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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies with either relatively high or relatively low levels of manganese in their blood may be slower to hit certain developmental milestones in their first year than other infants, a new study suggests.
The findings do not prove that manganese -- which is present in food, water, air and soil -- is the reason for the slower development. But they are in line with the general understanding of manganese -- that small amounts in the diet are necessary for normal nervous system function, while high amounts can be harmful.
What's new in this study is that it focused on manganese levels in the first few years of life, and whether there might be any effects of relatively low-level environmental exposure on the still-developing brain.
Most of what's been known about the health effects of elevated manganese levels has come from studies of workers heavily exposed to the element on the job, explained lead researcher Dr. Birgit Claus Henn, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
In their study, Henn and her colleagues found that at the age of 12 months, children in either the bottom 20 percent or the top 20 percent for blood manganese levels had lower scores on a standard test of mental development than those whose manganese levels fell in between.
On the other hand, blood manganese at age 2 was not related to mental development scores. And while there was still a relationship between manganese levels at age 12 months and mental-development scores at older ages, the connection was weaker, the researchers report in the journal Epidemiology.
Because the study is the first to look at blood manganese levels and brain development in children this age, the findings should be "interpreted cautiously," Henn told Reuters Health in an email.
However, she said, "if our findings are confirmed in other studies, the results suggest that both low and high manganese levels may have adverse effects on neurodevelopment among young children, especially at 1 year of age, which may be a sensitive time point."
Manganese is a natural component of rock and soil, and people are routinely exposed to it through air, water and food, including grains, fruits and vegetables. It is also used in industry, mainly in steel production, and heavy occupational exposure to manganese can be toxic to nerve cells -- leading to symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and Parkinson-like problems like slowed movement and coordination problems.
For the current study, Henn and her colleagues followed 448 Mexican children from birth to age 3. Every six months, the children were given standard tests of mental development, including measures of vocalization and communication, memory and problem-solving -- such as tackling simple goals like reaching a toy.
In general, children in the bottom and top 20 percent for blood manganese at the age of 12 months scored about three points lower than their peers on the mental development.
According to Henn, that difference is akin to what has been seen when young children's blood levels of lead -- which is known to harm early brain development -- rise from 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood (mcg/dL) to 30 mcg/dL. (Lead levels of 10 mcg/dL or higher are considered to be potentially dangerous in young children.)
According to U.S. health officials, the "normal" range of manganese levels in the blood is between 4 and 14 micrograms per liter (mcg/L) of blood. However, that range is not age-specific, Henn and her colleagues point out, and there is currently no clear "normal" for young children.
In this study, children in the bottom 20 percent for manganese at the age of 12 months had levels below roughly 20 mcg/L. In the top 20 percent, levels were higher than 28 mcg/L.
It is not certain that the manganese levels themselves were responsible for the relatively lower mental-development scores. The researchers did account for a number of other factors -- including blood lead levels and mothers' IQ and education levels -- and the connection remained.
However, Henn said that it is still possible that other factors, such as exposures to other environmental toxins, could explain the findings.
For now, she said, there are some steps parents can take to limit young children's exposure to manganese while ensuring that they also get enough of it. Manganese is present in some fertilizers and fungicides, for instance, so parents can try to limit their children's exposure to those products.
Henn also noted that while manganese levels in public drinking water are regulated, there can be high levels in well water. So avoiding that water source may be helpful.
On the other hand, Henn said, it is rare for people to be overexposed to manganese through food. So parents should make sure that their children get the healthful foods -- including whole grains and green, leafy vegetables -- that contain manganese.
SOURCE: http://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2010/07000/early_postnatal_blood_manganese_levels_and.1.aspx Epidemiology, July 2010.
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Understanding the Omer
The Torah Portion outlines the mitzvot involved with the Omer offering. On the second day of Pesach we are commanded to bring an offering of barley in the Temple and the Torah further instructs us to count 49 days from the offering until the day before Shavuot.
Rav Yosef Salant in his work 'Be'er Yosef,' asks a number of questions about the Omer.(1) Amongst them he notes that the Omer offering was the same volume as the other similar offerings - a tenth of an eiphah . Yet this is the only offering in which the volume is described by the name 'Omer' as opposed to simply saying, 'a tenth of an eiphah.' (2) What is the significance of this change in name?
Secondly, he brings the Sefer HaChinuch who writes that purpose of Sefiras HaOmer (counting the Omer) is to count towards the day of the Giving of the Torah (Matan Torah), Shavuot. We count to demonstrate our excitement about reaching this holy day.(3) Rav Salant points out that from the Sefer HaChinuch's explanation it is difficult to see any specific connection between the Omer and Matan Torah, rather it simply seems that there were 49 days between the two events and so we count from one towards the other. Is there a connection between the seemingly separate occasions of the Omer offering and Shavuot?
He answers the first question by noting that the other time the word 'Omer' is used in the Torah is with regard to the Manna that the Jews received in the desert. In the Portion of Beshalach the Torah states that God commanded the people to gather from the Manna, "an Omer per person." (4) The Midrash also connects the Omer offering with the Manna. It tells us that the Omer offering was some kind of acknowledgement from the Jewish people to God of the Manna that they received in the desert.
Rav Salant explains that during their time in the desert the people did not have to exert any effort in order to attain their sustenance. The Manna came directly from heaven without any input from the people. Further, no matter how much Manna a person tried to gather, he would never be able to take more than he was allotted, rather he would receive exactly what he needed. Because their sustenance was provided for, the people were free to involve themselves in learning Torah and serving God.
However, when they entered the land of Israel, the Manna from heaven stopped and they were required to acquire their livelihood through physical effort. With this change came a new danger: When a person sees his toiling bear fruit, there is the risk that his reliance on God will weaken and he will come to attribute his success to his own hard work. In order to prevent this from happening, the Torah gave us the Omer offering; we offer the first produce of the season to God, acknowledging that only He is the Source of our sustenance and not our own physical effort. By connecting the Omer to the Manna through the same term of volume, the Torah stresses that in truth there was no difference in how we attained our food in the desert and in Israel. In the same way that God provided us with food in the desert, He was the source of our sustenance once that miraculous period ended. The only difference is that now we no longer merited to experience open miracles and therefore we had to exert a measure of physical effort in order to attain our livelihood.
The 'Be'er Yosef' adds a beautiful proof of the connection between the Manna and the Omer. He brings the Gemara in Kiddushin that says that the Manna stopped falling when Moses died, but the people continued to eat what was remaining until they entered the land on the 16th of Nissan.(5) We also bring the Omer offering on that very date! Thus, every year, we begin counting the Omer on the day that the Manna stopped to further teach ourselves that the sustenance represented by the Omer is a continuation of the sustenance epitomized by the Manna.
He then goes on to explain the connection between the Omer and Shavuot. Thus far we have seen how the Omer teaches us that our livelihood ultimately comes from God. However, this awareness is not sufficient; we must also realize that earning a livelihood is not an end in itself, rather it is a means to a greater end - to enable us to have enough peace of mind so that we can focus on our spiritual activities without being overburdened by concerns about our livelihood. In this vein, the Torah connects the counting of the Omer to Shavuot to teach us that the purpose of the sustenance that is symbolized by the Omer is to take us to Matan Torah, to enable us to learn and observe the Torah effectively. Thus, for forty nine days we count the Omer, thereby infusing ourselves with the realization that God is the only Source of our livelihood and moreover, that His purpose in doing so is to enable us to get close to Him through learning and keeping his Torah.
The lessons of the Manna have had great relevance throughout Jewish history. In the time of the Prophet Jeremiah, the people had made working a greater priority than learning Torah. Jeremiah exhorted them to make learning Torah their main focus. They replied by claiming that they needed to focus totally on their work in order to survive.(6) Jeremiah responded by bringing out a container of Manna that was stored in the Temple.(7) He showed them that God has many ways of providing man with his livelihood and that he should realize the futility of focusing on one's physical sustenance to the exclusion of his spiritual well-being.
We no longer have the container of Manna to arouse us, however we still have the mitzvah of counting the Omer - it stands as a constant reminder that there is no benefit in working beyond the boundaries of acceptable physical effort because ultimately God is the sole provider of our livelihood. Moreover, it teaches us to remember that the purpose of having our physical needs is so that we can focus on growing closer to God.(8) These lessons are applied differently to each individual, there is no 'right' amount of time one should spend working, learning, and being involved in other spiritual pursuits. However, during this period of Sefiras HaOmer it is worthwhile for each person to spend a little time contemplating the balance of his involvement in spirituality and physicality. Does he work more than is really necessary? In his spare time, does he focus on his family and learning Torah, or does he 'bring his work home with him'? By asking such questions a person can hopefully internalize the lessons of the Omer.
1. Parshas Emor, p.48-55.
2. This is a dry measure containing the volume of 43.2 average eggs (Artscroll Chumash, Parshas Emor, p. 684).
3. Sefer HaChinuch, Mitzvo 306.
4. Parshas Beshalach, 16:16.
6. One commentary writes that this incident occurred in a time of famine.
7. See Parshas Beshalach, Ch.16:32, where Moses instructs Aaron to place this container in the Tabernacle as a reminder for future generations of the lessons of the Manna. Rashi brings this incident in his commentary to that verse.
8. In this vein the Rambam explains that all the physical blessings promised in the Shema for keeping the Torah are not the ultimate reward. Rather, Hashem rewards us by providing for our livelihood so that we can focus on spirituality, for the true reward for keeping Mitzvos is the opportunity to do more Mitzvos. | <urn:uuid:2fbb90a4-7e04-4492-9970-f5e5f714cfb8> | {
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Recently, a colleague sent me the following question:
A friend in Canada tested positive for H. pylori bacteria. Of course, the Western doctor he goes to wanted to start heavy antibiotic treatment. Plus, he said he would need to be on some ‘pill’ for the rest of his life! He is refusing until he can seek out alternative answers to this. He is 70 yrs. old, does not have a hiatal hernia, just a bit of indigestion at times.
What is Helicobacter pylori?
Helicobacter pylori is a common bacterium that many have with or without any noticeable symptoms. Recently a study found that Otzi, the 5,300-year-old ice-mummy, was also infected with H. pylori. Today it is estimated that it is present in about half the population.
H. pylori is known to produce an enzyme, urease, that allows the bacteria to live in harsh acidic environments such as the stomach. Urease reacts with urea to form ammonia which can neutralize enough of the stomach acid to allow organisms to survive in tissues for years. It is highly contagious and is transmitted through saliva, fecal contamination in food or water, and poor hygienic practices in general. As stated, the good news is that most people do not exhibit any symptoms. However, if enough of the stomach acid is neutralized, it can be a factor behind many acute gastrointestinal problems such as gastritis and GI tract ulcers.
The Herbal Approach to GI Inflammation
I’ve been involved with the study and practice of herbal medicine since 1968. In all of that time, I focused on treating the patient more than the disease. This is because my model, traditional herbalism, does not focus on treating specific pathogens associated with a disease, but the whole disease complex itself.
In other words, a Western herbalist may treat gastrointestinal symptoms caused by H. pylori with herbs not specifically targeted to eradicating the bacterium, but with herbs that reliably treat ulcers, abdominal and acid reflux. An Ayurvedic herbalist might treat these conditions as a humoral imbalance of excess pitta. A traditional Chinese herbalist would treat it based on Eight Principles and pattern analysis. In all three models, there is no particular advantage in testing and discovering that the inflammation is caused by H. pylori.
Today, many complementary health practitioners seeking to impress their patients too often resort to describing their diseases based on a Western medical model. The problem is that herbs are more food-like than drugs, exerting a broader function on restoring homeostasis and health. Still, many herbs do have specific tropisms or indications. For the patient described above, look to herbs that treat symptoms of ulcers, acid reflux, belching, bloating, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain as symptoms of gastritis. All of these conditions are effectively treated with dietary and herbal treatment.
So while I’ve not treated H. pylori as a discrete entity, I have had a lot of experience successfully treating all the conditions previously mentioned. Because people have responded positively, I can only assume that the diet and herbs I prescribe regularly such as Triphala inhibit the growth of H. pylori.
Herbs for Gastritis, Acid Reflux, and GI Tract Ulcers
Bitters, triphala, goldenseal, and coptis are among the many botanical remedies taken singly or in a formula for treating gastritis, acid reflux, and gi tract ulcers. These herbs treat a broad range of gastric imbalances but have also substantiated research that they are effective for H. pylori.
Berberine is a constituent of herbs such as goldenseal, coptis, barberry, Oregon grape and the Ayurvedic herb guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia). All of these have been shown to have broad-spectrum antibiotic and antipathogenic properties. Studies in vitro have demonstrated that berberine can inhibit H pylori. While these may not be robust enough to eradicate the organism entirely (if that is even possible), when used in a compound herbal formulation for gastritis, or in bitters, along with probiotic foods and a balanced diet, they will certainly contribute to a multilayered comprehensive gut healing regime.
Triphala, an ancient Ayurvedic healing compound consisting of three fruits, Terminalia belerica, T. emblica, commonly known as “amla” and T. Chebula or black myrobalan (Chinese: he zi), also has broad spectrum antipathogenic properties. Chebula or black myrobalan has been cited as effective against all harmful bacteria and specifically effective for inhibiting urease active of H. pylori.
The remaining two fruits in Triphala are also effective against H. pylori, especially amla (T. emblica). Amla fruit is one of the greatest antioxidants in the plant kingdom and is highly regarded both for its nutritional and for its medicinal benefits. It is claimed as one of the two or three highest known sources of natural tannins and Vitamin C which is impervious to both age and heating. Research confirms what native people of India have known for millennia, that Amla is good for the health of the whole body, especially the liver and GI tract. It is an effective treatment for gastritis, Crohn’s, iBS, stomach and duodenal ulcers and to inhibit the growth of H. pylori in the stomach.
Tinospora cordifolia, called “guduchi” and “the body’s protector” is bitter, pungent and astringent with a post-digestive ‘sweet’ effect meaning that it is an antipathogenic herb with tonic-nutritive properties. It is one of the most powerful antipathogenic herbs of special benefit for inflammatory gastric disorders.
Deglycyrrhizinated licorice root (DGL) is a well-established anti-ulceration and mucosal healing agent. DGL can coat and soothe the intestinal lining and promote the healing of inflamed tissue and ulcers. Research suggests that flavonoids in licorice have impressive antimicrobial activity against H. pylori. The flavonoids have been shown to have antimicrobial activity against strains of H. pylori that were resistant to clarithromycin and amoxicillin, two of the primary antibiotics used in triple therapy. Some forms of licorice can elevate blood pressure but because DGL has low glycyrrhizin levels it is safe to take if you have high blood pressure.
Sulforaphane is a naturally occurring chemical found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and brussels sprouts. Some studies have demonstrated that it can inhibit H. pylori. Eating cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli sprouts, will ensure that you get plenty of sulforaphane, but it is also available in capsule form from several supplement manufacturers, including a product called Broccomax.
Some studies have suggested that Vitamin C may inhibit and even kill H. pylori but more research is needed to determine the optimal dosing and program duration. Even if Vitamin C does not eradicate H. pylori, it is still worth taking a controlled dose because studies clearly show that Vitamin C levels in the stomach lining can be reduced when H. pylori is present, largely as a result of the inflammatory and oxidative stress caused by the infection. Vitamin C is also an excellent nutrient for assisting with gut healing.
Vitamin U – also known as MSM – is found in raw cabbage. In fact, Vitamin U is not a vitamin at all. Cabbage juice has been studied extensively in Russia and other Eastern European countries for the healing of damaged and eroded intestinal mucosa. It appears to enhance the healing of damaged tissue and may assist in healing ulcers.
When I consider what the most useful single herb I know with these same antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal – in fact, every ‘anti’ property we would need to fight off harmful pathogens-is, it is Isatis tinctoria, an herb commonly known in old English as “woad,” meaning “weed.” As an ancient East – West cruciferous family medicinal herb, it happens to have all of the same antipathogenic sulfur compounds found in cruciferous vegetables and of course biologic MSM sulfur. Both the leaf and the root of Isatis are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine called da qing ye and ban lan gen respectively. These are classified as bitter and cold, which from an herbalist’s perspective means they are broadly antipathogenic and reserved for short-term use to treat the most stubborn pathogens such as viruses but are equally effective for bacteria and funguses as well. | <urn:uuid:aadef97c-90cf-4096-9334-d0065f1936fa> | {
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The area around Old Road in Lee was one of the three original parts of Lee – a three centred village, the other concentrations being around the original St Margaret’s Church and Lee Green. Old Road at various stages was ‘home’ to some of the largest houses in the district, the first two of which were at least partially funded through slavery – Lee Place, the Manor House, The Firs, Cedar House (which was at the top of what is now Aislabie Road) and Lee House (roughly where the Lee Centre is now). The final one that still remains is Pentland House, known for a while in the second half of the 19th century as Foclallt House – shown in the mid 1860s surveyed Ordnance Survey map below (1).
It is a Grade II listed building which was built at the end of the 17th century, probably by a John Smith on land bought from the Boones of Lee Place – on the opposite side of Lee Road. It predated the adjacent Manor House by about a decade and is probably the oldest inhabited building in Lewisham.
It seems that the house stayed in the ownership of the Smith family for about 170 years – the commonness of the name though, may have hidden some elements of the past. Around 100 years after the house was built its occupant was Matthew Smith, who became Mayor of the Tower of London in 1793.
It seems that Matthew Smith moved out at the beginning of the century, and let the house, initially to Sir Thomas Baring whilst his father, Sir Francis, lived next door at the Manor House. Pentland House was then home to a ladies boarding school which taught ‘French language and manners’. It was run by William Grimani who was probably a Hugenot refugee. He was one of the signatories of the Lee Petition in 1814 – one of part of a campaign begun to insert a clause in the treaty with France to make France abolish their slave trade, which had been reintroduced by Napoleon.
Matthew Smith died in 1812 and his son, also Matthew, inherited the house; he was a navy Captain with a less than distinguished record – his vessel was sunk after hitting a rock and he was court martialled and dismissed from the service in relation to an incident in 1794. While he appealed and was re-instated, he never commanded a ship again.
Matthew Smith did not extent the lease of Pentland House to Grimani beyond 1822 moving in himself and making major alterations. The building was extended to the east, almost to the boundary with the Manor House, probably adding the Doric porch at around the same time. It seems that rather than repairing the external brickwork on original house, the entire structure was rendered.
Lee Place was demolished and sold after its last tenant Benjamin Aislabie moved out in 1824, Smith bought one of the lots, the land opposite – now surrounded by the newer part of Old Road, Market Terrace on Lee High Road and the western side of Bankwell Road. It had been used as a kitchen garden but seems to have been converted into an orchard (as the Ordnance Survey map above shows).
Matthew Smith appears to have moved to Richmond before his death and let Pentland House to another naval family Admiral Sir George Martin, whose wife, Ann, was sister of Rev. George Lock, then Rector of Lee. The couple were there, along with two servants, when the census enumerators first visited Lee in 1841. Ann died a year later and it seems that Sir George moved to central London – he died in Berkeley Square in 1847.
When Matthew Smith died in 1844, he left the house to his nephew Colonel Bellingham J. Smith. He was still there in the 1851 census where he was described as a ‘fund holder’, aged 60 – the other occupants were his wife Priscilla and four servants.
While Bellingham Smith sold up in 1856, it was another Smith that bought the house – the unrelated John T Smith, a retired Colonial Marine Engineer who lived there with his wife Maria Sarah with 10 children living at home in 1861 and 6 in 1871. It was a family that had moved around the Empire a lot with children born in India, the East Indies and South Africa before arriving in Lee where one of their children was born in 1859. Living in one of the larger houses in the area they clearly had standards to maintain – there were 9 servants in 1861, a complement that had grown by 2 in 1871.
It seems to have been John Smith that changed its name to Foclallt House, it is referred to as this in electoral registers in the 1860s. Where this name came from isn’t clear though; it is a Welsh word although the only definitive reference elsewhere is to a farm of that name near Tregarron.
The house was sold on to Robert Whyte in the early 1870s; the Whytes were already in Lee in the 1860s, living at 126 Lee Park in 186. Robert Whyte’s father was described as a Colonial Merchant. By the time Robert (snr) died in 1869 the family was living further down Lee Road at 20. Where Robert was listed as the head of household in 1871. During the 1870s they moved to Old Road, returning the Pentland to the House name.
Whyte, according to F W Hart, the Victorian historian of Lee, ‘modernised the interior and improved the whole for domestic and personal convenience, so as to render it available for the requirements of the present age.’ By 1881 he had married Ruth (nee Jay) and they already had 4 children and 6 live-in servants, he was listed as a ‘General Merchant’ in the census. In 1891 there were more children and more servants. Whyte and his extended family remained at Pentland House until around 1911 – they were listed there in that year’s Kelly’s Directory. In 1912 there was no mention of the house but in 1913 it was listed as ‘Hostel (Goldmsiths College) for Women attending the Training Department at the College.’
There were occasional adverts for staff in The Times – in 1926 there was an advertisement for a kitchen maid and housemaid offering ‘wages £26 : good holidays and outings : might suit sisters’ (2) and a decade later ‘a lady to assist the Housekeeper’ (3).
The house remained a student hall into the 21st century when it seems to have been sold by Goldsmiths. It then went through a variant to the hall – basic bedsits with shared cooking facilities before being refurbished around 2016 to effectively become a backpackers hostel – with prices starting from as little as £16.20 (September 2018) a night in a shared dormitory, with breakfast for a further £3. At the time of writing there were very mixed reviews on Trip Advisor and regular complaints about noise from neighbours, particularly in Manor Lane Terrace and Manor Lane.
- The map is via the National Library of Scotland on a Creative Commons
- The Times (London, England), Friday, Mar 26, 1926; pg. 3; Issue 44230
- The Times (London, England), Wednesday, Sep 16, 1936; pg. 3; Issue 47481
Census and related data is via Find My Past
Kelly’s Directory information is via Lewisham Archives | <urn:uuid:e3a4b529-05cc-4830-a996-64301a573cd3> | {
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|The White House
President George W. Bush
|Print this document|
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 15, 2005
National Airborne Day, 2005
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
Americans live in freedom because of the extraordinary bravery, sacrifice, and dedication to duty of the members of our Armed Forces. From the first official Army parachute jump 65 years ago, our country's Airborne troops have played a crucial role in the defense of our Nation and our liberty. On National Airborne Day, we pay special tribute to these courageous soldiers who served with honor and integrity.
On August 16, 1940, the successful first jump of the Army Parachute Test Platoon laid the foundation for a new and innovative method of combat that helped contribute to an Allied victory in World War II. These bold pioneers answered the call of duty and set an example for future generations to follow. Since the designation of the Army's first Airborne division, the 82nd Airborne, on August 15, 1942, our Airborne troops have performed with valor. The brave men and women of our Airborne forces have worked to defeat tyranny, advance the cause of liberty, and build a safer world.
Today a new generation of Airborne forces is fighting a war against an enemy that threatens the peace and stability of the world. At this critical time, Airborne forces of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force are continuing the noble tradition of the first sky soldiers. Americans are grateful for the service of our Airborne forces and all our troops, and we are inspired by the strength and sacrifice of our military members and their families.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 16, 2005, as National Airborne Day. I encourage all Americans to honor those who have served in the Airborne forces, and I also call upon all citizens to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtieth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
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This course examines the forces of globalization that are transforming our world, and explores the various responses - psychological, social and political -- that people have been making over the past fifty years. Part I examines globalization as an economic and geographical process, generating huge social consequences, with rapid growth, population movements, political change and a vast gap between global wealth and poverty. Part II focuses on the ways in which individuals are now seeking to find themselves in this globalizing world. Emphasis will be placed on the ways in which national identity, faith, gender and sexuality are emerging as key loci around which contemporary people (especially young people) are trying to forge new social identities for themselves. The course will conclude by examining the recently emerging (and highly contested) concept of 'global citizenship'. | <urn:uuid:292dfa87-3410-49c4-98ce-94f4ac33d27c> | {
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Interior Department said it will unveil new proposals about the components in hydraulic fracturing fluid to allay public concerns about shale gas.
Energy companies use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to draw natural gas out of shale formations. The chemicals used in fracking fluid have raised concerns of environmentalists because of possible water contamination.
David Hayes, deputy secretary at the Interior Department, said a new proposal would require a disclosure of fracking chemicals while protecting corporate trade secrets.
"Disclosure would improve public confidence," he was quoted by the Platts news service as saying.
Hayes was testifying before a subcommittee tasked with advising the White House about shale gas extraction.
Energy companies involved in fracking, and some U.S. states with rich shale deposits, say the process doesn't pose a threat to the environment if done correctly.
The United States has some of the richest deposits of shale gas, mostly in territory east of the Mississippi River. In the Marcellus gas play, Platts notes 75 percent of waste water used in fracking is recycled and reused for shale gas extraction, while the rest is slated for disposal wells. Other operations send wastewater to underground wells.
Hayes is considering revision to so-called on shore drilling Rule 9, in place and unchanged since 1982. | <urn:uuid:8b0b9cd4-a434-4b2c-a353-14fdfef8e623> | {
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|Magnetic field lines in the |
magnetosphere (Ill. NASA)
The round-trip time varies with the latitude of the transmitter, or to be more accurate with the position relative to the magnetic Equator. Typical delay times are 140 - 300 ms. At my location near Oslo, Norway, the expected delay is about 308 ms, but unfortunately I have yet to hear such an echo.
210-220 ms delay time
It has a delay of 210-220 ms, consistent with his location in Northern England. The transmitted signal was a chirp using a 100 Watt SSB transmitter with a 50 m longwire antenna. Note the stereo effect as the transmitter and receiver are in the right and left channels respectively. The chirps are exactly 5 sec apart, timed against GPS, so this will enable one to calculate the exact samplerate, which is about 8100Hz. Listen to the signal here (with kind permission from P. Martinez, G3PLX).
- P. Martinez (G3PLX), Long Delayed Echoes, A Study of Magnetospheric Duct Echoes 1997-2007, Radcom, Oct 2007, pp. 60-63.
165-168 ms delay time
I would like to offer an alternative explanation as it is very seldom that signals at this low frequency travel around the world. At his location in Georgia, US, the magnetospherically ducted delay was 143 ms at the time, only 5 ms more than the round-the-world travel time, so his observed delay can just as well have been a magnetospherically ducted echo. See the picture to the right which shows the path it could have taken, which in this case only goes out to about 1 earth radius. Listen to the signal here (with kind permission from G. Greneker, K4MOG).
- G. Greneker (K4MOG), “The Ultimate DX: An Around the Earth Path,” QST, June 2007.
- S. Holm (LA3ZA), “Magnetospheric ducting as an explanation for delayed 3.5 MHz signals,” QST, March 2009. | <urn:uuid:040b6dec-f7fb-4648-9c36-4a1ed9c0b46f> | {
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We all know that vitamin C is useful for our overall health. From beating the common cold to promoting good eyesight, it’s known as something of a cure-all vitamin. So, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that increasing your vitamin C intake can be beneficial for your oral health as well. Vitamin C helps to strengthen blood vessels and reduce inflammation, both of which are key ingredients in the recipe for healthy gums. Furthermore, vitamin C increases collagen production, which keeps gums strong, elastic, and less susceptible to periodontal disease. So, which foods should you be eating more of to gain the full benefits? Here are 5 to get you started.
Many people believe that when it comes to bell peppers, all colors are created equal. In terms of their flavor this might be true, but if you’re looking for the highest vitamin C content, pick red bell peppers over their green or yellow counterparts. Feel free to eat as many as you like, too. A full cup of bell peppers is only worth about 45 calories, so you can snack guilt-free!
Did you know that in addition to being significantly less acidic (and therefore better for your teeth) kiwi fruit has about twice the vitamin C content of lemons and oranges? Kiwi is also high in fiber and an enzyme called actinidain which helps to break down protein, easing digestion and overall intestinal function.
In addition to being a delicious summer treat, strawberries are loaded with vitamin C. But that’s not all! Strawberries are also rich in flavonoids, which can counteract bad (or LDL) cholesterol in the blood and help unclog plaque from the arteries. Sweet!
Turns out your mother was telling you to eat your broccoli for a reason! Besides their high concentration of vitamin C, they could also help you fend off cancer due to a high sulfur content found in most cruciferous vegetables.
Finally, this trendy superfood has received quite a bit of press in the last few years, and for good reason. It’s high in vitamins C, A, and K, as well as fiber and iron. Don’t like the taste? Stick it in a fruity smoothie and drink the benefits!
Filling your diet with these vitamin rich foods will not only help your teeth and gums, but your overall health. As with everything, however, practice moderation; there is too much of a good thing! Consult your dentist for advice on how much vitamin C you should be getting, or for more dietary tips for a healthy smile. | <urn:uuid:80782455-6b66-44ea-9d6e-b6bc2ad897b8> | {
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For my weekly quiet time this week, I will blog about Psalm 46. This Psalm is about God being a refuge even in the midst of natural cataclysm or an attempt by nations to attack the city of God.
Some have argued that this Psalm reflects a historical event, such as the Syro-Ephraimite alliance in Isaiah 7, or the unsuccessful attempt by the Assyrian king Sennacherib to conquer Jerusalem in the eighth century B.C.E. Others maintain that the Psalm is eschatological, meaning that it is about God’s future deliverance of Jerusalem from her enemies, shortly before a time of restoration, when (as v 9 says) God makes wars to cease. Sigmund Mowinckel goes with neither option. He notes that the events that Psalm 46 describes (i.e., many nations attacking Jerusalem) did not occur in history, and, while he thinks that biblical eschatology drew from themes that appear in the Psalms (i.e., God protecting Jerusalem from enemy attack, God as warrior), he does not view Psalm 46 as eschatological. Rather, he holds that Psalm 46 is saying that Jerusalem would be safe even if nations were to attack her, not that nations actually did so. Those who relate Psalm 46 to a specific historical event, however, can argue that Mowinckel is wrong to deny that a variety of nations sought to attack Jerusalem simultaneously, for Assyria had foreign mercenaries. Whether or not that argument is valid depends on if a foreign mercenary counts as a nation (or his own nation), in some sense. Then there is a symbolic, or spiritual, interpretation. Erhard Gerstenberger appears to go this route. And Matthew Henry says that the waters of v 4, which make glad the city of God, refer to the soothing words and ordinances of God, which help a person in times of catastrophe.
The medieval Midrash on the Psalms and Rashi present an interesting interpretation of Psalm 46. Because Psalm 46 is by the sons of Korah, the Midrash and Rashi offer the view that it comments on God’s preservation of the sons of Korah when the earth was swallowing up Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and other rebels (Numbers 16:32; cp. Numbers 26:11). Essentially, the Midrash and Rashi hold that God made the sons of Korah stand in mid-air so that they wouldn’t be swallowed up! According to Rashi, God will do something like this for all of Israel when the earth is worn out like a garment (a la Isaiah 51:6).
I listened to some Calvary Chapel sermons, and they referred to something that Pastor Chuck Smith said when it was predicted that California (his state) would soon be swept into the ocean. He replied to concerned people that he would go surfing. He wasn’t worried! That reminded me of what I heard a person with Asperger’s say at an Asperger’s support group meeting: that we should ride the wave. There will be highs and lows in our lives, and we should simply ride them out, and the lows can be times for us to become stronger. For me, this was a valuable insight when it came to my social experiences, for I had good days, and I had bad days. But should I passively ride waves for everything? What if there’s something that I need to do to make the situation better? What if I’m in the midst of an emergency? I’d say that, even in those cases, I would benefit from a sense of inner peace and composure, as well as the serenity prayer, which asks God to help us to know the difference between when we can do something, and when we are not in control.
A Christian lady once said that we should get to the point where, even if we are dangling over Niagra Falls, we should trust in God to take care of us. I can’t say that I’m there yet, but I hope to arrive there. A question that I have is how I can be assured of God’s care for me. Do I receive that care by being “saved”? But what if I have a hard time believing in certain doctrines?
I read an article by Roy Aldrich, which appeared in the July-September 1962 Bibliotheca Sacra (which is published by Dallas Theological Seminary). The article was entitled “The Christian and the atomic age”. The title and the date of this article intrigued me because I wondered how people found peace in a time of such vulnerability, when a bomb could decimate much of humanity. Aldrich essentially argued that Christ (not the United Nations) will one day bring world peace, and that Christians can be assured that—even if the bomb goes off—they will be with Christ in heaven. Except for the “heaven” part, Aldrich’s argument was similar to how Armstrongism (my religious background) handled the atomic age: look to the Second Coming of Christ to fix everything, while despairing in any ability on the part of human leaders or institutions to bring about peace. I will admit that any peace that will occur in our lifetime will probably be a fragile peace. At the same time, are we not called to be peacemakers? And, if we on an individual level recognize some obligation to live with our neighbors in peace, why shouldn’t we support doing that on an international level? | <urn:uuid:eb3da481-4410-496c-b139-a44ff34f6efc> | {
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A rare piece of rock art has been uncovered in the Highlands of Scotland, dating back 4,000- 5,000 years ago. The origin is so far unknown and archaeologists are on the hunt for more.
The rock art is pretty unique as it’s not rock art in the sense of paint of even pictures, but more in the aspect of carefully made holes in a boulder. The rock had the holes in it to start with, but when archaeologists turned it over, they found the same holes on the other side, making it evident that these marks were man-made.
The rings were made during the Neolithic period, and the imitation of the holes on both sides raise many questions about the reasons for them. Researchers suggest they could be cup-like holders (because Neolithic people had to put a cold one somewhere too). Other suggestions include mapping of the stars or territorial markers.
Another question this rock asks concerns which is the right side up seeing as the holes are on both sides. There are other rocks with these markings, but they are too large to be turned over to see if the holes are repeated.
For more, check out Archaeology News Network
*I do not own these images | <urn:uuid:9f06af30-b472-40f8-a233-d7a983e78ae9> | {
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FARGO, N.D. — The history:
The University of North Dakota debuted the "Sioux" part of its nickname more than 80 years ago. UND's student newspaper on Oct. 3, 1930, hyped the change with a front-page headline reading: "'Sioux' replaces `Flickertail' as Captain of University Sports Teams." Flickertail, the previous nickname, referred to a type of ground gopher. Apparently, school officials decided the rodent didn't instill appropriate fear in opponents.
But why "Sioux"?
Before the Dakotas became states, they were part of the Sioux Nation. As gold helped push the population farther west, UND was founded in 1883 in the Dakota Territory. (North Dakota became a state six years later.) The term Sioux isn't without its own history – it's part of an Ojibwa-French pejorative term meaning "snakes" – but in 1930 it was accepted as a nod to the area's Native American history. In a 1969 pipe ceremony on the UND campus, some representatives from the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake tribes reportedly gave the university permanent rights to use the nickname.
That part didn't come along until the 1960s, under longtime Athletic Information Director Lee Bohnet, who died in 1999. Patricia Bohnet, his daughter, wrote in May 2011 that she didn't know how her father would feel about the school losing its nickname, but she knew he would "be on the side of the student athletes."
The NCAA in 2005 declared UND's nickname – as well at least 18 other Indian-inspired nicknames at schools nationwide – as abusive and hostile to American Indians. Many schools swapped nicknames outright. Some got permission from namesake tribes to keep the nicknames. UND's battle is unlike any other, however, prompting lawsuits, tribal resolutions, state laws and, now, a public vote.
Who wants the nickname to stay?
Some fans and alumni say the nickname isn't meant to be derogatory, and is respectful toward American Indians. It's part of the school's history, they say, and should be allowed to stand. Backers include some Native Americans. Members of the Spirit Lake Tribe sued the NCAA last November in an attempt to keep the nickname. The suit was filed on behalf of about 1,000 petitioners who say that losing the Sioux name means losing the ties between tribes and the university. A judge tossed out the federal suit in May.
Who wants it gone?
There's no consensus on the matter among American Indians, even within Spirit Lake. Some agree with the NCAA and find the nickname offensive. A group of Native American students filed a federal lawsuit to stop its use. University officials also have made a recent push asking that voters allow the nickname to be retired. Even men's hockey coach Dave Hakstol, who had been a staunch nickname supporter, has said it's time to move on.
What happens if the measure passes?
It means the end of the battle ... maybe. A group of nickname supporters has vowed to try to get the nickname built in to the state's constitution and spent the weekend gathering signatures to put the matter on November's ballot.
And if it fails?
Then the fight definitely continues. The NCAA has made it clear it will not allow universities with what it deems as hostile or abusive nicknames or imagery to host playoff rounds. Athletics officials say that makes scheduling difficult. And some coaches say it's already affecting the teams' ability to recruit players.
Tuesday's election marks the first time that North Dakotans as a whole get to say what they want. But it might not be the last. | <urn:uuid:2b2049f1-1f6d-4933-804c-d3431a07dfaf> | {
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When ships cross bodies of water, they leave behind visible "tracks" of pollution. NASA has been using satellite imagery to collect data on ship tracks, and the results are mildly disturbing.
The image above shows only nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions, and is a composite of data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite from 2005 through 2012.
Nitrogen dioxide causes respiratory problems in humans in addition to creating ground-level ozone and fine particle pollution, and scientists are collecting data to see just how much shipping contributes to global NOx emissions. Right now, estimates are that shipping is responsible for between 15 and 30 percent, with the rest coming from sources as diverse as agricultural burning, oil drilling and even lightning.
In the image above, ship tracks can be seen in dark red. They're concentrated around the most heavily trafficked and congested shipping routes, with the most prominent in the Indian Ocean between Singapore and Sri Lanka. Other visible tracks exist in the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
If you see areas without ship tracks, it isn't necessarily because pollution is absent. In fact, it's often quite the opposite: Ship tracks along the coasts of Europe, North America and China are obscured by existing pollution from offshore drilling and coastal cities. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans appear clear because they're open enough for ship tracks to be widely dispersed, and weather prevents accurate data collection from the Arctic region. | <urn:uuid:b28e66f3-4259-4beb-962e-3e317c5ef824> | {
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Zack - what does Zack surname mean?
Recorded in over sixty forms including Zach, Zack, Zachary, Zacharias, Zacheri, Tzadik, and Zadickovicz, this is a famous surname which is both Jewish and Christian in about equal numbers. It is one of the many biblical and Hebrew names which was introduced into Europe by knights returning from the many expeditions to `free` the Holy Land from the Muslim grip in the 11th and 12th centuries. These knights, whose most famous leader was probably Richard, the Lionheart, king of England (1189 - 1199), on their return gave their children biblical names in commemoration of the father`s exploits. The fact that every Crusade was a military failure does not seem to reduced the enthusiasm for the Christian revival, and within two centuries these names which include Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, had replaced over eighty percent of the original native names. This name, originally a personal name, and then after about the year 1400 a surname, derives from the Hebrew `Zacharya` meaning `in memory of god`, a literal translation which no doubt contributed to its international popularity. It was also the name not only of a prophet but that of the father of St John, the Baptist. Early examples of the surname recording taken from surviving church registers in the diocese of Greater London include Isabell Zachary, the daughter of Thomas Zachary, christened at St James Clerkenwell, on October 6th 1586, Johanis Zacharias, a witness at the church of St Peter le Poer, in the city of London, on October 14th 1599, and Francis Zack, a witness at St Johns Westminster, on December 8th 1745.
Get the Zack surname meaning widget for your website!
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English Proficiency Can Take A While in State ESEA Plans
Many states have set the bar so low for children who are learning English that students in those states could leave high school without being taught to read or write the language, yet their schools would face no consequences under federal education law.
While the No Child Left Behind Act has a detailed formula for bringing students to proficiency on state reading and mathematics tests by the 2013-14 school year, it's much less precise on states' goals for English-language learners.
Under the law, states for the first time must set "annual measurable achievement objectives"—or AMAOs—for how English-language learners are progressing toward learning English. States must also show that they are meeting those goals.
The goals are required in Title III of the No Child Left Behind law, the 2001 revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Title III supports local programs such as bilingual education or English- as-a-second-language classes that are supposed to help children with limited English proficiency reach the point at which they can comfortably handle classroom work in English. The federal government is expected to spend between $665 million and $686 million on Title III in fiscal 2004.
States that fail to meet the new goals could eventually lose some of their Title III funds.
U.S. Department of Education officials acknowledge that some of the goals states have set are weak, but for the time being, the officials say, they're not rejecting any of the goals because of a lack of rigor.
"The No Child Left Behind Act is political hyperbole," said Christine H. Rossell, a political science professor at Boston University who studies English-language policy. "It's like Lyndon Johnson saying, 'I'm going to alleviate poverty.' Obviously you can't alleviate poverty in a free society, but it sounds good."
Federal officials defend their efforts. A separate provision in the No Child Left Behind law that requires states to include English-language learners in their reading and mathematics tests, the officials say, will push states to help such students learn English.
That provision is in Title I of the law, and it requires that all English-language learners take state standardized academic tests, in English, after they have been in the United States for three years. That period can be extended to five years on a case-by- case basis.
Because many states don't provide tests in languages other than English, most English-language learners must take such tests in English as soon as they enroll in U.S. schools. Previously, many states didn't include English-language learners in statewide testing until they had attended U.S. schools for three years.
Now, states can lose part of their Title I funding, which supports programs for disadvantaged students, if they don't show that English-language learners are making enough progress on state tests, or if they fail to test at least 95 percent of such students.
"The expectation is that the students will become proficient in the English language over a three-to-five-year period of time," said Kathleen Leos, the associate deputy undersecretary for the office of English-language acquisition of the Department of Education.
That may be the official expectation, but for many Title III state plans, the objectives and definitions of English proficiency are all over the map.
Michigan's plan seems to be among the most ambitious, promising to bring 95 percent of students who are now at the most basic level of learning English to full proficiency in four years.
Mazin A. Heiderson, an education consultant for the Michigan education department, said the goals were set according to "guesswork on what is known plus what is politically acceptable."
"Our definition of English-language proficiency is that you can make it in all English classes without English-language support," he explained. Such a student would be expected to get about a C average in mainstream classes, he said. "It's not reaching your optimal potential."
On the other end of the spectrum is Minnesota, which divides its English-language learners into three groups, depending on how long they have been in special programs. For those who have studied English for less than three years, the state plans to move 2.5 percent to full proficiency this school year. The goal is only slightly higher for students who have studied from three to five years, or six or more years.
By 2013, Minnesota says, it will have raised the percentage of students who have been in programs for six or more years and who are deemed fully proficient from 3.8 percent to 12 percent.
"That's completely too easy," said Ms. Rossell, who helped lead the successful 2002 ballot-initiative campaign in Massachusetts to curb bilingual education. She argues that the goal should be at least 50 percent for English-language learners who have been in programs for six or more years.
California, which has 1.6 million English- language learners, far more than any other state, falls somewhere in the middle range of states' goals. California says that this school year it will move 30 percent of its students who have been in programs for four or more years (and two other small categories of English-language learners) to full proficiency.
California promises to raise that rate to 46 percent in 10 years.
Jan E. Mayer, the manager of the language-policy-leadership office for the California Department of Education, acknowledged that the state's goals don't account for every English-language learner, and thus don't ensure that California will leave no child behind.
But she noted that the new Title III requirements to report scores of all English-language learners to the federal government will bring more attention to whether each child is learning English.
