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I'm stuck on this problem and would love an explanation:
If a ball is thrown into the air at 64 feet per second from the top of a 100 foot tall building, its height can be modeled by the function
S=100+64t-16t(squared), where S is in feet and t is in seconds.
Find the max height the ball will reach?? | <urn:uuid:d979ec6a-2e9f-4370-894f-8e0a1833faa4> | {
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The Haftorah’s Connection to the Parashah –Living a Torah life is a Condition for Living in the Land of Israel
The double weekly Torah portion, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, teaches the nation of Israel about the importance of living a moral holy life according to the Torah. Parashat Acharei Mot, which is also read on Yom Kippur, lists all the forbidden relationships which we must keep far away from, in order to become holy (Rashi, Vayikra 19:2). This leads us to Parashat Kedoshim which opens with the command to “Be holy, for I Hashem your G-d am holy” (Vayikra 19:2). This parashah includes a wealth of mitzvoth pertaining to every facet of life from interpersonal relationships to our relationship with the environment, from our respect for property to sanctifying time and space to the service of Hashem. Achieving holiness through keeping these mitzvot is the required condition that makes Israel worthy of living in the Holy Land. “You shall faithfully observe all My laws...lest the land, to which I bring you to settle in, spew you out” (Vayikra 20:22). The haftorah reinforces the message of Parashat Kedoshim. During the time of the redemption, only the Jews capable of living a holy life will merit living in the rebuilt Land of Israel. Amos prophesies how “All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword…in that day will I raise up the Sukah of David (Temple) that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:10-11). Another connection between the parashah and the haftorah is that they both describe the importance of working the land of Israel. “When you come into the land, you shall plant every fruit-bearing tree...” (Vayikra 19:23). Likewise, the return of the people of Israel to the Promised Land during the redemption is characterized by working the land, as the haftorah describes: “Behold, days are coming, says Hashem, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine…(Amos 9:1).
The Connection between the Haftorah and Israel’s Independence Day
I find it very significant that during the week in which Israel’s Independence Day falls, we read about the return of the people of Israel to the Land of Israel, its rebuilding and replanting. In addition, Parashat Kedoshim is the only parashah spoken to “All the congregation of the children of Israel.” From this we learn that holiness depends on the people of Israel being congregated together as one entity. This is only possible after receiving national independence in our Promised Land, where we have the ability to establish a country in terms of society and government. We are still far from attaining our goal of establishing a Jewish government based on Torah and mitzvoth. Yet, after the miracle, when Hashem returned the Land of Israel into Jewish hands, we step on the path of redemption, when the Divine ideal in the life of our nation will be established as described in both our Torah and haftorah reading.
The Way of the Land Precedes the TorahThe Hungarian Chareidi Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal turned to religious Zionism during the Holocaust when he wrote his in depth, scholarly work about Eretz Yisrael, Redemption and Unity. He explained that the establishment of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel will affect even the Diaspora Jews, who will become more unified through their soul’s connection to the center established in the Land of Israel (Em Habanim Semeichah page 95). The meraglim (spies) in the wilderness were not interested in entering the Land of Israel, because they claimed that Torah precedes the Land of Israel. Therefore, they preferred to remain in the wilderness and learn Torah from Moshe. However, according to the midrash, Derech Eretz – the way that leads to the Land – precedes Torah, as it states: “To guard the way of the land, the Tree of Life” (Bereishit 3:24). There is no Tree of Life except the Torah as it states, “She is a Tree of Life to those who hold on to her” (Mishlei 3:18). This teaches us that the way to the Land of Israel precedes the Torah. (Tana, D’Bei Eliyahu Rabah Chapter 1). Although the term “Derech Eretz” usually is translated to mean “The way of the world,” according to Rabbi Akiva Yoseph Shlessinger, Derech Eretz refers to the Land of Israel. I can personally testify that there is no way I would have come to live the Torah way, if the Land of Israel had not been in Jewish hands, making it possible for Jews from the Diaspora to come to Israel. I was totally un-inspired by the way the Jewish religion was practiced in Denmark, where I grew up. It was only my connection to Eretz Yisrael, fostered by my grandparents who both made aliyah when I was a baby, which eventually led me to become a Ba’alat Teshuva (returnee to Judaism). In the Land of Israel vibrating with holiness, at the sun-glowing rocks of the Kotel, surrounded by spiritual seeking Jewish youth from the entire world, my soul was reawakened.
To Plant and Be Planted“I will bring back the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink their wine; they shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, says Hashem your G-d ”(Amos 9:14-15). From the sequence of Amos’ promise in our haftorah, it seems clear that if we first work the land and plant, then Hashem will plant us securely in our home land, without ever uprooting us. Planting in the Land of Israel – connecting our souls to their root – connects us to the Land for all eternity. The early Zionist thinker and writer, A.D. Gordon, wrote so beautifully, “We come to our Homeland in order to be planted in our natural soil from which we have been uprooted, to strike our roots deep into its life-giving substances, and to stretch out our branches in the sustaining air and sunlight of the Homeland…” I feel so privileged to be part of the Messianic promise while preparing the soil of Bat Ayin for sowing the summer crop, and while witnessing the orchard at Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin grow, as young women from the four corners of the earth return to the Torah of the Land. Munching on our homegrown grapes of the Judean hills, imparts within us the bitachon (trust) in the prophetic promise of our haftorah that the children of Israel will never again be uprooted from our land!
What is more important, living a Torah life or living in the Land? How do you think Jews around the world can strengthen the connection of the Jewish people with the Land of Israel? | <urn:uuid:0af00d3e-344a-45e6-a4f4-5aa5ba109a81> | {
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TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Walking is a great way to burn extra calories, but new research suggests you might gain even more benefit if you vary your speed as you stroll.
The new research, from Ohio State University, found that changing your pace could burn up to 20 percent more calories than maintaining a steady stride.
"Most of the existing literature has been on constant-speed walking. This study is a big missing piece," study co-author Manoj Srinivasan, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said in a university news release.
"Measuring the metabolic cost of changing speeds is very important, because people don't live their lives on treadmills and do not walk at constant speeds. We found that changing speeds can increase the [caloric] cost of walking substantially," Srinivasan explained.
People may also be underestimating the number of calories they burn while walking in daily life or playing sports, the study authors said. The researchers estimated that starting and stopping may account for up to 8 percent of the energy used during normal daily walking. This caloric cost is often not included in calorie-burning estimations, Srinivasan's group said.
Study lead author Nidhi Seethapathi, added that "walking at any speed costs some energy, but when you're changing the speed, you're pressing the gas pedal, so to speak. Changing the kinetic energy of the person requires more work from the legs and that process certainly burns more energy." Seethapathi is a doctoral fellow in mechanical engineering at the university.
For the study, the researchers measured the metabolic cost, or the number of calories people burned, when they changed their walking speeds. In order to do this they had volunteers change their pace while walking on a treadmill. Although the treadmill remained at a constant speed, the participants alternated between quick steps -- to stay at the front of the treadmill belt -- and slower steps, which kept them at the back.
The study also showed that people tend to walk more slowly when covering short distances, but they increase their pace if they have to walk farther. The researchers said this could be useful information for physical therapists, because they often measure their patients' progress by the amount of time it takes them to walk a certain distance.
"What we've shown is the distance over which you make them walk matters," said Seethapathi. "You'll get different walking speeds for different distances. Some people have been measuring these speeds with relatively short distances, which our results suggest, might be systematically underestimating progress."
The bottom line, according to the researchers: If you want a bigger calorie burn, walk in a way that feels unnatural to you.
"Just do weird things," said Srinivasan, who also leads the Movement Lab at Ohio State. "Walk with a backpack, walk with weights on your legs. Walk for a while, then stop and repeat that. Walk in a curve as opposed to a straight line."
The findings were published in the September issue of the journal Biology Letters.
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more on the health benefits of walking. | <urn:uuid:d1909d2d-80e0-4ed4-9e56-671dd2357fe1> | {
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The Canary Islands (sp. Islas Canarias), often referred to simply as “the Canaries”, are a group of about a dozen islands - mostly inhabited but some only wildlife reserves - in the eastern Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (about 60 m) off the coast of north-west Africa. It is a little over 1300 km (about 820 m) south of Spain of which it is an “Autonomous Community” divided into two provinces. Subsequently it has two capitals - Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. As part of Spain, it is considered part of the European Community. It has a total population of about 2.1 million.
The archipelago is volcanic in origin and contains Western Europe’s highest volcano, Mount Teide which is a World Heritage site and an extremely popular tourist attraction. Good beaches, a mild sub-tropical maritime climate and the mixture of Spanish and African influences make the islands one of the most visited international holiday destinations on earth on. Whilst mostly rugged and barren, the many valleys support agriculture in the form of grains, citrus fruits, figs and wines.
In ancient times it was known as “The Fortunate Isles”. It was rediscovered by Portuguese mariners in 1341, but granted to Castile by the Pope in 1344 and formally possessed in 1401. These latter discoverers found dogs there and the archipelago’s name derives from the Latin for dog – canis. It was fought over in the fifteenth century by Castile and Portugal whilst vying for the West African trade; then acquired by Aragon.
During the Age of Exploration and colonial times it was the last “water hole” before setting off for the New World. Not only the Spanish, but other venturers used it - especially Tenerife - as a way station – legally or not; Drake called there to his detriment on his way to the Indies in 1595. The English “First Fleet” the convict laden vessels on their way to settle New South Wales in 1787, resupplied there.
From the 17th to the early 19th century there was a flourishing trade with New England settlers – bartering wine for fish. | <urn:uuid:8871de19-41be-4ca4-beca-930b2f0bb32f> | {
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Despite the well documented and well publicized catastrophic consequences from any use of nuclear weapons, over fifteen thousand remain as an existential threat to both human civilization and the entire ecosystem of our planet. They are the only weapons of mass destruction not yet prohibited under international law; and there are currently no negotiations underway for nuclear disarmament. Our world is under increasing risk of nuclear terrorism and proliferation because of the refusal of possessor states to negotiate on the elimination of these weapons.
The doctrine of nuclear deterrence stipulates that nuclear weapons, by virtue of their extreme destructive power, deter adversaries from attacking; and it is held by not only the nine nuclear weapons possessor states, but also dozens of countries, including Canada, which trust in the ‘protection’ of nuclear weapons through military alliances, such as NATO. However, this irrational doctrine, rather than providing security, has the potential to destroy everything.
The Science for Peace Nuclear Weapons Working Group exists to inform citizens and political leaders about this critical issue and to influence our government toward a nuclear weapons-free world. As part of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, we work with other organizations to stay abreast of international developments and initiatives in this field and provide input and recommendations for achieving a legal ban on nuclear weapons leading to a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which would prohibit the development, testing, production, stockpiling, transfer, use, and threat of use of nuclear weapons.
This is a formidable task, and one which some of our group members have been involved in all of their lives. However, we remain optimistic because thousands of bright young people in Canada and internationally are engaged in this issue. They realize that the continued existence of these weapons place the future of humanity in jeopardy and are committed to achieving a nuclear weapons-free world. Failure is not an option, and all of us must do our part for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
Working Group contacts:
• Robert Acheson, [email protected]
• Mike Nevin, [email protected] | <urn:uuid:259f3187-0498-43df-a861-0d00f0ad5a79> | {
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- Guitar Lessons
- Guitar Techniques
- Guitar Theory
- Guitar Tools
|E Minor 7 Flat 5 chord intervals and notes|
|Intervals||1 - b3 - b5 - b7|
|Notes in E m7b5||E - G - A# (Bb) - D|
The half diminished chord is a diminished chord with a minor7th added.
Here are 6 voicings of the Em7b5 guitar chord, with a chord chart to each voicings' fingering.
Pick the single notes to the chord when first learning it, making sure there are no dead notes.
When playing barre chords, make sure you move your wrist forward further than you would with open chords, this allows for more added pressure to your first finger. | <urn:uuid:83582bf2-4d5d-4f9a-9f17-9369cd030f92> | {
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Printables for This Topic:
Hydrate! – James explores
why it is important to have plenty of water.
The Patient Cat
– The sentences below form a story, but they are all out of order.
Pen Pals –
A transition is a word or phrase that connects one or more ideas within
a paragraph or longer piece of writing. Circle each transition in
the paragraph below.
– Study the storyboard below. Then pretend that it is your job to
write a treatment for this movie.
Describing a Sequence
of Events – The pictures below depict a sequence of events,
and tell a story. Study the pictures. Then, using the pictures as
a springboard for your imagination, write the story.
Holiday – Circle each transition in the paragraph below. Then
use the back of this page to write a similar paragraph of your own
about your favorite holiday.
The Ride of Paul Revere
– All of the transitions words, indicating the sequence of events,
have been left out. Using the Word Bank, write a transition word in
Wolves in the Night
– Using the Word Bank, write a transition word in each box. Use
some words more than once. Then answer the questions.
That Crazy Cat!
– Use the pictures below as inspiration for a story. On a separate
sheet of paper, write your story. | <urn:uuid:140ae7b5-f799-499b-85fd-db583b6e3526> | {
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Longer life spans and disappointing investment returns will help create a $400 trillion retirement-savings shortfall in about three decades, a figure more than five times the size of the global economy, according to a World Economic Forum report.
That includes a $224 trillion gap among six large pension-savings systems: the U.S., U.K., Japan, Netherlands, Canada and Australia, according to the report issued Friday. China and India account for the rest.
Employers have been shifting away from pensions and offering defined-contribution plans, a category that includes 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts and makes up more than 50 percent of global retirement assets. That heaps more risk onto the individuals, who often face a lack of access to the right options as well as the resources to understand them, according to the World Economic Forum report. Stock and bond returns that have trailed historic averages in the past decade have also contributed to the gap.
“We’re really at an inflection point,” Michael Drexler, head of financial and infrastructure systems at the World Economic Forum, said in a phone interview. “Pension underfunding is the climate-change moment of social systems in the sense that there is still time to do something about it. But if you don’t, in 20 or 30 years down the line, society will say it’s a huge problem.”
A shortfall of about $400 trillion could be reached by 2050, the World Economic Forum said. The figure is derived from the amount of money government, employers and individuals would need to provide each person with a retirement income equal to 70 percent of his or her annual earnings before leaving the workforce.
The gap is partially driven by an aging world population…. | <urn:uuid:83e139f5-6cc3-4779-9628-50aa08eed813> | {
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Gifted teacher Susan Brewer is one of four teachers that have been hands-on with third through sixth-graders at Munford Elementary, Munford Middle and Stemley Road Elementary schools as they learn about the Monarch butterfly, its habits and migration patterns.
“We have a different theme each year with our students,” Brewer said. “Our theme this year is flight and we wanted to start out with insects and how scientists study insects and mimic their flight habits for aircrafts.
“So once we got into developing our lessons, we started looking into these insects and we discovered the Monarch butterfly. They are one of the few species that migrate.”
Brewer said she and her colleagues ran across the “Journey North” project that provided a number of resources and learning tools for her gifted students.
“Those are the students who think outside of the box, high-end learners who are creative,” Brewer said. “Their needs are a little different; they need to be challenged.”
The project has proven itself to be a fun challenge for students.
They are collaborating with a large number of students as far away as Canada and Mexico, as well as the United States.
The Journey North website has many resources that help students and teachers, not only learn about Monarchs, but allow them to be interactive in the migration process.
Kimberly Murray, the science interventionist for Munford schools, bought Monarch caterpillars for the students and provided milkweed for the caterpillars to eat.
Students watched the caterpillars’ life cycle unfold before their very eyes, and with a web cam that was set up so that the students could monitor their caterpillars over the weekends.
Murray also ordered tags for the students to place on the butterflies’ wings and track their Monarchs to Mexico.
“Now we’ve released the monarchs and they are en route to Mexico, and if they are recovered in Mexico then they will post it online on that website with an interactive map,” Brewer said.
“They even made a symbolic Monarch they have sent to Mexico and included things about them and class photo. In the spring, we will receive a symbolic monarch from a school in Mexico, Canada, or here in the U.S.”
The symbolic paper Monarch not only represents the real-life Monarch butterfly’s migration, but builds a bridge of communication between two cultures; the symbolic Monarchs made by students from the United States and Canada find their way to students living in the monarch sanctuary area in Mexico.
“They had to go on Google to translate their message from English to Spanish, so there were a lot of factors in this,” Brewer said.
Brewer said a total of 86 students from all three of her schools participated in the project.
“Of course my Munford students got a special treat because one of the teachers at the high school, Ms. Leslie Wright, was working on the project with her students,” Brewer said.”
“The kids were just absolutely fascinated and so excited to work with the high school and the high schoolers were great. They helped the students tag the butterflies and allowed my students to hold the butterfly and release it. They were really sweet.”
Brewer said she hopes her students understand that they are just one piece of a large puzzle, and that they understand how big of an experience this was.
“I hope students took away their excitement for learning,” Brewer said. “The kids are wanting to gain more knowledge on their own without being prompted to do so. There is nothing more that I could ask for.”
Contact Aziza Jackson at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:2887ba6f-af43-41ca-8319-e4bfe0d652bb> | {
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- It is located on Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets in Manhattan.
- It was constructed during a race to create the world’s tallest building.
- The building was finished in record time.
- The first light to shine atop the Empire State Building was a beacon that told those within a 50-mile radius that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been elected President of the United States in November 1932.
- There are observatories on both the 86th and 102nd floors. They attract around four million visitors annually.
- The building has been featured in several movies such as “An Affair to Remember,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Elf” and “The Amazing Spider-Man.”
- The tower lights are turned off on foggy nights during the spring and autumn bird migration seasons, so the lights will not confuse birds and cause them to fly into the building.
This post was created with our nice and easy submission form. Create your post! | <urn:uuid:53992f3b-f3a2-49cc-ac9d-765fc3fe54ff> | {
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North American river otters are a fascinating species. They are renowned for their sense of play. The internet is peppered with amateur and professional videos chronicling their exploits, and many zoos have educational river otter exhibits. North American river otters have an estimated total population of over 100,000. About 10% of that total number now reside in Missouri.
Otters in Missouri
In 1982, the Missouri Department of Conservation started releasing river otters around the state in an attempt to bolster a population estimated at less than 100 animals, concentrated in the bootheel region of the state. Over the next 11 years, 845 otters were released. Because of these efforts, otters now exist in every county of the state, and the statewide population numbers peaked between 15,000-18,000.
Physical Features of North American River Otters
River otters belong to the weasel family. They can weigh between 11 and 31 pounds, and their length, including the tail, can exceed 5 feet. Otters have long bodies and short legs with webbed toes.
In Missouri, river otters primarily eat crayfish from April through October. However, during the winter months (when fish populations are vulnerable) otters prefer to eat fish. They especially target hand-fed catfish, however they can also decimate populations of other popular fish. River otters are some of the world’s most efficient predators of fish, and they eat between 2 and 3 pounds of fish per day. In fact, they are so efficient at killing fish, that at times they will kill many more than they eat, leaving the evidence of their rampage on banks and docks for owners to discover.
In Missouri, otters live in a variety of areas statewide. Their only requirement is some kind of wetland, waterway, lake, or pond to provide them with their natural diet of fish and crayfish. Otters will travel long distances over land between bodies of water. They have few natural enemies, and adults are formidable fighters, so conservation population control is almost exclusively accomplished through trapping.
Breeding and Social Structure
Otters are very social, and will often stay with their mother until she gives birth again the following year. Siblings will often stay together for months after leaving their mother. River otters will breed in February or March, about two weeks after giving birth. However, they have what is known as a “delayed implantation” pregnancy, and the fertilized eggs are only implanted about 2 months prior to giving birth.
Signs of Otters
Risks Associated with Otters
The largest area of concern with otters is the potential of losing hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of privately stocked fish in ponds around the state. They can also significantly lower fish populations in public fishing areas.
If you are having problems with otters on your Lake of the Ozarks area property, call the professionals at Adair’s Animal Nuisance Trapping. Adair’s can remove nuisance otters in the water at any time of year, however we offer an otter maintenance program to trap nuisance otters during the winter months when fewer lakeside activities will be interrupted. Our experienced team of trappers will help make sure your favorite fishing hole doesn’t become a family of otters’ favorite restaurant. | <urn:uuid:c26a9205-428f-4d28-989e-aaf2795cf6bf> | {
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In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, Greg Shultz explains how Multiple Local Group Policy works, then provides you with a simple example to show you how a local administrator can take advantage of this new feature.
If you have ever been responsible for managing Windows XP computers in a standalone configuration with multiple users, such as in a library or a school lab, you may have wished for Group Policy in order to set different policies for different users. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible in Windows XP because there was only one Local Group Policy — and it applied to all of the computer's users. Microsoft at last decided to make this type of task possible by introducing a new feature in Windows Vista called Multiple Local Group Policy.
In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I'll explain how Multiple Local Group Policy works, then provide you with a simple example to show you how a local administrator can take advantage of this new feature.
How Multiple Local Group Policy works
In Windows XP, you had a Local Group Policy with which you could change literally hundreds of computer and user configuration settings in order to lock down a computer. However, these settings applied to every user of the computer — even the administrator. In order to work around this inconvenience, Vista's Multiple Local Group Policy implements a system that uses three layers of Local Group Policy.
At the top is the standard Local Group Policy and just like its namesake in Windows XP, this layer allows you to configure computer-related and user-related settings — or policies — that apply to all users of the computer, including the administrator. The second layer is the Administrators and Non-Administrators Local Group Policy. This layer allows you to set polices for users in the Administrators group and users not in the Administrators group. The third layer is the User-Specific Group Policy, which allows you to set policies that apply only to specific users.
The term layer implies that these different policies process in a top-down order — in other words, Vista first applies Local Group Policy, then the Administrators or Non-Administrators Local Group Policy, and lastly the User-Specific Local Group Policy. When a conflict arises, Vista uses the Last Writer Wins methodology to resolve the conflict.
For example, if the Local Group Policy, which processes first, disables a particular setting but the User-Specific Local Group Policy enables that particular setting, then the end result is that Vista enables the setting because it processes the User-Specific Local Group Policy last. Keep in mind that if there are several individual User-Specific Local Group Policies and only one of them enables the particular setting, the setting will remain disabled for any accounts covered only by the Local Group Policy.
Now that you have a basic idea of how Vista's Multiple Local Group Policy works, let's take a look at an example. Suppose that you have two users, Bob and Barb, who both use one computer. You want both users to see only the Classic View of the Control Panel, but you want to limit the things that Bob can change on the Start Menu and Taskbar while allowing Barb to be able to freely customize the Start Menu and Taskbar.Create a custom Microsoft Management Console
The first thing that you'll have to do is create a custom Microsoft Management Console to which you will add the objects that you want to be able to control in your Multiple Local Group Policy. To get started:
1. Click the Start button.
2. Type mmc in the Start Search text box and press [Enter].3. Once you have a new console window, as shown in Figure A, pull down the File menu and select the Add or Remove Snap-ins command.
In order to use Multiple Local Group Policy, you'll first create a custom Microsoft Management Console.4. From the Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog box, locate the Group Policy Object Editor, as shown in Figure B, and click the Add button.
Locate the Group Policy Object Editor in the Add/Remove Snap-ins dialog box.5. When you see the Select Group Policy Object dialog box, as shown in Figure C, you'll see the Local Computer selected in the text box. This is the standard Local Group Policy, which is the first layer. To add it, click Finish.
The first layer of the Multiple Local Group Policy is the Local Group Policy, also known as the Local Computer policy.6. When you return to the Add/Remove Snap-ins dialog box, again select the Group Policy Object Editor and click Add. When you see the Select Group Policy Object dialog box this time, click the Browse button to bring up the Browse Group Policy Object dialog box. Then, select the Non-Administrators group, as shown in Figure D, and then click OK.
Use the Browse Group Policy Object dialog box to select both groups and users.7. Now, successively repeat the instructions to access the Browse Group Policy Object dialog box and add the Barb and Bob user policies. Then, click OK to close the Add/Remove Snap-ins dialog box. When you do, your console window will look like the one shown in Figure E. At this point, save the new console with an appropriate name, such as Multi-Local-GPO.msc.
By creating a custom console, all of your policies are in one place and easy to configure.Configuring the policies Since the goal of our example is to configure settings or policies that only apply to the users Barb and Bob, you'll begin altering the Non-Administrators Policy rather than the Local Group Policy, which would affect all users. To configure the default as the Classic View of Control Panel, expand the Local Computer\Non-Administrators Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel branch, as shown in Figure F, and then enable the Force Classic Control Panel View setting.
Set policies that you want to apply to your typical users in the Non-Administrators Policy.To limit Bob's access to the Start Menu and Taskbar configuration, you then expand the Local Computer\Bob Limited Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar branch as shown in Figure G, and then disable any of the configuration options to which you don't want Bob to have access. To give Barb unlimited access to the Start Menu And Taskbar settings, leave them at the default.
You can now specify individual policy settings to further limit what users can do.
Now, when Bob or Barb log in to the same Vista system, each will have a different configuration based on the Non-Administrators and User-Specific Local Group Policies.
What's your take?
Do you have a need for a feature like Windows Vista's Multiple Local Group Policy? If you haven't yet moved to Vista, are you likely to implement Multiple Local Group Policy when you do? | <urn:uuid:bc2025e4-5102-44c0-81b5-cf875b4edfdc> | {
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Actor Michael Douglas set the internet ablaze after telling The Guardian that his throat cancer may have been caused by the Human Papillomavirus Virus, which he contacted via oral sex. Douglas did not guarantee that oral sex is what caused his cancer, but he did imply it may have been a factor.
According to the CDC website, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection. Nearly every sexually-active human will contact the virus at some point in their lives, even if they only have one partner. The virus is usually passed through vaginal or anal sex, but oral transmission is also possible.
While the majority of HPV strands are harmless to humans, a few strands have been linked to conditions such as cancer. Between 1988 and 2004 the number of throat and cancer patients who also tested positive for HPV rose by 225 percent.
Information on the risks of HPV continues to grow. For now, it is best not to live in fear of HPV, as several other medical conditions pose a greater risk. The best advice is to practice sexual health. The most important step in avoiding HPV is to use a condom or other sexual barrier during oral sex. | <urn:uuid:76e30dbf-5600-4f03-8a0e-b845a4c4f9b5> | {
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Constipation is one of the most common bowel problems experienced by Australians and this condition can be distressing and debilitating.
Constipation is the term used to describe when your bowel motions are less frequent and you have trouble passing them as they are often hard and dry.
The Bristol Stool Chart describes the type pf stool that indicates constipation as either separate hard lumps like nuts (hard to pass) or sausage shaped but lumpy. (see https://www.continence.org.au/pages/bristol-stool-chart.html )
At times you may only be able to pass small amounts or have difficulty passing anything at all. Other signs of constipation may include pain, cramps or swelling in the abdominal area, or perhaps you leave the toilet feeling your bowel is not completely empty.
One of the common causes of constipation occurs because the colon (part of the digestive system) absorbs too much water from your food. If the food moves through the digestive system too slowly, too much water may be absorbed. The bowel contents at the end of the digestive process are then too dry and hard.
According to the Continence Foundation of Australia (www.continence.org.au) there are many things which can cause or worsen constipation including:
- not eating enough fibre (fruit and vegetables, wholemeal bread, high-fibre cereals)
- not drinking enough water – always drink more when you increase fibre in your diet
- not doing enough exercise
- anxiety, depression, grief
- delaying the urge to go to the toilet
- using laxatives for a long time
- the side effects of some medicines (even some common ones like pain killers or iron tablets)
- being overweight
- not being able to go to the toilet because of poor mobility
- some nerve diseases
- some bowel problems like haemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, or diverticulitis
- anorectal pain caused by haemorrhoids, fissures (tear in the skin of the anus) or birth trauma
- a slow transit bowel which means it takes longer for the faeces to travel all the way to the rectum, so more water is removed over time and constipation is much more likely. This occurs where there is nerve damage such as with stroke, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis or trauma.
Our pharmacists can recommend some ways to help. One way to treat constipation is by taking a ‘laxative’. There are various types of laxatives including include bulking agents, lubricants, and stimulating/irritant laxatives and they all work differently so it’s important to talk to your pharmacist or doctor to consider which one is right for you.
The condition of severe constipation is the most common cause of faecal incontinence (or bowel leakage), especially in older people. This can occur because hard bowel motions are difficult to pass and may cause a partial blockage high up the bowel, resulting in watery bowel motions flowing around the constipated stool without warning. This is sometimes mistaken for diarrhoea.
In addition, constipation can affect bladder control and urinary continence. If you sometimes leak urine or feel that you need to frequently visit the toilet to pass urine, it could be that constipation is involved.
Another effect of constipation can be on your pelvic floor muscles. Pelvic floor muscle strength is important for both bladder and bowel control. These muscles can be weakened by straining due to constipation, pregnancy and childbirth, or perhaps heavy lifting. Strong pelvic floor muscles are necessary for bladder and bowel control – the ability to ‘hold on’. At Fresh Therapeutics we stock the Epi-No Pelvic Floor Trainer (http://www.epi-no.com.au/) or Laselle Kegel Exercisers that may be used to strengthen pelvic floor muscles.
You can also get more information on issues affecting your bowel such as the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s Self Care Health Information on Fibre and bowel health, Constipation and Haemorrhoids. | <urn:uuid:ca32ab36-ae1d-48b9-85e0-080e518dc76d> | {
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In 1928 a highway known as the Tamiami Trail was built across the southern Florida peninsula, and while it was a boon for developers, the dam-like roadfill created serious problems for Everglades National Park. A partial solution'replacing some of the road's berm with bridges'got a welcome boost with a recent pledge of $90 million from the State of Florida.
On August 28th, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced the state's commitment of $30 million a year over three years to help replace a 2.6-mile section of existing highway berm with a bridge along the northern boundary of Everglades National Park. The state dollars are being offered as a match to a similar $90 million investment in federal dollars.
The total estimated cost'$180 million'is a sizeable chunk of money, but unlike some other highway projects derided as a "bridge to nowhere," this one would offer a solution to several closely-related problems.
Fresh Water Once Flowed Freely Across Southern Florida
In the late 1800s, the southern end of the Florida peninsula was largely undeveloped, and although the area was a rich and complex ecosystem, it was viewed by some as merely wasted "swampland." Fresh water'including sometimes copious amounts from tropical storms'flowed freely southward as a shallow, slow-moving sheet of water through the large but shallow Lake Okeechobee, and then onward through the Everglades to coastal estuaries and the sea.
The area's mild winter climate made it attractive for residential and agricultural development and tourism, but the problem was what to do about all that "swamp." The answer was decades of construction of an elaborate system of dikes, canals and pumping stations to drain wetlands and try to control flooding'not an easy task in this relatively flat terrain.
An East-West Highway was a Key to Development of South Florida
It was a classic example of "if you build it, they will come," and much of south Florida is now both a major agricultural empire and home to millions of people. A key missing link for that development in the early 1900s was a highway linking Miami on the state's east coast with Naples on the west.
The answer was a road known as the Tamiami Trail (now US 41), and to keep construction costs down, the primary technique was to simply bring in fill, build a very long berm, and lay a roadway on top.
The natural flow of freshwater southward through what's now Everglades National Park was interrupted, and the result was a host of unintended consequences to what the park website described as a delicately-balanced "mosaic of ponds, sloughs, sawgrass marshes, hardwood hammock, and forested uplands."
Everglades National Park Now Relies Upon "Engineered" Water
Everglades National Park is a relative newcomer to this story; the park was established in 1947 to conserve some of the remaining natural area, and includes about 1.5 million acres out of about 18,000 square miles in the original Everglades ecosystem. A short paragraph on a park map sums up the challenge: "Fresh water flowing into the park is engineered. With the help of pumps, floodgates, and retention ponds along the park's boundary, the Everglades is presently on life support, alive but diminished."
And that brings us back to the State of Florida's offer of $90 million to help replace 2.6 miles of that Tamiami Trail berm with a bridge. Ironically, impetus for the state's support for the project came from a summer with too much rain in southern Florida, and a press release from the Governor's office helps explain the problem.
"Today's setup of the Tamiami Trail inhibits water flow, which forces more storm water runoff to drain from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, instead of flowing south through the Everglades. By constructing an additional bridge, more water will be able to flow naturally through the Everglades, which will keep nutrient rich water out of the estuaries."
Excess Water in Lake Okeechobee Causes Big Problems
Swollen by unusually heavy spring and summer rains, Lake Okeechobee is literally on the verge of bursting at the seams. In the 1930s, a 143-mile long earthen dike was constructed around the lake to regulate water levels, and the Army Corps of Engineers, fearing failure of the aging levee, has released tens of billions of gallons of fresh water from the lake into estuaries to the east and west.
The deluge of not-so-clean water has upset the delicate balance of salt and fresh water in the estuaries and fouled water quality in areas with important commercial crops of oysters and other shellfish. The water in some areas has become unsuitable for swimming, game fish are disappearing, and businesses that depend on tourism are hurting.
Those problems spurred the state's recent announcement of help for the Tamiami bridge project. According to Governor Scott, 'This $90 million investment will be a huge step forward in our efforts to restore water quality throughout South Florida. Every drop of water that we can send south and keep out of the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries is a win for Florida families."
Economic Losses from High Water Spur State Support for Bridge Project
A number of state politicians also expressed their support, including Representative Dane Eagle, who said, 'The ultimate completion of the Tamiami Trail projects will be a game changer for water quality in South Florida. By Governor Scott taking steps forward in completing another major segment, Florida is becoming more proactive in its efforts to create a more sustainable environment for future generations. With this $90 million investment, we're not only committing to restoring water quality, but we're supporting Florida's future economic strength.'
The bridge work is only a small part of a much larger regional Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, and the project would also be a win for the park, where the Governor's announcement was welcome news.
'One of the most critical components of the Everglades restoration is increasing water flow under Tamiami Trail into Everglades National Park,' said Superintendent Dan Kimball.
'This is a crucial step forward in the Everglades restoration, and we are very thankful to the governor for the commitment he demonstrated today to the Everglades restoration and to the key part it plays in Florida's economy.'
Everglades Restoration Depends on Partnership
'Several significant advances have been made recently that demonstrate the protection of America's Everglades remains a national and state priority,' said Park Superintendent Kimball, 'and that the federal/state partnership necessary for our success is very active in moving forward together.'
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell also issued a statement praising the state's offer. 'We welcome Governor Scott's partnership with the Department in the construction of a 2.6- mile bridge on the Tamiami Trail, a critical next step in our collective efforts to restore the Everglades,' Jewell said.
'Bridging the Tamiami Trail is a key component of Everglades' restoration plans to increase water flow through the central Everglades into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay," Jewell noted. "This will both help restore wildlife habitat in the Everglades and improve flood conditions in the Water Conservation Areas north of the trail."
Proposed Bridge is Phase Two of the Project
The state money would help fund the second phase of an eventual 6.5 miles of bridging planned for the Tamiami Trail. The first step in the project was completed in February of this year, when the National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed construction of the first mile of bridge on the Trail.
Congress authorized an additional 5.5 miles of bridges along the trail in 2011'but that vote did not provide the funding to do the work. The Department of the Interior is seeking $30 million in its 2014 budget to help begin the work'and provide the needed dollars to match the state's contribution'but that request will have to compete with many other projects in a time of tight federal dollars.
The State of Florida has stepped in to cut the federal cost of the next phase of the project in half. Now the question is whether this plan for a "bridge to somewhere" will go anywhere in a Congress distracted by partisan divisions over bigger budget issues. | <urn:uuid:01a48699-9427-4b71-b889-92cac42405d9> | {
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Who is ready for a bug gardening activity? You all know how much I love zoology activities. The month of January came quickly to a close. I can smell the spring air lurking around us. I can practically hear the Pacific tree frogs croaking already. I do love their chorus. I feel my heart begin to flutter with the excitement of planting and growing season.
We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics. ~Bill Vaughan
I try to plan ahead when it comes to our garden. This year, one major motivation is involving my kids in the garden planning process. One way I hope to inspire them is with their own garden planner. I want them to imagine the garden they would want to create and then see where we can go from there. The planner is the perfect first step with kids.
Bug Gardening Activity for Kids
Planning a garden with kids isn't enough. Kids will see right through the “lesson”. Well, at least my kids do.
Adults need to step back and consider the interests of the child and go from that point.
Education is a big part of garden planning and discovering. Learning a bit more about a topic actually works well to ignite a desire to want to to learn more, or at least results in being less afraid or intimidated by certain insects like spiders, ants, and slugs.
Did you know there are certain plants that when planted together fend off pests in the garden?
Yes, it is true. Certain plants when planted near one another are beneficial, or not, depending on the plant.
Yes, I know. Mind blown.
So, imagine the possibilities when we can arm kids with this information!
That is precisely why I created this Good Bugs / Bad Bugs Sorting Activity available to YOU for FREE!
So, how should you introduce kids to gardening?
Beyond this gardening bug activity, here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Introduce children to gardening with these amazing children's books.
- Get them thinking about their own garden by helping them imagine what they might like to imagine growing!
- Create an herb garden with kids
- Consider the outdoors your classroom. Don't have plans, just go explore!
- Check out this awesome list of gardening activities to do with kids!
If you enjoyed this post and this material, check out other Life Science Activities in my Activity Pack!
If you like learning outdoors, I wrote a Taking Montessori Outside eBook with over 40 activities across the Practical Life, Sensorial, Math, and Language areas.
Thanks for reading! | <urn:uuid:7cf20b21-8d3a-4224-91b1-c8bf7c6f57cd> | {
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Find the right databases to locate Australian, international and industry standards.
Standards Australia defines standards as "published documents that set out specifications and procedures designed to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and consistently perform the way they were intended to". They can be created, approved and published by international, regional or national standards organisations as well as industry and professional associations and societies.
The national standards body for Australia is Standards Australia. It prepares and publishes Australian standards or adopts relevant international standards .
The Library provides access to the complete collection of current and draft Australian standards from SAI Global (Australian Standards)
International, European and British standards
There are a number of international and regional standards bodies that prepare, approve and publish standards, including:
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - creates and approves International Standards that are used or adopted by national and regional standards organisations
- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) - prepares and publishes International standards for all electrical and electronic and related technologies
- European Standards Organisations (ESOs) - prepare European standards (EN) for use by the European Union region
- British Standards Institution (BSI) - prepares British standards (BS) and co-develops a number of international standards.
The Library provides access to British and selected International standards from:
- British Standards Online (BSOL) - all British Standards (BS) and many international, equivalent or adopted ISO, EN and IEC standards
- IEEE Standards (via IEEE Xplore) - all IEEE standards including jointly developed IEEE and IEC standards.
Industry standards are created and published by industry bodies and professional associations. Many of these standards are available from relevant industry or association websites, however they are not always freely available. The Library provides access to a selection of: | <urn:uuid:e0db82ee-d2a6-4542-9999-1157030cd6dd> | {
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- Filed Under
On March 1, 1803, Ohio became the 17th state in the Union. Ohio was the first state carved from a continuous area known as the Northwest Territory, and the debate surrounding our statehood was fiercely argued.
We almost became two states divided by the Scioto River.
The same passion emanated from the House Floor debates last week over the governor's budget proposal to fund Ohio's highway projects by issuing $1.5 billion dollars in bonds backed by the Ohio Turnpike. Some legislators from the northern part of the state contend the Turnpike is theirs, not Ohio's, and that revenues generated by ... | <urn:uuid:d109fe8f-9008-4ff9-bb0c-d9ebda1d7bb6> | {
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Ah, summertime . . . camp . . . outdoor activities . . . water sports . . . jokes about the mosquito being the “camp bird” . . . phone calls from parents concerned about West Nile Virus . . .
The appearance of West Nile Virus in recent years is perhaps the most well-documented introduction of a new, vector-borne human pathogen into the U.S. in this century. Because of the spread of the virus via mosquitoes, the virus is of particular concern for camps located in rural, wooded, or wilderness areas. While the virus causes encephalitis and meningitis in serious cases, most cases are mild and require only symptomatic care. Education and prevention measures can help to place concerns about the disease in proper perspective.
Incidence and Spread
West Nile Virus was first isolated from an infected person and identified in Uganda in 1937. Until 1999, the virus was found only in the Eastern Hemisphere. Infrequent human outbreaks, mostly associated with mild illnesses in which fever was the main symptom, had been reported mostly in groups of soldiers, children, and otherwise healthy adults in Israel and Africa. Since the mid-1990s, the frequency and severity of West Nile Virus outbreaks have increased (1). United States public health surveillance has tracked disease caused by West Nile Virus each year since 1999, when it first appeared in New York City. These cases have been identified over an expanding geographic area (one state in 1999, three in 2000, and ten in 2001) (1). From January 1 to October 10, 2002, there were 2946 cases of West Nile Virus identified in 35 states and the District of Columbia, including 160 deaths (2). Importantly, the increase in reported cases is due in part to heightened awareness, surveillance, and testing for the illness, and not simply out-of-control spread.
West Nile Virus is thought to be maintained in a cycle involving infected birds and mosquitoes, which in turn pass the virus on to humans. Many of the “bridge vectors” — mosquitoes that bite both birds and humans — likely become infected in late summer and then pose an infection threat to humans. West Nile Virus cannot be spread from human to human or from animal to humans. The peak of reported cases between 1999 and 2001 has occurred in August and September (1). In warm or tropical climates, year-round transmission is possible.
Clinical Features of West Nile Virus Illness
The incubation period of West Nile Virus is estimated to range from three to fourteen days. Most human infections are not clinically recognized, simply because those affected may never feel very sick. A survey of serology in residents of New York City during the 1999 outbreak indicated that only approximately 20 percent of persons infected with West Nile Virus had developed fever, and only half of these had visited a physician for this illness (3). Thus, the cases that are reported are those few that result in serious disease.
Mild disease is characterized as an illness of sudden onset consisting of mild to moderate fever with varied symptoms that may include headache, muscle aches, pains, weakness, nausea, vomiting, rash, and/or swollen lymph nodes. The symptoms generally last three to six days. It is not necessary for people with these general, mild, symptoms to be tested for West Nile Virus; in fact, it would be no more helpful in treating the person than knowing which specific virus is causing someone’s common cold. There is no specific antibiotic treatment for West Nile fever; comfort measures are usually all that is needed.
People with more serious West Nile Virus infections are likely to be very ill. In contrast to the above noted signs and symptoms, they are likely to have very high fever, neck stiffness, disorientation, lack of muscle coordination, tremors, and/or convulsions and paralysis. In these severe cases, physician evaluation and care should be sought immediately. Blood testing would be done in order to identify the virus and be certain of the diagnosis. Again, there is no specific antibiotic treatment. Hospital care would focus on supporting the body systems as needed.
