with Picasso about Bernadette Soubirous, the young shepherd girl of Lourdes, France. As is now well known, the Virgin Mary had appeared to her eighteen times when she was a young girl. Bernadette eventually entered the convent of the Sisters of Charity at Nevers. During her years there, individuals from all over the world sent her images and small statues of the Virgin, but "she chucked them into a closet."
The Mother Superior, dumbfounded: "My daughter, how can you put the Holy Virgin into a closet?" "Because it's not her, Mother!" Re-dumfounded. "Ah? . . . And what does she look like?" "I can't explain it to you . . ." The Mother Superior wrote to the Bishop, who came to the convent with large albums containing all the well-known images of the Virgin-those from the Vatican. He showed her Raphael, Murillo, and so on. . . . She shook her head, no. As they flipped through the pages at random they came upon the Cambrai Virgin, an icon. Bernadette rose, her eyes popping out of her head, then fell to her knees: "That's her, my Lord Bishop!"
As I [Malraux] said, the Cambrai Virgin is an icon. Considerably touched up and adorned with a number of indistinct cherubs; but it has no movement and no depth-no illusionism. Merely the sacred. And Bernadette had never before seen an icon.3
Malraux and Picasso talked about how funny it was that a simple, uneducated girl could possibly have recognized the face of a familiar person in a painting that lacked depth, movement, and realistic illusion: "But come to think of it, how amazing too that the Byzantines ever invented her!"4 Of course, what this story illustrates is exactly what Stein reiterates about Picasso, that "what he could see, did not need interpretation," that "the interpretations destroyed his own vision so that he made forms not seen but conceived" (emphasis added). The Byzantines understood this, Bernadette realized this, and Picasso captured this same spirit in his work when the souls of people dominated his vision.
Before attempting to decode Picasso's Crucifixion, let us first explore the artist's earlier phases and discover what Stein mentions: the faces, the heads, the bodies the artist knew as they had "existed since the existence of the human race." With this as a background, we can return to this religious painting and to the vision Stein describes as dominated by the souls of people, of "forms not seen but conceived."
Picasso moved to Paris from Spain, having already had an exhibition of his paintings in his home city of Barcelona when he was only sixteen, and having won a prize with a painting exhibited in Madrid two years later. His father was an art instructor at the Barcelona Academy and had encouraged and directed his precocious son in his budding art career. Barcelona at that time was a cultural center filled with Parisian artists and writers, and Picasso's friends encouraged him to make the move to Paris. Within a few days of his nineteenth birthday, he arrived in Paris and moved into a dilapidated house nicknamed the Bateau-Lavoir, which housed many literary and artistic persons. It was here that he met Fernande Olivier, a French woman of great beauty and some culture, with whom he would live from 1903 to 1912. Olivier describes her first impression of the artist in her volume Picasso and His Friends: "Picasso was small, dark, thick-set, worried and worrying, with gloomy, deep, penetrating eyes, which were curiously still. His gestures were awkward, he had the hands of a woman and was badly dressed and untidy. A thick lock of shiny black hair gashed his intelligent, stubborn forehead. His clothes were half-bohemian, half-workman, and his excessively long hair swept the collar of his tired jacket."5 (See the frontis, a self-portrait, in the present volume.) She continued: "I was astonished by Picasso's work . . . astonished and fascinated. The morbid side of it perturbed me somewhat, but it delighted me too. This was the end of the Blue Period. Huge, unfinished canvases stood all over the studios, and everything there suggested work: but, my God, in what chaos!"6
Fernande was especially intrigued by the combination of intellectuality and human emotion she discerned in Picasso's paintings of this period. She writes of one painting that particularly struck her, depicting a gaunt and haggard man whose expression "told of his hopeless resignation. The effect was strange, tender and infinitely sad, suggesting total hopelessness, an agonized appeal to the compassion of mankind. What was at the bottom of this kind of painting? Was the work completely intellectual in conception, as I've come to understand it since, or did it reveal a deep and despairing love of humanity, as I thought then?"7
The painting Fernande describes is not The Old Guitarist (Fig. 1), but her words, even her query, apply to the emaciated figure who bends with an exaggerated pathos over his instrument in the familiar painting. It was this work that inspired the poet Wallace Stevens to write his long poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar." The poem begins:
The man bent over his guitar,
A Shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."
The man replied, "Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar."
And they said then, "But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,
A tune upon the blue guitar
Of things exactly as they are."8
The poem continues, exploring the relationship between art and life, the poet and his readers, dream and reality.
The somber and pathetic subjects who people the paintings of Picasso's Blue Period gave way to studies of circus performers and actors. The pervasive blue tones were abandoned for a lighter, rosier palette. Two years after painting The Old Guitarist, Picasso painted the Family of Acrobats, or Family of Saltimbanques, in 1905 (Fig. 2). In this large canvas he assembled a number of circus characters who had appeared in his earlier works. The young harlequin, the somber and fat clown, the leggy adolescent tumbler, and two children make up a group physically near one another but psychically distant, each self-absorbed-dreaming his or her own individual dreams, as does the charming woman seated at the right who looks out of the picture zone toward the viewer with an unfocused, inward gaze.
For years this painting hung in a private home in Munich where the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who knew Picasso, lived during the summer of 1915. Grasped by the haunting poetry of the painting, Rilke composed the fifth of his Duino Elegies while, according to his own words, "beside the great Picasso." It begins:
But tell me, who are they, these acrobats, even a little
more fleeting than we ourselves,-so urgently, even since childhood,
wrung by an (oh, for the sake of whom?) never-contented will? That keeps on wringing them,
bending them, slinging them, swinging them, throwing them, and catching them back-9
A year after painting Family of Acrobats, Picasso began a portrait of Gertrude Stein. We have Stein's own account of this in her Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas: "Just how [the portrait of Gertrude Stein] came about is a little vague in everybody's mind. I have heard Picasso and Gertrude Stein talk about it often and they neither of them can remember. . . . Picasso had never had anybody pose for him since he was sixteen years old, he was then twenty-four and Gertrude Stein had never thought of having her portrait painted, and they do not either of them know how it came about. Anyway it did and she posed to him for this portrait ninety times and a great deal happened during that time."10
Throughout the Autobiography, we get numerous references, with great affection and humor, to Picasso.11 Following a detailed description of the initial sitting for the portrait, Stein wrote, "Finally spring was coming and sittings were coming to an end. All of a sudden one day Picasso painted out the whole head. 'I can't see you any longer when I look,' he said irritably. And so the picture was left like that. Gertrude and Alice B. went off to Italy and while they were gone Picasso painted the face in again. On her return Gertrude was pleased, but everybody else said that she did not look like that. 'But,' Picasso said, 'that does not make any difference, she will.' And she did."12
During the time that the portrait of Gertrude Stein was in progress, Picasso was also concentrating his creative energies on an extraordinary painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Fig. 3), which sums up the many pictorial inventions of the previous, very productive year. Although it was publicly exhibited in Europe only once, and rarely reproduced, it was seen by other artists in Picasso's studio, having an influence way beyond what can be explained by these limited viewings. Now, so many years later, its power and influence are undiminished. When Stein saw it for the first time, she described it as "rather frightening."13
Picasso's own recollections about the painting were recorded by his friend Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler as they chatted in 1933 about those early days in Paris, when cubism as a style was born and Kahnweiler eagerly espoused the cause and became the dealer for Picasso and Derain and Braque. "According to my first idea, there were also going to be men in the painting-I have drawings for them, too. There was a student holding a skull, and a sailor. The women were eating-that explains the basket of fruit that is still in the painting. Then it changed and became what it is now."14
Thus the painting that was intended originally as an allegory of the wages of sin changed. The sailor and the flowers were taken out, leaving behind some fruit and what Alfred Barr has called "five of the least seductive nudes in the history of art." Picasso had on occasion spoken of the way a work of art changes during its creation: "A picture is not thought out and settled beforehand. While it is being done it changes as one's thoughts change. And when it is finished, it still goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it. A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it."15
Cubism radically changed the way we see the visible world. In her small book on Picasso, Gertrude notes three reasons cubism came to be: "First the composition, because the way of living had changed the composition of living had extended, and each thing was as important as any other thing. Secondly, the faith in what the eyes were seeing, that is to say the belief in reality of science commenced to diminish. To be sure science had discovered many things, she would continue to discover things, but the principle which was the basis of all this was completely understood, the joy of discovery was almost over. Thirdly, the framing of life, the need that a picture exist in its frame, remain in its frame was over. A picture remaining in its frame was a thing that always had existed and now pictures commenced to want to leave their frames and this also created the necessity for cubism. The time had come and the man."16
The later refinement of Cubism is seen in Picasso's Portrait of D. H. Kahnweiler. Picasso, reflecting on this phase of Cubism, told Françoise Gilot:
In those polyhedric portraits I did in tones of white and gray and ochre, beginning around 1909, there were references to natural forms, but in the early stages there were practically none. I painted them in afterwards. I call them attributes. . . . It was really pure painting, and the composition was done as a composition. It was only afterwards that I brought in attributes. . . . You know my Cubist portrait of Kahnweiler[;] . . . in its original form it looked to me as though it were about to go up in smoke. But when I paint smoke, I want you to be able to drive a nail into it. So I added the attributes-a suggestion of eyes, the wave of the hair, an ear lobe, the clasped hands. It's like giving a long and difficult explanation to a child: you add certain details that he understands immediately in order to sustain his interest and buoy it up for the difficult parts.17
Picasso added to this an interesting comment, showing a recognition of the problem of communication his art presents the viewer: "As Hegel says, they can know only what they already know. So how do you go about teaching them something new? By mixing what they know with what they don't know. Then, when they see vaguely in their fog something they recognize, they think, 'Ah, I know that.' And then it's just one more step to, 'Ah, I know the whole thing.' And their mind thrusts forward into the unknown and they begin to recognize what they didn't know before and they increase their powers of understanding."18
In 1920 there was another shift in style, and the fragmented, flattened forms of cubism gave way to the ponderous volumes of female figures in the large painting Two Seated Women. In their colossal figures, their stylized features, and the columnar folds of their garments, Picasso is referencing early classical sculpture. The gravity of the mood, the massive forms, and their passivity and ponderousness contrast strikingly with the dynamism of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon or the poetic, haunting charm of Acrobats. But in this neoclassic painting, Picasso returns again to "the faces, the heads, the bodies . . . as they have existed since the existence of the human race," to use Stein's words again.
A violent change of mood is found in The Three Dancers, painted only two years later, in 1925 (Fig. 4). But between the lyrical naturalism of some of the paintings of this period and the convulsive dynamism of The Three Dancers, an event of importance to the artists and writers of western Europe occurred.
In 1924 André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism gave formal definition to a movement that had grown out of the post-World-War-I Dada movement. "I believe," Breton proclaimed, "in the future resolution of the states of dream and reality, in appearance so contradictory, in a sort of absolute reality, of Surreality, if I may so call it."19 Breton defined surreality as "psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express-verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner-the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern."20 To this he added: "Encyclopedia. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principle problems of life."21
But in another sense, to fall asleep is to dream. The dream was the great primal source of subject matter for the surrealists. The surrealists had greatly admired the work of Sigmund Freud. In his Interpretation of Dreams, Freud delineated more than simply how to interpret dreams, outlining a whole philosophy behind the theory of creativity. Freud recognized that if one were able to suppress the critical faculty that governs our thoughts and actions (the state that dreams take place in), then "innumerable ideas" would flow through the conscious mind that otherwise would be missed. "You critics, or whatever else you may call yourselves," he said, "are ashamed or frightened of the momentary and transient extravagances which are to be found in all truly creative minds and whose longer or shorter duration distinguishes the thinking artist from the dreamer. You complain of your unfruitfulness because you reject too soon and discriminate too severely."22 A major aspect of Picasso's genius seems to be that he was able early on to free himself of any such constraint.
The Three Dancers confronts us with a vision striking in its physical and emotional violence. Seen objectively as representations of nature, cubist paintings such as the Three Musicians of 1921 are grotesque enough, but their distortions are comparatively objective and formal; while on the contrary, the frightful, grinning mask and convulsive action of the left-hand figure of the Three Dancers cannot be resolved into an exercise in esthetic relationships, magnificent as the canvas is from a purely formal point of view. The metamorphic Three Dancers is, as Alfred Barr remarked, a turning point in Picasso's art almost as radical as was the protocubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. "The dynamism of the left-hand dancer foreshadows new periods of his art in which psychologically disturbing energies reinforce, or adulterate, depending on one's point of view, Picasso's ever changing achievements in the realm of form."23
For the surrealists, art was a means of self-expression, an instrument of self-discovery, not an end to be savored. Whether or not a work of art was surrealist hinged on the methodological and iconographic relevance of the picture to the main ideas of the movement-that is, automatism and dream image. Automatism, such as in works by Miró and Masson, was the draftsmanly counterpart to free verbal expression in which improvisational shapes, biomorphic in form, were used, these being both ambiguous and suggestive of much, but identifying nothing.24
The Three Dancers may also contain an underlying religious theme, as some historians have noted the crosslike posture of the central dancer. The painting was purchased directly from Picasso by the Tate Gallery, London, in 1965. Soon after, Ronald Alley, Keeper of the Modern Collection, began to investigate the work for a series of lectures. His research focused on an event that left a deep impression on Picasso for the rest of his life-the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas.
One of Picasso's lovers, Françoise Gilot, told the story of how, in 1944, Picasso took her to visit an old friend, Germaine Pichot. She had at one time been quite beautiful but now was bedridden and "toothless." "After talking quietly with the old woman for a few minutes, Picasso laid some money on her table and they went out again. Picasso explained . . . that when Germaine was young, 'she was very pretty and she made a painter friend of mine suffer so much that he committed suicide.'"25 In her day, Germaine had been known for her many lovers, even after her marriage.
Gertrude Stein described Germaine Pichot as quiet, serious, and Spanish:
She was married to a spanish painter Pichot, who was rather a wonderful creature, he was long and thin like one of those primitive Christs in spanish churches and when he did a spanish dance which he did later at the famous banquet to Rousseau, he was awe inspiringly religious.
Germaine, so Fernande said, was the heroine of many a strange story. . . . She had many sisters . . . and . . . had been born and bred in Montmartre.26
Picasso painted The Three Dancers in 1925, most likely after a stay in Monte Carlo, where he made numerous studies of dancers at the ballet. Alley reports that, years later, Picasso mentioned to Sir Roland Penrose that while he had been working on the painting, his old friend Ramon Pichot had died, and that he had "always felt that it should be called The Death of Pichot rather than The Three Dancers.27 Alley notes that in the painting the dancer on the left is female, is almost completely naked, and dances with a "much more frenzied action than either of the others."28 He also notes that the dark "shadowy profile on the right of the picture has some resemblance to [Pichot]."29 Through his lengthy analysis, Alley concludes that the figure on the left is Germaine, "with her aggressive sexuality and her double head, one aspect gentle and the other demonic," and the figure on the right is Pichot, and that the figure at center is Casagemas, "the figure's pallor and frailty" suggesting "suffering and vulnerability, perhaps even death."30 If this analysis seems a stretch, the discussion of Casagemas in chapter 2, and especially the painting Christ of Montmartre (Le suicide), indicates otherwise.
Right after its completion, André Breton featured The Three Dancers in La Révolution Surréaliste, in July 1925.
After this brief survey of earlier stages of development of Picasso's art, we turn now to a study of the painting The Crucifixion of 1930 (Fig. 5). This study, or seeing of the painting, relates to the theme of this volume as an example of an investigation into religiously significant images in contemporary art.
Within the early "heroic" years of surrealism, Picasso created his first known (i.e., published) Crucifixion composition, in 1927.31 It is a drawing that bears the evidence of numerous revisions of form. Here we see the surrealist's curving line that arbitrarily swells, defining a monstrous arm and a hand like a catcher's mitt, and that diminishes to indicate a mere round protuberance for a head. Though the line itself ebbs and flows with only minor changes in width or rhythmic speed, it has the magical property of suggesting a three-dimensional form, as if the drawing were for a bas relief.
The iconography-the reading of the images-begins with Christ. His small head encircled by a crown of thorns and set in an egg-shaped halo is in the center of the upper part of the composition. His bulbous arms stretch the length and breadth of a wide crossbeam, the hand at our right turned palm up, a large nail at its center. At the left, an enormous hand grasps a diagonal ladder, and a swollen foot is tilted forward below it. Several figures merge into each other at the left side of the corpus, and at the right a horseman with a two-pronged lance in one hand is about to plunge it into the side of Christ while holding a shield in the other hand.
This figure, referred to in John's Gospel simply as "one of the soldiers [who] pierced his side with a spear,"32 long ago was given the name Longinus. The name is obviously derived from the Greek word for spear or lance, and so the spearman is called in the Acts of Pilate (from the pseudo-Gospel of Nicodemus) and named in early manuscripts (such as the sixth-century Rossano Gospels). One of the curious conflations of Christian iconography is the later interpretation that the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus was one and the same as the centurion who was converted after the death of Jesus and exclaimed, "Truly this was the Son of God."33 Trecento paintings most often represent Longinus, as Picasso did here, firmly astride a horse and among those gathered at the foot of the cross.34 We shall see that in Picasso's later (1929) drawings the horse and Longinus are both present, but in those drawings Longinus is no longer astride the beast. In the 1930 Crucifixion, he returns to his mount, his lance in his hand.
By studying the 1927 and 1929 drawings together we are able to see that the first undulant line at left is the contour for the arm and hand of a man who is much larger in scale than any other persons or objects. We suddenly sense him to be very near us, his armpit visible, but the palm is turned away from us as he grasps the ladder and turns his head with open mouth to the nightmarish scene, in which we see legs of the crucified and the Magdalene, her face bent back to her buttocks.
Some of the female faces are seen Picasso-wise-that is, simultaneously full face and in profile; others, Janus-like, are at the right of the legs of the crucified. Longinus appears wearing a Greek helmet and carrying a shield and lance. In the 1927 drawing the lance is thrust vertically in front of him, while in the drawing of June 8, 1929 (Fig. 6), it seems to be held at his side and has become the staff that holds a flag-a flag that has a double profile upon it, a white classical head with mouth open, whose profile creates a complimentary interlocking negroid profile. Just below this image on the flag we find a similar double profile, dark and light. A reminiscence of Grünewald's Magdalene, with her interlacing fingers, is to be seen in the undulating lines with fingers and fingernails carefully indicated. The drawing of June 8 has two iconographic additions-in the center front a drumlike structure with an upturned top on which we see a single dice and, at the center right, an arm with pointing finger, which certainly is related to Grünewald's John the Baptist's large hand with its insistently pointing finger. Below a crowd of spectators are seen in profile; Longinus's horse, far from bearing his master, munches amiably on a tuft of grass. Both drawings show a slight indication of setting: several Roman arches.
Two days after doing this second drawing, on June 10, 1929, Picasso did another sketch with further transformations and additions (Fig. 7). The great man at the left, holding the ladder, undergoes another metamorphosis, and his profile now can be read both as the boundary line of his lips and chin and as the toes of the foot-a foot that presumably belongs to the crucified figure, who is only partly seen in these drawings. The Magdalene has been even more cruelly transformed, her long phalluslike nose again pressed against her buttocks, the eyes set one over the other, the mouth in profile surrounded by teeth that frame a sharp triangular tongue. The hand with the pointing finger, which has come to look more like a directional sign than like the hand of Grünewald's Saint John, has acquired a head and a suggestion of garments. This profile seems a kind of prophet type, grave of expression with one all-seeing eye, a large nose, and flowing beard. A rather charming, imaginative addition is the filling of the space between the horse's neck and thigh with a woman's head. She seems to peer outward toward us, though one eye is in profile and the other is full face. The inclusion of this face and the turning of the horse's hoof so that we see the horseshoe with its nails are gratuitous additions of Picasso, whose mind was forever in ferment, creating and recreating a strange and fascinating mix of forms taken from traditional iconography, from other masters, and from his own repertoire of created images.
Nine months later, on February 7, 1930, Picasso painted his Crucifixion (see Fig. 5). Not large in size, approximately twenty by twenty-six inches, it was painted on wood; and it is one of a group that the artist never sold, retaining it in his own possession. It has been exhibited a few times in the large surveys of the artist's work, but for most of the decades since its creation, it was in Picasso's own hands.
The painting must have had a special significance for Picasso himself. But what is its meaning to us? With the preparatory drawings in mind, we can find the figure on the cross, with its flat round head and mere dots for features, its paddlelike hands on the crossbeam. A figure resembling an old-fashioned clothespin stands on a ladder hammering a nail through one palm. At the foot of the ladder two crumpled figures are perhaps those of the two thieves, whose tau crosses are seen, very small in size, at the lower left and upper right. In the foreground, a figure wearing a helmet holds across his shoulder the tunic which "was without seam, woven from top to bottom,"35 and watches the throw of the dice by a monstrous creature who is casting lots with him.
Above, at the right, the arms that reach upward with clasped hands surmount a strange triangular flow of garments. From this, or from behind it, emerges a grotesque sculptural monstrosity with beaklike nose and dots for eyes, and jaws with teeth that close vertically rather than horizontally. It suggests a great praying mantis, a strange insect that still inhabits the twentieth-century world but seems to come into it out of a prehuman era. The insect fascinated Picasso. Its form may have inspired Picasso's Seated Bather (Fig. 8). Certainly, both of these paintings were related to The Crucifixion.
Another antecedent painting of Picasso's that may assist us in understanding the development of certain forms is the strange, demonic Nude in an Armchair. Her great yawping mouth, with its teeth like nails in a pincerlike jaw, is the prototype for the strange head that seems about to close its jaws around the wound in the side of the crucified figure just as Longinus-here a tiny figure on his horse-withdraws his spear.
A kind of counterpart to the jaws is found in the wide, crescent-shaped form with two round eyes, directly above Longinus. Is this the moon as Juan Larrea suggests?36 We saw a moon and sun in the 1927 drawing. Are they re-created here? Larrea's suggestion is that the strange masked figure with rays about it at right is the sun. Alfred Barr and Ruth Kaufmann identify this latter figure as the Magdalene, an identification that I think our studies of the drawings support.37 The strange, realistically three-dimensional object levitating in the upper left is usually interpreted as the vinegar-soaked sponge.
Mary the mother may be the figure with the vesicle-shaped face at the right of the cross, with her face in profile, blunt nose and protruding lips. The triangular dark-light zone that encloses both of these faces locks them together in a play of opposites, but the resulting image has an archetypal gravity. It is quite certain, simply from the evidence of the drawings that have been published, that Picasso continued to work on variations.
We know from Picasso's friends and associates that during the heyday of surrealism he did a great deal of writing. His published surrealist play, Desire Caught by the Tail, is one known example, but it is reported that there is much more written material. Gertrude Stein said that he stopped painting during intervals between 1927 and 1935, the period when these Crucifixion compositions were done. She went on to say that since "it was impossible for him to do nothing, he made poetry, but of course it was his own way of falling asleep during the operation of detaching himself from the souls of things."38
But whereas Picasso's contemporaries dreamed of and painted metamorphic subjects from nature, as did Joan Miró in Person in the Presence of Nature, or oedipal desire, as did Salvador Dalí in his Oedipal Complex, Picasso created his most surrealistic painting in this intense, complex, brilliantly colored, puzzling, suggestive painting The Crucifixion.
John Golding concurs, reminding us that during the early years of the surrealist movement, Picasso had also been fascinated with a "new range of primitive sources," with their focus on "metamorphic, erotically charged imagery," and that, most likely, his sleeping nudes begun in 1932 were influenced by his study of primitive sources such as the ancient Venuses of Willendorf-images that would eventually be "transformed into the classical figures of Greece and Rome."
Picasso's Neo-Classicism had to a large extent gone underground during the second half of the 1920s but it had never been totally suppressed and during the 1930s classical values and imagery were once more to assert themselves strongly (if sporadically) in his art. Classical mythology, in a Freudianized form, began to interest Surrealists in the latter stages of the movement, and to this extent Picasso was once again a pioneering figure in its history. . . .
The classicizing not only of the outward forms of Picasso's art but of its imagery and symbolism can be seen most clearly by comparing his Crucifixion of 1930 (Musée Picasso, Paris) to the mythologizing works which succeeded to it and to which it in many respects forms a prelude. The Crucifixion, despite its small scale, was the most complex painting, both formally and iconographically, that Picasso had produced since the Three Dancers on which he had been at work five years earlier.39
And last, we turn to Picasso's drawing The Crucifixion (after Grünewald; Fig. 9), one of a series done in 1932. Picasso's friend Christian Zervos most likely brought the Grünewald masterpiece to his attention. Zervos, an avid collector, was the founder of Cahiers d'Art (1926-1960), published in Paris. In 1936 he produced a special edition on Grünewald's Isenheim altarpiece, featuring stunning black-and-white plates and even a miniature recreation of the altarpiece in which the panels could be opened and closed (Fig. 10). Zervos contends that this wasn't the first time Picasso had seen the altarpiece-Picasso would surely have studied the altarpiece for some time prior to the publication. Utley writes that "Picasso's dialogue with Grünewald started in his 1930 Crucifixion."40 Another historian notes that Picasso had stopped at Colmar to see the altarpiece while on his way to Zurich, but was evidently unprepared for what he would encounter there; he was "bowled over" by the work and soon after began making his own interpretations of Grünewald's masterpiece.41
John Richardson suggests that Picasso focused, as did Grünewald, on the Christ and the two Marys. "He has also followed Grünewald in choosing to depict Christ's passion at the time-from midday until three in the afternoon-when darkness fell over the land, 'a sign that the heavens went into mourning at the death of the Savior.'"42
This unusual work is one of a sequence of surrealist compositions Picasso made from his observations of the altarpiece. And what Picasso gives us is a series of bonelike forms against a lunar landscape, with even a hint of stars in the background. The upright posture of the figures creates the sense of movement, calling to mind the surreal scene described by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel:
The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.43
One can imagine the rattling sound as the bones come to life again, only here as a carefully choreographed performance. It is a puzzling work, as are all of the works in this suite, one in which Picasso has resolved his study of the Isenheim altarpiece-both the gruesome aspects of death by crucifixion, and the joyful rebirth of the resurrection-by bringing together, in forms that dance with life, the pieces of bone that make up the composition. There is an undeniable sense of joy with this work as the parts teeter on tiptoe or balance one atop another in a display that defies death and gravity.
The effect that Grünewald had on Picasso is perhaps most apparent in another example, figure 11. Here Picasso has brought the bone forms out of darkness and into the light, assembling them on and around the cross. The effect is quite different. The sense of movement persists and even more so in the background, with its swirling lines. The groupings parallel to some degree the groupings of the bystanders in the altarpiece: the two Marys and Saint John to the left, and the tall Baptist on the right.
This motif is simplified further in one other example, figure 12. Gone is the sense of motion or performance that the previous examples create. Instead, these bone forms appear somber and still. There is no sense of ground and sky, nor any real sense of background or location, a circumstance heightened by the fact that the top of the crucifix runs off the page. There is in this example much more of a cohesive whole, accentuated by the round form at the top, suggestive of a head that possesses arms, a torso, and legs.
Peter Selz has noted that the "rediscovery" of Grünewald's Crucifixion (the title of first panel of the altarpiece) in the late nineteenth century, and scholarship done on it in the early part of the twentieth century, was quickly seized upon by artists working in new modes, like expressionism. These young artists found that Grünewald's use of color and line to convey emotional and spiritual meaning was akin to their own goals:
Grünewald . . . became the ideal of a new generation, which saw in his Isenheim altarpiece a freedom of creation following the intrinsic logic of content and composition rather than nature. Grünewald, it was felt, penetrated to the core of human emotion and created a truth that went far beyond the doubtful truth of reality. Young artists recognized in Grünewald the fervent religious faith for which many of them had been searching. Here was the utmost expression of "artistic purpose." His figures revealed extremely intense emotions of suffering, mother love, piety. His form was the vessel of his emotion, and the mastery of light, color, and line was used only for the expression of inner feeling. Grünewald, like the expressionists, used color to create a rhythmic harmony that was an integral part of his total composition.44>
Add source code 15W5487 to get your discount at checkout.
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There have been a few local cases reported of Coxsackie virus which is also known as Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. The virus usually affects children under the age of ten. And it is normally seen in warm weather.
Symptoms include fever, mild sore throat and a rash on the hands, feet and mouth, hence the name. Blisters on and inside the mouth become open sores which can make it uncomfortable to eat and drink fluids. Blisters on the hands and feet look like red, raised bumps.
The virus is extremely contagious and is spread through direct contact or through feces. Doctors emphasize good hand washing and washing toys. Symptoms can last up to six days, but the virus can continue to be spread through stool for up to six weeks.
The virus typically cures itself, but parents should call their family practitioner if they think their child may be infected. | <urn:uuid:394a54eb-6495-4d1e-8565-3b76e9418ee3> | {
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A plant gall is an abnormal outgrowth of plant tissue caused by a “gall-maker”, which could be an insect, mite, virus, nematode or fungus. The inter-relationship between plant and gall-maker is complex, very specific, and developed over eons. The relationship between redbay trees (Persea borbonia) and their gall-makers — a single species of psyllid (a.k.a plant lice) — is a poster child of specificity and complexity.
Science — and botany — sometimes can be confused and confusing. Sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) was described as the first known host of the redbay psyllid (Trioza magnoliae), as evident from the species name, but no verifiable record of this relationship exists. The suspicion is that swamp bay (Persea palustris) and sweet bay magnolia were confused.
Most psyllids that cause galls are host-specific, and this psyllid has only been documented “using” swamp bay and red bay trees as its host. And, boy, does this psyllid “use” swamp and red bay. So much so that the presence of the galls associated with these psyllids is often offered as a field identification cue.
The psyllid is thought to lay its eggs under the epidermis on the edges of the leaves. After the eggs hatch, the nymphs begin to feed, and the edges of leaves fold under and envelop the nymphs creating reasonably “safe housing”, but … Small parasitic waps called encyrtid wasps (Psyllidephagus sp.,) prey upon the nymphs. A cecidomyiid midge, Thrypsobremia thripivora Gagné, preys both on thrips that live in curled leaf shelters and on red bay psyllid nymphs. It’s literally an Insect eat insect world.
Mature nymphs are about 2 mm long. When the nymph is mature, the gall splits open to release the adult psyllid, which is about 4 mm.
These distinctive galls even attract the attention of small insectivorous birds. They have been known to open the galls to feed on the nymphs.
Swamp and red bays range throughout the southeastern U.S. to Texas. Swamp bay has a larger northern range. In cooler climates, the red bay psyllid has one generation (univoltine), but in Florida the red bay psyllid is said to have 3 overlapping generations (mulitvoltine).
This ancient and intricate interrelationship between by trees and their psyllid gallmaker is threatened by the recent introduction of the exotic red bay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) and the associated laurel wilt (Raffaelea sp.), a deadly wilt-causing fungal disease. Infected trees decline swiftly and distinctively …
Enjoy seeing these gorgeous galls for they, like the red bay trees, are not as abundant as they once were. | <urn:uuid:d88f98e8-cd7d-4988-94e3-58a1ccda88f0> | {
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Oct. 27, 2008 (Washington, D.C.) -- Don't douche.
That's the message from researchers who found that teens who report douching regularly are significantly more likely to subsequently develop a sexually transmitted disease (STD) than those who say they never douche.
"Vaginal douching is not a healthy behavior. It should be viewed as a harmful behavior, like overeating or being sedentary," says Sten Vermund, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
Vermund presented the findings here at a joint meeting of the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Douching May be Harmful to Your Health
Many women view douching -- rinsing out the vagina with water or a homemade or commercial solution -- as a prophylactic measure that can cleanse the vagina and prevent odors, Vermund says. Others have a mistaken belief that it can prevent pregnancy or STDs, he says.
In fact, studies have linked douching to pelvic inflammatory disease, reduced fertility, ectopic pregnancy (where an embryo implants outside the womb), low birthweight babies, preterm delivery, and cervical cancer, Vermund tells WebMD.
Numerous studies also support a strong relationship between douching and sexually transmitted infections, he says. But the studies do not answer the question of whether douching causes STDs or whether STDs cause women to douche, he says.
For the new study, Vermund and colleagues followed 368 teens for three years. Their average age was 17, and about 75% were black. All were considered at high risk for acquiring an STD: Two-thirds were infected with HIV and three-fourths reported they had been sexually active in the three months prior to entering the study.
The teens were tested for four STDs -- chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, and trichomoniasis -- every six months. At every test, the women were asked about douching habits; nearly 14% of the women who participated reported douching, and 24% never reported douching.
Results showed that those who reported douching every time were 84% more likely to subsequently develop a sexually transmitted disease than those who said they never douched. Those who reported douching sometimes were 36% more likely to develop an STD than those who said they never douched, but the finding could have been due to chance.
How Douching May Wreak Havoc
Vermund says douches may be harmful because they disrupt the vaginal ecosystem, destroying good bacteria called lactobacilli that protect against infections.
Douching fluid may also carry STD-causing pathogens deeper into the female genital tract, says M. Lindsay Grayson, MD.
"Douching potentially raises the risk of sexually transmitted infections by flushing semen up the cervix. This is a question that needed to be studied further," he tells WebMD. Grayson is vice-chair of the committee that chose which studies to highlight at the meeting and an infectious diseases specialist at Austin Health in Melbourne, Australia.
Although researchers continue to study the harmful effects of douching, parents need to tell their daughters that the practice can hurt their health, Vermund says. "Research suggests that once women appreciate that douching is not hygienic, many will stop," he says. | <urn:uuid:33d926f9-bc51-4e84-965e-12f161204cb4> | {
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Millions of Americans suffer from involuntary loss of bladder or bowel
contents. This condition, called incontinence, mostly affects women and
often leads to embarrassment, avoidance of social activities, decreased
physical activity, depression, and can even interfere with employment.
The two most common types of incontinence are stress (sneezing or
coughing) and urge (the "got-to-go" feeling) – both of which can be
treated with medications. A large percentage of people with incontinence
suffer silently and do not seek help because they believe their problem
is simply a normal part of aging, an expected consequence of having a
baby, or is only correctable with surgery or medication.
Symptoms of Incontinence
is a symptom, not a disease, and it is treatable. Incontinence may be
caused by nervous system injuries, pelvic injury or surgery, and/or
changes associated with the aging process. Incontinence is not, however,
a normal result of aging. In many cases, incontinence is caused by
weakness in the pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor muscles form a
sling, like a hammock, supporting the bottom of the pelvis and aiding in
controlling the flow of urine and bowel contents.
If your pelvic
floor muscles are weak, you may experience accidents during certain
activities or movements such as jumping, lifting, running, sneezing, or
laughing. Weakness in the pelvic muscles may also contribute to
"overactive bladder," when a sudden, strong, and uncontrolled urge to
urinate or empty the bowels catches you by surprise.
Management of Incontinence
At St.Vincent Women’s Hospital, we understand that losing control to
incontinence is challenging. We also know that proper diagnosis and
management is imperative. There are many non-surgical approaches to the
management of this annoying condition. We offer help for bladder or
bowel control problems (incontinence) through physical therapy
facilitated by specially trained physical therapists. Our physical
therapists take a caring, private approach to treating incontinence, and
also work closely with women before and after surgical procedures.
Patients are educated about normal bladder functioning and habits
that may help or harm their progress. For example, many patients
experience significant relief just by drinking more water and decreasing
caffeine and alcohol in their diet. Correct training of the pelvic
floor muscles (often called Kegel exercises), are an essential part of
continence rehabilitation and ultimately gaining control of the
Other areas of rehabilitation specialty include pelvic pain and
chronic constipation, as well as therapy before and after gynecological
If you are experiencing incontinence or would like more information
about our services and offerings, please call (317) 338-4HER for a free
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This species is endemic to central Sri Lanka, and occurs in two disjunctive populations, one in the Central Hill Country, and the other in the Knuckles Range. It has been recorded at 1,250-1,300m asl. There are records from Perediniya, Agra-Bopath, Bogowantalawa, and the Knuckles Range (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005).
Habitat and Ecology
It lives in both closed and open canopy rainforest, where it has been found at night on boulders and branches near streams. During the day, it hides in rock crevices on the margins of streams. It has not been found away from forest (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005). Breeding presumably is by direct development. The female excavates a deep hole in the forest floor where the eggs are then deposited.
It appears to be an uncommon species.
It is probably affected by habitat loss due to farming (cultivation of cardamom and tea), collection of firewood, timber extraction and plantations (pine), and expanding human settlements, as well as pollution by agro-chemicals (resulting in deterioration of water quality).
It occurs in the Knuckles Forest Reserve and the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary.
Red List Status
Listed as Endangered, because its Extent of Occurrence of less than 5,000 km2 and its Area of Occupancy is less than 500 km2, its distribution is severely fragmented, and there is a continuing decline in the extent and quality of its forest habitat in central Sri Lanka.
We consider this species to be distinct from Philautus nanus (Günther, 1858) following Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda (2005).
Kelum Manamendra-Arachchi, Sushil Dutta, Anslem de Silva 2004. Pseudophilautus sarasinorum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T58898A11846643. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T58898A11846643.en .Downloaded on 10 December 2018 | <urn:uuid:1c068210-0329-4263-a8f5-0f90033a1643> | {
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May 4, 2015
Upper respiratory tract infections affect the airways in the nose, ears, and throat.
The infections can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or other microscopic organisms. In most cases, these infections lead to colds or mild influenza (flu) and are temporary and harmless. In rare cases, flu can be severe, or the infections may turn into pneumonia.
Organisms that cause these upper respiratory tract infections are generally spread by:
- Direct contact (such as hand-to-mouth)
- Coughing or sneezing
The Common Cold
The common cold (medically known as infectious nasopharyngitis) is the most common upper respiratory tract infection. More than 200 viruses can cause colds. The most common cause is the rhinovirus, which is responsible for about half of all colds. Symptoms usually develop 1 - 3 days after being exposed to the virus.
A cold usually progresses in the following manner:
- It nearly always starts rapidly with throat irritation and stuffiness in the nose.
- Within hours, full-blown cold symptoms usually develop, which can include sneezing, mild sore throat, fever, minor headaches, muscle aches, and coughing.
- Fever is low-grade or absent. In small children, however, fever may be as high as 103ðF for 1 or 2 days. The fever should go down after that time, and be back to normal by the 5th day.
- Nasal discharge is usually clear and runny the first 1 - 3 days. It then thickens and becomes yellow to greenish.
- The sore throat is usually mild and lasts only about a day. A runny nose usually lasts 2 - 7 days, although coughing and nasal discharge can persist for more than 2 weeks.
The adenovirus family causes upper respiratory infections (it is one of the many viruses that cause the common cold). It also causes pneumonia, conjunctivitis, and several other diseases. A newer strain of adenovirus has resulted in several deaths.
Influenza ("The Flu")
Every year, influenza strikes millions of people worldwide. Influenza epidemics are most serious when they involve a new strain, against which most people around the world are not immune. Such global epidemics (pandemics) can rapidly infect more than one fourth of the world's population. For example, the Spanish flu in 1918 and 1919 killed an estimated 20 million people in the U.S. and Europe and 17 million people in India. With modern society's dependence on air travel, an influenza pandemic could potentially inflict catastrophic damage on human lives, and disrupt the global economy.
The influenza virus mutates (changes) rapidly as it moves from species to species. Most Type A influenza strains (the most common strains) first develop in migratory waterfowl populations. While most avian influenza (bird flu) virus strains are relatively harmless, a few develop into "highly pathogenic avian influenza," which can be very deadly for domesticated poultry and livestock. As recent events have shown, these strains can also be deadly to humans. People can become infected by these bird flu strains through contact with contaminated chickens and pigs. The medical community is now greatly concerned about the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has infected and even killed people in several countries.
Symptoms of influenza. Patients usually feel sick 1 - 4 days after exposure to the influenza (flu) virus. The flu usually involves:
- Abrupt onset of severe symptoms, which include headache, muscle aches, fatigue, and high fever (up to 104ðF).
- Cough (which is usually dry but can be severe) and sometimes a runny nose and sore throat.
- Children may experience vomiting, diarrhea, and ear infections, as well as other flu symptoms.
- The symptoms usually resolve in 4 - 5 days, although some people can experience coughing and feelings of illness for more than 2 weeks. In some cases, flu can become more severe or make other conditions worse.
Transmitting the Virus. The flu virus is spread primarily when a person with the flu coughs or sneezes near someone else. Adults with flu typically spread it to someone else from 1 day before symptoms start to about 5 days after symptoms develop. Children can spread the infection for more than 10 days after symptoms begin, and young children can transmit the virus 6 days or even earlier before the onset of symptoms. People with severely compromised immune systems can transmit the virus for weeks or months.
Flu Strains. A virus is a cluster of genes wrapped in a protein membrane, which is coated with a fatty substance that contains molecules called glycoproteins. Strains of the flu are identified according to the number of membranes and type of glycoproteins present.
The two major flu strains are referred to as A and B:
- Influenza A is the most widespread and can infect animals and humans. Influenza A is the cause of the major pandemics of influenza that have occurred so far. It is usually further categorized by two subtypes based on two substances that occur on the surface of the viruses: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N).
- Influenza B infects only humans. It is less common than type A, but is often associated with specific outbreaks, such as in nursing homes.
The vast majority of flu cases are type A. Influenza A usually causes more severe disease than type B. There is some concern, however, that since influenza B has been less common in the past few years, some people, particularly small children, may have fewer antibodies to it and so may be at higher risk for severe infection.
H1N1 (Swine) Influenza
In April 2009, an outbreak of swine influenza began in Mexico and spread to the United States and other countries. Swine influenza is flu infection found in pigs. The virus that causes this infection in pigs can change (mutate) to infect humans. The disease is of concern to humans, who have no immunity against it. By June 2009, the World Health Organization had declared a worldwide swine flu pandemic.
The current strain of swine flu virus has been identified as H1N1. The virus is contagious and can spread from human to human. At this time, it is unknown how easily it can spread between people. Symptoms in humans are similar to classic flu-like symptoms, which might include fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills, fatigue, dizziness, lack of energy, diarrhea, and vomiting.
The H1N1 flu outbreak in Mexico has resulted in several deaths in Mexico thus far. At least three death had been reported in the U.S. at the time of this writing. Officials were preparing for more.
Most people who get H1N1 flu will likely recover without needing medical care. Doctors, however, can prescribe antiviral drugs to treat people who become very sick with the flu or are at high risk for flu complications.
If you need treatment for H1N1 flu, the CDC recommends that your doctor give you zanamivir (Relenza) or osteltamivir (Tamiflu). These drugs work best if you receive them within 2 days of becoming ill. You may get them later if you are very sick or if you have a high risk for complications.
To prevent infection with H1N1 flu, people living in the same house as someone diagnosed with the virus should ask their doctor if they also need a prescription for these medicines. Careful respiratory hygiene and frequent hand-washing are also recommended steps for reducing the risk of getting H1N1 flu.
Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)
Although the risk of lethal viruses is generally low, scientists are greatly concerned about a particular virus called H5N1, which causes avian influenza. Since 1997, the H5N1 virus has triggered deadly outbreaks in poultry across Southeast Asia. As of December 16, 2008, 391 people had been infected with the bird flu in 15 countries. Of these people, 247 have died, according to the World Health Organization. No cases have been reported in the United States.