Like education officials in many other states, the California and Minnesota officials say they set targets based on how well school districts are doing now—and tried to set the bar so that districts would be pushed a bit to improve.
'A First Step'
No one, it seems, wants to come down hard on states for setting low goals for students who are learning English.
"I only give them a large benefit of the doubt because the federal department was pretty slow in issuing the regulations [for Title III]," said Don Soifer, the executive vice president of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank based in Arlington, Va. "The initial burden was clearly on the states to design the program first based on what they had in place to begin with."
"This has to be thought of as a first step," added Charlene Rivera, the executive director of George Washington University's Center for Equity and Excellence, and an expert on English-language learners. Many states are grappling for the first time with definitions of English proficiency, she said.
Almost all states said in their Title III plans that they had created or were in the process of drafting standards for English- language development. Many are also commissioning new tests that measure English progress to comply with the No Child Left Behind law.
Ms. Rivera said the new tests likely would focus more on academic English than tests now on the market do. When the tests are in place, the states "will have to recalibrate everything—and redefine their vision of English proficiency," she noted.
Maria Hernandez Ferrier, the director of the office of English-language acquisition and a deputy undersecretary for the federal Department of Education, and Ms. Leos said they were going easy on the states' progress goals until the states have implemented their new accountability systems for English-language learners.
Ms. Leos said the Education Department has approved the Title III plans for 11 states and the District of Columbia, and has told the rest of the states to fix certain aspects of their plans for approval.
For instance, the department has asked a number of states to provide more detail in their test data for English-language learners, she said. If states were asked to fix their AMAOs, it was because they missed including all English-language learners in their projections, or for reasons other than the actual difficulty of the goals.
Ms. Leos said that the states would have to fix any problems with their baseline test data by Nov. 17, and that by April 30, states were expected to turn in standards for English-language proficiency and show how those standards were linked to academic-content standards.
Ms. Leos initially said the letters that the department had sent to the states concerning Title III could be found on the department's Web site. As of late last week, the letters were not on the site, nor had the department released the letters to Education Week. The newspaper obtained each state's Title III plan by filing a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
The states that have full approval of Title III sections are: Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.
Several states said in their Title III plans that research shows it takes five to seven years for students to learn English.
Ms. Rivera, though, said such a time frame was reasonable only if one was talking about helping students learn academic English, rather than a command of social, or conversational, English.
Many states have submitted plans that define English proficiency as a score on an English-assessment test, but don't incorporate how students perform on academic tests. So the definition of English proficiency in those states will depend on where the bar is set in the new English-language assessments they are developing.
Ms. Ferrier says many states have neglected to teach immigrant children academic English, and she hopes that the new accountability for such children under the No Child Left Behind Act will eventually change that. "A lot of times, because there were no consequences, students would stay in language-acquisition programs for years and still have playground English," she said.
Vol. 23, Issue 12, Pages 1, 16Published in Print: November 19, 2003, as English Proficiency Can Take A While in State ESEA Plans | <urn:uuid:73cf1eef-22fa-46b9-b221-3f7f81354617> | {
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Rhode Island becomes 42nd state to recognize Juneteeth
Trudy Tomlinson Special to the AmNews | 3/20/2013, 12:33 p.m.
Rhode Island is recognizing Juneteeth as a state holiday or a special day of observance, which will make it the 42nd state to do so.
Juneteeth, also known as the 19th of June, is the recognition of when Union General Granger announced the freedom of all slaves in the last southern state on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas. Following the end of the Civil War, the announcement came two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
A Press Release dated March 18 states that the celebration of slaves established "America's second Independence Day Celebration and the oldest African-American holiday observance."
"With so many states recognizing Juneteeth, we are optimistic that congress will finally pass legislation to make Juneteeth Independence Day a National Day of Observance, like Flag Day or Patriot Day," states Reverend Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Founder and Chairman of the National Juneteeth Holiday Campaign and the National Juneteeth Observance Foundation (NJOF) in the Press Release.
Juneteeth was first acknowledged as "Juneteeth Independence Day" in 1997. With the leadership of Lula Briggs Galloway, President of the National Association of Juneteeth League and Reverend Myers, U.S Congress officially passed the legislation recognizing Juneteeth as "Juneteeth Independence Day" in Amercia, as stated the National Juneteeth website.
Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah are the on eight states which have yet to pass the legislation recognizing Juneteeth.
Reverend Myers hopes that "President Obama will also support efforts by issuing a Presidential Juneteeth Proclamation and hosting a White House Juneteeth Celebration in June." | <urn:uuid:6eb23a7c-a9c7-4355-af2f-5751c7450764> | {
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St. Barbara is a legendary martyr. She was born to a wealthy family in today’s Turkey in the 3rd century. The beautiful, witty and wise girl converted to Christianity. When she told her father about it, he denounced her to the Romans. Barbara was first subjected to horrible torturing and then beheaded by her own father who, a moment later, was struck by lightening (this is believed to have happened in the year of 306). The attributes of St. Barbara are mostly a chalice with alter-bread or a monstrance, a tower with three windows (where her father wanted to put her), a sword or hammer (the instruments of torture), a small figure of her father by her feet and sometimes a torch or peacock. She is a protector of many professions: miners, farmers, architects, hodmen, roofers, masons, founders, blacksmiths, stonemasons, carpenters, grave-diggers, hatters, cooks and butchers as well as girls, gunners and prisoners, Barbara also protects towers and helps people in need. | <urn:uuid:0377414e-a434-4270-ba50-2d98dc26185b> | {
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Lessons from an ancient culture
An interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge, about her work in a pristine, ancient Himalayan culture as it faced the siren song of western-style development.
San Francisco, California, USA
Ladakh is a desert land high up in the Western Himalayas, located in what is now India’s state of Kashmir. Often referred to as Little Tibet, it has been home to a Tibetan Buddhist culture that has endured for more than 1,000 years. Helena Norberg-Hodge arrived in Ladakh in 1975 as part of an anthropological film team, coincidentally at the time of Ladakh’s first exposure to Western-style development. In the intervening years, she has worked with the Ladakhi people to protect their culture and environment from the effects of rapid modernization. In 1978 she founded the Ladakh Project, with the goal of providing the Ladakhi people with the means to make more informed choices about their own future. Her efforts led to the formation of the indigenous Ladakh Ecological Development Group, with whom she shared the 1986 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. She also works to educate those in developed countries on the effects of economic globalization, and to promote sustainable ways of living. Share International US editor Monte Leach spoke with Norberg-Hodge on her recent visit to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Share International: How did you first get involved with helping to preserve the Ladakhi culture?
Helena Norberg-Hodge: I trekked into remote valleys and spoke to Ladakhi people everywhere. I saw quite a remarkable self-reliant wealth and above all an amazing self-esteem — people who were models of what it means to feel completely secure in their own identity and place. They seemed to be the most open, happy and humble people. And they told me they had never known hunger. They had a standard of living much higher than I would have expected — none of it from so-called progress.
SI: How did their way of life begin to be undermined?
HNH: The Indian Government had a territorial dispute with the Chinese, and decided to develop this area as a way of ensuring that it became a closer part of India. Their approach to development was based on a Western model which had nothing to do with local knowledge and resources. This included pushing chemical fertilizers and pesticides, including DDT and other outlawed pesticides. It meant subsidizing white rice and white sugar from the outside. These subsidies for imported food were destroying local food production, and creating a total dependence on imports — this in a place that was snowed-in for more than six months of the year. It was making the region very vulnerable. Subsidized fossil fuels like kerosene and coal being brought in to heat houses also led to subsidized transport. It meant that roads the government was building were actually destroying the local economy.
Tourism also became part of the Indian Government’s plan to develop the area. Nearly every foreigner who came there was just amazed by how peaceful, happy and beautiful the place and people were. The foreigners would say: "Oh, what a paradise. What a pity it has to be destroyed." When I heard this for something like the 100th time, something within me snapped. I was closely involved with the local people, and I knew not a single one of them thought of this as destruction. Not a single local person ever said: "What a pity we have to be destroyed." I realized the foreigners had seen that in the rest of the world this type of economic growth could be very destructive. I also realized the local people knew nothing about it. Around that time I read a book called Small is Beautiful. It gave me the conviction that things could be done differently and meeting the outside world didn’t have to mean destruction.
I started talking to the local people about what development had meant in other parts of the world. I realized they were getting a completely wrong view of what life was like in the West. They were saying: "My God, you must be incredibly wealthy." They were getting an impression that we never need to work, that we have infinite wealth and leisure. It is not that they were unintelligent, but they had limited information about this other world.
That led me to realize that I could do work which would provide more accurate information. My goal was not to tell the Ladakhis what to do, not even to tell them that they should stay exactly the way they were, but to provide as much information as possible on what life is really like in the West. That included information on our problems of pollution, unemployment, and poverty, and that a lot of the poverty in the so-called Third World was due to our wealth in the developed world. I also wanted to show that many Westerners who ended up a part of this system were struggling in their own country to find a more environmentally and socially equitable way of living. I gave examples that some people were using solar energy and growing food organically, and implementing a range of more sustainable and equitable alternatives.
Great interest and appreciation
SI: What kind of response did you get from the Ladakhis?
HNH: On the whole the information was received with great interest and appreciation. The end result was that the message showed them they need not feel ashamed about who they were, or think they were backward or primitive. There were also modernized young men who for a while thought this approach would hold them back, but they have on the whole now changed. I think the support now for this work is tremendous, and growing all the time in Ladakh.
SI: How did your work evolve there?
HNH: I worked with local people to help set up an ecology group that was trying to show you can have solar energy and greenhouses and other changes which don’t create poverty, dependence and pollution. An ecology center was built in 1983, but before that we had already demonstrated solar heating technology — solar ovens and water heating in many villages. We also introduced solar greenhouses, which were very successful. Hundreds of them were built throughout the region.
In the last five years I have set up a women’s alliance, which now has almost 4,000 members. It is becoming a very influential body. The mothers and grandmothers are not concerned with competing with men, but with having their voices heard. What I found there as well as in the West is that strengthening real face-to-face community is the most important resistance to the modern, consumer culture. The consumer culture pushes young children to compete with one another for more scarce consumer products, and it isolates people further from each other.
We gather as a community and talk about this. People say: "No, it is not making us happier, so let’s not do it." When it is a group of mothers who do this, they can influence their children. If you try on your own, it often becomes very difficult because you feel as if you’re choosing between community and the child. If the child wants some Nike shoes and his friends have them, you feel you’re isolating the child if you say "No." The actual truth is that the whole process is leading to more isolation, but it doesn’t look that way.
SI: Do you think Ladakh is still going down a Western path, or has that changed since you started your work there?
HNH: I think what I helped to start in Ladakh has become quite a major trend. In terms of consciousness, our work has spread to virtually everybody, and has provided a certain brake on the destruction. It has also created a counter movement. The leaders of our ecology group have now become the majority in the new local government, and are creating policies for organic agriculture, renewable energy and crafts.
SI: What are some of the lessons you have learned from your experience in Ladakh?
HNH: One of the major lessons I’ve learned in 23 years of living in this ancient Tibetan culture and seeing ittransform is that the current global economy with its consumer culture divides people from each other. I’ve realized one of the most important things that needs to be done is to strengthen the community structures in the villages of the South, and to rebuild real community structures in the industrialized world. That is what a lot of our work is about. We found it quite a magic wand if you also rebuild those communities in an economic sense — having local relationships that reduce dependence on the monetary system. This means that people start once again to develop a conscious good neighborliness — baby-sitting for each other, driving each other to the hospital — caring for one another without needing money, reducing the need for commercialized, so-called professionalized services.
Even more important is to start changing production and consumption patterns to shorten the distance between producers and consumers. An important part of the work of our institute is showing how a community which takes the initiative to build up a local food economy can start answering a whole range of needs. It leads to reduced transport, reduced packaging, reduced refrigeration, and many other benefits.
SI: What advice would you give to those in the developed world who agree with this approach?
HNH: The advice would be to help create a more self-reliant economy, particularly food security. That comes from people being able to get food from relatively near at hand, and this has far greater implications than we realize. I would recommend that they do the same in the developed world, where they live, to the extent that they care about the developing world. They should realize this insane corporate-dependent system means people on the other side of the world are our wage slaves. They are not producing food for themselves. They are not producing shoes and clothes for themselves. They are working for a pittance to satisfy our needs.
We need to be more self-reliant. There is no reason why America should not produce most of its own food for most of its people, and trade in items not available domestically — for example tea or bananas — but without subsidies, so that bananas would cost more than local apples because they come from further away.
We also need to do everything we can to bring information to those local people about why a more self-reliant economy is in their best interest, particularly right now in this corrupt and volatile situation where we have seen the collapse of the economies in Asia. We have to be very careful today not to create more dependence and instead to inform people of the vulnerability of the global economy and help strengthen the local food economy.
Our educational materials are designed to help people understand what they can do to regain more power over their own lives, and also to free themselves from the psychological and spiritual damage of this commercial culture. It takes quite a while to look at all the insidious ways in which we are divided from a deep sense of connection to the earth and to one another, which we see at the heart of the spiritual. We see spirituality as a connection of love and empathy among people and between man and nature. Our materials look at the contradiction between today’s economy and that way of being, and help people to think through how insidious that is and what they can do to change it. This leads to many people getting involved in their local community, particularly in building a local food economy and other projects. It also leads to people discussing how painful the process is for themselves, with a clearer understanding that these structures were originally human-made but have taken on inhuman proportions, and they affect us profoundly. We have found that this formula for helping people get together is a powerful way of healing both at the personal and planetary level.
From the December 1998 issue of Share International | <urn:uuid:7911eef8-64b0-41cf-b510-2f9945024984> | {
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List of websites to learn Tamil Grammar:
3. Tamil Wikipedia grammar guide – Has relevant links, guides for understanding essential Tamil grammar.
4. http://ilakkanam.blogspot.com – A team blog in Tamil answering common questions / doubts on Tamil grammar.
7. Tamil grammar through English – A simple beginner level presentation in English to understand basic Tamil grammar.
8. http://www.pudhucherry.com/pages/gram2.html andhttp://www.pudhucherry.com/pages/gram3.html teach you about சந்தி இலக்கணம். i.e, when to add க், ச், த், ப் in between two words when you write them together. Guess this is the number one confusion for any tamil writer 🙂 | <urn:uuid:93ca59cc-fb77-4dbf-b01c-6195bb18f705> | {
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Bioenergy in rural development
|The BioenergyWiki is no longer being actively updated.|
Projects in developing countries
Projects in developed countries
- BioTown, USA - "BioTown, USA" is a project to make the town of Reynolds, Indiana self-sufficient in energy by using biomass resources.
- The town is currently installing a "Technology Suite" as part of phase II of the project that will consist of anaerobic digestion, gasification, and fast pyrolysis technologies converting municipal and agricultural waste into electricity, biofertilizer, thermal energy and biodiesel.
- The BioTown, USA Sourcebook of Biomass Energy (pdf) by Mark Jenner, PhD; Indiana State Department of Agriculture and Reynolds, Indiana, 3 April 2006. The sourcebook outlines the biomass resources and technologies potentially available to the town.
- Biocharred Pathways to Sustainability? Triple Wins, Livelihoods and the Politics of Technological Promise (PDF File) by Melissa Leach, James Fairhead, James Fraser and Eliza Lehner, 2010. "This paper tracks key narratives and positions in this emerging ‘politics of technological promise’ around biochar, and thus reflects on the prospects of biochar becoming part of pathways to sustainability that also meet the livelihood priorities of small farmers in rural African settings and beyond."
- Win-Win Scenarios at the Climate-Development Interface: Challenges and Opportunities for Cookstove Replacement Programs Through Carbon Finance by Simon, Gregory, Bumpus, Adam G. and Mann, Philip, 10 September 2010. "In this paper we review the possibilities for win-win climate and development outcomes in programs that distribute improved efficiency cookstoves (ICS) with the use of carbon finance."
- Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Mozambique Isilda Nhantumbo and Alda Salomão, June 2010. "This report explores the early impacts of the biofuels boom on access to land and on local livelihoods in Mozambique. It draws on fieldwork on biofuel projects representing different business models for agricultural production."
- Economic viability of Jatropha curcas L. plantations in Northern Tanzania (PDF) by Nepomuk Wahl, Ramni Jamnadass, Henning Baur, Cristel Munster and Miyuki Iiyama of the World Agroforestry Centre. "This study examines the economic viability of jatropha seed production in three northern regions of Tanzania where a jatropha-based bioenergy value chain is about to emerge. Interviews with several farmers growing jatropha in the regions were conducted to create primary data on costs and benefits."
- Losing the plot: the threats to community land and the rural poor through the spread of the biofuel jatropha in India by Friends of the Earth Europe, March 2010: This report studies the problem of jatropha plantations in India forcing lower caste Indians from community lands.
- Carbon offsets for forestry and bioenergy: Researching opportunities for poor rural communities by Leo Peskett, Jessica Brown and Kate Schreckenberg Februaruy 2010. "This report presents findings from a research study looking at the opportunities that carbon offset projects offer for poor rural communities."
- Soil Carbon Sequestration in U.S. Rangelands Issues Paper for Protocol Development (PDF) by the Environmental Defense Fund. This reports looks at issues such as agriculture, emissions offsets, grasslands, increased carbon sequestration, and soil.
- Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Tanzania (PDF) by Emmanuel Sulle and Fred Nelson for IIED: This paper describes "patterns of biofuel development and crop cultivation in Tanzanian rural areas" and "various potential threats and opportunities from biofuels expansion." December 2009
- Agrofuels in the Americas (PDF file) - report released April 2009 by Food First; examines impacts of biofuels development, including on rural development and related issues in countries such as Brazil and Guatemala.
- Validation Report of a Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Biomass Gasifier Power Plant Project in the north-Indian State of Bihar (pdf) by Andreas Gantenbein (Validation by Prof. D. Spreng), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, October 2005.
- The Charcoal Project - "The mission of The Charcoal Project is to promote, facilitate, and advocate for the widespread adoption of clean burning technologies, sustainable fuel alternatives, and policies that support energy-poverty alleviation for those who depend on biomass as their primary fuel around the world."
- 16-19 January 2012, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: World Future Energy Summit (Themes: biomass, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainability, rural development)
- 3-5 June 2012, Washington, D.C., USA: 2012 Forest Products Society International Convention (Themes: forests, rural development, sustainability, wood)
- 15 February 2011, Washington, D.C., USA: Farm Foundation Forums: Agriculture as a Provider of Environmental Services. (Themes: agriculture, food, rural policies)
- 27-28 April 2010, Manchester, New Hampshire: 2nd Annual Heating the Northeast with Renewable Biomass. (Themes: biomass, greenhouse gas emissions, biomass pellets, policies, rural economies, sustainability, technologies)
- 6-7 October 2009, Accra, Ghana: Katoomba XV - Ghana: Payments for Ecosystem Services in West Africa (and looking forward to Central Africa) (Themes: REDD, local peoples, ecosystem services, West Africa, Central Africa, developing countries, forests)
- Call for an effective implementation of the Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) issue in the EU biofuels policy, 21 December 2011 by E-Energy Market: "A group of companies, trade associations and NGOs have send a letter to the commission that a practical and effective solution are needed to address the ongoing debate about Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) in European biofuels policy."
- "The group warns that it blocks 1)Meeting EU renewables targets, 2)Helping to deliver energy security, 3)Fostering rural economic development and, 4)Developing a sustainable bioenergy system that can help towards decarbonising transport in Europe and beyond."
- "The companies also fear the ILUC policy is counterproductive in its exclusion of certain feedstocks. The effects of banning one feedstock would lead to an increased demand of the alternative feedstock and herewith increasing the need for land."
- "The group claims that none one of policy options being assessed encourage producers to adopt additional practices that reduce ILUC risks, nor do they improve investor confidence for biofuel development."
- Sustainable palm oil initiative falters, 20 November 2011 by Mail & Guardian Online: "Environmentalists have warned that an effort to encourage the sustainable production of palm oil launched several years ago has not kept pace with expanding cultivation driven by rising demand."
- "The issue will loom large this week at the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil from November 22 to 24 in key producer Malaysia."
- "Despite some progress, major users of palm oil are not making enough effort to source and buy sustainably produced oil, while incentives for green production remain inadequate, green groups say."
- "Growers produced 5.2-million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) -- accounting for about 10% of world supply -- last year but only about 56% of it was purchased."
- "Environmentalists say the consequences for rainforests in major producers Malaysia and Indonesia -- which account for 85% of world production -- and other producing nations will be dire unless the situation changes."
- "The forest loss contributes to climate change and further imperils threatened species like the orangutan while land disputes between local communities and large palm producers seeking to expand cultivation are rising."
- Senegal president regrets deaths in biofuels clash, 28 October 2011 by AFP: "Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Friday he 'deeply regrets' two deaths after clashes broke out over a disputed biofuels project in northern Senegal, and wants an explanation."
- "Two people were killed and 22 injured in the village of Fanaye, where people attacked each other with sticks and machetes in a dispute over the project which will see 20,000 hectares given to an Italian investor to cultivate sweet potatoes for the production of biofuels."
- "A local organisation defending land rights in the village said the project would lead to 'displacement of villages, destruction of cattle and desecration of cemeteries and mosques.'"
- "Senegal has in recent years pushed the idea of using its land for biofuel production, with the backing of Brazil and Wade's fervent support."
- Carbon credits tarnished by human rights 'disgrace', 3 October 2011 by EurActiv: "The reported killing of 23 Honduran farmers in a dispute with the owners of UN-accredited palm oil plantations in Honduras is forcing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) executive board to reconsider its stakeholder consultation processes."
- "In Brussels, the Green MEP Bas Eickhout called the alleged human rights abuses 'a disgrace', and told EurActiv he would be pushing the European Commission to bar carbon credits from the plantations from being traded under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)."
- "But because they took place after the CDM's stakeholder consultations had been held, and fell outside the board's primary remit to investigate emissions reductions and environmental impacts, it had been powerless to block project registrations."
- "Last week, proposals were submitted to a CDM board meeting in Quito, Ecuador, addressing the time-lag between project consultations and registrations. But carbon credits from the plantations can still be freely traded on the EU ETS, which allows polluters to offset their carbon emissions by nominally clean energy investments."
- Biofuels may meet development needs of Sub-Saharan Africa, 3 October 2011 by Center for International Forestry Research blog: "Biofuel expansion has enormous potential to stimulate rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa, but ensuring local community benefits and adequate protections for food production and forests will require strategic policy interventions and close collaboration among stakeholders, according to a new study by the Center for International Forestry Research."
- "Biofuels have been touted as a ‘green’ alternative to fossil fuels, however critics of biofuel production argue that the expansion of biofuel development can often contribute to deforestation."
- "Moreover, increasing land acquisition for biofuel expansion rather than food production in Africa could undermine food security and exacerbate a number of underlying social issues."
- "The study urges for increased collaboration between government and the biofuel industry which will ensure that biofuel development can enhance livelihoods by bringing in urgently needed investment in the agricultural sector that would result in improved infrastructure and increased cash income in impoverished rural areas."
- Land grab for renewable energy production could impact beef capacity, 26 September 2011 by Beef Central: "Rising demand for the dominant form of renewable energy worldwide – wood – could drive yet more foreign acquisitions of land, particularly in developing countries where food insecurity is rising and land rights are weak, researchers say."
- "Wood accounts for 67 percent of global renewable energy supplies, and many northern hemisphere countries were increasing their use of it both to reduce their reliance on costly fossil fuels and to mitigate climate change."
- "New tree plantations in developing countries designed to be harvested to export wood could spell good news in terms of jobs, investment, climate change and conversation — if they were well managed, the IIED report said. But there was also a risk that plantations would displace poor and marginalised communities from land they had tended to for generations."
- "Biomass plantations may also compete for the best lands with food crops and livestock (and with biofuel feedstocks), adversely affecting local food security and further marginalising smallholder farming."
- New map gives public a global view of biofuel development, 8 September 2011 by Center for International Forestry Research: "The Global Biofuel Information Tool (GBIT), developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with support from Profundo, is the first systematic attempt at gathering and consolidating data on biofuels and making this accessible in a user-friendly format."
- "The GBIT was developed under a project funded by the European Commission exploring bioenergy, sustainability and trade-offs between the two."
- "The project aims to analyse bioenergy developments and their implications for forests and people’s livelihoods."
- "Determining the magnitude and location of biofuel investments in forest-rich countries will help to assess how these investments affect forests and people and how they can be made more sustainable."
- "The GBIT offers data on national biofuel production and consumption obtained and collated from the International Energy Statistics database of the US Energy Information Administration."
- Kenya's Tana Delta saved – for now, September 2011 by WildlifeExtra.com: "A Nairobi newspaper reports that, after consideration of the scientific evidence, Kenya's National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has decided to advise the Kenyan Government to halt the planting of the biofuel crop jatropha within the Coast region of Kenya."
- "Proposed jatropha plantations would do irreparable damage to coastal Important Bird Areas (IBAs), including the Tana Delta and Dakatcha Woodlands."
- "Even before NEMA's decision, a company planning to grow oil seed crops on 28,000 hectares of the Tana Delta pulled out after consultations with NatureKenya and other BirdLife Partners, citing concerns over environmental impacts and long-term climate change effects."
- "The Tana Delta has long provided local communities with food and livelihoods. Its value to the nation includes ecosystem services such as water storage, shoreline protection and marine life spawning grounds. It also has huge tourism potential. But as demand for land to grow commodity crops has increased globally, the Tana Delta has become the focus of interest for international speculators and investors."
- FAO's Tool Weighs Pros and Cons of Biofuels, 7 June 2011 by AllAfrica.com: "Calculating the costs and benefits of investing in biofuels may become easier for policymakers with a guide launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)."
- "The Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Analytical Framework, released last month (17 May), was developed over the past three years and tested in Peru, Tanzania and Thailand."
- "Heiner Thofern, head of the BEFS project, said that the goal is to help policymakers make informed decisions on whether development of bioenergy is a viable option for their countries and, if so, identify policies that will maximise benefits for the economy and minimise risks to food security."
- Chris Buddenhagen, council coordinator of the Hawaii Invasive Species Council who developed a tool for assessing the risk of invasion by biofuel species, also welcomed the method, but warned that it seems hard to use and difficult to apply quickly to make the best policy decisions."
- "He also said the tool neglects some important issues, such as biodiversity and the invasiveness of biofuel species."
- Colombia Pursues Sweet Dream of Becoming a Sugar-Cane Ethanol Powerhouse, 9 May 2011 by The New York Times: "Though 85 percent of Colombia's cane crop is harvested in a old-fashioned way, industry leaders say they have no intention of mechanizing the harvest, for fear of mass unemployment in a rural area where people suffered during Colombia's five-decade-long civil war."
- "Instead, sugar cane growers say they are modernizing in a different way, becoming generators of renewable energy."
- "Envious of Brazil's accomplishments with sugar-cane ethanol, Colombia's then-president, Alvaro Uribe, championed a 2007 law that ordered all gasoline retailers in his nation to sell a mixture of 90 percent hydrocarbon fuels and 10 percent ethanol."
- "Colombian government officials and industry leaders are eager to rapidly expand their biofuels effort, seeing it as an effective means of improving security and growing prosperity in struggling rural areas."
- "Colombian officials see the potential for a lucrative export market in the United States. Unlike Brazil, whose ethanol faces a heavy U.S. tariff, Colombia has a pending free trade agreement with the United States that exempts Colombian ethanol from tariffs."
- "Expanding from an 8 percent blend today to the industry goal of 30 percent will require almost tripling the area under cultivation. But Colombian biofuels enthusiasts insist this immense feat can be achieved without destroying sensitive natural resources or competing with food crops."
- International sustainable biofuels certification system unveiled, 22 March 2011 by Biodiesel Magazine: "The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels launched the first global third-party certification system for sustainable biofuels March 22. The RSB Certification System includes environmental, social and economic principles and criteria and features a unique set of online tools aimed at taking the complexity out of compliance and streamlining certification."
- "The certification system covers the major issues of concern in biofuels’ production, including their contribution to climate change mitigation and rural development; their protection of land and labor rights; and their impacts on biodiversity, soil and water pollution, water availability and food security."
- "The certification system will be operated by RSB Services, which is the business arm of the RSB, providing access to the certification process, licensing, and auditors’ training among other activities."
- New FAO study shows integrated food and energy crops work for poor farmers, 17 February 2011 by Food and Agriculture Organization: "Producing food and energy side-by-side may offer one of the best formulas for boosting countries' food and energy security while simultaneously reducing poverty, according to a new FAO report."
- "'Farming systems that combine food and energy crops present numerous benefits to poor rural communities,' said Alexander Müller, FAO Assistant Director-General for Natural Resources."
- "'With these integrated systems farmers can save money because they don't have to buy costly fossil fuel, nor chemical fertilizer if they use the slurry from biogas production. They can then use the savings to buy necessary inputs to increase agricultural productivity, such as seeds adapted to changing climatic conditions — an important factor given that a significant increase in food production in the next decades will have to be carried out under conditions of climate change.'"
- "Integrating food and energy production can also be an effective approach to mitigating climate change, especially emissions stemming from land use change."
- "To see the full report, go to Making Integrated Food-Energy Systems (IFES) Work for People and Climate - An Overview(PDF File)"
- Laws needed to guide biofuels development, 9 February 2011 by Business Daily Africa: "We have recently seen debates on a proposed large-scale foreign investment for 'jatropha' biodiesel crop in the Tana Delta area. The debate is an indication that we need national policies to guide biofuel development and also large-scale leasing of community lands by foreign enterprises."
- "Over the last few years, many countries have been reassessing their strategies on biofuels especially where biofuels developments are in direct competition with national food self sufficiency and where they interfere with existing primary forests."
- "The draft policy and strategy for biodiesel in Kenya centers mainly around rural communities primarily in semi-arid areas, where locally grown diesel crops (jatropha, croton, castor etc) would provide affordable and cleaner alternative rural energy for lighting and heating using locally customised equipment."
- "With renewed focus on food crops in marginal areas, it is highly unlikely that the government will wish to emphasise promotion of biodiesel crops like jatropha in the same areas."
- Biofuels: A Boon for the Misbegotten, February 2011 by Steve Nadis, Harvard Kennedy School: "Harvard Kennedy School Professor Robert Lawrence, a trade economist, sees the U.S. government’s support of the biofuels industry in another light: as a textbook example of ill-conceived policy."
- "Government-set mandates and blending quotas have created a growing demand for biofuels."
- "The main problem, from an energy policy perspective, is that these fuels are being promoted domestically without a clear rationale."
- "Proponents commonly cite three attributes: a reduced carbon footprint, a reduced dependence on foreign oil, and a boon to American farmers. Yet Lawrence believes that biofuels don’t deliver on any of these objectives."
- "If the federal government wants to help the family farmer, Lawrence says, it should simply give money to struggling farmers — through tax relief, grants, or some other form — rather than prop up an industry predominantly run by large agribusiness corporations."
- "Perhaps biofuels are appealing in large part because no one knows the cost of the government’s requirement that a certain (and growing) portion of biofuels be blended into gasoline. Concealing the costs of a policy may be politically advantageous, but it rarely leads to the best strategy."
- Biofuels: Is Palm Oil a Blessing or a Curse, 9 November 2010 by Robert Rapier: "Palm oil presents an excellent case illustrating both the promise and the peril of biofuels. Driven by demand from the U.S. and the European Union (EU) due to mandated biofuel requirements, palm oil has provided a valuable cash crop for farmers in tropical regions like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand."
- "The high productivity of palm oil has led to a dramatic expansion in many tropical countries around the equator. This has the potential for alleviating poverty in these regions."
- "But in some locations, expansion of oil palm cultivation has resulted in serious environmental damage as rain forest has been cleared to make room for new palm oil plantations."
- "Palm oil represents a difficult dilemma: How does the West address negative social or environmental implications from the development of a palm oil industry (or any industry) that is helping to lift rural people out of poverty by providing an income stream for farmers? Western objectives (saving the rain forests) may be viewed as conflicting with their basic needs (feeding their families and sending their kids to school) — which is of course why globally rain forest continues to disappear."
- Biofuel worse for climate than fossil fuel - study, 7 November 2010 by Reuters: "European plans to promote biofuels will drive farmers to convert 69,000 square km of wild land into fields and plantations, depriving the poor of food and accelerating climate change, a report warned on Monday."
- "As a result, the extra biofuels that Europe will use over the next decade will generate between 81 and 167 percent more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels, says the report."
- "Nine environmental groups reached the conclusion after analysing official data on the European Union's goal of getting 10 percent of transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020."
- "But the European Commission's energy team, which originally formulated the goal, countered that the bulk of the land needed would be found by recultivating abandoned farmland in Europe and Asia, minimising the impact."
- "The debate centres on a new concept known as "indirect land-use change."
- "In essence, that means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody, somewhere, will go hungry unless those missing tonnes of grain are grown elsewhere."
- "The report was compiled by ActionAid, Birdlife International, ClientEarth, European Environment Bureau, FERN, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace, Transport & Environment, Wetlands International."
- Reality check for 'miracle' biofuel crop, 27 October 2010 by Miyuki Iiyama and James Onchieku: "It sounds too good to be true: a biofuel crop that grows on semi-arid lands and degraded soils, replaces fossil fuels in developing countries and brings huge injections of cash to poor smallholders."
- "In an attempt to test the claims, Endelevu Energy, the World Agroforestry Centre and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute embarked on the Reality Check study supported by the German government, which we published last December."
- "The main finding of the Reality Check is that jatropha is not economically viable when grown by smallholders in Kenya, either in a monoculture or intercrop plantation model. This is due to low yields and high production costs, and a lack of guidelines for applying agronomic and silvicultural best practices."
- U.S. to Pay Farmers for Non-Food Crops for Biofuels, Vilsack Says, 21 October 2010 by Bloomberg: "The U.S. will pay farmers to produce non-food crops that can be converted to fuels for planes, cars and power plants to reduce reliance on imported oil and boost rural economies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today."
- "The Agriculture Department will resume payments to farmers under the 2008 Biomass Crop Assistance Program for eligible perennial crops and work with the Federal Aviation Administration to develop aviation fuels from farm wastes, Vilsack said today at the National Press Club."
- "Vilsack said he is directing the agency to plan within 60 days and help fund construction of five refineries spread across the U.S. to process biomass into fuels. Higher costs for refiners related to use of the new feedstocks will be paid from up to $281.5 million that remains from the 2008 Farm Act, Vilsack said."
- World Bank Group publishes draft framework for sustainable palm oil, 27 July 2010 by Cosmetics Design: "The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have released a draft framework for engagement in the palm oil sector, in the hope of promoting positive change."
- "In the draft document, the World Bank Group, one of the biggest sources of funding for developing countries, has set out the possible ways it can help move the sector onto a more sustainable footing."
- "The Group proposes action on four major themes – policy and regulatory environment, sustainable private sector investment, benefit sharing with small holders and communities, and sustainability codes of practice."
- "Actions proposed include working with governments to design appropriate policy institutions, strengthen small holder producer organizations and improve smallholder access to finance, as well as working with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in order to strengthen its sustainable palm oil certification program."
- Download the consultation draft of the document, The World Bank Group’s Framework for Engagement in the Palm Oil Sector.
- Africa Energy Forum Considers Renewable Energy and Biofuels Development in Africa, 2 July 2010 by Climate-L.org: "The Africa Energy Forum, which took place from 28 June-1 July 2010, in Basel, Switzerland, examined the interlinkages among environmental concerns, development goals and power supply in Africa."
- "The Forum included, inter alia: an Africa Renewable Energy Forum, which considered government, financial and technology and efficiency solutions, as well as best practice examples of renewable energy projects; an Energy Summit, during which government ministers, industry leaders and development and environment experts discussed energy development goals; and AfricaBIOFUELS, during which African and European Government representatives and investors offered their perspective on the development of the African biofuels sector."
- Nestle caves to activist pressure on palm oil , 17 May 2010 by Mongabay.com: "After a two month campaign against Nestle for its use of palm oil linked to rainforest destruction spearheaded by Greenpeace, the food giant has given in to activists' demands. The Swiss-based company announced today in Malaysia that it will partner with the Forest Trust, an international non-profit organization, to rid its supply chain of any sources involved in the destruction of rainforests." A company press release stated that "Nestle wants to ensure that its products have no deforestation footprint."
- "Nestle stated that under new sourcing guidelines it will only use palm oil suppliers that do not break local laws, protect high conservation forests and any forests with 'high carbon' value, protect carbon-important peatlands, and support free prior and informed consent for indigenous and local communities."
- Related: Read about Nestle's "Responsible Sourcing" guidelines
- Lula Defends Biofuel Push in Amazon Region, 12 May 2010 by Latin American Herald Tribune: "Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is championing efforts to industrialize the Amazon region with initiatives such as the cultivation of palm oil for biofuel production."
- "He said the initiative would end the state’s dependence on the timber market, considered a main culprit of Amazon deforestation, and hailed palm-oil plantations as environmentally friendly, saying they would re-use deforested areas."
- The project is "[b]acked by the federal government and state-controlled energy giant Petrobras," and "would involve total investment of 1.3 billion reais ($702 million)."
- "The Brazilian government estimates that close to 2,000 Para farmers would benefit from the project, which is expected to create 7,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs. The plan also involves improvements to roads and bridges that would benefit the entire region."
- Participatory Market Mapping in the PISCES project in Kenya, 7 May 2010 by HEDON Household Energy Network: "The PISCES project is looking at ways of giving poor people easier access to cheap and renewable energy options, specifically focussing on the potential of biofuels."
- "Markets matter to the rural poor. It is increasingly clear that in tackling rural poverty, market-related issues - including access to information, institutions, linkages and trade rules - are vital considerations. Failure to address these issues means that the benefits of other developments threaten to by-pass the rural poor."
- This article includes links to a podcast on the mapping project as well as supporting documents.
- DOE, USDA Announce Funding for Biomass Research and Development Initiative, 6 May 2010, press release by the Department of Energy: "The U.S. Departments of Energy (DOE) and Agriculture (USDA) today jointly announced up to $33 million in funding for research and development of technologies and processes to produce biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products, subject to annual appropriations."
- "DOE also released today a new video which showcases how cellulosic biofuel technologies can help decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, spur growth in the domestic biofuels industry, and provide new revenue opportunities to farmers in many rural areas of the country."
- "The video, shot at a harvesting equipment demonstration in Emmetsburg, Iowa, highlights a new way of producing ethanol from the cellulose fibers in corn cobs, not from the corn kernels. The technology generates a new opportunity for farmers to harvest and sell the cobs that they’d normally leave in the field."
- Report shows just four per cent of imported biofuels are environmentally sustainable, 28 January 2010 press release by Friends of the Earth: "Commenting on a report published by the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA)...which shows just four per cent of biofuel imported for use in the UK meets the environmental sustainability standard set by the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation", Friends of the Earth's biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter said:
- 'Just four per cent of biofuels imported from abroad are sustainably produced - the vast majority are causing deforestation and land use changes that are increasing climate changing emissions and pushing people off their land.
- 'Biofuels are not the answer to our energy woes - the UK should scrap its targets and must focus our attention on developing greener transport alternatives to cars, such as fast and affordable rail services and cycling and walking.'"
- 'Invasive' biofuel crops require monitoring and mitigation measures, 21 January 2010 by ENN/European Consumers Bioenergy Division: "Biofuel crops will impact on biodiversity and natural ecosystems unless tightly controlled, says a panel of European experts."
- The Bern Convention "adopted a recommendation on potentially invasive alien plants being used as biofuel crops (Recommendation 141, 2009). They warn that some biofuel crops are able to escape as pests, and in so doing impact on native biodiversity. As rural communities plan to grow more biofuel crops, the likelihood of new and harmful 'invasions' will increase apace."
- CLIMATE CHANGE: Brazil Defends Biofuels, 9 December 2009 by IPS/TerraViva: "Being the world’s largest producer and exporter of ethanol it is natural for the Brazilian government and its partners to push biofuels as the only real alternative for a world trying wean itself away from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming."
- "Brazilian authorities were ready with their arguments at the United Nations climate change summit"...."at pains to show that not only is biofuel production the best way to reduce greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions but can also combat poverty as exemplified by the country’s scheme to promote micro-distilleries to provide additional income for rural families."
- "While admitting that "biofuels are no silver bullet," Brazilian authorities insist that biofuels are the best way forward for developing countries."
|Bioenergy in rural development||edit|
|Jatropha in rural development | Biogas in rural development|
|Types of bioenergy||edit|
Gases: Biopropane | Biogas | Synthetic natural gas | Syngas
What is bioenergy? | Benefits/Risks | Who is doing what? | <urn:uuid:eef8442c-4239-4b21-8bb0-db7444af3067> | {
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Pearlfish from a Sea Cucumber
Pearlfish are slender, eel-shaped fish that often live inside various invertebrates including sea cucumbers. Because a sea cucumber breathes by taking in water through its anus, a pearlfish can wait for the cucumber to open for a breath and swim in.
The relationship between pearlfish and sea cucumbers is beneficial to the pearlfish, providing shelter for this slender, scaleless, and often translucent fish. The relationship may be commensal, in which no harm is done to the host sea cucumber, but in some species the pearlfish can function as a parasite, causing harm to its host by eating its gonads and other internal organs! Pearlfish are most common in tropical shallow-water sea cucumbers, but they have been found in hosts in depths of up to 2,000 meters! There may be just one pearlfish to a sea cucumber, but some sea cucumbers may shelter five or more pearlfish. Other animals, including oysters and sea stars, can also play host to pearl fish. | <urn:uuid:f3790133-ad0c-4920-83dc-c415f7eb3be4> | {
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This program priority will help optimize early child development by providing the education and support needed to ensure that expectant mothers are healthy before and during pregnancy, that the birth outcomes are positive, and that the attachment relationship between parent and child has been firmly established during the first year of life.
National Guidelines Clearing House
Effects of early nutritional interventions on the development of atopic disease in infants and children: the role of maternal dietary restriction, breastfeeding, timing of introduction of complementary foods, and hydrolyzed formulas. (PDF file)
Group-based parent-training programmes for improving emotional and behavioural adjustment in children from birth to three years old
The EIDM (Evidence-Informed Decision-Making) program priority will help provide transparency, enhance accountability and may also help make better use of resources.
This program priority will set out and implement new strategies for the prevention and cessation of smoking, and for the protection of others from the effects of second-hand smoke.
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, on tobacco world markets, tobacco auctions, and more.
Resources including pocket guides, tool kits, guidelines, and quick reference guides for healthcare providers serving tobacco dependent individuals.
Coordinates strategic efforts aimed at preventing tobacco use among youth, promoting smoking cessation among youth and adults, protecting non-smokers from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and eliminating tobacco-related health disparities.
Contact the library, if you have not found the information you require.
Health Topics A-Z | Information for Professionals | Information for Workplaces
| School Corner | Employment/Volunteer Opportunities | Clinics, Classes and Events | Resources & Factsheets | Translated Information | About Public Health | Contact Us | Public Health Home Page | <urn:uuid:0819842b-e26e-4bfc-a375-94ae34f8bde8> | {
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POL 201 - POL 201 WEEK 2 QUIZ
Question 1. The national government can attempt to gain the cooperation of state governments by using what type of coercive measures?