In fatal cases, advanced age has been found to be the most important risk factor. Encephalitis (brain involvement), severe muscle weakness, and change in level of consciousness are also clinical factors associated with increased risk of death. Immunosuppressed people, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, those taking long-term steroids, and those taking anti-rejection transplant drugs, are likely to be at additional risk. West Nile Virus encephalitis has recently been added to the list of designated reportable illnesses. Local public health departments should be notified of any confirmed cases. Recommended clinical and laboratory case definitions for West Nile Virus are available at www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/resources/wnv-guidelines-apr-2001.pdf .
Currently, prevention of West Nile Virus infection rests on two strategies: (1) reducing the number of mosquitoes that could transmit the virus; and (2) preventing those “vector” mosquitoes from biting humans. Many mosquitoes breed in small pools of standing water and have a limited flight range, so reducing mosquito populations in the immediate vicinity of human habitat and activity is useful. Property owners and municipalities can drain water from potential breeding sites, and coordinate plans for use of insecticides. Biological products (which consist chiefly of larva-killing bacteria) as well as pesticide chemicals, may be used. More detailed information about pesticides and other mosquito control measures can be obtained from the US National Pesticide Information Center at www.ace.orst.edu/info/npic/wnv/ .
DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) is the most effective mosquito repellent currently available. It is available in many formulations and has an excellent safety profile. Products containing 10-50 percent DEET are considered sufficient, with concentrations greater than 50 percent demonstrating little additional efficacy. Manufacturer’s recommendations should be followed for periodic re-application of the repellent. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that repellents containing no more than 30 percent DEET be used in children, and that DEET not be used on infants under the age of two months (4). DEET can be applied to skin, pets, clothing, tents, bedrolls, and screens. While other products such as Skin-so-Soft®, citronella, etc., have mild repellent properties, the use of DEET should be promoted in order to prevent infections such as West Nile Virus that spread via mosquitoes (see sidebar ).
Implications and Recommendations for Camps
West Nile Virus is presumed to be spreading in a pattern that will distribute it across North America at some point. Camps frequently are located in lake or woodland areas where mosquito populations flourish, and camps generally place emphasis on doing activities outdoors. Yet, camps do have a responsibility to provide the safest possible environment and program guidelines for their staff and campers. These guidelines should focus both on prevention strategies that minimize the potential for West Nile Virus exposure and surveillance that identifies a potential outbreak. In addition, camps should be prepared to provide information and resources for concerned parents and participants. Because this challenge is newly emerging, staying linked with reliable information will be key.
Protect Staff and Campers
Minimize the Mosquito Population
Recognize Clinically Significant Cases
Partner with Parents
While West Nile Virus may cause serious illness in children and adults, the actual likelihood of infection is low. A combination of education and prevention strategies can have a significant impact on the perceived and actual risk of the virus to campers and staff.
Deet Recommendations
Ellen Reynolds, M.S.N., C.P.N.P., is a pediatric nurse practitioner with Children’s Community Pediatrics in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is also a camp nurse, with many years of affiliation with Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota. Ellen is serving her second term with the Association of Camp Nurse’s (ACN) Board of Directors, currently in the role of clinical chair.
Holly Bauer, R.N., is the health-care supervisor at the Lions Camp in Rosholt, Wisconsin. She is a regional facilitator and board member-at-large for ACN.
Originally published in the 2003 March/April issue of Camping Magazine. | <urn:uuid:54908d62-cfee-4cb2-95f7-940fbc6b552d> | {
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Know about the Mystery of Roopkund Lake and Trek to Roopkund
What happens when ice melts in the Roopkund lake? When ice melts in the glacial tarn of Roopkund, located 5,000 metres above sea level in Chamoli district, Uttaranchal, hundreds of corpses can be seen floating. Thus gets exposed a mystery that dates back to more than 60 years and has begun to be understood only recently. In 1942, a forest guard chanced upon hundreds of skeletons at this tarn. The remains have intrigued anthropologists, scientists, historians and the local people ever since. Who were these people? What were they doing in the inhospitable regions of the Garhwal Himalaya?
Many speculated, initially, that the remains were those of Japanese soldiers who had sneaked into the area, and had then perished to the ravages of the inhospitable terrain. Those were World War II times and even the slightest mention of a Japanese invasion was bound to throw the area’s British administrators into the tizzy.
The matter was investigated and the speculation was put to rest: the corpses were said to date back to at least a century. But nobody knewwhen exactly. Some British explorers to Roopkund, and many scholars attribute the bones to General Zorawar Singh of Kashmir, and his men, who are said to have lost their way and perished in the high Himalayas, on their return journey after the Battle of Tibet in 1841.
But radio-carbon tests on the corpses in the 1960s belied this theory. The tests vaguely indicated that the skeletons could date back to anytime between the 12th and 15th centuries ad. This led many historians to link the corpses to an unsuccessful attack by Mohammad Tughlak on the Garhwal Himalaya. Still others believed that the remains were of those of victims of an unknown epidemic. Some anthropologists also put forward a theory of ritual suicide.
Local folklore has it that in medieval times, king Jasdhawal of Kanauj wanted to celebrate the birth of an heir by undertaking a pilgrimage to the Nanda-Devi mountains in the Garhwal Himalaya. However, he disregarded the rules of pilgrimage by boisterous singing and dancing. The entourage earned the wrath of the local deity, Latu. They were caught in a terrible hailstorm and were thrown into the Roopkund lake.
Folklore is not all myth
Now the first forensic investigation of the frozen corpses has concurred with the hailstorm theory. Scientists commissioned by the National Geographic television channel to examine the corpses believe that they died from sharp blows to their skulls. “We retrieved a number of skulls which showed short, deep cracks,” said Subhash Walimbe, a physical anthropologist at the Deccan college, Pune. Walimbe was a member of the team that visited the site.
“The cracks were caused not by a landslide or an avalanche but by blunt, round objects about the size of cricket balls,” he surmised. According to Walimbe, “The only plausible explanation for so many people sustaining such similar injuries at the same time is something that fell from the sky. The injuries were all to the top of the skull and not to other bones in the body, so they must have come from above. Our view is that death was caused by extremely large hailstones”. Another member of the team, Wolfgang Sax, an anthropologist at Heidelberg University in Germany, cited a traditional song among Himalayan women that describes a goddess so enraged at outsiders who defiled her mountain sanctuary that she rained death upon them by flinging hailstones “hard as iron”.
“We were amazed by what we found,” said Pramod Joglekar, a bio-archaeologist at Deccan College, Pune. “In addition to skeletons, we discovered bodies with the flesh intact, perfectly preserved in the icy ground. We could see their hair and nails as well as pieces of clothing,” he said. The scientists found glass bangles, indicating the presence of women.
The team also found a ring, spear, leather shoes and bamboo staves. This has led them to hypothesize that the corpses were those of pilgrims. The scientists estimate that as many as 600 bodies may still be buried in snow and ice by the lake.
The samples were sent to the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit of Oxford University, uk where the date of death was established at about 850 ad. The team has yet to resolve the identity of the victims, though. Meanwhile, scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad have also undertaken tests on skeletal remains. Lalji Singh, the director of the centre, said that his institute had conducted studies on the dna of 31 samples of bone and muscle taken out from the remains. “Three samples have unique mutations in the mitochondrial DNA which are not found anywhere in the world but only in a particular group of people from Maharashtra,” he said. Singh, however, refused to mention the ethnic group. He said analysis of two other samples matched with some people living in Garhwal even as further studies on all the 31 samples were still on to find out more accurate facts. D K Bhattacharya of the National Geographic team agrees: “Only a few have the characteristics of the Mongoloid hill people of the Himalaya,” noted this scholar from the University of Delhi. It’s quite possible that the pilgrims employed these local people as porters. After all, Roopkund is almost 35 km away from the nearest human settlement and it’s virtually impossible for outsiders to venture into the area without taking the help of local people.
It is quite unfortunate that the local administration has made no organised attempt to protect this site. Skeletal remains and other articles of those who perished ages back are reported to have been diminishing fast from here. Lack of administrative will and a general indifference has denied this destination its due place on the international tourist map. In the ceaseless efforts to win over nature sometime we emerge as victorious though losing the battle is also an integral part of the game. The Roopkund remains an indicator of the latter.
Interested in a Trek to Roopkund?
What can we say? If you are into trekking and hiking and haven’t done the Roopkund trail, then you need to start planning for it right away. It is one trek that is a must-do.
It’s got everything going for it. Deep virgin forests, gurgling brooks, breath-taking campsites, miles of undulating meadows, snow and ice, and the taste of a great adventure as you climb from 8,000 ft to 16,000 ft in 4 days.
Day 1: Pick up from Kathgodam Railway station at 7.00 am. Drive to Lohajung base camp. Approximate arrival time at Lohajung 6-7 pm.
Day 2: Trek starts. Your trek starts at Lohajung (8,300 ft), a tiny pass, in the heart of the greater Himalayan range, 85 kms from Karanprayag. Lohajung to Didina. Homestay at Didina.
Day 3: Didina to Bedni Bugyal (via Ali Bugyal).
Day 4: Bedni Bugyal to Bhagwabasa.
Day 5: Bhagwasa to Roopkund and back to Bedni Bugyal.
Day 6: Bedni Bugyal to Lohajung via wan.
Day 7: Depart for Kathgodam. Approximate arrival time at Kathgodam: 6 – 7 pm.
For complete details, check out http://www.roopkund.com/complete-trek-details.html | <urn:uuid:42fe594d-5e8e-491c-87fc-74a0079067ee> | {
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Angel's trumpet, also known as trumpet flower or the horn of plenty, is a tropical native that has long flowers (up to 10 inches and 4 inches across the face). It is related to Jimson weed, and, like its cousin, contains a poisonous alkaloid called hyoscyamine.
Description of Angel's Trumpet: Angel's trumpet will grow 3 to 5 feet tall and has oval leaves up to 8 inches long with toothed margins. The flowers have 5 large lobes with pointed tips. Flowers are mostly white; but there are yellow, blue, and red forms too. Double-flowered varieties that contain duplicates of the flowers inside the spreading face are also available.
Growing Angel's Trumpet: Angel's trumpet grows well in any good, moist garden soil in full sun. They're very tender -- so plant them out after all danger of frost has passed and the ground is warm. Prune freely to shape plants. To prolong bloom, remove the flowers as soon as they finish blooming to prevent seed formation. In frost-free areas, they can be overwintered outdoors. For overwintering indoors, move container plants to a cool but frost-free location and keep barely moist until spring. In late spring, cut back the plant and resume feeding and watering.
Propagating Angel's Trumpet: By seed. Start seeds indoors 8 to 12 weeks before planting out. They germinate in 8 to 15 days at 70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Seeds may be saved from blooming plants for replanting the following season.
Uses for Angel's Trumpet: Because the trumpets hang down, it is of great advantage to plant them where they can be seen at eye level -- on slopes, beside upward-leading paths, or as raised container plants.
Angel's Trumpet: Brugmansia saueolens has richly scented, white, lily-like trumpets that hang down. The flowers are intoxicatingly fragrant in the evening. Charles Grimaldi is floriferous, with cantaloupe-orange flowers. Sunset has peach-color flowers and variegated foliage. Snowbank has white flowers and creamy variegation. Brugmansia sanguinea produces the same type of flowers in orange-red. It is perennial, sometimes producing flowers the first year.
Related Varieties of Angel's Trumpet: The Ballerina series provides double flowers in white, yellow, and purple.
Scientific Name of Angel's Trumpet: Datura metel | <urn:uuid:fceac708-d369-49a8-8679-862297519962> | {
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Multiple small meals and regular exercise are prescriptions for good health. Then comes Thanksgiving — one giant late-afternoon feast that's often preceded by long hours of travel and accompanied by more hours of football watching.
What's a person to do? Well, according to multiple studies, exercising before feasting can be the most effective antidote to over-eating. (Of course, there's always the novel concept of exercising self-discipline and restraint and not over-indulging at the outset.)
And the exercise doesn't have to be strenuous. Researchers point to the ongoing benefits of even a light workout, such as 30 minutes walking, as much as 12 to16 hours in advance of a heavy meal. What this does is stimulate fat-clearing enzymes that help the body combat the spike in triglycerides caused by over-consumption. The average Thanksgiving meal contains 2,000 calories, or more than a whole day's recommended caloric intake for most. And lots of those calories come from unhealthy fats.
Triglycerides are fats in the blood that contribute to atherosclerosis and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke; they are derived from the fats that people eat. In women, elevated levels after eating have proven to be accurate predictors of future health problems.
Overeating results not only in increased triglyceride levels, but also higher LDL levels (the "bad" cholesterol) and inflammation. Elevated levels of triglycerides are also linked to depression, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which advocates regular exercise, a low-fat diet and no smoking to lower them for optimal mental and physical health.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, some research indicates that the benefits of advance exercise on fat processing can last as long as 48 hours.
In addition to taking an extended stroll the day before the annual feast, nutrition experts recommend maintaining a regular meal schedule on Thanksgiving to avoid an unhealthy fasting-gorging syndrome. | <urn:uuid:16992bc3-b7b4-47db-b57c-0898c66ff635> | {
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In countries where not enough girls are going to school, NGOs and policymakers have tried everything: giving people money as an inducement, building more schools, trying to make sure kids are safer as they walk to class -- you name it.
In India's northeastern state of Bihar -- one of the country's poorest regions -- just 53 percent of women were literate, a rate 20 percentage points lower than that of its men. School is expensive for most and too far away for many, and by age 16, only about 45 percent of girls are still enrolled, compared with about 65 percent of boys.
"We found that the high school dropout rate soared when girls reached the ninth grade. This was primarily because there are fewer high schools and girls had to travel longer distances to get to school," said Anjani Kumar Singh, Bihar's principal secretary overseeing education.
Here's a chart showing how female school enrollment drops off, particularly for girls, as they get older:
So in 2006, the state's government tried a different, more vehicular solution: they gave all 9th-grade girls money to buy a bicycle in order to make the trek to class a little easier.
The move was very politically popular (free bikes for everyone!), but a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research quantified its positive impact on female education in Bihar.
The authors found it increased the likelihood that the girls would stay in school by 30 percent, and it reduced the gender gap between male and female enrollment by 40 percent.
We find that the rate of age-appropriate participation in secondary school for girls increases by 30 percent in cohorts exposed to the Cycle program ... and also find strong evidence to suggest that the mechanism of impact was the reduction in the 'distance cost' of attending school induced by the bicycle. We find a significant increase in the number of girls who appear for the SSC exam, suggesting that the increase in enrollment was not just on paper, but led to a real increase in school participation.
It wasn't just easier for the girls to get to school with their new wheels. Tying the money to the bikes meant the girls' families couldn't spend it on other household goods, and since so many students received bikes at once, it made it much more likely that they would ride in groups and thus increase the safety of their commute. It was also a pretty good bargain for the government, at only $50 a student.
"The Cycle program appears to have been quite unique in its ability to effectively provide a non-fungible transfer to girls that was not captured by either households or officials," the NBER authors write, "and which thereby reduced the daily cost of school attendance for girls."
I've been occasionally skeptical of technological solutionism for development issues, but it's refreshing when the solutions are actually low-tech things that are relatively easy to obtain (and maintain) in those countries. And it's even better when they actually work. | <urn:uuid:702858bb-1d9a-490f-a025-8b58714daebf> | {
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The word “drill” has come to define bad teaching. The piercing violence that “drilling” evokes just seems not to belong in sensitive pedagogy. Good teachers don’t fire off quiz questions and catechize kids about facts. They don’t plop students at computers to drill themselves on spelling or arithmetic. Drilling seems unimaginative and antisocial. It might even be harmful.
“In educational circles, sometimes the phrase ‘drill and kill’ is used, meaning that by drilling the student, you will kill his or her motivation to learn,” explains Daniel Willingham, a University of Virginia professor of psychology who has written extensively on learning and memory. “Drilling often conjures up images of late-19th-century schoolhouses, with students singsonging state capitals in unison without much comprehension of what they have ‘learned.’” ...
Oh, those schoolhouses — with the hickory sticks and the dunce caps. “Harrisburg! Salt Lake City! Montpelier! Tralalalala!” That does sound kind of fun — I mean, authoritarian. And drilling hardly has a better reputation outside academia. On message boards, students complain bitterly about Kumon, the extracurricular Japanese system of worksheet drills that many also admit has made them superb at math. Only unsportsmanlike parents hellbent on raising valedictorians, it seems, require their kids to do such rote work. At the same time, parents dismiss cutesy, flashy apps and Web sites that drill students using elaborate animation (like PopMath for arithmetic, iFlipr for custom flashcards, Cram for custom practice tests) as superficial edutainment, on par with children’s TV.
Willingham also approves of drilling as a way to measure what you’ve learned. “Testing yourself is really good,” he told me. “It actually leads to better learning than studying” — e.g., reading passages over and over, sometimes with a highlighter. He explained, “You can’t be proficient at some academic tasks without having certain knowledge be automatic — ‘automatic’ meaning that you don’t have to think about it, you just know what to do with it.” For knowledge that must be automatic, like multiplication tables, “you need something like drilling,” Willingham wrote. He also warned, “You’d hope to make it a little less boring for the student.”
Here’s something I’ve found that makes drilling not boring: colorful, happy apps.
September 17, 2010
Virginia Heffernan writes in the NYT Sunday Magazine:
By the way, the family of the Mr. Kumon who founded Kumon in Osaka in the 1950s now owns $400 million dollars worth of Kumon stock. The funny thing about Kumon is, last I checked, it is resolutely low-tech: it was completely paper and pencil drilling. You fill in a huge workbook of problems, then you give it to the Asian lady who owns the franchise, she grades it by flipping through the pages at amazing speed, then she gives you either a higher level workbook or one of their endless supply of additional problem sets at the same level.
Computers can make this more efficient by grading tests automatically. Moreover, they can shuffle questions on the fly so if you are doing badly, the computer can lower the difficulty until you get the hang of it.
The big question is whether math drilling programs can do what a first-rate tutor can do: figure out why you are making a recurrent mistake and explain it to you in a way you'd understand. In theory, it doesn't sound impossible, but here we are, in 2010, and I've never heard of anybody in Silicon Valley getting as rich off math tutoring as Mr. Kumon did. | <urn:uuid:f855fda6-207c-4227-932b-f2ed49318320> | {
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The Impact of Browsers
Unlike desktop applications, web developers rely on "middle men" to deliver applications to users in the form of web browsers. Changes to browsers significantly impact web applications, so understanding the current and future landscape of browser technology is an important aspect of web development. With the introduction of new browsers like Google Chrome and Mobile Safari, developers find themselves working in the middle of the Internet's second "browser war."
A lot has changed since the last browser war in 1999, though.
The other side effect of this "standards focus" is that it no longer matters who "wins" the browser war. If all browsers are more or less rendering pages consistently and the key differentiators are speed, performance, reliability, and end-user "chrome" features, then web developers can sit back and enjoy the benefit of increasingly powerful application delivery "middle men." Web applications will be built to run on any browser that supports standards, and companies will not be locked-in to a specific browser vendor. But it's not all goodwill and cooperation in today's browser war.
While standards do exist and browser makers are building browsers to implement them, there can be significant variation in implementation. The best example of this is the notoriously varying support for CSS in today's browsers. Web developers have developed all variety of unusual "hack" to work around the differences of each browser's CSS implementation, and each of those hacks represents wasted development time. It's this "hack" mentality that has helped drive developers to the emerging RIA platforms where they're not burdened with the inconsistencies of browsers.
The next true test for browsers is HTML5. If browser makers can come together and begin delivering uniform support for the standards outlined in HTML5, standards-based development has a very serious possibility of reducing interest in RIA plug-in development. But if the past is a lesson for how long it can take browsers to uniformly implement a standard, developers can reasonably expect it to take another 12 to 24 months before browsers begin to offer enough next-generation standards support to compete with RIAs.
Impact on the Future
As Ajax, RIAs, and browsers evolve, they are forming the foundation for web applications that will become mainstream in the future. Whether there is greater potential in RIAs or standards-based development, there are four clear future trends these key technologies reveal:
- Offline Web Applications. It's clear that in the future offline web applications will be common. The HTML5 standard focuses heavily on providing a standards-based infrastructure for enabling offline applications, and RIAs like Flash and Silverlight are quickly maturing APIs for offline scenarios.
- More Mobile Browsing. The explosion of Internet connected mobile devices today will only continue in the future. As more users connect to the Internet on-the-go, it will become increasingly important to offer tailored mobile experiences to users. A 2008 Nielsen report revealed that mobile access to web sites extends a site's reach by 13% on average. Ignoring mobile in the future will not be an option.
- More Rich Interactivity Over the Web. Whether it's HTML5's new <video>, <audio>, and <canvas> tags, or Silverlight and Flash's powerful plug-in based rendering engines, the web is getting richer. Users increasingly expect "desktop-like" experiences for web-delivered applications, and providing those rich experiences will be a basic requirement of future web development.
In short, the future of the web will be visually rich, interactive applications that can be accessed through almost any Internet connected device, and used even when an active connection to the Internet is not available. RIAs and standards, and the browsers delivering both, are all heading in that direction. Developers will need to weigh the pros and cons of each approach to decide how to build applications for the future. | <urn:uuid:ca6decbf-c1b0-4ef3-a244-99ec34768557> | {
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Are you familiar with the term “Spinal Ependymoma”? Ependymomas are tumors that come from the ependymal cells which are found in the central nervous system. These tumors were first described by Bailey in year 1924. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified these tumors based of course of its histologic appearance. The classification is as follows – Grade I (myxopapillary ependymoma and subependymoma), Grade II (ependymoma), and Grade III (anaplastic ependymoma).
Spinal Ependymoma are slow growing tumors which come from the cells that line the central canal of the spinal cord. Most of these tumors are present in the cervical or thoracic cord (Journal of Neuro-Oncology 2006).
Because it is a slow growing tumor it might take time before it is diagnose not until an individual seek treatment for back pain and even paralysis. Most doctors would require one to have an MRI and that is the time that such condition is seen. That is why because of the slow growth of this tumors, it leads patients to suffer from pain for quite a long time before appropriate treatment is given.
Treatment should be started as soon as it is diagnosed for there is always a risk that the tumor can rupture which may result to complication in the cerebral fluid, infection and even permanent paralysis. Most form of treatment for this condition is surgery.
Spinal cord ependymoma is a quite rare tumor that is why management of such disease is not well established. There is one study that makes a retrospective analysis on patients that are treated with this malignancy. 14 patients were retrospectively analyzed, ten of which are men and four are women whose aged are from 8 to 58 years old. All of the patients were treated with surgery and a postoperative radiotherapy is given to 12 patients. The result showed patient’s radiotherapy right after subtotal resection has a ninety-two percent long term survival (Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice 2005). | <urn:uuid:c8b0f07a-318b-4f8e-8eab-49378d130992> | {
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CS 10 CSI Camp:Forensic Science for Kids Saturday
Oct 22 - Nov 19 (Saturday)
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Ages 8-14 · Co-Ed
From Oct 22, 2016 to Nov 19, 2016
Each Saturday from 04:00 PM to 05:30 PM
This activity has been cancelled.
Take your love of mystery books and detective shows to the next level! Learn all about the tools and techniques used by forensic scientists in solving crimes in this fun, lab-based class. Students will learn how to extract and isolate DNA, collect and analyze fingerprints, identify counterfeit checks and bills, use chemistry to identify unknown substances left behind at crime scenes, and much more! Each class will be packed with hands on experiments and activities as well as realistic cases that students can use the knowledge they've learned about analyzing forensic evidence to solve.
SC Craft Room at Sr. Center
Sarah Gillani CPRD
Chehalem Parks and Recreation | <urn:uuid:e778a46d-607d-4b1a-9a1b-850568841606> | {
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The photograph above shows the rear of the reviewing stand built in 1934 at the Zeppelin Field in Nürnberg, Germany for Hitler's Nazi party rallies. On the far right is the front entrance to the Golden Hall, which has been converted into a museum called Faszination und Gewalt (Fascination and Violence).
Also seen in the photo above is the modern sculpture, constructed out of salvage from World War II and spray-painted battleship gray, which stands in front of the Museum. Hitler favored classical art and deplored this kind of modern art, which he referred to as "degenerate art." It has often been said that the winners write the history of a war; the winners also build the monuments, so the memorial artwork at all the World War II historical places is the opposite of what Hitler admired.
The marble reviewing stand at the Zeppelin Field, shown in the photograph above, is the place where the Nazi swastika was blown up by the Allies in a symbolic display of victory over the Nazis on April 24, 1945.
These stands are where the Nazi dignitaries
sat and enormous flags with the swastika
emblem were displayed. Now the former parade ground has been turned into a soccer
On the central promontory, which is the speaker's stand where Hitler used to give his speeches, you can still make out the faint outline of another swastika which was removed from the marble by the American military.
Inside the Golden Hall, a gold mosaic swastika has been left on the ceiling as a grim reminder of Germany's dark past.
This is what Hitler saw when he stood at the speaker's stand.
The field that stretched before him was filled with 100,000 marching soldiers and there was a capacity crowd of 340,000 spectators.
In the video below you can see where there was once a large swastika just above that door.
The three divisions that fought in the battle of Nuremberg were the 3rd, the 42nd and the 45th Infantry divisions. The 42nd Rainbow Division and the 45th Thunderbird division went on to liberate the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945.
The Battle of Nuremberg was given great importance by the American military because it "was in the eyes of the Americans nothing less than the sacred home of National Socialism."
The destruction of the hated Nazi swastika emblem, encircled by a gold-plated laurel wreath, took place four days after three divisions of the American Seventh Army had captured the city of Nuremberg on April 20, 1945, which happened to be Hitler's 56th birthday.
On the day that the swastika was blown up, the victorius Americans held their third victory parade on the Zeppelin field.
Even the clouds felt it. | <urn:uuid:24d90529-1962-4b7d-a0b6-37cc98b09f05> | {
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|OVERVIEW OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF SYRIA|
Chronology of Christianity in Syria
34: the conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Already Jesus was known in Syria.
46-48: Paul's first mission to Antioch. Jesus' disciples were called Christians for the first time in this city.
End of 1st century: Christianity spread to Edessa (today, Urfa, Turkey).
From about 110: St Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, inaugurated an era of martyrs.
2nd-4th century: a school of theology developed in Antioch, one of whose most prestigious disciples was John Chrysostom. Monasticism flourished from the 4th-5th century with thousands of ascetics, monks and cenobites. St Simeon the Stylite and St Maron lived not far from Aleppo.
4th century: Edessa became the site of a Syrian-Aramaic theology school. St Ephraem, Bardesane and Afraate spread Christianity in inner Syria.
4th-6th century: Christians spread to other areas.
5th century: Syria was at the heart of the Monophysite controversy, and the Bishops' sees were contended by Monophysites and Catholics. The Council of Chalcedon failed to end the disputes. St Maron's monks, faithful to Rome, began to seek refuge in Lebanon.
7th century: At the Umayyade court in Damascus many professionals were Christians. Caliph Omar dismissed Christian officials and his successor obliged them to wear distinctive dress. In 722 there were still 3.8 million Christians in Syria out of a population of 4 million.
8th century: Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi forced Arab-Christian Tannukhs to convert to Islam.
855: Christians in Homs revolted and their leaders were crucified at the city gates.
9th century: Islam was gaining the upper hand, many churches became mosques and, by about 900, half the Syrian population was Muslim.
12th-13th century: Christians in Syria had problems in areas controlled alternately by crusaders and Muslims. In 1124 Aleppo cathedral was made into a mosque.
1350: out of a population of one million, 100,000 were Christians.
1439: Jacobites took part in the Council of Florence but the fall of Constantinople and the Ottoman occupation of Syria was an obstacle to reuniting the Church.
16th century: The Orthodox, Jacobite and Armenian Christian communities were recognized by the Ottoman sultan as nations with their own courts and laws.
19th century: European pressure forced the Ottoman Empire to make reforms: the equality of all citizens was proclaimed, whatever their religion, and the personal statutes of Christians maintained.
1860: the massacres of Christians in Mount Lebanon spread to Damascus: 12,000 survived.
1915: Vast numbers of Armenians fled to Syria from massacres, in Turkey.
Christians in Syria today
There are 500,000 divided into six Dioceses. Their leader is the "Patriarch of Antioch and all the East", and their liturgy is in Arabic. Damascus has been the Patriarchal See since 1342.
Greek Catholics (Melkites)
The Greek Catholic Church of Antioch was born of a return to Catholicism of part of the Greek Orthodox Church in Antioch. In 1724, the election of Patriarch Cyril Tanass who favoured union with Rome annoyed Constantinople, which sent another Patriarch to Damascus, dividing the community. Tanass and some Melkites were forced to take refuge in Lebanon and others emigrated to Egypt and Palestine. Those who remained were fiercely persecuted and massacred by the Ottomans in Aleppo in 1817. A revolution by Greece deviated hostility toward the Orthodox and in 1837 the Melkites obtained a leader. Today there are 200,000 Melkites in five Dioceses.
The Armenian Church was inspired by St Gregory the Illuminator who made Armenia Christian in the third century. It is divided into Orthodox (Gregorians) and Armenian Catholics. The forced deportation to Aleppo by the Turks in the First World War and the exodus of Armenians from Cilicia and Alexandretta considerably increased the community in Syria. The Armenian Gregorian Catholicos of Sis and the Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia live in Lebanon. Today the 150,000 Armenian-Syrian Gregorians and 20,000 Catholics live mainly in Aleppo, Jazira and Lattakia. There are two Armenian Catholic Dioceses. Armenian liturgy is based on traditions from Jerusalem, Cappadocia and Byzantium
The Syrian Church was born in the mid-6th century from the dispute about the two natures of Christ. Jacob Baradai ordained Monophysite priests and Bishops, setting them beside the Catholic hierarchy. This Jacobite Church was joined by most of the Syrians who opposed Byzantine rule. In 1662 a former Jacobite Bishop became the first titular of a Syrian Catholic Church; but this was a short-lived experience and the new Church was only re-established in 1783 under the aegis of the Maronite Patriarch, who gave it asylum in Lebanon until the official recognition of the "nation of Syrian Catholics" in 1845. Most "Syrians" are former refugees from southern Turkey. These 60,000 Orthodox (Jacobites) and 40,000 Catholics are mainly based in Jazira and Aleppo.
Assyrians and Chaldeans
Assyrians are Christians who belonged to the Nestorian Church established in Mesopotamia Chaldeans are those who returned to Catholicism in 1681. The 40,000 Assyrian-Chaldeans in Syria are small minorities sorely tried by wars and frequent forced exile. There is one Chaldean Diocese: Aleppo; the Chaldean Patriarch who has the title of Babylon resides in Baghdad. The liturgy is celebrated in Chaldean and Arabic.
The monks of St Maron founded the Church in Antioch by the Orontes River. Maronites are Catholic. Persecuted by the Monophysites and then the Arabs, the majority were forced to take refuge in Lebanon. In Syria today there are only 25,000 Maronites who have three Dioceses and live in Aleppo, Tartus, Latakia and Damascus. The see of the Maronite Patriarch (who also has the title of Antioch) is in Bkerke, Lebanon.
The 3,000 Latins, mostly Catholics from Palestine or Europe (French and Italian), are under the jurisdiction of the Vicariate Apostolic of Aleppo for Latins, established in 1762. The majority live Damascus and Aleppo.
A few thousand members of various denominations form the Superior Evangelical Council of Syria and Lebanon.
Relations with the State
In Syria, Islam is not the state religion. The country is secular, which ensures equality for members of other religions. Christians can buy land and build churches. Clerics are exempt from military service and schools provide Christian and Muslim religious instruction. Unlike other Arab countries, Syria represses Muslim fundamentalism. Christians support the government that guarantees their survival. Emigration is a serious problem for the Christian churches; at least 250,000 Christians have left Syria since 1958. Rural Christians are constantly moving to the cities, because of Muslim pressure and of lack of structures.
Other religions in Syria
There are about 12 million Sunni Muslims in the main Syrian cities, about 75% of the population. They follow the full Sunna, sayings of Mohammed as handed down by his companions, and obey the Grand Mufti, elected for life. Alawi Muslims, today 1,800,000, are followers of Aly, Mohammed's son-in law. They are considered heretics by Muslim theologians. Contact with Crusaders led to syncretism to the point that they celebrate Christmas, Epiphany and Pentecost. The 200,000 Ismaili Shi'ites are so named because they follow the branch which in the dynastic succession of the Imam stops at the seventh Imam, Ismail, rather than at the 12th, like the Iranian Shi'ites.
The doctrines of this community were first propagated in Egypt. Their mysterious beliefs are based on a variety of books including works by Aristotle and the Psalms. They believe in reincarnation and do not allow polygamy. Thus they are considered heretics by other Muslims. Persecution has forced them to take refuge in southern Syria and in the Lebanese Chouf mountains.
Of all the religious communities the Jews, claiming 2,500 years of history in Syria, are the oldest. With the creation of the State of Israel, their numbers plummeted; in 1994 they were only 1,250, mostly in Aleppo. Government restrictions on journeys abroad were lifted only recently and Syrian Jews are now permitted to emigrate, although not to Israel. Many go to the United States.
Weekly Edition in English
9 May 2001, page 16
L'Osservatore Romano is the newspaper of the Holy See.
The Cathedral Foundation
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The Power of RECs to Improve Human Health
- European Directive Mandates Non-financial Reporting (10/23/2014)
- The Job Creation Potential of Alternative Energy (09/18/2014)
- Hotels Find Valuable Option in Carbon Offsets (08/06/2014)
- Growth in Carbon Offset Market Supported by Voluntary Purchasers (07/24/2014)
- The Water-Energy Nexus (06/05/2014)
LEED Green Building
- Greenbuild 2014: Leadership Jazz (10/21/2014)
- Renewable Choice Energy Offsets FIFA World Cup Stadiums (06/17/2014)
- LEED® v4 and Green-e® Climate Certified Carbon Offsets (03/31/2014)
- Shippensburg University Project Showcases Value of USGBC LEED® Certification System (03/13/2014)
- LEED® v4 Certification Prepares to Roll Out in Canada (03/03/2014)
- A Reflection on Gratitude (11/25/2014)
- The Role of Community Wind (11/06/2014)
- EPA Green Power Partnership Announces Top Lists (11/05/2014)
- The Spooky Reality of Climate Change (10/31/2014)
- The Importance of Renewing the Production Tax Credit (10/07/2014)
- Top 10 Tips for a More Sustainable Holiday Season (12/05/2014)
- 500,000+ Voices Strong for Climate Action (09/23/2014)
- Climate Change is Not a Political Issue (05/08/2014)
- Celebrating Earth Day 2014 (04/22/2014)
- Hour for the Earth - 2014 (03/28/2014)
by Amy Haddon on 04/25/2013
Every day at Renewable Choice, we help our customers buy renewable energy, primarily in the form of renewable energy credits, or RECs. RECs are the way that clean power is tracked and traded in North America and are used by thousands of organizations—including the EPA—to offset the carbon emissions associated with the consumption of electricity.
The primary benefit of RECs is the power of these offsets to affect climate change. However, the use of RECs to improve air quality and human health is another significant reason to choose to purchase these important commodities.
The Pollution Problem
Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that air pollution is implicated in more than 1 million premature deaths in China, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that worldwide, nearly 2.5 million deaths per year can be attributed to poor air quality as a result of pollution. The air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels is a risk factor in many major health problems including respiratory infection, asthma, heart disease, and lung cancer. Sadly, children less than five years of age in developing countries are the population at greatest risk from exposure to pollution.
However, people in the U.S. are also at a surprising risk. A whopping 41% of Americans live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or air particulate. The WHO reports that studies have suggested that upwards of 500,000 Americans die every year from complications related to inhaled air particulate. Californians are at the greatest risk; it is estimated that more than 3800 people die prematurely each year in the San Joaquin valley as a result of pollution, and the most recent State of the Air project from the American Lung Association ranks five of the top 10 most polluted American cities in California.
Reducing pollution and conserving energy go hand-in-hand. By lowering our consumption of fossil fuels, we can have a direct and positive impact on climate change and human health; the two are inextricably linked. Most solutions are also less expensive as they simultaneously reduce utility and fuel costs.
Our Top Five Clean Energy Tips for Individuals and Businesses
- Conserve electricity - Turn off lights, turn off appliances, adjust your thermostat, purchase energy efficient (Energy Star) products, and replace your light bulbs with LEDs. Get an energy audit for your home or business to learn where you have inefficiencies and how you can cut your heating and cooling waste. Upgrade or retrofit your buildings to improve their energy efficiency.
- Reduce, reuse, recycle - Creating new products is more energy—and pollution--intensive than reusing or recycling. New products require virgin materials and manufacturing processes that consume more energy and produce more waste. Instead, recycling, shopping at second-hand stores, living more frugally, and using reusable grocery bags are simple steps you can take to reduce energy emissions.
- Park your vehicle(s) - Vehicle emissions are notorious for their effect on air quality. Whenever possible, choose alternatives to single passenger vehicles. Use public transportation or a carpool. Ride your bike to work. Avoid the drive-thru. Turn off your engine whenever you are parked for more than 10 seconds. Fill your tank in the evening to avoid evaporation. Telework.
- Plant trees - Tomorrow (April 26th) is Arbor Day—what better time to remember that trees are our natural allies in the battle against global warming and air pollution? The UN reports that slowing deforestation is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to combat climate change. Not practical to plant a tree where you live? Eat less meat and shop locally; the expansion of agriculture due to global demand is the primary threat to forests, and local food equals fewer emissions.
- Purchase RECs and carbon offsets - It’s nearly impossible for us to avoid electricity entirely, no matter how much we may want to live off-grid. In order to help neutralize our emissions, we can choose to purchase clean power and carbon offsets from a provider like Renewable Choice. RECs and offsets are an easy, affordable alternative to on-site generated clean power and are available to individuals and businesses of all sizes.
Americans are beginning to experience the real impact of climate change. Many of us stand to realize an immediate benefit in our air quality by changing the way in which we consume energy. Even if you’re not convinced that climate change will impact you, what about considering how pollution might?
Amy Haddon is Vice President of Communications for Renewable Choice. Follow Amy on Twitter @GetGoingGreen. | <urn:uuid:a7ca58eb-279b-4483-aff7-9f3450c68919> | {
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In the spring of 1861, the Civil War, perhaps the single greatest influence in shaping this nation, was beginning to write its bloody history. Chicagoans found the far-away fighting delivered to their doorsteps through dispatches from Tribune reporters at the front lines.
Those accounts of the great events of the era filled much of the paper's front page. But, as was common then, several front-page columns also were devoted to advertising. On May 25, when thousands of government troops occupied Alexandria, Va., the classified ads tell us that a man, who explained he was about to take a job involving a lot of travel, reluctantly was selling his "Trained Scotch Terrier." Another ad said, "Piano Wanted."
Life goes on.
On one hand, there are the important events of the day, the news. On the other, there's everyday life.
Colleen Dishon, recently retired Tribune associate editor, once offered this distinction: "News puts the world into perspective for the readers. Features puts the person into perspective with the world."
Features also put, editors hoped, increased subscriber and advertiser dollars in hand due to the broadened appeal of the paper. Because features were added when editors perceived a subject area that was becoming of reader interest, the expansion of the non-news part of the Tribune traces a century and a half of societal change.
From its infancy, the newspaper included more than earthshaking events and local fires and crimes. A "Homes" column dated back to 1852, an indicator that the young city was evolving from a roughneck town built on river and lake muck to become a place for families to settle in for the long run.
When Canadian-born Joseph Medill became one of the Tribune's owners in 1855, he introduced science features into the paper. This was an era in which the railroad and the factory were beginning to define this city.
Another Medill innovation that has returned to today's Tribune was the showcasing of feature stories (accounts from the gold fields of the West were popular) on Page 1. By the mid-1870s, Medill recognized that Chicago was offering many refinements to lives of mere survival. He dedicated several areas of the paper to chronicling those refinements with departments for theater, books, religion, sports, women (with columns on fashion and homemaking), and humor (example: "The Digger Indians are never known to smile. They are grave diggers").
Just as the Roman Catholic Church has been credited with keeping art and literature alive through the Dark Ages, women's interest departments were, for decades, the paper's main depository of items related to the daily lives of readers. The home for most of those departments was the Sunday paper.
The first Tribune Sunday edition came out May 26, 1861, the day after Alexandria, Va., was occupied by federal forces and the salesman offered his dog for sale. That extra edition was brought in on the rising tide of Civil War news, but, over time, it became a capacious vehicle for advertising and burgeoning special-interest sections. Today, with a TV book, special magazines, the regular Tribune magazine, and sections encompassing home furnishings, transportation, the arts and more, a Sunday Tribune can run more than 400 pages.
Perhaps foreseeing that future, some Tribune customers early on objected to publication on the Christian Sabbath. They felt that day should be reserved for church attendance and reading matter should be restricted to the Bible.
One day in 1886, the Tribune's presses broke down, causing much of the Sunday edition to be missed. It was said that some ministers claimed the breakdown was an act of God.
Shortly after the turn of the century, in what turned out to be an inspired choice for serving the extremely broad range of interests of Chicagoans, James Keeley was appointed the Tribune's managing editor. Almost at once, he began to extend the paper's influence in readers' lives.
He hired actress Lillian Russell to write on charm and beauty. "A Line O' Type or Two" offered verse and humor. Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. William A. Evans was persuaded to write "How to Keep Well." The "Friend of the People" column dealt with what Keeley dramatically termed "the simple annals of a broken sidewalk, street lamps that fail to light the way... the petty burdens of the poor and uninfluential." And Laura Jean Libbey's "Advice to the Lovelorn" saved many a young woman "from taking the irretrievable false step which often confronts the friendless girl in a large city."
As with Medill, many of the areas Keeley identified as of reader interest remained viable or were reborn in modern times.
Health and fitness coverage continues, almost a hallmark of the current era. "Ann Landers," "Dear Abby" and "Tales from the Front" carry on for Libbey.
The Your Money section, which debuted in 1993, was foreshadowed by one of Keeley's last inventions, the "Investors' Guide," begun in 1914. | <urn:uuid:4de6cdc9-942d-4565-9a23-9319ecc8ab56> | {
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What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is an app that allows users to send photos or messages that disappear after a set time limit. The idea was to provide some level of privacy to allow users to open up and express more freely without the fear of photos being shared beyond the original recipient. A user can take a picture, make some edits, add some text and then send it to friends; the friends have 1-10 seconds to view the photo before it is deleted. The temporary or ephemeral nature of the app seeks to encourage creativity and unhindered self-expression.