So far, the virus has spread from birds to humans. The virus does not seem to be easily spread from person to person. However, scientists and public health officials are monitoring the spread of H5N1 and working to contain it. Efforts include slaughtering infected birds, developing new vaccines, and stockpiling antiviral drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu). Many poor nations have limited resources and already contend with other serious health problems, including HIV-AIDS. If H5N1 does mutate and spread, the consequences could be especially severe for these countries.
In April 2007, the FDA approved a vaccine to protect humans from avian influenza. Currently this vaccine is not being used for routine immunization. However, if the avian flu develops the ability to spread fairly easily from human to human, this vaccine may be made available.
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, and shares many grammatical and lexical features
with other members of the group. Its predecessor was the
declare it their "mother
tongue". Other sources put down the "population of the language" as
6,715,000 in Belarus and 9,081,102 in all countries.
inventory of the modern
Belarusian language consists of 45 to 54 phonemes: 6 vowels and 39
to 48 consonants, depending on how they are counted. Usually, the
number is given as 39, which excludes the nine
consonants as "mere variations".
Sometimes, rare consonants are also excluded, thus bringing the
quoted number of consonants further down. The number 48 includes
consonant sounds, including variations and rare
sounds, which may have a "phonetic" meaning in the modern
language. The modern Belarusian form was determined in 1918, and
consists of thirty-two letters. The
script had been used, sporadically,
until 11th or 12th century. In the past Belarusian has also been
written in the
in its modern form was adopted in 1959, with minor amendments in
Historically, there had existed several other
alternative standardized forms of Belarusian grammar.
of the Belarusian language, the
North-Eastern and the South-Western. In addition, there exist the
transitional Middle Belarusian dialect group and the separate
The North-Eastern dialect is chiefly characterised by the "soft
sounding R" ( ) and "strong
" ( ), and
the South-Western dialect is chiefly characterised by the "hard
sounding R" ( ) and "moderate akanye" ( ).
There are quite a number of various names under which the
Belarusian language has been known, both contemporary and
historical, some of them quite dissimilar, especially when
referring to the Old Belarusian period.
on the ethnic Belarusian lands in the 19th century. The end 18th
century (the times of the
and Modern Belarusian language stages of
By the end 18th century, the (Old) Belarusian language still
enjoyed some popularity among the smaller nobility in the
in 1840s had mentioned that even his
generation’s grandfathers preferred speaking (Old) Belarusian.
(According to A. N.
Belarusian language was still being spoken here and there among the
smaller nobility during the 19th century.) The Belarusian, in its
vernacular form, was the language of the smaller town dwellers and
of the peasantry. It had been the language of the oral forms of the
folk lore. The teaching in Belarusian was conducted mainly in the
schools run by the
The development of the Belarusian language in the 19th century was
strongly influenced by the political conflict in the territories of
the former GDL, between the Russian Imperial authorities, trying to
consolidate their rule over the "joined provinces" and the Polish
and Polonised nobility, trying to bring back its
One of the important manifestations of this conflict was the
struggle for the ideological control over the educational system.
The Polish and Russian language were being introduced and
re-introduced in it, while the general state of the people's
education remained poor until the very end of the Russian
Summarily, the 1800s–1820s had seen the unprecedented prosperity of
the Polish culture and language in the former GDL lands, had
prepared the era of such famous "Belarusians by birth – Poles by
. The era had seen
the effective completion of the Polonization of the smallest
nobility, the further reduction of the area of use of the
contemporary Belarusian language, and the effective folklorization
of the Belarusian culture.
Due both to the state of the people's education and to the strong
positions of Polish and Polonised nobility, it was only since the
1880s–1890s, that the educated Belarusian element, still shunned
because of "peasant origin", began to appear in the state
Since mid-1830s, the ethnographical works began to appear, the
tentative attempts of study of language were uptaken (e.g.,
Belarusian grammar by Shpilevskiy). The Belarusian literature
tradition began to re-form, basing on the folk language, initiated
by the works of
In beg. 1860s, both Russian and Polish parties in Belarusian lands
had begun to realise that the decisive role in the
was shifting to the
peasantry, overwhelmingly Belarusian. So, a large amount of
propaganda appeared, targeted at the peasantry and prepared in the
Belarusian language. Notably, the anti-Russian, anti-Tsarist,
anti-Orthodox "Manifest" and the newspaper "Peasants' Truth"
anti-Polish, anti-Revolutionary, pro-Orthodox booklets and poems
The advent of the all-Russian "narodniki" and Belarusian national
movements (end 1870s – beg. 1880s) renewed interest in the
Belarusian language (
). The Belarusian literary
tradition was renewed, too (
). It was in these times
that F. Bahushevich made his famous appeal to Belarusians: "Do not
forsake our language, lest you pass away" (Belarusian: ).
, about 5.89 million people declared
themselves speakers of the Belarusian language.
Excerpt from the Russian
Empire Census results
|* See also: Administrative-territorial division of Belarus and
bordering lands in 2nd half 19 cent. (right half-page) and Ethnical composition of Belarus and bordering lands
(prep. by Mikola Bich on the basis of 1897 data)
The end of the 19th century however still showed that the urban
language of Belarusian towns remained either Polish or Russian and
in the same census towns exceeding 50000 had Belarusian speakers of
less than a tenth. This state of affairs greatly contributed to a
perception that Belarusian is a "rural" and "uneducated"
However the census was a major breakthrough for the first steps of
the Belarusian national self-conscience and identity, as it clearly
showed to the Imperial authorities, and the still strong Polish
minority that the population and the language was neither Polish
The rising influence of the Socialist ideas advanced the process of
emancipating of the Belarusian language still further (see
of Belarusian People's Education and Belarusian Culture
Belarusian Socialist Lot
Socialist Party "White Russia"
). The fundamental works of Yefim
marked a turning point in the scientific perception of
Belarusian language. The ban on the publishing in Belarusian was
officially raised (1904-12-25). The unprecedented surge of the
national feeling, especially among the workers and peasants, coming
in the 1900s, esp. after the events of 1905, gave momentum to the
intensive development of the Belarusian literature and press
(see also: Naša niva
, Yakub Kolas
During the 19th - beg. 20th cent., there was no normative
Belarusian grammar. Authors wrote as they saw fit, usually
representing the particularities of different Belarusian dialects.
The scientific groundwork for the introduction of a truly
scientific and modern grammar of the Belarusian language was laid
down by linguist Yefim Karskiy
By the beg. 1910s, the continuing lack of a codified Belarusian
grammar was becoming intolerably obstructive in the opinion of
uniformitarian prescriptivists. Then Russian academician Shakhmatov
, chair of the Russian language
and literature department of St. Petersburg University, approached
the board of the Belarusian newspaper Naša niva
with a proposal that a Belarusian
linguist would be trained under his supervision in order to be able
to prepare the grammar. Initially, famous Belarusian poet Maksim Bahdanovich
was to be entrusted
with this work. However, Bahdanovich's poor health (tuberculosis)
precluded his living in the climate of St. Petersburg, so Branislaw Tarashkyevich
, a fresh
graduate of the Vilnya Liceum
, was selected for the task.
In the Belarusian community, great interest was vested in this
enterprise. The already famous then Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala
, in his letter to Tarashkyevich,
urged him to "hurry with his much-needed work". Tarashkyevich had
been working on the preparation of the grammar during 1912–1917,
with help and supervision of academicians Shakhmatov
. Tarashkyevich had completed the work
by the Fall 1917, even having to go from the tumultuous Petrograd
of 1917 to relatively calm Finland in order to be able to complete
By Summer 1918, it became obvious, that there were insurmountable
problems with the printing of Tarashkyevich's grammar in Petrograd
– a lack of paper, type and qualified personnel. Meanwhile,
Tarashkyevich's grammar had apparently been slated for adoption in
the workers' and peasants' schools of Belarus that were to be set
up. So, Tarashkyevich was permitted to print his book abroad.
1918, Tarashkyevich arrived in Vil'nya, via
petitioned for the administration to allow the book
to be printed. Finally, the 1st edition of the "Belarusian
grammar for schools" was printed (Vil'nya,
There existed at least two other contemporary attempts at
codification of the Belarusian grammar. In 1915, rev. Balyaslaw Pachopka
had prepared a
Belarusian grammar using the Latin script. Belarusian linguist S.
Pachopka's grammar unscientific and ignorant of the principles of
the Belarusian language. In 1918, for an unspecified period, B.
Pachopka's grammar was reportedly taught in an unidentified number
of schools. Another grammar was, supposedly, jointly prepared by A.
Lutskyevich and Ya. Stankyevich, and differed from Tarashkyevich's
grammar somewhat in resolution of some key aspects.
On December 22, 1915, Hindenburg
issued an order on schooling in German Army occupied territories
(of contemp. Russian Empire), banning the schooling in Russian and
including the Belarusian language in the exclusive list of the four
languages being mandatory in the respective native schooling
systems (Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, Yiddish). The attending to
school wasn't made mandatory, though. The passports in these lands
were being issued bi-lingual, in German and in one of the "native
languages". [Turonek 1989] The certain numbers of the Belarusian
preparatory schools, printing houses, press organs were opened
(see also: Homan
After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia, the Belarusian
language became an unprecedentedly important factor in the
political activities in the Belarusian lands (see also:
Council of Belarusian Organisations
, Great Belarusian Council
, I All-Belarusian Congress
). In the Belarusian People's Republic
the Belarusian was used as its only official language (decreed by
Belarusian People's Secretariat, 1918-04-28). In the Belarusian SSR
, the Belarusian was decreed to
be one of the four (Belarusian, Polish, Russian, Yiddish) official
languages (decreed by Central Executive Committee of BSSR, February
In BSSR, the Tarashkyevich’s grammar had been officially accepted
for use in state schooling after its re-publishing in the unchanged
form by Yazep Lyosik
under the name
Ya. Lyosik. Practical grammar.
(1922). This grammar had been
re-published once again, unchanged, by the Belarusian State
Publishing House under the name Ya. Lyosik.
Belarusian language. Grammar. Ed.
In 1925, Yazep Lyosik introduced two new chapters to the grammar,
addressing the orthography of combined words and partly modifying
the orthography of assimilated words. Hence, the Belarusian grammar
had been popularised and taught in the educational system in that
The ambiguousness and insufficient development of several
components of Tarashkyevich’s grammar had been the cause of some
problems in practical mass usage and stirred a certain discontent
with the grammar.
In 1924–1925, Yazep Lyosik and Anton Lyosik prepared and published
their project of orthographical reform, proposing a number of
radical changes. A fully phonetic
was introduced. One of the most distinctive changes
brought in was the principle of Akanye
(Belarusian: ), wherein unstressed "o", pronounced in both Russian
and Belarusian as [a], is written as "а". Consequently, words like
are pronounced the same in both languages but written as in Russian
and in Belarusian.
The Belarusian Academic Conference on Reform of the Orthography and
Alphabet (1926) had been called, and after discussions on the
project the Conference had made resolutions on some of the
problems. However, as the project of Lyosik brothers hadn’t been
addressing all of the problematic issues, so the Conference hadn’t
been able to address all of those, either.
As the outcome of the conference, the Orthographical Commission
created to prepare the project of the actual reform was formed on
1927-10-01, headed by S. Nyekrashevich, with the following
principal guidelines of its work adopted:
- To consider the resolutions of the Belarusian Academical
Conference (1926) non-mandatory, although highly competent
- To simplify Tarashkyevich’s grammar where it was ambiguous or
difficult in use, to amend it where it was insufficiently developed
(e.g., orthography of the assimilated words), and to create new
rules if absent (orthography of the proper names and geographical
During its work in 1927-1929, the Commission had actually prepared
the project of the reform of the orthography. The resulting project
had included both completely new rules and existing rules in
unchanged and changed forms, with those changed being, variously,
the outcome of the work of the Commission itself, or the
resolutions of Belarusian Academical Conference (1926), re-approved
by the Commission.
Notably, the use of the Ь
(soft sign) before the
combinations "consonant+iotified vowel" ("softened consonants"),
which had been denounced as highly redundant before (e.g., in the
proceedings of the Belarusian Academic Conference (1926)), had been
cancelled. However, the complete resolition of the highly important
issue of the orthography of the un-stressed Е
) had not been achieved.
It is worth noticing, that both the resolutions of the Belarusian
Academic Conference (1926) and the project of the Orthographical
Commission (1930) caused much disagreement in the Belarusian
academic environment. Several elements of the project were to be
put under appeal in the "higher (political?) bodies of
In West Belarus
, under Polish rule, the
Belarusian language was at a disadvantage. Schooling in the
Belarusian language was obstructed, and printing in Belarusian
experienced political oppression.
The prestige of the Belarusian language in the Western Belarus of
the period hinged significantly on the image of the BSSR being the
"true Belarusian home". This image, however, was strongly disrupted
by the "purges" of "national-democrats" in BSSR (1929 – 1930) and
by the following grammar reform (1933).
Tarashkyevich's grammar was re-published five times in Western
Belarus. However, the 5th
edition (1929) was the version
from the previously published, which
Tarashkyevich had prepared disregarding the Belarusian Academic
Conference (1926) resolutions.
In 1929 – 1930, the Communist authorities of the Soviet Belarus had
brought out the drastic crackdowns against the supposed
"national-democratic counter-revolution" (informally "nats-dems"
(Belarusian: )). Effectively, the entire generations of the
Socialist Belarusian national activists of the 1st quarter of the
20th cent. had been wiped out from the political, scientifical, in
fact, from any real social existence. Only the most famous cult
figures (e.g. Yanka Kupala
However, the new power group in the Belarusian science quickly
formed, or, possibly, emerged after the power shifts, under the
virtual leadership of the Head of the Philosophy Institute of the
Belarusian Academy of Sciences, academician S. Ya. Vol’fson ( ).
The book published under his editorship Science in Service of
(1931), represented the new
spirit of the political life in Soviet Belarus.
The Reform of Belarusian Grammar (1933) had been brought out quite
unexpectedly, supposedly, [Stank 1936] with the project published
in the central newspaper of the Belarusian Communist Party
" on 1933-06-28 and the decree of
the Council of People’s Commissaries (Council of Ministers) of BSSR
issued on 1933-08-28, to gain the status of law on
There had been some post-factum speculations, too, that the 1930
project of the reform (as prepared by the people no longer
politically "clean"), had been given for the "purification" to the
"nats-dems" competition in the Academy of Sciences, which would
explain the "block" nature of the differences between the 1930 and
1933 versions. Peculiarly, Yan Stankyevich in his notable critique
of the reform [Stank 1936] didn’t mention the project prepared by
1930, dating the project of the reform to 1932.
The officially announced causes for the reform were:
- The pre-1933 grammar was maintaining artificial barriers
between the Russian and Belarusian languages.
- The reform was to cancel the influences of the Polonisation
corrupting the Belarusian language.
- The reform was to remove the archaisms, neologisms and
vulgarisms, supposedly introduced by the "national-democrats."
- The reform was to simplify the grammar of the Belarusian
The reform had been accompanied by the fervent press campaign
directed against the "nats-dems not yet giving up."
The decree had been named On Changing and Simplifying the
( ), but the bulk of the changes had
been introduced into the grammar. Yan
in his critique of the reform talked about 25
changes, with 1 of them being strictly orthographical, and 24
relating to both orthography and grammar. [Stank 1936]
It is worth noticing, that many of the changes in the orthography
proper ("stronger principle of AH-ing," "no redundant soft sign,"
"uniform ’’nye’’ and ’’byez’’") had been, in fact, just
implementations of the earlier propositions of the by then
repressed persons (e.g., Yazep Lyosik, Lastowski, Nyekrashevich,
1930 project). [BAC 1926][Nyekr 1930][Padluzhny 2004]
The morphological principle in the orthography had been
strengthened, which also had been proposed in 1920s. [BAC
The "removal of the influences of the Polonisation" had been
represented, effectively, by the:
- Reducing the use of the "consonant+non-iotified vowel" in
assimilated Latinisms in favor of "consonant+iotified vowel,"
leaving only Д, Т, Р unexceptionally "hard."
- Changing the method of representation of the sound "L" in the
Latinisms to another variant of the Belarusian sound Л (of 4
variants existing), rendered with succeeding non-iotified vowels
instead of iotified.
- Introducing the new preferences of use of the letters Ф over Т
for fita, and В over Б for beta, in Hellenisms.
The "removing of the artificial barriers between the Russian and
Belarusian languages" (virtually the often-quoted "Russification of
the Belarusian language," which may well happen to be a term coined
by Yan Stankyevich) had, according to Stankyevich, moved the
normative Belarusian morphology and syntax closer to their Russian
counterparts, often removing from the use the indigenous features
of the Belarusian language. [Stank 1936]
Stankyevich also observed that some components of the reform had
moved the Belarusian grammar to the grammars of other Slavonic
languages, which would hardly be its goal. [Stank 1936]
In West Belarus
, there had been some
voices raised against the reform, chiefly by the
non-Communist/non-Socialist wing of the Belarusian national scena.
Yan Stankyevich named Belarusian Scientific Society, Belarusian
National Committee, Society of the friends of Belarusian
linguistics in the Wilno University. [Stank 1936] Certain political
and scientifical groups and figures went on with using the
pre-reform orthography and grammar, however, in succeedingly
multiplying and differing versions.
However, the reformed grammar and orthography had been used, too,
e.g., during the process of S.
Second World War
In times of Occupation of
Belarus by Nazi Germany
(1941–1944), the Belarusian
collaborants used the Belarusian language, in the press and schools
which were influenced by them, in the Belarusian language variant,
which was deliberately rejecting all post-1933 changes in
vocabulary, orthography and grammar. Much publishing in Belarusian Latin script
Otherwise, including but not limited to the publications of
Soviet partisan movement
Belarus, the normative 1934 grammar was used.
Post Second World War
After the World War, several major factors influenced the
development of the Belarusian language. The most important was the
implementation of "rapprochment and
unification of Soviet people
" policy which resulted in Russian
language by 1980s effectively and officially assuming the role of
principal mean of communication, with Belarusian relegated to a
secondary role. The post-war growth of circulation of publishing in
Belarusian in BSSR drastically lagged behind those in Russian. The
use of Belarusian as main language of education was gradually
limited to rural schools and humanitarian faculties. While
officially much lauded, the language was popularly imaged as
"uncultured, rural language of rural people".
That was the source of concern for the nationally minded and
caused, e.g., the series of publications by Barys Sachanka
in 1957–1961 and the text
named "Letter to Russian friend" by Alyaksyey Kawka
(1979). Interestingly, the
contemporary BSSR Communist party leader Kirill Mazurov
made some tentative moves to
strengthen the role of Belarusian language in the 2nd half 1950s.
However, the support of the Belarusian could also be easily
considered "too strong" and even identified with the support of
"Belarusian nationalists and fascists".
After the beginning of Perestroika and relaxing of the political
control in end 1980s, the new campaign in support of the Belarusian
language was mounted in BSSR, expressed in "Letter of 58" and other
publications, producing certain level of popular support and
resulting in the BSSR Supreme Soviet ratifying the "Law on
languages" ("Закон аб мовах
"; January 26, 1990) mandating
the strengthening of the role of Belarusian in the state and civic
Reform of grammar in 1959
In 1949–1957, the discussion on problems of the Belarusian
orthography and on the further development of language, started in
1935–1941, was continued, and the need to amend some unwarranted
changes, introduced in the 1933 reform, was expressed. The
Orthography Commission, headed by Yakub
, had the project prepared about 1951, but the project was
approved only in 1957, and the normative rules were published in
1959. This grammar is the normative for Belarusian language since
then, receiving minor practical changes in 1985 edition.
In 2006–2007, the project of corrections and of parts of the 1959
grammar was being discussed.
After Belarusian independence, the Belarusian language gained much
prestige and popular interest. However, the implementation of the
1992–1994 "Law on languages" was done in such a way, that it
provoked public protests and was dubbed "Landslide Belarusization"
and "undemocratic" by opposing 1992–1994. In a controversial referendum
May 14, 1995 the Belarusian language lost its exclusive status as
the only state language. The state support of Belarusian language
and culture in general has dwindled since then.
The legitimacy of the reform of grammar in 1933 was never adopted
by certain political groups in West
, unlike, e.g., KPZB
, neither by the
emigrants, who left Belarus after 1944. This rejection was made an
issue of ideology, and presented as anti-Russification
. One of the most vocal critics
was Yan Stankyevich
, beginning with
his 1936 publication.
rejecting all post-1933 official developments, the community was
left with all the problems of the pre-1933 grammar virtually
unaddressed (cf. the materials of Society for the Cleanliness of
Belarusian language, Prague,
1930s-1940s) and effectively with no unified grammar to use (cf.
the discussion between Yan Stankyevich and Masyey Syadnyow in
beg.1950s, the policy of Bats'kawshchyna printing house
It is worth noting that with the Belarusian schools in Poland
closed in 1937, the only wide-scale use of the pre-1933 grammar
after the 1930s took place during the German occupation of Belarus
The important issue is the certain ambiguity of the Belarusian word
" which in non-academic use may refer either to
or to the other
branches of grammar (e.g., morphology) in general.
In the Perestroika period of the end 1980s, the movement for the
returning of "true" language was initiated, meaning the further
unprecised "cancellment" of the effects of the 1933 reform. Several
periodicals, chiefly of Belarusian People's Front
political spectrum, Svaboda
, began to be
issued in beg.1990s in the grammar with several issues of the
Belarusian orthography and grammar used in the pre-1933 form,
notably "issue of soft sign", "westernized Latinisms", "westernized
Generally, the ban on the publishing in non-normative grammar was
There was no unified approach between the editors as to what set of
grammar and lexics features to use, although calls to unification
were made, principally by Vincuk
(cf. publications in journal Spadchyna
in 1991 and 1994, project of
"revised classic orthography" in 1995, ibid).
The orthography (or, actually, grammar, as pointed out in the issue
of word pravapis
) with such features was named
in BGN/PCGN romanization
in such editions, emphasising its closer relation to the 1918 work
editions started to refer to it as "classic" since c. 1994
(notably, in 1994 article by Vincuk
On the other hand, any post-1933 official grammar was derogatory
" in the press of that persuasion,
emphasising grammar's origin in People Commisariat
" – Ministry).
Generally, the issue created a schism in the Belarusian-speaking
community, opinions varying from wholesale approval to likewise
rejection, with notable expression in the 1992–1993 discussion in
the newspaper "Nasha slova", published then by Frantsishak
Skaryna Belarusian Language Society
, or in the 2003
questionnaire in the journal ARCHE
Major editions of Belarusian minority in eastern Poland, like
, did not
take sides in the issue, and continued to use normative variant of
There was certain amount of lobbying in 1992–1993 to enact the
retro-changes in orthography through the state authorities
decision. The Civic Commission on the Orthography was called as
result, with mission of providing the recommendation on that
matter. The recommendation of the Commission (September 13, 1994)
said that while partial return of some of the pre-1933 rules could
indeed be plausible, the time for such changes is not yet
After the 1994, the promoters of the alternative ("classic")
grammar continued the publishing and work on the internal
codification based on the Viačorka project.
the editions targeting the popular audience, like newspapers
Svaboda (Minsk) and
Pahonya (Hrodna), switched
to the normative variant of Belarusian later.
In the 2005 the working group of four persons produced the "Classic
orthography. Modern normalisation" being the attempt on the
internal standard. One of the prominent features was the optional,
not obligatory to use letter Ґ
to the alphabet.
This proposal was adopted by such major Tarashkevitsa-using media,
as the newspaper Naša Niva
Belarusian editions of Radio Free
and Radio Polonia
adoption status in the other supporting groups, like other
publishing houses or Belarusian USA diaspora, is uncertain.
Belarusian is represented by the ISO 639
, or more specifically by IETF language tags be-1959acad
("Academic" ["governmental"] variant of Belarusian as codified in
1959) or be-tarask
(Belarusian in Taraskievica
- [Karsk 1893] Карский Е. Ф. Что такое древнее западнорусское
наречие? // «Труды Девятого археологического съезда в Вильне,
1893», под ред. графини Уваровой и С. С. Слуцкого, т. II – М.,
1897. – с. 62 – 70. In edition: Карский Е. Ф. Белорусы: 3 т. Т. 1 /
Е. Ф. Карский / Уступны артыкул М. Г. Булахава, прадмова да першага
тома і каментарыі В. М. Курцовай, А. У. Унучака, І. У. Чаквіна . –
Мн. : БелЭн, 2006. – с. 495 – 504. ISBN 985-11-0360-8 (T.1), ISBN
- [Karsk 1903] Карский, Е. Ф. Белорусы: 3 т. Т. 1 / Уступны
артыкул М. Г. Булахава, прадмова да першага тома і каментарыі В. М.
Курцовай, А. У. Унучака, І. У. Чаквіна. ; [Карскій. Бѣлоруссы. Т. I
– Вильна, 1903] – Мн. : БелЭн, 2006. ISBN 985-11-0360-8 (Т.1), ISBN
- [Lyosik 1917] [Язэп Лёсік] Граматыка і родная мова : [Вольная
Беларусь №17, 30.08.1917] // Язэп Лёсік. Творы: Апавяданні. Казкі.
Артыкулы / (Уклад., прадм. і камент. А. Жынкіна. – Мн. : Маст.
літ., 1994. – (Спадчына). ISBN 5-340-01250-6.
- [Stank 1939] Ян Станкевіч. Гісторыя беларускага языка //
Ян Станкевіч. Збор твораў у двух тамах. Т. 1. - Мн.: Энцыклапедыкс,
2002. ISBN 985-6599-46-6.
- [StStank 1962] Станкевіч С. Русіфікацыя беларускае мовы ў БССР
і супраціў русіфікацыйнаму працэсу / Прадмова В. Вячоркі. –
Мн. : Навука і тэхніка, 1994. ISBN 5-343-01645-6.
- [Zhur 1978] А. И. Журавский. Деловая письменность в системе
старобелорусского литературного языка // Восточнославянское и общее
языкознание. – М., 1978. – С. 185-191.
- [Halyen 1988] Галенчанка Г. Я. Кнігадрукаванне ў Польшчы //
Францыск Скарына і яго час. Энцыклапед. даведнік. – Мн. : БелЭн,
1988. ISBN 5-85700-003-3.
- [AniZhur 1988] Анічэнка У. В., Жураўскі А. І. Беларуская
лексіка ў выданнях Ф. Скарыны // Францыск Скарына і яго час.
Энцыклапед. даведнік. – Мн. : БелЭн, 1988. ISBN 5-85700-003-3.
- [Zhur 1993] Жураўскі А. І. Беларуская мова // Энцыклапедыя
гісторыі Беларусі. У 6 т. Т. 1. - Мн.: БелЭн, 1993.
- [Yask 2001] Яскевіч А. А. Старабеларускія граматыкі: да
праблемы агульнафілалагічнай цэласнасці. – 2-е выд. – Мн. :
Беларуская навука, 2001. ISBN 985-08-0451-3.
- [Lis 1991] Браніслаў Тарашкевіч. Выбранае: Крытыка,
публіцыстыка, пераклады / Укладанне, уступ, камент. А. Ліса. – Мн.
: Маст. літ., 1991. – (Спадчына). ISBN-5-340-00498-8
- [Lis 1966] Арсень Ліс. Браніслаў Тарашкевіч – Мн. : Навука і
- [BAC 1926] Да рэформы беларускага правапісу. // Пасяджэньні
Беларускае Акадэмічнае Конфэрэнцыі па рэформе правапісу і азбукі. -
Мн.: [б. м.], [1927?].
- [Tarashk 1929] Б. Тарашкевіч. Беларуская граматыка для школ. -
Вільня : Беларуская друкарня ім. Фр. Скарыны, 1929 ; Мн. :
«Народная асвета», 1991 [факсімільн.]. - Выданьне пятае
пераробленае і пашыранае.
- [Stank 1918] Ян Станкевіч. Правапіс і граматыка // Ян
Станкевіч. Збор твораў у двух тамах. Т. 1. - Мн.: Энцыклапедыкс,
2002. ISBN 985-6599-46-6
- [Stank 1927] Ян Станкевіч. Беларуская Акадэмічная Конфэрэнцыя
14.–21.XI.1926 і яе працы дзеля рэформы беларускае абэцэды й
правапісу (агульны агляд) // Ян Станкевіч. Збор твораў у
двух тамах. Т. 1. - Мн.: Энцыклапедыкс, 2002. ISBN
- [Stank 1930] Ян Станкевіч. Б. Тарашкевіч: Беларуская граматыка
для школ. Выданьне пятае пераробленае і пашыранае. Вільня. 1929 г.,
бал. 132 + IV [1930–1931] // Ян Станкевіч. Збор твораў у двух
тамах. Т. 1. - Мн.: Энцыклапедыкс, 2002. ISBN 985-6599-46-6
- [Baranowski 2004] Ігар Бараноўскі. Помнік сьвятару-беларусу
(120-ыя ўгодкі з дня нараджэньня а. Баляслава Пачопкі) // Царква.
Грэка-каталіцкая газета. № 4 (43), 2004. – Брэст: ПП В.Ю.А., | <urn:uuid:c3b9e421-1f49-45c2-ae0a-e4e65861ff61> | {
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The Russian government has long highlighted the similarities between Kosovo and South Ossetia. When Kosovo declared independence six months ago, then-Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that this would embolden South Ossetia, as well as other separatist regions around the world.
More recently, parallels have been drawn between Russia's military actions in Georgia this month and NATO's bombing campaign of 1998-99 in Serbia.
The two situations, however, while similar on some points, are fundamentally different where it matters: in their implications for the future of international relations.
The precedent issue is a bit of a red herring. Kosovo is far from the first breakaway region to become independent successfully. Throughout history, separatist inclinations have sometimes resulted in independence, sometimes in accommodation. Whenever a separatist group seeks independence, it cites those that succeeded before it. It does not cite others that failed to attain independence, like the American South, or those that, like Quebec, found a way to live within existing borders. At its core, South Ossetia's desire to break off from Georgia has little or nothing to do with Kosovo's desire to be independent of Serbia.
More interesting is the comparison between the two conflicts, which evidences both similarities and differences in some key areas:
- In 1998-99 NATO forces bombed Yugoslavia. NATO's goal was to coerce Serbia to withdraw its forces from Kosovo and come to the negotiating table. Hundreds of civilians were killed as a result.
- In 2008, Russian military forces bombed Georgia to compel Georgian troops to leave South Ossetia, which Georgia had moved to retake by force. It bombed Georgia proper well after the Georgians declared they were withdrawing from South Ossetia, and occupied territory within Georgia. Unknown numbers of civilians have been killed as a result.
- Kosovo, a majority ethnic-Albanian province, sought independence from Serbian rule.
- South Ossetia is a majority ethnic-Ossetian province that has been de facto independent since 1992, although legally within Georgian territory. South Ossetia seeks either eventual independence or union with Russia.
- The lead-up to military action by NATO in Kosovo involved sustained diplomatic efforts, which failed in the face of continuing civilian casualties and displacement.
- The lead-up to military action by Russia was the decision by Georgia to attack and retake South Ossetia. Russia had long supported the Ossetians, aggravating tensions. Fighting and shelling had recently increased along the border, although negotiations to resolve the conflict also continued. Georgia's decision to invade resulted in civilian casualties and displacement. Given Russia's support for South Ossetia, and the Russian citizenship that Moscow had granted the vast majority of the region's residents, Georgia must have expected that Russia would react.
- NATO sought negotiations that would lead to an international mandate for Kosovo with international peacekeepers deployed.
- Russia has stated that it wants a Georgian withdrawal from South Ossetia and a commitment from Georgia not to use force against separatists there or in Abkhazia. It appears that Russia also wants to punish Georgia, and particularly Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili for his administration's unequivocal view of Russia as a hostile and oppressive actor, and for his efforts to join NATO.
- Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic took part in negotiations over Kosovo, and was overthrown in his own country in 2000, after allegations of election fraud. He was later arrested and tried for war crimes. He died in 2006 while the trial was ongoing.
- Allegations of genocide in South Ossetia and calls for an international investigation by Russian officials may suggest an intention to present Saakashvili as a war criminal. Russian officials have stated that they cannot envision talks with Saakashvili. Georgians have also alleged atrocities, primarily on the part of South Ossetian forces.
But perhaps the biggest difference between Kosovo and South Ossetia is this: the Kosovo campaign was, fundamentally, about Kosovo. Then, many countries, including Russia, were united in seeking a solution. Russia was, in fact, instrumental in convincing Milosevic to settle. Kosovo was a key moment in the evolution of the post-Cold War era, its resolution a product of years of Balkan conflict and international efforts to respond.
The conflict between Georgia and Russia is not about South Ossetia. The breakaway province, and Georgia's ill-advised action there, is the pretext Russia has used to demonstrate its power to its neighbors and to the world.
By going to war with Georgia, Russia has in effect said pressure from the United States, the European Union, and the West in general will not keep it from acting to defend its interests as it defines them, interests that include keeping its neighbors in check.
South Ossetia is therefore a historical turning point, as Kosovo was not. It is forcing Western countries fundamentally to reevaluate their interests, priorities, and policies toward Russia and its neighbors, and to do so in recognition of their very limited, and very weak, capacity to affect Russia's decision calculus.
Olga Oliker is a senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. The views expressed in this commentary are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This commentary originally appeared on RFERL.org, the website of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty on August 25, 2008. | <urn:uuid:2093053a-7a3b-4cf7-87d6-3ab41868d85a> | {
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This week on Template Tuesday, we wanted to highlight our new drag and drops for Adobe Captivate. Draggers are a great way to help a learner make associations between multiple objects or concepts, and these four join the many others we have available in our Template Library. (Don’t forget: If you have Captivate 9, these templates come included with your purchase!)
Let’s take a look at the templates below.
In each template, the point is to match the draggable item to either the individual concept/object or into the “bucket” or category as is appropriate. As you can see, the two on the top are a very similar construction, as are the two on the bottom. The top two are just some positional variations of each other, which can be helpful if you need to adjust the sizing of your text boxes. On the bottom, we get some functional variation as we jump from two target areas to three. This is obviously helpful as you may need more buckets to drop items into.
Often, you’ll find that you need to cover specific jargon or vocabulary that learners need to be familiar with in order to do their jobs best. I like the idea of using the one-to-one draggers as a great way to review terms and definitions. As previously mentioned, drag and drops are also a great way to show the relationships. For example, I’ve used them to show how certain roles in a company match to specific responsibilities—the multi-to-two/three does this very well.
No matter how you go about it, drag and drops are a fantastic way to review and test material or even to play a fun matching game. How would you use these drag and drops in your eLearning course? Let us know in the comments below! | <urn:uuid:5ff3aab5-f293-48cd-a94d-fe89ad00ce72> | {
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Have you ever felt like you needed a hug? The act of receiving a hug seems to allay our aches and worries for the moment and display an unspoken affection between one another. In addition, hugs have health benefits. The more you hug and the longer you hug, the better the overall benefit. Studies suggest embracing for 20 seconds or more is optimal for attaining the most health improving attributes.
Hugs encourage the release of oxytocin. The hormone is secreted daily in the hypothalamus, stored in the pituitary gland, brought on in response to several influences, and can affect behavior. It promotes pair bonding. When we hug or kiss a loved one, oxytocin levels naturally increase. This hormone is greatly stimulated during sex, childbirth, and breastfeeding.
A University of North Carolina study found that women recorded greater reductions in blood pressure than men after hugs with their partners. They also had lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.
The study’s lead psychologist, Dr. Karen Grewen, wrote in Psychosomatic Medicine:
“Greater partner support is linked to higher oxytocin levels for both men and women. However, the importance of oxytocin and it’s potentially cardio-protective effects may be greater for women.”
Hugging may be an ideal remedy for reducing stress, fear, and anxiety; lowering blood pressure; boosting well-being; and enhancing memory performance. According to researchers, the power of hugs only works when hugged by someone a person knows very well whereas hugging a stranger can have the opposite effect. Unwanted hugs from strangers or casual acquaintances does not release the hormone.
Neurophysiologist Jürgen Sandkühler, Head of the Centre for Brain Research at the Medical University of Vienna, clarifies:
“The positive effect only occurs, however, if the people trust each other, if the associated feelings are present mutually and if the corresponding signals are sent out. If people do not know each other, or if the hug is not desired by both parties, its effects are lost. Studies have shown that children whose mothers have been given extra oxytocin have higher levels of the hormone themselves, i.e. solely as a result of the mother’s behavior.”
National Hug Day or National Hugging Day is celebrated on January 21. Kevin Zaborney and Adam Olis are credited for creating the holiday in 1986. It is officially recognized by the United States Copyright Office but is not a public holiday. The purpose of the event is to encourage people to engage in healthy physical interaction. In 2004, NHD became associates with the Free Hugs Campaign. The Free Hugs Campaign is a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places, meant to be seen as a random act of kindness. These programs do not endorse behavior that qualifies as sexual harassment at work, so don’t assume everyone participates. | <urn:uuid:69e02a74-27de-4c59-a550-54a8a03f434d> | {
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W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history. First published in 1899 at the dawn of sociology, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study is a landmark in empirical sociological research. Du Bois was the first sociologist to document the living circumstances of urban Black Americans. The Philadelphia Negro provides a framework for studying black communities, and it has steadily grown in importance since its original publication. Today, it is an indispensable model for sociologists, historians, political scientists, anthropologists, educators, philosophers, and urban studies scholars. With a series introduction by editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an introduction by Lawrence Bobo, this edition is essential for anyone interested in African American history and sociology.
- Publication Date:
- 15 / 03 / 2007 | <urn:uuid:3b49c869-ef1f-4cb2-aeca-1bf49b6a1b0b> | {
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Usually, we think of modes as something we only use when it comes to soloing/improvisation. We forget that we can also use them to compose music and get creative.
In today's lesson I want to show you how you can use the basic seven modes of the major scale in order to make the most out of one simple idea. Ideally, this lesson should also help you get out of an episode of "writer's block."
The cool thing about modes is that they allow us to take one melody and change its character. In order to illustrate this, I'm using a simple idea in C Ionian (C major) which I then play using different modes. You'll notice how the essence of the melody is the same (rhythm, structure), yet modifying the intervals that make that melody up have a clear impact on the melody's character:
Feel free to apply this approach with your own ideas. It's not always necessary for you to come up with tons of ideas. At times it's better to take one idea (either a chord progression, a riff, or a melody) and make the most out of it before trying to write something new. Start making music now
About the Author:
By Miguel Marquez. Don't hesitate to subscribe to my YouTube channel, as more lessons on applying music theory are in the planning stage. Also follow me on Facebook to stay up to date on lessons and music: facebook.com/MiguelMarquezMusic.
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© 2016 BAJAAO.COM. BAJAO | BAJAAO Music Private Limited | <urn:uuid:76d935ba-0ca4-4848-99c4-c04bbd211097> | {
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Goals play a substantial role in an organization’s planning for situations requiring coordination of resources. Habitat for Humanity’s goal to effectively use the $100 million gift should follow the SMART format introduced by Drucker. In addition to being written, the goal should meet the qualities of S (specific), M (measurable), A (attainable), R (relevant), and T (time bound).
Goal must be clear as to time frame. It should state the time before measuring the accomplishment.
The goals of an organization must be challenging yet attainable: Low goals do not motivate and high goals motivate if they can be achieved.
Goals must always be written down so that it focuses, defines, and makes it visible.
The goal must be communicated to all necessary organizational members so that everyone is informed and “on the same page.” | <urn:uuid:5d497ae0-dfaa-42b0-89ea-8db3a4b9af1f> | {
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BALL, INGRAM, politician and judge; b. 1752 at Stonehouse Manor in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, England, eldest of six children of Robert Ball and Mary Dickerson; m. first Anna Coutts; m. secondly Margaret Childs; there were 12 children from the two marriages; d. 18 March 1807 near Sydney (N.S.).
Ingram Ball was the elder brother of Alexander John Ball, who became a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy and the first British governor of Malta. He entered the 33rd Foot as an ensign on 12 Feb. 1772, and in June of the following year exchanged to the 7th Dragoons as a cornet. Promoted lieutenant on 29 May 1776, he was advanced to captain-lieutenant in January 1780, but resigned from the army that November. It has been claimed that during the War of American Independence he served on the staff of Lieutenant-General Lord Cornwallis. Ball came to Cape Breton in 1788 with his wife and six children and settled west of Sydney on the site of the present-day village of Ball’s Creek. He soon became involved in the political life of the colony, being appointed to the Executive Council on 22 June 1789 by Lieutenant Governor William Macarmick. Ball aligned himself with a faction in the council headed by Ranna Cossit, the Church of England clergyman in Sydney, which was opposed to one led by David Mathews*, the attorney general. Both groups sought to control the colony through manipulation of the lieutenant governor and council, an essential step since a house of assembly was never convened.
When Macarmick left Cape Breton in 1795, Mathews became administrator and used his new power to harass and dismiss members of the rival clique. In his capacity as first (and, at this point, only) assistant judge of the Supreme Court, a position to which he had been appointed by Macarmick, Ball functioned as chief justice. Unfortunately, however, some of his judgements were in opposition to those of Archibald Charles Dodd*, a magistrate and an ally of Mathews. Dissatisfied with Ball’s decisions, Mathews appointed Dodd first assistant judge in June 1797, an action that appears to have suspended Ball from the Supreme Court. At some time during Mathews’s term of office he also dismissed Ball from the council. As tension between Mathews and his adversaries grew during 1797, a group of sailors led by his son roamed about terrorizing those inhabitants who opposed the administrator. During Ball’s absence they broke into his home, “a Strumpet in their Company,” and “teized & tossed about” Mrs Ball for some time. The following year Mathews used a debt charge as an excuse to jail Ball.
In June 1798 James Ogilvie arrived to assume control of the government. He soon released Ball and reappointed him to his seat on the council, dismissed Dodd from the Supreme Court, and replaced him with two joint chief justices, Ball and William Smith. By early 1799 Ball and Smith were at loggerheads; unable to agree on judgements, they split decisions and nullified the power of the Supreme Court. The cause of this rivalry appears to have been Ball’s change of allegiance to Mathews’s group, Smith tending to favour Cossit and his allies. The reasons for Ball’s volte-face are not clear. In May 1799 John Murray* replaced Ogilvie as administrator. He favoured the Cossit faction and soon fell out with Ball, calling him an “old Military Debauchée” and accusing him of being drunk “from Morning to night.” Ball was finally removed from his positions as joint chief justice and councillor on 22 Dec. 1799, and in the spring of 1800 he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to jail for 12 months. Murray’s successor, John Despard*, took an interest in his case and in May 1801 obtained the British government’s consent to the remission of the remainder of Ball’s sentence.
After his release Ball took no active part in Cape Breton politics and retired to his farm. His career reveals the acrimonious state of political life during the early years of the colony’s existence, due largely to factionalism and favouritism arising from the absence of a house of assembly and the scramble for the small number of offices available.
PAC, MG II, [CO 217] Cape Breton A, 10: 86; [CO 220] Cape Breton B, 5:44–45. PRO, CO 217/113: ff.200–1, 534; 217/114; 217/115: f.87; 217/116; 217/117: ff.21, 29, 125, 143–45; 217/118: f.13. [William Smith], A caveat against emigration to America; with the state of the island of Cape Breton, from the year 1784 to the present year; and suggestions for the benefit of the British settlements in North America (London, 1803).