Question 2. The Tenth Amendment balances out national authority by
Question 3. A presidential veto of a bill can be overridden by what percentage vote of all members of Congress?
Question 4. Which legislative act is a good example of intergovernmental relations that are the hallmark of Cooperative Federalism?
Question 5. The principal powers of Congress include all except
Question 6. If the President requests a Congressional authorization for the use of force, Congress
Question 7. In federalism, the national government
Question 8. John C. Calhoun proposed the following to assert states’ right:
Question 9. When Congress prepares a budget
Question 10. A unitary system of government has some advantages compared to a federal system. Which of these choices is NOT an advantage of a unitary system of government?
Question 11. A congressional whip is a floor leader that gauges support for bills and tries to enforce party discipline in accordance with a political agenda.
Question 12. True or False: Gerrymandering occurs when a district is intentionally configured to equalize the influence of all component groups and to guarantee that certain representatives keep their seats.
Question 13. Under a Home Rule Charter, local authority is
Question 14. Congressional staff have an important role in Congress because
Question 15. On average, running for a seat in the House of Representatives costs around $100,000. | <urn:uuid:802a6728-9331-4e81-a2a9-722123b7c2f1> | {
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Created 2 years ago · 17 images · 6,593 views · stats
The Power Plant is a 132 by 326 ft complex of three buildings located at Pratt Street and Pier 4 at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The structures are brick with terra cotta trim and steel frame construction. It was built between 1900 and 1909. After the electric plant was retired from service, the building was vacant for a time. The building had been the site of many failed development endeavors, most notably an indoor Six Flags theme park from 1985-1989.
The indoor park, known as the Six Flags Power Plant, is somewhat infamous among amusement park enthusiasts and historians, also being known as Six Flags great failure. Like the Six Flags Autoworld in Flint, MI, the Power Plant was to be an industrial-themed indoor amusement park. But also like Flint, MI, Baltimore was a run-down, poor city misjudging its ability to maintain the tourist attraction.
Opening its doors in 1985, the Power Plant was Maryland's second theme park, following the Enchanted Forest 30 years earlier. There were no rides. Instead, attractions included 3D theaters, sensory "smell-o-vision" theaters, dark walk-thrus, and other quirky exhibits.
The main story of the attraction followed a wacky inventor, Phineas T. Flagg, as the "host" of the Power Plant. Flagg was an inventor who was lost in time at the turn of the century and the Power Plant was his lab where his inventions that never quite made it were kept.
The remarkable style of the indoor park was turn-of-the-century style carnival with a bit of Jules Verne thrown in for good measure.
Exhibits included The Magic Lantern Theatre, The Sensorium 4-D Experience, The Laboratory of Wonders, The Circus of the Mysterious. There was also a dungeon of sorts with a mischievous leprechaun.
One of Flagg's inventions, the electricity ball.
A living, working music box.
A trapeze artist.
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How to Use the AVERAGE, MAX, and MIN Functions in Excel 2016
The AVERAGE, MAX (for maximum), and MIN (for minimum) functions in Excel 2016 are the most commonly used of the statistical functions because they are of use to both the average number cruncher as well as the dedicated statistician. All three functions follow the same syntax as the good old SUM function.
For example, the syntax of the AVERAGE function uses the following arguments just as the SUM, MAX, and MIN functions do:
Just as in the SUM function, the number arguments are between 1 and 30 numeric arguments for which you want the average.
The figure illustrates how you can use the AVERAGE, MAX, MIN, and MEDIAN functions in a worksheet. This example uses these functions to compute a few statistics on the selling prices of homes in a particular neighborhood. These statistics include the average, highest, lowest, and median selling price for the homes sold in April and May 2016. All the statistical functions in this worksheet use the same number argument; that is, the cell range named home_price in C3:C7.
The AVERAGE function computes the arithmetic mean of the values in this range by summing them and then dividing them by the number of values in the range. This AVERAGE function is equivalent to the following formula:
Note that this formula uses the SUM function to total the values and another statistical function called COUNT to determine the number of values in the list. The MAX and MIN functions simply compute the highest and lowest values in the cell range used as the number argument. The MEDIAN function computes the value that is in the middle of the range of values; that is, the one where half the values are greater and half are less. This is the reason that the median sales price (in cell C13) differs from the average sales price (in cell C10) in this worksheet. | <urn:uuid:2e113258-4799-4d58-9f9f-bd71c5fad2e6> | {
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Also called: Cardiac failure, Left-sided heart failure, Right-sided heart failure
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood throughout the body. Heart failure does not mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop working. It means that your heart is not able to pump blood the way it should. The weakening of the heart's pumping ability causes Blood and fluid to back up into the lungs The buildup of fluid in the feet, ankles and legs - called edema Tiredness and shortness of breath The leading causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease , high blood pressure and diabetes . Treatment includes treating the underlying cause of your heart failure, medicines, and heart transplantation if other treatments fail. Heart failure is a serious condition. About 5 million people in the U.S. have heart failure. It contributes to 300,000 deaths each year. | <urn:uuid:82efc181-85f6-45be-b1a3-35e5307fbea7> | {
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21 Jul Animated Infographic: California Drought
California, and many parts of the United States, are in an extreme drought. Some cities are handling water use well*: California’s water supply is 20% greater than it was during the drought in the 70’s. LADWP issued a postcard requiring residents to only water the lawn 3 days a week, and only for 8 minutes, and only mornings or evenings. However, it’s clear that many of my neighbors did not get this postcard or are simply ignoring it. The fact is, despite water restrictions, some cities in the driest parts of California are already running out of water*.
Learn about the drought, and how everyone can do their part to conserve water.
In a recent class I took on infographics, I chose the topic of the California drought, and what individuals can do to conserve water. The idea is that by bringing this reality home to individuals, and getting them to understand they need to take personal action, they will be more likely to support political actions aimed at more widespread water conservation and smart investment in the water infrastructure.
Investment in infrastructure, according to newly minted website WaterWorks.org can help us use water more efficiently, prevent losses from pipes breaking, and better measure our current use and locate leaks. According to a tweet from WaterWorks, their website launched just a week ago — interesting because today in Washington DC they held a press conference and a Congressional briefing promoting investment in water infratructure. There is opposition here and there to some of the proposed large infrastrucure projects. In the case of Dianne Feinstein’s proposed Delta Tunnel, opponents note that it’s unfairly benefitting big industrial concerns over smaller sustainable farms. Hopefully any water infrastructure investment will, in fact, be done wisely, and will not turn out to be yet another money grab by those in power. Water is, of course, life. We should be sure that we’re making sure everybody has enough. | <urn:uuid:013c978d-a145-481f-85ee-cf1fe3f6b220> | {
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102 passengers on the Mayflower landed in Plymouth, MA in 1620. With this passenger list, students can examine the names, choose a person, research daily life in the colony and compose a historical fiction paragraph about their person. Or they can create a live talk show where they will be interviewed as their Pilgrim. There are many things to do with this list!! | <urn:uuid:b5d575a4-3d42-4c4e-8fc1-3890816e6c1d> | {
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They provide food, water, clean air, a stable climate, biodiversity, good health, security and happiness. However, one-fourth of the world’s land mass is seriously degraded from centuries of human activity.
Think: deforestation, overgrazing, overexploitation, the building of infrastructure and pollution. In economic terms, this incurs an estimated loss of more than USD 4.3 trillion per year. The good news is that this process can be reversed.
Pauline van der Meer Mohr Former President Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
“Most of the top management journals remain focused on the firm, not the system. It’s essential for managers and academics to take a more systemic approach to landscape restoration, in tandem with the natural sciences and local people.”
Piet Kruger South African farmer
“All people should benefit from restoration of the land, not just the land owners. Everyone.”
Patrick King Regional General Manager Sanlam, South Africa
“Water is a key resource for Port Elizabeth; essential for its people and industrial production. We believe that restoring the degraded landscapes upstream can help us secure that resource.”
John D. Liu Filmmaker
“It’s possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems. So if we can rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems – why don’t we do that?”
Jagdeesh Rao CEO Foundation for Ecological Security, India
“By locating forests, pastures and water bodies within the larger ecological, social and economic context, landscapes open up to meet a range of objectives that could address demands of preservation, conservation and exploitation.”
Keith Bowers IUCN CEM Ecological Restoration Group Lead, Biohabitats
“The 21st century will demand more than conservation, it will require us to invest in ecological restoration. Restoring our degraded landscapes and seascapes will foster long term resiliency, promote economic vitality and cultivate a shared vision for our future.”
Luc Gnacadja Architect, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
“Degraded landscapes are underperforming common assets linked to many development priorities. And landscape restoration successes have often debunked two prevailing myths: that is takes too long and costs too much. Let’s now overcome the hurdles to scaling up and out.”
Carmen Román Reche Managing Director of Crisara (Organic Almonds) and Spanish National Award on "Innovation Excellence in Rural Women", Spain
“If we cannot conceive our natural and agricultural environments as a single unit, as a close symbiotic network where all the pieces fit perfectly together, we must be doing something fundamentally flawed. Each of us should undergo a deep reflection to understand that the only being that is expendable in our planet is the human being.”
Paco Casero Agricultor, Spain (retired president of Asociación Ecovalia for organic growers)
“We require the specialized labor of men and women that work in the fields, because it is them who provide us with our food staples. We must recognize and honor the work of rural people. The quality of our future depends on their good work and on our collective ability to maintain a proper balance with the surrounding natural ecosystems.”
Read here our most recent Newsflash. Read more
2,5 million EURO to large-scale ecosystem restoration. We are proud and grateful to the Nationale Postcodeloterij (Dutch National Postcode Lottery) to be their new beneficiary. Read more
Enable Consortium launches open, online course on landscape restoration. Read more
Our holistic restoration approach combines and connects 3 different landscape zones, for a period of 20 years, delivering 4 returns.
Giving people hope
and a sense of purpose.
Bringing back jobs, business
activity, education and security.
soil and water quality.
Worldwide, degraded landscapes have led to the loss of biodiversity, productivity, jobs, food security, and social stability. These losses can be reversed, however, by restoring degraded landscapes – at scale – through economically viable solutions.
4 Returns Partners creates market-based solutions for landscape restoration, from idea to realization. Based on the 4 returns philosophy developed by Commonland, our aim is to unite the restoration of landscapes with the economic and social revitalization of communities.
To effectively support our partners with realizing landscape restoration, we offer a combination of advisory services:
Commonland works in close cooperation with internationally leading organizations.
In this library you will find a selection of publications and videos that give an introduction to landscape restoration. In addition, it also provides an overview of expert libraries that have compiled a large collection of articles, country reports, maps, books, guidelines and videos related to landscape restoration.
4 returns from landscape restorationCommonland Publication
Article in Dutch newspaper October 2016Willem Ferwerda heads Dutch sustainable 100 list
Sustainable 100 interview in Dutch newspaper October 2016Interview with nature restorer Willem Ferwerda
A holistic framework for ecological restoration by people and business for next generations4 returns, 3 zones, 20 years
Biodiversity and ecosystem restoration for sustainable developmentDead planet, living planet
Exploring the safe operating space for humanityPlanetary boundaries
Can we live within the doughnut?A safe and just space for humanity
Restoration ecology: time to roll up our sleevesEcosystem restoration is now a global priority
A Sustainable Development Goal for Rio+20Zero net land degradation
TEEB for businessEconomics of ecology & biodiversity
Changes in the global value of ecosystem servicesChanges in global value of ecosystems
Science, business, and practiceRestoring natural capital
Prosperous lands and positive rewards through sustainable land managementThe value of land
Achieving sustainable development through integrated landscape managmentThe little sustainable landscapes book
Public engagement and temporal and spatial scale in a complex social-ecological systemThe role of trust in restoration success
A global assessment for sustainable developmentEconomics of land degradation and improvement
Sustainable land management: A business opportunityELD initiative: Report for the private sector
Connecting Ecosystems, Value Chains and ConsumersNew Horizons for the Transitioning of our Food System
By Willem Ferwerda, 5th of September 2017Royal Address Sustainability
Environmental film maker John D. Liu documents large-scale ecosystem restoration projects.VPRO Backlight Green Gold 1
Ecologist Willem Ferwerda explains how the planet, the environment, and the economy can be restored on the basis of 4 returns.VPRO Backlight Green Gold 2 - Teaser
Environmental film maker John D. Liu demonstrates that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems.Hope in a changing climate - Trailer
Environmental film maker John D. Liu documented the world's largest watershed restoration in China.Lessons of the Loess Plateau
The ELD initiative produced a short information film on the value of soil and the economic impact of land degradation.The value of soil
When land is shared by everyone, who is responsible for its well-being?Land for life award - Foundation for ecological security
Commonland ambassador, John D. Liu, talks about his first encounter with Allan Savory and what he learned about Holistic ManagementJohn D. Liu about Allan Savory & Holistic Management
Unbroken Grounds explains the critical role food will play in the next frontier of our efforts to solve the environmental crisis.Unbroken Ground by Patagonia
Vacancy: Manager Financiën
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T +31 20 811 66 03
Media & Partnering requests:
Careers & internships:
Finance & Operations:
Dutch tax authorities have awarded Commonland so-called ANBI-status. For more information please visit the ANBI-website.
For the Commonland Strategy 2018-2022, click here.
The story behind the Sankofa
The Commonland logo is derived from the image of the Sankofa. This Ghanese symbol represents the importance of learning from the past.
The original symbol shows a bird with its head turned backwards taking an egg off its back. It symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the use of knowledge.
At the same time the logo can be seens as a "C" representing the name "Commonland" or as a graphic illustration of the world. | <urn:uuid:34d4056c-7612-4d7f-9bc2-4103712483ec> | {
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The website SpaceLog [spacelog.org] opens up the original transcripts of early space exploration in an easily readable, searchable and linkable format. The available missions range from Vostok 1, the first human space flight, to Apollo 13, the mission with "a problem". Included with most transcripts are photographs taken both from the ground and by the crew in space, as well as other information about the mission, and any problems that occurred.
The textual content originates from transcripts of radio communications between crews and mission control. Each line starts with a timestamp, in Ground Elapsed Time, which is the time (in days, hours, minutes and seconds) since 'lift-off'. Eventual photographs are shown inline at a suitable place.
The website contains, interestingly enough, a few simple but interactive data graphics, such as visual depictions of the different 'phases' of the space voyage, and a historical timeline revealing the relative communication "activity" over time. | <urn:uuid:e1874411-2d37-4793-9e41-abeb176897d8> | {
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Ancient Romans slapped on face cream
Thursday, 4 November 2004
When it comes to cosmetics, the ancient Romans knew what they were doing.
U.K. scientists have unearthed a small tin canister dating back to the middle of the 2nd century AD in an excavated Roman temple precinct in London that contains a sophisticated white cream that could rival today's top cosmetics.
"It is quite a complicated little mixture," said Professor Richard Evershed, an analytical chemist at the University of Bristol, who led the research published in today's issue of the journal Nature.
"Perhaps they didn't understand the chemistry of everything but they obviously knew what they were doing."
The pot, measuring 60 millimetres by 52 millimetres, is thought to be the only Roman tin of cream of its kind to be found intact and in such good condition.
It was discovered in a waterlogged ditch preserved under wooden planks in thick layers of mud.
The scientists think fashionable Roman women probably wore the whitish cream, and a fair complexion was popular at the time.
"We're speculating that it would have been some sort of foundation cream," Evershed added.
The cream consists of about 40% animal fat, most likely from sheep or cattle, 40% starch and tin oxide. The fat forms the creamy base and the tin oxide makes the mixture opaque white.
"As far as I can tell, the tin oxide was quite inert so it wouldn't cause any dermatological problems," said Evershed.
Although the ancient Romans used lead as a cosmetic, the non-toxic properties of tin oxide would have been desirable, the researchers said, because by the second century the dangers of lead were becoming recognised.
The cream had a "pleasant texture when rubbed into the skin", the researchers said, when they re-created the cream in the lab.
"Although it felt greasy initially, owing to the fat melting as a result of body heat, this was quickly overtaken by the smooth powdery texture created by the starch."
Starch is still used for his purpose in modern cosmetics.
Co-author Francis Grew, of the Museum of London, said both the tin and its contents were of very high quality.
"The cosmetic trade seems to have ranged in Roman times from a sort of home-spun type of thing ... to a sophisticated level," he said.
Evershed said the find gave us another insight into the sophisticated way our ancestors used materials from their environment.
"This is an ancient technology and one that doesn't differ so much from some of the cosmetic technologies in use today," he said. | <urn:uuid:76a2e5dc-fd26-446e-8995-0c3e00d793d0> | {
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The Province of Ontario has recently released ‘A Better Way Forward: Ontario’s Three-Year Anti-Racism Strategic Plan’. The plan is guided by seven main principles, including removing systemic barriers, cross government support, benefiting everyone by removing barriers for some, acknowledging racism is experienced differently by different groups, inclusivity of process, evidence based approaches, and lastly sustainability of the plan as a whole.
‘A Better Way Forward: Ontario’s Three-Year Anti-Racism Strategic Plan’ is the province’s commitment to change the way we do things and break down barriers to advance racial equality. This means reviewing government policies, programs, and services to find ways to for everyone to have better opportunities and outcomes. It’s about making sure government is here to serve and support everyone.
The plan builds on the work already done by the Ontario Government in the field of anti-racism. Some of these programs include building an anti-racism perspective into the Strategy for Safer Ontario, as well conducting an independent review of Ontario’s three police oversight bodies. The Ministry of Education has also constructed an Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy that aims to help the education community identify and address discriminatory biases and systemic barriers in order to support the achievement and wellbeing of all students.
The Province of Ontario is an open, vibrant, and inclusive society. However, it is important to stay vigilant in our fight against intolerance and recommit our intention to learn from each other and make Ontario a better place. If you want to learn more about the plan, click HERE.
This website is provided for your convenience. If you'd prefer to call or email, my staff and I would be happy to hear from you.
More than 28,000 Kits Distributed Across Province to Help Reduce Opioid DeathsNews, Local News
Vector Institute to Strengthen Province’s Knowledge Economy, Deliver Innovation Breakthroughs and Create JobsNews, Local News
Showcasing Ontario’s Arts and Culture and Supporting Local Economies | <urn:uuid:3297d9f2-1279-45a9-be2c-7ad9fd2d770a> | {
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The Jazz Minor Scale
The jazz minor scale is also known as the Melodic Minor Ascending scale. It has many uses in jazz improvisation. Here is the G Jazz Minor scale. It is played in this configuration both up and down. It is easy to think of this scale as a major scale with a flat third.
There are many chords that this scale will work over. Here are a few of them.
|Here’s how to use these over different types of chords.|
|Chord type: G7alt or G7(b9b13)|
Think up a half step and play Ab melodic minor from G to G.
Chord type: Cmin7(b5)
Think up a minor third and play Eb Melodic Minor from C to C.
Chord type: Cmaj7 +5
Think down a minor third and play A melodic minor from C to C.
Chord type: C13(+11)
Think up a fifth and play G melodic minor from C to C. This would also be known as the “C” Lydian Dominant scale. | <urn:uuid:94b8475a-9a60-4375-bb3c-3dcf6b7f77b6> | {
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Posted by Kylie on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 8:29am.
The horizontal surface on which the block of mass 5.1 kg slides is frictionless. The force of 62 N acts on the block in a horizontal direction and the force of 124 N acts on the block at an angle of 60 degrees.
What is the magnitude of the resulting acceleration of the block? The acceleration of
gravity is 9.8 m/s^2
- physics - Henry, Monday, October 3, 2011 at 3:21pm
Wb = mg = 5.1kg * 9.8N/kg = 49.98 =
Weight of block.
Fb = (49.98N,0deg).
Fp = Fh = 49.98sin(0) = 0 = Force parallel to the plane = Hor. force.
Fv = 49.98cos0 = 49.98N = Force perpendicular to plane.
Fap = (62N,0deg) + (124N,60deg).
X = hor. = 62 + 124cos60 = 124N.
Y = ver. = 124sin60 = 107.39N.
tanA = Y/X = 107.39 / 124 = 0.8660,
A = 40.89 deg.
Fap = X / cosA = 124 / cos40.89 = 164N.
Fap = (164N,40.9deg) = Force applied.
Fn = Fap*cosA = ma,
164cos40.9 = 5.1a,
a = 164cos40.9 / 5.1 = 24.3m/s^2. =
acceleration of block.
Answer This Question
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The war against the witches, the extermination program of the Elector of CologneBy admin | April 25th, 2010 | Category: Digital Library, History, Church History | Comments Off
Witch trials were known to be a European phenomenon. But they were carried out only in certain areas, while not at all in other areas or held only a relatively limited. The current state of research is still very patchy, but it should still be pretty sure, that Germany was the center of European witch trials….
Schormann, Gerhard: The war against the witches, the extermination program of the Elector of Cologne, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen 1991 Dieses Buch wird von der Bayrischen Staatsbibliothek als Download provided. | <urn:uuid:6697aeaf-ab2c-4926-b116-068adec1fbe1> | {
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The SensorPlanet project builds an open global mobile device centric research platform for wireless sensor network research, akin to somewhat analogous platform for backbone network services called PlanetLabs.
The distributed platform will provide the necessary infrastructure for world’s top research labs to perform innovative research on wireless sensor networks, where the mobile devices can be seen both as gateways to the mesh sensor networks and also as sensor nodes themselves.
This open innovation initiative will allow Nokia to collaborate with the best teams in the field around the world, and direct the academic Wireless Sensor Network research globally towards a mobile device centric innovation.
The project’s webpage is available here.
Finally what we all have been waiting for; the Call for Papers (CFP) of SenSys 2007 has been announced. SenSys’07 will be held in Sydney, Australia in November 2007 with Sanjay Jha (UNSW) as the General Chair, and Phillip Gibbons (Intel Research) and Akos Ledeczi (Vanderbilt Unv.) as Program Co-chairs. The initial CFP of SenSys’07 is available here
An interesting thing to notice about this year’s CFP is that SenSys is broadening it’s focus beyond mote-class sensor networks. For more information about SenSys, kindly see this wikipedia entry.
The Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre has uploaded some great video on WSN on YouTube. In detail:
The Dream and Reality of Wireless Sensor Networks : researchers from the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre discuss current issues in wireless sensor networks. This video was first aired at IEEE ICIA2006.
Cloud of Points Surface Reconstruction : this animation shows how location information from a wireless sensor network can be used to construct a surface of the physical terrain, using self-organising maps.
Mars Exploration Scenario : an animated film describing the deployment of wireless sensor network technology to explore Mars.
Koreans are safer from dangerous weather conditions now that the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has installed wireless mesh networks to monitor islands off the country’s southern coast. The mesh networks connect remote weather forecasting equipment and video cameras to the KMA’s network.
The mesh networks are a good solution for connecting outdoor weather sensors to the main network because they can be used over large areas of land and water, according to Korea Telecom, which installed them. Traditional network cabling would be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to install in these outlying islands and coastal areas.
The complete story here.
International Workshop on WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS in conjunction with NOTERE 2007 (New Technologies of Distributed Systems Nouvelles TEchnologies de la Repartition) Marrakesh, Morocco, 4-8 June, 2007
Authors are invited to submit original contributions written in French or English in IEEE two-column formats using an electronic PDF or MS-Word formats. The paper length should not exceed 6 pages.
We would like to inform the interested persons that the submission deadline has ben extended to: JANUARY 12, 2007.
Submissions should be sent attached by email to the workshop chair at:
For more information on the NOTERE’2007 and the Workshops please consult the web site:
The Eco-Sensor Network is located at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.
Researchers from the National Centre for Sensor Research have developed mini-weather stations to keep an eye on conditions inside the Great Palm House, the Cactus House and the Orchid House at the Botanic Gardens. Each of the tiny “mote” sensor-boards has sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, light levels, atmospheric pressure and oxygen levels in the air.
The network of sensors sends real-time environmental data to the interactive website, eco-sensor web. You can take a look at this data on the graphing page.
The project homepage is here.
The Harvard University Sensor Networks Laboratory has made a public release of a TinyOS-based platform for monitoring seismic and acoustic signals. This system was designed initially for geophysical monitoring at active volcanoes, but can be readily adapted to other applications, including civil structures monitoring, CBM, etc.
This release includes both hardware and software as fielded at our deployment at Reventador Volcano in August 2005. We are also making a public release of the seismoacoustic data set acquired by the network over the 19-day, 16-node deployment, which consists of over 500 MBytes of raw data Code, hardware specs, papers, talks, etc. can be found here: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/proj/volcano. | <urn:uuid:dd778b13-6dad-433e-8196-8bab1f0d0fbb> | {
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Wastes and waste management
Finnish waste legislation covers all types of waste except certain special wastes such as radioactive wastes, which are controlled by separate laws. Finnish waste legislation is largely based on EU legislation, but in some cases includes stricter standards and limits than those applied in the EU as a whole. Finland also has legislation on some issues related to wastes that have not yet been covered by EU legislation.
For more information on wastes and their environmental impacts see the web pages on the state of the environment. Statistics on the generation and management of wastes in Finland are compiled by Statistics Finland.
The Ministry of the Environment supervises and controls the way Finnish waste legislation is put into practice.
The Finnish Environment Institute conducts research and training, publicises new ideas and methods, and monitors all developments related to waste issues, while also participation in drawingup new legislation and guidelines related to waste. The Institute also monitors international waste shipments.
Centres for economic development, transport and the environment guide, encourage and monitor the implementation of the Waste Act in their own regions. They also provide training and advice for firms and the public, and issue waste permits to larger firms and operations. The national authority responsible for producer registration and other related issues is the Centre for economic development, transport and the environment for Pirkanmaa.
Local authorities organise the collection, recovery and disposal of household refuse and other similar waste, and supervise waste management in general in their own area. They also set local regulations on waste management, ensure that advice on waste matters is freely available, and issue waste permits to smaller firms and operations. | <urn:uuid:70b2b9ea-7812-48dc-889d-67e7ee5449b0> | {
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Students achieve excellent examination results but it is their intellectual curiosity and preparing them to have an impact in life, that holds the key to their success.
We offer a broad and balanced curriculumthat goes beyond statutory requirements and in Years 9 and 10 students can tailor their studiesaccording to their individual strengths and future career plans. It is at this stage that students start work towards GCSEs and IGCSEs in selected subjects from Year 9.
Overdale (Years 7 & 8)
GCSE (Year 9, 10 & 11)
Bring Your Own Device
In order to develop independent learning we aim to provide students with anywhere, anytime and anyhow access to information resources for learning. The use of IT is closely integrated into the teaching of subjects and our ‘Bring your Own Device’ programme offers students the ability to access resources via their own personal device (laptop or tablet) in lessons.
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
The Personal, Social and Health Education offered at the School equips students with the knowledge and skills to understand and manage difficult situations and is delivered by form teachers, the School Chaplain and the School Nurse. Students learn how to recognise and manage risk, make safer choices and recognise when pressure from others may threaten their personal safety and wellbeing. They can also learn effective ways of resisting pressure and where to seek help.
Topics covered through the PSHE programme include:
- Confidence and self-esteem
- Mental Health
- Physical Health
- Equality & Human Rights
- Global Issues
- Sex & Relationship Education
- Study Skills
PSHE is delivered partly in a series of Focus Days, when the normal timetable for a particular year group is suspended, and partly by Form Tutors in a weekly session. The programme is
co-ordinated by the Head of PSHE. | <urn:uuid:d0fb4a43-47f7-4c5a-af80-0614a33f62ac> | {
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Happy New Year, Circa 1910: Pop-up Greeting Cards in the Jewish Division
If you visit your local stationery store in September, you may well find a small selection of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) cards. The cards will probably have the standard Hebrew greeting for the new year, Le-shanah tovah tikatevu (literally, "May you be inscribed for a good year"). They may be serious, as befits a greeting card for the "Days of Awe," or light-hearted. (I saw one recently that showed a man asking his neighbor, "How's your New Year going?" Answer: "Shofar, so good"). It's a safe bet, though, that you won't find anything as elaborate, charming and, yes, kitschy as the Rosh Hashanah cards in the Dorot Jewish Division.
These cards, originally housed in the Library's Picture Collection, were created about a century ago. Although intended for an English-speaking audience, the cards were actually printed in Germany. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the finest postcards, greeting cards and movable books were made in Germany, where artisans had perfected the craft of color printing.
The cards offer an idyllic view of late-Victorian Jewish life. For example, this scene...
...opens up onto this scene:
Within the golden doors, a bride and groom stand under the chuppah, or bridal canopy:
A young Jewish woman waves a banner heralding the New Year; on her sash are the Hebrew words "Bat-Tsiyon" ("Daughter of Zion"):
Elsewhere, another "Daughter of Zion" celebrates the New Year:
Some cards depict the Jewish life cycle, with the German phrase "Von Stufe zu Stufe" ("Step by step") inscribed over a brilliant sun. Perhaps the German printers forgot to change this label for their English-language cards; or possibly they knew that the givers and receivers of these cards might be prosperous English-speaking Jews of German ancestry who would still know German. Notice that the life cycle--babyhood, bar mitzvah, marriage, fatherhood, old age--is depicted from right to left, like the Hebrew language:
Jews often wish each other a "sweet" year at Rosh Hashanah. What could be sweeter than these New Year cards? | <urn:uuid:b56cfdaa-5765-4426-bade-000c3f689ada> | {
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Frilled Dragon Care Sheet
Home > Library
||Up to 30",
Frill is about 12" when extended
||Up to 15 Years
||Australia and New Guinea
|Common Names: Frill-necked
Lizard, Frilled Lizard
Learn more about the Frilled
Dragon when in the wild.
Take a look at these Frilled
Dragon Pictures over in the Gallery.
Watch this Frilled
Dragon Video showing this species' defensive
and evasive maneuvers.
The Frilled Dragon is an omnivore. They eat mainly
insects, but will consume vegetables and fruits. Frilled
Dragons are voracious eaters as well. Hatchlings should
be fed twice a day. Crickets,
will suffice for the meat. The salad should consist of
a wide variety of vegetables and fruit: a variety of greens,
sweet potatoes, carrots, split peas, and green beans.
pinky mice and fruit should be offered sparingly. Dust
the food with a calcium/multi-vitamin supplement everyday
for hatchlings and juveniles, and every second day for
adults. Gut load the insects as well.
Leave a dish with water in the habitat at all times. Ensure
that the water is clean, changing it everyday. You can
also mist them, but they will get most of their water
from the dish.
Lighting, Temperature & Humidity
You must offer a heat gradient, as cool as 75 degrees
F and as hot as 85 - 90 degrees F, with a basking spot
that reaches around 100 degrees F. Maintain the heat
gradient successfully by placing thermometers at either
end of the enclosure. At night, the temperature should
be around 70 - 75 degrees F. Do not let the temperature
drop below 65 degrees F. You should keep the humidity
in their enclosure around 55% - 65%. Do not let it reach
above 75% under any circumstances, as high humidity
may cause respiratory problems. Use broad spectrum heat
bulbs, and a flourescent or other bulb with UVB. Direct
sunlight (not through glass) is recommended for natural
The substrate for young dragons should be newpaper,
paper towel or even reptile carpet. Using sand may cause
impaction if digested. For Adult Frilled Dragon's,
you can continue to use the newpaper or paper towels,
or a fully digestible substrate. These lizards need
a large habitat, as they are very active. A 4 ' x 3'
enclosure will suffice for a single adult, but a larger
habitat is recommended. You must include lots of items
for the dragons to climb and bask on. For hatchlings
to juveniles, a 30 - 55 gallon tank is recommended,
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mnochowitz at aol.com
Fri Dec 22 22:50:15 EST 1995
I'm an 8th grade science teacher working on some hydroponics experiments
with my class. We are experimenting with mineral deficiencies, mainly
nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. I have formulas to make mixtures
deficient in each of these elements. What I can't find are resource
materials explaining the role each of these play in plant developement in
other than general terms.
Any help would be appreciated.
More information about the Plantbio | <urn:uuid:53246292-0c26-46c3-a493-5e705527af52> | {
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CT scan or computed tomography is an imaging technique that uses rotating X-Rays to generate images of parts of body. CT scan creates creates cross sectional views of parts of the organ by taking 2D images of slices of that organ.
CT scanner converts these images into a 3D view with the help of a computerised machine.
The 3D view of cross sections of parts of organ help doctors to study the details about a tumor, brain stroke, vascular condition and other related diseases that can affect brain or head.
When we talk of of brain tumor symptoms, there may no symptoms or there may be symptoms such as severe headaches, blurred, loss of vision and much more.
Symptoms depend of various factors such as the location of tumor, organs it has effected, in what stage is the tumor.
Blurred vision may be due to the location of tumor near some optical nerve. Similarly problem is speech can be due to a tumor close to related nerve.
Various brain MRI scans and other examinations may be needed to diagnose exact condition of the tumor.
Sometimes there are other symptoms as well. Some specific tumor location can lead to change in personality as well .
A tumor in the base of brain can lead to hormonal disorders because that is the place where all hormonal development takes place.
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you should get them tested as soon as possible. to avoid any severe life threatening conditions.
MRI scans play very important role in examining all these symptoms and giving a detailed report.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) both use strong magnetic field to create images. The difference in two technologies is that —
(1) MRA comparatively is a newer technology than MRI
(2) MRI is used to examine bones, joints, soft tissues, internal organs etc whereas MRA is used to examine health of blood vessels and arteries.
(3) Angiography can be performed using X Ray and CT scan also but magnetic resonance angiography is recommended because it gives better results and it is non invasive. Doctor may ask for fluid intake to create better contrast images.
(4) Preparations for both MRI and MRA are almost same. You should ask the radiology expert and doctor about any special preparations in case if you are pregnant or any medication is going on.
(5) MRA can detect blockages in blood vessels while MRI cannot.
3H Care offers MRA with it’s partner labs at discounted price. You can compare price in different nearby labs by using comparison feature.
Search for MRA in your preferred location at MRI page and avail the discount.
With the advancement in technology, modern medicine has advanced beyond x-rays. The most widely used tests besides x-rays are Computed Tomography (CT) scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). But it is quite natural to get confused between two because in both the cross-sectional pictures of the body is shown but the procedure and technique to carry this out is where the difference lies. In both of them the patient is made to rest on a table that slides through the middle of the machine to obtain images of a particular body part. Read on to know the tale of two scans
Computed Tomography (CT) Scan
CT scan uses rotating x-rays to obtain images of the desired body part. In this type of scan the x-ray tube spin around the person placed on the table and the x-ray detector is placed on the exact opposite side of the patient.
A CT Scan can provide complete information about the body, including the chest (lungs and heart), head (inner ear, eyes, brain and its vessels), skeletal system (spine, shoulders and neck), bladder, pelvis and hips, gastrointestinal tract, reproductive system. This scan is commonly used in emergencies as this scan does not take much time and the whole procedure generally takes fewer than 5 minutes.
Find best MRI centers in Delhi here
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Unlike CT scan in which x-rays is used, MRI Scan uses radio frequency pulses and powerful magnetic fields. This scan produces detailed and complete images of body parts and organs. MRI Scan is best suited for producing detailed pictures of tendon tissues and examining soft tissues in ligament, brain tumor etc. The cost of MRI scan is generally more than that of CT scan. | <urn:uuid:4e2dc6f8-021f-472f-84ee-c88d49de6eae> | {
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In his 1879 account of wanderings in the Orient, the travel writer James Hingston describes how, in West Java, he was treated to a bizarre experience:
I am taken by my kind host around his garden, and shown, among other things, a flower, a red orchid, that catches and feeds upon live flies. It seized upon a butterfly while I was present, and enclosed it in its pretty but deadly leaves, as a spider would have enveloped it in network.
What Hingston had seen was not a carnivorous orchid, as he thought. But the reality is no less weird or fascinating. He had seen – and been fooled by – an orchid mantis, Hymenopus coronatus, not a plant but an insect.
We have known about orchid mantises for more than 100 years. Famous naturalists such as Alfred Russell Wallace have speculated about their extraordinary appearance. Eschewing the drab green or brown of most mantises, the orchid mantis is resplendent in white and pink. The upper parts of its legs are greatly flattened and are heart-shaped, looking uncannily like petals. On a leaf it would be highly conspicuous – but when sitting on a flower, it is extremely hard to see. In photos, the mantis appears in or next to a flower, challenging the reader to spot it.
Hiding In Plain Sight?
On the face of it, this is a classic evolutionary story, and a cut-and-dried case: the mantis has evolved to mimic the flower as a form of crypsis – enabling it to hide among its petals, feeding upon insects that are attracted by the flower. Cryptic mimicry by predators is well known. For example, crab spiders camouflage themselves against a flower, and can change from yellow to white to match their host flower.
Crab spider (Misumena vatia) with wasp prey. Olaf Leillinger/Wikimedia
The orchid mantis is something of a poster child for such cryptic mimicry. So obviously true is this evolutionary story that it is often discussed today as established fact.
No one seemed to have noticed that there has been no evidence to support this hypothesis. Orchid mantises are actually very rare in the field, so their behaviour is hardly known about, except in captivity. For example, nobody knows exactly which flower the mantis is supposed to mimic.
Now a set of new studies by James O'Hanlon and colleagues shows quite clearly that we’ve been getting it wrong all this time. While it is indeed a flower mimic – the first known animal to do this – the orchid mantis doesn’t hide in an orchid. It doesn’t hide at all. And to an insect, it doesn’t even look particularly like an orchid.
A Deadly Lure
O'Hanlon and colleagues set about systematically testing the ideas contained within the traditional view of the orchid mantis' modus operandi. First, they tested whether mantises actually camouflage amongst flowers, or, alternatively, attract insects on their own. For a flower-seeking insect, as predicted, the mantis' colour pattern is indistinguishable from most common flowers.
However, when paired alongside the most common flower in their habitat, insects approached mantises more often than flowers, showing that mantises are attractive to insects by themselves, rather than simply camouflaging among the flowers.
“We can clearly observe insects, like bees, diverging from their flight paths and flying right towards this deceptive predator,” O’Hanlon told me. “These beasties are marvellous for this kind of question, because we can observe a dynamic interaction between predators and prey.”
This phenomenon, known as aggressive mimicry, occurs in other animals. The Bolas spider releases chemicals that imitate sex pheromones released by female moths seeking a mate. Male moths, with their elaborately plumed antennae, can detect these pheromones from miles away, and are lured in to their death. Carnivorous Photuris firefly females can mimic the flash-responses of a different species of firefly, attracting amorous males who find themselves on the menu.
Next the researchers assessed where mantises chose to sit. Surprisingly mantises did not choose to hide among the flowers. They chose leaves just as often. Sitting near flowers did bring benefits, though, because insects were attracted to the general vicinity – the “magnet effect”.
Any Old Flower
When they compared the mantis’s shape and colour with flowers from an insect’s perspective, the predator did not resemble an orchid or indeed any particular species of flower, but rather a “generalised” flower. This fits with what we already know: some of the best mimics in nature are imperfect mimics with characteristics of several “model” species.
Placing experimental plastic models out in the field, the researchers found that mantis colour was much more important than shape in attracting insects. They believe that mantises may not actually precisely mimic a particular kind of flower. Instead they may exploit a loophole created by evolutionary efficiency savings within the insect brain.
Jumping To Conclusions
As humans with giant, hyper-developed brains capable of abstract thought, we have the luxury of being able to make decisions using all the available information. After a few seconds of scrutiny, what initially looks like a flower because of its colour begins to look suspicious – and once we spy bug eyes and a vaguely insectoid outline, the game is up: it’s a mantis.
But a tiny insect zipping around on the move, with its compact brain, cannot afford such cognitive extravagance. It has a shortcut – a rule of thumb: anything matching colour X is a nectar-containing flower. More colour equals bigger flower, with potentially more nectar. No cross-checks, no two-step authentication. The mantis takes advantage of this shortcut by using “sensory exploitation”. It is a concentrated mass of the right colour - a supernormal stimulus. The insect classifies the mantis as a giant nectar-filled flower and approaches to investigate – to its doom.
“This work is terrific,” Martin Stevens of Exeter University, an expert on animal deception and mimicry, unconnected with the work, told me. “It’s wonderful to see something that Wallace and others discussed so long ago, finally tested experimentally.”
Colour me beautiful: an orchid mantis nymph devours its prey Igor Siwanowicz
This is not the first species to lure in prey with sensory exploitation. The white crab spider reflects strongly in the UV, making it highly conspicuous to wandering insects. But the spider still “hides” on a flower. Surprisingly a flower with a crab spider is more attractive than one without: the crab spider mimics UV-reflective floral patterns that guide insects to nectar. But the orchid mantis is the first animal ever shown to mimic an entire flower, attracting insects on its own.
There is one remaining issue, though: if the mantis can attract insects by sensory exploitation alone, muses Stevens, then: “Why have body parts that look like petals? My guess is that the pollinators are initially attracted at a distance through sensory exploitation, but then more accurate mimicry kicks in at close range, when the insects can inspect the mantis more closely for what it is.”
Greg Holwell, who coauthored the study, told me: “What this work really emphasises is that working on a completely unstudied species can produce fascinating results. Getting out there and starting with some solid natural history helps to generate hypotheses that you can subsequently test with field experiments, and can lead to the discovery of completely novel phenomena.”
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In the previous draw arc example, we have explained how to draw an arch on the screen. But in this example we are going to show how to draw arc at different locations. To explain it in better way we have described all the methods that used in this application below..
The Application is as follows:
Source Code of ArcsExample.java
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Liked it! Share this Tutorial
Discuss: Arc MIDlet Example
Post your Comment | <urn:uuid:d4d83fab-649c-4fee-a774-4c204b9bd371> | {
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who don't use raw files are sometimes confused as to what they're all
about so I decided to write this little help sheet.
you take a photo with your camera you are allowing light coming
through the lens to pass through the shutter and fall onto the
sensor. The sensor detects the light colours and strength as
information, or data, records it into memory, then converts or
processes it into a picture file, almost always a JPG, (some use
JPEG) and compresses it, like you would Zip a Word document.
you can set your camera to do certain things when it converts the
data into a picture file. You can tell it to drop all the colours and
have only Black and White, you can tell it to add a filter to make
the picture sepia, or you can add simple things like a little extra
brightness, more contrast, and even a little sharpness. This all
happens when you take the picture and you don't see anything going
on, you simply see the preview screen show you the shot you just
cameras allow you to save to JPG Small, Medium and Large, or Fine.
JPGs are compressed data as said and some of the data can be dropped
without most noticing any difference. This saves on space mostly but
as space in computers is relatively cheap now, there's little point
in choosing any other than the best quality option. That is, the
then transfer the JPGs to your computer and edit them in photo
editing software (list of programs available coming soon)...or
not! Most people edit to a small degree, even if that's fixing
the horizon cos it's wonky, adjusting the exposure cos it was too
dark/bright, or enhancing the colours by saturating them slightly.
cameras allow you to save in TIFF or DNG format, we'll not worry too
much about them here.
cameras nowadays have a setting also called raw. Unlike TIFF, JPG and
DNG, raw doesn't stand for anything. That data that your sensor
collects, it's just unprocessed, or raw data, it's RGB values for
each sensor pixel. That's why it's called raw. Most cameras allow you
to save a raw file and a JPG at the same time. This is simply so you
have a JPG file you can look at quickly once it's on your computer.