“When you see your children taking a zillion photographs of things you would never take a picture of, it's because they're using photographs to talk,” observes Evan Spiegel, Snapchat founder and CEO, in a 2015 video explaining the inspiration and raison-d’etre behind the new age social media app. Snaps can be personalized to a great extent through easy-to-use instant-editing tools such as captions, drawings, emojis, filters and even augmented reality. But despite all the fun, there have been growing concerns regarding sexting, cyberbullying among other issues that have marred the meteoric rise of Snapchat.
A 2017 survey conducted by Common Sense Media showed that 29% of parents expressed concern about their teens’ use of Snapchat. In comparison, only 16% of the respondents were worried about Facebook and a mere 6% about Instagram. Snapchat and other chic/trendy social media apps are attracting teens and adolescents from yesteryear social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr; nearly half of US teens say they prefer Snapchat over other social media sites, including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Hence, parental concern regarding the use of new age social media apps is bound to grow!
Here are some of the major concerns that parents need to be aware of:
False Sense of Security
Snapchat is built around the idea of ephemeral messages and pictures, but that isn’t entirely accurate. Screenshots can easily be taken by the recipient and saved. Snapchat tries to send a notification to the original sender when a screenshot is taken, but this is not foolproof and cannot be relied upon. In addition to screenshots, photos can easily be taken of the screen itself; while third-party apps exist to allow users to save others' Snaps!
Much like how PC recovery software can bring back files from the dead, there are ways to restore deleted Snaps; although they require some effort, such methods can be leveraged for inappropriate uses by motivated individuals. There’s never a fool-proof way to wipe out digital footprints; privacy is almost in direct opposition to the concept of a connected world.
Many kids and teens are tempted to send mean and bullying messages because messages and pictures are anyway bound to disappear. Believing that there is no or little way to document and follow up on bullying, encourages such negative behavior.
Due to the design of the app, it is very commonly used for sending inappropriate nude pictures among teens. The false promise of privacy can lead teens to send sexually explicit pictures to friends or romantic partners; such pictures could wind up on the wider internet. Also, teens can be sent sexually explicit pictures without their approval or consent! There’s no such thing as “anonymity” online.
Despite a policy that requires users to be 13 years or older, in compliance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), there is no stopping young children from signing up on the platform with fake birth dates.
This feature rolled out last year, pinpoints users' exact locations on a map once they share their stories. Sharing location online can be an open invitation for trouble from stalkers, other miscreants and even terrorists. Such features create what are known as "soft targets," areas where terrorists attack a big event attended by civilians.
Snapchat has no internal moderation and no parental controls, and as such, can be very risky. Banning it entirely will likely create a lot of pushback as it is very popular among teens. So it is imperative to have an in-depth conversation on the risks and concerns about its use, for a teen can easily install the app during the day, use it and then uninstall before coming home, effectively hiding the use of it.
Here are some helpful resources and tips for using Snapchat safely:
This post on Smart Social is a collection of tips from 7 technology experts who provide unique insights on parental concerns regarding Snapchat and Instagram and tips to avoid the same. | <urn:uuid:ca164f9e-0805-4a1a-9984-8037d2a06565> | {
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Alexander’s well-trained army faced Darius’ massive battle line and organized for attack, charging the left of the Persians’ line with archers, javelin throwers, and cavalry, while defending against Darius’ outflanking cavalry with reserve flank guards. A charge by Persian scythed chariots aimed at the centre of Alexander’s forces was defeated by Macedonian lightly armed soldiers. During the combat, so much of Darius’ cavalry on his left flank were drawn into the battle that they left the Persian infantry in the centre of the battle line exposed. Alexander and his personal cavalry immediately wheeled half left and penetrated this gap and then wheeled again to attack the Persians’ flank and rear. At this Darius took flight, and panic spread through his entire army, which began a headlong retreat while being cut down by the pursuing Greeks. The Macedonian victory spelled the end of the Persian empire founded by Cyrus II the Great and left Alexander the master of southwest Asia. | <urn:uuid:f99fb3b8-fc97-465d-a782-d6377c415817> | {
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What's Up With the Giraffe?
Hoofs help a giraffe in many ways. First, they allow the animal to run quickly. Sometimes a giraffe must run from an attacking lion. If the giraffe had flat feet, it couldn’t move so fast. But a giraffe on its toes can really go.
Second, hoofs help a giraffe defend itself. A giraffe can kick hard with its sharp hoofs. One strong blow can kill a lion.
Third, hoofs help a giraffe stand and walk. A baby giraffe can stand up within an hour after being born—thanks to those hoofs.
Like all mammals, giraffes give birth to live young. A baby giraffe is called a calf. After a calf is born, it stays close to its mother. The calf depends on its mother for food and protection. A calf drinks its mother’s milk for 9 or 10 months. It also starts to eat green plants at the age of 2 weeks.
A calf may stand about 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall at birth. That is about as tall as an adult man. The calf weighs about 150 pounds (68 kilograms).
A giraffe is one of the few animals born with horns. Most other hoofed mammals with horns grow their horns when they are older. Giraffe horns start as small, bony lumps covered with skin and hair. The lumps grow longer as the calf grows bigger.
A calf grows quickly. In its first year, it may grow about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) a week. By its first birthday, the giraffe may already stand 10 feet (3 meters) tall!
Baby giraffes stay close to their mothers for about a year. But part of each day, the mothers must go off to find food for themselves. The calves stay behind in a group. One adult female giraffe watches over the group. She may even give milk to a calf that is hungry.
Young giraffes are not allowed to go off on their own to look for food. That would be too dangerous. Calves have many enemies that wait to attack them. Their enemies include lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and crocodiles. The calves are much safer with their baby sitter watching over them!
Inside a giraffe’s neck are seven bones. These bones and a giraffe’s backbone are its vertebrae (VUR tuh bree). Most other mammals, including humans, also have seven neck bones. But a giraffe’s neck bones are much longer. Each bone is about 10 inches (25 centimeters) long.
A giraffe’s neck also holds a windpipe. The windpipe carries air from the animal’s nose and mouth to its lungs. A giraffe’s lungs are extra large. They pump air through the long neck.
A giraffe’s neck muscles are very strong. They support the long, heavy neck bones. When a giraffe lifts its head and neck, it is lifting about 550 pounds (250 kilograms).
Giraffes use their necks in many ways. They use them to reach tall tree leaves to eat. Two fighting giraffes push their necks against each other.
When a giraffe browses, it eats leaves and buds from trees and bushes. Like most hoofed mammals, giraffes only eat plants. The giraffe uses its upper lip and long tongue to strip the leaves from the tree.
Giraffes are the only animals that can reach the high treetops without climbing. Giraffes don’t have to share their food with other creatures while browsing. In Africa, many trees end up with flat tops after giraffes eat all their top leaves and branches.
One of a giraffe’s favorite foods is acacia (uh KAY shuh) leaves. Acacia trees have very sharp thorns. But the thorns don’t hurt a giraffe as it eats. A giraffe’s thick, hairy lips protect it as it browses.
Giraffes tend to eat, off and on, all day long. At first, they chew their food very little before swallowing it. Later, they bring the cud, or food, back up to their mouths and chew it again. This makes the food easier to digest.
A giraffe’s neck is long enough to reach a high treetop. Yet it is too short to reach the ground. That makes it hard for a giraffe to bend down for water. To get a drink, a giraffe must first spread its front legs wide apart. Then it lowers its head to the water.
A giraffe drinks for a few seconds at a time. After five or six drinks, the giraffe is full. These drinks may add up to more than 10 gallons (37.9 liters) of water!
Giraffes are very cautious at waterholes. While bending down to drink, giraffes cannot see enemies that can be coming up on them from behind. Often, giraffes go to a waterhole in a group. Several giraffes stay on guard while the others drink.
Giraffes can go several days without drinking water. That’s because the acacia leaves they eat are very moist. Also, giraffes try to conserve their energy. So they don’t often feel thirsty.
Giraffes travel in groups, or herds, to protect themselves from enemies. A lion may attack a giraffe that is by itself. But the lion is less likely to attack a giraffe in a herd. There’s safety in numbers!
The size of a giraffe herd often changes. A giraffe may leave the herd to be by itself. Or it may leave one herd to join another. At any time, a herd may have 50 or more giraffes. Or it may have as few as 3 or 4.
Male giraffes often roam the grasslands by themselves. Females usually stay in pairs or small groups. A male will join the female herd when a member of the herd is ready to mate.
A giraffe walks differently from most other four-legged animals. First it moves both feet on one side of its body. Then it moves both feet on the other side. This causes the giraffe to rock from side to side as it walks. Get down on your hands and knees and try to move that way. It feels weird, right?
Giraffes may rock, but they do just fine as runners. A giraffe can gallop up to 35 miles (56.5 kilometers) an hour. Just don’t expect it to move that fast for long. Giraffes tire very easily. In general, they would much rather walk than run.
Getting into a comfortable position for sleep is not easy for a giraffe. That’s why a giraffe often sleeps standing up. It simply lowers its neck and tail and lets its eyelids droop.
Sometimes a giraffe will bend its legs and lie down to sleep. It holds its neck up straight, or it rests it on its hip or on a tree branch. When a herd lies down, one member always stays awake to watch.
No matter how they rest, giraffes get very little real sleep. At night, they usually fall into a deep sleep for only three to five minutes at a time. They enjoy about five deep sleeps a night.
Many African animals find giraffes to be good company. Since giraffes are so tall, they are excellent “lookout towers.” They can spot danger long before other animals. Sometimes, giraffes in a herd will suddenly turn their heads to stare in one direction. That tells other animals that danger may lie ahead.
Giraffes are usually very calm and gentle. They do not hunt or chase after other animals. They do not like to fight. They would rather run away than fight. But giraffes will defend themselves if a lion attacks them.
One of the giraffe’s best friends is the tiny tickbird. Tickbirds ride on the giraffe’s body. They eat ticks and other insects off the giraffe’s coat. The bird helps the giraffe keep clean. At the same time, the giraffe’s ticks make a good meal for the birds.
Only one animal is closely related to the giraffe. It is the okapi (oh KAH pee). It is a rare animal that lives near the Congo River in Africa.
Like the giraffe, the male okapi has two small horns on its head. A female okapi does not grow horns. An okapi’s body slopes downward like a giraffe’s. And the okapi has a long black tongue to strip leaves off trees. It also uses its tongue to wash its own eyes!
Strangely, the okapi hardly looks like a giraffe. In fact, it looks more like a horse or a zebra. The okapi stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall. Its neck is much shorter than a giraffe’s. And its legs have stripes like a zebra’s. | <urn:uuid:34a917fb-5031-4da8-a3c6-12e4ccd3886b> | {
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The Shetland is probably the rarest of all native duck breeds. The majority of today’s specimens originate from the crofts of Tronda where keen hobbyist have gathered together the remaining specimens of the breed and bred them to ensure their survival. Mrs Mary Isbister is one of the leading breeders that ensured their survival since the early1990’s. The ancestors of the Shetland are likely to have been imported to the islands by the Vikings although this is not proven. In any case it is very probable that the Shetland is descended from Scandinavian ducks as the Swedish Duck is similar in appearance with a blue body and a white bib. The Shetland duck would have supplemented its diet in the past by foraging on the poor marshy grazing of the Shetland Islands and would have been helpful in consuming the hosts of parasites like the Liver fluke which could otherwise cause problems for grazing livestock.
The Shetland is the third smallest native breed of duck and stands semi erect with a lively carriage and very energetic foraging habit..
Both drakes and ducks are glossy black with a white bib.
|Uses:||Eggs, conservation grazing, agroforestry.|
|Origin:||Shetland Isles, Scotland|
|Colour:||Glossy Black with a white bib. The bib is often irregular and sometimes patchy from just below the lower mandible down to the keel.|
|Weight, drake:||1.6 kg|
|Weight, duck:||1.4 kg| | <urn:uuid:1817a35d-da72-4e6e-a762-4dbedadbfead> | {
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Learning to eat healthy and nutritious foods from an early age is essential for a healthy body throughout life. Kids should learn about nutrition as soon as possible and in a positive, reinforcing environment. It's not enough for parents to tell their kids not to eat candy and junk food, they themselves need to avoid eating junk food and need to make healthy food accessible to their children. Learning what foods are beneficial to the body and learning to enjoy those foods means children will be less likely to be overweight or obese as they get older. The Internet can be an excellent tool to use to teach kids about nutrition, as it provides interactive games and lessons.
Kids need adequate nutrition to grow into healthy and strong adults. While malnourishment is not so much of a problem in the US any longer, getting too many calories from foods is. To reduce the risk of obesity, children need to learn how to choose foods that are full of vitamins and minerals but not overly high in calories. For the best health, they should learn to pick foods containing healthy fats and protein and are low in sugars and unhealthy fats. Unhealthy fats, such as trans fat and saturated fat, can lead to heart disease and other health problems while foods high in sugar can lead to diseases such as diabetes. Junk foods such as candy bars and soda are often eaten instead of healthy foods such as carrots and apples, eliminating the vitamins and minerals those foods provide.
Growing children need specific minerals and nutrients for development. Calcium and vitamin D are essential for developing strong, healthy bones, for example. They need iron for healthy red blood cells and minerals such as zinc for a fully functioning and strong immune system. Vitamin C is also essential for the immune system and for helping the body heal itself.
Good nutrition is also needed for the mental development of children. Kids who eat a healthy breakfast, for example, get a jump on the day and are more alert and ready to learn in the classroom. A balanced diet full of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean proteins, will help children focus in school and on homework. A healthy diet also allows them to be physically active, meaning they are more likely to exercise and play, rather than sitting and playing video games or watching television all day.
Nutrition is a way of life. Children will not learn to eat healthy foods by reading about them or being lectured. Instead, they learn by doing and by imitating what those around them do. Games and activities make a lesson about nutrition far more enjoyable too. Parents or teachers can let kids play nutrition games online or can create games about nutrition for the kids to play. When children are engaged in a lesson, they are more likely to remember it.
To further cement the lessons learned in class or by playing games, kids should have nutritious options set before them at home. Ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables should be easily accessible to kids in the refrigerator. Instead of soda, parents can offer children water or low-fat milk. Parents can quiz kids at home about the vitamins and minerals in their favorite vegetables. Over breakfast, kids can read the nutrition labels on cereal boxes to learn just what they are eating. | <urn:uuid:4ada92a2-f614-45a8-ae41-62bd7da4bd1c> | {
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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Wakatsuki family begins to break down because of how Manzanar forces them to live, but the final blow to the family is the realization that they can no longer depend on Papa’s solid character for strength. Wakatsuki traces the beginnings of her family’s disintegration to the mess hall lifestyle and the way in which it disrupted the cherished Wakatsuki mealtime ritual. When they stop eating together, the Wakatsukis stop connecting with each other, preferring to spend their daytime hours working or volunteering rather than cooped up together in the cramped barracks. This separation leaves Jeanne free to explore, but it also leaves her without a guide or mentor. She spends much of her time in camp floating from one activity to the next. Papa’s return from his arrest as a suspected spy accelerates the erosion of the Wakatsuki family structure. His experiences at Fort Lincoln and the accusation of disloyalty leave him a bitter and disillusioned man. He is no longer the source of strength he was before the war, and his return kills all hope that the family will rally around him as patriarch. That most of the older children eventually abandon Mama and Papa in California and relocate to New Jersey shows the deep divide that Manzanar creates in the once happy Wakatsuki family.
Wakatsuki blames her family’s disintegration on the camps rather than on the war because the war has little to do with the overall experience of Manzanar. The outbreak of war leads directly to the creation of camps such as Manzanar, but the war itself belongs to the realm of international politics and is far removed from the daily reality of the Wakatsukis’ existence. By frequently pointing out indignities such as the nonpartitioned toilets, Wakatsuki shows how even the smallest elements of camp life contribute to the changes in her family. The inconvenience of the lack of privacy and the overcrowding, among other things, create a physical discomfort that eventually turns into an emotional discomfort. The frustrations of camp life shorten tempers and result in outbursts of violence such as the December Riot and Papa’s attempt to beat Mama with his cane. These disturbing images show that the divisions that developed within families and within the Japanese-American community as a whole resulted more from the conditions of life than from the war in general.
Wakatsuki avoids portraying open ethnic conflict in her memoir in order to examine more carefully the subtle and often unspoken prejudices that infect everyday life, which are often the most dangerous. There are, of course, rumors of Japanese Americans being beaten and abused after they leave Manzanar, but for the most part the direct, open hatred for which the camp residents have prepared themselves never materializes. This imagined hatred shows the rarity of open hatred compared to deep-seated prejudice. In fact, by imagining that all of white America will hate them, these Japanese Americans are themselves subscribing to a kind of prejudice, forgetting that not all Americans are prowar and anti-Japanese. Many Americans, such as Jeanne’s kind schoolteachers and the American Friends Service that helps them find housing, actually help the Japanese. The mistaken belief that white America has an all-encompassing hatred for them handicaps the Japanese Americans. They focus so much on what seems to them an inevitable clash that they are not prepared for the subtler prejudice of daily life that is racism’s most common face.
The unfortunate result of this everyday nature of prejudice is that the prejudice becomes so ingrained that one can begin to forget that it is in fact a prejudice. Radine’s innocent surprise at Jeanne’s ability to speak English, for example, makes Jeanne realize that prejudice is not always a conscious choice but that it can also be a result of conditioning by one’s parents and culture. Radine judges from Jeanne’s Japanese appearance that she shouldn’t be able to speak English, because Radine’s family or culture (or both) has taught her to do so. Similarly, Jeanne begins to see the entire relocation of Japanese Americans as a function of the government’s inability to see good behind a Japanese face. She is shocked to discover that people do not really look to see who she is as a person but instead instantly judge her as a foreigner and paint her with the traits they imagine all Japanese people have. Racial stereotyping was a major part of the U.S. government’s wartime propaganda campaign, and many people based their views of Japanese people on the government’s attempt to portray them as vicious and subhuman. This propaganda was very effective, and at the height of the war, the derogatory word “Jap” was widely accepted.
The isolated location of Manzanar and the disintegration of the Wakatsuki family during the internment years give young Jeanne a lot of personal space in which to develop an understanding of who she is. The climax of her self-understanding comes much later in life with her return to Manzanar as an adult, which enables her to understand just how much the camp changed her. But with her independence at Manzanar, the young Jeanne begins to learn about the important components of her identity. Papa occasionally tries to correct what he sees as unacceptable behavior, such as smiling too much or studying religion, but ultimately Jeanne does what she wants. Her explorations of Japanese and American activities are early, unconscious attempts to define herself. Since she finds herself surrounded by only Japanese for the first time in her life, she naturally begins to feel the conflict of being both Japanese and American.
Although Manzanar makes Jeanne look more closely at her fellow Japanese, she is unable to resolve the confusion she feels as a Japanese American because the camp isolates her from the American half of her identity. After she leaves Manzanar, the shock of ethnic prejudice compels her to try to reclaim her American identity by fitting in, but her continual attempts to conform to white America’s definition of social achievement lead her to neglect the Japanese side of herself. The distance she puts between herself and her Japanese ancestry mirrors the unhealthy isolation from American culture that she experiences at Manzanar. The naïve belief that she can escape her Japanese face and make the world see her as only American leads to her downfall, for when she realizes that people will never see her as truly American, she is left with nothing. Only after changing high schools and being elected carnival queen does she finally see the absurdity of her attempts to define herself as either Japanese or American. Neither an exotic sarong nor an all-American prom dress can completely define her, just as she cannot say she is only Japanese or only American. In searching to define herself according to what others expect, she has ignored who she really is: a Japanese American.
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The Wakatsuki family’s frequent moves emphasize the difficulty they and other Japanese have in settling down permanently and reflect their deeper struggle to connect themselves to either Japanese or American culture. The Wakatsukis are comfortably settled in their Ocean Park home, but when they must leave this home behind, they become disoriented and lost, and remain so for the rest of the memoir. In a series of forced and often sudden moves, the Wakatsukis must pack up or sell their belongings and set out for ghettos—Terminal Island, Boyle Heights, and Cabrillo Homes—or for the relocation camp at Manzanar. The overall sense is that the Japanese are being shifted between temporary situations, all the while reaching out for a place to establish a permanent foothold. Ironically, Manzanar, originally a prison to the Japanese, becomes this foothold, and the Japanese are reluctant to let it go after the war. The dark undertone to the motif of displacement is that even if the Japanese do establish more permanent roots somewhere, another war or outbreak of prejudice against them could uproot them just as quickly as before.
The Japanese Americans at Manzanar latch onto typical elements of American culture in order to show that they are not foreigners or enemies but rather loyal citizens whose only world is America. Even the Issei immigrants had made a conscious choice to come to the United States, and many, like Papa, adopt American ways of life in order to make up for what they lack in legal citizenship. The residents at Manzanar recreate many of the aspects of American life that they like most, such as glee clubs, block associations, high school yearbooks, touch football teams, and even dance bands. For those born in America or long since departed from Japan, America is their only reference point, and they hold on to American culture as something they can share without fueling the anti-Japanese suspicions of government officials. Ironically, the all-Japanese Manzanar is where the Japanese can enjoy the simple pleasures of American culture. The ethnic prejudice of the society outside Manzanar spoils the Japanese people’s enjoyment of American culture, as when Jeanne’s high school teachers plot to prevent her from winning the carnival queen election.
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Stones appear throughout Farewell to Manzanar as symbols of Japanese endurance. The Japanese national anthem, Kimi ga yo, which Papa sings after getting in a fight, establishes the image of stones that remain unchanged throughout the ages as well as the layers of thick moss that make the stones look bigger than they are. This image suggests that the Japanese ability to endure the trials of Manzanar could actually lead to growth. It is not easy for Jeanne to bear ethnic prejudice, but her endurance enables her to see past the prejudice and discover her identity. Stones also represent solace and rest. For example, the Issei men gather small stones to create tranquil rock gardens, and Papa gazes at the massive Sierra Nevada mountains to escape his thoughts. These rocks remain even when Jeanne returns to the camp nearly thirty years later. The endurance of the rock gardens and the concrete foundations suggest that the camp will continue to exist through the experiences of those who inhabited it.
The blonde prom queen of Jeanne’s dream symbolizes Jeanne’s American standards of beauty as a young girl as well as her desire to be accepted and admired by her peers. However, the window through which Jeanne watches the girl symbolizes the barrier of ethnic prejudice that lets her see her goal but never achieve it. As Jeanne fights against more and more prejudice over time, this dream comes to symbolize the hopelessness she feels at being excluded from the social world open to her white friend Radine. That the dream persists even after her prom queen dreams are long behind her suggests that Jeanne has not entirely found what she is looking for and that ethnic prejudice still stands in the way of what she wants to achieve in life. | <urn:uuid:7ae2a5ee-0a15-4671-a5df-8a19f75c8188> | {
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CINCINNATI—Cardiac researchers at UC have found a new cellular pathway that could help in developing therapeutic treatments for obesity-related disorders, like diabetes and heart disease.
This research is being presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Chicago Nov. 16.
Tapan Chatterjee, PhD, and researchers in the division of cardiovascular diseases found that action by the enzyme histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) can lead to obesity-induced body fat dysfunction and that HDAC9-regulated pathways could be targets for potential treatment options in obesity-related diseases.
"Failure of fat cells to differentiate and properly store excess calories in obesity is associated with adipose tissue (fat) inflammation, fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, diabetes and increased cardiovascular diseases,” Chatterjee says. "We know that dysfunctional fat tissue is the underlying culprit in obesity-related diseases; however, we do not know why fat tissue becomes dysfunctional when a person becomes obese.”
Chatterjee says researchers in this study first identified HDAC9 regulator of fat cell differentiation within the living organism.
"Caloric intake promotes HDAC9 down-regulation to allow the conversion of precursor fat cells to ‘functional’ fat cells, capable of efficiently storing excess calories for future use and also maintaining whole body lipid and glucose stability,” he says. "Ideally, fat cells should function as a reversible storage site of excess calories and as an endocrine organ to maintain systemic lipid and glucose stability.
"Unfortunately, during chronic over-feeding, we find HDAC9 level is up-regulated in fat tissue, thereby blocking the conversion which leads to adipose tissue dysfunction and the onset of diseases such as diabetes, liver disease, high blood pressure and heart disease—the nation’s No. 1 killer.”
Researchers examined various members of the HDAC family of proteins and found that only HDAC9 showed a direct correlation to differentiation of precursor fat cells, both from human and mouse fat tissues.
"HDAC9 down-regulation is necessary for the differentiation of precursor fat cells to mature fat cells; forced up-regulation of HDAC9 by genetic manipulation blocks the differentiation of the precursor fat cells,” Chatterjee says. "On the other hand, precursor fat cells from HDAC9 genetic knockout mice showed accelerated differentiation.
"We believe that HDAC9 keeps precursor fat cells in the undifferentiated state; metabolic cues trigger HDAC9 down-regulation allowing conversion of the precursor cells to mature fat cells. We are exploring the cellular signaling mechanism that promotes such down-regulation of this enzyme during the normal fat cell differentiation process.”
Chatterjee says researchers were really interested in the tie between increased HDAC9 levels in fat tissue of mice and the caloric overload.
"Fat tissues from these obese mice showed dysfunction, with increased expression of pro-inflammatory agents and decreased expression of hormones responsible for maintaining whole body lipid and glucose stability,” he says. "The fat tissues of these mice are not capable of efficiently storing excess calories and are not able to perform proper endocrine functions.
"The adaptive response fails for some reason during chronic caloric overload, leading to the generation of fat tissue mass that is dysfunctional.”
Chatterjee says the HDAC9 level in fat cells is the underlying molecular culprit for dysfunctional fat tissue during obesity.
"We are currently examining HDAC9 knockout mice subjected to chronic high-fat feeding and think that HDAC9 gene removal will protect mice from obesity-linked adipose tissue dysfunction and associated metabolic disorders,” he says.
"Identification of HDAC9 as a novel regulator of fat cell differentiation and the finding that elevated HDAC9 levels are associated with adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity are extremely interesting and novel findings,” he continues.
Chatterjee’s team is pursuing studies to understand how diet regulates HDAC9 levels in fat tissue and how HDAC9 up-regulation can be prevented during diet-induced obesity through pharmacological means.
"Our findings may help lead researchers to targeted therapies that may prevent the development of obesity-related disorders in humans.”
This study was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. | <urn:uuid:8ab646c3-4ce3-459b-b93d-4af51f3f3e9d> | {
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Understanding the Cardinal Rules for a Bird-Friendly Yard
The best place to start watching birds is close to home. Birds are present in most yards and gardens, no matter how small or urban the space may be. But why settle for the random robin? If you provide birds with a few perks and pleasures, they'll hang around your yard because it's a nice place to be.
Birds need four basic things to survive: Food, water, shelter, and a place to nest. You can attract birds with these four offerings, no matter where you live, even in the urban heart of a large city. The first three — food, water, and shelter — are fairly simple to offer. The last, a place to nest, requires a bit more effort, but offers far greater rewards to you and the birds.
Eating like a bird
Consider your bird feeding to be an ongoing experiment. Use trial and error to determine what foods your birds like. Also experiment with how you offer the foods to birds, because not all birds like to eat in the same way. Not all people like lasagna, or drumsticks, or drive-through windows, or fancy restaurants, and not all birds like all bird foods or all bird feeders.
Where you live in North America has a bearing on what birds you can attract to your yard. The birds at the feeders in a rural Ohio farmyard are very unlike those in a central California yard. The latter gets California quail and yellow-billed magpies, the former cardinals and blue jays.
- Seeds. Bird feeding involves seeds. Black-oil sunflower seed is the most universally used seed for bird feeding because it's eaten by many feeder visitors, including chickadees, titmice, finches, grosbeaks, cardinals, jays, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, among others.
- Bird feeding's other popular seeds include: striped sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, millet, safflower, cracked corn, peanuts and peanut bits, niger or thistle seed, and mixed seed containing milo, wheat, millet, and cracked corn.
- Feeders. Today, as many feeder types and styles are available as there are sunflower kernels in a 50-pound bag of seed. The ideal feeding station has:
A large platform feeder a few feet off the ground with sunflower seed and mixed seed on it
A tube feeder or two offering sunflower seed, sunflower hearts, or thistle seed
A hopper feeder dispensing sunflower seed
A satellite feeder with sunflower seed, hearts, or peanut bits
An area of open ground for scattering mixed seed, with a nearby shelter or brushpile
Start simply, and then expand the feeding operation at your own pace. After you've got the basics down, you and your birds can move on to other areas of bird feeding, including offering fruits, nuts, suet, and specialized foods and feeders to cater to (or discourage) certain feeder visitors.
Few creatures on the planet can survive without water. Birds are no different. Birds need water for drinking, to help with digestion, and for bathing (see Figure 1).
There's nothing worse for a bird than a bunch of dirty, matted, haven't-been-washed-in-days feathers. Dirty feathers don't insulate well, they don't offer optimal flight, and, let's face it, dirty feathers don't look good.
You can do your part for avian hygiene by offering water to the birds in your yard. If you don't have a naturally occurring stream or pond on or near your property, consider putting out a birdbath.
Remember the following for an ideal birdbath set-up:
- The bath should have a large, shallow, cement stone, or composite bowl elevated slightly above ground. By shallow, say less than 3 inches deep, and the shallower the better. (Most birds don't like the deep end.)
- The surface of the bath shouldn't be so smooth that birds can't get a secure footing. If it feels slippery to you, consider roughing up the surface of the bath a bit. Or consider adding a few handfuls of small, coarse gravel to the bottom of the bath. This makes for better bird footing.
- Flat rocks should be placed in the water to provide shallow areas and secure footing. Not all birds like total-immersion bathing.
If you can't put your birdbath in the shade of a tree, place it near some type of cover. Birds get nervous when they're all wet (wet birds can't fly well). Shelter makes them feel better and, if shelter is near, they're more likely to stop and bathe than to sip and fly, or not stop at all.
Regularly clean your birdbath, at least once a week. Birds drink this water. If you had to drink out of your tub, wouldn't you rather it had just been cleaned?
Suppose you're a white-throated sparrow absent-mindedly kicking through the seeds scattered on the ground below a feeding station. Suddenly, one of those annoyingly perky black-capped chickadees sitting on the tube feeder above you gives an alarm call that means a hawk is nearby.
Lucky for you, the kind human owner of this backyard has placed the feeders near several evergreen trees and a humongous brushpile (see Figure 2).
Good shelter. That's why you liked this yard and decided to stop here for a bite to eat. Being a denizen of the brushy field edges, you calmly hop into the center of the brushpile and wait for the sharpie to get bored (or lucky) and leave.
A backyard can have all the perfect feeders and best bird foods, but the birds will ignore it if no decent shelter, or cover, is available nearby. They're not stupid. Like people, birds need shelter from bad weather. And birds and people want a cozy place to sleep, roost, and hide from predators.
Shelter can come in many forms: weedy areas, shrubs and brush, trees, brushpiles, woods, and even buildings (barn owls and barn swallows got their names in this way). When you look at the setup of your feeding station, try thinking like a bird:
- Where is the nearest place you can go to hide from danger?
- What about in bad weather? Are the feeders exposed to direct wind, snow, or rain?
If no shelter is convenient to the area of the feeders, create some shelter, such as an instant brushpile.
Nest boxes: Making a house a home
All birds that venture into your yard benefit from a varied habitat. Some species take advantage of human-made shelter — commonly called birdhouses or nest boxes. Birdhouses come in hundreds of shapes and sizes, designs, and colors.
As you get to know the birds in your yard, you can target the housing you provide to maximize the birds' benefit. Among the species that use housing are bluebirds, chickadees, titmice, woodpeckers, nuthatches, swallows, some flycatchers, and even a few warblers, ducks, hawks, and owls. But remember, not all birds use birdhouses, just as not all birds visit bird feeders.
Any experienced bird watcher will tell you that you find the most birds in the "edge habitat." Edge habitat is the area where two or more habitat types meet, such as where a meadow habitat meets the edge of a woodland habitat. Or where a thick, overgrown brushy area abuts a roadway.
The greatest variety of habitat occurs where habitat types meet, so it's not just a coincidence that edge habitat is where the birds are. Birds preferring each individual type of habitat can potentially be in the place where these habitats meet. And with some creative thinking, that place could be in your backyard. | <urn:uuid:a177659e-6da3-4369-879c-ab1ad6d11800> | {
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Trade, Urban Hinterlands and Market Integration c.1300-1600, edited by James A. Galloway (CMH, 2000), pp. 43-57.
Pursuing the question of economic development and its spatial articulation with reference to the two most important German cities and their hinterlands during the transition from the middle ages to the early modern period is a double-edged venture. On the one hand, it is a rewarding task because both cities have received and still receive intense scholarly attention. On the other hand, due to the sheer amount of information available, it is impossible to give a full account of the economic development of both cities. Therefore we have to confine ourselves to specific examples of the economic driving-forces.
Let us begin, however, with a few methodological remarks. The basic notion of the town as a central place is the paradigm that has shaped research on urban history for the last thirty years. While past research focused almost exclusively on the town itself and its dominance over all internal and external relations, more attention has been given to the role of the countryside since the 1980s. By using the terms Umland (environs) and Hinterland the interdependence and interconnection of the urban and rural economies were emphazised. However, for German speakers these terms are ambiguous. Umland suggests a bipartite character of the relation, whereas Hinterland evokes the impression of dependence and backwardness.
It is therefore necessary to define these terms as different spheres of influence. Pioneering work has been carried out by Hektor Ammann. Working from the notion of the town as a market, Ammann developed his concept of the economic unit (Wirtschaftseinheit) embracing town and countryside without refering to central-place theory. According to him an economic unit consists, firstly, of the immediate market area, which is based on the regular exchange of goods at the town’s weekly market for basic needs. In a second, wider market area the economic influence of the town encompasses a broader space where higher-quality goods were sold, where the extraction and processing of natural resources were controlled and from which craftsmen and merchants were attracted. Finally, the third sphere of economic influence consisted of long-distance trade. Adopting Ammann’s concept of town and countryside as economic units, which fits easily into a modified central-place theory, we mean by Umland (environs/surrounding countryside) the restricted marketing space and by Hinterland the wider marketing space. In Cologne and Nuremberg we have chosen the prime examples of economic units functioning as central places for their respective economic landscape or region (Wirtschaftslandschaft).
In the following we will explain how the two cities exercised their economic influence upon their hinterlands, and ask whether they pursued a kind of spatial policy, how their economic power structured the hinterlands, whether these hinterlands were orientated only towards the two cities, or whether they were integrated into wider regional economies and, finally, what changes in these relations occurred during the period from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. | <urn:uuid:84781044-9b88-4b7a-8fd3-8d5e0bd97585> | {
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Health care reform refers to the general custom utilized for major discussions concerning modification of existing health policies or creation of new ones, particularly governmental policies that have an effect on health care delivery services within a given community. Health care reform usually involves the broadening of populations that receive health care coverage by means of either public or private sector insurance policies. Health care reform also involves expansion of manpower in the health care industry to give more options for the consumers. It also aims to improve the access of consumers to health care providers as well as develop the quality of health care provided. The amendment also aims to lower the expenses of health care services so that consumers with lower financial capacities can access it.
In the US, the argument concerning health care reform involves matters of the right to health care and its accessibility. During discussions, authorities also discuss the equality, sustainability, quality and the costs that are spent by the government to continue the said service. The mixed public private sectors health care system in the US is the most costly in the entire world, with health care services costing more per individual than in any other country. Furthermore, a higher percentage of GDP or gross domestic product is invested on it that in any other UN member state excluding East Timor. A report from the international health care spending levels last 2000, which was published in the well-recognized health policy journal Health Affairs, came up with the fact that while the US invests more on health care than any other nation that is a member of OECD or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the benefits of health care services in the country is below the standards of OECD median by most limitations. As concluded by the researchers of the study, the costs paid for health care services are a lot steeper in the US. In spite the budget spent by the US on their health care, reported by Commonwealth Fund last 2008, the US is in the bottom ranks in terms of quality of health care services within developed or first-world countries. | <urn:uuid:e3d5b233-36c6-48aa-8d50-5effb8d40453> | {
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Within the Naica mine in northern Chihuahua, Mexico, you can find 50 foot long crystals. As bizarre as the massive crystals are themselves, it is actually inside of these crystals that NASA has discovered 60,000-year-old microorganisms trapped in a dormant state. The discovery was made by Penelope Boston, the director of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, and her team who collected samples from the crystals and managed to activate the dormant bacteria trapped within them.
Over 100 different types of microorganisms were found, most of them different than any life form observed on Earth, until now. The crystals were located above volcanic magma and had been geothermally heated to a temperature of 60ºC. Boston claims that this discovery could raise hopes for the discovery of alien life, since such extremophiles could also survive the harsh conditions of other planets in our solar system.
This discovery however has also raised fear amongst astrobiologists who believe that such extremophiles can survive the sterile conditions of our spacecrafts. The concern is that these microorganisms may potentially contaminate other planets and thus invalidate all our life-detection missions in outer space. Seems pretty out of this world. | <urn:uuid:fa54c846-432b-4c80-8d25-669369433611> | {
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After finishing the Iceman video to learn about Otzi's life and possible cause of death, we read an article titled "The Iceman's Last Meal". Ask your student how scientists were able to figure out what Otzi's last meal over 5300 years ago actually was.
Communication plays a huge part in science. This week we reviewed the parts of a strong scientific argument (Claim Evidence and Reasoning. The students used the research from the video and the article to answer the question "How does new evidence and/or interpretations change our understanding of scientific knowledge? in the proper CER format.
Don't forget about the field trip on Tuesday to crystal springs. Please see informational letter that was sent home on Friday.
Welcome back! It was so great to meet all my new scientists. We had a great week getting to know each other and finding out what it takes to make a great science class.
We set up our compositions books and reviewed lab safety. Safety contracts were handed out and are due signed on Tuesday 8/21.
On Friday, we began exploring how new evidence and new interpretations change our understanding of scientific knowledge. We are using the Iceman case study to discover how artifacts can be used to infer how a 5300 year old ice mummy lived, died, and maybe even what his last meal consisted of.
Be sure to return field trip forms and fee of $20 ASAP | <urn:uuid:108cf458-e287-4e68-8c51-77c746390c50> | {
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Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Genealogy
|Former Yugoslav Republic of |
Macedonia (FYROM) Genealogy Wiki Topics
|Local Research Resources|
Guide to FYROM (Macedonia) ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records,and military records.
Macedonia (FYROM) is a country in the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991. It became a member of the United Nations in 1993, but, as a result of an ongoing dispute with Greece over the use of the name "Macedonia", was admitted under the provisional description the former Yugoslav Republic of FYROM (Macedonia)(sometimes abbreviated as FYROM and FYR Macedonia), a term that is also used by international organizations such as the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO. Wikipedia
Getting Started with FYROM (Macedonia) Research
Links to articles on getting started with FYROM (Macedonia) research.
FYROM (Macedonia) Research Tools
Links to articles and websites that assist in FYROM (Macedonia) research.
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Map
FYROM (Macedonia) region is located on the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time. Modern FYROM (Macedonia) region is divided by the national boundaries of Greece (Aegean Macedonia), the Republic of FYROM (Macedonia) (Vardar Macedonia), Bulgaria (Pirin Macedonia), Albania, Serbia. It covers approximately 67,000 square kilometres (25,869 sq mi) and has a population of 4.76 million. From the middle of the 4th century BC, the Kingdom of Macedon became the dominant power in Greece and the neighbouring regions; since then FYROM (Macedonia) has had a diverse history.
More FYROM (Macedonia) Research Tools
- Macedonia Genealogy Resources and Vital Records
- Macedonian Genealogy and Family History
- Kosovo Virtual Jewish History Tour
- Jewish Communities in Macedonia Prior to 1941
- Jewish Cemetery, Bitola, Municipality of Bitola, Macedonia
- Social Organization and Activity of the Jewish
- Jewish Cemetery Records
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
- Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research | <urn:uuid:61263473-844d-49be-8dca-96dc6f5e79ba> | {
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Summer time, and our kids’ brains go on vacation. At least, that is what it seems like when we start up school again in the fall!
I have always been amazed that math textbooks are written so that the time period of September through Christmas vacation is “review” to try to help the children remember all the skills they forgot over the summer! As a homeschooler, if you finish a Saxon Math book mid-year you can go immediately into the next Saxon Math book at around lesson 40 and never miss a beat because lessons 1-39 do not teach any new concepts but just review the previous math book. You can get ahead fast in math this way, if you don’t take big breaks of summer forgetfulness!
So, instead of letting those brains veg all summer, how about a daily bite-size? Just enough to keep skills sharp!
This is how my friend Kathy runs her summer homeschool. When summer begins, Kathy makes “Summer Packets”. These are just a few pages stapled together and put in a folder with the child’s name on it. Every morning her children come after chores and breakfast and get their Summer Packet. The work is fun, can be done totally independently without Mom, and takes about 20 minutes. Each packet has a short page of math review, an English page, and some project page that sends them off on a science experiment or nature collection. The children also do their daily free reading. This way the 3 R’s are covered. Kathy buys workbooks and rips the pages out to staple into her Summer Packets. When school starts again, their skills have been maintained, and she can jump right in where they left off. Summer no longer takes a big toll.
At my house, I make each child a chart that must be checked off daily. Louisa’s chart has a column for each of these ‘daily do-’s”: Chores, Scriptures, Journal, Math (10 problems), Piano, Secret Service, and Free Reading. (She has a lot because she is older and used to this system. If you are just starting out, 3 or 4 items on their charts are enough!) I ask each child what is important to them to set as a summer goal, and we add those items too. (I make myself a chart also, and stick it right up on the wall by the kids, so they see I am working on goals every day too).