Cite This Article
R. J. Morgan, “BALL, INGRAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed August 30, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ball_ingram_5E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:Permalink: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ball_ingram_5E.html
|Author of Article:||R. J. Morgan|
|Title of Article:||BALL, INGRAM|
|Publication Name:||Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5|
|Publisher:||University of Toronto/Université Laval|
|Year of publication:||1983|
|Year of revision:||1983|
|Access Date:||August 30, 2014| | <urn:uuid:edcc4728-e7c1-4c82-adfd-2b94f541c55d> | {
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Management culture reflects what is the situation on many farms today, that milking, as well as other tasks that relate to quality milk, are done primarily by non-family employees. How owners and managers train, equip, provide feedback and communicate with employees certainly is related to the performance of those employees. Management that builds the teamwork of engaged employees to achieve goals is the owner’s responsibility. It would be difficult to maintain good milk quality where employees do not take pride in producing quality milk, or when they do not remain on the farm long enough to grow in their knowledge as well as their commitment.
The QMA is developing an evaluation system to accurately identify the highest risk areas for mastitis on a dairy farm, and make meaningful recommendations to address them in a cost-effective manner. The expectation is that if a producer is able to make improvements in these areas, milk quality will improve, and the improvement in udder health will mean less use of antibiotics for a disease for which prevention is the best means of control.
If you would like to learn more about the Quality Milk Alliance or mastitis control, please visit http://qualitymilkalliance.com. | <urn:uuid:cd3b814c-3750-42f8-a4ae-e729c0afd161> | {
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Expert Accessibility Handlers Mission Statement, Draft 4
Generalized content markup (such as HTML) is complimented by markup specifications that facilitate more semantically precise content markup. Examples of specialized, semantically precise markup include MathML (mathematics) and MusicXML (musical scores). Assistive technology (AT) typically handles generalized content markup, but does not know about specialized markup. Because of this, AT is not able to appropriately render or navigate specialized markup and hence, is inadequate to serve user needs properly when dealing with specialized markup.
The Open A11y Expert Handlers SIG is exploring the possibility of specifying a standardized plug-in mechanism to AT software. The goal of this plug-in standard is to allow AT software to take advantage of "expert" open source and proprietary software that understands specific specialized markup. The plug-in standard should allow the expert software to provide enhanced, semantically rich access to specialized markup so that the AT can properly render (visually, aurally, and/or tactilely) and navigate the semantic meaning encoded in the specialized markup. | <urn:uuid:18d8dacb-93eb-4590-b5e7-12e4c78013ca> | {
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Jim offers a great idea. He knows it’s good, but unfortunately a lot of people just don’t quite get it and therefore aren’t buying it. Jim is frustrated day after day when he sees how his ideas could be used by people in his community, but because he can’t communicate it, and because the community aren’t sure of him, his idea isn’t selling.
One day, Jim decides to stop trying to market his idea, and instead decides to show his idea in action. Rather than trying to promote his idea, he lets uses his idea to promote an entirely different idea altogether. The result is that in doing so, people got to see Jim’s idea in action.
Ok, so Jim is Me.
In fact, Jim is a lot of people. Headfake marketing – the method of using one thing to teach another thing – is as old as, well, the Karate Kid. Remember Mr. Miyagi teaching his young student to ‘wax on, wax off’? By teaching him how to clean windows, Daniel actually learns to block punches. We can use the same techniques today when articulating the ideas that we have.
This mechanism is used a lot in sales. When people ‘sell through’ rather than ‘sell to’, they are pulling a mild form of this (you know, the old “You might know someone who needs this”, rather than saying “You need this” trick.) Or how about getting kids to eat food by pretending it’s a plane flying into a tunnel?
The headfake above means you are selling to someone while giving them a safe way to exit, which is generally more pleasant. But there’s more to it than that.
How To Wax On, Wax Off
The reason why you have to pull a headfake is because, unfortunately, when people are too familiar with you they often won’t learn from you. That’s why Jim (and the rest of us) get annoyed when people suddenly ‘get it’ when someone says what we’ve been saying for ages already. So here’s how to start going about it:
- You need to create some kind of distance, or magic curtain. You can’t let people see how you put it together, because that breaks the transformational effect when they see what you’ve done that finally shocks people into admiring what you do. Remember when Daniel realises that ‘Wax On, Wax Off’ was the actual moves? Thats the transformation you want.
- Transfer your passion into the headfake. If you’ve ever visited HSBCreviews.com, you’ve seen the headfake in action. The lesson we learn from thrudigital here is that the headfake needs to be around a passion or a pain in order to provoke emotion. It can’t be bland, else people don’t get it, and don’t want it.
- Make the headfake a mindshift. Do it to such a high standard that people are hungry for the next thing you have. You can do this most powerfully by making mantra and creating a phrase that people start using. If everyone in your proximity is using your language, then you are the master of that language, and can do with it as you will (just don’t abuse it.)
- Tell stories. This makes it memorable. People forget what was said but they remember what they felt, and stories create feeling because we use our imagination to put ourselves in the story, rather than passively just listening.
- Followup with by packaging the idea to take home. After the headfake (if you do it well), people will want you idea. You need to have a simple, clear packaged idea that they can take home with them. After you’ve worked so hard to make your idea clear, don’t make it unclear again with your amorphous mist of services. Present a clear, packaged productised idea for taking home.
- Convert it. You have to master it, close the deal, and convert the headfake into your idea. This can be uncomfortable, but people are hungry for it. If people are complimenting you, then you need to just decide to have the confidence and go – stop worrying over whether people will buy into your idea or not – and stop waiting for people to come to you.
A Living Example
Randy Pausch carries out his famous last lecture here on the subject of “Achieving your Childhood Dreams.” What follows is an hour discussion on headfakes, before the final revelation that the whole talk is a headfake itself. It has passion, the magic curtain, stories, mindshifts, language and wholly converts the headfake into the idea. | <urn:uuid:b48e7805-166d-4e16-b4ca-1d81d7ef5cab> | {
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Primary literature refers to sources of original information. Often providing first hand accounts of the author's own work, primary literature typically presents the most recent research or scholarly discussion on a given subject and can often refer to methodology and particular results.
A common place to find primary literature would be journal articles. Journals (or periodicals) are continuous publications, usually published at regular intervals. Peer-reviewed or refereed journal articles have been evaluated by subject experts prior to publishing.
Internet resources such as websites for professional associations, conferences and academics' personal web pages may also provide access to primary literature. Internet resources should always be carefully evaluated.
Secondary literature is normally a synthesis or overview of theories or research. Edited books or textbooks are examples of secondary literature.
Review articles and review journals are a common and popular secondary source also. These articles normally summarise the latest range of research on a certain topic or contentious issue. They are usually written by an expert in the field and contain an extensive list of references. | <urn:uuid:77028776-970e-4bee-84ac-9870529f5e4b> | {
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Although there are a myriad of sources of municipal solid waste (MSW) data in the United States, much of these
data are not transparent and are also extremely difficult to find. In addition, the two major methods of quantifying
national MSW flows—the BioCycle State of Garbage in America and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)/Franklin Associates’ MSW “Facts and Figures” report—differ greatly in their reported results. This study, sponsored by EPA Region 9 and concentrating on the state of California, shows how an improved method of MSW measurement can be built upon the foundation provided by the State of Garbage in America (SOG) survey and complemented by an in-depth analysis of state data from various sources within a state. The primary goal of this methodology is to provide reliable, transparent, tonnage-based, and readily available MSW data for use by policy-makers, MSW managers, and the general public. California was used as the starting point because of the high volume of data available for that state, as well as the controversy surrounding its unusual method of collecting and reporting recycling rates. Also, because of California’s size, its recycling tonnage has a large effect on overall U.S. national figures. It is therefore important to accurately quantify MSW management there. Results show that EPA underestimates U.S. MSW generation rates by a significant amount and that the methodology presented produces consistent and replicable results across different states.
There is a great deal of argument over the best ways to deal with municipal solid waste (MSW) in the United States. Many of these arguments are subjective in nature, a prominent example being the “zero waste” goal often advanced by activists.1 Although laudable as an ideal endpoint, a closer look at the data suggests that this is far from being achieved in reality. To promote a pragmatic set of policies around MSW management, a better understanding of the amount and characterization of waste produced in the United States is needed. This is the main focus of this paper—the establishment of a transparent methodology that accurately measures flows of MSW in the country. The methodology is demonstrated using California as a test case. An alternative metric to recycling rates was developed by the authors and will be the subject of a future paper.
EXISTING SOURCES OF U.S. MSW DATA
Currently, there are two major national studies of MSW data in the United States—the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)/Franklin Associates’ “Facts and Figures,” an annual report commissioned by EPA2; and the BioCycle/Earth Engineering Center (EEC) State of Garbage in America (SOG), a biannual study published by BioCycle Journal.3
Franklin Associates uses a form of materials flow analysis (MFA) to perform their analysis. However, it is quite
difficult to assess the effectiveness of their approach because the specific methodology behind their calculations
is not published. A generalized and unpublished description of the original methodology was obtained for this research study.4 Although the steps taken to calculate MSW flows are not clearly delineated in this document, the underlying methodology is apparent—estimates are based on production data for materials and products that end up in the waste stream, and adjustments are made for imports/exports and for the expected lifetime of materials. The report’s bibliography includes many references to the U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as trade organizations like the U.S. Steel Recycling Institute, Battery Council International, etc.
Because collected recyclables are used as feedstock for remanufacturing into new materials, it turns out that the
Franklin methodology (which appears to rely on information received from trade/commodity associations) does a good job of tracking the national trends of traditional curbside recyclables (i.e., metal, glass, paper, and plastic [MGPP]). However, it falls short when it comes to organics collection and, more significantly, in its estimate of tonnage of MSW landfilled. For whatever reason, industrial production data do not seem to provide adequate information for estimating disposal tons.
The SOG survey uses an entirely different strategy. Because most states have regulations requiring landfills and waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities to report tons received, it is possible to obtain reasonable disposal tonnage reports from the relevant regulatory authorities in each of the 50 states. Recycling tons are typically not regulated, but the same agencies tend to keep track of these figures as well, although the numbers are generally not as reliable as the reported landfilled and WTE tonnages. | <urn:uuid:e6ce5549-de87-4af9-b1be-6b6ff17f5ec0> | {
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The New Light
In May 1960, Theodore Maiman ignited the first laser flash. In December 1964, laser pioneer Charles Townes received the Nobel Prize. Only thing is, the new era that was promised was a long time in coming.
In 1960 laser technology seemed certain to change the world. People said it would soon be able to heal eyesight, transmit signals and bore, cut or weld workpieces. It would guide, locate or destroy rockets, measure pollution in the atmosphere or even spark off nuclear fusion. At the time, Readers Digest wrote of the "light of hope;" the New York Times saw the laser light up the future; and Time Magazine called it the "hottest thing in solid state physics since the transistor." Shortly before, the transistor had triggered the electronic revolution: The foundation of a new billion dollar industry, dominated by the USA. All significant research institutes in the USA turned to the laser, and public research programs reflected this change. During the Cold War, the US government placed great emphasis on military strength through technological advancement, greatly increasing defense spending in the 1950s. According to Aviation Week and Space Technology, the US Department of Defense invested about 1.5 million US dollars in the laser.
To the new laser industry, the military research programs meant what shareholders and risk venture capitalists meant to the Internet industry 40 years later: easier access to financial resources. At the end of 1962, two and a half years after Theodore Maiman's successful laser experiment, the laser industry generated about 1 million US dollars, according to Barron's Magazine. Almost 500 companies were researching the laser or using it for research purposes. A scant 20 to 30 companies introduced lasers on a market that the business press predicted would grow by tremendous rates. By 1973, the prediction ran, it would be a 1 billion US dollar market. The prediction fell at least one decade too short.
By 1964 laser researchers and engineers had, indeed, done a lot of testing and experiments, prompting the editor-in-chief of Electronics Magazine, John Carroll, to publish "The Story of the Laser." The book had, among others, photos of a 500-watt laser that was boring through a steel beam and showed experiments with data storage and the transmission of TV signals. Yet the experiments left behind the reality of the situation: Each test to transfer an existing application to the laser showed that the "conventional" application remained superior unless engineers completely redeveloped the application for the laser. Disappointed, back in 1964 laser fans said famously: "The laser is a solution in search of a problem." They meant that while the transistor had easily replaced vacuum tubes, the laser was still very much an unresearched tool. And even the laser itself represented yet another problem. The laser materials were not pure enough, the construction fragile and the performance often insufficient. What was missing were applications that could set in motion the industrial spiral of increasing quantities, standardized products and falling prices.
By the end of the 1970s, the helium neon laser was kept busy in applications such as lowerperformance lasers, scanning cash registers, laser printers and measurement technology. CD players and the expansion of data transmission networks simultaneously promoted the rapid rise of the semiconductor laser as a tiny, inexpensive laser diode. Today, digital information technologies and consumer electronics industries are dependent on the laser. | <urn:uuid:ffb64572-0959-45f8-b2fe-3c754f0ba69e> | {
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5th Grade Program
How are cultures shaped by the natural environment? In what ways do those cultures, in turn, shape their environment? How do these issues affect the Coos County area? Our 5th grade “Kids to Museum” program, developed by the museum’s Education Committee, encourages students to consider these fundamental questions in the context of the coal and timber industriesundefinedboth prominent players in our local history.
The classroom portion of this program focuses on the relationship between topography and settlement patterns. Students learn to read topographic maps and are urged to consider how topography might affect transportation, economic opportunity, and migration. Interactive activities help students to read maps and consider basic questions about where they might build a school, a railroad, a highway, and other structures in a particular landscape.
During the second component, at the Coos Historical and Maritime Museum students work with our timber and coal exhibits, our collection of historic photographs, and a unique three-dimensional topographic map to interpret this "evidence" and think more concretely about local history, industry, and transportation.
Our 5th grade program culminates with a visit to Front Street, the historic waterfront district in Coos Bay. Students discover the physical and cultural evolution of the site as documented in maps and photos, and consider what it might have been like to live there in its heyday, and tour the street discovering traces of its past. The trip includes a tour of a historic printing facility, and "living history" characters portrayed by middle and high schoolers.
Like our 4th grade program, our 5th grade program helps students experience history as a dynamic concept, and a context for thinking about issues in the present. We have developed this program to be rigorous, academic, and engaging, using State Content Standards as a guideline.
Standards Addressed by 5th Grade Program | <urn:uuid:dea20bc2-1b71-4371-8806-f48cffc405f2> | {
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Vitamin D for the treatment of migraine headaches: an introduction
Vitamin D is a vitamin that is not found naturally in many foods. It can be added to food and it is also available as a supplement. The body also produces Vitamin D when the skin is exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, contributes to healthy bones and helps protect older people from osteoporosis. People without enough Vitamin D can develop brittle or badly shaped bones. Vitamin D also helps people have healthy immune systems and it decreases inflammation. Rickets – which is the softening and weakening of children’s bones – is a disorder that comes from deficiency of Vitamin D, calcium or phosphate.
Foods containing Vitamin D
- Egg yolks
- Cod liver oil
- Fish, including salmon, sardines, tuna, mackerel
Other foods that are commonly fortified with Vitamin D
- Orange juice
- Mushrooms intentionally exposed to ultraviolet light to increase Vitamin D
Studies on Vitamin D and migraine
A study presented at the American Headache Society annual meeting in 2008 found that some 42 percent of people with chronic migraines have Vitamin D deficiency. Another study in 1991 found that people with too little Vitamin D may be at risk for pain that isn’t relieved by most pain relievers. This may explain why some people find migraine relief when taking Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is also important for reducing inflammation. Migraine head pain may be related to inflammation in some migraine sufferers.
Form of Vitamin D available
Vitamin D is included in most multivitamins. It is found in many forms, including:
- Infant Drops
- Chewable tablets
- Gummy chewables
Side effects and other precautions
Too much Vitamin D can cause a range of symptoms, including:
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Poor appetite
- Weight loss
- Elevated calcium levels, which can cause confusion and heart rhythm problems
- Increased risk of kidney stones
- Dry mouth
- Metallic taste
Who should nottake vitamin D
Let your doctor know about all medications and other supplements you take, because Vitamin D supplements may interact with many different treatments. Steroids, the weight-loss drug orlistat and certain seizure medicines might reduce the body’s ability to absorb Vitamin D.
Women who are pregnant, may become pregnant or who are breastfeeding should consult their doctor before taking high doses of Vitamin D. High doses may be harmful to the developing baby.
People with kidney disease and artherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, may cause their conditions to worsen with Vitamin D supplements. Consulting a healthcare provider is the best course of action.
Vitamin D in people with sarcoidosis, lymphoma and histoplasmosis may lead to kidney stones or other health issues.
People with over-active parathyroid glands should be careful of using Vitamin D and should consult a doctor before beginning the supplement.
As always, the best source for advice on treating your migraines is your own migraine specialist. These descriptions of natural remedies are provided only for informational purposes. You should begin no medication or supplement without first checking with your physician. Again, this information should in no way substitute or be mistaken for medical advice. | <urn:uuid:9679d009-6e8b-424c-a3bc-ce445f08b631> | {
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|Battle of Missionary Ridge, where my 3rd Great Grandfather,|
James Monroe Purser, was captured by the Union Army
Studying the Civil War in school, I'd always identified as a Northerner, and cheered that President Lincoln's Union Army defeated the secessionist, slavery-supporting Confederate Army. I still feel that way, of course, but as I've learned more about my own family involvement in the Civil War, I've learned about good men on both sides who fought for their beliefs.
Here are three of my known Civil War ancestors, both Union and Confederate:
|James M. Purser|
- James Monroe Purser (1843-1914), Confederate, 3rd Great Grandfather. On February 4, 1862, at at Murphee's Crossroads in Blount County, Alabama, Jim enlisted in the Confederate army. His brothers, Richard and Moses, also enlisted and fought in the war. Jim was promoted from Private to 2nd Corporal in the 28th Alabama Infantry, Company B, but his service in the Confederate army wasn't without its trials and tribulations. Jim became ill within just a couple of months of enlisting, and ended up in the hospital at Shelby Springs, Alabama, for a time. Shortly after that, he somehow managed to lose his "gun and accoutrements" somewhere near Tupelo, Mississippi. However, the worst was yet to come.
On November 25, Union soldiers assaulted and captured the Confederate position on Missionary Ridge. Jim and his brother, Richard, were both captured during the Battle of Chattanooga at Missionary Ridge in November 1863. They were confined at Rock Island Prison, Illinois, on December 5, 1863. During the Civil War, more than 12,000 men were imprisoned at Rock Island, and nearly 2,000 prisoners died there. Both Jim and Richard Purser lived through their imprisonment, and were released in March 1865 as part of a P.O.W. exchange program with the Union army.
|Benjamin F. Jaggers|
- Benjamin Franklin Jaggers (1832-1862), Confederate, 4th Great Grandfather. Benjamin joined the Confederate Army, enlisting on July 21, 1862, and mustering in at Huntsville, Alabama, on August 18, 1962. He was 30 years old and a Private in the 1st Alabama Cavalry. Benjamin would not get to see much, if any, action during the Civil War. Less than two months after he joined up, he died on October 16, 1862, of measles in Hospital #14 at Nashville, Tennessee. He is buried at the Nashville National Cemetery in Section A, plot 4518.
- Solomon Ishmael (1817-1894), Union, 4th Great Grandfather. Solomon was a Private in the Missouri 23rd Regiment Infantry Volunteers, Company B, under Captain Nash. He enlisted on July 25, 1862, in Trenton, Missouri, and mustered in at Hudson, Missouri, on August 31, 1862. He was 44 1/2 years old (no spring chicken). Solomon contracted small pox in around February 1864, and was in the hospital in McMinnville, Tennessee, until at least after the muster roll dated January 14, 1865. He was mustered out on May 18, 1865, near Washington, D.C.
|Solomon Ishmael's examination report|
While I'm proud of my Union soldiers for helping to protect and preserve our country, I've also grown surprisingly fond of my Confederate soldier ancestors. I might not believe in the same causes that they fought for, but I'm proud of their bravery. They also fought for their own beliefs and to preserve what they felt was important to their way of living. I'm glad the Union army prevailed, and my heart goes out to all of the soldiers on both sides -- as well as their parents, wives and children -- who endured, in many cases, four years of hell. Some gave their lives, and all gave their hearts and souls, for what they believed. These soldiers, both Union and Confederate, helped to shape our United States of America. | <urn:uuid:005b1419-928b-45ec-bbd8-46f6c6f00515> | {
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How much shelter should you provide chickens with, in addition to the chicken house?
Chickens can be quite sensible when it starts to rain and most chicken breeds are relatively hardy but you will still need to give them some form of shelter in addition to the hen house so they can shelter from the wind and rain, particularly if they are kept out in the open where there is little natural cover.
Experienced birds will run for cover if they think it’s going to be more than a light shower and will often huddle under a hen house or bush to keep themselves from getting too wet. There are however exceptions to the rules.
Chicks that are old enough to be outside and young birds in their first year do not usually have the sense to shelter, they will stand around getting wet. Other birds that haven’t learned to shelter from the rain are Ex-battery hens as they have spent so long inside sheltered buildings and to be fair to them, they don’t really understand what rain is as they have never experienced it before.
Some breeds / hybrid chickens can handle the wet better than others and are more hardy in the poor weather conditions but breeds like the Poland (the one with all the head-gear) or the Silkie can suffer and need to be either kept in a covered run or you will need to keep an eye on them.
Birds that get soaked through can be at risk of hypothermia. Their body temperature soon drops, especially if there is added wind chill factor involved.
It is a good idea to provide some form of shelter from the rain and the prevailing wind if possible for your chickens. Many birds will either not use the hen house, or, due to their position in the pecking order will not be able to go inside when the higher order birds are just inside the doorway.
Shelter can be quite basic, corrugated sheeting over a run, or a house lifted 40 cm off the ground to provide room underneath for birds to shelter, or even an old fence panel leaning against a wall or shed. Whatever you choose, ensure it is secure and won’t blow away and try to provide some protection from the prevailing winds (usually coming from the South West in the UK).
Chickens have some special needs in the cold / freezing weather and snow. This is covered in a separate article “Chickens in the Cold Weather“. | <urn:uuid:162b7eca-9a03-4cd5-87f8-c1dd6d7de84c> | {
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What is a Child Life Specialist?
Child life specialists are trained professionals with expertise in helping children and their families overcome life’s most challenging events.
Armed with a strong background in child development and family systems, child life specialists promote effective coping through play, preparation, education, and self-expression activities. They provide emotional support for families, and encourage optimum development of children facing a broad range of challenging experiences, particularly those related to healthcare and hospitalization. Because they understand that a child’s well-being depends on the support of the family, child life specialists provide information, support and guidance to parents, siblings, and other family members. They also play a vital role in educating caregivers, administrators, and the general public about the needs of children under stress.
Watch our Child Life Video
Professional Standards of Practice
Child life specialists have earned a minimum bachelor’s or master’s degree, with an educational emphasis on human growth and development, education, psychology, or a related field of study. They adhere to a code of ethics and standards established by the Child Life Council, and many have participated in the rigorous process for obtaining the Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) credential, which is administered by CLC. All Certified Child Life Specialists must complete a supervised 480+ hour clinical internship, pass a national examination, and adhere to a minimum standard for continued professional development in order to maintain their certification.
Child life specialists focus on the psychosocial needs of children, collaborating with parents and other members of the team to:
- Ease a child’s fear and anxiety with therapeutic and recreational play activities
- Encourage understanding and cooperation by providing medical preparation and support for children undergoing tests, surgeries, and other medical procedures
- Advocate for family-centered care
- Engage and energize children and families by coordinating special events, entertainment, and activities
- Consider the needs of siblings or other children who are also affected by a child’s illness or trauma
- Support families confronting grief and bereavement issues
- Provide education and resources for parents and members of the interdisciplinary team
For additional information including Child Life availability, please contact:
Child Life Program
To learn more about Child Life, please see the following links: | <urn:uuid:38d7758a-e0a0-43fb-b224-75bfdda96306> | {
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Many measurements of intense scientific interest must be made close to the surface. Yet measurements from a lander or rover are frequently inadequate because a global understanding requires global coverage. Consequently, a major challenge in all of planetary exploration is the ability to make measurements close to the surface.More »
|Organizations Performing Work||Role||Type||Location|
|Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)||Lead Organization||NASA Center||Greenbelt, MD|
A final report document may be available for this project. If you would like to request it, please contact us. | <urn:uuid:216192e6-ffe4-4a8f-ab82-50ff17a11ba0> | {
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Researchers think they've found a low-cost machine for producing materials that can convert waste heat into electricity: the microwave oven.
A team from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last week published a paper in Nature Materials that describes an improved method for making thermoelectric materials. Members of the team have also created a startup company to commercialize the technology.
Thermoelectric devices are already in use today in portable coolers or to heat car seats, either by making electricity from heat or using electric power for cooling. Many scientists and engineers are trying to improve the efficiency of these devices and to bring down their costs, which would open them more applications such as refrigerators with no moving parts or producing electricity from the heat given off by the exhaust pipes on cars or industrial plants.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic group used a combination of nanostructuring and doping traditional thermoelectric materials with tiny amounts sulfur. Then in the lab, they used an everyday $40 microwave to heat the material, which brings about a desirable structure and properties in a few minutes.
Using microwaves during production is significant because it means the process could be scaled up at low cost using industrial-scale microwave ovens, said Ganpati Ramanath, a professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer and co-author of the paper. "We can make gram quantities in less than a minute so that's very good for industrial scale production," he said.
Ramanath and fellow researchers have applied for a patent for their nanomaterial production method and have form a startup company called ThermoAura to commercialize their academic work.
In addition to government sources, such as the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, IBM also had a hand in funding the research. One of the possible applications is to use thermoelectric devices to draw away heat from computers and convert it to electricity. | <urn:uuid:813999cc-823e-41ab-9c38-dfdaed84212e> | {
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10 tips for gardeners in June
Expert tips from our Horticulture Team to help you in your own garden.
- Now’s the time to plant out courgettes, sweet corn, pumpkins, dwarf, climbing and runner beans. But if the weather is still bringing in cold winds don’t forget to protect all young plants with plastic bottles or fleece until they begin to grow.
- If you fancy a bit of fun, plant up an old boot or painted bucket with herbs or flowers. Drill drainage holes in the bottom first.
- Stay ahead of weeds with a regular hoe. It’s good to dig out the perennials ones, such as dandelions, before they produce more seed.
- Keep watering newly planted plants. Make sure you water directly by the plant’s stem and not the whole of the bare soil, to keep weeds in check.
- On damp, dull days give indoor plants an instant boost with a liquid fertiliser. Once a week should do it. Do the same with flowering and fruiting plants in the garden too, including tomatoes, strawberries and hanging baskets.
- Six weeks after flowering, daffodils can now be cut back. Also dead head early flowering plants if berries/fruits aren’t desired, this helps retain the plant’s vigour and with some plants may encourage more flowering.
- If carrots, beetroot and lettuce seem overcrowded gently pull a few young plants up to allow others to swell. You can eat these baby veg.
- Keep a close eye on fruit and veg plants: look out for pest outbreaks and watch bean and pea pods swell, then start picking!
- Why not take some of your early homegrown produce down to your local Big Lunch?
- Check out the Eden shop’s range of gardening tools. These traditional hoes, trowels and the like are the toughest we’ve found. The blades are hand forged with a tapered edge, so they slice into the soil with tremendous ease and self sharpen as you garden. The hardwood handles are made of FSC European ash, which is oiled and turned on a lathe for a smooth and very comfortable grip.
With thanks to Louisa Evans and Catherine Cutler. | <urn:uuid:08fe4b40-9178-446c-8e36-0119ff7a1766> | {
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The Marshall Islands lie in the southeastern part of Micronesia, about 1,860 miles east of Guam and 2,500 miles west of Hawaii. Comprised of more than 1,200 islands and islets in two parallel chains of coral atolls, the Marshall Islands extend some 800 miles northwest to southeast.
Formerly a district of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Marshalls were administered by the United States on behalf of the United Nations until it became a sovereign country in 1979. It entered into a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1986 and renegotiated a new financial package in 2003 which will be effective until 2023.
Kwajalein Atoll is home to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, a U.S. Army base spread across eight islands of the atoll and under the command of U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll.
As of 2016, the Marshall Islands Office of Commerce & Investment has sought to develop the economy through such projects as reforming investment policies to align with the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, developing the tuna industry and proactive public relations efforts to attract investors. | <urn:uuid:158cada0-b0c6-4e6f-9a57-5dd811606d58> | {
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Knowledge about micronutrient deficiency symptoms in citrus trees is extremely important to growers and pest control advisers in determining if a malady found in the field could be the lack of an important element or the dreaded Huanglongbing disease.
HLB is considered the worst citrus disease in the world.
University of California citrus farm advisor Neil O’Connell of Tulare County says deficiencies of zinc, iron, and manganese can resemble leaf symptoms found in a HLB-infected citrus tree.
“Some deficiencies have fairly similar symptoms,” said O’Connell, a 31-year California citrus industry veteran. “If you are very familiar with the deficiency patterns in these elements then it is much easier to separate this out. You can recognize whether the problem is zinc, iron, manganese, or another deficiency while possibly ruling out HLB.”
Zinc deficiency symptoms in the leaf most closely resemble symptoms from a HLB-infected citrus tree, O’Connell says. Suspected deficiencies of iron and manganese symptoms should be examined closely, but are not as similar to HLB leaf symptoms.
A normal citrus leaf has a uniform green color. An HLB-infected leaf has a blotchy appearance, yellowing of the leaf blade, and a yellowing or clearing (cream color) of the mid rib, the center portion of the leaf.
A zinc deficiency results in a blotchy leaf appearance with irregular-shaped yellow spots (leaf yellowing) scattered across the leaf blade. Leaf yellowing is usually confined between the small veins.
“In an HLB-infected leaf, the distinguishing characteristic is that the yellow area crosses from one interveinal area to another,” O’Connell said as he checked out a citrus orchard in northern Tulare County in mid May.
HLB, also called citrus greening, is a deadly malady which has devastated commercial citrus orchards around the world including in Florida.
A single case of HLB was found in California in March in a backyard pummelo-lemon citrus tree in the Hacienda Heights neighborhood in southeastern Los Angeles County. There are no confirmed HLB cases in California commercial citrus. The first signs of infection typically appear several years after initial tree infection.
The disease has not been found in Arizona.
Commercial citrus is a $2.1 billion industry in California (2010 figure) and a $37 million dollar Arizona crop (2009/2010 crop year).
Iron deficiency in the tree also can resemble HLB symptoms with one key exception. Instead of having a blotchy, mottle appearance, the leaf blade has an overall pale look while the small leaf veins appear as a green-colored, connected network.
As the iron deficiency progresses, the leaf takes on more of an overall yellow appearance. The entire leaf blade turns yellow in advanced stages.
A manganese deficiency can be confused with zinc deficiency. A leaf with reduced manganese has an overall background pale-green color to the leaf blade. The dark-green veins are more pronounced against the pale-green leaf blade.
Every HLB-infected citrus tree eventually dies. The disease disrupts the tree’s phloem tissue; shutting down the tree’s ability to deliver nutrients throughout the tree. Overtime the tree collapses.
HLB-infected fruit can be misshapen and resemble the symptoms of citrus stubborn disease, O’Connell says, with “lopsided” fruit or flattened fruit on the blossom end. With HLB, the fruit eventually develops a sour taste and becomes unmarketable.
O’Connell says many excellent resources are available to growers, PCAs, and others on HLB. The University of California, Davis ANR Publication 8218, “Citrus Bacterial Canker Disease and Huanglongbing (Citrus Greening),” reviews macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies compared to HLB-related symptoms.
The publication is available online by clicking on this link - http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8218.pdf.
The publication also includes photo comparisons; for example photos of a normal citrus leaf side-by-side with an iron-deficient leaf and a HLB-infected leaf. It also includes photos of misshapen and off-colored fruit from a HLB-infected tree.
Publication 8218 is authored by MaryLou Polek of the California Citrus Research Board, Georgios Vidalakis of UC Riverside, and Kris Godfrey of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).
Another good UCD-ANR resource is Publication 8205 available online by clicking on this link - http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8205.pdf. The publication explains the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) insect; the bug which carries the bacteria Bacterium liberibacter to citrus trees to cause an HLB infection.
The authors - Beth Grafton-Cardwell of UC Riverside, Kris Godfrey, and others – cover the insect’s life cycle and the damage from the ACP feeding on citrus trees.
In the spring and early summer, growers and PCAs often find atypical leaf patterns during orchard walkthroughs. O’Connell says this is the perfect opportunity to utilize these and other pest and disease resources.
He encourages those involved in citrus at the field level to carry printed or electronic copies of publications in vehicles as hands-on reference materials.
“I hope growers and PCAs will become very familiar with detailed nutritional deficiency patterns so they can more easily distinguish and identify symptoms in the orchard,” O’Connell said. “Patterns can change over time so a good understanding is critical to discern between an element deficiency and HLB.”
O’Connell recommends that citrus packinghouse field staff also be well versed on these issues since they are in the field daily during the citrus harvest.
“The potential for devastation from HLB in the western citrus industry is very real,” the citrus veteran said.
The industry is conducting a major educational campaign to inform residential and commercial citrus tree owners about the pest, the bacterium, and the disease.
In California, anyone who suspects HLB in a citrus tree should immediately contact the County Ag Commissioner’s Office. Another option is to call the CDFA Pest Hotline at (800) 491-1899.
The phone number for Arizonans is (602) 542-0955. | <urn:uuid:77c27506-ec14-40f1-8045-71ece85c9323> | {
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For other uses, see ukr disambiguation. Evolution of the Ukrainian Literary Language.
Retrieved 8 May Unlike Russian and most other modern Slavic languages, Ukrainian does not have final devoicing. Ukrainian orthography is based on the phonemic principle, with one letter generally corresponding to one phoneme, although there are a number of exceptions.
The spelling reform was finally promulgated by the Provisional Government in the summer of In the cities, Ukrainian coexisted with Church Slavonic — a literary language of religion that evolved from the Old Slavonic — and later Polish and Russian , both languages which were more often used in formal writing and communication during that time. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. The following years were characterized by massive repression and discrimination for the Ukrainophones. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script see Ukrainian alphabet.
This policy was led by Education Commissar Mykola Skrypnyk and was directed to approximate the language to Russian. Unlike Russian and most other modern Slavic languages, Ukrainian does not have final devoicing. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. Yat or jat Ѣ ѣ; italics:
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|Vaughn at 03.07.2018 in 03:20|
Boy, she's going to be surprised when she learns I'm not Dan.
|Rainman at 10.07.2018 in 14:15|
This is one lucky ass dude!
|Bjarian at 18.07.2018 in 23:35| | <urn:uuid:91e164e6-0528-4626-8457-d915659cd0e0> | {
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by The Xerces Society
Insect pollinators are essential to the reproduction of many plants, but the destruction of their natural habitat has endangered many species, particularly butterflies and native bees. This book was created to guide efforts to protect these beneficial insects.
It explains the role of pollinators in the ecosystem and outlines the life cycle and feeding habits of bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and flies and how they are affected by pesticides, disruption of nesting areas and scarcity of food plants. It offers practical advice on how to incorporate pollinator habitats into gardens and other spaces.
Includes a field guide to North American bees with information about 29 species, an illustrated guide to helpful plants, and several sample layouts for pollinator-friendly gardens. An informative and useful guide to pollinator conservation.
Softcover, 7" x 10", 371 pages, 2011. | <urn:uuid:a32df0b1-0a98-4796-8988-5bcfc9ed58db> | {
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Book Description: You have decided to compete in a science fair. You want to do a unique project, but you have no ideas. What do you do? Where do you start?Ed Sobey's How to Build Your Own Prize-Winning Robot guides readers through the most important elements in the field of robotics. Readers will learn how to build a robot using electronics, motors, computers, and a variety of other household materials. By carrying out the projects in the book, young scientists will become familiar with electric motors, motor control, electric voltages, circuit boards, and servos. For those who have created a great robot and want to show it off, there is a list of the national and international robotics contests, as well as hints for unique robotic designs. Also included are clubs and organizations and robotic component suppliers. | <urn:uuid:3521142e-2785-44f3-b663-bcb4ab78791c> | {
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National Home Fire Safety Week
Keep Your Smoke Alarm Firing on All Cylinders
November 24 – 30, 2016
It's the most wonderful time of the year…but it can also be the most dangerous due to home fires.
November 24 — 30, 2015
Put safety on the front-burner
November 24 - 30, 2014
Put out kitchen-fire hazards
November 24 - 30, 2013
Woodstove and wood-burning fireplace safety
November 24 - 30, 2012
Have a Safe, Fire-Free Holiday Season
November 24 - 30, 2011
Are you and your family prepared?
November 24 - 30, 2010
Fire safety tips for the holiday season
November 24 - 30, 2009
Teaching parents about fire safety
November 24 - 30, 2008
High Rise Fire, Smoke and Flames
November 24 - 30, 2007
Canada Safety Council focuses on safety in homes including the necessary awareness and education concerning fire safety. Whether you reside in a high rise apartment building or a separate home, Canada Safety Council will offer information on holiday fire safety issues, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, fire escape plans for your home and other fire safety advice. | <urn:uuid:40ac4520-929a-4016-b10a-1eb637a929db> | {
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Nicole LaPierre ’11 (ED), ’12 MA, works with students in a classroom during her student teaching practice. Pierre is now an elementary teacher at Cider Hill School in Wilton, Conn. (Paul Horton for UConn)
A recent report by UConn education researchers on Connecticut’s new System for Educator Evaluation and Development (SEED) has the potential to impact every public school student in the state.
“Teachers have been identified as the No. 1 school-level influence on students’ achievement,” says Morgaen Donaldson, assistant professor of educational leadership in the Neag School of Education. “That means for students to score high and reach their full potential, teachers need to score high and work to reach their full potential. So for parents, grandparents, and anyone connected with a child, our work evaluating the SEED program is helping ensure students get the high-quality teachers they need to succeed.”
“For students to score high and reach their full potential, teachers need to score high and work to reach their full potential.”
Mandated by the state General Assembly as part of aggressive legislation passed in 2012 to improve the quality of state schools and raise student achievement scores, the study was conducted by Donaldson and six other researchers from the Neag School’s Center for Education Policy Analysis. Among other results, it concludes that with additional administrative support and better-executed implementation, the SEED model has the potential for “even greater gains.”
Although teacher unions have criticized SEED for basing close to half of a teacher’s performance evaluation on their students’ performance, data gathered from the 14 school districts piloting the evaluation system during 2012-13 show that changes in mindset and practice are essential to the kind of teacher growth and improvement SEED was designed to achieve. These changes include:
- Teachers spending more time on self-assessment and goal-setting;
- Teachers more carefully considering how to best meet the individual needs and challenges of current students;
- Principals and other administrators conducting more frequent classroom visits to observe teachers at work.
More than half of participating teachers and administrators rated their post-observation conferences to be “valuable” or “very valuable.” For both groups, however, the time needed to prepare and take part in rigorous observations, develop lesson plans tailored to individual students, and fulfill other SEED requirements was an issue. In addition, the time and funds required for much-needed professional development were cited in the report as an ongoing challenge.
Improvements recommended by Neag researchers include increased opportunities for teachers to learn about SEED; programs to build the skills and abilities of teacher evaluators; help with teacher goals setting; and a system for the state to continue to track and improve the program.
Additional resources needed
“I think it’s clear from our report that most districts will need added resources to carry out SEED, because even in districts with significant resources, teachers and administrators can be spread thin,” says Donaldson. “But the fact that behaviors were changing because of SEED is small but important evidence that shows what SEED can do. It’s going to be hard for educators to perform all that SEED expects without the necessary resources. But if those resources are made available, the impact on K-12 students can be huge. Better teacher performance will mean better student performance.”
While responses to the Neag researchers’ findings from education officials like American Federation of Teachers Connecticut President Melodie Peters have been cautiously neutral, Bridgeport Education Association President Gary Peluchette told the Connecticut Post his concern is that SEED focuses more on “chasing a test score than best practices.”
However, Connecticut Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor told the Hartford Courant that the Neag report gives “added confidence that the system has the potential to improve instruction for our students, and that the state can make implementation even better through continued and improved supports provided to teachers, schools, and districts. The fact that Neag researchers find there is potential for this system to lead to improvement in both teacher practice and student learning is profoundly important.”
Although many school districts are still figuring out how best to implement it, the SEED model went statewide at the start of the 2013-14 school year. Its process calls for teachers to be rated on a four-step scale as “exemplary,” “proficient,” “developing,” or “below standard.” In the pilot districts, 73 percent of teachers met criteria for “proficient” and 23 percent for “exemplary.”
The fact that Connecticut now has consistent, statewide evaluation standards for all public school teachers is one of the model’s biggest pluses, Donaldson says: “Between SEED and the introduction of the Common Core [State Standards], our school systems are going through huge, unprecedented changes. But if carried out well, the result of these ambitious reforms could be young people who are better educated and more skilled, and that really could make a difference in the future of our state, country, and world.” | <urn:uuid:c20be7f3-701b-4f93-9d26-4aafbe930090> | {
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Civil War: The Untold Story
With the 1860 election of anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln, the divisions between North and South reached their breaking point. Thirteen states from the South seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. Union military leaders, along with Lincoln himself, realized that ending the rebellion rested on controlling the Western Theater territory, the area between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. CIVIL WAR: THE UNTOLD STORY examines this well-documented conflict through the lens of the Western Campaign, which dramatically shaped the final outcome of the Civil War. Narrated by Emmy-nominated actress Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey), the five-part series features poignant letters from both soldiers and civilians that provide new insights into the causes of the Civil War, life on the homefront, the politics of war, the issue of slavery, and the relatively unheralded role African Americans played in the conflict. Filmed at the actual battle sites, CIVIL WAR: THE UNTOLD STORY uses hundreds of re-enactors to recreate the epic battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Atlanta. Interviews with scholars and 3D graphics convey the strategy and tactics of the battles while underscoring the relationship between the Western Campaign and the more famous battles waged in the East.
Civil War: The Untold Story Previous Broadcasts
With Malice Toward None (Episode #105H)
KQED World: Sun, Jul 13, 2014 -- 10:00 PM
In the spring of 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman's force of 100-thousand men marches from Chattanooga toward Atlanta, Georgia, the industrial hub of the Deep South. Twenty miles north of Atlanta, Sherman's army is soundly defeated at Kennesaw Mountain. Sherman's defeat combined with Grant's stalemate in Virginia, enrages a Northern electorate already weary of war. The presidential election is in November, and Abraham Lincoln's chances for a second term are dwindling by the day. The Democrats nominate George McClellan. The party's platform calls for a negotiated peace with the Confederacy in which slaveholders will be allowed to keep their property. If McClellan is elected, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation will almost certainly be struck down. Though victorious at Kennesaw Mountain, the outnumbered Confederate Army falls back to a defensive position at Atlanta. After 6 weeks of bloody conflicts around Atlanta, Sherman wires Washington: "Atlanta is ours and fairly won." For the first time in the war, many in the North now believe victory can be achieved. Eight weeks later, the president defeats McClellan in a landslide. After the election, Sherman begins his March to the Sea. The largely unopposed march across Georgia to Savannah is a psychological blow to the Confederacy, and a stunning conclusion to the Western Theater.