When you've decided which ones you're going to keep, you can delete
all the JPG's if you like.
do anything with this raw data you need some software and everyone
uses the software that they prefer. My preference is Lightroom, but
there are many out there, some are even freeware, free to download
and use from the internet.
you open the raw file in whatever software you use, it does what's
called de-mosaicing. This is a term which simply means the software
reads the data, and presents it in a form that you can see on screen.
You may notice that at first the picture isn't as pretty as a JPG,
but that's because the camera didn't choose how to convert that data
like it does with JPG, it's sometimes flat and doesn't look very
some programs like Lightroom can do what is called 'non-destructive'
editing. What happens is this:
loads the raw file and de-mosaics it so you see an image. You can
alter that image in many ways and Lightroom keeps a record of what
you did in a special file so each time you load the raw file it also
loads the special file and shows you the image as it would appear
with your changes.
you are happy with all the changes you can then export a JPG from it.
The raw file is still untouched, the special file still retains all
the edits you made, but the JPG is there for you to do with whatever
here's a beautiful thing. In fact 2 beautiful things.
time you view a JPG you are actually decompressing the compressed
file (remember I said earlier it's like a compressed zip file?) and
when you close it you are re-compressing it. Every single time you do
this with a JPG you lose a tiny bit more detail, this is called lossy
compression. So over time the JPG deteriorates. If that happens or if
you simply lose the JPG, you can go back and export another one from
your raw file. There is no limit to how many you can export. You can
even export one small JPG for your Facebook, a larger one for your
blog and a much larger one to print out.
say you miscalculated your exposure and it's slightly dark. No
problem, use Lightroom or other raw processing software to give more
exposure. Raw files allow you approximately 3 stops over and under.
What they can also do is allow you to slightly darken a too-bright
sky, but slightly lighten a too-dark shadow. Then when it's right,
export your spot on JPG. There are a myriad of alterations you can
make in raw software and the beauty is you can simply click 'reset'
and your raw file is back instantly to how it was when you first
transferred it from your camera. Both Canon and Nikon cameras all
ship with their own software too so you don't have to buy a separate
program if you don't want to.
can't break anything and making digital costs you nothing, so why not
try raw and see what you think?
(pronounced jay peg) stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, who
first determined how JPEGs would work. They're usually called JPGs
simply because file extensions in Windows only used to be able to be
3 letters, hence myphoto.jpg. This is still the preferred and most
commonly used file format, although often produced from a raw file.
are Tagged Image Format Files and they are not compressed like JPGs
are, so take up lots more room.
is Portable Network Graphic. This format unlike JPG's does not lose
info each time it is compressed and was made to replace the GIF which
has limited or no use in photography. It's use is highly debatable.
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This week’s focus on wet wipes as a contribution to world plastic waste reflects Bushboard’s own campaign to stop people using wipes in the kitchen. The trouble with wipes is that a recent feature on BBC’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor showed that using wipes did very little to stop the growth of microbes. Dr Clare Lanyon, a biomedical scientist from Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, said consumers may be wasting money on antibacterial wipes and sprays because common germs, which can replicate themselves in just 20 minutes, quickly recolonise back to original mass even if just one single cell is left over.
Neil Horton, commercial director of Bushboard says “Antibacterial laminate surfaces should be considered seriously when specifying new kitchens and bathrooms. Worksurfaces were identified by Good Housekeeping recently as a leading harbour for germs. Antibacterial wipes are not necessarily the ideal way to clean worksurfaces either; adding more waste to landfill or British beaches: In 2015 volunteers with the Marine Conservation Society, found 4,000 wipes washed up on British beaches, that 80 wipes for every mile of British coastline they examined.”
The solution: Inherently easy to clean, Bushboard Omega worksurfaces incorporate Sanitized® Actifresh that deters the growth of bacteria. It’s odourless, non-toxic and reduces microbe and bacteria growth by 99%.
www.bushboard.co.uk, 01933 232 242 | <urn:uuid:c0df6ad2-b011-4170-938e-c32c87fae0e5> | {
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A person’s worth nowadays seems to be judged according to social status and material possessions. Old-fashioned values, such as honour, kindness and trust, no longer seem important.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
(Nếu không có thời gian nhận xét thì các bạn rate cho mình với nhé, mình cảm ơn ^^)
There is apparently a long list of criteria in evaluating a person. However, a proportion of people assume that conventional ethical values are being taken off list. Seemingly, the worthiness of an individual is now attributed to his or her social significance and possession of properties. From my point of view, I partly disagree with it.
Undeniably, in this material world, people tend to admire or envy with those financially superior or who claim desirable positions in various social hierarchies. In fact, their admiration and judgment based on these factors are not ungrounded, in other words, reasonable. To climb high in social ladder, one must definitely pose certain characteristics. Being in charge of hundreds of employees, for example, requires billionaire CEOs competence, brainpower and leadership skills. It is not a coincidence that a selected group of elites are voted into the government; otherwise, every citizen could run for presidency.
Meanwhile, social status and material wealth can never suffice, rather be trivial and flawed in several cases. To illustrate, luxurious celebrities would not earn themselves respects if over-indulging in alcohol or drugs. The same goes for a reputable teacher who bears discrimination toward impoverished students or a head director whose company is criticized for labor abuse. Furthermore, that old-fashioned values are not exalted is a false notion, especially on daily basis when people comment on others’ behaviors. It can be explained by the fact that ordinary people usually attempt to raise their kids to be benevolent, rules-respecting , kind-hearted citizens and praise bonding, trust worthy relationships. Still, they absolutely stand for the righteousness and condemn violation of rights. That is to say, there is no way that ethics have been totally neglected by societies.
All things considered, I would confirm my stance that although wealth and power can be the symbols of personal worth, the intrinsic value of a person should be measured by their morals such as honor, kindness and trust. | <urn:uuid:b2649cfa-6114-4db1-9cbc-6b078e042f5d> | {
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Insecta, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae .
Description, Biology, Life Cycle, Damage, Common Names, Images
- This polyphagous moth is one of the principal enemies of cotton and maize.
In Mediterranean regions, it frequently attacks vegetable plants: tomato, artichoke, Leguminoseae, Cucurbitaceae, as well as tobacco, pink (Dianthus) and conifers.
- The caterpillar tends to be aggressive; it is carnivorous and subject to cannibalism. In temperate regions, it overwinters as a pupa buried several cm in the soil.
- Adults appear in April-May and can be observed until October because of the long migration period.
Females lay several hundred eggs on all parts of the plant, flowers and fruits included (*) .
- Eggs may hatch in less than 3 days at an optimum temperature of 27-28°C.
- The life-cycle lasts slighly more than a month.
In Italy, 2 to 4 generations are occur in a year.
The most severe damage is caused by the attack on reproductive parts such as flower buds and flower heads, capsules (*) , berries, and maize influorescences.
When still very young and small, the caterpillars burrow deep into tomatoes and are overlooked in peeled fruits intended for canning, thus causing a high rate of commercial losses.
Berries are usually three-quarters hollowed out from the outside.
In Leguminoseae, flowers are attacked and seed pods pierced.
Found practically worldwide, it is one of the major pests in tropical and subtropical regions.
DE: Baumwollkapselwurm ES: Oruga del tomate, Heliotis del tomate FR: Noctuelle de la tomate IT: Nottua del pomodoro PT: Lagarta do tomate GB: Tomato fruitworm, Old World bollworm
HYPPZ on line : Species (scientific name), Pests (common names), Glossary, Crops. | <urn:uuid:7e911140-f8d2-414d-a9d9-66fd8914514b> | {
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The school says my child needs Ritalin; where do I get it?
Can't find what you're looking for? Our health information specialists are here to help. Contact us at 800-233-4050 or online.
School personnel do not have the medical training necessary to tell parents to place their children on medication. CHADD and the National Resource Center on ADHD believe that it is inappropriate for individual professionals to offer advice outside their field of training, expertise, or licensing. While teachers and other school personnel play a critical role in identifying potential education problems, they are not qualified either to diagnose a medical condition or suggest specific treatments for addressing that medical condition.
In general, only a physician (M.D. or D.O.) who is properly licensed may prescribe medications used to treat ADHD (prescribing privileges are regulated by state law for other professions, including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and, in two states [New Mexico and Louisiana] Ph.D. psychologists with with advanced training in psychopharmacology). Because ADHD is a medical condition, it should be diagnosed by a pediatrician, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker, or other properly licensed mental health provider who has experience evaluating and treating individuals with ADHD. Because some symptoms of ADHD may be symptoms of other conditions, it is essential that you consult a trained professional and obtain a thorough evaluation and formal diagnosis for your child before beginning any particular course of treatment. | <urn:uuid:02141895-8294-460c-8851-5753ad2a8bdf> | {
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SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The wind and the waves peeled back layers of Cumberland Island sand last December to reveal a piece of history: the wooden bones of a long-lost cargo ship.
Archaeologists surmised from the gunnel and wooden nails that the 100-foot-long vessel was at least 150 years old, possibly a blockade runner used during the Civil War to transport guns, food and soldiers past Union forces.
Experts believe the so-called "Cumberland Shipwreck," never documented, could be a major historical discovery. So they did what the state of Georgia usually does with such significant maritime finds: They took samples, re-covered the ship in sand, then walked away.
At least 1,200 historically significant ships — dating to the 1730s, by one respected reckoning — have gone down in Coastal Georgia waters. Revolutionary War gunships. Civil War Ironclads. Whaling ships. Cotton schooners. Paddle-wheel steamers. WWII oilers.
Not a single coastal shipwreck, though, has been excavated and put on permanent display. Florida and the Carolinas do a more thorough job investigating, cataloging, preserving and exhibiting their underwater booty and profiting from the tourism it attracts. North Carolina, for example, attracted 400,000 visitors last year to its three maritime museums.
Georgia's neighbors spend more money on maritime archaeology and employ more staff. They also tap more public and private resources to discover what's underwater and if it's worth preserving.
Meanwhile, Georgia gets by with one maritime archaeologist, a donated Boston Whaler and a budget of $71,000 per year - which includes the scientist's salary.
"We have a rich history - I'd put it up against any of our neighboring states," said David Crass, the historic preservation director for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "But Georgia has not traditionally stressed the maritime portion of our heritage."
With limited budgets, states must prudently decide what part of their maritime history to highlight. Once a wreck is found, for example, it is typically surveyed and cataloged and left in place. Reburying in mud or sand preserves the vessel in a cost-efficient manner.
Georgia may soon begin to recapture a critical piece of its maritime history with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps, armed with $14 million, will raise the remains of the CSS Georgia, a Civil War Ironclad sitting on the bottom of the Savannah River a few miles east of the city's picturesque waterfront.
Judy Wood, a maritime archaeologist newly retired from the corps in Savannah, documented the 1,200 shipwrecks off Georgia's coast between 1738 and 1890. Her database was compiled over 25 years of researching shipping records, newspaper accounts, personal diaries and other sources.
Up until the 1800s, Georgia life revolved around the coast as most citizens lived within 50 miles of the ports and the commercial hubs of Savannah, Sunbury, Darien, Brunswick and St. Marys. Traders along major rivers, including the Altamaha, Ogeechee and Savannah, delivered deer skins, timber and naval stores to ocean-going vessels. Sloops ferried rice and cotton from coastal plantations to port towns.
Georgia is blessed, or cursed, with a hundred-mile coastline and 2,344 miles of shoreline wending in and around inlets and islands. Its shallow waters, filled with shifting shoals and barrier islands, have befuddled mariners for centuries. Bad weather amplified navigational challenges.
A half-dozen major hurricanes in the 19th century sent dozens of ships to the bottom, Wood's research shows, including the storm of 1893 that sundered 32 steamers, ferries, barks, sloops and tugboats.
Wrecks "tend to cluster around the mouths of ports because ships would see a storm coming in and try to make it to a port in time," Wood said. "The outgoing guys, if something was wrong, they could wait for their weather window. But if they were incoming from the Caribbean or Europe, they had to deal with the weather at hand."
Wood documented a rich history of maritime misery. In 1780, as the Revolutionary War raged, the HMS Defiance, a 64-gun British warship, sank off the coast near Tybee Island. A hundred years later, the Petrel, a Massachusetts whaler, ran aground on Jekyll Island, although 85 barrels of sperm oil and whale bones were salvaged.
Wood relishes the tale of The Albion, a British merchant ship that lost its mast in the Hurricane of 1824 near Sapelo Island. En route to Ireland from Honduras with a cargo of mahogany, The Albion drifted for five days with five sailors lashed to the poop deck to keep from going overboard.
"A fellow sufferer on board was an unfortunate monkey" who was "killed and dried (and) eaten raw with some rain," reported the Daily Georgian, a defunct Savannah newspaper.
The Civil War in Georgia - on dry land, at least — is well-documented with museums, battlefields and roadside markers memorializing triumphs and defeats. Yet the coastal waters hide a slew of fascinating Civil War wrecks, including the USS Water Witch commandeered by Confederate troops in Savannah; the Rattlesnake blockade runner sunk by Union forces on the Ogeechee River; and, of course, the CSS Georgia.
"Should we be preserving more? Looking for more?" asked Ken Johnston, executive director of the nonprofit National Civil War Naval Museum. "Absolutely, especially if it illustrates a particular story or historical point, like the CSS Hunley or the Titanic."
Johnson's museum displays portions of a gunboat and an ironclad scuttled on the Chattahoochee River as the war ended in 1865 and Union troops converged. It also has a mock-up Water Witch out front beckoning tourists. But the museum is located in Columbus, 250 miles from the coast.
Meanwhile, archaeologists have covered the Cumberland Shipwreck in sand to prevent salty air, wind, waves and poachers from further harming it.
Excavation and preservation don't come cheap. Experts say it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to dig up the mysterious vessel, preserve its wood gunnels and iron fasteners and display them in a temperature-controlled room.
"Is it something that has enough cultural and historic weight behind it to make it worth preserving? It's a very expensive proposition," Johnston said.
The CSS Jackson, a 225-foot-long ironclad brought up in the early 1960s from Chattahoochee River muck, sat in the open air for three decades until $8 million was raised privately to build the humidified naval museum in Columbus.
"How many Ironclads do we need to excavate given the amount of money it takes to mount something like that?" said John Caramia, director of interpretive programs for the Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah. "It's got to be an incredibly historic object that governments have an interest in and want to preserve."
Florida hired its first underwater archaeologist in 1964. Today, the Sunshine State employs three full-time underwater scientists who work closely with universities, museums and historical societies to identify and preserve still-submerged wrecks.
South Carolina counts four maritime archaeologists and a budget — supplemented by a variety of private, public and nonprofit sources — at least five times larger than Georgia's. Like Georgia, though, South Carolina focuses mainly on surveying and cataloging shipwrecks.
"Full-scale recovery is usually not the way to go," said Jim Spirek, who heads the state's maritime research division. "It would require a lot of money up front before we (excavate) something huge. The Hunley is a rarity."
Located in 1995 and retrieved from Charleston's harbor five years later, the CSS Hunley sits in a 90,000-gallon conservation tank in North Charleston. Visitors pay $12 to a nonprofit corporation that preserves the Confederate submarine and hopes to one day display it in a museum.
Resurrecting and restoring the Hunley has cost an estimated $20 million, with private sources covering 70 percent of that amount. A North Charleston museum, expected within eight years, could cost upward of $40 million and would be the state's third museum dedicated to its seafaring history.
In North Carolina, private sponsors raised $450,000 to pull up the final remains pirate Blackbeard's 17th century flagship, and two cannons were pulled from waters near Beaufort earlier this month. State taxpayers covered the $1.5 million spent the last fiscal year to run the N.C. museums, which don't charge admission.
"We've got signature projects out there, just like North Carolina," said Crass, the Georgia preservationist. "We just haven't reached the point of critical mass where we can bring resources to bear on that project. We're missing a tremendous opportunity." | <urn:uuid:3e82d66f-6813-4cb9-8e6a-19a5343adc7c> | {
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After writing my last post, I thought I would mention some of the various portraits that have been identified as depicting Frances Grey (née Brandon), Duchess of Suffolk. None has been authenticated as a portrait of her, but here’s a look at the various candidates:
The painting below is by far the one most usually associated with Frances. For centuries, it was misidentified as a portrait of her and her second husband, Adrian Stokes. Recent scholarship has identified it as one of Mary Neville and her son, Gregory Fiennes, but centuries of error die hard. As dozens of books, nonfiction and fiction alike, have relied on this painting in depicting Frances’s physical appearance (and even her personality), it’s likely that it will be associated with Frances for years to come. (Incidentally, the myth that Adrian Stokes was half Frances’s age rests largely upon this portrait; Stokes was actually only a couple of years Frances’s junior. Before joining her household he was the marshal of Newhaven in France, where he commanded ten men until the fortress fell to the French in 1549.)
The drawing below by Hans Holbein was labeled “The Marchioness of Dorset” after Holbein’s death in 1543. John Cheke, Edward VI’s tutor, is said to have provided the labels for many of the portraits. Unfortunately, from 1533 to 1541, there were two Marchionesses of Dorset, Frances and her mother-in-law, Margaret Grey, née Wotton. Art historians have generally identified this portrait as being of Margaret rather than of Frances. Moreover, as Eric Ives has pointed out, the lady is carrying a walking stick, which seems an unlikely implement for Frances, who was only twenty-six at the time of Holbein’s death, to be holding. The walking stick can be seen more clearly in the finished painting:
The next Holbein sketch, labeled “The Duchess of Suffolk” is usually identified as being that of Frances’s stepmother, Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk. As Ives points out, Frances did not become a duchess until November 1551, so if Cheke made his identifications of the Holbein portraits before then, it would rule Frances out as a possible subject. If he made his identifications after that date, however, it is possible that “Duchess of Suffolk” referred to Frances rather than Katherine. The Holbein can be compared to the miniature of Katherine Brandon shown below it.
In his study of Frances’s father, Charles Brandon, S. J. Gunn referred to the Holbein sketch below as being one of Frances, her daughters Jane and Katherine, and Charles’s two sons by his marriage to Katherine Brandon. Gunn based his statement on Paul Ganz’s identification of the sketch. As Dr. John Stephan Edwards pointed out when I asked him about the sketch, however, the British Museum dates this piece to 1532-33, before either Frances’s children or the Brandon boys were born. It seems unlikely, then, that Frances is the sitter in this pleasant domestic scene.
In her biography Bess of Hardwick, Mary Lovell reproduced the portrait below as being one of Frances. This painting, which Lovell credited to the Royal Collection, can be found all over the Internet, identified as Frances, but I have found absolutely nothing about its date, the identity of the artist, or where it is held. Neither Ives nor Leandra de Lisle mentions it as a likeness of Frances. The ruff looks to me like something from the later part of the century (Frances died in 1559). If anyone knows anything about the provenance (there’s just something nice and tweedy about the word “provenance,” isn’t there?) of this painting, please comment!
Finally, one undisputed image of Frances does exist: the effigy on her tomb at Westminster Abbey. Adrian Stokes, her widower, obviously hired an excellent craftsman to pay a last tribute to his duchess. | <urn:uuid:06c375f0-d7f0-4108-b8e4-9aec62b8ec9e> | {
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Yoga is all those practices that enable us to discover health – which is not the absence of the symptoms of sickness, but which is wholeness and holiness, an inner state of being in which there is no division at all.” — Swami Venkatesananda
What is yoga, and how is it related to Nepal?
Since ancient times, the dramatic, breathtaking landscapes of Nepal have been considered deeply sacred. Sages and saints have wandered the Himalayas, immersed in their spiritual practices, and the Lord Buddha was born in the famous gardens of Lumbini (a UNESCO World Heritage site and a place of pilgrimage).
Yoga originated an estimated 5000 years ago, and although it is interwoven with Hinduism and Buddhism, it is not a religion, but a philosophy. The earliest testament to Yoga are Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, a collection of 195 statements that serve as a philosophical guidebook, and a framework for spiritual growth and mastery over the physical and mental body.
The Yoga Sutras outline the eight limbs of yoga: the yamas (restraints), niyamas (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyani (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). In a nutshell, exploring these eight limbs leads us to refine our behaviour in the outer world, after which our focus turns inward until we reach samadhi (liberation, enlightenment).
Yoga is a powerful tool for self-transformation. It asks us to bring our attention to our breath, thus helping us to still the fluctuations of the mind and be more present in the unfolding of each moment.
Today, yoga has spread around the world. It has become widely commercialised, often diluted to mere physical exercise.
Our founder, Karnesh Rajthala, has studied yoga in various forms and traditions: He holds a yoga and naturopathy diploma from Sanskrit University in Kathmandu, is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance, and has studied with internationally renowned teachers such as David Garrigues. He has also spent time in ashrams, and met with a number of gurus and sages, who initiated him into sacred disciplines such as Kriya Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. The authenticity of the yoga we teach at Kamala Yoga Nepal is important to him.
Why practice yoga with Kamala Yoga Nepal?
- By practicing with Kamala Yoga Nepal, you connect to the original meaning of yoga, in one of the holiest places on earth. Our practice is firmly grounded in the timeless, universal, and sacred philosophy and principles of yoga.
- Our yoga is accessible: we offer clear and simple guidance for practitioners at all levels.
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On Sunday, President Barack Obama announced that the official name for the highest peak in North America, Alaska's Mount McKinley, would formally be changed to its Athabascan name: Denali. This makes a lot of sense. The mountain was known as Denali long before a gold prospector dubbed it McKinley after reading a newspaper headline in 1896, and it has officially been known as "Denali" in Alaska for about a century, according to the state's board for geographic names. The state and its Republican legislature have been asking Washington to call the mountain Denali for decades. And for decades, the major obstacle to getting this done has been Ohio, McKinley's home state.
We need not spend much time discussing Ohio in this space, but suffice it to say that Ohioans are a very proud, if sometimes misinformed, people, and the birthplace of mediocre presidents won't just take the marginalization of those mediocre presidents lying down. It will fight! To wit, the state's congressional delegation has decided to show off that old Ohio fighting spirit by condemning the decision in sternly worded press releases and tweets. Here's GOP Sen. Rob Portman:
This decision by the Administration is yet another example of the President going around Congress (4/5)
No it wasn't! McKinley was assassinated in 1901. The mountain was named McKinley in 1896, by a random gold prospector who had just returned from the Alaskan Range to find that the governor of Ohio had won the Republican presidential nomination. This is like naming the highest point in the continent after Mitt Romney. Is Portman suggesting that the fix was in as early as 1896? Did Czolgosz really act alone? Was Teddy Roosevelt in on it? My God! Congress did pass a law in 1917 formally recognizing McKinley as the mountain's name, but that was really just paperwork.
Let's see what else they've got:
Boehner stmt: naming continent's highest mt 4 McKinley was "testament 2 his great legacy" including Ohio govship, victory in Spanish-Am War
The Spanish-American War hadn't happened yet in 1896—William Randolph Hearst wouldn't start that for another two years! Okay. Here's GOP Rep. Bob Gibbs, all but engraving his sternly worded response on obsidian:
The National Park Service turns 99 years old on Tuesday. To celebrate, the Department of the Interior has waived admission fees for all NPS sites for the day. That's a pretty sweet deal. You should stop reading this right now, call in sick, and enjoy the great outdoors. National parks are great.
But not everyone agrees. Yelp is filled with one- and two-star reviews of America's most pristine and majestic natural wonders. And honestly, they're riveting. What makes a national park a one-star destination varies from one reviewer to the next. Maybe the tacos at the visitor center aren't up to snuff. Maybe it was cloudy. Maybe the park was too cowardly to cut down some trees for spillover parking lots. Maybe it was President Barack Obama's fault.
Whatever the case, you can thank these people for leaving the campgrounds a little bit less crowded for the rest of us:
I looked it up, and it's true—the bees at Joshua Tree National Park are out of control. In 2000, a group of hikers was attacked by a swarm and one man was stung more than 100 times. They tried to get inside their car to escape, but some of the bees followed them inside the car and continued stinging them. Holy crap, bees! If you were stung 100 times by bees at Joshua Tree, you should give it one star. But maybe it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise that the desert gets hot in the summer. This is like downgrading a restaurant because you went there on a hunger strike.
Carly Fiorina has had the wind at her back after the first Republican presidential debate. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO earned high marks for her appearance at the "kids table" forum for the least-popular GOP candidates, and she has been rising in the polls ever since. So it was only a matter of time before the knives came out.
On Sunday evening, former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who herself was doing well in the GOP presidential polls this time four years ago, drew her followers' attention to a 14-year-old speech Fiorina had given in Minneapolis, in which she defended the cultural, legal, and scientific heritage of the Muslim world. The catch: It was delivered just weeks after 9/11. What nerve!
Fiorina's speech reads as a thoughtful defense of the faith of many of her employees at Hewlett Packard. Her respect for Islam seems to come from personal experience. In her 2006 book, Tough Choices, she described the soothing effect of listening to Muslim prayers when she was a teen and her family lived in Ghana. (Her father was a law professor then on a teaching sabbatical at the University of Ghana). She wrote:
I remember hearing, for the first time, Muslims pray, and how over time their sound evolved from being frightening in its strangeness to comforting in its cadence and repetition—I would feel the same peace when I listened to the sound of summer cicadas around my grandmother's house. I grew to love being awakened in the morning by the sound of the devout man who always came to pray under my bedroom window.
Uh-oh. That reminiscence may well provide Bachmann with more ammo. And it's not just Bachmann who has called out Fiorina for being soft on Islam. Fiorina's comments on Islamic civilization have also been criticized by fringe-right outlets like the American Thinker and Western Journalism Review.
Islam has once again become a wedge issue in the Republican primary. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, for instance, has called for a ban on certain kinds of Muslim immigrants. Fiorina, who tried (and failed) to ride the GOP tea party wave into the Senate in 2010 by fashioning herself as a stalwart conservative—is now the target of the extremists she once courted.
Donald Trump spent most of the weekend saying awful things about Megyn Kelly, after the Fox News host had the temerity to question him at last Thursday's debate about his history of saying awful things about other women. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise: Hurling insults at people who cross him is basically the entire point of Donald Trump.
But when he's not saying bad things about Kelly, Hillary Clinton, Rosie O'Donnell, women more generally, black people, Mexicans, President Barack Obama, various members of the press, John McCain, or Mohawks, Trump also makes a lot of good points.
Here are 13 things Trump has been right about:
The invasion of Iraq: In 2003, he told the Dallas Morning-News that the Iraq War had been a "disaster" that "should not have been entered into." "To lose all of those thousands and thousands of people, on our side and their side, I mean, you have Iraqi kids, not only our soldiers, walking around with no legs, no arms, no faces," he said. "All for no reason. It is a disgrace."
Katy Perry shouldn't have married Russell Brand:
.@katyperry Katy, what the hell were you thinking when you married loser Russell Brand. There is a guy who has got nothing going, a waste!
Campaign finance: Although Trump bragged (falsely) about having cut checks to most of the Republican candidates with whom he shared the stage last week, he also made some smart points about the corrupting influence of campaign contributions. "I will tell you that our system is broken," he said during the debate. "I give to many people. I give to everybody, when they call I give, and you know what? When I need something from them, two years, three years later, I call, they are there for me."
Material excess: "While I can't honestly say I need an eighty-foot living room, I get a kick out of having one," he wrote in his most famous book, The Art of the Deal. Both of these statements sound pretty true.
The merits of his cologne, which is actually called "Success" and features notes of juniper, iced red currant, frozen ginger, vetiver, and tonka bean: Granted, you can't buy it in stores anymore because no one bought it, but Success gets 4.5 stars on Amazon.com. User "Kim" writes:
My boyfriend LOVES this cologne. They used to sell it at Macy's but it was discontinued and he was running low around Christmas time...when I told him it was discontinued he was sad that he would have to find another cologne now..but then I found it online here and I was so happy! And it was ALOT cheaper than I used to pay at Macy's! ($62) and it was the big sized bottle like he wanted and it was perfect and he was so happy.
Dick Cheney: "He's very, very angry and nasty," Trump said in a 2011 review of Cheney's book. "I didn't like Cheney when he was a vice president. I don't like him now. And I don't like people that rat out everybody like he's doing in the book. I'm sure it'll be a bestseller, but isn't it a shame? Here's a guy that did a rotten job as vice president. Nobody liked him. Tremendous divisiveness. And he's gonna be making a lot of money on the book. I won't be reading it."
The Drug War: In 1990, well before the political tides had shifted in favor of pot legalization, Trump was declaring the federal government's mass-incarceration campaign a waste. "We're losing badly the war on drugs. You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars."
RedState's Erick Erickson, who disinvited Trump from the conservative site's confab last weekend due to his remarks about Megyn Kelly:
It's just one poll—the polling average still favors Clinton by a lot in the Granite State and nationally. But it's another indication that the enthusiasm that greeted the Vermont senator's candidacy out of the gate has only grown as he's taken his campaign on the road (nearly 28,000 people came to see him in Los Angeles on Monday).
Sanders, for his part, has taken steps to improve on a set of issues that dogged him early in the campaign. In response to feedback from Black Lives Matter activists, who have disrupted two of his events, he recently unveiled a "racial justice" platform. He also hired a Symone Sanders, a young black activist who had criticized his rhetoric on race and inequality, as a national press secretary. It's looking like a campaign that thinks on its feet. And after Tuesday, Team Clinton is officially on notice. | <urn:uuid:0dadd35d-76d6-4ae7-8818-d56238cb4c19> | {
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Glioblastoma’s “stem-like” cells laid bare
What: Glioblastoma, the most common and most aggressive form of brain cancer in adults, remains effectively incurable. Evidence suggests that “stem-like” cells help drive this difficult-to-treat disease. These cells may possess properties that give them the ability to resist treatment and drive cancer’s growth, but pinpointing them and understanding the circuitry that makes them behave the way they do has been a major challenge.
Now, through the lens of epigenomics, researchers are gaining a clearer picture of the core set of switches that can turn a cancer cell into an aggressive glioblastoma stem cell capable of driving a tumor’s growth. Instead of focusing on genetics, the research team has found that by flipping epigenetic switches that alter gene activity, they can control a tumor cell’s aggressive behavior by making it regress into a stem-cell-like state.
“The code is fairly simple,” says Mario Suvà, a Broad associated scientist and a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s a difference of four transcription factors: that’s all it takes to switch from a non-aggressive brain tumor cell to a very aggressive brain tumor cell.”
In a paper appearing in Cell this week, the team describes a network of genes controlled by these four master switches, as well as insights into potential therapeutic strategies.
Why: Many of the key genetic mutations tied to glioblastoma are difficult to target with drugs. Shifting cancer cells toward a less aggressive state by flipping epigenetic switches provides a tantalizing alternative treatment method, which has been used successfully in the field of leukemia. Researchers are exploring whether similar strategies could be helpful in treating brain tumors as well.
Who: A multidisciplinary team of researchers and physicians from Massachusetts General Hospital, the Broad Institute, and the Klarman Cell Observatory led by Mario Suvà and Esther Rheinbay from the Bradley Bernstein laboratory.
Where to find it: Suvà M et al. “Reconstructing and reprogramming the tumor propagating potential of glioblastoma stem-like cells.” Cell April 10, 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.030.
For more: Watch a Broad View video about research at the intersection of epigenomics and cancer. | <urn:uuid:31705931-ed87-4a12-9eac-6de42343faf5> | {
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The term ‘smart meter’ has been fluid over time, with a somewhat different meaning in 2018 than in 1998, and potentially something else entirely in 2038. Today, a smart meter is a two-way communicating digital meter, found most prominently in the electricity sector.
By Steve Chakerian, a senior analyst at Northeast Group, US
Smart meters are also used by water and gas utilities, though adoption has been slower in those sectors. Often described as the building blocks of the oftmentioned ‘smart grid’, smart meters are integral to any discussion of smart grid infrastructure. It is important to understand not only the technological functionality of smart meters, but also the evolving framework by which utilities are procuring these systems and how the value of smart meters will be maximised in the coming decades.
The basics of smart meters
The smart meter itself is part of a broader ‘advanced metering infrastructure’, or ‘AMI’ (the terms AMI and smart meter are often used interchangeably). Internal to the smart meter are its components such as microcontrollers, disconnect switches and network interface cards. The other infrastructure includes components such as the communications network, a meter data management system, and other software and analytics. The smart meters themselves are only one piece of the smart grid puzzle, albeit a very important one.
So, what is the role of meters in all of this? Their primary purpose has remained the same as any energy meter for the past century: to measure energy use. Even if their functionality was limited to this purpose alone, smart meters would still represent a significant improvement over their predecessors, as they provide more accurate readings, allowing more accurate billing at lower costs. This results in a more efficient ‘meter-tocash’ process at utilities.
Other benefits of smart meters with vast potential are the ones created by all of the new data. Older non-communicating legacy meters measure total energy consumption, and only do so at monthly or quarterly intervals. That’s one data point per month or less. AMI meters are capable of measuring consumption, voltage, and other parameters in real-time. That’s a lot of data from which many important patterns and insights can be gathered. Smart meters serve other basic functions too: they are watchdogs for electricity theft. They can also quickly launch notifications when there are power outages (the so called ‘last gasp’ function). They can allow utilities to implement dynamic pricing, time-of-use (TOU) rates, and related demand response programmes. Broadly speaking, they can improve the reliability of electricity services. But like any emergent technology, the rise of smart meters has been accompanied by challenges.
Unsurprisingly, smart meters are significantly more expensive than legacy meters, with an all-in cost that can rise above $200 per endpoint in developed countries. This is a significant investment for any utility, and for many can prove to be an unsurmountable obstacle to AMI deployment. Another concern is security, as is to be expected when the accumulation of personal data is at play. A cautious approach to data security has slowed the adoption of smart meters in some major markets, notably Germany.
AMI deployments are also large and complex undertakings, often taking years to plan and carry out. Of course, the pre-eminent challenge remains cost, and the required investment must be justified by the expected returns. A key challenge for smart meters today is that the real-time data is not being fully leveraged for maximum benefits. As illustrated in the graph (see opposite page), a utility that uses smart meters for its basic function will see some benefit, but there is immense potential left on the table. In the US for instance, only about 10% of utility customers with AMI meters are utilising dynamic rates. Beyond this, utilities must make further investments for complex data analysis in order to realise benefits from the original investment. Unfortunately, it costs money to save money, and many utilities are not in a position to spend after having just made a large investment in smart meters in the first place. A new trend known as ‘managed services’ is beginning to change this.
Managed services: Changing the game
Managed services represent the outsourcing of physical and operational aspects of a smart meter system to third parties, usually specialised smart grid vendors. At the most basic level, managed services can be software-as-a-service, in which software applications that support AMI are cloudhosted on a subscription-basis, not unlike cloud software in any other enterprise. In more comprehensive service agreements, operational responsibility for the AMI system is also entrusted to a third-party in what is often called smart-metering-as-a-service. At the end of the spectrum, full managed services (often called Infrastructure-as-aservice) delivers the entire AMI system as a service, in which physical infrastructure is owned by third-parties and leased to the utility, while all IT needs are cloud-hosted rather than installed on-site.
Why would a utility opt for service-based smart metering? Because it addresses many of the AMI challenges described above. Entrusting data to a sophisticated third-party usually provides more security than can be accomplished by the utility alone where cybersecurity skillsets may be underdeveloped. Deployment time can be cut in half when IT infrastructure is hosted in the cloud, while in-house staff do not need to be trained to operate the complex new systems. Perhaps most importantly, managed services can help mitigate the significant upfront costs of smart metering systems. Service-based offerings convert costs from an upfront capital investment to a recurring operational expense. This opens the door for utilities that cannot make such a large initial investment. These utilities, usually smaller in size, do not have the benefit of economies of scale. In essence, they are borrowing economies of scale from vendors.
However, there is an inherent obstacle to this new opportunity: most utilities are still regulated under the traditional cost-of-service model in which SaaS and other service-based investments are still treated as O&M and not capital investments. There is a disincentive against those service-based products that remove the need to invest in sometimes inefficient and outdated capital equipment. To give managed services a fair chance, regulations must evolve. Regulators in some US states such as New York and Illinois are taking the lead in this regard, and the lessons are sinking in slowly in other regulatory jurisdictions.
Managed services give a glimpse into where the industry is headed, how those utilities that have yet to deploy smart meters can do so, and how those that have completed smart meter deployments can extract greater value from them. It will also be an economic opportunity as the service-based model, which creates affordability and flexibility for customers, provides recurring revenue for vendors. Several major metering vendors are pivoting to a services-oriented business model in which smart meters are one feature of a larger, services-based package. These packages are often designed around promised results backed by service level agreements.
The arc of technological growth in smart meters is beginning to level out, and the major innovations are now taking place in models of smart meter use, delivery, and ownership. The emergence of managed services has opened the door to new potential customers and new possibilities for existing customers. Only a small share of smart meters are currently under these service contracts, but that figure is expected to increase over the next several years. Thanks to these innovative business models, the full value of smart meters – made possible by decades of technological advances – will be achieved on a wider scale. In addition to improving utility customer satisfaction, this will create significant gains in energy efficiency and reliability, which has been the essential promise of the smart grid all along. ESI | <urn:uuid:343a3618-1ab3-4e55-a538-a10add6c70e7> | {
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Through hardship to the stars
4 January 2012 | Source: Physics World
“Humanity’s adventurous, stubborn, mad and glorious aspiration to reach the stars” is the subject of Physics World’s lead feature in January.
Sidney Perkowitz, Candler Professor of Physics Emeritus at Emory University, Atlanta, US, reports from the 100 Year Starship Study (100YSS) conference and discusses the challenges that interstellar travel presents.
With current propulsion technology only able to move spacecraft at 0.005% of the speed of light, a one-way trip to the star system nearest our Sun, Alpha Centauri, would take 80,000 years to travel the four light-years to our nearest stellar neighbours.
Delegates at 100YSS – from ex-astronauts to engineers, artists, students and science-fiction writers – looked at the range of issues facing scientists who would like to make the “mad and glorious aspiration” a reality.
Starting with the development of a rocket engine that can reach high velocity, humans are not short of initiative, but, as Perkowitz describes, even with engines based on photon-powered sails or nuclear fusion, we are still a long way from reaching the speed of light.
Some theoretical models present tantalizing options, such as Miguel Alcibierre’s idea to contract space–time in front of a spaceship and expand space–time behind it to create a bubble that would propel the spacecraft at any speed without violating special relativity.
Picking on this example, Perkowitz explains that the maths is impeccable but that the model requires negative mass, which, to the best of our knowledge, doesn’t exist.
Accepting that interstellar travel will, at very best, take decades, some are now considering using suspended animation, or even carrying the DNA and other resources necessary to recreate humans on an unmanned ship.
As Perkowitz writes, "With the exploration of the solar system by the US space agency NASA and others well under way, and with the discovery of hundreds of exoplanets orbiting distant stars, it may be time to contemplate the next great jump outwards."
Also in this issue:
- Cameras that take pictures at millimetre wavelengths are spawning a host of new security applications, including screening people and vehicles for hidden objects as well as seeing in poor weather conditions, as Roger Appleby and Colin Cameron explain
- Interferometry that uses matter waves, not photons, is enabling the development of the most precise and portable gravity sensors yet. Such devices could help to probe fundamental physics and serve as everyday tools for underground exploration, say Kai Bongs and Peter Krüger | <urn:uuid:4dc432c3-65ed-4739-9f9f-903c921ee02b> | {
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Tides are long-period waves that roll around the planet as the ocean is "pulled" back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun as these bodies interact with the Earth in their monthly and yearly orbits.
During full or new moons—which occur when the Earth, sun, and moon are nearly in alignment—average tidal ranges are slightly larger. This occurs twice each month. The moon appears new (dark) when it is directly between the Earth and the sun. The moon appears full when the Earth is between the moon and the sun. In both cases, the gravitational pull of the sun is "added" to the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth, causing the oceans to bulge a bit more than usual. This means that high tides are a little higher and low tides are a little lower than average.
These are called spring tides, a common historical term that has nothing to do with the season of spring. Rather, the term is derived from the concept of the tide "springing forth." Spring tides occur twice each lunar month all year long, without regard to the season.
Seven days after a spring tide, the sun and moon are at right angles to each other. When this happens, the bulge of the ocean caused by the sun partially cancels out the bulge of the ocean caused by the moon. This produces moderate tides known as neap tides, meaning that high tides are a little lower and low tides are a little higher than average. Neap tides occur during the first and third quarter moon, when the moon appears "half full."
NOAA’s tide and tidal current predictions take into account astronomical considerations due to the position of the moon and the sun. | <urn:uuid:753c6fc7-a759-4d4b-b9f7-bf53ab3ead07> | {
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Sirenum Fossae Troughs
August 18, 2004
The martian crust expanded and cracked in patterns radial to the great Tharsis Bulge; one suite of troughs and cracks is the Sirenum Fossae. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows two troughs and the bouldery debris shed from their walls. The image is located near 29.8°S, 147.9°W. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left.
Topics: Sirenum Fossae, Memnonia quadrangle, Planetary geology, Environment, Mars Global Surveyor, Tractus Fossae, Arcadia quadrangle, Tharsis quadrangle, Fossa, Mars | <urn:uuid:9bd2870c-fdc6-4f23-b07a-309c2e833e9b> | {
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Noise pollution levels 'will turn Irish city centres into ghost towns'
Published 18/03/2016 | 02:30
Irish city centres will be left as 'ghost towns' inhabited only by single people unless spiralling levels of noise pollution are tackled.
Environmental campaigners are now demanding that major Irish cities outside Dublin - including Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford - draw up special noise regulations to protect city centre residents and make them more family-friendly.
Irish resident and tenant associations also want specific legislation introduced to cover noise pollution.
Gardaí admitted it is notoriously difficult to deal with noise complaints because of the lack of specific legislation.
There have also been problems over whether incidents are the responsibility of local authorities, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the gardaí.
City centre residents now want a range of specific noise pollution controls.
These range from designated time periods when deliveries can be made, an obligation on business owners to attend to alarms within a set time frame and a crackdown on all noise sources from 4am until 7am.
One Cork city resident and businessman, Seamus O'Connell, said Irish cities needed to follow the lead of European counterparts - where the rights of city centre residents rank alongside those of businesses.
Mr O'Connell, a TV chef who operates the award-winning Ivory Tower restaurant, said life is being made increasingly difficult for families in Irish cities.
"It is getting to the point where my children can't live here anymore," he said.
"There seems to be zero consciousness of families living in the city centre."
Mr O'Connell said that noise levels are so high around the Oliver Plunkett Street property where he lives that he was forced to soundproof its rooms.
However, noise levels can still reach such a pitch at around 4am that his family can be kept awake by the vibrations.
"It is far too disruptive. Buskers can often be heard playing in the city centre as late as 4am. Amplifiers should be banned, because there is absolutely no justification for them," he said.
Some councils, including Dublin and Fingal, have taken steps to crack down on the issue. Dublin City, Fingal and South Dublin councils operate specific air quality and noise pollution units.
Enforcement of noise pollution issues falls either to the planning department of the authority involved, or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Gardaí generally only become involved when there is concern over a public disturbance.
While no decibel levels are specified in law, a noise that is deemed to be a persistent nuisance or annoyance to locals can trigger a formal warning - or even district court action.
However, irregular noise sources - such as deliveries, buskers, random parties or even business owners who fail to attend to alarms - effectively fall outside those controls.