Each day, before any kind of play, the charts must be complete and checked off. This is just as much a means of keeping me, their mother, on track as it is training them to do some daily maintenance! It is amazing the difference you will see in your kids if you do a little every day! | <urn:uuid:601bc280-08f4-4589-9349-52ee67ddc463> | {
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|Plants Die for No Apparent Reason||High temperatures (see below)|
|Poor Production in Fall Crop||Too Much Heat and Light (see below)|
|Peas grow poorly or even die mysteriously||Too near a Black Walnut Tree|
|Brownish or yellow blotches form on leaves and pods; stems may turn purplish; leaves eventually yellow||Bacterial Blight, a Bacterial Disease; pull the plants and dispose of them.|
|Stems, leaves, and pods dusted with white powdery mold; black specks appear later in the season; plants are stunted and vines shriveled||Powdery Mildew, Fungal Disease|
|Gray patches on lower leaves spread upward||Downy Mildew, Fungal Diseasee|
|Yellowing of foliage and gradual defoliation; plants may become stunted||Fusarium Wilt, Fungal Disease|
|Mottled, crinkled foliage; brown specks appear on fruit, and plants may droop and die prematurely||Mosaic Virus, Viral Disease, pull the plants and dispose of them|
|Leaves wrinkled or curled; discolored, stunted, tend to fall off||Controlling Aphids|
|Leaves, stems and buds eaten||Armyworms, see Controlling Armyworms|
|Holes in leaves||Cabbage Loopers|
|Holes in leaves||Corn Earworms|
|Holes chewed in leaves, leaf stalk, stems; plant wilts, dies.||Cucumber Beetles|
|Leaves riddled with shotholes; plant weakens||Flea Beetles|
|Tip of leaves brown, internal larvae trails visible.||Leaf Miners|
|Plant stunted, leaves yellowed, lesions on roots||Nematodes, see Controlling Nematodes|
|Leaves stippled, yellowing or bronze; dry out and drop may be webbing visible; sometimes galls form on leaves||Spider Mites, see Controlling Mites|
|Pod split and peas gone; young seedling pulled and partly eaten||Birds, often Cardinals, Catbirds|
|Plants disappear all or in part||Deer, Rabbits, or Woodchucks|
Plants Die In Spring For No Apparent Reason
If your peas showed no signs of disease, but die before pods form, hot weather may have killed the plants before they could produce a full crop. Try a fall crop or planting earlier next year will solve the problem.
Poor Production In Fall Crop
Peas and other cool-loving crops will not grow well in high temperatures. Peas planted for a fall harvest benefit from the protection of shade netting and a thick organic mulch for the first month or so. See the Care section for more details about shade cloth.
Birds love peas because the pea crop is one of the earliest available to feed their young. The best control against birds is a covering of netting. | <urn:uuid:2e583fad-3736-4613-bf18-4bec5f0bad1d> | {
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Obesity Now Puts Kids' Hearts at Risk Later
TUESDAY, Sept. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Obese children appear to develop risks for heart disease usually not seen until adulthood -- putting their health in jeopardy as they age, British researchers report.
These risk factors -- including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar levels and thickening of the heart muscle -- can boost heart disease risk by up to 40 percent, the study authors noted.
"We really need to take action on childhood obesity from as young an age as possible," said lead researcher Claire Friedemann, of the department of primary care health sciences at Oxford University. "We have shown that obesity is not just about appearance but could have a long-term effect on the health of the child. By not fully tackling the problem, we could lose the progress that has been made in treating heart disease in recent years."
Dr. Gregg Fonarow, professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and spokesman for the American Heart Association, added that obesity is associated with many cardiovascular risk factors and, among adults, contributes to diabetes, premature cardiovascular disease and death.
"These findings suggest that being obese in childhood significantly worsens cardiovascular risk factors and the adverse health consequences may be even greater than previously expected," he said. "Substantial global efforts are needed to address childhood obesity."
The report was published in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal BMJ.
For the study, Friedemann's team analyzed 63 studies that measured weight and risk for cardiovascular disease in children and teens between 5 and 15 years old. In all, more than 49,000 children were included in these studies, which took place in "highly developed countries" and were published between 2000 and 2011.
This type of study, known as a meta-analysis, is used to find common threads running through several studies in hopes of being able to make a stronger argument for an overall finding. Problems with this type of analysis arise from the weakness of any one of the studies included and the difficulty of combining disparate data.
In their analysis, the researchers found that, compared to normal-weight children, obese children had significantly higher blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels as well as thicker heart muscles.
These risk factors can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke by 30 percent to 40 percent when these children reach adulthood, the researchers warned.
Overweight children also had higher blood pressure, but to a lesser extent than obese children.
"Although the size of the effect that obesity has on the health of children's hearts is worrying, the good news is that they can all be improved with a healthy diet and exercise," Friedemann said. "These habits are much easier to begin in childhood and carry through to adulthood."
Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center in New Haven, Conn., said "there was a time such news would have been shocking, but this study tells us what we already knew: widespread obesity imperils our children's futures. How much more data do we really need before we commit to doing everything in our power to fix that?"
Dr. Nancy Dobrolet, a pediatric cardiologist at Miami Children's Hospital who sees obese children daily in her practice, said that "these findings are real and the health effects on children are real."
"I see this in my clinic every day," she said. "Every day, patients are being referred for hypertension and high cholesterol and the overwhelming majority of those patients are obese."
Most of these children don't exercise at all, said Dobrolet, who doesn't put her patients on blood pressure or cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"The first treatment is to change your diet and exercise," she said.
To find out more about childhood obesity, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Claire Friedemann, department of primary care health sciences, University of Oxford, England; David Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Yale University Prevention Research Center, New Haven, Conn.; Gregg Fonarow, M.D., professor, cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles, and spokesman, American Heart Association; Nancy Dobrolet, M.D., pediatric cardiologist, Miami Children's Hospital; Sept. 25, 2012, BMJRelated Articles
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Copyright ©2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:64879382-ed8b-4bc6-824c-fee224988df8> | {
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Originally posted by ZindoDoone
WOW,THE US REALY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO CAUSE THIS PROBLEM!!!!
Heres a link of the history of the country and the crimials who have ben running it. The people don't deserve this but they sure are the victims. It looks like military dictatorship is the rule of the day. The reformers in the resistance are the reasons the Military Hunta don't want the aid. They fear that the resistance will get the food and be able to keep the resistance moving forward. Not sure of the politics of both sides but this is typical of these third world countries. Most unfortunate.
The new sanctions prevent U.S. humanitarian organizations and individuals from donating money directly to causes within impoverished Myanmar. U.S. aid organizations, such as the American Red Cross, found they could provide only supplies—not personnel or money—to the relief effort under the sanctions rules. While the U.S. corporate media have carried hundreds of reports arrogantly lecturing Myanmar on what is not being done, they are not even mentioning the impact of the new U.S. sanctions that were imposed as the storm barreled toward the country.
Burma (which changed its name to Myanmar in 1989) was a colony of British imperialism for over 60 years. In fact the commercial production of oil in Myanmar dates back to 1871 when British colonialists set up the Rangoon Oil Company.
Since formal independence in 1948, different imperialist powers have exploited the country’s people and plundered its resources. It is beyond the scope of this article to review this history. But an example of imperialist control and development of Myanmar’s energy resources provides a picture of the country’s relationship to the world capitalist system.
Myanmar has the world's tenth largest gas reserves. It has been producing natural gas since the 1970s. Today, gas exports are Myanmar's most important source of national income.
In the 1990s Myanmar granted gas concessions to foreign companies from France and Great Britain. Later Texaco and Unocal (now absorbed into ChevronTexaco) gained rights to Myanmar’s gas as well.
In 2005 other countries in the region, including China, Thailand, and South Korea invested in Myanmar’s oil and gas industry.
What did this mean for the masses of people in Myanmar?
In 1996 a human rights suit was filed against the American-based Unocal Corp. A group of villagers accused Unocal of using forced labor conscripted by Myanmar soldiers. Villagers were raped, murdered, and brutally relocated during the construction of a $1.2 billion gas pipeline to Thailand, started in 1990.
The suit, which Unocal settled in 2004, brought to light the kind of horrible crimes that were being committed by a consortium of foreign companies, including Unocal, all of which were receiving support and protection from the military regime.
One woman testified how soldiers came to her home, shot her husband, and killed her baby. Other villagers recounted how their neighbors were executed because they refused to leave the area Unocal wanted. Two girls said soldiers raped them at knifepoint (The Nation, June 30, 2003). Human Rights Watch interviewed hundreds of villagers who were driven from their homes and farms, many forced to work at gunpoint and beaten by guards.
The UN issued warnings of serious human rights abuses in 1995. After such embarrassing evidence came out, Texaco left the country in 1997. But Unocal retained 28 percent interest in the pipeline.
The U.S. government expresses outrage that Myanmar, while it accepts aid, will not allow foreign personnel to oversee its distribution. The government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar on May 9 explained why this is so: “The Pentagon is desperate to station their military bases in our country.”
Many countries even in the midst of a disaster fear U.S. and Western assistance because it so often comes with strings attached, including onerous debt conditions and demands to reorganize their economy and privatize nationally owned resources.
The reality is: The US criticism of the Myanmar government has nothing to do with concern for the victims of the cyclone. It has everything to do with cold calculations about how to use this disaster to further U.S. interests—to pry open the country, to weaken the military regime, and to create more favorable conditions for a full-out regime change. The U.S. wants to bring to power a government in Myanmar that more fully serves U.S. economic and political interests, including in relationship to U.S. contention with other capitalist powers. To understand this, we need to first of all look at the geostrategic interests the U.S. is pursuing in Myanmar.
Three great regions of Asia come together where Myanmar sits on the planet—China in the north, Southeast Asia in the south, and India in the west. Looking at a map, it becomes clear how Myanmar is key to establishing land-links between Central Asia in the west, Japan in the east and Russia in the north.
Off the coast of Myanmar is the Strait of Malacca. This waterway between Malaysia and Indonesia is one of the world’s most strategic water passages. It links the Indian and Pacific Oceans and is the shortest sea route between the Persian Gulf and China. Each and every day, supertankers carrying more than 12 million barrels of oil pass through this strait. More than 80% of all China's oil imports are shipped through this waterway. | <urn:uuid:3ccb4f58-a4c8-4907-98f4-f96ec566b74b> | {
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Sreedhareeyam treats many eye diseases of which the following are the most common.
Generally Diabetic Retinopathy occurs a long time after the occurrence of diabetes. Usually both the eyes are involved. The main reason for this Roga is Prameha (Diabetics). If Prameha is not treated in time, the circulation through veins and arteries to the Netrapadalas will be decreased resulting in total loss of vision. In modern medical science, the retinal detachment and weakening of the optic nerve cause blindness.
The connective tissues of the Retina are enlarged and rods and cones are weakened and finally degeneration occurs. Usually the disease starts in the outer layer of retina and gradually progress to the inner layer. If the degeneration is in the periphery, the full vision is diminished and when degeneration occurs in the macula, the central vision is diminished. The first symptom of this disease is night blindness.
Retinitis Pigmentosa is found to be a genetic disease which is mostly seen in children, born from blood-related parents.
The disease affecting the centre of the retina with gradual loss of vision.
This is a condition when due to various reasons, the pressure in the eyes increases and damages the optic nerve. Patients may not be having any symptoms of this disease earlier.
This disease is common in persons above 60 years of age. Increasingly, younger patients are being affected by this disease due to malnutrition, excessive strain on eyes etc. If untreated, the patient may even lose eye sight completely.
Disease gets started from choroids. This happens due to any trauma of the eyes or some diseased condition of retina. Blood vessels of the detached part of retina are small in size and dark in colour when eye is moved. Detachment may be complete or partial. Partial detachment may progress to complete detachment in certain cases.
Panchakarma is a Sanskrit word that means “five actions” or “five treatments”. This is a process used to clean the body. It will help to remove the vitiated doshas and correct the imbalance state to normalcy. It purifies the tissues at a very deep level.
Panchakarma consist of 5 karmas
Ayurveda also recommends Panchakarma as a seasonal treatment for maintaining mental and physical hygiene and balance.
Panchakarma is a five-fold therapy and it is highly individualized based on the needs of the individual depending on the Ayurvedic constitutional type, dosha predominance, age, digestive strength, immune status, and many other factors. Depending on each individual’s needs all or only parts of the five therapies are utilized. Specially trained therapists must administer these procedures in a definite sequence for a specified period of time. In addition, although it is therefore essential that a knowledgeable expert who can recognize the signs of properly and improperly administered Panchakarma supervise the therapy. Like all medical procedures, Panchakarma Therapy always must begin with an initial consultation by a qualified Ayurvedic Physician who can determine the individual’s prakriti (constitutional type), the nature of the health problem (if any), and the appropriate degree of intensity of the prescribed therapies.
The objective of Vamana therapy is to induce vomiting in the person to get rid of excess and vitiated kapha. During the treatment, kapha aggravating foods such as basmati rice and yogurt with salt are given to the patient, in the morning. Thereafter, heat is applied to the chest and back, in order to liquefy kapha. A drink have to prepare according to the condition of the patient and given after the kapha is liquefied. Salt or cardamom may also be added to the medicated drink. Consumption of the drink triggers vomiting in the patient. This treatment is effective for kapha related ailments.
Virachana therapy is defined as the medicated purgation therapy, which cleanses the Pitta and purifies blood, by clearing the toxins from the body. The gastro-intestinal tract is also cleansed by Virachana therapy. While performing the Virechana karma, the vitiated doshas are eliminated through the rectum. The drugs used for the purgation therapy are vitiate the doshas and bring them into the abdomen. During the procedure, the patient is subjected to Oleation first, then fomentation, which is followed by Emisis and Samsarjana Karma (post-operative). The internal Oleation is followed for three to seven days. Thereafter, a medicated steam bath is performed for three days. A light and warm diet is prescribed for the patient, a day before starting Virechana karma. However, certain factors like body and mind constitution, age of the person, mental condition should be considered, while opting for Virechana karma
Vasti is prescribed for vata related ailments, though it is effective for other ailments as well. There are two types of vasti Asthapana vasti and Anuvasana vasti. In asthapana vasti Kashaya or decoction is the main component. While in anuvasana vasti oil or other unctuous substances are used.Vasti karma is highly beneficial in cleansing and detoxifying the body. The strong treatment penetrates deep into the dhatus, while the mild treatment works on the superficial level of dhatus. Both the treatments are beneficial for the body. Secretions in the colon are promoted by Vasti karma, thereby ensuring a good health. The treatment involves the introduction of medicinal substances, such as, herbal oils and decoctions in a liquid medium, into the rectum of the person. This is because vata is predominantly located in the colon and bones. Herbal concoctions made of sesame oil are generally used for the purpose. Vata disorders can be effectively cured by Vasti karma.
Nasya therapy is a process wherein the drug (herbalized oils and liquid medicines) is administered through the nostrils. Since nose is the gateway of the head, the therapy is highly effective in curing a number of diseases pertaining to the head, if it is performed systematically. The therapy cleanses and opens the channels of the head, thereby improving the process of oxygenation (prana), which has a direct influence on the functioning of brain. The therapy is beneficial if done on a regular basis, because it keeps the eyes, nose and ear healthy. It also prevents the early graying of hair.
Vitiated pitta causes toxicity in the blood, thus giving way to various pitta-genic disorders. Here comes the use of Raktamoksha therapy. In such cases, if a small amount of blood is extracted from the vein, a lot of tension can be relieved that was created by the pitta-genic toxins prevalent in the blood. Moreover, the process of bloodletting stimulates the spleen in order to produce anti-toxic substances that can help the stimulation of immune system of the body. Raktamoksha Therapy is performed to treat a number of diseases including abscess, eczema, gout, herpes etc. It is learnt that various types of skin diseases can be easily cured by proper administration of Raktamoksha therapy. | <urn:uuid:a8ce74cb-87d5-49ff-88dc-9efb162a2a74> | {
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Test Prep with Less Stress
As we approached testing season, the already anxiety-prone fourth graders I teach began asking questions about test dates, format, and content. These signs of stress, combined with antsiness brought on by the arrival of long-awaited spring weather and a week of spring break, all came at once this year. I was feeling stressed, too. I had a lot to “get through” before our standardized state testing in May, and I felt pressured to get the information out as quickly as possible. This year, however, I decided to try a few things to make preparing for testing feel less stressful—for the students and myself. For example:
More Academics in Morning Meeting
When time is a challenge and there is content to be reviewed, integrating academic contents into Morning Meetings can help keep the focus on learning in an engaging way. For instance, I’ve recently written Morning Messages that invite students to brainstorm content vocabulary and to list the names of great leaders. I’ve embedded academic concepts into activities like “Five Questions Three Clues,” “Group Charades,” and “Silly Sentences.” And I’ve given sharing an academic focus, too. Open-ended questions can be great for this. For instance, I recently had partners share responses to the question “Which war had a greater impact on America: the American Revolution or the Civil War and why?” Listening in on their conversations helped me assess what the class remembered about those topics and helped me decide whether to spend additional time on reviewing them.
Making Learning Meaningful
It’s hard to avoid talking at students when time is running out and there is a years’ worth of material to review. But when I teach this way, I know many of my students have trouble retaining the information. During lessons where I do most or all of the talking, I see students whispering to one another or looking elsewhere, and the next day many of them don’t remember what I said because it wasn’t meaningful to them.
This year I resolved to try and keep learning engaging even when we had a lot to get through. One strategy was to use interactive learning structures that got everyone involved instead of lecturing. For instance, to review the Civil War leaders we’d learned about, I divided the class into groups and assigned each group a leader to focus on. Then, after they’d made a list of key facts about their leader, I reconfigured the class into groups that included one “expert” on each leader. In these new groups, students took turns sharing key facts about their leaders with the others.
Giving students a choice in what or how they review is another way to keep learning meaningful. For instance, during their review of multi-digit multiplication, students had choices for how they could practice: creating multi-step problems for classmates to solve, using digit cards to create two numbers to multiply together and then comparing the product of their equation with a partner to see whose is greater, or playing multiplication bingo with a partner on the interactive whiteboard.
Keep Doing Energizers
We all benefit from quick breaks throughout the school day. Early in the school year I do energizers throughout the school day, but as testing season approached and I started feeling like there was less time in the day, I noticed that I was doing them less frequently. I resolved to make a point of letting the class stretch and move around more. Taking time for a quick energizer, a silly song or even a few deep breaths not only wakes students (and teachers!) up, it lets us have some fun and connect with one another.
End the Day on a Positive Note
At this stressful time of year for students and teachers, Closing Circle strengthens our community and can be particularly important for students who are anxious about the tests. Ending the day in a positive way gives students a chance to reflect, celebrate, have fun, or simply say goodbye to one another after a long day of learning. Having students share a success from the day or do a quick closing activity reminds everyone that our classroom is a place to learn and grow and that tomorrow is another day to try again.
Our state testing is in May this year, so we’re now in the final days leading up to it, but I already feel like the strategies I tried this year have been worth it. We’ve kept the focus on learning and continued to enjoy the community we’ve built together all year, and it’s certainly been less stressful for all of us. I’d love to hear your ideas on this topic. How do you make this time of year less stressful for the students you teach?
Michelle Gill teaches at Garfield Elementary School in Springfield, Virginia. She is a Responsive Classroom consulting teacher.Tags: Common Core, Engaging Academics, Testing | <urn:uuid:f77f5c82-cda0-487d-a182-ad3a339a6077> | {
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Circular motion is a movement of an object along the circumference of a circle or rotation along a circular path. It can be uniform or non-uniform.
Since the object’s velocity vector is constantly changing direction, the moving object is undergoing acceleration by a centripetal force in the direction of the center of rotation.
Uniform circular motion: It describes the motion of a body traversing a circular path at constant speed. The distance of the body from the axis of rotation remains constant at all times.
Formulas for uniform circular motion:
If the period for one rotation is T, the angular rate of rotation (angular velocity), ω is:
Ω = 2π / T
and the units are radians/sec
The speed of the object traveling the circle is:
v = 2 π r / T = ω r
The angle θ swept out in a time t is:
Θ = 2 π t / T = ω t
The acceleration due to change in the direction is:
a = v2 / r = ω2 r
For a path of radius r, when an angle θ is swept out, the distance travelled on the periphery of the orbit is
s = r θ.
Therefore, the speed of travel around the orbit is
v = r dθ / dt = r ω
a= v dθ / dt = v ω = v2 / r
Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis.
Mathematically, torque is defined as the cross product of the lever-arm distance and force, which tends to produce rotation.
The magnitude of torque depends on three quantities: the force applied, the length of the lever arm connecting the axis to the point of force application, and the angle between the force vector and the lever arm.
T = r F sinθ
r is the length (or magnitude) of the lever arm vector,
F is the force vector
θ is the angle between the force vector and the lever arm vector. | <urn:uuid:c9379dbb-ca2f-4f20-8194-fd2b7f07e8da> | {
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(a) Logistic Regression. Report the accuracy on the test set. Vary the learning rate (η) and report the results for 3 different learning rates. Report the confusion matrix on the test set. Since this requires a k-class logistic regression, predict if the class is 1 or not.; to achieve this, create a new version of the data set where for all the examples where the class label is not 1, you assign a new class label (say 0). Thus now your binary task is predicting whether class 1 is true or not. Do the same for the test set as well.
(b) The counting based Naive Bayes classifier: Assume Laplacian correction. Again, treat the task as binary and report the results as a confusion matrix.
Data: from the UCI Zoo data set (zoo-train and zoo-test). There are 16 features (the first 16 columns) and the class labels are in the last column. There are 7 classes (numerically specified as class 1 to 7). All features are binary except for feature 13, which is a categorical variable with possible values 0,2,4,5,6,8. Note that to create binary split, please use the one-vs-rest approach. | <urn:uuid:4fad259b-a3cb-4ab4-bc17-bab4ba25f19b> | {
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Who’s going to win?
Well, we’ll know in a bit, so place your bets.
Natural Vs. Synthetic…Round One
So, in one corner we have Natural Fiber. Natural Fiber has a lot of great things going for it. Here’s a rundown of their strengths:
- Natural Fibers are made from natural ingredients like plants or animal hair. This includes cotton, hemp, sisal, tencil, wool, alpaca, jute, bamboo, etc.
- Natural Fibers are breathable.
- Natural Fibers are renewable and biodegradable.
- They’re incredibly comfortable for human skin.
So what does Synthetic have going for it? Well, don’t count them out just yet.
Here are some of the strengths of Synthetics:
- Synthetic fibers are cheap.
Yeah, so on the Strengths side Synthics are looking like lightweights. It may be a quick round.
Just like any boxer, these two have their weaknesses. Let’s tally them up.
1. Natural Fiber
Because natural fibers are, well, natural, they don’t last as long as some synthetics. Things like cotton t-shirts can break down over a few years when worn regularly.
2. Synthetic Fiber
Here’s where Synthetics stumble and fall, losing the match in a sweeping defeat. They have some very serious drawbacks.
- Synthetics are made using petrochemicals. This means OIL. All those fossil fuels we’re importing from the Middle East are ending up next to our skin. From an ethical and environmental perspective, this is not good.
- A formaldehyde product is often applied to man-made fabrics to stop shrinkage. Formaldehyde is incredibly bad for humans, and has been linked to cancer.
- Many synthetic clothing, especially trousers, are now being treated with perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) to make them last longer and prevent wrinkling. If your trousers tell you “Don’t Iron”, they’re probably treated with PFCs. The EPA says that PFCs are known to cause cancer.
- Synthetic fabrics don’t hold dye as well as natural fabrics. This means they have to be sprayed with a chemical fixative which is made from heavy metals. This fixative is not only bad for us, but it’s incredibly bad when the leftovers and by-products are dumped into local waterways.
These are only a few of the weaknesses and drawbacks of synthetics. This stuff is just plain bad. And yet we’re layering it on top of our biggest, most breathable organ: our skin.
It’s obvious to me that Natural Fiber wins this match hands down. They’re natural, they’re renewable, and they’re safe for us to wear. Three cheers for the victor!
Filed under: Eco Fashion on July 1st, 2010 | <urn:uuid:3a797b56-3ad0-4429-acd9-ad88a6db47ae> | {
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Despite the splendour of his publications and despite the early date at which Victoria got his music into print, he was not by the standards of his time prolific. Just twenty Masses have come down to us. Fifteen are ‘parodies’ (Masses based on a pre-existing work), one is freely composed, and four (including two Requiems
) are ‘paraphrase’ Masses, that is to say they are based on plainchant. The Missa O quam gloriosum
is based on Victoria’s own joyful motet of 1572. Tovey called it one of the most perfect ever written. The Mass is concise; it frequently takes over whole portions of the motet and somehow balances great simplicity with a marvellous controlled fervour that is typical of Victoria. It has become the most loved and performed of all his Masses in modern times. It is written in the G mixolydian mode which, in Victoria’s hands, is frequently straight G major. One magical moment of reverent simplicity is the section ‘et incarnatus est’ in the Credo. It is difficult to imagine anything else so brief and effective. Even the Agnus Dei of this Mass is short and just a single setting (here repeated by custom to the final words ‘dona nobis pacem’).
from notes by Bruno Turner © 1984 | <urn:uuid:879e90a7-c34a-4ec4-8e6c-40dff1c96465> | {
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Visit the Learning Page, from the Library of Congress, designed specifically for teachers. You will find everthing from lesson plans to professional development. A very unique feature of the Library of Congress’s resources for teachers is the American Memory Collection.
The Learning Page is designed to help educators use the American Memory Collections to teach history and culture. American Memory is an online archive of over 100 collections of rare and unique items important to America’s heritage. The collections contain more than 7 million primary source documents, photographs, films, and recordings that reflect the collective American memory. They are a treasure trove of unique personal items from another period in time – perhaps old records, letters with exquisite penmanship and arcane language, clothing, keepsakes, or faded photographs. These collections are ‘snapshots’ providing a glimpse into America’s past. | <urn:uuid:9bc25540-6481-4c60-869c-1ed8cb37e7b3> | {
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Why Use the Databases A-Z Option?
Your English professor assigns a research topic for your class and then states two good databases for the assignment are MLA and Project Muse. You write down the names of the databases in your notes thinking, “Where do I find them?”
Answer: Go to “GALILEO Scholar” and select “Databases A-Z.” Since you know the name of the databases, you type a name in the “Find Database” search box and launch your search. You are linked to “MLA” where you can click on the link to go directly to a search screen.
If you want to know more about MLA, you can click on “more>>” to get a full description of the database.
You will use the same search strategy to find Project Muse. | <urn:uuid:db5c4fc6-f106-4377-84ac-9480d6e7b6e2> | {
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When you browse the internet lots of temporary data gets stored inside your computer (as temporary internet files). IE also stores data from secure web pages (SSL pages). This may cause security threat as some malware could access the data stored on your computer and may expose your data. This data may be your form data, personal information, credit card number or any password. You have to tell your browser not to save the encrypted data on your computer.
To stop saving encrypted page to your computer you have to make some minor changes in the settings of your Internet Explorer browser. On IE click on Tools > Internet Options > Advanced. Here you’ll find plenty of options. Scroll down to the Security section to check the box next to “Do not save encrypted pages to disk”. Click OK.
That’s all. Now Internet Explorer will not save any encrypted page locally on your computer. Now if your computer may get attacked by any malware you don’t need to worry. But it is advisable that you should use a nice Antivirus software to make your PC secure from virus attacks. | <urn:uuid:a5c1ee51-9820-4b90-801f-a94ea5e77c3e> | {
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uBiome has launched a citizen science effort to map the human microbiome, the microorganisms that inhabit every inch of our skin as well as our ears, mouth, sinuses, genitals and gut. The correct balance of microbes serves to keep potential pathogens in check and regulate the immune system. Microbes also perform essential functions such as digesting food and synthesizing vitamins.
The biotech startup from the University of California San Francisco branch of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) seeks to spark the era of personalized medicine by providing the public with easily accessible information about their own bodies using the latest in high-throughput DNA sequencing technology.
uBiome provides citizen scientists with a catalog of their own microbes; detailing the microbial composition of the body and explaining what is known about each genera of microbe. In addition, uBiome compares participants’ microbiomes with numerous past studies on the role of the microbiome in health, diet and lifestyle. uBiome also provides personal analysis tools and data viewers so that users can anonymously compare their own data with crowd data as well as with the latest scientific research. uBiome is HIPAA compliant and will not release personal identifying data or information to anyone.
The more people join the uBiome community, the more statistical power the project will have to investigate connections between the microbiome and human health. For example, with 500 people, uBiome will be able to answer questions about relatively common diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. With 2,500, the project can investigate connections to breast cancer. With 50,000 people, the project can begin to address multiple sclerosis and leukemia.
- PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST: Zach Apte, Will Ludington, Jessica Richman
- SCIENTIST AFFILIATION: uBiome/California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)
- DATES: Ongoing
- PROJECT TYPE: Data Processing
- COST: More than $50
- GRADE LEVEL: All Ages
- TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
HOW TO JOIN:
Visit the IndieGogo Web site, indicate your pledge amount and submit the requested information. Citizen scientists can choose the amount of money they wish to pledge. With a pledge of at least $69, citizen scientists receive a sample kit for swabbing and submitting their human microbiome. uBiome uses a number of sampling sites located throughout the body: nose, mouth, ear, GI tract and genitals.
Once uBiome has sequenced a sample, they will send that individual his or her results and a login to the uBiome Web site where that person can visualize and understand his or her data. uBiome provides personal analysis tools and data viewers so users can anonymously compare their own data with crowd data as well as with the latest scientific research. | <urn:uuid:a04eb62b-6fca-4498-8b3c-73ccdd2d75a7> | {
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The Mesoamerican ball game became the New World’s first organized team sport. It seems to have started around 1600 B.C. No courts were discovered from that time—only balls. The first ball court was built by the Maya in 1400 B.C. at Paso de la Amada. 1,300 courts have been found all over Mesoamerica, though the size of the courts varies.
The only eyewitness account of the game comes from Spanish priest Diego Duran. He saw Aztec games played in the 1570s. At that time, courts were shaped like the letter I. They had a central alley with sloping walls. On top of the walls, spectators could watch the game. There was no standard size for the courts; they varied between 100-200 ft. Stucco floors painted with the city’s patron deity acted as a kind of mascot for the team.
Aztec teams had between four and six players. They bounced a solid rubber ball back and forth using their buttocks and their knees. It was against the rules to use their feet or their hands. A center line was drawn down the court. The goal for each team was to get the ball back to the other side of the court by bouncing the ball only once on their side.
A team lost points if more than once bounce occurred or the ball went out of bounds. Points were earned by hitting the back wall of the opponent’s side. Most players guarded the back line so it was hard to score. A couple of players stayed up front to try and return balls. At the center line, rings were placed high up on the walls. If a team managed to get the ball through the ring they won automatically, but this was very difficult to do, especially without the use of their hands.
The ball was made of solid rubber and could kill a player if they were hit with it in the face or the stomach. Players who had survivable injuries viewed them as a badge of honor. Players often got injured because they didn’t have much protective gear. They wore only loincloths, thigh pads, and gloves.
Ball games were spectator sports. The audience bet on the outcome of the game, though nobles obviously bet more than the poor. People bet their land, crops, and some even sold themselves into slavery. Nobles had the best seats to watch the game. Afterward, the players expected them to throw gifts to the winning team. If some nobles tried to leave without giving anything to the winning team, those players were allowed to rob them.
The game served an important function in communities beyond just entertainment. Since each city had a team, disputes between cities could be resolved via a ball game. This solution was more practical and less bloody than starting a war.
Unlike many of today’s sports figures, Aztec ball players were unpaid and poor. They received some gifts and gambling earnings, but not enough to support themselves. Their payment came in the form of fame if they won. Many of the less successful players ended up as slaves to nobles.
The Mesoamerican ball game is still played today. It’s called Ulama de cadera, which means hip ball. Cancun brings in ball players to attract tourists. Guatemala has a national team and is trying to revive the game. | <urn:uuid:7cd1f582-f1e6-4eb6-89c2-fc8f5701c80f> | {
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We all know Vancouver is expensive – the real estate market continues to be out of reach for most of us, and trying to find a place to rent is a bad joke.
But how did we get here? Sure, there are theories about the influence of Expo 86, the Olympics, and foreign buyers. But let’s go a little further back in history.
Here are 23 notable moments from the history of Vancouver real estate, that show you just how far long this city has been fascinated with real estate.
McCleery’s Farmhouse is built (1862)
McLeery’s Farmhouse was one of the first buildings constructed by Europeans in the area now known as Vancouver, in 1862. The farm house was situated on the Fraser River, just east of the First Nations village of Musqueam, in what is now Marpole.
Vancouver is incorporated (April 1886)
Vancouver was incorporated on April 6, 1886, almost a century after Capt. George Vancouver first arrived on the Coast Salish people’s land. A realtor was elected mayor.
Early real estate promotion (May 1886)
Ever ingenious, a group of realtors decided to set up shop in a big tree – although only temporarily as a promotional event. More than a century on, they’ve still got our attention.
Great Vancouver Fire (June 1886)
No sooner had Vancouver been founded than it burned down. The Great Fire on June 13, 1886 left only a few structures in the burgeoning city standing – but the city was quickly rebuilt and new building regulations introduced to prevent a similar fire in future.
First Vancouver Real Estate Board formed (1888)
Some 25 real estate companies created and signed a constitution and bylaws to promote and protect the ownership of property. This Board collapsed after almost three months, unable to come to a resolution on the issue of commission sharing with non-members.
Second Vancouver Real Estate Board formed (1919)
Three decades after the first attempt, 10 real estate brokers joined forces for the good of the industry, forming the Vancouver Real Estate Exchange. In 1948, this would become the Vancouver Real Estate Board, known today as the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
Real Estate Licensing Act proclaimed (1920)
Prompted by the Vancouver Real Estate Exchange, a Real Estate Licensing Act was introduced by the province in 1920. Two years on, the first real estate license law set minimum standards of practice expected of those licensed under the Act.
Marine Building opens (1930)
When it opened, the Marine Building was the tallest skyscraper in the entire British Empire. But amid the Great Depression, building costs had escalated and the owners went bankrupt. Renowned for its art deco details, the Marine Building is now valued at $90 million.
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver opens (1939)
This was the third Hotel Vancouver – the first was a brick farmhouse, the second was a society meeting place, but became a government building during WWII. This, the third Hotel Vancouver, took 11 years to build due to Great Depression and cost $12 million.
Multiple Listing Service launched (1950)
The Cooperative Listing Bureau was established by the Vancouver Real Estate Board in 1950 – it would later be renamed the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®).
Real Estate Act is passed (1958)
The Real Estate Act is passed, after seven years of effort, consideration and research by the Vancouver Real Estate Board’s elected members.
Leaky condo crisis (1982-1999)
Tens of thousands of condos began leaking prematurely, prompting a provincial inquiry into the quality of condominium construction in BC and $4 billion in damage. It forced the most extensive and most costly reconstruction of housing stock in Canadian history.
BC Place opens (1983)
BC Place gave Vancouver a downtown multi-purpose stadium and the world’s largest air supported roof, since replaced with a retractable roof. More recently, as condos have sprung up nearby, residents have begun to complain about the stadium lights and noise.
Living First policy launched (1986)
In 1986, the City of Vancouver introduced the Living First policy, to create more residential buildings downtown. Developers wishing to build there were now also required to create a mix of homes, resulting in the construction of many of the condo towers now there.
Expo 86 lands sold to Chinese tycoon (1988)
In 1988, Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing bought the lands previously used for the city’s hugely successful Expo 86 as one block, an unprecedented deal in the history of Vancouver real estate, arguably leading to an increase in foreign investors flocking to the city.
Laneway homes guidelines adopted (2009)
In July 2009, Vancouver City Council adopted laneway housing regulations, in an effort to give people the option of a new form of housing in single family areas that didn’t have the expensive price tag of actual detached single family homes.
Olympic Village fiasco (2009 – 2014)
The 1,100 units built for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were plagued with problems almost from the start. Building was behind schedule, developers went bankrupt, the property went into receivership and the city almost ended up millions of dollars down.
Living Shangri-La opens (2009)
The Shangri-La hotel and residential apartments became Vancouver’s tallest building when it opened in 2009 and gave Vancouver its first public sculpture garden. The Shangri-La cost around $350 million, and has 307 residential units.
Detached homes sell for $1 million (2010)
As Vancouver’s real estate market continued to skyrocket, the average price of a detached home in the city finally reached $1 million. At the time of writing, the benchmark price for a detached home here is $1,474,200.
In 2016, it emerged some realtors in Vancouver were shadow flipping – selling a contract for a property at a higher price before a sale closed, earning themselves commission each time the home – or contract – sold. Public outcry led to the end of self-regulation for the real estate industry and increased fines for realtors breaking the rules.
Amid claims that foreign investors were driving up real estate prices in Vancouver, the provincial government increased the property transfer tax rate by 15% for foreign buyers of real estate in Metro Vancouver.
The Empty Homes Tax came into force, aimed at boosting rental rates in Vancouver’s incredibly hot market. All non-principal residences left unoccupied for at least six months of the year would be subject to a 1% tax on the assessed value of the property, as of 2017.
One of the most controversial real estate deals in recent years, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Vancouver opened in 2017, prompting protests against Donald Trump, who sold the naming rights to the building’s developers. | <urn:uuid:6d0096df-4dd9-4845-a368-d45b608cfe0f> | {
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|20th Century Dance History|
|20TH CENT DANC|
|CLASS CODE:||DANCE 402||CREDITS: 3|
|DIVISION:||PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS|
|GENERAL EDUCATION:||This course does not fulfill a General Education requirement.|
|DESCRIPTION:||This course is a survey of dance history derived from Western civilization from the Renaissance to contemporary periods. Students examine the role of movement, dance and the arts in a philosophical and historical context.|
|CONTENT AND TOPICS:|
|GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:||1.Help the student gain a better appreciationof dance as an art form and an understanding of its relationdhip to the other arts.
2.Introduce the student to thehistory of dance in Europe and America during the past 100 years.
3.Assist the student in understanding the development of dance during this period as it has been influenced by various social, economic, and political forces.
Introduce the student to the variety of dance styles and choreography, both theatrical and social.
4.Introduce the student to the variety of dance styles and choreography, both theatrical and social.
5.Give the student an understanding of educational values of dance and the role of education in the dance field.
6.Help the student understand the role dance has in our religion and culture.
|EFFECTIVE DATE:||August 2004| | <urn:uuid:82b4de3e-45a1-42e2-9739-056331e84ceb> | {
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Neuromuscular-blocking drugs block neuromuscular transmission at the neuromuscular junction, causing paralysis of the affected skeletal muscles. This is accomplished either by acting presynaptically via the inhibition of acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis or release or by acting postsynaptically at the acetylcholine receptors of the motor nerve end-plate. While some drugs act presynaptically (such as botulinum toxin and tetanus toxin), those of current clinical importance work postsynaptically.
In clinical use, neuromuscular block is used adjunctively to anesthesia to produce paralysis, firstly to paralyze the vocal cords, and permit intubation of the trachea, and secondly to optimize the surgical field by inhibiting spontaneous ventilation, and causing relaxation of skeletal muscles. Because the appropriate dose of neuromuscular-blocking drug may paralyze muscles required for breathing (i.e., the diaphragm), mechanical ventilation should be available to maintain adequate respiration.
Quaternary ammonium muscle relaxants are quaternary ammonium salts used as drugs for muscle relaxation, most commonly in anesthesia. It is necessary to prevent spontaneous movement of muscle during surgical operations. Muscle relaxants inhibit neuron transmission to muscle by blocking the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. What they have in common, and is necessary for their effect, is the structural presence of quaternary ammonium groups, usually two. Some of them are found in nature and others are synthesized molecules.
- 1 Nomenclature
- 2 Classification
- 3 Mechanism of action
- 4 Structural and conformational action relationship
- 5 Pharmacokinetics
- 6 Adverse effects
- 7 Estimating effect
- 8 Reversal
- 9 History
- 10 See also
- 11 References
- 12 External links
Neuromuscular blocking drugs are often classified into two broad classes:
- Pachycurares, which are bulky molecules with nondepolarizing activity
- Leptocurares, which are thin and flexible molecules that tend to have depolarizing activity.
It is also common to classify them based on their chemical structure.
- Acetylcholine, suxamethonium, and decamethonium
Suxamethonium was synthesised by connecting two acetylcholine molecules and has the same number of heavy atoms between methonium heads as decamethonium. Just like acetylcholine, succinylcholine, decamethonium and other polymethylene chains, of the appropriate length and with two methonium, heads have small trimethyl onium heads and flexible links. They all exhibit a depolarizing block.
Pancuronium, vecuronium, rocuronium, rapacuronium, dacuronium, malouètine, duador, dipyrandium, pipecuronium, chandonium (HS-310), HS-342 and other HS- compounds are aminosteroidal agents. They have in common the steroid structural base, which provides a rigid and bulky body. Most of the agents in this category would also be classified as non-depolarizing.
- Tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives
Compounds based on the tetrahydroisoquinoline moiety such as atracurium, mivacurium, and doxacurium would fall in this category. They have a long and flexible chain between the onium heads, except for the double bond of mivacurium. D-tubocurarine and dimethyltubocurarine are also in this category. Most of the agents in this category would be classified as non-depolarizing.
- Gallamine and other chemical classes
Gallamine is a trisquaternary ether with three ethonium heads attached to a phenyl ring through an ether linkage. Many other different structures have been used for their muscle relaxant effect such as alcuronium (alloferin), anatruxonium, diadonium, fazadinium (AH8165) and tropeinium.
- Novel NMB agents
In recent years much research has been devoted to new types of quaternary ammonium muscle relaxants. These are asymmetrical diester isoquinolinium compounds and bis-benzyltropinium compounds that are bistropinium salts of various diacids. These classes have been developed to create muscle relaxants that are faster and shorter acting. Both the asymmetric structure of diester isoquinolinium compounds and the acyloxylated benzyl groups on the bisbenzyltropiniums destabilizes them and can lead to spontaneous breakdown and therefore possibly a shorter duration of action.
These drugs fall into two groups:
- Non-depolarizing blocking agents: These agents constitute the majority of the clinically relevant neuromuscular blockers. They act by competitively blocking the binding of ACh to its receptors, and in some cases, they also directly block the ionotropic activity of the ACh receptors.
- Depolarizing blocking agents: These agents act by depolarizing the sarcolemma of the skeletal muscle fiber. This persistent depolarization makes the muscle fiber resistant to further stimulation by ACh.
Non-depolarizing blocking agents
The quaternary ammonium muscle relaxants belong to this class.
Below are some more common agents that act as competitive antagonists against acetylcholine at the site of postsynaptic acetylcholine receptors.
Tubocurarine, found in curare of the South American plant Pareira, Chondrodendron tomentosum, is the prototypical non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocker. It has a slow onset (>5 min) and a long duration of action (30 mins). Side-effects include hypotension, which is partially explained by its effect of increasing histamine release, a vasodilator, as well as its effect of blocking autonomic ganglia. It is excreted in the urine.