- KQED World: Wed, Jul 16, 2014 -- 8:00 AM
- KQED World: Wed, Jul 16, 2014 -- 2:00 AM
- KQED World: Mon, Jul 14, 2014 -- 12:00 PM
- KQED World: Mon, Jul 14, 2014 -- 6:00 AM
Death Knell of the Confederacy (Episode #104H)
KQED World: Sun, Jul 6, 2014 -- 10:00 PM
September 19, 1863. The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga ends in a bloody draw. On the next day, the battle is determined by one of the biggest blunders of the Civil War. Miscommunication, confusion, and fatigue with Union General William Rosecrans and his generals have left a gap in the Union line more than a quarter mile wide. James Longstreet's force of 11,000 from the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, pour through the gap and split the Union army in two. Rosecrans and his beaten army escape to Chattanooga. Chickamauga's combined casualties of 34,000 are only topped by the carnage at Gettysburg. In October, Rosecrans is replaced by U.S. Grant, who immediately plans an offensive. In November 1863, Grant routes the Confederate stronghold just outside Chattanooga. As they escape southward into Georgia, a Confederate officer calls the devastating defeat: "the death knell of the Confederacy."
- KQED World: Wed, Jul 9, 2014 -- 8:00 AM
- KQED World: Wed, Jul 9, 2014 -- 2:00 AM
- KQED World: Mon, Jul 7, 2014 -- 12:00 PM
- KQED World: Mon, Jul 7, 2014 -- 6:00 AM
River of Death (Episode #103H)
KQED World: Wed, Jul 2, 2014 -- 2:00 AM
Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation does not only free slaves in the rebelling states. It changes the war from one of reunification, to one of ending slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation also gives African Americans freedom to fight. By war's end, some 200,000 will enlist. In truth, Lincoln's proclamation is an empty promise without the power of the United States Army to enforce it. In 1863, Ulysses S. Grant begins a campaign to take Vicksburg, Mississippi, a Confederate citadel overlooking a strategic section of the lower Mississippi River. In May, Grant begins laying siege to the city of 4500. Mary Loughborough is one of the many terrified civilians who have dug caves into the hillsides for protection. Clutching her 2-year old daughter, Mary "endeavored by constant prayer to prepare myself for the sudden death I was almost certain awaited me." On July 4, 1863 - the day after Pickett's disastrous charge at Gettysburg - the Confederates surrender Vicksburg to Grant. With the Mississippi River now under Union control, the campaign moves eastward to Chattanooga, Tennessee, a rail center that Lincoln considers to be as important as the Confederate capital of Richmond. Eight miles south, along the Chickamauga - a creek the Cherokee call "the river of death" - Union and Confederate forces clash in what will become the biggest battle of the Western Theater.
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Dr. Masters co-founded wunderground in 1995. He flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990. Co-blogging with him: Bob Henson, @bhensonweather
By: Dr. Jeff Masters , 2:01 PM GMT on July 29, 2009
Late-starting hurricane seasons--ones where the first named storm of the year doesn't occur until August--have happened in eleven of the fifty years between 1960 - 2009 (a 22% occurrence.) Only two of these eleven seasons ended up with more hurricanes than average (seven or greater). The record for the latest starting hurricane season since 1851 was set in 1914, when the only storm of the season formed on September 15. The year 1941 was also late starting, with the season's first storm arriving on September 11. Of course, we didn't have satellites back then, so it's a good bet there were storms earlier in these seasons that got missed. However, there's a good possibility that 1914 really did have only one storm. A re-analysis of the hurricane activity in the decade 1911-1920 (Landsea et al., 2008) found 1.3 missing tropical cyclones per year, thanks to the inclusion of a new database of ship weather reports called COADS. However, 1914 was not one of those years. Various authors have estimated that we missed an average of between one and three tropical cyclones per year during that time period, so it is quite possible 1914 had only one storm.
Figure 1. The hurricane season of 1914 featured only one tropical storm, and was the latest-starting hurricane season on record (September 15).
The latest dates for the first named storm of the season in the recent past, followed by the number of named storms, hurricanes, and intense hurricanes that year are:
2009 (August 15) 9,3,2
2004 (August 1) 15,9,6
2000 (August 4) 15,8,3
1988 (August 7) 12,6,3
1987 (August 9) 7,3,1
1984 (August 18) 13,5,1
1983 (August 15) 4,2,1
1977 (August 30) 6,5,1
1967 (August 30) 8,6,2
1963 (August 2) 9,6,2
1962 (August 22) 5,3,1
We can also add 1992 to the list if we ignore the unnamed subtropical storm that formed in April of that year. That year had the notorious Hurricane Andrew as its first named storm. Andrew formed on August 17 of that year, and was the only major hurricane in a year that had only seven named storms and four hurricanes. For comparison, an average Atlantic hurricane season has 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 intense hurricanes. So, it is a good bet that 2009 will be a below-average season.
Landsea, C. W. , D. A. Glenn, W. Bredemeyer, M. Chenoweth, R. Ellis J. Gamache, L. Hufstetler, C. Mock, R. Perez, R. Prieto, J. Sanchez-Sesma, D. Thomas, and L. Woolcock, 2008, A Reanalysis of the 1911-20 Atlantic Hurricane Database", Journal of Climate, 21, p.2138-2168.
Comments will take a few seconds to appear. | <urn:uuid:2d4ca9d4-10aa-4d5c-96b8-33cf5730873b> | {
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The Jefferson Lab Science Education site, iPad and chromebook friendly, contains resources for the teacher and student, including loads of games and videos, to assist with the physical science classrooms.
Games can include Element Hangman
Or Speed Math Deluxe.
Another video series hosted at Jefferson Lab is Physics Out Loud containing 1-4 minute videos regarding many explanation of common words used in nuclear physics research.
If you are interested in hearing a 40 minute lecture from highly credible scientists, check out archived science lectures from as far back as the early 90's. Many interesting topics to choose from.
Again, a nice collection resources to help students learn and review physical science concepts. | <urn:uuid:fda7f506-a0e5-4f53-80c5-7488ad7ee185> | {
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Hellenist Architecture distinguishes itself from all other forms in history is indicative of Hellenist thought that has survived to modern times. The uninitiated observer might mistake its formal appearance and ample use of straight lines and square angles for a simple austere design. Like most Hellenist art forms, this is a trick of the eye. What can be said about the ancient Hellenes was that they believed in the beauty of things in their natural unadulterated forms. Rather than weigh down their buildings and monuments with gargoyles, and superfluous decoration, these Hellenes went to increedible lengths to ensure that their architecture was, above all else, simply beautiful.
If one looks at a Hellenist temple from 2,500 years ago, it clearly appears to be all straight lines and angles. But once the straight lines are exposed to a ruler, it suddenly becomes clear that there aren’t any straight lines. The reason for this anomoly is that the human eye plays tricks on its owner. Had the Hellenist temples been built with straight lines, they would not have appeared to be straight. The brain, in its attempt to translate what it sees in perspective, actually distorts the straightness of the lines which results in the slightly distorted appearance.
The early Hellenes believed that their temples theaters and stadia, more than their adherance to the principle of straightness, had to be above all else. . . beautiful in their simplicity. They altered the design by utilizing all slightly curved lines and surfaces, so that when the structure was completed, the trick of the eye is fooled and thereby made the lines appear straight. This dedication to beauty can be seen in no other civilization then or since.
In spite of the Hellenist obsession with incorporating beauty into their buildings, they did not ignore the technological requirements. The Hellenes were the originators of Form follows Function. In the case of another important Hellenic structure, the Hellenic Amphitheater, visitors marvel how in an open-air theater, a person sitting on the top row can hear another person on the stage whisper. The acoustics remain unmatched in the modern world. In spite of their dedication to the beauty of the theater, the purpose of the theater was to allow the audience to hear the actors. Otherwize, why bother to have a theater? | <urn:uuid:b46e6658-c9f0-4e0a-93a2-feb6c2048aa8> | {
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Net neutrality. It’s been in the news A LOT lately. But what the heck does it mean and why did it completely inundate your Facebook feed last week?
Well, we’re going to dig in and break it down. And I promise to make it as painless as possible to understand. But be warned: To get both sides of the story, it’s not a short read.
It is, however, an important read, particularly for mommies who blog.
One expert warned All the Moms that bloggers’ abilities to afford their sites and get traffic to their sites could seriously be in jeopardy.
But an opponent to net neutrality thinks the online backlash and hysteria is blown way out of proportion, and he gives his reason as to why you maybe shouldn’t be so concerned.
Either way, one thing is certain: This has been a contentious issue since the late 1990s, and neither side shows signs of giving up the fight any time soon.
Understanding the jargon: what is ‘net neutrality’
Net neutrality refers to the idea that when someone goes online, he or she should have complete, uninhibited access to every website, service and application offered. A net neutrality proponent would say no individual or company, particularly the broadband companies that provide consumers with Internet (Cox, Comcast, AT&T, etc.) should be able to cherry pick which sites load fast or slow (or don’t load at all).
The term was coined in 2003 in a paper on broadband discrimination practices by Tim Wu. At that time, he was an associate professor at the University of Virginia Law School.
So what’s the argument about?
When people debate “net neutrality,” what they’re arguing over is whether they agree or disagree with the federal regulations placed on Internet service providers (ISPs) in 2015.
That year, under Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, the Federal Communication Commission reclassified broadband services as a type II telecommunication service. Previously, it was a type I information service. By reclassifying, the FCC was able to mandate that ISPs could not throttle (slow down) or block certain sites, services, applications, etc.
Last week, the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai repealed those 2015 actions, making broadband once again a title I information service, free of common-carrier regulations.
Why did the FCC have to re-classify broadband? And what is the opposition’s argument?
When the internet was considered a title I information service, the FCC couldn’t legally reprimand an ISP for participating in discriminatory conduct.
This was decided by a federal appeals court in 2014, when the FCC tried to punish Verizon for violating net neutrality rules, and the court struck it down.
The court told the FCC, however, that it agreed those powers should be within the commission’s jurisdiction. It just had to reclassify broadband as a telecommunication service.
Fast forward to 2015 and finally, the FCC was able to swing the votes to reclassify broadband as a type II telecommunication service, which meant it would now face the common-carrier regulations.
But wait — what does common carrier mean?
Most people think of utilities when they first think of common carriers, like water or electricity, but they also encompass certain services like commercial airlines.
The regulations “mean that you as a common carrier have to carry everyone’s traffic regardless of whether you like it or not, as long as it’s legal.” Ryan Singel, former editor for Wired, told All the Moms.
Singel is also the founder of Contextly, an online startup, and a fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. All the Moms spoke to Singel to get his perspective on the possible impact on bloggers.
He said the regulations exist because these services are often “central to people’s lives” and crucial “to exercising key rights.” Also, there typically aren’t alternatives.
Think once again about water, electricity and airfare. How many options do you really have?
So what are those in favor of net neutrality arguing?
Net neutrality advocates, like Singel, are afraid that ISPs will begin:
- Charging websites to run at a fast speed for customers (to boost revenue)
- Throttling websites who choose not to pay for the faster service
- Charging customers for certain services (pay separately for social media, streaming services, news, etc.)
- Blocking objectionable content/ filtering out opinions with which the company disagrees
Singel said people just have to look at what has happened on social-media sites that try to block “objectionable” content.
As an example, you may get photos in a breastfeeding story or post that is taken down and blocked because a filter sees it as objectionable, he said. That could be a threat to mommy blogs.
The concern is that if ISPs begin charging websites to run at comfortable speeds, then those companies will likely eliminate their free service plans and potentially increase the prices of their paid plans.
So if you’re a mommy blogger who uses third-party resources to maintain your site, like WordPress or Mail Chimp for example, then you could potentially face price hikes.
“That means the price of running your blog — as you have been before— could get way more expensive, to the point where people could give up on it,” Singel said.
So what are those against net neutrality arguing?
Opponents to net neutrality see the reclassification and consequential common-carrier regulations as superfluous and harmful to business growth.
Kenneth Engelhart, a former adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, teaching Communications Law, spoke to us and told All the Moms that most cases of ISPs violating net neutrality rules were instances where the ISP was participating in “anti-competitive conduct.”
According to Engelhart, that would mean the Federal Trade Commission would handle such issues going forward. Instances of legitimate net-neutrality violations, he said, practically never happen.
“The FCC and the FTC have entered into a memorandum of understanding to make sure the FTC continues to prohibit anti-competitive conduct and misleading advertising and privacy violations,” he said.
What could ISPs gain/lose?
Regarding business growth, Engelhart said companies don’t particularly like to get involved in areas where the government is beginning regulation “because once regulators get going, they never stop.”
Engelhart also said the fear of ISPs blocking or throttling sites is, essentially, ridiculous. Without sites like Facebook or Netflix, customers would have no reason to go online and would thus cancel their Internet, he argued.
“No one has ever really explained the arithmetic of how they’re (ISPs) going to benefit by degrading their own service, because (proponents are) right, they could make some money from some website, but they’re also going to lose some money as they lose customers.”
To this point, as a rebuttal, Singel said that the business structure of an ISP is one that sometimes prioritizes immediate gain over longterm benefit. For that reason, an ISP might act against its own and its customers’ best interests to boost its bottom line. | <urn:uuid:04395622-331f-4247-8076-9f0927dde175> | {
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RALUSWIELO: FROM DZATA TO DOPENI
The Singo domination of Venda was entrenched during King Thohoyandou’s rule. During his reign, Thohoyandou deployed his son Munzhedzi Mpofu, to Songozwi, and his brother Raluswielo (Tshivhasa Midi ya Vhathu) to Dopeni.
The Singo tradition has it that King Thohoyandou disappeared without a trace in 1770. It was believed that he had gone to Vhukalanga (Zimbabwe), the land of his forefathers. Tshisevhe, Thohoyandou’s brother, was installed as acting king. It was believed that Thohoyandou would come back. It later transpired that Thohoyandou had died. But Tshisevhe refused to step down as acting king, and this led to a conflict between him and Thohoyandou’s son, Munzhedzi Mpofu.
Tshisevhe was defeated in the war of succession and was assassinated by Munzhedzi Mpofu. Tshisevhe’s son, Ravhura, fled to Makonde after his father was assassinated in the war of succession. Munzhedzi Mpofu became the new king of Venda. But Raluswielo (Tshivhase), who was at Dopeni, wanted the kingship. He attempted to return to Dzata to usurp the throne. Raluswielo, just like Tshisevhe, was defeated by Munzhedzi Mpofu.
Munzhedzi Mpofu later relocated from Dzata to Songozwi. This was because Songozwi was strategically situated, as one could see the whole kingdom from the summit. Tshivhase once again mobilized an army and invaded Munzhedzi Mpofu at Songozwi. The battle was fought along the banks of a river that became red with blood. It was consequently known as Khwivhila, which means red. Tshivhase lost the battle. Having been defeated twice, first at Dzata and then at Khwivhila, Tshivhase fled. Munzhedzi Mpofu remained king of Vhavenda.
Phiphidi Waterfalls: Phiphidi village, Ha-Tshivhasa
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Image 1 of 1
A rock in the Atlantic Ocean northwest of Ireland. The island has a population of approximately 160 and its own king. There have been kings on Tory Island since the 5th century. The island's location, its harsh climate and since recently the lack of fish and work has gradually diminished its population. The only hope for the survival of the small population are the children of Tory. If they move out, a very old civilization and its' culture will disappear forever.
- © Chris Maluszynski / Moment / Agence VU
- Image Size
- 3916x2642 / 2.5MB
- Contained in galleries
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In the late 1950s, several game manufacturers introduced versions of an outdoor game for kids where “one player heaves a weighted, foot-long, metal-tipped dart skyward, hoping to land and stick it in the middle of a plastic hoop placed at the feet of his opponent some 20 feet away.”
Several decades later, after more than 6,000 children had been injured, and three killed, by these weapons of destruction — commonly known as lawn darts — it would go down as one of the worst kids toys ever.
A new book features 100 ideas as ill-conceived as these. (Lawn darts, which were also used in a 1980 gang killing in Idaho, were outlawed in the US in 1988.)
Here are a few that will make you feel very smart by comparison:
The toad invasion
In 1935, the Australian sugarcane crop was being decimated by hungry beetles. To save their yield, the sugarcane farmers decided to import “102 toads from Hawaii to scarf up the bothersome beetle population.”
But there was one important thing about beetles, toads and sugarcane plants that the farmers didn’t know — “beetles can scurry safely to the top of a cane plant where the heavy, dinner-plate-sized cane toads can’t reach.”
By failing to take this into account, the farmers created “one of the worst ecological calamities in Australian history.”
The beetles still ate the sugar crops, but the toads — some of which grew to “over 2 feet in length, tip[ped] the scales at more than 6 pounds, and live[d] up to 35 years before croaking” — ate “virtually everything else in sight.”
“With females producing over 50,000 eggs per year, the cane toads soon displace rabbits as the island nation’s biggest pest,” write the authors, “found rummaging in home trash cans, bushels of grocery store produce, restaurant pantries, home cupboards and more. Meanwhile, thanks to their poisonous innards, they cause the death of thousands of birds, snakes, dingoes and crocs that dine on them.”
There are currently more than 200 million cane toads in Australia, a number that appears to only increase by the year. There are no good solutions to the problem in sight, but that doesn’t stop resourceful Australians from trying. “Recently, a $50 per-toad bounty has been posted. And one of the country’s richest men has offered a glass of beer for every bag of dead toads delivered.”
The late 1800s/early 1900s were a boom time for scientific discoveries related to the origins of humankind, including the findings, by the French and the Germans between 1856-1907, of human ancestors Neanderthal Man, Cro-Magnon Man and Heidelberg Man.
As such, British scientists were anxious to make their own claim to greatness in this area, and sought to “uncover the ‘missing link’ on English soil. Britain, they believe, must rightfully lay claim to what Darwin terms ‘the origins of man.’ ”
So there was rejoicing throughout the kingdom in 1912, when amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson discovered what came to be called “Piltdown Man — ancient skull fragments uncovered in an English quarry that appear to be part man, part ape.”
But those in the scientific community had questions. The dig on which Dawson found the fragments had been going on for four years. How did every other archaeologist fail to see them?
Skepticism remained, but overall, “British scientists, in their nationalistic zeal, had been too accepting of Dawson’s shaky assertions.”
His findings were not debunked until the early 1950s. First, “the discovery of Australopithecus africanus point[ed] to Africa as home to the earliest humans,” leaving scientists to “consider Piltdown a strange, disconnected evolutionary side road.”
The end of the road came in 1953, when Time magazine published “evidence that the Piltdown Man fossil is actually constructed of a medieval human skull and the jaw of a 500-year-old orangutan, each stained with chemicals to appear older. Dawson, now deceased, had been a fraud.”
Piltdown Man lost his place in the annals of scientific history, but not before “lead[ing] the world’s archaeologists down a blind alley that set evolutionary science back decades.”
President Lincoln suffered from deep depression. One method doctors used to try to cure him could have led to our country’s downfall.
Lincoln had already suffered two mental breakdowns by the time he ran for president in 1858, and the pressure of the ensuing campaign led him to “regularly contemplate death.”
He sought treatment and was prescribed a pill known as blue mass.
A common treatment for melancholia at the time, the pill consisted of “high doses of mercury,” which doctors believed would “flush the liver and brain of irritants that cause depression.”
They were wrong.
Upon taking the medication, Lincoln sank into an even deeper depression, and began exploding into “uncharacteristic fits of rage.”
“Throughout 1859,” write the authors, “Lincoln suffers violent anger, memory loss and tremors — further symptoms of metal poisoning.”
He continued taking blue mass throughout the campaign, experiencing “intense personal suffering” the entire time.
As the Civil War took hold, the new president, “anxious to try anything to relieve his darkening mental state, decides to stop taking blue mass. And having done so, he’s able to bravely keep the American house undivided through its most divisive era.”
Anything for a vote
In 1902, Louis Mouttet was running for re-election as governor of the city of St. Pierre, Martinique, a city whose local mountain, Mount Pelée, had “begun to rumble and smolder” — since it contained a volcano.
Mouttet was concerned about his re-election chances, especially as the citizenry grew nervous about the volcano and many considered leaving. To prevent that from happening and hopefully secure his victory, Mouttet, insisting there was nothing to worry about, issued an order for all citizens to “ignore the volcano, stay put and vote for me.”
Mouttet even “order[ed] troops to block the roads out of the town, decreeing that the city is the safest place around in the event of an eruption.”
Mouttet was deadly wrong, as the next day, Mount Pelée “explode[ed] in a ball of fire. Within minutes, nearly all of St. Pierre’s 28,000 residents, including Mouttet himself, die[d] instantly.” | <urn:uuid:2a2ea580-3994-418c-828f-0497b03c76e2> | {
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Joseph Smith and early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) conceived of themselves literally as gathered Israel or the chosen and elect of God. This unique self-conception provided the early church with a deep sense of divine purpose and calling. Immediately after organizing the church in 1830, Smith sent out missionaries to spread his divine message and “gather the elect” to the “only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth.” Reaction to the newly formed sect was immediate and varied. On the one hand, hundreds and eventually thousands of new converts began flowing to church-appointed gathering places in Kirtland, Ohio and Independence, Missouri. On the other hand, the church’s “non-elect” neighbors grew increasingly suspicious not only of the church’s many new and strange doctrines, but also of its ever-growing political presence and influence. Consequently, from Mormonism’s earliest days, there was tension between the Latter-day Saint Kingdom of God and its surrounding environment.
This unique combination of divine election and environmental tension created within the church a perspective wherein all successes, persecutions (both real and imagined), and even the mundane happenings of etching out a community on the American frontier, were seen as part of a larger cosmic drama with eternal consequences. Naturally, this led to a palpable “us versus them” attitude which can be seen clearly in both the rhetoric and actions of early Mormons. The eventual expulsion of the Mormons from both Missouri and Illinois only served to reinforce this attitude as the Saints moved west to find isolation, solitude, and an opportunity to establish the Kingdom of God unmolested.
The Saints did exist in relative isolation for a period of about ten years as they settled the Utah territory and expanded into parts of Nevada and Arizona. The early tensions and especially the persecutions suffered in Missouri and Illinois never left their collective memory however, and as Gentiles (non-Mormons) from the United States became increasingly involved in Utah affairs, old tensions began to surface and memories of past injustices became fresh and present in the minds of the Latter-day Saints.
Eventually, these tensions led to what has become known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre; an event wherein 120 unarmed members of a wagon train passing through southern Utah were murdered by a group of zealous Latter-day Saints and local Indians. The Mountain Meadows Massacre cannot be seen as an isolated and singular event. It is inexorably linked to the Latter-day Saint self-conception of election and the cultural impact this conception had on the formation of the early LDS community ethos. This paper will explore the development of this ethos using the Mountain Meadows Massacre both as a point of reference and as a point of culmination. The culture of justified violence which developed during the church’s formative years will be examined as will the impact of Joseph Smith’s use of, and sense of connection with, the patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible in the formation of what Michael Quinn has called Smith’s “theocratic ethics.”
Nothing can morally justify the Mountain Meadows Massacre or the attempts after-the-fact to conceal it. However, the Massacre can be more fully understood in its proper historical and cultural context. Additionally, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the culture which produced it, can serve as a lesson to any who consider themselves called, chosen, or elected by God. A zealous self-conception of chosennes which is untempered by the humility election requires, often leads to violent, immoral, and unjust acts. The Mountain Meadows Massacre is an example of such an act.
Joseph Smith was perhaps most influenced by the Patriarchs of Genesis. Smith’s first prophetic or charismatic act was to translate the Book of Mormon; a history (according to Smith) of some of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent. The Book of Mormon contains a clear evangelical Christian message and is a call for all to repent and accept a very Pauline version of Christ and Christianity. However, Joseph Smith’s later, and arguably most influential, doctrinal innovations came directly as a result of his encounter with the biblical Patriarchs and flow from conceptions of their lineage. In 1830, Joseph Smith received a revelation wherein he was commanded to “translate” the Bible in order to restore truths and concepts which had been lost due to centuries of translation and other errors. The most elaborate and lengthiest of Smith’s modifications occur in the book of Genesis and it likely that during this process of translation, Joseph Smith began to identify with and conceive of himself and the newly formed Church as heirs to the patriarchal covenants.
This conception becomes explicit in the Doctrine & Covenants, a collection of Joseph Smith’s revelations and still today part of the LDS Church’s open canon. In 1832, Smith received a revelation on the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods which states that those who receive this priesthood (worthy male members of the church) “become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and the kingdom, and the elect of God.” (emphasis added) A year prior, Smith had received a revelation instructing him to establish the city of Zion as a gathering place for the Saints at Independence, Missouri. Therefore, Smith sent missionaries and converts to what was then the American frontier to build a city and prepare it for the gathering. Unfortunately, a combination of circumstances led to extreme difficulties for the Saints at Independence. First, many incoming Saints were not shy about proclaiming their chosen status and how God had designated their new city as a holy gathering place. This upset many of their Missouri neighbors. Compounding this was the fact that most immigrants to Zion were non-Southerners and opposed to slavery. Missouri residents feared that this massive influx of Latter-day Saints was a threat not only to their pro-slavery views, but also their political sovereignty as the Saints tended to vote as a block.
Violence soon erupted and many Mormon homes and farms were burned and destroyed by Missouri mobs. At first, the Mormons took a passive stance and attempted to resolve their problems politically. However, in 1833 Joseph Smith received a revelation that justified (although actually discouraged) a violent response from the Saints in Missouri. The Saints were told that “thine enemy is in thine hands; and if thou rewardest him according to his works thou art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified.” In 1834, it was revealed to Smith that “ye are the Children of Israel and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched-out arm.”
This conception of the Saints as Israel acted both as an explanation of the persecutions in Missouri and also as justification for the violent response. Just as ancient Israel has been led to violence to secure their promised land; so also were the Mormons led to fight for their promised land. Violence was met with violence as the Mormons were forced from one settlement to another within Missouri. Eventually, the tension became so severe that Lilburn Boggs, then governor of Missouri, issued an infamous “extermination order” in which he stated that the Mormons “must be exterminated or driven from the state.”
This extermination order led to a massacre at Haun’s Mill where 18 Mormon men, women and children were brutally killed by Missouri troops. This incident became part of the cultural and societal consciousness of the Latter-day Saints and to an extent, remains so even today. To the Saints, those in Missouri who had driven them from their homes and killed their fellow Mormons, were not considered non-elect, but actually anti-elect; a fact which played a significant role in the eventual Massacre at Mountain Meadows.
Eventually, the Mormons were successfully driven from Missouri and found temporary refuge in Illinois. The Mormons were granted a charter by the Illinois legislature to build the city of Nauvoo as a near city-state with its own unique laws and military force. It was during this Nauvoo period that Joseph Smith’s self-conception and connection with the Patriarchs was more fully developed. In 1841, Smith received a revelation wherein God states: “As I said to unto Abraham concerning the kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph: In thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed.” Smith had been practicing plural marriage since as early as 1836 and saw this practice as a restoration of the patriarchal covenant. According to some, Smith received a revelation on plural marriage as early as 1831 but did not write it down until 1842. In this revelation, Smith was told that Abraham was commanded to take Hagar as a wife in order to fulfill the covenant God had made with him. Smith is then instructed: “Go ye, therefore, and do the works of Abraham; enter into my law and ye shall be saved.”
Of course, in order to practice plural marriage, Smith was forced to conceal it. In fact, Smith’s first wife Emma was unaware of his plural marriages until perhaps as late as 1842. Smith publicly denied the practice and forcibly denounced it on several occasions. In this dishonesty, Smith felt justified because he was serving the greater good and doing his part to fulfill a covenant with God. Just as Abraham was justified in lying in order to serve the purposes of God, so also Joseph Smith felt justified in concealing the practice of plural marriage, as well as other controversial doctrines, in order to fulfill his divine obligations.
As the practice of plural marriage was introduced and practiced within Smith’s inner circle, it became more difficult to conceal and caused significant tensions not only with outsiders, but also with some members of the Church who objected to its practice. Eventually, yet indirectly, it was plural marriage which led to the murder of Joseph Smith in 1844. A year later, the Saints were once again violently ejected from their home, Illinois, this time forced to emigrate to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
They key point to remember here is that Joseph Smith, and by extension early Mormonism generally, adopted not only a sense of chosenness and election from the patriarchs of Genesis (particularly Abraham), but also a sense of ethics. Any action is justified if it is done to fulfill the commandments of God. Additionally, the Saints adopted an expectation of vengeance. God had destroyed the enemies of ancient Israel and the Mormons expected Him to do the same to their enemies.
The extreme level of anger and desire for vengeance amongst the Saints during the period cannot be overstated. For over a decade they had been driven from place to place, denied their civil rights, and subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment by their enemies. Granted, not all of this treatment came unprovoked but even the most ardent anti-Mormon today must admit that the treatment of the Saints in Missouri and Illinois was unusually cruel and severe.
Once in Utah however, the Saints were able to establish the “Kingdom of God” in relative peace. Converts to Mormonism from throughout the world constituted a continual stream of immigrants throughout much of the latter half of the 19th century. Eventually, Utah became a territory of the United States and polygamy became officially practiced and known. Once again, the Saints found themselves in tension with “Gentile” outsiders.
Reports of insurrection (both real and perceived, but mostly only perceived) made their way to federal officials in Washington, DC. In 1857, President Buchanan decided to send 2,500 troops to the Utah territory to bring it back under federal control. Brigham Young announced the impending arrival of troops to the Saints on July, 24 1857 – ten years to the day that the original pioneers had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
The period just prior to the deployment of troops is known as the “Mormon Reformation” wherein there was a widespread recommitment to the ideals, culture, and practices of Mormonism. The reformation swept through the territory and many “lukewarm” Saints once again became extremely committed to the Church and the idea that they represented restored Israel. Consequently, there were unusually high levels of religious zeal throughout the Utah territory. This zeal was especially prevalent in southern Utah where many of those who had suffered through the difficulties in both Missouri and Illinois had permanently settled. Once Mormon leaders learned of the impending arrival of troops they began to use extremely strong anti-Gentile rhetoric in order to stir up war fever and prepare the Saints for a possible lengthy conflict. Instructions were sent out to store food and ammunition and to not sell provisions to Gentile wagon trains passing through the territory. George A. Smith, a high-ranking Mormon leader under Brigham Young was sent to the southern Utah settlements to prepare the Saints and deliver anti-Gentile sermons. This rhetoric, combined with the already-present zeal of the southern Saints created a near-frenzy. All throughout the Utah territory, the Saints were determined not to be driven from their homes again and those in the south who had experienced the invasion of troops once before, were especially determined to fend off any attack.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
In August of 1857 a wagon train of immigrants from Arkansas and Missouri known as the Fancher Party began to take the trail through Utah on their way to California. Due to the war preparations in the Utah territory they were unable to purchase many of the provisions they needed and had planned to buy in Salt Lake City. Out of frustration, this train began to lash out at the Saints threatening to take news of the insurrection to California and bring back troops. Additionally, some of the immigrants began to boast that they had participated in the Missouri persecutions (including Haun’s Mill) and some sources indicate that one immigrant claimed to be carrying the gun that killed Joseph Smith. As the train moved through Salt Lake City and on to the southern settlements, some immigrants began to steal provisions that they were unable to buy out of sheer desperation. The Fancher party’s frustration combined with the anger, paranoia and thirst for vengeance by the southern Saints created an environment ripe for violence. In speaking of the actions of some of the southern Saints when they became aware of the Fancer party, its claims and activities; Juanita Brooks explains:
Immediately following the regular church service, a special meeting was called of the Stake High Council. Isaac C. Haight, as the highest in religious authority and the one in command of the military organization in the town, was in charge of this indignation meeting. The local officers wanted the help of the militia to enforce the law, and various members expressed themselves freely as to what should be done with regard to the emigrant company. Some felt that the travelers should not be allowed to get away with such defiance.
A resolution was presented and passed to the effect that “we will deal with this situation now, so that our hands will be free to meet the army when it comes.” After it was passed, Laban Morrill and others began to ask questions. What, specifically, did the brethren mean by dealing with the situation now? Arrest and punish the offenders? Some felt that this would do no good; it would only mean men to guard them and food to feed them, and no one any better off.
So, it was suggested that they be “done away with.” Ever since the days of Missouri and Nauvoo, ever since the martyrdom of their prophet, the Saints had been taught that they should never cease to importune the Lord to avenge the blood of the prophets. Now, here were the men who had boasted openly and defiantly that they had helped to kill Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. One had displayed the pistol which fired the fatal shot. All had laughed to scorn the attempts of the local officers to arrest them. Should they forget the oaths of vengeance which they had taken and sit back weakly while such as these taunted them? (emphasis added)
Entire books have been written in an attempt to explain the events of September 11, 1857. For sake of brevity, I will offer only the essential details. A group of Indians and zealous Mormons led by Issac Haight and John D. Lee (both leaders of the Church in southern Utah) attacked the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows on or about September 7th. Apparently, the Fancher party was better-armed than had been expected and withstood the initial assault. The fighting went on for several days but on September 11, a group of Mormon men approached the party under the pretense of peace offering to escort the group safely to the next settlement on the condition that the immigrants disarm and walk away protected by the company of Mormons. The Fancher party agreed to the request and was marched about one-half mile from their wagons when a signal was given by Mormon leaders and all members of the immigrant party, with the exception of those children who were not yet old enough to speak, were summarily shot and killed.
In the minds of those Mormon leaders who had planned and executed this massacre, this mass execution was God’s justice for the atrocities suffered in Missouri and Illinois. These men viewed themselves as God’s new Israel and felt justified in being the instrument of God’s vengeance against the anti-elect. In the minds of these men, the Fancher party (and possibly by extension, the entire Gentile United States) had committed offenses not just against the Mormon people, but against God.
Armed with the self-conception as God’s new Israel, these southern Mormons likely felt justified in their actions for two reasons. First, in the revelation given to Joseph Smith regarding committing violence against their enemies, the Lord specifies that such vengeance and violence is justified through four generations. In other words, the sins of the father’s could be paid for by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. As mentioned above, the anger from their mistreatment and especially the murder of their prophet Joseph Smith, had never subsided and in can be argued that some Saints were looking for an opportunity to strike back at those who had harmed them. The Fancher party was perceived as such an opportunity.
The idea of inflicting divine punishment on those who may not have directly participated in an offense can be found in the Hebrew Bible and did, at least partially, inform the theological ethics of the southern Mormons who murdered the Fancher party. Perhaps the most poignant example is that of how ancient Israel was commanded to deal with the Amalekites. In 1 Samuel 15:2-3 we read: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did in opposing the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child, and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
There are several key points to draw out here. First, the Amalekites at this time are apparently guilty for an offense committed against Israel by their ancestors (Exodus 17). Second, the command includes a directive to destroy absolutely and without mercy. Such a directive is indicative of a holy war wherein the victims are offered as a type of sacrifice to the Lord and was common not just in Israel, but throughout the ancient Near East. John Collins indicates that in such a war “the enemy is deemed worthy of being offered to God” and that “rather than respect for human life, the practice bespeaks a totalistic attitude, which is common in armies and warfare, wherein the individual is completely subordinate to the interests of the group.” Collins admits however that “all of this helps put the practice in context in the ancient world but increases rather than lessens its problematic nature from an ethical point of view.”
Part of the problem here is that these zealous Mormons were reading and being inspired by ancient texts in a modern context and likely did not appreciate the overstatement common in the Hebrew Bible in reference to Israel’s conquests in Canaan and elsewhere. Collins observes that “the biblical texts are not historically reliable accounts of early Israelite history but ideological fictions from a much later time.” Narratives, especially those of the occupation of Canaan, often initially overstate success or conquest only to later acknowledge that conquest and success may not have been absolute. In the case of the Amalekites, Saul spares king Agag and is punished for doing so (1 Samuel 15:10). Additionally, it is apparent that Saul was not successful in completing the destruction of the Amalekites as David is forced to deal with them later on in the narrative (1 Samuel 27:8, 30:1-31, 2 Samuel 8:12). The narratives found in much of the Hebrew Bible are idealized history with the express intent of illustrating Israel’s election in a larger drama. I would argue that they are not intended as morality tales or offered as stories of behavior to emulate. Rather, they illustrate the self-perception of a particular people at a particular time and place.
An important consideration here is that of marginalization. As the Utah Saints became more marginalized by the culture and policies of the United States, their rhetoric became increasingly violent as did their actions. The “us vs. them” attitude became more pronounced and it became much easier for the southern Mormons to see the Fancher party purely as “the other.” I would contend that during the time in which these biblical texts were formed (DH and the redaction of the Torah), Israel found itself in a similar situation – marginalized, threatened, and vulnerable. Of course, the biblical historians were writing idealized history in part, as an expression of their marginalization. Unfortunately, these zealous southern Saints acted out of a misreading of mythic history written more as an aid in comfort, than instruction.
Reading these texts in isolation is also problematic. Yes, Israel is commanded to mete out the complete and unmerciful destruction of certain peoples (although the actual historical likelihood of this haveing actually occurred is virtually zero). However, the covenant made with Abraham indicates a type of priestly role for the people of Israel. According to Joel Kaminsky: “Abram’s family will be a conduit through which blessing will pass to the other nations of the world” and that “at least one part of Abraham’s and his descendant’s duty is to call God to account if he is acting unjustly.” Further, Kaminsky argues that “God conceives of Israel as a priestly people, a concept that entails her functioning as a mediator of the divine to the world as a whole.” Therefore, to read Israel’s election solely as justification for divine violent acts is to ignore an entire aspect of her calling. Israel’s priestly or pastoral role is emphasized throughout much of the prophetic literature. Kaminsky rightly argues that concepts of election are not inherently faulty, but rather, that some portions of election theology are problematic, worthy of critique, and can produce bad results when misapplied.
Coming Full Circle
Not surprisingly, those involved in the Mountain Meadows Massacre immediately regretted their actions and worked to distance themselves from the atrocity they had committed. There has been much debate as to whether Brigham Young ordered the Fancher party to be destroyed. I believe such an order is highly unlikely because above all and despite all of his extreme rhetoric, Brigham Young was a pragmatist who would have realized the extremely negative consequences such a massacre would produce for Utah and the Church. However, Young did work to minimize the Church’s exposure (again, acting very much as a pragmatist) and eventually the entire event was blamed on John D. Lee. Lee was excommunicated from the Church and executed by federal authorities for his involvement. Most historians recognize that Lee served the role of scapegoat. It would be an overstatement to say that the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred entirely because these zealous southern Saints conceived of themselves as elect and thus justified their violence. However, this self-conception of election undoubtedly played a role, not only in this horrific incident, but also in the general development of the Latter-day Saint community throughout the 19th century.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre in many ways can be seen as the culmination of tension between the Mormon Church and the world at-large. Certainly tensions continued to mount throughout the 19th century up until the institutional abandonment of polygamy. However, no other singular incident in the history of conflict between the Saints and the Gentiles can be said to be as violent or pregnant with the ideas of election and chosenness as can the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Interestingly, Mormonism began with a conception of election which involved a pastoral or missionary calling to the wider world. The early church saw itself as an “ensign to the nations” (Isa 5:26) meant to herald the coming of Christ and the ushering in of a new age. However, as the church became more and more marginalized and experienced increased persecution and violence, it developed a more stark “us versus them” attitude which pitted the elect against the anti-elect who refused to acknowledge Israel’s God. It was during this period when Mormonism felt most justified to defy authority and define its chosen and elect role in more apocalyptic terms. Mormonism felt invincible against the non-chosen who were fighting against the establishment of their new Zion. However, as time passed and congress continued to pass increasingly stifling anti-polygamy legislation, the Church was forced to succumb to federal pressure and eventually abandoned polygamy in 1890, although the practice proved extremely difficult to eliminate and has itself produced several violent and fundamentalist offshoots of mainline Mormonism.
Following the end of polygamy however, the Church has continued to assimilate into western culture and in most cases is considered a beacon of democratic ideals and values. Additionally, the Church has returned to its original conception of election wherein it sees itself as a minister to the wider world, rather than as an enemy to it. In modern times, the Church has striven to maintain what sociologists might call an “optimal” level of tension between itself and the wider-world, however in general the LDS Church has moved towards being more inclusive than exclusive; more “we” than “us.” In September of 2007, the LDS Church offered an official apology for the events at Mountain Meadows and has employed one of its own quasi-official historians in writing an accurate and full account of this event.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre is an example of a conception of divine election gone awry. It is also an example of the results of marginalization. The massacre can be understood but not justified; and while some level of sympathy can be maintained (or at least understood) for both victims and perpetrators, the actions of those southern Utah Saints who perpetrated this atrocity must be unequivocally condemned. The modern LDS Church has, through a long process of self-evaluation and societal assimilation, come to a point where come to a place where it can recognize the its own past missteps and offer a full accounting of its own role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. While it cannot be reasonably argued that the Church, as an institution, authorized and perpetrated the events of September 11, 1857, it must be recognized that the culture of divine election present within the Church at that time contributed to the violent acts of that infamous day.
While the modern LDS Church still maintains a theological position as the chosen and elect of God, it has chosen to engage the wider world with a sense of pastoral mission, rather than stark division between the elect and non-elect. It seems that modern Mormonism has learned from Mountain Meadows and now seeks to mediate between the divine will and the world at-large.
Birch, Bruce C. “The First and Second Books of Samuel.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, edited by Leander E. Keck, 947-1383. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998.
Brooks, Juanita. The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.
Bushman, Richard L. Rough Stone Rolling, a Cultural Biography of Joseph Smith. New York: Alfred Knopf Press, 2005.
Collins, John J. Does the Bible Justify Violence? Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.
Kaminsky, Joel S. Yet I Loved Jacob. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007.
Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Aukland: Doubleday, 2003.
Mauss, Armand L. All Abraham’s Children, Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
———. The Angel and the Beehive, the Mormon Struggle with Assimilation. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
———. “The Fading of the Pharoah’s Curse: The Decline and Fall of the Priesthood’s Ban against Blacks.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14, no. 3 (1981).
Quinn, D. Michael. “Lds Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18, no. 1 (1985): 9-105.
———. The Mormon Hierarchy Origins of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books and Smith Research Associates, 1994.
Mormons often refer to themselves as Saints. Not in an effort to appear holy or divine but rather to self-identify themselves as members of Christ’s church.
D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy Origins of Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books and Smith Research Associates, 1994).
It is important to note that Smith did not produce a translation in the traditional sense by examining source documents and manuscripts. Rather, Smith reviewed the King James Version of the Bible and inserted or revised text based on a personal revelation. Thus, Smith’s translation of the Bible is often referred to as the “Inspired Version.” Few Latter-day Saints today would maintain that the Inspired Version represents an authentic re-creation of the original text. Rather, the Inspired Version reflects what Smith felt the text should have said. The Inspired Version is functionally used as a reference for the official canon which includes the King James Version.
Armand L. Mauss, “The Fading of the Pharoah’s Curse: The Decline and Fall of the Priesthood’s Ban against Blacks,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14, no. 3 (1981).
Richard L. Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, a Cultural Biography of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred Knopf Press, 2005), 365-66.
This is a term actually coined by Joel Kaminsky see: Joel S. Kaminsky, Yet I Loved Jacob (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007).
There are several examples of Abraham being dishonest in his pursuit of doing the divine will. For example, Abraham’s dealings with Isaac and his servants (Gen 22:5); and identifying Sarai as his sister (Gen 12) are both examples of this type of behavior.
This violent period produced a vengeance-oriented group known as the Danites who were responsible for the murder of many in Missouri. A member of this secretive organization, Porter Rockwell, even attempted to assassinate Governor Boggs. Whether Joseph Smith had direct knowledge of the Danites activities is unclear. However, the activities of the Danites are an example of the theological ethics adopted by the most zealous Mormons due to the persecution in Missouri and Illinois.