Council air quality control units do not deal with noise relating to traffic, aircraft, dogs barking, public transport or outdoor beer gardens and smoking areas either. | <urn:uuid:d310f267-b4b0-442b-aaf6-391f66477592> | {
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A simple prayer before the deity with hands folded and placed near the heart is the most common form of praying in Hindu religion. But there are also various other acts that Hindus perform while praying like lighting the lamp, offering flowers and leaves, burning camphor or offering food etc. In Hinduism, each act performed has a symbolic meaning.
Sprinkling of Water and Sipping while doing Puja
Sprinkling of water symbolically performs the purification of the surroundings. Sipping of water is purification of oneself.
Lighting of Lamp
It symbolizes removal of ignorance and ushering in of knowledge. The wick in the traditional oil lamp symbolizes ego and the oil or ghee used symbolizes our negative tendencies. When we are lit by self knowledge, the negative tendencies (oil) melt away and finally the ego (wick) perishes. (More details in this post)
Burning of Camphor
Burning of camphor symbolizes the destruction of our egos and arrogance. When ego melts what is left is the pure Self.
Lighting of Incense and Agarbathis
This is used for fragrance which symbolically suggests the presence of the deity and the love of deity.
Performing Aarati or waving of lamp around the deity
Waving of lamp and camphor around the deity is symbolically an act of surrender.
Breaking of Coconut
Symbolically breaking of coconut is act of destruction of one’s ego. Coconut kernel and the water is also considered to be the purest form of offering that a devotee can make. (more details in this post)
Offering of Betel leaves and Betel nuts
Betel leaves and nuts symbolize fertility and is usually offered for the birth of children at home. It is also part of all important pujas in South India.
Bells Rung during Puja
The bells that are rung during puja are to keep out other noises and it is also a means of celebrations. Bells rung in the beginning is done to ward away evil forces.
Offering of Food or nevediya
Symbolically, offering of good indicates a thanksgiving to the deity. It is an act of sharing God’s bounty. It is then distributed as 'prasad.' What is offered should be shared with the poor and the needy.
Offering of Flowers
Flowers are offered basically because of their fragrance and due to the association of a particular flower with a particular deity. For example Bilva leaf is associated with Lord Shiva and Tulsi with Lord Vishnu. Puranas have stories which explain why a particular flower is associated with a particular deity.
On the symbolic level, the flowers and leaves are picked up with five fingers and is offered with all five fingers. It is usually placed at the feet of the deity. The five fingers symbolically indicate the five senses and thereby surrendering of it before the deity.
Flowers are also offered by bringing it close to one’s heart. This symbolically suggests that one is offering the soul or atma to the deity.
Walking thrice around the deity or Pradakshina
In some places mainly in temples people walk around the Sanctum Sanctorum three times in clockwise direction. It is symbolically to cross the nether world, earth and heaven to reach Brahman. (More details in this post)
Knocking the two ends of forehead before Pujas in
Some devotees knock the two ends of forehead before beginning prayer and puja in
Arms crossed across the chest and holding ear tips
In South India, Hindus while praying knock both the sides of forehead and then put arms crossed across the chest and hold ear tips and then sits and stands before the deity a few times. This is known was Thoppukaranam in South. It is a sort of self-imposed penance and praying for forgiveness. | <urn:uuid:5dcc64cd-6171-429a-9db4-03d7607c6abc> | {
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Fast Food Consumption Not a Major Cause For Rising Rate of Childhood Obesity
Study claims fast food consumption is not a major cause for rising rate of childhood obesity.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina, claims that fast food consumption is only part of, and a result, of general poor dietary habits that are encouraged by parents and caregivers. Several studies have attributed the growing rate of fast food consumption as a major risk factor for rise in childhood obesity. However, this study claims that fast food is not the culprit.
The study titled, "The association of fast food consumption with poor dietary outcomes and obesity among children: is it the fast food or the remainder of diet?" claims that fast food consumption originates in children's home and is a small factor of pervasive dietary patterns. This pattern includes intake of few vegetables and fruits, high amounts of processed food and artificially sweetened beverages. Also, meals offered at school reinforce these poor dietary habits.
"This is really what is driving children's obesity," said Barry Popkin, PhD, W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of nutrition at UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health, whose team led the study. "Eating fast foods is just one behavior that results from those bad habits. Just because children who eat more fast food are the most likely to become obese does not prove that calories from fast-foods bear the brunt of the blame."
For the study, researchers analyzed the data retrieved from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during 2007-2010. The researchers evaluated the dietary intake of 4,466 students of age 2-18 years. They evaluated whether foods and beverages were taken from fast food establishments or elsewhere.
The children in the study were divided into three groups; the nonconsumers which included about 50 percent of the participants; the low consumers who got less than 30 percent of calories from junk food (40 percent of the children belonged to this group) and the high consumers who got more than 30 percent of calories from fast food.
Later the researchers determined the factors that were highly related to dietary adequacy and also triggered the risk of being overweight.
"The study presented strong evidence that the children's diet beyond fast- food consumption is more strongly linked to poor nutrition and obesity," said Jennifer Poti, doctoral candidate in UNC's Department of Nutrition and co-author of the study. "While reducing fast-food intake is important, the rest of a child's diet should not be overlooked."
According to researchers, we might be able to tackle the problem of obesity better if we know its roots.
"Children who rely on fast foods may tend to have parents who do not have the means, desire or time to purchase or prepare healthy foods at home," said Popkin. "This is really what is driving children's obesity and what needs to be addressed in any solution."
Reports, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children, whereas in adolescents there is a three-fold increase in rates of obesity in past 30 years. Kids who are overweight or obese suffer a high risk for bone and joint problems.
The finding is reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. | <urn:uuid:dad3402c-805b-4dad-994d-64029c7bd037> | {
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DWINDLING INCOMES FOR SMALL FARMERS IN THE U.S., CANADA AND MEXICO, LOST FARMS AND RURAL CRISIS IS NAFTA'S LEGACY
Read the Full Text
In the summer of 2001, family farmers and ranchers throughout North America are struggling.
During the 1993 debate over the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. farmers and ranchers were promised that NAFTA would provide access to new export markets and thus would finally bring a lasting solution to farmers' off-and-on struggles for economic success.
Now, seven years later, the evidence shows farm income has declined, consumer prices have risen and some giant agribusinesses have reaped huge profits. These outcomes are defining the growing national debates over President Bush's proposals to establish Fast Track trade authority and to expand NAFTA through the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
This report reveals the basis for farmers' concern about NAFTA and its model of export-oriented agriculture. For the past seven years, Midwestern and Plains states wheat farmers; ranchers in Montana, Texas and other states; vegetable, flower and fruit growers in California; lumber mill owners in Louisiana, Arkansas and Washington; vegetable growers in Florida; chicken farmers nationwide and others have suffered declining commodity prices and farm income while a flood of NAFTA imports outpaced U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico.
Yet it was not farmers in Mexico or Canada who benefitted from U.S. farmers' woes. Millions of campesinos throughout Mexico have lost a significant source of income and left their small corn farms. Some became farm laborers working in squalid conditions for poverty wages on large plantations growing produce for export to the U.S. Others moved to Mexico's cities where unemployment is high. Canadian grain and dairy farmers also face steeply rising debt during the NAFTA era. This report also documents the rise in Mexican staple food prices, such as in tortilla prices, even as the price paid to Mexican corn farmers dropped 48%.
However, NAFTA has brought seven years of good fortune to many of the agribusinesses that pressured Washington, Ottawa and Mexico City to negotiate and ratify NAFTA's corporate- managed trade terms. Since NAFTA stripped away many safeguards for the folks who produce raw agricultural products, relative power and leverage has grown for large agribusiness conglomerates to exert pressure on both farmers and consumers.
In Washington D.C., the Bush Administration is pushing forward with an ambitious plan to expand the NAFTA model throughout the hemisphere through FTAA. President George W. Bush and his principal trade policy advisors have stated that they intend to make the debate about NAFTA expansion and Fast Track (which they want to rename "Presidential Trade Promotion Authority") a referendum on NAFTA.
Public Citizen agrees that the debate over NAFTA expansion indeed, the national conversation about the premises and direction of U.S. trade policy should be decided on the basis of the real-life results of NAFTA and the model on which it is based.
In this report, we show how independent farmers in the U.S., Mexico and Canada have seen agricultural prices plummet, farm incomes collapse and critical domestic agriculture safety net programs dismantled. International free trade agreements and the domestic policies which furthered implementation of the export-oriented model, such as the U.S. "Freedom to Farm Act," have proved to benefit only the largest agribusinesses while the majority of farmers and consumers have lost. Our principle findings are these:
The U.S. Agricultural Trade Surplus Has Shrunk Under NAFTA
The U.S. trade surplus in agricultural products, which once was the flagship of U.S. exports, has declined significantly since NAFTA went into effect, and that trend is most profound with NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico.
While the U.S. world trade surplus in agricultural products declined 29.6% during seven years of NAFTA, the U.S. NAFTA trade surplus in agricultural products declined 71%.
The U.S. agricultural trade surplus with Mexico and Canada increased before NAFTA by $203 million (between 1991 and 1994) but fell by $1.498 billion under NAFTA.
This declining trade balance is caused because U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico have grown modestly, while imports to the United States from those countries have grown much faster. In 1989, competitive imports (those that replace crops grown in the U.S.) were 38% of U.S. export levels and 71% of all U.S. agricultural imports. Based on preliminary 2000 data, competitive imports were 60% of U.S. export sales and represented 80% of all U.S. agricultural imports.
Meanwhile, the vaunted promises of new NAFTA export markets for U.S. farm products have proven to be as elusive as NAFTA proponents' promises of new U.S. manufacturing jobs created by exports to Mexico. Between the 1994-1995 growing season and the 1999-2000 season:
U.S. corn export volume fell by 11% and prices fell by 20%.
the volume of wheat exports declined by 8% and prices dropped 28%.
the volume of cotton exports fell by 28% and prices plunged 38%.
during the same period, even though the volume of soybean exports increased 16%, the total U.S. soybean crop value still declined by 2% because the per-bushel price fell by 15%.
The most consistent growth market for U.S. farmers has been the domestic consumer market. However, NAFTA provided guarantees of market access for agriculture products -- even when domestic production meets domestic needs -- so that U.S. farmers are now competing for the U.S. domestic market against a new flood of NAFTA imports. The result has been declining trade balances during the period of NAFTA for an array of commodities.
Poultry: The poultry industry trade surplus fell 14% between 1995 and 1999.
Cattle & Beef: The cattle and beef sectors' $21 million surplus in 1995 had become a $152 million deficit by 1999.
Grain and Cereals: The grain and cereals surplus has slid by a third since 1995.
The oilseeds surplus has fallen 17%, and the animal and vegetable oils surplus has been cut in half since 1995.
Fresh Chilled and Frozen Vegetables: The fresh, chilled and frozen vegetables trade deficit grew from $438 million in 1995 to a deficit of more than $1 billion in 1999.
Fruit: The U.S. fresh fruit trade deficit grew from $127 million in 1995 to $469 million in 1999. The frozen fruit trade sector saw a $9 million surplus in 1995 become a $37 million deficit in 1999. The prepared and preserved fruit trade deficit grew by more than half, from a deficit of $236 million in 1995 to a deficit of $396 million.
Juice: The $18 million fruit and vegetable juice surplus in 1995 became a $48 million deficit in 1999.
Dairy: The dairy trade deficit nearly doubled from $416 million in 1995 to $796 million in 1999.
Meanwhile, although the U.S. overall NAFTA agricultural balance declined significantly since NAFTA, U.S. agribusinesses dumping of corn and other grains put Mexican peasant farmers at a devastating disadvantage. In contrast, in Canada, agricultural exports grew and the Canadian agriculture trade surplus grew since NAFTA was enacted. However, despite the growing agriculture trade surplus, farm incomes in Canada have declined and farm debt has risen sharply. The Canadian National Farmers Union explains that replacing consumption of domestically grown food with imported agricultural products has subjected Canadian farmers to the low prices and high volatility of export markets, even if the net agricultural trade balance remains positive and grows.
Agriculture Prices and Farm Incomes Have Collapsed Since NAFTA
At the same time that U.S. agricultural trade surpluses with NAFTA partners dwindled to ever smaller surpluses and even deficits for two years, prices paid to farmers for agriculture commodities collapsed.
Growing imports required under NAFTA have resulted in excess supply and sharply declining commodity prices. Between 1995 and 2000, the bushel price received by U.S. farmers declined 33% for corn, 42% for wheat, 34% for soybeans and 42% for rice. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission (U.S. ITC), the value of U.S. cereal and grain exports declined by 31% between 1995 and 1999 and the share of production going to exports fell by 17%. The value of U.S. oilseed exports declined 16% and the share of production going to exports fell by 15% between 1995 and 1999. The value of exports of U.S. tropical fruit such as pineapples, avocados and mangos fell 16%, and the share of production going to exports fell 40%. The value of citrus exports fell by a third and the share of production going to exports declined by 37% between 1995 and 1999. The value of poultry exports has declined 13% between 1995 and 1999 and the share of poultry production going to exports has fallen by 26%.
The result of the NAFTA agriculture model has been dwindling farm incomes for small farmers in all three countries.
U.S. Farm Income: In the U.S., 33,000 farms with under $100,000 annual income have disappeared during the seven years of NAFTA. This is a rate six times steeper than the pre-NAFTA period. In the U.S., farm income is projected to decline 9% between 2000 and 2001 -- from $45.4 billion to $41.3 billion in 2001. This compares to annual farm income of $59 billion before NAFTA went into effect in 1993 -- a 43% drop compared to the 2001 farm income projected by the Farm and Agriculture Policy Research Institute.
Mexican Farm Income: NAFTA-required changes have resulted in literally millions of Mexican peasant farmers leaving their small farms and their livelihoods and being forced to migrate. The land redistribution program established in the Mexican Constitution at the time of the Mexican Revolution was changed to meet NAFTA's foreign investor protection requirements-- meaning that, for the first time in 80, years small farmers could lose their land to bad debt. Projections range up to 15 million displaced Mexican small farmers because of NAFTA's agriculture provisions. At the start of NAFTA, more than one quarter of Mexican workers were employed in agricultural production. While overall population growth in Mexico over the past decade was 20%, rural population growth is now 6% while urban population growth is 44%, showing a trend of displaced farmers migrating to Mexico's cities, where unemployment rates are high, or to the north.
Canadian Farm Income: While Canada's NAFTA agricultural exports grew by C$6 billion between 1993 and 1999, net farm income declined by C$600 million over the same period instead of rising by $1.4 billion as Agri-Food Canada had predicted. Since NAFTA, the rate of Canadian farm bankruptcies and delinquent loans is five times that before NAFTA, even as Canadian agricultural exports doubled. Dropping prices meant that in Canada, farmers' net incomes declined 19% between 1989 and 1999, although Canadian agricultural exports doubled during that period.
NAFTA Has Been Used to Justify Shredding Farm Safety Nets
Using NAFTA both as a sales pitch and as the political instrument to force policy change, corporate and political elites in Washington, Mexico City and Ottawa set about eliminating domestic farm programs aimed at safeguarding growers. In the U.S., the same interests helped shape the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act, part and parcel of implementing the export-oriented NAFTA agriculture model.
While assorted export subsidies useful to commodity traders remained, domestic programs including price supports and commodity loans that had made family farming economically viable in the U.S. were cut. These domestic programs put protections into place to safeguard family farmers from the whims and dictates of the commodities brokers and speculators and to offer buffers against wild market fluctuations. When real grain prices fell by as much as 20% in 1998 -- after being depressed by half between 1978 and 1997 -- farmers faced the cruel reality that the twin policies of free trade and elimination of domestic farm policies effectively would hand the entire food production and distribution sectors over to the agribusinesses who had pushed these trade and farm policies.
Ironically, to counteract the failure of NAFTA and the same farm deregulation policies embodied in the Freedom to Farm Act, Congress has had to appropriate emergency farm supports -- in massive farm bailout bills -- every year since the legislation went into effect.
As well as the undoing of Mexico's land reform policy, the Mexican government eliminated floor prices for corn and caps on tortilla prices, and government investment in agricultural projects fell by 90% even though 39% of Mexico's population lives in rural communities.
NAFTA's rule empowering investors, guaranteeing grain traders access rights and constraining government regulatory action has set up a race to the bottom in farm income, wages and sanitary and environmental standards. For instance, a quantity of the huge new NAFTA flood of tomatoes and peppers are coming from transnational agribusinesses which relocated production to Mexico to access $3.60/day rural labor, exploit the use pesticides banned in the U.S. and enjoy unlimited duty-free access back into the U.S. consumer market. Lax Mexican labor law enforcement also means the Mexican operations are not required to invest in worker safety or sanitation. The result is that Mexican farm workers are being exposed to toxic pesticides and squalid work conditions. Meanwhile, the food produced under such conditions runs a greater risk of contamination and poses increased risk to consumers. In 1998, contaminated strawberries were imported from Mexico, causing a massive hepatitis outbreak among Michigan school children eating the berries in school lunches. In 2001, two people died from salmonella after being infected by cantaloupe from Mexico which could have been contaminated through unsanitary working conditions such as a lack of bathrooms and hand washing facilities on Mexican farms.
Greater Concentration of Agribusiness in NAFTA Era
Many agribusiness concerns operating in North America took advantage of the new rights of market access for agricultural products and NAFTA's new investor protections and began rapid consolidation. Agribusiness mega-mergers like the unions of Smithfield Foods and Murphy Family Farms, or top poultry producer Tyson Foods with meat packer IBP, have become a feature of the NAFTA era. Agribusinesses have been able to create new export platforms which play farmers from the U.S., Mexico and Canada against one another in a fight for survival as prices paid to producers are steadily pushed down. While the number of independent farmers dropped between 1993 and 2000, agribusiness giants such as ConAgra and Archer Daniels Midland had significant earnings gains. From 1993 to 2000, ConAgra's profits grew 189% from $143 million to $413 million; and Archer Daniels Midland's profits nearly tripled between 1993 and 2000 from $110 million to $301 million.(1)
NAFTA Encourages Transnational Agribusinesses to Dump Low-Priced Farm Commodities
The report describes how U.S. corn dumping into Mexico has devastated Mexican farmers and undermined the genetic diversity of Mexico's corn breeds. Although NAFTA provided a 15-year phase-in of corn import levels, the Mexican government opened the market in two years. Tons of imported corn sold below the floor price Mexican farmers had received before NAFTA flooded into the market. Between NAFTA's enactment in 1994 and 1998, Mexico's import of cheap corn forced millions of Mexican maize farmers and their families off the land; some projections run to as many as 15 million people, or about one in six Mexicans. While millions of peasant farmers left their farms and livelihoods, perversely the price for Mexican consumers of corn tortillas increased proving wrong the oft-repeated free trade mantra that greater imports and lower commodity prices benefit consumers with price cuts. Worse, Mexico's new reliance on imported corn meant that when U.S. corn supplies fell in 1996, Mexico faced a corn shortage that contributed to the malnourishment of one in five children.
One More Agribusiness NAFTA Goodie: Intellectual Property Provisions That Are Patent Protectionism and Encourage Biopiracy
NAFTA contains a chapter establishing intellectual property rights that require the three countries to issue patents guaranteeing 20-year monopoly marketing rights on a vast array of items, including seeds and plant varieties. It also required Mexico to change its domestic law and institute criminal penalties for violating these NAFTA rules. These vast new intellectual property rights have established yet another way for U.S. and Canadian agribusinesses to benefit from NAFTA: biopiracy. Indigenous communities that have been planting and crossbreeding strains of food crops for centuries to develop perfectly adapted varieties can be required, under NAFTA, to pay an annual license fee to use their own saved seeds if a corporate bio-prospector has collected the seeds and patented them. The report documents several specific cases that have arisen in recent years.
The Record of Food Fights Under NAFTA
A review of the agricultural trade disputes that have occurred during NAFTA reveals that many of the commodity constituencies that were supposed to have benefitted under NAFTA have, in fact, found their legitimate expectations subordinated to NAFTA's unfortunate reality. The study includes a detailed review of the U.S.-Canada softwood lumber fights and an array of other cases including:
The Endless Durum Wheat Fight and the Canadian Wheat Board Battles. A series of ongoing trade disputes over U.S.-Canada wheat trade have failed to remedy the pre-NAFTA or post-NAFTA problems for U.S. wheat farmers.
Peppers. Florida and California bell pepper farmers and New Mexican chile pepper farmers also are facing a flood of cheap chile pepper imports from Mexico, depressing prices and putting farmers out of business. To date, although the U.S. ITC has produced reports on the increasing importation of peppers into the U.S., required under NAFTA's implementing legislation, it has not recommended any actions to protect beleaguered domestic growers.
Tomatoes. Within the first two years of NAFTA's enactment, two thirds of Florida's tomato production was eliminated. Again, the U.S ITC has recommended no import surge protection or other safeguards.
Sugar from Mexico; U.S. High Fructose Corn Syrup. The U.S. and Mexico have been locked in a dispute over the amount of sugar the U.S. is required to import under NAFTA. The victims of this dispute are sugar beet growers in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Michigan, Texas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, California and Washington.
FTAA Will Expand NAFTA's Attack on Farmers
Finally, the report reviews data on farmers' prospects under the proposed FTAA. According to a comprehensive 1998 analysis of FTAA by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, FTAA will have a minimal positive impact on farm incomes in the U.S. at best. The report also found that FTAA would increase the U.S. agricultural trade deficit with FTAA countries. The USDA estimates that FTAA would increase agricultural imports into the U.S. by 3%, but increase U.S. agricultural exports by only 1%.
FTAA would open U.S. markets to South American agricultural export giants such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. However, FTAA would not offer significant new export opportunities for U.S. producers. This is because many of the FTAA countries already have lower than NAFTA-level agriculture tariffs, yet the U.S. has no export markets there because competitive goods can be produced more cheaply than in the U.S.
According to USDA, the U.S. already has an agricultural trade deficit within the FTAA region of $2.6 billion in 2000. The USDA found that the FTAA would increase the regional U.S. agricultural trade deficit by $250 million -- an 18% increase. Updated 2000 USDA figures on FTAA show that if the FTAA were implemented, the U.S. agricultural trade deficit with the FTAA countries would grow by 1% for the first five years, 2% for the next 10 and then keep increasing.
Oddly, both of USDA's comprehensive FTAA analyses are noticeably silent on the potentially devastating impact the FTAA could have on fruit and vegetable growers, given that Chile is a world-class producer of fruits and vegetables that compete directly with produce grown in the U.S. (Only orange juice is noted by USDA, which reports that imports of Brazilian orange juice would increase steeply, wiping out U.S. production.) An array of U.S. commodities would be hurt if FTAA went into effect.
In 1996, the U.S. had a $1.6 million soy surplus with Argentina, and in 2000 the U.S. had a $2.8 million soy deficit. In 1996, the U.S. had a $53 million soy surplus with Brazil, and in 2000 the U.S. had a $843,000 soy deficit.
The U.S. has significant beef trade deficits with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The U.S. beef deficit with Brazil has grown 1400% since 1991, from $6 million to $91 million.
Even without special market access privileges for Chile, U.S. fresh fruit imports from Chile grew by 42%, to $597 million between 1996 and 2000.
California's dominant domestic market share of wine and table grapes is vulnerable to imports from Chile. The U.S. world grape trade deficit has doubled between 1996 and 2000 to $191 million in 2000. Over the same period, the value of grape imports from Chile has grown 32% since 1996, to $388 million in 2000.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Given the NAFTA models' negative track record for farmers and consumers in the three NAFTA countries, growing opposition nationwide to the notion of expanding NAFTA through the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas is not surprising. The seven-year record of NAFTA on agriculture sets the context for the increasingly heated debate about the demand by the Bush Administration that Congress delegate away its constitutionally designated authority to set U.S. trade policy by granting the Administration multi-year Fast Track trade authority.
The Administration argues that Fast Track is necessary for the U.S. to successfully negotiate and approve trade agreements. Yet although hundreds of trade pacts were implemented since Fast Track's 1974 inception, Fast Track has been used only five times. According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, nearly 300 separate trade agreements were negotiated by the Clinton Administration.
At the last House Agriculture Committee hearing on trade, Commerce Secretary Evans could not name a single country that refused to negotiate with the U.S. because of the absence of Fast Track. Evans admitted that several additional Latin American countries already have approached the U.S. to negotiate bilateral FTAs even without Fast Track. Given that these countries join a list that includes Singapore, New Zealand and others, the issue seems to be a shortage of U.S. negotiators to work with all of the countries seeking deals, not a lack of Fast Track keeping away new potential trade partners.
The only way to ensure that U.S. trade policy suits the broad needs of U.S. farmers and consumers is for Congress and the public to play a more prominent and continual role in the entire policy process -- from setting the U.S. agenda to selecting appropriate prospective trade partners with whom to negotiating to ensuring the negotiations are obtaining U.S. goals and then to guaranteeing that only agreements that meet U.S. goals are approved and implemented. This level of involvement and oversight is impossible under the Fast Track process. The conclusion also lists the principles of a fair agriculture trade policy. | <urn:uuid:3575843a-8ade-4e50-a5b0-68da78ff397f> | {
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Wicca & Wiccan:
Wicca is a recently reconstructed Neopagan
religion based largely on elements of an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic religion.
It is thus both a very new and a very ancient religion. A Wiccan is a follower of Wicca. They form the largest single
religion within Neopaganism. These terms
are well defined and have single, unambiguous meanings. However, there are many
traditions within Wicca, just as there are many denominations within
Christianity. Each has its own unique beliefs, practices and rituals. All
share a recognition of the God and Goddess, a respect for nature. Most respect males and females equally.
Their main rules of behavior are the
Wiccan Rede, and the Three-fold law.
i.e. do what ever you want to, as long as it harms no one, including yourself.
"This belief constantly reminds us that there are many consequences to
our actions and we must consider all possible outcomes before acting. The Wiccan
Rede thereby binds Wiccans to do the right thing." 1,2
The Three-fold law states that any good that a person does to another returns
to themselves, magnified three times. Any harm also returns in the same ratio.
This heavily motivates Wiccans to behave ethically, and to avoid harming others.
These terms have so many conflicting definitions that
essentially meaningless, unless carefully defined in advance of use. Dictionaries sometimes define a Witch as:
Other times, she is:
|A woman of such incredible beauty that she bewitches another person.
These two definitions are, of course, mutually exclusive.
|A woman of incredible ugliness; a hag.|
Other definitions for Witches are:
These two are also mutually exclusive.
|A follower of Wicca, a reconstructed aboriginal religion of the ancient
Celts. They do not recognize the existence of Satan,
the Christian - Muslim supernatural evil personality. Wiccans are
prohibited from harming others by their Wiccan Rede, or,|
|A person who worships Satan, has sold their soul to the devil, and devotes
their life to harming others.|
Still other definitions are:
|A person who practices magick|
|A person who practices black magic, curses, harmful spells, etc. in
order to injure or kill others.|
|A person who is very competent in their field: e.g. "She is a
witch of a writer." |
|A person who locates underground sources of water often using a wooden
implement; a water witch.|
|A woman who does not obey her husband, or tries to dominate, manipulate
and control others.|
Many Wiccans use the word "Witch" as a synonym for "Wiccan."
Others have abandoned the term Witch; they feel that centuries
of religious propaganda have given the term such a negative meaning that it
cannot possibly be salvaged. There is a common belief among Wiccans that to abandon the word is to
defame the memories of the tens of thousands of Witches and other heretics who were
accused of "Witchcraft," were individually tortured and executed during the Christian "Burning Times," circa
1450 to 1792 CE.
We advocate that the word be carefully pre-defined before it is used in a
speech or article that may be read by the general public.
Even then, the word will still be filtered through the reader's or listener's belief
systems. The latter may well have been influenced by centuries of Christian
propaganda, and decades of horror movies.
The words Witch and Witchcraft appear in some English versions of the
Christian Holy Bible. One verse that is probably responsible for more deaths of
innocent people than any other passage from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old
Testament) is Exodus 22:18. In the King
James Version, this reads: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
These references are unrelated to Wicca. The original Hebrew term would better
be translated as "a woman who uses spoken curses to harm others."
It is generally translated as "sorceress" in modern versions of the
Bible. The original Greek word that is often translated as "witch" in
the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) means "poisoner." This
has been generally regarded as referring to murderers who use toxic potions to
kill other humans by stealth. A more recent explanation interprets the word
symbolically to refer to someone who goes around spreading dissention - that is,
one who poisons the minds of believers. Both practices, of
course, do not apply to Wiccans under the Wiccan Rede: Wiccans do not engage in
evil, harmful curses, nor do they proselytize. More
Wicca and Satanism:
Historically, Wicca has been incorrectly associated with Satanism. The roots of this confusion can be traced back to Europe during the Witch burning times
of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Witches were accused of worshipping Satan and
selling their soul to him. This false belief continues today, and is still being actively
promoted by some Christian individuals and ministries. Some conservative
Christians believe in the literal truth of some Biblical passages which say that
the gods and goddesses that are worshiped by non-Christians are really Satan or
one of his demons. They define all non-Christian
religions as forms of Satanism.
In reality, Wicca is unrelated to Satanism or to black magic. Their governing
principles, rules of behavior, basic beliefs about deity, humanity and the rest
of the universe, system of morality, etc. are quite different -- often
The main Wiccan symbol is the upright 5 pointed star (called a pentagram),
and a pentagram within a circle, (called a pentacle). One point of the star is
generally aligned upwards, except when it refers to the second degree initiation
or male principle . Satanists inverted both symbols and adopted them as their own
- Psychic Journal: "The Wiccan Rede" at: http://www.psychicjournal.com/990419/990419f2.htm
- The term "Wiccan Rede" is sometimes used to refer to the short
phrase which defines Wicca's main rule of behavior. Other times it is used to
refer to a poem which includes the behavior rule and the Threefold Law.
Copyright 1996, 1997, and 1999 to 2003 incl., by Ontario Consultants on
Latest update: 2003-JAN-28
Author: B.A. Robinson | <urn:uuid:e0c1b1a8-5e9a-4d19-b042-fc24ebef42e5> | {
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Founded in 1824, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) is a provider of education and information about America’s history for the people of Philadelphia and beyond. Its collection of manuscripts, graphics, and ephemera encompass more than 350 years of America’s history—from the stories of its 17th-century settlers to those of its most recent immigrants. With the holdings of The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies and The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, HSP is an international resource for the documentation and study of ethnic communities and immigrant experiences as well as one of the largest family history libraries in the United States.
HSP welcomes thousands of researchers onsite annually and serves millions more around the globe through its digital collections and online curricular materials. At its historic library in Philadelphia’s Gayborhood, HSP hosts workshops and lectures throughout the year, committed to being a voice that catalyzes informed dialogue on contemporary issues and inspires curiosity to delve into history and share its stories. For more information, visit http://www.hsp.org | <urn:uuid:c80c31db-d3b2-4fef-88b9-960ff87f88dd> | {
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Rose-hips are the oval shaped hips of the wild dog rose , and are often seen growing in hedgerows.
What do Rose-hips look like?
Rose-hips have long stems and flowers that are usually pale pink in colour with yellow stamens. After flowering a green rose-hip is produced that ripens to red.
You often see rose-hips in the hedgerows during late summer, autumn and early winter.
It is said that rose-hips taste sweeter after the first frost, yet if you can’t wait that long, they still have a delicious sweetness.
Picking rose-hips can cause some skin irritation due to tiny hairs on the seeds, so wear gloves when picking them.
How to prepare Rose-hips
Rose-hips can be used fresh, or dried to keep a long-lasting store to see you through to the next season. The seeds should be removed to avoid any possible irritation.
To remove seeds from dried rose-hips, you can put them in a food processor and grind them up. Then, place a sieve over a bowl and add some of the dried mixture. Shake the sieve, and all of the irritating hairs will fall through, and you are left with dried rose-hip that is ready to use.
If using fresh rose-hips, slice them lengthways and scrape out the seeds before cooking.
There are lots of things to make with rose-hips, including a sweet syrup, jams, jellies, tea and wine.
Health benefits of Rose-hips
Rose-hips are full of antioxidants and have more vitamin C than citrus fruits. Because of their impressive vitamin C content, rose-hips were collected and made into a syrup to help keep the nation healthy during the Second World War.
The nutritious rose-hip has also been used as a treatment for stomach ulcers, diarrhoea and cholesterol problems.
Although they might be a bit fiddly to prepare, the nutritional benefits and complex, sweet taste of the rose-hip makes it more than worthwhile.
Do you forage for rose-hips? Share your recipes! | <urn:uuid:71222021-ad45-439c-976e-89170f342e72> | {
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- Development & Aid
- Economy & Trade
- Human Rights
- Global Governance
- Civil Society
Saturday, February 17, 2018
LAHORE, Jul 25 2012 (IPS) - At a time when spiraling input costs and perennial shortages of irrigation water are breaking countless farmers’ backs, a small village community on the outskirts of Lahore appears to have been spared.
The village of Hudiara, situated close to the Wagah border, falls in the way of a natural storm water channel called the Hudiara Drain, which originates in Batala in India’s Gurdaspur District and flows for nearly 55 kilometres before entering Pakistan.
The farmers here say the drain ensures them of year-round irrigation. What they won’t tell you – either because they don’t know it, or refuse to believe it – is that the water is poisoned.
Hundreds of factories located along the length of the canal dispose of their untreated industrial waste into it. This includes discharge from textile processing and dyeing units, carpet industries, tanneries, dairy plants, food, beverage and oil processing plants and ghee production units.
Municipal wastes are added along the way and the water that finally flows out of farmers’ pumps and into their fields is a toxic cocktail of pollutants.
Farmers and the local municipality are now locked in a fierce battle – with farmers ignoring countless warnings and taboos on the use of the water to irrigate farmland.
“The water is free, its supply regular and its ingredients strong enough to replace fertilisers. Only a fool will reject this deal,” Amanat Ali, a vegetable farmer who distributes his produce to the large population in Lahore, told IPS.
He is not worried about the toxic impact of heavy metals in this water.
“Flowing water can never be harmful; it’s the stagnant water that’s bad,” he said confidently when asked about the effects of the water on his agricultural produce and its consumers.
Impact of poisoned water
It is unsurprising that farmers are reluctant to heed official warnings. Less rainfall and the never-ending construction of roads and housing projects are exhausting ground water supplies, according to Dr. Muhammad Yaseen, associate professor of soil fertility and plant nutrition at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad.
His team declared the drain water suitable for irrigation only during the monsoon, when rainwater dilutes the effluents to safe levels.
Though the report was released in 2009, farmers continue to use the water for irrigation all year round.
Citing the report, Yaseen told IPS that crops irrigated using poisonous water contained metals in higher than desired concentrations. For example, zinc concentration in ghia tori (a type of gourd) was 10 times higher than safe levels.
Brinjals and spinach samples from the village contained iron in higher concentration than the stated guidelines. Nickel content in all the crops except for brinjals were higher than prescribed levels. Cadmium concentration in almost all the plants exceeded the safe limit.
According to the report, food crops quickly absorb cadmium, which is one of the reasons why vegetables grown in Hudiara are oversized.
Naseem-ur-Rehman Shah, director of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) told IPS the irrigation department is about to start a process of lining Hudiara Drain to stop seepage of toxic water into the ground.
He said this process was of the utmost importance since locals are in the habit of drilling for subsurface drinking water, leading to the spread of waterborne diseases such as hepatitis and diarhhoea.
Environmentalist Ahmed Rafay Alam told IPS that according to the findings of another study, the drain contains extremely low levels of oxygen and cannot support any form of aquatic life.
Citing an investigative study conducted by the World Wildlife Fund in Pakistan nearly a decade ago, MUAWIN, a community organisation in Lahore, reported that, “the rate of abdominal pains, paralysis of limbs, joint pains and prevalence of arsenic toxicity and eye infection was greater in the respondents of a village along Hudiara Drain.”
“Domestic animals like cows and buffaloes are also seen wallowing and watering in the wastewater drains thus increasing the risk of water pollutants, mainly heavy metals, (entering) our food chain through the consumption of milk and meat of these animals.”
More than ten years later, experts are agreed that the situation today is much worse.
Furthermore, environmentalists fear that the drain, which eventually empties into the River Ravi after travelling 63 kilometres through Pakistani territory, will also poison the river with toxic elements.
Rafay, who is currently vice president of the Pakistan Environmental Law Association (PELA), says industries situated along the canal should take concrete steps towards reducing pollution rather than push the burden onto the farmers.
“All these sectors need different technologies to treat their effluents and must install plants immediately,” he stressed.
Water at any cost
Though the practice has been going on for years, the government has only made a few half-hearted attempts to change farmers’ behaviour before eventually surrendering to powerful industrialists.
Former Punjab chief minister Pervez Elahi ordered the closure of over 100 water pumps installed along Hudiara Drain in an effort to save crops and livestock but the initiative did not succeed.
“There was immense pressure from locals who feared loss of livelihood if this happened,” Raza Butt, an elected member of the local government of Lahore, told IPS.
Despite numerous studies showing that vegetables produced here contain metals in concentrations higher than prescribed levels, farmers have not heeded the warnings, he said.
Shah told IPS that the EPD has instructed all 130 industrial units along the drain to install water treatment plants without delay, which would make the water suitable for irrigation.
So far only 22 of these operations have complied, and even these were largely due to pressure from importers of their goods.
“The problem is that most (owners of industrial units) cannot afford to install these plants individually,” said Shah.
Still, he says, the burden of cleaning the environment lies with the polluter. Now, with the landmark introduction of Green Benches in Pakistan’s high courts, polluters will be forced to take environmental concerns more seriously.
Shah suggests that more industries follow the example of the 307 tanneries in Sialkot, who got together to buy a large chunk of land on which they set up a combined treatment plant.
The government provided the collective with a soft loan worth 300 million rupees (roughly 3.2 million dollars).
This story includes downloadable print-quality images -- Copyright IPS, to be used exclusively with this story.
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Copyright © 2018 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved. - Terms & Conditions
You have the Power to Make a Difference
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Understanding Osteoporosis - Prevention
How important is regular exercise for preventing osteoporosis?
It's recommended that adults get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day to strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercises force your body to resist gravity and stimulate cells in the body that make new bone.
Strength training causes the muscles to pull on the bone. This results in increased bone strength. Strength training also increases flexibility and reduces the likelihood of falling -- the number-one risk factor for hip fracture.
The following examples of weight-bearing and strengthening exercises can help keep your bones strong:
- Climbing stairs
- Racquet sports
- Tai chi
- Water aerobics
These exercises will not only help you improve your muscle strength, they will also help strengthen your bones:
- Lifting canned goods or bags of groceries
- Lifting free weights
- Lifting young children
- Using ankle and wrist weights
- Using elastic resistance band
- Using weight machines
- Using your own weight as resistance
- Working out with barbells
For in-depth information, see WebMD's Exercise and Osteoporosis: Preventing Fractures.
Why are calcium and vitamin D important for strong bones?
If you don't get enough calcium every day through diet or supplements, your body will be deficient of this mineral. Then your body will break down the bones to replenish it and bone loss will increase. You can get ample calcium from any of the following:
- Low-fat or fat-free dairy products
- Calcium fortified juices and food
- Sardines with bones
- Certain vegetables
- Soy products
- Calcium supplements
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. It helps your body absorb calcium into the bloodstream. When your body is depleted of vitamin D or has an insufficient supply, the blood levels of calcium plummet. Vitamin D can be obtained through minimal sun exposure (10 minutes a day) and from your diet.
For in-depth information, see WebMD's Calcium, Vitamin D, and Osteoporosis: How Much Is Enough?
What else can I do to prevent osteoporosis?
You can beware of the bone robbers. Bone robbers are lifestyle habits or specific situations that may increase the risk of osteoporosis and/or falls. If you have weak bones from osteoporosis, a fall may result in a bone fracture.
Did you know that at least 95% of hip fractures are caused by falls? Activities like dancing and tai chi -- as well as strengthening exercises -- can help you stay flexible and avoid falling.
Here are more bone robbers that you can protect yourself against:
- Excess alcohol consumption. Drinking more than two drinks daily is linked to an increased risk of bone loss.
- Cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking doubles the chance of bone loss and fractures by reducing the effectiveness of the body's estrogen.
- The female athlete triad. This affects active women who exercise at high levels. The female athlete triad -- thin bones, lack of menstrual cycle, and eating disorders -- increases the risk of early bone loss. Athletes with menstrual disorders have lower estrogen levels. This often leads to lower bone mass.
- Cola drinks. Some findings show that colas, but not other carbonated soft drinks, contribute to bone loss. It may be that the extra phosphorus in cola drinks binds with calcium and prevents it from being absorbed in the body. Or it may just be that women are replacing calcium-rich drinks, such as milk, with cola. Getting plenty of calcium every day through diet or supplements is vital to keeping your bones strong. | <urn:uuid:ad5308d8-811d-46e7-9c3a-ee4668be884d> | {
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The 'Great Escape' from Second World War prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III took place on this night 70 years ago.
Although 200 airmen had planned to escape through man-made tunnels, only 76 managed to taste freedom and 73 were later captured. Of those who broke out, only 3 reached safety, and, of the 73 recaptured, 50 were shot dead by Nazi Germany’s feared secret police force, the Gestapo.
Today, a ceremony to commemorate the Great Escape took place in Zagan, Poland; a town near to the site of the Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp. Attending the ceremony were survivors of the Stalag Luft, which means ‘camp for aircrew’, families of those held there and UK and Polish officials.
The ceremony in Poland was the first formal act of remembrance held in their honour. Between 5 and 10 survivors of the prisoner-of-war camp were expected to attend.
Fifty RAF personnel will now march for 4 days to the cemetery at Poznan, where many of the 50 murdered prisoners of war are buried, and lay wreaths in their memory.
Former Flight Lieutenant Jack Lyon, now 96, was one of those who didn’t manage to escape that night. He was discovered in Hut 104, waiting to go down the tunnel. Despite the high price paid by many, he still thinks it was all worth it:
It was a costly operation but not necessarily unsuccessful. It did do a lot for morale, particularly for those prisoners who’d been there for a long time. They felt they were able to contribute something, even if they weren’t able to get out. They felt they could help in some way and, trust me, in prison camps, morale is very important.
You can read more survivors’ stories on a blog on the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund website , set up to commemorate the amazing story 70 years on.
In 1943, under the leadership of Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, RAF prisoners at Stalag Luft III started the mammoth task of digging 3 tunnels, known as ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’. The tunnels were 30 feet deep and were meant to run more than 300 feet into woods outside the camp.
The prisoners used anything they could find, or steal, in the camp to line the tunnels with wood, run a railway and electric lighting, and create primitive ventilation. They also made civilian clothes, maps, compasses and German passes to help them escape.
Tunnel Tom was discovered in September 1943 just as it reached the woods and ‘Dick’ was abandoned for storage. All hopes were pinned on ‘Harry’, which was ready in early 1944.
In the aftermath of the escape, when news of the 50 officers murdered reached Britain, there was outrage over the killings.
The British demanded that the killers be brought to justice. After the war, they kept their word, and many of the killers were punished by Allied courts. | <urn:uuid:702246e2-1341-4eb2-a332-68f618b9d121> | {
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Laura Bliss is CityLab’s West Coast bureau chief. She also writes MapLab, a biweekly newsletter about maps (subscribe here). Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Los Angeles magazine, and beyond.