This drug needs to block about 70–80% of the ACh receptors for neuromuscular conduction to fail, and hence for effective blockade to occur. At this stage, end-plate potentials (EPPs) can still be detected, but are too small to reach the threshold potential needed for activation of muscle fiber contraction.
|Agent||Time to onset
|Side effects||Clinical use||Storage|
|Mivacurium (Mivacron)||90||12–18||No longer manufactured secondary to marketing, manufacturing, and financial concerns||refrigerated|
|Atracurium (Tracrium)||90||30 min or less||widely||refrigerated|
|Cisatracurium (Nimbex)||90||60–80||does not cause release of histamine||refrigerated|
|Vecuronium (Norcuron)||60||30–40||Few, may cause prolonged paralysis and promote muscarinic block||widely||non-refrigerated|
|Rocuronium (Zemuron)||75||45–70||may promote muscarinic block||non-refrigerated|
|Pancuronium (Pavulon)||90||180 or more||
|Tubocurarine (Jexin)||300 or more||60–120||rarely|
|gallamine (Flaxedil)||300 or more||60–120|
|Pipecuronium||90||180 or more||
Depolarizing blocking agents
An example is succinylcholine.
Depolarizing blocking agents work by depolarizing the plasma membrane of the muscle fiber, similar to acetylcholine. However, these agents are more resistant to degradation by acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme responsible for degrading acetylcholine, and can thus more persistently depolarize the muscle fibers. This differs from acetylcholine, which is rapidly degraded and only transiently depolarizes the muscle.
There are two phases to the depolarizing block. During phase I (depolarizing phase), they cause muscular fasciculations (muscle twitches) while they are depolarizing the muscle fibers. Eventually, after sufficient depolarization has occurred, phase II (desensitizing phase) sets in and the muscle is no longer responsive to acetylcholine released by the motoneurons. At this point, full neuromuscular block has been achieved.
The prototypical depolarizing blocking drug is succinylcholine (suxamethonium). It is the only such drug used clinically. It has a rapid onset (30 seconds) but very short duration of action (5–10 minutes) because of hydrolysis by various cholinesterases (such as butyrylcholinesterase in the blood). Succinylcholine was originally known as diacetylcholine because structurally it is composed of two acetylcholine molecules joined with a methyl group. Decamethonium is sometimes, but rarely, used in clinical practice.
Comparison of drugs
The main difference is in the reversal of these two types of neuromuscular-blocking drugs.
- Non-depolarizing blockers are reversed by acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drugs since non-depolarizing blockers are competitive antagonists at the ACh receptor so can be reversed by increases in ACh.
- The depolarizing blockers already have ACh-like actions, so these agents have prolonged effect under the influence of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. Administration of depolarizing blockers initially produces fasciculations (a sudden twitch just before paralysis occurs). This is due to depolarization of the muscle. Also, post-operative pain is associated with depolarizing blockers.
The tetanic fade is the failure of muscles to maintain a fused tetany at sufficiently high frequencies of electrical stimulation.
- Non-depolarizing blockers have this effect on patients, probably by an effect on presynaptic receptors.
- Depolarizing blockers do not cause the tetanic fade. However, a clinically similar manifestation called Phase II block occurs with repeated doses of suxamethonium.
This discrepancy is diagnostically useful in case of intoxication of an unknown neuromuscular-blocking drug.
Mechanism of action
Quaternary muscle relaxants bind to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and inhibit or interfere with the binding and effect of ACh to the receptor. Each ACh-receptor has two receptive sites and activation of the receptor requires binding to both of them. Each receptor site is located at one of the two α-subunits of the receptor. Each receptive site has two subsites, an anionic site that binds to the cationic ammonium head and a site that binds to the blocking agent by donating a hydrogen bond.
Non-depolarizing agents A decrease in binding of acetylcholine leads to a decrease in its effect and neuron transmission to the muscle is less likely to occur. It is generally accepted that non-depolarizing agents block by acting as reversible competitive inhibitors. That is, they bind to the receptor as antagonists and that leaves fewer receptors available for acetylcholine to bind.
Depolarizing agents Depolarizing agents produce their block by binding to and activating the ACh receptor, at first causing muscle contraction, then paralysis. They bind to the receptor and cause depolarization by opening channels just like acetylcholine does. This causes repetitive excitation that lasts longer than a normal acetylcholine excitation and is most likely explained by the resistance of depolarizing agents to the enzyme acetylcholinesterase. The constant depolarization and triggering of the receptors keeps the endplate resistant to activation by acetylcholine. Therefore, a normal neuron transmission to muscle cannot cause contraction of the muscle because the endplate is depolarized and thereby the muscle paralysed.
Binding to the nicotinic receptor Shorter molecules like acetylcholine need two molecules to activate the receptor, one at each receptive site. Decamethonium congeners, which prefer straight line conformations (their lowest energy state), usually span the two receptive sites with one molecule (binding inter-site). Longer congeners must bend when fitting receptive sites.
The greater energy a molecule needs to bend and fit usually results in lower potency.
Structural and conformational action relationship
Conformational study on neuromuscular blocking drugs is relatively new and developing. Traditional SAR studies do not specify environmental factors on molecules. Computer-based conformational searches assume that the molecules are in vacuo, which is not the case in vivo. Solvation models take into account the effect of a solvent on the conformation of the molecule. However, no system of solvation can mimic the effect of the complex fluid composition of the body.
The division of muscle relaxants to rigid and non-rigid is at most qualitative. The energy required for conformational changes may give a more precise and quantitative picture. Energy required for reducing onium head distance in the longer muscle relaxant chains may quantify their ability to bend and fit its receptive sites. Using computers it is possible to calculate the lowest energy state conformer and thus most populated and best representing the molecule. This state is referred to as the global minimum. The global minimum for some simple molecules can be discovered quite easily with certainty. Such as for decamethonium the straight line conformer is clearly the lowest energy state. Some molecules, on the other hand, have many rotatable bonds and their global minimum can only be approximated.
Molecular length and rigidity
Neuromuscular blocking agents need to fit in a space close to 2 nanometres, which resembles the molecular length of decamethonium. Some molecules of decamtehonium congeners may bind only to one receptive site. Flexible molecules have a greater chance of fitting receptive sites. However, the most populated conformation may not be the best-fitted one. Very flexible molecules are, in fact, weak neuromuscular inhibitors with flat dose-response curves. On the other hand, stiff or rigid molecules tend to fit well or not at all. If the lowest-energy conformation fits, the compound has high potency because there is a great concentration of molecules close to the lowest-energy conformation. Molecules can be thin but yet rigid. Decamethonium for example needs relatively high energy to change the N-N distance.
In general, molecular rigidity contributes to potency, while size affects whether a muscle relaxant shows a polarizing or a depolarizing effect. Cations must be able to flow through the trans-membrane tube of the ion-channel to depolarize the endplate. Small molecules may be rigid and potent but unable to occupy or block the area between the receptive sites. Large molecules, on the other hand, may bind to both receptive sites and hinder depolarizing cations independent of whether the ion-channel is open or closed below. Having a lipophilic surface pointed towards the synapse enhances this effect by repelling cations. The importance of this effect varies between different muscle relaxants and classifying depolarizing from non-depolarizing blocks is a complex issue. The onium heads are usually kept small and the chains connecting the heads usually keep the N-N distance at 10 N or O atoms. Keeping the distance in mind the structure of the chain can vary (double bonded, cyclohexyl, benzyl, etc.)
Succinylcholine has a 10-atom distance between its N atoms, like decamethonium. Yet it has been reported that it takes two molecules, as with acetylcholine, to open one nicotinic ion channel. The conformational explanation for this is that each acetylcholine moiety of succinylcholine prefers the gauche (bent, cis) state. The attraction between the N and O atoms is greater than the onium head repulsion. In this most populated state, the N-N distance is shorter than the optimal distance of ten carbon atoms and too short to occupy both receptive sites. This similarity between succinyl- and acetyl-choline also explains its acetylcholine-like side-effects. Comparing molecular lengths, the pachycurares dimethyltubocurarine and d-tubocurarine both are very rigid and measure close to 1.8 nm in total length. Pancuronium and vecuronium measure 1.9 nm, whereas pipecuronium is 2.1 nm. The potency of these compounds follows the same rank of order as their length. Likewise, the leptocurares prefer a similar length. Decamethonium, which measures 2 nm, is the most potent in its category, whereas C11 is slightly too long. Gallamine despite having low bulk and rigidity is the most potent in its class, and it measures 1.9 nm. Based on this information one can conclude that the optimum length for neuromuscular blocking agents, depolarizing or not, should be 2 to 2.1 nm.
The CAR for long-chain bisquaternary tetrahydroisoquinolines like atracurium, cisatracurium, mivacurium, and doxacurium is hard to determine because of their bulky onium heads and large number of rotatable bonds and groups. These agents must follow the same receptive topology as others, which means that they do not fit between the receptive sites without bending. Mivacurium for example has a molecular length of 3.6 nm when stretched out, far from the 2 to 2.1 nm optimum. Mivacurium, atracurium, and doxacurium have greater N-N distance and molecular length than d-tubocurarine even when bent. To make them fit, they have flexible connections that give their onium heads a chance to position themselves beneficially. This bent N-N scenario probably does not apply to laudexium and decamethylene bisatropium, which prefer a straight conformation.
Beers and Reich's law
It has been concluded that acetylcholine and related compounds must be in the gauche (bent) configuration when bound to the nicotinic receptor.) Beers and Reich's studies on cholinergic receptors in 1970 showed a relationship affecting whether a compound was muscarinic or nicotinic. They showed that the distance from the centre of the quaternary N atom to the van der Waals extension of the respective O atom (or an equivalent H-bond acceptor) is a determining factor. If the distance is 0.44 nm, the compound shows muscarinic properties—and if the distance is 0.59 nm, nicotinic properties dominate.)
Pancuronium remains one of the few muscle relaxants logically and rationally designed from structure-action / effects relationship data. A steroid skeleton was chosen because of its appropriate size and rigidness. Acetylcholine moieties were inserted to increase receptor affinity. Although having many unwanted side-effects, a slow onset of action and recovery rate it was a big success and at the time the most potent neuromuscular drug available. Pancuronium and some other neuromuscular blocking agents block M2-receptors and therefore affect the vagus nerve, leading to hypotension and tachycardia. This muscarinic blocking effect is related to the acetylcholine moiety on the A ring on pancuronium. Making the N atom on the A ring tertiary, the ring loses its acetylcholine moiety, and the resulting compound, vecuronium, has nearly 100 times less affinity to muscarin receptors while maintaining its nicotinic affinity and a similar duration of action. Vecuronium is, therefore, free from cardiovascular effects. The D ring shows excellent properties validating Beers and Reich's rule with great precision. As a result, vecuronium has the greatest potency and specificity of all mono-quaternary compounds.
Two functional groups contribute significantly to aminosteroidal neuromuscular blocking potency, it is presumed to enable them to bind the receptor at two points. A bis-quaternary two point arrangement on A and D-ring (binding inter-site) or a D-ring acetylcholine moiety (binding at two points intra-site) are most likely to succeed. A third group can have variable effects. The quaternary and acetyl groups on the A and D ring of pipecuronium prevent it from binding intra-site (binding to two points at the same site). Instead, it must bind as bis-quaternary (inter-site). These structures are very dissimilar from acetylcholine and free pipecuronium from nicotinic or muscarinic side-effects linked to acetylcholine moiety. Also, they protect the molecule from hydrolysis by cholinesterases, which explain its nature of kidney excretion. The four methyl-groups on the quaternary N atoms make it less lipophilic than most aminosteroids. This also affects pipecuroniums metabolism by resisting hepatic uptake, metabolism, and biliary excretion. The length of the molecule (2.1 nm, close to ideal) and its rigidness make pipecuronium the most potent and clean one-bulk bis-quaternary. Even though the N-N distance (1.6 nm) is far away from what is considered ideal, its onium heads are well-exposed, and the quaternary groups help to bring together the onium heads to the anionic centers of the receptors without chirality issues.
Adding more than two onium heads in general does not add to potency. Though the third onium head in gallamine seems to help position the two outside heads near the optimum molecular length, it can interfere unfavorably and gallamine turns out to be a weak muscle relaxant, like all multi-quaternary compounds. Considering acetylcholine a quaternizing group larger than methyl and an acyl group larger than acetyl would reduce the molecule's potency. The charged N and the carbonyl O atoms are distanced from structures they bind to on receptive sites and, thus, decrease potency. The carbonyl O in vecuronium for example is thrust outward to appose the H-bond donor of the receptive site. This also helps explain why gallamine, rocuronium, and rapacuronium are of relatively low potency. In general, methyl quaternization is optimal for potency but, opposing this rule, the trimethyl derivatives of gallamine are of lower potency than gallamine. The reason for this is that gallamine has a suboptimal N-N distance. Substituting the ethyl groups with methyl groups would make the molecular length also shorter than optimal. Methoxylation of tetrahydroisoquinolinium agents seems to improve their potency. How methoxylation improves potency is still unclear. Histamine release is a common attribute of benzylisoquinolinium muscle relaxants. This problem generally decreases with increased potency and smaller doses. The need for larger doses increases the degree of this side-effect. Conformational or structural explanations for histamine release are not clear.
Metabolism and Hofmann elimination
Deacetylating vecuronium at position 3 results in a very active metabolite. In the case of rapacuronium the 3-deacylated metabolite is even more potent than rapacuronium. As long as the D-ring acetylcholine moiety is unchanged they retain their muscle relaxing effect. Mono-quaternary aminosteroids produced with deacylation in position 17 on the other hand are generally weak muscle relaxants. In the development of atracurium the main idea was to make use of Hofmann elimination of the muscle relaxant in vivo. When working with bisbenzyl-isoquinolinium types of molecules, inserting proper features into the molecule such as an appropriate electron withdrawing group then Hofmann elimination should occur at conditions in vivo. Atracurium, the resulting molecule, breaks down spontaneously in the body to inactive compounds and being especially useful in patients with kidney or liver failure. Cis-atracurium is very similar to atracurium except it is more potent and has a weaker tendency to cause histamine release.
Structure relations to onset time
The effect of structure on the onset of action is not very well known except that the time of onset appears inversely related to potency. In general mono-quaternary aminosteroids are faster than bis-quaternary compounds, which means they are also of lower potency. A possible explanation for this effect is that drug delivery and receptor binding are of a different timescale. Weaker muscle relaxants are given in larger doses so more molecules in the central compartment must diffuse into the effect compartment, which is the space within the mouth of the receptor, of the body. After delivery to the effect compartment then all molecules act quickly. Therapeutically this relationship is very inconvenient because low potency, often meaning low specificity can decrease the safety margin thus increasing the chances of side-effects. In addition, even though low potency usually accelerates onset of action, it does not guaranty a fast onset. Gallamine, for example, is weak and slow. When fast onset is necessary then succinylcholine or rocuronium are usually preferable.
In addition, these drugs may exhibit cardiovascular effects, since they are not fully selective for the nicotinic receptor and hence may have effects on muscarinic receptors. If nicotinic receptors of the autonomic ganglia or adrenal medulla are blocked, these drugs may cause autonomic symptoms. Also, neuromuscular blockers may facilitate histamine release, which causes hypotension, flushing, and tachycardia.
In depolarizing the musculature, suxamethonium may trigger a transient release of large amounts of potassium from muscle fibers. This puts the patient at risk for life-threatening complications, such as hyperkalemia and cardiac arrhythmias.
Methods for estimating the degree of neuromuscular block include valuation of muscular response to stimuli from surface electrodes, such as in the train-of-four test, wherein four such stimuli are given in rapid succession. With no neuromuscular blockade, the resultant muscle contractions are of equal strength, but gradually decrease in case of neuromuscular blockade. It is recommended during use of continuous-infusion neuromuscular blocking agents in intensive care.
The effect of non-depolarizing neuromuscular-blocking drugs may be reversed with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, neostigmine, and edrophonium, as commonly used examples. Of these, edrophonium has a faster onset of action than neostigmine, but it is unreliable when used to antagonize deep neuromuscular block. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors increase the amount of acetylcholine in the neuromuscular junction, so a prerequisite for their effect is that the neuromuscular block is not complete, because in case every acetylcholine receptor is blocked then it does not matter how much acetylcholine is present.
Curare is a crude extract from certain South American plants in the genera Strychnos and Chondrodendron, originally brought to Europe by explorers such as Walter Raleigh It was known in the 19th century to have a paralysing effect, due in part to the studies of scientists like Claude Bernard. D-tubocurarine a mono-quaternary alkaloid was isolated from Chondrodendron tomentosum in 1942, and it was shown to be the major constituent in curare responsible for producing the paralysing effect. At that time, it was known that curare and, therefore, d-tubocurarine worked at the neuromuscular junction. The isolation of tubocurarine and its marketing as the drug Intocostrin led to more research in the field of neuromuscular-blocking drugs. Scientists figured out that the potency of tubocurarine was related to the separation distance between the two quaternary ammonium heads.
Further research led to the development of synthesized molecules with different curariform effects, depending on the distance between the quaternary ammonium groups. One of the synthesized bis-quaternaries was decamethonium a 10-carbon bis-quaternary compound. Following research with decamethonium, scientists developed suxamethonium, which is a double acetylcholine molecule that was connected at the acetyl end. The discovery and development of suxamethonium lead to a Nobel Prize in medicine in 1957. Suxamethonium showed different blocking effect in that its effect was achieved more quickly and augmented a response in the muscle before block. Also, tubocurarine effects were known to be reversible by acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, whereas decamethonium and suxamethonium block were not reversible.
Another compound malouétine that was a bis-quaternary steroid was isolated from the plant Malouetia bequaertiana and showed curariform activity. This led to the synthetic drug pancuronium, a bis-quaternary steroid, and subsequently other drugs that had better pharmacological properties. Research on these molecules helped improve understanding of the physiology of neurons and receptors.
- "Dorlands Medical Dictionary:neuromuscular blocking agent".
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- Neuromuscular+Nondepolarizing+Agents at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
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- Rang, H. P. (2003). Pharmacology. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-443-07145-4. OCLC 51622037.
- Neuromuscular+Depolarizing+Agents at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
- Flower, Rod; Rang, Humphrey P.; Dale, Maureen M.; Ritter, James M. (2007). Rang & Dale's pharmacology. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. ISBN 978-0-443-06911-6.
- Brunton LL, Lazo JS, Parker KL (2006). "Goodman & Gilman's The pahrmacological basis of Therapeutics". New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 220–223. ISBN 0071624422.
- Lee, C.; Jones, T. (2002). "Molecular conformation–activity relationship of decamethonium congeners". British Journal of Anaesthesia. 88 (5): 692–699. doi:10.1093/bja/88.5.692. PMID 12067008.
- Lee, Chingmuh (2003). "Conformation, action and mechanism of action of neuromuscular blocking muscle relaxants". Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 98 (2): 143–169. doi:10.1016/S0163-7258(03)00030-5.
- Spivak CE, Waters JA, Aronstam RS (1 July 1989). "Binding of semirigid nicotinic agonists to nicotinic and muscarinic receptors". Molecular Pharmacology. 36 (1): 177–184. PMID 2747625.
- Beers, W.H; E. Reich (1970). "Structure and Activity of Acetylcholine". Nature. 228 (5275): 917–922. Bibcode:1970Natur.228..917B. doi:10.1038/228917a0.
- Caldwell JE, Szenohradszky J, Segredo V, Wright PM, McLoughlin C, Sharma ML, Gruenke LD, Fisher DM, Miller RD (1 September 1994). "The pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of the metabolite 3- desacetylvecuronium (ORG 7268) and its parent compound, vecuronium, in human volunteers". American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 270 (3): 1216–1222. PMID 7932174.
- Kopman AF, Klewicka MM, Kopman DJ, Neuman GG (1999). "Molar potency is predictive of the speed of onset of neuromuscular block for agents of intermediate, short and ultrashort duration". Anesthesiology. 90 (2): 425–431. doi:10.1097/00000542-199902000-00016. PMID 9952148.
- Donati, F.; Claude Meistelman (2005). "A kinetic-dynamic model to explain the relationship between high potency and slow onset time for neuromuscular blocking drugs". Journal of pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics. 19 (5): 537–552. doi:10.1007/BF01062962. PMID 1783991.
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- Shorten, G. D.; Ali, H. H.; Goudsouzian, N. G. (1993). "Neostigmine and edrophonium antagonism of moderate neuromuscular block induced by pancuronium or tubocurarine". British Journal of Anaesthesia. 70 (2): 160–162. doi:10.1093/bja/70.2.160. PMID 8435259.
- Naguib M (2007). "Sugammadex: another milestone in clinical neuromuscular pharmacology". Anesth Analg. 104 (3): 575–81. doi:10.1213/01.ane.0000244594.63318.fc. PMID 17312211.
- Taylor, P. (1990). Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 8th ed. A. G. Gilman et al. (eds.). New York: Pergamon Press. p. 167. ISBN 0071052704.
- Bernard, C (1857). "25th lesson". Leçons sur les effets des substances toxiques et médicamenteuses (in French). Paris: J.B. Baillière. pp. 369–80.
- Nedergaard, O. A. (2003). "Curare: Flying death". Pharmacology & Toxicology. 92 (4): 154–5. doi:10.1034/j.1600-0773.2003.920402.x. PMID 12753415.
- McKenzie, A. G. (2000). "Prelude to pancuronium and vecuronium". Anaesthesia. 55 (6): 551–556. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2044.2000.01423.x. PMID 10866718. | <urn:uuid:ac17c4ac-b5ab-4909-b084-3ee390e66ae4> | {
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TAGGER, SIONAH (1900–1988), first Israeli-born woman artist. She was born in Jaffa, daughter of Shmuel and Sultana Tagger. The family had immigrated to Ereẓ Israel from Bulgaria in 1880, and her parents were among the founders of Aḥuzat Bayit. After her attendance at evening classes at Constant's Studio in Tel Aviv, Tagger turned to study in the Bezalel School of Art and Design in Jerusalem (1921). Two years later she traveled to Paris, studied at the Academie L'hote, and participated in the exhibition of the Salon des Independents. When Tagger returned to Israel, she took part in the main exhibitions of the young modern artists, such as the Tower of David exhibition in Jerusalem as well as three of the Ohel exhibitions
In 1948 at the Venice Biennale Tagger represented Israel. In 1952 she settled in the Artists Colony in Safed.
Tagger's art style was created of dialectical tendencies – on one hand, a quest for the universal, turning to the European Modern Art, and on the other, a return to her own roots and to the local. Tagger remained a figurative painter; even in her most abstract phases she remained loyal to practicality.
Tagger's best-known genre was portrait painting. The portraits she painted in the 1920s were created from many sketches. Their artistic style was a combination of Cubistic and Naïve art. A three-dimensional attention to volume, with powerful light-dark contrasts and well-defined stains of color, together magnified the emotional impact of the work (Portrait of a Boy in White, 1926, Israel Museum, Jerusalem).
A similar artistic style was a component of her landscape paintings. Tagger liked to draw the view of Tel Aviv and until the 1960s she chose to rent penthouses in Tel Aviv, in order to watch the city's vista, seashore as well as skyline. The exaggeration of the colors, the perspectives as well as the compositions of those paintings expressed the extreme feelings that rose from her gazing. The train movement and tempo in one of her paintings reminds one of the Futuristic's excitement regarding this vehicle (The Train Passing through Neve Tzedek, 1928, Collection of Joseph Hackmey, Tel Aviv).
During the 1960s Tagger painted on the matte side of shining transparent Plexiglas sheets. The products of that special technique looked like paintings on glass. Tagger was drawn to this technique owing to her perception of traditional ethnic and folk art. She used bright Oriental colors and a shiny Mediterranean light. The decorative style was dominant in those works and the subjects were usually traditional Jewish themes: the Tablets of the Covenant, Sukkot, Purim, and so on.
Tefen, The Open Museum, Sionah Tagger (1900–1988) Retrospective (1990); Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Sionah Tagger Retrospective (2004). | <urn:uuid:9ca021c7-e684-43e5-88ac-41133149b225> | {
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Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement about consumption of raw or unpasteurized milk or milk products in pregnant women and children. On Monday morning, Dr. Alicia Arnold joined us to explain.
Meghan Kulig: Why are they advising that these groups of people especially avoid raw milk?
Dr. Arnold: Pregnant women, children, the elderly, and anyone who has a compromised immune system, such as individuals receiving chemotherapy, are particularly susceptible to getting sick from raw milk.
Meghan Kulig: What percent of dairy products are unpasteurized?
Dr. Arnold: It's estimated to be about one to three percent of consumed dairy products.
Meghan Kulig: What kind of illnesses can people get from raw milk?
Dr. Arnold: Unpasteurized milk and milk products can contain germs like Salmonella, E.Coli, and Listeria. You can get diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and body aches. Most people do recover on their own, but occasionally people get seriously ill and have long-term complications. It is also possible that there could be harm to the fetus of a pregnant woman.
Meghan Kulig: What are some of the myths about raw milk?
Dr. Arnold: Some people believe that people who are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk can safely consume raw milk. This is not true. Also, research has shown no meaningful difference in the nutrients of pasteurized versus unpasteurized milk.
Meghan Kulig: Some people may be wondering if using hygienic farming practices can make raw milk safe?
Dr. Arnold: It may reduce but not eliminate the risk. It's impossible to tell just by looking at the milk or looking at the animal, whether there is contamination or not.
Meghan Kulig: What about foods made from raw milk?
Dr. Arnold: They pose the same risk as raw milk. Examples are any cheese made from unpasteurized milk, such as some soft cheeses or some Mexican-style cheeses like Queso Blanco or Queso Fresco. Always read the label to see if it is made from pasteurized or unpasteurized milk.
Meghan Kulig: Has there been any recent local research?
Dr. Arnold: There was a recent study based in Minnesota that estimated that seventeen percent of raw milk consumers became sick after consuming raw milk. Children were also disproportionally affected and one infant even died. | <urn:uuid:0e6f4e09-7fed-4d5f-9d0c-5415d1547020> | {
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Two surprises come from a re-analysis of classic Ediacaran fossils from Australia: they’re unrelated to Cambrian animals, and they may have lived on land.
Dr. Gregory Retallack (University of Oregon), a native Australian, examined the rocks in south Australia containing fossil Ediacaran organisms. According to Astrobiology Magazine, Retallack now believes the creatures were not ancestors of ancient marine multicellular life, but instead represent “remnants of land-dwelling lichen or other microbial colonies.” His conclusion may or may not affect classification of Ediacarans from other parts of the world.
Retallack used state-of-the-art techniques to examine the rock, and found that its “old elephant skin” appearance resembles crusty sandstone or microbial soil crusts in modern deserts. Below the sand in which they were buried he found evidence of fossil soils.
“This discovery has implications for the tree of life, because it removes Ediacaran fossils from the ancestry of animals,” said Retallack, professor of geological sciences and co-director of paleontological collections at the UO’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History. His evidence, mostly gathered from a site in the Flinders Ranges, is presented in a paper placed online ahead of print by the journal Nature.
“These fossils have been a first-class scientific mystery,” he said. “They are the oldest large multicellular fossils. They lived immediately before the Cambrian evolutionary explosion that gave rise to familiar modern groups of animals.”
In the paper, Retallack wrote, “Newly documented palaeosols in the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite in South Australia now call for a re-evaluation of its famous fossils, widely considered evolutionary predecessors of the Cambrian explosion of marine animal phyla.” He also noted, “Most Ediacaran fossils have no clear relationship with modern animals.”
If not sea creatures, what are they? Retallack suggested they could be “lichens, other microbial consortia, fungal fruiting bodies, slime molds, flanged pedestals of biological soil crusts, and even casts of needle ice.” In the paper and the press release, he had very little to say about evolution, except that the Ediacarans represent “an independent evolutionary radiation of life on land that preceded by at least 20 million years the Cambrian evolutionary explosion of animals in the sea.”
So much for pointing to multicellular precursors to the Cambrian explosion. Retallack mistakenly called it the “Cambrian evolutionary explosion.” He should have said “Cambrian explosion demolishing evolution.” See the documentary Darwin’s Dilemma for reasons why. | <urn:uuid:cfceb075-f7d0-4ae2-87e5-948b17dac239> | {
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What if your desktop computer could run 100 times faster than a PC and were simple enough for a high school student to program?
That's not an idle question. Researchers at the University of Maryland have built a prototype of a "desktop supercomputer" that can do just that.
The new computer is at least three years from reaching commercial markets, but it could have a big effect in industries that process large loads of data. They include the pharmaceutical, aerospace, military and entertainment industries, for applications such as drug modeling, computer-aided design and digital content creation.
The Explicit Multi-Threading (XMT) computer combines the decades-old philosophy of using parallel computing algorithms with the huge number of transistors in modern processors.
The machine uses three field-programmable gate array chips from Xilinx Inc. to represent a network of 64 ARM processors that control dozens of threads of simultaneous computation, says Uzi Vishkin, a professor at the A. James Clark School of Engineering who built the machine with his graduate students.
The team is now trying to shrink the prototype, a license-plate-size board running at 75 MHz, down to a fingernail-size version running between 1 GHz and 2 GHz.
Team members took the first step toward that goal this summer by commissioning IBM to manufacture a CMOS silicon application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with an on-chip data interconnect network. The venture is funded with a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, Vishkin says.
A Kid Could Do It
Even if they succeed in building a smaller version of the prototype, the researchers will face the challenge of teaching programmers how to write software for a multithreaded system.
Many commercial software companies are already puzzling over a similar problem today as they try to adapt to the latest dual- and quad-core processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
However, Vishkin says his system will be easier to program than applications for commercial multicore chips because the XMT algorithms appear to the operating system to be a single thread. "If you build it in a way that people cannot program it, it remains in the ivory tower of theory," he says.
To prove his point, before the end of this year, Vishkin is planning to teach a class of high school students how to program the XMT using a version of the C programming language. He will teach college students to program the prototype in the first quarter of 2008. | <urn:uuid:3967b259-0f2b-46ee-81a2-8c4940f26419> | {
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Have a Heart
This two-part novel shows how good eventually triumphs over evil, even if the evil gets the punishment hundreds of years later.
Part One of the novel dramatizes the tragic life of tobacco plantation slave, Loder Alleyn, which contrasts ironically with that of wealthy, lascivious but likeable slaver, Granville-Throgmorton, as their lives interweave.
Part Two is set in modern times and weaves together the initially parallel lives of Granville-Throgmorton’s descendant, Clifford Granville, and Frank Allen from the original Loder Alleyn family. Their paths cross at the point of the tragic climax of the novel.
The novel is a unique social commentary on human exploitation through the slave trade of the 1800s and illicit organ trafficking of the 21st century. | <urn:uuid:04338d57-38d5-42f1-a66d-d719992b986d> | {
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Revista chilena de pediatría
versión impresa ISSN 0370-4106
CAVAGNARO SM, Felipe. Kidney and Sports. Rev. chil. pediatr. [online]. 2006, vol.77, n.2, pp. 185-188. ISSN 0370-4106. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0370-41062006000200010.
The sport activity has been gaining adepts in our country, without making differences between socioeconomic or age groups. The benefits that this physical activity produce are widely recognized and tend to improve the quality of life of those who perform it. However, the practice of these sports may result in adverse events, beyond of the classic orthopedic and/or traumatologic injuries. Either by aggressiveness of sports itself, the excessive physical demand it requires or by personal conditions of health, this activity can alter the function or injure other systems or organs. This article focuses the adverse effects produced by some sports or physical activity on the healthy and damaged kidney. Parameters of renal homeostatic regulation are reviewed, with special emphasis in the pediatric age
Palabras llave : Renal trauma; radbomyolisis; sports; chronic renal disease; hematuria. | <urn:uuid:717862ca-8038-48cf-a575-bc62515c0fe1> | {
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We all know the Earth is warming because humans are emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We've also heard that the Arctic is doing horribly, hitting record sea ice lows for several of the past few months, thanks to recent hot weather that's connected to a longer-term warming trend. The polar bear populations are projected to decline 30 per cent by 2050. There might not be any late-summer sea ice by the 2030s.
Image: Scientific Visualisation Studio, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
OK, so what do we do about it? At least one group of scientists from Arizona State University feel that solution A, cleaning up our act and reducing our emissions, is probably not going to happen thanks to a lack of effective political leadership. So, they have offered an incredible solution instead: Let's just refreeze the ice ourselves with a hundred billion dollar engineering project and pretend things are fine.
Before we explain how that would work, let's talk about why polar ice is important. Most obviously, entire ecosystems rely on the Arctic having ice, including humans who use it for hunting and travelling. But also, the bright, white ice reflects sunlight, which keeps the whole planet cooler. Without that ice, our poles would absorb and trap more energy, increasing temperatures elsewhere — plus, the melting ice would release even more trapped greenhouse gas. Sea ice changes the density of ocean water, allowing it to better circulate. Our planet is a living thing, and a disease like polar ice loss can harm the entire system.
The turbine might look like this (Image: ASME)
The scientists behind the new study think that freezing more sea ice to replace what's been lost in the Arctic may simply require a system of floating buoy pumps powered by wind turbines to bring more water to the surface. Surface ice and water keeps the deeper water insulated, but exposing that deeper water to the Arctic's frigid -40 to -35C surface temperatures could help increase the sea ice thickness. The paper, published in the journal Earth's Future, suggests that a "significant fraction" of the water pumped up from beneath the surface could turn to ice that sticks around for the winter. The paper was unclear on how deep the water would have to be pulled from, and whether the system would work if the surface temperatures rose to more alarming levels, and we've reached out to the authors for comment.
The paper's proposal is obviously wild, and comes with lots of challenges. Will there be the right amount of wind for the turbine to run consistently? How would we deploy the hundred million turbine-buoys across the entire Arctic required to complete such a project? Where would we get all the steel? "We estimate that deployment of devices over the entire Arctic in one year would consume essentially all of US steel production, but only 6% of world production," the authors write. All-in-all, such a project would cost around $US500 billion ($649 billion) per year over 10 years to deploy pumps all over the Arctic, though the authors think that at just 10 per cent the scale, strategically-placed pumps could lead to an average one metre increase in ice thickness across the Arctic.
I have no faith that such an idea would work, nor that we'll ever solve the melting sea ice problem, because international cooperation is not humankind's strong point. But we really need to do something about the Arctic sea ice loss, and it's nice to imagine we can engineer away our problems with hundred billion dollar turbine projects. Plus, the authors themselves imply that if humans could afford The Manhattan Project that sent us into the nuclear era, then we can afford to refreeze the Arctic. | <urn:uuid:dd4b7f06-f723-4508-a991-41a916d9d656> | {
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Enoch Powell (1912-98)
The Conservative member of parliament Enoch Powell is best remembered for his ‘rivers of blood’ speech. Delivered in Birmingham in April 1968, the speech warned of the consequences of uncontrolled immigration. But years earlier, Powell actively encouraged the employment of a large number of Commonwealth immigrants to positions within the understaffed National Health Service. A man of contradictions, he is less well remembered for commencing one of the largest hospital construction programmes in England.
Expenditure on hospital building in Britain rose considerably in the 1950s and 1960s. All political parties mentioned increased funding in their election promises in 1959. It was one way of improving uneven distribution of health services across the country. The election brought the Conservatives to power, and Enoch Powell became the new Minister of Health. As promised, he pressed for an urgent hospital building programme. It aimed to place a general hospital in each community that was home to more than 150,000 people. It was not just a plan to modernise and rebuild hospitals; it would change their entire organisation. In some cases, hospitals were to be integrated with social services. Until that time, no other nation had tried to refashion its hospitals in so comprehensive a way or on so large a scale.
In the end, the ten-year plan put forward was a failure. Most critics regarded it as financially unviable. Others suggested the government had no idea what it might cost to build a hospital. In many ways, the plan’s failure was inevitable. With advances in medicine and technology, the costs of hospitals would inevitably have escalated over the period, as they continue to do today. Also, during this time, the needs of the population had changed. Lengths of stay among patients continued to fall in these years.
Related Themes and Topics
Techniques and Technologies:
P Cosgrove, The Lives of Enoch Powell (London: The Bodley Head, 1989)
G Rivett, From Cradle to Grave: Fifty Years of the NHS (London: King’s Fund, 1998) | <urn:uuid:6a1c4aa6-209f-4c6d-a85d-055ba6894781> | {
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Photo: piddaz (Flickr)
Any reader of detective fiction knows one thing fingerprints are good for, their unique patterns. They never fail to give away who done it.
For an evolutionary biologist however, the question is somewhat different. Why have we evolved such convoluted finger tips? What makes them useful?
For one, our fingerprints help us grip and hold onto things under a variety of conditions. If your finger tips were completely smooth, you would be able to pick up dry objects pretty well, but wet objects would literally slip through your fingers.
Finger prints form miniature channels for moisture to gather in. The ridges stick through the moisture, allowing a better grip. In this way, your fingerprint’s ridges work just like the all-season tires on your car. They increase your traction in all sorts of weather.
Fingerprints also help prevent blisters on the tips of your fingers.
Your skin has two main layers, the outer epidermis and the inner dermis. You get a blister when there is shearing, or sideways stress, which separates these layers. For example, if your shoe rubs the skin of your ankle too roughly, it can break the connection between the dermis and epidermis in that area. The space between the now separated skin layers fills with fluid, and you have a blister.
When the layers of skin are flat, sitting next to each other like books on a shelf, this kind of sliding can happen pretty easily. In a fingerprint, however, those ridges and channels form an interlocking geometry, like a waffle in a waffle iron. This helps hold the layers in place, preventing blisters. | <urn:uuid:da4e116e-72f2-481c-b19a-8dad911592ec> | {
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Chinese Remainder Theorem Essay, Research Paper
CHINESE REMAINDER THEOREM WHAT IS IT ? Mathematics plays an important role in our world, as we know it. It is used everyday to solve all kinds of complex problems enabling us to create a better place for everyone to live in. One particular aspect of Mathematics known as the Chinese Remainder Theorem has a very interesting background. The Chinese Remainder Theorem was believed to have been created around 3rd Century AD by Sun Tzu Suan Ching and is the earliest recorded congruence problems in Chinese Mathematical works. A congruence problem can best be described by the following example: “You have a number of items but don’t know exactly how many. If you count them by threes you have two left over. If you count them by fives, you have three left over. If you count them by sevens you have 2 left over. How many are there ?” Sun Zi discovered that if he used the numbers 70,21,15, which are multiples of 5*7, 3*7, and 3*5 respectively, that the sum (2*70) + (3*21) + (2*15) equals 233. Thus 233 was one answer. He then cast out a multiple of 3*5*7 as many times as possible. By doing so, the least answer result was 23. In modern notation Sun Zi concluded the following: 70 = 1 (mod 3) = 0 (mod 5) = 0 (mod 7) 21 = 1 (mod 5) = 0 (mod 3) = 0 (mod 7) 15 = 1 (mod 7) = 0 (mod 3) = 0 (mod 5) Hence, (2*70) + (3*21) + (2*15) = 233 satisfies the desired congruencies. Also note that any multiples of 105 are divisible by 3, 5, 7. Therefore 2 * 105 is subtracted from 233 to get 23 which is the smallest positive number.
Present day, the Chinese Remainder Theorem is used in many things that require this type of problem solving capabilities. One such example is in the textbook Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier. In his text, the Chinese Remainder Theorem is used to solve system equations given you know the prime factorization of “n”. “In general if the prime factorization of n is P1*P2*P3 *Pt, then the system of equations is represented by (x mod pi) = ai, where I = 1,2, t which has a unique solution, x, where x An example of this would be to use 3 and 5 as primes, and 14 as the number. Fourteen mod 3 = 2, and 14 mod 5 = 4. There is only one number less that 3 * 5, which has those residues: 14. The two resides uniquely determine the number. So for an arbitrary a “To find this x, first use Euclid’s algorithm to find u, such that u * q = 1 ( mod p). Then compute x = ((( a-b) * u) mod p) * q + b.”2 In conclusion we can note that Mathematics is a complex system in itself. We also realize that there are many aspects of Mathematics used every day by all types of occupations. Having this capability gives us the ability to greatly enhance our lives and also shows us how important Mathematics is today, and how useful it was thousands of years ago as well. | <urn:uuid:b5b97df7-391e-40c0-b2cc-ab9196532c37> | {
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Humanists, secularists and rationalists everywhere are becoming increasingly concerned – even alarmed – at the role being played by traditional religions the world over in promoting instability and violence. Not long ago traditional religions seemed like an anachronism that would fade away with the growth of science and rationality. That has not happened. Science, as knowledge of the physical world, has hardly had any effect on the mindsets of millions of ordinary people. On the other hand technology, spawned by science, has had a profound effect on the way every individual on this planet lives. Among other things, technology has put enormous destructive power in the hands of individuals and small groups. Now a small group of fanatics – even an individual – can cause more death and destruction than a whole army could even a hundred years ago. With the tensions created by increasing migrations and interpenetration of cultures, such groups can pop up anywhere. In societies which are at the receiving end of these transitions there is an understandable sense of insecurity. Traditional religion is seen as an evil that has to be combated.
The Amsterdam Declaration of 2002, the official defining statement of World Humanism, states: “Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion.” This is more specific than the Amsterdam Declaration of 1952: “This congress is a response to the wide spread demand for an alternative to the religions which claim to be based on revelation on the one hand, and totalitarian systems on the other.” Religion was not seen as an unmitigated evil, but perhaps as a necessary stage in the evolution of human society which now had to be outgrown. It would not be correct indiscriminately to tar – or gild – all religions with the same brush. As Narsingh Narain said: “…an analysis is necessary for a proper understanding of the complex phenomena which have been grouped under the name ‘religion’, so that we can build our own organisation on solid foundations and also be able to have a sympathetic understanding of the faiths of other groups.” This sympathetic understanding must, of course, extend to all religions – even to the ones that are most antagonistic to humanist values.
Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear that the objective of providing an alternative to traditional religions has lost its salience for the Humanist Movement. Other issues and causes, undoubtedly worthy in themselves, have caused attention to be diverted from the main aim. To the extent to which it does engage with traditional religions, Humanism has mainly adopted an attitude of rejection and ridicule. The “sympathetic understanding” is missing. If the vast masses of people have to be weaned off their dependence on the myths and divisive dogmas of traditional religions, this sympathetic understanding is indispensible. Humanism has to see itself as a successor to traditional religions, not as an enemy.
Freedom of thought is a prime Humanist value: dogmatism is its very opposite. Some religions are more dogmatic, and therefore more intolerant, than others. These religions, in other words, are more ‘hard’ (dogmatic and intolerant) than others. The Humanist Movement, to achieve its objectives, has to identify the religions which offer the greatest resistance to its efforts to advance Humanist values. For this it is necessary to grade religions according to their ‘hardness’.
At the bottom of the scale would be the ‘softest’ religions – perhaps Jainism and Buddhism. Above these, there are several major religions whose numerous denominations could occupy different positions on the scale. The top positions probably go to certain denominations of the three Abrahamic religions. Gore Vidal (who passed away recently) once wrote: “The great unmentionable evil at the centre of our culture is monotheism.” This is in line with Ralph Peters’ comment: “All monotheist religions have been really good haters. We just take turns.” With 2.2 billion and 1.7 billion respectively, Christianity and Islam have the largest number of adherents in the world. Certain denominations of these two religions – Catholics in Christianity and Wahhabis in Islam – can fairly be put on top of the list. The Unitarians and Sufis perhaps have a place on the soft end of the scale.