Interestingly, a cursory overview of the use of the word “Gentile” in the early Church illustrates an evolution from being a relative positive term to having extremely negative connotations in the Utah years. The Utah period represents the peak of an “us vs. them” attitude within the Church. In the modern Church, the term “Gentile” and all other racialist terms have fallen out of favor. See: Armand L. Mauss, All Abraham’s Children, Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage (Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 31-36.
It is extremely unlikely that this company included direct participants in the atrocities of Missouri and Illinois. These statements and boastings were likely made to irritate and agitate the Saints. Unfortunately, the members of the Fancher party did not realize how deep emotions ran in the Utah territory and how dangerous their situation was.
Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), 53.
The first and perhaps best of these is Ibid.
Mormons believe that Indians are the direct descendants of Joseph (as described in the Book of Mormon) and thus, are literally part of the house of Israel. Thus, they did not view Indians as outsiders and commonly formed alliances with Utah tribes.
Other examples may include Israel’s conflict with the Midianites and the general anti-Canaanite polemic found in Joshua. See: Kaminsky, Yet I Loved Jacob, 112-13.
Bruce C. Birch, “The First and Second Books of Samuel,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Leander E. Keck (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 1087.
John J. Collins, Does the Bible Justify Violence? (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004), 7.
Ibid., 14.
Kaminsky, Yet I Loved Jacob, 83.
Ibid., 84.
See : Ibid., 137-58.
Parallels can be seen in Isaiah comparing the text concerning the non-elect found in chapters 40-55 (second Isaiah) with that found in chapter 65 (third Isaiah).
D. Michael Quinn, “Lds Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18, no. 1 (1985).
Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Aukland: Doubleday, 2003).
Armand L. Mauss, The Angel and the Beehive, the Mormon Struggle with Assimilation (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
Of course, the Church maintains very conservative political positions as part of what Mauss would call a “retrenchment motif.” This conservatism does create significant tension between itself and more liberal segments of society. | <urn:uuid:8e2c5a02-a900-4a4e-881f-6d01163108b7> | {
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North American Martyrs
The French Jesuit priests St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), St. John de Brebeuf (1593-1649), and their companions St. John de Lalande, St. René Goupil, St. Anthony Daniel, St. Charles Garnier, St. Gabriel Lalemant, and St. Noel Chabanel were among the first missionaries to the North American Indians, and were the first martyrs of North America.
Isaac Jogues was born in Orleans, France, in 1607. He became a Jesuit in 1624, and in 1636 he traveled to Quebec with a group of missionaries, under the leadership of John de Brebeuf. The priests converted some of the Hurons, but in 1642 Isaac Jogues and several other missionaries, along with some of their Huron converts, were captured by an Iroquois war party. The Jesuits were tortured for 13 months, and the Huron Christians were murdered.
Isaac Jogues finally escaped and returned to France, where he was welcomed as a hero. He was allowed by Pope Urban VII the very exceptional privilege of celebrating Mass, even though the mutilated condition of his tortured hands made this impossible according to canonical norms. This was the first time such a concession had been granted. The Holy Father stated, “It would be unfitting to refuse permission to drink the blood of Jesus Christ to one who has testified to Christ with his blood.”
Isaac was invited by the Jesuits to stay in his homeland to teach, but he desired the conversion of pagans, so he returned to North America to continue his missionary work in the New World. In 1646 the Mohawks captured Isaac Jogues and John de Lalande; they were tomahawked and beheaded on October 18 in the area that later became upstate New York.
John de Brebeuf made two missionary journeys to the Hurons despite many difficulties, such as when the Huron medicine men blamed the Jesuits for an epidemic of smallpox. John composed catechisms and a dictionary of the Huron language, and eventually his efforts bore fruit: 7000 of the Hurons were converted. In 1649 he and St. Gabriel Lalemant were captured by the Iroquois, and tortured for several hours before dying.
Other Saints We Remember Today
St. Peter of Alcantara (1562), Priest, Religious | <urn:uuid:e97ac708-3b6a-43eb-90d9-8aca36f2897a> | {
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Jason Aramburu started working on biochar as a research scientist in 2005, through Princeton's Climate Mitigation Initiative and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and in 2008 formed re:char. His initial intention was to develop fast and slow pyrolysis systems for farms in the US, however after he connected with an organization in Western Kenya, Aramburu saw a real need for biochar and a great potential for rapid scale-up. Re:char now focuses its work to empower subsistence farmers in the developing world to enhance their crop yields and supplement their income through biochar production and use (which can also improve soils and sequester carbon). The organization has raised over $370,000 to date to support this work. Specific funders include the Hitachi Foundation, Echoing Green, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, and DOEN Foundation.
With small farmers in Western Kenya spending more than half of their annual income on fertilizers, they are interested in new means to improve their soils. Not only are the fertilizers detrimental to the environment and to household economics, but the ammonia in these fertilizers can lead to acidification and thinning of agricultural soils over time. To reach out to local farmers, re:char is partnering with Salim Mayeki Shaban and his organization ACON, a farmer’s association in Western Kenya, located in the Bungoma area. ACON had been experimenting with biochar additions to farmland with positive results, but was looking for a way to produce sizable amounts of biochar on site using crop waste (mainly sugarcane). They were also interested in an affordable kiln which farmers could purchase to produce their own supply of biochar for their fields.
The proposed answer to an affordable, but scalable unit, is re:char’s Climate Kiln—a small pyrolysis system capable of generating biochar or fuel charcoal. The team has designed and is deploying this unit which can produce 3 – 5 tons of biochar annually. Says Aramburu, “In Kenya, our farmers have taken to calling our device a Rutuba Kiln. Rutuba means 'soil fertility' in Kiswahili (the national language of Kenya).” The kiln is placed in a shallow pit with an adjustable primary air inlet made from wet mud. This design allows users to have an adjustable size air inlet at virtually zero cost to give the user a high degree of control over reaction rate and temperature. Using mud for this inlet also dramatically reduces manufacturing costs. Together, ACON and re:char have been able to reach over 750 farmers in 30 villages in Kenya’s Western District. Their project work was profiled by the BBC in June 2011.
However, even with reduced manufacturing costs, the Rutuba kiln’s material cost of $20 – 25 is still an affordability challenge for many smallholder farmers to who live on $1-2/day. The financial difficulty is even higher during the growing season when money is very tight. To increase affordability and payment options, re:char is exploring alternative financing techniques like micro credit and layaway to help farmers pay for the equipment and even out the annual sales cycle. The team is also starting to leverage m-pesa, Kenya's highly successful mobile money platform, to take payments via SMS. Mobile payments work just like a debit card for people without a bank account, and help to minimize fraud and loss.
Setting up Onsite Manufacturing Plants
In rural Kenya, delivery of finished goods is costly and challenging due to a lack of transportation infrastructure. Global shipping is also a huge source of carbon emissions. To counter some of these issues and have a larger onsite presence, re:char completes a significant portion of their manufacturing and assembly onsite, using digital fabrication techniques. This allows them to manufacture the kilns using locally-available materials, at a cost lower than outsourced manufacture, while providing skilled jobs to the region. An additional benefit is the ability to quickly make design changes based on feedback from the local population.
To further the idea of a mobile workshop, in September 2011 re:char will send a 20 foot shipping container from Austin TX, United States to Bungoma, Western Kenya. This container will not only ship production materials but once arriving onsite, will serve as a full facility—a metal workshop complete with lighting, ventilation, electrical wiring, and a CNC plasma table for full production work. Re:char’s idea is to create a completely modular, replicable, portable workshop, send it to their base in rural Western Kenya, and begin testing production of the Rutuba kiln along with various iterations as suggested by customers. To reduce “engineering at a distance”, re:char is bringing production directly to customers, and expects to have the production flexibility to fill local needs.
Looking forward, re:char is hoping to send additional mobile workshops to Tanzania and Eastern Kenya within the next three months. From there, they will explore opportunities overseas in Haiti and India, believing that the workshops will allow them to locally design and fabricate a variety of tools to improve farmers' lives—beyond the initial Rutuba Kiln—that are well-suited to local needs.
For more information on re:char, please see: http://www.re-char.com | <urn:uuid:00a5b60f-412f-441d-ae0d-d722f16aeaec> | {
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When the monstrous tsunami of March 2011 struck the northeast coast of Japan, the retreating waves pulled many pieces of civilization and many lives out to sea. The Japanese government estimated that 5 million tons of debris was swept up by the event, with about 70 percent sinking to the sea floor and 1.5 million tons left floating. More than a year later, the debris from that tragedy is still drifting on the Pacific Ocean, though no one can say for sure how much and where.
The map below shows the output of the Surface Currents from Diagnostic (SCUD) model, an attempt to simulate where and how that debris would disperse. Orange and red shaded areas represent parcels of water with a high probably of containing floating debris. The deeper the red color, the higher the likely concentration. The debris field stretches roughly 5,000 kilometers by 2,000 kilometers across the North Pacific.
The model begins with more than 678,000 “tracers” being released from various points along the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. The initial distribution is based on the density of population and development. The still image above shows the predicted distribution of debris by April 3, 2012.
The SCUD model was developed by Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner of the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) at the University of Hawaii. Using real satellite data on sea surface height and on ocean surface winds—as well as information from scientific drifting buoy networks—the IPRC team makes daily maps of surface currents. Hafner and Maximenko have also collected reports of debris sightings in the ocean, which have so far validated what the model tells them.
Debris was initially carried by the potent Kuroshio Current, which whips past eastern Japan much like the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic. The Kuroshio carries surface waters northeast, before eventually turning east in the Kuroshio Extension and then the North Pacific Current. Some debris should reach the west coast of North America within a year or two, while much of it is likely to end up in the floating debris field in the middle of the North Pacific Gyre that is referred to as “the garbage patch.”
As of April 3, 2012, there had been very few reports of debris at Midway Island and Kure Atoll. North winds have been minimal in recent months, and ocean currents have favored keeping the debris from the island. But those currents may be shifting, Hafner noted, and debris should eventually wash up with greater frequency.
Observers in Canada recently detected an abandoned 150-foot Japanese fishing vessel floating offshore of British Columbia. Other reports of debris in Washington and Hawaii came in months ago. But in most cases, the objects were larger and standing above the water line, where they could be pushed like sails at higher speeds. The model shown above tracks objects sitting at or just below the water line.
Text , pictures and video : courtesy Nasa Earth Observatory | <urn:uuid:79b404de-cc67-49f0-a771-2cd203535aab> | {
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When traveling to the Columbia River Gorge stay at The Dalles Inn in the historic downtown district of The Dalles.
Cities: The Dalles
On October 29, 1792, WR Broughton and his men of the Vancouver Expedition discovered and named Mt. Hood, in honor of Lord Hood of British Admiralty. The Lewis and Clark Expedition paved the way and named the glacial stream now known as the Hood River. Followed by Lewis and Clark were trappers, fur traders, and pioneer settlers.
Driving through the Columbia River Gorge it hits you that over the course of thousands of years, the landscape was carved from the earth creating the majestic beauty. | <urn:uuid:018768c1-9594-4563-ac39-ccc9d238389e> | {
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While driving in a major city, you are likely to encounter traffic jams, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and large numbers of pedestrians and bicyclists. The following are safe driving tips to help smooth the way and reduce your risk of an accident.
Avoid Driving During Rush Hour
Peak rush hour traffic typically occurs from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Stay off city streets during these times whenever possible. Driving during rush hour can significantly increase the time it takes you to get from one place to another, and it can also increase your risk of a crash.
Be Alert for Crosswalks
High numbers of crosswalks are common in large metropolitan areas, particularly in city centers. Remember that pedestrians in a crosswalk have the right-of-way, so you will need to remain alert to avoid a pedestrian accident.
Stay in the Right Lane
Typically, the left lane is the fast lane, and slower traffic keeps right. Going with the flow of traffic, you will be traveling at a lower speed if you remain in the right lane with the slower, more cautious drivers.
Maintain a Safe Distance from Bicyclists
Bicycles are popular in larger cities, as they save the user from having to navigate a car in heavy traffic. Although cyclists are subject to the same traffic laws as drivers, many fail to obey them. Keep an eye out for bicyclists and maintain a safe distance. Never steer your vehicle into bicycle lanes on the far right.
Watch Out for Parallel-Parked Vehicles
Many metropolitan streets have parallel parking on both sides. Take extra care to avoid vehicles in the process of being parked, as well as people entering and exiting parked vehicles.
Wait for Pedestrians at Traffic Lights
When you are stopped at a red light, be aware that pedestrians with the walk signal will be crossing the street in front of your vehicle. Some pedestrians may be slow getting across the street. Others may cross when they do not have the walk signal. Always look carefully both ways for pedestrians before proceeding after the light has turned green.
Be Prepared for Taxis
Most larger cities have numerous taxis that are notorious for creating obstacles in traffic. Taxi drivers often make sudden swerves to the curb in response to people hailing cabs. Keep your distance from taxis and watch out for passengers exiting or entering cabs parked on the side of the road.
Try to Remain Calm
It can be extremely stressful to drive in a crowded, major city, particularly for people who are not accustomed to it. Allow plenty of time for your trip, get help navigating from a passenger, and take a deep breath in stressful traffic situations.
Make Sure Your Auto Insurance Coverage Is Adequate
Driving in heavy traffic in a large metropolitan area increases your risk of an accident. No matter how safely and diligently you drive, you may be involved in a collision caused by someone else. Our knowledgeable agents will be happy to review your auto insurance policy to help ensure you have the coverage you need at the best available rates. | <urn:uuid:35525e4d-9079-4e2f-93b5-989b803dd66c> | {
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Active recess is programming designed to increase physical activity levels, as well as decrease behavior problems and injuries on the playground. It is intentional about what happens on the playground and takes steps to ensure that all students have an opportunity for fun, safe and active play at recess.
Key elements of a quality recess program:
• Provide at least 20 minutes of recess every day for all students, preferably before lunch and outdoors.
• Teach positive playground expectations.
• Create universal participation by offering multiple activities at recess.
• Map the playground to designate different areas of play.
• Provide equipment to increase participation and to decrease congestion on play structures.
• Provide adequate staff training for recess.
Professional development and technical assistance about the Active Schools Minnesota Initiative are available. Contact Mary Thissen-Milder, Active Schools Coordinator, Minnesota Department of Education, 651-582-8505 or Terri Swartout, Statewide Health Improvement Program Schools Coordinator, Minnesota Department of Education, 651-582-8377.
Active Recess Resources | <urn:uuid:01ac7ffb-333b-4e4e-9925-4209344d874a> | {
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Acetic acid and hydrocortisone (otic)
Medically reviewed on June 5, 2017.
What is acetic acid and hydrocortisone otic?
Acetic acid is an antibiotic that treats infections caused by bacteria or fungus.
Hydrocortisone is a steroid. It reduces the actions of chemicals in the body that cause inflammation.
Acetic acid and hydrocortisone otic (for the ear) is a combination medicine used to treat infections in the ear canal, and to relieve the symptoms of redness, itching, or swelling. This medicine will not treat an inner ear infection (also called otitis media).
Acetic acid and hydrocortisone may also be used for purposes not listed in this medication guide.
You should not use acetic acid and hydrocortisone if you have a hole in your ear drum (ruptured ear drum).
Before taking this medicine
You should not use acetic acid and hydrocortisone if you are allergic to it, or if you have a hole in your ear drum (ruptured ear drum).
To make sure this medicine is safe for you, tell your doctor if you have:
severe ear pain;
hearing problems; or
Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or breast-feeding a baby.
Acetic acid and hydrocortisone should not be used on a child younger than 3 years old.
How should I use acetic acid and hydrocortisone otic?
Follow all directions on your prescription label. Do not use this medicine in larger or smaller amounts or for longer than recommended.
For best results, remove any ear wax or other debris before using this medicine. Ask your doctor about safe methods of ear wax removal.
To use the ear drops:
Soak a small piece of cotton with several drops of this medicine and then insert it into your ear. Or you may insert the cotton into your ear first and then drop in enough medicine to soak the cotton inside the ear canal.
Leave the cotton in your ear for at least 24 hours, and keep it moist by adding 3 to 5 drops of the medicine to the cotton every 4 to 6 hours.
After removing the cotton, you may then place the drops directly into your ear 3 or 4 times daily. Use only the number of drops your doctor has prescribed.
Follow your doctor's instructions about how long to keep using acetic acid and hydrocortisone ear drops.
Do not touch the dropper tip or place it directly in your ear. It may become contaminated. Wipe the tip with a clean tissue but do not wash with water or soap.
Store at room temperature away from moisture and heat. Keep the bottle tightly closed when not in use.
What happens if I miss a dose?
Use the missed dose as soon as you remember. Skip the missed dose if it is almost time for your next scheduled dose. Do not use extra medicine to make up the missed dose.
What happens if I overdose?
An overdose of this medicine is not expected to be dangerous. Seek emergency medical attention or call the Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222 if anyone has accidentally swallowed the medication.
What should I avoid while using acetic acid and hydrocortisone otic?
This medicine is for use only in the ears. Avoid getting the medicine in your eyes, mouth, and nose, or on your lips. Rinse with water if this medicine gets in or on these areas.
Do not use other ear medications unless your doctor tells you to.
Acetic acid and hydrocortisone otic side effects
Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficult breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
Stop using this medicine and call your doctor at once if you have severe burning or other irritation after using the ear drops.
Common side effects may include mild stinging or burning with the first use.
This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.
See also: Side effects (in more detail)
What other drugs will affect acetic acid and hydrocortisone otic?
It is not likely that other drugs you take orally or inject will have an effect on acetic acid and hydrocortisone used in the ears. But many drugs can interact with each other. Tell each of your healthcare providers about all medicines you use, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products.
Remember, keep this and all other medicines out of the reach of children, never share your medicines with others, and use this medication only for the indication prescribed.
Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances.
Copyright 1996-2018 Cerner Multum, Inc. Version: 2.01.
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- Hydrocortisone and acetic acid Otic (Advanced Reading) | <urn:uuid:755c3123-f926-4c1d-9d7d-32983440b76c> | {
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Hylas-1 advances European telecom technology
Hylas-1, the first satellite created specifically to deliver broadband access to European consumers, is very much a commercial undertaking. Launching this Friday, 26 November, it is also a significant technological achievement, encapsulating a decade of research and development by ESA and European industry.
With a launch mass of a little over 2.5 tonnes, and based on an Indian platform, Hylas-1 is on the small side as telecom satellites go, but the new technologies it carries enable it to pipe the Internet through the sky to hundreds of thousands of paying customers across Europe.
This first ‘Highly Adaptable Satellite’ is ESA’s first public–private partnership to result in an operational mission: UK operator Avanti Communications has put up the majority of the budget, with ESA’s contribution focused on Hylas-1’s advanced communications payload. Avanti gains a more capable satellite while Europe’s advanced technologies reach orbit much more rapidly than would otherwise be the case.
Telecom R&D has always been a priority for ESA, acting through its Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. When it comes to space, this is where the money is – the telecom sector is by far the most commercially mature. It is no exaggeration to say that Europe’s continued success within this market forms the economic underpinning for the rest of its space endeavours.
Telecom also offers pronounced social benefits, with satellites proving a versatile tool to extend the global reach of communications networks, from broadcasting to telephony and now broadband Internet.
Putting flexibility into orbit
In a conventional telecommunications payload, a transponder’s receive frequency, bandwidth and transmit frequency are all fixed during the satellite design phase, typically several years before entering into service.
During the lifetime of a satellite, however, the operational requirements on the payload, in particular for broadband satellites, may change with evolving markets beneath them. With the expected lifetime of current commercial satellites exceeding 15 years, the ability to adapt to these changing needs should be highly advantageous.
“Hylas-1 allows its operator to adjust the bandwidth, frequency and output power of its communications payload,” said Andrea Cotellessa, Hylas-1 Project Manager.
“This is a quite new capability, and is due to a payload concept called the Generic Flexible Payload (GFP), developed by Astrium UK through a series of ESA contracts.”
The satellite has a separate antenna on each side of its structure – one transmitting a wide Ku-band beam for TV broadcasting and other standard satellite services, and the other transmitting in higher-frequency Ka-band for broadband services, directing eight spot beams onto key European markets, maximising its efficiency by reusing its given allocation of radio frequencies between spot beams.
“The operator can fine-tune how much bandwidth and power to put in each beam,” explained Mr Cotellessa. “For an operator it is very important to have this flexibility, because you are able to match changes in data demand as they happen - effectively ‘future-proofing’ the satellite against market changes.
“It also means that even with a small satellite you can support large numbers of widely dispersed customers.”
Evolving the GFP
The GFP concept owes its existence to many years of cooperation between ESA and Astrium in payload technological research, Mr Cotellessa added: “The mainstream of research and development by ESA’s Directorate of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, working through the ARTES programme, has been to look at various next-generation telecom systems and our involvement with the GFP concept was part of that.”
This effort began life in 2003, with ESA supporting a research project by Astrium to develop ‘Modular Microwave Hybrid Technology’ (MMHT).
Typically with telecom satellites their repeaters – the units that amplify, refine or otherwise condition signal inputs for output – are designed and built on an individual, bespoke basis, which adds considerable time and cost to their construction.
Instead, the MMHT approach sought to apply the principle of standardisation to repeater production, creating a portfolio of building blocks for given tasks, such as frequency converters or amplifiers. Known as ‘hybrids’, these circuits can then be combined as required to meet the particular needs of a given mission.
A second stage project, beginning the following year, produced MMHT modules with increased integration and functionality, known as Hi-MMHTs (for High Integration), containing around 2000 separate connections between layers.
The technologies and capabilities developed under these contracts have now been applied to developing the Hylas-1 payload units that together form its Generic Flexible Payload.
Setting the standard
Based on their chosen function, telecom satellites operate in a range of frequency bands, such as C-band for telephony and cable-TV distribution, Ku-band for television broadcasting and ‘very small aperture terminal’ networks, or Ka-band for broadband access.
Rather than satellite makers having to design separate payload systems for each frequency band, the GFP architecture translates the frequency of signals received by the satellite to a standard ‘intermediate frequency’ (IF) at C-band, where all signal conditioning and routing is performed.
This frequency conversion is performed by an electronic device called the Agile Integrated Down-converter Assembly (AIDA), which was the first unit to be developed using Hi-MMHT technology.
On Hylas-1, this signal is then passed to a solid-state matrix called the Routing and Switching Equipment (RASE). While doing away with the need for mechanical connections, RASE can establish connectivity between any pair of satellite uplink and downlink beams.
The signal then passes to an item of equipment that is the heart of the GFP architecture, the Single Channel Agile Converter Equipment, or SCACE.
SCACE allows the channel bandwidth to be adjusted – for example, to respond to changing demand levels from within a particular geographic region, and to be converted to the desired transmit frequency.
The flexibility that the GFP delivers to Hylas-1 is increased by another pioneering piece of technology, developed with ESA support by Tesat-Spacecom in Germany: the In-Orbit Adjustable Microwave Power Module (IOA-MPM) allows the transmit power signal to be adjusted to match demand while maintaining near-constant efficiency, preventing power being wasted in the form of heat.
Qualified for space
One last innovation is the most visible: Hylas-1’s larger, double-sized antenna, which had to be carefully optimised for high-frequency Ka-band operations, the responsibility of EADS Casa Espacio in Spain.
The antenna’s radiating surface accuracy had to be high while resisting any deforming effects due to the temperature extremes of Earth orbit, with high surface reflectivity to prevent undesirable heating.
“The various components of the Hylas-1 payload emerged through co-funded projects with the companies in question,” said Mr Cotellessa. “Then, once the Hylas-1 public–private partnership was agreed, ESA agreed to develop them up to the level they were ready for integrated use within a mission, then to qualify them for space.
“This required the most rigorous qualification programme imaginable: a very long series of ever-more demanding tests, much more demanding in fact than the actual mission requirements.
“But at the end of the process we are left certain that the technology is ready for operation in orbit.”
Even before Hylas-1 is launched on 26 November it has already proven influential. Astrium is already offering GFP technology to its commercial telecom customers, while another IOA-MPM will be flying on ESA’s Small GEO mission, demonstrating a new small geostationary orbit platform.
And a full-sized commercial satellite, Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat, will soon be following Hylas-1’s advance into Europe’s emerging Ka-band broadband market. | <urn:uuid:4c9f9bca-fe40-4438-b6da-f8edf32f1184> | {
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Like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, New Year’s and other holidays of this world, St. Valentine’s Day is another attempt to “whitewash” perverted customs and observances of pagan gods and idols by “Christianizing” them.As innocent and harmless as St. Valentine’s Day may appear, its traditions and customs originate from two of the most sexually perverted pagan festivals of ancient history: Lupercalia and the feast day of Juno Februata.
Celebrated on February 15, Lupercalia (known as the “festival of sexual license”) was held by the ancient Romans in honor of Lupercus, god of fertility and husbandry, protector of herds and crops, and a mighty hunter—especially of wolves. The Romans believed that Lupercus would protect Rome from roving bands of wolves, which devoured livestock and people.
Assisted by Vestal Virgins, the Luperci (male priests) conducted purification rites by sacrificing goats and a dog in the Lupercal cave on Palatine Hill, where the Romans believed the twins Romulus and Remus had been sheltered and nursed by a she-wolf before they eventually founded Rome. Clothed in loincloths made from sacrificed goats and smeared in their blood, the Luperci would run about Rome, striking women with februa, thongs made from skins of the sacrificed goats. The Luperci believed that the floggings purified women and guaranteed their fertility and ease of childbirth. February derives from februa or “means of purification.”To the Romans, February was also sacred to Juno Februata, the goddess of febris (“fever”) of love, and of women and marriage. On February 14, billets (small pieces of paper, each of which had the name of a teen-aged girl written on it) were put into a container. Teen-aged boys would then choose one billet at random. The boy and the girl whose name was drawn would become a “couple,” joining in erotic games at feasts and parties celebrated throughout Rome. After the festival, they would remain sexual partners for the rest of the year. This custom was observed in the Roman Empire for centuries.
“Yet the vestiges of superstition were not absolutely obliterated, and the festival of the Lupercalia, whose origin had preceded the foundation of Rome, was still celebrated under the reign of Anthemius.” (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbons, Chapter 36, Part 3)Western Roman Emperor Anthemius ruled the empire from 467 to 472 A.D. Mr. Gibbons goes on to state:“After the conversion of the Imperial city (Rome), the Christians still continued, in the month of February, the annual celebration of the Lupercalia; to which they ascribed a secret and mysterious influence on the genial powers of the animal and vegetable world. “
In A.D. 494, Pope Gelasius renamed the festival of Juno Februata as the “Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.” The date of its observance was later changed from February 14 to February 2, then changed back to the 14. It is also known as Candlemas, the Presentation of the Lord, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin and the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.After Constantine had made the Roman church’s brand of Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire (A.D. 325), church leaders wanted to do away with the pagan festivals of the people. Lupercalia was high on their list. But the Roman citizens thought otherwise.
It was not until A.D. 496 that the church at Rome was able to do anything about Lupercalia. Powerless to get rid of it, Pope Gelasius instead changed it from February 15 to the 14th and called it St. Valentine’s Day. It was named after one of that church’s saints, who, in A.D. 270, was executed by the emperor for his beliefs.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in early martyrologies under the date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city…Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing is further known.” Several biographies of different men named Valentine were merged into one “official” St. Valentine.
But who was the original Valentine? What does the name Valentine mean?Valentine comes from the Latin Valentinus, which derives from valens—“to be strong, powerful, mighty.” The Bible describes a man with a similar title: “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:8-9) He was said to have hunted with bow and arrow.
As mentioned, the Romans celebrated Lupercalia to honor the hunter god Lupercus. To the Greeks, from whom the Romans had copied most of their mythology, Lupercus was known as Pan, the god of light. The Phoenicians worshipped the same deity as Baal, the sun god. Baal was one of many names or titles for Nimrod, a mighty hunter, especially of wolves. He was also the founder and first lord of Babel (Genesis 10:10-12). Defying God, Nimrod was the originator of the Babylonian Mystery Religion, whose mythologies have been copied by the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans and a multitude of other ancient peoples. Under different names or titles—Pan, Lupercus, Saturn, Osiris—Nimrod is the strong man and hunter-warrior god of the ancients.But what does the heart symbol have to do with a day honoring Nimrod/Valentine?
The title Baal means “lord” or “master,” and is mentioned throughout the Bible as the god of pagans. God warned His people not to worship or even tolerate the ways of Baal (Nimrod). In ancient Chaldean (the language of the Babylonians), bal, which is similar to Baal, meant, “heart.” This is where the Valentine heart symbol originated.
Now notice the name Cupid. It comes from the Latin verb cupere, meaning “to desire.” Cupid was the son of Venus, Roman goddess of beauty and love. Also known as Eros in ancient Greece, he was the son of Aphrodite. According to myth, he was responsible for impregnating numerous goddesses and mortals. Cupid was a child-like archer (remember, Nimrod was a skilled archer). Mythology describes Cupid as having both a cruel and happy personality. He would use his invisible arrows, tipped with gold, to strike unsuspecting men and women, causing them to fall madly in love. He did not do this for their benefit, but to drive them crazy with intense passion, to make their lives miserable, and to laugh at the results.Many of the gods of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Assyrians and others were modeled after one man—Nimrod. So, there you have it. Like most other unholy things, Valentine’s Day goes back to Babylon and paganism.
Deuteronomy 12:30 ‘Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.’
Jeremiah 10:12 ‘ Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen.’ | <urn:uuid:01006514-2129-48a8-b8f5-eba22079e136> | {
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SpaceX has been building a giant rocket that will be able to take passengers around the moon – and is scheduled to announce who that first space tourist will be later today.
The rocket – which they’re calling the Big Falcon Rocket – is expected to be able to transport 150 tons of stuff into low Earth orbit. The reusable rocket will be 348-feet-tall, have 31 engines and will cost $10 billion to finish.
Today’s announcement is a big deal, of course, because only 24 people have been to the Moon in history – and no one has visited since the last Apollo mission in 1972. (The Verge)
Kevin in the Morning! | <urn:uuid:deb3c438-51b0-4c6a-a7d1-aba63e130f3d> | {
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Thousands of Shenandoah Valley gardeners are planting tomatoes this month. Unless you are willing to use protective covers, be sure to wait until all danger of frost is past. In Staunton, this is generally the last week of May. Tomatoes are heat-loving plants and are easily damaged or killed by a freeze.
I recommend planting tomatoes by digging a shallow trench and then laying the plant down in the trench. Include several inches of stem underground. This lower stem area will become additional root mass and will help ensure a more drought-tolerant, healthy plant. Incorporate a couple of tablespoons of bone meal and a handful of rich compost when planting. The calcium and micronutrients will help prevent disease problems later on. It is not prudent to cage or mulch tomato plants until next month when the soil is much warmer. By June, your tomatoes should also be tall enough to justify some support. Use steel cages, steel T-posts or wooden stakes to provide a vertical trellis. After a nice rain sometime in June, wait for the soil to dry down a bit. Then weed the tomatoes one more time and mulch heavily with black and white newsprint, straw, unpainted cardboard or dried grass clippings. If you use straw or grass clippings, pile the mulch high at least six inches thick. One layer of cardboard or six sheets of newsprint should be sufficient to prevent any further weed growth.
Other garden chores for this week include:
• Watch for Colorado Potato Beetles in your potato patch and remove by handpicking. It is critical to control the 1st generation to prevent a surge in population later this summer. This insect is about the size of your pinky fingernail, hard-shelled, beige in color with narrow brown stripes.
• Mid-May in Augusta County is a good time to apply an organic mulch material around fruit trees. Coarse mulch material will need to be applied thicker than finer material in order to defeat weeds. Organic mulches decompose with time, releasing small amounts of nutrients and organic matter to the soil. The layer of mulch should be renewed as needed to maintain a 2- to 3-inch depth spread outward to the drip-line. Never make a "mulch volcano." It causes decay of tree bark and interferes with root taper. Keep mulch four inches away from the trunk.
Contact Jeff Ishee at jeff@onthefarm radio.com. | <urn:uuid:6464358a-d578-4e1b-8fd4-a1f9180e71bf> | {
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THE tanks at the Hanford nuclear site contain two-thirds of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste, or 56 million gallons. About 70 of these tanks, built in the 1950s and ’60s, have leaked at least 1 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste into Washington’s soil and groundwater.
Another 120 million gallons of high-level waste were deliberately discharged into the soil from the tanks to make room in the tanks for more waste.
Should we care?
The overwhelming consensus is that this waste is among the deadliest materials on the planet. Not only is it toxic in microscopic quantities, some of this waste remains radioactive for hundreds, thousands, even millions of years.
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Arguments for leaving this waste buried in the tanks or in the soil at Hanford are dangerous and misinformed. Numerous studies and assessments have shown that leaked radioactive waste migrates to the groundwater much faster than assumed.
Tank waste was detected in the groundwater in the 1990s, and that groundwater flows into the Columbia River.
Does it go away then? No. Much of this waste bioaccumulates, meaning that living organisms, including humans, latch onto these radioactive products and send them to various organs — the bone, the liver, the brain, for instance — where they will irradiate the surrounding cells. Such irradiation can lead to higher risks for cancer, mutations and other illnesses.
We are at a crisis with Hanford’s tank waste. Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy officially confirmed that the first of its double-shelled tanks, Tank AY-102, had failed. We have been relying on those tanks to take on waste from the failed single-shelled tanks. Hanford is now out of room in the double-shell tanks, meaning this waste has no place to go when it leaks, except into the river.
This year, the Department of Energy announced that some tanks are actively leaking. It is certain that every tank at Hanford will fail and leak. It is only a matter of time. The tanks are also a safety hazard since they generate hydrogen gas, which is explosive. Hydrogen gas levels must be constantly monitored and the tank vented when concentrations become too high.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires that Hanford’s high-level waste tanks be emptied, its contents treated and then sent to a deep geological repository. The Hanford site has been rejected as a suitable site for disposal of high-level radioactive waste for good reason. The area is surrounded by volcanoes, subject to earthquakes and is located next to the Columbia River.
It is time for Washington state to require the Department of Energy to empty the leaking tanks and build new tanks.
To be clear, building new tanks is a necessity, but it is not a permanent solution. It should be done in a manner that would generate more reserve storage space and prepare for eventual treatment of this waste into a glass matrix and disposal into a licensed deep geological repository.
To protect human health and the environment for current and future generations, it is incumbent upon the state to use its authority under state and federal law to require Hanford to pump out those tanks that have failed and are leaking.
The state can and should order the construction of new tanks to buy the needed time to address the technical failures at the waste treatment plant, which faces severe delays and disturbing questions about whether the plant can even safely operate in its current configuration.
Tom Carpenter is executive director of Hanford Challenge, a nonprofit working for a safe and effective cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site. | <urn:uuid:fe149f0b-e9b0-43be-9230-94cd78ca5d03> | {
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Figure 1: a) WSN and b) EH-powered sensor node
Batteries can power those devices for a limited time. Another solution consists in using energy harvesting (EH), aimed at converting ambient energy into electricity. This green technology also gives a theoretically unlimited lifetime to sensor nodes, in contrast with batteries.
Unfortunately, the power output of micro energy harvesters (Eh) is generally limited to some tens or hundreds of microwatts and the power consumption of RF-emitters or microcontrollers can reach some tens of milliwatts, banning a continuous running mode and implying intermittent measuring and data sending. Therefore, in EH and autonomous WSN, it is more appropriate to look at energy consumption for one measure instead of power consumption.
Also, it should be noted that the value 500µJ is a key number for WSN. This value corresponds to the needed energy to get a piece of information from the environment (temperature, humidity, etc.), to convert it into numeric data with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and to send it using standard protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy or Zigbee. This energy could be reduced to some tens of µJ in the near future.
Therefore, functioning mode of EH-powered WSN can be summed up as follows (Figure 2
): the energy harvesting device harvests power from its environment and stores it in a buffer (capacitor, battery) (1); µC, sensor and emitter are in standby and consume about 5µW. Measurement (2) and emission (3) are performed when enough energy is stored in the buffer. Buffer is emptied; system returns to standby, waiting for a new measurement cycle (4).
Figure 2: WSN measurement cycle
(Click on image to enlarge)
As this measurement chain uses microcontrollers and electronic devices, supply voltage must be controlled and equal to about 3V; an electrical-electrical converter at energy harvester (Eh) output is therefore essential since Eh output vary through time and is not necessarily equal to 3V. This converter is also aimed at maximizing power extraction from Eh (e.g. MPPT). As a consequence, EH-based supply source can be represented as follows (Figure 3):
Figure 3: EH-based supply source
Many ambient sources, including light and temperature gradients, and the way to turn them into electricity are currently under investigation; we focus here on vibration energy harvesting (VEH), particularly suitable for machines, motors, pipes etc. | <urn:uuid:d66d2687-2e67-4712-be16-c33e20c5bc03> | {
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Onions are one of the most useful vegetables a gardener can grow. Brown & white onions tend to be stronger in flavour than red onions.
J F M A M J J A S O N D Sow Direct Harvest
Sow Indoors / Plant Out
J F M A M J J A S O N D Sow Indoors Plant Out Harvest
How To Grow
Can be grown from seeds or onion sets. If growing from seed sow from February through to April in drills 1cm deep and 20cm between rows, sow the seed very thinly. Thin the plants to 5cm apart and later increase to 10cm apart (make sure your hoe can go between rows with plenty of room for the bulbs to grow), you can use the thinings to fill additional rows, water well after transplanting. If growing from sets plant out in March 10cm apart in rows 20cm apart. Push the sets into the soil so that the tip of the set is visible. Weed regularly between rows to control weeds.
How/When To Harvesting
When the onion leaves start to turn yellow and fall over, leave for a couple of weeks. Now lift with a fork cleaning off soil from the roots and leave them to dry. The remaining foliage and roots will will die back, if the weather is wet the drying process can be done in a greenhouse or shed.
- Sow Depth: 1 cm
- Spacing Between Rows: 30 cm
- Spacing Along Row: 15 cm | <urn:uuid:a9e745d5-d051-4911-93b4-7156d4398140> | {
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Babies start to teethe at some point during the first year of life and have 20 baby teeth or milk teeth by the time they are 33 months of age. The age at which a baby starts to cut their first tooth is very variable and is generally determined by genetics.
Dental care for permanent teeth starts with milk teeth
Milk teeth are also known as primary or deciduous teeth and they form the basis for permanent teeth. To ensure that their child will have healthy permanent teeth, proper dental hygiene should start even before the child cuts his or her first milk teeth. Regular dental checkups starting at age 1 will ensure that tooth development and dental hygiene are as they should be.
Permanent teeth eruption
A child starts to lose their milk teeth at about age 6, though generally if the child cut their teeth early they will start losing teeth early as well. This process of milk teeth falling out and permanent teeth coming in, will last till the child is about 12 years of age. The wisdom teeth typically come in between 17 and 24 years of age, but they may take longer as well.
The teeth will be lost roughly in the same order that they were cut: the lower incisors first, followed by the upper incisors generally. There may often be a gap of years between the loss of the first few teeth and others.
When the permanent teeth first come in, the incisors may appear rather large, or may have gaps. In most cases this will correct itself as the jaw of the child grows.
Factors that may cause delay in permanent tooth eruption
Eruption of permanent teeth can be variable, however there are influencing factors:
- Genetics is possibly the most important factor that controls when the milk teeth fall out and when the new teeth come in.
- Certain races show earlier tooth loss. Also gender is an influencing factor with girls getting their permanent teeth earlier than boys.
- Factors such as premature birth can also determine when the permanent teeth come in.
- Nutritional deficiencies and inadequate physical development are also connected with later emergence of permanent teeth. Also taller and heavier children tend to get their permanent teeth earlier.
- Sometimes it could be hormonal changes that could delay permanent teeth. Chronic problems such as diabetes could actually accelerate tooth development and these cases the permanent teeth will come in earlier. | <urn:uuid:bd5b3ec7-2d92-44cc-b4ab-9fda701cd128> | {
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Photograph courtesy NRAO/AUI
Published July 21, 2010
A newly developed technique could one day help astronomers use giant sound waves to test theories of dark energy, the mysterious force thought to be causing the universe to fly apart faster over time.
Called intensity mapping, the technique looks for unique radio emissions of hydrogen gas in galaxies and galaxy clusters to map the large-scale structure of the universe. Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe, and it tends to cluster around galaxies because of their strong gravitational pull.
Until now, astronomers have been mapping large cosmic structures by identifying the galaxies and clusters themselves—a process akin to mapping forests on Earth by counting individual trees. The new method is more like mapping forests by looking for large patches of green.
By speeding up large-scale mapping efforts, the method should reveal how structures in the universe have evolved since the big bang.
In particular, the new maps might help astronomers detect variations in matter distribution caused by enormous sound waves called baryon acoustic oscillations, or BAOs, which were created shortly after the big bang.
Using the cosmic sound waves as rulers to measure the size of the universe over time can help scientists understand how dark energy has affected the cosmos.
Sound Waves as Cosmic Rulers
In the new proof-of-concept study, Tzu-Ching Chang of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto and colleagues used the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to pick up hydrogen radio emissions in or near thousands of galaxies at once.
The team was also able to measure signals emitted when the universe was only about seven billion years old. (Related: "Universe 20 Million Years Older Than Thought.")
"These observations detected more hydrogen gas than all the previously detected hydrogen in the universe, and at distances ten times farther than any radio wave-emitting hydrogen seen before," study co-author Ue-Li Pen, of the University of Toronto, said in a statement.
The team hopes the method, with refinement, will detect hydrogen emissions from even further back in time, perhaps before the formation of the very first galaxies.
And by scanning large enough regions of the sky, the method may uncover the imprints of BAOs propagating through the universe, the scientists say.
As BAOs traveled through the primordial gases of the early universe, they affected the matter they passed through, causing it to clump up in some places more than in others. This pattern should show up in the distribution of today's galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Because scientists know BAOs repeat every 450 million light-years, "one can measure the BAO signature at different [ages of the universe] and use it as a standard ruler to determine the size of the universe at that time," study leader Chang said.
"And because at later times the expansion of the universe is mostly driven by dark energy, BAO measurements at one or several [time points] can thus help study the properties of dark energy."
Current theories of dark energy, for example, state that the expansion rate is dependent on the density of matter in the universe. Since the early universe was smaller and more tightly packed, scientists hope the BAO data will show that the early universe's expansion rate was slower than it is now.
The intensity mapping research is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
In this new series, writers and photographers from around the world reflect on places that hold special meaning for them.
Latest From Nat Geo
In Oregon, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposes to shoot 16,000 cormorants that prey on steelhead and salmon in the Columbia River.
A captive-breeding program to restore one of North America's most endangered mammals to the western prairies of the United States may be starting to pay off.
A brain-controlled exoskeleton and wheelchair offer insights into how the brain creates movement, scientists report.
The Future of Food Series
We've made our magazine's best stories about the future of food available in a free iPad app.
How do we feed nine billion people by 2050, and how do we do so sustainably? | <urn:uuid:547328eb-53f9-499c-b3ab-9cfeaa21df43> | {
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Text book for reference - www.mcgrawhill.ca/college/colander
Chapters 16, 17, 18
5. Energy costs are up in Canada and the rest of the world. Economic analysts see continued upward pressure on energy prices as the UN pushes for implementation of the Kyoto Accord on greenhouse gas emissions. With the aid of diagrams, answer the following questions.