Governor Jerry Brown has finally called out how poorly the state accounts for agricultural water use.
With the state facing its lowest snowpack in recorded history—just 6 percent of the long-term average—California Governor Jerry Brown's historic mandate for a 25 percent reduction in statewide water use has plenty of residents saying, Finally.
Since declaring a state of emergency in January 2014, Brown has called for voluntary water reductions, passed a $1 billion emergency bond package, and a historic groundwater regulation act. But these actions have not gone far enough to curtail water use, and very likely, the Governor's new restrictions are just the beginning of water-use mandates to come.
The new orders mostly focus on cities and towns, and they will be felt in every corner of urban life: from the 50 million square feet of lawns that'll be replaced with drought-tolerant landscaping, to consumer rebates for energy-efficient products, to the classic California golf courses—the bane of so many conservationists—now required to slash their water use.
Yet those even a little bit familiar with California's drought know that urban water usage accounts for only about 20 percent of the state's overall supplies. Agriculture—an economic backbone for the state that has borne tremendous losses amid the drought—uses the other 80 percent.
So what's in Governor Brown's mandate for farmers? Basically, a lot of number-crunching. Agricultural water users will be required to report in greater detail their water-use information to state regulators. Large agricultural suppliers are also changed with developing water-management plans, due in July 2016.
Data reporting probably sounds a little lax as a mandate, compared to the drastic cuts that urban areas are expected to make. Some are already disappointed. "The Governor must save our groundwater from depletion by directing the State Water Board to protect groundwater as a public resource," Adam Scow, Director of Food & Water Watch California, said in a statement.
There's no question that legislators and farmers can do more to cut back on agricultural water use intelligently, such as fostering a stronger water market and, indeed, strengthening groundwater regulation.
Yet Brown's task for farmers is an important step, because it recognizes how poorly the state manages agricultural water allocations. California has a notoriously byzantine approach, with laws dating back to the 19th century that allow water rights to the families who originally staked claims on rivers and streams. Those senior and riparian rights holders—almost entirely held by agricultural and corporate entities, according to the AP—continue to report their water use on what's basically an honor system, with information that's riddled with inaccuracy and often out of date.
Further, as a study by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences found, these claims use only a fraction of the water they hold the rights to—not a problem when water is abundant, but a huge problem when it's scarce. In times of drought, including this one, water allocations to junior rights holders get slashed. When senior rights holders don't report how much water they're actually using, it's screwing the smaller guys out of water that could have kept them afloat.
There's been little in the way of addressing this shamefully lax system. Brown's mandate—while it could go further—is at least a first step towards more transparency and accountability from the state's biggest guzzlers.
"We know that in order to address the drought effectively, we need much better information both on how much water we are using and at what rate," Adrienne Alvord, California and Western director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. "This is a critical requirement that we need to make permanent, since we know that you can't manage what you don't measure." | <urn:uuid:6b3b5dd7-90e2-4545-881d-073b397b2942> | {
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What Is Secondary Syphilis?
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection
(STI). There are four stages of the disease: primary, secondary, latent, and
tertiary (also known as neurosyphilis). Primary syphilis is the first stage of
the disease. It causes one or more small, painless sores in or around the
genitals, anus, or mouth.
If you don’t get treatment for the primary
stage of the disease, it may progress to the second stage, which is secondary
syphilis. If you aren’t treated for secondary syphilis, the disease will likely
progress to the latent stage, and may even progress to the tertiary stage.
The secondary stage of syphilis is curable
with medical treatment. It’s important to get treatment to prevent the disease
progressing to the tertiary stage, which may not be curable, and can cause
damage to your organs, as well as dementia (memory loss), paralysis, or even death.
How Is Syphilis Transmitted?
Syphilis is caused by a spirochete (a
worm-like spiral-shaped bacteria) called Treponema pallidum. You can get the bacteria in the following
- direct contact with a syphilis
sore (usually found on the vagina, anus, rectum, in the mouth, or on the lips)
- during vaginal, anal, or oral sex
with an infected person
- an infected mother can pass
syphilis to her unborn child, which can result in serious complications or even
death of the unborn child
The primary and secondary stages of syphilis
are extremely contagious. Tell your previous sexual partners if you are
diagnosed with syphilis so that they can get tested to see if they have the
You can’t catch syphilis from doorknobs,
toilet seats, swimming pools, clothing, bathtubs, or silverware.
There is a high correlation between syphilis
and HIV, since HIV can be transmitted through syphilitic sores. Since the behaviors
that lead to the spread of STIs are the same for both syphilis and HIV, having
syphilis is an indicator that you are also at risk for contracting HIV.
What Are the Symptoms of Secondary Syphilis?
Primary syphilis usually presents itself as a
single sore. This sore typically appears three weeks after the initial
infection, but could show as soon as 10 days or as late as 90 days. This sore,
called a chancre, is small, firm, round, and painless. It appears at the
original infection site, usually the mouth, anus, or genitals. You may not even
notice it. Untreated, the initial sore heals in a month or so.
If you don’t receive treatment during this
initial appearance of symptoms, the bacterium that caused this STI will spread
through your bloodstream, and you’ll soon have secondary syphilis.
The symptoms of secondary syphilis develop
two to eight weeks after a person first becomes infected with primary syphilis.
The secondary stage is usually marked by a nonitchy rash.
The rash might be confined to one part of
your body, or it could spread over several parts. The appearance of the rash
varies. One common manifestation is rough, reddish-brown spots on the bottoms
of your feet and on the palms of your hands. Usually, the rash feels scaly, but
it could also be smooth. Sometimes, the rash looks like one caused by another
disease, making diagnosis trickier. It may also be so faint that it’s
Other symptoms of secondary syphilis include:
- sore throat
- swollen lymph glands
- muscle aches
- wart-like patches around skin
folds or genitals
- loss of appetite
- joint pain
- enlarged lymph nodes
How Is Secondary Syphilis Diagnosed?
To diagnose secondary syphilis, your doctor
will want to do a physical examination and ask you questions about your medical
history. If you have sores, your doctor might use a microscope to examine
material taken from your sores. The syphilis bacteria will show up under the
microscope — this technique is known as darkfield microscopy.
Testing your blood with a rapid plasma regain
(RPR) test is also a reliable, inexpensive way for your doctor to determine
whether you have syphilis. Your body makes antibodies, proteins that try to
fight off infections, in response to infections and foreign invaders. If the
blood test reveals these syphilis antibodies, then you have been infected with
syphilis. The RPR test is important for pregnant women to do, as undiagnosed
syphilis can be passed on to your unborn child, and could be life-threatening
for the baby.
Your doctor can also determine whether you
have syphilis by testing your spinal fluid.
How Is Secondary Syphilis Treated?
Syphilis can’t be cured by over-the-counter
treatments or home remedies. If it’s caught early enough, however, you’ll only
need one penicillin injection. If you’ve had the STI for a longer period of
time, several doses will be necessary.
People with penicillin allergies can use
other antibiotics, such as doxycycline or tetracycline. Penicillin is the best
drug if you’re pregnant, however, since other antibiotics may harm your
developing baby or fail to protect them from syphilis.
Antibiotics will kill the syphilis bacterium
and stop it from further damaging your body. Common antibiotics used include:
- benzathine penicillin G
However, antibiotics can’t repair any damage
that has already occurred.
If you’re receiving treatment for syphilis,
do not have sex until your sores heal completely and you have completed your
full course of antibiotic treatment. Let your sexual partners know about your
condition so they can also get help and avoid spreading the infection.
Complications of Treatment
Without treatment, your syphilis will likely continue
to progress. It can be 10 or 20 years before you experience the worst effects.
Eventually, untreated syphilis will lead to damage to the brain, eyes, heart,
nerves, bones, joints, and liver. You could also become paralyzed, blind,
demented, or lose feeling in the body. Untreated syphilis can also lead to
stillborn or developmentally delayed babies.
Even if you have been cured of syphilis, you
could still get it again.
People being treated for syphilis are also at
risk for Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction. As your body breaks down the syphilis
bacteria, a reaction may be triggered. Symptoms of Jarisch-Herxheimer include:
- fever of up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit
- tachycardia (rapid heart rate)
- muscle aches
- joint pain
The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction is common and
potentially serious. If you experience such symptoms, be sure to seek immediate
Additionally, open syphilis wounds increase
your chances of contracting HIV and other STIs. Because of this, it’s a good
idea to get tested for HIV and other STIs if you have secondary syphilis.
How to Prevent Getting Secondary Syphilis
You can prevent getting secondary syphilis by
getting treatment for primary syphilis before it develops into the secondary
stage. You can also prevent getting primary syphilis by practicing safe sex
practices, such as using a condom. You should be regularly tested for syphilis
and other STIs if you are sexually active and have unprotected sex or multiple
People who should be regularly tested for
- pregnant women
- people who are at greater risk of
syphilis (including men who have sex with men and people in prison)
- people with HIV
- those who have a sexual partner
who has syphilis
If you notice any unusual sore or rash,
especially near your genitals or anal area, stop having sex and go see a
doctor. The earlier syphilis is caught, the easier it is to treat and the
better your outcome. Notify all of your sexual partners immediately so that
they can be treated as well. Syphilis is a very contagious disease.
If syphilis is diagnosed and treated early
enough, it can be thoroughly cured. With treatment, secondary syphilis will
most likely go away within a few weeks to a year.
If secondary syphilis goes untreated and your
symptoms go away, you will still have the latent form of syphilis. The latent
stage is a symptom-free period that can last for many years. You may never
again develop symptoms.
Without treatment, however, you have a greater
chance of progressing to the tertiary stage of syphilis. This can lead to many
serious complications, including brain damage and death. Make an appointment
with your doctor as soon as you have any concerns so you can be tested and
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Step 7: Plastering
Plastering is done in stages; usually two coats inside and two coats outside. The mix is three parts of sand to one part of cement. A 50 pound sack of cement roughly equals one 5 gallon plastic bucket, or 6 shovels full of sand. Add more, or less water to get the consistency you need. Wear rubber gloves, because wet cement is caustic to the skin. Everybody around here mixes cement on the ground with a shovel.
The first step, using rubber gloves, is to rub cement through the fishnet from the outside to stick it to the rebar. That way, whatever you do to one square in the grid doesn't affect the neighboring squares.
Day one: plaster the outside as high as you can reach. Day two: plaster the inside. Day three: stand on a drum and plaster the outside as high as you can reach. Day four: stand on a drum inside and plaster, etc.
When you get to the roof, you have to start walking on the tops of the bamboo to spread out the cement. Little by little, work toward the center.
You don't have to finish the first coat completely before starting the second coat, from the bottom up. Eventually, you can start walking on the cement.
The skylight has clear silicone rubber stippled to the bottom side to make a frosted glass effect. The topside of the glass gets algae growing on it in our climate, so keep the topside free of silicone for easier cleaning. The glass is just glued in place with silicone. If you set it directly in the cement, heat expansion differences may cause the glass to crack. (A photo of the skylight will be added soon.) | <urn:uuid:572befab-e5f5-4b97-9b55-906132ed255a> | {
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Once, leptin seemed like the ultimate fat-shedding drug: a natural appetite-quelling hormone whose absence causes obesity. Boost someone's blood levels of leptin, obesity researchers suspected, and they'd eat less. A clinical trial nixed that idea when obese people didn't respond to leptin treatment. But a new study shows that that low leptin can lead to chubbiness, suggesting that the hormone might help some people shed pounds.
In 1994 scientists discovered that mice missing both copies of their leptin gene develop excessive body fat, extreme hunger, and sterility. Soon afterwards, endocrinologist Stephen O'Rahilly of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, U.K., identified two cousins with defects in both copies of their leptin genes. They produce virtually no leptin and show the hallmarks of mouse leptin deficiency. The childrens' parents weren't grossly obese, even though each carried one defective and one normal copy of the leptin gene.
Now O'Rahilly and his colleagues report that having one defective copy of the leptin gene does influence someone's weight, even though the effect is more subtle than in people with two bad copies of the gene. The team found that people with only one good copy of the gene make roughly half the normal levels of the hormone. Apparently as a result, the 13 people they studied end up heavier and packed with a significantly higher percentage of body fat than family members with two normal copies of the leptin gene, the team reports in the 1 November issue of Nature. O'Rahilly says that in a separate unpublished study people with both leptin genes knocked out respond "extremely well" to leptin therapy, although they haven't tested people with just one bad copy of the gene.
"We now know that having a little less than the normal amount of leptin is enough to cause a problem with body fat and weight," says obesity researcher Jeffrey Flier of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. And having low leptin levels is a treatable condition. As O'Rahilly says, "There might be an obese subgroup with equivalently low leptin levels, which at least might be worthy of a clinical trial." | <urn:uuid:efefe614-90a3-4b1e-a263-3505626968c0> | {
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Chemicals: Scientific Review, Assessment
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) gives EPA broad authorities to protect against risks from chemicals, including authorities to collect and assess toxicity and exposure data on new and existing industrial chemicals and to develop policies and regulations on chemical-testing methods. The law also authorizes EPA to require manufacturers and processors to take risk-management actions to reduce “unreasonable” risks of chemicals of concern.
In addition, for the past decade EPA has been voluntarily receiving basic screening-level data from industry and making it available to companies and citizens to make wise chemical choices. And through its enhanced existing chemicals program, EPA is using information obtained from both regulatory and voluntary initiatives to evaluate chemicals of potential concern.
On this page you will find:
- TSCA -- Scientific Review of Existing Chemicals
- TSCA -- Scientific Review of New Chemicals
- TSCA -- Scientific Review of Nanoscale Materials
- TSCA -- Scientific Review of Biotech Chemicals
- Chemical Substances Testing Methods
Scientific Review of Existing Chemicals
EPA's existing chemicals programs address pollution prevention, risk assessment, hazard and exposure assessment and/or characterization, and risk management for chemical substances in commercial use. The Agency uses statutory authorities, including the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA), as well as voluntary activities in its implementation of these programs.
Scientific Review of New Chemicals Under TSCA
Under TSCA, EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics reviews submissions of information on new chemicals to determine if they warrant prohibiting or limiting their manufacture, processing, or use. Because the submissions include little or no toxicity or fate data, EPA’s new chemicals program uses several risk screening approaches, including structural activity relationships, to facilitate assessment in the absence of specific data. This enables rapid evaluation of potential risks and making risk-management decisions for the new chemicals within the 90-day timeframe prescribed by TSCA.
Scientific Review of Nanoscale Materials Under TSCA
OPPT is evaluating and, where appropriate, managing the risks associated with engineered nanoscale materials. Nanoscale materials at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers may exhibit novel properties that enable applications that differ from the same materials at a larger scale. A nanometer is about one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair.
On January 28, 2008, OPPT initiated a Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP) aimed at gathering currently available information on NMs. Its goal is to help provide a firmer scientific foundation for regulatory decisions by encouraging submission and development of key scientific information, including risk-management practices for nanoscale materials.
Scientific Review of Biotech Chemicals Under TSCA
Also under TSCA, EPA is responsible for the safe commercial introduction of new or intergeneric microorganisms with industrial applications, such as bioremediation, or the production of specialty enzymes. Read about TSCA Biotechnology Program.
To evaluate whether chemicals may pose unreasonable risks, TSCA gives EPA authority to issue data development regulations that require manufacturers and processors of existing chemicals to submit information on health and environmental effects of their chemicals. Read more about rules and policies that for testing chemicals. | <urn:uuid:140e8ba6-c08b-4440-8640-3d1ce267f2a8> | {
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Answers 1Add Yours
In New York the Jazz Age was a time where hardly anybody worried about money. “It was in such a profusion around you.”(p.3,3.paragraph) and prodigality belonged to everybody’s life-style. This is also a reason for the hospitality that was indispensable for all the parties that were given. To throw a party is not a cheap affair and so stinginess was very unpopular and supposed to be unfriendly.
Gatsby’s parties are typical for this time period. On his extravagant festivities “charm, notoriety [and] mere good manners weighted more than money as a social asset....The way the people dress during this jazz age period is also very interesting. Their hair is “shorn in strange new ways”(p.36,4) and around the women’s necks are “shawls beyond the dreams of Castile”(p.36/4).They wear “golden and silver slippers”(p.109,16f) and the best example is Gatsby “in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie” (p.65,1f) himself.
Moreover, Gatsby’s guests are, of course, entertained by cocktail music played by a typical jazz orchestra consisting of oboes, trombones, saxophones, viols, cornets and piccolos, low and high drums (p.35,23ff). They know how to play popular jazz songs, for example the “neat, sad little waltz of that year” (p.82,32) “Three O’Clock in the Morning” or W.C.Handy’s (1873-1958) “Beale Street Blues”, a famous jazz blues melody. Another song that is played is Vladimir Tostoff’s “Jazz History of the World”. | <urn:uuid:df2b5690-85ed-4541-8807-50f0813b31d6> | {
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Concerned about allergies? Read the latest guidelines here: Allergenic Foods - Practical Guidelines
Starting Baby Food
The second half of the first year of life is exciting and fun. Your infant continues to rapidly grow and develop skills that make your baby a “real person”. One of the more exciting changes involves your baby’s diet, which changes from entirely breast milk or formula to a well balanced diet of table foods. Although many parents are anxious about how to introduce baby foods, the process can and should be fun for both you and your baby. The following guidelines are intended to provide the concepts, helpful hints and some of the details you will need to help this process along. Generally, parents who read this entire handout and refer back to it periodically, find that it addresses most of their questions.
When? We recommend starting solids for most babies at 6 months. Some babies will need solids sooner.
How fast? Introduce one new food at a time, adding a new food every 3-4 days, or about 2 new foods per week. If you start solids well before 6 months, there is no need to add new foods this quickly.
When? Start to “teach” the skill of swallowing baby food from a spoon when your baby has an appetite, but isn’t starving and impatient (30 minutes before the baby usually feeds or after offering a small part of the bottle or breast feeding). Avoid times when your baby is exhausted or cranky. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon might be good times, but use your judgment about your schedule. Once your baby masters this new skill, baby food can be offered at the time of a bottle or breast feeding.
How? Use name brand baby foods or steam and puree your own foods. Use a serving spoon to place a small amount on your baby’s plate and use a baby spoon to feed your baby. You can refrigerate any food remaining in the jar for up to two days. Six month olds can usually sit comfortably in a high chair. Younger children should be inclined in an infant seat.
What? Start with cereal (rice or others), then move onto fruits, yellow vegetables (carrots, corn, squash, sweet potato) and green vegetables.
How Much? Start with a small amount, in order to teach your baby to eat from a spoon (use one to two tablespoons of cereal mixed with formula, breast milk, or juice). As soon as your baby learns how to spoon feed well (some babies learn this new skill quickly while others may take several days or weeks to master spoon feeding), add more food until your baby is satisfied or loses patience (they usually turn away from the spoon or refuse to open their mouths). Never encourage your baby to “finish”. The baby may finish the meal with a bottle or breast until eventually meals replace bottle or breast feedings entirely. Start with one meal daily and add a second and third whenever you and your baby are ready.
What Next? At about 7 months, offer yogurt (plain or flavored) and fine cottage cheese (plain or with fruits or vegetables). If you are still only offering 2 meals per day, this may be the right time to offer a third meal. At about 8 months, introduce meat, pasta and bread products. But, offer these foods in small soft pieces (about the size of Cheerios). Once your baby learns how to chew and swallow small pieces, offer cereal, fruits, vegetables and dairy products in pieces. This is when we suggest offering more table food and less baby food. We recommend home cooked meats rather than jarred food and suggest moving from baby food right to soft pieces instead of using stage 2 and 3 foods. At about 10 months start whole eggs and whole milk instead of formula. At about 12 months, fish and all other foods can be added. Honey and syrup should never be given before your baby is one year old. Peanut products should be introduced after age three.
Cups? At about 6 months put 1-2 teaspoonfuls of water or juice in a cup and offer it to your baby. Sippy cups are very popular, but are really modified bottles. We recommend using a plain plastic cup without a lid. Be patient and continue to offer a cup so that your baby eventually gets accustomed to and accomplished at drinking from a cup. The longer you use bottles or sippy cups, the harder it is to make the transition to regular cups.
Weaning? As babies eat more, they usually begin to cut down on milk feedings. If that happens, follow your baby’s lead. If not, stop one bottle every month or two. We recommend that the maximum number of milk bottle feedings should be 3 at 8 months, 2 at 10 months and 1 at 12 months. Keep in mind that a well balanced diet for a toddler includes 2-3 portions of dairy per day. Children who continue drinking 3-4 milk bottles per day, usually begin to refuse other foods as their growth rate slows down in the second year of life. So don’t be afraid to wean bottles. It’s an important step in helping your child learn to eat a well-balanced diet.
What else? These guidelines are not rules. Be flexible. Don’t measure food carefully. It’s food not medicine. Neither you nor your baby should find mealtime stressful. If you remain relaxed and patient, your baby is more likely to enjoy mealtime. As babies get older, they usually want to handle some of their own food. This is the way babies learn to feed themselves. At first, you will be feeding your baby and gradually, your baby will do more with your supervision and assistance. This may not be efficient or neat, but it makes mealtime enjoyable for your baby. Also, take advantage of opportunities to have your baby join the family at mealtime. The social interaction and opportunity to imitate make meals more enjoyable.
Don’t hesitate to call for additional advice. We hope that this information is as helpful to you as it has been to many other parents. We are always available to answer any specific questions that you have about feeding your baby. | <urn:uuid:7dbe72c0-8aa2-4836-8278-fee70f683949> | {
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When and Where Life Began
Almost 600 million years ago, before the rapid evolution of life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche near what is now Lantian, a small village in south China. Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free and unbreathable waters. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Virginia Tech in the United States and Northwest University in Xi'an, China report the discovery of the fossils in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The long-running puzzlement about the appearance of the Cambrian fauna, seemingly abruptly and from nowhere, centers on three key points: whether there really was a mass diversification of complex organisms over a relatively short period of time during the early Cambrian; what might have caused such rapid change; and what it would imply about the origin and evolution of animals. Interpretation is difficult due to a limited supply of evidence, based mainly on an incomplete fossil record and chemical signatures left in Cambrian rocks. The Lantia discovery suggests a much part of the picture.
In addition to ancient versions of algae and worms, the Lantian biota--named for its location--included macrofossils with complex and puzzling structures. In all, scientists have identified some 15 species at the site.
The fossils suggest that structural diversification of macroscopic eukaryotes--the earliest versions of organisms with complex cell structures--may have occurred only tens of millions of years after the Snowball Earth event that ended 635 million years ago.
Snowball Earth refers to the hypothesis that the Earth's surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen at least once, some time earlier than 650 million years ago. The geological community generally accepts this hypothesis because it best explains sedimentary deposits generally regarded as of glacial origin at tropical paleolatitudes and other otherwise enigmatic features in the geological record.
Opponents to the hypothesis contested the implications of the geological evidence for global glaciation, the geophysical feasibility of an ice- or slush-covered ocean, and the difficulty of escaping an all-frozen condition.
The presence of macroscopic eukaryotes in the highly organic-rich black shale suggests that, despite the overall oxygen-free conditions, brief oxygenation of the oceans did come and go, according to H. Richard Lane, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research.
By 635 million years ago, the snowball Earth event ended and the oceans were clear of ice. Perhaps, Xiao (one of the authors) says, "that prepared the ground for the evolution of complex eukaryotes."
The team examined the black shale rocks because, although they were laid down in less than optimal waters for oxygen-dependent organisms, "they are known to be able to preserve fossils very well," says Shuhai (another author).
"In most cases, dead organisms were washed in and preserved in black shales. In this case, we discovered fossils that were preserved in pristine condition--some seaweeds still rooted--where they had lived."
The conclusion that the environment would have been poisonous is derived from geochemical data, "but the bedding surfaces where these fossils were found represent moments of geologic time during which oxygen was available and conditions were favorable," says Xiao.
The research team suggests that the Lantian basin was largely without oxygen, but was punctuated by brief oxic episodes that were populated by complex new life forms. Those life forms were subsequently killed and preserved when the oxygen disappeared.
Proving that hypothesis awaits further study.
The rocks in the study region are deposited in layered beds. The nature of the rock changes subtly, and there are finer and finer layers that can be recognized within each bed.
For further information: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-oldest-fossils-large-seaweeds-animals.html or http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?org=NSF&cntn_id=118598&preview=false | <urn:uuid:a3786abc-1aa2-4849-a24c-5537092af607> | {
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By Ronald J. Newell
Because the Sixties, efforts to reform education_including a variety of curricular adjustments, examining methods, instructor education, cash for the deprived, and various tutorial approaches_have didn't lead to precise systemic switch as the reforms fail to accommodate a special definition of studying. Assessing What rather issues in colleges offers desire to cutting edge and innovative faculties, to new and diversified responsibility structures, whereas altering the dialog from an fulfillment discourse to a human improvement discourse.
Read or Download Assessing What Really Matters in Schools: Creating Hope for the Future PDF
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Potent paintings with teenagers calls for empathy and knowing. this article captures the truth of younger people's stories, their relationships and the issues which are very important to them. utilizing in-depth examples from his decades' event as a instructor, formative years employee and psychotherapist, Nick Luxmoore outlines an artistic strategy that may permit execs to reply accurately to the advanced wishes and infrequently difficult behaviour of teenagers.
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Small educating fills the space in greater schooling literature among the first examine in cognitive concept and the study room surroundings. whereas different books offer learn with no concrete examples or just introduce radical theories that eventually should not valuable within the school room, this booklet bargains easy interventions that may be built-in into pre-existing concepts in addition to transparent descriptions of the way to take action.
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Additional info for Assessing What Really Matters in Schools: Creating Hope for the Future
1) was a small traditional high school. In general, the schools were evenly matched in terms of their overall characteristics, with some subtle differences. For example, schools A and B were slightly smaller in size and had a teacher population with somewhat less experience. Educational attainment on the part of the teachers was mixed, with schools A and B having slightly higher percentages of teachers with bachelor’s degrees but lower percentages with master’s degrees. 1. 4 63% 37% 3% 66% 9% 15% The student-to-teacher ratio in school A was slightly smaller than in schools B and C.
1). The typical method of educational delivery, the time-based, subject-based, fact-based approach, does not engage students in productive learning, and the results are clear to see in secondary schools across the land: bored, disengaged students, dropouts, and delinquents. What is needed is a school culture that produces independent learners who take responsibility and ownership for their own learning and are motivated by a genuine desire to do their best. DEFINING A DEVELOPMENTALLY HEALTHY SCHOOL Heath (1994), in Schools of Hope, mentioned that the typical school culture leads to a culture of obedience, acquiescence, and conformity.
In fact, extracurricular success is more of a determinant of success in life than is academic success. Heath (1994) notes that in one study, “the best predictor of creativity in mature life was a person’s performance, during youth, in independent, self-sustained ventures. Those youngsters who had many hobbies, interests, and jobs were more likely to become successful in later life” (p. 110). DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE The question remains, Why do schools add more and more academic courses, with accompanying measures thereof, rather than allow young people to pursue interests, hobbies, and extracurricular activities? | <urn:uuid:490f14d0-87f4-4a43-8867-13b8410df6d9> | {
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“This is an editorial from Bee World, 1972. Probably written by Eva Crane. I think it’s still instructive today, especially the last paragraph” -Peter Borst
In many parts of the world beekeeping hangs in the balance, and the scales are tipped against the bees and the beekeeper. In countries with highly sophisticated agricultural systems, beekeeping may be in a decline because too many factors in modern agriculture work against the bees. Even in countries beginning to move away from traditional agriculture, bees are less and less part of the rural economy. Declining numbers of bees and beekeepers, and lack of official interest, are matched by falling honey yields. Yet the very changes in land use which now seem to be bringing about the end of beekeeping may lead to its recognition as an essential part of agriculture, because of its importance for crop pollination.
The factors limiting beekeeping may be summarized as follows. Forage available to bees is being reduced, by current agricultural practices, and by industrial and urban land use, including road construction. Losses from pesticide have been mitigated to some extent in recent years, but hazards are constantly arising from the use of new crops, and changes in agricultural techniques, especially for the control of pests and weeds. Also, although many of the bee diseases are well understood, and treatments available, largescale “losses” of indeterminate origin still occur from time to time, and can cause severe damage to beekeeping in the area concerned.
Beekeepers face rising costs which may so far outstrip the financial return that commercial beekeeping becomes uneconomic. At an amateur level, beekeeping as a hobby does not fit easily into areas of high human population, especially in towns and suburbs. Further, beekeepers are, in American terms, “not a well organized commodity group”: the very independence that makes a person a good keeper of bees may well make him a poor negotiator, and one who does not easily co-operate. It may also hinder understanding between beekeepers and crop growers, whether or not the growers use bees to pollinate their own crops.
Nowadays so many interdependent factors are involved in determining any one issue, that more and more interdisciplinary co-ordination is needed-and this does not come of itself, but has to be sought out and worked for. There is no magic solution, but there are ways in which benefits have been, or could be, obtained.
Human nature is perhaps the most difficult of all factors to change, but where the need is great enough – as in a nation at war – cooperation can be achieved. Surveys leading to a relatively objective assessment of the position could well be a valuable start. One such survey (concerned with development rather than decline) was conducted in Ireland in 1967, and another, specifically on bee losses and their effect on honey production and pollination, was carried out in the United States in 1970. In some countries with tracts of undeveloped land, surveys should be made to establish what further sites could profitably be used for hives, or what areas could be planted specifically for bee forage. In the more intensively used lands, pressure groups can be formed to maintain and reclaim potential areas for bee forage-even road verges are worth attention. More studies are urgently needed to define the requirements of crops for insect pollination (especially in the tropics), and to establish how widespread the dearth of pollinators is. The system of payment for colonies of bees provided for pollination, and conditions for safeguarding them, should also be restudied and improved.
Crop management techniques must be developed in which pest and weed control measures are applied only according to need, and methods are selected which are the least hazardous to bees. Much research has already been done, and if the results are presented in a way that can be assimilated, their application should not prove too difficult.
Understanding between beekeepers and crop growers has been achieved on a local, personal, scale in various countries, with very satisfactory results. Perhaps a study of these successful ventures might also show the way to more general progress. | <urn:uuid:237c16f4-7d0e-45eb-a1d4-1a37afc5c184> | {
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Sun unleashes intense solar flare, still weaker than the strongest
NASA scientists are keeping a close eye on the sun, this after it unleashed an intense solar flare Wednesday, March 12.
Solar flares are sudden, powerful bursts of radiation from the sun’s surface. Around 6:38 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the mid-level flare emitted by a magnetically strong, active region right on the edge of the sun. Scientists call this region AR 11996.
Scientists classified the flare as an M9.3-class, just slightly weaker than the most intense flares. In fact, those flares are labeled X-class.
Since the flare, NASA has been watching a stream of solar particles associated with the flare to see whether or not they will intersect with Earth’s atmosphere to amplify northern lights displays at the poles, according to Space.com.
While Wednesday’s solar flare is not the most intense, X-class flares can disrupt satellite communications, like GPS, and power networks.
To check out the solar flare, click here: http://www.space.com/25053-solar-flare-s-psychedelic-burst-seen-in-different-wavelength-video.html
Sources: Space.com, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Phys.org | <urn:uuid:4f8ce41d-e2b7-48e7-a9b0-c4c56e2fb260> | {
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Middle East Contribution Cartoon-Leah Mohedin and Jacqui Gross
This storyboard does not have a description.
Hi, my name is James. I am a doctor that loves to study how the Middle East contributed to today's medical society.
The Middle East had a big part in modern day medicine. Al-Zahrāwī is the father of modern surgery. He contributed a 30 volume encyclopedia about medical practices.
Hi, I'm Holly. I love to study about Middle East contributions to medicine.
Ibn Sina created the idea of the holiest medicine. He combined physical and physiological factors, drugs, and diet.
I wonder if hospitals looked the same in the Middle East ages than how they look now.
Oh wow! Hospitals had separate wards for men and women and different cases. Also they were used to educated medical students.
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Cut out the two long outer walls. Fold the rooftops inward and glue the tabs at the corners of the roof to make two L-shaped pieces.
Then glue the two L-shaped walls together to make a rectangular box. Make sure the corners are all square 90-degree angles and the roof is level and straight before the glue dries.
Cut out the larger middle section of the roof and assemble into a rectangle. Then glue the two halves of the roof down flat.
Cut out the two shorter roof sections and assemble each. Then glue the tabs onto each side of the middle roof section. Press the tabs with a tweezer to dry the glue faster. Place the roof on a flat table as the glue dries to make sure each roof section is lined up along the bottom.
Finally, glue the rooftop sections to the roof of the lower walls.
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- British Museum to manage PAS
- Comprehensive Spending Review
- Cyrus Cylinder loan
- Annual Review 2009-10
- Book of the Dead
- Italian Renaissance drawings
- Kingdom of Ife
- Warriors of the Plains
- The Printed Image in China
- Impressions of Africa
- Buddhism across Asia
- Picasso to Julie Mehretu
- Afghanistan exhibition
The British Museum lends the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran
10 September 2010
The British Museum is lending the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran for an exhibition that will open for four months in Tehran on 12 September.
Together with two fragments of contemporary cuneiform tablets, it will be the centrepiece of an exhibition that celebrates a great moment in the history of the Middle East. The loan reciprocates the generous loans made by the National Museum of Iran to the Forgotten Empire and Shah Abbas exhibitions in 2005 and 2009 at the British Museum.
The Cylinder was found during a British Museum excavation at Babylon in Iraq in 1879, and has been in the British Museum since that time. It was originally inscribed and buried in the foundations of a wall after Cyrus the Great, the Persian Emperor, captured Babylon in 539 BC. The Cylinder is written in Babylonian cuneiform by a Babylonian scribe. It records that aided by the god Marduk Cyrus captured Babylon without a struggle, restored shrines dedicated to different gods, and repatriated deported peoples who had been brought to Babylon. It was this decree that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild The Temple. Because of these enlightened acts, which were rare in antiquity, the Cylinder has acquired a special resonance, and is valued by people all around the world as a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths. These are the qualities for which Cyrus is revered in the Hebrew Bible. The two fragments of tablet were also found in nineteenth century British Museum excavations in or near Babylon. These fragments were identified by experts at the Museum earlier this year as being inscribed with parts of the same text as the Cylinder but do not belong to it. They show that the text of the Cylinder was probably a proclamation that was widely distributed across the Persian Empire.
As Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum has said:
“You could almost say that the Cyrus Cylinder is A History of the Middle East in one object and it is a link to a past which we all share and to a key moment in history that has shaped the world around us. Objects are uniquely able to speak across time and space and this object must be shared as widely as possible.”
In recognition of the fact that the Cyrus Cylinder is truly a part of the world’s cultural heritage, the Trustees of the British Museum are eager that as many people as possible should have an opportunity to see it, particularly in Iran where Cyrus the Great is held in special reverence. Although political relations between Iran and the UK are at the moment difficult, the Trustees take the view that it is all the more important to maintain the cultural links which have been so carefully built up over a period of years and which could in themselves lead to a better relationship based on dialogue, tolerance and understanding. Colleagues in Iran’s museums are part of a world-wide scholarly community in which the British Museum plays a leading role.
Niall FitzGerald, Chairman of the British Museum, said:
“The British Museum has a long standing policy of lending its unparalleled collection as widely as possible across the world to benefit the greatest number of world publics. This cultural exchange is a vital part of the Museum's commitment to being a Museum for the world. The British Museum has a positive and ongoing exchange of skills and objects with colleagues at the National Museum of Iran which has played a key part in recent exhibitions. The Trustees have reaffirmed their view that exchanges of this sort are an essential part of the Museum's international role, allowing valuable dialogues to develop independently of political considerations.”
Baroness Helen Kennedy QC, human rights lawyer and Trustee of the British Museum, said:
"The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient artefact of great symbolism and it is absolutely right that the British Museum fulfils its promise to loan it to the Museum in Tehran. This is part of the reciprocity from which we in Britain have also benefited. Art and culture can sustain relationships between the people of nations even when diplomacy is strained. To present this particular temporary gift to the people of Iran at this particular time is an act of faith which will have profound meaning and value."
“One of the chief tasks of our generation is to build a global community, where peoples of differing ideologies can live together in respect and harmony,” said Karen Armstrong, author and commentator on religious affairs and a British Museum Trustee. “At a time of political tension, it is essential to keep as many doors of communication open as possible. We all have much work to do to build a peaceful world. This cultural exchange may make a small but timely contribution towards the creation of better relations between the West and Iran.”
Cyrus Cylinder, Babylonian, about 539-530 BC.
From Babylon, southern Iraq
For further information contact Olivia Rickman, Press and PR Manager:
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Habitat for Humanity Colombia
Habitat's work in Colombia
Housing need in Colombia
Inadequate housing, overcrowding and insufficient utilities such as water and sanitation are all contributors to the housing problem in Colombia. More than 11.5 million homes in Colombia do not satisfactorily meet the basic necessities of the families that live in them. More than 40 percent of that figure represents inadequate housing and overcrowding, while another 20 percent demonstrates problems with public utilities. Likewise, 9.8 percent of the families suffering from poverty find themselves in this situation due to inadequate housing, and 10.6 percent due to inadequate utilities.
The rural housing deficit has increased in recent years, due to a lack of new programs. Colombia’s qualitative housing deficit (that is, houses that exist but are inadequate in their conditions) is currently in the vicinity of 900,000 units, out of which 200,000 are located in rural zones. That deficit has increased in the last five years, since the financing of possible solutions has become so difficult through typical lending institutions.
The housing shortage in Colombia prevents adequate sanitary conditions for many low-income families, so they erectcambuches or tin huts, without public services. This promotes disease, such as dengue, which arises from stagnant water due to a lack of sewers. Inadequate housing also affects children’s education; many cannot go to school because they lack a home that provides them with the stability required to enter an educational center. In addition, many school-age children are forced to work, in order to contribute something to the family’s income.
Habitat for Humanity in Colombia
Habitat for Humanity was established in Colombia in 1991, when a teacher from a rural school in Quimbaya, Quindío, became aware of the organization through a magazine article. Three years later, the construction of the first 28 houses began in the Los Cerezos de Quimbaya neighborhood.
Habitat Colombia is governed by a national board of directors, and has five branches: Eje Cafetero, Valle del Cauca, Antioquia, and the north of Cauca and Cundinamarca.
Habitat for Humanity Colombia strives to become an alternative for low income families, helping families to build and improve their own homes. Habitat Colombia seeks support and partnership from government, the private sector and civil society—especially young people.
Habitat for Humanity Colombia supports several initiatives, in addition to traditional home construction.
Healthy housing in San Andres: In November 2008, Phase II of this Healthy Housing in San Andres was approved. In addition to housing improvements for 305 families, the project also aims to decrease the risk of illness by improving access and management of potable water, adequately managing sewage waste, and implementing a “healthy home” educational program.
Government subsidies for housing: A significant cause for growth in housing numbers between 2007 and 2008 can be attributed to the effective utilization of government subsidies–for both new house constructions as well as repairs and improvements. Habitat programs are seeking to make good use of these subsidies by ensuring high-quality constructions for families, as well as efficient operations, so as to make best use of the limited resources. Habitat for Humanity Colombia is one of the four national organizations that have received consultants to help assess their subsidy-funded programs, and three of these are financing growth with loans from Habitat International.
Financial education: This project is aimed at educating and accompanying partner families in the planning and administration of their home economy. The manuals and methodology used are the result of a project designed by Habitat for Humanity International and financed by Citi Foundation. Through a series of workshops, families learn to administer their income and expenses, and learn to design a budget, analyze and control their expenses, and follow a savings plan. Families are also informed about the risks and advantages of taking out loans with Habitat for Humanity or other organizations.
Complete houses: In addition to the projects above, Habitat for Humanity Colombia continues to build complete homes. Homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor, helping to build their houses and the houses of others, together with volunteers. Their monthly payments go into a Local Rotating Fund, which allows the construction of new homes.
Learn more about Habitat for Humanity in Latin America and the Caribbean. | <urn:uuid:eaf4c4cd-b15e-4ce1-8031-7874fb6a20f4> | {
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When communicating with people for whom English is a second language:
- Construct your sentences carefully and precisely
- Don't shout
- Speak slowly and distinctly
- Avoid pidgin English
- Emphasize key words
- Allow pauses
- Let the worker read your lips
- Use visual aids
- Organize your thoughts
- Use handouts
- Use nonverbal signals (cautiously)
- Be aware of your tone of voice
- Use familiar words
- Repeat and recap frequently
- Take care not to patronize
- Check often for understanding
- Don't cover to much information at one time
- Be careful when translating
- Choose interpreters carefully
- Use bilingual group leaders.
When assessing how well you've been understood:
- Watch for nonverbal signs that indicate confusion or embarrassment
- Notice a lack of interruptions
- Notice employees' efforts to change the subject
- Notice the complete absence of questions
- Notice inappropriate laughter
- Invite questions in private and in writing
- Allow enough time for questions to be formulated
- Be alert to the yes that means "Yes, I hear your question" not "Yes, I understand"
- Be alert to a positive response to a negative question
- Be alert to a qualified yes in response to the question, "Do you understand?"
- Have the listener repeat what you have said
- Observe behavior of employees and inspect production.
To understand people who are learning English:
- Share the responsibility for poor communication
- Invite the speaker to speak more slowly
- Repeat what the speaker has said
- Encourage the worker to write
- Allow the worker to spell difficult words
- Read the speaker's lips
- Give the speaker plenty of time in which to communicate
- Listen to all that the speaker has to say before assuming that you don't understand
- Observe body language
- Remember to listen and expect to understand.
SOURCE: Bridging Cultural Barriers for Corporate Success: How to Manage the Multicultural Work Force, by Sondra Thiederman, Lexington Books (a division of Macmillan, Inc.), 1991.
Personnel Journal, February 1993, Vol. 72, No. 2, p. 62. | <urn:uuid:a98871fa-97ae-4b84-835e-bbfb8fda7e62> | {
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AIMS and OBJECTIVES of the POLITICAL PARTIES as STATED In their Constitution
THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (As amended upto 83rd Plenary Session, 18-20 December 2010)
Article I OBJECT The object of the Indian National Congress is the well-being and advancement of the people of India and the establishment in India, by peaceful and constitutional means, of a Socialist State based on Parliamentary Democracy in which there is equality of opportunity and of political, economic and social rights and which aims at world peace and fellowship.
Article II Allegiance to Constitution of India The Indian National Congress bears true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
BJP as of 2004
Article II: OBJECTIVE The Party is pledged to build up India as a strong and prosperous nation, which is modern, progressive and enlightened in outlook and which proudly draws inspiration from India's ancient culture and values and thus is able to emerge as a great world power playing an effective role in the comity of Nations for the establishment of world peace and a just international order. The Party aims at establishing a democratic state which guarantees to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed or sex, political, social and economic justice, equality of opportunity and liberty of faith and expression. The Party shall bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
Article III: BASIC PHILOSOPHY Integral Humanism shall be the basic philosophy of the Party.
Article IV: COMMITMENTS The Party shall be committed to nationalism and national integration, democracy, Gandhian Socialism, Positive Secularism, that is, 'Sarva Dharma Samabhav' and value-based politics. The Party stands for decentralisation of economic and political power.