What, one might ask, is the point of this classification?
First: it helps to remind us of our original commitment to provide an alternative to dogmatic religions.
Secondly: It helps to determine our priorities when dealing with various religions. It helps us to shed the habit of tarring all religions with same brush as typically summed up by Dawkins: “I think there’s something very evil about faith.
Thirdly: having determined our priorities when dealing with various religions, it helps us to strategise better. One way to strategise is to treat this on the principles of geopolitics, treating the major traditional religions as nation-states. In any case, in the real world, religion (especially the Abrahamic religions on which we have to focus) and geopolitics are inextricably mixed up. Evangelical Christianity and radical Islamism (and perhaps Orthodox Judaism, demographically insignificant but politically powerful) are now in almost open confrontation. As a recent article in the New Statesman says: “Puritanical yet wealthy, convinced of their God-given mission to the rest of the world, sure of a divinely inspired history… Saudi Arabia and the United States are surprisingly similar in their mixture of religion, politics and interference in other countries’ affairs. Saudi Arabia has Wahhabi Islam, Middle America has evangelical Christianity. Historically, they hate each other. Yet both see themselves as exponents of the purest version of their faith. Both are suspicious of modernity. Both see no distinction between politics and religion.”
This complicates matters for the Humanist movement considerably. Whereas one of the main protagonists in this situation, Evangelical Christianity, is an easy target for the Humanist movement, the other major – and arguably more formidable protagonist: Radical Islam, is almost totally out of reach. (Except possibly in the United Nations, where significant work, ably led by Roy Brown, has been done). The result is that the Humanist movement, confined to the West, keeps skirmishing with the various Christian denominations – some of them harmless – while it is almost totally absent from the Islamic world. The IHEU has 112 member organisations in 37 countries. Currently the UN has 192 member states. Only four Islamic states, Nigeria, Egypt, Bangladesh and Pakistan have member-organisations of IHEU. What their state of health is can only be guessed. It is perhaps fair to say that the Humanist Movement has mostly been confined to the West. A cynical friend once remarked that the footprint of the IHEU is more or less the same as that of NATO. There is no evidence that there is – or indeed can be – any plan to remedy this situation. However, inexplicably, there are hardly any efforts being made to contain the growing influence of radical Islamic diaspora even within the West.
In recent years, as the depredations of terrorists and fanatics have increased, leading humanists in the West have adopted a more and more hostile attitude towards traditional religions. If the minds and hearts of traditional religionists have to be won, this is bound to be counterproductive. Rejection and ridicule have to be replaced with persuasion. The rise of hardline New Atheism, with its indiscriminate condemnation of all religions, can undermine the efforts of the Humanist movement to achieve its objectives. According to Michael Ruse: “… there is the nigh-hysterical repudiation of religion. As with religions themselves, the implication is that those who fail to follow the New Atheist line are not just wrong, but morally challenged.” This itself borders on dogmatism.
The conclusion seems to be that the International Humanist Movement has not made any significant progress towards achieving its basic goals. Where it is undoubtedly needed most – in the Islamic world – it is practically absent; where it does have a strong presence – in North America and Europe – it has failed to have an impact. Clearly, we need to rethink our aims and strategies. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted from our original aim of providing an alternative to dogmatic religions.
As of now, one is reminded of what Matthew Arnold had to say of the atheistic poet Shelley, describing him as “a beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain.” | <urn:uuid:f1d9deef-f23c-4940-a2b1-e064fe54bc5c> | {
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Fresh and clean water is considered a limited resource. Natural occurrences such as droughts limit our access to fresh water, making it especially important to reduce the amount of water we use each day. Not only does water conservation help prevent pollution in our local lakes and rivers, but it can also help with lowering your utility bill.
Want to know how you can start conserving water in your Delaware home? Read below to get started!
- Check for leaks. A small drip from your faucet can waste 20 gallons of water every day and even more if the leak is larger. You should regularly check for leaks in your faucet, pipes, and toilets to prevent wasted water.
- Take a shorter shower. Try to keep your shower less than five minutes as much as you can. A four minute shower uses somewhere between 20 to 40 gallons of water. By keeping your shower under 5 minutes you will ultimately save 1,000 gallons of water per month!
- Water Yard Early. Waiting to water the plants later in the day when the temperatures start to increase is extremely wasteful because most of the water is evaporated before the plants are able to drink it. We suggest watering the yard early when temperatures are cool, however if this is not possible then you should wait until late evening.
- Turn off water when brushing teeth. There is really no point in having the water kept on in between brushing. You can save up to 8 gallons by turning the water off while brushing your teeth!
- Use a bucket and sponge. When washing your car and/or bike, you should always fill up a bucket and use a sponge to rinse rather than using a hose. Leaving a hose running can potentially waste 6 gallons of water every 60 seconds.
If you have questions about water conservation, contact the experts at Waste Masters Solutions | <urn:uuid:6ce6ed2b-0e67-49a7-8ecc-8f0ad4ea2bda> | {
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In addition to short-changing employees and customers, the cheapness of the fast-food industry, which nationally pays its core workers an average of $8.69, leaves taxpayers paying nearly $7 billion annually. That's the major conclusion of a new report, Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry, from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The majority of employees at fast-food restaurants are paid so poorly that they are forced to enroll in public assistance programs, despite the industry making $200 billion a year.
“The taxpayer costs we discovered were staggering,” says Ken Jacobs, chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education and co-author of the report. “People who work in fast-food jobs are paid so little that having to rely on public assistance is the rule, rather than the exception, even for those working 40 hours or more a week.”
Only 28% of core fast-food workers work 40 or more hours per week, compared to 75% of the overall workforce. Unlike the common stereotype of fast-food workers, the report shows more than two-thirds of the industry's core workers are older than 20, 68% are the primary wage earners in their families and more than 25% of them are parents.
"This report shows in stark numbers the larger economic consequences that result from low wages and how it affects all of us, says Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. "In a nation as wealthy as the United States, no one who works hard for a living should live in poverty. Underpaying workers affects us all. These highly profitable companies paying poverty wages should raise wages and listen to their workers' demands to form a union. We should also increase the minimum wage, as I have proposed. These steps are not only the right thing to do for low-wage workers, but also the smart thing to do for the economy and for taxpayers."
Fast-food workers receive money from numerous federal programs—receiving benefits at twice the overall rate of the workforce—and the $7 billion total doesn't include state and local programs. The top federal expenditures on fast-food workers are:
- Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, $3.9 billion per year;
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, $1.04 billion per year; and
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, $82 million per year.
“It just doesn’t make sense that we prepare and cook food for people every day, but instead of being paid enough to feed our own families, many of us can’t afford three meals every day," says Devonte Yates, a McDonald’s worker in Milwaukee who earns $7.25 an hour. "I don’t want to be on food stamps. I’d rather stand on my own two feet. McDonald’s should raise wages so we can afford decent food for ourselves.”
The report was funded by Fast Food Forward, a New York City-based coalition of workers and labor, religious and community groups. Read the full report from UC Berkeley.
A separate report from the National Employment Law Project looks more closely at the top 10 biggest fast-food companies and finds that they alone are responsible for 60% of the nearly $7 billion in public costs associated with their low wages, despite having more than $7.4 billion in profits last year. McDonald's workers alone account for $1.2 billion of public assistance spending each year. | <urn:uuid:050aeea1-bd49-4cd3-9de1-3bdbd75d7b29> | {
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THE WEST: Feds begin horse, burro roundup
A helicopter rounds up wild burros in the Panamint Valley on federal land north of Trona in 2009.
2009, FILE PHOTO
The federal land officials spurred new controversy with the announcement that about 6,000 wild horses and burros would be rounded up on public lands in six western states, including California, mostly within the next four months.
Horses and burros have few predators, and the size of a herd can double in four years, officials with the Bureau of Land Management say. Reducing the size prevents starvation and leaves more grazing foods available for other wildlife, such as deer and bighorn sheep, they say.
The bureau periodically rounds up horses and burros as way to keep in check the populations that are roaming some 27 million acres managed for the animals.
But animal rights activists say the roundups are unnecessary, counter productive and cruel. The BLM practices have resulted in the agency keeping more animals in captivity than are left in the wild on the BLM rangelands, they say.
Suzanne Roy, director of American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, said the BLM should expand the use of a birth control vaccine, called porcine zona pellucida or PZP, and open up more range lands, where horses have been removed to facilitate cattle grazing.
Such strategies could eliminate the need for roundups that sometime injure or kill animals, she said.
âThe BLM continues to rely on an approach that makes the situation worse,â Roy said.
BLM officials could not be reached for comment Monday because of the Columbus Day holiday.
But BLM news release said that during the roundups this fall and winter, as many as 2,000 horses would be given the birth control vaccine or be part of some other type of population-control effort. Strategies include introducing geldings to breeding herds and reducing the number of mares.
The roundups started last week, which included a burro gathering in eastern Riverside County.
Federal cowboys aided by a helicopter weathered rain and gusty winds as they rounded up 11 burros near Blythe last week, and the animals were trucked to federal corrals in Ridgecrest.
Theses animals were found in an alfalfa field. They come from public lands near the Chocolate Mountains that no longer are managed for burros, Art DiGrazia, an equestrian operations specialist and manager of the Ridgecrest corrals, said by phone.
Bad weather last Wednesday made it an all-day effort to capture less than a dozen animals, he said.
BLM officials also assisted Fort Irwin last week in a burro roundup on U.S. Army land north of Barstow in San Bernardino County. The number of animals captured was not immediately available.
Captured animals are brought to federal corrals, where the healthy ones are later made available for adoption. Some of the animals in the Ridgecrest corral are taken to adoption events staged monthly at a Redlands ranch.
Roy, of the horse preservation campaign, pointed out that far more animals are taken into captivity than are adopted. The BLM now cares for an estimated 11,500 animals in corrals and another 30,200 in pastures. Meanwhile, a smaller number â" 38,500 â" roam in the wild on the BLM managed lands.
In the last fiscal year, the BLM spent $36.9 million on holding horses and burros, according to the agencyâs website. Roy said far more BLM land â" 157 million acres â" is managed for livestock, and the ranchers are charged only $1.35 per month per animal for grazing rights.
Kevin Kester, president of California Cattlemen Association, said the BLM officials and ranchers carefully avoid overgrazing by moving cattle or reducing the head counts when necessary, leaving enough grass for wildlife.
He added that many small communities throughout the West depend on grazing for their local economies. | <urn:uuid:cfbe11ee-f95b-4d14-add0-9f2a658d6a5f> | {
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What does it take to be positive and upbeat?
First of all you’ve got to live with hope.
- Build hope where it can be felt by the destitute.
- Bring hope into desperate situations.
- Share hope with all who are hopeless.
- Be hopeful whenever the unknown appears burdensome.
- Give hope to strangers.
- Teach the despairing to always hope for the best.
Secondly, be grateful.
- Make encouraging observations.
- Trust in goodness.
- Have faith in God.
- Don’t worry (be happy).
- Avoid over-analysis.
- Display strength through compassion. | <urn:uuid:f68268ba-a929-4c69-9d38-14a6a25df90c> | {
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Ages 3 1/2 - up (group instruction)
Pencil, charcoal, pastel drawing, sketching, animation, watercolor and acrylic painting, sculpting, clay modeling. Students learn the drawing and painting technique, the concepts of perspective, three-dimensional object image, and composition. Students of all levels have their works displayed at the MDASD Art Exhibitions, which encourages them and helps to achieve more in their exploration of the wonderful world of Art.
Ages 2 - 3 1/2 (group instruction)
Children learn about shapes, colors by working on various specifically designed projects (crayon, pencil pastel, watercolor, tempera, clay ). This is an age- appropriate program that develops eyes and hands coordination, brings out creativity in very young children and allows them to have fun while learning. | <urn:uuid:dff9d269-6a47-4439-b788-cd1adb8f05fb> | {
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- Hepatitis A and B are common infections in South African children.
- A significant number of South African adults are hepatitis B carriers.
- Chronic hepatitis B and C can cause irreversible liver damage.
- There are safe, effective vaccines against hepatitis A and B.
"Hepatitis" simply means that the liver is inflamed. Signs that indicate that the liver is inflamed include:
- Pain in the right upper abdomen
- Nausea and vomiting
- A yellow tinge to the eyes and skin (jaundice).
There are a variety of causes of liver inflammation. A common cause is excessive alcohol intake, since alcohol is a liver toxin. Many medications are toxic for the liver, for example some of the drugs used to treat tuberculosis (TB). Herbal medicines can also be liver toxins. There are a number of infectious causes of hepatitis, of which the most important are the hepatitis viruses.
In South Africa, three viruses are very significant causes of hepatitis. These viruses are (not very originally!) named hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. In fact these three viruses are completely unrelated to one another, but they all happen to target the liver during an infection.
The hepatitis A virus reaches the liver after first infecting the gut. This virus is found in the faeces of an infected person. Hepatitis A is usually acquired from hands soiled after using the toilet or changing a nappy, or by swallowing water or food that has been contaminated by human faeces. Uncooked shellfish and raw vegetables contaminated by sewage can also be a route of infection. Sexual contact with an infected person is also a recognised route of infection.
By contrast, hepatitis B and C are blood-borne viruses. Hepatitis B is highly infectious. It is estimated to be about 50 times more infectious than HIV. It is mostly spread by very close contact with an infected person, which allows exchange of minute quantities of blood through tiny grazes or cuts. This sort of spread can occur through:
- Rough play amongst children
- Rharing toothbrushes or razors
- Direct contact with e.g. a bleeding wound.
More specific high-risk circumstances where the spread of hepatitis B can occur:
- Tattooing or tribal scarification with unsterile implements
- Between intra-venous drug abusers who share needles and syringes
- Between patients and staff in hospital settings e.g. haemodialysis units
- Potentially by blood transfusion. Since all blood donations are screened for Hepatitis B and C prior to use, the risk of acquiring viral hepatitis from a blood transfusion is low - in the region of 1 in 10 000 or less.
The ways that hepatitis C are spread are believed to be similar to hepatitis B, but it is far less infectious than the latter.
Hepatitis B and C can be passed from an infected mother to her baby. (See "complications").
Note that despite the fact that hepatitis B and C are found in the blood, there is no convincing evidence that they are spread by mosquitoes or other biting insects.
Apart from A, B and C, there are at least two more important hepatitis viruses:
- Hepatitis D virus is only ever found along with hepatitis B; it cannot survive independently. Hepatitis D can worsen the hepatitis induced by hepatitis B.
- Hepatitis E is an independent hepatitis virus. It is spread in a similar way to hepatitis A, though generally in waterborne outbreaks.
Occasionally, viruses that are not true hepatitis viruses can cause significant liver inflammation. It is not uncommon to have a mild hepatitis during glandular fever (Epstein-Barr virus) or during the similar illness cause by initial infection with Cytomegalovirus. Very, very rarely, and fairly unpredictably, Herpes Simplex virus can cause an aggressive form of hepatitis that is usually rapidly fatal.
When any of the hepatitis viruses reach the liver, they infect the liver cells and multiply inside them. The body's immune system can recognise virus-infected cells and will attempt to destroy these cells. This immune attack by white blood cells causes liver cell damage and inflammation. Certain enzymes that are usually active inside the liver cells are released from damaged cells into the blood and can be detected by blood tests, thus confirming that there is a hepatitis. The liver is also the site of production of certain blood proteins such as albumin and clotting factors, and levels of these proteins may be low in severe or long-standing hepatitis. Liver inflammation will also involve swelling of the liver. Swelling causes blockage of the bile ducts in the liver so that the bile that should flow into the gall bladder is trapped in the liver. Since it cannot escape, the yellow-green bile starts to be absorbed into the blood stream from the liver, and will circulate to the skin and eyes, causing the yellow discoloration known as "jaundice". Swelling of the liver is also what causes pain in the abdomen during hepatitis. (The liver is located in the right upper quarter of the abdomen). A health care professional will often be able to detect that the liver is enlarged and tender during examination of the abdomen.
Many people have no symptoms when they get infected with hepatitis A, B or C. In those who do develop symptoms, the hepatitis viruses tend to be slow in making themselves felt. After a person has become infected, hepatitis A will take about four weeks to cause symptoms, hepatitis B will take about three months and hepatitis C about two months on average.
The early symptoms of viral hepatitis are:
- Loss of interest in food, especially fatty food
- Distaste for cigarettes (if you are a smoker)
- Loss of ability to drink any alcohol
- Feeling unwell
- Muscle aches
- In the case of hepatitis B, joint pains (arthritis) and even a rash can occur.
In established viral hepatitis, symptoms are:
- Nausea, with or without vomiting
- Discomfort or pain in the right upper quarter of the abdomen
- Urine that is an unusual dark reddish-brown
- Faeces unusually pale in colour
- A yellowish tinge to the whites of the eyes and the skin.
These symptoms can last for a week or two, or for several weeks or months, depending on the virus and the response of the person infected. In general, adults have worse symptoms and a longer period of symptoms. Pregnant women are at slightly increased risk of severe hepatitis A.
However, many people, especially children, will not be aware that they have ever had hepatitis or even that they have become chronically infected. They may only discover that they have been infected through a blood test. Long-standing viral hepatitis causes liver damage that will become evident through somewhat different symptoms to those above.
A small number of people (approximately 1 in 100) who get any one of the viral hepatitis viruses may have early severe liver damage at the outset of the illness. Much of the liver can be destroyed, and the person goes into liver failure. This is known as "fulminant hepatitis". Signs that this may be occurring include drowsiness that progresses to coma, and bleeding, usually in the gut. This is an extremely serious situation that will require the person to be cared for in an intensive care unit. This sort of liver failure carries a high risk of death.
The most frequent complication of Hepatitis B and C is that the virus is not cleared by the immune system, but persists in the liver. This is known as "chronic hepatitis". By definition, anyone who has not cleared a hepatitis B or C virus infection after 6 months has chronic viral hepatitis. Around 10% of people who get infected with Hepatitis B will go on to have chronic hepatitis, and with Hepatitis C the risk of chronic hepatitis is about 80%. Hepatitis A does not become chronic, as the virus does not have the capacity to persist.
Most people who become chronically infected with hepatitis B or C have no or few symptoms. They are sometimes referred to as hepatitis carriers and can transmit their infection to other individuals in close contact with them. Some people who become chronically infected with hepatitis B or C will have "chronic active hepatitis", which means that the inflammation is more marked and will cause symptoms of ongoing hepatitis, and will ultimately result in significant liver damage. The liver damage will progress more quickly or slowly depending on how active the infection and inflammation is. On average, serious liver damage from chronic hepatitis will take about 20 years to develop. The end result of ongoing liver damage is cirrhosis of the liver. A cirrhotic liver has undergone many cycles of scarring and re-growth so that it is lumpy, distorted and poorly functioning. Unfortunately, liver cancer is apt to develop in this sort of liver.
A well recognised complication of Hepatitis B is kidney disease. This is an indirect effect, probably due to clumps of virus and anti-virus antibodies being deposited in the kidney filtration system. In children the kidney disease may become apparent as "puffiness", with a swollen face and limbs. In adults the picture is somewhat different, and a common sign would be blood in the urine. Chronic hepatitis C can similarly be complicated by kidney damage.
Mother to child transmission of hepatitis viruses
Hepatitis B and C can be transmitted from an infected mother to her baby. This can happen while the baby is in the uterus, or, more often, during the delivery. The risk of transfer of hepatitis B to the baby is high, whereas in the case of hepatitis C the risk is fairly low. Around 90% of babies will acquire hepatitis B from their mothers if no measures are taken to prevent this. Because of the immaturity of the immune system in new-born babies, in the majority these perinatally acquired infections will become chronic. By comparison, only about 5% of babies acquire hepatitis C from their mothers. Fortunately, in the case of hepatitis B, there are effective ways to prevent mother to baby transmission, provided the mother is identified as being infected. (See Prevention)
Hepatitis A is common in all undeveloped parts of the world where it is mostly acquired by young children. A study in South Africa in 1994 showed that over 90% of black people had been infected with Hepatitis A by adulthood. By comparison, only about 50% of white adults had antibodies indicating past infection. This probably reflects the different socio-economic circumstances and therefore sanitary conditions available to these groups. In highly developed countries, exposure to Hepatitis A is low, with only 10% of adults having been infected. This puts travellers from developed countries at risk of acquiring hepatitis A when they travel to less developed countries.
Hepatitis B is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa. In South Africa, up till now, hepatitis B has been particularly common in two age groups: young children and young sexually active adults. Past studies have found that almost 8% of infants less than one year of age and almost 16% of children less than 6 years of age have been infected with hepatitis B and have been unable to clear their infection and remain infectious carriers. Between 10-18% of South African adults are also hepatitis B carriers. Infection with hepatitis B is geographically distributed in South Africa and is more common in the Eastern Cape Province and Kwazulu-Natal. South Africa has had one of the highest rates of liver cancer in the world, and this is linked to the high rate of individuals chronically infected with hepatitis B virus. Since vaccination of all children against hepatitis B was started in 1995, it is hoped that the disease and its complications will soon become far less prevalent.
Hepatitis C infections are less common in South Africa, with around 1% of adults being infected. There is a cumulative risk of exposure over a life-time, and so more infections are seen in older age groups. Also, hepatitis C is more strongly linked to high-risk groups for blood-borne diseases.
Hepatitis D is found in several parts of the world where hepatitis B is prevalent, such as South America and the Mediterranean, but for some reason it is extremely rare in South Africa and therefore will not be discussed further here.
Hepatitis E virus is common in India and South East Asia, where it is recognised to occur in large outbreaks linked to contaminated water. There is some evidence that Hepatitis E occurs naturally in South Africa and neighbouring countries. So far the few definite cases of Hepatitis E in South Africa have occurred in persons who had recently travelled to India, and are therefore believed to have been "imported". Since Hepatitis E seems to be rare in South Africa, it will also not be discussed further here.
When to see a doctor
The symptoms of hepatitis described in Symptoms would require a visit to the doctor. The following are potentially serious symptoms which definitely require medical attention:
- Persistent vomiting for longer than six hours
- Extreme drowsiness, confusion or restlessness
- Unusual bruising or bleeding
- Jaundice continuing for longer than three weeks
The symptoms of hepatitis and the fact that viral hepatitis is so common in South Africa will usually lead a health care professional to suspect the disease early on. Blood tests can be done to confirm that there is a hepatitis, and its severity, and these tests can even give some clues as to whether the cause is viral.
However, one cannot tell one type of viral hepatitis from another without specific tests for the different viruses. Laboratory diagnosis of hepatitis A and B requires very straightforward blood tests. In the case of hepatitis B, some additional tests are available that can give information about whether this is a recent or chronic infection, and about how active the virus is.
However, an early or recent hepatitis C infection may not be detected so readily since the usual test only becomes positive when antibodies are produced by the immune system several weeks or months into the illness. Therefore a specialised "PCR" test for the hepatitis C virus may be required in some cases.
A summary table of the tests used to diagnose hepatitis A, B and C; the most important tests are in bold.
|TEST NAME || INTERPRETATION|
|Hepatitis A IgM antibody ||if positive, indicates current or recent infection|
|Hepatitis A IgG antibody || in the absence of hepatitis A IgM antibody, indicates past infection with hepatitis A, and immunity.|
|Hepatitis B surface (s) antigen ||if positive, the person has hepatitis B infection and is infectious|
|Hepatitis B early (e) antigen ||indicates very active infection; the person is highly infectious|
|Hepatitis B early (e) antibody ||usually indicates less active infection|
|Hepatitis B core IgM antibody||usually indicates recent, rather than chronic infection|
|Hepatitis B core IgG antibody ||found in anyone who is or has been infected with hepatitis B|
|Hepatitis B surface (s) antibody||indicates immunity to hepatitis B|
|Hepatitis C antibody||indicates infection either current or recent; but may be negative in early infection|
|Hepatitis C PCR||if positive,indicates current infection|
- If the person with hepatitis feels unwell enough to be in bed, they should rest in bed. Otherwise, if there is no fever, normal activities can be continued.
- A temperature of greater than 39 degrees Celsius can be treated with paracetamol. This drug should be used with caution because it is usually processed by the liver and this ability will be impaired in a person with viral hepatitis.
- A person with hepatitis will probably be inclined to avoid fatty foods. Otherwise a regular diet can be followed. If their appetite is poor, then fruit juice and other liquids should be encouraged.
- Avoid alcohol.
An acute hepatitis (a new infection) is not given any specific treatment, because there is no effective treatment available. Recovery is dependent on the person's own immune response to the virus infection. Any of the different complications might require medical treatment in hospital. Even if a person appears to make a full recovery, in the case of hepatitis B and C, follow-up blood tests should be done to show whether the infection has been cleared or whether it has persisted as a chronic infection.
There are limited possibilities for the treatment of chronic viral hepatitis. Chronic active hepatitis is probably best managed by specialists who have experience with the few drug treatments available. Some drugs that are sometimes successful for managing or eradicating chronic viral hepatitis are interferon-alpha, lamivudine (for hepatitis B) and ribavirin (for hepatitis C). A liver transplant may be required to save a person with end-stage liver damage.
Sound general advice for those with chronic hepatitis B can be found at http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4120.htm
A small percentage of people will die during severe early viral hepatitis and many more from the long-term consequences of chronic infection. As treatment possibilities are limited, avoiding viral hepatitis is most important.
The spread of hepatitis A is prevented by good sanitation systems, clean tap water and basic hygiene, such as washing one's hands after using the toilet, after changing a nappy and before preparing food. Virus is present in the faeces of an infected person from two weeks before symptoms begin to about a week after the start of the illness. A person with hepatitis A should not prepare food at home or at work. If your child has hepatitis A and attends a creche or school, the staff and parents should be notified so that preventive steps can be taken (see Prevention below).
If well, children can return to school and adults to work one week after the onset of hepatitis A, as they will no longer be significantly infectious.
In the case of hepatitis B or C, which take several months to clear from the blood, a person will probably be well enough to return to their normal activities before they become non-infectious. In this case, they should avoid any sort of contact with others that might pose an infection risk (see "cause"). Normal school activities (except for contact sports) or office activities do not pose a risk to others. Follow-up blood tests will show when a person has cleared the virus and is no longer infectious.
Advice on preventing the spread of blood-borne diseases, especially where children are involved, can be found at http://www.pkids.org/universal precautions.htm
Immunoglobulin for preventing hepatitis A and B
"Immunoglobulins" may be more familiarly known as antibodies. Immunoglobulin preparations are produced from donated blood. A proportion of blood donors will be immune to one or more of the hepatitis viruses, and their blood can be used to "harvest" anti-hepatitis immunoglobulin. The immunoglobulin, given by injection to another person, can provide provide them with "instant immunity" against the virus. This is used to protect people who have been exposed to hepatitis A or B and have not been vaccinated in the past. However, the immunoglobulin will not be effective if given too late after exposure when the virus has already established an infection. If you or your child have had known exposure to hepatitis A or B, your doctor would have to assess and discuss with you whether to use immunoglobulin. A common reason for the use of hepatitis A immunoglobulin is the protection of staff, parents and other children in a nursery school outbreak. Hepatitis B immunoglobulin can be used following any accidental exposure to hepatitis B, and is used to protect new-born babies when the mother is infected (see below). Immunoglobulin and a first dose of hepatitis A or B vaccine can be given simultaneously.
The "instant immunity" that a person receives from a dose of immunoglobulin will only last for a few months.
A vaccine against hepatitis A has recently become available. Because hepatitis A tends to be a mild disease in children and does not become chronic, it is not currently considered a high enough health priority for routine vaccination of children in South Africa. However, hepatitis A vaccination is recommended for the following groups:
- Health care workers
- Staff in centres where young children are cared for
- Clients and staff in institutions for the mentally handicapped
- Workers in the food industry
- Travellers from countries with low rates of hepatitis A who will be visiting countries where hepatitis A is prevalent
The vaccine consists of hepatitis A virus grown in cell culture and then inactivated or "killed". The vaccine is given by injection in two doses at least one month apart.
In South Africa, vaccination against hepatitis B has been part of the routine childhood immunisation programme since 1995. The vaccine is given to children at the ages of 6, 10 and 14 weeks, along with the oral polio vaccine and "DPT" vaccine. (The other vaccines do not interfere with the hepatitis B vaccine, and there is no increased risk of side-effects when they are given at the same time.)
Up until 1995, hepatitis B vaccine was only given to people in high risk groups, particularly health care workers. Children and adults born before 1995 will probably not have been vaccinated against hepatitis B. It is advisable for young people who are homosexually or heterosexually active to be vaccinated against hepatitis B. When a person is a known hepatitis B carrier, it is important for all family/household members to be vaccinated against hepatitis B. In older children and adults, the vaccine is given in three doses, usually over six months. It is important that three doses of vaccine be given with at least one month spacing between them, in order for good immunity to be achieved.
No vaccine for hepatitis C has been developed as yet.
Preventing mother to baby transmission
The chance of hepatitis B transmission from a mother to her baby can be much reduced if immunoglobulin and vaccine are given to the baby at birth. The baby will then need two subsequent doses of vaccine and should be monitored to see if he or she has been successfully protected. Unfortunately, neither immunoglobulin nor vaccine is available for hepatitis C, but the risk of mother to baby transmission is naturally low.
Written by Dr Jane Yeats MBChB, BSc(Med)(Hons)Biochem, FCPath (SA)Virol Specialist and lecturer, Department of Virology, University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital.
Reviewed by Dr Eftyhia Vardas BSc(Hons), MBBCh, DTM&H, DPH, FC Path (Virol), MMed (Virol), Clinical Virologist, Director HIV AIDS Vaccine Division, Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand and senior lecturer, Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. | <urn:uuid:91b99def-dbb9-4dfd-b60a-d42c73ca799f> | {
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This activity would work best as a follow up or precursor to an excursion to the aquarium or beach, as an activity to complement an interest or in conjunction with a book about fish or the ocean.
Before starting the diorama we researched, using the Internet and books we had about what we might find on the bottom of the ocean.
Here is how we made it:
here), PVA glue and brush, things to make coral and seaweed (we used, pipe cleaners, shiny green paper and leaves...you can use whatever you can find around the house), sticks, tape and sand.
Tearing the green shiny paper in strips to make the seaweed. Good fine motor skill practice
Twisting and manipulating the pipe cleaners to make coral and underwater plants
Taping a pipe cleaner to a strip of green paper so that it can be bent into a shape for seaweed
Poke holes in the bottom of your cardboard box for your child to poke their seaweed, coral and plants in
Pouring glue over the bottom of the box. Being careful to avoid the plants
Spread the glue so it covers the entire bottom of the box
Her FAVOURITE part. Sprinkling the sand all over the bottom of the box
Allow the glue to dry and shake off excess sand. Then add your rocks
Almost finished! Time to add the fish. I taped a loop of fishing line to the back of the fish so they could hang over the sticks
Hang the fish on the sticks and then place over the top of the box
The beautiful underwater scene in finished. We had a lot of fun creating this. Hope you do too
- You don't have to use all these same materials. See how we did it and then hunt around your own house for things that would work as well
- Take the time to focus on improving particular skills with your child and help them to practice, ie. Carefully pouring glue so that it goes where intended.
- Extend this activity by letting your child attempt some of the more fiddly parts like poking holes where they want their plants and taping fishing wire onto the fish. Ensure that you have talked about and researched the bottom of the ocean so that your child gains a better understanding of what you are doing and why.
- Making things that look visually pleasing as the end result help your child feel proud about what they have created.
- Use new language and descriptive words like, "coral" This will help with their language development.
-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're creating, eg. "How are we going to get the plants to stand up in the bottom of the box?" etc
- Listen to your child talk as they go through their experiences. This will help you determine where they are at with their learning, knowledge and understanding and help you to develop the activity (or future activities) to their level and interests.
-ENJOY spending time with your child :)
Look where else we are. Are you following along? :)
New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you | <urn:uuid:4f589903-a5b9-4cf0-8be6-de8d32b8c29a> | {
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The Use of Armatures : An armature in a sculpture is a material used for supporting the weight of the clay. An armature is usually necessary when portraying a figure in motion or in a standing posture. The armature serves as the underlying support to the sculpture. In some cases, a skeletal formation can be made out of wire, or another materials such as pipe or aluminum, that will help hold the clay in place, so that the clay can be worked and detailed. When working with large sculptures, weight is an important issue. After the initial armature is constructed, sculptors often use fillers such as styrofoam or aluminum foil to fill out the form and reduce the amount of clay being used. If most of the mass of the armature can be made with filler, then the clay on top will be just a thin skin instead of a huge mass that risks falling off. Once the armature is built, the clay sculpture can then be formed around and on the armature. The armature holds the parts of the sculpture in place, allowing the sculptor the freedom to move the clay along the armature to get the form that he or she wants. For bas reliefs, an armature can be constructed which consists of a grid of screws connected with wires to prevent the clay from sliding. Finishing the Clay in Preparation for Moulding : Once the final touches have been made to the original clay sculpture, the final procedure before molding is touching up delicate details and smoothing the surface of the clay to perfection. This is quit important because any error or imperfection in the clay would be copied in the molding process and would appear in every subsequent stage. Thus, the smoother the clay, the less work will needed on the wax replica and the finished bronze casting itself. Hook tools, or rake tools, are often used to cut the clay down to a new contour and to leave small raised ridges on the surface. for smoother surfaces, rubber or metal kidney tools can be used. For really fine surfaces, a brush and a solvent are used to whisk away all tool marks. Once the desired smoothness has been achieved, the piece should be allowed to dry throughly before continuing to the molding process. | <urn:uuid:76cc7551-2e14-4364-93d0-2b6c604142b9> | {
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In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education established a national plan “for how technology could provide students with access to engaging digital resources, opportunities to collaborate with peers and experts, and powerful tools to solve real problems as an integral part of the learning experience.” They called it ConnectED and an increase in tablets and Chromebooks began making their way into classrooms.
A year later, higher education collectively embraced Massively Online Open Courses (or MOOCs) as a way to increase enrollment and hopefully reduce rising and increasingly prohibitive tuition costs. But for most classrooms around the country, desks, paper, and pencils still reign supreme. And universities remain rife with PowerPoint lectures and debt-laden tuition.
How, then, should we grade these educational industries? Shirley Malcom of the American Association for the Advancement of Science says it depends on the student, although she seems to favor at least a passing score. “It’s really hard to generalize here,” she says when asked if classrooms haven’t changed significantly since the advent of the Internet. “This is likely true for some but false for others,” she answers while pointing to the successes of flipped classrooms and aforementioned MOOCs.
Where would she like to go from here? If given a magic wand, Malcom says she’d reconstruct the classroom to support more teamwork and smaller group learning. Connected education—analog style, if you will. “Of course I support increased access to and use of technology,” she says. “But I recognize that this is a tool, not the end game.”
And as a key advocate for the advancement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, Malcom believes it’s only right to prepare students for an increasingly digital world. Not at the reduction of humanities, mind you. But a focus on those increasingly critical fields.
Minerva Schools in San Francisco is an extreme example of this. No lectures, no labs, no football teams, and no buildings. Everything is done remotely online. Professors have a time limit for talking, and proprietary software tracks which students have spoken in class or not, making participation compulsory.
As for the curriculum, “Teachers will do less teaching and more inspiring,” predicts educator Andrew Mitson in an interview with Synap. “The web will take over straightforward content delivery. Traditional academic subjects will be sidelined for more practical and applicable skills.”
In addition to remote classrooms and more give-and-take between teacher and student discussions, Fast Company reports an unbundling of degrees. "Today, diplomas granted by years in school are the dominant certification of ‘learning.’ Yet, in almost all cases, these diplomas certify nothing other than the fact that the person in question spent x years in school.”
On the other hand, competency-based certifications test specific skills and then bundle those skills into professional groupings for both employers and job seekers.
Take “data scientist,” for example—the most sought-after job in America, according to GlassDoor. As the world record is increasingly digitized, we’ll need an increasing number of researchers to improve computational behavior and understanding. We’ll need even more software developers, especially on mobile. And we’ll need more logisticians, ethical hackers, actuaries Forbes predicts.
What will need to get there and fill all of those jobs and still unseen ones? When dreaming up the future of connected education, we might have over focused on student education and not enough on teacher education, Malcom concludes. “If the above magic wand were really powerful, I’d put a wonderful, smart, and caring teacher in every classroom.”
Tools that enable that, then, might be where the best return on investment exists. | <urn:uuid:f45e31a6-9382-4aef-b212-e1def1b9982f> | {
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Borage is an interesting plant with star like blue flowers and deeply veined dramatic leaves. It needs full sun and some water but will tolerate almost any soil type and does well on poor soil. Its flowers are loved by butterflies, bees and many other beneficial insects. It is covered in stiff hairs that make the plant stand out and almost shimmer like silver in some lights. These same hairs protect it from browsing by wildlife and the continual production of flowers from early summer until frost ensure that the garden will always have some flowers. Easy to grow and very little maintenance once established. May self seed in ideal locations.
Description of Borage (Borago officinalis)
A large annual plant that begins by producing large very textured mid green leaves. These are basically oval in shape with a pointed end and mid to deep green in color, deeply veined, wrinkled. Leaves can be up to 5 inches long and 3 inches broad and are covered with stout hairs on the upper surface and lower veins that making them slightly prickly and unpleasant to handle. Flower stems begin to arise in late spring and early summer. Flower buds are already formed at the top of the stems even before they begin to rise from the basal leaf mass. Stems are rise to 3 feet in height are stiff succulent hollow much branched and covered with stiff hairs. Flowers are born on individual hairy stems, beginning with drooping oval five part calyx that opens to produce a bright blue five petaled star shaped flower with white center and prominent cone of black and purple anthers in the center. Flowers bloom from early summer until frost kill. Seeds are brownish-black nutlets. Flower branches continue to grow throughout the season and plants can become sprawled if not staked.
HOW TO GROW Borage (Borago officinalis).
Location and Care
Full sun and some watering are required for best results. Although Borage will tolerate some shade the plants tend to be more spindly and fall over easily. Not fussy about soil type will grow on almost anything provided it is not waterlogged. Ideally it likes loose stony or sandy soils that are well drained. Flowers on poorer soils tend to be a deeper shade of blue. Pick your location well as borage develops a thick tap root and does not take well to transplanting.
The thick hollow stems and succulent nature of the plant means that it tends to fall over once it reaches 2 feet in height especially after high winds from a storm. Staking larger plants is recommended or plants will sprawl, when this happens lower branches tend to become infected with mildew and turn black. For best results keep upright and allow for good air flow at base of plants. Borage can take up a lot of room once it begins to mature so chose carefully so it does not overwhelm any nearby plants. Use gloves when handling seedlings or plants to avoid irritating hairs. Will self seed in ideal conditions.
Growing Borage (Borago officinalis) from Seed.
Best sown directly in the garden. Prepare area, remove all weeds and especially perennial roots. Plant seeds about 15 inches apart with 3 feet between rows around the time of last frost or just slightly before. Seeds can also be sown in late fall for early spring germination. Water well until seeds germinate usually about 5-10 days. Thin back or transplant when plants are large enough to handle and water regularly for best results. Once leaves have begun to expand they tend to suppress any nearby weeds. Watering with a soaker hose is best option. Use gloves when handling seedlings or plants to avoid irritating hairs.
Starting indoors is not recommended as borage does not transplant well as they develop a stout tap root that does not like to be moved. Direct sowing is usually very successful.
Medical uses of Borage (Borago officinalis).
The leaves and to a lesser extent the flowers are used to treat fevers, chest congestion and lung complaints. It also has a beneficial effect on the mind being used to dispel melancholy and induce euphoria. The succulent strong nature of the leaves have a very cooling saline effect and it is used to sooth irritated and damaged tissues.
It can also stimulate the kidneys and produce a diuretic effect and so is sued to help carry off feverish catarrhs. Used mostly as a tea of the fresh or dried leaves. Externally the leaves are used as a poultice for inflammatory swellings and inflamed leg veins.
Culinary uses of Borage (Borago officinalis).
The young leaves can be used as a pot herb or added to salads they have a crunchy, salty slightly cucumber flavor. Only young leaves are used before the irritating hairs have grown. Alternately the stems can be used after having the outer coating pealed off. These are very cooling and crunch on hot summer days. Both the leaves and stalks can be used to flavor wine drinks. The flowers can be used in salads or decoratively in summer fruit drinks. They can also be candied and used in cake decorations. They are also used as a food coloring, especially specialty vinegars.
Both flowers and leaves can be used to make a refreshing tea. The seeds have high levels of gamma-linolenic acid but due to the intermittent ripening of the seeds are not a commercial viable crop.
Many reports suggest that growing borage near strawberries, tomatoes and squash can help deter Japanese beetles and tomato hornworms.
Borage leaves and start of flower stalk
Borage growing in our field. | <urn:uuid:a996e3f7-e974-4d20-864c-bc97bbb12f7f> | {
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This is the first tutorial in the Web Graphics series. In this tutorial I will show you how to create glass balloons. You can add as many balloons as you want. You can create one balloon or you can create a bunch of balloons. I will show you how to create the balloons and then you can take it from there.
You will need to download a symbol file called Aqua Balls. The symbol file is free to download and it only takes a second to download it. You can click here to visit the page with the download. Go ahead and download and install the symbols and we will get started.
First, you will need to open the aqua balls that you downloaded. Go to the top of your program and click Window > Symbol Libraries > Other. When the box opens, locate the symbols that you downloaded and unzipped. Click the symbol file and click the Open button. The aqua balls will open in your Illustrator window.
In the Aqua Balls box, you will see the different balls. We are going to use the balls for the balloons. Grab one of the balls and drag it to your document. The balls will be really large. So, you will need to grab the transform tool and shrink it down some. You can go ahead and add more balls if you want too. To get them to look like they are behind one another, you will need to send some to the back. You can do that by right clicking and click Arrange > Send to Back.
Now I will show you how to create the string for the balloons. Grab the pencil tool from the toolbar. Using your mouse, quickly draw a curvy line on your document. The reason I say quickly is because if you do it slow, the line will look all scraggly. The faster you do it, the better it looks. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It is a string.
You can change the color of the string by changing the stroke color. You can also change the size by changing the stroke size. You can also change the style of the stroke by opening different brushes and applying the brushes to the strings. To open more brushes, go to the top of your window and click Window > Brush Libraries > and select a library of brushes to open. Click a brush will apply it to the string.