(a) How would higher energy costs and the implementation of the Kyoto Accord (requiring investment in new pollution abatement equipment) affect equilibrium income, the price level, and the interest rate? (Assume pollution abatement alters only the cost structure.)
(b) Given (a) above, does it matter where the initial short-nm equilibrium was (i.e., Keynesian, intermediate, or classical range) prior to the increase in cost of energy and implementation of new pollution regulations? Explain.
(c) If the Bank of Canada implemented expansionary monetary policy in an attempt to exactly counter the effect in (a) above, what would happen to the aggregate demand curve, equilibrium income, and the price level?
(d) Can the use of monetary policy by the Bank of Canada counter the crowding-out effect? Explain.
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1884 – Edward Sapir, born on the 26th of January in Lauenburg, Pomerania, Germany. He was an American anthropologist-linguist, a leader in American structural linguistics, and one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. 1909 – Took up studies of the Wishram and Takelma languages of Southwestern Oregon, and received his ..
1861 – He was born this year at Richmond, Indiana. He was a notable anthropologist who lived for several years among the Cherokee. 1885 – He became connected with the Bureau of American Ethnology at Washington, D.C. He compiled a tribal list containing 3,000 titles. 1890 – His most notable work was his ..
1901 – She was born on the 16th day of December this year in Philadelphia. 1923 – She studied at DePauw University and graduated from Barnard College. 1925 – Mead set out in this year to do fieldwork in Polynesia. 1926 – She joined the American Museum of Natural History, New York ..
1915 – He was born on the 15th of January in Austin, Texas; 1932 – He was contracted to assemble a book of folk songs, and soon he and Alan set out with a crude recording machine paid for by the Library of Congress; covering some 16,000 miles of the southeastern U.S. in just four ..
1818 – He was born on the 21st day of November on this year, at Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, USA. 1840 – He studied law on this year at Union College and began practicing in his hometown of Aurora, New York as well as Rochester. 1851 – He was able to study ..
1846 – Born on December 1st near Cadiz, Ohio. American archaeologist, artist, and museum director who helped to establish professional archaeology in the United States. 1872 – Holmes became interested in geology while serving as artist on a survey of the Rocky Mountains. 1875 – Trained as an artist, his interests turned to archaeology when ..
English anthropologist and ethnologist. 1855 – Born on the 24th of May. 1898 – Leader of the Cambridge Expedition to the islands of the Torres Straits. Returned to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he had been an undergraduate, and effectively founded a school of anthropology. He influenced Caroline Furness Jayne. 1940 – Alfred Cort Haddon died ..
1854 – Born on the 1st of January in Glasgow, Scotland. 1890 – The first edition, in two volumes. 1907-1908 – He was four times elected to Trinity’s Title Alpha Fellowship, and was associated with the college for most of his life, except for a year, spent at the University of Liverpool. 1914 – He ..
1838 – Alice Cunningham Fletcher was born in Havana, Cuba on March 15th. American anthropologist whose stature as a social scientist, notably for her pioneer studies of Native American music, has overshadowed her influence on federal government Indian policies that later were considered to be unfortunate. – A pioneering ethnographer, theorist, prolific author, ..
1945 – She was born on the 24th day of October this year. 1974 – She joined the University of Kentucky as a physical anthropologist. 1980 – She was at the forefront of a successful attempt to prevent creationism from being taught in the public schools of Lexington, Kentucky. 1987 – She .. | <urn:uuid:7452cf6e-8b7c-4a69-8892-430866883e8c> | {
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- Published on Wednesday, 17 July 2013 01:30
- Written by Sophie Ho - Town Crier Editorial Intern
Los Altos native and cartography researcher Chet Van Duzer delved into the deep for his latest book.
“Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps” (British Library, 2013) takes a closer look at the mysterious sea creatures that grace historical maps – from giant fish to dragons, serpents and amalgamations of the known and unknown.
Van Duzer, a research scholar at Brown University’s John Carter Brown Library and former Kislak Fellow at the Library of Congress, spent two years researching and writing the book. He has published extensively on medieval and Renaissance maps.
A few years ago at a library in Spain, Van Duzer found a map that included a sea monster. He began searching for other instances of the creatures and explored their decorative and educational functions.
“While it’s hard to generalize, some sea monsters do represent the dangers of the unknown, but others are shown in well-known areas,” he said. “Sea monsters on maps have multiple functions. They can represent the unknown or show the cartographer’s knowledge of sea creatures.”
Van Duzer said the process of researching was “enjoyable and fun” because the subject is engaging.
“When I’ve given talks about sea monsters, everyone goes away with a smile on their faces,” he said. “It’s really very satisfying to work with the subject.”
Van Duzer’s next project moves from past to future. He intends to research maps that hypothesize how the world would appear during the apocalypse.
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Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible, by Matthew Henry, at sacred-texts.com
3 Kings (1 Kings)
(Kg1 20:1-11) Benhadad besieges Samaria.
(Kg1 20:12-21) Benhadad's defeat.
(Kg1 20:22-30) The Syrians again defeated.
(Kg1 20:31-43) Ahab makes peace with Benhadad.
3 Kings (1 Kings) 20:1
Benhadad sent Ahab a very insolent demand. Ahab sent a very disgraceful submission; sin brings men into such straits, by putting them out of the Divine protection. If God do not rule us, our enemies shall: guilt dispirits men, and makes them cowards. Ahab became desperate. Men will part with their most pleasant things, those they most love, to save their lives; yet they lose their souls rather than part with any pleasure or interest to prevent it. Here is one of the wisest sayings that ever Ahab spake, and it is a good lesson to all. It is folly to boast of any day to come, since we know not what it may bring forth. Apply it to our spiritual conflicts. Peter fell by self-confidence. Happy is the man who is never off his watch.
3 Kings (1 Kings) 20:12
The proud Syrians were beaten, and the despised Israelites were conquerors. The orders of the proud, drunken king disordered his troops, and prevented them from attacking the Israelites. Those that are most secure, are commonly least courageous. Ahab slew the Syrians with a great slaughter. God often makes one wicked man a scourge to another.
3 Kings (1 Kings) 20:22
Those about Benhadad advised him to change his ground. They take it for granted that it was not Israel, but Israel's gods, that beat them; but they speak very ignorantly of Jehovah. They supposed that Israel had many gods, to whom they ascribed limited power within a certain district; thus vain were the Gentiles in their imaginations concerning God. The greatest wisdom in worldly concerns is often united with the most contemptible folly in the things of God.
3 Kings (1 Kings) 20:31
This encouragement sinners have to repent and humble themselves before God; Have we not heard, that the God of Israel is a merciful God? Have we not found him so? That is gospel repentance, which flows from an apprehension of the mercy of God, in Christ; there is forgiveness with him. What a change is here! The most haughty in prosperity often are most abject in adversity; an evil spirit will thus affect a man in both these conditions. There are those on whom, like Ahab, success is ill bestowed; they know not how to serve either God or their generation, or even their own true interests with their prosperity: Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. The prophet designed to reprove Ahab by a parable. If a good prophet were punished for sparing his friend and God's when God said, Smite, of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy, who spared his enemy and God's, when God said, Smite. Ahab went to his house, heavy and displeased, not truly penitent, or seeking to undo what he had done amiss; every way out of humour, notwithstanding his victory. Alas! many that hear the glad tidings of Christ, are busy and there till the day of salvation is gone. | <urn:uuid:96284b1d-bf85-40db-842f-301682654de7> | {
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Celebrating our 100th anniversary made me wonder what children’s religious education was like at the First Unitarian Church of Trenton (UUCWC’s precursor) when it started in 1948. Amazingly, there are a lot of similarities in both the method and the content of Unitarian Sunday school in 1948 and our RE program today. But that is because Unitarian Sunday schools experienced a huge transformation in the early 1940’s.
Prior to 1940, Unitarian curriculum consisted of Bible and church history-centered content delivered in a question and answer format. Children were viewed as empty vessels waiting to be filled with truths from their elders. By the mid 1930’s, Unitarian congregants, who have always tended toward the more liberal movements in educational philosophy and psychology, were dissatisfied with this outdated style of education for their children.
At the same time, realizing that religious education could be a vehicle to renew and revitalize churches that had declining enrollments, the American Unitarian Association decided to devote additional resources to religious education. It started by hiring Sophia Lyon Fahs, a progressive religious educator with a significant body of work behind her, as children’s editor for a new curriculum series. It was a brilliant decision.
As children’s curriculum editor Fahs brought together the two key elements necessary for a long overdue modernization of religious education instruction: a consistent philosophy of religious education and progressive instructional methods grounded in children’s experiences and interests. In place of rigid lesson plans and structured learning, she introduced painting, role-playing and creative self-expression. She insisted that there is no special religious knowledge. “Instead of helping children…to think about ‘religious things,’ we need to learn how to help children think about ordinary things until insights and feelings are found which have a religious quality.”
By the time the First Unitarian Church of Trenton started its RE program, Fahs had almost single-handedly shifted Unitarian religious education from Bible-centered to experience-centered learning and from adult-driven to child-driven pedagogy.
Here are some examples of Fahs work that continue to impact our children’s RE program today:
- Stories in our curriculum come from many religions and cultures, not only Bible stories;
- Children are encouraged to explore life’s questions, to engage their own experiences, to ask questions and develop answers that make sense to them;
- Children are taught to understand others rather than to judge them, to see all people as part of one family with common problems, concerns and joys
- We believe our spiritual lives are a continuous journey. As the personality grows and changes so do beliefs grow and change. Seeking and searching is being religious.
- Curriculum is focused on the needs and the interests of children;
- Everyone in class, adults and children are learning from each other;
- Lessons lead to emotionally experiencing the stories and activities associated with them;
- Wonder and Mystery is the genesis of religious experiences;
- Science is in the curriculum.
Some of her curriculum, like The Church Across the Street (1947), have clear contemporary successors, like the UUA’s Neighboring Faiths and Building Bridges curriculums (currently used by our 6th-8th grade).
As transformative as Sophia’s influence has been, Unitarian Universalist religious education did not rest on her ideas, nor would she have wanted it to. The criticism of the curriculum she developed is that although it was broad, it was without a center. Today the curriculums we use in our religious education program are intentional about nurturing a Unitarian Universalist identity in our children. We teach the seven principles and the way they shape and inform who we are and influence our way of being in the world. Our children know that each of us is responsible and capable to help change the world for the better. Our curriculums also include human sexuality in four different age groups, anti racism and anti oppression, social justice and Coming of Age.
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Here are a bunch of hummers happily feeding at a feeder that has colorless sugar water in it. The red of the base is sufficient to attract the attention of the birds, and once they figure it is a food source, you could replace the red with any color at all, and they will return. Read on about some myths that surround these cool creatures…..
“Hummingbirds will only come to a feeder if it has red sugar water”
This is absolute nonsense, and in fact, some of the commercial red hummingbird nectar powders that you find at DIY and garden stores has been proven to be carcinogenic to the birds. Avoid this stuff at all costs. While it is true that most hummers generally exhibit a preference for the color red, they will quickly return to anything that is providing a good supply of sugar water.
“Hummingbirds become dependent upon feeders”
Again, utter nonsense. We have a summer population of somewhere between 100 and 160 birds, and they could all choose to feed only at our feeders. Truth is, you can put a feeder in the garden in amongst some flowers, and the birds will visit the flowers almost as much as the feeder. They (like us) choose the lowest hanging fruit. If you take down feeders for a day or two, they will hang around for a while wondering what has happened, then return less and less frequently to see if the feeder has been put up again. After a day or two, they hardly visit, meaning it takes a good few days for them to reappear once the feeder has been replenished.
“Hummingbirds only drink nectar”
Not true. Hummingbirds eat a lot of insects, particularly around dusk when there are ‘clouds’ of bugs like gnats and midges. The hummers will fly through these clouds of insects repeatedly, snapping them out of the air. This is not a common observation, but definitely occurs. The structure of the beak prevents it opening very wide to catch large insects, but they are remarkably adept at nabbing small ones.
“Hummingbirds are timid”
Definitely not so! Hummingbirds are feisty, especially for their size, and fight vigorously over their territories at certain times of the year. I have witnessed countless mid-air strikes, and yes the birds will even try to impale each other with their beaks. I have seen them buzz my dog (a standard poodle), overly-curious squirrels, crows, mockingbirds and even me! When very hungry, they will actually land on the feeder that I am replenishing, as I am hanging it up on the hook. Once while shooting, I made the mistake of wearing red framed sunglasses. While peering through the viewfinder of my camera, I experienced a strong breeze above my right ear, accompanied by a loud hum, then some pecking at my sunglasses, as a male Anna’s hummingbird attempted to extract nectar from it!
“Hummingbirds don’t sleep”
We all need to sleep! In fact, hummingbirds take it a step further and go into a deep torpor every night. They slow their metabolism right down, and drop their core temperature to conserve energy. They perch/roost in a protected area/branch just after dusk, and awaken (very slowly) at sunrise. If you spot a hummer at night while it is sleeping in a torpor, do your best not to disturb it, as awakening it during the cold night without it having visible access to food can be enough to kill it. | <urn:uuid:cf7155d6-5818-44d9-b0b4-de4422e8c859> | {
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Once students understand what mood is, they can practice creating mood in writing by using digital pictures to inspire them students will select a mood, setting and. About o'connor's short stories summary and analysis although they themselves may be good people, a good man is hard to find i ain't a good man. The editor's blog is a participant in the son—don’t you take that tone with me, young man tone toward a character need to be a word that. Character: a short song, usually of four lines--usually epigrammatic and humorous and nature (or at least his good character. How to write literary analysis suggested essay topics o’brien thinks that he is too good to fight the war since the quiet old man is sharp and intelligent.
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Discussion of themes and motifs in flannery o’connor's a good man is hard to find tone we need to examine the diction or good writer is hard to find. As the short story by zora neale hurston the main character in zora neale hurston’s “sweat” is a washerwoman she’s beaten so often and lost her good.
Start studying a good man is hard to find by flannery o'connor learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. ' and find homework help for other a good man is hard to find questions at enotes the title of this short story is a good man is hard to find analysis.
Great expectations quotes my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me estella with the love of a man. Rhetoric and composition/rhetorical analysis message of a particular text a good question to guide your analysis is: not only by diction, tone.
What are figurative language of 'a good man is hard to find' flannery o'connor, a twentieth century american short story/novelist, wrote a good man is. Summary and analysis a good man is hard to find flannery o'connor's stories summary character list flannery o'connor's stories essays are academic essays. Shakespeare's iago in othello is a good example, but a protagonist can also be a whole group of people: a good example of this type of flat character is scar in. A good man is hard to find analysis she's the character we're told the most about, by far tone many readers are. Tone diction antihero describe bartleby’s character “development” a good man is hard to find, flannery o'connor (6) poetry. Usually a protagonist is a round character in most short stories no more than one or two such as good and evil diction: tone-the attitude the author. Reading flannery o'connor's a good man is hard to find proved to be the perfect perhaps making him the most 'good' character in i have to say, great analysis. | <urn:uuid:f444c677-babe-4ab3-8953-93419d5a3509> | {
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The Muslim Colonists: Forgotten Facts about the Arab-Israeli Conflict
The Yazidi in Iraq and the Christian Copts in Egypt are not “occupiers” or “settlers;” neither are the Jews in Israel. They are both victims of a common enemy that seems to want a Middle East free of non-Muslims.
The current Palestinian narrative is that all Muslims in Palestine are natives and all Jews are settlers. This narrative is false. There has been a small but almost continuous Jewish presence in Palestine since the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome two thousand years ago, and, as we will see, most of the Muslims living in Palestine when the state of Israel was declared in 1948 were Muslim colonists from other parts of the Ottoman Empire who had been resettled and living in Palestine for fewer than 60 years.
There are two important historical events usually overlooked in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
One is the use that Muslim rulers made of the jizya (a discriminatory tax imposed only on non-Muslims, to “protect” them from being killed or having their property destroyed) to reduce the quantity of Jews living in Palestine before the British Mandate was instituted in 1922. The second were the incentives by the Ottoman government to relocate displaced Muslim populations from other parts of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine.
Until the late 1800s entire ancient Jewish communities had to flee Palestine to escape the brutality of Muslim authorities. As Egyptian historian Bat Ye’or writes in her book, The Dhimmi:
“The Jizya was paid in a humiliating public ceremony in which the non-Muslim while paying was struck in the head. If these taxes were not paid women and children were reduced to slavery, men were imprisoned and tortured until a ransom was paid for them. The Jewish communities in many cities under Muslim Rule was ruined for such demands. This custom of legalized financial abuses and extortion shattered the indigenous pre-Arab populations almost totally eliminating what remained of its peasantry… In 1849 the Jews of Tiberias envisaged exile because of the brutality, exactions, and injustice of the Muslim authorities. In addition to ordinary taxes, an Arab Sheik that ruled Hebron demanded that Jews pay an extra five thousand piastres annually for the protections of their lives and property. The Sheik threatened to attack and expel them from Hebron if it was not paid.”
The Muslim rulers not only kept the number of Jews low through discriminatory taxes, they also increased the Muslim population by providing incentives for Muslim colonists to settle in the area. Incentives included free land, 12 years exemption from taxes and exemption from military service.
Bat Ye’or continues:
“By the early 1800s the Arab population in Palestine was very little (just 246,000) it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s that most Muslim Colonists settled in Palestine because of incentives by the Ottoman Government to resettle displaced Muslim populations because of events such as the Austro-Hungarian Occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Crimean War and World War 1. Those events created a great quantity of Muslim Refugees that were resettled somewhere else in the Ottoman Empire… In 1878 an Ottoman law granted lands in Palestine to Muslim colonists. Muslim colonists from Crimea and the Balkans settled in Anatolia, Armenia, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.”
Justin McCarthy, a professor of history at the University of Louisville, writing in his Annotated Map, “Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire,” also notes that there were about five million Muslims displaced due to the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Crimean War, Balkan wars, the Turkish war of independence and World War I.
Sergio DellaPergola, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in his paper “Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects and Policy Implications,” provides estimates of the population of Palestine in different periods. As the demographic data below shows, most Muslims living in Palestine in 1948 when the State of Israel was created had been living there for fewer than 60 years:
1890: Arab Population 432,000
1947: Arab Population 1,181,000
Growth in Arab population from 1890 to 1947: 800,000
The Yazidi in Iraq and the Christian Copts in Egypt are not “settlers” and “occupiers;” neither are the Jews in Israel. They are victims of a common enemy that seems to want a Middle East free of non-Muslims. | <urn:uuid:4b6fc22d-1c9c-4655-972a-66040f75e960> | {
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Protect Yourself & Your Family Against Flu
Flu activity has increased sharply in the United States in recent weeks, with widespread activity reported in 49 states in the last CDC FluView report.While flu vaccination is the most important way to prevent influenza, antiviral drugs are the most important way to treat influenza infection. Studies have shown that early treatment with a flu antiviral drug can shorten the duration of fever and illness symptoms, and can reduce the risk of serious flu complications.
CDC recommends these drugs be used as soon as possible in people who are severely ill or people who are at high risk of serious flu complications who develop flu symptoms.
For people with an age or medical factor that puts them at high-risk of serious flu complications, prompt treatment with a flu antiviral drug can mean the difference between having a milder illness and a stay in the hospital.
At this time vaccination to prevent future cases of influenza is still a good idea. There are likely weeks of flu activity to come during the current flu season so vaccination can still offer important protection. While influenza A(H3N2) viruses have been most common to date, it is not unusual for different flu viruses to circulate at different times of the season and most flu vaccines protect against four different influenza viruses.
Take 3 Steps to Fight Flu
1. Take flu antiviral drugs if your doctor prescribes them.
- People who are at high risk for influenza complications should contact a health care professional promptly if they get flu symptoms, even if they have been vaccinated this season.
- If you get sick with flu, antiviral drugs can be used to treat your illness.
- CDC recommends rapid treatment of seriously ill and high-risk flu patients with antiviral drugs.
- It is very important that antiviral drugs are used early to treat hospitalized patients, people with severe flu illness, and people who are at high risk of serious flu complications based on their age or health.
2. Take every day preventative actions to help prevent the spread of germs.
- If possible, try to avoid close contact with sick people. If you do get sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub. Also, clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that may be contaminated with germs like flu.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth because germs spread this way. Cover mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
3. If you have not gotten a flu vaccine yet this season, get vaccinated now – it’s not too late!
- As long as flu viruses are circulating, vaccination should continue throughout flu season, even in January or later.
- Everyone 6 months of age and older is recommended to get vaccinated against flu every year, with rare exceptions.
- Flu vaccine is used to prevent flu illness, not treat it.
- Flu vaccines protect against three or four different flu viruses.
- It takes two weeks after vaccination for the immune system to fully respond and for these antibodies to provide protection.
- With many more weeks of flu activity expected for this flu season, there is still time to get vaccinated if you haven’t already done so. As long as flu viruses are circulating, vaccination can protect you against flu.
- Important reminder for parents and caregivers: Some children 6 months through 8 years of age will require two doses of flu vaccine for adequate protection from flu. Children in this age group who are getting vaccinated for the first time will need two doses of flu vaccine, spaced at least 28 days apart. Some children who have received flu vaccine previously also may need two doses. Your child’s doctor or other health care personnel can tell you if your child needs two doses.
- CDC typically conducts studies throughout the influenza season to help determine how well flu vaccines are working. While vaccine effectiveness can vary, recent studies by CDC researchers and other experts indicate that flu vaccination reduces the risk of influenza illness by 30% to 60% among the overall population when the vaccine viruses are like the ones spreading in the community.
Who Is at Risk?
Everyone is at risk for getting flu. While the numbers vary, in the United States, millions of people are sickened, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, and thousands to tens of thousands of people die from flu every year. CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations, and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010.
Some people are at high risk of developing serious flu-related complications like pneumonia or worsening of existing chronic health conditions. For those at high risk for complications, it’s especially important to get vaccinated every season. It’s also important for those people to check with a doctor promptly about taking antivirals if they get flu symptoms. Some of the people at high risk include the following:
- Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
- People 65 years and older
- Pregnant women (and women up to two weeks postpartum)
- Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
And people who have medical conditions including:
- Neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions (including disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and muscle such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy [seizure disorders], stroke, intellectual disability, moderate to severe developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord injury)
- Chronic lung disease (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and cystic fibrosis)
- Heart disease (such as congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease)
- People with extreme obesity (Body Mass Index [BMI] of 40 or greater)
- For a full list of high-risk medical conditions, visit People at High Risk of Developing Flu–Related Complications.
It’s especially important that people in these high risk groups get vaccinated, but it’s also very important that people in these groups get medical attention quickly if they develop flu symptoms.
For more information about the seriousness of flu and the benefits of flu vaccine and treatment, talk to your family’s doctor or visit the CDC Flu Website. | <urn:uuid:83df098f-517c-4730-a26f-cf0ade61ffd6> | {
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County geologists, flood control experts, and other partners from Federal and State agencies made maps to show neighborhoods at risk from flash floods, debris flows, mud flows, falling rock and other landslides. These dangers can continue during storms for several years, until burned hillsides recover.
You'll often hear "debris flows" called "mudslides" or "mudflows." Many people use the terms interchangeably, but to scientists, each is a different kind of landslide. Debris flows are the most powerful and dangerous of the three.
Impacts to these areas may include roads that may become impassible and deadly, as well as disrupted or destroyed utilities.
When dangerous storms approach, this risk map will also show areas under evacuation warnings and orders:
Yellow means a zone is within the Evacuation Warning (Voluntary) area.
Red means a zone is within the Evacuation Order (Mandatory) area.
During evacuation warnings and orders, you should leave immediately and seek shelter outside all evacuation zones. If you are told to evacuate but you stay, you are risking your life. If you survive the storm, you could be isolated and trapped without help for many days, with roads impassible and utilities disrupted or destroyed.
BEFORE THE STORM:
Determine if your home, business, schools or necessary travel routes are in the at-risk areas by referring to the map above.
Know all your local access roads and understand that some may be blocked by debris or water. Have an alternate route. Stay informed or road and highway conditions.
Have an emergency plan and a disaster kit ready to go. For more information Visit ReadyOC.com. Print the Holy Debris Flow Flyer for reference before, during and after an event.
Flood insurance: Most homeowners insurance does not cover floods or flows from natural disasters. Make sure your home is protected. For more information, please refer to the National Flood Insurance Program website at FEMA.gov/national-flood-insurance-program. Act now. Most flood insurance policies take up to 30 days to go into effect.
Learn the plan for your local school. Parents of children attending Trabuco Elementary School should contact their school district or visit their website to learn what steps the district will take to ensure student safety. This may include school closures and evacuations.
AS A STORM APPROACHES:
Follow all orders by public safety officials. Sign up for emergency alerts at AlertOC.com.
Leave before any flows begin, this the only safe time to leave. If debris flows, mud or water are already flowing, get higher than the flow, such as going to the highest floor in your home.
Heed all evacuations. Public safety officials will work quickly to issue evacuation notices. Each situation is different and some storms may not provide as much lead time for warnings as we hope. Evacuations Warnings (Voluntary) will be issued for at-risk areas 24-48 hours before an expected storm, if possible. As stated above, the safest time to leave is before any flow begins. Mandatory Evacuation Orders will be issued 6-12 hours before the storm, if possible.
Monitor official weather reports and heed weather alerts. Understand that the weather where you are can be different than back in the mountains where the flows start.
Never drive or walk into flood waters, mud or debris, and never go around barricades. It is impossible to know how deep the water or mud is just by looking at it and the depth can change quickly.
Protect your property with sandbags and other methods to divert water from entering structures and reduce erosion on your property. Visit OCPublicWorks.com and OCFA.org to find locations offering limited and unfilled sandbags and sand.
When a natural or human-caused disaster strikes Orange County, residents may be required to be self-sufficient for up to 5 days or more before help or assistance arrives. By personally preparing, volunteering, and learning about your community's hazards, you can help ensure that you and your community can respond to and recover from disasters more quickly. Creating a resilient community requires action in advance by us all.
Prepare Your Family
Before a disaster, take steps to ensure that you and your loved ones can reunite, communicate, and meet your basic needs. Below are links to resources that can help you take action to prepare.
Family & Business
AlertOC: The Orange County emergency public mass notification system which can send you emergency alerts via text, email, landline and mobile phone numbers.
ReadyOC: The Orange County emergency preparedness resource that provides information on current programs and awareness campaigns.
Ready.gov: The Department of Homeland Security resource for information on hazards and how to prepare yourself, your family, your pets, and your business.
The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) supports the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA’s goals by improving the competencies of the U.S. officials in Emergency Management at all levels of government to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the potential effects of all types of disasters and emergencies on the American people.
The California Emergency Services Association is a non-profit professional organization dedicated to the promotion of mutual support and cooperation across disciplines in preparing for natural and human caused disasters and public emergencies.
Making Orange County a safe, healthy, and fulfilling place to live, work, and play, today and for generations to come, by providing outstanding, cost-effective regional public services.
You Are Now Leaving the County of Orange Official Portal | <urn:uuid:cba74756-6279-4e13-8b1e-e298185d4589> | {
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Today is the official unveiling of the Bloom Box by Bloom Energy, so we’ll hopefully be getting more and more information on this innovative new fuel cell.
The Christian Science Monitor has an article that nicely summarizes how the technology works.
In case you’ve not read how the Bloom Box system works, each “power plant-in-a-box” come chock full of thin fuel cells, bundled and packaged into an outdoor-safe case. The individual cells soak up oxygen on one side, “and fuel on the other. The two combine within the cell to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity,” reported CBS last night. “There’s no need for burning or combustion” but it still requires some form of fuel to work. What kind is up to the owner.
“Our system can use fossil fuels like natural gas. Our system can use renewable fuels like landfill gas, bio-gas,” Sridhar says. “We can use solar.”
In some cases, CO2 is still being emitted by whatever power is feeding the Bloom Box. Rather than calling this new device “zero emission energy,” maybe it’s better to think of it as a booster pack for already-green sources and as an impressive new filter for dirty ones.
Also, The New York Times reports that the Bloom Box generates electricity at competitive rates.
Mr. Sridhar said the Bloom Energy Server has been generating electricity at a cost of 8 to 10 cents a kilowatt-hour.
In California, where Bloom has installed 30 fuel-cell systems, commercial electricity rates averaged about 14 cents a kilowatt-hour in October 2009, according to the latest figures from the United States Department of Energy. Elsewhere, commercial rates averaged 7 to 24 cents a kilowatt-hour.
Last July, eBay flipped the switch on five Bloom Energy Servers that now supply 15 percent of the electricity at its San Jose, Calif., campus, or about five times as much energy as generated by its 3,248 solar panels, according to Amy Skoczlas Cole, director of the company’s Green Team.
“We’re expecting a three-year payback period,” said Ms. Skoczlas Cole, adding that the calculation includes state and federal tax incentives that halved the price of the fuel cells.
Tags: biofuels, Bloom Box, Bloom Box unveiling, Bloom Energy, cheap electricity, Christian Science Monitor, CO2, electricity, fuel cell, how fuel cells work, How the Bloom Box works, mini power plant, no combustion, power plant-in-a-box, renewable fuels, zero emission energy | <urn:uuid:bb8e3fe8-a7a8-490e-a0a8-1beb2d95acef> | {
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It is a herbaceous biennial or perennial plant, with dark pink to red flowers, each 1.8-2.5 cm across. The flowers are unscented. There are five petals which are deeply notched at the end, narrowed at the base and all go into an urn-shaped calyx. It flowers from May to October. The plant grows to 30-90 cm, with branching stems. The deep green leaves are in opposite pairs, simple acute ovate, 3-8 cm long with an untoothed margin; both the leaves and stems of the plant are hairy and slightly sticky. The upper leaves are stalkless. Male and female flowers are born on separate plants, the male with 10 stamens and a 10-veined calyx, the female with 5 styles and a 20-veined calyx. The fruit, produced from July onwards, is an ovoid capsule containing numerous seeds, opening at the apex by 10 teeth which curve back.
Red campion grows in roadsides, woodlands,and rocky slopes. It prefers to grow on damp, non-acid soils . | <urn:uuid:99ff9770-b887-4fdd-98c7-2fd30dba1744> | {
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2 January, Commemoration of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus
Who were pleased to give light to Your Church
by the example and teaching
of the Bishops Saints Basil and Gregory,
grant, we pray,
that in humility we may learn Your Truth
and practice it faithfully in charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen
With this Collect the Church commemorates the lives of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. Both were very good friends and studied together in Athens long before becoming bishops. Their lives in the Church played out in the middle to late fourth century in the region of Cappadocia (now modern day Turkey), hence they are often referred to as the Cappadocian Fathers. However, in the Latin Rite, this commemoration is actually ‘2/3 Cappadocian Feast Day.’ Basil’s younger brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, is not reckoned on the Latin Rite calendar … yet (I am holding out hope for this day to eventually include ‘younger brother.’)
Basil, given the title “Great,” brought strong administrative and theological skills to his shepherding ministry as bishop. He is credited with establishing the communal form of monasticism in Eastern Christianity and establishing the first institutional operation of Church charity along with a hospital. Basil saw prayer, charity and healing as imperatives for the pastoral life of the Church because these were essential actions in the life of Jesus. Among Basil’s writings is his famous On the Holy Spirit in which he defends the Personhood and Divinity of Holy Spirit against the teachings and writings of Eunomius and others. Eunomius was a contemporary of Basil (as well as Gregory and Gregory) who vociferously taught and wrote against the distinctiveness of Divine Personhood claiming that ‘God’ is simply known by actions or functions: creating, redeeming and sanctifying and not the Names expressive of oneness, distinctiveness and Pershonhood: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Eunomius’ teaching so gripped many places that the Baptismal formula morphed to baptism in the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier – an abuse and an error that the Council of Constantinople addressed and rectified in 381.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil’s close friend, bears the title “The Theologian” and sometimes also “The Poet.” While definitely more subdued in personality to the impressive and at times larger-than-life Basil, Gregory longed for the solitude of the monastery. He wrote of his own reluctance to accept priestly ordination and with that writing penned numerous pieces on pertinent theological and pastoral questions. 5 of those treatises are known as the “Theological Orations” as they dealt with Trinitarian Personhood against the writings of Eunomius.
Gregory of Nyssa, Basil’s younger brother, is known as “The Mystic.” Initially very reluctant to embrace Christianity and not blessed with the administrative skills of older brother Basil, Gregory of Nyssa came into his own after Basil’s rather untimely death at the age of 49. Gregory ended up providing theological depth to much of Basil’s initiatives. While early in his episcopal career many thought he was simply ‘completing’ or ‘building on’ Basil’s thought, Gregory soon proved to be a gifted speculative theological thinker who simultaneously sought to make connections with living a spiritual (actually virtuous, as it was termed then) life that disposed one to the transformation of the Holy Spirit. He too penned a voluminous work against Eunomius and also numerous works on the spiritual life. Among some of his more famous works are On the Making of Man (a great work on theological anthropology), The Great Catechetical Oration (among the first ‘catechisms’ ever written and used in the Eastern Church well into the 15th century), the Life of Moses, the Homilies on the Song of Songs, Homilies on the Beatitudes, Orations on the Lord’s Prayer, to name only a few all of which offer deep insights into the spiritual life). Indebted to Origen of Alexandria for his pioneering work on biblical interpretation, Gregory wove together both the literal and spiritual senses of Sacred Scripture to express a pastoral and theological approach to life known as epektasis: a continuous being-drawn by the Holy Spirit to live the life of Jesus Christ culminating in eternal life with God the Father.
The Cappadocian Fathers lived in a time of theological passion and a time that was replete with all kinds of theological confusion and heretical movements, some of which were grounded in ‘hurt pride’ and an inability to humbly receive the Church’s teachings. Gregory of Nyssa captured a glimpse of this passion in an introduction to one of his works:
“A city [Constantinople] full of profound theological disputes, everyone talking and preaching in the squares, in the market places, at the crossroads, in the alleyways: old clothes men, money-changers, costermongers: they are all at it. If you ask a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you wherein the Son differs from the Father; and if you ask for the price of a loaf, you are told by the way of reply that the Son is the inferior of the Father; and if you inquire whether the bath is ready, the man solemnly informs you that the Son was made out of nothing! (Oratio de Deitate Filii et Spiritus Sancti (PG XLVI, 557: 20-28)”
The Cappadocians knew proper worship, theology and expressions of the Divine Mystery were indispensable for authentic Christian living. Their preaching, teaching and writing - at times very technical and highly nuanced - were always placed at the service of concrete virtuous living that mirrored Jesus Christ. One of their many theological legacies is that mystery and teachings are not about the abstract or ethereal, rather they are about a way of living. This way of living is about always being drawn-up to contemplate and to live divinely. The saintly Nyssian bishop summed it up well: “Let faith thunder loud and pure in the proclamation of the Most Holy Trinity and may life imitate the fruit of the pomegranate!”
On this day, I express gratitude for one of a number of mentors in my life, Fr Ambrogio Eszer, OP who directed by doctoral studies in the Fathers of the Church and my dissertation on Saint Gregory of Nyssa. Fr. Eszer himself had studied under the great patristic scholar, Fr Irene Hausher and I am grateful for the many conversations in which Fr Eszer ‘handed-on’ the great patristic legacy of the Church. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithfully departed rest in peace, AMEN! | <urn:uuid:2c8dc0ba-08b6-4168-9600-2bbcd6eb693c> | {
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The serrated, or denticulated, ziphodont teeth of theropod dinosaurs display variability in their extent of denticulation. The functional model proposed here tests the hypothesis that denticles will not exist in areas that do not frequently contact the substrate. This area, defined as the “dead-space,” is determined by the direction the tooth moves through the fleshy substrate. The extent of denticulation, as well as the dead-space dimensions, is measured from photographs of 235 isolated and in situ theropod teeth, to determine a meaningful relationship between the two variables. Both Euclidean and geometric morphometric methods are employed, and the data are expressed in bivariate and ordination plots. The model predicts the direction of tooth movement through the curvature of the tip/apex. Tooth position and taxon are considered. The results show that the mesial margin is usually partially denticulated, while the distal margin is usually totally denticulated. Curved teeth have large dead-spaces, and tend to be less denticulated mesially. Straighter teeth are more extensively denticulated, to the point where they became symmetrical. The mesial denticulation is determined by the dead-space, and dictated by the substrate contact. The dead-space almost always predicted less extensive denticulation; a consequence of the model's limitations. Tooth curvature increases with a more distal position, due to rotation based on the proximity to the hinge. Denticulation indicates that theropods used a distally oriented puncture to modify the substrate, similar to modern analogues. Although there is little taxonomic variation, Troodontidae show unique and extreme degrees of mesial denticulation. Anat Rec, 292:1297–1314, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. | <urn:uuid:3a9bc014-bf7f-4070-87a8-576b134bd9b2> | {
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The iconic bivalve has a long way to go before it is recovered, with its populations still a tiny fraction of historic levels.
But the encouraging upward movement in harvest may be a hint that increased oyster plantings in the Bay may finally be making a difference, said Bill Goldsborough, Director of Fisheries for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
These restoration efforts have been helped by expanded oyster sanctuaries, stepped up enforcement against poachers, and dry weather in 2010 and 2012 that created salty conditions favorable to the survival of young oysters, Goldsborough said.
The large number of juvenile oysters (also called ‘spat’) that have spawned in the Bay the last few years is showing up now in both the Bay and the baskets of watermen.
“I think 10 years from now, we’ll look back at the 2010 and 2012 spat set and see that they were the first signs that we’ve been making real progress in our efforts to increase the spawning potential of the Bay’s oysters,” said Goldsborough.
“A shell of a harvest” The Baltimore Sun is calling this year’s numbers.
"Watermen report that they are bringing in two to three times as many oysters as they did last season," the newspaper reports. "Already, it's caused hundreds of people to temporarily join the ranks of the oystermen who dredge the Chesapeake Bay….The total number of people licensed to harvest oysters is now about 800, or twice what it's been in recent years.”
One factor that may be helping oysters in the Bay is increased plantings of the bivalves. A record 647 million oysters were planted in the Bay in 2009 by the Oyster Recovery Partnership, a coalition of government agencies and advocacy groups (including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation) working in collaboration with the University of Maryland. The number planted by the partnership was up from 76 million oysters in 2004, and 191 million oysters in 2005, according to the partership’s website.
Most of these oysters have been planted in sanctuaries where they cannot be harvested, and where they will reproduce and help repopulate surrounding areas, potentially including areas open to harvest. The increased harvest of oysters this year likely came from these areas open to harvest, Goldsborough said.
The increased harvest this year was not caused by any loosening of restrictions – because no such opening up has happened, Goldsbourgh added. In fact, Maryland in 2010 more than doubled the amount of the Bay’s remaining oyster bars protected by no-harvesting zones, boosting these sanctuaries to 25 percent of reefs.
The increased harvest in 2012 appears to have come not from these no-harvesting zones, but from the unusually strong survival and reproduction of young oysters in the wild, which was helped by dry weather conditions.
“They spawn better and grow better when the salinity is up,” Goldsborough said.
2011 was a wet year, which normally would have been bad for oyster survival. But despite this heavy rainfall and storms last year, many of the young oysters (except some in the extreme northern sections of the Bay) survived the tropical storms and influx of muddy fresh water from those rain storms.
That is encouraging news, Goldsborough said.
To learn more about the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s oyster restoration efforts, click here.
By Tom Pelton
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
(Photo from Chesapeake Bay Program) | <urn:uuid:4b10ff15-c4a8-45b5-9143-f39dac3c24cf> | {
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The recent Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision states that the Canadian government discriminated against First Nations children and families through its inequitable child welfare services. Since many of those services are delivered at the provincial level, Pam Palmater, chair in Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University discusses how the ruling will impact Ontario.
In his book “From Treaty Peoples to Treaty Nation: A Road Map for All Canadians” co-author Greg Poelzer suggests that a new approach to Aboriginal self-government is needed in Canada. The best option, Poelzer states, is a Commonwealth of Aboriginal Peoples. The Agenda explores the strengths and possible weaknesses of this approach to building a new relationship between Canada and its Indigenous Peoples.
It’s been 20 years since the release of the five-volume Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The commission set out an agenda to help restore justice to the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Canada. What has happened in those two decades? One year after the Trudeau government was elected promising to renew the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples, The Agenda discusses what needs to happen to fulfill these mandates. | <urn:uuid:08f97d04-eebd-4e82-be30-e47c391c3491> | {
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Information system management is the relationship phenomena between the people, business procedures and technologies in doing/undertaking business process. They are specific from the normal systems management since their use is for analyzing the information system which is applied in various business processes. Centralized information management is where the business operations and systems are operated from a central point/ distributing point. The information is sent out to the other divisions through such a central point. Either, this point also receives information from the external terminals.
Through this method, organizational information is coordinated from one central place before being conducted to the other outlets and points of business management. On receiving the information, the central unit will identify the external point from which the information comes from and sends the adequate feedback. This is an advantage to the business information flaws and misuse. From a coordinated approach of central unit, the information can be monitored, analyzed, before giving out the correct feed back. It is usually cost effective to big organizations.
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Through the use of such many decentralized points, the relevant information can be disseminated across the relevant point. It seeks to ensure cost efficiencies in information management where the cost of information management through a central point is highly costly and perhaps inefficient to the organization. Either, it seeks to ensure easy contacts of information at various departments without remitting information to a central point which may even be far. (Nickerson, 1994)
REFERENCE Nickerson, R (1994) Business Information Systems. 2nd Edition. Amazon Publishers. | <urn:uuid:4d07a985-6aed-44e6-9ad3-395bc8f667be> | {
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Lindsey German wrote this review for Historical Materialism over a decade ago but it wasn't published. We are posting it now as part of a series of contributions to the debate on women's oppression
Here are some little remembered facts: International women’s day was established by socialist women, meeting in conference in Copenhagen in 1910. They chose the date to commemorate the strikes of young female and often immigrant textile workers in New York’s lower east side. Karl Marx’s youngest daughter, Eleanor, served on the executive of the Gasworkers’ union from 1890 to 1895 in recognition of her organising the unskilled, the Irish immigrants and the women in the New Unions in Britain. Two of the best known theoretical works on women’s oppression remain Friedrich Engels Origin of the family, private property and the state, and August Bebel’s Women and socialism. The women’s movement which gathered pace in Britain from 1969 onwards was accompanied by a series of strikes supported enthusiastically by those campaigning for women’s liberation. Rose Boland, a sewing machinist from Ford’s car factory in Dagenham, who was campaigning for equal pay, and May Hobbs, an office cleaner by night who led a major strike of the night cleaners, became vibrant symbols of the movement.
Johanna Brenner, Women and the Politics of Class, (Monthly Review Press, 2000), 320pp.
Anne Lopes and Gary Roth, Men’s Feminism, (Humanity Books, 2000), 261pp.
That these facts are largely unknown today shows how the connection between women’s liberation and socialism has been all but lost over the past two decades. Those of us who adhered to such ideas have found our voices drowned by hymns of praise to the Third Way or post feminism. Only now, against a background of growing movements against fascism, war and capital itself, are ideas of women’s liberation also beginning to connect with ideas about class and about the creation of a genuinely equal society. This has long been the case: the fate of women’s emancipation and freedom has always been connected with wider social progress and change. If we look back at history we can see that there are cycles of growing confidence and militancy which lead to the adoption of all sorts of radical ideas. When these movements fail to break through they lead to general periods of demoralisation and retreat.