The Communist Party of India is the political party of the Indian working class. It is a voluntary organisation of workers, peasants, toiling people in general, intelligentsia and others devoted to the cause of socialism and communism.
The Communist Party of India remains firmly wedded to the goal of a just socialist society in which equal opportunities for all and guarantee of democratic rights will clear the way for ending all forms of exploitation, including caste, class and gender, and exploitation of man by man, a society in which the wealth produced by the toiling millions will not be appropriated by a few. The science of Marxism-Leninism is indispensable for charting the path to such a new socialist system. Of course, this path will be determined by the specific historical conditions obtaining, as well as the particular characteristics and features of our own country, its history, tradition, culture, social composition and level of development. This goal cannot be achieved without hard struggle and a firm commitment to democratic norms and values.
For building of socialism, the achievement of power by the working people, based on socialist democracy, is essential. With unflinching loyalty to the working people and their historic mission, the Communist Party of India will work for the realisation of this mission and go forward to its ultimate goal of establishing a communist society in India.
The socialist society and socialist state of India shall fully safeguard the right of individual liberty, freedom of speech, press, association, conscience and religious belief. It shall also guarantee the right to form opposition parties provided they are committed to abide by the Constitution. The socialist constitution shall always keep vigil and prevent the destruction of democracy and violation of people's basic rights. The perspective and political policies of the party will be decided on the basis of objective reality. The accumulated experience of our party and the world revolutionary movements shall assist the party in the process. Life has shown that this task cannot be fulfilled by pursuing the capitalist path and as long as the bourgeois class is in control of state power.
The Communist Party of India organises itself and its work on the basis of democratic centralism and on full inner party democracy. The party also firmly believes that unity in action is indispensable. The decisions of the Party Congress and the National Council shall be binding on all party units and party members. Minority opinions on substantial political issues shall be made known to all party units and party members. Formation of factions and groups on the basis of political, organisational or opportunist reasons shall not be permissible. The party believes in free and frank debates. The party shall respect dissenting opinions.
Imbued with lofty ideas of patriotism, the Communist Party of India upholds the independence and sovereignty of India, fights for national unity and national integration, firmly opposes all disruptionist and obscurantist conceptions, communalism, revivalism, untouchability, casteism, religious intolerance and discrimination against and denial of equal rights to women and fights against chauvinism and bourgeois nationalism. The Communist Party of India also firmly upholds the right of all sections of our society to profess the faith of their choice and practice, but it shall not permit preaching of hatred against any religion.
The Communist Party of India shall bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
The Communist Party of India shall strongly fight for the cause of social justice. The age-old outlook and practices of social inequality are very strong in our society. Social and economic inequality has become a most formidable block to the advance of our society. The fight against caste thinking and caste practices is essential for the unity of our people. Noble traditions, historical experience, rich cultural heritage and valuable teachings of great social reformers and thinkers of our country will help the party to cultivate scientific temper and socialist ideals.
Fight for peace and against neo-colonialism along with fight for a just society is common ground for all progressive forces of the world. Adhering to the principle of independence, equality and non-interference, the Communist Party of India shall make every effort to build friendship with other parties of the working people and the forces fighting against imperialism and for social progress. The Communist Party of India firmly believes that real and basic interests of the people of the world are the same and hence we stand for proletarian internationalism. Solidarity with just and progressive causes in other parts of the world will help our own struggle.
RULE - 2 : AIMS :- In conformity with the aims as laid down by Arignar Anna, the aim of the Kazhagam is to strive and forge Dravidian cultural co-operation among the four linguistic states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, within the frame work of the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India and within the ambit of the Constitution of India. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam bears true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India, as by law established and the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
RULE - 3 : IDEALS :- Having strict adherence to the principles of Duty, Dignity and Discipline stressed by Arignar Anna as the basis, the party will strive to safeguard the democratic rights in politics, to establish a society free from any kind of exploitation, to effect reforms in society in order to bring about a renaissance based on rationalism, to eradicate poverty in the economic field, to find out ways and means, to secure the welfare of all on the basis of socialism to promote the state language without giving room for domination by other languages in order to secure them due place of importance, to decentralise the powers concentrated in the centre and to secure autonomy for the States and genuine Federation at the centre.
POLICY OF THE PARTY The ALL INDIA ANNA DRAVIDA MUNNETRAKAZHAGAM Party shall bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of Socialism, Secularism and Democracy and will 'uphold the Sovereignty, Unity and Integrity of India. The Party will strive to create equality among all classes and to establish a democratic socialist society, to promote the language and culture of Dravidians, to strengthen the democratic system and to strive for more autonomous powers for the States in the Indian Sub-continent subject to overall sovereignty of the Centre without jeopardising the Unity and Integrity of the Nation in accordance with the Constitution of India. '"
RULE· 3: OBJECTS .. The objectives of the Party will be to strive to foment and " forge a sense of Unity among the people of diversified ... culture, civilizations, traditions and languages inhabiting this " Indian Sub-continent.
Article II. - Aims and Objectives. 1. The chief aim and objective of the party shall be to work as a revolutionary social and economic movement of change with a view to realise, in practical terms, the supreme principles of universal justice, liberty, equality and fraternity enunciated in the Constitution of India, to be followed by State in governance, and in particular summed up in the following extract from the Preamble of the Constitution: “We, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; Equality of status and opportunity; and promote among them all Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;”
2. The party shall regard its ideology as a movement for ending exploitation of the weaker sections and suppression of the deprived through social and economic change in keeping with the above stated chief aim, and its political activity and participation in governance as an instrument of furthering such a movement and bringing in such a change.
3 This being the chief aim of the party, the strategy of the party in public affairs will be governed by the following general principles:
(4) i. That all citizens of India being equal before law are entitled to be treated as equal in true sense and in all matters and all walks of life, and where equality does not exist it has to be fostered and where equality is denied it has to be upheld and fought for.
ii. That the full, free, uninhibited and unimpeded development of each individual is a basic human right and State is an instrument for promoting and realising such development;
iii. That the rights of all citizens of India as enshrined in the Constitution of India and subject to such restrictions as are set out in the Constitution, have to be upheld at all costs and under all circumstances;
iv That the provisions of the Constitution requiring the State at Center and in States to promote with special care and protect the socio-economic interests of the weaker sections of the society denied to them for centuries, have to upheld and given practical shape in public affairs as a matter of prime most priority.
v. That economic disparities and the wide gaps between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ must not be allowed to override the political principle of “one man, one vote, one vote, one value” adopted by our republic.
AITC Trinamool Congress
The Aim of the party shall be to make all round development of India in the political, economic, industrial, social, culture, agricultural, sectors, and to establish India as global power keeping in view the multilingual, multifaceted, multiethnic, rich culture and heritage of India.
OBJECT Article II The object of the party shall be (a) To uphold and adhere to true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established.
(b) To uphold and work for the furtherance of the principles of Socialism, Secularism and Democracy. (c ) To eradicate illiteracy, poverty & injustice and cause upliftment of the downtrodden by ensuring social equality, awakening of the masses by peaceful means, movement and participation in the lawful electoral process.
II (A) ALLEGIANCE TO CONSTITUTION OF INDIA The All India Trinamool Congress bears true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
SAD Akali Dal
“ The Shiromani Akali Dal realizes that India is a federal and republican geographical entity of different languages , religions and cultures. To safeguard the fundamental rights of the religious and linguistic minorities, to fulfill the demands of the democratic traditions and to pave the way for economic progress it has become imperative that the Indian constitutional structure be given a real federal shape by redefining the Centre and State relations and rights on the lines of aforesaid principles and objectives.”
“Shiromani Akali Dal has ever stood firm on this principle and that is why after very careful consideration it unanimously adopted a resolution to this effect first at All India Akali Conference , Batala, then at Shri Anandpur Sahib endorsing the principle of Federalism.
As such, the Shiromani Akali Dal emphatically urges upon the Government of India to take cognizance of the different linguistic and cultural sections, religious minorities as also the voice of million of people and recast the constitutional structure of the country on real and meaningful federal intergrity of the country and further , to enable the states to play a useful role for the progress and prosperity of the Indian people in their respective areas by meaningful exercise of the powers” | <urn:uuid:3d71fc1c-b145-4ccc-b7e4-b0fc8e458d34> | {
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These files are a part of the Bureau of Land Management Database for the
state of Ohio. It shows the original purchasers of land from the federal
government and covers the period from pre-Revolutionary times up to 1908.
Ohio Land Patents Database
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) inherited the functions of the General
Land Office when it was established by Congress in 1946. The Ohio Land
Patents Database, derived from General Land Office information, contains
deeds (primarily patents) issued by the United States in the region now known
as the State of Ohio between 1790 and 1907. While BLM has been referred to as
"the Nations record keeper", it is the National Archives that actually keeps
the files. The BLM, maintains diagrammatic plats known as Master Title Plats,
which depict lands which are owned by the United States and lands which are
However, these plats do not have any information about who the lands
were patented to. That information which has only been available after
tedious research, it is available now in this database. The Ohio Land Patents
Database contains the following information for each land transaction: date,
location (township, range, section, meridian), name of person the land was
patented to, county, and the patent document identification number (patent
number). Using this information you can view a scanned image of the actual
land record on-line at the BLM Eastern States General Land Office web site:
Enter your ZIP Code on the first page to get into the web site, then
choose Ohio Land Records. You can order a certified copy of the record for $2
through their web site. You can also obtain copies of the patent file for $10
from the National Archives at the following address:
Reference Branch (Lands)
Washington, DC 20408
This file will contain another copy of the land record available from
the BLM web site, plus any supporting materials submitted, such as bounty
lands warrants, or other documents.
You need to submit your request on a copy of Form 84. To get the
form, send an e-mail message to
In the body of the message, be sure to ask for Form 84 "Order for
Copies of Land Entry Files", tell them how many copies you want (get at least
2, in case you make a mistake) and give your name and snail address so they
can send you the forms.
(Or you can send a snail mail letter to above address). Sending by
e-mail takes less than a week; by snail mail both ways takes about 2 weeks.
SOME DEFINITIONS WITHIN THE DOCUMENTS
ALIQUOT or partial fraction of the section - The description of
fractional section ownership used in the U.S. public land states. A parcel
is generally identified by its section, township, and range. The aliquot
specifies its precise location within the section, for example, the northwest
quarter of the southeast quarter.
RANGE - In the U.S. public land surveying system, a north-south
column of townships, identified as being east or west of a reference
longitudinal meridian, for example, Range 3 West. See township.
SECTION - In the U.S. public land surveying system, an area one mile
square. See aliquot.
TOWNSHIP - In the U.S. public land surveying system, an area six
miles square, containing 36 sections. The townships are organized in rows
and are identified with respect to a reference latitudinal baseline, for
example, Township 13 North. See range.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF OHIO SURVEYS (MERIDIANS)
Ohio was the first state to be surveyed by the United States. Its
lands in the public domain wre the first sold by the U.S. Treasury (later by
the General Land Office). The Land Ordinance of May 20, 1785, was the basis
of the Federal land survey system. The Ordinance established the rectangular
system of survey. Many very different styles of survey were used in Ohio
before adopting the one in use today. The first public lands surveyed in the
United States were the "Seven Ranges." This was the only survey done under
the Continental Congress. Sometimes it is sometimes difficult to figure out
exactly where a particular tract of land lies in Ohio. Here is a list of
some of the Ohio Surveys:
CONNECTICUT WESTERN RESERVE - covers all northeastern Ohio. In her
deed of cession dated September 13, 1786, Connecticut retained more than 3
million acres. In 1796, Connecticut sold 3 million acres of the reserve to
the Connecticut Land Company but the Indian title to the reserve had not been
extinguished then. Clear title was not obtained until the Greenville Treaty
in 1795 and the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805. The west end of the reserve
included the 500,000 acre "Fire Lands or Sufferers Lands" reserved for
residents of several New England towns destroyed by British-set fires during
the Revolutionary War. The General Land Office did not maintain these
records and therefore none of these records are in this database.
Contact the Ohio State Archives in Columbus for more information.
VIRGINIA MILITARY DISTRICT - covers area bounded by the Scioto River,
the Ohio River, the Little Miami River, the Ludlow Line, and the Roberts Line
in west-central Ohio. Reserved to satisfy Virginia Revolutionary War
military warrants. These metes and bounds land descriptions cover more than
6,570 square miles. BLM has 25 volumes of these warrants and none of them
are included in this database; the BLM has indexed about half of them; the
rest were multi-page documents and will be indexed later. Check the BLM web
site for the most up-to-date listing of indexed records.
Note that the records do not show much more than names and warrant
numbers. The land descriptions are almost impossible to connect to a
specific location since most refer to previous metes and bounds surveys in
Again, please contact the State Archives for more information.
OHIO RIVER SURVEY - covers most of southeastern Ohio. The base line
of the survey followed the meanders of the Ohio River from the
Pennsylvania-Ohio state line to the mouth of the Scioto River. Townships
were numbered northward from the Ohio River, leading to non-standard
locations (i.e., in Muskingum County, Township 15 North, Range 14 West, is
due west of Township 11 North, Range 13 West).
Includes the Ohio Company Purchase and the Donation Tract, for which
there are some records; there are no records about the disposition of the
French Grant in Scioto County. Contains duplicate townships (Townships 9,
10, and 11 in Range 21). Also confusing because this survey wraps around the
U.S. Military District Survey (see below).
U.S. MILITARY DISTRICT SURVEY - covers most of central Ohio.
Established by Act of Congress of June 1, 1796, to satisfy Congressional
resolutions to grant bounty lands to Continental officers and soldiers. The
Surveyor General divided the U.S. Military into five districts and made the
west boundary of the Seven Ranges a meridian line and south boundary of the
reserve a base line. Townships were numbered north from the south boundary
and west from the Seven Ranges. Townships 1 through 6 west, were the
southeast survey district. The remaining townships in Ranges 1 through 4,
and Ranges 7 through 12, were in the south middle district; the remaining
townships in Ranges 7 through 12, the north middle district; and all the
townships west of Range 12 were the western district. Most townships only
contain 25 sections instead of 36; some townships were subdivided into four
sections containing about 4,000 acres each. Also includes several tracts
reserved for the United Brethren; the Salem Tract (present-day Port
Washington), the Gnadehutten Tract and the Schoenbrun Tract (present-day New
MUSKINGUM RIVER SURVEY - only contains two townships in Summit and Stark
Counties, west of Akron and Canton.
FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD SCIOTO RIVER SURVEYS - bordering on the Scioto
River, north of Range 22 of the Ohio River Survey, runs north from the mouth
of the Scioto River at Portsmouth.
REFUGEE TRACT - covers the tier of townships in the Ohio River Survey
along the southern border of the U.S. Military Survey roughly running from
Zanesville west to Columbus. Does not have a separate meridian code. Listed
under the Ohio River Survey. Lands were reserved for refugees from Canada in
the early 1800's for aiding the colonial cause during the Revolutionary War.
Unclaimed lands were generally sold.
BETWEEN THE MIAMIS - covers area between the Miami and Little Miami
Rivers in southwestern Ohio. Unique in that the township and range directions
ran counter to all other public land surveys in the United States. The
General Land Office did not maintain land records for the Symmes Purchase
(Cincinnati area) within this survey.
WEST OF THE GREAT MIAMI - covers area south of the Greenville Treaty
line, east of the Ohio-Indiana state line and west of the Miami River in
southwestern Ohio. Township numbering is somewhat confusing since the base
line of the survey, much like the Ohio River Survey, followed the meanders of
a river (the Miami).
FIRST PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN (NE and SE) - covers most of northwestern Ohio
except the "Toledo Strip." Not to be confused with the First Principal
Meridian lands in Indiana (see Cincinnati Land Office, below). All Indiana
records will be uploaded to the INGenWeb Archives.
TWELVE MILE SQUARE - covers a four-township survey at the foot of the
rapids of the "Miami" (Maumee) River in and around Toledo. Patents for land
in Ohio that were purchased in Michigan are included; since the old state
line between Michigan and Ohio ran through this survey.
MICHIGAN MERIDIAN - the "Toledo Strip" in far northwestern Ohio was once
claimed by Michigan. Led to a serious dispute between Michigan and Ohio
until the admission of Michigan to the Union in 1837.
In addition, some townsite surveys are included in our records, such as
Lower Sandusky, Perrysburg, Croghansville, (present-day Fremont) and
LANDS IN INDIANA SOLD BY THE CINCINNATI LAND OFFICE
Until the 1840's, the land office in Cincinnati issued several
thousand patents for land in southeastern Indiana. A rule of thumb for
locating these would be to look for the land description(s) on a particular
record from the Cincinnati land office and see if it lies either within the
Second Principal Meridian (directions North and East for township and range
respectively), or within the First Principal Meridian with a township
direction of North and a range direction of West.
Lands falling within the First Principal Meridian sold at Cincinnati
are not to be confused with those within the First Principal Meridian in
northwestern Ohio. These were primarily sold by the land offices at Bucyrus,
Defiance, Delaware, Lima, Marion, Piqua, Tiffin, Upper Sandusky, and
Wapakoneta. The Cincinnati First Principal Meridian lands were all located
in southeastern Indiana within a roughly triangular-shaped area bounded by
the Ohio River, the Ohio-Indiana state line, and the Greenville Treaty line
extending southwest from Fort Recovery to the Ohio River, at the mouth of the
The State of Ohio Archives address:
State of Ohio Archives
1982 Velma Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43211-2497
Ohio has nine major land surveys and 46 sub surveys. The key to
understanding and using Ohio land records is the original land surveys. Ohio
is unique. It was the test state for the Federal Rectangular Survey System,
yet it has the Virginia Military District, composed entirely of metes and
bounds surveys. This short history of Ohio lands begins with the territory's
earliest inhabitants. More can be read about this at
"Ohio Lands - A Short History". | <urn:uuid:aaffa45d-7257-4d84-a150-199187622112> | {
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Photo provided by Forest Ecologist Jess Riddle
Old Growth Forests
Old growth forests in Georgia? Yes, indeed — and way more than anyone thought. For years, questions persisted as to whether any of Georgia’s public forests had escaped the saw. Searches for these “original” or “old growth” forests on similar landscapes of North Carolina were turning up surprising discoveries. Georgia ForestWatch went in search of the answer and found it.
Georgia ForestWatch discovers 11,000 acres of rare old growth forests
Back in 1991, eastern old growth forest researcher Mary Byrd Davis (author of Eastern Old-Growth Forests: Prospects for Rediscovery and Recovery, 1996) sent an inquiry to the acting supervisor of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests, requesting information on known old growth. She received a letter responding that only four acres existed, along with maps showing the location of two 2-acre stands. Active ForestWatchers at that time knew better.
In 2001, ForestWatch was finally able to hire expert woodsman Jess Riddle to lead the search and answer the question, “How much old growth is left?” Initially, Jess spent many hours meeting with regional old growth researchers poring over maps, honing an approach to identify likely candidate sites. Then Jess hit the woods, spending days and weeks tracking through rugged territory and documenting his findings. At that time we focused on searching unprotected areas that were still open to logging, hoping to locate, describe and map them before they might be cut.
Over a four-year period, Jess and volunteer Georgia ForestWatch assistants located over 11,000 acres of old growth forests! We are continuing to push hard for these ancient natural forests to be preserved and protected.
On our “wish list” is securing the funding necessary to survey already protected areas (those with official designations including Wilderness, Scenic and Natural Resource Areas), so that all of these rare forests remain for ecological, scientific and enjoyment of the people who own them.
Want more info? | <urn:uuid:3ea528bd-d2ec-4616-b1d9-8474364f6474> | {
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Although most serious falls happen when people are older, steps to prevent and treat bone loss and falls can never begin too early. Many people begin adulthood with less than optimal bone mass, so the fact that bone mass or density is lost slowly over time puts them at increased risk for fractures.
Bones that once were strong become so fragile and thin that they break easily. Activities that once were done without a second thought are now avoided for fear that they will lead to another fracture.
Steps to Prevent Fragile Bones
Read more articles on Bone Health | <urn:uuid:4d895224-f31e-4676-a1da-41cc21a774b6> | {
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Writing Center Award
Much of Alfred Hitchcock’s work places strong emphasis on the mechanisms and implications of the act of looking, and voyeurism and scopophilia are major themes across his oeuvre. Consider, for example, Scottie's compulsion to recreate Judy in Madeleine's image in Vertigo, or Jeffries's obsession with observing the private lives of his neighbors through his binoculars in Rear Window (Wood 103). Voyeurism also plays a prominent role in Strangers on a Train, but in contrast with some of Hitchcock's other work, the most interesting voyeurs of that work are not male, but female. Throughout the film, Hitchcock develops the concept of the female gaze by connecting it with a distinctive symbolism: round glasses (Brill 81). Such glasses, as Mary Ann Doane has shown, were symbols in classical Hollywood film of an active gaze, or "even simply the fact of seeing as opposed to being seen" (qtd. in Corber 115). This symbol of seeing, of circularity, of the overt female stare, becomes a recurring visual motif throughout Strangers on a Train, and its manifestations signpost the women who possess such a gaze—whether their stare is obvious or hidden.
To understand why the concept of the female gaze and its symbols are important in Strangers on a Train, it is critical to understand their fundamental challenge to patriarchy. In her book The Women Who Knew Too Much, which considers the work of Hitchcock from a feminist perspective, Tania Modleski references Alice Jardine's ideas when she comments about the male reaction against “women who know not only too much, but anything at all” (13). Jardine states, “Man's response in both private and public to a woman who knows [anything] has most consistently been one of paranoia 1” (qtd. in Modleski 13). While the female gaze is not ostensibly a declaration of secret knowledge, it bears connotations of knowledge gathering, of surveillance for a purpose. Such open surveillance is traditionally accounted to men—"the gaze" of feminist criticism—and the open return of looking on the part of the women implies a distinct crossing of gender boundaries. As Corber puts it, in a patriarchal society women are meant to "be seen rather than to see" (117). The female voyeurs in Hitchcock's films, therefore, represent an intrinsic threat to the patriarchy, because they co-opt a tool traditionally used by men to objectify and control women.
Hitchcock establishes the circular motif of the unhidden female stare most obviously with the glasses he gives to Miriam, Guy's wife; and Barbara, the sister of Guy's love interest, both of whom are blatant in their act of watching. Of the two, Miriam is the most belligerent in her voyeurism and possession of knowledge, which becomes immediately obvious in her first appearance on camera. "You've got a nice tan," she says as she sizes Guy up through thick harlequin glasses, "Playing tennis with all of your rich friends” (Strangers2 ). Here, Miriam references the subtext of their relationship problems with seeming nonchalance; clearly, she has no interest in attempting to improve their marital situation by pretending she is unaware of Guy's political aspirations and new love interest. Miriam also makes no pretense to acting hurt or vulnerable; she knows the nature of the situation, and has no qualms about revealing such knowledge to Guy. It's also obvious that she has been watching Guy's actions closely: "Don't look so mad, Guy," she says coyly, as he begins to realize she intends to follow him to Washington; "You always smile when your picture is being taken for the papers." Since it's clear from their conversation that the two do not meet often, the implication is that Miriam has been surveying the situation from afar, and has been doing so thoroughly. Guy's obvious discomfort and anger, then, are not only from the realization that Miriam will not consent to the divorce, but from the threat of her gaze and the knowledge she has gleaned.
Barbara also wears the round glasses, the symbol of the gaze. While she is far more likable than Miriam, they are alike in the unapologetic way they both observe and comment upon situations. Barbara is forthright in all her dealings, and is not afraid to show her intelligence and mental acuity by a blunt appraisal of any situation, without regard for diplomacy. "That poor, unfortunate girl," says Senator Morton, referring to Miriam's death. "She was a tramp," says Barbara, matter-of-factly. When chastised by the Senator, who states that Miriam had as much right to life and pursuit of happiness as any other human, Barbara dismisses his idealism cooly. "From what I hear," she says, "She pursued it in all directions." She is young and unmarried—she does not yet pose a direct threat to any man—and her frank comments and knowledge of the sexual are therefore regarded with a measure of condescension by the people around her. "One doesn't always have to say what one thinks," Senator Morton says to Barbara, with seemingly equal parts fondness and fatherly exasperation. But Barbara does; her glasses are a bold visual statement of her obvious desire to see and understand the world around her. In this way, she resembles another Hitchcock character: Midge from Vertigo, who, like Barbara, also refuses to temper her frank appraisal of a situation in order to gain sexual prowess or the favor of a man.
However, while Barbara can be forgiven her gaze, it is clear that Miriam cannot. In fact, one critic describes the scene at the carnival as "excusing her murder," because it is shot almost wholly from Bruno's point of view (Corber 115). Indeed, this scene depicts Miriam's voyeurism as so transgressive that even the audience is made to feel uncomfortable. When Miriam realizes she is the object of Bruno's stare, she returns the favor; instead of looking away or removing herself from his gaze, she sensuously savors her ice cream cone and stares back. For the remainder of the sequence leading up to her death, Miriam continues to "[return] the male gaze rather than [submit] to it passively" (115). She is aware of Bruno’s stare and its implications, and appears more than ready to take part in the game he has initiated. She and Bruno therefore play out an intimate duet of looks and counter-looks, and the circular imagery of her glasses becomes more and more pervasive in the surroundings as he goes further into the world of her gaze and the scene builds to a climax. As the chase progresses, Hitchcock highlights the whirling of the merry-go-round, the plump roundness of the little boy's balloon, the incessant turning of the water wheel, and the round opening of the Tunnel of Love. Bruno shows Miriam his strength at the sledgehammer concession as he drives the marker to the very top—a round gong. He breaks the game and conquers its round symbol, just as he will later break Miriam and smash her glasses, the symbol of her overt and knowing stare. Then, as he watches her float off to what will be the site of her death, the turning ferris wheel eerily fills the frame behind him. The visual symbolism employed here by Hitchcock clearly shows the reason that Miriam deserves to die: her unapologetic gaze.
The highly expressionist mise-en-scene of Miriam's murder is the culmination of the circular imagery which Hitchcock has built into the film so far. A POV shot puts the audience inside Bruno's head as Miriam’s face fills the frame and she sees him. "Is your name Miriam?" he asks. "Why yes," she says, pleased. Bruno does not give her the chance to say anything else. As he strangles Miriam, her glasses fall to the ground and break, and the camera cuts to a close-up of the lens, where the rest of the murder is seen in its reflection. After pushing her to the ground, Bruno slowly straightens up, staring straight into the one unbroken lens and filling its round frame with his looming form. Robin Wood describes this scene as being a "sexual culmination for both killer and victim" and calls the lens of Miriam's glasses a "sexual symbol" (90). However, while this imagery can be read as sexual, it arguably has more complex meanings than Wood assigns it. Miriam's glasses are not merely the symbol of sexuality, or even of voyeurism—for, as we will see later, Ann Morton is equally voyeuristic—but of her refusal to hide her voyeurism and secret knowledge from a patriarchal society. Her glasses are the visible representation of her unapologetic gaze, and represent an implied threat to the dominance of the male. The murder scene is significant because it implies the forceful retaliation, the outward expression of Jardine's male "paranoia" (qtd. in Modleski 13). The success of Bruno and the fall of the violated glasses symbolizes the execution of Miriam's gaze; her glasses are now sightless and her death is, in essence, a blinding—the final retribution for a woman who has dared to cross gender boundaries.
But while the glasses are the most obvious representation of the female gaze, there is another telling object present at the site of the murder: Guy's lighter. While the insignia on the lighter seems to have been underemphasized in criticism of the film, it has certainly not been in the film itself; its importance is shown by repeated, fetishistic close-ups throughout, and is foregrounded in the initial dialogue between Bruno and Guy. "Bet I can guess who 'A' is," says Bruno slyly, referring to the lighter's inscription, "Ann Morton." Hitchcock pairs Bruno's statement with a close-up of the lighter itself, revealing the crossed tennis rackets and the insignia "A to G" to the audience for the first time. Later in the film, immediately after Bruno strangles Miriam, a single shot shows the glasses and lighter lying side by side next to the lifeless woman, and then a close-up of the lighter highlights its distinctive design. Hitchcock has obviously gone to great lengths to establish the presence of the lighter and reiterate its distinctive design at the scene of the murder, but why?
The presence of the lighter has often been read as an implication of Guy's guilt in Miriam's death, in conjunction with the Guy/Bruno doppelgänger theme that runs throughout the film3 . The fact that the lighter is a gift from Ann, however, has been largely passed over4 , along with the accompanying insinuations about her involvement in Guy's affairs. However, given its importance to the plot, the lighter's origin is not insignificant. After all, despite the far more flattering depiction of Ann in the film, she is arguably just as guilty as Guy for the murder of Miriam. Since she is presented as the obvious love interest and effortlessly performs the societal graces that Miriam does not have, we like her better and gladly overlook the pertinent fact that she has been carrying on a love affair with a man who is still married. The dialogue on the train indicates that Bruno's instant recognition of Guy and knowledge about his relationship with Ann is largely from gossip in the newspapers. "Sometimes," remarks Bruno,"I turn the sport page and look at the society news. And the pictures. She's very beautiful, Senator Morton's daughter." Ann and Guy's relationship, far from being a normal, socially accepted love relationship, is the stuff of scandal—the daughter of a senator seduced by a well-known, married man. Had not Guy's relationship with Ann landed him so frequently in the gossip column, Bruno would not have been as likely to recognize him on the train. The presence of her gift at the scene of the crime, therefore, is arguably just as much an implication of her guilt as Guy's.
As the film unfolds, it becomes increasingly obvious that Ann herself is far from being the decorative society female she seems on the surface; she is, in her own way, equally as voyeuristic as the other two women. Although she does not possess the brazen, sexually suggestive stare of Miriam, or the honest, frank gaze of Barbara, the camera often watches her carefully watching Guy and the events unfolding around him. Guy and Ann’s first on-camera meeting is captured with a single, high-angle shot which shows them embracing and then moving towards the parlor to meet her father. Although Ann casts down her gaze often while Guy is talking directly to her in this shot, she stares at him intently when he looks away, as if to obtain as much hidden information as possible. Then, at the party given by Senator Morton, we see a prolonged shot of Ann staring. The camera cuts to show what Ann has been staring at: Guy. Then Ann shifts her gaze, and the audience sees that she has seen Bruno, who is also watching Guy. The relay of looks is crystal clear in its implication: they are all playing a game that depends upon the close monitoring of the other players. However, although Ann is constantly watching, she seems able to make her surveillance non-threatening by hiding it in a performance of demure femininity; the men never seem as aware of her gaze as they are of Miriam's and Barbara's—Ann never makes them aware. Still, it is clear to the audience that Ann knows more than she lets on.
Ann's voyeurism and knowledge, and the success with which she hides them, are also clearly symbolized on the lighter she gives to Guy. While, on one level, the insignia seems nothing more than a reference to Guy’s occupation, on another level the side-by-side circles of the crisscrossed tennis racket design eerily echo the imagery of Miriam and Barbara's glasses—the symbol of the female gaze. This symbolism becomes starker in the image of the lighter and glasses lying side by side in the aftermath of Miriam's murder. Here, in one shot, lies the fundamental difference between Ann and Miriam/Barbara and their respective approaches to sexual politics. Ann, it seems, has her own pair of glasses, but she has hidden them. Instead of openly declaring her gaze through the outward implements of seeing, as do Miriam and Barbara, Ann has ensconced the symbol of her voyeurism and secret knowledge in the trappings of Guy's world. While Miriam and Barbara openly go against hegemonic female roles, Ann plays the object to be seen in order to increase her own ability to see. Like Vertigo’s Judy, she must attempt to gain power by portraying something she is not. Therefore, while Miriam and Barbara's overt display of the feminine gaze is a threat to patriarchy, Ann is successful at removing the threat from her knowledge by clothing it in the symbolism of Guy's own success.
The fact that Ann is able to hide the perceived threat of her voyeurism from the men, however, does not make the actual threat any less dangerous. In fact, by choosing to cloak her true knowledge, she is arguably more successful at reclaiming power than are Miriam and Barbara. She disguises her gaze so well that Guy carries her glasses with him wherever he goes, and the lighter which bears her symbolic stare is the proverbial "glue" in the Guy/Bruno power relationship. In essence, since the lighter is connected so closely with the murder, her covert stare is the very tool which dooms Miriam and embroils Guy in a dangerous game which nearly ends in his conviction for murder. And, in the end, whatever Ann's motivations for marrying Guy might be, it is difficult for us to reconcile her coolness and austerity with the prospect of a loving and warm married life. Ann's influence and gaze have already resulted in serious consequences for the lives of those around her, and her skill at performing her role of the society woman keeps Guy utterly unaware of both. While she may play the role of an asset as she decorates Guy's arm at political functions, it is clear that she has assets of her own and the mental acuity to use them. Guy cannot resist a threat that he cannot see, and Ann is remarkably good at disguising hers.
One critic, referring to Miriam’s fallen glasses, draws attention to the "motif of seeing and blindness" which runs throughout the plot of Strangers on a Train (Brill 81), and this conflict certainly seems to be a major driving force in the sexual politics which pervade the plot. As we have seen, Miriam deserves to die not so much because of what she has done, but because of who she is and what she represents: a woman who is unafraid to challenge societal norms. Miriam and Barbara’s glasses are, in essence, a declaration of their refusal to be blind. They will continue to look, and refuse to hide the fact that they have the secret knowledge which, as Modleski comments, typifies the Hitchcock female (13). Their bold gaze and refusal to play the game of sexual politics according to the rules of a patriarchal system incites the male “paranoia” that Jardine notes. Although Barbara’s future is uncertain, the shattered glasses of her double, Miriam, indicate where such a road may lead in a male-dominated society. Ann, on the other hand, finds greater success within the patriarchal system because she is able to use its implements—Guy’s lighter—to her own advantage. She is able to see precisely because she pretends to be blind. In the end, it seems that the success of all three women is not so much dependent upon whether they see—for it is clear that all three do—but whether they are able to keep patriarchy blind to the fact that they can.
1Jardine defines “paranoia” as the reinforcement of sexual boundaries.
2Hereafter, all direct character quotes refer to this film.
3See, for instance, Wood's description of the lighter as Guy's "implicit consent" to Miriam's murder (98).
4Corber does note the origin of the lighter, but turns it into commentary on a homosexual connection between Guy and Bruno. Referring to the lighter's design, Corber states: ". . . [T]he markings can be interpreted to mean that Guy would consider Miriam's murder a token of Bruno's love for him ("Anthony to Guy")". He then posits that "A" stands for "Ann": "By eliminating [Miriam], Bruno would in a sense be giving Ann to Guy ("A to G") as well as making her into a guy" (113). In neither case does he give Ann anything other than a passive role in the situation.
Brill, Lesley. The Hitchcock Romance. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1988.
Corber, Robert J. "Hitchcock's Washington: Spectatorship, Ideology, and the 'Homosexual Menace' in Strangers on a Train." Hitchcock's America. Ed. Jonathan Freedman and Richard Mullington. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. 99-121.
Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Knew Too Much. New York: Methuen, 1988.
Strangers on a Train. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Farley Granger, Robert Walker. Videocassette. Warner Home Video, 1983.
Wood, Robin. Hitchcock's Films Revisited. New York: Columbia UP, 1989.
Writing Center Award
If the intention of the modernist movement was to shock society at the core, then Eugene O'Neill's expressionist play The Emperor Jones, written in 1920, was a bolt of lightning that shook the theatre world at its very foundation. It is well documented that the play was notable for being one of the first American theatre productions to cast black actors, something on which Eugene O'Neill insisted. However, many scholars and critics argue over the meaning of the title black character Brutus Jones and what truth Eugene O'Neill was trying to uncover about race issues. By examining the life of O'Neill, the expressionistic qualities of the play, and the conventions that O'Neill challenged, one can see that O'Neill was using the play as a way to prove that race is only relevant to one's given circumstance. The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neill challenges the 1920's American hegemonic myth of the African American man to argue that race does not determine the content of a person's character, or one's ability to learn.
To look at the overall effect of The Emperor Jones, one must first look at the zeitgeist of the American 1920's. The cultural atmosphere of the 1920's was dominated by a Jim Crow separatist attitude. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920's was “operating as virtually autonomous units” and those units “ranked the dangers [to white supremacy] in some order of priority” (Miller 216). Those “dangers,” as the Klan identified them, were mostly Roman Catholics, Negroes, and Immigrants. However, because white Anglo-Saxon protestant Americans were the dominant hegemonic force of the time, the KKK's goal was to maintain white supremacy by “first, if not foremost . . . keep[ing] the black man in his place” (218). The white supremacists tried to keep African Americans working menial jobs, thus ensuring their substandard class status in comparison to the whites.
The social milieu of the day was also reflected in the American theatre. Sylvan Barnet states that “Among the stock dramatic types of the black man available to O'Neill in 1920, the chief were the Tom (faithful black retainer), the Buffoon (clownish lazy servant), the Bull (villain who wants to rape white women), and the Tragic Mulatto (hovering between two races)” (716). A black man as the main protagonist was not a common character type in the 1920's. Also, “the representation of blackness on the stage was reserved for whites in blackface” (Monks 540). When O'Neill wrote The Emperor Jones “no black person ever played a major role in the American theater in a non-musical production” (Manuel 70). O'Neill took a giant leap when he wrote The Emperor Jones because he challenged the normal stock characters and he introduced America to the capability of an African American man playing a lead role in the American theatre.
O'Neill did not intend for the main role of Brutus Jones to be played by a white man in blackface. In fact, “O'Neill strongly and successfully urged that the role be played by . . . a black actor” (Barnet et al. 716). The charge led by O'Neill to write a script with an African American man at the forefront, and for the role to be played by an African American man, was radically in opposition to the dominant white hegemonic values at the time. By writing a main role for and urging the theatre to cast an African American, O'Neill was attempting to show that race has nothing to do with one's character, or abilities as a person, and race is merely a coincidence of heredity.
One must be extremely careful in making assumptions that Eugene O'Neill was writing The Emperor Jones only in an effort to demonstrate the psyche of an African American. Carme Manuel (an Assistant Professor of English in Spain) falsely concludes that “He [Brutus Jones] does not embody any universal archetype . . . but rather the specific example of the African American at the beginning of the twentieth century” (79). Manuel's assertion is false. As Hubert H. Harrison puts it, “It is aimless to criticize this play because it 'does not elevate the Negro,' since it could have been written about any race anywhere.” The idea that O'Neill is projecting is that race is not a guaranteed marker of someone's capabilities as an individual. In fact, “In 1932, in his belated realization that The Emperor Jones should have been staged in masks, he [Eugene O'Neill] argued that masks could more honestly reflect the state of man's social interactions” (Steen 358). If the play were staged in masks, it would only further the idea that The Emperor Jones “could have been written about any race anywhere.” This evidence proves that O'Neill did not necessarily set out to paint a portrait of African American life, but rather to show that one's race is more of a mask, and one's behavior is what determines the content of his character.
To prove that race does not determine one's character, O'Neill reverses white and black stereotypes. For instance, Brutus Jones is black yet he is a hard working emperor who has learned the native language and is robbing his subjects whereas Smithers (the white man) is not the leader of the island and has not learned to speak the native language (Barnet 716). The color of Brutus Jones's or Henry Smithers's skin does not matter. What matters is their behavior and how hard they have worked to get to their current position. According to Edward L. Shaughnessy, “by the play's end Brutus Jones's blackness has become strangely irrelevant” (151). The behavior of Brutus Jones is what ultimately determines his character. Shaughnessy goes on to question “where had Brutus Jones learned the Darwinian ethic of conquest” (151). As everyone knows, Brutus Jones learned his Emperor qualities from the white business men in the Pullman car where he worked. The fact that Brutus Jones did not learn his deceptive behavior from his blackness but from the white people is another attempt by O'Neill to deconstruct the stereotypes of whites and blacks.
In the 1920's there was no definite consensus on whether African Americans had the capacity for higher learning. According to Raymond Wolters in his book The New Negro on Campus, “Many descendants of the antebellum abolitionists believed that Negro ignorance was not innate” but “Many others, especially in the southern states, believed that Negroes should be given only the rudimentary vocational training that was especially suited to the menial roles accorded to blacks” (3). The idea that race should or may dictate one's capability for higher learning was challenged by O'Neill through Brutus Jones. In the stage directions, Brutus Jones is referred to as having “eyes [that] are alive with a keen, cunning intelligence” (Barnett 719). By O'Neill's simple dictation of Jones's eyes being “keen” and showing “cunning intelligence,” O'Neill is portraying his opinion that an African American man has the capability of accomplishing something more. In that regard, O'Neill has challenged the stereotype of the black man as an individual incapable of higher learning.
As well, O'Neill reverses the white and black stereotype by Brutus's racist treatment of the islanders. Jones refers to the native islanders as “niggers” and “bush niggers” throughout the play. At one point while talking to Smithers, Jones says, “I knows I kin fool 'em—I knows it—and dat's backin' enough fo' my game” (Barnet et al. 721). The idea that a black man is racist against people of his own skin color and looks down upon people of his own skin color because he has the abilities to fool them reverses the stereotype of the black man. In essence, Brutus has taken on the stereotypical white Anglo-Saxon protestant male values. The reversal of stereotypes shows that one's skin color is not the sole determiner of one's actions.
By examining O'Neill's use of expressionism and simultaneously comparing it to the goal of expressionist drama, one can determine that O'Neill was attempting to redeem the African American male from his “otherness” within American culture. According to Carme Manuel, “Expressionist drama searches for a retrieval of human beings to redeem them from the dehumanized state in which industrialism and materialism have plunged them” (73). In The Emperor Jones Brutus plunges into dream-like expressionistic scenes to confront three crimes that he committed, as well as key events from his racial past. By examining Brutus's confrontation with his fears in nightmare dream sequences, one could say that O'Neill makes Brutus a character one should have sympathy for. O'Neill's very act of making Brutus a sympathetic character, and pulling the audience in to feel sorry for Brutus, demonstrates that O'Neill was attempting to “redeem” marginalized and dehumanized African Americans by humanizing Brutus Jones. The Emperor Jones argues that even though a man might be of a different race, he is still human.
The technical aspects of expressionism, as found in O’Neill’s stage directions of The Emperor Jones, demonstrate the inner-workings of Brutus Jones’s mind and allow the audience to be sympathetic towards Brutus. As Virginia Floyd points out in her book The Plays of Eugene O'Neill: A New Assessment, in the scenes where Brutus enters the woods, “the technical devices of expressionism—lighting, setting, sound—are used to project the Emperor's visions, to reveal his state of mind” (205). The darkness of the forest in the stage direction reflects the inner darkness of Brutus's mind. The further Brutus goes into his racial past, the faster and louder the tom-tom beat gets. As Jones moves through the expressionistic scenes of the play, he strips off his clothing until he is left with nothing more than a loin cloth. The more and more Jones is forced to confront his past, the more expressionistic the play gets. O'Neill uses the expressionist techniques in the stage directions to make the audience more sympathetic to the harsh conditions that Brutus and marginalized races in general are subject to.