You can also apply a drop shadow to the balloons to make them look like they are coming off of the page. To apply a drop shadow, click Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Tick the preview field and play around with the drop shadow to get it like you want it. That’s how you create balloons. | <urn:uuid:f02de6e4-cb56-4e9c-8dfc-fce3c0bd46b6> | {
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Lesson 32: “Live in the Spirit”
This lesson is somewhat historical, covering chapters describing Paul’s third missionary journey and some of his first extant epistles. From its arrangement and the questions suggested, it appears that the lesson committee intends teachers to select from a great many isolated verses and hold brief discussions, initiated by typically listless and stereotypical “Sunday-school-answer” inducing questions. The 1935 lessons (Obert C. Tanner, The New Testament Speaks. Salt Lake City: Church Department of Education, 1935) addressing the same scriptural chapters may supply a few more historical details to help unify the scattered verses highlighted in the current manual. Note that the current manual discusses Ephesians and Galatians in the order in which they appear in the New Testament; I’ve arranged the lessons below in the same order, but be aware that this reverses the chronological order of their writing/history.
The Place of Paul’s Letters in the New Testament.
The Book of Acts does not mention a single letter of Paul’s although it follows quite closely his missionary labors. This seems strange, in that the letters were written before Acts, and were greatly prized by the particular churches in possession of them. However, no one had made a collection of Paul’s letters or published them before the time Luke wrote the Book of Acts. Consequently, Luke could not have been influenced by them.
Indeed, it was the publication of the Book of Acts which so highly evaluated the work of Paul, which placed lasting value on any of the letters he had written. The Book of Acts was written at about 90 A.D., more than twenty-five years after Paul’s death. Had Paul’s letters been published before this time, they would no doubt have influenced Luke in his work of Acts. On the other hand, after the appearance of the Book of Acts, mention of the Pauline letters is abundant in all Christian writings.
The effect of the letters of Paul, after their collection and publication, was far-reaching. it must be kept in mind that there was no New Testament in Paul’s day. The Christian Church did not grow out of the New Testament, but the New Testament was the product of the Church, and grew out of the needs of particular situations. the various books and letters of the early Church were occasional writings, with no thought on the part of the writers that they might later be collected into a whole, and take their place alongside the sacred books of the Old Testament.
The letters of Paul were not collected until forty years after many of them had been written. The collection, called the “Pauline Collection,” even when made, did not form a part of a New Testament, for there was as yet no New Testament. There were similar collections of writings found and published in various countries of the Christian world, but none of them had received a general sanction as inspired literature. The Pauline collection was to be treasured and used as a guide in the Christian churches for nearly another fifty years, until 140 A.D., before it found a place in Marcion’s collection of collections, which he termed the “Christian scripture.” It was not, however, until 180 A.D. that a New Testament appeared in Rome as inspired scripture containing the Pauline letters, and found general acceptance by the Church. Marcion’s collection contained ten letters, although the original Pauline Collection contained but seven. as the Pauline letters appear in present-day New Testaments, thirteen are ascribed to Paul, although the authorship of some of them is questionable. The letters of Paul comprise more than one-fourth of the entire New Testament; and in influence on Christian thought they have nearly paralleled the gospels.
The letters of Paul were the earliest Christian writings to find a place in the New Testament, having been written prior to the gospels. They are the beginnings of a unique Christian literature which has survived through the centuries, because of its lasting message and beauty of expression.
The letters of Paul do not appear in the New Testament in the order in which they were written, but rather in the order of the influence they exerted on the early Christian world. The earliest collection of Pauline letters was evidently made at Ephesus, and was headed by the Epistle to the Ephesians. This is a general letter originally addressed to all Christians, and not to any particular church. The original order for the Pauline collection was discarded when the collection found its place in a new Testament. We must keep these points clearly in mind.
Paul’s Purpose in Writing to the Branches of the Church.
As for the gospel of Christ spread beyond the confines of Jerusalem, difficulty of maintaining harmony and understanding within the Church increased. The message of Christ crucified, and Christ resurrected, was easily spread orally from individual to individual. However, the teachings of Jesus presented greater difficulty. Those who had been with Jesus throughout his ministry were few, as were those who taught like Paul, through direct inspiration. Unlike the Jews who were in the habit of memorizing stories and teachings and handing them down orally, the Greeks relied largely upon the written word. There was no written gospel. Consequently, the writing of letters to straighten out local controversies and to lend encouragement and give instruction, was a natural outgrowth.
Paul could not hope to revisit all of the churches he had established, except at great intervals. His stay in most of the centers where he had established branches of the Church was necessarily short. those left by him to preside were usually local converts. Not having known Jesus personally, and probably lacking wisdom in many cases in settling new questions and problems which would arise, they often failed to retain the full confidence of those entrusted to their charge. Controversies were frequent in the absence of Paul. The prevalent immoralities of the times often proved a snare to those who had, under his amazing personal magnetism, given up the old habits for the new Christian life. The Judaizers, despite the decision of the council at Jerusalem, continued to teach the necessity of circumcision, and to backbite Paul at every turn. it was to strengthen the branches of the Church that Paul wrote his epistles. Each of them was designed for a particular situation – to answer the problems of a particular branch and lend the needed encouragement and guidance to them. He wrote with no literary intentions. Educated as Paul was in classic Greek, he discarded it entirely in favor of the common Greek language used in the streets, when writing or preaching to his Greek friends. And it is in the light of the colloquial Greek which he used, that he is to be understood. To grasp Paul’s method and appreciate his meaning and understanding, each letter that he wrote must be read in the light of its correct setting. The questions must constantly be asked: What occasioned the writing of the letter? What problems in the particular church is Paul attempting to solve?
Some few of Paul’s letters, such as the Epistle to timothy, were personal letters directed chiefly to individuals rather than churches. In these letters personal opinion abounds, and we feel the warm humanity of the man, his amazing friendliness, and his devotion to his friends. From them we learn precious details of his life, his hardships, weaknesses, and his strength; all of which would otherwise have been lost to the world. Unconsciously, Paul, in his writings, did more than settle the controversies of local churches, and lend encouragement to his personal friends. He left priceless advice and encouragement to the whole Christian world.
Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians.
First Letter. About the middle of the first century, when Paul wrote a letter from the city of Corinth, he unconsciously began a new scripture. That letter addressed to his Greek friends in Thessalonica, is the oldest part of the New Testament. the letter was written in an emotion of joy, for Paul had just received good news.
Some months before, Paul had crossed the Hellespont from Asia to carry the gospel for the first time into the Greek world. he had been kindly received. The Greeks in Macedonia had gladly accepted his message. They had become his friends. After a short acquaintance, they had even risked their lives for his safety. He had established a branch of the Church in Philippi, and was enjoying good success in Thessalonica, when the Jews arose in violence, and he had to flee for his life. He traveled westward to Berea and thence southward to Athens and Corinth, where he was joined by his companions. His stay in the Greek cities had been brief. What had happened during his absence? Had the new converts remained steadfast, or drifted back to their idolatrous religions? Had they remembered his teachings? It was a vital question. The whole success of his mission in the Greco-roman world depended upon the result. If Paul should find it necessary to remain constantly with a branch of the Church to keep its members in the fold, then any great missionary programs to new fields would be impossible. But if he could, in a few weeks or months, instill a spirit of Christ into his new converts, which would enable them to be guided by inspiration and continue in the faith without further personal guidance, the possibilities in the Greek and Roman world were unlimited.
Unable to return himself, Paul sent his two companions, Timothy to Thessalonica and the more experienced Silas to Philippi, to see how the churches were fairing. He waited eagerly in Corinth for their return with news from the north. At last they came. It was good news. The Thessalonians and the Philippians had remained faithful. He was especially pleased with the success at Thessalonica. The church there was growing, his teachings were being remembered. Overjoyed, Paul sat down and wrote a letter to them. It was a long letter, full of praise for his new friends and joy at their faithfulness, and a desire to return and visit them. But Paul also gave them further advice and instruction. They must beware of drifting away into immoral living. they must avoid idleness. Apparently the idea had grown that Christ was soon to return, and the Thessalonians were troubled about those who had died and would thus miss seeing Christ coming in his glory. Paul warned them not to expect the coming of Christ again so soon, for first certain scriptures must be fulfilled; furthermore, no one knew the date of his coming, for he would come as a thief in the night. So he discouraged idleness and encouraged thrift and all useful work. The letter teems with kindness.
Paul had many friends. But of them all, few were so loved by him as those first converts in the Greek world, and few remained so loyal to him to the end.
Second Letter. Near the close of his stay in Corinth, Paul received distressing news from Thessalonica. Something he had said or written had been misrepresented or misunderstood. The northern branch of the Church was in a turmoil over the coming of Christ. Expecting him momentarily many had ceased to work, and in their idleness had drifted away into vices and mischief, and were faced with want. persecutions also had broken out.
“If anyone will not work, give him nothing to eat.” They must cease their idleness, and those who would not do so must be cut off from fellowship in the Church.
Christian literature began with these two letters of Paul.
Questions for the chapter Review:
1. Why does the Book of Acts fail to mention the letters of Paul?
2. What were the oldest books of the new Testament written? By whom? When? When was the Book of Acts written?
3. When were the letters of Paul first collected? when were they included with the other books of the New Testament and accepted as sacred literature? How many books in the new Testament are attributed to Paul?
4. What were the facts which caused Paul to write letters to the branches of the Church?
5. Explain the value of Paul’s letters to the local branches of the Church.
6. What are the two guides which every student should keep in mind when reading the letters of Paul?
7. Of what special value to us are the personal letters of Paul?
8. What is the oldest book of the New Testament? To whom was it written?
9. Explain why Paul would feel so extremely happy over the report of the branches in Thessalonica and Philippi.
10. Explain the purpose of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. What were the conditions about which Paul wrote in his second letter to them? What instructions did he give?
THE THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY
Paul’s Predecessors at Ephesus. (Acts 18:23-28.)
At the close of his short visit to the Ephesians, on his return voyage from Corinth, Paul promised the Ephesians he would return if God were willing; a promise which he later fulfilled. when he left Ephesus, Aquilla and his wife remained behind. Perhaps they had come for the express purpose of preaching in that city.
Sometime between Paul’s departure and his return, there came to Ephesus a preacher named Apollos. He was a Jew from Alexandria, a learned and eloquent man, whose preaching made quite a stir. what he knew of the Lord he had evidently learned in Egypt. but his knowledge of Jesus was very meager, and Priscilla (Paul calls her Prisca) and Aquilla instructed him more fully in the ways of the Lord. Following the help which he received from them, Apollos traveled to Corinth, where he became very influential. More will be heard of him in the study of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Evidently the work of John the Baptist had a wider influence than has sometimes been thought, for here was a Jew from Egypt, far from the land where John had preached, who followed his teachings. When the Gospel of John was later written in ephesus, the author made it clear in his writings that John the Baptist was only a forerunner of Jesus. The emphasis which he placed upon that fact may have been prompted by the existence of a group who followed the teachings of John the Baptist, but rejected those of the Christ.
The early history of Ephesus is not known, but tradition says it was founded in the eleventh century B.C. by a colony from Athens. Before the Greeks had settled there, it had been the center of worship of some native cult. In Paul’s day there stood the famous temple of Artemis, the Ephesian Diana. This temple was said to be one of the seven wonders of the world, and the boast was made that the sun in its course looked upon nothing more magnificent.
The temple was built on a huge artificial platform seven feet high, which had formed the foundation of earlier temples. The tremendous columns which supported the massive building, covering 80,000 square feet, stood sixty feet in the air. Within the temple were priceless pieces of art, the works of Praxiteles and Appelles, who painted grapes so real that it is said the birds pecked at them. But valued above these treasures was a black stone which the Ephesians said was an image of their goddess, which had been sent from heaven.
Besides being the center of the worship of Artemis (Diana), Ephesus was one of the leading commercial cities of early Christian times. It was the capital of the extensive and wealthy province of Asia, and was situated midway along the west coast of Asia Minor. Today, its harbor is choked with silt from the river, but when Paul was there historians report that it was so filled with ships that their masts resembled a forest.
Three Years at Ephesus. (Acts 19.)
When Paul left Antioch to visit the churches in Galatia and Phrygia for the third time, he said goodbye to the city which had become his adopted home. This time he was beginning a journey which was to end in a martyr’s death at Rome. Coming to Ephesus from his visits to the “upper coasts” (country), he met twelve believers who had not received the Holy ghost. They belonged, like Apollos, to that group which followed John the Baptist, and knew only of his baptism by water. Following their baptism in the name of Jesus and the laying on of Paul’s hands, they prophesied (bore testimony) and spoke in tongues. The very brief account given of this incident makes it difficult to understand. A full account of what did occur, together with a statement of Paul’s reasons for what he did, would settle many controversies centering in these verses. (Acts 19:1-7)
Paul preached in the Jewish synagogue for three months, but when many of the Jews spoke evil of the Christian teachings (“the way”), he left, and taught in the school of Tyrannus. The Bezan text adds that he had the use of the school from the fifth to the tenth hour after the business of the city was closed. Like other laborers, he worked from early morning until closing time at his trade, and then when the city was at leisure he went to the lecture room of Tyrannus to preach.
From the theater to the harbor ran a beautiful colonnaded road a mile long. Along this avenue were the schools, the libraries, and the lecture halls of Ephesus. Among them may have been the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where Paul the apostle preached of Jesus.
The story of the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-20), attempting to cast out an evil spirit, is a vivid word picture of the conflict between the religion which Paul preached and the system of magical charms so widespread in the world of that day. those who practiced the magic arts saw very little difference between their system and the Christian religion. To them, the only difference was that the appeal for power was made to Jesus rather than to the spirits which they knew. The endeavor of the sons of Sceva to exorcize a spirit in the name of the Jesus whom Paul preached is an example of the attempt of the magic workers to appropriate to their own system the ceremonies of the Christian religion.
The inability of the “vagabond Jews” to perform a miracle in the name of Jesus increased the prestige of Paul and the religion he taught. shortly afterward, $10,000 worth of magical books were publicly burned – proof that their owners no longer had faith in their power.
While Paul was teaching in the lecture hall of tyrannus, there grew in his mind the plan to visit Macedonia and Achaia once more, and then go to Jerusalem previous to his departure for Rome. This plan he later followed, but the visit to Rome came in a rather unexpected way.
the numerous pilgrims to the temple of the Ephesian Diana (not the Grecian “Diana, goddess of the moon, but the Oriental mother goddess Artemis, called Diana of the Ephesians) brought their gifts to her. One of the favorite offerings was a model of her temple, or of the goddess herself sitting upon a throne. The practice was to leave these models in the temple as a gift, or occasionally to carry them home as mementos of the pilgrimage. These images and models were made by the smiths of the city and gave them a large part of their profit. Naturally, the Christian preaching of a God who was not “like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device” (Acts 17:29), would cause the business of the idol-makers to fall off.
Presumably Demetrius was an employer of a large number of men in that trade, and when he aroused them and others to the danger to their trade and their goddess, the men of Ephesus seized two Christians, Gaius and Aristarchus, companions of Paul, with whom they rushed into the theater. The men spoken of as “certain of the chief of Asia,” who kept Paula way, were “Asiarchs,” imperial officers with religious duties connected with the temples and the services of the emperor. The friendship of these men for Paul and their interest in his welfare bear testimony of his standing with the official class of the city. Paul was a Jew, and there may have been charges made by some in the mob against all the Jews. This would explain why they put forward Alexander to speak for them. What he said was lost in the cry: “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”
The two-hour riot was at last stilled by the town clerk, an official of importance who had perhaps before experienced such outbreaks. he showed the people how senseless was their fear that the worship of their goddess could be destroyed by the Christians. They had her temple and the image from Heaven, visible, material proofs that her place was secure. The charges that Paula nd his associates were temple robbers and that they had spoken against the goddess, blasphemed her name, were denied. If the silversmiths had any charges to make against Paul or the Christians, they could do so in the regular way through the courts. he closed by saying that the people should remember that riots of such a nature were a grave danger to their city and might result in action by the Roman government against their freedom.
Although Paul was at liberty to continue his work in Ephesus with the good will of the officers, he voluntarily withdrew from the city after the riot. It may be that he thought that his presence would only intensify the bitterness against the Christians, and that he could help the cause more by going away.
Questions for the Chapter Review:
1. What evidences do we have that there were disciples of John the Baptist outside of Palestine long after his death?
2. Give the story of Apollos, his birthplace, the reason for his limited knowledge of Jesus, the reason for his influence, and the help he received from Aquilla.
3. Locate the city of Ephesus. Trace Paul’s journey from Antioch to Ephesus. Give some interesting facts concerning the city of Ephesus.
4. Tell the story of Paul and the twelve believers whom he met in ephesus.
5. How long was Paul in Ephesus? where did he preach during most of this time? What was his program for a day’s work while in Ephesus?
6. Tell the story of the sons of Sceva.
7. Give the reason for the opposition of Demetrius and his followers. What was the result?
8. Why did Paul leave Ephesus?
PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS
Returning to the shores of Syria from Corinth, at the close of his second missionary journey, Paul was confronted with disturbing news. Despite the decision of the council at Jerusalem at the close of his first Gentile mission, which gave him a free hand to bring Gentiles into the Church without circumcision, the Judaizers had continued their destructive work. They were undermining what Paul had accomplished in the province of Galatia. Their attack on Paul’s influence had been two-fold. First, the questioned his authority in the Church. Second, they preached that baptism into the Church was of no value without circumcision.
Who these men were, we have no way of telling. it is clear that they were not under authority from Jerusalem. One thing is certain – they were of Jewish birth, and belonged to that small group of Jewish Christians who believed Jesus to have fulfilled the covenant made by God to Abraham. In order to benefit from that covenant, one must be a descendant of Abraham or be grafted in as one of his descendants by circumcision, and thus adopted by the Jewish nation. The argument seemed logical to a people who formerly believed in local gods, who showed partiality to favored people. It was possible also to undermine the belief in the authority of one who had not lived, as the apostles had, in the companionship of Jesus in Galilee. The claims of Paul’s enemies made the Galatians wonder what relation Paul had to the authorized leaders of the Church in Jerusalem. Many set about conforming to the demands of the Judaizers.
Paul wished to revisit the Galatians, but for some reason could not do so at that time. So he wrote a letter form Antioch, to answer the Judaizers and reestablish the confidence of the Galatian Saints. It was a burning letter, seemingly penned or dictated in haste, while Paul was in the warmth of his anger at the news of what had been done.
The location of Galatia is a thorn to historians. Modern scholars lean toward the view that the Galatia of that day embodied southern Asia Minor. Some authorities still insist that Galatia was in northern Asia Minor. The difficulty arises from the fact that the name applied to both regions at certain periods, though probably to only one at the time of Paul.
The first two chapters of Galatians deal with Paul’s relationship to the Church. The third and fourth attack the exclusiveness of the Judaizers. The fifth and sixth outline the duties of the Galatians as true Christians. The letter had tremendous influence at the time, but because it applied to a problem which eventually passed, it carries a message of lesser importance to modern readers than others of Paul’s letters. However, the letter is of tremendous value in piecing together the life of Paul, and in arriving at an appreciation of the mental keenness of the man.
Paul begins his letter by reestablishing his authority. He claims that his authority is not from man, but that he was directly commissioned by Christ, just as Peter and the others had been. It was not a self-assumed commission, but Christ had appeared unto him. Paul’s conversion must have been known to the Galatians, hence a mere recital of the event would cause them to remember, and set their minds at ease. Paul further strengthens his position by making clear that Peter and the others at Jerusalem had recognized his authority, and given him a full hand of fellowship. Hence, he felt doubly equipped to preach.
Paul recounts the events at Jerusalem at the time of the council to decide the status of the Gentiles in the Gospel, and the decision there reached. The letters sent by the authorities at that time may not have reached portions of Galatia.
Having thoroughly established his authority both to preach Christ’s Gospel and to bring Gentiles into the Church without circumcision, Paul begins a general attack on the narrowness of Judaism, and proclaims the observance of the Jewish laws a bondage. The Law was only an attendant to bring them to Christ. The Gospel gave religious freedom.
The last two chapters of Galatians caused Dr. Goodspeed to exclaim: “Galatians is in fact a charter of religious freedom. Its noble ideal of the religious life, so far from being outgrown, still beckons us forward, as it did those obscure townsfolk of the Galatian uplands long ago. Paul knew its dangers; but he knew its promises, too, and saw that for those who would sincerely accept it, it opened possibilities of spiritual and moral development which could never be reached by the lower path.” [Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament, p. 11.]
The real spirit of God, Paul tells the Galatians, is the only genuine Christian guide. If by it Christians would regulate their lives, sin would find no abode, but righteous living and loving kindness would bring a rich reward. Some suppose that Paul wrote the entire letter with his own hand. (See Gal. 6:11) if so, the fact would be extraordinary, for Paul usually dictated his letters. The letter was carried by one of Paul’s trusty followers to the various Galatian churches. Some of them must have had the foresight to make a copy of it, and thus to preserve to the world Paul’s first truly great letter.
Questions for the Chapter Review:
1. Give the story of the founding of the Galatian churches. (Acts 13:13-14:28)
2. What problem caused the letter to the Galatians to be written/ (Gal. 1:6-7; 3:1) why did Paul write with some warmth and indignation to the Galatians?
3. Who were the Judaizers? What were the main points of conflict between the Judaizers and Paul?
4. By what authority did Paul presume to be a guide to the churches? (Gal. 1:1)
5. Explain the various chapters in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. What does Goodspeed say of the last two chapters? | <urn:uuid:70ee5471-5dc7-47e5-8160-b6f320094516> | {
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Weather extremes have hit many countries and the Arctic has seen unprecedented sea ice melt as the world experienced another year among the hottest on record, experts have said.
The years 2001 to 2011 were all among the warmest on record, and this year looks set to be no exception, despite a La Nina weather pattern which has a cooling effect on temperatures, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.
Every year for the last 20 years has been warmer than the average for 1961-1990, according to three sets of data collected and analysed by scientists in the US and the UK, including one by the Exeter-based Met Office and University of East Anglia.
The Met Office said that, taking uncertainties over measuring global surface temperatures into account, 2012 is very likely to be between the fourth and 14th warmest year in records dating back to 1850.
Dr Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the Met Office, said: “Although the first decade of the 21st century was the warmest on record, warming has not been as rapid since 2000 as over the longer period since the 1970s.
“This variability in global temperatures is not unusual, with several periods lasting a decade or more with little or no warming since the instrumental record began.
“We are investigating why the temperature rise at the surface has slowed in recent years, including how ocean heat content changes and the effects of aerosols from atmospheric pollution may have influenced global climate.”
The UN organisation’s secretary-general Michel Jarraud said climate change was “taking place before our eyes” and would continue to do so as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions which have reached new record levels this year. | <urn:uuid:8def0a2a-a5ea-473d-a3fc-19c4b67f0fb3> | {
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From Halleck's New English Literature by Reuben Post Halleck. New York: American Book Company, 1913.
We may make another classification from a different point of view, according to the period of his development at the time of writing special
plays. In order to study his growth and changing ideals, it will assist us to divide his work into four periods.
(1) There was the sanguine period, showing the exuberance of youthful love and imagination. Among the plays
that are typical of these years are The Comedy of Errors, A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II and Richard III. These were probably all composed before 1595.
(2) The second period, from 1595 to 1601, shows progress in dramatic art. There is less exaggeration, more
real power, and a deeper insight into human nature.
There appears in his philosophy a vein of sadness, such as we find in the sayings of Jaques in As You Like It, and
more appreciation of the growth of character, typified by
his treatment of Orlando and Adam in the same play.
Among the plays of this period are The Merchant of
Venice, Henry IV, Henry V, and As You Like It.
(3) We may characterize the third period, from 1601 to
1608, as one in which he felt that the time was out of
joint, that life was a fitful fever. His father died in
1601, after great disappointments. His best friends suffered what he calls, in Hamlet, "the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune." In 1601 Elizabeth executed the
Earl of Essex for treason, and on the same charge threw
the Earl of Southampton into the Tower. Even Shakespeare himself may have been suspected. The great plays
of this period are tragedies, among which we may instance Julius Caesar*, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear.
(4) The plays of his fourth period, 1608-1613, are
remarkable for calm strength and sweetness. The fierceness of Othello and Macbeth is left behind. In 1608
Shakespeare's mother died. Her death and the vivid recollection of her kindness and love may have been strong
factors in causing him to look on life with kindlier eyes.
The greatest plays of this period are Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.
* Note: Halleck includes Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's third period. However, Thomas Platter recorded in his Diary a performance of the play on September 21, 1599, and most critics believe the play was written early that same year.
How to cite this article:
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Peter Christen Asbjornsen (1812—1878)
Jorgen Moe (1813—1880)
Both Asbjornsen and Moe came from the country, and belonged to families in modest circumstances. They made friends while preparing for a university career. Influenced by the Grimms, they set out to study the folklore of their country, and in their first collection of tales, which appeared in 1841, they produced a work of striking interest and genuine originality. “This vdlume,” says John Gade, “was perhaps the greatest single event in the whole movement of that generation toward a more truly national culture.”
The Smith Who Could Not Get Into Hell is a highly artistic treatment of a bit of ancient folklore. It is reprinted, in the translation by Helen and John Gade, from Norwegian Fairy Tales, American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1924, by permission of the Foundation.
The Smith Who Could Not Get Into Hell
In the days when Our Lord and St. Peter walked on earth, they came once upon a time, to a smith who had made a bargain with the devil to belong to him after seven years if during that time he could be the master of all other smiths; and both the smith and the devil had signed their names to this contract. That was why the smith had set up over his smithy door a big sign which read: “Here lives the master of all masters!”
When Our Lord came along and saw this, He went in.
“Who are you?” he said to the smith.
“Read what’s over the door,” said the smith, “and if you can’t read, you’ll have to wait till some one comes along to help you.”
Before Our Lord could answer, a man came along leading a horse which he wanted the smith to shoe.
“Won’t you let me shoe him?” said Our Lord.
“You can try,” said the smith; “you can’t do it so badly but that I can fix it again.”
So Our Lord went out and cut off one of the horse’s forelegs, put it in the forge, made the shoe glowing hot, sharpened the calks and nails and drove them home and then put the leg, whole and perfect, back on the horse. When that was done, he took the other front leg and did the same, and after putting that leg back, took the two hind legs, first the right and then the left, put them in the forge till the shoes were white with heat, sharpened calks and nails and drove them in and finally put these legs, too, back on the horse. | <urn:uuid:128272ce-18fd-44e5-8c6d-8f0ac34052db> | {
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Geographers, for our sake, divide the mountains into three large regions: northern, central and southern Appalachia. We at The Park on Main, the luxury pet-friendly hotel in Highlands, rest almost nonchalantly in the southern end.
Archeologists believe the Appalachians were formed 680 million years ago following earthen plate collisions that created the supercontinent Pangaea. When the North America and Africa were joined as one continent, the Appalachians were connected to Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria.
Erosion had eventually flattened the Appalachians some 65 millions ago. The continental shifts lifted the terrain during the Cenozoic Era, which rejuvenated streams and created the unique and beautiful mountainous ranges. The era is the most recent of the three major subdivisions in animal development and concluded about 23 million years ago, according to the University of California’s Museum of Paleontology.
Heavy deposits of anthracite and bituminous coal are found in the Appalachian Mountains. Some mountain plateaus contain iron and zinc.
Hiking Whiteside Mountain is one of the most popular activities in the area, and the trail parking lot for the mountain is just seven miles northwest of the hotel. The two-mile hike is described as being easy to moderately difficult, but well worth the incredible sights available from multiple viewpoints at the top. Other notable sights include the winding trail going down, the staircase path headed up and the straight drop-down viewpoint from the sheet rock cliffs.
Let’s start our tour by making our way to Whiteside Mountain between Highlands and Cashiers on U.S. Highway 64. The highway that runs along the Jackson-Macon county line is known as the “big view” overlook, according to Highland Hiker. Turn onto Whiteside Mountain Road and go one mile to the parking area on the left. The fee to take the mountain trail is $2. Trekking along the trail gives hikers a panoramic view of the entire area, but Shortoff and Yellow Mountain rise to the north and Chimneytop Mountain appears on the eastern horizon.
Look south to the foothills and Piedmont (and Lake Keowee). Direct your line of sight to the west to the Nantahala Mountains and views of the Appalachian Trail. The mountain’s summit climbs to 4,900 feet, which is about 2,000 feet higher than Whiteside Cover to the south.
The 2-mile trail takes about an hour and loops around the back and north side of the mountain and to the right, rising about 500 feet.
It’s called Devil’s Courthouse, but only by name. To reach this trail, follow the Whiteside Mountain, trail to the left to the old jeep trail then to the clearing. The Whiteside Mountain trail veers to the right; Devil’s Courthouse goes to the left, across the clearing.
This trail is rugged and less traveled, winding down the side of the mountain. Keep going straight; avoid the spur trail on the right. The trail opens into a clearing and descends to the left and to the right. Keep going straight along the ridge until the trail begins to rise and veers to the right, moving along the left side of the ridge. The trail ends at the Devil’s Courthouse. This is the view, the awe – with three sheer cliffs on three sides.
North Carolina’s mountains are home to some amazing scenery. During the autumn months, these landscapes are full of beautiful changing leaves. This fall foliage draws visitors from far and wide. We present the top five places to see fall foliage in the Carolinas this fall. But first let’s explore why the colors change.
Goose Creek, SC is a great place to see beautiful autumn leaves. Goose Creek is a Navy town, and home to many young families. Residents of Goose Creek are active and enthusiastic about the outdoors.
Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Brevard, NC is the seat of Transylvania County. The nearby DuPont and Pisgah National Forests are two great places to hike and take in the scenery.
Hendersonville, NC is a place to visit during the autumn months. It is home to beautiful foliage as well as apple orchards. Hiking and apple picking are local favorites. For travelers who love the outdoors, Brevard is a perfect autumn destination.
During the spring and summer months, chlorophyll in leaves produces energy for trees. When the temperature and level of sunlight change in the autumn, that compound breaks down. As this happens, the green color disappears. The carotenes and xanthophyll pigments now become visible. These oranges and yellows are known for their beauty. Any area at an elevation of 3,500 feet or more will have heightened color. This is why the mountainous terrain in North Carolina is such a good place to see them. Leaf peeping season in North Carolina lasts from October to mid November.
Highlands, NC is a small town with a sophisticated feel. Nestled within the Southern Appalachian Mountains, this is a great area for hiking and spending time in nature. The fall foliage in and around Highlands – with an elevation of 4,118 feet – is stunning. Cultural activities abound in Highlands. There are also great accommodations, including The Park on Main®. This hotel is a pet-friendly, luxurious place to rest after a hike in the great outdoors.
Don’t miss North Carolina’s fall foliage. Make sure to make reservations at The Park on Main®, which offers 24 luxury suites and abundant natural scenery. | <urn:uuid:343358fc-a809-4db9-9f00-af36b2700e30> | {
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Stretching 200 miles offshore, the Exclusive Economic Zones of most Caribbean nations cover areas of ocean vastly larger than the land masses to which they belong. Despite this, the maritime sector has never had much in the way of encouragement or investment, leaving those who farm or use the sea often feeling neglected when it comes to understanding or decision-making.
Why this should be is worthy of broader debate, but it appears to begin with the unfortunate view in much of the region that fishing is, and always will be destined to be a subsistence or artisanal activity, undertaken by the least organised and poorest in society. This is despite the region being amongst the largest per capita consumers of fish in the world, hundreds of thousands of visitors wanting to eat fish fresh from the seas that they vacation beside, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) having designated the broader region as one of the world’s major fishing grounds.
In the last week, a boost for developing joined-up thinking on this issue has come from a Caribbean nation seemingly among those least likely to recognise the potential that the Caribbean has in the seas that surround it. As a part of the United States Virgin Islands struggles to deliver its extensive social commitments and pursue economic growth, its administration has begun to look at what more it might be doing to encourage development in areas that are not traditional.
To this end, the islands’ Governor, John de Jongh, has created a council to advise him and his administration on growing the economic base of the USVI’s maritime industries that in part develops its fisheries, while finding sensitive ways to better utilise its marine environment.
In order to achieve this, the USVI is first intending looking at economic and regulatory obstacles and then at developing a joined-up approach to marine issues that includes diving, charter yachting, fisheries, marine education, marine manufacturing, marina operations, and sports and game fishing. It will also look too at ways in which employment opportunities might be created in maritime industries.
This development coincides with a drive by the Belize based Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) to create a better awareness of maritime opportunity across the rest of the region, with support from an unusual mix of external donors that believe that fisheries and the marine environment offers a so far unrealised new frontier in regional development.
Trying to understand the nature of the Caribbean marine sector is, however, far from easy, as up to date regional statistics are not easy to come by. Various academic and industry sources suggest that the fisheries sector in the region employs about 182,000 fisherfolk and ancillary workers; makes a contribution to regional GDP of between close to seven per cent in the case of Guyana, to less than one per cent elsewhere; had in 2006 a value of US$600M; and has exported in recent years fish and fish products, worth US$150M, although some figures suggest that exports including those from aquaculture could be as high as US$250M per annum.
Studies by the UWI note that although the industry is for the most part subsistence based, commercial vessels and to a much smaller extent industrial fleets operate out of Cuba, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, and Belize.
What the statistics also show is that most Caribbean islands are net importers of fish, in some cases by large margins, contributing ‒ many would say unnecessarily ‒ to the region’s overall US$343M import bill for fish and fish products.
This suggests that the region is in the paradoxical situation of not being able to meet its own domestic requirements for fish, importing most of the fish it supplies to visitors, and not taking advantage of the preferential arrangements it has had for decades to access markets in Europe or North America, while being surrounded by seas that are replete with nutrition and economic opportunity.
That said, as with most Caribbean industries the challenges facing the fisheries sector are legion. At the policy end, changes in the international law of the sea some years ago extended nations’ economic jurisdictions into areas once regarded as being international waters, potentially excluding fisherfolk from traditional fishing grounds.
The effect, in part, was to slow progress towards a Caricom common fisheries regime that was intended to establish a common economic zone without affecting national economic boundaries, while finding equitable ways to balance the needs of traditional fishing communities, conservation, licensing arrangements, ecosystems and the position of third nations fishing in Caribbean waters.
To complicate matters further, most of the independent Caribbean has still to conclude bilateral treaties delimiting their maritime boundaries with their neighbours, in part because of concerns about unexploited energy reserves that might lie beneath the sea bed, but also for technical and resource reasons.
Other smaller but just as difficult to resolve practical issues exist for the sector. It is an industry that is hard to attract young people into; national fisheries departments are inadequately resourced; invasive species are creating problems for local fish stocks, most notably the Pacific lion fish; climate change and climate variability are affecting marine ecosystems; the industry’s largely artisanal nature makes it not well placed to communicate or advocate its needs; there is a general lack of awareness of the new opportunities in aquaculture, recreational fishing and conservation that are available; illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing continues; maritime zones cannot be effectively policed; and there is a need to improve fish and seafood standards for the domestic and export markets.
Despite this, as the CRFM’s executive director, Milton Haughton, and the organisation’s outgoing Chairman Michael Branyen, pointed out recently to the Barbados Advocate, fisheries need to be used to create gainful employment in ways that go beyond the traditional view.
They made clear that the sector also offers opportunities in, for instance, the land based production of ornamental fish for export; growing fish, seaweed and other marine organisms in the sea; recreational fishing linked to tourism; in food processing and manufacturing; and in conservation of the marine environment.
Fisheries in their broadest sense offer a significant and unrealised economic opportunity for the Caribbean and some of the poorest in society. For this reason greater focus on the sector on the part of national policy makers is long overdue.
Previous columns can be found at www.caribbean-council.org | <urn:uuid:dfb10b4e-d922-465f-8b66-addf72ae1233> | {
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So as all of you know, E didn’t really like the story of the nightingale and the rose. And for obvious reasons. I mean, it IS a pretty depressing story. But I have to disagree on what should be taken out of the story.
Let’s think about it. Stories are supposed to make you think. They’re supposed to make you question what you believe in. Say the nightingale had died and the Student had given the rose to his girlfriend and they had lived happily ever after. No one would remember this story! What would be the point? After I read this story I thought, “Wow. If I had been that girl I might have done the same exact thing. But after reading this story I won’t choose the riches over the flower, because who knows the story behind the flower?” The point of the story is to make us think. About how we may be wasting our resources or how we may be taking things for granted, like the ability to love or just the beauty of a crimson rose.
If you go to Wikipedia and you check up the word martyr, a lot of definitions pop up.
Here are the six common features of martyrdom.
1. A hero- A person of some renown who is devoted to a cause believed to be admirable.
2. Opposition- People who oppose that cause.
3. Forseeable Risk- The hero foresees action by opponents to harm him or her, because of his or her commitment to the cause.
4. Courage and Commitment-The hero continues, despite knowing the risk, out of commitment to the cause.
5. Death- The opponents kill the hero because of his or her commitment to the cause.
6. Audience Response- The hero’s death is commemorated. People may label the hero explicitly as a martyr. Other people may in turn be inspired to pursue the same cause.
So there we are. Courage and commitment. Things we all strive for—was the nightingale so wrong to be courageous and committed to what she believed? She believed the heart of a man was greater than the heart of a bird and so she knew what had to be done. But I think the most important part is the sixth one. “Other people may in turn be inspired to pursue the same cause.” Others will fight for love. I think that’s what Oscar Wilde was trying to say. We’ll fight for love. What would happen if we tried to take love away? People would fight for it. They would die for it. And I’m not saying let’s all go be really drastic and angsty and kill ourselves for the love of others, I’m just saying appreciate what the nightingale did. Appreciate her sacrifice, and be willing to fight for love. Even if it is only in small ways.
When E and I were discussing this poem E said, “She should have used her problem solving skills to find another rose or some other kind of dye to feed to the tree to turn the rose red. And then she could have lived and the student boy could have given his stupid crush a rose without a beautiful bird being sacrificed!” I think as humans we do this a lot. We’re unwilling to sacrifice. I know I do it all the time. I rationalize why I shouldn’t do some things or I listen to my head instead of my heart. But here’s the thing. Red dye wouldn’t have worked. The point was that the bird didn’t have problem solving skills. She was unlike the Student. Instead of reason, logic, and philosophy, she has only love and emotion. And this is what she acts on. And that’s okay. It’s okay sometimes to let your emotions be stronger than your reason. (Just please try not to let it get you killed like in this story.) The point of the story is that red dye won’t work. She has to build it out of music by moonlight and stain it with her own heart’s blood. She was willing to sacrifice for love. And truthfully there are many things I AM willing to sacrifice for. My mom, my dad, my brothers, E, my best friends: I would do anything for them. And even on a less drastic level…we should be willing to sacrifice. Lose an argument once in a while, sacrifice an evening, abdicate something we like, but someone else would like more. A lot in life is about sacrifice and how much we are willing to compromise.
Next point. Yes, the nightingale died. But guess what? It created a beautiful crimson rose. A rose that had the capability to create love. The nightingale took a risk!! Yes, she may have failed, but she died for what she believed in: LOVE. In E’s argument she brings up a Tale of Two Cities (one of my favorite books by Dickens, you guys should read it if you haven’t). She says that Carton sacrifices his life for Darnay and his family. But the future isn’t set in stone! Darnay and his family could have been caught on their escape out and died. Random lightning bolts could have rained out of the sky and smitten them dead! Would it all have been in vain then? NO. IT’S THE THOUGHT. It’s the thought that counts. It’s the willingness to fight for something that you believe in. That nightingale took a risk. She took a risk. And she died for what she believed in. And yes, that’s the end of her life. She will never again be able to sing or create love or anything. But guess what? All the other nightingales will speak of her tale. They will sing of a nightingale who wished to create a world with more love. And they won’t be afraid to love. Or die for love. And one day a nightingale will die for love and the love won’t be wasted. The girl will accept the rose and her and the student will dance the night away and fall madly in love. And a girl in a small town in Texas will appreciate the beauty of a rose. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that you have to take risks. You have to take risks and you have to know that sometimes you will fail. You will fail and that will be the end. And you have to be okay with that. Millions have failed before one succeeds. The path to success is one that is riddled with failures. We take billions of risks. Everyday, everywhere. And only a few pay off. But when they do pay off, it’s worth more than anything we could have ever imagined.
So I’m sorry for this extremely long-winded post but I just thought ya’ll should know where I was coming from when I posted that.
Snowflakes and Hugs, | <urn:uuid:7635064c-2bbf-463d-9e65-a835df6dde3f> | {
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A rumble seat is an extra seat on a vintage vehicle designed to provide seating for one or more additional passengers on the outside of the car. This arrangement was abandoned in the late 1930s because it was deemed both dangerous and uncomfortable, as passengers were exposed to weather elements, in addition to being prone to severe injuries in accidents. Rumble seats can still be seen on some vintage cars, although they are rarely used except when the car is driven very slowly and in a controlled environment, like a parade.
The rumble seat design consists of a fold-out seat, usually situated near the trunk. The seat is typically upholstered for comfort, and people tend to face towards the rear of the vehicle when they sit on a rumble seat, at least in most designs. This seating mimics the exterior seats once used on carriages to provide a space for servants. It was considered inappropriate for them to ride in the carriage itself with their employers, so they were obliged to sit outside, along with the luggage.
This seating design could be used to accommodate additional people on a drive and was also used in the same way exterior seating on carriages was, to provide a method for transporting servants without having to carry them in the car itself. The rumble seat could be narrow enough to fit only one, or might be designed as a bench to hold more people. Generally, the seating was not terribly comfortable, especially in inclement weather or when cars were driving quickly.
One significant disadvantage of the rumble seat design was the complete lack of protection in crashes. People seated on the exterior of a vehicle could be at risk of decapitation and other gruesome injuries, as the body of the car offered no protection for them. They also risked falling and being injured in fast cars, and could be hit by objects thrown up from the roadway, such as sticks and stones. This made the seating rather hazardous for occupants.
While some cars retain their rumble seats because of their vintage, generally people are not allowed to ride in the seat except in special circumstances. Many regions have seat belt laws, requiring that people be belted while in a moving car, and passengers on a rumble seat can be fined for not wearing seat belts, since these safety features are usually not included in the seat design although they can be added. Drivers are also usually concerned about the risk of injury to passengers in such seats, and prefer not to use them if possible.
It never dawned on me that the rumble seats might be dangerous. I guess I thought most people didn't drive very fast, since a lot of the roads were still unpaved. However, I can see where it would be really uncomfortable to ride on a gravel road in the rumble seat. I imagine gravel would fly up pretty regularly. That wouldn't be at all comfortable, having gravel flying in your face.