In every upswing in the movement, ideas of women’s emancipation and liberation have come on the political agenda; every downturn has produced reaction over women, where conservative and pro family ideas have come to the fore. So the 1830s and 40s produced the utopian socialists, the Chartists and the scientific socialists around Karl Marx. Socialism was very much connected with ideas of new and changed human relationships between men and women freed from the tyranny of capital. Following the defeats of 1848, the 1850s onwards saw the strengthening of the family as an institution of capitalist society, and an ideology of gender which stressed homecentredness and femininity. This only began to be challenged in the 1880s with the revival of socialism in Britain and internationally ( the Second International was formed in 1889) when the notion of free and independent women emerged, epitomised in the pages of radical literature such as the plays and novels of George Bernard Shaw, the Ibsen plays or the writings of Olive Shreiner.
Again, in the 20th century, the stultifying, dull and conventional 1950s exploded into the movements of the 1960s, when the children of the post-war generation rejected the dominant social values which still tolerated gender and racial oppression and which were endangering future generations through war. The various defeats of the movements against oppression, coupled with the defeat of the workers’ movement internationally, made its mark from the late 1970s onwards. Again, reactionary and conservative ideas came to the fore, fuelled by a series of moral panics over issues such as Aids or single parents. Even those who still adhered to ideas of equality accepted a very limited vision of what that equality meant. Liberation became rights or even identity and those who had a wider vision of the future were accused of utopianism or lack of realism.
As we move into a new period of revival of socialist and emancipatory ideas, an assessment of the past is vital to an understanding of the present and to success in the future. These two books, both published at the dawn of the new century, help us in that assessment. Johanna Brenner is a lifelong socialist feminist based in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Her book, a collection of her writings over the past two decades, charts the path of socialist feminist thinking and activity in the US. The writings cover a range of topics around women and the family. They deal with the rise of the ‘radical right’ in the US, and the transformation of welfare policies which stigmatise especially single parents and which ensure that millions of women and their children stay poor. Brenner writes with a concern for women, especially working class women, which marks her writings out from much academic study. At the same time, she makes a significant contribution to a number of debates. Two in particular are represented by perhaps the two best known essays in this collection. The first of these debates centres on the nature of the sexual division of labour under capitalism, women’s role in the family and working class men’s role in shaping it. The second debate examines the two aspects of the women’s movement at the end of the 20th century.
Production and reproduction
The major contradiction around the family under capitalism remains that production is social while reproduction is privatised. Working class women, who in the past half century have entered paid work in unprecedented numbers, still carry the burden of housework and childcare in the family. Even though the big increase in the number of women working has come disproportionately from working mothers who are married or cohabiting, the division of labour within the household has not altered fundamentally. Nor has work had the liberating effect on women that some might have expected 30 or 40 years ago. Women’s work remains for the most part (we will return to the very important exceptions to this below) segregated, low paid and having a low value in capitalist society. The increased number of working mothers has led to increased pressure on the family structure, as more and more women and men find that ‘work-life balance’ is something they only read about in magazines. Do we explain all this by reference to class, to patriarchy or to both? Johanna Brenner’s essay ‘Rethinking Women’s Oppression’, written with Maria Ramas, the opening essay in this collection, 1attempts to put forward a materialist analysis of the sexual division of labour, the family and women’s oppression which can lay the basis not just of an understanding but of a strategy for change. She does so through a critique of Michele Barrett’s Women’s Oppression Today, itself an examination of various theories of women’s oppression written a decade after the rise of the women’s movement. 2
While much of feminist theory tries to locate women’s oppression in the existence of the sexual division of labour, the role of the family and the separation of home and work, it has too often failed to deal with the concrete reality of women’s lives. The model put forward by many feminists is of woman at the hearth, men in the factory, with little connection between the two. Yet this picture has failed to make much sense for the past half century in countries such as Britain and the US. The wrong model has led to the wrong theories. The ‘domestic labour debate’ of the early 1970s attempted to place women’s domestic role in the overall context of capitalist society. This was a very important development, carried out by Marxists who were trying to locate women’s oppression within their role in the home. They pointed out that domestic labour was hidden labour, in that it was carried out privately, and had very little status because it was not waged, but it had a central economic role to the continuation of capitalist society. Some theorists argued that it produced surplus value, through the production of labour power; others that it only produced use values. The conclusion of one was that women could be organised as a separate class, of the other that women were simply the servants of their husbands and children. Both assumed that domestic labour was totally separate from capitalist production, as did those who believed that housework formed a separate mode of production from capitalist social production.
However, domestic labour takes the form that it does precisely because of its connection with capitalist production, in that the reproduction of labour power takes place within the privatised family. The next generation of workers is cared for, socialised, nursed, fed and clothed in the home at very little outlay for the capitalist class. The existing generation of workers find the replenishment of many of their needs, both material and emotional, inside the family. Domestic labour can therefore be said to be indirectly productive of surplus value through directly producing labour power which can then be sold on the labour market and so lead to the production of surplus value. 3
Over the past few decades the balance of women’s lives between the reproduction of labour power and their participation as paid workers themselves has changed radically. The capitalist class has managed to draw far more women into the workforce, thus increasing their production of surplus value and so contributing to the profits of the bourgeoisie. At the same time, the reproduction of labour power continues to be carried out at very little cost to the capitalist class which no longer needs to rely on an army of full time housewives to provide its next generation of workers. Instead substantial parts of the wages earned by women and men in the labour market now contribute towards paying for commodities which substitute for the role of a full time wife and mother. These include the huge market for ‘white goods’ – washers, dryers, fridges, cookers, microwaves, freezers and dishwashers – as well as convenience foods, restaurant meals, private childcare, laundry and cleaning services. Cars are a near necessity for most families with two adults working since they facilitate childcare and working shifts. Video machines play a role in childminding for many parents. Most of these goods are not luxuries as sometimes claimed but play a major part in ensuring the family functions while both parents work.
The expansion of these commodities in and around the home has also had an important role in itself, in that it has increased the role of the family as a unit of consumption. The family might not be able to play together or eat together because of the pressures of life and work, but it is able to spend together, or at least to define itself by its consumption.
However the change in women’s role in the family has challenged the traditional view of the work/family male/female division. Two arguments which were commonplace until the 1980s have also been weakened. It can no longer be claimed that full time domestic labour within the family is essential to the continuing existence of capitalist production itself; capitalism has easily been able to adapt both ideologically and materially and has in general seen this as beneficial to its system as a whole. In addition, women can no longer be seen as a disposable reserve army of labour to be pulled into work when times are booming but then to be sent back to the home in times of economic recession. Women are now a permanent part of the workforce.
Brenner deals, in my view decisively, with a strand of feminist theory which places women’s continued domestic role under capitalism within a sexual division of labour rigged to ensure that women were denied access to the more skilled jobs and to the higher wages which accompanied them. Pushed out of work when married, women became totally dependent on their husband’s ‘family wage’.
The sexual division of labour
In much of feminist theory and history, it has become almost commonplace to assert that this sexual division of labour arose because men consciously acted to exclude women from certain forms of work which would have given them a level of status and security and a higher wage. Male workers, it is argued, colluded with the bourgeoisie to ensure this exclusion through support for certain forms of protective legislation which prevented women from working in certain industries – most notably coal mining – and from working nights or long hours. Men therefore gained the lion’s share of well paid jobs, with all the advantages that gave them. In addition, the employers side of the bargain was kept by paying these men a ‘family wage’, or a wage which enabled them and their families to live without the woman going out to work. Increasingly the male sphere became the world of work, the female sphere that of the family and domesticity. This marked a real defeat for women, dependent on the man for an income inside the home and thrust to the margins of the labour market when, as single women or later as widows, they did have to work. 4
This general theory arose at least in part as an attempt to bridge questions of class and patriarchy. In part it was an implicit criticism of the ‘domestic labour debate’. But perhaps more importantly it marked a turn away from seeing the rule of capital as the main barrier to women’s liberation. The argument hinged around the relationship between work in the home and the production of surplus value for the capitalist. ‘Women in labour keep capital in power’ as an early slogan from the women’s movement in Britain put it. The idea was that capital benefited from such female labour and that therefore the fight of male (and female) workers was not fundamentally different from that of housewives who wanted to end their oppression – for both the enemy was capital.
This idea came under criticism, sometimes from those hostile to Marxism, on the grounds that it was reductionist or economistic. These critics argued, rightly, that it could not be said categorically that domestic labour was essential to capitalism – in theory at least there were other ways of organising the reproduction of labour power. It could not even be proved that the family was the cheapest way for capital to reproduce its next generation of workers. But this critique of reductionism and economic determinism led away from any class analysis of oppression. There was an increasing insistence instead that women’s oppression lay in the sphere of patriarchy, not class, and that therefore working class men’s and women’s interests did not coincide. These theories were idealist in that they failed to make any connection between ideology and material conditions and thus saw oppression as ahistorical. A theory of patriarchy which located it in the actions of male workers and employers in the heyday of capitalism gave a supposedly materialist explanation to the oppression of women, while still seeing individual men as at least as much the problem as capitalist social relations.
Except it was not a materialist explanation at all, as Johanna Brenner demonstrates so clearly. She argues that the sexual division of labour cannot be understood with reference to protective legislation or trade union exclusiveness. Protective legislation barely existed in the US until well into the 20th century, long after the ‘male breadwinner’ sexual division of labour came into being. The example of Britain is different of course, but even here Brenner argues that the Ten Hours Bill of 1847 and the Mines Regulation Act of 1842 had little effect on the sexual division of labour:
‘To the extent that the Ten Hours Bill was effective, it appears to have limited men’s as well as women’s labour hours….Nor does this legislation appear to have resulted in any significant replacement of male for female labour, either within the [textile] industry as a whole or within particular sectors. In fact, the proportion of women to men in the textile industry continued to increase during the latter part of the nineteenth century.’ [Brenner p. 20]
The trade unions were craftist, elitist and exclusive of women, immigrants and the unskilled workers in general. But their writ did not run throughout the working class; indeed they organised a very small proportion of the working class. Whatever impact their narrow views had on general working class ideology and consciousness, they could not have shaped the whole of the capitalist sexual division of labour.
Brenner also makes clear that much of the opposition to women in particular industries lay in the very well founded fear that the employment of women would act to pull down men’s wages and organisation. The strike of the London Journeymen Tailors Union against homeworking in 1833 was to preserve the male tailors’ position. Its failure worsened the wages and conditions throughout the industry.
‘That competition, rather than ideology, was the crucial determinant of male exclusivism is underscored by the fact that in cases where women were not competing with men, or where women were in the industry from the start, unions tended to include women and even gave substantial support to their attempts at organisation and strike activity’. [Brenner p. 24]
Even within the working class different strategies emerged. So around the beginning of the 19th century the Spitalfields weavers sought to organise women and enable them to serve full apprenticeships, while the Scottish weavers tried to exclude women from apprenticeships completely.5 When the employers tried to break the union of calico printers near Glasgow in 1833 by introducing women and children as cheap labour a strike broke out. Local women workers supported the strikers and helped to throw stones at the scab labour, and refusing to cook for them in acts of class solidarity. 6 So there were contradictory forces at work within the working class between those who could put class interests to the fore and that the trade union consciousness of men may have been narrow but it acted as a defence mechanism for the protection of working class living standards. As Brenner puts it:
‘It is entirely unnecessary to resort to ideology to explain why trade unions were particularly adamant in their opposition to female entry into their trades. It is quite clear that when unions were unable to exclude women, a rapid depression of wages and general degradation of work resulted.’ [Brenner p. 23]
The working class family
The need to defend working class conditions was obviously very important in the attitude that men took to women workers who might potentially undercut their work. But it is by no means the whole story. There is little question that women as well as men welcomed many of the changes in work that led to the shortening of hours and the removal from some of the worst aspects of the satanic mills. They certainly welcomed the ability of their children to grow up safe from the injuries which they were in danger of sustaining in paid work. The shorter hours worked in the mills after 1847 gave women more time to care for their families: ‘the extra hour’s freedom from the mill ….seems to have been almost exclusively devoted to the better care of their homes and families’7 Before the 1842 legislation on mining there were many petitions from the Lancashire and Yorkshire towns calling for women’s work to be limited.8
The commission’s report on the mining industry told of pregnant women miscarrying, of women and children crawling like animals in the dark wet tunnels, and of women having to return to this only a few days after childbirth. The working class saw its living conditions worsening with industrialisation and they wanted to find some ways of protecting themselves. This in turn fed into a more general sense of provision of kinship networks within the working class. The working class could control these networks and provide for those who otherwise would suffer terrible conditions of labour or the perils of the workhouse. Or as Jane Humphries argues ‘the endurance of the family reflects a struggle by the working class for popular ways of meeting the needs of non labouring comrades within a capitalist environment.’ She goes on ‘Thus, the family, as an institution, has been shaped by the aspiration of people for personalised non-market methods of distribution and social interaction. To ignore the role that these aspirations and beliefs have played in guiding human contact and in shaping the class struggle is to fail to understand the working class family and its persistence’. 9
This is the crucial element missing from those who accept the employers’ and male workers’ conspiracy theory. Women’s role in the home reflected in part a desire of working class men and women for a better life – and they saw women’s withdrawal from work as a crucial part of this. Johanna Brenner explains how the low level of wages throughout the working class even in the second half of the 19th century meant that workers could not afford to purchase services to substitute for their household work and childcare. A large amount of domestic work therefore had to be performed inside the home somehow – not an easy task given the long hours men and women worked nor given the primitive nature of household technology. So ‘a division of labour in which one person undertook domestic labour along with supplementary wage work, while another earned wages full time, was preferable to a division of labour in which two adults worked long factory hours and then returned home to do additional labour.’ [Brenner p.29] The inability to nurse new born children led to terrible consequences. Hygienic bottle feeding was non existent, wet nursing not a viable option and infant mortality was high. This increased the ‘logic of the sexual division of labour’ [Brenner p.30] where women, who were likely to undergo large numbers of pregnancies in the 19th century, tended to be the ones who stayed at home if the family could possibly afford it in order to care for themselves and their children.
There is a strong emphasis in this analysis on the biological role of women and how this has shaped the sexual division of labour. Brenner stresses that this emphasis has pitfalls, in particular of allowing the acceptance of some sort of biological determinism or of arguing that biology is women’s destiny. However she is absolutely right to place a very heavy weight on this biological role not because it determines women’s position in society but because it draws attention to the privatised reproduction of labour power within capitalism. There is no reason why women should care for children rather than men and there is no reason why biological parents make better carers than anyone else. But in a world where choices are limited then there are lots of reasons why women rather than men are left holding the baby. In the 19th century rich women led a life of enforced isolation and leisure, paying others to perform the ‘women’s tasks’ of childcare and housework, but being denied any role in the public world. Poor women found that theirs and their husbands’ wages were not sufficient to pay for others to carry out these functions therefore it seemed the least bad option for them to be the homemakers.
The other side of the high fertility levels of the 19th and early 20th centuries was that children still went into the labour market at a very young age, so mothers would expect their elder children to contribute to the household income at a far earlier age than today. So the full time housewife could service not just her husband and young children but young adult workers as well. In Britain, nearly all working class children left school at 14 until after the Second World War. The practice in much of the working class between the wars was to leave school on Friday, start work on Monday and hand over their unopened pay packet to Mum every week. ‘In exchange for the money – which could significantly raise the standard of living in working class homes – the boy was given new privileges. Many recall being bought their first pair of long trousers and enjoying more food on their plate’.10 In the US, Brenner notes, working class people withdrew their children illegally from school in many instances, and in 1920 70 percent of Chicago and New York 16-17 year olds were not in school. [Brenner p.54]
Today young people tend to go to work much later and married women have tended to replace them as a major source of labour power. Women today have far lower rates of fertility, more control over their fertility and a much easier housework load than most previous generations. No longer do we have to devote a day a week to washing (even though we may spend nearly as long washing clothes over a week). But women’s role as mothers still has a major effect. Motherhood often means that women fail to return to their old careers in many instances. Some studies have demonstrated that mothers are more likely to take work which is convenient even if that means failing to utilise skills which could enable them to sell their labour power at a higher price. Women with children may be more likely to work closer to home, to work part time, to ‘fill in’ with unskilled work until their children are older.
Even though the introduction of maternity leave has made a difference in that more women use the opportunity to return to their old full time jobs, there are many other factors which influence women about their position in the labour market. A major factor is the cost of childcare which makes it simply uneconomical for women to work long hours and far from home. To do so requires a major outlay of costs by a full time working couple. Travel costs and other items connected with work take a large part of this but childcare is estimated to cost an average £6,500 a year in Britain. The cost is not for 24 hour childcare or anything of the like but for day nursery or full time registered childminder costs. This is not very far off the take home wage for many women in the lowest paid jobs and is clearly impossible for many. Only the rich can afford nannies. A recent estimate in the Financial Times was that a couple would have to put aside £35,000 gross a year to pay for a nanny.11
A quarter of all families with children in Britain have either the mother or father working evenings or nights, suggesting that co-ordinating childcare plays a major part in determining labour market participation for both men and women.12 The predominance of married women engaged in part time work is another indicator. Mothers who are in a marriage or cohabiting partnership are much more likely to work full time than single parents responsible for bringing up children on their own. Whereas there has been a very big increase in the number of full time working mothers over the past two decades, there has been little movement in the numbers of single mothers working.13 The obvious barrier here is the costs of going out to work, which makes it uneconomical for all but the best paid women. And most women are not well paid at all, their wages standing at 82 percent of their male counterparts and their inability to work as long hours as men overall pushing earnings down even further.14
All these are material reasons for the continuing oppression of women and the continuing relationship between the family and oppression. They create their own ideological justifications. From the out and out reactionary ‘women should be in the home’ to the postfeminist version that ‘women can’t have it all’, problems of work, childcare and life in general are placed at the woman’s door. Ideologies of the family, the centrality of strong parenting and the theories of communitarianism which have become so prevalent in the 1990s reflect these material conditions. Indeed it is impossible to understand the ideological changes and continuity of attitudes to women today without understanding the contradictory situation created by the existence of the family as a centre of the privatised reproduction of labour power. Women are outside the home, educated, legally equal in most respects in countries like Britain and the US – but they cannot escape the material and ideological consequences of their role in the family. Or, at least, most of them can’t. There has been a growing minority, of course, who have seen the world change very dramatically for women over the past two decades in particular. The lawyers, businesswomen, high level managers, heads of schools and colleges who now form the success stories of power feminism, have achieved a status and material comfort, plus a recognition in the world of work and public life, which could barely have been imagined only two generations ago. They have not managed to shrug of their oppression, but they have managed to minimise some of it, particularly the material burdens of work and childcare. They are often grossly discriminated against at the top of their professions – witness the high profile cases where investment bankers receive much bigger bonuses than their female counterparts, or where television actresses are paid at a lower rate than their male co-stars. But usually the material rewards and status of such professions are enough to keep the women in place rather than seeking a more equal opportunities employment.
These women are often employed to manage or supervise other workers, especially women and in this capacity may put forward views which are against the interests of the women whom they supervise – for example, against trade unions or in favour of restrictions on maternity leave. They also pay for the resources of many other workers, again usually women, to care for their children, to clean their houses, to wash their clothes, to cook their food and to deliver their shopping. Their class interests are in direct opposition to many working class women, in the sense that they employ them or control their work. This class division has not meant the end of feminism – far from it.
The future for feminism
A certain sort of feminism is quite compatible with the individual progress of women up the social ladder, regardless of the wider divisions within society. But, as Johanna Brenner argues, it has little to do with the radical or socialist politics which can bring about wider social change. While women in the professions still face discrimination ‘hitting your head on a glass ceiling is not the same as falling into the basement’ [Brenner p.233] Her essay ‘The best of times, the worst of times’ is an overview of what has happened to feminism which is centrally located in the ups and downs of the class struggle. Brenner paints two pictures of women’s lives by the early 1990s, when this essay was written: one is of women breaking into new fields, gaining education, forming organisations to defend women; the other is of worsening conditions at work, the trials of the double burden, continued male domination in the home and violent images of women seeming all pervasive. She comments ‘Both pictures are true’ [Brenner p.220] Feminism’s first wave achieved women’s rights as citizens and its second wave in the 1960s and early 70s made them fully free sellers of their labour power, lifting many of the economic, legal and social restrictions on women’s total participation in work and society. But in many ways this gave women rights long available to men without confronting the basis of the exploitative system of capital itself. The failure of second wave feminism has been its failure to confront these wider questions, settling instead for rights for a minority of women, hitching its star to the Democratic Party as the least bad option for women’s rights, and becoming ever weaker as the wider social movements and trade union movement saw significant defeats which left them weakened and demoralised.
Even in the early 1990s, Brenner notes that the defeats of the movement do not leave women back in their old position. There are many attempts to fight back over issues such as abortion rights, sexual harassment (as in the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill case) and gay and lesbian rights. There are many women’s organisations, plus many more whose primary if not exclusive purpose is to organise women. So the effect of the 60s and 70s has remained and many of the changes affecting women have become permanent. Indeed even in the US where the rabid anti abortion right have many friends in government and have succeeded in pressurising the Bush government to cut contraceptive spending to less developed countries, it is impossible to imagine abortion rights being completely rolled back as some would like to see. But the pressure acts to curtail rights in many individual states, to harass workers and users of abortion clinics, to cut state funding, all of which make it harder to get abortion, especially for poor and working class women. To achieve real liberation around these and many other issues will take an onslaught on the oppressive structures of capital itself:
‘The solution to the political impasse facing feminism cannot come from feminists alone. It will require a serious and disruptive challenge to capital, a broad and militant “rainbow movement”, including new, more social and political forms of trade union struggle and national political organisation independent of the Democratic Party’ [Brenner p. 222]
At last there is a feeling of this beginning to happen internationally. As working people world-wide try to reclaim some of the wealth taken from them in the past two decades, we can be sure that women will be at the forefront of many of those protests. They always are when the working class movement is on the rise. The recent council workers strike of over a million in Britain against low pay was the biggest strike of women ever in Britain. Women such as Dita Sari in Indonesia or Arundhati Roy in India have become symbols of movements for unions, against injustice and for the environment throughout the world. Brenner points out that women’s organisation exists much more deeply and extensively among women of colour and working class women than was the case during the height of the women’s movement [ Brenner p228].
But what is left of the women’s movement, in the sense of the historically specific movement which arose in the late 1960s and reached its peak only shortly afterwards? Here the record is much less good. The movement achieved a great deal in achieving awareness of women’s oppression and in campaigning for equality. Campaigns around issues such as beauty contests or abortion heightened consciousness on these questions and created a mass of issues which women took up which had not previously been thought of as political. The politics of the personal, for example round rape and domestic violence, helped to bring legal and social changes in countries like Britain. But they also often led to a political impasse as personal questions became reduced simply to the question of individual behaviour rather than being seen as located in the social relations which gave rise to the individual behaviour. There were always theoretical differences inside the movement, between socialist feminism and radical feminism.
The unity of the early years splintered, leading to various diffuse campaigns and movements and to major areas of dissent – the 1978 women’s liberation conference in Britain dissolved into acrimony, since when it has never been possible to bring the whole women’s movement together in one place. Different strands of the movement went in different directions. If the socialist feminists are the ones who today embody many of the original ideas of women’s liberation, they too contain some political weaknesses, the most fundamental being the acceptance of some sort of system of patriarchy operating separately from class relations which can do little to explain the reality of women’s oppression today. Whatever else it may be based on, male power within the working class household is clearly not the crucial factor.
There is also a certain triumphalism within the movement which sees itself as the cause of social change regarding women, rather than seeing that the movement was itself a product of social change which in turn led to changes in ideas and activity. Did the women’s movement create the changes in women’s lives or did women’s lives changing lead to the development of a movement with feminist ideas which articulated their discontents? I would argue that the second development – the huge increase in women working, the expansion of higher education, and the transformation in fertility for women – was decisive in producing the movement and the ideological challenge that accompanied it. The second wave provided a very important flowering of ideas, but ones which very quickly had little left to contribute in practice. By the mid 1970s, questions of class power and of advance or defeat for the working class and socialist movements were to decide questions of women’s liberation for the coming decade.
The fall back argument of many socialist feminists is that feminism may have its weaknesses but that socialism on its own cannot achieve women’s liberation. Yet, as Brenner shows so decisively time and again, the fate of women cannot be separated from the fate of society as a whole. Further, the failure of socialism to deliver women’s liberation has to be seen as intimately connected with its wider failures to bring about permanent change and to defeat capitalist rule. The history of socialism from below and the attempts at human liberation have been as hidden from history as have the struggles of working women. Yet this history is a remarkable one as far as women are concerned. Ann Lopes and Gary Roth tell the story of one part of it in Men’s Feminism, a study of August Bebel and the German socialist movement. They point out that many of the socialists in the German Social Democratic Party were deeply committed to the theory and practice of women’s rights. Indeed they argue that ‘feminism was as much a men’s as it was a women’s movement [in Germany] and that ‘in general, socialist men proved to be more consistent feminists than bourgeois women.’ [Lopes and Roth p. 31] They also count the German working class movement in general as more progressive than the middle classes about gender equality:
‘That gender equality was at first a working class phenomenon raises many questions about the often-assumed modernising influence of the middle classes....bourgeois thinking in part represented a reaction against ideas of gender equality as then understood within the lower orders of society.' [Lopes and Roth p.31]
The success of Bebel’s life work Women and Socialism was astonishing. It was the most sought after of any socialist book in the German movement, and once easily available after the repeal of the Anti Socialist Laws in 1890 was reprinted 22 times in the 1890s [Lopes and Roth p37]. The leader of the German socialist women’s movement, Clara Zetkin, ‘began her career as an orator in the late 1880s by speaking about Bebel’s book to illegal gatherings of socialist men’. [Lopes and Roth p.70] These were hardly people who ignored or belittled women’s emancipation. Indeed Lopes and Roth argue that men’s feminism motivated relatively large numbers of men to take up women’s issues and demands within the socialist movement in a way which did not happen outside the movement.
The equality of women was certainly an issue for socialists grappling with what was wrong with capitalism. In the period before the first World War the German and Russian socialists brought women’s issues onto the political agenda internationally. They rejected a narrow approach to the suffrage and stressed the importance of organising working women, leading to sharp divisions between Alexandra Kollontai and the bourgeois feminists in Russia, or Sylvia Pankhurst and her increasingly anti working class mother and sister in Britain. The revolutionary wave which swept Europe after the First World War led to the establishment of Communist Parties incorporating ideas of women’s equality and containing within their ranks some of the best militant women of their generation. The Russian revolutionary movement led to real gains for women: divorce, abortion and contraception, legal equality, childcare and the socialisation of many aspects of housework. Free love flourished especially among young people. The achievements were awe inspiring in an economically backward, largely peasant country15 but were a short-lived experiment in a country so poor and where the revolution itself had failed by the late 1920s. The attacks on abortion rights, the ending of many socialised functions of the family, the Stalinist practice of awarding medals to mothers of large families went alongside economic, political and social retreat throughout Russia:
‘The triumphal rehabilitation of the family, taking place simultaneously – what a providential coincidence - with the rehabilitation of the rouble, is caused by the material and cultural bankruptcy of the state. Instead of openly saying, “We have proven still too poor and too ignorant for the creation of socialist relations among men, our children and grandchildren will realise this aim”, the leaders are forcing people to glue together again the shell of the broken family, and not only that, but to consider it, under threat of extreme penalties, the sacred nucleus of triumphant socialism. It is hard to measure with the eye the scope of this retreat.’ 16
Between 1917 and 1930 there were 301 party resolutions or party decrees on the subject of women – during the next 30 years there were only three. 17 Yet even in the 1920s and 30s the Communist tradition led to a level of commitment and organisation around the questions of women in various countries around the world, and especially in Germany before the rise of Hitler in 1933. The German Communist Party (KPD) was the only party which defended married women’s right to work, against the leaders of the trade unions and the Social Democratic Party.18 Often this commitment to women’s rights, as with the German socialists of Bebel’s time, was stronger than was that of certain feminists, who saw women’s rights as an extension of legal rights within bourgeois society, rather than challenging the whole oppressive and exploitative system. The mainstream left parties, many feminists and liberals in Spain, Italy, France and Belgium were reluctant to support the extension of the franchise to women on the grounds that the mass of Catholic peasant women would vote as the priests directed them and therefore could not be trusted.19 Equal relationships, sexual experimentation and the like were of great interest to Communist and left socialist women and men, and there is some evidence that they tried to practice such relationships.20
The New Politics
How then could the women who founded the 1960s women’s movement have known none of this tradition or felt so alienated from it that they felt they had to start from scratch? There was of course the submerging of this tradition through the lack of continuity between the old left and the new. The background to the emergence of the women’s movement in the US in the late 60s was a level of sexism and indifference to the question of women which is quite shocking to look back on. The student movement was quite disconnected from the old left. The long boom, McCarthyism, the defeats of Stalinism all saw to that. Women were told that their oppression was of the least importance, and told so in the most contemptuous and elitist way. At the National Conference for the New Politics held in August 1967, where a radical minority of women tried to formulate demands on women’s liberation, drawing on the politics of black power, they were derided by most of the men at the conference. Shulamith Firestone was patted on the head by one of the male leaders and told ‘move on little girl; we have more important issues to talk about here than women’s liberation.’21 Such experiences shaped the early women’s movement, which defined itself as dissatisfied with the behaviour of the male left.
The politics of the traditional left were also highly limited. If women’s equality meant anything at all, it tended to be equated with the Stalinised images of women working in ‘men’s jobs’. Many socialists could see little connection between a fairly limited view of the class struggle and women’s oppression. The distortion of socialism as a theory of human emancipation into its Stalinised or social democratic versions left little room for ideas of women’s liberation. Socialists too were prisoners of past history and ideology, sometimes even accepting ideas of eugenics or social engineering as the main underpinning of women’s rights.
By the 1960s, women’s liberation was an idea whose time had come. Ideas of equal rights and of gradual change seemed just too timid and slow for a generation of women who were discovering their independence in every area of life. It is not surprising that those who first embraced women’s liberation were women who had become politicised through campaigning for civil rights, against racism and against war. They rightly wanted the principles governing these campaigns to be extended to the question of women as well. That they were so badly rebuffed helped to shape the women’s movement in particular ways which did not always help the movement or the left. The tradition embodied in these books, and in the many ways that people have fought for socialism and women’s liberation, can help to ensure that we learn some of the lessons of our history.
Helmut Gruber and Pamela Graves Ed Women and Socialism/Socialism and Women Berghahn Providence and Oxford 1998
Heidi Hartmann ‘The unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism: towards a more progressive union’ Capital and Class no 8 1979
Anna Clark The struggle for the breeches University of California Berkeley 1997
Leon Trotsky The Revolution betrayed New York and London Pathfinder 1972
Sara Evans Personal Politics New York 1979
John Harrison ‘The political economy of housework’ Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists vol. 4, London spring 1974,
Wally Seccombe ‘The housewife and her labour under capitalism’ New Left Review no 83, 1974,
Jean Gardiner et al ‘Women’s Domestic Labour’ On the political economy of women CSE pamphlet no2 London 1976
Mariarosa DallaCosta and Selma James The power of women and the subversion of the community Bristol 1976.
Lindsey German Sex, Class and Socialism London 1989
Margaret Hewitt Wives and Mothers in Victorian Industry London 1958
Ivy Pinchbeck Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution 1750-1850 London 1981
Jane Humphries ‘Class struggle and the persistence of the working class family’ in Alice H Amsden Ed The economics of women and work Penguin London 1980
Steve Humphries and Pamela Gordon A man’s world BBC London 1996
Financial Times London
Gregg and Wadsworth eds. The state of working Britain 1999
Just Pay 2001
Michele Barrett Women’s Oppression Today Verso London 1980
Richard Stites The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia Princeton New Jersey 1991
1 Johanna Brenner Women and the politics of class Monthly Review New York 2000
2 Barrett 1980
3 For more on this debate see Harrison 1974, Seccombe 1974, Gardiner et al 1976, DallaCosta and James 1976. See also German 1989 p.70-73 for my fuller view.
4 Hartmann 1979 puts this argument succinctly.
5 Clark 1997 p.129
6 Clark 1997 p. 205-6
7 Hewitt 1958 p.25
8 Pinchbeck 1981 p. 244
9 Humphries in Amsden Ed 1980 p. 154
10 Humphries and Gordon 1996 p. 39
11 Financial Times London 19 April 2002
12 Gregg and Wadsworth eds. 1999 p. 106
13 Gregg and Wadsworth eds. 1999 p. 173-5
14 Just Pay 2001 p.1
15 For a full analysis of this period see Stites p. 317-422
16 Trotsky 1972 p.151-2
17 Gruber and Graves Ed 1998 p.521
18 Gruber and graves Ed 1998 p. 155
19 Gruber and Graves 1998 p.513
20 Evans 1979 p.116-119
21 Evans 1979 p.198-9
As national convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, Lindsey was a key organiser of the largest demonstration, and one of the largest mass movements, in British history.
Her books include ‘Material Girls: Women, Men and Work’, ‘Sex, Class and Socialism’, ‘A People’s History of London’ (with John Rees) and ‘How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women’.
More articles from this author
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- Europe: what is to be done?
- Labour, Ukip and the local elections: myth and reality
- Western intervention will turn Nigeria into an African Afghanistan | <urn:uuid:906b988c-f12c-4a50-a687-ecef9202e7a1> | {
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As I mentioned in a Previous Post, for my birthday my friends Bill and Marie gave me a years worth of carbon offsets. For those of you not familiar with carbon offsets, here is a definition: A carbon offset is a service that tries to reduce the net carbon emissions of individuals or organizations indirectly, through proxies who reduce their emissions and/or increase their absorption of greenhouse gases. A wide variety of offset actions are available; tree planting is the most common. Renewable energy and energy conservation offsets are also popular, including emissions trading credits.
The intended goal of carbon offsets is to combat global warming. The appeal of becoming "carbon neutral" has contributed to the growth of voluntary offsets, which often are a more cost-effective alternative to reducing one's own fossil-fuel consumption. However, carbon offsets are not without controversy, with some environmentalists and economists questioning the overall benefits of the practice.
There are many companies and organizations offering carbon offsets, but all carbon offsets are not created equal. This WSJ article talks about how carbon offsets work and mentions a few of the players. My friend Rip also sent me a link to a report on carbon offset providers. So by all means, buy carbon offsets or give them as a gift, but do a little homework first to make sure you are spending your money wisely! Stay tuned for more! | <urn:uuid:e61a068b-5eb8-4043-93bd-7348366177b3> | {
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Maturity does not always comes with age. In fact it gets deeper than age. It is about the way you see and understand things. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird there are several major events that advance the timeline of Jeremy Atticus Finch and Jean Louise Finch coming of age. Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) and Jean Louise Finch (Scout) experiences the coming of age through many different experiences throughout the novel. Some of the experiences involves the father named Atticus teaching them the lesson and other experiences such as Tom Robinson court trial. Throughout the novel Jeremy Atticus Finch and Jean Louise Finch transformed from naive children to mature adults and develop new attributes.
Jem mostly potarys the coming of age when he enters the puberty and becomes a young man. Moreover, Scout starts to become more independent, wiser and more able to comprehend the adult situations. One of the important lesson that Scout learns from his father Atticus is that “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee 30). In this quote Atticus is giving scout the crucial piece of moral advice that a govern her development for the rest of the novel. Scout struggles to put Atticus advice into practice and to live with sympathy and understanding others. However, she succeeds comprehending Boo Radley’s perspective when she and her brother were attacked by Bob Ewell and defended by Boo Radley. At this point, scout realizes that Boo Radley is a person with a kind heart who is just different. As she stands on Radley’s porch, Scout acknowledges her father’s lesson.
As the novel progress, Scout is getting more and more mature. Scout tries to interpret with the advice that Atticus gave her and she is trying to imply to it in her real life. “Jem stayed moody and silent for a week… So I left Jem alone and try not to bother him” (Lee 57). In this quote, she said “As Atticus advised her to do she tried to climb into Jem’s skin and walk around in it.” means that she is learning what Atticus advised her and try to use it in daily life. Furthermore, Atticus is the crucial character by whom scout learns most of the principles and moral of the life and start getting transformed from naive child to a mature adult.
Henceforth, as Scout is developing her attributes she is acting more mature. ” As her character is formed in such a faith, she develops respect even for the racist prosecutor, Mr.Gilmer… the prosecuting witness against him, on a capital charge of a rape (Shaffer 76). Even though Mr. Gilmer abuses Tom Robinson in the court while the prosecution is going on, Scout does not act the same way because of what she has learned from her father he is always polite and shows courtesy to everyone. Which shows how Scout follows her father’s footstep and becoming a mature adult.
Moreover, Scout acknowledges herself about ladies principles, common sense from Miss Maudie and some from Aunt Calpurnia she learns that there are some common principles among the ladies such as sympathy and sisterhood. Literary critic Thomas. L. Shaffer explores scout characters and her coming of age, he says “Scout, however, Who learns about truth and courage from her father and underhood Judge Taylor, has to learn practice prudence… Among ladies, the presence of collaboration in virtue is as quiet as Miss Maudie’s hand squeeze” (Shaffer 9). Scout attains a knowledge to develop herself as women. She learns that ladies do not do dramatic encounters as Atticus does with the mob in jail. Among the ladies collaboration, sympathy and sisterhood are important.
Furthermore, The ultimate tomboy, scout discovers her feminine side when she meets Dill Harris. “The fact that I had permanent fiance was little compensation for his absence. I had never thought about it but summer dill.. Sumer was the swiftness with which Dill would reach… I stayed miserable for two days” (Lee 116). In this quote the ultimate tomboy, scout discovers her feminine side when she meets Dill Harris, and they soon become intimate, even spending an innocent night together sharing her bed. But when Scout discovers that Dill will not be coming to maycomb for the summer, She is “crushed.
Since Atticus is defending a black man, Scout and Jem find themselves whispered at and taunted, and have trouble keeping their tempers. However, Atticus knew that he is not going to win the case but he is still fighting. Even though the evidence was clearly in the favor of Tom Robinson the decision was favored for Mayella Ewell because a black man word will not be trusted. ” Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” ( Lee 76) Atticus explains to scout that he knows that he is not going to win but he is still fighting so that his children can not question his dignity and principles. Later on, the court decision was in favor of Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson was sentenced to Jail. Jem was having trouble handling the results of the trial, feeling that his trust in goodness and rationality of humanity was destroyed.
Beside that, When scout has an argument with the kids at school about her father defending the black man. Atticus as a father has to tell her rights from her wrongs. Not only did Atticus correct the fact that she fought with school kids but also catches her rude mistake when she called a man a “nigger”. So when scout asks “Do you defend niggers, Atticus?”… Atticus replies “Of course I do. Don’t say nigger scout. That is common”(Lee 75). After when Atticus corrected scout she never called a members of the black community “niggers”. Scout then gained more respect for the black community and and began to realize that everyone is equal but they do not have same rights as caucasians. This was a step forward in the scout maturity.
On the other hand, Jem is becoming responsible as he is growing as a young child. As he gets older he realizes what his responsibilities are. For Instance, When dill ran away from his home and came to Finch house. He does not want anyone to know that he was there. Yet Jem decides to tell Atticus that he was there. In this quote “you ought to let your mother know where you are” said Jem “you ought to let her know you’re here…Dill’s eye flickered at Jem looked at the floor… “Can you come here a minute sir?”(Lee 187,188). Jem is doing the responsible thing. He felt that it was necessary to tell Atticus so he did. By becoming responsible showed that Jem had matured As he gets older, he realizes what his responsibilities are and what he feels is right. Jem does the childish things with Dill and Scout. But as the Novel Progresses, Jem realizes that how immature these activities were and stopped playing with them.
In addition to Jem, now as Jem has started developing as a mature adult he started acting more like his father. “Why couldn’t I mashed him” Jem replies “I asked because they don’t bother you”(Lee 238). In this quote When scout is talking about killing a roly poly bug Jem steps in and tells scout that it is not the right thing to do because of what he has learned from the Atticus that you should not take advantage of someone that is weaker than you. In this case, scout is talking about killing a roly poly bug but Jem is advising her not to “because they do not bother you”. This quote also emphasis that how Jem is developing more like his father Atticus and understands the lessons given to him by Atticus.
Moreover, when Atticus hands their children a rifle and tell them that they can shoot whatever bird they want but not mockingbird. Atticus says “Remember it is a sin to kill a mockingbird”… “you father is right” Miss Maudie said “mockingbird don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.. But sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”(Lee 90). Through the metaphor of mockingbird’s Atticus is trying to explain the idea of mockingbird as a good innocent people. Who are destroyed by evil. Boo Radley, For Instance is like a mockingbird- Just as mockingbirds do not harm anyone “but only sings their hearts out for us”. Boo does not harm anyone; Instead he leaves Jem and Scout presents, covers scout with blanket when it was cold outside, and eventually save children from Bob Ewell. Atticus is basically teaching his children that they should not bother boo radley because he is innocent and they should leave him alone rather than bothering him.
Jem and scout develops the understanding of and adult world as they grows up through their experiences.Shelley Burkhalter on his analysis said ” when Robinson is convicted, the children are the ones who cannot accept it. Atticus’ insistence that his children learn to be tolerant and not judge people only on appearances becomes one of the moral lessons of the book”(Burkhalter 9). In this quote he demonstrates how Atticus tell his children to be firm and not to judge people based on their appearances.
To conclude, In To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scout experience the coming of age through their own experiences and from the lesson given to them by their father Atticus. Scout learns a lot about adult world, femanity, and other life changing lessons throughout course of the novel. And Jem who is entering the puberty period and becoming a young boy develops his attributes even more from Tom Robinson trial and his father Atticus. | <urn:uuid:49b6b512-8c0c-452d-95c3-d6ecca41bef9> | {
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Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of death among adults worldwide. Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a first test when a patient suffering from chest pain sees a doctor, however, it is lack of the required sensitivity. Standard assays to detect cardiac biomarkers, like enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are sensitive, but suffer from important sample and reagent consumption in large-scale studies. Moreover they are performed in central laboratories of clinics and hospitals and take a long time, which is highly incompatible with the quick decisions needed to save a heart attack patient. Herein, we describe an integrated chip allowing rapid, sensitive, and simultaneous analysis of three cardiac biomarkers in fingerprick blood. The integrated chip is composed of a filtration chip for plasma separation from blood and a silicon nanowire (SiNW) array sensor chip for protein detection. These two chips are fabricated separately and bonded to form a single unit after alignment. The integrated chip is capable of reducing the dead volume of the sample by eliminating the tubing between the two chips. After the plasma is filtrated by the filtration chip, the SiNW sensor, spotted with three different antibodies, enabled us to detect three cardiac biomarkers, troponin T (cTnT), creatine kinase MM (CK-MM) and creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), simultaneously. The integrated chip is able to attain a low detection limit of 1 pg / ml for the three cardiac biomarkers from 2 microliters of blood in 45 min.
The device has two functions — a blood plasma filter and a silicon nanowire biosensor — integrated onto one chip (see image), and it has the capability to identify protein markers in finger-prick blood samples within 45 minutes.
The integrated chip device developed by Zhang and his team is the first technology of its kind. The test chip is designed to search for three particular cardiac protein biomarkers: troponin T, creatine kinase MM, and creatine kinase MB. If the presence of any of these three biomarkers is detected, it indicates a high risk of heart attack or other heart disorder.