Eugene O'Neill knew about marginalized races in America, considering he came from an Irish Catholic background, and O'Neill used his background to help argue that a person’s character is more based on the combination of what someone learns and their racial identity, rather than just the racial identity alone. O'Neill's father was an immigrant to the United States. This marked O'Neill as an “other” in the white Anglo-Saxon protestant society, just like African Americans. According to Shannon Steen, a scholar of O'Neill focusing on O'Neill's cross-dressing of racial identities, “For O’Neill, . . . the black body becomes a site on which the sense of alienation characteristic of modern experience is projected” (347). Brutus Jones's “otherness” can be seen as a reflection of the “otherness” that O'Neill experienced in his life. However, Jones and O'Neill differ. According to Steen:
The Emperor Jones articulates a critique of the marginalized position of both black and Irish as well. Brutus Jones's real tragedy is the liminal social position he inhabits—too black to succeed in America and too white (in terms of his oppressive policies as Emperor) to sustain his regime on the island, he is forced to confront the phantasmatic oppression of both cultures in the forest of his formless fears. Ironically, O'Neill exploited this protean quality of Irish racial identity as a vehicle for his own success. (356)
By O'Neill having the experience of being an “other,” he had some idea of what it meant to be labeled solely by race, rather than by individual merit. Through O'Neill portraying Jones as “too black to succeed in America and too white . . . to sustain his regime,” O'Neill paints a sympathetic picture of a marginalized other, of which he had firsthand experience. O'Neill's own life experience allowed him to show that one's abilities are not determined by one's race.
Overall, Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones shook American culture by humanizing a black man and then by proving that behavior is learned and not determined by one's racial background. Although the idea that behavior is not determined by race is contradicted in Jones's descent into his racial past, it is not Jones's blackness that decides his behavior. Jones's chosen behavior ultimately decides his fate, but at the same time O'Neill is redeeming the African American man by humanizing him and showing that race does not determine who Brutus Jones really is. By challenging the American hegemonic myth of the black man in the 1920's, O'Neill was able to create a work of art that argues the way a man chooses to behave ultimately decides his fate. Therefore, O'Neill was attempting to show that a person's overall character is defined by both race and the way he or she chooses to behave, but race is not the sole determiner of one's behavior or individual merit.
Barnet, Sylvan., William Burto, Lesley Ferris, and Gerald Rubkin. Types of Drama: Plays and Context. New York: Longman, 2001.
Floyd, Virginia. “The Emperor Jones.” The Plays of Eugene O'Neill. New York: Ungar, 1985. 202-10.
Harrison, Hubert H. “The Emperor Jones” Negro World (1921).
Manuel, Carme. “A Ghost in the Expressionist Jungle of O'Neill's The Emperor Jones.” African American Review. 39 (2005): 67-81.
Miller, Robert Moats. “The Ku Klux Klan.” Change and Continuity in Twentieth Century America: The 1920's. John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody, eds. Ohio State UP, 1968. 215-55.
Monks, Aoife. “'Genuine Negroes and Real Bloodhounds': Cross-Dressing, Eugene O'Neill, the Wooster Group, and The Emperor Jones”. Modern Drama. 48.3 (2005): 540-60.
Shaughnessy, Edward L. “O'Neill's African and Irish—Americans: Stereotypes or ‘Faithful Realism’?” The Cambridge Companion To Eugene O'Neill. Ed. Michael Manheim.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1998. 148-63.
Steen, Shannon. “Melancholy Bodies: Racial Subjectivity and Whiteness in O'Neill's The Emperor Jones.” Theatre Journal. 52 (2000): 339-59.
Wolters, Raymond. The New Negro on Campus. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1975.
“To ――” by Percy Bysshe Shelley expresses the speaker’s intense feelings for an unknown object of affection. The object of the speaker’s affection may be a woman and the poem is describing the actions between them. The object may be the speaker’s country, England, which he strongly believes in. This poem may also be taken literally and is about nature and its natural course. In each interpretation it is clear that the love and pride that the speaker feels will not end in death but is carried on in memory.
In the first sentence, “Music, when soft voices die, / Vibrates in the memory” (1-2), the speaker proposes that even after music has ceased the sound of music can be recreated and continue by the recollection of the retained mental impression of the original experience. The word “music” can describe vocal or instrumental sounds that create a type of melody or rhythm. This particular music is composed of soft voices. A voice may be any type of vocal sound, utterance, or expression (OED). The music the speaker is describing may be the music of war or a battle cry. The voices that create the music are numerous and may be the voices of soldiers. The voices, being described specifically as “soft,” give the impression of weak or dying people. It is after these soldiers die that their music, their battle cry, their cause continues vibrating in the memory of others.
When music “vibrates” in memory, it may literally resound and be heard inside the mind or, alternatively, it may circulate in the mind and be retained in the subconscious to be remembered and replayed another time (OED). This may indicate that the cause the soldiers are fighting for will be remembered long after the battle has ended. In order for the music to become a memory, the voices that create the music must “die.” To die implies a permanent ending to the voices rather than them simply silencing momentarily. The music itself lives on in the senses while the voices succumb. The soldiers must die for the vibrations to leave a lasting legacy.
Alternatively, “music” can mean pleasure, amusement, or something gratifying (OED). Imposing this definition on the first sentence, “Music, when soft voices die, / Vibrates in the memory” (1-2), it is possible that the speaker is writing about sexual intercourse with a lover. The “soft voices” that die would be the voices of the lovers. The word “soft” means “characterized by ease and quiet enjoyment” (OED). This could possibly indicate the climax of the speaker’s lover. The voice dying would be an indication of the climax ending. “Vibration” means to shake, quiver, tremble, or a reciprocating motion of up and down (OED). The vibrations in the memory may be vibrations in the body that are a result of climaxing. The resulting feelings of these vibrations are what continue after the literal vibrations have ceased.
The second sentence, “Odours, when sweet violets sicken, / Live within the sense they quicken” (3-4), appears to involve the sense of smell. The violets being “sweet” are enjoyable, easily managed, and beloved. The odor of sickening violets exhilarates the sense and, at the same time, the scent is something that lingers in the memory. As with the sound of the music, the odor of the violets can be recalled even when no violets are present, as is indicated by “live.” The violets have become “sicken[ed]” or ill in some way, also indicating that they are or will become dead. The first and second sentences are similar in meaning, both representing sensual memory and ultimately an ending.
As with the music, the violets could be referencing the speaker’s lover. By referring to the violets as “sweet,” it implies that they were not tainted or corrupt before they became sickened (OED). The lover may have been a virgin who was deflowered and corrupted by the speaker. It is also possible that the lover was a mistress and the act was an affair. Any way it may be interpreted, the act of the speaker having sexual intercourse with his lover is not pure or divine.
The violet may also symbolize something much more than a lover. During the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of France, though he was eventually defeated at Waterloo. Supposedly, Napoleon appreciated violets very much. He would often give them to his wife. When he died, he had a locket of violets around his neck that were picked from the location of his wife’s grave, which was covered in violets. Napoleon was given the name Le Pere Violet which means “the little flower that returns with spring.” France, at that time, used the violet as their emblem (D’Cruz). The violet may symbolize Napoleon or France. The state of France at the time would be sickened. The word “sicken” can mean to “revolt or experience revulsion at something” (OED). Put together, sickening violets could represent the revolt in France that “quickened” or enlivened the people of the country. The “odours” could represent the consequences of the French Revolution that would not be soon forgotten.
In the second stanza, fallen leaves become a resting place for a rose after its death. The second quatrain begins: “Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, / Are heaped for the beloved’s bed” (5-6). The leaves of a rose usually wither and die before the petals of the rose. The rose leaves being “heaped” imply that they are built up around the base of the rose. A traditional burial would be underground. The rose was, in a sense, buried alive. The leaves fall and create a bed or monument for the rose itself. Even after the rose is dead, it leaves behind a legacy, a memory with the heaped rose petals. Alternately, the “bed” could symbolize a place of conjugal union for the speaker and his lover.
The rose, a flower that is representative of many things, has long been a symbol of England. The rose itself may directly represent England or the entire war. The rose leaves may represent the battles that were being fought over many years during the French Revolution. Each battle was a leaf and all of the battles over time gradually formed a heap. That heap represents all that the Revolution stood for and all that England was fighting for in each battle. In the end, all of the consequences both good and bad were heaped and England rested in the grave it made. The rose being dead though may represent the end of the war but not necessarily the end of England.
The final lines, “And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, / Love itself shall slumber on” (7-8), imply that the speaker’s thoughts, like the music and the odor, will survive after death. Love is an emotional feeling that will stay with the speaker long after the act of sexual intercourse with his lover. The speaker may also be implying that his lover will physically slumber on top of him after the act of sexual intercourse is finished. Additionally, carrying over the idea of the rose representing England or the war, it would imply that the speaker is giving his thoughts on the state of the country once the war has gone. Love, meaning appreciation for one’s country will slumber on in the mind of the speaker or, if the poem is addressing an entire group of people affected by the revolution, it will live on in the social and political advances made.
The speaker stresses that there is an end or death to everything, both in nature and in life. The music, violets, rose, and the speaker’s lover all die, sicken, or end. There is no question as to if it will end but at what moment each will come to an end. Each sentence uses the word “when,” which indicates a definite, unchangeable end. With every end there seems to be a new beginning as a memory to the speaker. Each ending leaves a lesson or has a consequence that is more apparent in death or memory than it was in life. Each ending represents a new stage in the speaker’s relationship. Each end also represents a turn in the political or social atmosphere of either France or England. The end always brings a new beginning.
D’Cruz, Pinkie. “Meanings and
Flowers.” 16 Jan. 2008
Oxford English Dictionary Online. 2006.
University Library, Lima, Ohio. 16 Jan.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “To ―― [Music, when soft voices die].” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, et al. Vol D. New York: Norton, 2006.820.
There is an aspect of the horrifying morning of September 11, 2001, that has been the object of some controversy. Many people jumped from the two World Trade Center towers before these buildings disintegrated into a mountain of rubble. Were these jumpers conscious and alert, determined to take charge of their fates, or were they filled with immeasurable desperation and overcome by fear, hastily grabbing the first opportunity for escape? The first view sublimates the victims, preserving their human dignity, supporting their decision to maintain some control of their lives. The second, an abject view, reduces them to powerless objects controlled by the situation, stripped of their humanity.
In his novel of 9/11 Windows on the World, Frederic Beigbeder offers a description of each of the views. For the sublime view he describes jumpers as “rational people” (148) who thought the circumstances through and made an informed decision: “They chose the swan dive, the vertical farewell” (148; emphasis mine). “One last manifestation of dignity: they will have chosen their end rather than waiting resignedly” (148; emphasis mine). However, he then does a turnabout and supports the abject perspective by stating that the only possible reason for someone to jump out of a building is because “everything else is impossible” (149). “Jumpers are people who have been pushed to the limits. They no longer have any sense of danger” (149; emphasis mine). He describes them as “hunted animals” (149) eager to take any way out, oblivious to the consequences. As with Windows on the World, one or both of these views of the jumpers are integrated into a number of works on 9/11, including novels, poetry, and documentaries.
The author of Out of the Blue dedicates the first chapter of the book to describing those that jumped, mostly from the North tower. In this book, the reader is bombarded with graphic and shocking details of these deaths. Richard Bernstein gives mixed signals as to his feelings regarding the victims. In an example of the sublime view, he urges the readers to put themselves in the victims’ places, to truly think about what they may have been seeing, thinking, and feeling with a series of rhetorical questions: “Did they see their lives pass before them, or think of their loved ones, whom they had kissed good-bye an hour or two before in what seemed like the start of just another day?” (Bernstein 4). As you read the details of what happened that day it is effortless to feel their pain, feel their fears, and think their thoughts, identifying with them, honoring their courage during those last moments.
However, I believe most of the author’s feelings surrounding those that jumped conforms to the abject view: “The forms, sometimes not much more than specks against the gleam of the skyscraper, tumbled downward almost undistinguishable from the chunks of debris, the airplane parts, the vapors of flaming aviation fuel that filled the air like fireworks” (Bernstein 1; emphasis mine). This portrayal, comparing people of flesh and blood to lifeless, inanimate objects, lacks the empathetic tone that most would feel is integral in describing such a scene. He also strips away the possibility of them choosing to jump by referring to it as a “desperate suicidal leap,” a last ditch, unconscious attempt to get out any way they could (4; emphasis mine).
In the beginning of the poem “South Tower, 96th Floor, Corner Office” John F. Sharp is portraying the victim who is trying to hold on to his dignity. He does not want to surrender his power to the “hatred” of that day (Sharp): “Soon the flames will touch me, push me to lean farther” (Sharp; emphasis mine). He is fighting for the strength to be able to choose his own fate. John F. Sharp acknowledges the threat of abjection hovering over the souls of those that jumped, yet wants to shed light on the possibility that not all of them were merely pawns in evil hands that day. There was a combination of desperation and courage enveloping them. Some could have given up and let fear immobilize them; some saw the chance to take control of their last moments and refused to let terror define their departure. Supporting the sublime view, Sharp describes the difference between choosing to fly and giving up and falling helplessly. He writes:
Flying is freedom;
freedom is choice.
The hatred behind me
soon will force choosing.
I hope I have the courage
to choose to fly.
The author of “Who Were You?” sharply defines the sublime view of the various couples who jumped together from the towers. The reader will unconsciously ask himself, “Whom would I have leapt hand-in-hand into the next realm with?” Everyone feels stronger and braver next to someone they love. There were a select few that were fortunate enough to have that support. They were not scrambling frantically, thinking only of themselves and the way out. They were not delusional, hoping for a miracle. They were lucid and their actions were their last chance to seal their bond for all eternity. Elizabeth Turner writes:
Trusting each other
Facing life together
One last time?
As another example of people stealing their destiny back from the evil in the world, they found solace and comfort in their last moments, not dying alone:
One thought in your frightened eyes
Reaching out - touching,
As your last human act.
Can people lose all sense of rationality in an extremely traumatic, life-threatening situation? Sure, it happens quite frequently. However, I’m not sure that the thought of falling 110 stories could possibly look like an appealing option. That is, of course, unless you’ve weighed your choices and decided to take some of your power back and lessen your suffering. I believe in the strength of the human spirit. I believe those people, faced with the certainty of death, did not want their lives to end slowly in an agonizing inferno. They rationally accepted their fates and took control in one liberating leap. I agree with Sharp when he writes, “Flying is freedom.” The people who weren’t thinking rationally were the ones who allowed themselves to remain helpless, imprisoned in the building, just waiting to die. The ones who jumped were not cowards or people who had lost their senses; they were just another example of the many people whose courage shone through the fear that day.
William Wordsworth’s “Surprised by joy” is a very sorrowful poem battling through the stages of grief. Though composed four years after her death, Wordsworth credits his deceased, four-year old daughter, Catherine Wordsworth, with the idea of this poem. The context of the poem is a speaker who has forgotten a deceased loved. Forgetting that his loved one is dead even for a moment causes a pain equal to the day the person had passed.
Wordsworth opens his poem with the line “Surprised by joy” (1), which has now also become the poem’s title. During the time which this poem was composed the word “surprise” was known as an unexpected attack, often affiliated with war. “Joy,” even in 1815, was still an intense emotion of pleasure, or ecstasy. So the fact that the speaker is attacked or even ambushed by this feeling of gladness is odd and seemingly uncommon because this means that the speaker was not expecting to feel happy, as if it had been a while since he had felt this way. The speaker has been sulking for some time.
The poem continues with a strong simile that is also somewhat metaphoric: “impatient as the Wind / I turned to share the transport” (1-2). Obviously the speaker is comparing his turning around with the impatience of the wind. This is important because this is actually a very detailed description. This narration is telling the reader that this wind is harsh; blowing fast and hard, it’s not comforting. There is a special emphasis on “Wind”: by capitalizing “Wind” Wordsworth is personifying the wind and equalizing it with God. So though the simile is comparing “impatient” to “Wind,” “Wind” is also a metaphor for God. “Wind” is a strong force from nature and nature is the closest to God. This then brings a new perspective to these literary devices because the speaker is also saying that God is impatient. God has taken a loved one from the speaker before the speaker was ready for this person to leave, so there is a definite implication that God was acting hastily in taking this person’s life too soon.
“Share” has a vast variety of meanings. There is “to share” as to allow another to partake (in a transport for example). “Share” can also refer to the groin area. However “share” is also defined as the iron blades on a plough that cut through dirt (www.oed.com). A valid argument could be made that the persona only wanted to also be able to partake in this transport, but this interpretation cannot be supported throughout the entire poem. Though there is likely some ambiguity in this word, the best fitting is that the persona is referring to the iron blades of a plow. A transport is not only a fit of joy but also a conveyance. The “surprise” of “joy” not only brought the speaker to a new place mentally, but this joy also overcame him by cutting through his sorrow, which is what took him to this new position of ecstasy. This newfound joy overcame him and cut through his sorrows from his past. Also, with the word “transport” there is also a play on words. Wordsworth uses the word “wind” to compare how the speaker turned to share in this transport. But items can be transported by or in the wind. Litter, debris, leaves, weather, and even emotions come and go with the wind. So there is a definite pun when the speaker uses the words “wind” and “transport” in the same sentence.
After the word “transport” the sentence is broken with a dash. The dash shows the speaker’s break in his train of thought. The sentence continues with “Oh! With whom / But thee, deep buried in the silent tomb, / That spot which no vicissitude can find?” (2-4). The first part of this the speaker is expressing his feelings for this dead person, how the speaker wishes to share the transport with his lost loved one. The speaker is still full of sorrow, unable to forget this lost loved one. The line continues with “deep buried” as opposed to “buried deep” which, at least in present day times, would be more normal to say. This odd word choice creates emphasis on this pair of words. It is obvious that the speaker’s dialog is concerning a dead person’s grave; however, “deep” has a vast number of meanings which include extending far downward, and also hard to comprehend. To bury someone is to place them in their grave, which is where this dead person is. In a literal sense the grave site obviously extends far downward in the ground; however, this is also hard for the speaker to understand. The speaker knows that this person is dead as well as far away in the grave; this is what brings the speaker this lament, but what is difficult for the speaker to understand is why the person is dead and gone. The speaker says “deep buried” instead of “buried deep” not only to place an emphasis on how far away this lost loved one is now, but also to display his sorrow and confusion with the whole matter.
Line three ends with “the silent tomb” (3). The speaker is referring back to the dead person that he wishes to share this transport with. It is quite clear that tombs are silent. A tomb cannot speak nor can the dead which occupy tombs. This is to stress the fact that this person that the speaker misses is dead and gone, thus is therefore silent. However, this line also personifies the tomb. It is almost saying that the tomb could speak; however it chooses to remain silent. This first sentence ends: “that spot which no vicissitude can find?” (4). The silence of the tomb is what is keeping vicissitude from locating the tomb and the person who lies inside it. Vicissitude is a change or mutability, simply put, but also vicissitude by mere circumstance would never be able to find the tomb. The tomb cannot change because death is permanent. The tomb is silent because tombs do not speak, nor do the dead who lie inside of them. When the speaker says that no vicissitude can find this silent tomb, the speaker is merely coming to terms with the death. Nothing can change it or take it back, not even sulking in sorrow for the dead person. There is no undoing it. This is also what contributes to the speaker’s above mentioned confusion. Life is full of changes and inconsistencies. In fact, the only thing that does not change in life is change itself.
Line five begins the next sentence: “Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind- / But how could I forget thee?” (5-6). Here the speaker says that love “recalled” the dead person to his mind; “recalled” is in the past tense meaning that at some point in time he had forgotten this person. There is repetition with the word “love” not only for emphasis but also as a clarification or definition. It wasn’t just any kind of love, it was a faithful love. It is a love that is consistent, pure, and full of faith. But again, a dash separates the sentence because the speaker is confused and feeling a little guilty. Though it was a “faithful love” that triggered the speaker’s memory, the speaker still questions how he could have ever forgotten this dead person to begin with. Here is where the speaker begins to embrace the joy which had earlier surprised him.
The third sentence continues with this internal conflict: “Through what power, / Even for the least division of an hour, / Have I been so beguiled as to be blind / to my most grievous loss!” (6-9). The speaker questions what power, be it person or thing, had come over him. He was beguiled; he was deceived or tricked into forgetting his loved one and being happy even for a mere moment. His forgetting was not his fault is what the speaker in testifying to. By using the word “power” there is an implication that his forgetting was out of his control, so out of his control that he cannot even identify what or who this power was. This implication also continues with the word “blind.” Blind is not just being sightless. More specifically blind is anything that obstructs light as well. The speaker is implying that this power was so great that it had barricaded his sight and what he was doing; he did not mean to be joyful or to forget his loved one. This power blocked this suppressed memory of this dead person and the speaker’s ability to realize how deep a loss it was, even for the slightest moment. In line eight Wordsworth uses an alliteration of the letter “b.” This creates emphasis on “beguiled” and “blind” and the relationship between the two. The speaker is taking the blame of forgetting off of himself for his sadness and his forgetting the person in the tomb.
The dash in line nine commences the last sentence of the poem, which is the most significant and most difficult to understand. Wordsworth chooses powerful words to explain in detail the speaker’s pain of forgetting his loved one. Because the speaker forgets even for the slightest moment, he was then forced to come to terms again with the fact that this person has passed. Other than hearing of this person dying, this was the worst pain the speaker had ever felt, realizing that this person was never coming back. The speaker describes the pain as “the worst pang that sorrow ever bore” (10). A “pang” is a pain so sharp that it is almost a spasm. But to fully understand this line it is important to identify which definition of “bore” the speaker means to use. “Bore” can mean not interested (bored to tears, for example) but this is a more modern definition, because since this is a pain that sorrow had bore the most appropriate definition would be a hole made by boring, or to pierce or penetrate through (www.oed.com). This is the very worst pain that mourning had ever augured into any person. He is saying that the pain of that memory was not just merely painful, but that it was the very worst, nearly paralyzing pain that sorrow could have ever bestowed upon him. This was not just emotional: the pain became physical and pierced through him. The speaker finally sees that neither now nor in the future will he ever see this dead person’s face more than in memories.
Lines ten and eleven continue to say, “Save one, only one, when I stood forlorn / Knowing my heart’s best treasure was no more” (10-11). The speaker is requesting that he can keep (at least) one memory as he stands in the midst of this situation realizing that this person he loves is dead and will not return. He continues with his revelation into lines thirteen and fourteen, “That neither present time, nor years unborn / Could to my sight that heavenly face restore” (13-14). The speaker is accepting the fact that not nothing can bring this person back to the speaker. The speaker will never be able to see his loved one’s face in person again, only in memory.
At a first glance of William Wordsworth’s “Surprised by joy” a reader may see a connection between God and Christ, and the speaker. In line one, “joy” is part of the trinity of faith (hope, joy and faith) and as above mentioned, by capitalizing “Wind” there is a direct connection as well as a personification of God. Of course “tomb” (3) refers to Jesus in the tomb and “faithful” (5) also refers back to Jesus. The questioning of power in line six is a reflection of God’s power. “Bore” (10) refers back to wounds inflicted on Christ during the crucifixion; nails were bored through his wrists and feet; a spear was pierced through his side. “Save” (11) reflects a person’s state of spiritual welfare as does “forlorn” (11). “Sight” (14) refers again to Jesus healing the blind and enabling them to see again; “blind” can also refer to being blind to Christianity (to Christ and his existence.) “Heavenly” (14) obviously is a reverence to heaven. Though an argument could justifiably be made that Wordsworth’s poem is a person’s quest to discover God and Christianity, there are many holes in this idea. Of course the above evidentiary words were chosen by Wordsworth on purpose so there is a degree of ambiguity. Though there is a measure of finding God in this poem, the larger, more thorough idea is that there is a combination of not only is the speaker discovering God, but he is also battling through various stages of grief.
Deaths are sad and often times traumatic for the survivors left behind. William Wordsworth’s “Surprised by joy” is a poem written on one man’s battle through his stages of grief. Though it is not entirely clear, Wordsworth was perhaps writing on his own experiences with grief. Though composed four years after her death, Wordsworth credits his deceased, four-year old daughter, Catherine Wordsworth, with the idea of this poem. | <urn:uuid:5a6e2b86-3b8d-4bb6-8eda-e853d5ee8ea3> | {
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Definitions for place down
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word place down
set down, put down, place down(verb)
cause to sit or seat or be in a settled position or place
"set down your bags here"
Find a translation for the place down definition in other languages:
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"Old Mother Hubbard" is an English nursery rhyme, first printed in 1805. Although it was one of the most popular publications of the nineteenth century, little is known about its origins.
- The rhyme was used as the basis for an episode of Mother Goose Stories.
- Old Mother Hubbard appeared in a 1970's "Sesame Street News Flash" where she was played by Jerry Nelson. Instead of getting a bone, she brings her dog, Lamont, items that rhyme with "bone." This includes a heavy stone and a throne, both of which drop from her hands and fall through the floor of her cottage. Reporter Kermit informs her of her mistakes, but she still doesn't catch on and brings Lamont a telephone. She even suggests a tone. In the end, Lamont uses the phone to order take-out from a Chinese restaurant.
- In a later Sesame Street appearance, Old Mother Hubbard (performed here by Louise Gold) is visited by Colambo to investigate a missing bone for her dog, Bootsie.
- In a 1993 episode of Sesame Street, Maria explains to Telly that radio is not the same as television because it has no picture. The two aren't much different to the blind girl, who can't see, but can only hear. Maria and Telly Monster tune in to WUFF to listen to today's broadcast of "Puppy Dog Tales," which features the story of Old Mother Hubbard. As Terry Terrier narrates, Telly uses his imagination to picture the story, and soon becomes hungry for a box of Fido's Favorites (the program's sponsor).
- The Sesame Street Library Volume 8 features the rhyme.
- Old Mother Hubbard finds a rhinoceros in the cupboard in The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 11 story "Big Bird's Ridiculous Rhinoceros Rhymes." | <urn:uuid:22eaa3d9-03da-41da-b7b6-ff1f60195bb4> | {
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John Hamilton Moore published this epitome of navigation for a number of years, with the eleventh edition in 1795. He particularly provided instruction for solving lunar distances. Nathaniel Bowditch found many errors in his work, and, after working for Moore to correct errors, published his own New American Practical Navigator, with improvements in the solving of lunar distances.
The first English treatise on navigation was a translation of Spaniard Martín Cortés de Albacar's Arte de Navegar, in 1561. William Bourne revised and added to it with his 1574 Regiment for the Sea, writing explicitly for the seafarers who were his neighbors in Gravesend. The book went through at least 11 English and three Dutch editions.
This sextant was owned by Frederick L. Waterhouse. Frederick was born in Searsport in 1841; his four brothers all became ship captains, but he only became a mate. After his service in the Civil War, he settled in Montville, Maine, never becoming a sea captain. His initials are inlaid into the cover of the sextant box, something he could well have done, a not uncommon practice amongst ship officers.
This replica of a nocturnal was made by a craftsman in Massachusetts. The nocturnal is used to tell the local time at night. When dials are set for the date, one index arm is lined up with the pointer stars in either Ursa Major or Ursa Minor and the other directly towards the zenith. The time can then be read off the dials. These instruments were used in the 17th century and 18th centuries, in an era where portable watches were too expensive for mariners.
These recognition views of Mount Desert and other places along Maine's coast help navigators determine their location. These are from The English Pilot, Fourth Book, published in 1767. Online via Boston Public Library.
The parallel rules are used to plot courses, bearings, and celestial lines of position. By “walking” the rules across the chart, the navigator transfers the desired angle from the compass rose on the chart to the part of the chart where the ship is, or vice versa. A pair of triangles can do the same thing, while course plotters are designed to minimize effort in laying out angles.
This diagram shows important tools of the navigator for dead reckoning and piloting, including the lead line, chip log, a mechanical log, and a compass. For communications, speaking tubes are shown on the left. This illustration is from H. Paasch's Illustrated Marine Encyclopedia, 1890, Plate 98. For a 17th century navigator only the mechanical log would have been new.
Triangles provide a simple and inexpensive alternative to the parallel rule for transferring a bearing or course from the compass rose to the ship’s position on a chart. These triangles are made of wood.
The Gulf of Maine is shown in this part of a much larger chart, Gulf and River St. Lawrence, including the Coast from Breton Island to Cape Cod and the Island & Banks of Newfoundland. The chart was published by the well-known chart maker James Imray of London in 1853. By today's standards these charts have nowhere near the detail that we are accustomed to on our harbor and near coast charts, but they did serve to plan voyages and plot positions of the ship at sea. | <urn:uuid:25832c47-f076-49a6-8c7f-399e80ab4065> | {
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For those of us who have repented and believed the gospel, we have known the war was raging. We are taught from Scripture that this invisible war is always being waged against us, every day. Paul tells us that this is a war that is spiritual and is to be spiritually waged (II Cor. 10:1-5); our enemy will rage against us, but he will lose. He is raging in Delaware.
In a recent statement, Delaware Governor Jack Markell announced that February 12—Darwin’s birthday—will be recognized this year as “Charles Darwin Day” in his state. Markell stated that “Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is the foundation of modern biology, an essential tool in understanding the development of life on earth.”
The announcement points out something that Christians need to keep in the forefront of their minds. Humanism wants to appear unreligious. Secular humanists want to appear as if they do not have religious convictions. They want to say that since they do not worship a deity, they have no religious conviction. But here is a perfect example that this is not at all true.
Humanists want to have holidays. What is a holiday? It is a day that you set aside as holy, hence the name, “holi-day,” or holy-day. And here it is, the humanist holiday: “Charles Darwin Day.” This day is organized by the American Humanist Association (AHA).
Their website says.
“The mission of International Darwin Day is to inspire people throughout the globe to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth as embodied in Charles Darwin,”
This statement would be funny if it were not so false. As Darwin’s “theory” has been the main contributor to intellectual bigotry in academia over the last half of the twentieth-century. People, even fellow humanists, who question the theory’s validity are cast out. These actions stifle the very things that these humanist claims to be promoting with this holy-day.
We also have to recognize the effects that Darwin’s theory has had on society. Brian Thomas, Science Writer for the Institute for Creation Research, told Christian News Network:
“We know from World War II that Darwinistic elitism can be used to justify slaughtering millions of lives,”
We have to recognize that this is no slight thing. Not only was the Holocaust the logical progression of “Darwinistic elitism,” but over 200 Million deaths in the 20th Century alone can be linked to evolutionist thinking. It is based on survival of the fittest. If this is your philosophy of the world, you have no reason to sustain or protect life.
The issue is that if human life is not made in the image of God, then there is no good reason not to eliminate the human life that will not produce what we want. That means, as with the Jews in Germany, the capitalists in Laos, or the unproductive generals and uncooperative Ukrainian farms in the USSR, they can be killed.
Have you not heard of George Bernard Shaw. He wanted all unproductive people killed. As a famous eugenics proponent, he would have fit right in with Hitler. But don’t be fooled, eugenics is joyfully practiced every day in America. Shaw would have been happy to see the infanticide of American abortion clinics.
But I will let George speak for himself: | <urn:uuid:8eb03c85-ddb5-46bb-a7ba-89e29119a00c> | {
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Curry Leaf – A Surprising Member Of The Citrus Family
The curry leaf is a member of the Rutaceae family also known as the citrus family. The leaf does not taste like curry but gets its name from the fact that it is used in creating curry dishes, and the leaf is used in the creation of curry powders. The scent is a delightful citrus scent somewhat like that of lemongrass, tangerine or anise, and a pungent flavor.
The trees are native to India and Sri Lanka.
Since these trees mainly grow in tropical areas free of frost their history has mainly been confined to the foot hills of the Himalayas and in Southern India as well as Sri Lanka.
The fresh frozen leaves are best for purchase in Indian groceries and although the dried variety can be found, their potency is reduced. Fresh leaves should be stored in a plastic bag, and can be stored in the freezer for up to two months.
The leaves should remain on the branches until needed and can be stored for up to two weeks this way.
These leaves are used to flavor Madras style curries and other Indian curries. The leaves are also used to flavor marinades for seafood and to make pickles. They are also great for flavoring samosas.
For additional information about curry leaf click on the link to Wikipedia.org
For some great sections on herbs and spices some great references are:
• The Spice and Herb Bible – Second Edition by Ian Hemphill with recipes by Kate Hemphill
• The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques L. Rolland and Carol Sherman with other contributors
• Field Guide to Herbs & Spices by Aliza Green
Herbs and Spices
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A large percent of Lyme and tick borne infected persons are asymptomatic. What percent? That's the 64 thousand dollar question. No one knows. I have seen many patients whose underlying Lyme disease has been suddenly activated; it has frequently been associated with an unrelated infectious disease. I would like to briefly discus three such cases.
An otherwise well woman is given Cipro for a urinary tract infection. Her right knee "blows up" (becomes very swollen with effusion) and becomes very painful. It turns out that the acute arthritis of her knee is due to Lyme disease. Here is my theory: Cipro and related drugs are associated with joint and tendon injury. Perhaps this occurs in patients with underlying, asymptomatic Lyme infection. the person may have Borellia, Lyme bacteria, colonizing the lining of the joint or the tendon sheath involved. The rapid killing of the organisms causes a marked inflammatory response. On could view this as a localized Herxheimer reaction. In this case Lyme arthritis developed only after Cipro was given for an unrelated urinary tract infection.
A teenage girl is diagnosed with acute mono(mononucleosis). She has a fever, sore throat, swollen glands and fatigue. Her exam shows a red throat with exudate(white coating of tonsils) and swollen glands in a typical mono pattern. Her laboratory tests showed a positive mono spot test and atypical lymphocytes on the CBC. The diagnosis of mono was very straightforward. This young woman who had enjoyed good health did not improve in the expected time frame. She developed persistent fatigue, progressive joint and muscle pain, numbness and tingling and brain fog. Further lab testing showed that she had chronic Lyme infection. The patient improved when Lyme disease was treated. Comment: the opposite situation is frequently seen. Patients with Lyme are observed to have high antibody titers of EBV and CMV, viruses associated with mono. Perhaps Lyme related immune suppression allows these chronic viruses to activate and contribute to the overall syndrome.
The last case involves a patient I saw last week. This is the most intriguing case. A 47 year old man is in good health. He has an elevated PSA (prostate specific antibody) test found during a routine physical. A urologist performs a biopsy. After this the patient develops an acute febrile illness. He is admitted to the local hospital for sepsis (blood infection) with E. coli, a colon germ associated with urinary tract infections. By chance, he is treated with IV Rocephin. Instead of improving he gets worse. He develops persistent relapsing fevers, headaches, joint pains, muscle pains, neck pain, brain fog and episodes of confusion. He is referred to me because of the unexplained headaches. His blood smear shows numerous spirochetes in the blood stream. His PCR tests are positive for both Lyme and Babesia. In this case, pre-existent, asymptomatic tick borne disease, is activated and becomes both acute and severe in the presence of Rocephin prescribed for an unrelated E.coli infection. Perhaps the old proverb "let sleeping dogs lie" is relevant here. This patient was unaware of tick borne illness and then became very symptomatic when a roaring Herx was unleashed by antibiotics given for an unrelated infection. This is a current, active case. | <urn:uuid:eafed53f-c2fa-452b-bae2-51bd24b4964a> | {
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New Delhi: Indian scientists have developed an affordable vaccine that has shown strong efficacy in preventing rotavirus diarrhoea, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea that kills over 100,000 children annually.
The vaccine 'Rotovac' is the outcome of public-private partnership between the Indian government's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and pharma company Bharat Biotech.
Once licensed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the vaccine will cost around Rs.54 per dose compared to the currently available vaccine which costs Rs.2,250 per dose. Each child needs to take three doses as part of vaccination.
"This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year and rotavirus vaccine can save 60,000 deaths," said DBT Secretary K. Vijay Raghavan.
"The clinical results indicate that the vaccine, if licensed, could save the lives of thousands of Indian children who get rotavirus diarrhoea every year," he said.
As part of clinical trials, 7,000 infants from low income families in Delhi, Pune and Vellore were administered the vaccine.
"The clinical trials show that the vaccine is efficacious in reducing severe rotavirus diarrhoea by 56 percent during the first year of life, with protection continuing into the second year of life while it reduces the deaths by over 75 percent," said M.K. Bhan, former DBT secretary and currently advisor to the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.
The vaccine originated from an attenuated (weakened) strain of rotavirus that was isolated from an Indian child at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi in 1985-86.
"This is the first time that India has developed a vaccine and it is totally indigenous as strain was taken from an Indian infant, the vaccine was manufactures in India and clinical trials were also done in India," said Bhan.
"With its low price and strong efficacy, the vaccine has the potential to significantly reduce the incidence of severe diarrhoea due to rotavirus among children in India. It can also help in reducing infant deaths in other developing countries," he added.
The oral vaccine can be given alongside routine immunization vaccines like polio vaccine and others.
"It represents the successful research and development of a novel vaccine from the developing world with global standards," said Krishna M. Ella, chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech. | <urn:uuid:6cca86e5-4f43-4aa0-923b-0b8c9bc8620a> | {
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Mounted arc tube
|Mounted arc tube. |
In some ways, gases are a pain from a sample point of view. With the exception of chlorine and bromine they all look exactly the same: Like nothing at all. My beautiful set of noble gas flasks is beautiful because of the flasks, not what's in them, which is indistinguishable from plain air or vacuum. (So much so that I got them for a bargain price because the seller thought the were empty.)
But set up an electric current through almost any gas, and things are completely different. The current ionizes the gas, and when the electrons fall back into their orbits, they emit light of very specific frequencies. These spectral lines can easily be seen with even a very cheap pocket spectroscope, and they give the glowing tubes very unusual colors. So unusual in fact that they are basically impossible to photograph. The pictures here simply don't look at all like the real colors of these tubes, which cannot be represented by the limited red, green, and blue mixtures available in computer or printed photographs.
David Franco helped arrange these tubes, which were made by a guy who specializes in noble gas tubes and Geissler tubes (click the source link). I have tubes installed in each of the five stable noble gas spots in the table, hooked up underneath to a high voltage transformer. They are really quite beautiful. On my Noble Rack page I have all the pictures collected, along with pictures of arcs I made in my other collection of noble gas flasks.
Source: Special Effects Neon
Contributor: Theodore Gray
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CONSTITUTION - UNITED STATES - AMENDMENT - CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION - APPLICATION OF STATE - FORM AND SUBSTANCE OF APPLICATION
CONSTITUTION ‑- UNITED STATES ‑- AMENDMENT ‑- CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ‑- APPLICATION OF STATE ‑- FORM AND SUBSTANCE OF APPLICATION Whether House Joint Memorial No. 1 of the 1963 Washington legislature will be counted along with similar but nonidentical memorials from other states is a question to be decided by the federal congress. This Memorial proposes an amendment to the United States Constitution eliminating federal judicial review of state legislative apportionment laws in states where the people have the right of initiative.
LEGISLATURE - CONSTITUTION - EQUAL PROTECTION
Constitutionality of House of Representatives' rule requiring consent of both House co-speakers to bring a matter before the House for business The Courts are unlikely to find unconstitutional a temporary rule of the House of Representatives which requires consent of both co-speakers to bring a matter before the House for business. Such a rule appears to be consistent with the equal protection provisions of both the United States and Washington Constitutions, and with constitutional provisions governing the rights and duties of legislators, especially where the House provides alternative methods for bringing matters before the House or provides ways by which a majority of the House could repeal or amend the House rules.
TAXATION - MOTOR VEHICLES - CONSTITUTION
Applicability of article II, section 40 of the Washington Constitution to proposed excise tax Article II, section 40 of the Washington Constitution requires revenues from taxes measured by the volume of motor vehicle fuel to be used exclusively for highway purposes; a tax measured by the value of the product sold rather than the volume would probably not be subject to this constitutional restriction unless the tax were structured in such a way that it was really on volume and not on value.
CONSTITUTION - JUDGES - COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT
Authority of Commission on Judicial Conduct to separate investigative and adjudicatory functions 1. The Commission on Judicial Conduct lacks authority to divide its members into separate investigatory and adjudicative panels. 2. It is not a “temporary disability, disqualification, or inability to serve” for a member of the Commission on Judicial Conduct to have participated in the investigative phase of a complaint or case; this fact would not justify empaneling the member's alternative to serve in his/her place during the adjudicative phase of the same proceeding. 3. The Commission on Judicial Conduct may not use its alternative members to serve as “permanent” members as part of a scheme to divide the Commission into investigatory and adjudicative panels; the constitution evidences an intent that the same body exercise both functions.
CONSTITUTION - STATE ACQUIRING FOREIGN FACILITIES
CONSTITUTION ‑- STATE ACQUIRING FOREIGN FACILITIES The State of Washington may not acquire, directly, or by lease, docking facilities owned by a foreign country without the consent of Congress, however, it may enter into such an agreement with a corporation or individual of a foreign country without obtaining consent of Congress.
CONSTITUTION - PROVISIONS AS TO PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION TO VOTERS OF MEASURES AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS REFERRED TO PEOPLE
CONSTITUTION ‑- PROVISIONS AS TO PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION TO VOTERS OF MEASURES AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS REFERRED TO PEOPLE
Constitutional provisions for publication of proposed amendments to constitution, and of measures referred to the people are mandatory, and compliance with such provisions is a necessary prerequisite to the validity of such amendments and measures.
CONSTITUTION - WASHINGTON - AMENDMENTS - HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 61 - EQUAL RIGHTS
CONSTITUTION ‑- WASHINGTON ‑- AMENDMENTS ‑- HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 61 ‑- EQUAL RIGHTS The continuing existence of the Washington State Women's Council does not constitute a violation of Amendment 61 to the state Constitution which was approved by the voters at the November, 1972, general election.
VACANCY - CONSTITUTION - COUNTIES - ATTORNEY, PROSECUTING - COUNTY COMMISSIONER - POLITICAL PARTIES
Process For Appointing A New County Prosecuting Attorney To Fill A Vacancy
- If the county commission appoints a person to fill a vacancy in the office of county prosecuting attorney within 60 days of the vacancy occuring, but the appointee declines to accept the position, the authority to fill the vacancy does not transfer to the governor 60 days after the initial vacancy arose.
- If an individual appointed by a county commission to fill a vacancy in the office of county prosecuting attorney declines to accept the position, the county commission may request that the relevant political party provide a new list of three nominees.
- The county commission lacks the authority to appoint a person who has not been nominated by the relevant political party to fill a vacancy in the office of county prosecuting attorney.
- If the county commission appoints an individual who has not been nominated by the relevant political party to fill a vacancy in the office of county prosecuting attorney, that individual lacks the legal authority to act as prosecuting attorney. | <urn:uuid:b3eab191-87a6-403c-8655-872662372f97> | {
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What Are Cataracts?
Inside our eyes, we have a natural lens. The lens bends (refracts) light rays that come into the eye to help us see. The lens should be clear, like the top lens in the illustration.
Vision problems with cataracts
If you have a cataract, your lens has become cloudy, like the bottom lens in the illustration. It is like looking through a foggy or dusty car windshield. Things look blurry, hazy or less colorful with a cataract.
The top lens is a clear, natural lens. The bottom lens shows clouding by cataract.
What Are the Symptoms of Cataracts?
Most age-related cataracts develop gradually. As a result, you may not notice signs or changes in your vision right away when cataracts first develop.
Cataract symptom progression
Here are some vision changes you may notice if you have a cataract: | <urn:uuid:aea6d84a-d024-43a0-95a5-3d3fa1803033> | {
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