I've seen cars with rumble seats at car shows. I always thought they looked really cool and fun. They might have been if you were driving slowly around town, but not so much on an unpaved road.
My parents are old enough to remember when rumble seats were included in cars. They said none of my grandparents ever had a car with a rumble seat, but they saw them all the time.
If you go to any antique car show that has a fair number of cars from the 20s and 30s, you're bound to see one or two with rumble seats. I'm sure they were dangerous, but there are a good many people who survived many a wild ride in them. Not surprisingly, they were especially popular with young people. You could carry more people and the rumble seat was perfect for a make-out spot.
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK! | <urn:uuid:f9408db2-116a-4125-84af-471ac905e980> | {
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Participants were thoroughly tested after completion of bed rest
The Antarctic Concordia Station
is located in one of the harshest, isolated environments on Earth. Wintering-over crew members of Concordia are faced with conditions in several ways similar to what astronauts could endure during a long duration mission such as a human exploration of Mars. A small multicultural crew is confined during a long period of time in an isolated facility with limited resources and located in a harsh and dangerous environment where the communication capabilities in case of an emergency are also limited or inexistent. Autonomy of the crew is required during an extended period of time and living quarters present similarities with a space-ship: confined environment with limited access to the outside where specific life support systems are in place to face the harsh atmospheric conditions and limited resources and where a water recycling and waste management capability is in place. The absent night/daylight variations, with constant light during the summer and constant darkness during the winter, is likely to cause similar problems in the circadian rhythms and sleep architecture as the one seen in astronauts in the ISS.
ESA offers research opportunities to perform studies in the Concordia station, especially in the field of medicine, physiology and psychology. The team at Concordia is made of up to 16 persons who will be involved in studies performed in various other research fields. From the medicine and operational point of view ESA will test a system for the monitoring of the psycho-physiological status of a crew member and new technologies in the field of tele-medicine and/or tele-diagnostic will benefit the health of crew in a remote isolated and harsh environment as it is at Concordia. Person of contact : [email protected]
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Everything In Its Place: Place Value
Lesson 6 of 10
Objective: Students will be able to correctly identify place value from one to ten million.
Language Objective: Students will be able to write numbers out in word form and say numbers in standard form, using correct vocabulary of place value terms.
Prior Knowledge: 4th grade worked with numbers from 1 to 100,000 in standard, word and expanded form.
Math Blast is a quick, fun, fast-paced math game! It doesn't require a lot of materials - just the PowerPoint, music, white boards, and dry erase markers. I begin every day with a Number of the Day.
Math Blast is also a great place to work on Common Core skills, especially critical thinking skills, discourse and collaboration!
I usually play music while students are working (it is the "Blast" in Math Blast). They have to the end of the song to fill in their board.
In the beginning this is more time than most need, but they will use all of the time when the numbers get bigger. Math Blast is a great way to pre-teach a concept and is really good scaffolding, especially for those struggling learners. I like to add new concepts that will be learning in the near future into Math Blast. This way students are familiar with new concepts when I go to teach them. If they haven't figured out the work through Math Blast they will have at least seen the concept.
I allow table mates to support each other, this is also a good way to support struggling learners.
The basic content my Math Blast covers is:
- Begin with prior knowledge tasks, factoring GCF, LCM. In 5th grade this is really good to have understanding for going into fractions.
- I always add some rounding and estimation, good tools to know and it is pre-teaching our next lesson.
- I always like to end with a word problem to challenge and support students' skills in answering a problem with what the question is requesting them to do.
The closing piece of Math Blast is See, Think, and Wondering.
See, Think, Wondering
See, Think, Wonder is a dynamic way to get your students to think deeper about a subject without them knowing that they are doing it.
The SEE part is pretty basic thinking. I see….
The THINK part is intended to get students to think about things in ways they haven't before. This is a fun way for students to make connection to the things we're learning in math. In my class, we'll be thinking about math and art. I use art because I am passionate about art. Use examples of things that ignite your passion! This art makes me think about….
And the WONDER requires enough engagement with the topic (the art) to be able to come up with a question. This art makes me wonder if….
See, Think, Wonder is my way to getting their brains ready to think about math and I find that the transition is great. It is also a quick chance to expose my students to different types of art.
Note: I've added a See, Think, Wondering separate from the Math Blast in case you want to do it by itself. It is also attached at the end of the Math Blast PowerPoint.
Note: You don’t have to use art; I use art because I am passionate about art. Use examples of things that ignite your passion!
Concept: Getting students to understand that every place value has an important role, even if you don’t hear the number called out in standard form. If a numeral is left out, it changes the number quantity completely.
The other day I was in the office and I was filling out some paperwork so I could get paid for some extra work that I did for our principal, Ms. Wells. Ms. Deb was helping me with the totals. She read off a list of 5 numbers of the hours that I worked last year.
She read (call out these numbers) 1,267 / 2,010 / 1,002 / 3,025 / 2,001 but write 1,267 + 210 +12 + 325 + 21 which adds up to 1,835 (should be 11,140).
See if anyone catches the mistake. Then talk about how my not knowing place value meant that instead of making $11,140 I would have gotten a paycheck for $1,835.
Which paycheck would you rather get? Yeah, me too! If I'm not careful in listening to what Ms. Deb was telling me, I would have not had dinner for a month!
Work It Out
It is important to engage students into their learning by using games. They are fun but have important skills involved. This is also a great way to work on targeted Mathematical Practice Standards of the Common Core.
Introduce a new game: Read it, Write it and Win! Teach for 10 minutes and then let everyone play for 10-15. Then call everyone into rotations through The Math Games:
- High and Low Game (Standard form) 1 station
- Dice Roll Number Challenge (Word form)
- Dice Roll Number Challenge (Expanded form)
- FOUR Square Poster: Standard, Verbal, Visual and Real Life problem
- Homework Station: I like to give my students the opportunity to start their homework in class to make sure I’ve answered all their questions.
An important tip - before you teach anything (including games), make sure you "do the math" yourself. Example problems are critical to understanding. Select them carefully, solve, and consider what your students struggle with.
It’s tough to write down numbers when there are 0’s in different places in place value, because when we read a number we don’t say “0 Hundreds”. We have to remember that the place value for hundreds is always there! Write some numbers with a lot of 0's in them and have students read them. Talk about the reasons why we don't say '0 hundreds'.
The closing is just as important as the launch. This is where you pull it all together and help the students connect to their learning. It is also a great place to talk about common misconceptions, if there are any. Don't skip this piece; always make sure you leave time for closing discussion. Students need a chance to pull it all together. | <urn:uuid:c3e1f409-d771-4e9f-92ab-5b67e3a793a1> | {
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Over the years a distinctive body of literature has developed around ‘community studies’. Individual contributions tend to fall across disciplinary boundaries – some are labelled as sociology, some as anthropology, and yet others as geography or urban studies. What follows is a quick guide to the literature and an attempt to bring out some key questions and themes.
I have divided the studies examined into three groups:
- North American studies
- African studies
- United Kingdom/Irish studies
There have also been a number of studies in South America and in India and other Southern societies – and some of these are reviewed.
A starting point
To help us sort our way through the material I am going use what Bell and Newby describe as a minimum definition. For them a community study is concerned:
with the study of the interrelationships of social institutions in a locality. This does not mean all social institutions locally present have to be studied but, unless these interrelations are considered they will not considered as community studies. (ibid: 19)
This way of defining community studies excludes research which focuses on a particular social institution in a locality. For example, the famous studies of the family undertaken in Bethnal Green (e.g. Young and Willmott 1957) would not be included. For the moment we are going to stay with this – but we do need to note that other commentators include these and similar studies within their definition of the area (see, for example, Frankenberg 1966).
As you will see from the use of locality in the definition, most of the studies we will be looking at are concerned with community as place. Within that the interest is in the inter-relationships of social institutions (hence our concern with networks). However, this does not mean that we do not recognize the importance of looking at a particular element or phenomenon in a neighbourhood.
Community studies as texts and as a method
In a literature review we are obviously concerned with texts – the reports and books produced by researchers as a result of their labours. However, we also need to note that many of those involved consider also to be a method – a particular process. It is true that community studies share a number of characteristics:
the researchers have usually lived in the community studied (or spent a considerable amount of time involved in everyday activities there). They have shared some of the experiences of some of the inhabitants. In other words they are field workers. the researchers have tended to be not only physically close to what they are studying – but also emotionally close. ‘This means that community studies are very sympathetic – critics would say, over sympathetic – portraits of a locality (Bell and Newby 1971: 55).while the researchers may use large scale surveys and various forms of network analysis, they place a special emphasis on participant observation and sustained conversation with local people. They substantial use of ‘key informants’ (such as Whyte (1943; 1955) did of ‘Doc’ in Street Corner Society). They are, in other words, eclectic in their methods.
the books and articles that researchers produce, given the processes they have gone through, tend to be lively, full of graphic description (and sometimes a bit short on theory).
Just how distinctive a method it is is open to question. While the component parts of community studies are not unique in themselves – but are necessary elements of researchers’ repertoires (see Bell 1987; 1993) – taken together there is something distinctive about the approach.
North American community studies
The North American literature is particularly strong. The first, classic, work in this genre is generally said to be Robert Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd’s (1929) Middletown. A study in American Culture. They had initially set out to examine religious provision in a small American town but found that this could not be done without a wider exploration.
The aim… was to study synchronously the interwoven trends that are the life of a small American city. A typical city, strictly speaking, does not exist, but the city studied was selected as having many features common to a wide group of communities. Neither field work nor report has attempted to prove any thesis; the aim has been, rather, to record observed phenomena, thereby raising questions and suggesting possible fresh points of departure in the study of group behaviour. (Lynd and Lynd 1929: 3)
This is the opening paragraph to the book and it contains a number of elements that have remained important to community studies (and a matter for some debate both within and without the tradition – see Bell and Newby 1971: 82-93). These include:
looking at a number of elements at any one time and seeing how they interconnect. choosing some neighbourhood or community which appeared to have aspects that could have relevance for other places.not seeking to prove a thesis but to gain data to stimulate debate and theorizing.
looking at group behaviour.
In 1929 the book created quite a stir. There hadn’t been a study like it – it was the first ‘scientific and objective’ study of small town life. I put ‘scientific and objective’ in quotes because there are questions around this. Were the Lynds commendable in their concern to let the situation speak to them; could they be that unbiased and let the data speak for themselves? Questions like this are still asked today in debates concerning different approaches to research. In many respects the Lynds’ approach is very close to what Glaser and Strauss (1967) have described as ‘grounded theorizing’ (see Strauss and Corbin 1990: 21-28).
Having given a brief outline of why Middletown was chosen and the historical setting, the Lynds ordered their book around six key areas:
getting a living, making a home,training the young,
engaging in religious practices, and
engaging in community activities.
This was a significant approach in that it focuses on activities – the things that people do – and is drawn from anthropological work at the time (Lynd and Lynd 1929: 4).
Such was the success of their work that they returned to Muncie (the town in their study) in 1935 to conduct a follow-up study which sought to make explicit the elements of permanence and of change (Lynd and Lynd 1937: 487). They found that Middletown had met with four types of experience ‘peculiarly conducive to cultural change: sudden and great strain on its institutions, widespread dislocation of individual habits, pressure for change from the larger culture surrounding it, and at some points the actual implementing from without of a changed line of action (op cit). There had been ten years of book and depression. The result was a tough exposure of the sources of power in the small town and for all the claims to neutrality, the study reveals the writers ‘militant and evangelical feelings about what was wrong with American society’ (Bell and Newby 1971: 84). Crucially, ‘the two Middletown monographs illustrate well that it is relatively short step from the community study as empirical description to the community study as normative prescription’ (op cit). This is a lesson we do well to heed.
A number of classic studies followed. These include:
The Gold Coast and the Slum (Zorbaugh 1929) – study of the Lower North Side, Chicago. This asked the fundamental question as to whether in such an urban setting it was possible to call an area a ‘community’ at all. It was one of a large number of research projects based in Chicago concerned with urbanism and ‘human ecology’. These included studies of hobos, dance halls and gangs. They saw the city as an ecological system (Park et al 1925).Urbanism as a way of life (Wirth 1938). This wasn’t a study but rather a very influential article produced by one of the ‘Chicago School’. Wirth argued that as the size of a population grows, so it becomes difficult for each individual to know all the others personally:
Characteristically, urbanites meet one another in highly segmental roles. They are, to be sure, dependent upon more people for the satisfaction of their life needs than are rural people and thus are associated with a great number of organized groups, but they are less dependent upon particular persons, and their dependence on others is confined to a highly fractionalized aspect of the other’s round of activity. This is essentially what is meant by saying the city is characterized by secondary rather than primary contacts. The contacts may be face to face, but they are, nevertheless, impersonal, superficial, transitory and segmental. The reserve, the indifference and the blasé outlook which urbanites manifest in their relationships may thus be regarded as devices for immunizing themselves against the personal claims and expectations of others. (Wirth 1938: 12)
The article has been a central reference point in urban studies since it was written – and as such attracted much criticism. Among the questions raised is the conflicting nature of the evidence in relation to Wirth’s claims. Similarly, there are worries that he views the city as a closed system – when really it is an open or part system (unlike the folk or rural society he is comparing it with). In other words, the two are not directly comparable (Hannerz 1980: 66).
Yankee City (Warner and Lunt 1941). This was another study of a small American town (Newburyport, New England). This study used a rather crude functionalist or systems approach. It viewed Yankee City as a ‘working whole’ in which ‘each part had a definite function which had to be performed, or substitutes acquired, if the whole society were to maintain itself’ (ibid: 14).Street Corner Society (Whyte 1943; 1955). For this study of ‘Cornerville’ Whyte lived with an Italian family in Boston’s East End. It is perhaps best known as a study of gang and group life and as a classic example of participant observation. However, it also has extensive material on racketeering, politics and the social structure.
Small Town in Mass Society (Vidich and Bensman 1958) – this was a study of ‘Springdale’, a small rural community in upstate New York. Like the Lynds, the researchers did not go to the town with highly developed hypotheses. They argued that it is not possible to talk about Springdale as a whole in relation to mass society – but rather only about the relationship of particular groups.
The class and political analysis opened our perception to a number of sharp contradictions in the communities institutions and values. The public enactment of community life and public statements of community values seemed to bear little relationship to the community’s operating institutions and the private lives of its members. (Vidich and Bensman 1958: x)
The study was important for other reasons – the attention to methodology (in particular participant observation, the validity of field data, and the role of theory in field work). It also caused something of a scandal as the figures involved were directly recognizable; and it made explicit a number of things that were left unsaid in the community (Bell and Newby 1971: 120).
Crestwood Heights (Seeley et al 1956) – is a study of suburbia and of middle class life. It was based in an area of Toronto in which there was not strong local identification (most of the men left the area to work). It was, by and large, a residential community ‘devoted to child rearing’ (ibid: 11). Upto this point there had been few studies of this type of neighbourhood and it fed into a growing concern or interest in changing patterns of life in urban societies. This included worries about the ‘breakdown of community’, the lack of commitment to neighbourhood because of working patterns, a growing individualization and so on. Much of this ‘myth of suburbia’ was disputed by Gans (1967) in his study of a similar area – Levittown. He argued that such differences that existed did not flow so much from the fact that the neighbourhood was a suburb, but that it was relatively new (and people took time to establish themselves in places).
These, then, are some of the classic studies. As will be seen from their dates of publication – the main texts were published some time ago. In part this may be to do with fashions in research. Large scale studies of this kind are expensive to undertake and for them to be funded researchers have to make a case for some applicability for policy formulation. The result of this is that more recent studies are either more directly tied into policy initiatives such as urban programmes; or focus more closely on a particular phenomenon. Examples of the later include Heath’s (1983) wonderful study of children’s language usage in ‘Roadville’ and ‘Trackton’, Brody’s (1987) study of hunters in the Canadian north, and Sorin’s (1990) study of Brownsville Boys Club. Each of these examples would probably fall outside the minimum definition used by Bell and Newby.
As we have seen, a great deal of the early American work owed much to the activities of a committed group of sociologists at the University of Chicago with their particular focus on urban studies. Significantly the only other single body of localized urban ethnography comes from Central Africa – the product of Rhodes-Livingstone Institute set up in 1937 and later taken into the Institute for Social Research at the University of Zambia (Hannerz 1980).
One of the interesting things about the work of the Institute was that it paid a great deal of attention to change and the rise of urbanism. While much anthropology seems to focus on ‘traditional’ societies and groupings (and is written in a haze of what Rosaldo (1989) describes as ‘imperialist nostalgia’), these studies looked to disequilibrium. In this sense they shared much with the American studies. One of the first explorations was of Broken Hill a copper mining area (Wilson 1941) and this was followed by publications dealing with various aspects of local life and institutions (e.g. Epstein 1958; Gluckman 1964). While it could be said that they paid insufficient attention to the material basis of local life, what the writers associated with the Institute were able to do was to explore social relationships in a time of change. In particular, the relationship between rural and so called ‘traditional’ institutions and ways of life, and the new forms found in urban conurbations. They were the precursor to a number of studies which focus on urbanisation, underdevelopment and marginality (e.g. Lomnitz 1977; Perlman 1976; and Roberts 1978 – these are all Latin American studies). Perlman, for example, discusses squatter settlements (favelas) in Brazil and argues that from the ‘outside’ they are frequently viewed as a blight and as a sign of disintegration and large scale social problems. From the ‘inside’ things look very different. Care is taken with housing, people seek to work and ‘there is a remarkable degree of social cohesion and mutual trust and a complex internal social organization, involving numerous clubs and voluntary associations’ (Perlman 1976: 13). As Lomnitz says ‘social life in shantytown unfolds like a complex design for survival’ (1977: 3).
At first sight, many of the classic anthropological works might also be considered as ‘community studies’. After all they examine workings of particular groups in particular localities. However, their orientation to exploring culture can quickly take then away from studying the inter-relationships that interest us here. For example, Evans-Pritchard’s (1940) well known account of the Nuer people while looking at questions of livelihood and politics is doing so for two ends: to describe their life; and to lay bare some of the principles of their social structure (1940: 7). This can be compared with the Lynds concern to study ‘synchronously the interwoven trends that are the life of a small American city’. However, a number of more recent anthropological studies are more closely allied to our concerns here (e.g. Southall and Gutkind 1957; and Parkin 1969). One particularly interesting piece of work is Obbo’s exploration of women’s struggle for economic independence based on work undertaken in Wabigalo and Namuwongo, Uganda. While not being a community study as such, it does provide a very necessary counterbalance to the dominant concentration on the activities of men in African communities ( a problem shared by a number of other community studies – see below). Obbo is able to show the strategies women used for achieving economic autonomy and hence improved social conditions – strategies such as migration, hard work and manipulation (Obbo 1980: 5). ‘The women put pressure on traditional ideologies to create options that enabled them to share in the resources and alternative life-styles available in their societies’ (op cit).
Before leaving the African studies it is necessary to address crucial questions concerning researchers relationship with colonialism and imperialism. The anthropologists at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, for example, were reliant on monies from the colonial administration to undertake their work – and, indeed, did specific pieces of research for the administrators. Just how much their efforts contributed to the operation of the colonial government is open to some question – only rarely have anthropologists contributed in any sustained way to development projects (Mair 1984: 11). Policy makers tend to have a rather cynical view of research and a liking for ‘practical’ knowledge. This prejudice may also have been strengthened by the sympathies that many of the anthropologists associated with the Institute had with the emerging nationalist struggles in Africa. However, this should not take away the fact that the researchers interest did not lie in, for example mining communities as such, but in African miners. In this they brought with them the colonial heritage of the discipline. This is a point that is worthy of general consideration. The charge of colonialism could be levelled against the activities of many researchers, workers and educators working in communities which they consider not to be ‘their own’.
United Kingdom and Irish studies
What is generally said to be the first UK/Irish study was a spin off from Warner’s Yankee City studies. Two of the researchers associated with that programme looked at two townlands in County Clare – these consisted of a small town, a couple of hamlets and a number of scattered farms. As might be expected from the Yankee City study they look to the family and the community as social systems (Arensberg and Kimball 1940). This was followed by a number of influential rural studies including Rees’ (1950) exploration of farm life and politics in mid-Wales; Williams (1956) influential study of Gosforth with its focus on the family; and Littlejohn’s (1963) investigation of a Cheviot parish. Rees argued strongly that the traditional emphasis on kinship, neighbourliness, hospitality and lack of hierarchies was under threat from by cultural and economic invasion by the English. As Wright (1992) comments, the opposition of rural and urban is found in many other community studies at this time. Indeed, one of the common themes running through these studies (and others like them) is the extent to which ‘rurality’ depends on distance from, or marginality in relation to, urban centres (a theme raised above). They also carry with them a striking concern with the impact of change and modernization and the way this impacts on roles, groups and networks (see Frankenberg 1966 in particular for as example of this).
Along with these rural studies there have been a number of investigation of distinctive local industrial communities – most notably those organized around mining. The classic study in this respect is Coal is Our Life (Dennis et al 1956). In his chapter on this research, Frankenberg (1966) describes the setting for this study, Ashton, as ‘the town that is a village (1966: 113-139). This is a community study in the sense that Bell and Newby describe it – but it does not set out to describe the community as a whole. Rather the focus is on three important ‘formative influences on Ashton’s social life – work, leisure and the family’ (Dennis et al 1956: 246). One of the problems associated with community studies (and acknowledged by the writers), is that phenomena such as relationships in families, and the nature of leisure activities are viewed largely from the standpoint of their interrelationship with the activities and social relationships imposed by mining. The concern here is that this can tend to obscure, ‘the fact that each of these particular sets of relationships is extended beyond the community, in both space and time’ (1956: 7). With the subsequent decline in mining and the major local social changes linked to the bitter disputes of the 1980s, researchers have again turned to mining communities. The accounts range from Parker’s (1986) stunning use of conversations in a small north east town to illustrate the changes and tensions, to Waddington et al (1990) more ‘academic’ discussion.
The urban housing estate has also been a focus for study. These studies have either tended to be linked into explorations of the formation of ‘new’ communities or because they are seen as manifesting particular problems. Examples of the former are Durant’s (1939) study of Watling, Hendon – and Willmott’s (1963) review and study of 40 years of the large LCC estate at Dagenham. (Interestingly these estates were all the sites for two of the first community associations – see Broady et al 1990). Jenning’s (1962) study of the Barton Hill redevelopment in Bristol is another example of this genre. Examples of the latter include Parker (1983), and Barke and Turnbull (1992). Overlapping with these are studies of particular initiatives which contain both analysis of the local estate/community with an exploration of the work undertaken there. Spencer (1964) provides an example of this in his study of community development, youth work and play work on a Bristol estate (to be read in association with Jennings 1962). Paneth (1945) provides a similar mix in her discussion of ‘deatched’ youth work in Branch Street.
Last, but certainly not least in this survey are the two major studies of the last thirty or so years – of Banbury and the Isle of Sheppey. The Banbury study (Stacey 1960) and its follow-up (Stacey et al 1975) has all the ambition of the early American studies. Its strength lies in its analysis of the local inter-relation of social institutions. Through the careful analysis of the membership of various groups Stacey is able to show the various linkages between them; and how power relations may be maintained. Like Middletown we get a picture of the town over a period of time and this adds emphasis. The study is also significant for Stacey’s worries about the operational use of the term ‘community’. Her interest lies in the operation of ‘local social systems’ which, she argues, is a sounder basis for analysis than the notion of community.
The Isle of Sheppey study (Pahl 1984) and its associated work concerning young people (Wallace 1987) were primarily concerned with work – what it is and who does what in society as a whole. However, this is grounded in an analysis of the social structure on the Isle and was the result of six years research there. Its particular contribution lies in the emphasis on the exploration of household divisions of labour and how these must understood over time both in relation to the local and to impact of wider social and structural forces.
Communities, the household division of labour, and symbols
In many respects the Sheppey study addresses some of the key criticisms that can be made of much of the earlier work. That the ‘representation of community in the studies was ahistorical; it relied on a model of functional equilibrium; and that it could not cope with change (Wright 1992: 202). Based on this critique, Wright argues that two new directions in community studies are required. Here she was primarily interested in rural studies but her arguments also apply to the urban situation. The first is a re-examination of the boundaries around the community arena:
This involves studying the organisation of the households, which can be done now that the 1970s and 1980s have brought an awareness of gender issues. It also entails locating the rural area in the political economy of the state. This will enable community to be reconceptualised for analytical purposes. It still leaves open the question of how the idea of community is used by people themselves. This is the second new direction in community studies, and it will be important to emphasise that ‘community’ is an idea, not a social or geographical entity. (ibid: 205)
Against community as a physical place then, we have to consider it as something in the mind. Here the work of Cohen (1982; 1985; 1987) and Strathern (1981; 1982) is of some importance – and signals that we have to take considerable care with the notion of community. What are interested in is the way that people view particular places and groupings, and the attachments they may have to them. Thus, this isn’t to say that place is not important, but rather to argue that it cannot be taken as a simplistic given.
Community studies were consigned for some time into an abyss of theoretical sterility by obsessive attempts to formulate precise analytical definitions. We are not concerned with the positivistic niceties of analytical taxonomies. We confront an empirical phenomenon: people’s attachment to community. We seek an understanding of it by trying to capture some sense of their experience and of the meanings they attach to community. (Cohen 1983: 38)
This is something in which we, as informal and community educators, can have particular insights given our concern with conversation and experience.
Arensberg, C. A. and Kimball, S. T. (1940) Family and Community in Ireland (2nd. edn. 1968), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barke, M. and Turnbull, G. (1992) Meadowell. The biography of an ‘estate with problems’, Avebury: Gower.
Bell, C. & Newby, H. (1971) Community Studies, London: Unwin.
Broady, M., Clarke, R., Marks, H., Mills, R., Sims, E., Smith, M. & White, L. (Ed. Clarke, R.) (1990) Enterprising Neighbours. The development of the community association in Britain, London: National Federation of Community Organisations.
Brody, H. (1987) Living Artic. Hunters of the Canadian North, London: Faber and Faber.
Dennis, F., Henriques, F. & Slaughter, C. (1956) Coal is our Life. An analysis of a Yorkshire mining community (2nd. edn. 1969), London: Tavistock.
Durant, R. (1939) Watling. A survey of social life on a new housing estate, London: P. S. King.
Epstein, A. L. (1958) Politics in an Urban African Community, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1940) The Nuer. A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people, New York: Oxford University Press.
Frankenberg, R. (1966) Communities in Britain. Social life in town and country, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Gans, H. J. (1967) The Levittowners, London: Allen Lane.
Glaser, B. & Strauss, A.(1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Chicago: Aldine.
Gluckman, M. (1964) Closed Systems and Open Minds, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Hannerz, U.(1980) Exploring the City. Inquiries towards an urban anthropology, New York: Columbia University Press.
Heath, S. Brice (1983) Ways With Words. Language, life and work in communities and classrooms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jennings, H. (1962) Societies in the Making. A study of development and redevelopment within a county borough, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Littlejohn, J. (1963) Westrigg. The sociology of a Cheviot parish, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lomnitz, L. A. (1977) Networks and Marginality. Life in a Mexican Shanty Town, New York: Academic Press.
Lynd, R. S. and Lynd, H. M. (1929) Middletown. A study in American culture, New York: Harcourt Brace.
Lynd, R. S. & Merrell Lynd, H. (1937) Middletown in Transition. A study in cultural conflicts, New York: Harcourt Brace.
Mair, L. (1984) Anthropology and Development, London: Macmillan.
Obbo, C. (1980) African Women. Their struggle for economic independence, London: Zed Books.
Paneth, M. (1944) Branch Street, London: George Allen and Unwin.
Park, R. E., Burgess, E. W. and MacKenzie, R. D. (1925) The City, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Parker, T. (1983) The People of Providence. A housing estate and some of its inhabitants. (1985 edn.), London: Penguin.
Parker, T. (1986) Red Hill. A mining community (1988 edn.), Sevenoaks: Coronet.
Parkin, D. (1969) Neighbours and Nationals in an African City Ward, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Perlman, J. E. (1976) The Myth of Marginality. Urban poverty and politics in Rio de Janeiro, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rees, A. (1950) Life in a Welsh Countryside, Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Roberts, B. (1978) Cities of Peasants, London: Edward Arnold.
Rosaldo, R. (1989) Culture and Truth. The remaking of social anaylsis (1993 edn.), London: Routledge.
Seeley, J. R., Sim, R. A. and Loosley, E. W. (1956) Crestwood Heights, New York: Basic Books.
Sorin, G. (1990) The Nurturing Neighbourhood. Jewish community and the Brownsville Boys Club 1940-1990, New York: New York University Press.
Southall, A. and Gutkind, P. C. (1957) Townsmen in the Making, Makerere: East Africa Institute of Social Research.
Spencer, J. with Tuxfors, J. and Dennis, N. (1964) Stress and Release in an Urban Estate, London: Tavistock.
Stacey, M. (1960) Tradition and Change. A study of Banbury, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stacey, M. Batstone, E., Bell, C. & Murcott, A. (1975) Power, Persistence and Change. A second study of Banbury, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Strathern, M. (1981) Kinship at the Core. An anthropology of Elmdon, Essex, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Strathern, M.(1982) ‘The village as idea: constructs of villageness in Elmdon, Essex, in A. P. Cohen (ed.) Belonging. Identity and social organisation in British rural cultures, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J.(1990) Basics of Qualitative Research. Grounded theory procedures and technique, Newbury Park, California: Sage.
Vidich, A. J. and Bensman, J.(1958) Small Town in Mass Society. Class, power, and religion in a rural community (1960 edn), New York: Anchor Doubleday
Waddington, D., Wykes, M. and Critcher, C. (1990) Split and the Seams? Community, continuity and change after the 1984 coal dispute, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Warner, W. Lloyd, and Lunt, P. S. (1941) The Social Life of a Modern Community. Yankee City Series Volume I, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Whyte, W. F. (1943) Street Corner Society. The social structure of an Italian slum, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Whyte, W. F. (1955) Street Corner Society (2nd ed.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wilson, G. (1941) An Essay on the Economics of Destabilization in Northern Rhodesia, Lusaka: Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.
Wirth, L. (1938) ‘Urbanism as a way of life’, American Journal of Sociology 44: 1-24.
Wright, S. (1992) ‘Image and analysis: new directions in community studies’ in B. Short (ed.) The English Rural Community. Image and analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Young, M. and Willmott, P. (1957) Family and Kinship in East London (rev. edn 1962), Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Zorbaugh, H. W. (1929) The Gold Coast and the Slum, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Picture: Windows on Waterloo by Henry Hemmings. Sourced from Flickr and reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) licence. https://www.flickr.com/photos/henry_hemming/16761289980
Prepared by Mark K. Smith
© Mark K. Smith
First published July 1996. Last update: July 08, 2014 | <urn:uuid:17b91d94-cf01-4ffc-b6ff-18f4216921f7> | {
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When I worked as a TV news producer, I loved to run a good health study in my show. Give me some prescription pill b-roll, summarize a pre-written script handed down by CNN or ABC and plug it in to eat up some time at the bottom of the B or C block.
The news media reports on studies all the time, but sometimes I have to question – what for? Sure, it’s important for people to be informed about the research going on in the science community. There’s no doubt about that. But the problem is that media outlets nowadays, especially local TV stations and newspapers, use these studies as quick filler and don’t spend the proper time fleshing them out. The result is that news consumers don’t give them much thought. The problem is leading to increasing ignorance of scientific issues and making it easier to disguise the growing number of fake science journals published by ladder-climbing researchers across the globe and the publishers they pay off to print them. In fact, the issue has gotten so out of hand, some are concerned it may be negatively affecting one of the core principles of science research — that bad research will self-correct as more studies are conducted.
It’s like that joke that these days pretty much everything causes cancer. Ask someone about what causes cancer and they’ll tell you that every other day there is a new study that comes out saying plastic can cause cancer, or wait, here’s another one that says the results are inconclusive. Does aspirin really prevent heart attacks or did a drug company pay for that study to sell more pills? For someone outside the science community and even many within it, it’s hard to know what to trust.
Simply by virtue of the amount of studies we pump out, news consumers have study fatigue. They don’t trust the results of any studies because another study could easily come out and say something different. The studies often sound the same in the same vague terms. “There may be a tie between x and y. Researchers have found that in a study there was a percent change of x in the presence of y. They say more tests will be needed to determine if this information is in any way relevant to you.” It’s no wonder this kind of reporting is relegated to filler and the majority of news consumers tune out or put little stock in the results.
The media is getting this part of science and health reporting very wrong and it’s not just hurting the news and leaving people less informed. More than that, it is a missed opportunity to explain studies and their nuance, whether it’s breaking down the way the research is conducted to determine the realistic impacts it makes or explaining that the study may just be correlation and not causation and that further studies should be conducted and here’s what those studies should be. What about the scientists that are performing these studies? Who is their employer? Who is funding their study? Are they well-regarded in the science community? Does a spouse or relative create a conflict of interest in their research? These are pieces of information that we typically do not get in such a story. And all of those questions don’t even begin to take into account the new flood of research coming from online journals who will accept payments for publication, even if the science is dubious, or worse, just flat out false.
If we are going to report on a scientific study, it should either be given enough time and space to be fully reported and explained or it should not reported at all. For one, if you are diluting your news product to the point that it doesn’t mean much to your readers/viewers/listeners, then either make room for more reporting on the subject or report another issue more in depth.
But there is an even more important reason for improving how we report on research and studies – controversial issues like climate change or hydrofracking can no longer be covered in a way that is considered neutral or unbiased. So many studies with conflicting information have come out, no one knows what to trust when there appears to be conflict over an issue. Or worse, even when the science community is at a consensus about an issue, outside influences who are threatened by the results of the such research – for instance, businesses who may face a financial cost if the results of those studies are confirmed – can fund new studies to give the appearance that there is not consensus on an issue. As a result, news consumers who are only somewhat informed on health and science issues can be misled on the subject and be convinced to, at a minimum, question the seriousness of the issue, they may remain neutral or apathetic, or worse, they may be convinced to disregard the consensus of the scientific community, especially if they have a personal stake in that issue, perhaps working in an industry where a job may be perceived to be threatened by the ramifications of the study.
People who aren’t able to understand the scientific nuance or haven’t been explained it properly dismiss it and don’t call for change because, since they don’t know the true ramifications of climate change, they don’t understand why people think it’s a big deal. In that way, it’s very reminiscent of the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In his book, the citizens opt to get rid of books so people who can’t read them won’t feel left out or bad about themselves. In a similar way, American citizens throw out climate change and other scientific, health and environmental concerns because they can’t understand them.
If people in the scientific community are serious about tackling issues like climate change and making sure our citizens are informed against a growing tide of scientific misinformation, we first need to tackle the issue of intentional scientific ignorance by our populous and how the mainstream media’s half-hearted science and health reporting is contributing to the problem. | <urn:uuid:0c60009a-39fd-4c3f-b749-116f6210c1cd> | {
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Communities developing resources and competencies for using their languages
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Publications, fonts and computer tools for language development, translation and research
SIL offers training in disciplines relevant to sustainable language development.
7,105 languages are spoken or signed. CLICK for map of world languages & regional websites.
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This paper presents the results of sociolinguistic research conducted in 2000 among the Tat and Mountain Jewish people living in northeastern Azerbaijan. These two groups are of particular interest since although the speech varieties are reported to be very close, the people see themselves as entirely distinct groups. The goals of the research were to investigate patterns of language use, bilingualism, and language attitudes in these two communities. Of particular interest is the relationship between perceived differences, actual differences, and geographic location. Interviews, observations, questionnaires, and Azerbaijani and Russian Sentence Repetition Tests were employed. An important part of the interviews dealt with perceived benefits of the various languages. | <urn:uuid:a7c55fb0-6994-4fcd-afef-d68b426cdebf> | {
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What is a Trademark?
A Trademark can be a word, letter, number, symbol, shape, logo, design, scent or phrase which a trader or service provider uses to distinguish their goods or services within the marketplace.
Trade marks help consumers to recognise the origin or source of the goods or services being offered. Having a trade mark allows consumers to identify with your goods and services. A trade mark can also become a signifier of the quality of the goods and services on offer. | <urn:uuid:1aa79236-3c21-4990-9142-39fa5f4b5ea9> | {
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Technocracy is the basic agenda and plan for ruling global society from above, so we need to understand it from several angles.
Consider a group of enthusiastic forward-looking engineers in the early 20th century. They work for a company that has a contract to manufacture a locomotive.
This is a highly complex piece of equipment.
On one level, workers are required to make the components to spec. Then they must put them all together. These tasks are formidable.
On another level, various departments of the company must coordinate their efforts. This is also viewed as a technological job. Organizing is considered a technology.
And then…the engineers begin to think about the implications. Suppose the locomotive was society itself? Suppose society was the finished product? Couldn’t society be put together in a coordinated fashion? And couldn’t the “technology of organizing things” be utilized for the job?
But engineers could lay out and build a future society that would benefit all people. Hunger, disease, and poverty could be wiped out. Eliminating them would be part of the uncompromising blueprint.
This “insight” hit engineers and technicians like a ton of bricks. Of course! All societies had been failures for the same reason: the wrong people were in charge.
Armed with this new understanding, engineers of every stripe began to see what was needed. A revolution in thinking about societal organization. Science was the new king. And science would rule.
Of course, for an engineered world to work, certain decisions would have to be made about the role of the individual. Every individual. You couldn’t have an air-tight plan if every human were free to pursue his own objectives. Too many variables. Too much confusion. Too much conflict. Well, that problem could be solved. The individual’s actions would be tailored to fit the coordinated operations of the planned society.
The individual would be inserted into a pre-ordained slot. He would be “one of the components of the locomotive.” His life would be connected to other lives to produce an exemplary shape.
Yes, this could imply a few problems, but those problems could be worked out. They would have to be worked out, because the overriding goal was the forming of a world organization. What would you do if one bolt (an individual human) in one wheel of a locomotive was the wrong size? You would go back and correct the error. You would re-make the bolt.
Among sincere technocrats, the overall vision superseded the glaring problems.
But…other people entered the game. High-echelon Globalists saw technocracy as a system they could use to control the population. Control was their goal. Period. What happened to the individual in the process was of no concern to them. The individual had freedom or he didn’t have freedom, and the Globalists overtly intended to wipe out that freedom.
Erasing hunger, poverty, illness? Nonsense. For the Globalists, those realities would be exacerbated. Sick, weak, and debilitated people were easier to rule and control and manage.
Essentially, a vastly misguided vision of a future technocratic utopia was hijacked. Something bad was made much worse.
In a nutshell, this is the history of technocracy.
A locomotive is a society? No. That was the first fatally flawed idea. Everything that followed was increasingly psychotic.
Unfortunately, many people in our world believe in Globalism, if you could call a partial vague view a legitimate belief. They dreamily float on all the propaganda cover stories—greatest good for the greatest number of people; no more poverty; equality of sharing; reducing the carbon footprint; a green economy; “sustainable development”; international cooperation; engineering production and consumption of goods and services for the betterment of everyone; and all of this delivered from a central platform of altruistic guides.
If you track down the specifics that sit under these pronouncements, you discover you discover a warped system of planning that delivers misery and de facto slavery to the global population.
The collective utopia turns out to be a sham.
Waking up is hard to do? Breaking up is hard to do? They must be done.
A workable technological fix is a very nice achievement when the project is a machine. But transferring that glow of victory to the whole of society is an illusion. Anything that calls itself education would tackle the illusion as the first order of business.
(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com or OutsideTheRealityMachine. | <urn:uuid:b41d573b-9cdc-4fca-ac09-c01cd531fc56> | {
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There are several different types of alternative fuel vehicles available to drivers, certainly more than the number of petroleum-based cars. One of the most well-known alternative fuels is ethanol, which can power cars using various blends of gasoline. Ethanol fuel is made from corn, and manufacturers can produce it domestically. Biodiesel, on the other hand, is made from animal fats and vegetable oils and usually produces fewer pollutants than regular petroleum-based diesel. Clean natural gas (CNG) and propane are both naturally available fuels that produce fewer greenhouse gases, and hydrogen fuel cells create zero emissions and have potential as a renewable source. Electric vehicles that get their power from the chemicals inside a battery are also considered alternative fuel vehicles.
The large number of potential alternative fuel vehicles available makes it difficult to come up with any one particular standard along which to compare them, mostly because each fuel gives off emissions in different ways.
One standard that's difficult for many alternative fuel vehicles to meet, regardless of engine type or fuel source, is safety. As manufacturers of new technologies try to shave off as many miles per gallon as possible, engineers take into account more than just the kind of engine or motor an alternative fuel vehicle will use -- they also consider weight. Heavy, bulky cars and trucks suffer when it comes to emissions standards because they burn more fuel just to carry the extra weight. Lighter, more aerodynamic cars require less fuel for propulsion and therefore will burn less fuel to travel the same distance.
Some alternative fuel vehicles, which tend to be compact in design, might have difficulty rating well on crash and safety standards, since small- and mini-sized cars often rate poorly in crash tests. The technology for some designs, like hydrogen fuel cells, is also complicated and requires extensive testing to make sure people are kept safe from dangers like electric shock and compressed hydrogen hazards.
On top of safety, some alternative fuel vehicles are having trouble with renewable fuel standards, once thought to be the driving point behind their environmental importance. While previous studies have found that ethanol derived from corn produces fewer direct emissions than gasoline, researchers from the University of Minnesota published a study stating that corn ethanol is actually more harmful to the environment than gasoline [source: Hill].
For more information about alternative fuels and other related topics, follow the links below.
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
- Broder, John M. "Obama to Toughen Rules on Emissions and Mileage." The New York Times. May 18, 2009. (May 18, 2009) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19emissions.html
- FuelEconomy.gov. "Alternative Fuels." (May 26, 2009) http://www.fueleconomy.gov/Feg/current.shtml
- Galbraith, Kate. "New Study Tallies Corn Ethanol Costs." The New York Times. Feb. 5, 2009. (May 26, 2009) http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/new-study-tallies-corn-ethanol-costs/
- Hill, Jason. Et al. "Climate change and health costs of air emissions from biofuels and gasoline." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dec. 16, 2008. (May 28, 2009http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/02/02/0812835106.abstract
- U.S. Department of Energy. "Alternative and Advanced Fuels." May 5, 2009. (May 26, 2009)http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/index.html
- Wald, Matthew L. "Study Says Minicar Buyers Sacrifice Safety." The New York Times. April 14, 2009. (May 18, 2009) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/automobiles/14crash.html | <urn:uuid:7db5225d-c681-413d-a7d0-ac8d1256849f> | {
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