The filter function uses a series of ‘micropillars’ in a carefully designed sequence that acts to separate plasma from the main blood sample. Prior to detection of the biomarkers, all interfering components in the blood need to be removed. This is usually undertaken through the use of lab equipment known as a centrifuge, but Zhang has eliminated the need for this step by integrating the plasma extraction functionality on the chip.
The researchers allowed the blood plasma to flow onto the nanowire biosensor, the surface of which was marked with spots of the three different cardiac protein antibodies. These spots react with the proteins present in the plasma, causing a change in electrical resistance that the researchers could measure. This allows for the detection of biomarkers with good specificity without reducing sensitivity.
The results produced by the new integrated chip device are a marked improvement of up to two orders of magnitude better than current test kits. The researchers are optimistic about the commercial potential of their device, as it uses a simple design that is easy to manufacture. They will continue to develop this technology and undertake clinical trials of the device with industrial partners.
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks | <urn:uuid:fc76f139-c854-411d-963d-abecafa40a18> | {
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Diets low in saturated fat do not prevent heart disease, a top scientist warned last night.
Writing in the journal Open Heart, leading US cardiovascular research scientist Dr James DiNicolantonio said a “compelling argument can be made for the general lack of evidence in support of a low-fat diet”.
He added that the “public fear” that saturated fat raises cholesterol is “completely unfounded”.
He wrote: “There is no conclusive proof that a low-fat diet has any positive effects on health. Indeed, the literature indicates a general lack of any effect (good or bad) from a reduction in fat intake.
“The public fear that saturated fat raises cholesterol is completely unfounded as the low-density lipoprotein particle size distribution is worsened when fat is replaced with carbohydrate.”
Instead, he warned the causes increasing poor health are diets high in carbohydrate and sugar and a public health campaign is “drastically needed to educate on the harms of a diet high in (these foods).”
Dr DiNicolantoni said the idea that fat causes heart disease was based on a flawed 1950s study which used data from six countries but excluded data from another 16.
He said this study “seemingly led us down the wrong ‘dietary road’ for decades to follow”.
Last night Brian Ratcliffe, professor of nutrition at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University, welcomed Dr DiNicolantonio’s article.
Prof Ratcliffe said: “For the last three decades, accumulating evidence has not provided strong support for the dietary recommendations regarding reducing fat and saturated fat intake.
"DiNicolantonio does not even touch on the evidence which shows that low-fat diets...have been associated with poor mood and even depression.”
But Prof Tom Sanders, head of diabetes and nutritional sciences division in the School of Medicine at King’s College London, said Dr DiNicolantoni’s assessment was “not helpful”.
“Refocusing dietary advice on sugar and away from fat modification and reduction is not helpful,” he said.
He added: “Dietary advice to avoid fatty meat products, choose reduced-fat dairy produce, and to restrict intakes of cakes, biscuits and puddings, which are often both high in saturated fat and sugar, and to select foods containing unsaturated oils such as nuts, fish and vegetable oils remain good sense.” | <urn:uuid:145de502-47ab-4cf2-9c7c-c226e1be5738> | {
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An unmanned Russian space capsule carrying tons of food, water and supplies to the international space station docked with the orbiting laboratory today, two days after the first attempt went awry.
A video feed from Russian mission control just outside Moscow reported the docking took place on automatic systems without problems.
The space station has three Russian and three US astronauts aboard as it orbits 220 miles above the Earth.
The Progress cargo ship was to have docked with the space station on Friday, but failed. Russian controllers said the failure was due to the activation of a transmitter for the manual rendezvous system, which overrode the automated system.
Russian station commander Alexander Skvortsov said the Progress was rotating uncontrollably as it neared the station during Friday's docking attempt, but officials from Nasa and Russia later said the ship was never out of their control.
After the failed docking, it was moved to about 180 miles away from the station. A series of engine firings yesterday reoriented the Progress.
The Progress ships have been the backbone of Russia's unmanned cargo ship programme for years. Their importance will increase with the end of the US space shuttle programme next year. | <urn:uuid:cc880bed-2288-4825-9fed-ebb24f7d1456> | {
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As people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, we’re often told how important it is not only to get our A1C levels tested at least twice per year, but also to achieve an A1C near or below 7.0 percent. Hopefully your doctor has also explained to you that your A1c translates to an average blood glucose reading (known as your eAG: Estimated Average Glucose).
A1C Translation Chart to Average Glucose Level:
12% = 298 mg/dL (240 – 347) or 16.5 mmol/L
11% = 269 mg/dL (217 – 314) or 14.9 mmol/L
10% = 240 mg/dL (193 – 282) or 13.3 mmol/L
9% = 212 mg/dL (170 –249) or 11.6 mmol/L
8% = 183 mg/dL (147 – 217) or 10.0 mmol/L
7% = 154 mg/dL (123 – 185) or 8.3 mmol/L
6% = 126 mg/dL (100 – 152) or 6.6 mmol/L
But there’s another aspect of our A1C results that isn’t ever discussed, and that’s what our cells actually look like based on our A1C and overall blood glucose control.
To the right is a 3D model of the glucose that is actually sticking to your cells and proteins in your body as a result of a high A1C and high blood sugar average. The blue pieces represent the glucose. The A1C level represented in the model graphic is 12%, an average blood sugar reading of 298 mg/dL.
For people with diabetes, it’s inevitable that there will be some excess glucose stuck to your cells no matter how tight our control may be because it’s extremely difficult to attain non-diabetic blood glucose levels — but the more effort we put into maintaining ideal diabetic blood glucose levels (an A1C at/below 7.0, blood sugar averaging 70 to 160 mg/dL), the less glucose will stick and build up on our cells.
Steffen explains in-depth in this video:
Where Can You Find a 3D A1C Model?
Why haven’t you ever seen a model of your A1C in your doctor’s office? These models are a brand-spankin-new idea (that is raising funds through crowd funding to get started) brought to us by Casey Steffen and his small but powerful team at BiologicalModels. Steffen is a professional medical illustrator who also happens to live with type 1 diabetes. Usually, he’s creating scientific models that teach people about various proteins and molecules in the body, but after learning that his A1C actually implies a certain percentage of glucose sticking to the cells and proteins in the body, he was inspired to make a 3D model that truly showed this to patients.
- Does a 3D model illustrating the amount of glucose lingering in your body (where it is wanted) more motivating than a simple A1C percentage and a stern lecture from your doctor?
- If you could see the short-term consequences of higher blood sugars and high-carb indulgences by looking at the glucose that’s left behind, sticking to your cells where it shouldn’t be…would that inspire changes in your diabetes management behavior?
- Can the 3D visual help younger kiddos and teenagers with type 1 diabetes see the more short-term consequences of high blood sugar levels even though it can take years to develop into a diabetes complication?
Steffen’s goal is to get one of these model’s in every office where diabetic patients are seen: Endocrinology, Primary Care, and even OBGYN offices for women struggling with gestational diabetes. He aims to raise $5,000 through CrowdFunding (even $5 helps!) to fund the creation of the molds needed to make the models.
Make a donation — big or small — to help patients across American (and hopefully other countries eventually, too) see a 3D model of their A1C to inspire bigger and better changes in how they (or you) approach your diabetes on a daily basis. | <urn:uuid:72dfa652-7c5e-4d54-a542-1f9f26b94062> | {
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Principality of Monaco
An independent sovereign state located between the foot of the Southern Alps and the Mediterranean, the Principality of Monaco borders on several French villages: La Turbie, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Cap d'Ail et Beausoleil,cheap flights,
[General view of Monaco, Monte-Carlo]
In ancient history, the Rock of Monaco was a shelter for primitive populations. history of Monaco itself really started in the 13th Century. On 10th June 1215, the Genoan family of the Gibelins laid the first stone of the castle, which is still today the Prince's Palace. To attract new inhabitants, the initial masters of the Rock offered advantageous conditions to newcomers : territorial concessions, tax exemption. For 700 years, the history of Monaco has been linked to that of the Grimaldi Dynasty which has celebrated in 1997, the anniversary of its accession to the Principality of Monaco,car hire,
General view of Monaco, Monte-Carlo
The official language is French, although Italian and English are widely spoken.The traditional Monegasque language, "le Monegù", is spoken amongst elders and is taught in all local schools. The currency is Euro. Monegasque coins are used,hotel deals,
"Deo Juvante" (With God's Help) is the motto of Monaco and its Princes. Catholicism is the state religion. However, freedom of worship is guaranteed by the Constitution and several religions are represented in Monaco.The National Holiday is celebrated on 19th November every year. The national telephone code for Monaco is '377' and telecommunications are very efficient. Monaco prints its own stamps.
Based on the latest official census, there are 35,646 inhabitants in the Principality of Monaco of which 7,634 are Monegasque, 10,029 are French and 6,596 are Italian. Over 125 nationalities are represented. Monaco and the neighbouring French areas represent approximately 95,515 people,book holidays,
Benefiting from an ideal geographical location, the Principality of Monaco enjoys very mild winters and remarkably sunny summers, which tend not to be exceedingly hot. In fact, the results of a 60-year study show that the average temperature is 16° C, rain falls on less than 87 days per year and the sun shines 7 hours a day on average. Sea temperatures vary from 11° C in the winter to over 26° C in the middle of summer. Thanks to its Mediterranean climate, Monaco is a pleasant place to live all year round. In addition, it is worth noting that ski resorts in the Alps are only an hour's drive away. For further information, refer to the Key Figures page.lastbeds
* Note: Room prices change constantly. You should check the latest availability as in many cases the room price can be even lower than the listed price on the LastBeds website. | <urn:uuid:fb2820e9-f4b0-4f2e-b2f1-9b72f016f810> | {
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Since its inception, the oscilloscope is one test and measurement product that has seen a lot of transformations to deal with the needs of new technological advancements. “Recent advancements in analogue and digital electronics with growth in telecom, medical electronics, automotive and other sectors have brought revolutionary changes in the scope,” says Vivek Mantri, country manager, industrial segment, Scientech Technologies Pvt Ltd. Requirements have elevated measurement parameters from MHz to GHz, when it comes to bandwidth of the scope. He adds, “Right from an engineering student analysing his basic astable multivibrator to engineers testing and verifying complex designs, the oscilloscope is a useful tool.”
But, there are often some features and methods that are unused or missed-out while testing designs. In this attempt, we try to cover some important functions of the oscilloscope that would help you effectively use it and efficiently test your designs.
Use memory depth feature for finer signal analysis
While considering an oscilloscope, the obvious parameters that you look for are bandwidth, acquisition rate and sampling rate, but one feature that is often overlooked is memory depth. To achieve highly-accurate calculations, memory depth is said to be one of the top features of oscilloscopes today. This feature allows better monitoring, triggering and analysis of signals, especially applicable on those signals with high-frequency components. Obtaining extended time periods with the capability to zoom into the signal, without loss of data, allows an engineer to verify the hardware design in a swift and proper manner.
Some digital oscilloscopes provide the ability of encapsulating waveforms in long-memory mode. For standard oscilloscopes, memory depth ranges from 1kpt to 16kpt (pt is point). With the long-memory feature, oscilloscopes can capture complex signals in great detail over extended time periods. This allows test engineers to inspect effects of high frequency within the captured waveform.
Use peak-detect mode to calculate small pulses
When the sampling rate of a digital oscilloscope is not high enough to fully capture details of a signal, you can use peak-detect mode to help capture the envelope or narrow-pulse information that may be lost when using a normal-acquisition mode. To know the difference between normal mode and peak-detect mode, use an arbitrary waveform generator to output a signal. For example, the signal could be 1kHz in frequency, with 5V peak-to-peak amplitude and 10ns pulse width. Connect this signal to channel one of your oscilloscope and adjust the time base of the oscilloscope to 1ms/div, vertical scale to 1V/div and memory depth to 140kpt.
The acquisition, or acquire mode, on your oscilloscope is usually set to normal mode and in that mode, there are some pulses with varying amplitudes that are seen, but the display is not stable. By changing the mode to peak-detect mode, the amplitude of pulses is fixed and a stable view is available. Therefore to accurately measure narrow pulses using peak-detect mode on your scope, first configure the vertical and time-base scale to capture the signal. Then, choose peak-detect mode to get the exact information about narrow-pulse or peak features within the signal.
Use ground spring probes to achieve signal and noise quality
Most common factors that need to be tested for verifying the quality of every design, especially embedded systems, are data-transmission rate, signal quality and timing specifications. It is important to analyse the overall accuracy and system-level timing delays of an embedded design. Another common issue with testing and verification is noise, which can come from a variety of sources, including electromagnetic interference (EMI), bandwidth problems and bad grounding.
For noise-related issues, alligator clip ground strap, which connects on the probe, is normally used to establish a ground connection. Although connections are made correctly, noise could still be an issue, in which case it would be advisable to use the ground spring instead. Comparatively, the ground spring connects closer to the tip of the probe and significantly reduces the loop area of the connection, thereby improving the noise and signal quality.
If ground noise still persists, detaching your oscilloscope from ground could help. By isolating the rest of the device or the device under test, ground loops are eliminated.
Use precision probe for measurements at high bandwidth
Oscilloscopes have reached very high bandwidth levels today. For instance, Teledyne LeCroy introduced the first 100GHz real-time oscilloscope, and Keysight oscilloscopes offer bandwidth up to 63GHz. “But, you need to be very careful while taking measurements at high bandwidths, even if it is 16GHz or 20GHz, as the microwave effects from cables, connectors and other peripherals tend to distort signals,” informs Sanchit Bhatia, application engineer, Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd. The response waveform might not be absolutely clean. | <urn:uuid:ffd593a5-3aae-4870-923d-41d3d4b49847> | {
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Dung Beetles Steer By The Light Of The Milky Way
Sure, they’re most known for their close association with poop, but it looks like dung beetles may be smarter than we give them credit for. Scientists from South Africa and Sweden have discovered that the feces-munching insects use the star-filled swath of the Milky Way to steer in a straight line. This behavior makes it the only known animal to get directions in this manner.
Australian biologist Eric Warrant, an expert on dung beetles, tells io9, “It is indeed the Milky Way streak of light that is seen—and this streak is very noticeable in the Southern hemisphere.” He goes on to note that the beetles likely can’t discern individual stars—except for the very brightest—but pick up on the collective illumination.
“The Milky Way,” Warrant continues, “is a bright band of light made up of countless millions of stars, and this they can see and orient with respect to.” It basically gives them a steady landmark around which they can steer.
Marcus Byrne, a colleague of Warrant, earlier discovered that dung beetles use light sources, even the Moon, to orient themselves.
In cloudy, overcast conditions, the new study found that the beetles lost the ability to roll their valuable turd balls in a straight line. Under a starry sky, even one showing only the Milky Way, however, the insects were able to stay true to their course.
Here’s why that’s important. The crap ball is an important resource, one full of valuable nutrients. Warrant says, “[M]ale beetles invest much energy and time in creating and rolling a ball that will be used by a female to lay her egg within.” So it’s kind of like a mobile home that plays a part in raising your young. Also, if another beetle spies your sweet, perfectly formed ball of poo, they’re prone to trying to steal them, so it behooves you to move your shit from point A to point B as directly as possible. | <urn:uuid:8fd29b6a-0f5a-4e47-9a58-0653cc84948a> | {
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Apples are prized for their flavor and versatility. Listen to learn a little of the history surrounding this delicious fruit, as well as for tips on how to grow an apple tree in your yard.
This segment of The Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Musings podcast series was written by George and Becky Lohmiller and is read by Heidi Stonehill, an Almanac editor.
Since the time of the Pilgrims, apples have been America’s favorite fruit. As settlers poured into the New World, they brought with them the seeds and scions of their favorite apple varieties to plant around their homes and to establish commercial orchards. In 1625, William Blaxton planted the first orchard near Boston.
Apples were an essential crop, because they stored better than any other fruit and could be dried and preserved for winter use. This versatile fruit could be made into vinegar, cider, jams, jellies, and desserts, and was used in soups and stews when vegetables were in short supply.
Over the years, at least 7,000 varieties have been grown in the United States alone. About 1,000 of these antique apples are still available from specialized nurseries. You can enjoy some of your grandparents’ favorites, like the crisp and juicy ‘Baldwin’, first called the ‘Woodpecker’ when it was introduced in 1740. You might even want to sample Ben Franklin’s favorite apple, the ‘Newton Pippin’, considered one of the best dessert apples of that time.
Today’s dwarf apple trees bear full-size fruit but are easy to prune and pick. For really cramped quarters, try a “pole apple.” It grows only eight feet high and two feet wide.
Some folks have shied away from planting apple trees, because of the spraying they require, but new resistant varieties have changed all that. Four flavorful no-spray apples are ‘Liberty’, a slightly tart variety that stores well for months; ‘Freedom’, a bright-red, early-ripening variety; ‘Gold Rush’, a sweet, late-ripening yellow apple; and ‘Jonafree’, a flavorful variety bred from the old-time ‘Jonathan’ apple.
Apple trees should be planted with generations in mind, so choose the site carefully. They require a sunny spot with well-drained, average soil. Dig the planting hole twice as wide as the root ball and no deeper. When back filling, add some peat moss or compost with the dirt. Water twice a week for a month in the absence of rain. Most dwarf trees will bear fruit in three to five years. | <urn:uuid:7c20f5b9-5768-4ab9-906e-7d47fa2362ca> | {
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Even if you take the best possible care of her, your ferret is likely to become an unhappy host to a varied collection of parasites, either internal, external, or both. By knowing what to look for, you can help to eradicate most of these pests before they have the opportunity to harm your pet.
Routinely check your ferret's skin for signs of parasites, flea dropping (specks of hard, black "dirt") and dandruff. Also check her coat for lice eggs glued to the hair. Frequent or persistent scratching is a good indication that your ferret has a parasite problem.
Ear mites (Otodectes cynotis) are common in ferrets. You may have seen your ferret shaking her head or scratching her ears, but usually there are no signs. If, however, there is a severe infestation, you will notice inflammation of the external ear canal, severe itching and crusting, and there will be a brown waxy discharge from the ears. This discharge may also be the normal condition for some ferrets, and identification of ear mites by a veterinarian is necessary to be sure.
Fleas can be tracked down by the "dirt" they leave behind, even if you can't spot the fleas themselves. If you see hard, shiny drops of "dirt" on your ferret's skin, scrape some off and place the drops on a damp paper towel or tissue. If the dirt "bleeds" - shows red or pinkish - then your ferret has fleas.
Sarcoptic mange is not commonly found in ferrets. The symptoms, if these mites are present, include hair loss and severe itching at the site. Sometimes only the feet are affected, with the paws becoming inflamed, swollen, and crusted, and intense itching is present; in severe cases the foot can be lost (foot rot).
Ticks are easily diagnosed as they swell with blood and turn brownish white. If an engorged tick releases and drops to the floor, it can look almost like a rotting grape. To remove a tick, firmly pinch the skin around the tick and pull hard to extract the entire tick, including the head. Do not be afraid to take a bit of the ferret's skin and hair. This will make sure the tick's head is removed, and if left behind, the head can cause an infection. Put the extracted tick in a jar full of vinegar to kill it. (Flushing a tick down the toilet will not kill it.)
Botflies can cause cutaneous myiasis - cysts under the skin. Though this condition is not often seen in ferrets, in affected ones the larvae can be found in the neck region, readily seen through the swollen area and pore created for entry. "Fly strike" has been seen in ferrets that are kept outdoors. Kits at 4 to 5 weeks may be attacked, with eggs being laid on the face, neck, or flanks, and the larvae then bore into the skin, causing irritation. The resultant larvae infestation can cause lesions and sepsis or shock.
Internal parasites can pose a health risk to you as well as to your pet, and they are often difficult, if not impossible, to detect, except through blood tests and screenings performed by your veterinarian.
Parasites are most harmful to young kits and older debilitated ferrets. Prevention is key, so speak to your vet for instructions on how to safely use over-the-counter medications to worm your ferret as a matter of routine. If you see any symptoms, take your ferret to the vet immediately for a checkup. | <urn:uuid:4fe58616-563a-4ed3-8cc6-6e59c4b8e635> | {
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Washington, DC (CNN)Google has met few daring ideas it doesn’t like. But three years ago, the idea of a self-driving bicycle was just too much. It mocked the concept of an autonomous bicycle in an April Fools’ Day video. Why would anyone need a bike that rode itself?
Since then the electric bike and scooter-sharing craze has stormed into cities. Companies have burned through cash as fast as they’ve raised it, largely due to the high costs needed to pay a staff to corral badly parked scooters and re-charge them.
But now the joke might actually be on Google.
Startups, investors and even companies as big as Uber (UBER) are exploring self-driving bikes and scooters as a way to lower operations costs and soothe strained relations with cities.
Experts say autonomous scooters could one day independently move themselves to a better parking spot or a neighborhood where there’s more demand. These unoccupied vehicles, increasingly known as “ghost scooters,” might even drive themselves to pick up a rider, similar to an Uber or Lyft car. In some cases, humans in a teleoperations center would guide the scooters across streets and down sidewalks.
“We’re going to be laughing next year when there’s going to be a lot more semi-autonomous scooters and bikes than Waymos on the roads,” said Dmitry Shevelenko, co-founder of Tortoise, which builds autonomy into scooters.
Tortoise is among the companies automating scooters. It is finalizing a deal with an Atlanta suburb to test its autonomous technology and has struck partnerships with several global scooter operators.
The effort comes at a time when self-driving car and truck companies are delaying deployments as they work to prove their complex technology is safe. Scooters and bikes are lighter and slower than cars and trucks, making them simpler and cheaper to automate and operate remotely.
Another company, called CtrlWorks, is already testing its own autonomous scooters. The Singapore-based business operates a small fleet in Malaysia.
And Ninebot, one of the largest scooter manufacturers, unveiled an autonomous scooter earlier this year. “The holy grail is that I reserve a scooter, it comes to me and then I ride it to a bus station,” Tony Ho, Ninebot vice president of global business development, told CNN Business, of the general value of autonomous scooters. It plans to start a pilot on college campuses later this year.
Autonomous scooters and bikes are on Uber’s watch list, too. The rideshare company has a small team looking at how cheap sensors and computers could solve bike and scooter challenges. It found through early experiments the added costs of automating a bike or scooter would likely pay off with operations savings, according to Alan Wells, who leads new mobility robotics.
But not everyone’s convinced, including Sanjay Dastoor, CEO of Skip Scooters, which operates shared scooters in San Francisco and Washington, DC.
“If you want to build a very durable, long-lasting vehicle that doesn’t waste a lot of spare parts, that can be in conflict with a vehicle that has a bunch of advanced sensors on it,” Dastoor said.
Scooter companies are relying on cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors to safely guide their vehicles. Tortoise estimates the cost of automating a scooter at about $100 more in initial parts.
No matter how the financial picture turns out, cultural challenges will continue to loom. Scooter riding on sidewalks is controversial due to safety issues. When Singapore-based CtrlWorks launched scooters in its hometown last year, concerned pedestrians thought the vehicles were runaway scooters and tried to stop them. In some cases, children hopped on the slowly moving scooters, according to CEO Sim Kai.
CtrlWorks, which operates under the brand ScootBee, first had its scooters move at a brisk walk — 3.1 mph — but has since slowed them to below 2 mph now. “The last thing we want is to scare people,” Kai said.
Bolt, another scooter company, envisions autonomous scooters that deliver themselves to customers. It plans to limit its autonomous scooters to 1 mph during high-traffic times and 5 mph at night when sidewalks are largely vacant.
Autonomous scooters are in their earliest days, but some people believe their growth is inevitable. Matt Brezina, a San Francisco angel investor who has funded scooter, bike and autonomous vehicle startups, expects autonomous bikes and scooters to be a normal part of urban life in 10 years. But in the short term, he anticipates a backlash, including vandalism and theft.
“The next two years are going to be pretty rough. But it was not common 10 years ago to have a cell phone out at dinner and now everyone does,” Brezina said of how things will change over time.
Although scooter companies are racing to deploy scooters worldwide, the push for autonomy is a bit slower to help minimize the issues. Gradual rollouts will give people and governments more time to adjust and build a comfort level with the new technology.
“If a bigger company inundated a city and changed their fleet overnight, it would probably do more harm than good,” said Matt Turzo, chief operating officer of the European scooter operator Wind, which is working with Tortoise to test autonomy technology.
The two largest US scooter companies, Lime and Bird, which are known for how fast they move, both declined to comment on if they’re developing autonomous scooters.
No matter who is making autonomous scooters or how quickly they arrive, unknown challenges will arise too. “When it comes to cutting edge technologies, we just don’t know where the problems might lie,” Ninebot’s Ho said. “What if the scooter somehow wandered on its own and went rogue?” | <urn:uuid:17473f09-0e49-411f-9a73-49ef4964c359> | {
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Think of Japan, and you think of sushi. It’s a simple as that, isn’t it? Or is it? Because there is a whole world of sushi that you quite probably don’t know about.
For a start, did you know that it originally came from near present day Vietnam? Or that it was intended to be fast food that can be snacked upon with the fingers? Or how about the fact that the California roll actually comes from Vancouver? For more equally devastating bombshells, as well as practical advice on the fishy delicacy, read on for our Beginner’s Guide to Sushi!
As previously mentioned, sushi originated somewhere along the Mekong Delta, although that initial dish bears little resemblance to what many would consider sushi today. Originally a form of preservation, fish was salted and stored with fermented rice that was discarded to leave the preserved fish. This is reflected in the fact that the word ‘sushi’ comes from an antiquated word meaning ‘sour tasting’.
Sushi came to Japan via China in this fermented form – known today as ‘narezushi’ (馴れ寿司) – sometime around the eighth century and quickly became an important source of protein, particularly in the winter months. By the Muromachi Period (1336 to 1573) a form of sushi known as ‘namanare'(生成) had grown in popularity, as the still partially raw fish was eaten along with the rice before it had fully fermented, giving it a sour, savoury ‘umami‘ taste.
In the second century of the Edo Period (1603 to 1868) a new kind of fermentation was being experimented in the capital city of Edo (now Tokyo) using rice vinegar, a technique still in use today. In that same city in 1824 a man named Hanaya Yohei created a version of’ sushi that for the first time used raw fish with vinegared rice. This style of sushi preparation was for designed for fast making and faster eating (haya-zushi, 早寿司) and has now become popular all around the world.
There are many various kinds of sushi to choose from.
Nigirizushi is probably what most people think of when it comes to sushi. Formed by an oblong of vinegared rice molded between the palms of the sushi chef’s hands, the topping, or ‘neta’, is placed on top, often with a small amount of ‘wasabi’ between the two components. For some toppings which have a loose consistancy or are finely chopped and thus likely to fall off, a perimeter of nori seaweed is placed around the outer side to hold it all in place. This is called ‘gunkanmaki’ (軍艦巻) literally translated to ‘warship roll’. Another way in which nori is used is when a thin strip is used to hold certain neta in place, such as squid or eel. Servings of nigirizushi commonly come as two pieces on a small plate.
Another internationally well known form of sushi is ‘makizushi’ (巻き寿司), or sushi roll. This is a roll of rice with a filling formed by the use of a bamboo mat, and then held in place with an outer layer of nori (it is from this form of sushi which the California Roll comes, though the difference here is that the seaweed is usually on the inside). There are various kinds of makizushi such as the thick ‘futomaki’ (太巻) which consists of a number of fillings, or the thin roll of ‘hosomaki’ (細巻) which just has one. ‘Temaki’ (手巻) is a conical shaped roll with an open end that is difficult to eat with chopsticks, hence its name ‘hand roll’.
Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司) is perhaps the easiest sushi to prepare, being as it is a bowl of sushi rice topped with a variety of raw fish and vegetables or garnishes. There is no set menu for chirashizushi, and toppings can be specified by the customer, dictated by local custom or even by the chef’s preferences. It is popularly eaten during the Girls’ Day celebrations of Hina Matsuri.
If you happen to be in the Kansai area and see beautifully presented, blocked sushi, you have probably found ‘oshizushi’ (押し寿司). This form of sushi only uses cured or cooked fish – never raw – and is created by using a wooden mold into which the topping and then rice is placed before being firmly pressed to create aestheticly pleasing squares. One particularly elegant serving is ‘sasazushi’ which is presented in bamboo leaves.
If you have an adventurous side to you, you may want to try the aforementioned fermented narezushi. This dish is prepared by placing skinned, gutted, salted fish in a wooden barrel and squeezing out the water over a period of six months. Fans of Scandinavian dishes surströmning and hákarl may want to give it a try.
There are of course a wide range of sushi toppings. Below are a list of the ones you are most likely to come across in your local sushi restaurant.
For a fuller idea of what sushi toppings you can get, check out this list on Wikipedia.
There are two main types of restaurant at which you can get good sushi in Japan: the kaiten conveyer belt restaurants, or the sushi bar. For sushi newbies there are both pros and cons for either type of establishment.
Sushi bar pros: At the sushi bar you will be served by an ‘itamae’ (板前), a professional sushi chef who will hand-make everything to your specific order. Also, if he has time, your chef will be able to talk you through everything that you are eating and even make suggestions of what to try.
Sushi bar cons: This being Japan, unless you are relatively confident in your Japanese ability, you may have difficulty in speaking to your itamae. Also, if you bite into something you don’t like (I’m looking at you, natto!) it’s not so easy to subtly spit it out into a napkin.
Kaiten sushi pros: Most of these are chain restaurants, and being low priced – often at 100 JPY per dish – are family favourites and are thus very relaxed. The dishes spin past you on a conveyer belt and you can see what you are getting before grabbing it.
Kaiten sushi cons: It can be difficult, particularly in quieter times, to shake the suspicion that the piece of raw tuna that just went past your table hasn’t been doing the rounds for the previous hour. Also, while it is very convenient to grab whatever comes your way, in this fashion there is a good chance that you won’t learn what you’re eating, and you won’t know your aji from your ebi!
If you are still unsure of how to eat your sushi, check out this English language guide at the best way of doing it.
If you are in Tokyo, why not try out some of these great sushi restaurants.
By Mark Guthrie
Image: flickr.com "sushi" by kana hata (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) – Modified Image: flickr.com "sushi" by Jeremy Keith (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) – Modified Image: flickr.com "Makizushi (Sushi)" by Noemi Yukiko (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) – Modified Image: flickr.com "6/365: Chirashizushi #365project" by Kris Awesome (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) – Modified Image: flickr.com "Kakinohazushi (saba, sake)" by Ad Blankestijn (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) – Modified Image: flickr.com "鮒寿司" by Yasuo Kida (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) – Modified | <urn:uuid:85fff80e-1aba-492f-bc98-0d5257fe589a> | {
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“Wouldn’t you like to talk it over before having your people die?” Engaging Middle School Students in Inter-school Online Synchronous Discussions
While peer-to-peer online synchronous discussions offer students a means to engage those from other schools in discussions about matters of public importance, existing research offers middle school teachers limited insight into how best to conduct such discussions. This study examined the peer-to-peer interaction of three classes of students from three separate schools as they participated in a series of sequenced online synchronous discussions about why nations go to war. The results of the study suggest ways to strengthen the instructional support system provided during such discussions so as to foster better interschool and peer-to-peer participation and higher-level posts by students.
Journal of Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University | <urn:uuid:ccd2119b-bedf-4cd9-aee2-688d05fe4f17> | {
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A superbug that can shake off a last-ditch antibiotic called colistin has been alarming the global health community since 2015. It first turned up in hogs on a Chinese farm and has since been found in 30 other countries, including the United States. According to a new paper by Rutgers and Columbia University researchers, colistin-resistant E. coli has been here since August 2014 at the latest—and the particular strain they found is also resistant to another family of last-resort antibiotics, carbapenems.
To learn more about the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the research team took a fresh look at old samples of E. coli taken from patients at a New Jersey hospital. The worrisome strain appeared in a urine sample taken in 2014 from a 76-year-old man with a urinary tract infection. At the time, the case was fairly routine—the man’s UTI was cured by common antibiotics. But when the researchers re-analyzed the sample this year, they found the E. coli in it could withstand both colistin and carbapenems—the first bacteria identified in the United States with resistance to both drugs.
Worse still, gene sequencing showed that the genes that gave the E. coli strain the ability to resist the two crucial drugs aren’t just any old genes. They exist on what’s known as a plasmid, a DNA fragment that readily jumps from one bacterium to another. The E. coli strain’s plasmids were “highly similar” to the ones found in that Chinese hog last year. These so-called “plasmid-mediated” genes that deliver colistin and carbapenems resistance can theoretically bounce over to other strains—including ones that have already developed resistance to other antibiotics. Indeed, the New Jersey strain proved to be resistant to “several” other classes of antibiotics in addition to colistin and carbapenems, the researchers found.
It’s also chilling that this superstrain of E. coli turned up in a UTI case. E. coli is the most common trigger of UTIs, which in turn are “among the most common infections in people,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These strains are probably already in the community and could spread further, essentially building toward a situation where you’re going to have difficult if not impossible to treat urinary infections,” Rutgers’ José Mediavilla, a lead author on the study, said in a press release. Thus a condition that used to be an easily cured annoyance could morph into a serious public health threat—lingering UTIs can trigger kidney damage and even sepsis.
The slow unraveling of antibiotics as a tool to fight infections is intimately related to modern meat production, which for decades has relied on antibiotics to make animals put on weight faster and fight off disease in tight, unsanitary conditions. While overuse in human medicine surely plays a role, nearly 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States flow into livestock farms, the latest FDA figures show. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the UK government, and other public health authorities warn that overuse of drugs in meat farming are a key generator of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, which cause 90,000 US deaths annually, while also racking up $55 billion in costs and causing 8 million additional days that people spend in the hospital, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The researchers contend that poultry—especially chicken, the low-cost, low-fat protein that Americans eat more than any other meat—is the bridge that allows resistant bacteria to move to humans, taking up residence in the body and sparking infections when conditions are right. Touching raw meat that contains the resistant bacteria, or coming into environmental contact with it—say, by eating lettuce that was cross-contaminated—are easy ways to become infected.
Since that time, the US poultry industry has begun to move away from reliance on antibiotics, a story I told here. But as I showed in my piece—and as that rogue colistin-resisting gene underlines—these reforms may be too little, too late. Resistant pathogens cross borders in all kinds of ways—in traveling people, in food exports, and in wild birds, for example. And as the US meat industry finally begins to wean itself from routine antibiotics, China is moving in the opposite direction, as the below chart from my article shows. Indeed, colistin itself has never been routinely used on US farms, but it’s quite common on China’s vast and growing hog and fish facilities. | <urn:uuid:9b3033fe-d70a-4752-8e4c-757ff463a663> | {
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A Patient's Guide to Artificial Joint Replacement of the Thumb
If nonsurgical treatments are not successful in easing problems of thumb arthritis, your doctor may recommend replacing the surfaces of the joint. Joint replacement surgery is called arthroplasty.
This guide will help you understand
- which parts of the thumb are involved
- how surgeons perform this surgery
- what to expect before and after surgery
Which parts of the thumb are involved?
The CMC joint (an abbreviation for carpometacarpal joint) of the thumb is where the metacarpal bone of the thumb attaches to the trapezium bone of the wrist. This joint is sometimes referred to as the basal joint of the thumb. The CMC is the joint that allows you to move your thumb into your palm, a motion called opposition.
Several ligaments (bands of strong tissue) hold the joint together. These ligaments join to form the joint capsule of the CMC joint. The joint capsule is a watertight sac around the joint.
The joint surfaces are covered with a material called articular cartilage. This material is the slick, spongy covering that allows one side of a joint to slide against the other joint surface easily. When this material wears out, the joint develops a type of arthritis called osteoarthritis and becomes painful.
Related Document: A Patient's Guide to Hand Anatomy
What does the surgeon hope to achieve?
Arthritic joint surfaces can be a source of stiffness, pain, and swelling. The artificial joint is used to replace the damaged joint surfaces so patients can do their activities with less pain. Unlike a fusion surgery that simply binds the joint together, arthroplasty can help take away pain while allowing the thumb joint to retain movement.
Related Document: A Patient's Guide to Arthritis of the Thumb
How should I prepare for surgery?
The decision to proceed with surgery must be made jointly by you and your surgeon. You need to understand as much about the procedure as possible. If you have concerns or questions, you should talk to your surgeon.
Once you decide on surgery, you need to take several steps. Your surgeon may suggest a complete physical examination by your regular doctor. This exam helps ensure that you are in the best possible condition to undergo the operation.
A second purpose of the preoperative visit is to prepare you for your surgery. You'll begin learning some of the exercises you'll use during your recovery. And your therapist can help you anticipate any special needs or problems you might have at home, once you are released from the hospital.
On the day of your surgery, you will probably be admitted to the hospital early in the morning. You shouldn't eat or drink anything after midnight the night before.
What happens during surgery?
Before we describe the procedure, let's look first at the artificial thumb joint itself.
The Artificial Thumb Joint
Surgeons have several ways to replace the thumb joint surfaces. One way is to attach the ends of a prosthesis implant into the bones of the thumb joint. A newer method uses a small, marble-shaped implant to form the new joint surfaces. This spherical implant works like a ball bearing to give the joint a smooth arc of movement.
The procedure to put in the prosthesis implant takes about two hours to complete. The newer method using the ball implant takes 30 to 60 minutes. Surgery may be done using a general anesthetic, which puts you completely to sleep, or a local anesthetic, which numbs only the hand. With a local anesthetic you may be awake during the surgery, but you won't be able to see the surgery.
Once you have anesthesia, your surgeon will make sure the skin of your hand is free of infection by cleaning the skin with a germ-killing solution.
In this procedure, an incision is made across the base of the thumb. The soft tissues are spread apart with a retractor. Special care is taken not to damage the nearby nerves going to the thumb. The joint capsule is opened, exposing the CMC joint. The ends of the bones that form the CMC joint surfaces are taken off, forming flat surfaces.
A burr (a small cutting tool) is used to make a canal into the bones that form the thumb joint. The surgeon sizes the stem of the prosthesis to ensure a snug fit into the canal and inserts it. When the new joint is in place, the surgeon wraps the joint with a strip of nearby tendon. This gives the new implant some added protection and stability.
The skin is stitched together and a splint applied.
View animation of joint surface removal
View animation of canal formation
View animation stem sizing and insertion
View animation of tendon strip addition
The newer method for replacing the thumb joint is to use a spherical implant that looks much like a marble. The surgeon makes a small, one-inch incision at the base of the thumb joint. The ends of the bones that form the CMC joint surfaces are removed, forming flat surfaces.
A burr is used to make a small notch, or canal, in the ends of the two bones. The surgeon shapes the notch so the ball-shaped implant will fit snugly in the joint. The implant is placed between the ends of the shaped bones.
The soft tissues are sewn together, and the thumb is splinted and bandaged.
View animation of joint surface removal
View animation of notch formation
View animation of shaping the notch
View animation of implanting the sphere
What might go wrong?
As with all major surgical procedures, complications can occur. This document doesn't provide a complete list of the possible complications, but it does highlight some of the most common problems. Some of the most common complications following artificial thumb joint replacement are
- nerve damage
- prosthesis failure
Problems can arise when the anesthesia given during surgery causes a reaction with other drugs the patient is taking. In rare cases, a patient may have problems with the anesthesia itself. In addition, anesthesia can affect lung function because the lungs don't expand as well while a person is under anesthesia. Be sure to discuss the risks and your concerns with your anesthesiologist.
Any operation carries a small risk of infection. Replacing the CMC joint with an artificial joint is no different. You will probably be given antibiotics before the operation to reduce the risk of infection. If an infection occurs you will most likely need antibiotics to cure it. You may need additional operations to drain the infection if it involves the area around either implant. In these cases, the artificial joint will need to be removed. A second operation will probably be necessary to fuse the thumb or to perform an arthroplasty that does not require an artificial prosthesis.
All of the nerves and blood vessels that go to the thumb travel across, or near, the CMC joint. Since the operation is performed so close to these important structures, it is possible to injure either the nerves or the blood vessels during surgery. The result may be temporary if the nerves have been stretched by retractors holding them out of the way. It is uncommon to have permanent injury to either the nerves or the blood vessels, but it is possible.
One problem that occurs with artificial replacements is that they can fail. The older silicon-type prosthesis has been shown to break apart and fragment. Most types of prostheses can displace, or move out of the correct position, causing problems. Most of these problems will require a second operation to remove the prosthesis and may need to be repaired with a procedure called an excision arthroplasty.
Related Document: A Patient's Guide to Resection (Excision) Arthroplasty of the Thumb
What happens after surgery?
After surgery, your thumb will be bandaged with a well-padded dressing and a splint for support. The splint will keep the thumb in a natural position during healing. Your surgeon will want to check your hand within five to seven days. Stitches will be removed after 10 to 14 days, though most of your stitches will be absorbed into your body. You may have some discomfort after surgery. You will be given pain medicine to control the discomfort.
You should keep your hand elevated above the level of your heart for several days to avoid swelling and throbbing. Keep it propped up on a stack of pillows when sleeping or sitting up.
What should I expect during my rehabilitation?
A physical or occupational therapist will direct your recovery program. The time it takes to rehabilitate depends on the type of procedure used. Recovery takes up to three months after replacement with a prosthesis implant. Patients wear an arm-length cast with the thumb pointing out for about three weeks after this type of joint replacement surgery.
Patients are able to return to normal activity within three to five weeks after having spherical implant surgery. Recovery is faster because the procedure doesn't require the surgeon to disturb the tendons near the joint. Range-of-motion exercises can start within one week after surgery using the ceramic ball.
The first few physical therapy treatments will focus on controlling the pain and swelling from surgery. Heat treatments may be used. Your therapist may also use gentle massage and other hands-on treatments to ease muscle spasm and pain.
Then you'll begin gentle range-of-motion exercise. Strengthening exercises are used to give added stability around the thumb joint. You'll learn ways to grip and support items in order to do your tasks safely and with the least amount of stress on your thumb joint. As with any surgery, you need to avoid doing too much, too quickly.
Some of the exercises you'll do are designed get your hand and thumb working in ways that are similar to your work tasks and daily activities. Your therapist will help you find ways to do your tasks that don't put too much stress on your thumb joint. Before your therapy sessions end, your therapist will teach you a number of ways to avoid future problems.
Your therapist's goal is to help you keep your pain under control, improve your strength and range of motion, and regain your fine motor abilities with your hand and thumb. When you are well under way, regular visits to your therapist's office will end. Your therapist will continue to be a resource, but you will be in charge of doing your exercises as part of an ongoing home program. | <urn:uuid:9f56a644-1def-47ea-82f7-e5361414b6c2> | {
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The Lisp reader takes characters from a stream, interprets them as a printed representation of an object, constructs that object, and returns it.
The syntax described by this chapter is called the standard syntax. Operations are provided by Common Lisp so that various aspects of the syntax information represented by a readtable can be modified under program control; see Section 23 (Reader). Except as explicitly stated otherwise, the syntax used throughout this document is standard syntax.
2.1.2 Variables that affect the Lisp Reader
2.1.3 Standard Characters
2.1.4 Character Syntax Types | <urn:uuid:eb8d167a-f7c0-42bd-9c1e-11b16685dfbf> | {
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rlp writes "Researchers at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich are reporting that solar sunspot activity is at a 1000-year peak. Records of sunspots have been kept since 1610. The period between 1645 and 1715 (known as the Maunder Minimum) was a period of very few sunspots. Researchers extended the record by measuring isotopes of beryllium (created by cosmic rays) in Greenland ice cores. Based on both observations and ice core records, we are now at a sunspot peak exceeding solar activity for any time in the past thousand years." | <urn:uuid:aa3de514-9344-47e4-8ad5-e63e525c8869> | {
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